WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Muslim Advocates published Presidential Power, a transition memo designed to help the incoming Biden administration honor the rights of American Muslims and undo the damage of the Trump administration. Last month, former Vice President Joe Biden addressed Muslim Advocates’ Muslim Making Change: National Honors event and pledged to make his administration “look like America, with Muslim Americans serving at every level.” Muslim Advocates’ transition memo offers a roadmap to help President-elect Biden fulfill this promise and help restore the civil rights of all Americans. Muslim Advocates also launched a petition asking the American people to make sure that Biden keeps fulfills the promises of his campaign.

• Read Presidential Power
• Sign the petition

Muslim Advocates’ priorities for the incoming Biden administration include:

• Appointing American Muslims to executive branch positions and ensure the confirmation of the first-ever American Muslim federal judge
• Repealing the Muslim Ban and push for passage of the NO BAN Act through Congress to ensure that future presidents cannot enact similar discriminatory bans again
• Ending support for anti-Muslim surveillance and profiling programs like the Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention grant program
• Making white nationalist violence a priority for law enforcement

“Our nation is at a watershed moment. Under the leadership of the President of the United States, there is an opportunity to reform the institutions, laws and policies that have created an unequal system of justice and systemic inequality throughout all aspects of our lives—including schools, workplaces, access to healthcare, and the environment,” stated the memo. “We hope this document will begin an ongoing dialogue with the next administration on effective steps that can be taken—in both personnel and policy—to address hate crimes, racial and religious profiling, discriminatory countering violent extremism programs, the rise of neo-Nazi and white nationalist groups, and other critical issues affecting American Muslims.”

Muslim Advocates is a national civil rights organization working in the courts, in the halls of power and in communities to halt bigotry in its tracks. We ensure that American Muslims have a seat at the table with expert representation so that all Americans may live free from hate and discrimination. 

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