Amina and Hafsa Rahman are learning how to be community journalists for NPR Illinois. The team discusses reviewing reseach on Illinois Muslims.
Hafsa Rahman: Hi, everyone. This is Hafsa and Amina Rahman with our J-Corps Audio Journal for this week. You've been doing some research this week, mom. Do you want to talk about that?
Amina Rahman: In 2022, there was a study done about Illinois Muslims, and it was put out by Institute for Social Policy and Understanding as well as the Muslim Civic Coalition and UIC. It gives a snapshot of Illinois Muslims in general. Illinois has the highest per capita population of Muslims in the U.S. I've been looking at it and it's interesting because it gives a lot of information about the ethnic or racial makeup of Muslims, which incidentally feels accurate when you look at the community here in Springfield as well.
Illinois has the highest per capita population of Muslims in the U.S.Illinois Muslims: Needs, Assets, and Opportunities
It's consistent across bigger places like Chicago or Springfield. It also talks about how local Muslims feel about their communities. It talks about whether they're satisfied or dissatisfied with the level of leadership's understanding of their needs. Those were interesting statistics to look into and talk about how people feel about being Muslim in Springfield .
Another interview that I got, there's an anthropologist who works at a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and his name is Junaid Rana. He has really interesting information about race and ethnicity in the community, integration into the general population of Illinois as well.
Hafsa Rahman: This week, I will be getting more interviews to put into our many episodes from the youth perspective in the community — the teenagers, young adults — making sure that we're getting those different sides of people that the community is really important for. Maybe we don't have as much power over how things are sorted, talking about the things that go on in school as Muslims in Springfield.
Amina Rahman: We're focusing more now on the populations that aren't as strongly represented in the community. It'll be interesting to get that perspective of what their feeling is and the ability of the community to integrate different groups into itself.
Hafsa Rahman: This is our J-Corps Audio Journal for this week. Make sure you tune in next week and stay updated on our journey as citizen journalists.
Edited for length and clarity.
Press Forward Springfield is awarding its first project grants. NPR Illinois along with the Illinois Times and Capitol News Illinois are each receiving funding to report on different untold stories in our community. The three reporting projects will be posted in May.
Community Foundation for the Land of Lincoln in collaboration with the Field Foundation and the Illinois Department of Human Services are leading this project as part of their Healing Illinois program.
NPR Illinois is using the grant to test its vision for community reporting and journalism training — the Journalism Corps or "J-Corps."
