(Middle East Eye) The energy was palpable at Maryland’s House of Delegates late Monday, as members of the Muslim community hurried through the building’s hallways and knocked on doors, trying to lobby politicians on key bills and issues under consideration in the Maryland General Assembly.
Groups of Muslims, both young and old, arrived in the state capital earlier in the day with a key aim in mind — to meet with lawmakers and their staffs to discuss how they planned to strengthen hate crime laws and ask what they were doing to oppose ineffective and unconstitutional “countering violent extremism (CVE)” programs.
As they entered to register for the event, the activists — representing a diverse range of [Muslim] sects and ethnicities — were given a packet on some of the key issues they needed to discuss before they rushed off to find delegates willing to hear them out.
