Muslim Justice League (MJL) is a left-of-center advocacy group primarily focused on opposition to police power in Massachusetts and federal programs targeted at suppressing radical Islamist extremism. Though focused on issues specific to American Muslims, the organization supports wider left-of-center policy goals.

Opposition to “Countering Violent Extremism” Programs

Muslim Justice League opposes “Countering Violent Extremism” (CVE) programs, government initiatives to combat radical political ideologies and their potential to lead to terrorism. The MJL is particularly concerned about CVEs focused on radical Islamist extremism, which the group claims are founded on “false, racist assumptions” and inflicts “serious harm on Muslim communities” through spying and other rights violations. ¹

In 2014, the Obama White House launched CVE pilot programs in Boston, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis. MJL responded with a public education campaign, writing numerous letters to federal agencies, and joining a nationally coordinated campaign against CVE legislation sponsored by Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX). ²

Youth and Police Initiative Plus

In 2017, the MJL successfully obtained public records from the Boston Police Department detailing the receipt of funds from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through CVE programs targeted at radical Islamism. ³ The MJL has particularly rallied against the Youth and Police Initiative Plus (YPIP), a $500,000 CVE program which targets Somalian immigrants between the ages of 13-17 in Boston. The MJL has called attention to assertions made by program guidelines which claim that Somali youth can be enticed to support the police due to their affection for guns and “gang-like dress code(s).” ⁴

Criticism of President Joe Biden

The MJL has criticized President Joe Biden’s administration for continuing CVE policies first developed under President Barack Obama and continued under President Donald Trump. Speaking to National Public Radio, executive director Fatema Ahmad urged the White House to focus counter-extremism measures on white nationalists and white supremacists, specifically including the Proud Boys. ⁵

Traveling While Muslim

The Muslim Justice League provides resources to Muslims who believe they have been discriminated against by U.S. government agencies while traveling. On this issue, the MJL works with the ACLU Massachusetts, the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), and Muslim Advocates. ⁶

Unmasking Fidelity

Unmasking Fidelity is a far-left advocacy campaign that opposes privacy and anonymity for donors to right-leaning nonprofits, a free speech provision protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. The campaign is primarily run by the Muslim Justice League which is joined in a coalition with Political Research Associates, Community Labor United, Action Center on Race and the Economy (ACRE), Asian American Resource Workshop, and Resource Generation. ⁷

The coalition’s name comes from Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund, a donor-advised fund provider and the largest nonprofit dispenser of grants in the United States. A donor-advised fund (DAF) is a philanthropic vehicle for individuals and nonprofits to invest funds before disbursing them via the DAF provider as grants to other nonprofits. ⁸

While Fidelity Charitable maintains standards regarding which nonprofits to which it will channel donors’ funds, in general the provider does not bar donations to politically or ideologically right- or left-leaning organizations. ⁹

Unmasking Fidelity’s goals include pressuring Fidelity Charitable to disclose its donors, the fees the provider received for providing DAF services, and a pledge not to pass grants to certain conservative and right-leaning nonprofits, which Unmasking Fidelity labels “anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, and anti-LGBTQ+ groups” involved in “white supremacist violence.” ¹⁰

Leadership

Executive director Fatema Ahmed has leadership roles in numerous left-wing organizations allied to the Muslim Justice League. She is the leader of the StopCVE network and the Donor Advised Funds campaign of the Public Good Coalition. Fatema is a board member of Political Research Associates and a Boston Neighborhood Fellow at the Boston Foundation. She previously worked as an organizer in North Carolina for Muslims for Social Justice, the American Friends Service Committee, and the Stop CVE at UNC campaign. ¹¹

Funding

The Muslim Justice League has received funding from left-of-center institutions, including the Barr Foundation, Episcopal City Mission, the Haymarket People’s Fund, the Herman and Frieda L. Miller Foundation, the Hyams Foundation, the Lenny Zakim Fund, and the Proteus Fund. ¹²

1. “What is “”Countering Violent Extremism” (CVE).” Muslim Justice League. Accessed January 29, 2022. https://muslimjusticeleague.org/cve/.
2. “What is “”Countering Violent Extremism” (CVE).” Muslim Justice League. Accessed January 29, 2022. https://muslimjusticeleague.org/cve/.
3. “What is “”Countering Violent Extremism” (CVE).” Muslim Justice League. Accessed January 29, 2022. https://muslimjusticeleague.org/cve/.
4. “Stop YPIP.” Muslim Justice League. Accessed January 29, 2022. https://muslimjusticeleague.org/stop-ypip/.
5. Yousef, Odette. “Biden team new approach to extremism, but critics see old patterns.” Capradio. January 27, 2022. Accessed January 29, 2022. https://www.capradio.org/news/npr/story?storyid=1075790314.
6.  “Flying/Traveling While Muslim.” Muslim Justice League. Accessed January 29, 2022. https://muslimjusticeleague.org/flyingtraveling-while-muslim/.
7. “Core Organizations.” Unmasking Fidelity. Accessed January 29, 2022. https://unmaskingfidelity.org/about-us/.
8. “About Us.” Unmasking Fidelity. Accessed January 29, 2022. https://unmaskingfidelity.org/about-us/.
9. “About Us.” Unmasking Fidelity. Accessed January 29, 2022. https://unmaskingfidelity.org/about-us/.
10. “About Us.” Unmasking Fidelity. Accessed January 29, 2022. https://unmaskingfidelity.org/about-us/.
11. “Our People.” Muslim Justice League. Accessed January 29, 2022. https://muslimjusticeleague.org/our-people/.
12. “Our Supporters.” Muslim Justice League. Accessed January 29, 2022. https://muslimjusticeleague.org/our-work/.