Dear Friends,
Last week, the Council on Muslim American Engagement With Tables (CMAET) was able to attend the #CVESummit that was called for and hosted by the Obama administration.  At the Summit, CMAET representatives sat next to government officials keen on labeling extremism as a Muslim problem.  At this point you might be thinking, wait isn’t that erroneous?  Well the answer, dear supporters, is no.  That’s why we need your support today-not to dispel the myth of Muslims as terrorists, but to dispel the myth that we don’t want to work to help the government target and surveil our communities.  We have worked too long and too hard to be treated like people that don’t matter on the outside of the White House.  We want to be treated as insignificant actors INSIDE the White House.

Afeef Afif Afzal, President of CMAET, stated that, “we could not be more thrilled about being co-opted into oppressing our own community.  Anyone who knows the history of minority relations in the US, knows that this is a positive step-after all, it means that we have enough power to warrant the government wanting to destroy our communities.  This positive achievement cannot be overstated and I hope you will recognize how hard we have worked to position ourselves as doing the work of government without being in the government or without being respected by the government.”

Farid Faris Furooq, Vice President of CMAET, added, “we were so touched by the President’s speech on the first official day of the summit.  That he thought to distance terrorism from Muslims, was heartwarming.  We would like to respond by telling our dear President that we are not at war with anti-terrorism measures that surveil, target, entrap, and detain our communities, we are at war with Muslim American orgs that try to oppose these measures and we won’t stop this war until, they, like us, understand the potential for career advancement when adopting this approach.”

CMAET attendees also expressed enthusiasm after receiving the following hand written letter on a crumpled up piece of paper below from an undisclosed government official:

Sincerely,
Council on Muslim American Engagement with Tables

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