From RT.com
Muslim organizations have raised $23,000 to help rebuild eight historically black churches that have burned down since the deadly attack on a prayer group in South Carolina. Three fires are believed to be arson, while the rest are under investigation.
The groups ‒ including Muslim Anti-Racism Collaborative, the Arab American Association of New York and Ummah Wide ‒ encouraged Muslims to reach out during their holy month of Ramadan. They touted the connections between Muslim and African-American communities in the US, saying the groups are “profoundly integrated in many ways, in our overlapping identities and in our relationship to this great and complicated country.”
“ALL houses of worship are sanctuaries, a place where all should feel safe, a place we can seek refuge when the world is too much to bear,” the groups wrote on a LaunchGood fundraising page. “We are calling on you to help add our support to faith communities across the country pooling their resources to rebuild these churches.”
The fires ‒ seven of which occurred in southern states and one in Ohio ‒ have drawn suspicion of foul play, beginning just days after 21-year-old Dylann Roof killed nine people at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Charleston, South Carolina in mid-June. Indicted on nine counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder on Tuesday ‒ and facing possible federal hate crime charges ‒ Roof reportedly told the police he wanted to “start a race war.”
“These kinds of attacks on Black churches are a very old form of intimidation in the South, historically used to strike fear into the hearts of Black people,” the Muslim groups wrote.
In a call for donations, Imam Zaid Shakir said Muslims in America can relate on some level to the historical oppression directed at African-Americans in the US.
“The American Muslim community cannot claim to have experienced anything close to the systematic and institutionalized racism and racist violence that has been visited upon African Americans,” he said. “We do, however, understand the climate of racially inspired hate and bigotry that is being reignited in this country. We want to let our African American brothers and sisters know that we stand in solidarity with them during this dark hour.”
