Festival Goals
- Striving to change the image of Islam in the West by celebrating the internal diversity and cultural richness of the Muslim community in the Greater Delaware Valley region with an exciting week-long festival of performing arts, children’s programming, and educational workshops in Philadelphia and Delaware.
- To celebrate Philadelphia’s diversity as a response to the growth of outbursts of racism and nativism that we have tragically witnessed in the last several years.
- To offer an opportunity for participants to share in the experiences of another culture by attending a festival composed of art displays, cuisine, dancing, educational presentations and especially music, an international language that has the potential of uniting all people, regardless of race, religion, or cultural differences.
- To display the creative works of Muslims to the entire Philadelphia community.
The Festival Audience
- The internally diverse Muslim-American community of the Greater Delaware Valley region, composed of approximately 200,000 African-American Muslims within the Philadelphia city limit, and another 200,000 immigrant or first-generation American Muslims in the suburbs.
- To help foster increased communication across the internal ethnic boundaries of the Muslim-American community, thus helping to overcome the intra-communal racism and provide a platform for young voices and artists.
- Non-Muslim audiences, for whom the program will help remove biased stereotypes and showcase the rich cultural expression and diversity of Muslim Americans.
- Finally, fans and followers of "World Music" will flock to the Festival to hear non-Western performers who almost never appear in the United States.
- Temple is the premiere public institution of higher learning in Philadelphia, and a world-class university.
- Temple prides itself on its diversity, and over 55% of the student body are women.
- Temple has an internationally-known Religion Department, as well as a varied and creative Program in Islamic Studies; both of these have committed themselves to help procure support from Temple the Festival.
- Perhaps most importantly, Temple has numerous performance venues where we can easily imagine the Festival performers.
- These include:
- The Lew Klein Hall (1,200)
- Liacouras Center (10,000), as well as in door and outdoor locations suitable for orchestras, chamber ensembles, hip-hop artists, and dance groups. Temple also has for outdoor spaces that can be utilized for the kids carnival, community talent show, international Muslim food court, and Sunday fashion show. With its multiple facilities, expertise, and capacity to host our flagship concert program, Liacouras Center offers a safe and professional venue for the Festival. Temple’s North Philadelphia campus offers easy public access, ample parking opportunities and a proximity to Center City Philadelphia. We also hope the Festival’s guests from the Delaware Valley and beyond will enjoy the beauty and diversity of Philadelphia to its fullest.
- We are also excited to have the support and involvement of Temple University’s Muslim Students Association for the Festival. Temple MSA will help us with on-campus arrangements and connections to additional student groups that is already under way.
Learn more about the three Muslim organizations involved in producing
“The Philadelphia Festival of Muslim Arts and Culture.”
To that end, CAIR’s Interfaith work is at the heart of many of CAIR’s most successful and popular programs: such as the annual Interfaith Ramadan Iftar Dinners and food drive, annual Philadelphia Interfaith Peace walk; educational seminars and workshops. CAIR is constantly seeking new ways to strengthen the bonds between the American Muslim and other communities.
CAIR also offers free legal services to those that have experienced employment or residential discrimination, government harassment, or school bullying.
Through its programs in civic engagement, CAIR seeks to increase the participation of all communities in the American democratic system. Whether through registering new voters, to meeting their elected representatives in Harrisburg, CAIR is committed to expanding participation in American democracy. As well as taking part in social justice organizing around issues like the climate crisis, income inequality, and systemic racism.
ICPIC produces the country’s first and largest annual Islamic Heritage Festivals & Parade at Penn’s Landing and Jumah Prayer Service at Independence Mall (Home of the Liberty Bell), and is one of Philadelphia's largest ethnic festivals attracting over 5,000 people continually for the past 26 years since 1993.
In June 2005, ICPIC established the country’s first New Africa Center/Muslim American Museum & Archive. We are presently planning to expand our center to serve as an anchor to transform the 4200 block of Lancaster Ave, using arts, culture and history as an economic engine to rebuild our community.
ICPIC Initiated the development of Policy Guidelines ad dressing the Religious Accommodation Needs of Muslim students within the school district of Philadelphia in 2002. Finally, ICPIC developed three for-credit courses on Islamic Culture for over 1,000 teachers, and classroom presentations for over 3,000 students.
That first MCF included an evening concert of Islamic music featuring some of the most talented professional Muslim performers in the world, in addition to a talent show.
Festival Leadership Team
Osama Al Qasem
Abdul-Rahim Muhammad
Faruq Abdul-Ghaffar
Khafi Knox-McDowell
Ahmed Chaudhry
Mohammed Zubairu
Ahmet Selim Tekelioglu, PhD
Jacob Bender
Ahmad Bostani
May Lin
Powered By Convertly
