In 15 days CelebrateMercy has already raised over $126,000.

U.S. Muslims raised over $100,000 to help release detained migrant parents. The Islamic non-profit organization CelebrateMercy launched the Muslims for Migrants program on August 5. The campaign has already successfully raised $126,354 this month.

The funds collected will be received by the National Bail Fund Network. The network engages with over two dozen local community bond funds.

The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General published a report last month which scrutinized “dangerous overcrowding and prolonged detention of children and adults.”

The report along with others of its kind led Imam Omar Suleiman and Imam Zaid Shakir to organize the fundraising effort.

Imam Shakir is the head of the Lighthouse Mosque in California and Imam Suleiman, the founder of Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research in Texas. Both jointly authored a letter expressing the emotions that led them to start such a fundraising effort. They condemned the conditions of migrants to the southern border as “sickening” and spoke about how Islam grants individuals fleeing persecution, ecological devastation and oppression the right to migrate and seek asylum elsewhere.

Adult detainees at some ICE facilities were accommodated in standing-only rooms for up to a week. The children were deprived of facilities for showers, hot meals, and clean clothing.

This is what SOLIDARITY looks like. The “Muslims for Migrants” campaign has already helped secure the release of six parents ― five fathers and one mother. ❤️?https://t.co/QwljCm1Kwo — StanceGrounded (@_SJPeace_) August 18, 2019

The two Imams wrote how they observed that American Muslims weren’t doing enough as a community to address the problem deepening at the Southern borders. The Islamic Prophet was himself an orphan and a migrant, so Muslims should naturally be the first to be moved by the images coming from these facilities.

Along with CelebrateMercy, a Cincinnati-based non-profit, the two Imams have focused on spreading awareness about the Prophet’s life and grounded their campaign on the sayings of this Prophet and the Quran. Also included, is an article from the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam. All of the above are in favor of migrants seeking asylum and migrating for self-protection and preservation.

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