Remembering our friend – Courtney Lonergan

You may have heard that on Thursday, June 12, 2021, around 3:45PM, three shining beacons in our lives and our world, Courtney Lonergan, and her two oldest children Ali and Almira were dimmed, to only be brightened, more than ever, in Heaven above.

This has all been so unspeakably hard for all of us to fathom and understand for our family, at home, our activist family in our passion at the American Islamic Forum for Democracy and our family globally at the Muslim Reform Movement. Courtney literally facilitated, led, and made productive every important meeting we had for almost 15 years. She also served selflessly on our Board of Directors at AIFD for the last five years. I know that forever, I will still continue to try, out of habit to pick up the phone and dial her Alaska area code or DM her (twitter @AlaskanMuslim) in order to ask her for advice in human relations, goal setting, life, and so much else. She had a treasured wisdom and righteousness.

Courtney, Ali and Almira are survived by Aracelli (14) who was at home when the horrific accident happened Thursday afternoon. Aracelli will especially need all of our prayers and support. Everyone who knew them loved them deeply. Ali shared his story with Pat McMahon as the Golden Rule Student of the Month. You can see it here: https://www.aztv.com/…/novembers-golden-rule-student…

A clip from a recent global Muslim Reform Movement webinar of ours is also below. Here’s a link literally weeks ago to our full discussion in one of our most recent discussions with Courtney and Asra Nomani from April where we talked about “Angels on Earth: Why Muslims should embrace Dogs as Pets”. See: https://youtu.be/ZKk3o-Yrajw

How will we continue do all this without her? We must. For. Her. Her family. Her faith. For God.

Every one of us at the Muslim Reform Movement (MRM) will testify to how much she loved her family, humanity and her faith of Islam. She taught us every day how to be loving, faithful, unbiased, fair, genuine, and humane. Each and every day as we continue to live by her example in humanity and her spirit, she and her children will look down on us in their infinite smiles.

AIFD has set up a dedicated Memorial Fund in Courtney’s family name. If you’d like to contribute any amount, you can donate at this link https://aifdemocracy.org/take-action/donate/ and please email us at info@aifdemocracy.org to confirm and/or just note in the submission note that funds are intended for the:

**Courtney Lonergan Memorial Fund

We will ensure that 100% of that donation is provided to her surviving daughter Aracelli for her support.

We will do our best to keep you apprised of any further information. There will be a celebration of life planned with many of her communities in the coming weeks.