2023 ANNUAL REPORT
A Note frOm Our Executive Director & Board Chair
The start of 2023 was a period of intense preparation at Muslim Advocates. We are an organization beginning to look ahead to our 20th anniversary. That rare milestone is an occasion to mark past victories that have advanced the cause of justice, protected Muslim communities, and catalyzed meaningful change in the federal policy arena – each won through the shared effort of our allies and partners. And yet the communities we serve, staff, and our board of directors were unanimous that, to expand our reach, Muslim Advocates should lean into its capacity for transformation. More than anything, that is what first drew me to this organization. It takes courage to be self-reflective and fortitude to create impact even in periods of uncertainty. Saema and I are honored to participate in that process at Muslim Advocates today.
What we could have never predicted, however, is that our moment of internal transition would coincide with such extraordinary tragedy and violence in the world. Muslim Advocates is a national social justice organization committed to using litigation, policy engagement, and communication strategies to build power, fight systemic oppression, and demand shared well-being for Muslim communities and our allies As calls for our support have continued to increase exponentially since October of 2023, we are being reminded—sometimes in heart-wrenching ways—of the essential nature of our mission. We are continuing to respond to these calls around the clock, guided at all times by our values. Smart legal advocacy means nothing if it is not accountable to the communities we work with and work for. And achieving systemic change requires principled engagement and firm belief in the intersectional nature of our struggles.
The unfolding genocide in Gaza has required a whole-of-organization response. Last year, with our partners, our advocacy response included direct legal representation and technical assistance to chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine, leading a coalition of nearly ten organizations to demand universities reject bigoted calls to bring terrorism charges against student protesters. We recently helped launch a transparency lawsuit for discrimination against Palestinian Americans through the US-Israel Visa Waiver Program.
As we confront the backlash related to Palestine, we are proud that our team also attends to various other challenges confronting our communities. We want to take a moment to underscore one in particular: our commitment to defending prisoners’ rights. Our ability to topple systemic discrimination depends on our commitment to defending the least visible. At Muslim Advocates, our legal advocacy is often needed the most in prisons and jails, where coercive state power is at its height.
You will hear much more about our impact in this annual report. We hope you will see yourselves reflected in these inspiring efforts. While the pace of change at our organization, the demands for our legal support, and the scale of our impact are unprecedented for us, none of it would be achievable with you. Last year was a transformational one because of the commitment and generosity of our supporters. You invested in Muslim Advocates purposefully, ensuring that the clients, partners, and social movements we support are never alone. All of us at Muslim Advocates feel your support in our daily work. Together, we are building enduring power across our communities. It is needed now more than ever. We are honored to have you all on our side. Thank you!
In solidarity,
Omar and Saema
Omar Farah
Executive Director
Saema Somalya
Board Chair
MISSION & VISION
Muslim Advocates envisions an empowered and unapologetic role in American life for Muslim communities by staking a defiant claim to the full protection of our civil and human rights against discriminatory state power.
For nearly two decades, we have used impact litigation, policy engagement, and communications strategies to promote justice and equity while protecting the diverse spectrum of Muslim communities from anti-Muslim targeting in all of its forms.
OUR VALUES
Justice and Equity
All people must enjoy their full and equal rights and unrestricted opportunities to participate in civic life with dignity and safety.
Fearlessness
We never sacrifice our values for short-term, tactical gains. We don’t compromise in the face of injustice.
Solidarity
We build strength between Muslims and others targeted by oppressive state power who face hate and discrimination or are excluded from opportunity.
Humility
Frontline communities know best what they need. Our role is to help create the conditions for them to express those needs and fight for them tirelessly.
Excellence
Our responsibility to Muslim communities is too great for our work to be anything other than the highest caliber. Our team insists on excellence in all we do.
Love and Respect
Love and respect are integral to our faith, politics, and cultures. This love creates a better and safer world for Muslims and all people.
