MPower Change

Campaigns

• Twitter: Stop Enabling Trump's Anti-Muslim Hate Speech

  Donald Trump's bigotry hit a new low, as he retweeted several anti-Muslim videos from the deputy of Britain First, a far-right fascist party in the U.K.--drawing condemnation even from Prime Minister Theresa May. This isn't the first time that he's used the social media platform to spread anti-Muslim rhetoric--and Twitter needs to stop pretending that Trump's hate speech doesn't have consequences. Since Trump took office, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has recorded a nearly doubling of anti-Muslim hate crimes. And in incident after incident, we've heard anti-Muslim slogans or even simply the name "Trump" used as a rallying cry before racist attacks. Enough is enough. Twitter can't continue allowing Trump to use its platform to encourage violence against Muslims. They need to shut down Trump's account and stop enabling his hate speech.

  13,249 of 15,000 Signatures

  Created by Linda Sarsour
• Let Our Families In

  When the Supreme Court issued its ruling last week, allowing Trump's Muslim Ban to go into effect, it included an exemption for individuals with "bona fide" ties to U.S. persons or entities, such as having family members here. But this morning, the State Department—headed by Trump appointee Rex Tillerson—issued guidelines that redefine family in the narrowest and cruelest way possible, limiting the exceptions to just immediate family members and sons- and daughters-in-law. This means that persons with other ties to the U.S.—grandparents, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews—are banned due to the racist and anti-Muslim executive orders. This narrow re-definition of family is unacceptable and is clearly intended to break up Muslim and refugee families. We call on elected officials to demand that the State Department reverse these guidelines immediately and let all of our families in. According to Tillerson's State Department: grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, fiancees, and any other relatives do not fit the definition of family members. Yes, you read that right—the Trump administration doesn't think grandmas and grandpas count as family members, and is banning them from the country based on nothing other than where they come from. The executive orders and these State Department guidelines are clearly built on a foundation of anti-Muslim, anti-Arab, and anti-refugee hate. And it's clear that the administration is still bent on implementing as much of its Muslim Ban as it can get away with. It's up to us to stop them from getting away with it. Tell your elected officials to let Tillerson and the State Department know that it's not up to them to tell us what our families look like—and to call on them to reverse their bizarre and inhumane guidelines.

  16,352 of 20,000 Signatures

  Created by Widad Hassan
• Tell Congress: Don’t Meet with Anti-Muslim Hate Group

  On September 6th and 7th, the anti-Muslim group ACT for America will host its annual conference, bringing right-wing activists from around the country to our nation’s capital to advance an agenda that targets Muslims and harms us all. ACT—a group that calls itself the “NRA of national security”—has once again invited elected leaders in Washington, D.C., and from around the country to speak at the conference and hear from its members. Last year, at least 15 members of Congress spoke at the national security briefing. But this year, unlike in the past, ACT is keeping the names of participating lawmakers secret to avoid scrutiny. What do they have to hide? While claiming to uphold civil liberties, including religious freedom, ACT for America’s leader has said that a “practicing Muslim, who believes in the teachings of the Koran, cannot be a loyal citizen to the United States of America.” ACT is lobbying lawmakers to lead with fear. The group is calling for unwarranted surveillance, inhumane policies on immigration and refugee resettlement, biased law enforcement trainings, and unconstitutional opposition to mosque construction. We must not embrace this blatant anti-Muslim bias nor the policies that spring from it. If elected leaders do not denounce ACT’s dangerous rhetoric, they are not only implicitly endorsing anti-Muslim bigotry, but also a vision for this country that denies fairness and equality to us all. We cannot afford silence. Tell members of Congress and all elected leaders to reject ACT for America’s invitation to anti-Muslim hate.

