DC Loses Muslim Activist, Pioneer In Local Political Engagement

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Mukit Hossain, standing, at a campaign meeting for Dr. Esam Omeish’s 2009 run for Virginia delegate for Fairfax County. Hossain helped develop the strategy for the campaign. File photo.


 

On Sunday, November 28, at the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) masjid, several hundred area Muslims including dozens of community leaders from Virginia, Maryland, and the District, stood for the funeral prayer of Mukit Hossain – husband, father, brother, son, and Muslim community activist – before laying his body to rest in the same region he worked hard to empower.

Hossain, 54, was a successful professional working in the telecommunications industry before he became increasingly involved in advocating for social issues like workers and immigrant rights. His work, especially his formation of the region's first Muslim political action committee in Virginia Muslim Political Action Committee – VMPAC – was news for the Muslim Link, and he is quoted in no less than 19 Muslim Link articles.

In an interview with the Muslim Link following the June 2009 loss of Esam Omeish for VA delegate for Fairfax County, Hossain, who played an important role in the Omeish campaign, had some important advice for the Muslim community. We offer that advice again, and hope that Mukit Hossain's advocacy for the local Muslim community will be taken up by someone who shares the good ideals he stood for.

TML: What are some of the lessons you’ll take from this campaign?

Mukit Hossain: One is we need to have an open and meaningful dialog with communities who don’t mind attacking our candidates. As a VMPAC organizer, I am certainly going to put some emphasis on this issue going forward. On the mobilization of supporters, it was really quite extraordinary. It was a very positive sign [how many people got involved in the campaign]. We need to have more visible civic roles. As part of our religion we believe good deeds should be done privately and secretly, but perhaps for the sake of encouraging our community further [in civic engagement], we need to be a bit more public. It was remarkable how many volunteers we had. Our community has the education, the financial resources, and the motivation to take its rightful place in the Commonwealth of Virginia. All the ingredients are there, its just a matter of time. We’re going to have to deal with certain issues, certain groups and communities, but I think time is on our side and history is on our side, we’ll have Muslim elected officials in Virginia. Another important lesson is from the life of the Prophet (peace be upon him). When he first came to Medina, he made a simple masjid but built an institution that will protect and empower the community. We need strong institutions to protect the community. Also, from the pact of Hudaybiyah, we learn the importance of strategic thinking, about our long terms gains and the purpose of our engagement. We need to look at things for the long term gains of our community.


 

Mukit Hossain, Muslim activist in Northern Virginia, dies

By Emma Brown

Washington Post Staff Writer

November 28, 2010

Mukit Hossain, a former Northern Virginia telecommunications executive and grass-roots activist who was instrumental in encouraging fellow Muslims to become more politically engaged after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, died Nov. 27 of a heart attack. He was 54.

Mr. Hossain died at his farm in Spotsylvania County, where he and his family had moved two years ago to escape the faster pace of Washington's suburbs. He had recently started a business raising goats to yield meat that is both naturally raised and halal, or in accordance with Islamic law.

His death shocked members of the Muslim community, who knew Mr. Hossain as a tireless community organizer and advocate of civil liberties.

"He was just an embodiment of what one person can do by himself," said Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "He had a fire in his belly."

As president of the Virginia Muslim Political Action Committee, Mr. Hossain was part of a wave of activists who had worked since the 2001 attacks to bring Muslim Americans into the public sphere, boosting their influence in local, state and national politics.

He had felt compelled to become active in civic life in 2002 after federal authorities raided Muslims' residences and businesses in Northern Virginia in search of terrorist connections.

"That was when I realized if we want to have a voice in government, we have to speak up early on," Mr. Hossain told the Christian Science Monitor in 2003. "We can't wait until someone comes knocking on the door, to look for a voice."

A trustee of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society Center, he spoke at mosques about the importance of becoming politically involved. He also organized voter-registration drives and arranged for taxi drivers to skip their shifts at Dulles International Airport to take voters to the polls.

"Many of the Muslims who came to this country came from countries where voting was a dangerous and dirty thing to do," he told The Washington Post in 2006. "We have to convince them that voting is not only safe and clean but it is a civic responsibility."

His PAC's efforts were part of a political push that helped lead to such milestones as the election in 2006 of software engineer Saqib Ali to the Maryland House of Delegates - the first Muslim in the Washington region to be elected to state office.

Mr. Hossain's work transcended religious and ethnic boundaries. In 2006, he joined with Jewish leaders to push successfully for a Virginia state law that made it illegal to falsely label kosher and halal foods.

He also started Food Source, an organization to feed the homeless in Fairfax, and used his organizing skills on behalf of undocumented workers - particularly as immigration became a defining political issue in Prince William and Loudoun counties.

"If we allow one group to be targeted today, then what prevents another group to be targeted tomorrow?" Mr. Hossain told the Associated Press. "We have to overcome this cycle."

