peace

The struggles of our past have shown that citizens have always moved America and the Ummah forward, whether it is poor people’s movements in America, or the Arab Spring. However, nothing can be achieved without risks and the willingness to sacrifice.

The following speech was given by United States Attorney General Eric Holder at the annual dinner for the organization Muslim Advocates in December 2010 in Milbrae, California. He was the keynote speaker at the event.

Although you have done nothing wrong, in an Islamophobic environment where 59% of our neighbors hold a negative opinion of Islam and Muslims, Islamophobes will be enjoying their non-stop commentary to continue to blame Muslims.

Here are the words to the original Mother’s Day Proclamation. The original Proclamation was an impassioned call for peace and disarmament around the world.

Hate never limits itself to one stop. It keeps looking for the new targets. Just as KKK targets were not limited to African-Americans as it attacked Catholics, Jews and other immigrants, the current phase of hate, ethnic bigotry and religious intolerance is looking for new targets.

After the 9/11 attacks, at the request of churches, Sound Vision issued a guide on how they could help their Muslim neighbors during that difficult time. Since then, we have not felt the need to do that again - until now.

There is an urgent need for thoughtful influential Muslim leaders, like you, to raise a collective voice against this self-destructive violence that threatens to create a seemingly unbridgeable fault line in the Muslim world.