  139 of 200 Signatures

  Created by Linda Sarsour
• Grant Abdullah's Mother a Waiver to See Her Dying Son

  This story is absolutely heartbreaking. Trump's Muslim Ban is preventing the mother of a 2-year-old boy on life support from coming to the country to say goodbye to her son. Abdullah Hassan is currently being kept alive at a children's hospital in Oakland. But because his mother, Shaima Swileh, is a Yemeni national, she can't get a visa to come to the U.S. to spend time with him during his last few days. This is cruel, inhumane, and unacceptable. The U.S. State Department has the authority to grant waivers to the Ban, and it would be the height of cruelty for them to continue to deny one to Abdullah's mother. Click here and send a message to the State Department and the Embassy in Cairo—when Swileh is currently living—and demand that they immediately grant her a visa to see her dying son. There's only one reason that Shaima Swileh is being prevented from seeing Abdullah: Trump's bigoted plan to keep Muslims out of the U.S., which was upheld this past summer by right-wing justices on the Supreme Court. One of the arguments that the administration used in court was that the Ban's waiver process supposedly provides relief for banned individuals to get visas. In practice, the waiver process has been a sham—with less than 2% of applicants being granted waivers. But, there's precedent that shows that, if we make enough noise, the State Department will grant waivers in exception to the Ban. This past summer, lawyers challenging the Muslim Ban in the Supreme Court highlighted the case of Shaema Alomari, a 10-year-old with cerebral palsy who was banned because she's Yemeni. Weeks later, the family received waivers and was allowed to the enter the U.S. Let's make enough noise that the State Department is forced to address this travesty and reunite Abdullah with his mother. Sign here to send them a message. Let's get this done #ForAbdullah, his mother, and their family. P.S. After you've signed the petition, please make sure to share it! Let's get enough buzz going on social media that the State Department is forced to address this.

  634 of 800 Signatures

  Created by Ishraq Ali, MPower Change
• Tell Southwest Airlines: End Discrimination Against Arab and Muslim Passengers

  Southwest Airlines claims to operate on the principle of #SouthwestHeart, but when it comes to Muslim and Arab customers, it seems to be #SouthwestHeartless. On April 6th, the airline kicked 26 year old Khairuldeen Makhzoomi off a flight after a customer overheard him speaking Arabic on his phone. Makhzoomi was then subjected to an FBI interrogation—simply for making a phone call to his uncle. On April 13th, a Southwest flight attendant removed Hakima Abdulle, a woman of Somali descent wearing a hijab, from a flight after she tried to switch seats with fellow passengers. These recent cases are just part of a trend of anti-Muslim and anti-Arab discrimination by Southwest Airlines—last November, the airline delayed two men from boarding a flight after they had a conversation in Arabic together. That same week, a Southwest pilot removed several Arabic-speaking passengers from a plane after they tried to be seated together. People shouldn't be barred from air travel just for speaking Arabic, being Muslim, or wearing a hijab. It's clear that Southwest needs to make some changes in how it treats its customers. We're calling on them to publicly apologize for discrimination, review their policies, and implement anti-bias training for flight crews.

  293 of 300 Signatures

  Created by Linda Sarsour
• Investigate the FBI's use of Informants to Manufacture Terror Plots

  A new documentary, (T)ERROR, raises critical concerns about the FBI's informant program. Congress needs to immediately review the FBI's policies and procedures. As an independent filmmaker and an activist fighting for justice for all people, we are appalled by the FBI's use of paid informants to entrap Muslims in imaginary terrorist plots where all the means, motives, and materials are provided by the government. These tactics create the illusion of safety rather than true security. And they have chilling impacts on our communities—pushing Muslims to shed their religious identity and shy away from civic engagement, and disrupting trust and relationships in social networks. The government is expanding use of these tactics to target and monitor environmentalists, anti-war activists, and the Black Lives Matter movement. This surveillance has terrifying implications, and endangers one of America's most valuable national resources--the free voice of the people. We're calling on Congress to do the following: - Create Accountability and Transparency - Review Sentencing and Prison Conditions - Reform Biased Policies At a time when anti-Muslim violence has tripled, we must investigate the ways in which our policies have contributed to this environment, and how they continue to endanger the lives of millions of Muslims in America. These steps are necessary, and are needed now.

  561 of 600 Signatures

  Created by Linda Sarsour & David Felix Sutcliffe
• Defund Trump's Muslim Ban

  This past summer, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Trump's Muslim Ban—giving the green light to an administration that has made xenophobia, racism, and anti-Muslim bigotry its official policy. With the Court steadily being packed with radical right-wing judicial operatives like Brett Kavanaugh, it's time for Congress to take action to undo Trump's racist agenda. From putting migrant children and adults in internment camps to defending violent white supremacists, Trump is out of control. He spews racist, xenophobic language and pushes dangerous policies to exclude people of color from the U.S. Meanwhile, the Ban continues to permanently block nationals and travelers from six Muslim-majority countries from coming to the U.S.—based on nothing other than Trump's bigoted campaign promise to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. Just because Trump and the Roberts-led Supreme Court think it's OK to discriminate against people based on how they worship or where they come from doesn't mean it should be the official policy of the United States. Congress has the power to defund Trump's Muslim Ban and they should do so immediately. The bills, H.R. 4271 and S. 1979, would prohibit the use of any funds or fees to implement Executive Order 13780—the third and most recent iteration of Trump's Muslim Ban. #NoMuslimBanEver

  2,471 of 3,000 Signatures

  Created by Linda Sarsour