Contents

Interfaith Outreach
K-12 Education
Inreach
Educational Resources

MAT is actively involved in the interfaith dialogue throughout the New York Tri-State area. MAT volunteers average over 5 presentations a week and are coordinated by Interfaith Director Yasemin Saib. MAT is also actively engaged in producing and disseminating informational materials about Islam. Our goals are as follows:

--To certify approximately 15 MAT Interfaith volunteers every two months who will make presentations to the Interfaith, Academic, Corporate, Civic and Cultural Communities. Each volunteer will conduct at least two presentations per month during the next twelve months for a total of more than 350 presentations per year.
--To interface with various Interfaith outlets both in the United States and abroad in order to provide them with contacts for articulate and prominent Muslim leaders and intellectuals for interviews.
--To conduct presentations at interfaith gatherings in the New York Metropolitan area regarding MAT’s mission, Islam’s prohibition on terrorism, and the process of democratic activism.
--To develop comprehensive training guidelines outlining how to present at Interfaith gatherings and hold at least 4 group training sessions over the next two months. Interfaith training materials and guidelines will also be shared with MAT members in locations across the U.S.
--To create scholarly written materials for distribution at interfaith gatherings to articulate Quranic prohibitions on terrorism.
MAT’s interfaith activities are conducted using the following methods tailored to further the program objectives. MAT is:
--Certifying volunteers through the use of training methods employed by the Interfaith Director and the steering committee within the organization. Each training session will take place over the course of a day and will consist of offering guidelines for presenters to follow in their presentation as well as testing of volunteers to ensure they are capable of delivering presentations consistent with the message of MAT. Upon certification, each volunteer will be matched with a group requesting a MAT presentation.
--Identifying organizations and communities that will facilitate interfaith teaching and learning such as interfaith organizations and communities; cross-cultural and civic organizations that conduct interfaith work; all other religious groups that are interested in learning about Islam.
--Creating educational materials including a ‘one sheet’ about MAT and quotes from the Quran and Hadith that are associated with peace, tolerance, jihad, etc., a basic fact and FAQ sheet about Islam.
--Contacting the members of the organizations that we have identified to introduce our organization and email or fax them information and materials as requested; find out what activities and initiatives they are involved with so that we can participate as well; learn how we can reach out to their members/communities to help foster learning about Islam; work on building long-term relationships through mutual respect and understanding.

History

Working with 15 volunteers, we have already begun a number of activities to further our goal of interfaith outreach. Within the past 45 days since our inception, MAT has:

--Participated in a profile of activist Muslim Women for BNN, Broadcast News Network.
--Held a public forum on Islam for the Fifth Avenue Committee.
--Conducted Training on Islam for MTV Network - Diversity Teams Training.
--Started to develop a program for Pal-Talk.com, an online forum that allows real-time chat and educational opportunities. This program would include a symposium on Islam conducted by MAT members followed an on-line chat session.
--Participated in a dialogue on Peace in Islam for the Girls Congress
--Participated in the production of NY Not In Our Name, an Interfaith Service At Union Square in New York.
--Held interfaith strategy meetings with organizations such as the Jews of Social and Economic Justice to discuss joint outreach efforts between them and the Muslim community.

We are always looking for new opportunities. To have us speak at your house of worship or conduct diversity training at your workplace, please do not hesitate to contact us.

K-12 Education (education@matusa.org)

Our effort to educate children about the religion of Islam and its non-violent teachings is conducted by our Education Committee under the direction of Fatima Sami, our Education Project Director. This education effort is coordinated with Lee Ali, director of the Islamic Speakers Bureau of New York (ISBNY), and makes substantial use of educational materials developed by the Islamic Network Group (ING), a California non-profit with a well-established track record of conducting Islamic diversity and educational programs for a variety of groups, including children, corporations and law enforcement agencies.

No group is more in the dark about the tragedies of September 11th and its continuing aftermath than our children. To help our youth gain a much needed understanding of the peaceful teachings of Islam and the widespread, mainstream Muslim condemnation of acts of terror, MAT is dedicated to help educate school children through the following objectives:

--To conduct 30 presentations over the course of the next 6 months on Islam and Muslims in elementary and secondary schools, after school programs, and youth centers. Our hope is that such presentations will both focus on the horrible tragedies of September 11th, and promote an open dialogue through which the need for understanding and tolerance between peoples of different cultural and religious backgrounds is made apparent.
--To facilitate several workshops for teachers and afterschool program staff on understanding Islam and Muslims. We will work alongside educators in developing methods to address their students’ needs post 9/11, and we will provide them with resources to help them answer questions and facilitate classroom discussions.
--To develop user-friendly, online resources for educators that will be located on the MAT website and are easily downloadable. We are currently working on a forty-five minute Power Point presentation based on our own curriculum that will come with all the notes and resources necessary for presentations by a teacher of any level, whether Muslim or non-Muslim. In conjunction with this effort, we will continue to compile lists of books, lesson plans, and classroom activities that educators may incorporate into their curriculums.

