Source: Newsday
On October 20, 2004 Newsday reported, "on Nov. 15, during the Muslim holiday of Eid, [a progressive Muslim movement] will launch in Manhattan as the Progressive Muslim Union of North America, the first national organization devoted to liberal Muslim projects. The group's goals are ambitious: nothing less than the redefinition of what it means to be Muslim in the modern world, emphasizing values of social justice and gender equality, and calling for a fresh reading of Islam's 1,400-year-old texts... With just weeks to go until the launch, Ahmed Nassef [co-founder of MuslimWakeup.com] and other organizers are lining up a board that is a global Who's Who of Muslim leaders, from former Pakistani ambassador to Britain Akbar Ahmed to Muslim Public Affairs Council director Salem Al-Marayati. Plans for a conference at Harvard Divinity School in March to kick off the movement also are under way with seed money provided by Harvard's Pluralism Project."