“Inspired Generosity,” a traveling exhibit designed to challenge stereotypes about Muslim giving, opened in Minneapolis at the University of Minnesota’s Robert J. Jones Urban Research and Outreach-Engagement Center Gallery, organizers said. The exhibition arrives after months of federal immigration enforcement that, advocates say, has shaken Somali and other Muslim neighborhoods in the city while local groups have stepped in to provide help.
The exhibit was first debuted in Atlanta in September 2024, and it has new resonance in Minnesota, where advocates say suspicion of Muslim and Somali immigrants increased alongside political scrutiny and a high-profile investigation into a pandemic-related fraud scheme in the state. For WF Fund President Dilnaz Waraich, the timing underscores why the exhibit’s message is aimed at public understanding as much as at philanthropy itself.
Waraich said the exhibit responds to a common narrative that Muslims are not contributing to the country. “People think of Muslims, unfortunately, as proselytizers, takers, that we are not contributing to our country,” she told Religion News Service, describing the goal as “We need to tell different stories of generosity.”
The exhibit features 50 stories of giving from the American Muslim community, presented through poetry, videos, art and written entries. Organizers said the format is meant to show Muslims’ volunteerism and activism across the country while also including examples tailored to each host city.
Waraich tied the exhibit’s message to Islamic charitable obligations. She said Muslims give through zakat, a required charitable donation, and through sadaqa, regular voluntary giving, and she described those practices as rooted in an ethic of caring for neighbors and supporting the wider community.
In Minneapolis, Makram El-Amin, an imam at Masjid An-Nur in north Minneapolis, said he sees a connection between what he called a “crisis” in the city and the stories featured on the gallery walls. El-Amin said recent immigration enforcement has put a spotlight on Muslim giving as local mosques and community groups help families facing job loss, eviction or legal challenges, and he said residents also protested federal agents. “You can’t really quantify that,” El-Amin said. “But to say that wasn’t generous, we’d be missing something.”
The exhibit also highlighted Muslim women and women-led organizations in Minnesota, including Rabata, described as an Islamic education group for women, and Reviving Islamic Sisterhood for Empowerment, known as RISE. Malika Dahir, who leads RISE, recalled that she learned the idea of giving from her mother and grandmother, describing how they cooked for new mothers and supported others through informal care circles.
Dahir said it is important to honor the ways Muslim women contribute time, wealth and resources to sustain communities, and she said RISE is organizing a panel on Muslim women and philanthropy as part of the exhibit. She added that visibility can help other people begin similar efforts. “People feel empowered, and it has a ripple effect, when they know what it is exactly that their sisters are doing and create pathways for others to be able to give as well,” she said.
Alongside local service and grassroots giving, the exhibit points to what organizers described as the growth of more formal philanthropy among Muslim Americans. Nausheena Hussain, a Minneapolis-based philanthropic leader and doctoral student in philanthropic leadership, said structured, large-scale philanthropy among Muslims is still developing and that much of Muslim American giving happens informally through mosques, community networks and direct support, which can make it less visible in traditional philanthropic spaces.
Hussain said many books about U.S. philanthropy devote little attention to Muslim donors, and she said that omission can limit recognition. “As I study the landscape of philanthropy in the United States, all these books, they’re hundreds of pages long, and there will be maybe one sentence about Muslims or nothing at all,” she said, adding that donors are often excluded from major philanthropic networks and institutions. She warned that public perceptions can encourage a narrative in which Muslims are always on the receiving end. “If we are constantly seen as the people who are receiving the zakat or the aid, who are always refugees trying to make it, it just gives this sense that we’re never going to be the ones that get to help others,” Hussain said. “So when we give examples of Muslim philanthropists, we’re teaching that this is our legacy.”
Waraich said the exhibit is part of what she called “narrative change work,” aiming to reshape how Muslim communities are understood, particularly amid high-profile coverage that includes “fraud” and other negative stories. Ikram Hussein, a project officer at Rabata, said this type of storytelling is necessary. “With all of the talk about fraud and all of the negative things that we’re hearing about our communities here in Minnesota, narrative change work is really important work,” Hussein said. “It’s not just an option.”
El-Amin said humility is often emphasized in Islamic teachings about charity, but he also said there is value in making those efforts visible. “There’s a real benefit of really calling out the many ways that Muslim individuals, organizations, communities, families, are making a contribution to the betterment of others,” he said. El-Amin and his mother, Arlene El-Amin, were featured for their work at Al-Maa’uun, a community center that has offered food, housing and mentoring support for 17 years, where El-Amin said generosity includes time, presence and activism as much as money.