#MuslimPhilanthropy Podcast: The Social Health of Older Muslims: Why Mosques Matter for the Loneliness Epidemic

#MuslimPhilanthropy Podcast: The Social Health of Older Muslims: Why Mosques Matter for the Loneliness Epidemic

U-M researchers Kristine Ajrouch and Noah Webster join the Muslim Philanthropy Podcast on Muslim aging research and the social health role of mosques.

#MuslimPhilanthropy Podcast with Trita Parsi of The Quincy Institute

For more than two decades, Trita Parsi has been one of the most persistent advocates for a different kind of American foreign policy — one built on diplomacy and restraint rather than military intervention. He founded the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) to give Iranian Americans a political voice, spent years researching the tangled dynamics of U.S.-Iran-Israel relations, and eventually co-founded the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, one of Washington’s most distinctive and independent think tanks. This week on the Muslim Philanthropy Podcast, AMCF Co-Founder and Chief Development Officer Muhi Khwaja sat down with Trita to talk about the journey, the ideas, and the institution he helped build From Iran to Sweden to Washington Trita was born in Iran in 1974. When he was four and a half years old, his family fled the country just before the revolution — settling in Sweden, where he would spend the next two decades. He studied political science at Uppsala and Stockholm Universities, added a master’s in economics, and eventually made his way to the United States in 2000 to pursue a PhD at Johns Hopkins SAIS, where his dissertation examined Israeli-Iranian relations — a subject so overlooked at the time that the last book written on it had been published in 1988. That research shaped everything that followed. Trita saw how the U.S.-Iran relationship was being distorted by forces most analysts weren’t fully accounting for, and he wanted to build institutions capable of changing the conversation. Building NIAC, then something bigger After graduate school, Trita founded the National Iranian American Council to give the Iranian American community a seat at the table in U.S. foreign policy debates. It was the kind of organizational work that required years of patient institution-building — and it gave him a firsthand education in how Washington actually worked, and where its blind spots were. The signing of the JCPOA — the Iran nuclear deal — felt like a validation of the diplomatic approach he had long championed. But as the Trump administration moved toward withdrawal from the agreement, Trita found himself thinking about a deeper problem: the failure wasn’t just about one deal or one administration. It was about a foreign policy establishment that kept defaulting to militarism even when the evidence argued for something else. Why the Quincy Institute In 2018 and 2019, Trita co-founded the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft alongside a group that included historian and retired Army colonel Andrew Bacevich, researcher Eli Clifton, diplomat Suzanne DiMaggio, and historian Stephen Wertheim. The name was chosen deliberately — a reference to John Quincy Adams’ 1821 speech warning that America should not go abroad “in search of monsters to destroy.” The point wasn’t nostalgia. It was a reminder that a different foreign policy tradition had existed before World War II, and that it could exist again. Bacevich, who lost his son in the Iraq War and spent years as one of Washington’s sharpest critics of American military adventurism, became one of the organization’s defining voices. The founding team brought together expertise across regions, policy areas, and ideological backgrounds — with Eli and Stephen both finishing books at the time that would shape the restraint policy conversation in the years ahead. An institution built differently From the beginning, Trita and his colleagues made deliberate choices about how to fund the Quincy Institute. They would not accept money from defense industries. They would not accept money from foreign governments. And they would build bipartisan support — securing funding from both George Soros’s Open Society Institute on the left and Charles Koch’s Institute on the right — not as a gimmick, but as proof that opposition to reflexive militarism wasn’t a partisan position. Today the Quincy Institute operates on a budget of $8–9 million with a staff of 45 to 50 people organized around global regions. It has also built a funding tracker database to promote transparency in think tank funding across Washington — holding the broader industry to a standard of disclosure that Quincy applies to itself. What it’s really about When Muhi asked Trita to describe the core of what the Quincy Institute is trying to do, his answer was straightforward: shift the paradigm. Not win a single debate or influence a single policy decision, but change what Washington thinks is possible — and remind Americans that the country has other traditions to draw on besides the one that produced the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “We’re not just trying to tweak the existing foreign policy,” he said. “We’re trying to change the framework itself.” You can learn more about the Quincy Institute at quincy-institute.org. Listen to the full conversation on the Muslim Philanthropy Podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts. The post #MuslimPhilanthropy Podcast with Trita Parsi of The Quincy Institute [https://amuslimcf.org/muslimphilanthropy-podcast-with-trita-parsi-of-the-quincy-institute/] appeared first on American Muslim Community Foundation [https://amuslimcf.org].

#MuslimPhilanthropy Podcast Steve Sosebee on Building HEAL Palestine and Standing With Gaza

For more than three decades, Steve Sosebee has been one of the most consistent humanitarian voices for Palestinian children. He founded the Palestine Children's Relief Fund (PCRF) in 1991 and led it for thirty years. At the end of 2023, in the months following October 7, he made what he called the hardest decision of his life — he left the organization he had built and started over from zero. On January 1, 2024, he co-founded HEAL Palestine. In this episode of the Muslim Philanthropy Podcast, AMCF Co-Founder and Chief Development Officer Muhi Khwaja sits down with Steve to talk about the journey that brought him from a small college town in Ohio to founding two of the most active humanitarian organizations working in Palestine, the four pillars HEAL is built on, and what genuine support for Gaza looks like right now. We also get into the operational realities of running an international NGO, the lessons Steve learned the hard way at PCRF, his advice for first-time nonprofit founders, and what he tells people who feel hopeless watching from a distance.

