Center of Muslim Experience in the United States
Center of Muslim Experience in the United States
Learn more about your impact
The Center for Muslim Experience in the United States supports scholarship on the history of Muslim experiences in America and contributes to an emerging field of study. Your gifts also help disseminate this knowledge to the public, transforming images of Muslim Americans, fostering positive understandings and improving inter-community relationships. At the same, you ensure that ASU can continue to cultivate inclusivity and belonging for Muslim students by building partnerships between ASU and Muslim communities.
Impact of Donor Support
CME's mission is threefold: to undertake research to combat negative representations of Muslims; to strengthen student success and to serve the community and connect individuals with similar goals.
Donations support these three strands. On research, we recently held an international workshop on Muslim minorities in Europe and the US which launched our new collaborative on Muslim exclusion in democracies. We are also uncovering the almost erased history of a local Arizonan, Mubarek Ali Khan, who was instrumental in repealing the law that prevented people of Asian descent from becoming US citizens.
We also have a team of undergraduate student researchers who are carrying out oral history projects into the lives of the local Muslim community, namely through documenting Muslim-owned businesses, Muslim student campus life, and local mosque history.
Regarding community engagement, we helped to implement the Ramadan illumination project, in which a 15-foot crescent moon was installed on Tempe's A-Mountain to celebrate Ramadan. We plan to continue this as an annual tradition. In Spring 2024, we also held a community dinner and discussion on what home and belonging means to people across diverse communities and backgrounds.
The CME Fellows' program has been invaluable in broadening my understanding of the Muslim community and has deeply enriched my perspective.