Chicagoland area Arabs and Muslims continue to fight racist, incompetent, township board during pandemic
Chicago, IL – On May 11, over 30 Arab and Muslim community members and their allies joined a Palos Township online meeting to continue demanding the resignation of the racist trustee, Sharon Brannigan.
Since the global pandemic forced the state of Illinois and its functions to be moved to digital forms, the Palos Township started to hold its monthly general meetings via Zoom.
The #ResignBrannigan coalition, which has been demanding the resignation of Brannigan since July of 2017, refused to let the quarantine get in the way of their campaign and took the fight to Zoom.
The meeting, like usual, became heated as the community members had a chance to speak during the public comment section. The speakers expressed real concern with Brannigan’s recent endorsement of the Re-Open Illinois Rally that was organized by right-wing groups in the city of Chicago. Others also expressed concern about the township’s violation of the Illinois Open Meetings Act law by submitting the meeting information less than 48 hours ahead of the meeting time.
“We already know that Brannigan, Supervisor Schumann, and the rest of the board are all racist, they’ve proven that many times. But the real concern here is that Brannigan is the Public Health trustee and she is encouraging people to go out and protest,” said Husam Marajda, a member of the #ResignBrannigan coalition. He continued, “she also had no reports for the month on Public Health. How is that possible? We did the research, there are over 600 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the township, and yet she has nothing to report on? Something is not right. Our community deserves better.”
Many community members had a background picture of the township board stamped with words “Racists” in English and in Arabic.
The next township meeting is scheduled to be on June 8, at 6:30 p.m. Central Time. The link will be posted on the Palos Township web page at www.palostownship.org