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Abdul Malik was helping a friend with a flat tire when the police car’s lights started flashing.
Malik thought the police were coming to help take care of the apartment. But as they approached the car he was working on, they started asking him questions. Malik told them he had previously been incarcerated and was on parole. Officers placed him in his cruiser and searched the vehicle. Once the firearm was recovered, Malik was arrested at the scene, transported to the jail, and held without bail.
Malik said the gun did not belong to him. He was just a few years removed from completing a 15-year sentence for armed robbery that cost him his 20s and 30s, he said. He had a full-time job, a fiancée and a daughter, and he had found a new faith in Islam. He said he was on the right path and needed a lawyer to prove his innocence.
“I just wanted to show them that this is actually police violating a citizen type situation,” Malik added.
It was then that a friend told Malik about the Philadelphia Islamic Freedom Fund (PMFF). Founded in response to the murder of George Floyd, the PMFF raises funds to support incarcerated Muslims, which go toward legal costs, bail, bond, and re-entry. After the recent closure of the Philadelphia Bail Fund, PMFF is one of the few remaining community bail funds in the city and one of the few Muslim bail funds in the country.
“There were at least two major bail funds operating here in Philadelphia, sending people home and moving large amounts of money,” said Imrul Majid, one of PMFF’s co-founders. “But we needed a bail fund that specifically addressed the unique needs of Muslims in our community.”
collective freedom
“Mass incarceration affects many marginalized communities, especially Muslims,” said Abbas Naqvi, another co-founder of PMFF. “And Philadelphia is a very Muslim-centered city.”
Muslims are the majority in Pennsylvania’s prisons. Muslims make up about 1% of the state’s population but accounted for about 20% of the state’s incarcerated population in 2017, according to the Washington, D.C.-based group Muslim Advocates. And because black people are more likely to be stopped by police, Muslims in Philadelphia, which has the largest black Muslim population in the country, are at risk of being racially characterized.
“If my family is bound and chained, I will not be free until that person is freed.”
These were remarkable numbers for Mr. Naqvi and Mr. Majid, and why they believed there was a clear need for a Muslim-centered bail fund. For them, abolitionism was a core Islamic value, and they continued to build PMFF around Islamic values of compassion, mercy, and justice.
In its first year, PMFF raised more than $15,000 through a fundraiser selling art prints, T-shirts, and posters in collaboration with Muslim artists. Since its soft launch in spring 2021, PMFF has provided support for bail funds for Muslims in immigration detention, bail bonds and care packages for incarcerated Black mothers, benefits for survivors of solitary confinement, and benefits for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people. I have contributed towards legal costs and re-entry costs. After learning that Qurans cost three times as much as Bibles in Pennsylvania prison kiosks, PMFF launched a Quran distribution program to donate 50 copies of the Quran to incarcerated Muslims.
“We are approaching this issue from a place of solidarity, not through charity,” Majid said. “If my family is bound and chained, I will not be free until that person is freed.”
beyond the dollar
All charges against Malik were dropped.
Lawyer Susan Lin, whose fees he paid through PMFF funds, reviewed the officer’s body camera footage and found that police illegally searched Malik’s car without a warrant. did. Malik was released in June 2021, about seven months after his arrest.
But when he returned home, his rent and utility bills were unpaid, and after months of unemployment, Malik had to find a way to pay his expenses. PMFF again intervened to ensure Malik remained standing. In total, Malik received $3,300 from PMFF for legal fees and living expenses.
“If that person can come home from that situation and change their life, it can give hope to others that they can get through it too,” Malik said. “Communities can build better.”
“Communities can build better.”
Malik is currently working with PMFF to connect re-entering nationals with his Philadelphia-based solar installation company, Solar States, which employs formerly incarcerated individuals. It is carried out.
He emphasizes that PMFF is not only about providing financial assistance to people in need, but also about building relationships with and trusting community members. Access to PMFF funds is not conditional on a person’s innocence, but demonstrating belief in someone and a willingness to support them can make them reconsider how they live their lives. Malik said it can be done.
“As long as people say, ‘If you’re right, I’ll support you in any way,'” Malik said. “I believe in PMFF. They believe that if we can support each other and be there, there are people here who can make a difference.”
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