In 2005, he launched an effort to give immigrant day laborers, who sometimes were exposed to fierce weather while waiting for work on Herndon's sidewalks, a place to escape the elements.

Before the job center was approved by Herndon's town council, Mr. Hossain raised thousands of dollars to buy winter coats for the workers. He was named Herndon Citizen of the Year and was recognized for his efforts in a joint resolution from the Virginia General Assembly.

After it was approved, the job center - which sat on public land - became a flash point in the national immigration debate as residents questioned a policy of using taxpayers' resources to aid undocumented workers. A conservative legal group filed a lawsuit to force the center's closure; representatives of the Minutemen, an anti-immigration group, staged a protest.

Mr. Hossain said the controversy bled into his professional life. He had been trying to start an Internet phone company, but after his name began appearing in news reports as a supporter of the jobs center, he said, a venture capital firm pulled its promised $1.5 million investment.

The day labor center closed in 2007 after Herndon voters ousted politicians who had supported it.

"There had been quite a brouhaha over these men," Mr. Hossain said at a 2006 Christmas dinner he helped organize for the day laborers. "But at the end of the day, we have a moral obligation to reach out and support them."

Mukit Hossain was born Aug. 5, 1956, in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He came to the United States in the mid-1970s on a full scholarship to Duke University, where he received degrees in economics, mathematics and philosophy. He went on to receive a master's degree in econometrics from North Carolina State University.

He worked in telecommunications for companies in Durham, N.C., Chicago and New Jersey before moving to the Washington area in the late 1990s to work for LCI International, now owned by Qwest.

He was an executive for companies such as Winstar and Teleglobe before he went into business for himself.

By 2008, he had tired of what he called the "corporate rat race." He and his family moved from Loudoun County's Cascades section to a quieter life in Spotsylvania.

Survivors include his wife of 12 years, Sabrina Abedin Hossain of Spotsylvania; two daughters, Maya and Hana Hossain, both of Spotsylvania; three sisters; and a brother.

Mr. Hossain had no agricultural experience when he decided to become a farmer. Friends didn't know quite what to make of his move from political activism to animal husbandry, he told The Post last spring.

But with a growing number of Muslims in Washington's Virginia suburbs, he said, there was pent-up demand for naturally raised halal goat meat.

By April, he had made his first meat delivery to a couple in Centreville. He had 67 goats on his 15-acre farm and 150 on the way; his children harvested eggs from the chickens in their yard. "It's the most peaceful job I have ever done," he said.


 


Message from Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center and the Muslim American Society Washington DC

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Gracious. Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center offers condolences to the family of brother Br. Mukit Hossain. He passed away early this morning, as a result of a massive heart attack. May Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala bless his soul, and shower him with his mercy. Br. Mukit was a very active Muslim leader who advocated for and defended the community for many years. He promoted civic engagement at all levels. He will be missed by all of us. Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un.


 

 

Message from Nihad Awad, Executive Director of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR)

Inna llilah wa inna ilaihi rajeoon, To Allah we belong and to him is our return. May Allah SWT bless his soul, shower him with his mercy, forgive his sins and may Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala give his family strength and good patience. Br. Mukit was a very active Muslim leader who advocated for and defended the community for many years. He promoted civic engagement at all levels. He will be missed by all of us.


 

 

Message from the Islamic Leadership Institute of America (ILIA) in Howard County, Maryland – “DC Area Loses a Local Leader”

"Oh, you human soul who have attained inner peace and tranquility, return to your Lord, well pleased and well pleasing Him" - Al Fajr : 28-29

It is with a heavy heart that the Muslim community gives farewell to one of its local leaders, Br. Mukit Hossain. A man who observed needs in the community and worked hard to make a change. He has made a large impact on our lives through his civic engagement.

Br. Mukit was one of the founders of Project Hope and Harmony, which represents various faith communities, nonprofit organizations, and community volunteers who are working to create an organized day labor site in Herndon and provide social services to the workers. In 2004 he was named the Herndon Citizen of the year by the Herndon Times. Br. Mukit was also founder of Food Source Foundation, which provides meals to homeless people in Fairfax County, and has been involved with food banks and Meals on Wheels. In April of this year he was mentioned in the Washinton Post as a man who filled a niche through providing organic raised halal goat for the Muslim community. Br. Mukit Leadership was a Former ADAMS Social Activities Chairperson (2000-2002) and Former ADAMS Board Member (2003 to 2006).

Br. Mukit shall be missed, however his contributions shall remain as minerats of justice and civic leadership. There are many lessons to learn from the life of this leader, and there is much remaining work for us to continue to carry on his misison of civic leadership.

We ask Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala to grant him an easy accountability, a wide grave from a garden of jannah, and to an abode in jannah in the firdous. May Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala grant his family patience, perseverance and steadfastness during this testing times, and protect us all from the tests and trials of life, and unite us all under the banner of Islam and bring us together into jannah.


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