“...Allah Is the Best of Planners”
By Salam Al-Marayati
President, MPAC

 

“O you who have attained to faith! Be patient in adversity, and vie in patience with one another, and be ever ready [to do what is right], and remain conscious of God, so that you might attain to a happy state!” (Qur’an 3:200)

After nearly a week of counting, as the 2020 election comes to a close, former Vice President Joe Biden is projected to serve as the 46th President of the United States. Together, we said no to the Muslim Ban, to family separation policies, and to pandemic mismanagement.
Starting tonight, we begin the real work of achieving the goals which the last four years of divisive nationalism and parochial individualism kept under lock and key. In our “Tale of Two Futures” paper, we predicted this fork-in-the-road moment. Now that we have chosen between President Trump and now President-Elect Joe Biden, we must choose between passive or active participation in the political process that is to come. If we choose active participation, we can maximize the political capacity of our American Muslim community -- the one percent, whose commitment to faith can be a shining example for the 99 percent.
What does active participation look like?
• Bridging the gaps constructed by artificial differences. Our Mustard Seed project attempts to do just that, by pointing out the fundamental oneness at the heart of our shared humanity.
• Uniting the community and allies around our shared vision: An America for all. Our “Tale of Two Futures” project tries to identify the opportunities for coalition-building which exist in our shared interests. Our recently launched American Muslim Elected and Appointed Officials Network (AMEAON) will connect the past, present, and future generations of American Muslim leadership in order to build power throughout the public and private sectors.
• Building power based on thesesharedvalues. “Tale of Two Futures” also analyzes parties in order to determine just how we should prioritize our political actions. Case in point: our Campaign for Human Security, which tries to unite civil society groups and elected officials around a people-centered approach to national security. In the years to come, our collective actions must reflect the urgent need to build power within the community and among our allies. Our flagship Congressional Leadership Development Program (CLDP) will continue to develop the future generations of Muslim leaders by placing them in positions of influence throughout all branches of the government.
• Using that power to hold politicians accountable. That’s where your support comes in. We need you in this fight, which is a reflection of your voice in the first place.

We cannot lead by example if we do not work together as a community. While the American Muslim community is not a monolith, we have shared interests and goals which transcend any and all superficial divisions. Now is the time to reconcile any such differences in the service of our shared mandate: to build a society based on reciprocity and in which all live a dignified life.
The next four years will be our chance to deliver. Throughout the campaign cycle, the Democratic Party has promised to be an ally of marginalized and historically disadvantaged communities in thestrugglethat is to come. Now that they are in control of the Executive Branch, we intend to hold them to these promises. Their promises are not checks we can cash, but we will capitalize on the fact that both parties need American Muslims to win and maintain control of the Legislative Branch.
You trust MPAC to do this work, and we take that responsibility very seriously. Over these next four years, we will continue to advocate in our nation’s capital for the policies that are most important to American Muslims. We will continue to do so with the guidance that our faith tradition provides.
Our fight continues, and it won’t stop until we deliver for you an American pluralism for all.