The CAIR Oklahoma Government Affairs department is tasked with following bills filed at the state legislature, producing advocacy materials for the bills which, if enacted, would impact our community, and empowering Oklahoma Muslims to voice their concerns to our state’s lawmakers. Each year, we select policy areas which will be our focus during the upcoming legislative session. These policy areas and our stances become our yearly Policy Platform, a document guided by concerns from stakeholders, meticulous research on past and current legislative movements, and our organization’s mission, vision, and values. The 2025 Policy Platform will guide our advocacy activities and strengthen the Oklahoma Muslim community’s civic power.
Oklahoma continues to have some of the highest rates of poverty in the country, a ranking that has increased in recent years due to policies that impact children, people of color, people with disabilities, and other vulnerable communities at devastating rates.
Nationwide, Muslims are the most likely faith community to report low incomes and were more likely to believe that poverty is primarily due to bad circumstances rather than bad character.1 The faith tradition encourages support and care for the neediest in the community and highlights the importance of social equality in an unjust world. We believe that Oklahomans deserve access to affordable housing, food, and healthcare; livable wages; and an economic system that empowers rather than punishes our most financially vulnerable residents.
CAIR Oklahoma understands that fighting poverty is not only a social need but is a religious obligation. Therefore, we will advance legislative measures that will reduce poverty and increase economic opportunity for all Oklahomans.
- We advocate for legislation that will increase access to affordable, safe housing.
- All residents deserve access to secure, functional healthcare and to live free from debt caused by medical conditions.
- We support measures that protect children from poverty and provide them with access to healthcare, food, and shelter, regardless of their families’ income.
- We support an increase to the minimum wage.
- We oppose predatory practices that harm residents who live in poverty and encourage strict regulations on the “poverty tax.”
One of our core values is the protection of civil liberties for Oklahoma Muslims. Threats to religious freedom include the impermissible enshrinement of a singular religious viewpoint and the state’s stifling of religious practices. The right to free expression is crucial to our human dignity; every individual who wishes to communicate with lawmakers, raise their voice in protest, publish their viewpoints in print, or otherwise share their thoughts deserves to do so without infringement by the government. We strongly believe that as democracy is threatened, we must stand strong against attempts to silence our community’s voting power.
- We oppose the targeting of speech based on content, especially attempts to stifle the voices of those calling for the liberation of Palestine and an end to genocide everywhere.
- We oppose legislation that would prohibit or restrict the right to engage in boycotts or that would require state contractors to sign allegiance pledges that do not align with their conscience.
- We empower our community to freely exercise their constitutionally protected rights and uplift other communities whose voices are being silenced.
- We oppose attempts to infringe upon religious exercise unlawfully.
- We oppose measures that would implement a singular religious viewpoint to the exclusion of others.
- We stand firmly opposed to censorship in the classroom, believing that students have the right to an education free from whitewashing, and we oppose the removal of crucial information that challenges prevailing historical narratives.
- We encourage measures that would increase access to the ballot, voter education, and ease of registration.
- We oppose any attempt to make voting more difficult, confusing, expensive, or in any way harder to access.
- We will strive to ensure that all Oklahomans live free from discrimination, harassment, and injustice, and we will stand with and advocate for any community that finds itself the target of hatred or injustice.
- We will be allies to targeted communities facing threats to their rights from the state or any other governmental actor.
Oklahoma remains one of the most highly punitive states in the nation despite recent attempts to humanize its penal code. Many communities are experiencing disproportionate harm from the criminal legal system, especially communities of color, those with disabilities, and immigrants. We believe that Oklahomans deserve a criminal legal system that actually promotes justice and which is worthy of our trust.
- We support measures that would reduce the overall number of incarcerated Oklahomans, believing that our carceral system has not achieved its goal of reducing crime and that incarceration is not an adequate replacement for thoughtful, compassionate rehabilitation.
- We believe that if humans must experience incarceration, they are still worthy of basic human dignity and respect and that they should not be subjected to violations of their human and civil rights while behind bars.
- We support measures that will help divert individuals from incarceration and into rehabilitation for issues like poverty, mental health, and substance abuse, believing that these are not crimes or moral failings deserving of punishment.
- We strongly oppose the death penalty and join in the calls of many faith systems and communities who advocate for an end to capital punishment.
- We support efforts to train better our law enforcement agencies and those that prioritize diversity, the prevention of domestic violence, and more compassionate responses to mental health and substance abuse issues as these public servants interact with our communities.
Although the inner workings of state government can seem complex, CAIR Oklahoma exists to make these processes more accessible and transparent to our community. We believe that at every level of government, residents deserve to trust the balance between our three branches of government and between local, state, and federal policymakers.
- We oppose policies that seek to create imbalance between the executive, legislative, and judicial branches or which improperly empower one branch over the others.
- We call for an end to political measures which unlawfully empower one partisan political party over another and instead call for more solutions which involve nonpartisan political cooperation.
- We advocate keeping judicial nominations and selections nonpartisan.
- We encourage our state to continue its work in overturning vetoes and keeping the people’s voice in the people’s house.
- We oppose any measures which would make the functions of government less transparent and accountable to the people.
- We oppose measures that divert crucial funding away from the social services that are critical to our vulnerable residents’ survival.
Although we are primarily focused on local and state advocacy, we recognize that movement at the federal level is of strong interest to our community. There are several key issues which we will be monitoring in 2025.
Palestine
- We continue to call for a permanent ceasefire in occupied Palestine, Lebanon, and other targets of Israeli military occupation.
- We advocate for increased humanitarian support in Gaza and embattled areas.
- We condemn the continued use of American taxpayer dollars to bolster a foreign government and call for an end to arms and other aid to Israel.
- We oppose any legislation that prohibits individuals, companies, or organizations from engaging in their constitutional right to boycotts.
- Oklahoma is far from the lauded Top 10 goals that have been placed for it. However, our state is one of beautiful and resilient diversity that deserves better. With a contentious election season headed our way, we will be watching upcoming policies and candidates to see who has our best interests at heart.
Nonprofits
- We oppose legislation that would allow the federal government to target nonprofit organizations on the basis of their constitutionally protected rights to free speech and expression.
Immigration
- We advocate on behalf of immigrant communities and oppose any efforts to restrict immigration based on the illegal categories of religion, viewpoints, political allegiance, or national origin.
- We will strongly oppose the targeting and mass deportation of immigrants, regardless of their documentation status.
- We call for justice and humane treatment of those detained and awaiting immigration procedures.
- We will oppose the curtailing of refugee and asylum applications, believing that endangered humans around the world deserve to rebuild their lives in safety and security.