Support COINTELPRO Full Disclosure Act : Ramadan Activism Drive

Join MuslimMatters this Ramadan in its first ever Ramadan Activism Drive – an  initiative to harness the political power of American Muslims. MuslimMatters is proud to support the coalition led by Justice for All and the Imam Jamil Action Network in advocating for the COINTELPRO Full Disclosure Act (Bill HR 2998) to pass in Congress.

The FBI’s notorious Counter-Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) is one of the most serious abuses of government surveillance in the nation’s history. For decades, the FBI carried out covert actions against grassroots movements. It targeted Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., the Black Panther Party, and the Nation of Islam. Today, the COINTELPRO Full Disclosure Act would force the FBI to publicly release all of the files from COINTELPRO – and it’s up to us to help it pass in Congress. 

“The FBI with COINTELPRO established a blueprint for government surveillance and disruption of democratic engagement by citizens which continues to haunt us till this day. Today, black and brown organizers remain under surveillance by federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, who often violate basic civil rights. HR 2998 will not only shed light on past abuses but will also help us correct the injustices, still ongoing today,” said Bilal Sunni-Ali, representative of the coalition (Justice for All Press Release).

Tool for Phone Call & Email Campaign

Ramadan Activism Drive: Support the COINTELPRO Full Disclosure Act

NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION: Friday, April 22, 2022

Black Muslim activists have made the call for all American Muslims to participate in the effort to get the act passed, so now it’s time to show up and participate. Every Muslim in America can donate their time this Ramadan and join this calling and emailing drive–lending their voice to speak for justice, and demand their local representatives support the COINTELPRO Full Disclosure Act (Bill HR 2998) in Congress. 

An immensely powerful, yet forgotten, resource we all have to donate this Ramadan is our voices for political activism. Why not harness the power of thousands of American Muslims this Ramadan to advocate for political action? Fill your scales of good deeds and take action to support a cause that is important for racial justice.

Join MuslimMatters all week, but especially this Friday, April 22nd on our National Day of Action to Support the COINTELPRO Full Disclosure Act! We encourage you to not merely participate as an individual, but to level up. Become a family & friends advocate by sharing this information with your loved ones. Or even better, become a community spearheader and initiate a local drive on April 22nd in your local masjid or community. MuslimMatters has gathered all the resources you need to  participate at any level. Help us send thousands of messages to representatives across the country and get this bill passed!

How You can Take Action 

Help us make history and expose the truth about the FBI’s unlawful practices. Donate your valuable time this Ramadan and contact your member of Congress today. It takes less than 5 minutes to send an email or make a phone call to ask them to support this bill. Use your voice to advocate for justice this Ramadan as charity that will fill your scale of good deeds. Help end the unconstitutional surveillance of American citizens.

There are three levels of action you can take: 

1. Individual
2. Family & Friends Advocate
3. Community Spearheader

Don’t stop at individual action. Spread the word to your loved ones and friends–and even spearhead the effort to bring this activism campaign into your local masjid. Check out action plans and resources to help you easily participate at any level you choose. 

 – Individual Action Plan

Go to muslimmatters.org/COINTELPRO to find the tool that will contact your local representative on your behalf! It will take you less than 5 minutes to call or send an email in support of the bill! 

1. Enter some personal info and locate your representative
2. Choose whether you’d like to call or send an email
3. To call: the tool will call your phone and transfer you to your representative’s phone line. Read the script when you leave a message on their voicemail.
4. To email: the tool will provide you with an email script. Add to or change the message if you’d like. Sign with your name and email address and it’s sent!

 – Family & Friends Advocate Action Plan

Re-sharing on your social media: Find MuslimMatters on whatever social media platforms you use – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. Re-share the information to your own page/profile. 

Create your own video invitation: Shoot a video of yourself inviting your social media network to participate with you in the National Day of Action. Here’s a script you can us:

I am inviting you to join me in a Ramadan Activism Drive to Support the COINTELPRO Full Disclosure Act. Donate your time and your voice for political activism. All you have to do is go to muslimmatters.org/COINTELPRO and use the convenient tool to call or email your local representative. It takes less than 5 minutes! 

Black Muslim activists have made the call for the American Ummah to participate in this effort for racial justice. So let’s show up and use our voices! Getting this bill to pas will help black and brown organizers fight for social justice today. Spread the word to your own networks or even bring this campaign into your local masjid!

