OUR VISION

Becoming a more integral part of the US liberation movement for Black and Brown lives as a people affiliated with the Islamicate world.

*Islamicate world is associated with global regions in which Muslims are culturally dominant, but not specifically with Islam as a religion.

OUR MISSION

Lifting and connecting the stories of Arabs, Middle Easterners, Muslims and South Asians living in the US, through podcasting, research and advocacy. We cater to AMEMSA folks regardless of religious affiliation (or the lack thereof), and racial, ethnic and national identities.

WHO ARE THE AMEMSA?

AMEMSA stands for Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian communities. This term gained traction from shared experiences of oppression and xenophobia.

  • Region: If your ancestry is from a Muslim-majority or Muslim-minority country (the Islamicate world*), like Pakistan, India, Egypt, Malaysia, Indonesia, Nigeria, Sudan, Iran, Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Palestine, the Gulf, Uyger China… and you find yourself belonging in this description, we are speaking to you.

  • Races and Ethnicities: If you are Black American and Muslim, Armenian, South Asian, Iranian, Arab, Pashtun, Nubian, Baluchi, Berber, Egyptian, a white Muslim convert, Turkish… and find yourself belonging in this description, we are speaking to you.

  • Religion: If you are atheist, agnostic, searching, non-practicing, unmosqued, mosqued, Sufi, Druze, Christian or Jewish and from the Islamicate world… and find yourself belonging in this description, we are speaking to you.

*Islamicate world is associated with global regions in which Muslims are culturally dominant, but not specifically with Islam as a religion.

HOW IT ALL STARTED

After the 2016 presidential election, as many of us tried to rally our AMEMSA communities, we noticed that calls to action were falling on deaf ears. The problem? As AMEMSA folks, many of us don’t feel like we have skin in the game. Many of us don’t believe it’s “our place” to help move the U.S. into a new progressive era. Many still feel like renters because we’ve been taught that this is a white country. As a very diverse body of peoples, we are fractured and disconnected, don’t have a gelled identity. We also lack a solid seat at the table.

It’s time to think big.

But… we cannot achieve a true sense of belonging, or unite with other non-AMEMSA Black and Brown folks and white allies, until we do the work of recognizing who we are and where we are headed.