(Cleveland, OH, 8/30/24) – The Council on American-Islamic Relations is partnered with the Arab American Voter Project (AAVP) and the Arab Americans of Cleveland Young Professionals Network (AAC) to host the first Congressional Candidates Town Hall for the Muslim and Arab communities Wednesday, August 28th.
The forum, held at La Villa Conference and Banquet Hall, provided an opportunity for congressional candidates to engage with the Muslim and Arab communities and for those communities to ask questions important to their communities of the candidates.
The event host was long-time Cleveland native and former board of trustee of the Islamic Center of Cleveland (ICC), Tristan Wheeler and the moderator was Marwa Ghumrawi, the Director of Operations and Communications at the Washington Center for Yemeni Studies and board member of AAC.
All congressional candidates across Cleveland and northern Ohio were invited to speak at the event. Candidates who did not respond or declined our invitation were Senator Brown, Congresswoman Emilia Sykes, Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, Congresswoman Shontel Brown, Congressman Max Miller, Bernie Moreno (R), Kevin Coughlin (R) nor did they send a representative.
The candidates who did accept the invitation were Mathew Diemer (D) running for U.S. House District 7, Alan Rapoport (R) running for U.S. House District 11, Sean Freeman (I) running for U.S. House Ohio District 11 and Congressman Kucinich (I) running for U.S. House District 7, by proxy through former Cleveland Airport Commissioner, Khalid Bahhur.
Board Member of CAIR-Ohio, Melaak Rashid stated at the event,
“This Town Hall series was to have the dialogue…there’s going to be frustrations, there’s going to be answers that we like and answers that we don’t like and organizations like CAIR-Cleveland, AAVP and AAC are 501c3s and are non-partisan which means it is required for them when they host events like this to invite all of the candidates regardless of party affiliation and regardless of their beliefs. The beauty in that is to be able to see and hear firsthand what their sentiments are, what they would like to do, what they don’t plan to do and the things you need to hear to inform your decision when you go to the ballot box. Regardless of the views that you liked or disliked, now you had a first glance on where these candidates stand on issues that are important to you. What we need to do is make sure that candidates know that Muslims Americans’ and Arab Americans’ voices matter and when we show up in larger numbers to events like this, they actually realize that we can make a difference on whether or not they win or lose their elections.”
Hundreds of questions were submitted to the moderator, many of the questions included concerns about the crisis in Palestine with one attendee directly asking a candidate to clarify his understanding of what is happening in Palestine. 
This Town Hall is one of three events from the Candidates Town Hall series offered by the three organizations. The first Town Hall occurred before the March Primaries and the third segment will held on September 12th with a focus on local elections.
CAIR is America’s largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. CAIR-Ohio’s mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, protect civil rights, promote justice, and empower American Muslims. CAIR-Ohio has offices in Columbus, Cincinnati, and Cleveland.
La misión de CAIR es proteger las libertades civiles, mejorar la comprensión del Islam, promover la justicia, y empoderar a los musulmanes en los Estados Unidos.
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