Send this message on your WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, etc. Groups: 

I am inviting you to join me in a *Ramadan Activism Drive* to *Support the COINTELPRO Full Disclosure Act*. Donate your time and your voice for political activism. All you have to do is go to _muslimmatters.org/COINTELPRO_ and use the convenient tool to call or email your local representative. It takes less than 5 minutes! 

*10 Reasons American Muslims Should Care about the COINTELPRO Full Disclosure Act*
1. COINTELPRO targeted Black Muslims.
2. The Patriot Act is based on COINTELPRO; many political prisoners today in the US are Muslim.
3. Exposing the truth about COINTELPRO will help expose what the FBI is currently doing to disrupt Black activists today.
4. COINTELPRO was used to disrupt the Civil Rights movement.
5. Today, black and brown organizers are being targeted as national security threats with terms like the invented “Black identity extremist” and imaginary “Muslim terrorist.”
6. About ⅕ of Muslims in the US are black.
7. Black Muslim activists have asked American Muslims from all backgrounds to participate and advocate for this cause.
8. African Americans are one of the most vulnerable groups in America due to structural racism.
9. Islam asks us to fight against injustice.
10. This is a productive way to participate in social justice work for Black Americans.

Black Muslim activists have made the call for the American Ummah to participate in this effort for racial justice.  So let’s show up and use our voices! Getting this bill to pas will help black and brown organizers fight for social justice _today_. Spread the word to your own networks or even bring this campaign into your local masjid!

*Make a phone call or send an email now*

muslimmatters.org/COINTELPRO

 – Community Spearheader Action Plan for a Masjid or Organization

The National Day of Action to Support the COINTELPRO Bill is Friday, April 22nd. We encourage YOU to convince your masjid leadership to join this effort. Spread the word about this National Day of Action by doing the following:

• Include an announcement in Friday prayers and taraweeh prayers that night. (announcement script below)
• Add a 5 minute Phone Call & Email Drive and hold a phone call/email drive right then and there for your whole community! 
• Add an announcement with links to the action tool in any of your regular email newsletters sent on your mailing lists or social media feeds (announcement script below)
• Print flyers with these QR codes for the action tool and distribute them (attached below)
  • Post them up around your masjid at the entrances
  • Have a volunteer pass them out as people enter or exit the masjid
  • Pass a handful along through the rows during breaks in taraweeh, asking worshippers to scan it on their phone and pass it on

Friday Prayer/Taraweeh Announcement:

Today is the National Day of Action to Support the COINTELPRO Full Disclosure Act. This bill would require the FBI to release its files on the unconstitutional COINTELPRO program which targeted Black Muslims and was the foundation for the Patriot Act. Getting this bill to pass is an important step towards racial justice in the United States.

Why should Muslims care about this issue? How is it relevant to our lives today? Here are 5 reasons American Muslims should care about the COINTELPRO Full Disclosure Act
1. COINTELPRO targeted Black Muslims.
2. The Patriot Act is based on COINTELPRO; many political prisoners today in the US are Muslim.
3. Today, black and brown organizers are being targeted as national security threats with terms like the invented “Black identity extremist” and imaginary “Muslim terrorist.”
4. About ⅕ of Muslims in the US are black.
5. Black Muslim activists have asked American Muslims from all backgrounds to participate and advocate for this cause.

Help us make history and donate your valuable time this Ramadan and contact your member of Congress. It takes less than 5 minutes to send an email or make a phone call to ask them to support this bill. 

Take out your phones right now, open up an internet browser, and type in this address: muslimmatters.org/COINTELPRO. It will take you to a tool you can use to call or email our local representative. You can also scan the QR codes on the flyers being passed around and posted on the walls near the exits. Don’t put your phone away until you’ve taken action!

Use your voice to advocate for justice this Ramadan as charity that will fill your scale of good deeds. Help end the unconstitutional surveillance of American citizens.

Email/Social Media Announcement

Today is the National Day of Action to Support the COINTELPRO Full Disclosure Act in Congress. This bill would require the FBI to release its files on the unconstitutional COINTELPRO program which targeted Black Muslims and was the foundation for the Patriot Act. Getting this bill to pass is an important step towards racial justice in the United States.

10 Reasons American Muslims Should Care about the COINTELPRO Full Disclosure Act
1. COINTELPRO targeted Black Muslims.
2. The Patriot Act is based on COINTELPRO; many political prisoners today in the US are Muslim.
3. Exposing the truth about COINTELPRO will help expose what the FBI is currently doing to disrupt Black activists today.
4. COINTELPRO was used to disrupt the Civil Rights movement.
5. Today, black and brown organizers are being targeted as national security threats with terms like the invented “Black identity extremist” and imaginary “Muslim terrorist.”
6. About ⅕ of Muslims in the US are black.
7. Black Muslim activists have asked American Muslims from all backgrounds to participate and advocate for this cause.
8. African Americans are one of the most vulnerable groups in America due to structural racism.
9. Islam asks us to fight against injustice.
10. This is a productive way to participate in social justice work for Black Americans.

