Election Day is finally here…don’t let your voice go unheard! Print out Project M’s election palmcard to take with you to the polls, and check out our TV ad here.

Pull your family, friends, and neighbors to the polls to make sure you are part of decision-making in YOUR government. Polls are open all day from 6:00 AM to 7:00 PM. To find out where YOU can cast your ballot, enter your address information here.

For help getting to the polls or with any questions or concerns, contact Project M at 708-924-5200 or info@projectmobilize.org.

All month long, Project Mobilize is partnering up with local area Mosques and community centers to prepare YOU for the November 2012 Elections!

Beginning this week, look out for a Voter Box at one of the Mosques listed below. Political participation in the 2012 elections is going to be crucial – especially from historically marginalized communities. Whatever your political persuasion or passionate issue, now is the time to harness the power to hold our elected officials accountable! Whether you have never cast a ballot before or never miss an election, NOW is the time to register and re-register to vote.

WHEN:      Throughout August

WHERE:   More community centers will be added throughout the month, so check back frequently for updates!

Mosque Foundation

7360 West 93rd Street, Bridgeview

Orland Park Prayer Center [OPPC]

16530 104th Ave, Orland Park

Muslim Educational Cultural Center of America [MECCA]

720 E. Plainfield Rd., Willowbrook

Islamic Community Center of Illinois [ICCI]

6489 West Belmont Avenue, Chicago

HOW: Not old enough to vote? Want to take your political representation by the reigns? Need something to do to keep the hunger at bay?

If dictators can be toppled and revolutions started with pure determination and drive, then political change and community empowerment is definitely within our reach! There are ways to get involved no matter your age, background, or schedule. Contact Reema Ahmad at 708-924-5200 or reema@projectmobilize.org for more info on how you too can create the positive political change your community needs!

Support local youth, sign this petition today!

Earlier this month, Marcelo Castaneda Llamas was arrested and handed over to ICE after calling police in Illinois to assist his sister-in-law in gaining access to her locked car.

Marcelo committed no crime and has no criminal charges against him. This action is a direct contradiction to stated policies by Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and President Obama saying that deporting youth is not a priority for the administration.

It is not “good, sensible government” to deport youth that are positively contributing to their local communities, making life better for all of us.

Support local youth that are working to change our communities for the better! Keep our government officials accountable to the communities they represent by signing this petition to keep Marcelo from deportation!

Keep families together, keep our communities whole. Sign this petition today!

On September 24, 2010 the FBI carried out a series of raids of homes and anti-war offices of public activists in Chicago and Minneapolis. Following the raids the Justice Department subpoenaed 23 activists to appear before a Chicago grand jury headed by US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. A grand jury is a secret court proceeding where the jury members are not screened for bias, where a prosecutor questions witnesses without a defense attorney present, and where there is no judge.

WHAT: Come hear from those who have been directly affected and from the Chicago civil liberties community, which has been mobilizing to bring to light the realities of grand jury proceedings and the right to freedom of speech.

WHEN: TONIGHT, Tuesday, May 31st, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM

WHERE: Depaul University McGowan South Room 108, 1110 W. Belden Ave., Chicago, IL

WHO: Moderated by MICHAEL MCCONNELL, Great Lakes Regional Director of the AFSC and ordained minister in the United Church of Christ.

MICHAEL DEUTSCH is an attorney with the People’s Law Office in Chicago. For over 40 years he has represented political activists and other victims of police and government civil rights violations.

LEAH FRIED has been an organizer with the UE (United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America) for 12 years.

SARAH SMITH is a young Chicago student who participated in a delegation to Palestine and Israel, and shortly thereafter was subpoenaed by the FBI to appear before a grand jury.

REEMA AHMAD is the Executive Director of Project Mobilize, a political action non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of politically marginalized communities at the local, state and national level.

STEPHANIE WEINER teaches English in Chicago City Colleges, is a founder of AFSCME Local 3506, and is one of the activists raided and subpoenaed.

HATEM ABUDAYYEH is Executive Director of the Arab American Action Network and one of the activists raided and subpoenaed.

Free and open to the public. For more information, contact Miryam Rashid at (312) 427-2533 x 18 or mrashid@afsc.org

The Electoral Revolution

While all eyes have been on the world changing in the Middle East, there has been a revolution going on in our own backyards in the southwest suburbs of Chicago…led by our very own Project Mobilize!

Project M is a non-partisan, non-profit political action organization dedicated to developing the civic potential in politically marginalized communities, being the year-round vehicle through which these communities organize around important issues, and advocating on behalf of the community to elected officials. Over the past year, this has meant working out of a full-time office in the southwest suburbs of Chicago on the Arab, South-East Asian, and Muslim American communities there.