#MuslimPhilanthropy Podcast with Mohamed Barkhad of Retain Quran Foundation

Mohamed Barkhad spent six and a half years at Cisco Systems and now nearly six years at Google as a cloud architect. But the work he's most proud of is an app: Retain Quran, which has reached more than 1.3 million downloads across 120 countries with multi-language support in twelve languages. In this episode of the Muslim Philanthropy Podcast, AMCF Co-Founder and Chief Development Officer Muhi Khwaja sits down with Mohamed — co-founder and chairman of Retain Quran Foundation — to unpack how the app started, what makes it different from the hundreds of other Quran apps in the market, why his wife is the reason it exists, and what the team is raising $300,000 to build next. We also get into the team behind the app, Mohamed's advice for first-time founders, the hadith that drives him, and his vision for reaching 100 million users globally.

#MuslimPhilanthropy Podcast – From Fort Pierce to Congress: CAIR Florida on Civil Rights, Community Defense, and What It Means to Show Up

When a mosque burns down, when a 16-year-old American is imprisoned overseas, when a Muslim family is killed by a drunk driver and the father is in Dubai — who shows up? In Florida, more often than not, it’s CAIR Florida. On a recent episode of the #MuslimPhilanthropy Podcast [https://amuslimcf.org/podcast-2/], AMCF co-founder Muhi Khwaja sat down with the CAIR Florida team: Hiba Rahim, Executive Director; Megan Amer, Policy Director; and Wilfredo Ruiz, Communications Director. What unfolded was a wide-ranging conversation about what it actually takes to defend a community — legally, politically, and on the ground — in one of the most challenging civil rights environments in the country. THREE PEOPLE, THREE PATHS TO THE SAME WORK The most striking thing about this conversation is how differently each of these three leaders arrived at CAIR Florida — and how clearly their paths reflect the breadth of what the organization does. Wilfredo Ruiz was born in Puerto Rico, raised in the Catholic church, served as a Navy defense attorney representing Marines and sailors in court martials, and embraced Islam in 2003 after pulling over outside a mosque in San Juan and walking in. He pursued a master’s degree in Christian-Muslim relations at Hartford Seminary, served as one of only four Muslim chaplains in the entire U.S. Navy fleet, and worked in immigration detention center chaplaincy before landing at CAIR Florida — where he has now served for 15 years. Hiba Rahim grew up partly in Panama City, Florida — deep in the Panhandle, what she calls “LA: Lower Alabama” — in one of the first Islamic schools in the United States, where civic responsibility was embedded into the curriculum alongside Quran and Islamic principles. She was on track for a PhD in psychology when 9/11 happened, and she found herself doing community outreach and interfaith presentations with police departments, the FBI, and church groups instead. She never looked back. She has been with CAIR, non-consecutively, since 2015. Megan Amer is Catholic. Her husband is Muslim. Her kids go to an Islamic school. She has a master’s from George Washington University, worked at the Department of State on nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons, and then moved to police reform through the International Narcotics and Law Enforcement bureau. She moved to Florida five years ago, and after October 7th and the security lockdowns at her children’s school, she realized she needed to do something. She started organizing. She joined CAIR Florida officially, and hasn’t stopped. “We were lucky to have Hiba and Megan on our team,” Wilfredo said. WHAT CAIR FLORIDA ACTUALLY DOES — AND WHY IT’S DIFFERENT CAIR Florida was founded at the end of September 2001, weeks after 9/11, by a group of Florida Muslims who saw what was coming and organized before it arrived. In nearly 25 years of operation, the chapter has built a three-part structure that Hiba describes as genuinely unique in the state. The Programs Department works within the systems of society — hospitals, media, police departments, schools — educating the public on Islam and Muslims to foster mutual respect and understanding, while also educating and empowering Muslim community members directly. The Policy Department, led by Megan, does the proactive advocacy work — promoting legislation favorable to Muslim and minority communities, opposing harmful bills and resolutions, getting out the vote, and building the political infrastructure that prevents crises before they require emergency response. The Legal Department handles civil rights defense in the trenches — representing Muslim victims of discrimination from advocacy all the way to the courtroom, often in cases that no other organization in the state is equipped to handle. “There is no other organization that does for the community and within the community what CAIR Florida does,” Hiba said. “There are so many amazing organizations that do relief work — feed the hungry, take care of orphans, shelter women. All of that is incredibly valuable. But there is a very different type of work where you plan for the protection of a community — whether they’re Muslim or not.” THE FORT PIERCE MOSQUE ARSON: WHERE CAIR FLORIDA WAS TESTED Wilfredo walked through one of the most pivotal moments in CAIR Florida’s history: the arson attack on a mosque in Fort Pierce in 2007. It was a small community — Friday prayers drew forty or fifty people. The imam was on Hajj. His sons were the ones at the mosque when it happened. Within hours, more than a dozen news trucks were parked outside with satellite