Help us make history and donate your valuable time this Ramadan and contact your member of Congress today. It takes less than 5 minutes to send an email or make a phone call to ask them to support this bill. Visit muslimmatters.org/COINTELPRO to call or email your representative now. Use your voice to advocate for justice this Ramadan as charity that will fill your scale of good deeds. Help end the unconstitutional surveillance of American citizens.

QR Code

Flyer with QR Code

Download the black and white or color flyers here. They are standard computer paper size, so they should be easy to print from a standard printer. Just cut them or fold & tear them in half and you’re good to go.

Information about COINTELPRO Full Disclosure Act (Bill HR 2998)

The FBI’s COINTELPRO remains one of the darkest chapters in our nation’s history. For decades, the FBI carried out covert actions and used dirty tricks against social, grassroots movements. COINTELPRO had many targets, including Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., the Black Panther Party, the Nation of Islam, and the anti-Vietnam War movement, in addition to local, state, and federal elected officials. 

There’s a bill in Congress right now (COINTEPRO Full Disclosure Act) that will open up the FBI’s files.  HR 2998 would require full, public release of the FBI’s COINTELPRO files. This historic bill is an important step to scrutinizing the FBI’s continued legacy of undemocratic abuses of power.

Muslims in America, from any ethnic or racial background, are no stranger to illegal and baseless government surveillance at the hands of the FBI in a post-9/11 world. Don’t let the FBI keep getting away with violating our civil rights. 

10 Reasons American Muslims Should Care about the COINTELPRO Full Disclosure Act

1. COINTELPRO targeted Black Muslims.
2. The Patriot Act is based on COINTELPRO; many political prisoners today in the US are Muslim.
3. Exposing the truth about COINTELPRO will help expose what the FBI is currently doing to disrupt Black activists today.
4. COINTELPRO was used to disrupt the Civil Rights movement.
5. Today, black and brown organizers are being targeted as national security threats with terms like the invented “Black identity extremist” and imaginary “Muslim terrorist.”  
6. About ⅕ of Muslims in the US are black. 
7. Black Muslim activists have asked American Muslims from all backgrounds to participate and advocate for this cause.
8. African Americans are one of the most vulnerable groups in America due to structural racism.
9. Islam asks us to fight against injustice.
10.  This is a productive way to participate in social justice work for Black Americans. 

More Educational Resources about COINTELPRO and the COINTELPRO Full Disclosure Act

Justice for All Press Release

“As a 1967 memo put it, the program was intended ‘to expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize the activities of Black nationalist, hate-type organizations and their groupings, their leadership, spokesmen, membership and supporters, and to counter their propensity for violence and civil disorder.'”

Podcast: COINTELPRO And Black Labor Rights

Potential Retrial In Sight For Imam Jamil Al-Amin (H. Rap Brown)

Learn more about how COINTELPRO and FBI surveillance post-9/11 led to the wrongful imprisonment of Imam Jamil. Keep up with Imam Jamil’s case on the Imam Jamil Action Network.

“The FBI Targets a New Generation of Black Activists“

“In 2018 and 2019, the FBI conduc­ted nation­wide assess­ments of ‘Black iden­tity extrem­ists’ under an intel­li­gence collec­tion oper­a­tion it called ‘Iron Fist,’ prior­it­iz­ing these cases over invest­ig­a­tions of far more preval­ent viol­ence from white suprem­acists and far right milit­ants over that period, includ­ing mass shoot­ings at a Pitt­s­burgh synagogue and an El Paso shop­ping mall.”

“Leaked FBI Documents Raise Concerns about Targeting Black People under Black Identity Extremist and Newer Labels“

“‘These documents show the FBI wasted resources to target Black people because of protected First Amendment activities,’ said Nusrat Choudhury, deputy director of the ACLU’s racial justice program. ‘The Black Identity Extremist label is baseless, and earlier this year, bureau director Wray testified that the label is no longer in use.  But, based on these documents, it appears that the FBI simply renamed the label.  Even more, the documents show the bureau implemented a program, titled “IRON FIST,” to target department resources on spying, surveilling, and investigating Black activists, including through undercover agents.’”