On Saturday, July 21st eighteen heads of Muslim non-profits, Imams, Islamic Center board members, and activists filled a conference hall in order to receive training on best techniques when speaking with the media. The event organized by CAIR-Missouri and the training by Sound Vision was a one day workshop designed to empower American-Muslims on the best techniques when engaging with local and national media outlets.
"We're here to empower American-Muslims to tell their stories and counter Islamophobia" said Faizan Syed Executive Director of CAIR-Missouri. "No one individual or organization can overcome the rise in anti-Muslim bigotry. Instead it's going to take all of us to change that narrative".
The one day course included sessions on how to tell your story along with interactive workshops. The workshops involved role playing where participants imagined they were being interviewed by local and national media outlets. At the end of the event evaluations were handed out. Evaluation results showed that 15 out of 16 people rated the workshop as being "very useful" with one person rating it as "good".
The trainers included Imam Malik Mujahid the President of Sound Vision and chair of the Burma task force and Edina Lekovic whose the Director of Policy and Programming at the Muslim Public Affairs Council and host of "Meeting the Moment" podcast. Sound Vision is hosting more media training workshops across the United States.
CAIR-Missouri is dedicated to hosting similar trainings across the region and hopes to empower dozens of local Muslims so they can share their stories with the media.