antennas transmitting nationally and internationally. The FBI descended — not just to investigate the arson, but, as Wilfredo put it, to “expand their investigations beyond what happened that day.” The community, as victims, found itself needing legal representation not against the arsonist but against government overreach. CAIR Florida was there: handling media, protecting community members from overreaching FBI interviews, providing legal counsel. The perpetrator was eventually arrested, prosecuted, and imprisoned. And the Fort Pierce community, as Wilfredo described it with visible emotion, rose from the ashes — literally purchasing a former church and school and building a new, larger Islamic center on several acres of land. “I like the Phoenix story,” he said. “Right out of ashes.” MOHAMED IBRAHIM: AN INTERNATIONAL VICTORY One of CAIR Florida’s most recent and significant victories was the release of Mohamed Ibrahim — a 16-year-old from Tampa who was imprisoned in an Israeli military prison for over nine months, losing a quarter of his body weight, denied access to his parents, and held in conditions where he contracted scabies. His cousin, Saiful Moussa, a 20-year-old Tampa small business owner who had traveled to the West Bank, had been killed by settlers months earlier. CAIR Florida built what Hiba described as a national coalition — major civil rights organizations signing on to a coordinated letter, sustained media pressure through outlets including The Guardian, relentless advocacy at the Florida and national levels, and an international pressure campaign that included calls to the U.S. Embassy in Israel. Ambassador Mike Huckabee, Megan noted, eventually said he was “getting so annoyed with all these phone calls.” Mohamed Ibrahim was released on Thanksgiving Day. He’s back in Tampa, working at his ice cream shop on Bruce B. Downs. “We mobilized a massive effort,” Hiba said, “and we recognized when something was way bigger than us.” The fight continues for justice in his cousin’s killing. TRAINING 5,000 OFFICERS AND TURNING BULLYING INTO EDUCATION The day-to-day work of CAIR Florida is less dramatic but no less important. Across its various offices, CAIR Florida has trained over 5,000 law enforcement officers across the state on Islam, Muslim community needs, and cultural sensitivity. When a Leon County school principal said something inappropriate to a Muslim student, CAIR Florida didn’t just write a letter — they drove to Tallahassee, insisted on a face-to-face meeting with the superintendent, and ultimately secured a commitment to train all assistant principals in the county on Muslim students’ rights and cultural sensitivity. “We take these unfortunate incidents and convert them into opportunities to train and educate,” Hiba said. And when a sheriff asked what CAIR was doing to combat extremism in the Muslim community, Hiba had a ready answer: “Sir, what are you doing to combat white nationalist extremists? Because the KKK was firing on people’s yards just two weeks ago.” ON BEING THE TREE THAT GETS ROCKS THROWN AT IT The conversation turned, inevitably, to the attacks CAIR Florida has faced — from a well-funded Islamophobia network, from Governor Ron DeSantis’s administration, from county commissions that have funneled hundreds of millions of Florida taxpayer dollars into Israeli bonds while Floridians struggle with healthcare, housing, and education. CAIR Florida took the DeSantis administration to court. The judge ruled in their favor. Wilfredo shared something an imam told him during Ramadan, at a moment when the attacks felt overwhelming: “In a field of trees, only the tree that bears fruit gets rocks thrown at it.” “That’s why CAIR is being attacked,” he said. “It’s because of the work we’re doing — the civil rights defense, the advocacy, the promotion of community cohesiveness. That is the antithesis of the Islamophobic agenda.” THE VISION: EVERY MUSLIM, AN AMBASSADOR The conversation closed with a vision that all three panelists returned to in different ways: the Muslim community in Florida — over half a million strong — becoming a force not through institutional growth alone, but through individual presence. “In your workplace, you are an ambassador of Islam,” Wilfredo said. “Our kids are ambassadors in their classrooms. We embody the tenets of Islam and the beauty of Islam, and the peace that Islam assures to everyone around us.” He told the story of a cancer patient in Panama City — not Muslim — who stood in front of cameras after a mosque was burned and said unprompted: “The imam of that mosque never charged me for services. These people are good.” Nobody trained her to say that. She said it because it was true. That, he said, is where the community’s real growth lies. Not in waiting for organizations to grow large enough to protect everyone, but in every Muslim being the reason a neighbor spontaneously speaks up. LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE 🎙 [https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/17.0.2/72x72/1f399.png] Listen to the #MuslimPhilanthropy Podcast [https://amuslimcf.org/podcast-2/] 🌐 [https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/17.0.2/72x72/1f310.png] CAIR Florida [https://cairflorida.org/] 🌐 [https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/17.0.2/72x72/1f310.png] Learn more about AMCF [https://amuslimcf.org] The post #MuslimPhilanthropy Podcast – From Fort Pierce to Congress: CAIR Florida on Civil Rights, Community Defense, and What It Means to Show Up [https://amuslimcf.org/muslim-civil-rights-florida-cair/] appeared first on American Muslim Community Foundation [https://amuslimcf.org].