Good Muslim News Stories of 2017

Grenfall Tower Tragedy – Muslims Help Save Victims of Fire 

Out of one of the most horrific tragedies in 2017 came stories of heroism, sacrifice and community love and support. When Grenfall Tower, an apartment building in London went up in flames, several Muslim residents who were up for their Ramadan Tarawih prayers and to prepare their suhoor (pre-dawn meal) before fasting helped saved the lives of their neighbors by banging on doors and awakening folks to escape the building. Nadia Yousef told Buzzfeed News that Muslim residents were among the first to notice the fire and many of them rushed out to bang on doors and wake their neighbors. A few months later, Al-Manaar mosque near Grenfall Tower, which reached out to victims of the fire by offering shelter, facilitating mental health support and providing meals, became the first mosque in London to join a night shelter program for the city’s homeless population.

#BlackOutEid and #BlackMuslimFamily

Black Muslims around the world took Twitter to revel in the distinctiveness of their heritages intersecting faith and race. #BlackOutEid and #BlackMuslimFamily respectively went viral with pictures and affirmations. During Eid, Muslims shared pics of their holiday style and familial celebrations. Layla Abdullah-Poulos >wrote in About Islam, “With #BlackOutEid, African American and Black Muslims show a resistance against cultural erasure and allow the world to appreciate their cultural uniqueness.” Organizer Kameelah Rashad shared her hopes for Black Muslim culture for the upcoming year: “In 2018, I want to see my #BlackMuslimFamily collaborate on interdisciplinary & intergenerational projects/initiatives.” Each hashtag along with #BeingBlackandMuslim continually serve as platforms for an important demographic in our dynamic Ummah to lift their voices and empower themselves.

Muslim Hackers Vow to Take Down ISIS

The battle against ISIS continues on several fronts and in many ways, as the terrorist group claimed responsibility for several bombings this year around the world. One of the tactics waged against the group was to take down their websites and weaken their influence over social media to cripple their ability to woo new recruits and communicate. Muslim hackers staged resistance against ISIS online, documenting their efforts with the hashtags #OpIsis and #Opiceisis, which included a coalition of Muslim hackers taking down several ISIS websites and waging attack against the group’s news agency, Amaq, with a coordinated effort on November 17. Before that in April, hackers installed a virus on the Amaq site to “activitate visitor’s cameras, log their keystrokes, steal files, read phone messages, take screenshots, detect locations and collect contacts” all in efforts to dismantle the site. They also created a fake version of Amaq’s mobile app to track extremists’ communication and movements.

Saudi Arabia’s Greatest Natural Resource is Not Oil, but it’s Women

We all know about the legal, social, and cultural obstacles facing women in Saudi Arabia, but many do not know that behind the barriers, Saudi women have been preparing themselves for the day when those barriers would fall. Quietly, they have become a majority of college graduates (mostly in productive fields like business, science and engineering, while men make up nearly all of the glut of religious studies graduates), which has translated into a 130 percent jump last year in the number of Saudi women joining the workforce (going from 12 percent in 2011 to more than 30 percent today). In response to the growing educational and economic power of women, Saudi Arabia made many moves to both accommodate and accelerate this progress, including allowing women to work, study, and travel without seeking permission of a related male, and most notably agreeing in September to allow women to drive – ending that country’s status as the last on earth with such a draconian policy. How these drastic policy changes will affect wide swaths of the country who remain deeply conservative is unclear, however. “I think our society is ready,” said Saudi ambassador to the US Prince Khalid bin Salman.

What did we miss? Comment below! Happy New Year and here’s to a great 2018.