In the fallout of the RIS Controversy, I shared a Facebook post about How to be an Ally to Black Muslims. It has been shared widely in Canada and the US. I have been asked to make it more easily accessible, so I'm publishing it here on Muslim Link.
Muslim Link received this letter from an Arab Canadian young man in Ottawa in response to the article "Ottawa Students’ Film Highlights Experiences of Racism in the Ummah".
“Racism in the Ummah”, a short film by a group of students from the University of Ottawa, received an Honourable Mention at the University of Ottawa Muslim Students’ Association (UOMSA) Film Festival in February.
Recently, Black Muslim Canadian Spoken Word poet Key Ballah wrote a piece for Love, Inshallah about her experience in a predominantly Pakistani mosque in Toronto where she was interrupted during prayer and told that “This is an Urdu-speaking mosque” and “There is another mosque where you can go not too far from here. There are more people like you there.” In the piece, she reflected on the need to honestly and openly address anti-Black racism in the Canadian Muslim community. Muslim Link invited Key to speak more in depth about what she thinks needs to be done to address anti-Black racism.
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