As part of an enormous outpouring of interfaith solidarity after an anti-Semitic gunman killed 11 people who were worshiping inside the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh on Saturday—the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history—a Muslim-led crowdfunding campaign has raised over $120,000 in just 48 hours to help pay for the immediate needs of the wounded victims and grieving families.
“If you need anything at all, if you need food for the families, if you just need someone to come to the grocery store because you don’t feel safe in this city, we’ll be there.”
—Wasi Mohamed, Islamic Center of Pittsburgh
“The Muslim-American community extends its hands to help the shooting victims, whether it is the injured victims or the Jewish families who have lost loved ones,” reads the site of the campaign, which was organized by CelebrateMercy and MPower Change. “We wish to respond to evil with good, as our faith instructs us, and send a powerful message of compassion through action.”
Within just six hours of its launch on Saturday, the campaign had already far surpassed its initial goal of $25,000, and the donations continued to pour in.
As of this writing, the campaign is just $2,000 away from its updated goal of $125,000.
After announcing during an interfaith prayer service on Sunday that the Muslim-American community has raised tens of thousands of dollars to support the victims of Saturday’s hate-driven massacre, Wasi Mohamed—executive director of the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh—said, “We’re not gonna stop.”
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