So it begins.

Utah’s Islamic community has mushroomed from a simple student-led prayer group in the 1950s to more than 60,000 Muslims of varied ethnicities and a dozen mosques today.

The recently organized Utah Muslim Civic League aims to fill that gap.

Launched just before last fall’s midterm elections, the league worked to register Muslim voters, brought candidates to the closest mosque and hosted phone banks on behalf of several candidates. Going forward, organizers plan to register more Islamic voters as well as sponsor community forums and town hall meetings so Muslims can meet the candidates and pose pointed questions to them.

“We are looking to educate and advocate for our vulnerable populations so any policymaker can understand what we stand for,” Luna Banuri, a member of the league’s board, said at the group’s inaugural luncheon Tuesday at Westminster College in Salt Lake City. “We are trying to find candidates for volunteer positions in township and school districts.”

In terms of political action, she said, the team hopes to one day have Muslim candidates for office and, before that, to have Islamic congressional staffers who can begin to build a network of support.

What are those issues? The League’s site operates entirely in terms of generalities with no specifics. But a clue can be garnered based on who showed up to the party.

The luncheon’s keynote speaker, Dalia Mogahed, is the director of research at the D.C. institute.

I’ll skip the rest of the victimhood and hijab promotion for a little background.

In a July 4, 2009 speech to the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), Mogahed depicted supporters of violent jihad as people who crave freedom and democracy but “believe more than do the mainstream that their society, their faith and their way of life is threatened, militarily threatened and in some ways even culturally threatened by the West.” 

Yes, it’s in Utah too.