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| A child bites into the United For Change campaign postcard at their inaugural volunteers meeting. |
While the White House kicked off the Interfaith Week of Service as part of its United We Serve campaign, more than 10 prominent American Muslim organizations, including the Islamic Society of North America and Islamic-Relief-USA, joined forces to create United For Change, a coalition dedicated to uniting and motivating American Muslims to take a stand against major ills affecting their communities.
"In the spirit of the Obama administration that challenged the Muslim world to be creative and insightful, to abandon old disproved methods of solving the same problems, and to operate outside of the box when necessary, United For Change accepts the role to become an instrumental model and action plan endorsing the Obama vision for change," wrote the group’s chairman, Imam Zaid Shakir, on their blog.
The coalition launched earlier this summer with a focus on fighting malaria in the Muslim world. It identified 10 reasons for starting with malaria, including that "there are no Muslim groups in Africa dedicated to eradicating malaria" and that "malaria is a topic we all agree is identifiable, manageable and with human will, eradicable."
"In America, we are fortunately detached from malaria; nevertheless, in Africa, I was dramatically moved and became committed to raising awareness of how our Muslim brothers and sisters live," wrote Shakir on their blog. "Is it important for the American Muslim community to understand how widespread malaria is in Africa? United For Change believes so."
As part of their effort, United For Change will host "United Against Malaria" on Saturday, September 5th from 10AM-6PM in National Harbor, Maryland. The event, which features a line-up of high-profile American Muslim speakers including Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, Imam Shakir, Imam Mohamed Magid and Saleemah Abdul-Ghafur, among others – will also offer an iftar, the dinner that breaks the Muslim fast during the holy month of Ramadan.
In describing the group's vision on their blog, Shakir writes that "regardless of the ethnicity of your Muslim community, or your chosen school of thought, United For Change was created because our one goal is to become one responsive body reflecting the compassion salient in Islam."
To learn more about United For Change, visit www.muslimsunitedforchange.com.
Posted September 2, 2009
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