On July 17, 2018, WISE hosted the
WISE Up Congressional Briefing,
representing the second phase of WISE’s dissemination campaign for its recently-published
375-page report
,
WISE Up: Knowledge Ends Extremism
. At the briefing, WISE
presented the
WISE Up Policy Paper
, which contains a plan by American Muslims to proactively engage in safeguarding their communities, and fight against all forms of extremism and hate.
The briefing was successful in both content and attendance. Representatives from 11 congressional offices were present with more 110 people in attendance. Among the attendees, were representatives from the office of Sen. Brian Schatz, Sen. Dick Durbin, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Rep. Peter Welch, Rep. Donald Payne, Rep. Jim McGovern, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Rep. Eric Swalwell, Rep. Cheri Bustos, Rep. Darin LaHood, and Rep .Mia Love.
The speakers included
Daisy Khan
,
Rachel Brown
,
Arsalan Suleman
,
Susannah Cunningham
,
Dalia Mogahed
,
and Salam Al-Marayati
, who discussed the following points:
- Addressing American Muslims Beyond the Security lens – engaging Muslims more broadly as neighbors and essential contributors to our communities and society,
- Extremism as a phenomenon that has commonalities across religions, races, and cultures, and
- Delinking “Extremism” or “Terrorism” from race, religion, gender, or ethnicity - The power of the language from government officials sets the tone for the country.
Copies of
WISE Up
were presented to all congressional staff present, and will be mailed to all 535 Members of Congress.