COMMUNAL AGREEMENTS
COMMUNAL AGREEMENTS
Building community with intention means committing to some very important communal agreements so that all who are seeking their true selves and the truth of Islam feel welcome in our spaces.
We are human, and may sometimes err. Even with the best intentions, we are committed to continuing to do our best and work on these values, and we expect the same from those seeking to be in community with us.
Healing-Centered
While our spaces aim to acknowledge collective and individual traumas we have undergone, and we inevitably discuss elements of spiritual trauma, we also understand that focusing on trauma can be reductive and reactive. This is why we focus more on healing and connection, which will help us build collective liberation.
We use healing-centered language instead of trauma-informed language to acknowledge individuals not as the worst moments of their life, but as whole and complete humans deserving of community and support. This holistic framework also calls us to focus on the collective responsibility of identifying the roots of trauma (systems) and working to address them.
Abolitionist
As Muslims, we understand that the state does not exist to protect us. We are intimately aware of the ways we have been surveilled and profiled, and we stand in solidarity with our Black siblings in their fight for all forms of liberation, including abolishing current carceral systems.
While collective liberation is the ideal goal, we must recognize the ways anti-Blackness shows up in our communities, our masajid, and our homes. This means we understand we should not be fighting for Black liberation merely because we believe our communities benefit from this; our Black siblings are not means to an end, and we should not treat solidarity as transactional.
We are not afraid to confront anti-Blackness when – not if – it shows up in our spaces and are committed to being receptive of critique, feedback, and community requests. We aim to create spaces outside of carceral systems and do the work of educating ourselves and our communities in the ways the state has and continues to harm Black, Indigenous, and multi-marginalized communities in this country.
Accessible
Confronting anti-Blackness and racism in our spaces goes hand in hand with eradicating ableism from our spaces as well. Access to resources, as well as places to practice spirituality in community without fear of judgement, is life-saving for several, and all deserve access to that.
Our framework for disability justice in our spaces recognizes the relational aspects of what Mia Mingus terms as access intimacy; rather than a “logistical checklist” of items to cross off (such as ramps or ASL interpreters, etc.), a deep focus on understanding the ways different kinds of people relate to the world. When one begins to see the several different ways someone relates with the same information, along with having conversations with disabled individuals and community members so that disabled voices are uplifted, we reduce barriers to our community resources as well as reduce access fatigue.
We understand that people relate to the world in ways beyond the physical: accessibility must include academic accessibility of language and information, economic accessibility of providing these spaces and resources for free to the community, neurodiverse accessibility (goes hand in hand with checking sanism), and even familial accessibility of providing spaces which account for the children of our community members during events. These are not the only types of accessibility, and we must always be considering the ways we may be unknowingly gatekeeping resources or creating obstacles which are harder for others to navigate.
All sects welcome
We acknowledge the harm sunni supremacy has had on the wider ummah, the ongoing genocide of shia Muslims, and strongly affirm that anyone who calls themselves Muslim deserves access to safe spaces to practice their faith and a supportive community.
We recognize that there is no One Way to be Muslim, and respect the different ways members of our community engage with Islam and the Divine.
We respect the divinity in each of our fellow humans, and the many paths that people find to Allah.
It is important to note that currently our steering committee is made up of Muslims raised in the sunni tradition, so while we do our due diligence and research, we must be aware of where we lack experience and have gaps of understanding. We encourage Muslims of all types, sects, and levels of practice (whatever being Muslim means to you!) to attend our events and get involved!
Inclusive
Although we work hard to keep the spaces we create free of racism (and, by extension, colorism and white supremacy), ableism, and sunni supremacy, we know inclusivity goes beyond simple lists outside events stating, “NO ISLAMOBIGOTRY, NO TRANSPHOBIA, NO SEXISM, NO RACISM, NO COLORISM, NO MISOGYNOIR, NO TRANSMISOGYNY, NO ABLEISM, NO ANTI-SEMITISM, NO CLASSISM, NO FATPHOBIA, NO AGEISM, NO SANISM, NO ELITISM,” and so on, so forth.
Addressing incidents which fall into those categories (whether maliciously intentional or ignorant mistakes) is important in the moment, but we also know the importance of identifying the ways these systems move insidiously in our ummah. This means we support one another in unlearning the ways these binary systems have informed the way we were taught to move through the world and interact with others. Through this process, we build the better ummah we have always known to be possible, prevent the cycle of harm from continuing, and begin the radical work of healing.
As trans and queer Muslims are used to being policed and pushed out of mainstream spaces, we actively challenge each other to be inclusive of all folks, but especially centering those who are multi-marginalized.