After news of the shooting took over headlines last week, California-based neurologist Faisal Qazi decided to take action. Working through a nonprofit he runs, Qazi raised $20,000 for victims’ families before taking his campaign to his community and transforming the effort into Muslims United for San Bernardino, now operating through LaunchGood, a Muslim-founded fundraising site. “We wish to respond to evil with good, as our faith instructs us, and send a powerful message of compassion through action,” the campaign’s description reads, and in bold: “We ask for American Muslim mosques, Imams, leaders, and groups to endorse and promote this initiative.”
Thus far Muslims United for San Bernardino has attracted a host of local and national endorsements from Muslim leaders, and has a donation rate of $1,000 per hour totaling roughly $118,000, more than double its original goal.
So the next time someone wonders aloud what exactly ordinary American Muslims are doing to contribute to society or demonstrate they aren’t radical extremists, perhaps they can check up on the work done by Muslims United for San Bernardino.