Muslim Community Focus Group Date of focus group : December 17 , 2020 Facilitators : Isra Alnatour and Murjan Altawil
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Muslim Community Focus Group Date of focus group : December 17 , 2020 Facilitators : Isra Alnatour and Murjan Altawil
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Summary :
The group was made up of Muslim Americans living in Arlington with professions ranging from college professors to independent business owners . There was a common consensus at the beginning that they are overall satisfied with their experiences living in Arlington as Muslims but they were very vocal about the lack of representation , public transportation , and lack of sensitivity training to city staff and students in the public schools . In an effort to bridge these gaps , their recommendations included meetings to track progress as well as having council members come to the community more often to ensure that voices are being heard .
Quote Highlights
• “ The major question the perspective that I see is when I ’ m paying taxes , I should know where the money is going . And I should have input to that decision , not the Chamber of Commerce , not those big businesses , not those who are powerful . I don ’ t know where it why my money is going to . For example , Arlington lives where the same money can could be spent on public transportation and more educational institutions in the city , the money the decision on my tax dollars .”
• “ The other thing is we , the younger the youth that ’ s coming out sometimes in the schools . They have a problem of bullying . Be made aware of and you know they should accept that some people are different from them , but that doesn ’ t mean that they are don ’ t have the same goals . Same ambitions .”
• “ A community meeting with the Muslim community on a regular basis , on a regular basis . This is what we like . And we cannot get our issues , unless there ’ s a problem or we have an election . Then we have city meeting , but I think the city should have representation to the Muslim community and assign somebody just to communicate in a regular basis . So we can relate our concern to them in a monthly basis , on a weekly basis mean I don ’ t know where to start , but this is my ideal .”
• “ So better representation is one thing . The other thing is that very important for our community mass transit , the lack of my mass transit and the 49th largest city in United States is just unacceptable .”
• “ And we can talk more about that and training of city officials on cultural and religious sensitivities and we do have resources available at Cair and Islamic speakers bureau and number for regular meetings with our community .”
Unity Council Report 125