In the world we live in today, Islam and Muslims are the targets of intense geopolitical venom.
Specifically, in the West, Muslims are being scapegoated and Islam is being ridiculed.
Nonetheless, it is very difficult to maintain our Muslim identities in these troubling times,
particularly for our youth. The youth are malleable and are much more susceptible to this
negativity than the adults. For the youth, one of the hardest things to do in today’s world is to be
proud of their Muslim identity or to openly display the beauty of their Islamic heritage.

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On April 29th, 2017, we created the first ever ‘Muslim Philly Fest’ to give the youth a stage and a
platform to express their Islamic identity through their innate artistic talents. Muslim Philly Fest
offered an array of homegrown poets, spoken word artists, Qur’an reciters, Nasheed artists,
painters, photographers, and many other artistic talents, followed by a grand performance by
professional Nasheed artists like Khaled Siddique, Raef, Siedd, Waheeb Nasan and Kareem Ibrahim,

spoken word artists like Prince Umi, comedians like Ali Official, and motivational speakers like Ibn Ali Miller.

This allowed the native Philadelphian Muslim youth to share the stage and express their natural artistic talents
with well-trained professionals and allowed them to feel proud of their accomplishments, rather
than feeling embarrassed or uncomfortable for pursuing their passions. With the help of God, our
first event was a success. However, we did not want to stop there.

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A few members of the Philadelphian Muslim youth discussed taking this project to the next
level: to create a series of artistic festivals displaying the talents of the American Muslim youth
for major cities across the country. As a result, we changed the name of our project from
‘Muslim Philly Fest’ to ‘MUSLIM CITY FEST,’ to enable us to have a strong Muslim presence
in other major cities all over America. By the will of God, we are looking to unveil the hidden
but promising artistic talents of our Muslim youth all over the country and to empower our youth
and, more importantly, our American community.