Our Strategies
High-impact, precedent-setting legal advocacy that reflects the demands of social movements and leads to systemic change
Policy engagement at the federal, state, and local levels that hold policymakers accountable to the demands of the diverse, intersecting spectrum of Muslim communities
Advocacy that builds power by providing analysis, training, and resources
Narrative-shifting communications work that disrupts the oppressive framing of Muslim identities
Muslim Advocates’ work depends on the trust we earn from communities, allied organizations, and our supporters. Our team is committed to leveraging our nationally recognized legal-advocacy skills to help Muslims and other historically marginalized groups enjoy the full spectrum of American civic life with dignity.
We measure our impact against three pillars: building community power, dismantling discriminatory systems, and demanding shared wellbeing. These foundational principles support and guide our work to create transformative change for our communities through high-impact litigation, policy engagement, public advocacy, narrative-shifting communications, and training for the next generation of advocates.
Building Community Power
Building community power is a long-term commitment to correcting power imbalances by creating the sustainable, lasting infrastructure needed for systemic and transformative change. Muslim Advocates is committed to supporting those most impacted by structural racism and inequity. We measure our success by communities’ ability to develop, organize, and act together to shift the narrative and public discourse, influence decision makers, and, ultimately, create and sustain transformative change that advances our collective struggle for justice. We demand accountability from those in positions of power, and we work to identify mutual threats and shared ambitions between Muslims and other historically vulnerable communities while offering expert legal-advocacy strategies to respond to both.
Our Impact
Convening Trainings for the Movement for Justice in Palestine
We hosted weekly “Know Your Rights” trainings with activists on college campuses who are organizing to defend the lives and human rights of Palestinians while under threat of doxxing and intimidation by equipping these students with the tools they need to engage with their campuses, the public, and law enforcement.
We worked with coalition partners to create a nationwide network of on-call volunteer attorneys as well as written guidance for Black, African, Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian (BAMEMSA))student activists who are returning to their campuses from overseas for the start of the winter/spring 2024 academic term who may experience racialized targeting by border agents at ports of entry. Read Feb 2024 Update
Empowering and Protecting Incarcerated Muslims
We launched “Keeping the Faith,” a first-of-its-kind database of state prison policies for common Islamic religious practices, to support incarcerated Muslims, prison abolition organizers, and movement lawyers in navigating the complex web of state prison policies. Visit Keeping the Faith
Sharing our Experiences with Activists
We took part in a panel at Netroots Nation 2023, where we shared our experiences using narratives about Muslims who were targeted by unscrupulous data brokers through prayer apps to help push for federal data privacy reforms.
Dismantling Discriminatory Systems
We recognize that racism and Islamophobia are baked into our institutions and societal structures. We know these systems disproportionately affect diverse Muslim and historically marginalized communities because they were also created to entrench inequity and the collective trauma that flows from it. Dismantling generations of injustice so that our communities can live with dignity and freedom is the heartbeat of our defensive legal advocacy.
Our Impact
Defending Dissent on Palestine
We provided direct representation and technical assistance to chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine on several major campuses and support for other pro-Palestine student activists targeted for or facing civil rights complaints with the U.S. Department of Education for exercising their free speech rights. Learn More
Sounding the Alarm on Warrantless Surveillance
We worked with a coalition to fight back against warrantless surveillance and other discriminatory data collection practices by the federal government, intelligence agencies, and law enforcement across the country, who use these technologies to disproportionately target Muslim, Black, brown, and immigrant communities. Learn More
At the request of congressional members, we briefed congressional staffers about the harmful impact of government surveillance and data collection on Muslims and communities of color.
Unfinished Fight Against the Muslim Ban
We, along with co-counsel, took our class action lawsuit, Emami v. Nielsen, to an appeals court to win justice for nearly 30,000 people wrongfully separated from their families. Learn More
We collaborated with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund to sue the U.S. Department of State for further transparency into the Muslim Ban under the Freedom of Information Act.
International Advocacy to End Systemic Oppression
We submitted policy briefings and research documenting the intersectionality of police violence against Black and Muslim Americans, as well as identifying the overlap between structural anti-Muslim and structural anti-Black policies and practices.
We authored research for the U.N. Special Rapporteur for Counter Terrorism and Human Rights about the pervasive anti-Muslim measures that still exist and target Muslims, as well as co-signed and supported partners submitting their briefings to the commission.