Due to the overwhelming amount of requests for MAT to make presentations about Islam in local schools, MAT executive personnel and our volunteers have spent a substantial amount of time and effort into developing methods to achieve the objectives outlined above. Such methods can be divided into three categories: (1) children and young adult curricula development; (2) volunteer training and certification ; and (3) teacher curricula development.

In the development of educational curricula for children and young adults, the MAT Educational Group has begun to and anticipates continuing to adopt the following methods:

--MAT is collaborating with ISBNY to develop a program modeled on the successful speakers bureaus implemented in California and Boston. ISBNY has allowed MAT to utilize their Islam educational materials and curriculum, and have supported us in developing other curriculums based on MAT’s specific needs.
--In particular, ISBNY -- and MAT through ISBNY -- have rights to use the curriculum developed by ING. This curriciulum has been use for twelve years and has proven successful with school age children. ING’s curriculum covers the basics of Islam, which includes the tenets and fundamentals of our religion, the relationship between all monotheistic religions, and a discussion of the varied cultures of the Muslim world.
--MAT and ISBNY are also collaborating to develop their own curricula for post-9/11 events and for continuing “hot topics” such as women and human rights, US foreign policy towards Muslims, and morality issues. Sources for these curricula include materials obtained from the: (1) Brookings Institute; (2) the Counsel of Foreign Affairs; (3) the Center for Foreign Policy and the Muslim Political Action Committee (MPAC) (foreign policy); (4) the Muslim Women’s League; (5) Hartford Seminary; (6) KARAMAH, Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights; and (7) and Secular Women’s Issues Resources (status of women issues).
--All MAT curricula will be reviewed both for content and format by scholars from various reputable Islamic organizations. Moreover, as is consistent with past practice, MAT education project directors and volunteers will continue to develop, hone and update our curricula based upon needs identified during our presentations.

To ensure our speakers are well-informed and are consistent with MAT’s message, we have set certain guidelines, processes, and requirements that all speakers must adhere to before they are allowed to speak to children in schools and youth groups. Such methods include the following:

--We conducted a full day speakers' training workshop on November 17, 2001 that all volunteers were required to attend before going on assignment.
--In facilitating this workshop, we introduced the ISBNY curriculum as well as the curricula MAT/ISBNY developed to address the “hot topics” discussed above. The training also covered materials such as visual aids, possible FAQ’s, as well as successful methods of speech delivery and format.
--At the end of the training day, all trainees took an exam that covers the materials and were required to pass with at least a ninety-five percent success rating. We are keeping the passing grade high to ensure that speakers are delivering the correct message and are in-sync with MAT’s philosophies.
--Upon certification, volunteers are pair up to speak at various youth schools and organizations as directed by MAT. By the end of November, we hope to certify 30 active volunteer speakers. On an ongoing basis, MAT will conduct trainings every two months for new volunteers and have on-going workshops every month for current speakers.

MAT’s outreach effort in schools must also include outreach to teachers. Such individuals have an incredible and continuing responsibility in helping our children understand the current state of affairs, and we wish to assist them to the greatest extent possible. In this vein, MAT has developed the following methods to develop an educational curriculum for interested teachers.

--Using the volunteer certification process outlined above, MAT will identify volunteer speakers that prove themselves to be articulate, well-versed in subject materials, and have a good rapport with students. Such volunteers will be asked to facilitate trainings for teachers and staff and will undergo additional training to enable them to respond effectively to an understanding of religion and world affairs.
--Such training will include additional activities, case studies, and other hands-on materials that the volunteer must learn and be able to teach. A trainee will in turn develop his/her own facilitating style, present a workshop to our education committee, and after approval, will be paired and sent on assignment.
--MAT will also make a presentation for teachers and other educators available online to download. The presentation will be a short form of the actual presentation that we conduct in schools, complete with images that are juxtaposed with the content of such presentations. This downloadable presentation is to be geared towards teachers nationwide who may not have access to MAT volunteers or those who simply want an easy method to facilitate discussion.
--The resources for this presentation together come from the ISBNY and MAT curricula, and the organizations listed above. We will also include a list of books, lesson plans, and activities that teachers can incorporate into their curriculums and use as reference materials.

At this juncture, MAT has begun to meet several of these objectives, and simply requires additional resources to ensure that they will be implemented on an ongoing basis. In terms of volunteer development, MAT Education began with only three volunteers. to speak in schools and work on our various education projects. The number of volunteers has to ten to date and continues to increase. The volunteers come from a diverse group of professions, including teachers, computer programmers, lawyers, and other professionals, who all believe it is their duty to educate tomorrow’s leaders.