The revolution began just one year ago with a simple idea: our communities are more than capable of seizing the civic rights and responsibilities that come with being engaged citizens of our local communities. We have the political capital, we have the know-how, we even have outstanding organizations that have laid a strong foundation of civic awareness…all that was needed now was an organization to funnel this talent and energy into more targeted political action.

Six months later saw these same politically marginalized communities make the leap from active, engaged citizens to leaders seeking to give back to their communities through elected political office. Project Mobilize recruited, trained, and ran 7 Muslim American Candidates for the spring elections that took place this past April 5, 2011.

Project M’s seven candidates made history, moving our local community members further along the spectrum from observers of the political process to engaged and active participants!

They candidates came from all across the Muslim American community of the southwest suburbs. They are educators, lawyers, community activists, healthcare professionals, social service providers, and more. Despite their unique experiences, they only represented a portion of the diversity of talents found within the Muslim American communities of Chicagoland. Yet this was just the start, the beginning of the journey, from communities that are aware of the issues and working for change, to stake-holders with representation in the decision-making processes of our local governments.

Yes, our communities have been politically burned in the past. We have thrown our support behind elected officials who have not appreciated the voices of their Muslim American constituents, let alone sought to accurately represent their needs and concerns in elected office. Yet this is precisely where Project M is changing the landscape, by bridging this disconnect in exhibiting the deep commitment the Muslim American community has to the political process and to the American Dream of giving back to our communities through meaningful involvement in government.

Project M Candidate and newly-elected Bridgeview Library Trustee Ahmed Aduib underscored this point during his campaign. “It took [our] community a while to realize that we need to start getting active, we need to start pushing…this country is our country just like anyone else,” emphasized Aduib, “I was born and raised here, so I might as well start making a difference here.”

This sentiment was the driving force behind each of Project M’s seven candidates throughout the election cycle. The realization that no one citizen can sit back and criticize how their schools are operating or about the lack of programs at the local library without taking a stand and making a concerted effort to be part of the change we wish to see throughout our local communities – positive change that would benefit all segments of the community.

In the months leading up to Election Day April 5, 2011, volunteers went door to door educating people on the importance of voting in this election. They distributed postcards with information on the candidates and where to vote to not only members of the Muslim American community, but to the communities as a whole. For the first time in the history of our local Muslim American community, we had a concerted effort leading up to a spring municipal election to bring people out to the polls.

On Election Day, while others sat out this opportunity to have their voice heard, Project M volunteers were at polls sites all across the southwest suburbs making sure the people who did come out to vote, knew exactly who they should vote for. Volunteers knocked on voters doors that day bringing them out to the polls to cast their ballot.

In all, over 50 youth were part of the electoral revolution that brought out hundreds of people to vote for local elections. Two of Project M’s candidates joined the legions of engaged citizens before them to become elected officials. And everyone involved learned that the journey towards greater political representation and civic involvement is a long one. It will take hundreds of hours and scores more individuals dedicated their time to education, mobilization, and outreach. It will take our community coming out in full support of these efforts, both physically and financially. But this effort is well worth the time, money, and resources expended on it, because as our brethren in other parts of the world have shown, political representation is a right worth our lives.

The Work Has Just Begun…

Election Day always comes as a climax in the political activities of our local Muslim American communities. April 5, 2011 was no different, with scores of volunteers of all ages out from before the polls opened at 6:00 AM to long after the last election tape was printed and results were announced. Every year our community takes what they can from these results and melts slowly back into the backdrop of political involvement. Not this year.

Project M Organizer Marwa Abed and dedicated volunteers mobilized thousands to vote throughout Orland Park

With the spring elections firmly behind us and a handful of newly-elected officials from the Muslim American communities  – two from Project M alone – seeking to give back to their communities as a whole, now is the time to continue the political momentum built up during the election cycle. Project Mobilize is using the election results and information on increased Muslim American political involvement to show our elected officials that we are paying attention to the political process and want them to pay attention too!

It begins with our institutions, organizations, and mosques recognizing our own political potential and expressing that to our representatives, but the work does not stop there. As each of the Project M candidates will attest to, this round of political campaigns from the Muslim American community was just the start.

We need to educate ourselves on the importance of being involved in the local political process, so as to better understand just how similar our electoral revolution is to the changes many are so thrilled and active about in the Middle East. In the words of Project M candidate Itedal Shalabi, “people are dying for the democracy we have here…in America we don’t need a revolution, we just need to get more involved.”