Winning Accountability for Afghan Refugees
We collaborated with the Center for Constitutional Rights in their lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense to gain transparency about the status of thousands of Afghans who are being wrongfully and indefinitely detained in foreign countries after the U.S. military evacuated them in the 2021 Kabul airlift. Learn More
Challenging the No-Fly List
We organized a coalition of partners to co-author an appellate court brief to support our allies at the Center for Constitutional Rights, who are fighting to hold the federal government accountable for violating the rights of Muslims it wrongfully targets for placement on the No-Fly List and for retaliating against those who refuse to spy on their communities.
Demanding Shared Wellbeing
Systems of oppression exist to deny our communities what they need to live in dignity, safety, and power: food security, affordable housing, accessible health care, social safety nets, economic justice, safe communities, education, clean air and water, and a fair and equitable justice system. Through cross-racial solidarity and support for social movements, our work strives to empower ordinary people across race, class, and faith to build a shared vision of our future where we all stake an affirmative claim to the breadth of civic and economic power and fulfillment.
Our Impact
Organizing Partners for the Movement for Justice in Palestine
We convened a coalition of legal organizations and sent a joint letter to hundreds of colleges and universities, urging them to reject calls to investigate students speaking out for Palestinian human rights for putative violations of terrorism-related laws. Learn More
We met with the leadership of the Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships within the U.S. Department of Education to make various recommendations about the agency's statements and guidance it could issue to protect students in this critical time. We’re also strategically engaging federal legislators on the movement for justice for Palestine and its domestic impacts here in the U.S.
Protecting Faith-Based Practices in Schools, Workplaces & Prisons
We equipped Muslim community members with written guidance about seeking religious accommodations during Ramadan from carceral facilities, workplaces, and schools and hosted a weekly Ramadan accommodations hotline. Learn More
Strengthening Our Movement Through Solidarity
We engaged in direct public advocacy on urgent social just questions from protecting the right to dissent, to the closure of Guantanamo, to the harms posed by systemic parentless surveillance. We signed many multi-organizational advocacy letters — including one from U.S.-based advocacy organizations and individual advocates with over 600 signatories — addressing government officials at every level. As a social justice organization, we must be outspoken in the face of injustice.
An Evening of Community, Art, and Healing
Because the cultural landscape shapes legal-advocacy outcomes, Muslim Advocates is committed to partnership with and amplification of artists and cultural workers to highlight an authentic and multifaceted story of Muslim experiences in America, helping Muslim communities claim an unapologetic, inclusive, celebratory, and non-negotiable space in our public cultural sphere.
On November 1, 2023, Muslim Advocates hosted Common Voices, Collective Action, an in-person community gathering in New York City attended by roughly 100 lawyers, activists, and supporters of our organization and featuring the poetry of Yassin Alsalman (aka NARCY), the visual art of Nzingah Oyo, and the music of Yelda Ali – all deeply passionate Muslim artistic voices channeling the outrage, anguish, and resolve Muslim communities are holding right now. We were also joined by our board member Kameelah Mu'Min Oseguera, founder and president of the Muslim Wellness Foundation. Kameelah shared her experience of being in Gaza on October 7, while also affirming her hope for the future of our movement.
We are grateful to all who joined us for Common Voices, Collective Action and look forward to continued opportunities for connection and community.
Multimedia artist NARCY shared Celebrate Us, a spoken word piece he created for our event. Watch it here.
OUR SUPPORTERS
Muslim Advocates deeply appreciates the generosity of our supporters. Meaningful relationships and engagement with our communities are our organization's lifeblood. We thank you for standing with us as we continue to bring powerful, sophisticated legal advocacy campaigns that strike at the heart of systemic discrimination against Muslim communities.
Please stay connected with us. Visit muslimadvocates.org to subscribe to our newsletter, or follow us on social media for additional information on our current activities. We look forward to working with you to achieve greater success in the coming months.
2023 Supporters
Ford Foundation
El Hibri Foundation
Pillars Fund
Anonymous Supporters
Muslim Advocates also received support from many generous individual donors in 2023. To protect the confidentiality of those supporters, we will refrain from listing their individual names.
