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#MuslimPhilanthropy Podcast

#MuslimPhilanthropy Podcast

Written by: American Muslim Community Foundation
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 Founded in 2016, American Muslim Community Foundation is a grassroots, national nonprofit organization in the United States. Our focus is on creating Donor Advised Funds, Giving Circles, distributing grants, & building endowments for the American Muslim community.Alll Rights Reserved Economics Islam Management Management & Leadership Social Sciences Spirituality
Episodes
  • #MuslimPhilanthropy Podcast Steve Sosebee on Building HEAL Palestine and Standing With Gaza

    #MuslimPhilanthropy Podcast Steve Sosebee on Building HEAL Palestine and Standing With Gaza
    May 12 2026
    For more than three decades, Steve Sosebee has been one of the most consistent humanitarian voices for Palestinian children. He founded the Palestine Children's Relief Fund (PCRF) in 1991 and led it for thirty years. At the end of 2023, in the months following October 7, he made what he called the hardest decision of his life — he left the organization he had built and started over from zero. On January 1, 2024, he co-founded HEAL Palestine. In this episode of the Muslim Philanthropy Podcast, AMCF Co-Founder and Chief Development Officer Muhi Khwaja sits down with Steve to talk about the journey that brought him from a small college town in Ohio to founding two of the most active humanitarian organizations working in Palestine, the four pillars HEAL is built on, and what genuine support for Gaza looks like right now. We also get into the operational realities of running an international NGO, the lessons Steve learned the hard way at PCRF, his advice for first-time nonprofit founders, and what he tells people who feel hopeless watching from a distance.
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    45 mins
  • #MuslimPhilanthropy Podcast with Mohamed Barkhad of Retain Quran Foundation

    #MuslimPhilanthropy Podcast with Mohamed Barkhad of Retain Quran Foundation
    May 6 2026
    Mohamed Barkhad spent six and a half years at Cisco Systems and now nearly six years at Google as a cloud architect. But the work he's most proud of is an app: Retain Quran, which has reached more than 1.3 million downloads across 120 countries with multi-language support in twelve languages. In this episode of the Muslim Philanthropy Podcast, AMCF Co-Founder and Chief Development Officer Muhi Khwaja sits down with Mohamed — co-founder and chairman of Retain Quran Foundation — to unpack how the app started, what makes it different from the hundreds of other Quran apps in the market, why his wife is the reason it exists, and what the team is raising $300,000 to build next. We also get into the team behind the app, Mohamed's advice for first-time founders, the hadith that drives him, and his vision for reaching 100 million users globally.
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    33 mins
  • #MuslimPhilanthropy Podcast – From Fort Pierce to Congress: CAIR Florida on Civil Rights, Community Defense, and What It Means to Show Up

    #MuslimPhilanthropy Podcast – From Fort Pierce to Congress: CAIR Florida on Civil Rights, Community Defense, and What It Means to Show Up
    Apr 14 2026
    When a mosque burns down, when a 16-year-old American is imprisoned overseas, when a Muslim family is killed by a drunk driver and the father is in Dubai — who shows up? In Florida, more often than not, it’s CAIR Florida. On a recent episode of the #MuslimPhilanthropy Podcast, AMCF co-founder Muhi Khwaja sat down with the CAIR Florida team: Hiba Rahim, Executive Director; Megan Amer, Policy Director; and Wilfredo Ruiz, Communications Director. What unfolded was a wide-ranging conversation about what it actually takes to defend a community — legally, politically, and on the ground — in one of the most challenging civil rights environments in the country. Three People, Three Paths to the Same Work The most striking thing about this conversation is how differently each of these three leaders arrived at CAIR Florida — and how clearly their paths reflect the breadth of what the organization does. Wilfredo Ruiz was born in Puerto Rico, raised in the Catholic church, served as a Navy defense attorney representing Marines and sailors in court martials, and embraced Islam in 2003 after pulling over outside a mosque in San Juan and walking in. He pursued a master’s degree in Christian-Muslim relations at Hartford Seminary, served as one of only four Muslim chaplains in the entire U.S. Navy fleet, and worked in immigration detention center chaplaincy before landing at CAIR Florida — where he has now served for 15 years. Hiba Rahim grew up partly in Panama City, Florida — deep in the Panhandle, what she calls “LA: Lower Alabama” — in one of the first Islamic schools in the United States, where civic responsibility was embedded into the curriculum alongside Quran and Islamic principles. She was on track for a PhD in psychology when 9/11 happened, and she found herself doing community outreach and interfaith presentations with police departments, the FBI, and church groups instead. She never looked back. She has been with CAIR, non-consecutively, since 2015. Megan Amer is Catholic. Her husband is Muslim. Her kids go to an Islamic school. She has a master’s from George Washington University, worked at the Department of State on nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons, and then moved to police reform through the International Narcotics and Law Enforcement bureau. She moved to Florida five years ago, and after October 7th and the security lockdowns at her children’s school, she realized she needed to do something. She started organizing. She joined CAIR Florida officially, and hasn’t stopped. “We were lucky to have Hiba and Megan on our team,” Wilfredo said. What CAIR Florida Actually Does — and Why It’s Different CAIR Florida was founded at the end of September 2001, weeks after 9/11, by a group of Florida Muslims who saw what was coming and organized before it arrived. In nearly 25 years of operation, the chapter has built a three-part structure that Hiba describes as genuinely unique in the state. The Programs Department works within the systems of society — hospitals, media, police departments, schools — educating the public on Islam and Muslims to foster mutual respect and understanding, while also educating and empowering Muslim community members directly. The Policy Department, led by Megan, does the proactive advocacy work — promoting legislation favorable to Muslim and minority communities, opposing harmful bills and resolutions, getting out the vote, and building the political infrastructure that prevents crises before they require emergency response. The Legal Department handles civil rights defense in the trenches — representing Muslim victims of discrimination from advocacy all the way to the courtroom, often in cases that no other organization in the state is equipped to handle. “There is no other organization that does for the community and within the community what CAIR Florida does,” Hiba said. “There are so many amazing organizations that do relief work — feed the hungry, take care of orphans, shelter women. All of that is incredibly valuable. But there is a very different type of work where you plan for the protection of a community — whether they’re Muslim or not.” The Fort Pierce Mosque Arson: Where CAIR Florida Was Tested Wilfredo walked through one of the most pivotal moments in CAIR Florida’s history: the arson attack on a mosque in Fort Pierce in 2007. It was a small community — Friday prayers drew forty or fifty people. The imam was on Hajj. His sons were the ones at the mosque when it happened. Within hours, more than a dozen news trucks were parked outside with satellite antennas transmitting nationally and internationally. The FBI descended — not just to investigate the arson, but, as Wilfredo put it, to “expand their investigations beyond what happened that day.” The community, as victims, found itself needing legal representation not against the arsonist but against government overreach. CAIR Florida was there: handling...
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    51 mins
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