What we did this year, what I told Biden's team last week, and more

The bare minimum is nowhere close to enough, Indiana

As salaamu alaykum, Indiana—

Justice made real.

If you're like me, those are the results you love seeing from diligent organizing work: Justice — social, racial, economic, environmental, spiritual — made real.

When I had the opportunity to join a meeting of Muslim civil rights leaders with the Biden transition team late last week, that's what I tried to keep in mind: how can we make justice real — no matter how difficult?

That's why I'm proud to say we told the Biden transition team the same thing I'm telling you: it's simply not good enough for Biden keep his promise to end the Muslim, African, refugee, and asylum bans on Day One. That's the bare minimum — and we'll be watching to ensure they do that.

We also need this new administration to sign the NO BAN Act into law to ensure this never happens again, justly resolve the limbo of those already caught up in the bans, and take our concerns as Muslims seriously: maintaining an open dialogue on issues ranging from Islamophobic policies to the military-industrial complex. The moment the Biden administration enters office in January, we'll be holding them accountable to their promises.

That's how my 2020 — a year of collective grief and trauma — is ending: with a promise that I'll use what resources I have access to in order to hold power accountable.

But what I can do within MPower Change is nothing compared to what you've made very clear this year that you can do.

If you're an MPower Change supporter, you made a lot of justice real this year. You helped stop a war on Iran, free our neighbors from ICE and prisons, make Microsoft divest from surveillance on Palestinians, and more.

Let's build on that — and keep the Biden administration accountable on their pledges to Muslim communities. Fund our 2021 work now.

We all know that 2020 was a hard year.

But it's crucial that we take a moment to celebrate and recognize the real victories we worn for our communities this year.

Here are just a few of our biggest 2020 wins, which you made real:

• In light of COVID-19, MPower Change members built the resources to create the first #DigitalRamadan, with a series of #InternetIftar live events, allowing us to stay connected without relying on large gatherings or in-person group prayers.

• Along with our partners at the Bronx Defenders, NYU Law School Immigrant Rights Clinic, Freedom to Thrive, and the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, we won a landmark defeat against ICE and ended the the three-year-long detention of Ousman Darboe, a 26-year-old Black Muslim husband and father from the Bronx. He's now at home with his wife and daughter. We launched three other participatory defense campaign to bring to life our abolitionist vision of a future free from state violence.

• Across the country, we had a huge win in California, too: persuading California state legislators to drop funding for the Creating Safer Communities program, which would have permitted harmful surveillance of Muslim, Black and immigrant communities across California.

• Along with our partners at Jewish Voice For Peace, we stopped a tech giant from violating Palestinian human rights when we forced Microsoft to divest $74 million from AnyVision, an AI firm using facial recognition tech to surveil Palestinians living under apartheid in the West Bank.

• Our Unrelenting Justice project, co-created with our friends the Action Center On Race and the Economy and Little Sis, compassionately brought non-Black Muslims into a long-needed discourse on abolition and community safety, providing them with tools to begin discussions on U.S. Muslim communities' complicated relationship with the police, and move us towards a transformative model of justice centered around abolition.

We couldn't have achieved any of this without you. Click here to power Muslim-led organizing in 2021.

Our #MyMuslimVote work this year was even more volunteer-powered than ever before. Here are just some of the things you made possible:

• A National Muslim Voter Registration Day that easily broke our 2018 record for voter contacts.

• A national My Muslim Vote summit, relocated online due to COVID-19 with nearly 100 prominent Muslim community and political leaders skills sharing on GOTV strategy, resources and organizing tactics.

• #MyMuslimVote videos in ten different languages (Arabic, Bangla, Dari/Farsi, Urdu, Pulaar/Fulani, Mandinka, Wolof, French, Hausa, English), designed for diverse Muslim communities, being widely circulated on social media and WhatsApp.

• Dozens of Zoom trainings and phone-banking events focused on getting out the Muslim vote. This tireless effort led to record-breaking Muslim voter engagement in the electoral process.

None of the above could have happened without you. None of it.

And without your support, we won't be able to build a progressive movement that continues to fight against militarism, white supremacy, policing, surveillance, and Islamophobia in a post-Trump political landscape where our conditions to organize will allow us to win even bigger.

Freeing more of our incarcerated neighbors, defunding the police, scoring more victories against tech monopolies and surveillance regimes, stopping more wars before they start (and ending active ones), and making sure we all get the healthcare we all need and deserve — those are all on the table for 2021.

We need to be ready. And that's why we humbly ask you to make room in your year-end budget for a gift to MPower Change—to deliver even bigger results in 2021.

Please support Muslim-led organizing and donate now.

We're so grateful for everything you do to bring about justice — and to make it real.

In solidarity,

Linda, Ishraq, Lau, and the MPower Change team