Dear Community Members,
Assalamu Alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh.
On behalf of the entire US Council of Muslim Organizations, we write to share important news: our member organizations have adopted a unified statement of principles that we will use to guide our political engagement in the months and years ahead, insha’Allah.
As you know, Muslim Americans keep making political history. We have turned out to vote in record numbers, run for and won elected office, joined and led historic protests, advanced positive legislation on Capitol Hill, among many other activities. Such works highlight the increasingly important role that our community plays in the political process. Alhamdulillah.
Due to the upcoming change in our nation’s leadership, the American Muslim community now has an important opportunity to become even more politically engaged. As USCMO members work to increase our own political engagement at the local, state, and federal level in the months and years ahead, we recognize the need to ensure that principles always guide our politics.
After all, our community’s goal is not merely to attain representation, hold political office, or win a token seat at a table. Our community’s goal is to harness our moral principles to advance positive policy change for ourselves, our neighbors, our nation, and people around the world, all for the sake of God.
That’s why USCMO members have adopted the following unified statement of principles to guide our political engagement.
By uniting upon common moral principles, our community can ensure that–no matter whether win or lose a battle in the court of politics, and no matter whether we agree on particular political issues or tactics–we will always remain united upon the values our deen, and always emerge victorious in the sight of God, insha’Allah.
Principles of Political Engagement
1. We believe that Islam’s principles of justice should inspire, guide, and limit the public policies that Muslim Americans support, as well as the political strategies we use to advance those policies.
2. We believe that the application of principles to politics inevitably results in reasonable differences of opinion, which Muslim Americans should respect, welcome, and discuss in a productive manner.
3. We believe that the Muslim American community should support all causes of peace and justice here and abroad, including but not limited to racial equality, religious freedom, a just foreign policy, and movements for a moral society.
4. We believe that the Muslim American community should work with communities of other faiths and backgrounds to advance peace and justice for all.
5. We believe that bigotry, including racism, sexism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, ableism, and xenophobia, are morally unacceptable in society and legally unacceptable in government policy.
6. We believe that Muslim Americans should not engage in any direct collaboration with organizations that enable such bigotry or other forms of oppression, whether here or abroad.
7. We believe that Muslim-Americans should instead stand up against bigotry, whether it comes from external systems of oppression, such as state violence and White supremacy, or if it comes from members of our own community.
8. We believe that our community’s nuanced and moral perspectives on domestic and international issues offers a reasonable alternative to many of the policies advocated by the polarized extremes of American political life.
9. We believe that our community members should pursue roles in all aspects of American politics and government, except any roles that would inevitably and unavoidably require them to violate their fundamental religious or moral principles.
10. We believe that our community’s highest political priority is to advance peace and justice through just means for the sake of God, even if our principled work does not grant us seats at every table.
