A group of young Muslim men fanned out across the Mall shortly after sunrise Sunday to pick up litter and empty trash cans.
Following President Trump’s warning Friday that a partial government shutdown could last for months or even years, the men arrived with trash bags and gloves to do what the federal government is no longer doing collecting trash. Their peers were doing the same over the weekend in national parks in Pennsylvania, Florida, California and Ohio.
It’s just what we do, Sarmad Bhatti, 23, said as he emptied trash cans along Independence Avenue. If there’s an opportunity to serve, that is what Muslims do.
The men are part of the youth group of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, a branch of Islam that preaches about the importance of tolerance and has faced persecution around the world. The group, whose members’ ages range from 15 to 40, said part of its goal is to dispel negative stereotypes about Muslims and to increase understanding of Islam, a core tenet of which is service.
“It’s our duty to come in and serve not as a show, but as an act of faith, said Saud Iqbal, a 33-year-old information technology specialist. I don’t think people realize that.
Bhatti and Iqbal wore yellow vests with an American flag stitched on the back and black lettering that read Muslims for Loyalty. Together, they lugged a full trash bag from the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden toward their meeting spot near the Capitol.
We’re just as American as anybody else, Iqbal said. We’re just as loyal as anybody else.
When they stopped to catch their breath, nearly two hours into collecting trash, a passing jogger smiled and thanked them for volunteering.
Throughout the country, volunteers, cities, states and private agencies are attempting to fill the void created by the shutdown. They are doing so with little certainty about reimbursement and no sense of when the shutdown, now in its third week, will end.
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association, which has more than 5,000 members nationwide, organized cleanups at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Everglades National Park in Florida, Joshua Tree National Park in California and Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio.
At least seven people have died at national park sites since the shutdown began at midnight on Dec. 21. The parks have been largely unsupervised, trash cans are overflowing and toilets are locked or not being serviced.
In the District, the city is paying for trash removal at the Mall and other federal parks at a cost of approximately $46,000 a week. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) has urged Trump to end the shutdown, saying it hurts the city’s residents and businesses.
Many of the approximately 30 volunteers Sunday said they were surprised to see little obvious litter or overflowing trash cans on the sidewalks between the Washington Monument and the Capitol. But they did find full cans in need of emptying at the base of the Capitol, near the George Mason Memorial, and on Independence Avenue.