About

CONTEXT
 
“America is not like a blanket -- one piece of unbroken cloth, the same color, the same texture, the same size. America is more like a quilt: many patches, many pieces, many colors, many sizes, all woven and held together by a common thread…. We are bound by Moses and Jesus, but also connected with Islam and Mohammed. These three great religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, were all born in the revered and holy city of Jerusalem.” (Rev. Jesse Jackson, 1984 Democratic National Convention Address)

VISION

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” (Margret Mead)

MISSION

The American Muslims and Friends Democratic Club seeks to work in partnership with groups and individuals who believe in the inherent dignity and equality of all human beings and strive to uphold rule of law, due process, equal justice, freedom, democracy, gender equality, and peace with justice for all.

OBJECTIVES

   1. Work to revive and reinforce American ideals of freedom, equality, and justice for all.
   2. Strive against racism, bigotry, intolerance, and injustice through education and dialogue.
   3. Help expand spectrum of civil and political discourse.
   4. Encourage citizen participation in policy debate and agenda-setting through civic education, capacity formation, and voter mobilization.
   5. Promote strong interpersonal and intercommunity relationships and facilitate coalitions and partnerships for a better tomorrow.
   6. Strategize for community development

Guiding Principles

   1. Civic education is the most effective means for people’s self empowerment.
   2. Working together is the most reliable process for building close-knit and caring communities.
   3. Dialogue, based on a genuine desire to understand and to be understood, is the most civilized method to discover common cause, achieve harmony, and work for common good.
   4. “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.... “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” (Dr.  Martin Luther King, Jr.)

Our Inspiration:

I Hear America Singing

By Walt Whitman

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,  
 
    Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe  
              and strong,  
    The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,  
    The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off  
              work,  
    The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deck-  
              hand singing on the steamboat deck,  
    The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing  
              as he stands,  
    The woodcutter's song, the ploughboy's on his way in the morn-  
              ing, or at noon intermission or at sundown,  
    The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work,  
              or of the girl sewing or washing,  
    Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,  
    The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young  
              fellows, robust, friendly,  
    Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.

Our Commitment

Let America Be America Again    
by Langston Hughes  

Let America be America again.

Let it be the dream it used to be.

Let it be the pioneer on the plain

Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--

Let it be that great strong land of love

Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme

That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty

Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,

But opportunity is real, and life is free,

Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There's never been equality for me,

Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?

And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,

I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.

I am the red man driven from the land,

I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--

And finding only the same old stupid plan

Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,

Tangled in that ancient endless chain

Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!

Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!

Of work the men! Of take the pay!

Of owning everything for one's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.

I am the worker sold to the machine.

I am the Negro, servant to you all.

I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--

Hungry yet today despite the dream.

Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers!

I am the man who never got ahead,

The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream

In the Old World while still a serf of kings,

Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,

That even yet its mighty daring sings

In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned

That's made America the land it has become.

O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas

In search of what I meant to be my home--

For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,

And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,

And torn from Black Africa's strand I came

To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?

Who said the free?  Not me?

Surely not me?  The millions on relief today?

The millions shot down when we strike?

The millions who have nothing for our pay?

For all the dreams we've dreamed

And all the songs we've sung

And all the hopes we've held

And all the flags we've hung,

The millions who have nothing for our pay--

Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, let America be America again--

The land that never has been yet--

And yet must be--the land where every man is free.

The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME--

Who made America,

Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,

Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,

Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--

The steel of freedom does not stain.

From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,

We must take back our land again,

America!
 

O, yes,

I say it plain,

America never was America to me,

And yet I swear this oath--

America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,

The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,

We, the people, must redeem

The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.

The mountains and the endless plain--

All, all the stretch of these great green states--

And make America again!