More involvement starts today. In the coming months, Project Mobilize will be working with other local organizations to provide leadership trainings for our youth to ensure they are equipped with the skills to not only represent their community politically but also engage fellow community members and officials on issues and concerns affecting our schools, libraries, businesses, and more. We will be providing workshops throughout the community on politics 101 and how to get politically involved beyond running for elected office. We will be registering voters so more and more of our communities can ensure their voices are heard by elected officials.

And we will be running more candidates for local elected offices. The elections of November 2012 will be important for all Americans and Project M wants to make sure our communities are just as prepared. If you are interested in running for political office or expressing your political responsibilities another way, please contact Project Mobilize at 708-924-5200 or info@projectmobilize.org.

It is time for our community to more fully assume our American identities – the identity that individuals such as Peter King have tried so diligently to deny. We are hard-working individuals that believe in democracy and the rights of all people. Now is the time to join our fellow Americans in acting on these universal values through increased political involvement. ‘M’ is for mobilize, get involved.

For more information contact Project Mobilize at 708-924-5200 or info@projectmobilize.org.

By Kane Farabaugh, VOA News

Read the full story here.

Two of the seven candidates supported by the non-profit Project Mobilize, known as Project M in the southwest suburbs of the Midwestern U.S. city Chicago, won their races in municipal elections April 5.  Project Mobilize views the election as an important first step to get the Muslim American community more involved in local politics.

Ahmed Aduib is a newly elected board member for the Bridgeview Public Library in a southwest suburb of Chicago. “Our library is in a nice area and they just rebuilt it so the question now is how to make that new library full,” Aduib said.

“We do not just have a Muslim-American Community.  We have a Polish-American community; we have a Spanish-American community, so there are different communities that we can reach out to and start making connections.  Just for the library, and I think that is where everything starts, especially for the younger generation.” Aduib said.

Project Mobilize Director Reema Ahmad says low voter turnout across the suburbs may have been a factor for those candidates who lost their races.

“I think there is voter apathy among all groups, all segments of the community.  It was not only Muslim Americans who were voting yesterday or not voting, but in communities all across the municipalities we were working in, all across the country and the state [there was low voter turnout]. So I am not going to say this is something exclusive to the Muslim-American community, but I will say that for the Muslim-American community this is very much a learning process still,” Ahmad said.

Ahmad says this was the first full-scale election effort for Project Mobilize.  The organization hopes to use the lessons learned here as an education tool for future elections.

“The idea of coming out on a non-presidential election to cast a ballot is still going to be something that we are working towards becoming more and more of a habit and a matter of practice, instead of something unique because there are specific candidates on the ballot,” Ahmad said.

As Project Mobilize builds on the foundation formed while preparing for the April 5 elections, Aduib hopes his successful race will encourage other Muslim Americans to fulfill their civic duty.

Election Day is finally here…don’t let your voice go unheard!

Pull your family, friends, and neighbors to the polls to make sure you are part of decision-making at the local level. Polls are open all day from 6:00 AM to 7:00 PM. To find out where YOU can cast your ballot, enter your address information here.

For help getting to the polls or with any questions or concerns, contact the Project M office at 708-924-5200 or info@projectmobilize.org.

By Kane Farabaugh, VOA News

Read the full story here.

VOA News: Seven Muslim Americans on Ballot in Suburban Chicago

Chicago (VOA News) – When it started last year, the non-profit group Project Mobilize, or Project M, hoped to change the political landscape in suburban Chicago by promoting Muslim Americans as election candidates.  So far, there are no Muslim Americans serving as elected officials in the Chicago area.  But Project M hopes that will change in municipal elections April 5.

In the countdown to election day, Maha Hasan is making a final push to get out the vote.

She is running for a position as a trustee with the Justice Public Library.  Justice is a Chicago suburb.

“The demographics have significantly changed.  You see a lot more Polish immigrants coming in.  You see a lot more Latin Americans.  You see more, definitely more Middle Eastern Arab Americans migrating in,” she said.

Hasan is hoping to make history as the first Muslim American candidate elected to the Justice Public Library board.  She is one of seven Muslim Americans on ballots in municipal elections in suburban Chicago April 5.  Five are women.

Read the full story here.

WHAT: RiseUP will interview Project M Director Reema Ahmad, just TWO DAYS before the spring elections.

WHEN: Today! April , 12:00 – 1:00 PM

WHERE: Listen to 750 AM in Chicago or check back this afternoon for the link here.

WHAT: Candidate Meet & Greet

WHEN: Thursday, March 31st, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM

WHERE: Beit Iksa Hall, 6000 W. 79th Street Burbank, IL 60459

WHO: YOU! Bring family & friends to meet your future elected officials!

For more information, contact the Project M office at 708-924-5200 or info@projectmobilize.org.