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Community Blood Drive in L.A.
by Sahar Kassaimah
LOS ANGELES, Sept 30 (IslamOnline) - On Saturday, Islamic Relief and the University Muslim Medical Association (UMMA) clinic, in partnership with Kaiser Permanente, organized an emergency blood drive for victims of September 11th attack in New York and Washington.
Around 200 Muslims from different nationalities attended the drive to show their support for the victims in the wake of the terror attacks. Islamic Relief, UMMA, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and Muslim Women's League sponsored the blood drive.
Asia, an Irish-Muslim American woman, attended the event with many other Muslim women. She felt it was great to stand with the victims and support them.
"It was really good to help the victims," said Asia. "Many people came together to show their support and to do something in response to the attack."
"The feeling of coming together to help and to say we care is really good."
Another Muslim Arab-American woman, Amani Amer said, "We want to show the American society that we belong to this country and that we are ready to do anything to support the victims."
"We want to show Americans that we denounce the attacks and that they should not blame us.
"I wish that they hear our message and understand it. Terrorism has no religion and Islam is the religion of peace and love," she said.
"We denounce the attack," said Amer. "It is horrible. I cried a lot for the victims."
When asking Mudafar Al-Tawash, the manager of Islamic Relief, about the purpose behind the blood drive, he said, "To support and help the victims of the tragedies and to show that the American Muslim community strongly denounce the attack."
"Many Muslim people attended, from different nationalities, including Arabs, Pakistani[s], Malaysian[s] and African Americans," added Al-Tawash.
"It was good to show that Muslims are not just Arabs and that all Muslims, including Arabs and non-Arabs, stand together with our fellow American[s]."
Islamic Relief had allocated $20,000 for the victims of the attack.
The blodd drive was endorsed by the Muslim American Society (MAS), the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), the Islamic Society of Orange County Community Coalition, the Muslim Students' Association of UCLA, Friends in Deed, Masjid Al-Islam Los Angeles, City of Hope, ILM Foundation, Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, Muslim Student Union of UCI and Al-Talib news magazine.
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