WMCA Advocacy Day: Wisconsin Muslims learn to lobby

Photo by Hamza Zuberi

Wisconsin Muslim Civic Alliance’s first Advocacy Day, Feb. 19, drew participants from Milwaukee and Madison.

American Muslims often lament their lack of political clout. Many blame themselves.

Other groups influence legislators; why can’t we? they wonder. They say things like: It’s our own fault. We aren’t organized. We aren’t unified.

But, as Bob Dylan sang, “The times they are a changin’.” 

For the past six years, the Wisconsin Muslim Civic Alliance, founded in 2019, has endorsed candidates, hosted forums, conducted national fundraisers and engaged with elected officials across the state. Its database identifies 30,000 active Wisconsin Muslim voters from an estimated 70,000 Muslims in the state.

In 2022 and again in 2023, WMCA surveyed Wisconsin Muslims statewide. The first survey aimed to offer data to guide policymakers, corporations, media organizations and individuals who seek to deepen their understanding of and support for Wisconsin Muslims. The second served the same purposes and, in addition, informs WMCA’s advocacy and policy work, WMCA executive director Fauzia Qureshi said in a recent interview Wisconsin Muslim Journal held with Qureshi and WMCA policy lead Fatima Malik.

This year WMCA is teaching Wisconsin Muslims how to lobby.

Photo by Hamza Zuberi

WMCA policy lead Fatima Malik discusses the Advocacy Day agenda and talking points with participants.

Wisconsin Muslim Civic Alliance organizes first Advocacy Day

On a frigid February morning, 30 Wisconsin Muslims and allies met at the State Capitol in Madison to talk with their representatives about their concerns. Most of them boarded a bus from Milwaukee. A few more got on in Brookfield. Some drove themselves. Some Muslims from Madison met them at the Capitol.

They were there to lobby for a Wisconsin anti-Islamophobia resolution and legislation to ensure the contributions of American Muslims are included in Wisconsin’s public school curriculum. And, most important, “to make our presence as a community known,” Qureshi said.

Wisconsin State Sen. Chris Larson introduced an anti-Islamophobia resolution in 2017 “but nothing came of it,” said Malik. “It wasn’t passed and nobody lobbied for it. But, for Wisconsin Muslims, Islamophobia is still an issue. 

“We reached out to Sen. Larson and he is willing to support it a second time around. With the Wisconsin Muslim Civic Alliance doing the lobbying work, we want to get the resolution passed this time.” 

“Right now, we are taking initial steps,” Qureshi said. “We want to make sure our legislators know we are a strong Muslim community in Wisconsin. Our community is civically active. We’ve been known to flip elections. Our voices matter in many districts across the state.

“Advocacy Day is just the beginning,” she said. “A legislator told me that just showing up is the biggest first step you can do.” 

WMCA is talking with legislators on both sides of the aisle, Qureshi added. “The resolution needs to be bipartisan. It’s all about making sure we can build bridges and activate our community.”

Behind the scenes

A lot of work went on behind the scenes to make Advocacy Day possible.

In 2024, WMCA “created a clear framework for policies we will support and lead,” Qureshi said. “We wanted to make sure we could spearhead this kind of initiative. That’s why Fatima (Malik) was hired as our policy lead.” 

Planning for Advocacy Day began in July. Wisconsin State Sen. Chris Larson sponsored the Senate Parlor Room for WMCA to use throughout the day. (To reserve a room, groups are required to have a sponsor who can vouch for the group’s legitimacy.) He advised WMCA to schedule Feb. 19 for Advocacy Day because it was the day after Gov. Tony Evers would deliver his 2025-27 budget message and many senators and representatives would be in the Capitol, Qureshi said. 

Photo by Hamza Zuberi

Rep. Ryan Clancy told Advocacy Day participants, “It is so vital that you are in this house, the people’s house. It is your house. I’m so grateful for your advocacy ,,, I know we are going to be talking about the right to protest, the right to exist in spaces like this in the United States. I hope that Muslims are welcomed here in ways we haven’t seen in the past.”

With the location and date set, WMCA made a detailed plan for a day that included training, scheduled meetings with legislators, breakfast, lunch and a Capitol tour. “We wanted to make sure every part of the day was fun, interactive and engaging, recognizing that for many in the community, this would be their first experience in the Capitol,” Qureshi said. “We want them to go back to the community and tell their friends this is something everyone should be doing.”

Lobbying is not just for professional lobbyists, she added. “It’s for community members, college students, new parents, seniors, everybody. We had a diverse group who attended, which was our vision from the start.”

WMCA reached out to Muslims across the state through social media and WhatsApp groups, as well as through its board members from across Wisconsin, to invite Wisconsin Muslims to participate. 

