SANTA CLARA – Santa Clara County, in California, hosted a ceremony on Monday, August 14, to issue a proclamation recognizing August as “Muslim Appreciation and Awareness Month.”

“I am proud to celebrate the first ever Muslim Appreciation and Awareness Month by honoring generations of Muslim Americans for their many social, cultural, and economic contributions to California,” said Assemblymember Quirk, a statement by the Council on American Islamic Relations read.

Thanks to a resolution introduced by Assemblyman Bill Quirk, D-Hayward, August 2016 was proclaimed Muslim Appreciation and Awareness Month by the state Legislature.

He will be reintroducing the resolution with HR 43 on August 21 with Assemblymembers Ash Kalra and Kansen Chu as co-sponsors.

“Meet a Muslim” founder Moina Shaiq worked with Assemblyman Quirk and CAIR-CA to have the California resolution introduced.

“People only see the negative things in the media and news and hardly ever hear anything positive of Muslims in the community,” Shaiq said.

“We wanted to highlight some of the good so people can see that Muslims are contributing and are human, and to boost the morale of the Muslim community.”

The event was attended by the San Francisco Bay Area office of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR-SFBA).

This is not the first time California has designated a month to recognize the contributions of the Muslim-American community.

In 2014, the Los Angeles City Council adopted a resolution declaring July 2014 as Muslim American Heritage Month.