The idea of the Muslim Coalition of CT started out of a need to address the stereotypes that were being unfairly leveled against Islam and Muslims due to the actions of a few extremists.
The leadership of the Berlin Masjid, Waterbury Masjid and Muhammad Islamic Center of Hartford together with a few others were present at the initial meetings in 2004. It was decided to start a non-profit social work based organization with 3 major goals:
1. Address youth Islamic identity.
2. Build bridges with like socially responsible organizations.
3. Counter the stereotypes in a proactive way through a speakers bureau where we go to schools, churches, synagogues and public arenas such as hospitals and speak about what Islam means and who Muslims are. We also proactively wrote to schools and asked them whether they would like a Muslim speaker etc.
We started with informal meetings and planned some projects including the Eid carnival with the assistance of some business leaders and slowly expanded to increase our activities to include chairing the Islamic Circle of North America's interfaith banquet, having our own annual banqquet with a theme including topics that are featured in stereotypical comments, such as Women in leadership in Islam and Universal Healthcare in Islam, showing our involvement in local issues. We also formalized the speakers bureau under the joint leadership of Fatma Antar and Aida Mansoor. The Muslim Coalition of CT also started the Leadership Council of Connecticut to address mutually important issues as they come up. All of these gave us very positive publicity within and outside of the Muslim community requiring a formal leadership election. In January 2006 the following were elected office bearers:
Dr. Reza Mansoor - President
Lisa Kling Esq - Vice President
Azhar Malik - Treasurer
The Founding Board included: Dr. Ali Antar, Majeed Shareef, Imam Qasim Sharief and Fatma Antar.
With increased activity in social work and involvement in the community at large MCCT has increased its board to include very special and active members of the community willing to commit time and effort to make this a vibrant Muslim community. Our board members are strongly encouraged to participate as fully as possible in other organizations including joining other boards so that we are really involved in a positive way in American society to bring the positive change that Islam asks of us.
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