February 11, 2021

New Anti-Racism Curriculum for Educators

Creating Inclusive Communities and Combatting Racism

Check out ING’s new curriculum featured here on WeAreTeacher’s premier website for educators. The curriculum includes 14 lesson plans which counter bigotry by examining the origins and history of dominant narratives about diverse marginalized groups. The lessons also examine the relationship of these narratives to implicit bias and racism and ways to combat bigotry and discrimination both individually and institutionally. The new curriculum is suitable for colleges, high schools, and middle schools and is available for educators only here.

Find additional educator tools, speakers and panels on Islam, Muslims, interreligious literacy, and on countering racism here.

Request State-Certified Training for Your Local Police Department

Preventing and Responding to Anti-Bigotry

Available in 2-, 4-, and 8-hour training formats, ING’s police training has received numerous accolades for its effectiveness in familiarizing police officers with the diversity of Muslim American cultures, countering stereotypes, highlighting hate crime laws and investigations, and teaching cultural competency skills. Here is what one commander said about the training:

“I wanted to say a big thank you for doing your training for us; I found it very instructional and beneficial, and I’m sure my partners did too. I’ve been in law enforcement for 23 years now, which means both pre and post-9/11. I remember the first cultural diversity training session we had post-9/11 with ING like it was yesterday, it was so helpful for all of our personnel and it set our department on the right course. It is my earnest hope that if training sessions like the ones ING presents can make it into law enforcement agencies across the country, that it will help us make strides as a profession everywhere. It’s long overdue, but we’re on the right path.” – Police Officer

To learn more and request a training, visit here.

Join us in celebrating Black history month

Black Muslim History is American History

Blog Post by ING Program Manager, Rahimeh Ramezany

“On May 25, 2020 an African American man by the name of George Floyd was murdered by law enforcement. This event was followed by the greatest push for change this millennial has witnessed in her lifetime. The world watched as protests took place across the United States to express the rage and grief felt at yet another innocent life needlessly taken from his family and community, and we witnessed organizations, schools, businesses, and houses of worship that had never touched the topic of racism at long last take an internal look at the state of their relations with peoples of African descent.

It has now been over 8 months since then, and we find ourselves celebrating, honoring, and commemorating another Black History Month. As a non-Black American Muslim, who is both a child of an immigrant and a descendent of 17th century colonizers, what does Black History Month mean to people like me? The answer is quite simple. Black history is American history, and Black Muslim history is American history.”

Read the rest of ING Program Manager Rahimeh Ramezany’s blog post here. Included in the blog are links to tools for countering Intra-Muslim Racism.

ING Joint letter with Interfaith Community Organizations Protesting Islamophobic Speaker at the San Francisco Commonwealth Club

The San Francisco Commonwealth Club sponsored an event with well-known Islamophobe Ayaan Hirsi Ali today, February 11th. In response to the event last week, we reached out to our interfaith allies and partners to endorse a letter we wrote to executives and board members of the Club asking that they cancel the event and consider hosting events on Islamophobia and other topics concerning Muslims with credible scholars and researchers. The letter was signed by all the major Bay Area interfaith councils in addition to faith leaders in the City of San Francisco and surrounding areas; together they represent hundreds of religious congregations. Despite our attempts to persuade board members and the staff of the Club to cancel the event, unfortunately the Club went ahead with the event today.

In an email today from ING founder, Maha Elgenaidi to the Club’s CEO and board members, she said in closing: “My offer still stands that we are available to offer you, your staff and board members a seminar on Islamophobia, its purveyors, sources of funding, and how it is disseminated in society… as well as suggestions for future programming on Muslims and Islam, including topics that are being addressed at this event tonight on European Muslims, topics which, while not relevant to us in the United States except to malign Islam and all Muslims, should be countered by actual scholars on the subject.”