Muslims Raise Over $80,000 to Help Rebuild Black Christian Churches

By Alison Lesley --
15 Jul 2015 --

American Muslim non-profit groups create a crowdfunding campaign to help rebuild black churches.

Three Muslim organizations are campaigning during the holy month of Ramadan to rebuild the black churches in Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee that were destroyed in fires, the Huffington Post reports.

The “Respond With Love” campaign is organized by the Arab-American Association of New York, the Muslim Anti-Racism Collaborative, and the San Francisco-based Ummah Wide. The campaign has already raised over $80,000 with donations from over 1,700 individuals. It will continue until July 18, when the Ramadan is expected to end.

“All houses of worships are sanctuaries, a place where all should feel safe, a place we can seek refuge when the world is too much to bear. We want for others what we want for ourselves: the right to worship without intimidation, the right to safety, and the right to property,” the organizers write on the campaign’s website.

US Muslims raise funds to help repair/rebuild black churches targeted by vandals following the Charleston shootings pic.twitter.com/0zbwJ1yPtb
— leena sahloul (@_Leenaaaa) July 8, 2015

Executive director of the Arab-American Association of New York, Linda Sarsour, told the Huffington Post that “it doesn’t matter to us how or why these churches burned down,” adding that “we want to help our Black sisters and brothers get back in to their houses of worship as soon as they can.”

Eight black churches in the American South have been destroyed in recent weeks. The fires happened within the span of ten days after the deadly shooting in a Charleston church in South Carolina. Arson is said to be the cause of three fires, while the remaining incidents are still being examined.