Photos by Sandra Whitehead

“I wanted to make sure everyone felt prepared when they got there,” said Malik, who provided training and created resource packets for all participants. “We chose Islamophobia as the focus because it was one of the top priorities for the Wisconsin Muslim community, as our survey showed.”

Malik researched Islamophobia and created a fact sheet and talking points. “I wanted to make sure we went in with solid knowledge, facts and figures,” she said. She also provided an agenda to give structure to their meetings with legislators and a one-page document to leave with their representatives.

Photo by Sandra Whitehead

Sen. Rob Hutton’s staff member Mark Wadium takes notes as advocates Rida Fatima, Shahida Qureshi and Muhammad Shahzad Hussain explain the need for anti-Islamophobia legislation.

Malik also reached out to legislators who have supported Wisconsin’s Muslim community, including Sen. Larson and Representatives Ryan Clancy, Francesca Hong, Angelito Tenorio and Darrin Madison, who all showed up to welcome the Wisconsin Muslims when they arrived at the Capitol.

“They each spoke a few minutes to our group,” Malik said. “That was really important. It really inspired the group. It made them feel it was important for them to be there.” 

The legislators all agreed the presence of Muslims and their allies in Wisconsin’s civic process is essential, especially now. Rep. Darrin Madison said, “It is so critical, especially as the landscape at the Federal level changes, that we are bolder and we push further to demand true justice for our most vulnerable populations. It is even more critical when they fail at the Federal level for the State to come in as a true defense for the folks who live in Wisconsin.”

Malik had organized the participants into small groups according to their districts and contacted their representatives to arrange meeting. Following the welcome by Sen. Larson and Reps. Clancy, Hong, Tenorio and Madison, WMCA’s advocates dispersed to meetings with their district representatives, where they asked them to support the Islamophobia resolution and legislation that called for recognizing the contributions of Muslims. Both are currently being drafted.

Photo by Sandra Whitehead

Talib Aktar of Madison, Muhammad Shahzad Hussain of Wauwatosa, Rep. Robyn Vining and Aziz Aleiou of Brookfield pose for a photo after their meeting in Rep. Vining’s office.

Qureshi reached out to Rep. Ben Wittke (R-Franklin), who has a large Muslim community living in his district. “We wanted to let him know we would be at the Capitol,” she said. “He has been very helpful and has offered to talk with our community about the legislative process, how a bill becomes a law.” 

At the end of a full day at the Capitol, the WMCA group was invited into the Assembly Parlor at Rep. Wittke’s invitation. “Rep. Wittke came off the Assembly floor to meet with us,” she said. “It was inspiring and amazing that he did that for us. We had nine people from Franklin with us who had the opportunity to meet him.”

Photo by Hamza Zuberi

Rep. Robert Wittke chatted with WMCA Advocacy Day participants in the Assembly Parlor.

A special day

When asked what they thought about the Advocacy Day experience, participants said they felt very welcomed by the legislators who spoke to them in the morning and by the invitation to the Assembly Parlor at the end of the day.

In a debriefing at the end of the day, participants shared their experience of the day. 

“This was a unique day for me,” said Talib Akbar of Madison. “I met with Rep. Francesca Hong who was very receptive to the information I shared.”

Muhammad Shahzad Hussain of Wauwatosa met with Rep. Rob Hutton’s staff and with Rep. Robyn Vining. Both were gracious and listened to our stories, he said.

Muslim Women’s Coalition founder Janan Najeeb congratulated the WMCA staff for a well-organized Advocacy Day. “I have been in a lot of advocacy days (for other groups) and I have to say this is the proudest advocacy day I have been involved with. I want to congratulate the WMCA team. They did a phenomenal job.

“The only thing I want to add is one group I come with, WISDOM, brings 1,000 people here. There is no reason we can’t do that. That will be our goal. The professionalism we had in the room and the relationships that we have built are important are important … Advocacy involves donating to their campaigns, visiting them when they are in the district, being at their town hall meetings – all this is going to be able to turn the tide for Muslims.”

The tour of “the beautiful Capitol and a good breakfast and lunch were appreciated,” Qureshi noted. The training session and all the legislators who came to speak with us were well received, she added.

“For me, going in the Assembly Parlor was a pleasant surprise,” Qureshi said. “I was really happy our community felt so welcomed by Rep. Wittke. It was great to end on such a high note. That was the cherry on top.”

Photo by Sandra Whitehead

Activist Reema Ahmad called WMCA’s Advocacy Day “a testimonial to the organizing and advocacy some of the folks in the room here have been doing around the genocide in Gaza and well before that on many issues. When we came in, our elected officials came in and they knew us, maybe not by name, but they had seen us at events, supporting them and pushing them to be better. I was very proud.”