"A Bridging Communities fundraising Iftar was held on June 15th at the JACCC. The event was sold out with about 150 attending. The hosts were Vigilantlove, NCRR, MSA West, C.A.I.R., and JACL-PSW. The emcees were Aamna Akhtar from Muslim Student Association West, majoring in Healthcare Administration at California State University, Long Beach and Alex Kanegawa, a fifth generation Japanese American and a recent grad of USC with a degree in Policy, Planning Development with an emphasis in Sustainable Planning.
Speaking at the event were Ameena Mirza Qazi, an Executive Director of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Lawyers Guild and Shakeel Syed currently the Executive Director with Orange County Communities Organized for Responsible Development. Zawar Jafri is a Muslim American of Pakistani descent and an alumnus of Bridging Communities program in 2010 and 2011. He graduated from UCLA with a degree in Political Science and an emphases on American government and Racial and Ethnic Politics and is currently a graduate student of theology at Harvard University specializing in Islamic Studies.
Bridging Communities strives to promote and strengthen the opportunities for young Muslim and Japanese Americans leaders to connect across similarities and differences, in order to build understanding, consciousness and great solidarity amongst our communities."