Muslim activists raise thousands to help victims of the synagogue shooting

A group of Muslim activists is stepping up to help in the wake of the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh on Saturday.

One day after the shooting, the group has raised more than $50,000 (and counting) through a crowdfunding campaign to help the victims of the shooting and their families.

"Through this campaign, we hope to send a united message from the Jewish and Muslim communities that there is no place for this type of hate and violence in America," the campaign's organizer, Tarek El-Messidi, writes. "We pray that this restores a sense of security and peace to the Jewish-American community who has undoubtedly been shaken by this event."

The campaign's initial fundraising goal was $25,000, which it raised within the first six hours. The goal was then upped to $50,000, and then upped again to $75,000. At the time of this writing, the campaign had raised more than $55,000.

The funds will go toward covering the funeral costs for the victims as well as any medical expenses for those injured in the shooting. The campaign's organizers are working with the Islamic Center Of Pittsburgh (ICP) to distribute the funds via the Tree of Life Synagogue.

The campaign started on LaunchGood, a crowdfunding platform founded to support Muslims around the world, though El-Messidi notes the contributions have come from people of many different backgrounds.

This isn't the first time El-Messidi, the founding director of the non-profit CelebrateMercy, has been involved in a fundraising campaign to help the Jewish community. The activist previously helped organize a crowdfunding campaign to repair vandalized headstones at a Jewish cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri. That campaign, launched in 2017, raised more than $150,000.

He also raised money for the families of the victims of the San Bernardino shooting in 2015, and helped organize a canned food drive in honor of three Muslim students killed in a hate crime in North Carolina.

El-Messidi said he's been inspired by the response to his crowdfunding campaign, which has been raising around $2,000 an hour since it began, and that it "will inspire other similar acts of responding to evil with good."

"This could have just as easily happened at a Mosque, or a Hindu Temple, or against people of color," he said. "This is a time when one group, who is feeling other-ized and discriminated against, could reach out in peace and solidarity and love to another group that feels the same."