MASJID launches anti-Islamophobia campaign

A campus-wide anti-Islamophobia campaign by the student group Muslim Advocates for Social Justice and Individual Dignity will begin soon.

MASJID, which formed last year in response to anti-Muslim sentiment at the University and across the country, announced the campaign at an open town hall meeting last Friday.

Around 20 people attended the meeting, according to Farah Amjad ’16, one of the founders of MASJID. At the town hall, Muslim students and other allies gathered to discuss issues of Islamophobia in the media, internationally and on campus.

In a post in the Princeton Muslim Students Association Facebook group, the town hall was described as a call to action to counter Islamophobic actions, especially in the context of other social justice movements, and to encourage diversity and tolerance. The meeting discussions yielded committees for the campaign, including ones that would run an op-ed with a petition and raise awareness through graphics,according to an email sent out after the meeting.

The group’soutreach will include campus, communityand educational efforts such as postering of Yik Yak posts after the Paris attacks.Campaigners also plan to coordinate a day on which Muslims on campus will wear IDs in response to presidential candidate Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim comments calling for Muslims around the country to wear IDs. The group will also put together a photo series relating to Islamophobia and marginalization. In addition, the campaign will look to involve engaging influential people on campus, such as University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83, seeking responses to recent events on campus.

On Tuesday, MASJID members published anop-edin The Daily Princetonian which expressed that they are oppressed and marginalized, especially in the current political climate. In addition, the authors addressed the intersectionality of identity as Muslims and the struggle to be considered American, writing, “We have to be ‘Muslim’ before we can be considered ‘American.’ ” The op-ed, intended to raise awareness and help kick off the campaign, was signed by MASJID with 20 groups standing in solidarity with MASJID. These groups range in identity, focusing around political, religious and social justice issues.

Farah Amjad explained that when she and Yasin Hegazy ’15 co-founded MASJID, the group’s focus was on co-sponsoring events and collaborating with other social justice organizations on campus to determine what members supported and what MASJID’s identity would become.

Last year, MASJID was part of the divestment campaign. In addition,the group hosted a benefit dinner for the Muslim holiday Eid-al-Adha, sending the proceeds to Helping Hands, an organization that aids refugees. Moreover, Robia Amjad ’18, Farah Amjad’s sister, said that she thinks there was a need for a space to discuss these issues among Muslims and that MASJID provides that political forum. FarahAmjad said that there was a need for a way for Muslim students to make a positive impact politically and on social justice issues through their faith.

“As a new organization, we are just figuring things out, and we’re just very encouraged by the amount of support and enthusiasm from Muslim and non-Muslim [communities] on campus,” Farah Amjad said.

Muslim Life Coordinator and Chaplain Sohaib Sultan, whosaid that he acts as an informal adviser for the student-run MASJID when members come to him with questions,expressed similar views.

“I think that historically, the Muslim Students Association was the sole student organization that represented student voices, but they made a commitment from their founding to be apolitical and that limited the mobilization [of] what students could engage in through the MSA,” Sultan said.

Solmaz Jumakuliyeva ’19, who is Muslim but not part of MASJID, said that she thinks there is definitely room for improvement regarding attitudes about Muslim identities on campus.

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“It’s funny to see how people treat you before you’re Muslim and after ... the small invisible and intangible transition from one attitude to another,” Jumakuliyeva said.“It’s not that direct. It’s just small actions, small things that you see, how people talk, how people look at you.”

She noted that Islam is tolerated on this campus but not accepted, in that while peopleacknowledge others’ freedom to follow whatever religion they choose, they do not fully embrace the ideal. She noted that Muslims are a minority on campus and there is no mosque on campus, only a prayer room in Green Hall that is kind of small compared to the Center for Jewish Life.

Syed said that prejudices show in the ways that people often ask her about her faith, and that Islamophobia was very evident after the Paris attacks on Yik Yak, where students posted negative and disturbing Yaks.

MASJID is establishing itself in the context of other social justice movements on campus, such as the Black Justice League’s sit-in of Eisgruber’s office and the LatinX petition, Sultan said, adding that he thinks college is a time when students learn to mobilize and be community organizers. Both groups have ally networks to help support their movements.

“It’s really important that we unite our forces,” Syed said. “It’s just a fact of our humanity and compassion and caring about other people’s lives. At this time, things are converging because we can see more often when injustice is happening.”

Luisa Banchoff '17, who recently founded Christians for the Common Good, a religious group with similar themes to those of MASJID,also noted that the most effective movements have many allies.

“I strongly believe there’s a moral obligation to at least listen and be aware what’s going on as a Christian,” she explained.

When Banchoff learned that MASJID was holding the town hall meeting right next to her organization's meeting, she canceled her gathering, encouraging Christians for the Common Good members to instead join the MASJID meeting. Banchoff said she hopes MASJID will be able to highlight that even at the University, which can be seen as such a tolerant, enlightened place, there is prejudice and stereotyping.

“Even raising awareness about Muslim identity and strengthening interfaith dialogue and friendship and forms relationships with different faiths... that itself is a success,” Banchoff said.

Overall, Robia Amjadsaid that MASJID has to be thinking about the larger Muslim community abroad especially in the case of drones, war and the refugee crisis. As for the experience of Muslim students at the University, Jumakuliyeva said that there is work to be done.

“I don’t think you should be stamped by your identity, in a negative way as if what we’re doing is wrong,” Jumakuliyeva said. “You can think your religion is the best but you can’t think that everybody else is stupid or inferior... We’re all human kind. We don’t have to classify them to accept that they are human.”