MAT has also had tremendous response from schools and youth organizations. A partial list of schools and organizations we have already visited includes the Urban Peace Academy in East Harlem, EBS High School in Brooklyn, Monroe High School in the Bronx, Banana Kelly High School in the Bronx, the Soros Foundation/After School Corporation, Girls Congress, Partnership for Afterschool Education Efforts (PASE), Our Children, Global Kids, and Pius XII. Through our work, several organizations have expressed unqualified support for our organization, and have offered to work in collaboration with our efforts. Such organizations include PASE, the Office of Councilmen Bill Perkins, Asia Society, and the Brooklyn Neighborhood Project. In particular, we were gratified to receive a memo from Eric Gurowitz, program developer for PASE, regarding our program which was sent the PASE program director:

“I want to let you know that I felt that the workshop facilitated by Muslims Against Terrorism (MAT) at last Friday’s Forum, “Islam: Myths and Realities, Helping Young People Understand,” was really successful, and I think it would be very helpful for PASE to continue working with MAT. The session was very well attended, and the group was not even able to get to all of their planned agenda because participants were so engaged in asking questions and discussing the issues that were raised. Additionally, the facilitators were energetic and very well-informed, and their style was inquiry-based and interactive.

Inreach (inreach@matusa.org)

Our effort to educate our fellow Muslims, nicknamed “Inreach”, is composed of several specific, concrete objectives:

-- To conduct presentations in each mosque in the New York Metropolitan area regarding MAT’s mission, Islam’s prohibition on terrorism, and the manner of affecting change through democratic activism.
-- To contact well-credentialed, popular Muslim scholars and to solicit from them scholarly articles outlining, among other things, (1) prohibitions on terrorism and suicide bombing in Islamic law, (2) proper modes of peaceful discourse and political activism for Muslims living in non-Islamic states, and (3) guidelines for creating and sustaining mutually beneficial relationships between Muslims and all persons of faith.
-- To create written descriptions of the United States political process, methods for promoting democratic change, and concrete examples of the creation of such change that are easily understood by people of different national and linguistic backgrounds.
-- To commission the translation of such scholarly articles into multiple languages for ultimate distribution at mosques, Muslim community centers and events, and on our website
-- To create ongoing relationships with mosques, American Muslim groups and Islamic scholars to ensure rapid and unequivocal condemnations of acts of terror perpetuated by those that call themselves Muslim or anyone else.

MAT executive personnel have spent ample time and thought developing methods to achieve such objectives, methods that have been implemented on a limited, yet strategic basis. Such methods include:
--Formally introducing MAT and its projects to 30 mosques in the New York City area by offering orientations and presentations to these communities in the next four months.
--Creating strategic alliances with Imams at each Mosque, other executive personnel at such mosques, Islamic scholars and personnel at various Muslim institutions in New York to assist in the solicitation of well-credentialed Islamic scholars to assist in the creation of our educational materials.
--Commissioning scholars to create educational materials in a manner that ensures they receive secondary benefit from the creation of such materials in the form of publication in educational and religious journals, or alternatively, monetary compensation for expenses.
--Forming an advisory board of scholars to review and suggest modifications to any educational materials commissioned by MAT prior to distribution.
--Commissioning Muslims active at all levels of Government to assist in the creation of practical guides to influencing the political process and to give presentations at local mosques;
--Commissioning skilled translators to translate all MAT inreach materials into Arabic, Urdu and Farsi and any other language deemed necessary after meetings with local mosques

At this juncture, MAT has begun to implement such methods, making the best use of our limited resources. In particular, MAT has created and composed quick references on Islam that are distributed at our speaking engagements and/or posted on our website, including a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Islam and Muslims brochure, and a pamphlet containing ample evidence in the Qur’an and examples from the Prophet's sayings (hadith) that Islam condemns terrorism. MAT has also designed simple and readable materials regarding how to protect one's civil liberties and get involved in the democratic process.

Finally, MAT has already made substantial inroads in gaining the support of the broader Muslim community for our inreach efforts, and has made strategic contacts with the following organizations/individuals: Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), and the Muslim Student Associations (MSAs) at Hunter College, Columbia University, New York University, Brown University, and Yale University - Auburn Theological Seminary.

How you can help:

Please contact us for more information on getting the word out about MAT. We are open to opportunities to co-sponsor events, to come and speak at mosques and community centers, and to answer any questions anyone might have.

Education Projects and Resources

Please also see Section 3, Islam

Study Circles Resource Center
Facing the Future: How Should We Respond to the Attack on Our Nation?
http://www.studycircles.org/pages/americaresponds.html

Islamic Resource Group
Resources for Educators about Islam
www.ing.org

Muslim Resource
San Francisco-based activists with lots of resources on Islam and organizing
www.muslimresource.com

US Unite
Get tons of free downloadable unity posters here
(Note: please do not hang posters without first asking permission)
http://www.us-unite.org

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