We Still Have No Support: The Impact of COVID-19 on Muslim Communities in the Greater Washington Region

BY DARAKSHAN RAJA, AMINA GOHEER, SARAH ELBAKRI, GAYATRI GIRIRAJAN

We are also grateful to the entire JMC Rapid Response Team for doing the incredible hard work over the past year to reach out to communities. This includes Priyanka Gogia, Mahnoor Hussain, Youmna Ansari, Sarah Batool Khan, Sofia S. and Rasha A.

March 2021

As we pass the one-year mark of living through COVID-19 and grapple with the staggering death toll and human cost, Justice For Muslims Collective (JMC) is releasing a community brief to share our efforts to respond to the pandemic in the past year. This brief offers a snapshot of the ways COVID-19 has impacted mainly working-class Muslim communities within the Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia area, and presents the ways JMC has responded and disbursed funds to support families and individuals. This brief is also a labor of love and is released in honor of the resilience, strength, and power of our communities, and in deep mourning for the loss of community members who have been impacted during one of the most challenging political moments of our lives. Moreover, we feel it’s important to note that these structural crises will not be over with the end of the pandemic.