CAIR-Chicago is an office of the Illinois chapter of CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations). CAIR is the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group.

CAIR-Chicago is a not-for-profit organization registered in Illinois. Though it leverages the resources, expertise, and knowledgebase of CAIR (based in Washington), it functions as an independent organization that sets its own strategy and goals.

Our work at CAIR-Chicago spans four different areas.

Firstly, we deal with civil rights issues, taking up complaints ranging from bigoted gestures to official discrimination against Muslims. We create logs for incidents and pursue the appropriate remedying measures which can range from cultural sensitivity training for the perpetrating party to all out legal measures. We also record every case and release reports to educate the public about the civil rights plight of Muslims.

Secondly, we are involved in political empowerment helping community members understand and utilize the political system to work for them. Projects include voter registration drives, community workshops, “know your rights” educational campaigns, and training of mosques and Muslim centers on how to engage local and national politicians.

Thirdly, we are involved in media monitoring. We monitor the local media closely and flag bias against Muslims. We respond accordingly to editors and producers with letters, phone calls, or meetings. We also proactively share Muslim perspectives on every day issues.

Lastly, we are involved in community outreach. We forge mutually beneficial partnerships with local and national institutions whose activities overlap with CAIR-Chicago’s in order to maximize efficiency. We work to empower the Muslim community and to foster an understanding between Chicago’s Muslim and non-Muslim communities via public education, and to serve the needs of the Chicagoland community via public service.

At CAIR-Chicago, we work to bypass conventional barriers that have plagued our community in the past. We wish to dissolve the generational, class, and racial gaps by stressing the common challenges and aspirations that face us all. Huge progress has been done in bypassing such barriers in the first few months of our recent inception. We are especially keen to see the gap between the transnational (mostly Arab and South Asian) and indigenous (mostly African-American) Muslim communities dissolve.

We also are vigilant in avoiding potential pitfalls that usually create tension and rifts in the Muslim community, such as dogmatic disagreements between religious currents or schools of thought. We are not a religious organization in that we don’t issue decrees, nor interpret religious text for the people. We are a community services organization and as such we wish to serve with integrity and professionalism any party that sees itself as Muslim. A clear and dominant theme in our work is inclusion.

CAIR-Chicago is a different kind of organization. Though it launched as recently as January 5th, 2005, CAIR-Chicago’s list of illustrious achievements have already won over plenty of fans. With our youth now actively involved, we are working for an even brighter future.