Muslims for Just Futures Statement on Katrina20
Statement and Hurricane Prep Guide
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Statement and Hurricane Prep Guide |
“ We remain in solidarity with K20 and frontline communities. Militarism, fossil fuel extraction, racism, colonialism, and ecocide converge to destroy ecosystems and frontline communities, turning disasters into opportunities for profiteering and control. From Katrina in the Gulf South to the Global South, we see how war, militarism, racism, and ecocide are destroying frontline communities, and why our solidarity, faith, and movements must build another future.”
On the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Muslims for Just Futures stands firmly with frontline communities across Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama who continue to resist and rebuild post-Katrina. Katrina was a social and political disaster that displaced over one million people, killed thousands, and permanently reshaped the Gulf South. Entire Black neighborhoods were destroyed, families were scattered, and more than 100,000 New Orleans residents, mostly Black, were never able to return home. Survivors were met with police killings, criminalization, insurance scams, and union-busting, while public schools and hospitals were dismantled overnight.
Hurricane Katrina revealed how the state and corporations prioritized profit and property over people, as oil and gas companies’ destruction of wetlands erased natural protections that once shielded the Gulf Coast, worsening catastrophic flooding. Racism and white supremacy ensured that Black and Indigenous communities were disproportionately abandoned and displaced, while capitalism and disaster profiteering transformed recovery into an opportunity for developers and corporations to profit as residents lost everything. Instead of caring for survivors, state violence and abandonment militarized the disaster zone, deepening harm rather than providing relief.
As our Senior Organizing Fellow, Assata Dela Cruz who is building MJF’s membership in the Gulf notes,
“By the time I was sixteen years old, Hurricane Katrina made landfall, right here in the Gulf South, a place that the US considered disposable. This hurricane didn’t just expose cracks in infrastructure, it really exposed the calculated cruelty of the American state. This was a state-sanctioned failure. We watched in horror as Black elders drowned in their homes, Black mothers separated from their children, entire communities stranded on rooftops and in stadiums with no food, water or help. And in the aftermath, we were criminalized for surviving, labeled "looters" instead of refugees during this forced migration. We were treated like enemies on our own soil.
It was very apparent that the US government failed us and it wasn’t an accident. This was the War on Terror brought home.This year marks 20 years since Hurricane Katrina tore through the Gulf Coast and revealed to the world what Black and Indigenous communities already knew: that in the US, the storm is never just the weather. This same empire that invades other lands for oil and control is the one that pollutes our own waters, poisons our air, and erases our history. Hurricane Katrina and the War on Terror were both about controlling who gets to live, who gets to flee, and who gets left behind.”
At the twentieth anniversary of Katrina and as we begin prep for the twenty-fifth anniversary of the
“War on Terror,” MJF invites our members and partners to:
Donate to the Community-Controlled Fund here led by impacted communities that is raising 4 million to build infrastructure. MJF invites our communities to give generously and Muslims to give sadaqah toward the $4 million goal for building key infrastructure.
Amplify the truth & lessons of Katrina: Support the powerful work of Katrina 20 (K20) being led on the ground and share the realities of displacement, abandonment, and resistance, and carry these lessons into current struggles.
Solidarity: Endorse the Katrina 20 solidarity statement here
Resource & strengthen Southern movement infrastructure: We call on philanthropy and investors to offer funds, visibility, and organizational support to deepen long-term power in the Gulf South.
Review MJF’s preparedness plan for disasters, created by our Senior Organizing Fellow, Sabrina Akbar that we have linked here.
Read our Senior Organizing Fellow, piece on Katrina and the War on Terror linked here.
We remain in solidarity with K20 and frontline communities. Militarism, fossil fuel extraction, racism, colonialism, and ecocide converge to destroy ecosystems and frontline communities, turning disasters into opportunities for profiteering and control. From Katrina in the Gulf South to the Global South, we see how war, militarism, racism, and ecocide are destroying frontline communities, and why our solidarity, faith, and movements must build another future.
