Council On American Islamic Relations Pennsylvania

CAIR-Philadelphia will continue its mission statement of protecting the civil rights of the Muslim community, enhancing the understanding of Islam, empowering the Muslim community and building coalitions that promote justice that mutual understanding in the Greater Delaware Valley.

Our goals are several:

1. To increase our reach within the American Muslim community to make them aware of our services.
2. To offer additional and more frequent programs to American Muslims via religious institutions we already serve.
3. To expand our services into Muslim and non-Muslim communities and individuals that we have not yet served.
4. To encourage more American Muslims to take advantage of our free legal services.
5. To determine how to increase attendance and awareness of CAIR presentations, workshops, and symposiums.

CAIR-Philadelphia will embark on several strategies to reach its goals:

1. Continue to increase the breadth and quality of our services, educational offerings, and inter-communal and civic relationships.
2. Continue to transmit electronic newsletters updating the community on CAIR’s activities.
3. Expand our staff to overcome bandwidth limitations and improve geographic reach.
4. Utilize social media to amplify our services and outreach into new audiences.
5. Conduct more frequent meetings with the leadership of religious institutions of all faiths and college student bodies.
6. Build stronger coalitions with other religious institutions and activists.

Cognizant of the fact that in order to grow sustainably we need an expert staff, our organization hired an experienced, full-time team. This team is composed of an Executive Director, a Civil Rights Attorney, an Outreach and Education Director, and an Operations Manager to offer the bandwidth and core competence to deliver the services and programs described above.

CAIR’s Executive Committee and staff have established relationships with the majority of Muslim organizations and activists in the Greater Delaware Valley, which allows us to draw on these relationships to conduct more frequent and additional programs and services. CAIR-Philadelphia has an existing database of contacts and social media presence to deliver its messages.

CAIR-Philadelphia also hosts sold-out annual banquets, interfaith dinners, and ongoing fund raising programs to insure sufficient funds are collected to sustain our operations.

Since its inception in 2004, CAIR-Philadelphia has been the pioneer institution that protects the civil liberties of American Muslims in the Greater Delaware Valley. We have achieved this by offering free legal services to victims of religious discrimination, empowering American Muslims through educational programs and advocacy, as well as leading educational programs for the broader public about Islam.

The legal cases we have resolved include instances of workplace harassment and discrimination, limits to free speech, bullying, and government profiling. We conducted training for community members as well as federal and local government and non-government bodies to prevent further instances of anti-Muslim racism and bias.

Importantly, CAIR-Philadelphia conducted hundreds of workshops and presentations to Muslims and other faiths to build an understanding of basic tenets of Islam, Muslim traditions and contributions in the context of American history.

CAIR-Philadelphia established relationships with media organizations and challenged stereotypes to fight Islamophobia. Our staff members are among the first sought-after experts in local and national media.

CAIR-Philadelphia’s signature Know Your Rights and civic engagement workshops continue to empower the Muslim community. We also conduct anti-bullying training for Muslim and non-Muslim students on how to respond to student bullying.

Finally, by engaging and developing relationships with Muslim, Christian, and Jewish community members, leaders, and activism organizations, we have built coalitions that continue to promote justice and mutual understanding.