Muslim organizations not listed in the list of charities

[Salek_Noor]

Via E-Mail - September 8, 2005

Muslim organizations not listed in the list of charities
for Katrina relief donations

By Abdul Malik Mujahid

Hurricane Katrina brought disaster to millions, but it also highlighted beautiful examples of generosity. Individuals, mosques and Muslim relief organizations have joined the effort to help survivors who continue to suffer from hunger, homelessness and despair.

However, their efforts are being ignored partly because the Federal Emergency Management Agency (www.fema.gov), the government agency in Charge of relief efforts, was not listed any Muslim organization in its list of charities.

Later FEMA dropped this list from its website when many Muslims urged it to include Muslim charities. Those who go to their site looking for a relief agency to donate through are sent to the Network For Good (www.networkforgood.org). Here, too, not one Muslim humanitarian organization is listed. This is despite the fact that Muslims are offering assistance to victims of this tragedy.

Please contact the Network For Good by phone at 1-866-650-4636, fax at 703-265-6811 or the web at
http://www.networkforgood.org/about/contact.aspx.

Dr. Mohammed Sulayman spent five days in a New Orleans hospital after the storm hit without rest, clean water or electricity to serve those in need of medical attention. He along with 130 patients were evacuated on the fifth day. Dr. Sulayman is former president of APPNA and of Masjid Abu Bakr in New Orleans. He says that masjid survived but all other eight masjids are under water.

Sr. Okolo Rashid, curator of America¹s only Muslim museum in Jackson, Mississippi, took families into her home and is now helping her mosque house survivors. And Sr. Ayesha Naseer of Gary, Indiana and her husband left Yesterday with a truck of food and other necessities, which they collected on their own initiative.

Masjid Taqwa of Shreveport, Louisiana is offering food and shelter. The Islamic Center of Baton Rouge, LA has taken in 200 families. The Islamic Society of Greater Houston has mobilized 1300 volunteers to serve meals in the city¹s Astrodome.

ICNA Relief, from its new office in Baton Rouge, LA, housed 25 families. Islamic Relief transferred $1 million to an interfaith fund to feed 25,000 persons for a week, and the Zakat Foundation left today from Chicago with a truck of necessities.

Resettling survivors is the top priority. Can we do what three generous Muslims have: host a family for a year in their own homes? I would like to ask Chicago Muslims:

1. Would you help house 40 families in Chicago?

2. Would you be willing to work on a committee to do this?

Whatever you can do, please continue to remember the survivors of this disaster in your prayers daily.

Continue to donate through the Council, so that we all are counted together.

https://www.ciogc.org/ssl/donate.html

And do ask your newspaper or media why no Muslim relief agency is listed on their website.

Abdul Malik Mujahid is President of Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago