cair-net Digest of: get.1301_1400
Topics (messages 1301 through 1400):
CAIR-NET: U.S. Muslims Face Unfair Question/Can Kerry Convince Muslim
Voters?
1301 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: IL Muslims Condemn Candidate's Comments/OH Muslims Meet
Candidates
1302 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Muslims Welcome Court Ruling Against Patriot Act
1303 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: New Poll Measures Hostility to Islam in U.S.
1304 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: IL Groups to Protest Candidate's Islamophobic Remarks/TX Man
Pleads Guilty to Threatening Mosque
1305 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Last Day to Register for CAIR-DC Dinner
1306 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: 350 Arrested in Federal Crackdown/Fake 'Muslims' Land in
Court
1307 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: CAIR-DC Dinner Sold Out/Muslim Teens Help Build Habitat Homes
1308 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Poll: 1-in-4 Americans Holds Anti-Muslim Views
1309 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Muslim Lawyer Sues FBI/Muslims Mobilize for Elections
1310 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Film About Prophet Muhammad to Open in Theaters
1311 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: NY Muslims Growing Closer Since 9/11
1312 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: H.R.10 Viewed as Expansion of Patriot Act/Muslims Seek Bloc
Vote
1313 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Feces Smeared on North Dakota Mosque, Police Protection
Sought
1314 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Mosques Urged to Reach Out with 'Sharing Ramadan' Iftars
1315 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Killing Condemned/CA Muslims Hold Candidate Forum
1316 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: GOP Chief Faults Patriot Act/Muslims Could Prove Crucial in
Election
1317 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: WA Muslims Rally for Detainee/2,000 Attend CAIR-LA Banquet
1318 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: CAIR Celebrates 10 Years of Progress/Police Chief to Fast for
Ramadan
1319 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Muslim Vote's Impact Weighed/FBI Questions Muslims Before
Debate
1320 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: CAIR Presidential Election Survey
1321 by: survey.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: OH Muslims to Feed the Needy/CAIR Condemns Gaza Killings
1322 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Calif. Muslims Launch Ramadan Radio Ads
1323 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Help CAIR Raise $1 Million During Ramadan
1324 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Ramadan Adds a Political Dimension/Muslim Candidate Blazes
Trail
1325 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Scowcroft Says Bush is 'Mesmerized' by Sharon
1326 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Muslim Vote Shifting to Kerry/Double Standard Alleged in Spy
Charges
1327 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: U.S. Rejects Muslims' Plea for 'Approved' Charities
1328 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Help Get Out Ohio's Muslim Vote
1329 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Muslim Vote Shifts to Kerry/Muslim Girl Sues School System
1330 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: National Muslim PAC to Announce Presidential Endorsement
1331 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Muslim Coalition Offers Qualified Kerry Endorsement
1332 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Calif. Prof Suggests Genocide Against Muslims
1333 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Poll - Muslim Voters Overwhelmingly Favor Kerry
1334 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Muslims Must Fight AIDS/Mosque Attack Brings Indictment
1335 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: San Diego Orders Removal of Ramadan Banners
1336 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Muslims Seen Abandoning Bush
1337 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: CAIR Offers Training for FBI, Hospital Chaplains/Bias
Complaint Filed Against Circuit City
1338 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Ramadan Banners Go Up Again in San Diego
1339 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: 'Get Out the Muslim Vote' a Success/Bigotry at ABC/Muslim
Voter Guide
1340 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Florida Muslims Mobilize to Get Out the Vote
1341 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: American Imams to Call for Release of Iraq Hostages
1342 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: U.S. Imams Say Iraq Hostage-Takers Violate Islamic Beliefs
1343 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: ABC Host Apologizes for Quran Remark/CA Muslim PAC Launches
Website
1344 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Muslims Urged to Vote in Record Numbers
1345 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Slurs Used During Attack on Muslim Student/Muslim Vote Shifts
1346 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Take CAIR's Muslim Voter Exit Poll
1347 by: survey.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Mosque Vandalism May be Hate Crime/Canadian Group Asked to
Repudiate Terror Comments
1348 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Exit Poll - 93 Percent of Muslims Voting for Kerry
1349 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Schools Alter Rules to Fit Religions/Mosque Fire May Have
Been Arson
1350 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Muslims Feed the Needy in FL, OH/CAIR Congratulates President
Bush
1351 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Calif. Beating Victim Told 'Go Back to Iraq'
1352 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Open Letter to Muslims on the Nov. 2 Elections
1353 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Secret Evidence in Canada/Muslim Rappers/NC Muslims Seek
Apology
1354 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Sample Eid News Release for Use by Local Communities
1355 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Moral Mission May Unify Muslims, Americans
1356 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Maryland County Prohibits Hearings on Muslim Holidays
1357 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: House Members Host Ramadan Iftar on Capitol Hill
1358 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: CAIR Offers Condolences on Death of Yasser Arafat
1359 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Muslims Committed to Peace/Suit Filed in Beating of S. Asians
1360 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: CAIR Says Civilians in Fallujah Must Receive Aid
1361 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: U.S. Probes Shooting of Wounded Iraqi/FL Muslims Give to
Needy
1362 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Hassan Murder Condemned/800 Civilians Feared Dead in Fallujah
1363 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Palestinians Called 'Filthy Animals' on MSNBC's 'Imus'
1364 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: MA Police Probe Anti-Muslim Flier/FL Muslims Feed the Needy
1365 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: MSNBC 'Imus' Segment Refers to 'Raghead Cadaver'
1366 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: CAIR Condemns Mosque Attack/Detainee 'Has No Fingernails
Left'
1367 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Tenn. Muslims Denied Right to Cemetery
1368 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: 'Stinking Animals'/Headscarf Day/Muslims in Foster Care
1369 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: MSNBC Apologizes for 'Imus' Remark/Suspect Says He Killed 12
Muslims
1370 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: FL Muslims to Feed the Needy/TN Muslims Abandon Cemetery Plan
1371 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: FL Catholic, Muslim Communities to Create Awareness
1372 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: American Muslims Get TV Network of Their Own
1373 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: GA School Divided Over Muslim Prayer/Racist Graffiti Left at
VA Fire
1374 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: FBI Asked to Assist Probe of VA Fire, Racist Graffiti
1375 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Canada Probes 'Imus' Slurs/Red Cross Finds Gitmo Abuse
1376 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: VA Arson Probed as Hate Crime/CAIR-FL Trains FBI on Islam
1377 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: FBI Asked to Make 'Spy Files' Public/FBI Raids AIPAC
1378 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Jummah Case Resolved/Pipes Drops Accusation/'No Mecca, No
Prayer'
1379 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Hip-Hop and Islam/Retina Scans for Fallujans/Muslims
Reciprocate Fast
1380 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Muslims Help Fight Terrorism/GA Schools Accommodate Religion
1381 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Arizona Muslims to Call for FBI Probe of Mosque Fire
1382 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Ex-CIA Official Says Terror is From Quran/CAIR-NY Attends
U.N. Islamophobia Seminar
1383 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Muslims in U.S., Canada Ask Wiesenthal Center to Condemn
Anti-Islam Remarks
1384 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Two U.S. Mosques Burned in One Week/Feds Asked to Rule Out
Hate Crimes
1385 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Intel Bill Worries Liberties Groups/Muslims Fear Arson Hit
Mosque/FBI Steps Up AIPAC Probe
1386 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: MA Mosque Fire Was Set/Iranian Couple Fired in WV/Arab Actors
Hope for Change
1387 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Shooter, Vandals Target Arizona Muslim Family
1388 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Reward Offered on Incidents Targeting AZ Muslims/CAIR Opens
VA Office
1389 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: CA Town Hall Meeting to Address Targeting of Muslims
1390 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Judge Rules U.S. Detainee May Have Rights
1391 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: 44% of Americans Would Curtail Muslim Civil Rights
1392 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: A Muslim-Christian Link/Dubious Evidence in Spy Hunt
1393 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Treatment Sought for Detained Calif. Muslim Leader
1394 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Most States Allow Hijab in Driver Photos/MD Muslim Allowed
Scarf in ID Photo
1395 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Calif. Muslims Vent Frustrations/Prisoners Wrapped in Israeli
Flags
1396 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: VA Muslims to Feed the Homeless/Islamophobia Spreading
1397 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: TX School Group Questions 'Spread of Islam in America'
1398 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: Muslim Youth Forge Own Path in America
1399 by: cair.cair-net.org
CAIR-NET: CAIR, MPAC Discuss Muslim Concerns with DHS Officials
1400 by: cair.cair-net.org
---------------------------------
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 9/27/04
* VERSE OF THE DAY: WORDS OF PEACE
* QUOTE OF THE DAY: WHY JOIN CAIR?
* MUSLIM-AMERICANS FACE UNFAIR QUESTION (Knight Ridder)
- CAIR-Albany: Muslims Make Skies Friendlier (Times Union)
- CAIR-Ohio: Muslim Warns of Threat to Civil Rights (Blade)
* CA: CAN KERRY CONVINCE MUSLIM VOTERS? San Jose Mercury News
* MN: U.S. WRONGLY REJECTS MUSLIM SCHOLARS (Minnesota Daily)
- Oh, Baby Baby it's a Wild World (Atlanta Journal)
* NH: FAMILY ORGANIZES FOOD DRIVE FOR MUSLIM REFUGEES (AP)
-----
VERSE OF THE DAY: WORDS OF PEACE
"True servants of the Compassionate (God) are those who walk the earth
in
humility and when ignorant people address them, they reply with [words
of]
peace."
The Holy Quran, 25:63
-----
QUOTE OF THE DAY: WHY JOIN CAIR?
Orlando Sentinel, 9/26/04
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/nationworld/orl-sptletters26092604sep2
6,1,6561871.story
(Scroll Down.)
"As a Muslim American, I decided to join CAIR to retake my faith from
those
hijackers who attacked my country and took my faith hostage along with
four
planes."
Ehsan Poonawalla
New Brunswick, N.J.
TO BECOME A MEMBER OF CAIR:
https://www.cair-net.org/asp/membership.asp
-----
MUSLIM-AMERICANS FACE UNFAIR QUESTION
LEONARD PITTS JR., Knight Ridder, 9/27/04
http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/editorial/9767350.htm
You could tell he'd had enough.
I'm talking about Ibrahim Hooper. If the name is familiar, it's because
Hooper, spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based Council on
American-Islamic Relations, has become the news media's go-to guy on
issues
related to Islam and terrorism.
This particular morning, he was being interviewed on an all-news radio
station in Washington when the anchor asked a pointed, predictable
question: Why don't we ever hear Muslims and Muslim leaders condemn
terrorist atrocities carried out in the name of their faith?
You could almost hear the vein in Hooper's temple throb. He answered in
a
frustrated voice that he in fact condemns such barbarity all the time
and
that he e-mails statements saying so to a wide variety of news outlets,
including this particular anchor's own station. The newsman said he'd
never
received such a statement. Hooper asked for his e-mail address.
He was still fuming when I reached him by phone an hour later. The
question, he said, surfaces in every radio interview. "I spend half my
time
writing condemnations of terrorism," he told me, "and nobody seems to
be
paying attention. And when we say something like, 'Gee, an Islamic
Center
in El Paso was firebombed on Friday; isn't that worthy of condemnation
too?' ... it's almost as if people believe Muslims deserve it…"
I support CAIR's contention that it condemns Islamic terrorism, having
frequently seen such statements in news coverage and on the group's Web
site. "I don't know what more we can do," Hooper said...
But the rules are different for minorities, whether religious, sexual
or
racial. Them we keep on probation, their acceptance conditioned on an
unspoken understanding that their loyalty to our mores is always
suspect.
It's not fair, but it is real. So Hooper swallows his frustration and
dutifully sends out a statement of condemnation every time some Muslim
fanatic misbehaves.
At the end of our conversation, I thanked him for his time. He asked
for my
e-mail address.
SEE ALSO:
MUSLIMS SEEK TO MAKE THE SKIES A BIT FRIENDLIER
Islamic group, Albany airport team up to train workers, educate fliers
CATHY WOODRUFF, Times Union, 9/27/04
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=289314&category=REGIO
N&BCCode=HOME&newsdate=9/27/2004
COLONIE -- If you think your trips through the nation's ramped-up
airport
security gauntlet can be a hassle, imagine the experience if you were a
devout Muslim woman dressed in a traditional head scarf and modest,
flowing
clothing.
Consider the anxiety you might feel if you traveled with a copy of your
holy book, the Quran, in your carry-on bag. What if your name were
Ahmed or
Mohamed or Abdul?
Fathom this, and you're getting some sense of what many Muslims say air
travel has been like ever since 19 Muslim men hijacked four airplanes
on
Sept. 11, 2001.
"Airports are always a place where, I think, most of us feel
uncomfortable," said Faisal Ahmad, a member of the local chapter of the
Council on American Islamic Relations and one of those who recently
approached Albany International Airport officials to open a dialogue.
As a result of a meeting last month, members of the Islamic Speakers
Bureau
of Albany are slated to present a series of workshops for workers at
the
airport, including Transportation Security Administration screeners,
airline employees and others.
In turn, airport officials are scheduled to visit the Islamic Center of
the
Capital District in Colonie next month to talk about what travelers can
expect when they pass through the airport…
---
AMERICAN MUSLIM WARNS OF THREAT TO CIVIL RIGHTS
JANE SCHMUCKER, Toledo Blade, 9/27/04
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040927/NEWS10/409270
359/-1/NEWS
In their fear after Sept. 11, Americans have forgotten they are a land
of
immigrants, an Islamic civil rights leader said in a speech to about
325
people in Toledo last night.
Julia A. Shearson, director of the Council of American-Islamic
Relations
office in Cleveland, illustrated her point by talking about a Cleveland
grandmother arrested in a child-custody dispute.
Speaking at the United Muslims Association of Toledo's annual Unity
Dinner,
she said jailers forced the woman to remove her Islamic head scarf and
did
not allow her to wear it to court.
She said she was disturbed that the woman was not allowed to practice
her
religion, a basic right in the United States.
"That's why we came to this country," said Ms. Shearson, a recent
convert
to Islam whose ancestors came over on the Mayflower. "Have we truly
forgotten that?"
It was one of several stories that Ms. Shearson used to show how civil
rights have eroded since the war on terrorism began in 2001.
"There's thousands of examples like this," said Ehsan Khan of Ottawa
Hills,
who applauded Ms. Shearson's speech in the Stranahan Theatre Great
Hall.
In another case, a mother of three who had never filled out the
paperwork
for legal status was deported while her case was pending before an
immigration court.
"That's wrong. That's un-American," Ms. Shearson said. "I'm not saying
she
had a right to stay here. But she had a right to have her day in
court."
She also talked about a man from Kent, Ohio, who allegedly has direct
connections to the al-Qaeda terrorist network. He has been jailed for
two
years without the filing of charges. Ms. Shearson said she does not
know if
the allegations are true, but she said two years is too long to hold a
person without charges…
-----
CAN KERRY CONVINCE MUSLIM VOTERS?
Javed Ellahie, San Jose Mercury News, 9/27/04
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/opinion/9770729.htm
The 2004 election could be one of the closest elections ever, and the
candidate who wins may yet again be the one who receives fewer overall
votes. American Muslim organizations endorsed President Bush in 2000,
and
the Muslim vote could play a decisive role in 2004.
New California Media and Amnesty International recently conducted a
joint
poll of Americans of Arab, Iranian and Pakistani descent, who number
1.8
million and are concentrated in the "swing vote" states. The poll
indicates
that 73 percent of Arab-Americans and 78 percent of Muslim Americans
oppose
President Bush on Iraq. Translating this into Kerry votes on Election
Day
depends on how Kerry addresses the concerns of American Muslims.
This is the question American Muslims ask: Is Kerry a leader who is
willing
to recognize that American Muslims now live in an America far different
from the one that preceded Sept. 11, 2001? This is an America where
Muslims
are scrutinized, stereotyped, subjected to regular visits by the feds,
strip-searched, jailed and, if lucky, deported…
Kerry can turn this perception around by personally addressing the
concern
of American Muslims, attending Muslim events, visiting mosques and
encouraging other Democratic contenders to do the same. The holy month
of
Ramadan, in which a large number of Muslims attend mosques and
religious
events, starts on Oct. 16 and provides a rare opportunity for Kerry to
do
so, just prior to the November elections…
-----
U.S. WRONGLY REJECTS MUSLIM SCHOLARS
Mohamed H. Sabur, Minnesota Daily, 9/27/09
http://www.mndaily.com/articles/2004/09/27/10378
How can America encourage 'the voices of moderation and tolerance and
pluralism within the Muslim world' when, because of fearful ignorance,
we
insult and exclude them?" The words of Diana Eck, director of the
Harvard
University Pluralism Project, resonate all too clearly in "homeland
security" events of the past few weeks.
The rejection of prominent Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan and peace
activist
Yusuf Islam from entering the country has only furthered the view that
the
Bush administration's war on terrorism is haphazard at best.
Turning away professor Ramadan, recognized by Time magazine as one of
the
20th century's top-100 innovators, from his position as a professor of
religion, conflict and peace-building at Notre Dame University,
alienates
the very Muslim thinkers the administration calls upon to denounce the
atrocities committed by terrorists in the name of Islam.
Ramadan, an author and respected scholar in Europe, has an established
record of speaking out against anti-Semitism, narrow literalism and
militant interpretations of the Quran. He is exactly the kind of
intellectual the United States should be engaging, especially
considering
the rise of high-visibility extremism. Instead, his previously granted
work
visa was revoked by the Department of Homeland Security without
explanation. In so doing, this administration sends a clear message
that
academic freedom, and positive and progressive dialogue are unwelcome
here.
This week, the Department of Homeland Security also turned away
prominent
Muslim musician-turned-peace-activist Islam, formerly Cat Stevens, from
entering the country. His flight from London to Washington, was
diverted
600 miles to Bangor, Maine, where he was questioned and detained.
Islam,
who visited the United States just two months ago, was turned away on
national security grounds but without details about any risk he might
pose.
Speaking with Secretary of State Colin Powell, British Foreign
Secretary
Jack Straw made clear the action "should not have been taken." British
officials claim there is no evidence Islam posed any danger...
What more does the administration want from Muslim intellectuals? In
turning away Ramadan and Islam, mainstream Muslims worldwide will
understand that even those who seek peace and condemn terror are not
fit to
enter the United States…
SEE ALSO:
OH, BABY BABY IT'S A WILD WORLD
JAY BOOKMAN, Atlanta Journal, 9/27/04
http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/bookman/index.html
Last week, the U.S. government deported the artist formerly known as
Cat
Stevens, now named Yusuf Islam, on grounds that he posed a terror
threat.
That seems far-fetched, especially given that the former pop singer had
strongly condemned the attacks of Sept. 11 and other attacks on
innocent
people. But officials nonetheless insisted that they had good grounds
for
their decision.
"The intelligence community has come into possession of additional
information that further raises our concern," a spokesman said,
refusing to
explain further. "It's a serious matter."
In other words, trust us.
In times such as these, there's a natural instinct to want to trust our
government. But that trust would be much stronger if not for cases such
as
that of Capt. James Yee, the 1990 West Point grad and Muslim chaplain
at
Guantanamo Bay who was arrested and charged with spying for al-Qaida.
After
holding Yee in solitary for 76 days and threatening the death penalty,
military authorities were finally forced to admit they had no case. Yee
was
returned to active duty and just received his honorable discharge.
Then there's Brandon Mayfield, a convert to Islam and an attorney in
Portland, Ore. He was arrested by the FBI on suspicion of involvement
with
deadly railroad bombings in Madrid, even though Mayfield hadn't left
the
country in years and had no contact with Islamic extremists…
The list goes on and on. In Detroit, the convictions of two men for
supporting terrorism were thrown out when it was discovered the
prosecution
had withheld evidence that would have cleared them. In upstate New
York,
two Muslims charged with money-laundering in a terrorism case were
released
when it was learned that the prosecution was based on an incorrect
translation from Arabic. In Idaho, a grad student from Saudi Arabia was
cleared by a jury of charges he had assisted terrorists by setting up
Islamic Web sites. And of the thousands of foreign nationals rounded up
by
John Ashcroft's Justice Department after Sept. 11, not one has been
convicted of charges relating to terrorism…
Any passenger screening system must guarantee citizens the right to
challenge their inclusion on a no-fly list. Freedom to travel, after
all,
is an integral part of the American concept of liberty. If government
can
unilaterally decide which citizens can fly and which cannot, without
having
to justify that decision, we will have adopted an internal visa system
just
like that used by totalitarian countries to dictate the movement of
their
citizens. That's not acceptable, not in this country.
-----
FAMILY ORGANIZES FOOD DRIVE FOR MUSLIM REFUGEES
Associated Press, 9/27/04
http://www.thechamplainchannel.com/wnne/3763180/detail.html
WINDHAM, N.H. -- Four years after they started a food drive for Muslim
refugees in southern New Hampshire and central Massachusetts, the Khan
family's tradition has helped dozens of people uprooted from war-torn
nations struggling to make new homes in a new land.
The refugees come from Afghanistan and Sudan, from Kosovo and Bosnia
and
beyond, and find some measure of relief in the welcoming efforts led by
the
Khans and other Muslim families.
"We help to reassure them that they are not alone here," said family
matriarch Lubna Khan.
The food drive coincides with Ramadan, the holiest observance for
followers
of Islam. Collected food will be distributed to about 100 families.
Several groups are pitching in, including mosques, the Muslim Student
Association at Saint Anselm College, Islamic societies in both states
and
Catholic and Lutheran charities.
Khan said the family, which immigrated from Pakistan more than two
decades
ago, started the food drive to get Muslim youth involved in the
community
and help them practice charity -- a basic tenet of their faith.
"They need to learn the importance of community and charity, and they
need
to be helping," she said…
-----
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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
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In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 9/28/04
* VERSE OF THE DAY: GOD ENJOINS JUSTICE
* CINCINNATI MUSLIMS TO MEET WITH CANDIDATES
- 500 Turn Out for CAIR-Houston Dinner
- CAIR-CT: Muslim Advocacy Group Opens Office
* CAIR-CHICAGO: MUSLIMS CONDEMN CANDIDATE'S COMMENTS
- CAIR Speaks Out Against Terrorism (Washington Post)
* TX: NEW HOME TRANSCENDS RELIGIONS (Tyler Morning Telegraph)
- Muslim, Rabbi Sending Message of Tolerance (KLTV)
* JEWS, MUSLIMS DENOUNCE HATE MAIL (New Zealand Herald)
* FL: MUSLIM WOMEN COVER TO SHOW MODESTY (Times-Union)
- CAIR-FL: Hijab Sign of Modesty, Pride (Tampa Trib)
-----
VERSE OF THE DAY: GOD ENJOINS JUSTICE
"God enjoins justice, the doing of good and generosity to others. And
He
forbids all that is shameful and that runs counter to reason."
The Holy Quran, 16:90
-----
CINCINNATI MUSLIMS TO MEET WITH CANDIDATES
Town hall meeting will encourage political participation
(CINCINNATI, OH, 9/28/04) - On Friday, October 1, the Cincinnati office
of
the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Cincinnati), Muslim
American Society (MAS), Muslim Student Association (MSA)-Xavier
University,
and the Muslim Education and Cultural Institute (MECI)-University of
Cincinnati, will host an "Election 2004 Town Hall Meeting" with local
and
state political candidates.
WHAT: Election 2004 Town Hall Meeting
WHERE: Kelly Auditorium, Alter Hall, Xavier University, Cincinnati,
Ohio
WHEN: Friday, October 1, 2004, 7 - 9 p.m.
CONTACT: CAIR-Ohio Cincinnati Office Director Karen Dabdoub,
513-281-8200,
E-Mail: cincinnati@cair-ohio.com
At the town hall meeting, political candidates will address issues of
concern to American Muslims, and Muslim leaders will encourage
increased
political participation by members of the Islamic community. The event
is
free and open to the public, but seating is limited. To reserve a place
at
the town hall meeting, contact: CAIR-Ohio Cincinnati office,
513-281-8200,
E-Mail: cincinnati@cair-ohio.com
"We are very pleased with the Muslim community's response to our voter
registration drives and other political empowerment efforts," said
CAIR-Cincinnati Executive Committee President Brent Meyer. "That
response
indicates an increased awareness among American Muslims that
participation
in the electoral process is a necessity, not just an option." (As a
non-profit group, CAIR does not endorse candidates, but does encourage
political participation.)
Ohio is home to an estimated 150,000 Muslims.
CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, has 29 regional
offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada.
CONTACT: Karen Dabdoub, 513-281-8200, E-Mail: cincinnati@cair-ohio.com;
CAIR-Cincinnati Executive Committee President Brent Meyer, 513-276-1600
SEE ALSO:
500 TURN OUT FOR CAIR-HOUSTON DINNER
(HOUSTON, TX) - More than 500 people, including elected officials and
community leaders attended the annual fundraising banquet of CAIR's
Houston, Texas, office (CAIR-Houston) on Saturday.
Speakers and attendees at the event included Rep. Shelia Jackson-Lee
(D-TX), Jerry Paterson the Texas Land Commissioner, Sugar Land, Texas,
May
David Wallace, Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt, Houston City Council
members M.J. Khan and Gordon Quan, a number of state and local
representatives of the ACLU, the EEOC, and many interfaith leaders.
"We would like to thank all our speakers, coalition partners and
supporters
who made our event such a success," said CAIR-Houston President Tarek
Hussein.
CONTACT: CAIR-Houston, 713-838-2247, info@cairhouston.org
---
MUSLIM ADVOCACY GROUP OPENS OFFICE
JENNY BONE MILLER, Norwich Bulletin, 9/26/04
http://www.norwichbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040926/NEWS01/40
9260307&SearchID=73185253370040
NEW LONDON-- The first New England chapter of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations opened Saturday with a reception downtown.
The advocacy group at 165 State St. will be available to the roughly
300 to
500 Muslims in Norwich, New London and Groton. The group says if area
Muslims suffer civil rights violations, they will fight to oppose the
Patriot Act, which leaders say discriminates against Muslims.
"Back in the '60s when blacks had their movement, they were
discriminated
against because of their color. Now Muslims are discriminated against
because of their faith," Hamza Collins, civil rights director for the
new
center, said.
Leaders say they will also work toward promoting a more positive image
of
Islam.
The center, which is run by five volunteers, will serve the entire
region,
Collins said. Previously, the closest of the 28 CAIR chapters was in
New
York City.
There are no lawyers in the local chapter, but the national
organization
can provide free legal help to those who need it and are approved…
-----
MUSLIMS CONDEMN CANDIDATE'S COMMENTS
Kara Spak, Daily Herald, 9/28/04
http://www.dailyherald.com/mchenry/main_story.asp?intID=3825838
The Republican challenger to three-term Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky
said
Monday he's distrusted Islam "for years" and supports the federal
government planting human monitors in mosques to track the activity of
those practicing the religion there.
Kurt Eckhardt's comments brought swift criticism from Schakowsky and
Muslim
groups, who described his remarks as inaccurate and dangerous.
"This feeds the cycle of misunderstanding, feeds the cycle of
prejudice,
feeds the cycle of hate crimes," said Yaser Tabbara, executive director
of
the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Tabbara's organization, North America's largest Islamic civil rights
group,
is working to promote the mainstream Muslim voice, which does not
condone
violence.
"We are unequivocally opposed to terrorism," he said. "Our religion
does
not condone it in any way…"
Eckhardt said terrorist acts were not "aberrational behavior" by a few
extreme Muslims but possibly part of a broader culture.
"Where is the voice of reason in the Islamic community?" Eckhardt said.
"There is none, except in nations we control."
Schakowsky, an Evanston Democrat, said terrorism or calls to violence
were
"not at all" inherent in Islam.
"Going in with the suspicion that every mosque is somehow a breeding
ground
for terrorism defies all the information," she said...
CONTACT: CAIR-Chicago Yaser Tabbara, 312-718-3725, 312-212-1520,
E-Mail:
director@cairchicago.org
SEE ALSO:
SPEAKING OUT AGAINST TERRORISM
Washington Post, 9/28/04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55511-2004Sep27.html
I am dismayed that Harris Factor [letters, Sept. 24] and many others
believe and promote the canard that Muslims are not speaking out
against
acts of terrorism, such as the beheadings of two American hostages in
Iraq
last week. It is untrue.
Many Muslim organizations in the United States have spoken out; one of
the
most vocal is the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which has been
circulating a petition since May denouncing acts of terrorism committed
in
the name of Islam. The petition has several hundred thousand
signatures.
In addition, Muslims in Marietta, Ga., recently organized a prayer
vigil in
memory of the slain hostage from their home town.
Many Muslims -- including me -- are vocal in saying that taking
hostages
and other acts of terrorism are contrary to our understanding of Islam.
It
is not fair to stigmatize our religion and all Muslims because of the
aberrant acts of violent extremists.
KRISTIN KEMP
Sterling
-----
NEW HOME TRANSCENDS RELIGIONS
PATRICK BUTLER, Tyler Morning Telegraph, 9/27/04
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=13018903&BRD=1994&PAG=461&dept_id=
227937&rfi=6
It was inspiration, pure and simple.
"Is this the event of the decade or what?" asked an incredulous
audience
member, Shane Payne. He was witnessing the Habitat for Humanity of
Smith
County groundbreaking of Abraham's House, a cooperative effort by the
Tyler's Muslim and Jewish communities, to build a house for a needy
Christian woman and her son, in Tyler on Monday.
That sense of awe was not only Payne's but also a palpable one among
participants at the first-ever cooperative effort between the two
religious
communities in Tyler.
"I'm not aware of any place, anywhere in our nation," said state Rep.
Leo
Berman, R-Tyler, District 6, to the crowd, "where something like this
is
taking place. This attitude is something that should sweep through
Texas,
the nation and all the way to the Middle East."
Not only members of the two religious groups building the home attend
the
mid-day event. Republican and democrat elected officials along with
black
and white pastors were swept into the moment by the spirit of
cooperation
that has been sparked by East Texas Islamic Society spokesman, Anwar
Khalifa, and Rabbi Neal Katz of Tyler's Congregation Beth El.
Declaring that Tyler citizens, "have an obligation to our community to
make
it the best place for every one, Jew, Christian, Muslim, Black, Brown
or
White," Khalifa thanked the Habitat staff for, "allowing us to show the
true side of Islam."
"God says in the Quran," Khalifa said, "'Oh humankind! I have created
you
from a single pair, and male and female, and made you into nations and
tribes that you may come to know one another.' We are all here to serve
God
and God commands us to do good, for us to love for our neighbors, what
we
love for ourselves…"
SEE ALSO:
MUSLIM & RABBI SENDING MESSAGE OF TOLERANCE IN TYLER
http://www.kltv.com/Global/story.asp?S=2355049&nav=1TjDRMoe
Despite opposing beliefs and very different languages, Anwar Khalifa, a
Muslim, and Neal Katz, a Rabbi, feel the season for unity amongst their
cultures is long overdue. The unlikely pair is teaming up with Habitat
for
Humanity of Smith County to build a home for a family in need. It's a
project that's unprecedented in East Texas and in some parts of the
world.
"What we hope is that this project will become a springboard for
dialogue
between our communities," says Rabbi Neal Katz of Congregation Beth El.
Anwar Khalifa with the Muslim Community of East Texas says, "(We want
to)
get the name out about Muslims and Jews that we're here and we care
about
the community…"
-----
JEWS, MUSLIMS DENOUNCE HATE MAIL CAMPAIGN
New Zealand Herald, 9/29/04
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?thesection=news&thesubsection=&st
oryID=3595743
Leaders of Wellington's Muslim and Jewish communities have joined
forces to
denounce the racial hatred that has surfaced in the city.
Somali families in the capital have recently received hate mail,
including
a letter featuring a cartoon showing pigs carrying a coffin saying:
"Muhammad the Pig's" Funeral.
Next to the word funeral the word "Amen" is scrawled in Arabic. Another
contains a scored card of conflicts between Israel and Islam since 1948
-
it also contained the message: "Get out of Israel Islamic pigs."
The community leaders issued a joint statement yesterday saying Muslims
and
Jews were "People of the Book" and had lived together in peace for
hundreds
of years in many communities throughout the world, including
Wellington.
"Together, we denounce all acts inciting hatred as they are contrary to
our
religious, ethical, and civic beliefs. Let us work together, with all
of
New Zealand, to build a healthy society where everyone respects each
others' beliefs ...," the statement said.
The letters - being investigated by police - follow the recent
desecration
of two Jewish cemeteries in the city…
-----
MANY MUSLIM WOMEN COVER HEADS, BODY TO SHOW MODESTY
JUDY WELLS, Times-Union, 9/28/04
http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/092804/dsb_16753117.shtml
It's gaspingly hot on this Jacksonville sidewalk, and the woman swathed
in
a head scarf and ankle-length, long-sleeved robe attracts stares of
curiosity, derision, sympathy, enmity and suspicion.
Curiosity because it's an outfit seen mostly in newscasts from the
Middle
East. Derision because some assume she's backward and uneducated.
Sympathy
because while everyone else is roasting, she must be broiling. Enmity
because she's one of "them," the beasts who attacked our country on
9/11.
And suspicion because, well, despite the little boy walking along with
her,
she might be a terrorist, too.
These are typical reactions faced by students, homemakers, educators
and
executives who are Muslim women observing their religion's tenets of
modesty. It's called hijab, the practice of covering the head and body.
In
some cultures, it's modest Western attire and a head scarf; in the most
extreme cases it's the burqa or abaya, a tentlike garment with a veiled
slit for the eyes. Which version is correct has been a topic of
controversy
for as long as there have been Muslims. At a recent Saturday night
gathering at the Islamic Center of Northeast Florida, women, ranging
from
Iman-look-alike Somalis to a self-described full-blooded Irishwoman,
were
attired in variations of the pants and tunics of India, robes and
Western
clothing.
"I like wearing hijab," said Sabeen Mansoori, from Pakistan, a student
in
education at Florida Community College at Jacksonville. "It is my
identity,
it says something about me without my saying anything at all. It shows
I'm
Muslim. A requirement of my faith? It's a pleasure..."
SEE ALSO:
HIJAB SIGN OF MODESTY, PRIDE FOR USF WEARERS
GARY HABER, Tampa Tribune, 9/26/04
http://tampatrib.com/floridametronews/MGBUITFIKZD.html
TAMPA -- On a college campus where hot weather and MTV make
shoulder-baring
tank tops and above-the-knee skirts the norm for many women, Rehana
Hakeem's modest attire makes her stand out.
The 18-year-old University of South Florida freshman, who is Muslim,
scribbles notes like the rest of her Introduction to Philosophy class.
Unlike them, Hakeem is dressed in khaki pants, a long-sleeved black
T-shirt
and a traditional Muslim head scarf, known as a hijab.
Her light green hijab matches her Kate Spade handbag. Her T- shirt
reads
"Hijab: Oppression or Liberation. I'll decide."
Hakeem, born and raised in Plant City, is a bubbly, thoroughly modern
young
woman. The daughter of a surgeon father, and a mother who manages an
apartment complex, Hakeem plans on becoming a dentist.
She also is among a growing number of female Muslim students at USF who
follow the dictates of the Koran by wearing a hijab and loose-fitting
clothing. According to the Koran, Muslim women should dress in clothes
that
do not accentuate the shape of their bodies and cover all but their
hands
and faces.
Garment A Sign Of Modesty
Wearing a hijab is something that many, but not all, Muslim women
choose
after the age of puberty as a sign of modesty and religious devotion.
About half of the roughly 250 to 400 female Muslin students on campus
wear
hijabs, said Hassan Sultan, president of USF's Muslim Student
Association.
The practice has received more attention on campus after the school
said on
Sept. 10 it would petition the National Collegiate Athletic Association
to
allow a Muslim basketball player to wear a head scarf, long-sleeve
jersey
and long pants on the court.
The player, Andrea Armstrong, later quit the team, saying she did not
want
to become a distraction to her teammates.
USF students who wear the scarfs call it a liberating experience, a
declaration of faith that has brought them closer to their religion.
They
say have experienced few problems on campus.
It has also become a bond at a school where Muslims number fewer than
1,000
out of a student body of nearly 42,000.
Groups of friends exchange them. They hold "hijab parties" to encourage
women who have started to wear them.
Choosing to wear a hijab is a decision made after much introspection,
students such as Hakeem say.
"It's not a phase you're going to grow out of," she said. "It's a
serious
decision you don't take lightly."
Hakeem began wearing a hijab at age 15, while in high school, the only
Muslim student at Tampa's Academy of the Holy Names, a Catholic girl's
school.
Hoping To Dispel Stereotypes
She had been thinking of wearing a hijab for some time, but decided to
do
so after the Sept. 11 attacks. She wanted to identify herself publicly
as a
Muslim.
"I'm not a bold person," Hakeem said. "But I thought it would be a good
thing for people to see there are good Muslims out there."
That was the experience of many other young Muslims, who felt if they
were
more apparent about their faith it could dispel anti- Muslim sentiment,
said Ahmed Bedier, Florida communications director for the Council on
American-Islamic Relations.
"People would recognize that my neighbor is Muslim, my co-worker is
Muslim,
and they're not bad people," Bedier said…
-----
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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
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In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 9/29/04
* HADITH OF THE DAY: MAKE THINGS EASY
*‘MUHAMMAD’ TRAILER TO BE SHOWN AT CAIR-DC DINNER
* MUSLIMS WELCOME COURT RULING AGAINST PATRIOT ACT
- Judge Rules against Patriot Act Provision (Reuters)
* CAIR-CHICAGO: PANEL ON MEDIA COVERAGE OF ISLAM
* CENSUS MORE CAREFUL WITH ARAB-AMERICANS' DATA (Dispatch)
* SUIT CHALLENGES CITY ON MOSQUE PROJECT (Boston Herald)
* PROTECTION FROM HATE? (Examiner)
- Muslim Like Me — Difficult Times (Calgary Sun)
* PELOSI: HATE CRIMES PREVENTION LEGISLATION IS RIGHT THING TO DO
* OFFERINGS FOR ISLAMIC INVESTORS GROWING (AP)
* ISLAMIC SOCIETY HOSTING FOOD FESTIVAL (Courier Press)
-----
HADITH OF THE DAY: MAKE THINGS EASY
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: “God did not make things
harsh, or cause harm, but He sent me to teach and make things easy.”
Sahih Muslim, Hadith 707
-----
‘MUHAMMAD’ TRAILER TO BE SHOWN AT CAIR-DC DINNER
WHAT: The Council on American-Islamic Relations will be hosting its
10th
anniversary fundraising banquet, “Building a Better America: A Decade
of
Dedication.” Speakers include Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader, Imam
Siraj Wahhaj and Amy Goodman from Democracy Now.
A sneak preview of the soon-to-be released Hollywood production
“Muhammad:
the Last Prophet” will also be shown. The animated film features
Prophet
Muhammad’s (peace be upon him) journey, how people started to embrace
Islam, and the immigration to Makkah.
WHEN: SATURDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2004
Registration begins at 6 p.m., program at 7 p.m.
WHERE: Wardman Park Marriott Hotel
2660 Woodley Road, NW, Washington, DC
Tickets: $55/$85 per couple R.S.V.P. by September 29, 2004
No children please. (Limited babysitting with prior notice only - $10
per
child.)
Seats are going fast for CAIR’s 10th Annual Fundraising Banquet,
October 2,
in Washington, D.C. TO REGISTER, GO TO: http://www.cair-net.org/, call
202-488-8787 or 202-646-6043, or e-mail events@cair-net.org (CAIR
dinners
have all sold out in the past, so reserve your tickets today! No
tickets
will be sold at the door.)
-----
MUSLIMS WELCOME RULING AGAINST PATRIOT ACT
Federal court strikes down 'security letter' provision as
unconstitutional
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 9/29/04) - A prominent national Islamic civil rights
and
advocacy group today welcomed a ruling by a federal court which struck
down
as 'unconstitutional' an important provision of USA Patriot Act that
gives
the government unchecked authority to issue "national security letters"
to
obtain sensitive customer records. Judge Victor Marrero of the Southern
District of New York also found a broad gag provision in the law to be
an
"unconstitutional prior restraint" on free speech.
In a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and
New
York Civil Liberties Union, Judge Marrero struck down Section 505 of
USA
PATRIOT on the grounds that it violates free speech rights under the
First
Amendment as well as the right to be free from unreasonable searches
under
the Fourth Amendment.
“This landmark ruling proves that our constitution is still the
fundamental
law of the land and that there are provisions of USA PATRIOT which have
absolutely no place in our legal system,” said CAIR national legal
director
Arsalan Iftikhar.
The ACLU, CAIR and other organizations are also named plaintiffs in
another
federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Section 215 of USA
PATRIOT.
CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, is headquartered
in
Washington, D.C., and has 30 regional offices nationwide and in Canada.
- END -
CONTACT: Arsalan Iftikhar, 202-488-8787 or 202-415-0799, E-Mail:
arsalan@cair-net.org; Rabiah Ahmed, 202-488-8787 or 202-439-1441,
E-Mail:
rahmed@cair-net.org
ALSO SEE:
JUDGE RULES AGAINST PATRIOT ACT PROVISION
Reuters, 9/29/04
http://olympics.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6368607
NEW YORK - Part of the Patriot Act, a central plank of the Bush
Administration's war on terror, was ruled unconstitutional by a federal
judge on Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Victor Marreo ruled in favor of the American Civil
Liberties Union, which challenged the power the FBI has to demand
confidential financial records from companies as part of terrorism
investigations.
The ruling was the latest blow to the Bush administration's
anti-terrorism
policies.
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that terror suspects being held
in
places like Guantanamo Bay can use the American judicial system to
challenge their confinement. That ruling was a defeat for the
president's
assertion of sweeping powers to hold "enemy combatants" indefinitely
after
the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The ACLU sued the Department of Justice, arguing that part of the
Patriot
legislation violated the constitution because it authorizes the FBI to
force disclosure of sensitive information without adequate safeguards.
The judge agreed, stating that the provision "effectively bars or
substantially deters any judicial challenge..."
-----
CAIR-CHICAGO: PANEL ON MEDIA COVERAGE OF ISLAM
Daily Southtown, 9/29/04
http://www.dailysouthtown.com/southtown/yrtwn/seast/292seyt2.htm
A roundtable discussion on media coverage of Arab and Muslim
communities in
the Chicago area will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday at Saint Xavier
University's Warde Academic Center, 3700 W. 103rd St., Chicago.
Panelists will discuss if news organizations are covering Arab and
Muslim
communities with accuracy and if journalists are conveying the Arab and
Muslim experience in the United States.
The Chicago Headline Club will host the event in cooperation with Saint
Xavier's Student Media Department and the Center for Religion and
Public
Discourse.
Panelists and discussion leaders include Sue Sanders of Saint Xavier
University, M. Yaser Tabbara of the Council on American-Islamic
Relations
and Dan Lavoie of the Daily Southtown.
-----
CENSUS TO BE MORE CAREFUL WITH ARAB-AMERICANS' DATA
Tim Doulin, Columbus Dispatch, 9/29/04
http://www.columbusdispatch.com
The U.S. Census Bureau said it will no longer provide information about
Arab-Americans to the Department of Homeland Security without top-level
approval.
The Census Bureau says the statistical data requested by Homeland
Security
listed race, ethnicity and ancestry, down to a person's ZIP code, but
did
not reveal names or any information about individuals.
The bureau also gave Homeland Security a list of cities of more than
10,000
people that have 1,000 or more residents of Arab ancestry. Columbus,
with
4,512 people of Arab ancestry in 2000, was among the cities on the
list.
There had been hesitancy and mistrust of government surveys in the
Arab-American community "even before the current upsurge of racial
profiling,'' said Helen Samhan, executive director of the Arab American
Institute Foundation in Washington D.C.
"We have already had to work very hard to get Arab-Americans to have
confidence in the Census Bureau and fill out the forms and feel that
this
data is valuable,'' she said.
Although the Census Bureau said the information had been on its Web
site
for more than two years, available to anyone who looks for it, it said
it
will no longer provide specialized data to Homeland Security or other
agencies unless top officials sign off on it.
The decision was made after some Arab-Americans and privacy groups
spoke
out that targeting this data amounts to a breach of trust.
"It is disconcerting as to why the Department of Homeland Security is
collecting this information,'' said Jad Humeidan, executive director of
the
Council on American Islamic Relations in Columbus. "Are they collecting
a
list of Arab-Americans in the United States? And what is going to
happen
with this data?...''
-----
SUIT CHALLENGES CITY ON MOSQUE PROJECT
Tom Mashberg, Boston Herald, 9/29/04
http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=46531
A Roxbury resident filed suit yesterday against the city of Boston and
a
controversial new $22 million Islamic center in his neighborhood,
arguing
that Boston violated the separation of church and state when it cut a
complex land deal with the center's developers.
In a suit filed in Suffolk Superior Court, plaintiff James C.
Policastro
alleges two violations each of the state and federal constitutions:
He claims the Boston Redevelopment Authority accepted less than fair
market
value for the parcel of city land where the towering new mosque and
community center are being built. The project is expected to yield the
biggest Islamic institution in the Northeast.
The BRA valued the parcel at $401,187.50. According to the suit, it
took a
cash payment of $175,000 from the center's developers, then made up the
rest of the price tag by valuing at $272,663 a series of benefits the
developers are granting Roxbury Community College.
For example, the BRA assessed the value of a lecture series the Islamic
Society of Boston plans to conduct at the college at $115,598. It
assessed
the value of an Islamic library of 5,000 volumes slated for the
community
college at $80,000.
Policastro claims the valuations are ``substantially inflated,'' and as
a
result the city is unconstitutionally subsidizing a religion - Islam...
-----
PROTECTION FROM HATE?
Justin Nyberg, Examiner, 9/28/04
http://www.examiner.com/article/index.cfm/i/092804n_hate
REDWOOD CITY -- Hate crimes against Jews around the world would be
tracked
by a special government agency should a proposal by local Congressman
Tom
Lantos be approved. But the idea has raised eyebrows among some
organizations questioning why bigotry against one group should be
singled
out for special attention.
Lantos, a Democrat from San Mateo, has authored legislation that would
create an office within the State Department to "monitor and combat"
anti-Semitism around the world.
The bill, HR4230, cites an increase in the scope and frequency of
attacks
against Jews around the world over the last several years as the reason
for
creating the special office.
"We assumed at the Second World War that the nightmare of the Holocaust
would be sufficient to put an end to this horror of anti-Semitism,"
Lantos
said. "This has not been the case; there has been an upsurge of
anti-Semitism, particularly in Europe."
Lantos, a Jewish Holocaust survivor, proposed the idea of a special
office
on anti-Semitism as part of the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act of
2004.
The House International Relations Committee, where Lantos is the
highest-ranking Democrat, will consider the bill Wednesday.
The strongest support for the proposal has come from Jewish groups,
such as
the Anti-Defamation League, which helped craft the legislation...
However, the idea has been criticized by some, including the State
Department itself, who say an office focusing on anti-Semitism would
lead
to charges of favoritism for combating the persecution of a particular
group.
Leaders of some local Arab-American groups pointed out that while hate
crimes against Jews may be rising around the world, Muslims have also
seen
an increase in violence against them since Sept. 11, 2001.
"Really, hate crimes and hate incidents aren't mutually exclusive to
one
group of individuals," said Helal Omeira, executive director of the
local
chapter of the Council for Arab-American Islamic Relations. "The
precedent
could be misinterpreted around the world, as in, 'What about everyone
else?...'"
ALSO SEE:
MUSLIM LIKE ME — DIFFICULT TIMES
Nadia Moharib, Calgary Sun, 9/29/04
http://www.calgarysun.com/perl-bin/niveau2.cgi?s=Lifestyles&p=88675.html&a=1
The perception is that these must be difficult times to be a Muslim in
North America. Muslim militant groups are being blamed for a spate of
terrorism around the globe over the last several years — from the 9/11
tragedy to the Beslan school atrocity in Russia. As North American
security
forces take greater steps each day to protect the continent from terror
attacks, the Sun sent reporter Nadia Moharib, a Christian of Arab
descent,
onto Calgary streets dressed as a traditional Muslim woman to, as the
saying goes, walk in another’s shoes. Here is her first report:
It doesn’t matter that it’s likely the last of the hot days in Calgary.
I’ve modestly got my legs and arms covered in clothing.
And I top it off by pulling on the veil hanging on the back of the
bathroom
door.
To be honest, I don’t know if this is how one keeps a hijab, a veil
worn by
Muslim women, but it didn’t work so well on a hanger.
After a few days, I easily get the morning routine down pat.
I simply line up the hijab’s seam with my chin and pull it over my head
so
the white lace frames my face and hides my hair, ears, neck and chest.
It’s become a bit easier to walk outside, inside this veil. But that’s
not
to say I like it.
Mostly, I suspect, it’s because this isn’t really me.
I am not the Muslim I appear to be.
It’s not so bad meeting strangers, but I have to wonder what my
neighbours
think of my latest fashion statement.
Neighbour Wendy typically sees me sitting on the front porch sipping
red
wine — so I imagine the new look, suggesting I’m a practising Muslim,
is no
doubt a bit odd.
“Are you going to a mosque?” she asks me without skipping a beat.
I feel myself blush and think I should offer an explanation, but then
that
would be an admission that I’m an imposter...
-----
HOUSE DEMOCRATIC LEADER NANCY PELOSI: HATE CRIMES PREVENTION
LEGISLATION IS
RIGHT THING TO DO, LONG OVERDUE
Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) today urged her colleagues to accept
hate crimes provisions that are included in the Defense Authorization
bill.
"We must continue to fight for justice, hope, and freedom by ensuring
that
hate crimes prevention provisions are enacted into law. That would be a
true and fitting memorial to James Byrd, Matthew Shepard, Waqar Hasan,
Gwen
Araujo and so many others who have died because of ignorance and
intolerance," Pelosi said.
For more information contact: Brendan Daly/ Nayyera Haq, 202-226-7616
-----
OFFERINGS FOR ISLAMIC INVESTORS GROWING
Meg Richards, Associated Press, 9/29/04
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/9788966.htm
NEW YORK - For the millions of Muslims in America who want to conduct
their
financial lives according to their faith, there are few options,
especially
when it comes to long-term investing.
Islam has strict rules regarding money, including a sweeping
prohibition on
interest, known as riba. This puts everything from conventional savings
accounts and credit cards to interest-bearing or fixed income
investments
like bonds and Treasuries off limits for faithful Muslims. Islamic law,
or
Shariah, does allow stock investing, however, and a small but growing
number of equity mutual funds are targeting Muslims with portfolios
that
invest only in acceptable, or halal, companies.
Devout Muslims do not drink alcohol, eat pork, gamble, consume
pornography
or accept profits from interest - and any business that profits from
these
activities is haram, or forbidden. That cuts out the entire financial
sector, many retailers, most hotel, restaurant and casino operators,
businesses that are heavily leveraged and companies that derive a
significant portion of revenues from interest on large cash positions.
Makers of weapons and defense products, marketers of tobacco and
polluters
are also considered unacceptable.
"When you're evaluating a company, what one has to do is not only look
at
their primary business, but look at their ancillary businesses, as
well,"
said Monem Salam, director of Islamic investing at Saturna Capital,
investment adviser to the Amana funds. "You really have to dig deep
into
the financials and the annual reports to find this information."
Islamic mutual funds are a subset of socially responsible funds, and
with
the exception of the prohibition on interest, they look a lot like many
portfolios that invest with an eye toward Christian values or even
environmentalism. Because they tend to avoid industrials and utilities,
they often have a growth orientation.
Like socially responsible funds, Islamic funds use a screening process
to
determine which stocks are acceptable. They also consult a panel of
scholars, known as a Shariah board, who help decide whether companies
are
good investments under the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad. Energy
companies, chemical manufacturers, high-tech concerns and telecom
stocks
often pass the test...
-----
ISLAMIC SOCIETY HOSTING FOOD FESTIVAL
Courier Press, 9/29/04
http://www.courierpress.com/ecp/gleaner_news/article/0,1626,ECP_4476_3215703,00.html
The Islamic Society of Evansville will be having its third annual
International Food Festival from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.
The festival is a fund-raiser for the Tri-State Food Bank.
There will be falafel and other Arabic food, beef and chicken shish
kabobs,
baklava and other desserts as well as Pakistani and Malaysian food.
"It's so much fun," said Janice Shah of the Islamic Society. "Food is
universal -- it brings people together through their stomachs."
There will also be a bazaar with clothes, knick knacks, henna tattoos
and
Arabic calligraphy.
The festival will take place outdoors at the Islamic Center, 1332
Lincoln
Ave., just east of U.S. 41-North. There is no admission charge. Food
will
be paid for cafeteria-style.
-----
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To reach the list moderator, send a message to: cair@cair-net.org
-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 9/30/04
- MEDIA ADVISORY -
NEW POLL MEASURES HOSTILITY TO ISLAM IN U.S.
Survey results to be announced at Monday news conference
WHAT: On Monday, October 4, the Council on American-Islamic Relations
(CAIR) will hold a news conference in Washington, D.C., to release the
results of a major survey designed to measure the American public's
level
of hostility to Islam and Muslims.
WHEN: Monday, October 4, 10:30 a.m.
WHERE: National Press Club, Lisagor Room, 13th Floor, National Press
Building, 14th and F Streets, N.W., Washington, D.C.
CONTACT: Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726,
ihooper@cair-net.org
The random phone survey of 1000 Americans, conducted by an independent
research firm, asked questions such as: "When you hear the word
'Muslim,'
what is the first thought that comes to your mind?" and "Do you feel
that
the American Muslim community has been as active as they should be in
condemning acts of terrorism by other Muslims?"
Respondents were also asked whether they agreed or disagreed with a
number
of positive and negative statements about Islam and Muslims, including:
* "Muslims value life less than other people."
* "The Muslim religion teaches violence and hatred."
* "Muslims want to change the American way of life."
Survey responses were then correlated with the interviewee's knowledge
of
Islam, interaction with Muslims, age, income, and political beliefs.
"Unfortunately, a significant number of Americans seem to accept and
internalize anti-Muslim stereotypes," said CAIR Board Chairman Omar
Ahmad.
"This is a problem that needs to be addressed by all those who care
about
our nation's long-standing traditions of tolerance and religious
diversity."
CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, has 29 regional
offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada.
- END -
CONTACT: Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail:
ihooper@cair-net.org; Rabiah Ahmed, 202-488-8787 or 202-439-1441,
E-Mail:
rahmed@cair-net.org
-----
NOTE: CAIR offers an e-mail list designed to be a window to the
American
Muslim community. Subscribers to the list, called CAIR-NET, receive
news
releases and other materials dealing with American Muslim positions on
issues of importance to our society.
To SUBSCRIBE to CAIR-NET, go to: http://cair.biglist.com/cair-net/
-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 9/30/04
* VERSE OF THE DAY: NO COMPULSION IN RELIGION
* ONLY 1 DAY LEFT TO REGISTER FOR CAIR-DC DINNER
* STATE VOTER REGISTRATION DEADLINES
- CAIR: Online Voter Registration Information
* IL GROUPS TO PROTEST CANDIDATE'S ISLAMOPHOBIC REMARKS
- TX Man Pleads Guilty to Threatening Mosque (USDOJ)
* CAIR REP NAMED 'BEST OF ST. LOUIS'
* CALIF. MUSLIMS FEARING BACKLASH (Press-Enterprise)
- Powell: Cat Stevens Case 'Under Review' (BBC)
- CA: Saudi-born Candidate Gains Global Attention
- CA: Muslims Urged to get Involved (Oakland Tribune)
* CT: MUSLIM CLAIMS BIAS AT WORK (AP)
* POLL: SHOULD AIPAC REGISTER AS FOREIGN AGENT? (CNI)
- A Mole Called Mega (Jane's)
* PERMANENT BASES IN IRAQ? (CS Monitor)
- What a Reporter Really Thinks About the War (EP)
* PLAN MIGHT SUBJECT DEPORTEES TO TORTURE (Wash Post)
-----
VERSE OF THE DAY: NO COMPULSION IN RELIGION
"Let there be no compulsion in religion. Truth stands out clear from
error.
Whoever rejects evil and believes in God has grasped the most
trustworthy
hand-hold that never breaks."
The Holy Quran, 2:256
-----
ONLY 1 DAY LEFT TO REGISTER FOR CAIR-DC DINNER
There is only one day left to register for CAIR's 10th Anniversary
Banquet
in Washington, D.C. Highlights of the dinner includes speeches by
presidential Candidate Ralph Nader, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now, Imam
Siraj Wahhaj, and James "Yusuf" Yee.
TO REGISTER, GO TO: http://www.cair-net.org, call 202-488-8787 or
202-646-6043, or e-mail events@cair-net.org (CAIR dinners have sold out
in
the past, so reserve your tickets today!)
-----
STATE VOTER REGISTRATION DEADLINES
http://www.fec.gov/votregis/state_voter_reg_deadlines02.htm
SEE ALSO:
CAIR: ONLINE VOTER REGISTRATION INFORMATION
If you want to participate in the Presidential election-now is the time
to
get registered. Register right now by going to:
https://ssl.capwiz.com/cair/e4/
(Click on "Register to Vote.")
-----
CAIR REP NAMED 'BEST OF ST. LOUIS'
River Front Times, 9/29/04
http://www.riverfronttimes.com/bestof/2004/bestpeople/bestpeople14.html
James Hacking
When three area Muslims were called recently by the FBI for an
"informal
interview," the men arrived accompanied by attorney James Hacking. As
head
of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, St. Louis Chapter,
Hacking
lends not only his time but also his legal services to the city's
estimated
65,000 Muslim residents. "We do a lot of interfaith stuff," says
Hacking,
whose local chapter has roughly 350 members. "We work with Muslims
who've
been discriminated against. We work with the media to give an accurate
portrayal of Islam and we try to educate the general public that we're
not
all a bunch of terrorists."
CONTACT: CAIR-St. Louis, James Hacking, 636-207-8882, E-mail:
admin@cair-stl.org
-----
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
- MEDIA ADVISORY -
IL GROUPS TO PROTEST CANDIDATE'S ISLAMOPHOBIC REMARKS
Religious and minority groups oppose 'hate-filled' rhetoric
(CHICAGO, IL, 9/30/04) - On Friday, October 1, 2004, representatives of
Chicago-area interfaith, Latino, Asian, and immigrant organizations
will
hold a news conference at the Downtown Islamic Center to protest what
the
groups say is "hate-filled" rhetoric about Muslims by Illinois
Republican
congressional candidate Kurt Eckhardt.
Media reports quote Eckhardt as saying he distrusted Islam "for years"
and
supports planting human monitors in mosques to track the activity of
those
practicing the religion there. Eckhardt added that acts of terror and
violence are not "aberrational behavior" by violent extremists, but are
part of the general culture of Islam.
SEE: "Muslims Condemn Candidate's Comments"
http://www.dailyherald.com/search/main_story.asp?intid=3825838
WHAT: News Conference Protesting Islamophobic Remarks by Kurt Eckhardt
WHEN: Friday, October 1, 2004, 10 a.m.
WHERE: Downtown Islamic Center, 231 S. State Street, 4th Floor,
Chicago, IL
CONTACT: CAIR-Chicago Executive Director Yaser Tabbara, 312-212-1520 or
312-718-3725, E-Mail: director@cairchicago.org
"As reported, these disturbing remarks reflect a lack of understanding
about Islam and Muslims," said CAIR-Chicago Executive Director Yaser
Tabbara. "Such inflammatory comments create unnecessary divisions among
Americans."
CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, is headquartered
in
Washington, D.C., and has 29 regional offices and chapters nationwide
and
in Canada.
- END -
CONTACTS: Yaser Tabbara, Executive Director, CAIR-Chicago, 312-212-1520
or
312-718-3725, E-MAIL: director@caircicago.org; Ibrahim Hooper,
202-488-8787
or 202-744-7726, E-MAIL: ihooper@cair-net.org
SEE ALSO:
EL PASO MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO THREATENING VIOLENCE
TO OBSTRUCT FREE EXERCISE OF RELIGION
WWW.USDOJ.GOV, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2004, (202) 514-2008
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2004/September/04_crt_663.htm
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Justice Department today announced that Jared
Bjarnason of El Paso, Texas, pleaded guilty today to threatening
violence
in order to obstruct members of the Islamic Center of El Paso in Texas
in
the free exercise of their religion, and to transmitting a
communication
containing a threat to injure members of the Islamic Center.
Bjarnason admitted that on April 18, 2004, he sent an e-mail message to
the
Islamic Center of El Paso threatening violence against the Islamic
Center
and its members. Specifically, the message threatened to turn the
Islamic
Center into "the center of death and destruction" and to burn the
Islamic
Center's mosque to the ground, if hostages held in Iraq were not freed
within three days.
"As President Bush has said, 'Those who feel like they can intimidate
our
fellow citizens to take out their anger don't represent the best of
America; they represent the worst of humankind, and they should be
ashamed
of that kind of behavior,'" said R. Alexander Acosta, Assistant
Attorney
General for the Civil Rights Division.
"In these difficult times we cannot lose sight of the freedoms we hold
dear
in the United States, including the freedom to worship as we see fit.
Our
office will aggressively prosecute anyone who, through criminal acts,
threatens, intimidates, or harms people on account of their religious
beliefs," stated U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, Western District of
Texas.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated the threat against the
Islamic Center. The FBI employed a provision of the USA PATRIOT Act
that
permits providers of electronic mail services to provide electronic
communications directly to law enforcement officials "if the provider
reasonably believes that an emergency involving immediate danger of
death
or serious physical injury to any person justifies disclosure of the
information."
With the PATRIOT Act's authority, the FBI was able to trace the
threatening
e-mail well before the expiration of the three-day deadline contained
in
the threat. Absent this provision, investigating authorities would have
had
to obtain a separate search warrant from each service provider through
whose system the e-mail traveled, a process which could have taken over
30
days.
Bjarnason faces up to twenty years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Sentencing is scheduled for December 21, 2004.
This was one of two incidents of violence against the Islamic Center
this
year. In addition to the incident to which Bjanason pleaded guilty
today,
a complaint recently filed in federal court alleges that on September
17,
2004, Antonio Nunez-Flores threw two "Molotov Cocktails" at the Islamic
Center building. The charges against Nunez-Flores carry a maximum
possible
sentence of ten years in prison and a $250,000 fine. All detainees are
considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. The fact
that
complaint has been filed is not evidence of guilt.
The Civil Rights Division, United States Attorneys' Offices, and the
FBI
have investigated nearly 600 incidents of alleged bias-motivated crimes
against individuals perceived to be of Middle Eastern origin since
September 11, 2001. There have been 19 federal prosecutions of 24
defendants brought to date. In addition, there have been nearly 150
state
and local prosecutions initiated.
The case is being prosecuted jointly by attorneys from the Civil Rights
Division and the United States Attorney's Office for the Western
District
of Texas.
-----
INLAND MUSLIMS FEARING BACKLASH
BETTYE WELLS MILLER, Press-Enterprise, 9/30/04
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_islam30.a0e28.html
The continuing crackdown on international charities alleged to have
terrorist links is having a chilling effect on all giving by American
Muslims, Southern California Muslims said this week. Giving to Inland
area
mosques appears to be stable, however.
Charitable giving takes on special significance with the approach of
Ramadan on Oct. 14, local Muslims said. Ramadan is a month of fasting
and
prayer during which many Muslims give their zakat to help people in
need.
Muslims are expected to donate 2.5 percent of the money left after
paying
household expenses for the year. Zakat, or almsgiving, is one of the
Five
Pillars of Islam.
Ramadan also is a time when many Muslims travel to be with friends and
family.
That is why the deportation last week of Yusuf Islam, the musician
formerly
known as Cat Stevens, is especially disconcerting, area Muslims said.
"We were surprised and perplexed that Islam was detained and deported
because he has a long history of working for peace and denouncing
terrorism," Sabiha Khan, spokeswoman for the Council on
American-Islamic
Relations, said from the group's Anaheim office.
American Muslims were concerned about their ability to travel even
before
Islam was deported, Khan said. With many Muslims planning to travel
during
Ramadan, those concerns were exacerbated by Islam's deportation, she
said.
"There's been concern about people traveling back and forth and how
much
they're scrutinized on the plane," Khan said. "Americans didn't know
the
extent of it until Yusuf Islam…"
Hussam Ayloush, Southern California executive director of the Council
on
American-Islamic Relations, said contributions to CAIR are up.
"Civil rights have become a priority for the Muslim community,"
Ayloush, a
Corona resident, said by phone. "People also are spending in areas
where
there is the least controversy. CAIR has benefited, but I'm not happy
with
that trend. Feeding orphans and widows is equally important. It breaks
my
heart when I see that people are making those choices out of fear and
intimidation."
SEE ALSO:
CAT STEVENS CASE 'UNDER REVIEW'
BBC, 9/30/04
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/3704120.stm
Yusuf Islam said he was told that the order had come from "on high"
The decision to include British singer Yusuf Islam, formerly known as
Cat
Stevens, on a US terrorism "watch list" is now under review.
"I think we have that obligation to review these matters to see if we
are
right," said US Secretary of State Colin Powell.
The 57-year-old was refused entry to the US last week. Authorities said
it
was on national security grounds.
The FBI told him to leave the country after he tried to fly to
Washington.
Mr Powell said the review of the case was not because of the publicity
surrounding it, saying he undertook reviews, "not only with celebrities
such as Mr Stevens, but for the average citizen coming across who gets
stopped".
"We want to secure our borders but we want also to make sure that we
remain
an open nation," he added...
---
SAUDI-BORN DEMOCRAT GAINS GLOBAL ATTENTION
Timm Herdt, Ventura County Star, 9/29/04
www.venturacountystar.com/vcs/co_valley/article/0,1375,VCS_166_3217457,00.ht
ml
Regardless of the outcome on Nov. 2, the next elected representative
from
the 37th Assembly District will be a woman.
This would hardly be worth noting in contemporary American politics,
where
female elected officials in partisan offices are commonplace although
still
a minority. But in this case, there's a twist: The possibility of one
of
the women winning has become international news.
In the Arab world, the candidacy of Democrat Ferial Masry of Newbury
Park,
a
Saudi Arabian immigrant born in Mecca, is such a novelty that she has
been
featured on magazine covers in Kuwait City and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,
interviewed on the Arab-language television network Al-Jazeera and
enlisted
by the State Department to spread the word to her homeland about the
opportunities American life affords Muslim women…
For all the money and attention devoted to the free-for-all Republican
primary in March, it was Masry who emerged with the highest profile
after
collecting 1,693 write-in votes. County Democrats encouraged her to run
after the party's initial candidate failed to turn in his nomination
papers, leaving the party without a named candidate on the March
ballot.
Because she collected more than 1,200 write-in votes, Masry's name will
appear on ballots in November.
National news organizations and political observers found her story
compelling. Not only is she a Muslim woman and a Saudi Arabian
immigrant
running for office in a time of anti-Arabic tension, she also is the
mother
of an Army reservist, Omar, who this summer returned from a tour of
duty in
Iraq.
Peter Jennings and ABC News featured her as their "Person of the Week."
State Democratic Party officials escorted her to the national
convention in
Boston.
Masry said her achievement in the primary has allowed her to become a
"bridge-builder," by improving relations between Saudi Arabia and the
United States, by serving as a role model for oppressed Muslim women
and,
most importantly, becoming a symbol of hope for Arab-Americans...
---
MUSLIMS URGED TO GET INVOLVED
Melissa Evans, Oakland Tribune, 9/30/04
http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82%257E1726%257E2436403,00.html
NEWARK -- The organization began by educating mainstream Americans and
the
media about the plight of Muslims, Arabs and South Asians in the
aftermath
of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
American Muslim Voice, formed two years ago, then turned its attention
to
getting more Muslims involved in the political process.
The Palo Alto-based group is now moving to phase three, urging Muslims
to
contribute in a meaningful way to society through volunteerism and
activism.
At its first convention on the effort Sunday in Newark, Muslim and city
leaders will encourage constituents of all religious backgrounds to
participate in their local communities…
-----
MAN CLAIMS BIAS AT WORK
Associated Press, 9/30/04
MILFORD, Conn. - A West Haven man has filed a discrimination lawsuit
claiming he was the target of bias on the job at Stop & Shop because he
is
a Muslim.
Mohamed Arshad, who is from Malaysia, claims that his former supervisor
at
a Bridgeport Stop & Shop called him a "Muslim idiot" and told him that
"we
do not want any foreigners at this company."
The lawsuit also alleges that fellow employees called Arshad "Bin
Laden" in
his supervisor's presence and accused him of talking to Osama bin Laden
on
the telephone.
Arshad's lawsuit claims that supervisors at a Westport store put him on
probation after a bad review and that he was passed by for promotions
when
co-workers "who are not Asian, Muslim and/or Malaysian, but who lacked
Arshad's tenure and his relevant knowledge and experience," were
promoted.
Stop & Shop spokesman Rob Keane declined comment on the suit Wednesday.
-----
POLL: SHOULD AIPAC REGISTER AS THE AGENT OF A FOREIGN GOVERNMENT?
http://www.cnionline.org/learn/polls/aipac/
The Question: A tax-exempt organization that lobbies Congress on behalf
of
Israel, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (also known as
AIPAC),
has been under investigation by the FBI for allegedly receiving
classified
information from a Pentagon official and using this information on
behalf
of the government of Israel. In view of this investigation, do you
strongly
agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree, or strongly disagree that
AIPAC
should be asked to register as an agent of a foreign government and
lose
its tax-exempt status?
Method: Conducted by Zogby International of 1,004 likely voters from
9/8/04
through 9/9/04.
The Results:
Strongly agree 44%
Agree 61%
Somewhat agree 17%
Somewhat disagree 6%
Disagree 12%
Strongly disagree 6%
Not sure 27%
SEE ALSO:
A MOLE CALLED MEGA
Jane's Information Group, 9/29/04
http://www.janes.com/security/international_security/news/fr/fr040929_1_n.sh
tml
The scandal over a suspected Israeli mole in the Pentagon who allegedly
passed highly sensitive policy documents on Iran to Israeli agents in
Washington has rekindled suspicions long held by the US Federal Bureau
of
Investigation (FBI), and others in Washington, that Israel
systematically
spies on its strategic ally and benefactor.
The FBI probe currently under way goes far beyond the allegations that
a
lone analyst was providing the Israelis with US secrets.
Shortly before George Tenet retired as director of the Central
Intelligence
Agency (CIA) in June, he alleged that an Israeli agent was operating in
Washington. Tenet was challenged to identify the agent but for reasons
that
were never explained apparently did not do so. For years, the FBI has
been
convinced that there is at least one high-level Israeli mole in
Washington.
The Tenet episode underlined growing unease in some quarters in
Washington
about the influence that Israel's right wing has in US President George
W
Bush's administration through the pro-Likud neo-conservatives, largely
in
the Pentagon, and the politically powerful America Israel Public
Affairs
Committee (AIPAC) and loosely associated organisations, such as the
Washington Institute for Near East Policy. The Mossad, Israel's foreign
intelligence service, is known to seek out Jews around the world to
serve
as informal agents, known in Hebrew as sayanim or 'helpers'.
The Israeli government and AIPAC have strenuously denied that they were
involved in the current scandal. But Israel's intelligence
organisations
have been spying on the US and running clandestine operations since
Israel
was established. These operations range from spiriting an estimated 200
lbs
of weapons-grade uranium for its secret nuclear arms programme in the
1960s
to widescale industrial espionage.
Much of this is conducted by the secret Scientific Liaison Bureau,
known by
its Hebrew acronym Lakam, run by the Ministry of Defence and its
equally
little-known successor, Malmab (the Security Authority for the Ministry
of
Defence)…
-----
US BASES IN IRAQ: STICKY POLITICS, HARD MATH
David R. Francis, Christian Science Monitor, 9/30/04
http://csmonitor.com/2004/0930/p17s02-cogn.html
If a new Iraq government should agree to let American forces stay on,
how
many bases will the US request?
One, as the United States Army currently maintains in Honduras? Six,
the
number of installations it lists in the Netherlands. Or maybe 12?
The Pentagon isn't saying.
But a dozen is the number of so-called "enduring bases" located by John
Pike, director of GlobalSecurities.org. His military affairs website
gives
their names. They include, for example, Camp Victory at the Baghdad
airfield and Camp Renegade in Kirkuk. The Chicago Tribune last March
said
US engineers are constructing 14 "enduring bases," but Mr. Pike hasn't
located two of them.
Note the terminology "enduring" bases. That's Pentagon-speak for
long-term
encampments - not necessarily permanent, but not just a tent on a wood
platform either. It all suggests a planned indefinite stay on Iraqi
soil
that will cost US taxpayers for years to come…
SEE ALSO:
WHAT A TOP REPORTER IN BAGHDAD REALLY THINKS ABOUT THE WAR
Greg Mitchell, Editor and Publisher, 9/29/04
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/pressingissues_display.jsp?v
nu_content_id=1000650551
(September 29, 2004) -- Readers of any nailbiting story from Iraq in a
major mainstream newspaper must often wonder what the dispassionate
reporter really thinks about the chaotic situation there, and what he
or
she might be saying in private letters or in conversations with friends
back home.
Now, at least in the case of Wall Street Journal correspondent Farnaz
Fassihi, we know.
A lengthy letter from Baghdad she recently sent to friends "has rapidly
become a global chain mail," Fassihi told Jim Romenesko on Wednesday
after
it was finally posted at the Poynter Institute's Web site. She
confirmed
writing the letter.
"Iraqis say that thanks to America they got freedom in exchange for
insecurity," Fassihi wrote (among much else) in the letter. "Guess
what?
They say they'd take security over freedom any day, even if it means
having
a dictator ruler." And: "Despite President Bush's rosy assessments,
Iraq
remains a disaster. If under Saddam it was a 'potential' threat, under
the
Americans it has been transformed to 'imminent and active threat,' a
foreign policy failure bound to haunt the United States for decades to
come…"
-----
PLAN WOULD LET U.S. DEPORT SUSPECTS TO NATIONS THAT MIGHT TORTURE THEM
Dana Priest and Charles Babington, Washington Post, 9/30/04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A60779-2004Sep29
The Bush administration is supporting a provision in the House
leadership's
intelligence reform bill that would allow U.S. authorities to deport
certain foreigners to countries where they are likely to be tortured or
abused, an action prohibited by the international laws against torture
the
United States signed 20 years ago.
The provision, part of the massive bill introduced Friday by House
Speaker
J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), would apply to non-U.S. citizens who are
suspected of having links to terrorist organizations but have not been
tried on or convicted of any charges. Democrats tried to strike the
provision in a daylong House Judiciary Committee meeting, but it
survived
on a party-line vote…
-----
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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
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mail2web - Check your email from the web at
http://mail2web.com/ .
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
CAIR ACTION ALERT
LAST DAY TO REGISTER FOR CAIR-DC DINNER
Limited number of seats left for 10th Anniversary Banquet, Reserve your
ticket today!
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 10/1/04) - Seats are going fast for CAIR’s 10th
Annual
Fundraising Banquet, October 2, in Washington, D.C.
TO REGISTER online until 6 p.m. on Friday, October 1, GO TO:
http://www.cair-net.org
You may also register by calling all 202-488-8787 or 202-646-6043, or
e-mailing events@cair-net.org (CAIR dinners have sold out in the past,
so
reserve your tickets today! No tickets will be sold at the door.)
A limited number of tickets will be sold at Friday prayers in the
following
centers:
VA: Dar ul Hijrah, ADAMS (main center only)
MD: ICM (main center only, Gaithersburg), ISB-Masjid al Rahmah
(Baltimore)
To inquire about seating after 6 p.m. on Friday, October 1, you will
have
to call 202-646-6043 directly. (No seats can be guaranteed at that
point.)
-----
The Council on American-Islamic Relations cordially invites you to
attend
its 10th Anniversary Fundraising Banquet
BUILDING A BETTER AMERICA: "A DECADE OF DEDICATION"
with
Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader
and
James “Yusuf” Yee
Imam Siraj Wahhaj
Amy Goodman, Democracy Now
“Muhammad: The Last Prophet” Animated Film Trailer
Auction of Items Including Signed Muhammad Ali Boxing Gloves
CAIR 10th Anniversary Video
CAIR 10th Anniversary Report
WHEN: SATURDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2004
Registration begins at 6 p.m., program at 7 p.m.
WHERE: Wardman Park Marriott Hotel
2660 Woodley Road, NW, Washington, DC
Tickets: $55/$85 per couple
No children please. (Limited babysitting with prior notice only - $10
per
child.)
ACTION REQUESTED:
1. REGISTER ONLINE by going to: http://www.cair-net.org
For more information, call 202-488-8787 or e-mail events@cair-net.org.
After you have filled out and submitted your registration information,
you
will be sent an e-mail confirming your registration.
2. LET OTHERS KNOW about the dinner. Contact Ibrahim Abusway at
202-646-6043 (iabusway@cair-net.org) to give a list of people who
should be
contacted about the dinner.
- PLEASE ANNOUNCE, POST AND DISTRIBUTE
-----
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-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
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In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 10/1/04
* VERSE OF THE DAY: NO SOUL OVERBURDENED
* UPCOMING CAIR EVENTS
- CAIR-DC: Attitudes on Islam Poll to be Released
- CAIR-Michigan: Muslims to Hold Candidate Forum
- CAIR-Cincinnati: Muslims to Meet with Candidates
- CAIR-Ohio: Muslim Hold Town Hall Mtg on Elections
* CAIR-FL: DENOUNCE KILLINGS (Sun-Sentinel)
* 350 ARRESTED IN FEDERAL CRACKDOWN (AP)
- ACLU Decries 'Dragnet' in Muslim Communities
- MI: Immigrants Focus of Security Plan (Detroit FP)
- MI: FBI Agents Hunt for Terror Leads (Free Press)
- WA: Muslim Leaders Warned of Terror Checks (Seattle Times)
* TERROR WATCH LIST CALLED A FAILURE (Wall Street Journal)
- Yusuf Islam: Fear Could Stop the Peace Train (KC Star)
* OR: FAKE 'MUSLIM' JOKERS LAND IN COURT (Oregon Live)
* NYC TRANSIT CO. SUED OVER HIJAB POLICY (NY Times)
- Canadian Reporter Dons Hijab (Calgary Sun)
- French Muslim Removes Scarf and Hair in Protest (Reuters)
* PRESBYTERIANS STAND BY ISRAELI DIVESTMENT (JTA)
- Jewish Groups Try to Head Off Divestment Push (Forward)
-----
VERSE OF THE DAY: NO SOUL OVERBURDENED
"God does not burden any soul with more than it can bear."
The Holy Quran, 2:286
-----
UPCOMING CAIR EVENTS
CAIR-DC: NEW POLL MEASURES HOSTILITY TO ISLAM IN U.S.
Survey results to be announced at Monday news conference
WHAT: On Monday, October 4, the Council on American-Islamic Relations
(CAIR) will hold a news conference in Washington, D.C., to release the
results of a major survey designed to measure the American public's
level
of hostility to Islam and Muslims.
WHEN: Monday, October 4, 10:30 a.m.
WHERE: National Press Club, Lisagor Room, 13th Floor, National Press
Building, 14th and F Streets, N.W., Washington, D.C.
CONTACT: Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726,
ihooper@cair-net.org
The random phone survey of 1000 Americans, conducted by an independent
research firm, asked questions such as: "When you hear the word
'Muslim,'
what is the first thought that comes to your mind?" and "Do you feel
that
the American Muslim community has been as active as they should be in
condemning acts of terrorism by other Muslims?"
SEE ALSO:
MICHIGAN MUSLIMS TO HOLD CANDIDATE FORUM
On Sunday, October 10, the Michigan office of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Michigan) and the American Muslim Task
Force on Civil Rights and Elections (AMT) will hold a town hall meeting
and
candidate forum in the Detroit suburb of Novi.
The event, which is free and open to the public, is designed to provide
an
opportunity for members of the Muslim community to meet with and ask
questions of local, state and national political candidates. (A similar
event will take place October 9 in Ohio.)
WHAT: CAIR-Michigan/AMT Candidate Forum
WHEN: 11 a.m. - 3 p.m., Sunday, October 10, 2004
WHERE: Novi Sheraton Hotel Grand Ballroom, 21111 Haggerty Road, Novi,
Michigan
CONTACT: CAIR-MI, Celena Khatib or Misbah Shahid, 248-569-2203,
734-306-9507, 734-673-9430, cairmichigan@yahoo.com
---
CINCINNATI MUSLIMS TO MEET WITH CANDIDATES
Town hall meeting will encourage political participation
On Friday, October 1, the Cincinnati office of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Cincinnati), Muslim American Society
(MAS), Muslim Student Association (MSA)-Xavier University, and the
Muslim
Education and Cultural Institute (MECI)-University of Cincinnati, will
host
an "Election 2004 Town Hall Meeting" with local and state political
candidates.
WHAT: Election 2004 Town Hall Meeting
WHERE: Kelly Auditorium, Alter Hall, Xavier University, Cincinnati,
Ohio
WHEN: Friday, October 1, 2004, 7 - 9 p.m.
CONTACT: CAIR-Ohio Cincinnati Office Director Karen Dabdoub,
513-281-8200,
E-Mail: cincinnati@cair-ohio.com
---
OHIO MUSLIMS TO HOLD TOWN HALL MEETING ON ELECTIONS
Local, state, national candidates will address issues of concern to
Muslims
On Saturday, October 9, the Islamic Council of Ohio, the Council on
American-Islamic Relations-Ohio (CAIR-Ohio) and the American Muslim
Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections (AMT) will host a "Muslim Vote
2004" town hall meeting with local, state and national political
candidates
in Columbus. (A similar event will take place October 10 in Michigan.)
WHAT: Muslim Vote 2004 Town Hall Meeting
WHERE: Ohio Statehouse Atrium, Columbus, Ohio
WHEN: Saturday, October 9, 2004, 11:30 am - 3:00 pm
CONTACT: CAIR-Ohio President Ahmad Al-Akhras, 614-989-5916, E-Mail:
ahmad@cair-ohio.com; CAIR-Ohio Executive Director Jad Humeidan,
614-571-2770, E-Mail: jad@cair-ohio.com
-----
CAIR-FL: DENOUNCE KILLINGS
Altaf Ali, Sun Sentinel, 10/1/04
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/letters/sfl-brmail729oct01,0,479828
2.story
There is no rational or logical reason that can be given to justify the
cold-blooded killings of Jack Hensley and Eugene Armstrong. I am
confident
in saying, "on behalf of all Muslims, we repudiate this gruesome and
cowardly act perpetrated by masked bandits and tyrants against these
innocent people."
I call on all Muslims to repudiate in the strongest manner the killing
of
our fellow human beings; Jack Hensley and Eugene Armstrong.
Altaf Ali is the Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic
Relations in Florida.
-----
U.S. TARGETS VISA VIOLATORS IN TERROR WAR
Curt Anderson, Associated Press, 10/1/04
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/politics/9811834.htm
WASHINGTON - More than 350 people who have committed crimes or are
suspected of terrorist links have been arrested in a federal crackdown
on
foreigners with visa violations, part of a broader effort to prevent
al-Qaida from disrupting U.S. elections.
Agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a Homeland
Security
Department component known as ICE, are matching identities of visa
violators nationwide with names on secret government terrorism
databases in
hopes of finding al-Qaida operatives.
"We're intensifying it in the days leading up to the election," ICE
spokesman Dean Boyd said Friday.
Some groups representing Muslims and Arab-Americans are concerned some
people may be targeted because of their ethnicity or religious beliefs.
"If somebody breaks the law in terms of their immigration status, they
should pay the price," said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council
on
American-Islamic Relations. "We can only hope they are not targeting
people
based on whether they are Muslim."
Since its inception in June 2003, ICE's Compliance Enforcement Unit has
opened more than 5,200 investigations of visa violators nationwide. Of
those apprehended, 359 are considered "priority arrests" - those with
possible links to terrorism or known criminal histories.
The stepped-up initiative is one of many government efforts given new
urgency by persistent intelligence indicating al-Qaida is determined to
attack inside the United States before the Nov. 2 election…
Advocates for Muslims and Arab-Americans don't fault the government for
pursuing people in the United States illegally. But they say the FBI
and
ICE efforts, taken together, are triggering renewed fears that U.S.
counterterrorism officials are targeting people based on their religion
or
ethnic or national origin.
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee said in a statement
that it
had been contacted by ICE officials after raising concerns that the
initiative "will be selectively carried out against Muslims and Arabs."
Even after those talks, the group said it remained worried ICE would
base
many of its investigations on a government registry of men from 24
mostly
Muslim and Arab countries.
Advocacy groups also raised concerns about the FBI interviews. They say
agents appear to be targeting some people multiple times.
Justice Department officials acknowledge the FBI is talking to people
who
have been helpful in the past but also to many others when they gain
new
information about them…
SEE ALSO:
ACLU DECRIES PLANNED ELECTION DRAGNET IN MUSLIM AND ARAB COMMUNITIES
http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=16632&c=206
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, October 1, 2004
Contact: ACLU National Press Office
(212) 549-2666
NEW YORK -- The American Civil Liberties Union today said that it will
be
monitoring a new plan by the FBI to, among other things, use
"aggressive -
even obvious - surveillance" techniques on individuals who are not even
suspected of having committed a crime, in advance of the November 2
general
election.
"The FBI plans to deliberately tail people based on their religion or
ethnic origin during a month that is both religiously and politically
crucial," said Dalia Hashad, the ACLU's Arab, Muslim and South Asian
Advocate. "Instead of bolstering security, the FBI's 'October Plan' is
going to stop Muslims and Arabs from attending mosques during the month
of
Ramadan, and participating in the upcoming election."
An internal e-mail notice to FBI agents, distributed last week by the
bureau's "'04 Threat Task Force," described an intensified law
enforcement
effort to "to foster the impression that law enforcement is focused on
individuals who may be a threat."
According to CBS News, the plan calls for the aggressive and open
surveillance of persons suspected of being terrorist sympathizers, but
who
are not suspected of any crime. CBS also reported that mosques will be
revisited and worshippers questioned. Already, ACLU affiliates are
fielding
calls from Muslims panicked by aggressive FBI action.
Over the past three years, Middle Eastern and South Asian neighborhoods
and
communities have borne the brunt of the federal government's response
to
9/11. Directly after the attacks, more than a thousand, and possibly
upwards of 2,000 men were rounded up secretly by the Justice Department
only to be later found to have no connection to the attacks.
The "October Plan" is the fifth incidence of an explicit FBI dragnet,
targeted at American Muslims and Arabs. Previously, the FBI launched
four
separate rounds of questioning, which routinely involved interrogating
interviewees with questions about their religious practices and
political
beliefs. In many of the interviews, the FBI actually collected
information
about interviewee's associational activity, including copying the data
from
cell phone contact lists.
In monitoring the program, the ACLU is working closely with Amnesty
International, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee,
Arab-American
Institute, Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Muslim Public
Affairs Council.
"This program is not good law enforcement," Hashad said. "If finding a
terrorist is like looking for a needle in a haystack, you don't make
the
job easier by adding more hay to the pile."
---
IMMIGRANTS FOCUS OF SECURITY PLAN
Niraj Warikoo, Detroit Free Press, 10/1/04
http://www.freep.com/news/metro/immigration1e_20041001.htm
As the presidential election approaches, federal agents in Michigan and
across the country are ratcheting up their efforts to catch illegal
immigrants who may pose security threats.
Immigration officials said Thursday they are moving to interview,
survey
and analyze records that might help them thwart a terrorist attack in
upcoming months.
"We know that terrorists look for symbolic events ... for the biggest
impact," said Brian Moskowitz, special agent in charge of
investigations in
Michigan and Ohio for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "This
time
period is a crucial one."
Among the events coming up, Moskowitz said, are the International
Monetary
Fund and World Bank meeting this weekend in Washington, D.C., the Nov.
2
election, the holidays and the presidential inauguration.
"As you get closer to a period, which by everyone's account is a
dangerous
time, everything comes into focus," said Moskowitz, whose agency is
overseen by the Department of Homeland Security. "Our senses are
heightened."
Moskowitz and Daniel Roberts, head of the Detroit FBI office, have
assured
Imad Hamad, an Arab-American leader in Dearborn, that the government
would
not unfairly target the Middle Eastern community.
Hamad, regional director of the Michigan chapter of the American-Arab
Anti-Discrimination Committee, said he has no problem with the
crackdown on
illegal immigration. But he worries that the plan will result in the
profiling of Arab Americans and Muslims, as past government initiatives
did
after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
"This brings a chilling effect on the community," Hamad said. "It has
the
potential for creating false impressions again, putting us under clouds
of
suspicion."
In addition, Hamad said, the initiative would alienate Arab-American
communities at a time when they are needed to help the government in
the
war on terrorism.
"This will not help people to cooperate when it is highly needed," he
said...
---
FBI AGENTS HUNT FOR TERROR LEADS
David Shepardson, Detroit News, 10/1/04
http://www.detnews.com/2004/metro/0410/01/c01-290441.htm
FBI agents stepped up dozens of interviews this week in Arab-American
neighborhoods, in an effort to prevent another terrorist attack before
the
Nov. 2 election, the bureau said Thursday.
Arab-American civil rights leaders are warning community members that
they
don't have to submit to door-to-door interviews by the Detroit FBI, and
advising them to have a lawyer present if they choose.
"We are out in the community conducting our interviews as part of our
continuing investigation," said FBI Special Agent Dawn Clenney, a
spokeswoman in Detroit. "We're redoubling our efforts. We are very
concerned about preventing any terrorist attacks and we know al-Qaida
wants
to attack us before the election."
The checks have the Arab-American and Muslim communities concerned.
"Already people are very scared and very intimidated," said Imad Hamad,
regional director of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.
He
expressed concern that Arabs who have overstayed their visas will be
targeted for arrest.
"The challenge of illegal immigration goes beyond the Arab community."
Clenney said the FBI had a significant number of interviews to conduct
-
enough that will require agents to continue their efforts beyond the
election.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Detroit also are
working
to follow up terror-related leads and intelligence, but aren't engaged
in a
wide-scale arrests of Arab-Americans who have overstayed visas, a
spokesman
said.
---
MUSLIM, ARAB LEADERS WARNED OF TERROR CHECKS
Sara Jean Green, Seattle Times, 10/1/04
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002051178_muslim01m.html
Federal officials warned local Muslim and Arab leaders last night that
they
should brace their communities for another round of
intelligence-gathering
interviews in the run-up to the November election.
The purpose of the 90-minute, closed-door meeting with about 17
Seattle-area leaders was to solicit their help and to assure them that
the
Justice Department and FBI will protect their civil rights and will
aggressively investigate any reports of hate crimes.
Muslim and Arab leaders said their communities would cooperate, but
they're
frustrated and worried about being singled out.
Though the FBI hasn't received any specific threats nationally, "...
the
information since May has indicated al-Qaida would like to commit a
terrorist attack against our country," likely during the elections,
said
Pat Adams, the agent in charge of the Seattle FBI. All 56 FBI offices
in
the country are holding similar meetings with their local Muslim and
Arab
leaders, he said.
In the weeks before the general election, FBI agents will be conducting
"interviews of people who may be able to fill intelligence gaps ... and
[will] talk to people who may have knowledge of people bent on
[committing]
terrorist attacks," Adams said. "We want to make sure the community
knows
we're not targeting communities or religions - we're targeting
individuals
and terrorists."
John McKay, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Washington, said
last
night's meeting was part of an effort to reach out to Seattle's Muslim
and
Arab communities. Leaders told him last night, for instance, that FBI
agents need to be sensitive about visiting Muslim homes during the holy
month of Ramadan, which begins in mid-October.
The community leaders who gathered at the Islamic School in Seattle's
Central District "offered assistance and have an absolute commitment to
keep people safe," McKay said. "Our job in the federal government is to
protect civil liberties and prevent hate crimes. We're reaching out to
be
available ... if there is some sort of retaliation" against Muslims and
Arabs.
-----
TERROR WATCH LIST IS CALLED A FAILURE
Robert Block and Gary Fields, Wall Street Journal, 10/1/04
http://online.wsj.com/public/us
WASHINGTON -- The watchdog for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
has
found that efforts to create one of the most basic counter-terrorism
tools
-- a single consolidated watch list of terrorism suspects -- have been
disastrous, saying the department "has not fulfilled its leadership
responsibility" in this crucial front in the fight against terror.
The department's inspector general, in a sometimes scathing report to
Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge and congressional leaders,
states
that the task of merging more than a dozen government databases on
terrorists into a viable, unified list as mandated by Congress and
ordered
by President George W. Bush, has been beset by a lack of leadership,
oversight and, in some cases, interagency cooperation.
"The manner through which the watch-list consolidation has unfolded has
not
helped the nation break from its pattern of ad hoc approaches to
counterterrorism," according to the report, which will be publicly
released
on Sunday but was reviewed Thursday by The Wall Street Journal.
The findings raise questions over Bush administration assertions that
it
has dramatically improved information sharing among law-enforcement
agencies and sharpened the government's ability to fight al Qaeda. They
also underscores the bureaucratic infighting and lethargy that have
marked
government attempts to undertake change in the aftermath of the Sept.
11,
2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. They also come as
Congress is wrestling with creating an intelligence czar to better
coordinate government counterterrorism efforts.
"The watch list is the poster child for information sharing for all our
intelligence and government agencies," says Daniel B. Prieto, the
research
director for the Homeland Security Partnership Initiative at the
Kennedy
School of Government at Harvard University. "It has been the one
project
that is the most straightforward; the most defined, the most
politically
accepted idea, supported by every investigative commission since 9/11.
If
they can't get this one right, then shame on them."
The report also follows some high-profile watch-list failures, such as
including British singer Yusuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens, on
one
terrorist list but not the Transport Security Administration's "No-Fly
List," which is supposed to be a subset of the single watch list.
Similarly
Massachusetts Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy and Alaska Republican
Representative Don Young have said that they have at times been
mistaken
for terrorists at airline counters because of namesakes on the watch
list.
SEE ALSO:
FEAR COULD STOP THE PEACE TRAIN
Lewis Diuguid, Kansas City Star, 10/1/04
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/9803392.htm
Yusuf Islam didn't seem like a dangerous man to me or to hundreds of
others
who heard him speak last year in Overland Park.
Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens, is famous for such musical hits
as
"Peace Train" and "Morning Has Broken." He spoke at the May 2003
Islamic
Society of North America's Central Zone Conference.
The singer-turned-Muslim-peace-activist last month was on a United
Airlines
flight from London to Washington, D.C., when the plane was diverted to
Bangor, Maine, and Islam was removed and questioned by federal agents.
He
was on a no-fly list and was deported to England because U.S. officials
said he has "connections to groups involved in terrorist activities."
Islam is a British citizen. Officials said he provided money to Hamas,
a
militant Palestinian group, and may have visited an Islamic extremist
camp
in Asia. But U.S. officials declined to give details.
Islam came up several times Saturday at the Heartland Muslim Council
Annual
Dinner at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where the theme was
"Voting is Our Right. To Vote is Your Responsibility!" People knew
Islam's
fate could easily be theirs...
-----
PRACTICAL JOKE LANDS TWO IN COURT
Oregon Live, 9/30/04
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/argus/index.ssf?/base/news/1096579869197140.x
ml
Two people will appear in Washington County Circuit Court on charges of
disorderly conduct after an alleged practical joke attempt involving
toy
guns and Islamic slogans.
Jessica Mae Alsteen, 20, of Portland, and Alexander Michael Pearson,
25, of
Vancouver, Wash., turned themselves in Monday night to the Hillsboro
Police
Department's Tanasbourne precinct.
Officers cited them for an incident that occurred Sept. 21 outside the
General Motors call center near Hillsboro Stadium.
According to reports, security guards saw Alsteen and Pearson in the
parking lot dressed in Middle Eastern clothing and holding handguns.
The
guards locked the building down and called police, who ordered the two
to
the ground when they arrived.
Alsteen and Pearson reportedly told police they were planning to play a
practical joke on Alsteen's boyfriend, who worked at the center. They
planned to simulate firing the guns in the air while chanting "Praise
be to
Allah" and other Islamic messages...
----
M.T.A. IS SUED OVER ITS POLICY ON MUSLIM HEAD COVERINGS
Michael Luo, New York Times, 10/1/04
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/01/nyregion/01turban.html
The Justice Department sued the Metropolitan Transportation Authority
and
New York City Transit yesterday, charging them with discriminating
against
Muslim and Sikh employees who wear turbans and head scarves for
religious
reasons.
But in a statement, transit officials declared the lawsuit ''totally
without merit,'' arguing that no one in the Justice Department's Civil
Rights Division had discussed the issue with them and that they had
already
changed their policy on uniforms to allow religious head coverings
provided
by the authority.
The lawsuit stems from a series of incidents dating back to 2002. Since
then, four Muslim women -- all bus drivers for New York City Transit --
have been barred from operating buses on the road and reassigned to
work
inside bus depots because they refused to wear regulation caps over
their
head scarves, known as hijabs. More recently, transit managers briefly
reassigned Kevin Harrington, a Sikh train operator, to a railyard
because
he refused to take off his turban at work. After his case drew public
attention, he was allowed back on his old job in June.
Taken together, the actions constitute a ''pattern and practice'' of
religious discrimination, says the lawsuit, filed in Federal District
Court
in Brooklyn. It calls for the transit authority to provide
accommodations
for Muslim, Sikh and other employees whose beliefs require them to wear
the
head coverings, as well as compensation for those who claim that they
lost
overtime opportunities because of their transfers.
Transit officials pointed out that charges brought by the bus operators
were dismissed after an investigation by the United States Equal
Employment
Opportunity Commission. An independent arbitrator also ruled against
the
women, concluding that the transit agency had properly accommodated
them by
giving them alternative jobs.
Union leaders, however, argued that the jobs inside the depot were not
equivalent because they provided fewer opportunities for overtime, a
significant part of bus drivers' income, said Arthur Schwartz, a lawyer
for
Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union. The Justice Department's
lawsuit
makes the same case.
Even if the jobs were equivalent in pay and other benefits, reassigning
them placed an unfair stigma on them, Mr. Schwartz said, adding that
one of
the women had been wearing her head scarf while driving a passenger bus
for
more than 10 years without any problem.
Three of the Muslim women are once again in arbitration, he said,
because
they have been trying to change depots, but the transit agency has
refused
to allow them to do so...
ALSO SEE:
UNVEILING THE REALITY
Nadia Moharib, Calgary Sun, 10/1/04
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/CalgarySun/News/2004/10/01/650713.html
The perception is that these must be difficult times to be a Muslim in
North America. Muslim militant groups are being blamed for a spate of
terrorism around the globe over the last several years -- from the 9/11
tragedy to the Beslan school atrocity in Russia.
As North American security forces take greater steps each day to
protect
the continent from terror attacks, the Sun sent reporter Nadia Moharib,
a
Christian of Arab descent, onto Calgary streets dressed as a
traditional
Muslim woman to, as the saying goes, walk in another's shoes. Here is
her
third report in our five-part series:
While I moved around the city behind the veil, pretty much unimpeded, a
reality-check threatened to ground me.
It was my fault, perhaps, buying a plane ticket on company time --
dressed
in a hijab…
---
FRENCH MUSLIM REMOVES SCARF AND HAIR IN PROTEST
Reuters, 10/1/04
STRASBOURG, France - A Muslim schoolgirl bowed to France's ban on
Islamic
headscarves in state schools on Friday by returning to class and
removing
her veil to reveal a head shaved bald in protest.
"I will respect both French law and Muslim law by taking off what I
have on
my head and not showing my hair," Cennet Doganay said outside her high
school in Strasbourg, eastern France. "I respect the law but the law
doesn't respect me."
School officials, who had only let her into a study room since early
September while negotiating her return to class without a headscarf,
allowed her to re-enter the Louis Pasteur Lycee and made no comments to
journalists outside.
About 120 schoolgirls across France insisted on keeping their
headscarves
when school resumed on Sept. 2 and a ban on veils and other conspicuous
signs of faith was imposed. Most have since given in under threat of
expulsion from school.
Last year, before the ban was voted, about 1,200 girls showed up with
headscarves when school opened. Many of them maintained running
disputes
with school authorities all year, one major reason why Paris finally
decided on the ban.
Paris issued the ban to counter growing Islamist influence among a
small
minority of its 5-million-strong Muslim minority. It also outlaws
Jewish
skullcaps and large Christian crosses, but few pupils wear these to
school...
-----
PRESBYTERIANS STAND BY DIVESTMENT DESPITE DIALOGUE WITH INCENSED JEWS
Uriel Heilman, JTA, 9/28/04
http://www.jta.org/page_view_story.asp?strwebhead=Presbyterians+stand+by+div
estment+vote&intcategoryid=4
NEW YORK - Not long ago, the Presbyterian Church USA managed to do
something most Jewish organizations can only dream of: It generated
Jewish
unity.
Jewish groups were outraged when the organization passed a resolution
over
the summer calling for divesting from companies that do business in or
with
Israel.
The group is sticking to its position after meeting here Tuesday with
Jewish religious leaders and organizational officials, who aired their
sentiments face to face with the Presbyterians for the first time since
the
decision in July.
As the Jews expressed unanimous, vehement opposition to the move,
church
officials said they were eager to "dialogue" with the Jews on the issue
and
expressed regret that the discussion had not taken place earlier.
But they also insisted that the church, representing 3 million-plus
members, would not back away from the decision, which passed by a
431-62
vote at the group's General Assembly.
"We're looking forward to this being the first of a number of
meetings,"
Rick Ufford-Chase, moderator of the General Assembly, said at a news
conference following Tuesday's meeting in New York. "It's clear to us
this
conversation should have taken place some time ago."
Rabbi Paul Menitoff, executive vice president of the Reform movement's
Central Conference of American Rabbis, told JTA after the meeting that
fundamental differences remained.
"There's a natural divide in terms of perspectives. We see things
through
radically different lenses," he said. "We put on the table very clearly
our
concerns."
The bulk of the meeting was devoted to the issue of divestiture,
participants said, with the Jews arguing that the decision was patently
unfair and the Presbyterians arguing that it is meant to promote peace
in
the region...
ALSO SEE:
JEWISH GROUPS SCRAMBLE TO HEAD OFF DIVESTMENT PUSH
Eric J. Greenberg, Forward, 10/1/04
http://www.forward.com/main/article.php?ref=greenberg200409291150
As the push to cut off investments in Israel gains momentum in
Protestant
circles, Jewish organizations and their allies on Capitol Hill are
racing
to neutralize the burgeoning divestment movement.
This week, following a tense three-hour summit with upset Jewish
communal
officials, leaders of the Louisville-based Presbyterian Church (USA),
with
2.5 million members, said they were determined to go ahead with their
recently approved plan to divest selectively from Israel. The
interfaith
meeting came just days after Anglican Church officials visiting Israel
said
that they would push for consideration of a divestment plan to protest
Israel's policies toward the Palestinians.
"The Presbyterian divestment could potentially create a snowball effect
and
resurrect what had been a moribund issue," said the interfaith affairs
director of the Anti-Defamation League, Rabbi Gary Bretton-Granatoor.
"Now
it has provoked the Anglicans, and we know it will not end there. We
have
to send a clear message to every church that they will have to face a
united Jewish community on this issue."
In an effort to head off anti-Israel divestment efforts, a bipartisan
group
of 13 congressmen sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Commerce
stating
that such campaigns violate America's laws regarding the Arab boycott
of
Israel. The letter, which was initiated by the Zionist Organization of
America, was sent to the Commerce's Office of Anti-boycott Compliance.
The
congressmembers urged the office to "investigate the national boycott
campaign against Israel, shut down the illegal divestment campaigns and
impose the appropriate penalties."
A second bipartisan group of congressmen sent a letter to the
Presbyterian
Church's chief executive, the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, calling for the
church to abandon its recently adopted divestment plan. The letter,
organized by Howard Berman, a California Democrat, termed the church's
divestment policy "irresponsible, counterproductive and morally
bankrupt..."
-----
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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
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In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 10/2/04
* CAIR-DC DINNER SOLD OUT
* CAIR-SEATTLE: MUSLIM TEENS HELP BUILD HABITAT HOMES
* CAIR-CHICAGO: MUSLIMS DENOUNCE CANDIDATE'S REMARKS
- Candidate OK with Spies in Mosques (Sun-Times)
* NV: FBI TO INTERVIEW VEGAS-AREA MUSLIMS
* OH: NEW SOCIAL WORKER FOR MUSLIM FAMILY (Beacon Journal)
-----
CAIR-DC DINNER SOLD OUT
Alhamdulillah (praise be to God), CAIR's 10th Anniversary Banquet to be
held tonight in Washington, D.C., is sold out. More than 1000 dinner
attendees will hear from presidential candidate Ralph Nader, James
"Yusuf"
Yee, Imam Siraj Wahhaj, Democracy Now's Amy Goodman, and a number of
other
special guests.
Ticket-holders with urgent questions may call 202-646-6043.
-----
CAIR-SEATTLE: MUSLIM, JEWISH, CHRISTIAN TEENS BUILD HABITAT HOMES
(SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, 10/1/04) � On October 2, 2004, more than sixty
teens
of diverse faiths and backgrounds will unite to build homes for Habitat
for
Humanity. The young men and women will join the two-week
interfaith-construction blitz at Snoqualmie Ridge organized by Together
We
Build A World Community (TWB), an alliance of the Seattle office of the
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Seattle) and 13 Jewish,
Muslim
and Christian Seattle-area congregations and organizations.
TWB was formed post-9/11 as vehicle for people of different faith
communities, who were traditionally separated from each other, to come
together to work for the common good.
"Working on community projects under the umbrella of cooperation and
friendship breaks down barriers and helps us all to realize that we are
much more alike than we are different," said CAIR-Seattle Chair Samia
El-Moslimany.
WHEN: Saturday, October 2, 2004, 8:30 am � 4:00 pm
WHERE: East King County Habitat for Humanity site at Snoqualmie Ridge,
Southeast Orchard Drive and Southeast Gravenstein Court, Snoqualmie, WA
98065
CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, has 29 regional
offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada.
CONTACT: CAIR-Seattle, Samia El-Moslimany, 206-409-3407, E-MAIL:
samia@cair-seattle.org
-----
CAIR-CHICAGO: MUSLIMS DENOUNCE CANDIDATE'S REMARKS
Jon Davis Daily Herald Staff Writer
http://www.dailyherald.com/mchenry/main_story.asp?intID=38262153
Congressional candidate Kurt Eckhardt's comments about not trusting
Islam
drew renewed criticism Friday from Chicago-area Muslims who called a
news
conference to say such statements have no place in political campaigns.
Ahmed Rehab, communications director for the Council on
American-Islamic
Relations' Chicago chapter, also invited the Chicago Republican to
visit
mosques and Muslim schools, "so that he may come to know the true
peaceful
and compassionate nature of Islam."
Eckhardt, who attended the group's press conference at the Downtown
Islamic
Center, 231 S. State St., said he would accept that invitation.
But he defended comments he made Monday to the Daily Herald editorial
board
about what he says is a threat to secular, non-Muslim democracies from
fundamentalist Islamic radicals.
"I stand by any comments I made," he said.
He called the publication of his statements, made in response to
questions
during an on-the-record endorsement interview, "disingenuous
reporting."
Eckhardt, who serves as the 48th Ward Republican committeeman, is
challenging Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky in the Nov. 2 general
election
in the 9th Congressional District, which extends from Chicago and
Evanston
to most of Des Plaines.
Rehab read from a prepared statement which said Council on
American-Islamic
Relations-Chicago believes Eckhardt's comments "were made out of
ignorance
and not malice."
"Equating Islam with terrorism is not only unacceptable, it is
dangerous,"
Rehab said. "We call on him to retract his inflammatory comments and to
issue an apology."
In a prepared statement of his own, Eckhardt acknowledged most of the
world's 1.25 billion Muslims want to live in peace. But he added they
must
do more to "self regulate their faith by rooting out those who engage,
fund
and propagate terrorism in the name of Islam."
The Rev. Paul Rutgers, a Presbyterian minister and executive director
of
the Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago, said
Eckhardt's
implications about Islam "simply have no basis in reality."
Eckhardt met Monday with the Daily Herald's editorial board. In
response to
a question about what is the most important thing he wants to do if
elected, he said: "I think three things that stand out to me. Most
immediately, that of fundamentalist Islamic expansionism."
Later he added, "For years I've been distrustful of Islam," and he said
he
had no problem with the government placing human monitors in mosques…
CONTACT: CAIR-Chicago Executive Director Yaser Tabbara, 312-212-1520 or
312-718-3725, E-Mail: director@cairchicago.org
SEE ALSO:
MUSLIMS PROTEST CANDIDATE OK WITH SPIES IN MOSQUES
STEPHANIE ZIMMERMANN, Chicago Sun-Times, 11/2/04
http://www.suntimes.com/output/elect/cst-nws-islam02.html
The Republican challenger to U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) drew
heavy
criticism Friday from a group of Muslim and interfaith activists for
saying
that he wouldn't object to the government placing spies inside U.S.
mosques.
But Kurt Eckhardt, a former trader at the Chicago Board of Trade and
the
Republican committeeman in Chicago's 48th Ward, made no apologies for
the
statement or for saying he is distrustful of the global designs of
fundamentalist Muslims.
"I acknowledge that the vast majority of the Islamic population in the
world is peace-loving," Eckhardt said. "I'm talking about global
ambitions
of fundamentalist Islam. I'm very suspicious."
Eckhardt said he made the comments about monitoring U.S. mosques in
response to a journalist's question during an editorial board meeting
at
the suburban Daily Herald newspaper. "I'm not anti-Islam," he said.
But Muslim leaders in Chicago said such comments only fuel anti-Muslim
feelings -- sentiment that is often directed at moderate, mainstream
people.
Yaser Tabbara, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic
Relations, said he's sickened by terrorist acts -- and upset when
mainstream people are blamed.
"Whenever I see something like that [terrorist violence], I get so many
feelings as an American. I feel depressed. I feel that these acts are
directed against me as a Muslim," Tabbara said...
-----
FBI TO INTERVIEW VEGAS-AREA MUSLIMS
TIMOTHY PRATT and JACE RADKE, Las Vegas Sun, 10/1/04
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/sun/2004/oct/01/517601497.html
FBI agents plan to begin interviewing members of the local Muslim
community
Monday in an attempt to gather information about possible terrorist
attacks
linked to November's election.
Muslims reacted with skepticism to the plan.
Contacted at the Jamia Masjid mosque, where part of a three-day
conference
on the Quran will be held this weekend, Aslam Abdullah, director of the
Islamic Society of Las Vegas, quipped, "Why doesn't the FBI just come
to
the conference? That way they can round us all up at once."
Law enforcement officials downplayed the issue.
Special Agent David Schrom, a spokesman for the Las Vegas FBI office,
said
the agency was "not going out to harass people. We're just trying to
fill
in any intelligence gaps we may have."
The initiative, part of a nationwide effort called "2004 Threat," is in
response to intelligence gathered earlier this year indicating that al
Qaeda may want to strike this fall, Schrom said.
"We know that al Qaeda would love to attack us (the United States)
before
the election," Schrom said. "They saw what happened with the attacks in
Madrid and would like to see the same type of disturbance created in
the
United States."
Clark County Sheriff Bill Young said Wednesday there is no evidence of
a
credible threat to Las Vegas, but he anticipates a shift in terror
alert
from yellow to the higher orange level as the Nov. 7 election and the
New
Year's and Christmas holidays approach.
Adjutant Gen. Giles Vanderhoof, commander of the Nevada National Guard
and
the state's homeland security adviser, said state security agencies
were in
a "heightened state" in preparation for the upcoming presidential
election.
Both national and local Muslims leaders said they would cooperate with
FBI
agents, but were growing tired of what one called feeling "like pawns
in a
political game."
Khalid Khan, president of the Islamic Society of Las Vegas, said the
local
Muslim community, estimated at 10,000, has grown somewhat skeptical of
the
sorts of interviews the FBI has announced on several occasions since
the
Sept. 11 attacks.
The society is hosting the Quran conference this weekend with the
Department of Asian Studies of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, an
event organizers said would draw at least 250 people from across the
country, as well as speakers from Canadian and U.S. universities.
"We keep thinking that this is more politics than real issues," Khan
said.
"We really don't think the Bush administration is doing anything about
terrorism - he's just diverting American people's attention from real
issues."
All of the local FBI offices in the country will be operating command
posts
and interviewing Muslims and Arab-Americans.
The federal agency conducted similar interviews last year prior to the
New
Year's celebrations in cities around the country, including Las Vegas.
Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic
Relations,
wondered what the FBI hoped to achieve with such interviews.
"You have to wonder, who are they going to talk to that they haven't
already? What is the purpose other than sending a chill through the
community?" he said.
The FBI's initiative starts Monday, the same day as a national group
announces it will be releasing the results of a survey measuring "the
American public's level of hostility to Islam and Muslims…"
-----
NEW SOCIAL WORKER FOR MUSLIM FAMILY
Imprisoned man's wife hoping to be reunited with kids in foster care
Stephen Dyer, Beacon Journal, 10/2/04
http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/9817986.htm
RAVENNA - The wife of a Yemeni man and former Kent resident who's been
detained without charges for nearly a year by federal authorities won a
victory this week in an attempt to re-gain custody of her children.
A new social worker has been assigned to the case of Michele Swensen.
She
and Ashraf Al-Jailani have three children who are currently in foster
care.
After Al-Jailani was detained, Swensen was hospitalized for depression
and
her children were taken by the Portage County Department of Jobs and
Family
Services.
Swensen, 34, thought she would get her children back last month, but
the
department decided to retain custody because she missed three doses of
her
antidepressant medication. However, Swensen and Al-Jailani alleged it
was
the social worker who had an anti-Muslim bias that led to the change of
heart.
The social worker's personnel file indicates she is one of the
department's
more reliable workers.
However, the department assigned a new social worker to Swensen's case
Wednesday, a result Swensen hailed in an e-mail.
"I was told that I could never get a new social worker," she wrote,
"that
it's never done, and that it would never be done. Well, it got done..."
-----
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-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
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In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
POLL: 1-IN-4 AMERICANS HOLDS ANTI-MUSLIM VIEWS
Negative images of Muslims far more prevalent than positive ones
(WASHINGTON, DC - 10/4/2004) - According to a poll released today by a
prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group, 1-in-4
Americans believes a number of anti-Muslim stereotypes and negative
images
of Muslims are 16 times more prevalent than positive ones.
SEE: http://www.cair-net.org/downloads/pollresults.ppt
The poll, sponsored by the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic
Relations (CAIR) and conducted by an independent research firm, was
designed to understand what Americans think about Muslims, identify
variables associated with anti-Muslim prejudice and to seek out ways in
which to combat the Islamophobic prejudice that often leads to
discrimination or even hate crimes.
FOR EXAMPLE, SEE: "Twin Cities' Muslims Detail Vandalism Attacks"
http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/5013716.html
http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=70097
Poll results include:
* More than one-fourth of survey respondents agreed with stereotypes
such
as "Muslims teach their children to hate" and "Muslims value life less
than
other people."
* When asked what comes to mind when they hear "Muslim," 32 percent of
respondents made negative comments. Only two percent had a positive
response.
* Those with the most negative attitudes toward Islam and Muslims tend
to
be less-educated white males who are politically conservative.
* General knowledge of Islam is low but the presence of Muslim friends
and
colleagues drives more enlightened attitudes.
* African-Americans hold more favorable attitudes about Muslims than do
whites.
* While half of respondents believed that American Muslims are
"cooperating" in the war on terror, 50 percent did not believe that
they
are actively "condemning" terrorist acts.
* Most Americans believe that the terrorists are misusing the teachings
of
Islam.
* About half of Americans hold one or more favorable attitudes about
Muslims, such as "Muslims have family-oriented values" and "Muslims
have
contributed to civilization."
* Those who believe they are knowledgeable about Islam tend to have
more
positive attitudes.
"As a nation that values tolerance and equality, we need to recognize
the
growing anti-Muslim prejudice in our society and join together as
Americans
to combat this divisive phenomenon," said CAIR Board Chairman Omar
Ahmad.
"It is clear from the results of this survey that we have our work cut
out
for us in terms of educating other Americans about Islam and providing
opportunities for positive interactions with the Muslim community."
Ahmad said that CAIR will be encouraging local Muslim communities
across
the United States to hold open houses for people of other faiths during
Ramadan, the Islamic fast that begins in mid-October.
Survey results were based on 1000 telephone interviews conducted by
California-based Genesis Research Associates
(http://www.genesisresearch.net ) between June 23 and July 2, 2004.
Interviewers spoke with a gender-balanced random sample of respondents
across the continental United States. Margin of error for the poll
(with 95
percent confidence) is +/-3.1 percent. CAIR, America's largest Islamic
civil liberties group, has 29 regional offices and chapters nationwide
and
in Canada.
- END -
CONTACT: Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail:
cair@cair-net.org; Rabiah Ahmed, 202-488-8787 or 202-439-1441, E-Mail:
rahmed@cair-net.org
-----
NOTE: CAIR offers an e-mail list designed to be a window to the
American
Muslim community. Subscribers to the list, called CAIR-NET, receive
news
releases and other materials dealing with American Muslim positions on
issues of importance to our society.
To SUBSCRIBE to CAIR-NET, go to: http://cair.biglist.com/cair-net/
-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 10/4/04
* VERSE OF THE DAY: DO NOT FOLLOW BLINDLY
* CAIR-LA BANQUET ALMOST SOLD OUT
* OR: MUSLIM LAWYER SUES FBI (AP)
* MUSLIMS MOBILIZE FOR NOV. ELECTIONS (Alameda Star)
- Civil-Liberties in the Background (Boston Globe)
- Arabs in Florida Angered By Bush (LA Times)
* MN: MUSLIM LEADERS CONCERNED ABOUT VANDALISM (AP)
- MN: Muslims Fear Crime (Pioneer Press)
* POLL: 1 IN 4 HOLD ANTI-MUSLIM VIEWS (AP)
- CAIR News Conference Aired on C-SPAN
* FEDS QUIZ ARIZ. MUSLIMS BEFORE ELECTION (AP)
- NV: Extra Scrutiny Chafes Muslims (Rev. Journal)
* STUDENT BARRED ENTRY TO US BECAUSE OF WATCH LIST (AP)
* TWO PEOPLES, ONE STATE (NY Times)
- Off the Map (Baltimore Sun)
* ALL FAITHS MUST HELP END WORLD VIOLENCE (Ottawa Citizen)
* ISLAMIC TALK FINDS A SPOT ON RADIO DIAL (Chicago Trib)
* PARIS SUBURB BANS FASHION SHOW BY MUSLIM WOMEN (AFP)
* ISLAMIC CONFERENCE OF NEW ENGLAND
-----
VERSE OF THE DAY: DO NOT FOLLOW BLINDLY
"Do not follow anyone blindly in those matters of which you have no
knowledge, surely the use of your ears and eyes and heart - all of
these,
shall be questioned on the Day of Judgement."
The Holy Quran, 17:36:
-----
CAIR-LA FUNDRAISING BANQUET ALMOST SOLD OUT
WHAT: The CAIR-LA annual fundraising banquet, "Restoring the American
Dream: Celebrating A Decade of Service" on October 9 is almost sold
out! We
urge you to buy your tickets today as over 1,800 have already been
sold.
There are only a few dozen seats still available. To purchase tickets:
call
(714) 776-1847, e-mail socal@cair.com, or go to www.cair-california.org
CONFIRMED SPEAKERS:
Professor David Cole, Constitutional Law Professor, Georgetown
University
(Keynote) Imam Siraj Wahaj, Masjid At-Taqwa
Omar Ahmad, Chairman, CAIR National
WHEN: Saturday, October 9, 2004
Registration begins at 5:30 p.m., Dinner and Program at 6:30 p.m.
WHERE: The Anaheim Convention Center Ballroom
800 W. Katella Avenue
Anaheim, CA 92802
(714) 765-8950
TO PURCHASE TICKETS: Call (714) 776-1847 or E-mail socal@cair.com or
Visit
www.cair-california.org
-----
MUSLIM LAWYER SUES FBI, ASHCROFT FOR FALSE IMPRISONMENT
Rukmini Callimachi, Associated Press, 10/4/04
http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/regional/index.ssf?/base/news-8/10969151
61184200.xml&storylist=orlocal
PORTLAND, Ore.— The Portland lawyer who was wrongly arrested by FBI
agents
on suspicion of involvement in Spain's worst terrorist attack filed a
lawsuit Monday against the U.S. government, claiming he was singled out
because of his Muslim faith.
Brandon Mayfield, a 38-year-old convert to Islam, is accusing the FBI,
John
Ashcroft and the Department of Justice of violating his civil liberties
by
wiretapping his Oregon home and filing misleading affidavits to justify
his
two-week imprisonment, according to court documents filed Monday.
The FBI issued a rare public apology after Mayfield's release, saying
human
error had led to Mayfield's fingerprint being incorrectly matched to
one
found on a bag of detonators near the scene of the Madrid attack, which
killed 191 people on March 11.
Mayfield is seeking unspecified damages as well as a ruling that key
provisions of the U.S. Patriot Act are unconstitutional.
"Not even a 'War on Terror' allows the federal government to deprive
U.S.
citizens of their constitutionally protected rights," Mayfield's
attorneys
said in a prepared statement.
His rights, they go on to say, were "trampled" by an "unconstitutional
law"
and by "overzealous law enforcement."
-----
MUSLIMS MOBILIZE FOR NOV. ELECTIONS
Melissa Evans, Alameda Times-Star, 10/3/04
http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82~1865~2443447,00.html
NEWARK -- Four years ago, Agha Saeed pledged his support to George W.
Bush.
In exchange, Bush promised prominent Muslim leaders, including Saeed,
that
he would repeal some of the laws that allowed secret searches and
evidence
against alleged terrorists and other criminals.
When Bush was elected, Saeed and other Muslim leaders scheduled a
meeting
with the new president to discuss plans to scale back the Secret
Evidence
Act.
The date of their meeting was Sept. 11, 2001.
It was canceled. And in the wake of the terrorist attacks, the Bush
administration successfully pressed Congress for sweeping legislation
that
instead expanded its policing power.
With reports that terrorist suspects are being held behind bars for
lengthy
periods with no due process, that wiretaps and surveillance cameras are
being used to spy on potentially innocent suspects of Arab descent, and
that men and women are being rounded up for questioning about their
ties to
Muslim organizations, the support that Bush once enjoyed among Muslim
voters has dissolved, leaders say.
"[Bush's] position has changed," said Saeed, director of the
Newark-based
American Muslim Alliance and a political science professor at the
University of California, Berkeley. "There is a profound sense of
betrayal."
Anger over Bush's perceived assault on civil rights has fueled a
massive
mobilization of the nation's roughly 5 million Muslim voters.
Headed by the American Muslim Task Force -- a group formed by Saeed
that
includes a dozen influential Islamic organizations -- voter
registration
drives are being organized across the country along with town hall
meetings, candidate information nights and other events intended to get
Muslims to the polls on Nov. 2.
A town hall meeting has been scheduled for Oct. 23 at Chandni
Restaurant in
Newark.
The task force includes the Council on American-Islamic Relations,
which
has 27 chapters across the country and claims to be the leading voice
in
Muslim advocacy, the Muslim American Society, the Muslim Student
Association and other organizations.
Members of the task force plan to endorse a presidential candidate in
mid-October. Polls, however, indicate that most Muslims already have
made
up their mind...
ALSO SEE:
CIVIL-LIBERTIES ISSUE IN THE BACKGROUND
Charlie Savage, Boston Globe, 10/4/04
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/bush/articles/2004/10/04/civil
_liberties_issue_in_the_background
WASHINGTON - Despite three years of outcry from activists who say the
Bush
administration has been sacrificing basic individual rights in the name
of
preventing terrorism, other issues in the presidential campaign have
drowned out the protection of civil liberties.
Senator John F. Kerry, determined to demonstrate that he can be trusted
to
protect the country from terrorists, says little on the subject beyond
using "end the era of John Ashcroft" as a generic applause line and
calling
for modestly stronger oversight of a few of the new police powers
provided
by the USA Patriot Act, a law Kerry voted for after the attacks of
Sept.
11, 2001.
President Bush, meanwhile, has staunchly defended the Patriot Act, and
his
administration has asked Congress for even greater surveillance powers
to
fend off potential terrorist attacks.
In the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, two out of three Americans said
some civil liberties had to be given up to fight terrorism. But a
recent
Pew Foundation poll indicated that half as many Americans now hold that
view.
Still, protection of civil liberties does not rank high as a concern
among
most voters this year. The Iraq war and the US economy are the big
issues...
---
ARABS IN FLORIDA ANGERED BY BUSH
Peter Wallsten and John M. Glionna, Los Angeles Times, 10/4/04
http://www.latimes.com/news/yahoo/la-na-arab04oct04,1,2594908.story
ORLANDO, Fla. - Ever since President Bush narrowly won Florida four
years
ago, Democrats have meticulously courted key voting blocs that
strategists
believe could help reverse the party's fortunes in 2004 -- showering
attention on seniors, African Americans, Jews, and Cuban and Haitian
Americans.
On Sunday night, a surprising new ethnic thread wove itself into
Florida's
ever-complicated political fabric: the frustrated Arab American.
Business owners, physicians, lawyers and others -- furious over the
Bush
administration's post-Sept. 11 policies that many believe unfairly
target
Muslims and Arab Americans in the government's quest to root out
terrorists
-- huddled in a hotel ballroom across the street from Disney World to
demonstrate how much they wanted a change in the White House.
The meeting, intended to be a bipartisan affair sponsored by the
Washington-based Arab American Institute, turned into a cheering
session
for Democratic nominee Sen. John F. Kerry -- illustrating a dramatic
shift
in a traditionally Republican group.
"I thought Bush was another Ronald Reagan on a small scale for what he
believed in," said Ashley Ansara, president of a clinical research
company
in Orlando. "I found out he's no Reagan. Not even close."
He said this would be the first presidential election since he moved to
the
U.S. in 1973 that he wouldn't be voting Republican.
Sunday night's fervor first surfaced in the spring, when more than 150
Arab
American voters packed onto chartered buses bound for the University of
Central Florida in Orlando, where local Democratic leaders were
gathering
to elect delegates to the party's national convention.
Some had voted for Bush in 2000. Others had never voted at all. But
when
they arrived at UCF that morning, they made an important statement by
claiming three of the eight delegate slots from two congressional
districts.
Kerry's gains, though, could prove thorny in Florida, where Democratic
Party politics has long been characterized by close ties to the state's
massive Jewish community and staunch support for Israel.
Some Democrats say privately they fear alienating Jewish voters with an
overt effort to reach Arab Americans.
The Massachusetts senator has already encountered trouble on that
front,
when he told the Arab American Institute a year ago that the security
fence
being constructed by Israel in and around the West Bank was a "barrier
to
peace." Later, he assured miffed Jewish leaders that he believed the
fence
was a legitimate tool for self-defense against terrorism.
But Kerry also has promoted a Senate voting record that has received a
100%
rating from pro-Israel lobbyists...
-----
MUSLIM LEADERS CONCERNED ABOUT VANDALISM ATTACKS
Associated Press, 10/3/04
http://www.in-forum.com/ap/index.cfm?page=view&id=D85GLLFG1
COLUMBIA HEIGHTS, Minn. - Local Muslim leaders said they were concerned
about recent vandalism at area Islamic centers.
The vandalism began last month when paintballs splattered the Islamic
Center of Minnesota in Fridley.
"Muslims are under attack in Minnesota," said Hamdy El-Sawaf, the
Islamic
Center's executive director. "We are shocked and disappointed. This is
something very unusual."
"We haven't seen such hate crimes even after 9/11," he added.
El-Sawaf said he and center members find the events troubling. "We are
afraid something more serious could happen here," he said. "We have no
explanation or idea of what is going on in the minds of people
attacking
us."
The day after the incident in Fridley, some people reportedly entered a
mosque in Columbia Heights as night prayer was about to start and threw
a
bottle of rotten eggs at worshippers.
Over the weekend, fire damaged a storage shed at the mosque.
Muslim leaders were asking this week for increased police patrols.
Worshippers said the security of Muslims who attend Friday services in
Columbia Heights are at stake - especially as the holy month of Ramadan
approaches.
ALSO SEE:
MUSLIMS FEAR CRIME
Pioneer Press, 10/4/04
http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/news/local/9828556.htm
Members of a Muslim community in the northern Twin Cities suburbs asked
for
increased police patrols after a series of recent incidents of
vandalism
targeting a mosque and community center escalated this past weekend.
Hours after a storage shed at the Columbia Heights mosque caught fire,
leaders of the Islamic Center of Minnesota on Sunday said they believe
they
are the targets of "hate crimes."
Fazal Karim delayed plans this weekend to help finish building the
outdoor
storage shed at his Columbia Heights mosque when an early weather
forecast
first called for rain. He later learned vandals attempted to burn down
the
10-by-12-foot structure at the Islamic Center mosque, 4056 Seventh St.
N.E.
The shed's plywood sheeting was charred on one side, but firefighters
contained the damage.
The incident marked the third such incident in 11 days against the
Muslim
group, community leaders said. Vandals splattered the Islamic Center's
community building at 1401 Gardena Ave. in Fridley on Sept. 23 with
pink
paintballs; a day later, at least two unidentified assailants entered
the
Columbia Heights mosque and threw a bottle of rotten eggs in the
direction
of worshippers there for evening prayers.
"Muslims are under attack in Minnesota,'' said Hamdy El-Sawaf, the
Islamic
Center's executive director.”We are shocked and disappointed. This is
something very unusual.
"We haven't seen such hate crimes even after 9/11,'' he added.
El-Sawaf said he and center members are troubled by the events. "We are
afraid something more serious could happen here. We have no explanation
or
idea of what is going on in the minds of people attacking us.''
El-Sawaf said police have no leads but are working on the cases with
federal officials. Columbia Heights police could not be reached for
comment
Sunday. El-Sawaf has asked Columbia Heights and Fridley to step up
patrols
of his center's properties and said the center plans to install
surveillance cameras this week.
He called on the Twin Cities community and all Minnesotans "to stand by
us
and defend us,'' noting that in a couple of weeks Muslims will begin
the
monthlong observance of Ramadan, a time for fasting and prayer. "We are
peaceful people and would like to promote peace,'' he said...
-----
POLL: 1 IN 4 HOLD ANTI-MUSLIM VIEWS
Associated Press, 10/4/04
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/nation/9834122.htm
WASHINGTON -- About one in four Americans holds anti-Muslim views, such
as
a belief that the religion teaches violence and hatred, according to a
survey an Islamic advocacy group released Monday.
The survey by the Council on American-Islamic Relations found a
majority of
Americans hold positive views of Muslims, while a substantial number
have
no opinion at all.
Anti-Islamic sentiment surged in this country after the Sept. 11, 2001,
attacks by terrorists who claimed to be acting in the name of the
faith.
Since then, anti-Muslim views have been encouraged by a continuing
string
of terror attacks, including decapitations, in Iraq, as well as a
violent
attack on school children in Russia, said Omar Ahmad, chairman of the
council's board.
"They have nothing to do with Islam. People claim they are doing it for
Islam, but it's really in spite of Islam," Ahmad said.
The telephone survey of a random sample of 1,000 American adults found
that
just over one in four people somewhat or strongly agreed with a series
of
anti-Muslim sentiments including: the Muslim religion teaches violence
and
hatred (26 percent agreed); Muslims value life less than other people
(27
percent agreed); and Muslims want to change the American way of life
(29
percent agreed).
More than four in 10 people disagreed with the statements. In each
case,
nearly 30 percent said they had no opinion.
Large numbers of Americans also hold a variety of favorable views. More
than six in 10, for instance, say Muslims have "family-oriented
values,"
and more than half disagreed with the statement, "Muslims are
dishonest."
About two in three said they agreed that "the people who use Islam to
justify violence are misinterpreting its teachings."
The poll found that people most likely to have negative attitudes were
male, white, less educated, politically conservative and living in the
South.
Hoping to combat these attitudes, the council plans a "Share Ramadan"
project, where it will encourage Muslims to invite others to share an
evening meal during the monthlong event. Ramadan begins Oct. 15 or Oct.
16
with the sighting of the first new moon in the next lunar year.
The survey by Genesis Research Associates was conducted June 23 to July
2
and had a sampling margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage
points.
SEE ALSO
CAIR NEWS CONFERENCE AIRED ON C-SPAN
Today’s news conference on CAIR’s survey was aired live on C-SPAN.
Check C-SPAN’s schedule for re-airing of the press conference.
GO TO: http://www.c-span.org/
-----
FEDS QUIZ ARIZ. MUSLIMS BEFORE ELECTION
Associated Press, 10/4/04
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/politics/9820412.htm
PHOENIX-With the final presidential debate in Tempe less than two weeks
away, the FBI is increasing efforts to interview Phoenix-area
residents,
including Muslims, as part of a nationwide plan to prevent a terrorist
attack before the Nov. 2 election, agents said.
Susan Herskovits, the FBI's spokeswoman in Phoenix, said this latest
push
aimed to increase intelligence by contacting as many people as possible
-
not just Muslims.
"We're worried about an attack on American soil," Herskovits told the
East
Valley Tribune. "It isn't really targeting any group."
Deedra Abboud, executive director of the local chapter of the Council
of
American-Islamic Relations, disagreed, saying Muslims obviously are a
focus
of the FBI effort. She was called by the FBI earlier this week.
"They are contacting Muslims they've already contacted, and contacting
ones
they haven't met," Abboud said. "They tell us they are not using ethnic
profiling - we tend to disagree, but we won't deny they are
interviewing
other people."
She said the FBI told her they had no knowledge of any terror plans for
Arizona "but they can't be too sure."
Abboud said while the agent's tone was congenial, a visit or phone call
from the FBI can still be disconcerting.
"You tend to wonder if you're on a list - why they are at your door,"
she
said. "You feel like you're under investigation even if you're not."
President Bush and Democratic Sen. John Kerry met Thursday night in
their
first presidential debate in Coral Gables, Fla. They have two more
debates
scheduled: Oct. 8 in St. Louis and Oct. 13 in Tempe.
ALSO SEE:
NV: EXTRA SCRUTINY CHAFES MUSLIMS
Brian Haynes, Review Journal, 10/4/04
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2004/Oct-04-Mon-2004/news/24904951.ht
ml
It's been three years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and
Khalid Khan still feels like he's under suspicion.
Officials at McCarran International Airport suspended his access badge
without explanation last week, just a few days after he learned local
Muslims would face stepped-up scrutiny from federal authorities in
coming
weeks.
"Peaceful people are frustrated at why they have been targeted," said
Khan,
president of the Islamic Society of Nevada. "We always thought, with
time,
this thing will fade away."
Starting this week, FBI agents across the country will step up
interviews
with Muslims and other groups under a plan to prevent a terrorist
attack
before the Nov. 2 election, said Special Agent David Nanz, a spokesman
for
the Las Vegas field office.
Al-Qaida has threatened an attack designed to disrupt the election. The
terrorist group has been linked to synchronized train bombings that
affected Spain's elections in March.
In Khan's mind, the investigation will unfairly target Muslims.
"Are they looking for the terrorists, or are they looking for the
Muslims?"
he said. "There's a very big question mark in my mind."
However, Nanz said authorities will question people from various
ethnicities and religions, including many non-Muslims.
"It's not exclusively Muslims," he said. "It's also not randomly
Muslims."
Agents will focus on communicating with community leaders while
interviewing people they believe might have useful information, he
said.
The questioning is part of an operation to gather intelligence and
prevent
terrorist attacks, he said. Cooperation between agents and the local
Muslim
community has been positive through the years, and Nanz said he hoped
it
would continue...
-----
MUSLIM EXCHANGE STUDENT FROM SWITZERLAND BARRED ENTRY TO UNITED STATES
BECAUSE OF WATCH LIST
Associated Press, 10/4/04
http://www.boston.com/dailynews/278/region/Swiss_exchange_student_barred_:.s
html
BRATTLEBORO, Vermont (AP) - A high school student from Switzerland was
barred from flying to the United States for a foreign exchange program
after his name appeared on a government watch list.
The 17-year-old boy, identified by school officials only by his first
name,
Fuad, was left behind when 20 other students from Switzerland flew
Thursday
to New England to take part in the exchange.
Sen. Patrick Leahy's office unsuccessfully sought to intervene with the
State Department. Leahy's spokesman, David Carle, said the department
would
not disclose what list the boy's name was on or why the teenager was on
it.
Fuad was born in Ethiopia and is Muslim but moved to Switzerland with
his
family in 1994.
"He's never been in trouble," said his Swiss teacher, Katherine
Conliffe.
"He worked all summer to make money for the trip."
Leahy is working on legislation to require the Department of Homeland
Security to create a procedure for individuals who believe they have
been
put on the post-Sept. 11 watch list incorrectly.
-----
TWO PEOPLES, ONE STATE
Michael Tarazi, New York Times, 10/4/04
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/04/opinion/04tarazi.html
Israel's untenable policy in the Middle East was more obvious than
usual
last week, as the Israeli Army made repeated incursions into Gaza,
killing
dozens of Palestinians in the deadliest attacks in more than two years,
even as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon reiterated his plans to withdraw
from
the territory. Israel's overall strategy toward the Palestinians is
ultimately self-defeating: it wants Palestinian land but not the
Palestinians who live on that land.
As Christians and Muslims, the millions of Palestinians under
occupation
are not welcome in the Jewish state. Many Palestinians are now
convinced
that Israeli support for a Palestinian state is motivated not by a hope
for
reconciliation, but by a desire to segregate non-Jews while taking as
much
of their land and resources as possible. They are increasingly
questioning
the most commonly accepted solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict
-
"two states living side by side in peace and security," in the words of
President Bush - and are being forced to consider a one-state solution.
To Palestinians, the strategy behind Israel's two-state solution is
clear.
More than 400,000 Israelis live illegally in more than 150 colonies,
many
of which are atop Palestinian water sources. Mr. Sharon is prepared to
evacuate settlers from Gaza - but only in exchange for expanding
settlements in the West Bank. And Israel is building a barrier wall not
on
its land but rather inside occupied Palestinian territory. The wall's
route
maximizes the amount of Palestinian farmland and water on one side and
the
number of Palestinians on the other.
Yet while Israelis try to allay a demographic threat, they are creating
a
democratic threat. After years of negotiations, coupled with incessant
building of settlements and now the construction of the wall,
Palestinians
finally understand that Israel is offering "independence" on a
reservation
stripped of water and arable soil, economically dependent on Israel and
even lacking the right to self-defense.
As a result, many Palestinians are contemplating whether the quest for
equal statehood should now be superseded by a struggle for equal
citizenship. In other words, a one-state solution in which citizens of
all
faiths and ethnicities live together as equals. Recent polls indicate
that
a quarter of Palestinians favor the secular one-state solution - a
surprisingly high number given that it is not officially advocated by
any
senior Palestinian leader...
Michael Tarazi is a legal adviser to the Palestine Liberation
Organization.
ALSO SEE:
OFF THE MAP
Baltimore Sun, 10/4/04
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/bal-ed.pals04oct04,1,5255611.story?
coll=bal-opinion-headlines
SECRETARY OF STATE Colin L. Powell urged Palestinians last week to end
their 4-year-old uprising against the Israeli occupation. "What has it
accomplished?" Mr. Powell asked in an interview with an Arab television
network. "Has it produced progress toward a Palestinian state?"
These are sober questions that many Palestinians have asked themselves.
But
the question that should be asked is: What has the Bush administration
done
to facilitate an end to the attacks and counterattacks between
Palestinian
militants and the Israeli army that have killed more than 1,000
Israelis
and 3,300 Palestinians?
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, an engine for rage in the Arab and
Muslim
world, has dropped off the national political agenda. If you need
evidence,
replay last Thursday's presidential debate. During 90 minutes devoted
to
foreign policy, it never came up. Not a question. Not a comment. Not a
reference. Not a word. During the 2000 race, the issue arose in two of
three debates. But they occurred days after the present uprising began
and
11 months before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The latter has profoundly changed America's response to the failed
Middle
East peace process. The war on terrorism and, especially, the war in
Iraq,
which dominated Thursday's debate, have hijacked the White House. They
have
overwhelmed U.S. foreign policy and recast the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict
from a search for a peaceful end to the occupation to a drive to
eliminate
the terrorist networks striking Israel.
The waves of Palestinian suicide bombers and rocket attacks against
Israel
hastened that shift and led to Israel's aggressive military response. A
discredited Palestinian leadership offered little to counter extremist
groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad. That and President Bush's
single-minded focus on combating terror and overthrowing Saddam Hussein
drew the administration more firmly into the camp of Israeli Prime
Minister
Ariel Sharon.
Mr. Bush may support a two-state solution to this conflict, but he
increasingly has let Mr. Sharon control the course of this non-peace
process. He has set aside the U.S. role of honest broker as Israel
expands
settlements, sends tanks and bulldozers to dislodge Palestinian
militants
and builds a security barrier across great swaths of disputed land,
isolating Palestinians in towns and villages. Israelis are safer as a
result, but at what cost to their future security in a hostile region?
But let's get back to Mr. Powell's questions. If answered candidly,
Palestinians would have to concede that their society and institutions,
the
likelihood of independence and prospects for peace have greatly
deteriorated over the past four years...
-----
ALL FAITHS MUST HELP END WORLD VIOLENCE
Bob Harvey, Ottawa Citizen, 10/4/04
http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/index.html
It is time Christian churches considered working with Muslims and Jews
to
end violence in the world, says the general secretary of the World
Council
of Churches.
Rev. Samuel Kobia told an ecumenical service yesterday at Ottawa's
Southminster United Church that "we live in a world that is full of
wars
and violence. It is as if we live in a jungle where the law of might
reigns
over the weak.
"Let us join with other faiths, Muslims and Jews, who have a tradition
of
struggling for peace.
Rev. Kobia is making his first trip to Canada, and met Canadian
aboriginal
leaders and gave a public lecture in Winnipeg before arriving in
Ottawa.
He will give the opening remarks today at an Ottawa Forum on Ecumenical
Dialogues organized by the Canadian Council of Churches.
He told church leaders from several denominations that the world also
has
problems with climate change, and the exploitation of limited
resources.
The church must play a role in transforming the world, he said. "It is
only
the spiritual perspective that gives us the courage to hope for a world
where a lamb can lie down with a wolf."
Rev. Kobia was ordained a Methodist minister in Kenya, and has a degree
in
city planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well
as
doctorates in theology and religious studies.
The World Council of Churches is the largest expression of the modern
ecumenical movement, whose goal is Christian unity...
-----
ISLAMIC TALK FINDS A SPOT ON RADIO DIAL
Geneive Abdo, Chicago Tribune, 10/3/04
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-0410030230oct03,1,34468
82.story
Dressed in a long, white Islamic tunic, Altaf Kaiseruddin sat in front
of a
large microphone and greeted his last guest, who was calling in to the
Chicago radio station from a cell phone.
"Hello, hello," said Kaiseruddin.
For a few anxious seconds, there was silence.
Then the guest, a comedian named Preacher Moss, sounded a loud "Salaam
aleikum!" the Arabic greeting meaning "Peace be upon you."
Kaiseruddin breathed a sigh of relief through the microphone.
"So tell us about your national tour, `Allah Made Me Funny.'"
Such was the first program of "Radio Islam," which debuted Friday night
to
a limited audience on a small radio station, WCEV-AM 1450. As America's
first daily English-language program about Islam, the show may never
earn
the ratings of shock-jock Howard Stern. But over time, "Radio Islam"
hopes
to raise serious issues--as well as make listeners laugh.
In cities such as Detroit, with a large Arab and Muslim population,
private
stations for years have aired Muslim or Arab-sponsored programs in
Arabic.
But "Radio Islam," broadcast in English on a commercial station, stands
apart for being accessible to a wider audience.
"It is in English and this is what makes it the first," said Osama
Siblani,
publisher and founder of the Detroit-based newspaper Arab American
News.
Imam Abdul Malik Mujahid, executive producer of "Radio Islam," said
that
the goal is to tell non-Muslim listeners things they often don't
believe or
want to hear: Islam does not condone terrorism; Islam is not at war
with
the West; and your Muslim neighbor is your friend....
-----
PARIS SUBURB BANS FASHION SHOW BY VEILED MUSLIM WOMEN
Agence France Presse, 10/4/04
PARIS, Oct 4 (AFP) - The Paris suburb of Montreuil-sous-Bois has banned
two
fashion shows featuring veiled Muslim women, saying the events --
closed to
men -- could disrupt public order, officials said Monday.
In an official order, a copy of which was sent to AFP, the town's
authorities banned "Ready-to-wear for Muslim women", an event that was
to
have taken place in Montreuil-sous-Bois on Sunday and next Sunday,
October
10.
The order said the catwalk shows were banned as they aimed to "show the
fashion relevance of items of clothing such as the hijab and the
burqa",
"trivialize the wearing of the Islamic headscarf" and were closed to
men.
"A serious disruption to public order could result," the order said.
Officials said the town, led by Communist-linked mayor Jean-Pierre
Brard,
made the decision after complaints from several pro-secularism
associations.
Police said the show scheduled for Sunday had not taken place, but an
Internet chat room said the second catwalk event would go on as planned
next Sunday somewhere in the Paris area, without naming a specific
site.
The announcement that the two shows organized by the "Jasmeen" label
were
cancelled came as spring-summer 2005 fashion week began in Paris,
bringing
together the world's elite designers for eight jam-packed days of
shows.
-----
THE 19TH ISLAMIC CONFERENCE OF NEW ENGLAND
WHAT: PRESERVING THE TRUE AMERICAN VALUES: An Islamic Perspective
WHEN: Saturday, October 9, 2004 from 8:30AM – 8:00PM
WHERE: Northeastern University, Boston, MA, Curry Student Center
Fees (Conference & meals): Family w/ Children Under !2 Yr (Babysitting
available) - $60,
Couples -$40, Individual Tickets - $25, Student & 15 to 21 Yr. Old -
$15
-----
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http://cair.biglist.com/cair-net/
To reach the list moderator, send a message to: cair@cair-net.org
-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
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mail2web - Check your email from the web at
http://mail2web.com/ .
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
- MEDIA ADVISORY -
FILM ABOUT PROPHET MUHAMMAD TO OPEN IN THEATERS
Nationwide release scheduled for holiday marking end of Ramadan fast
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 10/5/04) - On Tuesday, October 12, Fine Media Group
will
hold a news conference in Washington, D.C., to announce the nationwide
theatrical release of a feature-length animated film that chronicles
the
early life and teachings of Islam's Prophet Muhammad.
Release of "Muhammad: The Last Prophet" is scheduled to coincide with
Eid
ul-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of the Islamic fast of Ramadan.
The
90-minute film, produced by the creators of animated classics such as
"The
King and I" and "The Fox and the Hound" for Badr International, will be
shown in theaters in 37 U.S. and Canadian cities for one week beginning
November 14. (SEE: http://www.finemediagroup.com/ Because of Islamic
traditions prohibiting the visual representation of religious figures,
no
images of the Prophet Muhammad appear in the film.)
WHAT: News Conference Announcing Release of "Muhammad: The Last
Prophet"
WHEN: Tuesday, October 12, 10:30 a.m.
WHERE: National Press Club, Murrow Room, 13th Floor, National Press
Building, 14th and F Streets, N.W., Washington, D.C.
CONTACT: Oussama Jammal, President, Fine Media Group, 708-636-2003,
708-288-1914, oaj@finemediagroup.com
"This is an exciting opportunity for parents and children of all faiths
to
learn more about an historic figure like Prophet Muhammad and events
that
shaped today's world," said CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad. "The
release of this film in theaters also offers a chance to interact with
American Muslims in a learning environment." Awad also urged Muslims to
purchase tickets for distribution to their friends and neighbors.
Recent CAIR research has shown that anti-Muslim prejudice decreases
when
people have access to accurate information about Islam and relate to
ordinary Muslims. SEE:
http://www.cair-net.org/downloads/pollresults.ppt
CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, has 29 regional
offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada.
- END -
CONTACT: Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail:
ihooper@cair-net.org; Rabiah Ahmed, 202-488-8787 or 202-439-1441,
E-Mail:
rahmed@cair-net.org
NOTE: CAIR offers an e-mail list designed to be a window to the
American
Muslim community. Subscribers to the list, called CAIR-NET, receive
news
releases and other materials dealing with American Muslim positions on
issues of importance to our society.
To SUBSCRIBE to CAIR-NET, go to: http://cair.biglist.com/cair-net/
-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
--------------------------------------------------------------------
mail2web - Check your email from the web at
http://mail2web.com/ .
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 10/5/04
* VERSE/HADITH OF THE DAY: DO NOT DESPAIR
* INCITEMENT WATCH: COULTER AGREES, 'NO ONE SHOULD BE MUSLIM'
* STUDY FINDS NY MUSLIMS GROWING CLOSER SINCE 9/11 (NY Times)
- IL: Islam and Humor Do Mix (Sun-Times)
* NY: ALLIANCE URGES MEMBERS TO VOTE IN ELECTIONS (SI Live)
- Muslims May Vote By Mail During Ramadan
* DISTRUST OF MUSLIMS COMMON IN U.S. (Wash Post)
- WA: Forum Takes Aim at Muslim Stereotypes (Seattle PI)
- MI: Students Aim to Repair View of Islam (MI Daily)
* MN: MOSQUE FIRE MIGHT BE ARSON (Pioneer Press)
- Attacks on Mosque Show Us at Our Worst (Pioneer Press)
* CA: MUSLIM TESTIFIES IN BEATING CASE (Argus Online)
- Arab, Muslim Americans Targeted Again (IPS)
* THE STATE DEPARTMENT'S EXTREME MAKEOVER (Salon.com)
- Powell Calls on Israel to End Gaza Foray (AP)
-----
VERSE/HADITH OF THE DAY: DO NOT DESPAIR
Say: "O My servants who have transgressed against your own souls, do
not
despair of God's mercy, for God forgives all sins. It is He who is the
Forgiving, the Merciful."
The Holy Quran, 39:53
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "I would not trade this
verse for the whole world."
Al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 752
-----
INCITEMENT WATCH: COULTER AGREES - 'NO ONE SHOULD BE MUSLIM'
Interview With Ann Coulter on Sean Hannity, 10/4/04
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,134400,00.html
COLMES: We continue now with the author of "How to Talk to a Liberal
(If
You Must)," and, Ann Coulter, unfortunately for her, must tonight.
Ann Coulter. All right. "I'm often asked if I think we should invade
their
countries, kill their leaders, convert them to Christianity." Who do
you
want to kill besides -- you want to kill Saddam Hussein?
So what other leaders do you want to kill?
COULTER: Muslim fanatics who shout "Allahu Akbar" before disemboweling
a...
COLMES: Who? Tell me what leaders you want to kill?
COULTER: What do you mean, leaders of...
COLMES: You said you want to kill their leaders. What leaders do you
want
to kill?
COULTER: Leaders of Muslim fanatics. That would include Muslim clerics.
It
would include al-Sadr…
COLMES: So no one should be Muslim. They should all be Christian?
COULTER: That would be a good start, yes.
-----
STUDY FINDS CITY'S MUSLIMS GROWING CLOSER SINCE 9/11
Andrea Elliott, New York Times, 10/4/04
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/05/nyregion/05muslim.html
Facing increased discrimination after the Sept. 11 attacks, New York
City's
Muslims have identified more deeply with their religious roots, setting
aside the sectarian and linguistic differences that have traditionally
divided them, according to a six-year study released yesterday by
Columbia
University.
The study, financed by the Ford Foundation, provides the most
comprehensive
look yet at the religious, social and political affiliations of New
York
City's estimated 600,000 Muslims both before and after Sept. 11, 2001,
and
involved work by more than a dozen academic researchers and professors.
Some of the findings were presented yesterday at a two-day conference
held
at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia, which
continues today.
''The general comfort level felt by most Muslims was truly jarred by
Sept.
11, and they became this threatening minority who would be defined
mostly
by their religion,'' Peter J. Awn, a professor of Islamic religion at
Columbia who helped coordinate the study, said in an interview. ''That
has
caused serious soul-searching by the community.''
In the aftermath of Sept. 11, Muslims across the country experienced a
range of discrimination, from the loss of jobs to hate crimes that
resulted
in at least seven deaths, according to the American-Arab
Anti-Discrimination Committee. More than 80,000 men from mostly Muslim
countries were forced to register with the federal Department of
Homeland
Security, and roughly 13,000, none of whom have been charged with
terrorism-related offenses, have been placed in deportation
proceedings.
Though New York City's Muslims are from many places -- Guyana, Turkey,
Pakistan, Morocco -- they were united after Sept. 11 by a common
burden,
the study found. The increased public scrutiny and acts of bias they
suffered caused many who had previously identified mostly with their
countries of origin to unite under the larger cultural banner of Islam,
according to the study.
Part of this new identity was imposed on Muslims by the general public,
said several researchers who participated in the study, which started
in
1998. Jesse Bradford, a doctoral candidate at Harvard University's
sociology department, interviewed roughly 400 Muslims in New York,
Boston
and Chicago. During the presentation at the conference at Columbia, he
read
this statement from an anonymous South Asian Muslim interviewed in New
York: ''I was made to think more of myself as a Muslim from the outside
world.''
Muslims are one of the fastest-growing religious groups in New York
City.
They worship at roughly 140 mosques and have 14 parochial schools,
according to the study...
ALSO SEE:
COMEDIAN OUT TO PROVE ISLAM, HUMOR DO MIX
Cathleen Falsani, Sun-Times, 10/4/04
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-comic04.html
"Muslim shtick."
It's one of the ways Azhar Usman describes what he does for a living.
Usman, a 28-year-old professional stand-up comedian from Morton Grove,
is
fully aware of the irony some people might see in juxtaposing the word
Muslim with the Yiddish term for a joke or prank.
But irony, juxtaposition and distorting stereotypes are exactly where
Usman, a former attorney who grew up in Skokie, finds "the funny" and
the
fodder for his unique brand of comedy.
Usman and two other Muslim comedians will turn more than a few
stereotypes
on their ear when their "Allah Made Me Funny: The Official Muslim
Comedy
Tour" pulls in to Zanies Comedy Club in Chicago for four shows tonight
and
Tuesday night.
Forefront of civil rights
"What I've come to learn is that comedy of distortion has to do with
the
'out' group, meaning the minority group that is the butt of the
stereotype,
using that stereotype, flipping it inside out, and exposing it for what
it
is -- which is often a racist or xenophobic stereotype. And showing the
audience that the perspective they hold is ridiculous and doing that
through humor," Usman said as he sat in the empty Zanies on North
Wells, a
brightly colored portrait of Jerry Seinfeld hanging on the wall behind
him.
"A comedy show is not just a comedy show. There's a lot more going on
there," he said. "In this country, it is comedians -- ethnic comedians
--
who are at the forefront of, if you will, the civil rights movement
because
they're the ones that are pushing the envelope and pressing the issues
to
such a degree that eventually mainstream America begins to accept that
holding these racist or stereotypical views is inappropriate, or is
unacceptable, or is just absurd."
Serious stuff, Usman agrees. But don't be misled. He isn't an angry
comic...
-----
NY: MUSLIM ALLIANCE URGES MEMBERS TO VOTE IN UPCOMING ELECTIONS
Kacey Semler, Staten Island Live, 10/4/04
http://www.silive.com/news/advance/index.ssf?/base/news/1096897501185590.xml
Members of the Staten Island chapter of the American Muslim Alliance
are
being encouraged to vote in November.
"The majority is simply those who are active -- just one active member
can
make a difference," said Dr. Abdul Rehmanm the group's president,
yesterday
at the Muslim Community Center in Concord.
He said: "The efforts we make locally will go a long way for our
children
... in the future they will play a significant role nationally."
Dr. Suhail Muzaffan, secretary, also urged members to become
politically
active and described voting as a form of expression. "Our best weapon
is
our word, so we must participate and vote," he said.
Senior vice president Javed Syed and treasurer Dr. Saquib Kitan also
attended.
The alliance was established here eight years ago as a political
organization aimed at empowering the Muslim community through
involvement
in mainstream public affairs, civil discourse and the election
process...
SEE ALSO:
MUSLIMS MAY BE ALLOWED TO VOTE BY MAIL DURING RAMADAN
This year's presidential election takes place during Ramadan. Some
states
will allow Muslims to vote by mail using absentee ballots in order to
accommodate the fasting month's additional religious obligations.
Registered voters may visit the following site, which will expedite
their
absentee ballot: http://www.fastvote.org/
-----
DISTRUST OF MUSLIMS COMMON IN U.S., POLL FINDS
Caryle Murphy, Washington Post, 10/5/04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7097-2004Oct4.html
One in four Americans holds a negative stereotype of Muslims, and
almost
one-third respond with a negative image when they hear the word
"Muslim,"
according to a new national poll commissioned by a Washington-based
Islamic
advocacy group.
Officials with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which
sponsored
the survey, called the findings alarming. Although the organization was
aware that hate crimes and discrimination against Muslims had increased
since the 2001 terrorist attacks, "we did not know [anti-Islamic
sentiment]
was that deep," the council's executive director, Nihad Awad, said
yesterday at a news conference.
He and other council officials urged that American Muslims increase
their
outreach and that U.S. officials speak out against anti-Islamic bias.
The violence in Iraq, including the beheadings of hostages by Muslim
radicals, might be fueling the negative attitudes, Awad said.
The telephone poll of 1,000 Americans was conducted from June 23 to
July 2
by Genesis Research Associates, a Southern California marketing firm.
When asked if they agreed with such statements as "Muslims teach their
children to hate unbelievers" and "Muslims value life less than other
people," between 26 percent and 29 percent of respondents said they
did.
Fifty-one percent said Islam encourages the oppression of women.
When respondents were asked what comes to mind when they hear the word
Muslim, 32 percent responded with a negative image and 2 percent
offered a
positive image. The remaining 67 percent gave a neutral response, which
CAIR officials called somewhat encouraging.
"We take comfort in this finding," said Awad, adding that "the majority
of
Americans are open-minded and receptive" to learning more about
Islam...
ALSO SEE:
FORUM TAKES AIM AT NEGATIVE STEREOTYPES AFFIXED TO MUSLIMS
John Iwasaki, Seattle Post Intelligencer, 10/5/04
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/193802_muslims05.html
Rami Al-Kabra put a public face on Islam last month, manning a booth at
the
Puyallup Fair to represent local Muslims for an Islamic advocacy group.
"Some people were very supportive. They said, 'Thank you for being
here. We
want you to be out there so people can see you,' "said Al-Kabra,
secretary
for the Seattle chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
But one woman he encountered blamed Muslims for the kidnapping and
beheadings of foreigners in Iraq, even though his organization
repeatedly
condemned such brutality, he said.
"When someone's mind is set," Al-Kabra said, "you're not going to
change it."
A poll released yesterday by the Council on American-Islamic Relations
in
Washington, D.C., said that one in four Americans believe several
Muslim
stereotypes and hold a much more negative than positive image of
Muslims.
A quarter of survey respondents believe that Islam teaches violence and
hatred and that Muslims value life less than other people.
While 67 percent viewed the word "Muslim" in a neutral light, 32
percent
had a negative image and only 2 percent a positive one.
"I wasn't surprised, to tell you honestly," Al-Kabra said. "I know
Muslims
in the United States have a lot of work to do to educate Americans
about
what Islam is and what Islam is not."
Several leaders in the local Muslim community said the news media
spread
"disinformation" about Islam, smearing adherents of a worldwide
religion
for the violent acts of comparatively few...
---
STUDENTS AIM TO REPAIR PUBLIC VIEW OF ISLAM IN WEEKLONG PROGRAM
Michael Kan, Michigan Daily, 10/4/04
http://www.michigandaily.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/10/04/416126b9c1046
In a brief instant, LSA junior Amjad Tarsin turned from a regular
American
citizen to a suspected terrorist.
"I was going to Saudi Arabia and I had an Arab name. Fit two and two
together and you can figure it out," he said.
Waiting in line among dozens of other passengers, Tarsin expected to go
through the ordinary routine of airport security, before getting on a
plane
to visit his parents in Saudi Arabia. But before he cleared the metal
detectors, a guard escorted him out of the line into a different
detector
with no waiting line - it was opened only for him.
He said, "It felt like I was a criminal."
Though Tarsin still made his flight, the event lingers in his mind and
reminds him how difficult it is to be a Muslim in the United States.
Starting today, the Muslim Students' Association hopes to counteract
those
difficulties with this year's annual Islam Awareness Week.
Having originated in 1994, the week has the goal of informing the
University community on Islam and dispelling misconceptions about the
religion. The past few years have seen the importance of that goal
increase
dramatically as the stereotypes have multiplied.
Since Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, many Muslim students at the
University
like Tarsin say they have watched their religion become linked to words
and
phrases such as "terrorism" and "holy war" by non-Muslims uneducated
about
Islam.
Furthermore, the media portrayal of Muslims only provides mainstream
America with a slanted view of Islam, said Lubna Grewal, who is
co-chair
MSA Islam Awareness Week along with Tarsin.
"I think there is a complete misrepresentation of Muslims in general.
The
Muslims that are in the news are extremists and are only 5 percent of
the
population. So I'm being represented by 5 percent of the population of
Muslims," she said...
-----
MOSQUE FIRE MIGHT BE ARSON
Allen Powell II, Pioneer Press, 10/04/05
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/9836402.htm
Members of a Columbia Heights mosque are hoping that a fire that caused
about $1,000 worth of damage Sunday is not indicative of a widespread
threat that would ruin one of their holiest months.
Early Sunday, a partially constructed outdoor storage shed at the
mosque on
Seventh Street Northeast caught fire, according to police reports. The
fire
is under investigation, but it appears to be arson, said Capt. William
Roddy of the Columbia Heights police.
The fire was the third incident of vandalism at the mosque and the
Islamic
Center of Minnesota in Fridley in less than two weeks, said Dr. Hamdy
El-Sawaf, the executive director of the center and the imam, or
spiritual
leader, at the mosque. Last month, eggs were thrown at the mosque, and
the
center was sprayed by paintballs. Eggs also were found near the fire,
according to mosque members.
El-Sawaf said members of the mosque and the center are worried for the
safety of the 360 children who attend school at the center every day
and
the 150 Muslims who will attend nightly service over the next month as
part
of the observance of Ramadan. Although the other incidents of vandalism
were minor, the fire was not, and he is worried things could escalate.
"It is not only the physical damage about what happened, it is the
psychological damage of what might happen," said El-Sawaf, who
characterized the fire as a hate crime on Sunday and said Muslims in
Minnesota were under attack.
On Monday, he said those comments stemmed from the close timing of the
incidents and did not reflect the response the mosque and center have
received from the community.
Officials with other mosques and Islamic groups in the Twin Cities said
there have been no coordinated attacks against Muslims and very little
property damage at mosques.
According to police reports, the Columbia Heights mosque has had
several
calls for property damage over the past three years, usually on or
around
Sept. 11. Roddy said police will diligently patrol the mosque as they
have
in the past. He would not discuss any changes to the patrol schedule...
ALSO SEE:
ATTACKS ON MOSQUE SHOW US AT OUR WORST
Pioneer Press, 10/5/04
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/editorial/9835183.htm
Normally, we'd be hard pressed to think of an uglier episode than the
attempted arson over the weekend at the Islamic Center of Minnesota
Mosque
in Columbia Heights. Unfortunately, it was the third such attack in the
past two weeks to target local Muslims. Earlier, paintballs were shot
at
the center's community building in Fridley and rotten eggs were thrown
at
worshippers headed to evening prayers.
We can't condemn these actions loudly enough. They show Americans at
their
basest. Moreover, we think (hope) they're the acts of a minority of
xenophobes - the same people who argue (despite facts to the contrary)
that
immigration is not good for the country or the economy.
The vast majority of Americans, we believe, are smart enough to
understand
that while the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were indeed carried out by
Muslim
extremists, their views are a minority among the estimated 1 billion
Muslims worldwide, including those who call the Twin Cities home.
For those who unduly fret over such things, the Twin Cities is home to
an
estimated 20,000 people whose country of origin is predominantly
Muslim.
Those figures more than doubled in the 1990s, according to 2000 census
data. Some say the number grossly undercounts the Twin Cities' Muslim
population and that it's closer to 60,000.
For the growing Muslim population - and everyone else - the Islamic
Center
has been a welcome voice of reason in the immigration and national
security
debates that have raged since Sept. 11.
"The hearts of American Muslims were bleeding due to the terrorist
attacks
on innocent victims," Hamdy El-Sawaf, president of the Islamic Center,
said
during the first anniversary commemoration of the attacks. Since then,
the
center has denounced other attacks by Muslim militants and participated
in
important public forums, like the one last month at the Landmark
Center.
Despite these reasoned words and positive actions, nativist extremists
have
continued to demonize innocent Muslims in general. Ironically, what the
bigots don't understand is that targeting innocent Muslims is no
different
from targeting innocents who just happen to work in a particular office
building in lower Manhattan.
Equally disturbing is the brief popularity of a new book, "In Defense
of
Internment," by conservative columnist Michelle Malkin, in which the
author, herself the daughter of Filipino immigrants, defends the World
War
II-era internment of more than 100,000 U.S. citizens of Japanese
ancestry.
We couldn't disagree more with her premise that the action was based on
national security, not racism. As reviewer Brendan Miniter said in last
week's Wall Street Journal, "Ms. Malkin actually remembers the past but
wants to condemn us to repeat it."
Since Sept. 11, there have been many calls for Muslims to speak up and
condemn the acts of their most extremist brethren. We think the Islamic
Center has done that. Now, in the wake of this recent spate of attacks,
it's time for Minnesotans of all colors, religions and ethnic origins
to
stand up and denounce - loudly - the indefensible attacks on innocent
Muslims.
-----
MUSLIM TESTIFIES IN BEATING CASE
Ben Aguirre, The Argus Online, 10/5/04
http://www.theargusonline.com/Stories/0,1413,83~1971~2446737,00.html
FREMONT -- Amanullah Mehrzai got out of his car hoping to cool tensions
between him and the passengers of a truck following his family.
Instead, he
was hit in the face with a rubber mallet, fracturing his cheek in
multiple
places.
That was part of Mehrzai's testimony Monday during a hearing to decide
whether Daniel and Raul Reyes should stand trial for assault with a
deadly
weapon, stemming from the May 22 incident.
The brothers were arrested about two weeks after the beating. Daniel
Reyes
remains in custody at Santa Rita county jail in Dublin, while Raul
Reyes is
out on bail.
Their hearing began Friday, when Mehrzai's wife, Susan Barrientos,
testified that she was verbally assaulted as she watched their
2-year-old
son playing in Central Park.
Barrientos, a Muslim who wears a scarf over her head, said when a young
boy
began hurling racial slurs and insults about her religious beliefs, she
grabbed her son and headed to the gym where she had dropped off her
husband.
On Monday, Mehrzai testified that as he got out of the gym's swimming
pool,
he saw his wife sobbing. "She was crying and breathing pretty hard," he
said, adding he was scared. After she told him what happened, he said,
he
insisted that they return to the park.
"I wanted to go back to the park and see if I could find the kid's
parents," he said.
But, when his wife pointed out the child, Mehrzai said, he got out of
the
car and headed toward the boy.
"My anger overcame me and I smacked him in the back of the head,"
Mehrzai
testified. "I may have done it harder than I realized."
The boy began cussing at Mehrzai, who pulled off his belt and held it
in
one hand, he testified.
After returning to his car, Mehrzai began feeling bad about what he had
done, he said. He thought he should speak with the child's parents, but
instead he left the park, he testified.
As he drove the couple's Toyota Camry down Paseo Padre Parkway, a white
truck began following and eventually cut them off, he testified. When
two
men got out, Mehrzai, who said he feared for his life, put the car in
reverse, made a U-turn and began driving southbound on Paseo Padre...
ALSO SEE:
ARAB, MUSLIM AMERICANS TARGETED AGAIN
William Fisher, IPS, 10/4/04
http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=25714
NEW YORK - Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are
again
contacting Arab and Muslim Americans for what they describe as
"voluntary
interviews," as the Bush administration launches a new anti-terrorism
campaign designed to thwart efforts to disrupt the U.S. elections.
In conjunction with the FBI campaign, an agency of the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) is initiating a separate programme in major
metropolitan areas that will target Arab communities prior to the Nov.
2
polls.
According to the 'Washington Post', the campaign will probably include
rounding up and arresting hundreds of aliens from Middle Eastern and
other
countries known to be havens for terrorists.
Human rights groups see the initiatives as repeats of the massive
sweeps
carried out by the government immediately following the Sep. 11, 2001
attacks on New York's Twin Towers and the Pentagon, operations that
reportedly netted more than 5,000 individuals.
The Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) says the DHS project
"consists
of a stepped-up effort to arrest a number of non-citizens whose
immigration
paperwork is 'out of status'."
The Washington, DC-based advocacy group says it is "troubled by the
idea
that immigration sweeps are being portrayed by the Bush administration
as
successes in the 'war on terror'."
"To date it is unclear whether the ICE initiative will be selectively
carried out against only Arabs and Muslims," adds the ADC, repeating
"its
strong objection to any selective enforcement initiative that is based
solely on race, national origin or religion."
In September, DHS Secretary Tom Ridge told reporters al-Qaeda is
continuing
to make plans to disrupt the election.
Attorney General John Ashcroft often uses high-profile press
conferences to
announce arrests for alleged terror-related crimes. But such events are
rarely organised when these charges are dismissed or substantially
reduced...
-----
THE STATE DEPARTMENT'S EXTREME MAKEOVER
Anonymous, Salon.com, 10/4/04
http://fairuse.1accesshost.com/news2/salon39.html
(Editor's note: "Anonymous" is a veteran Foreign Service officer
currently
serving as a State Department official. The views expressed are
personal
and not related to his official position.)
Secretary of State Colin Powell is not staying for a second Bush term.
When
he goes, the last bulwark against complete neoconservative control of
U.S.
foreign policy goes with him. The implications are enormous, yet the
American electorate appears to be blinded by the Bush campaign's
deliberate
manipulations of 9/11.
Powell has served both as the reasoned voice of career diplomats and
the
experienced voice of career U.S. military in the Bush administration.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld ignored military advice and
excluded
Department of State career professionals from Iraq planning. Power was
concentrated in the hands of a clique of neocon ideologues he placed in
key
policy positions, including Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz
and
Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith. In the first term
of
George W. Bush, prot�g�s of now disgraced former Defense Policy Board
member and neocon godfather Richard Perle achieved control or
subordination
of every executive branch foreign-policymaking body -- except the
Department of State...
SEE ALSO:
POWELL CALLS ON ISRAEL TO END GAZA FORAY
BARRY SCHWEID, Associated Press, 10/5/04
WASHINGTON (AP) - Secretary of State Colin Powell called on Israel
Tuesday
to end its retaliatory foray into Gaza, while U.S. diplomats at the
United
Nations tried to derail an Arab resolution designed to end the
incursion.
Powell, while flying to Brazil, said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon
had found a need to respond to rocket attacks. But Powell said he hoped
that "whatever he does is proportionate to the threat that Israel is
facing."
Added Powell: "I hope that this operation can come to a conclusion
quickly…"
-----
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-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 10/6/04
* VERSE OF THE DAY: A CHANGE OF HEART
* CAIR PSA SEEN BY 2.4 MILLION PEOPLE
* ACTION ALERT: H.R.10 VIEWED AS EXPANSION OF PATRIOT ACT
* MUSLIMS SEEK BLOC VOTE FOR ELECTION (AFP)
- Michigan Muslims to Hold Candidate Forum
- Ohio Muslims to Hold Town Hall Mtg on Elections
* TOWN HALL MEETING TONIGHT ENCOURAGES HOPE NOT HATE (CNS)
- NY: Trip to Mosque Gives Students Taste of Islam
* CA: FBI INTERVIEWS CHILLING FREE SPEECH (CC Times)
- CA: Drive Prompts Complaints by Muslims (SF Chron)
- CAIR-FL: Agents Meet with Muslim Community
- Muslims Wary of New FBI Outreach (Reuters)
* PA: INNOCENCE IS NO DEFENSE (Phil Independent)
* WA: FBI WANTS TO KNOW WHO CHECKED OUT BOOK ON OBL (KOMO)
* THE MYSTERY OF TARIQ RAMADAN (NY Times)
- CAIR-PA: Silencing Moderate Muslim Voices
* CA: MEN TO STAND TRIAL IN FREMONT BEATING (Argus)
- Canadian Muslims Say Rights Body Dragging Its Feet
* PALESTINIAN STATE SHELVED WITH US BLESSING (Reuters)
* PILOTS TOAST HIT ON IRAQI 'CIVILIANS' (Independent)
-----
VERSE OF THE DAY: A CHANGE OF HEART
"God will never change the blessings that He has bestowed on a people
until
they first change that which is in their hearts."
The Holy Quran, 8:53
-----
CAIR PSA SEEN BY 2.4 MILLION PEOPLE
CAIR's "I am an American Muslim" public service announcements (PSA)
have
been shown 287 times on 20 TV stations. They have been seen by a total
of
2.4 million people.
TO VIEW THE PSA, GO TO:
http://www.cair-net.org/default.asp?page=PSAJun2004
-----
H.R.10 VIEWED AS EXPANSION OF PATRIOT ACT
CAIR opposes some provisions of legislation (H.R.10) currently in the
U.S.
House of Representatives aimed at reorganizing the U.S. intelligence
community. The chairman and vice-chairman of the 9/11 Commission
strongly
oppose the same provisions saying they: "…are controversial and are not
part of our recommendations…"
The Washington Post says the bill: "might be dismissed as an
election-year
stunt were it not so dangerous."
Included among the suspect provisions:
* Imposition of what amounts to a national identity card. A similar
measure
providing national standards for birth certificates and driver's
licenses
was repealed in 2000.
* Alien removal procedures that bar courts from reviewing claims that
the
deportee may be tortured upon returning to his or her country of
origin.
The Supreme Court has previously found that an elimination of judicial
review in these cases raises serious constitutional question. Counsel
to
the President Alberto R. Gonzales recently wrote that even the
President
does not support this provision.
These provisions, along with some others, are viewed by CAIR as an
expansion of the Patriot Act. The ACLU shares this position.
SEE:
http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=16656&c=206&SubsiteID=58
Act today. This legislation is being fast tracked. Contact those
persons
who work for you in Washington, DC and urge them to remove these
provisions.
Act quickly. This bill is expected to go to vote on the House floor
this
week.
TO TAKE ACTION, GO TO:
http://capwiz.com/cair/issues/bills/?bill=6512691&alertid=6512696
TO READ THE ENTIRE BILL, GO TO:
http://thomas.loc.gov
Search for "H.R.10."
-----
MUSLIMS SEEK BLOC VOTE FOR US ELECTION
Louise Daly, Agence France Presse, 10/6/04
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=11483
Bridgeview, Illinois - US Muslims have embarked on a vast drive get the
community registered to vote in the presidential election to build what
could be a potentially powerful voice in deciding the winner.
The war on terror launched by President George W. Bush after the
September
11, 2001 attacks has antagonised huge numbers of the estimated six
million
Muslim Americans.
Concerns about US foreign policy in the Middle East have been replaced
with
concerns about their own civil rights among Muslim leaders who are now
seeking to get as many people registered as possible.
"I got another one," crowed Anam El-Jabali, waving her clipboard in
victory
as she emerged from a mosque here to compare notes with two other
volunteers.
"He's Palestinian. He's lived here for 40 years, and he's never voted,
but
he'll vote on November 2."
It was quite an accomplishment, noted the Palestinian-American mother
of
five.
"The old men are the hardest," to sign up, she explained. "They've
lived
here forever, but they feel hopeless. They just want to keep a low
profile,
and keep out of trouble."
Voter registration drives, like this one at the Bridgeview Mosque
Foundation in suburban Chicago, have been the order of the day at
mosques
and Islamic centers across the nation in the past couple of months.
Muslim groups say the outreach effort has been unprecedented in size
and
scope, although they are still waiting on hard figures that would show
exactly how successful they have been.
The likely beneficiary will be Democratic challenger, Massachusetts
Senator
John Kerry, although The American Muslim Task Force on Elections, an
umbrella group bringing together nine US Muslim groups, has held off
endorsing any one candidate.
The panel is seeking iron-clad promises on political appointees among
other
things before it delivers what it expects will be a Muslim bloc vote...
ALSO SEE:
MICHIGAN MUSLIMS TO HOLD CANDIDATE FORUM
On Sunday, October 10, the Michigan office of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Michigan) and the American Muslim Task
Force on Civil Rights and Elections (AMT) will hold a town hall meeting
and
candidate forum in the Detroit suburb of Novi.
The event, which is free and open to the public, is designed to provide
an
opportunity for members of the Muslim community to meet with and ask
questions of local, state and national political candidates.
WHAT: CAIR-Michigan/AMT Candidate Forum
WHEN: 11 a.m. - 3 p.m., Sunday, October 10, 2004
WHERE: Novi Sheraton Hotel Grand Ballroom, 21111 Haggerty Road, Novi,
Michigan
CONTACT: CAIR-MI, Celena Khatib or Misbah Shahid, 248-569-2203,
734-306-9507, 734-673-9430, cairmichigan@yahoo.com
---
OHIO MUSLIMS TO HOLD TOWN HALL MEETING ON ELECTIONS
Local, state, national candidates will address issues of concern to
Muslims
On Saturday, October 9, the Islamic Council of Ohio, the Council on
American-Islamic Relations-Ohio (CAIR-Ohio) and the American Muslim
Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections (AMT) will host a "Muslim Vote
2004" town hall meeting with local, state and national political
candidates
in Columbus.
WHAT: Muslim Vote 2004 Town Hall Meeting
WHERE: Ohio Statehouse Atrium, Columbus, Ohio
WHEN: Saturday, October 9, 2004, 11:30 am - 3:00 pm
CONTACT: CAIR-Ohio President Ahmad Al-Akhras, 614-989-5916, E-Mail:
ahmad@cair-ohio.com; CAIR-Ohio Executive Director Jad Humeidan,
614-571-2770, E-Mail: jad@cair-ohio.com
-----
MUSLIM TOWN HALL MEETING TONIGHT ENCOURAGES HOPE NOT HATE
Alison Shackelford, Copley News Service, 10/5/04
https://www.copleynews.com/
LOS ANGELES- When the latest in a nationwide series of town hall
meetings
between Muslims and other Americans comes to Los Angeles tonight, tough
questions and ugly stereotypes are almost certain to be part of the
discussion.
And while the answers aren't liable to be a blueprint for world peace,
they
will help make the culture gap seem smaller, said Seth Green, a lead
coordinator of the series.
"Hope, not Hate," a series of town hall meetings hosted at universities
nationwide over the last 30 days, seeks to dispel stereotypes that each
culture has about the other, and help the two sides recognize the
common
ground between them.
"Right now, people in the Muslim world increasingly see the United
States
in the light of Abu Ghraib, and people in the United States
increasingly
see Islam in terms of terrorism," said Green, a law student at Yale and
executive director of Americans for Informed Democracy, the lead
organization sponsoring the meetings.
"We really wanted to create a forum where people could speak out and
recommit to the vast common ground that unites us," Green said. "Abu
Ghraib
doesn't reflect our character, and terrorism doesn't reflect the
character
of Islam."
The meetings are sponsored in part by the United Nations and a variety
of
peace-oriented nonprofit organizations, among others. Among the
panelists
at tonight's meeting will be Dr. Aslam Abdullah, editor of the Minaret
and
the Muslim Observer, and Jean Rosenfeld, a senior research associate at
UCLA's Center for the Study of Religion.
At the 25 meetings held so far, a recurring question asked by many
Americans is why they don't see a greater number of moderate Muslims,
Green
said. For example, a panelist at one of the meetings - the father of a
victim of the Sept. 11 attacks - asked a Muslim panelist why more
Muslims
don't condemn terrorism....
ALSO SEE:
TRIP TO MOSQUE GIVES STUDENTS TASTE OF ISLAM
Christina Chinnici and Valeriya Yermishova, Pipe Dream, 10/5/04
http://www.bupipedream.com/100504/news/n1.htm
As they stopped to take off their shoes and gazed upon the unadorned
white
walls and clean, carpeted floors, the students knew they weren't at
Binghamton University anymore.
Members of the Muslim Student Association, along with several
non-Muslim
students and community members of different race and religious
affiliations, were invited to the Islamic Organization of the Southern
Tier's home on Grand Avenue in Johnson City. Their presence at the
mosque
was the result of efforts by the Muslim community of Broome County to
dispel common misconceptions of Islam.
During their visit, the group observed Islamic prayer practices, led by
Imam Kasim. (An imam is a man who leads Islamic prayer.) He started the
session off with a short history of the religion.
Islam, Kasim said, began when God revealed it to the prophet Mohammed.
Mohammed, in turn, turned away from traditional places of worship
because
he saw people praying to idols instead of an absolute and immaterial
God.
Kasim made it clear that Mohammed wasn't an intermediary between man
and
God, but rather someone who was looked upon for guidance because he
knew
the correct practices of Islam.
Kasim then went on to state that Islam's goal is the establishment of
peace
in our world, our minds and nature. He made it clear that although the
word
"Islam" means "submission to the will of God," today it has become
stereotypically and unfairly associated with terrorism.
"Islam cannot couple with terrorism," he said. "It is very clear in our
textbooks and our minds."
He went on to quote a verse from the Quran, Islam's holy book, which
stated
that although God created people in various nations and tribes, we must
become familiar with one another - God wants us all to lead peaceful
lives.
In order to get a real feel for what Islamic prayer is like, men and
women
were dispersed into separate rooms when the call to prayer was sounded
in
Arabic. They learned that it is customary for Muslims to abstain from
alcohol consumption and to wash one's limbs and face in order to enter
the
session in a pure state of mind. The visitors only prayed once, but
traditional Muslims pray five times a day while facing Mecca, Islam's
religious center. This daily prayer is believed to afford a feeling of
meeting God that connects the roughly 2,000 Muslims of Broome County
who go
to pray two or three times a week at the mosque.
Observers of the prayer session said they were impressed with its
contents...
-----
FBI INTERVIEWS SAID TO BE CHILLING FREE SPEECH
Jack Chang, Contra Costa Times, 10/6/04
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/9848189.htm
SAN FRANCISCO - Acting on intelligence about a possible terrorist
attack in
the United States during the November election, federal investigators
have
stepped up efforts to question Muslims and Arabs throughout the
country.
Federal authorities launched a new round of interviews this week about
plans to harm Americans.
At the same time, immigration officials are focusing on finding and
arresting foreigners who have violated the terms of their entry visas
and
are being sought by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies.
Muslim, Arab and civil liberties groups said these interviews and
arrests
unfairly target people based on their ethnicity and religion and have
proved ineffectual in finding and convicting terrorists.
The groups also charged that FBI agents have asked intrusive questions
about political and religious beliefs while interviewing Muslims and
Arabs
and attempted to dissuade people from contacting attorneys before
answering
questions.
FBI agents are talking to some Muslims and Arabs with critical views of
the
U.S. government and its foreign policy, said LaRae Quy, spokeswoman for
the
FBI's San Francisco division. All interviews are voluntary, she said.
But she and representatives of the federal Immigration and Customs
Enforcement agency would not reveal how many people nationwide they are
looking for.
"We're trying to get a feel for people in the community who are
dissidents,
who are anti-government," Quy said. "We're trying to learn if within
the
Muslim community, are there supporters of terrorism in Iraq?"
Agents are also talking to Muslim leaders who may know about activity
the
FBI deemed suspicious such as young men traveling alone to Pakistan
without
explanation or people donating to Islamic charities with undefined
goals,
she said.
"We're trying to work with Muslim leaders and mosque leaders and make
inroads into the community," Quy said.
"If no one wants to talk with us, that's fine, but shame on us if
someone
in the Bay Area were planning an attack and we didn't try to stop
them."
The interviews and similar investigation tactics have spread fear among
Bay
Area Muslims and Arabs who have done nothing wrong, said Bob Kearney,
assistant director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern
California.
"That this is happening so close to the elections we find very
concerning,"
Kearney said during a news conference Tuesday morning about the federal
actions. "We believe (Muslims and Arabs) are having their franchise
chilled
and their freedom of speech chilled..."
ALSO SEE:
PRE-ELECTION DRIVE PROMPTS COMPLAINTS BY MUSLIM LEADERS
Don Lattin, San Francisco Chronicle, 10/6/04
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/10/06
/BAG9794CID1.DTL
FBI agents in Northern California and across the nation have started a
campaign to question Muslims and Arabs who might have information
related
to a possible pre-election terrorist attack.
"We are trying to go into mosques and work with Muslim community
leaders,"
Special Agent LaRae Quy, spokeswoman for the FBI regional office in San
Francisco, said Tuesday. "We are not showing up with guns or handcuffs,
just pencils and pieces of paper."
The new investigation -- the latest in a series of campaigns since the
terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 -- has prompted sharp protests from
American Civil Liberties Union and several Muslim organizations.
Shirin Sinnar, president of the Bay Area Association of Muslim Lawyers,
says she fears the Bush administration is trying to "sow fear in the
Muslim
community and chill Muslim political expression."
At a press conference at the ACLU office in San Francisco, Sinnar
showed
pamphlets and wallet-sized cards that are being distributed at mosques,
markets and elsewhere in the Muslim community.
Printed in English, Arabic and Urdu, the cards tell people they have a
right to have an attorney present before talking to the FBI, and they
list
a phone number -- (415) 285-1041 -- for free legal assistance...
---
AGENTS MEET WITH MUSLIM COMMUNITY
Saunra Amrhein, St. Petersburg Times, 10/6/04
http://www.sptimes.com/2004/10/06/Tampabay/Agents_meet_with_Musl.shtml
TAMPA - Federal agents held a town hall meeting Tuesday with members of
Tampa Bay's Arab and Muslim community, giving them warning about an
expected increase in interviews and investigations in coming weeks to
thwart any possible terrorist attack near the elections.
FBI officials have organized similar meetings throughout the country,
trying to spread the word that they need help uncovering plots. "We
cannot
do this alone," said Carl Whitehead, special agent in charge of the
Tampa
division, which oversees 18 counties in Central Florida.
The initiative, called the Fall Threat Task Force, is an attempt to
gather
information from members of the community who might have witnessed or
heard
about suspicious activity, Whitehead said during the meeting.
The meeting was held Tuesday night at the Embassy Suites at the
University
of South Florida. About 20 community members from Hillsborough,
Pinellas,
Pasco and Sarasota counties attended, as did about a dozen FBI agents.
Whitehead said he wanted to assure area residents that Muslims and
Arabs
were not being targeted, adding that agents will question storage
business
owners of any background, for example, if they think chemicals or bombs
are
being stashed at their site. Interviews will "not be based on religious
or
ethnic background," he said.
What will they be based on? community members asked.
Whitehead said agents will make that decision based on whether their
sources lead them to believe that a resident has "useful" information
to
give them.
Community members asked for more specifics.
"What type of help are you seeking from our community?" asked Ahmed
Bedier,
spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
"We're just as committed to making sure our country and our state are
safe," he said...
---
ARAB, MUSLIM AMERICANS WARY OF NEW FBI OUTREACH
Caroline Drees, Reuters, 10/6/04
WASHINGTON, Oct 6 (Reuters) - The FBI has launched a new drive to seek
information from Muslim and Arab Americans to help thwart any
pre-election
attack, a move some communities consider a racist campaign which will
not
make America safer.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation said it was working hard to assure
Arab
and Muslim groups it was not discriminating against them in the renewed
quest for information, which began with an FBI circular to field
offices
last week calling for stepped up outreach, including interviews.
"Unfortunately some of these actions coming from Washington paint us
all
with a big brush," said Marwan Kreidie, a leader of the Arab American
community in Philadelphia which he said wanted to cooperate against
terror
but were concerned about civil rights.
"I think (Attorney General John) Ashcroft's actions have been racist. I
think they've been very wrong and ineffective. More than that, I think
they've been shredding the Constitution," he said.
Arab and Muslim Americans say they have received unwelcome attention
since
the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the U.S.-led war on extremist Muslim
militants. Many accuse the government of singling them out for
questioning,
detention and civil rights abuse, and call the latest FBI initiative
more
of the same.
Some community members say they feel intimidated by the new drive.
Others
fear they are being strong-armed into snitching on neighbors or
revealing
political views unrelated to terrorism.
Cassandra Chandler, assistant director and national spokesperson for
the
FBI, said the fears were unfounded…
-----
INNOCENCE IS NO DEFENSE: THREE SUSPICIOUS CASES
Philadelphia Independent, 10/6/04
http://www.philadelphiaindependent.net/public/articles/29.html;jsessionid=3A
C41FFFB49C3F4D658D4C8457D454D7
Late this May, Attorney General John Ashcroft released photos of seven
suspected terrorists as one of the government's "Be on the Look-out
Alerts." Over the next twenty-four hours, the FBI received more than
2,000
tips from all over the country, one of which came from an employee of a
Philadelphia water pump facility who noticed that one of his
co-workers, a
Jordanian, bore a striking resemblance to the wanted Kuwaiti Amer
el-Maati.
So he revealed his suspicions to the boss, who contacted law
enforcement
officials, who began to inquire about the man's immigration status.
According to Engy Abdelkader, an attorney at the Council of
Islamic-American Relations, the Jordanian had been in this country
legally
since 2000 or 2001 with a green card. Green card holders are required
to
have their cards on them at all times, but the Jordanian man was in the
habit of leaving his at home for safekeeping. The law enforcement
officials
who picked him up refused to allow him to return to his home, several
blocks away, to retrieve the card and prove his legal status. Instead,
they
took him to the precinct and threatened to arrest him. Finally
acknowledging that he was not the Kuwaiti suspect, they released him.
A week later, Abdelkader explained, the Jordanian man came home to find
a
card from an FBI agent slipped in his door. When he called the number,
he
was asked to report alone to a meeting with the agent and a
Philadelphia
Police Department detective. During that meeting, he was reminded that
he
resembled the wanted Kuwaiti, and the officials began to question him
about
his mosque.
"'Have you seen any airplane seats or weapons at your mosque?'"
Abdelkader
claims they inquired of her client. "'You might be in some trouble. Do
you
want to get married? Because we can make that difficult for you-unless
you
cooperate.' He was asked to be a government informant." Overwhelmed,
unsure
of his rights, her client agreed to a follow-up meeting with the
authorities.
In the interim, the Jordanian contacted the Council on American-Islamic
Relations (CAIR) and retained Abdelkader as his counsel. CAIR placed
several calls to the FBI inquiring about their interest in the
Jordanian
man, but the calls were not returned.
A week later, the Jordanian received a letter from Special Agent
William
Riley of the Department of Homeland Security, summoning him to the 5th
floor of 1600 Callowhill Street at 9 a.m. on Monday, July 12 to meet
with
Special Agent Mark Olexa. To the agent's surprise, he arrived with
Abdelkader, she remembers.
"The immigration agent was completely surprised [to see me]," she
explained. "I think that if I wasn't there he would have asked a
completely
different set of questions. I said listen, it's already been determined
that he's not this individual [the Kuwaiti]. What has this to do with
his
immigration status? You have his green card. Why are we here?...
-----
SMALL TOWN LIBRARY TAKES ON THE FEDS
April Zepeda, KOMOTV, 10/5/04
http://www.komotv.com/stories/33363.htmhttp://www.komotv.com/stories/33363.h
tm
WHATCOM COUNTY - The FBI wants to know who checked out a book from a
small
library about Osama Bin Laden. But the library isn't giving out names,
saying the government has no business knowing what their patrons read.
The library in Deming isn't much larger than a family home. Located in
rural Whatcom County, it hardly seems the site for a showdown with the
feds.
"I think we all figure it's places like the New York Library System
that's
going to be one of the first we hear about," said the attorney for the
Whatcom County Library System, Deborra Garret.
At the center of the issue, a book titled "Bin Laden: The Man Who
Declared
War on America."
The FBI confiscated the original book after a patron reported than some
one
hand wrote a bin Laden quote in the margin that read: "Let history be
witness I am a criminal."
The FBI demanded to know the names and addresses of everyone who ever
checked out the book.
"Libraries are a haven where people should be able to seek whatever
information they want to pursue without any threat of government
intervention," said Director of Whatcom County Library System, Joan
Airoldi.
Because of privacy policies, the library does not give out circulation
records without a court order. When the FBI got a grand jury subpoena,
the
library filed a motion to quash it -- citing the rights of all people
who
use the library.
"Like the right to read and to read the material of one's choice
without
fear that someone will come around with questions about why you chose
that
book," said Garrett.
The FBI withdrew the subpoena, reserving the right to file it again.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's office says they are not
permitted to
discuss anything that involves the grand jury...
-----
MYSTERY OF THE ISLAMIC SCHOLAR WHO WAS BARRED BY THE U.S.
Deborah Sontag, New York Times, 10/6/04
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/06/international/europe/06ramadan.html
GENEVA - In a nearly barren apartment here, Najma Ramadan, 3, a
curly-haired blonde wearing tiny bear-shaped earrings, climbed the
walls
one recent evening, from pipe to pipe. The little girl's toys sat far
away,
in boxes in South Bend, Ind., where her father, Tariq Ramadan, was to
have
taken up residence in August as the Henry Luce professor of religion,
conflict and peace building at the University of Notre Dame.
Nine days before his family's scheduled departure for the United
States,
Mr. Ramadan, 42, a Swiss theologian of Egyptian descent who is probably
Europe's best-known Muslim intellectual, received an urgent message
from
the American consul in Switzerland: Washington had just revoked the
visa
granted him after a security review last spring.
Neither Mr. Ramadan, a preacher of self-empowerment to European
Muslims,
nor Notre Dame was offered any explanation. They have since learned
that
the government received some information that caused it to
"prudentially
revoke" the visa pending an investigation, which has yet to occur.
But the nature of that information - is Mr. Ramadan accused of a link
to
terrorism, of espousing terrorism, of terrorism itself? - has not been
revealed.
"It's still not clear to him or us who turned him down and on what
grounds," said the Rev. Edward A. Malloy, president of Notre Dame. "We
have
no reason to think that he's a mole or an underground instigator. He
seems
to be an above ground, forthright advocate of what some refer to as
moderate Islam and we see him as a really good fit for our peace
institute," the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice, where Mr.
Ramadan was to have held a joint tenured appointment with the classics
department...
ALSO SEE:
SILENCING MODERATE MUSLIM VOICES
Umar Abdur-Rahman, Common Dreams, 10/4/04
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1004-31.htm
The recent exclusion of Yusuf Islam, formerly Cat Stevens, and
Professor
Tariq Ramadan from the United States sends a chilling message to the
Muslim
community in the West. These are two of Europe's most articulate voices
for
Muslim integration into Western societies. Both men advocate that
Muslims
in America and Europe can be both true to their faith and model
citizens of
their countries without compromising either part of their identity.
So, why is our government scared of these two accomplished men? The
answer
may lie in the increasing hostility toward mainstream Islam that has
been
spread by many pundits on the far right. On talk radio and in
commentaries,
these anti-Muslim personalities label mainstream Muslim organizations
as
"Wahabi" and "extremist," making no distinction between Muslims that
want
to practice their faith and those that misuse Islam for diabolical
ends.
The constant slander of national Muslim organizations is baseless and
demonstrates an ulterior motive present on the part of Islam's critics.
If
a Western Muslim believes in Islam and makes an effort to educate
others
about its authentic teachings, such a person is a radical to the Daniel
Pipes and Michael Savages of the world. What's disturbing is that the
bigotry of such people has permeated many areas of our government
including
the Department of Homeland Security.
There is a real danger in attempting to eradicate the voices of
mainstream
Islam in America. Polarizing Muslims into a secular, moderate camp and
religious, extremist camp risks bringing Europe's problem with Muslims
into
the United States. Due to Europe's overall discomfort with immigration
and
her inability to embrace Muslims as full members of society, the Muslim
community in Europe has had considerable difficulty integrating into
their
countries of residence. Riots have taken place at least once in Spain,
Germany, Britain, and France between Muslims and locals.
Although in a minority, extremist preachers in Britain prevail in ways
unimaginable here. Radical clerics like Omar Bakri and Abu Hamza
al-Masri
have been known to encourage British Muslims to fight for the overthrow
of
their own government. The influence of these zealots coupled with
feelings
of isolation present amongst many British Muslims has resulted in the
spread of militant views.
A poll conducted by the BBC in December of 2003, found that 17% of
British
Muslims believe that the tragedy of 9-11 was justified with 8% even
supporting al-Qaeda like attacks on Britain. Contrary to the extremist
leaders that fuel such hate, Yusuf Islam has been one of the most
eloquent
voices of reason and moderation within the Muslim community in Britain.
While extremists have celebrated the tragedy of 9-11, Mr. Islam called
the
attacks the result of "blind, irreligious hatred" and contributed many
of
his royalties to 9-11 family funds...
Umar Abdur-Rahman is the Philadelphia spokesperson for the Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) headquartered in Washington, D.C.
-----
TWO MEN TO STAND TRIAL IN FREMONT BEATING
Ben Aguirre Jr., Argus Online, 10/6/04
http://www.theargusonline.com/Stories/0,1413,83~1971~2448914,00.html
FREMONT -- A judge ordered two men to stand trial Tuesday in the
beating of
an Afghan man who suffered a fractured cheek in May.
Daniel Reyes, 35, and his brother Raul Reyes, 30, who have been charged
with assault with a deadly weapon, sat quietly in the courtroom as
Judge
Richard Keller said enough evidence had been presented to send the case
to
trial.
The Reyes brothers will be arraigned at the Hayward Hall of Justice on
Oct.
20.
Both men were arrested and charged nearly two weeks after the May 22
beating of Amanullah Mehrzai, who was struck in the face with a mallet
and
suffered multiple fractures of the right cheek.
Both brothers posted bail, but Daniel Reyes later was arrested on a
probation violation and remains at Santa Rita county jail in Dublin,
according to court records.
The incident began at Central Park, when a child hurled racial slurs
about
the Muslim head garb of Mehrzai's wife, Susan Barrientos, she testified
Friday.
She became upset, left the park and went to the gym where her husband
was
swimming. When she arrived there, she was sobbing and became sick to
her
stomach as she described what happened, she said.
Mehrzai then drove to the park to confront the child and his parents.
He
approached the boy, smacked him in the back of the head and began
telling
him to respect his elders, he testified.
The child began cussing at Mehrzai, prompting him to remove his belt
and
hold it in one hand...
ALSO SEE:
RIGHTS BODY DRAGGING ITS FEET, MUSLIMS CHARGE
Cheryl Cornacchia, Montreal Gazette, 10/6/04
http://www.montrealgazette.com/
Muslim community leaders are criticizing the Quebec Human Rights
Commission's handling of a complaint filed last fall that's still
unresolved, contending it shows discrimination against Muslims.
Salam Elmenyawi said the commission's investigation into the case of
Irene
Waseem, 16, expelled Sept. 2, 2003, from College Charlemagne, a
French-language private school in Pierrefonds for wearing a hijab, is
in
its 13th month.
"We fear the commission is not resolving this (case) in accordance with
human rights law but in accordance with political sensitivities," said
Elmenyawi, chairperson of the Muslim Council of Montreal.
He said the commission has already ruled that barring Muslim girls from
wearing hijabs in public school violates the Quebec Charter of Human
Rights
and Freedoms.
The commission made that ruling in 1995 after hearing the case of
Emilie
Ouimet, 13, who wore the hijab at a French-language secondary school
where
the traditional Muslim head scarf was banned. She later transferred to
a
school where the hijab was accepted.
The only difference is that the case now before the commission involves
a
Montreal-area private school, Elmenyawi said.
He suggested a new wave of anti-Muslim sentiment, demonstrated by
France's
recent decision to outlaw the hijab in schools there, is at play in
delay...
-----
PALESTINIAN STATE SHELVED WITH US BLESSING
Mark Heinrich, Reuters, 10/6/04
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6430818
JERUSALEM - Israel's plan to withdraw from occupied Gaza will prevent a
Palestinian state emerging and freeze peacemaking, and all with
Washington's approval, a key adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
said on
Wednesday.
Adviser Dov Weisglass effectively dismissed an international "road map"
peace plan.
His remarks, coinciding with a massive Israeli offensive into Gaza,
will
help Sharon win over far-right foes opposed to Gaza "disengagement" and
challenging his grip on power.
"The significance of our disengagement plan is the freezing of the
peace
process. It supplies the formaldehyde necessary so there is no
political
process with Palestinians," Dov Weisglass said in an interview
published in
Haaretz daily on Wednesday.
"When you freeze the process, you prevent the establishment of a
Palestinian state ... Effectively, this whole package called a
Palestinian
state, with all it entails, has been removed indefinitely from our
agenda,"
Weisglass said.
Palestinian leaders condemned the comments.
"I believe he has revealed the true intentions of Sharon. We told the
quartet (of U.S.-led peace mediators) eight months ago that the Gaza
plan
was designed to undermine their road map," said Palestinian
Negotiations
Minister Saeb Erekat.
Weisglass said there would be no talks on key issues such as
Palestinian
refugees, borders and the status of Jerusalem in the foreseeable
future.
"And all this with authority and permission, all with a presidential
blessing."
U.S. President George W. Bush in April approved Sharon's plan to pull
settlers from tiny Gaza in 2005 while holding onto larger Jewish
enclaves
in the West Bank, displacing the "road map" which promises Palestinians
a
viable state.
"By the way the Americans read the situation, the blame fell on the
Palestinians, not on us, Arik (Sharon) grasped that (the Palestinians)
would not leave us alone ... and time was not on our side," Haaretz
quoted
Weisglass as saying.
"What I effectively agreed to with the Americans was that part of the
settlements would not be dealt with at all, and the rest will not be
dealt
with until the Palestinians turn into Finns," he said...
-----
PILOTS TOAST HIT ON IRAQI 'CIVILIANS'
Andrew Buncombe, Independent, 10/6/04
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=569207
The Pentagon said yesterday it was investigating cockpit video footage
that
shows American pilots attacking and killing a group of apparently
unarmed
Iraqi civilians.
The 30-second clip shows the pilot targeting the group of people in a
street in the city of Fallujah and asking his mission controllers
whether
he should "take them out". He is told to do so and, shortly afterwards,
the
footage shows a huge explosion where the people were. A second voice
can be
heard on the clip saying: "Oh, dude."
The existence of the video, taken last April inside the cockpit of a US
F-16 fighter has been known for some time, though last night's
broadcast by
Channel 4 News is believed to be the first time a mainstream
broadcaster
has shown the footage.
At no point during the exchange between the pilot and controllers does
anyone ask whether the Iraqis are armed or posing a threat. Critics say
it
proves war crimes are being committed.
-----
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-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
--------------------------------------------------------------------
mail2web - Check your email from the web at
http://mail2web.com/ .
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 10/7/04
* VERSE OF THE DAY: EVERYONE IS TEMPTED
* FECES SMEARED ON NORTH DAKOTA MOSQUE
- Poll Taps Deep Anti-Muslim Sentiments (Newsday)
- Report: Hiring Disparities Based On Ethnic Names
* CAIR-DC: FBI TO GET HELP ON ELECTION DAY PLOTS (USA Today)
- AZ Muslim Student Visited by FBI
- MI: The Undoing of a Terror Prosecution (NY Times)
- Yusuf Islam to Appear on Larry King Show (CNN)
* PA: STUDENTS LAUNCH ISLAM AWARENESS WEEK (Daily Penn)
* CAIR-FL: HOLIDAY DISPLAY PROPOSAL RUNS AGROUND (Orlando Sent)
* IL: JUDGE DISMISSES SUIT AGAINST MUSLIM GROUP (Chicago Trib)
- CA: Muslims Hope for New Mosque (SJ Mercury)
* PLEA DEAL REJECTED IN AIPAC SPY SCANDAL (LA Times)
-----
VERSE OF THE DAY: EVERYONE IS TEMPTED
"Guard yourselves against temptation. The wrongdoers among you are not
the
only ones who will be tempted."
The Holy Quran, 8:25
-----
FECES SMEARED ON NORTH DAKOTA MOSQUE
CAIR calls for increased police protection during Ramadan
(WASHINGTON, DC, 10/7/04) - A prominent national Islamic civil rights
and
advocacy group today called on law enforcement authorities nationwide
to
step up police protection at American mosques during the upcoming
Muslim
fast of Ramadan.* That request from the Washington-based Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) came following a series of incidents
targeting Islamic institutions in the Midwest.
CAIR said vandals smeared feces on a Fargo, N.D., mosque sometime this
past
Saturday. Tobacco juice had also been spit on the doorknob of the
mosque.
SEE: "Vandals Hit Fargo Mosque,"
http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm?id=71840
In the neighboring state of Minnesota, two Islamic centers were also
vandalized recently. SEE: "Twin Cities' Muslims Detail Vandalism
Attacks,"
http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/5013716.html
Just this week, CAIR released the results of a survey indicating that
1-in-4 Americans holds anti-Muslim views. SEE: "Islam and Muslims: A
Poll
of American Public Opinion,"
http://www.cair-net.org/downloads/pollresults.pdf
Other incidents of vandalism targeting Islamic institutions and
individuals
have also taken place nationwide.
Last month in Texas, firebombs were thrown at an El Paso mosque. In
Washington, D.C., a Muslim prayer area at American University was
vandalized. At the end of August, a Muslim in Tucson, Ariz., reported
that
his family's car was vandalized and a racist note was taped to the
vehicle.
A New York Muslim reported finding his car window smashed with a brick.
In
Virginia, a Muslim reported two separate incidents of vandalism to a
car.
And in New Jersey, a Muslim found his car's windshield smashed in his
driveway.
Also in New Jersey, a Muslim driver reported being attacked by a white
male
in another car who punched him in the face while he was sitting in his
car
at a traffic light. During the incident, the attacker reportedly called
the
victim a "terrorist" and a "sand n*gger."
In July, two Muslim teenagers in Buffalo, N.Y., say they were targeted
by
white teenagers who shouted ethnic slurs and then tried to hit the
girls
with their car. A Muslim woman driver in Illinois and a Muslim shopper
in
California were assaulted at the end of June by attackers shouting
anti-Muslim and racist slurs.
Earlier this year in Florida, vandals wrote "Kill all Muslims" inside
the
Islamic Community Center in the Tampa suburb of Lutz. The FBI is also
investigating vandalism and threatening messages targeting the Islamic
Community of Southwest Florida in Charlotte Harbor. In Missouri,
vandals
painted a Nazi swastika and the word "die" on an addition under
construction at the Islamic Foundation of Greater St. Louis. Three
Miami
Islamic centers were vandalized.
In Texas, a man was arrested for threatening an El Paso Islamic center,
an
arson suspect was arrested at the scene of a fire at a Muslim business
in
San Antonio and vandals scrawled racist graffiti on the interior of a
Lubbock mosque. A home-made bomb exploded in the mailbox of a Houston
Islamic center.
As a response to these and other anti-Muslim incidents, CAIR published
a
"Muslim Community Safety Kit." The safety kit may be obtained free of
charge by e-mailing pubs@cair-net.org. (Include name, address and phone
number when requesting the safety kit.)
CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, has 28 regional
offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada.
[*Ramadan is the month on the Islamic lunar calendar during which
Muslims
abstain from food, drink and other sensual pleasures from break of dawn
to
sunset. It is scheduled to begin on or about October 15, depending on
the
sighting of the new moon.]
- END -
CONTACT: Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail:
ihooper@cair-net.org; Rabiah Ahmed, 202-488-8787 or 202-439-1441,
E-Mail:
rahmed@cair-net.org
SEE ALSO:
POLL TAPS DEEP ANTI-MUSLIM SENTIMENTS
Colby Itkowitz, Newsday, 10/6/04
http://www.newsday.com/mynews/ny-usmusl053996584oct06,0,7171986.story
WASHINGTON - Nearly one-third of Americans, largely Republican white
males
from rural areas, associate the word Muslim with images of war,
terrorism
and Osama bin Laden, according to a new poll from an Islamic civil
rights
group.
A study by the Council on American-Islamic Relations released Monday
also
found that more than 25 percent of those surveyed harbor anti-Muslim
sentiments and believe the Islamic faith instills hatred in children.
The poll of 1,000 people was conducted by Genesis Research Associates
from
June 23-July 2 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage
points.
"We knew that there's discrimination," said Nihad Awad, the council's
executive director. "And we knew there was hate speech on the rise in
this
society especially after 9/11. But we did not know it was that deep."
Though a similar study was not conducted before Sept. 11, 2001, members
of
the council believe these prejudices emerged only after the terror
attacks
when al-Qaida operatives claimed responsibility and said they were
acting
in the name of Islam.
Many Americans remain ignorant about the Islamic faith, as more than 70
percent of respondents maintain no close relationships with Muslims in
their communities or in the workplace, according to the study. One in
four
Americans believes Muslims want to change Western lifestyle and also
bear
less value for human life. The less educated were more likely to draw
these
correlations between the Islamic religion and Arab militants who
encourage
terrorist activity...
---
DRC REPORT FINDS HIRING DISPARITIES BASED ON ETHNIC NAMES;
Arab Americans/South Asians Fare Worst
A name should never be a barrier to employment, but according to a
study
conducted by the Discrimination Research Center (DRC), ethnically
identifiable names can lead to hiring disparities. DRC sent over 6000
resumes with African American, Asian, Latino, white, and Arab/South
Asian
names to temporary employment agencies throughout California. Resumes
with
male Arab and South Asian names received far fewer responses-24 out of
100-than all other ethnic groups. Asian Americans also faced
significant
gaps in employer responses.
DRC used ethnically identifiable African American, Latino, Asian
American,
Arab/South Asian and white names. Names were randomly matched with
similar
resumes that specified that the applicant was a college graduate with
four
years of administrative experience and strong computer skills.
Temporary
employment agencies responded differently to the same resumes,
depending on
the name. For example, the most successful resume had a response rate
of
46.6% when submitted by Jose Gonzalez, 35% when submitted by Tyrone
Walker,
32% by Rosa Lopez, and only 30% by Joyce Hsu and 29% by Timothy Wu.
"We e-mailed the same basic resume types to 350 temporary employment
agencies in all regions of California. Everywhere, except in Silicon
Valley
and San Diego, people with Arab or South Asian names received the
fewest
responses," explained DRC Director John Trasvi�a. "Post-September 11
animosity toward Arab Americans or South Asians permeates the
employment
process. Changing the present situation in which many qualified
candidates
are not even considered for jobs requires collaborative action by civil
rights law enforcement agencies, employers, community leaders, and the
general public," he stated...
For more information, contact: Sara Pierre 510-845-3473 x 311
-----
FBI TO GET HELP ON ELECTION DAY PLOTS
Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY, 10/7/04
http://thepakistaninewspaper.com/news_detail.php?id=1389
WASHINGTON - Attorney General John Ashcroft quietly has issued a
sweeping
directive that authorizes the FBI to use hundreds of law enforcement
agents
from other federal agencies to help investigate any terrorist plots
that
target the Nov. 2 elections.
The directive - the first of its kind since the Sept. 11, 2001,
terrorist
attacks - allows the FBI to tap agents from the U.S. Marshals Service,
the
Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
Firearms and Explosives as part of a nationwide effort by FBI-led
counterterrorism units to seek out and stop any plots against the
elections.
U.S. law enforcement officials continue to say that beyond intelligence
reports indicating that al-Qaeda wants to disrupt the elections, they
have
no specific information about an existing plot, method or target of a
potential attack.
The directive was issued without fanfare at a time when the Bush
administration is being accused by Democrats and civil-rights activists
of
using terrorism alerts to discourage people from voting. But it offers
insight into the government's ongoing concern about an attack similar
to
the deadly train bombings in Madrid last March, just before the Spanish
elections...
FBI and Homeland Security authorities have acknowledged that the
government
has deployed an undisclosed number of agents across the country to
improve
security during the presidential campaign and through the inauguration
in
January...
Engy Abdelkader, civil-rights director for the Council on
American-Islamic
Relations, says that Arab-Americans and other minorities could choose
to
stay away from the polls if they believe that federal agents will be
questioning people there.
"This could have a very politically chilling effect on our community,"
Abdelkader says. "We are monitoring this very closely."
ALSO SEE:
TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT, TO YASER WITH LOVE.
Robrt L. Pela, Phoenix New Times, 10/7/04\
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/issues/2004-10-07/culture/speakeasy.html
When the presidential debate rolls into Tempe next week, Yaser
Alamoodi, a
27-year-old political science major from Saudi Arabia, almost certainly
won't be in attendance. And not just because Arizona State University,
which is hosting the event, is limiting the number of seats available
to
ASU students. Apparently, because he's an Arab, Alamoodi's name is, he
says, on a special list kept by the Joint Task Force on Terrorism, and,
according to the folks at the Council on American Islamic Relations, he
is
one of dozens of Tempe residents in the ASU area recently visited by an
FBI
agent. (The Joint Task Force on Terrorism hadn't returned our calls by
press time, and apparently the FBI doesn't share information about
whether
it's visited for a "voluntary chat.") Alamoodi says the friendly agent
questioned him about his school, his work, and whether he planned
anything
special for the night of the presidential debate. Alamoodi has kept his
sense of humor (he's taken to calling the FBI "the Friendly Brothers of
Islam" and has published an open letter to John Ashcroft, thanking him
for
the FBI visit, in his column in ASU's State Press)…
---
AFTER CONVICTIONS, THE UNDOING OF A U.S. TERROR PROSECUTION
Danny Hakim and Eric Lictblau, New York Times, 10/7/04
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/07/national/07detroit.html
DETROIT - Publicly, federal prosecutors declared in the summer of 2002
that
they had thwarted a "sleeper operational combat cell" based in a
dilapidated apartment here.
Privately, senior Justice Department officials had doubts about the
strength of the case even as they were moving to indict four Middle
Eastern
immigrants on terrorism charges. The evidence was "somewhat weak," an
internal Justice Department memorandum obtained by The New York Times
acknowledged. It relied on a single informant with "some baggage," and
there was no clear link to terrorist groups. But charging the men with
terrorism, the memorandum said, might pressure them to give up
information.
"We can charge this case with the hope that the case might get better,"
Barry Sabin, the department's counterterrorism chief, wrote in the
memorandum, "and the certainty that it will not get much worse."
But the case did get worse. After winning highly publicized convictions
of
two suspects on terrorism charges in June 2003, the Justice Department
took
the extraordinary step five weeks ago of repudiating its own case and
successfully moving to throw out the terrorism charges. In a long court
filing, the government discredited its own witnesses and found fault
with
virtually every part of its prosecution.
The blame, the department suggested in its filing, lay mainly at the
feet
of the lead prosecutor in Detroit, Richard G. Convertino, whom it
portrayed
as a rogue lawyer. But documents and interviews with people
knowledgeable
about the case show that top officials at the Justice Department were
involved in almost every step of the prosecution, from formulating
strategy
to editing the draft indictments to planning how the suspects would be
incarcerated.
President Bush himself said the Detroit case was one of several
critical
investigations around the country that had "thwarted terrorists.'' But
the
wreckage of the case reveals that it was built on evidence that has
since
been undermined. A series of missteps and in-fighting weakened the case
further, documents and interviews show. The first line of the
government's
indictment now appears to have been copied without attribution from a
scholarly article on Islamic fundamentalism. Government documents that
cast
doubt on a critical piece of evidence - what was described as a
surveillance sketch of an American air base overseas - were not turned
over
to the defense. And tensions between prosecutors in Detroit and Justice
Department officials in Washington escalated into open hostility.
Mr. Convertino angered the Justice Department by testifying at a
Congressional hearing held by a powerful Republican senator who is a
vocal
critic of the department. Mr. Convertino, who was ultimately removed
from
the prosecution, is now suing the department and is under investigation
for
his handling of this case and others. That inquiry led to the public
disclosure of the name of an Arab informant in the case, who then fled
the
country because, he said, he feared for his safety.
The miscalculations and bad blood so overshadowed the case that the
truth
about the defendants' intentions may never be known.
Some law enforcement officials, however, continue to insist that the
prosecution was a good one. In an internal e-mail message, an F.B.I.
supervisor in Detroit told agents last month that they should be proud
that
their work "may have prevented another attack."
But the Justice Department's critics say that the prosecution was
overzealous and that it demonstrated how the Bush administration's
pre-emptive approach to fighting terrorists by disrupting plots before
they
materialize can clash with legal principles of due process and the
right to
a fair trial...
---
CAT STEVENS SPEAKS OUT
Thursday, October 7
http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/larry.king.live/
The one-time pop superstar Cat Stevens, now known as Yusuf Islam, talks
about being banned from the United States. Tune in at 9 p.m. ET.
-----
MUSLIM STUDENTS LAUNCH ISLAM AWARENESS WEEK
Nina Agrawal, Daily Pennsylvanian, 10/7/04
http://www.dailypennsylvanian.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/10/07/4164e4eba91
4a
Kicking off its annual Islam Awareness Week last night, the Muslim
Students
Association hosted a panel of two speakers who talked about the
development
of the Muslim community in America, as well as the recent struggles
that
have arisen from domestic and international sociopolitical events.
Howard University professor of African Studies Sulayman Nyang and Imam
Abdul Malik, chaplain of the New York City Metropolitan Transit
Authority,
addressed students and members of the Philadelphia Muslim community in
Houston Hall in a lecture entitled "Muslims in America: Finding a Place
in
Society."
University Chaplain William Gibson emceed the event, and told around 75
audience members they would be "informed, inspired and challenged" by
these
two speakers. The speakers focused on different subjects and employed
different speaking styles, but together contributed to a greater
insight of
Muslims' role in society today.
Nyang took a scholarly approach and described from a historical
perspective
the five phases in the evolution of the Muslim community in America. He
went on to project an image of the sixth phase -- which he labeled the
"post-9/11 phase" -- as one in which Muslims need to become educated
and
fight for their rights.
Malik similarly emphasized the importance of education, stating that
"the
absence of intelligence is what has created so much confusion in the
world
today." He also commented that education is the means by which students
could come to understand that the position of Muslims today is not
unlike
those of other minority religious groups in the past...
-----
HOLIDAY-DISPLAY PROPOSAL RUNS AGROUND
Christopher Sherman, Orlando Sentinel, 10/7/04
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/southwest/orl-locpolk07100704oct07
,1,4163410.story
BARTOW -- A Polk County commissioner's attempt to start a campaign for
a
large holiday display in front of county buildings that would include
religious symbols was quashed Wednesday by his fellow commissioners.
Randy Wilkinson had led the successful push to place a 7-foot granite
monument inscribed with the Ten Commandments and other historical
documents
outside the commission chambers last year.
He made his new proposal with the backing of a law group that defends
religious-expression cases nationally and an offer of free legal
defense.
Wilkinson said he was inspired by a large holiday display he had seen
in
Denver that incorporated religious symbols, such as a Nativity scene,
as
well as secular symbols such as Santa Claus.
Such a display, which would have been privately funded, could bring
people
of various religious affiliations together during the winter holiday
season
and provide a tourism boost if it were large enough, Wilkinson said.
"So we
can have a time of celebration for all people."
But Commissioner Don Gifford, a strong supporter of the monument
installed
last year, objected to the inclusion of symbols from other religions
that
he said did not play as great a role in the history of the United
States...
Ahmed Bedier, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations'
Central Florida chapter, said Gifford obviously was misinformed about
Islam.
"Unfortunately, it's a reflection of the times right now -- the level
of
hatred and bigotry we have in our nation," Bedier said. "There are
Muslims
in Polk County that pay taxes and vote and are just as American as
anyone
else."
-----
JUDGE DISMISSES SUIT AGAINST MUSLIM GROUP
Rachel Osterman, Chicago Tribune, 10/7/04
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/northwest/chi-0410070362oct07,1,456
9150.story
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by Morton Grove residents
who
argued that a Muslim group's prayer services and proposed mosque
violate
the residents' constitutional rights.
The federal court does not have jurisdiction, U.S. District Judge James
Holderman in Chicago said in a ruling that lawyers received Wednesday.
The dismissal is a victory for the Village of Morton Grove and the
Muslim
Community Center, both defendants in the suit. Spokesmen said they will
continue with an agreement reached in June for the Muslim group to
request
a special-use permit to build a mosque for 525 people and to expand its
education and parking facilities.
"This confirms what we've been saying, that the Muslim Community Center
has
not been violating anybody's rights," said Yasir Aleemuddin, a lawyer
for
the center.
The lawsuit stemmed from the traffic and congestion that neighbors of
the
Muslim center said prayer services have caused. Through a group they
formed, the Morton Grove Organization, the neighbors said the village
demonstrated religious favoritism by allowing the Muslim center to hold
services without a proper permit...
ALSO SEE:
MUSLIMS IN EVERGREEN HOPE FOR NEW MOSQUE
HongDao Nguyen, San Jose Mercury, 10/7/04
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/promotions/9852428.htm
As the Muslim community in San Jose has grown, the South Bay Islamic
Association has worked to keep pace with the numbers.
One center they've focused on is the Evergreen Masjid -- nestled in a
residential neighborhood -- that will most likely be torn down and
replaced
with a community center and mosque that could be as large as 30,000
square
feet.
The association is moving closer to getting permits on the property and
is
simultaneously reaching out to residents.
Plans call for demolishing an old house and mobile home to build the
center, which would have an Islamic flair but would not be as ornate in
its
decor as the Sikh gurdwarathat recently opened nearby.
''This is going to be more simple -- it might not have the traditional
domes and minarets,'' said Akbar Syed, who has met with city officials,
but
people driving by ''should get the impression that it is an Islamic
place.''
The group has been negotiating with San Jose since at least 2000 when
it
worked to annex the 2.1 acres into the city of San Jose. Before that,
the
property was county land.
When the association decided it was time to expand, city planners said
no,
arguing that another religious group had zoned the empty lot next door
for
a church, though the association acquired its property first.
San Jose's general plan discourages large, non-residential buildings,
such
as schools and churches, from being built side by side because it could
disrupt the neighborhood feel of the area, said Mike Enderby, a senior
planner for the city...
-----
POLICY ANALYST IS SAID TO HAVE REJECTED PLEA DEAL
Richard B. Schmitt, Los Angeles Times, 10/6/04
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-spyprobe6oct06,1,439590
4.story
WASHINGTON - A Pentagon analyst being investigated for allegedly
helping
pass secrets to Israel has stopped cooperating with authorities and
retained a new lawyer to fight possible espionage charges, sources
familiar
with the case said Tuesday.
The analyst, Larry Franklin, has been a key witness in a continuing FBI
investigation looking into whether classified intelligence was passed
to
Israel by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, an influential
Washington lobbying firm.
Franklin has been accused of passing the contents of a classified
document
about U.S. policy on Iran to two AIPAC officials, who in turn may have
given the information to Israeli officials in Washington, sources have
said.
Federal prosecutors had proposed an agreement under which Franklin
would
plead guilty to some of the charges. Such agreements usually are done
in
exchange for leniency and are accompanied by a pledge of cooperation.
But sources said Franklin had rejected a proposed deal because he
believed
the terms were too onerous. He recently replaced his court-appointed
lawyer. "It looks like there is going to be a battle," a source
familiar
with the case said.
FBI officials have not yet sought charges against Franklin or anyone
else
in the case, although the breakdown of plea negotiations would appear
to
raise the odds that he could be charged soon.
The scope of the investigation is believed to encompass a top diplomat
at
the Israeli Embassy in Washington; two high-ranking analysts at AIPAC;
and
the Pentagon office in which Franklin works as an Iran analyst, which
is
headed by Defense Undersecretary Douglas J. Feith...
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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
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In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
CAIR ACTION ALERT #435
U.S. MOSQUES URGED TO REACH OUT WITH ‘SHARING RAMADAN’ IFTARS
National initiative designed to challenge growing anti-Muslim views
(WASHINGTON, DC – 10/7/04) – Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said
that
Ramadan “is the month of sharing with others.” (Al-Tirmidhi, Hadith
614)
Based on that tradition and on the growing level of Islamophobia in
American society, CAIR is calling on Muslim communities nationwide to
hold
“Sharing Ramadan” iftars and mosque open houses for people of other
faiths
to help promote better understanding of Islam and Muslims.
Recent CAIR research has shown as many as 1-in-4 Americans hold
anti-Muslim
views. That same research indicates that anti-Muslim prejudice
decreases
when people have access to accurate information about Islam and relate
to
ordinary Muslims. SEE:
http://www.cair-net.org/downloads/pollresults.pdf
“Since sharing and appreciation are essential components of Ramadan, we
hope local mosques, community centers and Islamic schools will take
this
opportunity to invite their neighbors to join in an iftar meal,” said
CAIR
Executive Director Nihad Awad.
CAIR is helping local communities organize what is hoped to become an
annual effort by providing step-by-step instructions for hosting a
“Sharing
Ramadan” iftar. The “SHARING RAMADAN” RESOURCE GUIDE is available
online
at: http://www.cair-net.org/downloads/ramadan.pdf and
http://www.cair-net.org/downloads/ramadan.doc
‘SHARING RAMADAN” KIT TABLE OF CONTENTS
* Welcome Letter from CAIR Director
* Step-by-Step Guide to Organizing an Iftar
* Sample Media Advisory
* Welcome to Our Ramadan Fast-Breaking Brochure
* Ramadan FAQs
* Islam/American Muslims FAQs
* Sample Event Program
* Sample Newspaper Ad
ACTION REQUESTED:
1) FORM A ‘SHARE RAMADAN’ COMMITTEE in your community to help in this
effort. Once a “Share Ramadan” committee has been formed, please email
Ramadan@cair-net.org so CAIR can help and keep track of all the local
communities participating in this nationwide initiative.
2) COPY AND USE the materials in the “Sharing Ramadan” kit.
3) CONTACT A LOCAL CAIR OFFICE for help in organizing the iftar. To
find
CAIR chapter contact information, go to:
http://www.cair-net.org/asp/chapters.asp
4) SEND CAIR photos and video of your event. (Also count the number of
attendees.)
5) BECOME A CAIR MEMBER or DONATE to help us carry out this important
work.
GO TO: http://www.cair-net.org (Click on “support.”)
- PLEASE ANNOUNCE, POST AND DISTRIBUTE –
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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
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In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 10/8/04
* CAIR CONDEMNS KILLING OF BRITON IN IRAQ
* CAIR-ST LOUIS HOLDS FUNDRAISING DINNER
- CAIR-Sacramento Holds Candidate Forum
* CAIR URGES POLICE ALERT AT MOSQUES DURING RAMADAN
- Fargo Mosque Vandalized (AP)
* SC: FBI, MUSLIM LEADERS HOLD TALKS (The State)
- FL: Muslims Question FBI Interviews (AP)
- FL: FBI Plans Interviews with Arab Americans
- Muslims in Carolinas Feel Targeted By FBI (KR)
* ANIMATED MUHAMMAD FILM AIMS TO PROMOTE TOLERANCE
* IL: OPEN HOUSE TO FEATURE MUSLIM CULTURE
- TX: Muslim Students Plan Open House (Eagle)
* U.S. STRIKE KILLS 11 AT IRAQI WEDDING (Reuters)
-----
CAIR CONDEMNS KILLING OF BRITISH HOSTAGE IN IRAQ
Islamic civil rights group calls for end to cycle of violence in region
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 10/8/04) - The Council on American-Islamic Relations
(CAIR) today condemned the murder of British hostage Kenneth Bigley in
Iraq
and called for an end to the cycle of violence in the Middle East.
In its statement, the Washington-based Islamic civil rights and
advocacy
group said:
"We condemn this latest act of mindless cruelty and repeat our call for
the
immediate release of all hostages currently held in Iraq, whatever
their
nation of origin or faith."
"We must work together to bring an end to the seemingly endless cycle
of
violence that has claimed so many innocent lives in the Middle East."
CAIR recently launched an online petition drive, called "Not in the
Name of
Islam," designed to disassociate Islam from the violent acts of a few
Muslims.
SEE: http://www.cair-net.org/asp/article.asp?id=169&page=AA
The "Not in the Name of Islam" petition states:
"We, the undersigned Muslims, wish to state clearly that those who
commit
acts of terror, murder and cruelty in the name of Islam are not only
destroying innocent lives, but are also betraying the values of the
faith
they claim to represent. No injustice done to Muslims can ever justify
the
massacre of innocent people, and no act of terror will ever serve the
cause
of Islam. We repudiate and dissociate ourselves from any Muslim group
or
individual who commits such brutal and un-Islamic acts. We refuse to
allow
our faith to be held hostage by the criminal actions of a tiny minority
acting outside the teachings of both the Quran and the Prophet
Muhammad,
peace be upon him."
CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, has 29 regional
offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada.
-----
CAIR-ST LOUIS HOLDS ITS 4TH ANNUAL FUNDRAISING DINNER
On Friday, October 8, The Council on American Islamic Relations, St.
Louis
Chapter (CAIR-St. Louis) will hold its "Fourth Annual Fund raising
Dinner
Banquet," with author Michael Wolfe as the keynote speaker.
WHAT: CAIR-St. Louis Dinner Fund raising Banquet
WHEN: Friday, October 8, 2004, 6:45-9:30 PM (Central)
WHERE: Double Tree Hotel, Chesterfield, Missouri
CONTACT: 636-207-8882, E-mail: admin@cair-stl.org, Kamal Yassin,
kyassin@juno.com
SEE ALSO:
SACRAMENTO MUSLIMS TO HOLD CANDIDATES' FORUM
On Sunday, October 10, the Sacramento Valley office of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-SV) will hold a voter education and
candidates' forum in Sacramento.
The event, which is free and open to the public, is designed to provide
an
opportunity for members of the Muslim community to meet with and ask
questions of local, state and national political candidates.
WHAT: CAIR-SV Candidates' Forum
WHEN: 4 p.m. - 8 p.m., Sunday, October 10, 2004
WHERE: SALAM Community Center, 4541 College Oak Drive, Sacramento, CA
95841, (916) 979-1933
CONTACT: CAIR-SV, Basim Elkarra, (916) 289-3748, E-Mail:
sacval@cair.com
NOTE: Similar events are being held this weekend in Ohio and Michigan.
-----
GROUP URGES POLICE ALERT DURING RAMADAN
Washington Times, 10/7/04
http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20041007-032258-9833r.htm
Washington, DC -- A Washington-based Islamic advocacy group called on
law
enforcement agencies Thursday to protect mosques during the feast of
Ramadan, which begins next week.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations issued the call following a
series of incidents targeting Islamic institutions in the Midwest.
CAIR said vandals smeared feces on a Fargo, N.D., mosque and tobacco
juice
had also been spit on the doorknob of the mosque.
The vandalism occurred some time after 9 p.m. Saturday and was noticed
Sunday morning by Yahya Frederickson as he left the building after
morning
prayer.
"It looked like there was feces that had been smeared on the back door
and
toilet paper that had been stuck in it," Frederickson said.
"We hope it's just an isolated incident," said Islamic Society of
Fargo-Moorhead President Mohamed Fakhr. The men said the community has
generally been supportive of Muslims in the area since the terror
attacks
of Sept. 11, 2001.
In the neighboring state of Minnesota, CAIR said, two Islamic centers
were
also vandalized recently...
ALSO SEE:
FARGO MOSQUE VANDALIZED
Associated Press, 10/7/04
http://www.in-forum.com/ap/index.cfm?page=view&id=D85IP9I82
FARGO, N.D. - The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic
Relations is
calling for increased police protection at mosques in the United States
after recent reports of vandalism, including one in this city.
Fargo police say feces was smeared on a door over the weekend, and
tobacco
juice was spit on the doorknob. Authorities say they do not know if the
crime was hate-motivated.
Yahya Frederickson was leaving the mosque after morning prayer on
Sunday
when he spotted the vandalism. He said the Muslim community was worried
about assaults after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, but not
recently.
Frederickson said the weekend incident might have been a prank.
Mohamed Fakhr, president of the Islamic Society of Fargo-Moorhead, said
the
community has been supportive of area Muslims.
"We hope it's just an isolated incident," he said.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, an Islamic civil rights and
advocacy group, said Islamic centers in Minnesota also were vandalized
recently. The vandalism included paintballs splattered on a building,
fire
damage to a storage shed and a bottle of rotten eggs thrown at
worshippers...
-----
FBI, S.C. MUSLIM LEADERS HOLD TALKS
Christina Knauss and J.R. Gonzales, The State, 10/8/04
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/local/9864951.htm
FBI agents from regional offices in South Carolina have been in contact
in
recent weeks with both Imam Omar Shaheed, spiritual leader of Masjid
A-Salaam on Monticello Road in Columbia, and Chaudry Sadiq, the local
leader of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
Shaheed said the agents didn't talk about doing any door-to-door
interviews
in the Columbia area, but simply asked for Shaheed and members of his
mosque to be vigilant.
"They asked that if we observe anything out of the ordinary, we report
it
to them," Shaheed said. "They wanted to make sure that lines of
communication were open."
Shaheed also said that agents asked him to report any threats,
vandalism or
other suspicious events at the mosque to them. In recent months, cases
of
vandalism and threats against mosques and individual Muslims been
reported
in several areas around the U.S., including Florida and the Northeast.
No
mosques in South Carolina have reported vandalism or harassment
recently.
Sabrina Kidwai, who handles communications for the Columbia branch of
CAIR,
said Sadiq met with FBI employees to discuss the need for members of
the
Muslim community to be more vigilant in the days leading up to the
November
election because of possible threats of terrorist attacks in the U.S.
during that time. There was no mention of any interviews being done in
the
Columbia area.
Tom O'Neill, spokesman for the FBI's Columbia division, said the
interviews
are part of an effort to "shake the trees" and see if there's any
intelligence they need to be aware of...
ALSO SEE:
FLORIDA MUSLIMS QUESTION FBI INTERVIEWS
Associated Press, 10/8/04
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-brf-fbi-interviews,0,6068958.story
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Arab-Americans and Muslims in Florida question the
FBI's
latest plan for conducting interviews nationwide to uncover possible
terrorist plots that could disrupt the presidential election next
month.
For the past week, FBI officials have met with Islamic community
leaders
statewide to explain a July directive from FBI Director Robert Mueller
to
seek new information about suspicious activity ahead of the Nov. 2
general
election.
The leaders said they understand the need for vigilance but have
reservations about the order.
"Our community is already afraid and jittery, because there has already
been several rounds of detainees and interviews since 9-11," said Ahmed
Bedier, Florida spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic
Relations...
---
FBI PLANS INTERVIEWS WITH ARAB AMERICANS
Pedro Ruz Gutierrez and Henry Pierson Curtis, Orlando Sentinel, 9/8/04
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/nationworld/orl-asecfbiarabs08100804oct08,1,6742308.story
Still upset about past scrutiny, Arab-Americans and Muslims in Central
Florida are questioning the FBI's latest plan to interview community
members as part of a broad initiative to uncover possible terrorist
plots
before the presidential elections.
For the past week, FBI and state agents have held meetings across
Florida
with community leaders to explain a mandate from Washington to seek
fresh
interviews about suspicious activity. Similar events are taking place
across the country, part of a nationwide effort to glean information
that
might foil a possible plot by al-Qaeda to disrupt the Nov. 2 vote.
Although Arab-American community leaders said they understand the need
for
vigilance and support efforts to root out terrorists, they raised
questions
Wednesday about the FBI-led plan.
"Our community is already afraid and jittery, because there has already
been several rounds of detainees and interviews since 9-11," said Ahmed
Bedier, a Tampa-based spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic
Relations, a Washington civil-rights group.
Bedier said the questions, which according to FBI officials number
about a
dozen, also come at a sensitive time -- only days before Islam's holy
month
of Ramadan.
"I informed them that during the month of Ramadan, all Muslims look
suspicious and their days are turned upside down," Bedier said of two
recent meetings with the FBI in Tampa.
"They get up early in the morning. There's heavy traffic at the
mosques.
Someone not aware could misinterpret their actions."
Other local leaders echo Bedier's sentiments. But they also say they
sense
political overtones in the law-enforcement agencies' actions.
Among some of the questions agents intend to ask is whether they know
anyone critical of the domestic war on terrorism or whether they have
heard
any anti-U.S. propaganda, according to people who attended a meeting
with
FBI and state agents....
---
MUSLIMS IN CAROLINAS FEEL TARGETED BY FBI
Cristina Bolling, Knight Ridder, 10/8/04
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/nation/9864782.htm
CHARLOTTE -- As early as this week, the FBI will begin interviewing
Muslims
across the Carolinas as part of what the agency says is a nationwide
push
to stave off a terrorist attack before the November elections.
Muslims aren't the only ones who will be questioned in the effort,
officials say. But they are the only group in Charlotte being contacted
about the interviews ahead of time.
Local Muslims say the interviews again show how they've been singled
out
since the 9-11 attacks. Last year, immigrants from countries linked to
terrorists were fingerprinted and questioned as part of a "special
registration" effort. Many say they were interviewed by the FBI after
the
Sept. 11 attacks. About 8,000 Muslims live in the Charlotte area.
Last Saturday, Kevin Kendrick, FBI special agent in charge for North
Carolina, gathered 40 to 50 Charlotte-area Muslim leaders to alert them
to
the interviews. Similar meetings are taking place across the state,
Kendrick said.
Contacted by The Charlotte Observer, Kendrick would not say whether the
questioning had started or how long the effort will last. He wouldn't
say
what questions will be asked, how the agency will choose the people to
interview, or how many people will be questioned. He did say agents
will
try to hold the interviews at their subjects' homes, but would not rule
out
workplace visits.
One man who attended Saturday's meeting said Kendrick told them the
visits
would start this week.
Area Muslims are reacting with anger and frustration.
"We're trying to say, The people that you're looking for are not the
people
that we know,'" said Rose Hamid, a member of Muslim Women of the
Carolinas
who attended Saturday's meeting. "The people who come to the mosque on
Fridays are not the ones who are going to be doing these things."
Hamid said she worries that Muslims may lose their jobs if FBI agents
or
police approach them at work.
Since 9-11, local FBI officials have met several times with local
Muslims
to forge a better relationship. Still, tension remains...
-----
ANIMATED MUHAMMAD FILM AIMS TO PROMOTE TOLERANCE
CanWest News Service, 10/8/04
http://www.canada.com/national/index.html
OTTAWA -- A full-length animated film about the early life of the
Prophet
Muhammad is being released in North America to help fight anti-Muslim
prejudice.
Muhammad: The Last Prophet will be screened in 37 cities, including
Toronto, London, Ont., and Windsor, Ont., for one week starting Nov.
14.
The screenings coincide with Eid ul-Fitr, the holiday marking the end
of
the Islamic fast of Ramadan.
Rabiah Ahmed, spokeswoman for the Council on American Islamic
Relations,
which is sponsoring the screenings, said studies have shown prejudice
decreases when people get accurate information about Islam. She said
the
film is timed so that Muslim families can celebrate Eid with a film,
and
also to spread awareness about Islam to the non-Muslim community.
For information, visit http://www.finemediagroup.com/
-----
OPEN HOUSE TO FEATURE MOSQUE, MUSLIM CULTURE
Linda Rush, Southern Illinoisan, 10/8/04
http://www.southernillinoisan.com/rednews/2004/10/08/build/local/LOC002.html
CARBONDALE -- Carbondale's Muslim community is holding an open house
Saturday to let the public tour its newest mosque, learn more about
Islam
and become acquainted with ethnic foods and artwork.
"Islam and You" will be from 2:30 to 6:30 p.m. Saturday at the mosque,
"Masjid An-Nur," 530 N. Wall St. Children's activities also will be
held
from 2:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Attucks Park, across the street from the
mosque.
The children's activities and food will be free.
The food served will represent many of the cultural groups that are
part of
the Islamic community.
Hourly tours of the mosque will be given. At 3 and 5:30 p.m., there
will be
an Islamic art exhibit by Najjar Abdul-Musawwir. A panel discussion
with
questions and answers about Islam will be held from 4:15 to 5:15 p.m.
"The mosque is open to everyone -- as is the study of Islam," Henry
Muhammad said. "That's how we learn about each other." He has lived in
Carbondale for two years.
Imam Abdul Haqq, spiritual leader of the mosque, said "Masjid means a
place
for worship and adoration of God, of submission," while An-Nur means
"the
light." An-Nur also is the name of one of the chapters of the Quran,
the
book containing the sacred teachings of Islam.
Though the mosque was completed in 2000, the Muslim community has been
in
northeast Carbondale since 1971, Haqq said. He became a Muslim that
year,
drawn by Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam, which taught cultural
expression and a spirit for economic development in African-American
communities.
"We worshipped in several structures, on Willow Street, Oak, even one
on
Main Street where a tattoo parlor is now. We also met at the Eurma C.
Hayes
Center."
-----
MUSLIM STUDENTS PLAN ANNUAL OPEN HOUSE
Eagle, 10/8/04
http://www.theeagle.com/aandmnews/100804muslim.php
The Texas A&M University Muslim Students' Association will hold its
third
annual Mosque Open House on Saturday at the Islamic Community Center.
The open house, part of Islam Awareness Month, is an opportunity for
people
of all faiths to interact with their Muslim neighbors, learn about
their
culture and have any questions about Islam answered, organizers said.
The event will start at 10 a.m. and conclude about 4 p.m. The mosque is
at
417 Stasney St. in College Station.
For more information, call Faisal Chaudhry at 846-9393 or Zahir Latheef
at
693-7669.
-----
REPORT: U.S. STRIKE KILLS 11 AT IRAQI WEDDING
Reuters, 10/8/04
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6447643
FALLUJA, Iraq - A U.S. air strike on the rebel-held city of Falluja in
western Iraq killed 11 people and wounded 17 at a wedding party, with
women
and children among the casualties, a hospital doctor said Friday.
Rafah al-Hayat said the U.S. raid, the latest of several which the U.S.
military has staged against targets it says are used by foreign
militants
in Falluja, occurred at about midnight Thursday.
The U.S. military said the "precision strike" had hit a safe-house
being
used by the network of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi at 1:15
a.m.
Friday.
"Credible intelligence sources confirmed Zarqawi leaders were meeting
at
the safe-house at the time of the strike," a statement said.
"Intelligence sources confirmed that the safe-house was being used by
the
group to meet and plan attacks against Iraqi civilians, Iraqi Security
Forces, and Multi-National Forces."
It said such strikes had killed several Zarqawi leaders in the past
month,
including Mohammed al-Lubnani and Abu Anas al-Shami, described as
Zarqawi's
number two man and spiritual adviser, who were killed in September.
-----
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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 10/10/04
* HADITH OF THE DAY: A SEED OF FAITH
* CAIR DINNERS SOLD OUT IN CA AND FL
- CAIR: Hold a 'Sharing Ramadan' Iftar
- CAIR-Sacramento: Muslims Meet with FBI
- 200 Attend ‘Muslim Vote 2004’ Event in Ohio
* MUSLIMS COULD PROVE CRUCIAL IN ELECTION (AP)
* CAIR-OH: GOP CHIEF FAULTS PATRIOT ACT (Columbus Dispatch)
- Tariq Ramadan Visa Absurdity (Chicago Tribune)
- PA Student Deported Without Hearing (Post-Gazette)
* FBI PLANS TO INTERVIEW LOCAL MUSLIMS (News 14)
- ID: Concern About Questioning of Muslims (Statesman)
- Muslims Talk About Airport Security (Capital News 9)
* TX: ISLAMIC BURIALS HELP EASE PAIN OF BEREAVEMENT (DM News)
* REFLECTIONS ON RAMADAN (Ledger Inquirer)
- Teaching Ramadan in Public Schools (KC Star)
- NY: Muslims Looking Forward to Ramadan (SI Live)
* OH: INTERFAITH MEETING LOOKS AT PEACE (Ledger-Enquirer)
* GA: ANIMATED FILM TELLS MUHAMMAD'S STORY (AJC)
* BUSH TO AID 'MODERATE' PARTIES IN IRAQ ELECTION (Reuters)
- German Court: Headscarf Ban Applies to Nuns (DW)
- Arsonists Blamed for Fire at Australian Mosque (AP)
-----
HADITH OF THE DAY: A SEED OF FAITH
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon) said: "On the Day of Resurrection
I
will intercede and say, 'O my Lord! Admit into Paradise (even) those
who
have faith equal to a mustard seed in their hearts.'"
Sahih Al-Bukhari, Volume 9, Hadith 600
-----
CAIR DINNERS SOLD OUT IN CA AND FL
Alhamdulillah (praise be to God), CAIR annual banquets held last night
in
Southern California and Florida were sold-out events. Some 2,000 people
attended the CAIR-LA banquet, while 600 took part in the CAIR-FL
dinner.
SEE ALSO:
MOSQUES URGED TO REACH OUT WITH 'SHARING RAMADAN' IFTARS
National initiative designed to challenge growing anti-Muslim views
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said that Ramadan "is the month of
sharing with others." (Al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 614) Based on that tradition
and
on the growing level of Islamophobia in American society, CAIR is
calling
on Muslim communities nationwide to hold "Sharing Ramadan" iftars and
mosque open houses for people of other faiths to help promote better
understanding of Islam and Muslims.
CAIR is helping local communities organize what is hoped to become an
annual effort by providing step-by-step instructions for hosting a
"Sharing
Ramadan" iftar. The "SHARING RAMADAN" RESOURCE GUIDE is available
online
at: http://www.cair-net.org/downloads/ramadan.pdf and
http://www.cair-net.org/downloads/ramadan.doc
---
SACRAMENTO MUSLIMS MEET WITH FBI, U.S. ATTORNEY
(SACRAMENTO, CA) On October 6, 2004, more than 30 leaders of the
Sacramento
Valley Muslim community met with Special Agent in Charge Keith Slotter,
U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott, and other law enforcement officials to
discuss issues of concern to the Muslim Community.
The meeting, facilitated by the Sacramento Valley chapter of the
Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-SV), addressed a wide range of issues,
including the FBI's October plan prior to the November election,
counterterrorism efforts, anti-Muslim hate crimes, civil rights, racial
profiling, and security in Sacramento.
"The FBI seeks to continue to strengthen relationships with the Muslim
American community, to address concerns, jointly solve issues of mutual
concern, and work together to ensure a safe America while staunchly
preserving the rights and respect of the greater Sacramento Muslim
population," said Special Agent In Charge Keith Slotter.
"Sacramento Muslims will continue to work with law enforcement
authorities
for the security of our country." said CAIR-SV Executive Director Basim
Elkarra. “We welcome assurances from the FBI about the protection of
our
civil rights.”
Those who took part in the meeting included CAIR-SV, the Islamic Center
of
Chico, Farooqia Islamic Center of Lodi, Islamic Center of Davis,
Islamic
Society of Folsom, Lodi Mosque, Masjid AnNur Islamic Center, Masjid
Ibrahim, Muslim Mosque Association, Sacramento Afghan Community and
Religious Center, and Sacramento Area League of Associated Muslims
(SALAM).
CONTACT: Basim Elkarra, 916-289-3748, E-Mail: sacval@cair.com
---
200 ATTEND ‘MUSLIM VOTE 2004’ EVENT IN OHIO
(COLUMBUS, OH, 10/10/04) - Some 200 members of the Ohio Muslim
community
attended the Muslim Vote 2004 Town Hall meeting held yesterday in the
Atrium of the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus. The meeting was part of the
commemoration of Islamic Day in Ohio.
Attendees of the town hall meeting included the leadership of the Ohio
Muslim Community from across the state who heard from, federal, state,
and
local elected officials on the importance of political involvement.
The town hall meeting was organized by the Islamic Council of Ohio
(ICO),
the Ohio Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations
(CAIR-Ohio),
and the American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections (AMT).
Representatives of the presidential campaigns spoke at the event.
Robert
Bennett, Chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, represented the Ohio
Republican Party and the Bush-Chaney Campaign. Bill Shaheen, Chairman
of
the Kerry-Edwards New Hampshire campaign, represented the Kerry-Edwards
Champaign.
Representatives of the Green Party and the Libertarian Party also took
part
in the event.
CONTACT: CAIR-Ohio Executive Director Jad Humeidan at (614) 451-3232 or
(614) 571-2770, or by e-mail at jad@cair-ohio.com
-----
MUSLIMS COULD PROVE CRUCIAL IN ELECTION
Wayne Parry, Associated Press, 10/10/04
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/articles/2004/10/10/muslims_co
uld_prove_crucial_in_election/
PATERSON, N.J. - With more than 1,200 Muslims and Arab-Americans taken
into
custody after the Sept. 11 attacks, and a U.S.-led war raging in Iraq,
many
Muslims oppose George Bush in the November presidential election.
But their voting for John Kerry is not a slam-dunk, either.
Muslims in New Jersey and across the country say they support the
president
on moral issues like abortion and gay marriage, but strongly favor
Kerry
because they oppose the war in Iraq and feel he'll end it sooner than
Bush
will. They also support Kerry because they think he has a stronger
commitment to civil rights in the United States.
In an election that could once again be razor-close, the support of
Muslims
- whose estimated numbers nationwide range from 1.2 million to 7
million -
could be crucial. The Bush and Kerry campaigns have courted Muslim
voters,
particularly in swing states like Ohio and Florida, as well as
Michigan,
which has the nation's largest Arab-American population.
"I can't see how any self-respecting American - forget about
Arab-American
or Muslim - can vote for President Bush, unless you're a total kook,"
said
Hani Awadallah, president of the Arab-American Civic Organization.
"This
guy is bad for America, he's bad for the Constitution. He is the abyss.
"He has made America look so bad to the rest of the world," Awadallah
said.
"Muslims used to look at America as being on the side of the underdog.
Now
he's shown America to be a cowboy bully, and it will take 50 years to
undo
this image."
Not all Muslims share his animus toward the president, however. Sherine
El-Abd is on the New Jersey steering committee for Bush's campaign.
Earlier
this year, she founded the Egyptian-American Political Action
Committee,
and hopes to raise enough money for the president's campaign to qualify
as
either a Pioneer ($100,000) or a Ranger ($200,000).
The Edison woman admires Bush's public pronouncements on behalf of
American
Muslims.
"It is this president that changed the language about how Americans
pray,"
said El-Abd, an events planner who formerly worked on Democrat Walter
Mondale's 1984 presidential campaign. "Since I came to this country in
1965, it was always `Americans pray in churches and synagogues.' Now it
is
`churches, synagogues and mosques.' He's the one who started that."
Bush also impressed El-Abd by including her in a group of Muslims
invited
to a Ramadan dinner at the White House last fall. During a private
conversation that lasted perhaps a minute, El-Abd said she promised to
work
hard to deliver Muslim votes to him.
"I said I had a tough job ahead of me," she recalled. "He promised to
make
my job easier."
Whether Bush has done a good job is the subject of spirited debate
among
many Muslims…
-----
GOP CHIEF FAULTS PATRIOT ACT
Muslims 'have some legitimate concerns'
Bill Bush, COLUMBUS DISPATCH, 10/10/04
http://www.dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2004/10/10/20041010-C1
-02.html
After bringing greetings from President Bush to the "Muslim Vote 2004"
gathering yesterday at the Statehouse, Ohio GOP Chairman Robert T.
Bennett
compared the treatment of Muslims under the USA Patriot Act to the
treatment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.
"I think they (Muslims) have some legitimate concerns with regard to
the
Patriot Act," Bennett told The Dispatch.
"It's very similar to what happened to the Japanese-Americans in World
War
II, absent the movement and the concentration. There's no question that
we
have some profiling in place, and that disturbs people."
Bennett said he believes Bush understands the problems that the Patriot
Act
has created for Muslims, and he believes Bush will move to correct them
if
he is elected to a second term.
"We got 78 percent of the American Islamic vote in 2000," based on
issues
such as family values and education, Bennett said.
Bush campaign spokesman Kevin Madden said he could only clarify
Bennett's
comments by saying that the Patriot Act is a law-enforcement tool, and
he
knows of no plans to change it.
"The president believes that the Patriot Act is designed to protect
innocent Americans from the deadly plans of terrorists," Madden said.
Asked about Bennett's analogy, Madden said: "I'd let him have to
respond to
that."
Bill Shaheen, who spoke for Sen. John Kerry at the event, responded
that
Bush shouldn't wait to alter the Patriot Act.
"Bush has got control of the House and Senate, he could correct that
right
now," said Shaheen, Kerry's campaign chairman in New Hampshire and the
husband of former New Hampshire Gov. Jeanne Shaheen. "It's going to go
down
some day as a black mark in our history. These guys are using it like
it's
almost a police state."
Bennett made his comments about the Patriot Act after being told that
Jad
Humeidan, executive director of the Council on American Islamic
Relations
in Columbus, had said that polling showed the act -- which gave the
government broad new powers to monitor citizens -- was now the No. 1
issue
for Muslim voters.
About 160,000 Muslims live in Ohio, about three-fourths of them
citizens,
Humeidan said.
"The No. 1 issue by far -- above Iraq, above Middle East policy, above
all
the foreign-relations issues -- was the issue of civil rights and the
issue
of the Patriot Act."
The Iraq war is No. 2, followed by health care, he said…
CONTACT: CAIR-Ohio Executive Director Jad Humeidan at (614) 451-3232 or
(614) 571-2770, or by e-mail at jad@cair-ohio.com
SEE ALSO:
VISA ABSURDITY
Doug Cassel, Chicago Tribune, 10/10/04
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/perspective/chi-0410100301oct10,1
,4770325.story
The ghosts of McCarthyism must be dancing with delight. Our government
has
denied a visa to Europe's leading moderate Muslim intellectual--Swiss
scholar Tariq Ramadan--thereby preventing him from teaching at the
University of Notre Dame. This is not only wrong, but foolish. We
cannot
win global hearts and minds by being timid and inept on the battlefield
of
ideas.
After granting Ramadan a visa earlier this year, the government in late
July reversed itself, excluding him just as he was about to begin
teaching
Islamic studies at Notre Dame as Luce Professor of Religion, Conflict
and
Peacebuilding at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, a
joint tenured appointment with the classics department.
The denial surprised both Notre Dame and Dr. Ramadan, who has been
teaching
philosophy and Islamic studies at Geneva and Fribourg. No wonder: When
Ramadan was granted a U.S. visa in 2002, his lecture tour included
presentations in such prestigious venues as the Chicago Council on
Foreign
Relations.
If the administration wants to signal to the world that we cower in
fear of
moderate Muslim intellectuals, it could hardly do better…
---
DEPORTED WITHOUT A HEARING
BILL SCHACKNER PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, 10/10/04
http://post-gazette.com/pg/04284/393328.stm
Leaders of La Roche College vouched repeatedly for his character.
Professors wrote letters describing him as a model student. Civil
liberties
lawyers agreed to take up his defense for free.
But in the end, those lawyers said Friday, it wasn't enough to get a
Jordanian man, Abdelqader K. Abu-Snaineh, his day in court.
For months, he waited for a Sept. 15 hearing to explain to an
immigration
judge why he missed a deadline to comply with a now-defunct federal
program
of special registrations imposed on men from mostly Muslim countries
after
the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
But when he and one of his lawyers arrived for the hearing, they were
told
there would be no testimony. Nor was there a need to submit any written
evidence. The judge, Donald Ferlise, told them he had decided months
earlier that Abu-Snaineh, 22, acted willfully and was deportable, said
Robert Whitehill, one of his attorneys who is working with the American
Civil Liberties Union.
The executive director of a group representing the nation's immigration
lawyers says the judge's decision to deny testimony appears to be
extraordinary, and Abu-Snaineh's lawyers from the ACLU say they are
weighing an appeal, in part on grounds that his due process rights to a
hearing were violated.
But by the time any such appeal is filed, Abu-Snaineh says, he will be
back
in his home country. He said he's tired of the 15-month fight to stay
in
America and, for now, is abandoning his dream to further his studies
and
find a job in engineering…
-----
FBI PLANS TO INTERVIEW LOCAL MUSLIMS
Mercer Mill, News 14 Carolina, 10/8/04
http://www.news14charlotte.com/content/local_news/?ArID=76207&SecID=2
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Thousands of Muslims live in the Charlotte area, and
many of them will soon be interviewed by the FBI regarding possible
terrorist threats.
"We want to solicit help," Special Agent Joanne Morley said Friday.
"This
is not meant to be confrontational. ... It's a window of opportunity to
obtain information."
Morley said the interviews are part of the FBI's ongoing outreach
program
with the Muslim community. And with the election coming up, any
information
might help them thwart an al Qaeda attack.
While Charlotte-area Muslims plan to work with the FBI, they also want
to
work with the rest of the community and offer more insight into Islam.
Faheem Schuaibb and many other members of the Muslim community said
they
understand and are willing to cooperate.
"I'm capable of knowing how to separate what's true from what's false
in
this particular matter, and not take it personally and not feel
responsible
for what the other individual does," Schuaibb said....
SEE ALSO:
GROUPS CONCERNED ABOUT QUESTIONING OF LOCAL MUSLIMS
Bill Roberts, Idaho Statesman, 10/9/04
http://www.idahostatesman.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041009/NEWS01/410
090319/1002/NEWS02
Boise-area faith and human rights groups called on the community Friday
to
show support for the Treasure Valley's 6,000 Muslims.
The groups say Treasure Valley Muslims with deep ties to this country
are
coming under scrutiny by federal investigators who are looking into
terrorism.
"Right now, right here in our hometown, our friends and neighbors in
the
Muslim community are being victimized," said Bruce Bistline, an
attorney
who represents the Islamic Center of Boise.
Federal investigators have interviewed at least 10 Boise-area Muslims
and
some of their neighbors in the past several months, said Furqan
Mehmood,
president of the Boise Islamic Center.
"These are people who have been in the country for six, eight and 10
years," Bistline said. "They are not holed up and going to airplane
school."
Treasure Valley Muslims feel isolated as they come under scrutiny, the
groups said.
FBI officials said Friday they are stepping up their terrorism
awareness
across the country as the presidential election draws near, recalling
the
terrorist attacks that happened in Spain shortly before that country's
election...
---
MUSLIMS TALK ABOUT AIRPORT SECURITY
Capital News 9, 10/9/04
http://www.capitalnews9.com/content/headlines/?ArID=98499&SecID=33
The Islamic Center of the Capital Region invited officials from the
Albany
International Airport to meet and talk about concerns over new security
check point measures.
The local Muslim community wanted to hold the open exchange so the
airport
could get a better understanding of their cultural customs. That way
both
groups could have a common understanding and Muslims could have a more
friendly airport experience.
Dr. Ahmed Nezar, Kobeisy director & Imam, said, "The purpose was to
bring a
common understanding so Muslim's are allowed to understand the
procedures
in order for them to cooperate and at the same time not to feel
specifically targeted."
Airport officials said all travelers are treated the same and no one
should
feel targeted...
-----
FUNERAL HOME'S ISLAMIC BURIALS CAN HELP EASE PAIN OF BEREAVEMENT
WENDY HUNDLEY, Dallas Morning News, 10/10/04
http://www.dallasnews.com/s/dws/news/city/collin/stories/101004dnccorahma.2d
39d.html
When his father died last month, Abdul Q. Shariff's loss was eased by
the
knowledge that the older man was buried in proper Muslim fashion.
His body was ceremoniously washed and shrouded.
When placed in the ground, the right side of his father's body faced
the
northeast - toward the holy city of Mecca.
All this was done quickly - within 24 hours of death.
Mr. Shariff was confident that his father was properly laid to rest
because
Rahma Funeral Home, a new Far North Dallas business that specializes in
Islamic burials, handled all the arrangements.
Owner and general manager Qadeer Qazi opened the business in August.
Mr. Qazi "can do the ritual properly," said Mr. Shariff, who is from
Pakistan but now lives in McKinney. "That helped us a lot."
While he serves people of all faiths, Mr. Qazi said, his knowledge of
Islamic burial rituals allows him to provide a much-needed service to
the
area's growing Muslim population.
"I have an advantage, being from the same faith," said Mr. Qazi, who
believes that his business is the first licensed Muslim funeral home in
Texas.
For devout Muslims, a quick burial is a prime consideration.
"We bury a body within 24 hours or as soon as possible," said Mr. Qazi,
who
recently got a call from a bereaved family at 7:30 a.m. and arranged to
have the deceased buried by 3 p.m. the same day.
"For us, death is a gateway to meet God," he said. "We want to rush
them to
meet God."
-----
REFLECTIONS ON RAMADAN
Allison Kennedy, Ledger Inquirer, 10/9/04
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/living/9871918.htm
Like every year, the moon will signal to Muslims worldwide that the
month
of Ramadan is upon them. After they spot the small crescent, expected
to
show itself this year on Oct. 16, followers of Islam will begin to fast
for
30 days as they also seek spiritual cleansing and a stronger faith. We
asked four Columbus Muslims about the holy month and what they learn
from
it.
The Koran was sent down to the prophet Mohammed, and also God said that
fasting is proscribed to you and the people before you. It is nothing
new.
The beautiful month of Ramadan is a month of peace. The beginning of it
is
the mercy of God, given to guidance and concentrating more on the
aspects
of mercy. The middle third is forgiveness, love and kindness. You clean
your heart. And the end of it, the last third, is freedom -- freedom
from
bondage, or anything you are doing that is bogging you down. It can be
racism, hatred.
"Every year, these (three) are practiced. What is harming people from
having peace will vary from person to person.
"About fasting: If one does not understand the reason why it's being
done,
it can be tough. Once one understands the meaning, it becomes very
easy.
Besides God's proscription, it is good for human beings. In reflection,
you
concentrate on the Word of God. It has a spiritual effect. Also, it
causes
you to be more social. You socialize more in the mosque during Ramadan
and
develop more friendships with people of faith, and encourage everybody
else...
ALSO SEE
TEACHING RAMADAN IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Holly Lebowitz Rossi, Kansas City Star, 10/9/04
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/living/9870348.htm
During the next few weeks, multicultural trainer Afeefa Syeed will
bring
third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students from a Muslim academy in
Herndon,
Va., to nearby public schools to share the practices and beliefs of
their
holiest month, Ramadan.
Syeed and the children will present the call to prayer in Arabic,
display
prayer rugs and offer tastes of dates. In countless other classrooms
across
the country, similar efforts will be made to educate students about the
time of fasting and spiritual reflection for adherents of the world's
second-largest religion.
Ramadan, which likely will begin Oct. 15, depending on the sighting of
the
new moon, is making more appearances in public school classrooms,
thanks to
a series of new teacher training initiatives, an increased fascination
with
Islam and the assurance that schools, if careful, can educate
impressionable children about religion without crossing a
constitutional
line.
The Council on Islamic Education, a nonprofit organization based in
California, plans to release an updated version of its booklet "Muslim
Holidays," which was first published in 1997, for the more than 4,000
teachers nationwide who have used it.
The booklet, which contains lesson plan ideas and historical and
cultural
background on Ramadan and other Muslim holidays, also outlines the
various
state regulations governing instruction about religion in public
schools
and discusses accommodations that schools can make to enable Muslim
students to observe the holiday.
Muslim educators note tremendous progress in education about Ramadan
and
Islam in general in public schools, particularly since the terrorist
attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 - perpetrated by extremist Muslims - brought
Islam into the national spotlight.
Another reason for this success, some say, is an increased general
awareness in public education circles of what is constitutionally
appropriate to teach about religion...
---
ISLAND MUSLIMS LOOKING FORWARD TO RAMADAN
Leslie Palma-Simoncek, Staten Island Live, 10/9/04
http://www.silive.com/living/advance/index.ssf?/base/living/1097250321197080
.xml
For people who are fasting from sunrise to sunset, dinner takes on an
added
significance.
"The best part of Ramadan is getting together every night," said
Skendar
Dedovics of Dongan Hills. "One night you go to one house, the next
night to
another family. Dinners every day are at a different house."
Ramadan, the month that marks the anniversary of the revelation of the
Quran to the Prophet Muhammad, will begin next week. All able-bodied,
adult
Muslims around the world -- except pregnant women -- will fast for 30
days,
abstaining not only from food, but also from water, cigarettes and, for
married couples, sexual relations.
By all accounts, the sacrifice asked of Muslims is a small one.
"The first few days are hard, but you get used to it," Dedovic said as
he
sliced meat in his Stapleton store, Dinora's Halal Meat Market.
Working around food all day presents its own challenges, said Dedovic,
a
native of Montenegro, Yugoslavia.
"The first few days, it's like you want to pick and put something in
your
mouth," he said.
"Maybe the first day I get a little bit of a headache," from being cut
off
from coffee, Eddy Rid, a Brooklyn resident who works at Charma
Superette in
St. George.
Miliha Deda, who owns Emil's Halal Meat Market in Tompkinsville, said
customers are treated with special care during this month.
"We try to be very nice to our people during Ramadan," Mrs. Deda said.
"They're not smoking, there's no coffee, they're getting hungry. We try
to
take very good care of them..."
-----
INTERFAITH MEETING LOOKS AT FAITH AND PEACE
Allison Kennedy, Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, 10/9/04
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/living/9872060.htm
In these days of war and talk of terrorism, a Columbus clergy
association
will sponsor next week a three-man panel whose topic is peace. The
presentation will be Thursday at the quarterly lunch meeting of the
Muscogee County Clergy Association, which was founded in 1998 as an
inter-racial group of clergy.
"My Piece of the Peace" is the topic. Presenters are the Rev. J.H.
Flakes
of Fourth Street Baptist Church; Rabbi Max Roth of Shearith Israel
Synagogue; and Farhad "Ali" Alifarhani who attends Masjid AnNur, a
Columbus
mosque. Moderating the panel will be the Rev. Chuck Hasty of First
Presbyterian Church and the current president of the MCCA.
"This program evolved over the past year in conversations we have had
as
members of the clergy association, in light of world and local events,"
Hasty said. "We wanted to increase understanding among ourselves and
gain a
greater trust."
Each presenter will offer his own personal perspective on peace, and
how he
is trying to bring it about locally if not globally. He is not expected
to
be the spokesman for his particular religion's stance on peace, Hasty
said...
-----
ANIMATED FILM TELLS MUHAMMAD'S STORY
Atlanta Journal Constitution, 10/9/04
http://www.ajc.com/saturday/content/epaper/editions/saturday/faith_values_14
76929c1739c13000c5.html
The animated, full-length film, "Muhammad: The Last Prophet," is being
released Nov. 14 in cities across the United States to coincide with
the
Muslim festival Eid al-Fitr. The festival marks the end of the Islamic
holy
month of Ramadan, which begins Friday.
"The nature of the holiday --- a celebration after a month of fasting
---
fit perfectly with the nature of the film," said Oussama Jammal, CEO of
Fine Media Group, which is distributing the movie. "You practice
patience
and remembrance in Ramadan. This movie will be a great celebration of
the
holidays."
Promoters hope the film will entertain as well as offer an opportunity
for
Muslims and people of other faiths to come together. "Interest in Islam
is
high. This film will present Islam in an accessible way everyone can
enjoy," Jammal said.
The film is scheduled to have several showings at two Atlanta theaters,
United Artists Tara Cinemas 4 and Regal Perimeter Point 10. Tickets
must be
purchased in advance, through the Web site www.finemediagroup.com or by
calling 1-800-364-2000 for groups of 50 or more.
----
BUSH TO AID 'MODERATE' PARTIES IN IRAQ ELECTION
Adam Entous, Reuters, 10/8/04
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20041009/wl_nm/iraq_usa_el
ections_dc&cid=574&ncid=1480
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration plans to give strategic advice,
training and polling data to what it deems as "moderate and democratic"
Iraqi political parties with candidates running in the country's
upcoming
elections, government documents show.
The administration said its goal is to help the parties "compete
effectively" in the campaign and "increase their support among the
Iraqi
people" in national, regional and provincial elections scheduled for
January, according to the State Department documents obtained by
Reuters on
Friday.
The White House had no immediate comment on who would qualify for the
party-building support and it was unclear from the documents who would
make
those determinations.
Non-governmental groups expected to take part in the efforts said they
understood that religious groups and communist parties would be
eligible
for help.
President Bush has made the upcoming elections his top priority in
trying
to stabilize Iraq amid a worsening insurgency and to shore up support
for
the war at home.
Under pressure from lawmakers, the White House said last month that it
would not try to influence the outcome of the elections by "covertly"
helping individual candidates.
Instead, the administration said it would provide "strategic advice,
technical assistance, training, polling data, assistance and other
forms of
support" to "moderate, democratically oriented political parties,"
according to the documents...
SEE ALSO:
COURT: HEADSCARF BAN APPLIES TO NUNS
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1355371,00.html
A German federal court has ruled that a regional ban on Muslim teachers
wearing headscarves in public schools must also apply to Christian
nuns,
according to a news report.
The Federal Administrative Court has ruled that a law passed in April
in
the southwestern state of Baden-W�rttemberg was unfair because it only
applied to Muslim women yet permitted Christian symbols, news weekly
Der
Spiegel reported in an advance copy of its Monday issue.
Nuns, who often work in public schools in the predominantly Roman
Catholic
Black Forest region of the state, will now be required to remove their
habits before entering the classroom…
---
POLICE BLAME ARSONISTS FOR FIRE AT SYDNEY MOSQUE
Associated Press, 10/10/04
SYDNEY, Australia - Arsonists started a small fire at a Sydney mosque
early
Monday, but none of the worshippers in the building were injured,
police
said.
The attackers set fire to wooden planks at the back of the Rooty Hill
Mosque in western Sydney, damaging a door and carpet, police said in a
statement. There were no immediate arrests…
Muslims in Sydney have said there has been an increase in anti-Muslim
attacks since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States.
-----
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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
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http://mail2web.com/ .
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 10/11/04
* CAIR-SEATTLE: WA MUSLIMS RALLY FOR DETAINEE
* 2,000 TURN OUT FOR CAIR-LA BANQUET (Press-Enterprise)
- CAIR Study an Eye-Opener (Daily News)
- MI: Christians, Muslims Must Unite Against Fear
- CAIR-AZ: FBI's Queries of Muslims Spurs Anxiety
* CAIR-SAN DIEGO: VOTER REGISTRATION DRIVES
- OH: Candidates Not Addressing Arab-Americans
* OH: MUSLIM WOMAN SUES OVER HEADSCARF ORDEAL (Fox News)
- NJ: Freedom Has Limits for man Without a Country
* NY MUSLIMS COME TOGETHER WITH JEWS, CHRISTIANS (Newsday)
-----
WASHINGTON STATE MUSLIMS RALLY FOR DETAINEE
(SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, 10/11/2004) � On Tuesday, October 12, the Seattle
office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Seattle) will
join a rally urging that due process rights be accorded to Muslim
detainee
Majid al-Massari.
CAIR-Seattle will join al-Massari's co-workers from the University of
Washington School of Nursing, his attorney, and other civil rights
advocates at the Immigration hearing to determine al-Massari's
"removeability" being held at the I.C.E. Tacoma Detention Facility at 1
pm.
Al-Massari has been held under tight security since his arrest in July
for
a relatively routine immigration violation and was held for more than a
week in solitary confinement in a federal detention center without
being
allowed to contact his family or an attorney.
WHEN: 1 p.m., Tuesday, October 12, 2004
WHERE: Immigration and Custom Enforcement Tacoma, Northwest Detention
Center, 1623 East J Street, Tacoma, Washington
CONTACT: CAIR-Seattle, Samia El-Moslimany, 206-409-3407, E-MAIL:
samia@cair-seattle.org; Rami Al-Kabra, 206-349-5995,
E-MAIL: rami@cair-seattle.org
-----
2,000 TURN OUT FOR CAIR-LA BANQUET
BIAS AGAINST MUSLIMS DECRIED
BETTYE WELLS MILLER, Press-Enterprise, 10/11/04
http://www.pe.com/localnews/corona/stories/PE_News_Local_cair11.f1a0.html
ANAHEIM - Muslims and people of Arab heritage remain the targets of the
most extensive campaign of ethnic profiling to occur in the United
States
since 110,000 Japanese and Japanese-Americans were interned during
World
War II, a Georgetown University law professor said Saturday.
"Sept. 11 changed everything for people in this room more than for
others
outside," David Cole told more than 2,000 California Muslims,
politicians,
law enforcement officials and a rainbow of religious leaders. The
American
Bar Association named Cole a Human Rights Hero earlier this year.
The event was a banquet celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Council
on
American-Islamic Relations Southern California chapter at the Anaheim
Convention Center. The Patriot Act, which Congress passed in October
2001,
has been especially devastating because Attorney General John Ashcroft
has
used it to advance a policy of "preventive detention," Cole said. More
than
5,000 immigrants, all of them Arabs or Muslims, have been detained, he
said. None has been convicted.
"John Ashcroft is zero for 5,000," Cole said. "Many people have been
picked
up and held without charges. Arrests were made in secret and remain
secret
to this day. Hundreds were tried in secret immigration hearings. Yet
not
one was found to be involved in terrorist activity. These kinds of
figures
would not be sustainable politically if they targeted mainstream, white
Americans…"
"On Sept. 12 we had the world's sympathy," Cole said. "Three years
later we
have the world's antipathy. Never in the history of our country has
anti-Americanism been so high. It is rooted in the belief that America
can
employ a double standard and not treat people with dignity. That's what
fuels anti-American sentiment and makes us less safe today."
The Council on American-Islamic Relations is one of many organizations
challenging that double standard, Cole said.
Earlier in the evening, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer told
the
crowded convention hall that mosques and synagogues are protected
places
under new state hate-crime legislation. He vowed to protect Muslims and
their places of worship from hate crimes.
"As California's top cop I will not allow it," he said.
The celebration of the Southern California chapter's 10th anniversary
came
days after a survey commissioned by the Council on American-Islamic
Relations found that one out of four Americans holds anti-Muslim
sentiments…
CONTACT: Sabiha F. Khan, CAIR-LA Communications Director, 714-776-1847,
E-Mail: socal@cair.com
SEE ALSO:
STUDY ABOUT MUSLIMS AN EYE-OPENER
Heber Taylor, The Daily News, 10/8/04
http://www.galvnews.com/story.lasso?wcd=56394
There are three things to say about the assertion that "Muslims teach
their
children to hate."
o It's false.
o It's harmful.
o And, sadly, more than one out of four people in this country believe
it.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, which describes itself as an
Islamic civil rights and advocacy group, recently commissioned an
independent survey to find out what Americans think about Muslims…
The survey found that knowledge about Islam is generally low in this
country. Those of us who live in Galveston County ought to pledge to
remedy
that in our small corner of the country.
It's possible to make an effort to inform yourself. It's also possible
to
reach out and make contacts - and perhaps even make friends.
In releasing the survey, Omar Ahmad, chairman of the council's board,
said:
"As a nation that values tolerance and equality, we need to recognize
the
growing anti-Muslim prejudice in our society and join together as
Americans
to combat this divisive phenomenon. It is clear from the results of
this
survey that we have our work cut out for us in terms of educating other
Americans about Islam and providing opportunities for positive
interactions
with the Muslim community."
We'd say it's important for people of all faiths - not just Muslims -
to
work toward creating those "positive interactions."
We'd also say that the council performed a real public service in
publishing this study.
---
CHRISTIANS, MUSLIMS MUST UNITE AGAINST FEAR
Charles Honey, Grand Rapids Press, 10/9/04
http://www.mlive.com/grpress/
We have a problem in our faith community.
One of the world's major faiths is on trial for its beliefs, and for
whether those beliefs are matched by right action. Many people of this
faith feel on the defensive, even persecuted for their beliefs.
I'm talking about Christians.
It's not unusual for Christians to complain to me that they feel
attacked
for their beliefs. They say it seems to be OK for the media and other
critics to go after Christians, especially those of the one-way-only
variety. But secularists and people of other faiths, notably Islam, get
off
scot-free for their extremist views, some of these Christians say.
Which is interesting, since some Muslims say the same thing in reverse.
They definitely feel under siege, and as if every incident involving a
Muslim with allegedly suspicious motives (see Cat Stevens) gets blown
out
of proportion. Christian leaders, meanwhile, routinely make blanket
attacks
against Islam and get away with it, they say.
It doesn't seem as if both these perceptions could be true. But they
are.
First, Christians are under very real attack in some parts of the
world,
such as Sudan where they have been persecuted by a radical Muslim
majority.
And yes, they often are attacked verbally for their more exclusive
views,
such as those who say only Christ can save one from an eternity of
flames.
They are called intolerant, judgmental and arrogant, often unjustly.
Meanwhile, Muslims are constantly under the gun, ideologically and
sometimes literally. Despite much talk about reaching out to Muslims
following the Sept. 11 attacks, a substantial minority still have
hostile
views of Islam.
A recent poll of 1,000 adults found about one-fourth believe Islam
teaches
violence, that Muslims value life less than other people and want to
change
the American way of life…
Did you know, for instance, that CAIR, the country's largest Islamic
advocacy group, repeatedly denounces terrorism? "No injustice done to
Muslims can ever justify the massacre of innocent people," states
CAIR's
online petition.
Another chance to learn comes in November, when a three-week series on
Islam will be offered by the Grand Rapids Area Center for Ecumenism.
Yet Muslims also have a responsibility to reach out and speak out.
Given
gruesome slaughters and hateful statements by radical Muslims
worldwide, a
little paranoia among non-Muslims is understandable, too.
CAIR urges mosques to invite non-Muslims for meals during Ramadan.
Local
mosques should take them up on it. And local Muslims need to be more
public
in denouncing violence and articulating the faith. Doing so involves
risk,
but so does trying to stay under the radar.
Muslims and Christians don't need to agree theologically. We do need to
respect each other and unite against our common enemy -- fear.
---
FBI'S QUERIES OF MUSLIMS SPURS ANXIETY
Dennis Wagner, The Arizona Republic, 10/11/04
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/1011muslims11.html
FBI agents are knocking on doors of Valley Muslims asking questions
aimed
at detecting and deterring terrorism before Wednesday's presidential
debate
at Arizona State University and the Nov. 2 election, say Islamic and
civil
rights leaders.
"They want to leave no stone unturned," said Deedra Abboud, executive
director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in
Arizona.
"And they want to make sure nothing disrupts the election . . . But it
does
concern us because it's against the American way, and it's a waste of
their
time."
Agents across the nation have been instructed to "foster the impression
that law enforcement is focused on individuals who might be a threat,"
according to the FBI's so-called "October Plan," which was disclosed
when
CBS News obtained an e-mail from the bureau's "04 Threat Task Force."
Special agent Susan Herskovits, an FBI spokeswoman in Phoenix, said
they
are not only interviewing Muslims. She declined to describe how
subjects
are chosen except to say, "We have not been sent a list. We've been
sent a
directive to talk to as many people as we can about a potential
al-Qaida
attack between now and the election."
The scenario was described by Abboud this way:
A pair of agents come to the front door and ask to chat. They don't
allow a
friend, lawyer or tape recorder during the interview. But it's
completely
voluntary and informal. Just a few questions:
Who are your friends?
How do you feel about the Bush administration?
What do you think of U.S. foreign policy in Israel?
Would you become a confidential informant?
Herskovits emphasized that those contacted by agents are not
necessarily
viewed with suspicion, but as potential information sources. She said
there
are no formatted questions, and anyone may decline to be interviewed…
David Hadley, a spokesman for the Islamic Center of the East Valley,
said
he and others recently dined together after completing a fast. A few
days
later, he said, FBI agents called one of his meal companions and asked
by
name about those who attended the event. "I couldn't figure out how
they
knew we were there," said Hadley.
Abboud said some of those contacted by the FBI face a chilling dilemma:
Cooperate and risk falling under suspicion because of "wrong" answers,
or
decline the interview and worry about being put on a watch list or
harassed...
-----
VOTER REGISTRATION DRIVES ARE TAKING PLACE IN CONGREGATIONS
Sandi Dolbee, UNION-TRIBUNE, 10/11/04
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20041011-9999-god2_copy.html
The faith factor looms large as Election Day nears, led in part by
conservative evangelical Christians energized by the continuing
abortion
battle and a new debate over same-sex marriage.
Among the faithful, there is an intense and widespread campaign to
energize
millions of voters who stayed home in 2000.
Though differing in theologies and motivation, faith-based groups agree
that they want to make a difference in voter turnout, but their
activities
are testing the line separating church and state.
Muslims, many of whom are immigrants, talk about a growing awareness in
their communities that politics is how they can make their voices heard
in
this country.
"You almost have to be involved in the political process to survive,"
said
Omar Hassaine, executive director of the local branch of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations…
SEE ALSO:
ARAB-AMERICANS: CANDIDATES NOT ADDRESSING THEM
Kerry Staff Member Shows Up To Speak To Local Arab-Americans
http://www.newsnet5.com/news/3799038/detail.html
CLEVELAND -- Some local Arab-Americans do not think that either
presidential candidate is paying attention to them.
NewsChannel5 reports that the community wants to know which candidate
will
be fair in the Middle East.
"Will you promise to be even-handed in the Middle East? That's all I'm
asking you. We want a voice over there," Isam Zaiem said.
Zaiem, like many Arab-Americans, voted for President George W. Bush in
the
last election, but is now a swing voter.
Sen. John Kerry's staff member, Bill Shaheen, also an Arab-American, is
hoping that Arab-Americans will vote for Kerry.
"I truly believe we can achieve peace in the Middle East, but you've
got to
have hope. George Bush offers you no hope," said Shaheen.
No one from the Bush campaign showed up to offer a different
perspective…
-----
MUSLIM WOMAN SUES OVER HEADSCARF ORDEAL
Fox News, 10/10/04
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,134905,00.html
CLEVELAND - The Quran commands Muslim women to cover themselves in the
presence of non-relatives.
So when A'isha Samad of Cleveland, Ohio, went without her headscarf, it
was
not by choice.
"It is a protection of [my] modesty," said Samad. "It's no different
[than]
if I didn't have a blouse on."
Samad's self-proclaimed nightmare began two years ago when she failed
to
appear in court for a hearing related to the custody of a grandchild.
A judge ordered her to be detained in the county jail, where she was
forced
to remove her headscarf.
For security reasons, guards remove everything from inmates entering
the jail.
"Contraband and security play such a vital role here that that's almost
the
first thing that gets triggered at intake," said Ken Kochevar of the
Cuyahoga County Correctional Center (search).
But Samad had no criminal history. In fact, charges against her were
eventually dropped.
She says she asked for the same covering privileges the jail grants
Muslim
men, but her request was denied.
Now she's suing the county for discrimination....
SEE ALSO:
FREEDOM HAS ITS LIMITATIONS FOR A MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY
New Jersey Ledger, 10/11/04
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-18/109747023389560.xml
NEW YORK -- Salim Yassir's quest for freedom has been epic. He fled the
violent Gaza Strip at age 10, spent 14 years in a Libyan refugee camp,
then
crossed the Atlantic on a cargo ship to New Jersey, where he spent four
years in an Elizabeth immigration jail.
And on a rainy street corner on a recent Thursday afternoon in the
Bronx,
his journey to freedom continued in a bizarre and maddening way.
In a crew cut and a Yankees cap, Yassir stood outside the King Steak
restaurant, holding skyward a small black box, turning it, twisting it,
scowling at it. The box is a global positioning system satellite device
that federal immigration agents use to track his whereabouts.
Yassir is a man without a country -- a stowaway ordered deported but
with
no country that will take him. Federal officials want to know exactly
where
he is at all times, so they can deport him as soon as they find some
place
that will take him.
In this city of skyscrapers, the Department of Homeland Security has
never
placed an alien under electronic or satellite monitoring. And there is
a
constant problem: Yassir can never seem to get a signal.
And if he cannot get a signal, he said, the agents assigned to track
him
may think he violated the terms of his release, which sets a 20-mile
limit
on travel.
Then it will be back to the Elizabeth detention center, a crowded,
bleak
place where he said guards confiscated his copy of Muhammad Ali's
biography
because they said they didn't want him learning how to fight...
-----
LI MUSLIMS COME TOGETHER WITH JEWS, CHRISTIANS TO TALK ABOUT WORKING ON
COMMON SOCIAL ISSUES
Nedra Rhone, Newsday, 10/11/04
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liisla1011,0,403732.story
There are only two Muslims in Taylor Mill, Ky., according to resident
Aminah Assilmi, and if not for a moment in time almost 30 years ago,
there
may have been only one.
Assilmi, 60, of Native American and Irish descent, grew up Southern
Baptist
in Oklahoma. By the time she attended college at the University of
Denver
to get a business degree, she was convinced it was her mission to
convert
the Muslim students.
But as she studied the Quran to use as a weapon in disproving the
theories
of Islam, she paved the way for her own conversion. By the time a group
of
Muslims landed on her doorstep for a final religious showdown, "Islam
had
already entered my heart," Assilmi said. But in 1977 "it was hard to
say
I'm a Caucasian, American Muslim…"
-----
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To reach the list moderator, send a message to: cair@cair-net.org
-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 10/12/04
* HADITH/VERSE OF THE DAY: FASTING IS FOR GOD
* CAIR CELEBRATES 10 YEARS OF WORK, PROGRESS (OC Register)
- CAIR Successes
- CAIR-FL Thanked for Diversity Display
* CA POLICE CHIEF TO FAST IN MUSLIM OUTREACH (SJ Mercury News)
- NY City to Step Up Mosque Patrols for Ramadan (AP)
* ORDER TICKETS NOW FOR 'MUHAMMAD: THE LAST PROPHET'
* PA: FBI SEEKS TO INTERVIEW 44 MUSLIMS (Tribune-Review)
- Terrorism Case Shows U.S. Flaws in Strategy (LA Times)
* DC: MINDING THE MEANING OF ISLAM IN THE WEST
- DC: Citizen's Hearing on Civil Rights Post-9/11
-----
HADITH/VERSE OF THE DAY: FASTING IS FOR GOD
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) quoted God as saying: "Every
action of the son of Adam is for him except fasting, for that is solely
for
Me. I give the reward for it."
Fiqh-us-Sunnah, Volume 3, Number 107A
"O you who have attained faith! Fasting is prescribed for you as it was
prescribed for those before you so that you may learn self-restraint."
The Holy Quran, 2:183
-----
JOB'S ONLY GOTTEN TOUGHER FOR LEADING MUSLIM GROUP
CAIR celebrates 10 years of hard work, hard times, progress.
ANN PEPPER, Orange County Register, 10/12/04
http://www.ocregister.com/ocr/2004/10/12/sections/local/local/article_272805
.php
When her boss sent Yesi King home from her waitressing job for wearing
a
religion-related scarf, she called the Council on American-Islamic
Relations in Anaheim for help.
"I converted to Islam about 2-1/2 years ago," King, 21, said recently.
"I
have grown in my faith and a few months ago decided I wanted to wear
the
hijab."
Told by her supervisor to uncover her head or go home, she left the
restaurant in tears. CAIR stepped in with a letter of protest to the
restaurant chain - including a discussion of the law - and
informational
pamphlets. King was reinstated with back pay.
"It was humiliating being sent home that day, but CAIR really helped me
out," King said. "It's awesome."
Based in Washington, D.C., the organization focuses its work on
civil-rights issues, from promoting communitywide tolerance to handling
everyday problems like King's.
In Orange County, seven paid staff members serve a community of about
600,000 Muslims - native-born and immigrants from dozens of nations.
In recent months, CAIR has made successful pleas for the freedom of a
young
Southern California Muslim held in Egypt, helped a distraught local
Muslim
mother publicize her search for her missing son and completed a
"candidate
report card" on Muslim issues.
It also spent uncountable hours publicly condemning terrorism and
trying to
separate it from Islam…
Now, CAIR works to rebuild bridges between Muslims and their neighbors
and
issues a constant stream of press releases condemning terrorism…
CAIR has also energized the wider Islamic community - something not
possible at mosques, the traditional centers of Muslim life, which tend
to
attract only the devout.
The council bankrolls its projects primarily through community
donations
and its annual banquets, including the 10th anniversary celebration
held
Saturday.
The event was evidence of CAIR's growing clout. A decade ago, the
dinner
drew 400 attendees, all Muslim. This time, 2,100 people - including
California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, members of Congress, county
and
local office holders, and members of the interfaith community - packed
the
room.
Audience members donated $450,000 toward the local chapter's
approximately
$750,000 projected budget for next year.
Support for CAIR's work remains critical to the most vulnerable in the
community, keynote speaker David Cole of Georgetown University Law
Center
told the crowd.
"In the wake of 9/11, CAIR is in the forefront of seeking to reclaim
the
idea of humanity for all of us," said Cole, an expert on constitutional
law, criminal procedures, civil liberties, and national security and
immigration law.
Its efforts have brought the group new friendships and understanding,
Ayloush said.
"I think this was a test for our country. Some people were betting that
America would lynch Muslims or put us in internment camps. I think as a
nation we passed the test."
CONTACT: CAIR-LA, Sabiha Khan, 714-776-1847, 714-390-0334
SEE ALSO:
COUNCIL SUCCESSES
Since the 9/11 attacks, the O.C. chapter of the Council on
American-Islamic
Relations - a Muslim civil-rights group - has worked to increase
understanding of Islam and retrieve its good name from the actions of
extremists. Among its works:
o Initiated a project that has put an 18-book-and-video package on
Islam in
7,000 public libraries.
o Fielded a billboard campaign on the themes of tolerance, unity and
kindness from "your Muslim neighbor."
o Aired public-service announcements about Islam on radio and TV.
o Set up a speakers bureau to reach churches, synagogues, schools and
service, political and senior-citizen clubs.
o Created the "Not in the Name of Islam" online anti-terrorism petition
at
www.cair-net.org, which says, in part: "No injustice done to Muslims
can
ever justify the massacre of innocent people, and no act of terror will
ever serve the cause of Islam. We repudiate and disassociate ourselves
from
any Muslim group or individual who commits such brutal and un-Islamic
acts.
- Ann Pepper, The Orange County Register
---
CAIR-FL THANKED FOR DIVERSITY DISPLAY
(BROWARD, FL, 10/12/04) - The Florida office of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-FL) today took part in a reception
hosted
by Broward Mayor Ilene Lieberman. At the reception, Mayor Lieberman
thanked
CAIR-FL for setting up a diversity display celebrating Middle Eastern
history and culture in the lobby of the Government Center. She also
thanked
some 30 other members of the South Florida Muslim community for joining
the
special breakfast meeting.
The diversity display, part of Broward County's Diversity Display
series,
features examples of traditional dress, photographs, art work, and
Islamic
calligraphy. Smaller items such as tea cups and jewelry are also on
display.
"This is a unique display and one that has received a lot of
attention,"
said Mayor Lieberman. "As with all of our monthly diversity displays,
we
hope that this exhibit is entertaining and educational."
"We thank Mayor Lieberman for giving us this opportunity to share with
the
residents of Broward County the diversity within the Muslim community,"
said Altaf Ali, Executive Director, CAIR-FL. "As Ramadan approaches we
draw
upon our spiritual traditions to build relationships and bridges of
understanding with people of other faiths."
The exhibition is expected to run until October 30, 2004.
CONTACT: Ahmed Bedier, 813-731-9506, abedier@cair-florida.org; Altaf
Ali,
954-298-8214, altaf@cair-florida.org
-----
S.J. POLICE CHIEF TO FAST IN MUSLIM OUTREACH
Crystal Carreon, San Jose Mercury News, 10/12/04
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/9897461.htm
San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis was speaking to 7,000 Bay Area Muslims
last
year at the end of Ramadan, Islam's holy month of fasting, when he
suddenly
realized that they had gone hungry when he had not. And they were
celebrating an experience he did not know.
"It just dawned on me," he recalled. "If I am truly going to understand
the
nuances of this religion, I should join them in this fast."
So this week, Davis will join the world's nearly 1 billion Muslims in
forgoing food and drink from sunrise to sunset in the monthlong
observance
of Ramadan. Leaders in law enforcement and the Muslim community say
they
have never heard of a police chief fasting for the entire month. Last
year
in the United Kingdom, the highest ranking police officer at New
Scotland
Yard fasted for one day.
Davis' decision carries enormous weight with Muslims, who remain
worried
about racial profiling, continued backlash from the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks and, most recently in San Jose, the fatal police shooting of a
Bosnian Muslim outside a coffee shop…
During Ramadan, Davis plans to break the fast nightly with a different
Muslim family, and will extend an invitation to eat at his home.
The police chief, who is a Mormon, said his decision to observe Ramadan
is
not motivated by politics or publicity but by a desire to "truly
understand." Davis made the commitment when he was the deputy police
chief
and now, as the chief, he believes fasting can help him connect with a
community that is growing in the South Bay…
Since Sept. 11, 2001, the San Jose Police Department has taken steps to
improve relations between officers and area Arab-Americans and Muslims,
some of whom were targeted in a wave of harassment and violence. In the
days after the attacks, San Jose police responded to a spike in
reported
hate crimes, including ethnic slurs on answering machines, a mutilated
rat
on a doorstep and racist graffiti at a high school.
Davis read about Islam, visited a mosque and was invited to speak at
the
Eid al-Fitr, an annual celebration marking the end of Ramadan. At last
year's festival, Davis said he found his inspiration and announced he
would
fast the next Ramadan…
In Islam, Ramadan is the ninth month of the lunar calendar. Because the
lunar calendar is about 11 days shorter than the solar calendar, the
holy
month of fasting rotates every year. This year, it is expected to begin
on
Friday or Saturday, depending on whether a new moon is sighted on
Thursday
night. Ramadan will last 29 or 30 days.
Muslims believe that during the ninth month in the seventh century, God
revealed the first verses of the Koran, Islam's holy text, to the
prophet
Muhammad. As a sign of deference, observers of Ramadan abstain from
eating,
drinking and sex during the daylight hours. But every night, feasts
mark
the breaking of the fast, or Iftar.
SEE ALSO:
CITY TO STEP UP PATROLS FOR RAMADAN
Associated Press, 10/12/04
NEW YORK (AP) - Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Tuesday the city will beef
up
security at mosques and other Muslim places of worship during Ramadan,
warning that bias crimes will not be tolerated.
Though Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said that the
city
has not received any specific threats of violence directed at Muslims,
some
members of the Muslim community fear they might be the focus of attacks
and
harassment -- in part because of the U.S. war in Iraq -- during
Ramadan,
which starts Friday…
Kelly said the department will increase patrols outside mosques;
dispatch
plainclothes officers and heavily armed officers around Muslim holy
places;
and increase outreach between the Muslim community and police
department.
-----
ORDER TICKETS NOW FOR 'MUHAMMAD: THE LAST PROPHET'
Order tickets for the new animated film "Muhammad: The Last Prophet"
before
October 25 and receive 25-40% discounts. The film will be released on
Eid
ul-Fitr in theaters nationwide. Tickets must be purchased in advance.
No
tickets will be sold in the theaters.
To purchase tickets or to view the movie's trailer, go to:
http://www.finemediagroup.com
Perfect for school trips and eid parties.
SEE ALSO:
FOR-'PROPHET' MOVIE
WASHINGTON TIMES, 10/12/04
http://washingtontimes.com/entertainment/20041011-101651-8842r.htm
The Fine Media Group is holding a press conference today at the
National
Press Club to announce the nationwide theatrical release of "Muhammad:
The
Last Prophet," an animated film that chronicles the early life and
teachings of Islam's Prophet Muhammad.
The release is scheduled to coincide with Eid ul-Fitr, the holiday
marking
the end of the Islamic fast of Ramadan.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations hopes the movie will enrich
non-Muslims' understanding of the roots of Islam and promote good,
interfaith vibes.
"The release of this film in theaters also offers a chance to interact
with
American Muslims in a learning environment," says CAIR executive
director
Nihad Awad.
-----
FBI SEEKS TO INTERVIEW 44 MUSLIMS FROM AREA
David Conti, TRIBUNE-REVIEW, 10/12/04
http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/trib/newssummary/s_260859.html
The FBI wants to interview 44 area Muslims for any information they
have
that might help authorities uncover a possible terrorist attack
targeting
the Nov. 2 presidential election. Agents are conducting similar
interviews
nationwide.
The FBI told the Islamic Council of Greater Pittsburgh last week that
the
44 Muslims are not being investigated for any crime, according to a
council
advisory. However, those who have violated a visa can be arrested and
deported.
Muslim leaders said they were told that about 30 people face
deportation,
but they don't know how many violators are on the FBI interview list.
A Pittsburgh civil rights lawyer who participated in Oct. 4 talks
between
the council and the FBI said Islamic leaders are concerned the
government
is adopting heavy-handed tactics that could backfire.
"There's concern nationwide that the war on terror could turn into a
war on
dissidence, that people will be detained without cause," said Witold
"Vic"
Walczak, legal director for the Pittsburgh chapter of the American
Civil
Liberties Union.
FBI officials and U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan discussed with
Islamic
council leaders their plans for the interviews.
"We reached out to them to let them know what's going on and that we're
not
going behind their backs," said FBI Special Agent William Crowley, a
spokesman for the agency's Pittsburgh office, who declined to say if
any
interviews have taken place or what type of information the FBI is
seeking.
He also would not say how the 44 Muslims were selected.
Islamic Council President Clifton Slater and Nusrath Ainapore, outreach
director at the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh, where the meeting took
place,
declined to speak with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. The advisory
urged
area Muslims to know their legal rights.
"If you are approached by the FBI, you may refuse to be interviewed. If
you
choose to be interviewed, we strongly urge you to obtain a lawyer
before
the interview," the advisory said.
"The Islamic Council of Pittsburgh does not condone terrorism, and if
these
interviews will help prevent it, we will certainly help, but we will
use
all the means at our disposal to protect the civil rights of all
Muslims
under the laws and the Constitution of the U.S.," the council advisory
stated…
SEE ALSO:
TERRORISM CASE SHOWS U.S. FLAWS IN STRATEGY
Richard Serrano and Greg Miller, Los Angeles Times, 10/12/04
http://www.latimes.com/news/yahoo/la-na-detroit12oct12,1,3061869.story
Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft proclaimed the breakup of a dangerous
terrorist
cell. Less than two years later, Detroit yielded the first trials and
convictions of alleged terrorists in the United States after Sept. 11.
But the seemingly brilliant prosecution soon imploded.
Today, the terrorism convictions have been dismissed because the
government
withheld evidence that could have helped the defense. The Justice
Department is investigating its chief prosecutor in the case, Richard
G.
Convertino. He, meanwhile, is suing the department.
The waters are so muddied that it may never be known whether the
defendants
were involved in terrorism or not. Even now, prosecutors admit they
cannot
show that the defendants had any contact with a terrorist organization,
and
they don't know if any attack was planned.
And the Detroit case laid bare a problem in the government's basic
strategy. To forestall attacks, officials have adopted the domestic
equivalent of President Bush's doctrine of preemptive action. But
prosecuting suspects before they strike forces the investigators into
the
murky world of intent, where pitfalls abound.
Evidence can be ambiguous, solid testimony scarce. It's up to
prosecutors
to distinguish between terrorists and hapless immigrants with phony
papers.
-----
MINDING THE MEANING OF ISLAM IN THE WEST
Speaker: Bishop Kenneth Cragg
When: Thursday, October 14, 2004, 4:00 p.m.
Where: ICC Executive Conference Room, 7th Floor, Georgetown University
~
Main Campus
Co-sponsored by The Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, The
Center
for Contemporary Arab Studies, and The Woodstock Theological Center
Bishop Cragg is one of the foremost scholars of Islamic and Christian
theology. He has held both academic and ecclesiastical posts throughout
the
Middle East, Africa, Europe and the United States. Bishop Cragg's most
recent book is The Tragic in Islam.
RSVP your attendance to: cmcu@georgetown.edu
SEE ALSO:
DC: CITIZEN'S HEARING ON CIVIL RIGHTS POST-9/11
1 p.m. Homeland Security - Discussion
SPONSOR: Muslim American Society (MAS) Freedom Foundation
TOPIC/SUBJECT: holds a "Citizens Hearing" on "Civil Rights and
Liberties
Post 9/11" for national organizations, legal experts, religious and lay
leaders, and victims' families to participate in discussion.
PARTICIPANTS: Rep. John Conyers, Jr., D-Mich.
DATE: October 13, 2004
LOCATION: 2237 Rayburn House Office Building
CONTACT: 202-496-1288
-----
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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
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In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 10/13/04
* VERSE OF THE DAY: THE PURPOSE OF CREATION
* CAIR-AZ: FBI QUESTIONS MUSLIMS BEFORE DEBATE (Pacifica)
* NY: MUSLIM VOTE'S IMPACT WEIGHED (Post-Standard)
- IL: Town Hall Meeting on Muslim Bloc Vote (AMA)
- The Muslim Vote (Pluralism Project)
* CAIR-FL: COMBATING STEREOTYPES (SP Times)
- Media Guidelines for War on Terror (SPJ)
* ND: RAMADAN CELEBRATION PLANNED AT NDSU (Forum)
- KS: Muslims Ready for Ramadan (Kansan)
- Fasting and Playing (Sports Illustrated)
* LA: HEARING DELAYED FOR TEACHER WHO YANKED SCARF (AP)
- PA: Lecture Addresses Gender in Islam (Daily Penn)
* SPELLING OUT SHARON'S REAL PLAN (IHT)
- Role of Radio Sawa Questioned (Wash Post)
-----
VERSE OF THE DAY: THE PURPOSE OF CREATION
"If your Lord had so willed, He would certainly have made mankind one
single community. But that is not what He wants. So [mankind] will
continue
to hold divergent views…And that very freedom of choice and action is
the
whole purpose of their creation."
The Holy Quran, 11:118-119
-----
FBI QUESTIONS HUNDREDS OF MUSLIMS AHEAD OF TONIGHT'S DEBATE IN ARIZONA
Pacifica Radio, 10/13/04
http://www.pacifica.org/programs/dn/041013.html
Ahead of tonight's debate in Tempe, FBI agents have been questioning
hundreds of Muslims across the state and visiting mosques in what they
say
is a new initiative to thwart terrorist attacks. We speak with the
Council
on American-Islamic Relations in Arizona and a University student from
Yemen who was questioned.
President Bush and Senator John Kerry meet today in Arizona for the
third
and final presidential debate of the campaign. The encounter, which is
being held at Arizona State University, will focus on domestic issues
including jobs, health care and taxes.
In the weeks leading up to the final debate, FBI agents have been
knocking
on doors of hundreds of Muslims in the key swing state of Arizona and
conducting so-called "voluntary interviews" as well as revisiting
mosques
in what they say is new initiative to thwart terrorist attacks.
The FBI plan - officially known as the "Fall Threat Task Force" but
dubbed
by critics as the "October Plan" - is not just confined to Arizona.
With
just a few weeks left to go before the election, "interviews" of
individuals in Arab and Muslim communities is taking place all across
the
country and there is a growing concern that the new government plan
could
silence political expression in Muslim communities before the
presidential
election.
Deedra Abboud, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic
Relations (CAIR) in Arizona.
Yaser Alamoodi, subject of a "voluntary interview" by the FBI recently.
He
is a 27 year-old immigrant from Yemen who grew up in Saudi Arabia and
came
to the U.S. for university seven years ago.
SEE ALSO:
MUSLIM VOTE'S IMPACT WEIGHED
Renee K. Gadoua, Post-Standard, 10/12/04
http://www.syracuse.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1097572829279370.xml
Although most polls suggest more American Muslims support John Kerry
than
President Bush, the Democratic challenger should not count on the
Muslim
vote, according to one public policy expert.
"It's still his to lose," said Salam Al-Marayati, executive director of
the
Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles. "He has not galvanized
the
Muslim community. There is the concern it could go to (Ralph) Nader."
A coalition of national Muslim organizations - including MPAC and the
Council on American Islamic Relations - expects to announce its
presidential endorsement Sunday, Al-Marayati said. Up to 3 million
registered American Muslim voters could affect the presidential
election,
especially in swing states including Michigan, Ohio and Florida, he
said.
About 60 people, including many students and a few Muslim community
members, attended "American Muslims, the Election and the News Media,"
a
talk sponsored by SU's Religion & Society Program Monday at Syracuse
University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. It was the
last
of three programs addressing the impact of religious groups on the
elections.
In 2000, MPAC and other prominent Muslim organizations supported Bush
in
their first presidential endorsement. Support for Bush has dropped
significantly as a result of his war on terrorism and U.S. military
action
in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"Our endorsement of Bush is considered one of our biggest blunders,"
Al-Marayati said.
Neither major party candidate has successfully courted the Muslim vote
this
time, he said, but because Nader is unlikely to win, endorsing him
would
not help Muslims gain a role in the political debate.
Although American Muslims reflect great diversity, most agree on four
key
public policy issues, Al-Marayati said. They are: concerns about the
Patriot Act, government restrictions on Islamic charities, access to
government and civil rights.
"The Muslim American community is a bridge for better foreign relations
in
the world," he said.
Freezing the assets of Muslim charities under the guise of national
security reinforces the idea that American Muslims support terrorism,
he
said. Targeting Muslim charities also hinders religious freedom and
withholds assistance to those who need help, he said.
"If you don't help, you're allowing the extremists to recruit more
people,"
he said. "You are excluding Americans from serving in those vital
areas."
He said the case of Dr. Rafil Dhafir, the Manlius oncologist accused of
misleading contributors to his DeWitt-based charity Help the Needy,
fits a
pattern of recent federal cases...
ALSO SEE:
IL: TOWN HALL MEETING ON MUSLIM BLOC VOTE
WHAT: American Muslim Alliance Mid-west invites you to attend Town Hall
Meeting
Subject: Presidential Election 2004 and Muslim Block Vote with guest
speaker, Professor Dr. Agha Saeed, Chairman American Muslim Task Force.
WHEN: Friday, October 15, 2004, from 6 PM Sharp - 8:15 PM
WHERE: (ICC) Islamic Center of Chicago, 5933 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago,
IL,
60659
Dinner would be served.
For more information or to RSVP, Amir Chaudhry: 773-419-9050
---
THE MUSLIM VOTE
http://www.pluralism.org/news/index.php?xref=The+Muslim+Vote&sort=DESC
-----
COMBATING STEREOTYPES
Waveney Ann Moore, St. Petersburg Times, 10/13/04
http://www.sptimes.com/2004/10/13/Neighborhoodtimes/Combating_stereotypes.sh
tml
ST. PETERSBURG - As Muslims in America prepare to observe their faith's
holiest month - Ramadan - many will have more than fasting on their
minds.
A new poll finds that one in four Americans holds negative stereotypes
of
Muslims. Many agree with statements that Muslims teach their children
to
hate and that they value life less than others outside the faith.
Local Muslim leaders are disappointed with the findings.
"I knew that there was obviously a negative perception and anti-Muslim
sentiments in the country, but I was very surprised by the results,"
said
Ahmed Bedier, communications director for the Council on
American-Islamic
Relations in Tampa.
"However, there was some hope in it. In the poll, it showed that those
who
actually interacted with Muslims or knew them, over 50 percent had
positive
feelings."
As believers prepare to observe this year's Ramadan, which begins late
this
week, they are being urged to combat negative stereotypes.
During Ramadan, a time of penitence, fasting, forgiveness and renewal,
Muslims abstain from eating and drinking during daylight hours. The
ninth
month of the Islamic calendar, Ramadan also is a time for extra prayers
and
charity. Followers believe that it was during this holy month, which
begins
with the sighting of the new crescent - Friday or Saturday - that the
prophet Mohammed received his first revelation from God. His
revelations
make up the Koran, the holy book of Islam...
SEE ALSO:
GUIDELINES FOR COUNTERING RACIAL, ETHNIC AND RELIGIOUS PROFILING
Society of Professional Journalists
http://www.spj.org/diversity_profiling.asp
On Oct. 6 at its National Convention in Seattle, the Society of
Professional Journalists passed a resolution urging members and fellow
journalists to take steps against racial profiling in their coverage of
the
war on terrorism and to redouble their commitment to:
Use language that is informative and not inflammatory; Portray Muslims,
Arabs and Middle Eastern and South Asian Americans in the richness of
their
diverse experiences;
Seek truth through a variety of voices and perspectives that help
audiences
understand the complexities of the events in Pennsylvania, New York
City
and Washington, D.C.
Visual images
* Seek out people from a variety of ethnic and religious backgrounds
when
photographing Americans mourning those lost in New York, Washington and
Pennsylvania.
* Seek out people from a variety of ethnic and religious backgrounds
when
photographing rescue and other public service workers and military
personnel.
* Do not represent Arab Americans and Muslims as monolithic groups.
Avoid
conveying the impression that all Arab Americans and Muslims wear
traditional clothing.
* Use photos and features to demystify veils, turbans and other
cultural
articles and customs.
Stories
* Seek out and include Arabs and Arab Americans, Muslims, South Asians
and
men and women of Middle Eastern descent in all stories about the war,
not
just those about Arab and Muslim communities or racial profiling.
* Cover the victims of harassment, murder and other hate crimes as
thoroughly as you cover the victims of overt terrorist attacks.
* Make an extra effort to include olive-complexioned and darker men and
women, Sikhs, Muslims and devout religious people of all types in arts,
business, society columns and all other news and feature coverage, not
just
stories about the crisis.
* Seek out experts on military strategies, public safety, diplomacy,
economics and other pertinent topics who run the spectrum of race,
class,
gender and geography.
* When writing about terrorism, remember to include white supremacist,
radical anti-abortionists and other groups with a history of such
activity.
* Do not imply that kneeling on the floor praying, listening to Arabic
music or reciting from the Quran are peculiar activities.
* When describing Islam, keep in mind there are large populations of
Muslims around the world, including in Africa, Asia, Canada, Europe,
India
and the United States. Distinguish between various Muslim states; do
not
lump them together as in constructions such as "the fury of the Muslim
world..."
-----
RAMADAN CELEBRATION PLANNED AT NDSU
Forum, 10/13/04
http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm?id=72454§ion=News
North Dakota State University's Muslim Student Association will host a
Ramadan celebration Saturday in the ballroom of Memorial Union.
It starts at sunset, shortly after 6:30 p.m.
Ramadan is the month on Islam's lunar calendar when Muslims abstain
from
food, drink and other sensual pleasures from dawn to sunset. Ramadan is
scheduled to begin Friday, although its start depends on the first
sighting
of the crescent moon.
The celebration features an iftar -- a fast-breaking meal -- as well as
prayer and a speech.
Tickets for the dinner are $3. All are welcome to attend.
ALSO SEE:
MUSLIMS READY FOR RAMADAN
Andy Hyland, Kansan, 10/13/04
http://www.kansan.com/getstory.aspx?id=2052550c-a209-4cd8-a3da-efbdb315dae0
Starting Friday, Asma Rehman will be refocusing a large part of her
life on
God and her religious values.
Friday marks the beginning of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month. Rehman, a
Kansas City, Mo., senior, said it was an important time for
practitioners
of the faith.
Lasting for the entire month, Muslims fast during the daylight hours
and in
the evening eat small meals and visit with friends and family.
"It is a time of worship and contemplation - a time to strengthen
family
and community ties," she said.
The Islamic Center of Lawrence, 1917 Naismith Drive, held an open house
yesterday to answer questions from the community about Ramadan and many
other facets of Islam.
The month-long fast is required of all Muslims said Moussa Elbayoumy,
the
director of the Islamic Center of Lawrence. He said that the fasting
experience was part of one of the five pillars of Islam. The fasting is
called for by God, he said, and helps Muslims understand the plight of
those less fortunate than them.
"They experience voluntarily what others cannot enjoy," he said.
He said after the month, Muslims are called upon to make a donation of
food
directly to a needy family. The donation can be food or its monetary
equivalent. He said that each person in the family was responsible for
donating.
Elbayoumy said the donation should be equal to what the Islamic family
normally eats in a day...
---
FASTING AND PLAYING
Amanda Cherrin, Sports Illustrated, 10/18/04
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/
SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS linebacker Saleem Rasheed is a devout Muslim- -he
prays
five times each day--and with the holy month of Ramadan starting on
Oct.
15, he is about to go four weeks without food or water during daylight
hours. "It's a cleansing process," says Rasheed, 23, who has fasted
during
Ramadan since he was 12 and living in Birmingham. "I never feel better
than
I do during Ramadan because I'm focused. It teaches me self-restraint
and
discipline."
The 6'2", 229-pound Rasheed, in his third year out of Alabama, deals
with
the fasting by waking at 4:45 a.m. to eat protein-rich meals (eggs,
sausage, pancakes) before dawn and having meat-and potatoes dinners
after
sundown. ("I have to be smart about my health, but at the same time I
live
within the etiquette," he says. "During Ramadan you are supposed to eat
as
if you weren't fasting.") To guard against dehydration--there are no
Gatorade breaks for him when the defense comes off--he "starts drinking
water as soon as the sun goes down, and I'll keep drinking throughout
the
night even if I'm not thirsty…"
-----
HEARING DELAYED FOR TEACHER WHO ALLEGEDLY YANKED MUSLIM'S SCARF
Associated Press, 10/13/04
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041013/APN/410130
726&cachetime=3&template=dateline
GRETNA, La. - A school board hearing for a teacher accused of using
religious slurs against a Muslim student and pulling off her head scarf
has
been delayed until a criminal charge against him is settled.
Wes Mix, who had faced a termination hearing Wednesday, instead will go
before the Jefferson Parish School Board on Nov. 11, said school board
attorney Michael Fanning. Mix is scheduled for trial later this month
on a
simple battery charge stemming from the same incident with the student.
On Jan. 30, Mix allegedly used religious slurs and yanked Maryam
Motar's
religiously mandated scarf off her head during his world history class
at
West Jefferson High School in Harvey.
Motar said Mix told her: "I hope God punishes you. No, I'm sorry. I
hope
Allah punishes you." After her head scarf was pulled off, Mix said: "I
didn't know you had hair under there."
At the time, Mix, who is also a professional musician, dismissed the
charges as "a bunch of craziness" and called the situation a
"nonissue."
Mix was issued a summons on a misdemeanor simple battery charge and
pleaded
not guilty in July. The charge carries up to six months in jail and
$500
fine.
SEE ALSO:
LECTURE ADDRESSES GENDER IN ISLAM
Eric Leventhal, Daily Pennsylvanian, 10/13/04
http://www.dailypennsylvanian.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/10/13/416ccdb9807
d5
The sixth lecture in a seven-part series to commemorate Islam Awareness
Week was held Monday night in Logan Hall.
The Muslim Students Association hosted the event called "Unveiling
Myths of
Gender Roles in Islam," which featured guest speakers Howard University
Chaplain Imam Johari Abdul-Malik and MSA National President Hadia
Mubarak.
"It was good for all those who are not Muslims," said Imran Jamil, a
recent
graduate of the School of Medicine.
Abdul-Malik blasted the media for its negative portrayal of Muslim
attitudes toward women.
"What we see on television is not the true story," Abdul-Malik said.
Mubarak and Abdul-Malik focused mainly on the theoretical and Quranic
basis
of Muslim attitudes toward women. They acknowledged that many Islamic
theocratic governments do treat women harshly, but insisted that such
governments were perverting traditional Islamic law...
-----
SPELLING OUT SHARON'S REAL PLAN
Henry Siegman, International Herald Tribune, 10/13/04
http://www.iht.com/bin/print.php?file=543237.html
NEW YORK Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is approaching
its
fifth decade. It is an occupation that has inflicted unspeakable
cruelty on
a civilian population of 3.5 million Palestinians, not to speak of the
suffering inflicted on Israeli victims of Palestinian terrorism.
With certain notable exceptions, the overwhelming majority of Israelis
have
anesthetized their reactions to these cruelties by buying into a
contrived
narrative that absolves them of all responsibility.
They have convinced themselves that "there is no Palestinian partner
for a
peace process." A perverse Palestinian leadership, the current argument
typically runs, is now sabotaging the latest opportunity created by
Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon's promise of a unilateral Israeli withdrawal from
Gaza by failing to prevent terror attacks on Israeli civilian targets,
proving once again that despite Israel's best efforts, there is no
Palestinian interlocutor for peace.
Against this background, Sharon's senior adviser and until recently his
chief of staff, Dov Weissglas, in an interview in Haaretz, describes in
gleeful detail why the proposed disengagement from Gaza - which he and
Sharon had persuaded President George W. Bush and both houses of
Congress
to endorse - was actually intended to prevent a peace process, to
consign
Bush's "road map" to oblivion and to preclude the emergence of a
Palestinian state of any kind.
Apparently Weissglas was concerned that there might be some Israelis
who
still believed that despite Sharon's intention of killing the peace
process, a disengagement from Gaza might nevertheless trigger further
disengagements in the West Bank - an argument advanced by Shimon Peres,
the
Labor Party chairman, and others on Israel's left who have been
salivating
at the prospect of being invited by Sharon to rejoin his government.
Weissglas assures us that given the conditions Sharon attached to a
theoretical resumption of a peace process, "Palestinians would have to
turn
into Finns" before this could happen...
SEE ALSO:
THE ROLE OF RADIO SAWA IN MIDEAST QUESTIONED
Glenn Kessler, Washington Post, 10/13/04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28031-2004Oct12.html
Radio Sawa, an Arab-language pop music and news station funded by the
U.S.
government and touted by the Bush administration as a success in
reaching
out to the Arab world, has failed to meet its mandate of promoting
democracy and pro-American attitudes, according to a draft report
prepared
by the State Department's inspector general.
The report credited Radio Sawa with attracting a large audience in key
Middle East countries but said the station, which has an annual budget
of
$22 million, has been so preoccupied with building an audience through
its
music that it has failed to adequately measure whether it is
influencing
minds.
The report also questioned the validity of some research given to
Congress
by the Broadcasting Board of Governors, Radio Sawa's parent, to
demonstrate
its success.
Two independent panels of Arab-language experts hired by the inspector
general's office gave the programming a mixed review, saying it did not
match al-Jazeera in terms of quality and that parents would prefer that
their teenagers not listen to Radio Sawa because its broadcasts
contained
such poor Arabic grammar. "Radio Sawa failed to present America to its
audience," one panel concluded.
The Broadcasting Board of Governors has vehemently protested the
report,
questioning its methodology and assumptions in a 49-page
pre-publication
rebuttal. The report, based on extensive interviews in Washington and
the
Middle East with U.S. officials and public diplomacy experts, was
scheduled
to be published in August, but publication has been repeatedly
delayed...
-----
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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
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In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
CAIR PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION SURVEY - October 14, 2004
As-salaamu alaykum: (peace be with you)
ACTION REQUESTED: The American Muslim Task Force on Civil Rights and
Elections (AMT), an umbrella organization made up of 10 national
Islamic
groups, will meet Sunday, October 17th to determine whether or not to
issue
a presidential endorsement. SEE: http://www.americanmuslimvoter.net
To help in that decision-making process, please take a minute to answer
the
7 questions in the survey below. (All responses are confidential. NOTE:
As
a tax-exempt organization, CAIR does not endorse candidates, but does
encourage voter registration and voting.)
PLEASE RESPOND BY NOON (E) ON FRIDAY, OCTOBER 15.
May Allah bless you for your time and effort.
-----
RETURN TO:
E-MAIL: survey@cair-net.org
FAX: 202-488-0833
MAIL: CAIR Survey, 453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E., Washington, D.C., 20003
-----
1. Are you Muslim?
___ Yes
___ No
2. Do you plan to vote in the November presidential election?
___ Yes
___ No
___ Not sure
3. If you were to vote today, which presidential candidate would you
most
likely vote for?
___ George Bush
___ John Kerry
___ Ralph Nader
___ Michael Badnarik
___ Not sure
___ Other - Specify: ________________
4. Which issue is most important to you in determining who to vote for
in
the presidential election? __________________________
5. How important were the presidential debates in your choice of a
candidate?
___ Very important
___ Somewhat important
___ Not important
___ No opinion
6. Which political party most closely reflects your views?
___ Republican Party
___ Democratic Party
___ Green Party
___ Reform Party
___ Libertarian
___ None of the above
___ Other - Specify: _______________
7. In which state do you live? ________
PLEASE FORWARD A BLANK COPY OF THIS SURVEY TO FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES.
-----
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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
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In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 10/14/04
* CAIR CONDEMNS KILLINGS OF CIVILIANS IN GAZA
* CAIR-OHIO: MUSLIMS TO FEED NEEDY DURING RAMADAN
- CAIR-FL: Ramadan is Sacred, Uplifting (Sun-Sent)
* CAIR-CA: 200 ATTEND MUSLIM VOTER FORUM
* CAIR-DC: MUSLIMS EAGER TO VOICE OPINIONS (NBC)
* CAIR-NY: STUDENTS DENIED TIME OFF FOR RAMADAN (NYT)
* SC: MUSLIMS DISCUSS PROTECTION WITH FBI (Herald)
- Images of Islam in America (Aramco World)
* PROPHET MOHAMMED MOVIE (AFP)
* MI: MUSLIMS HOLD RALLY FOR BUSH (Free Press)
- MI: Bush Losing Favor in Dearborn (Free Press)
* CONSTRICTING OUR FREEDOMS (Chicago Tribune)
-----
CAIR CONDEMNS KILLINGS OF CIVILIANS IN GAZA
Death toll rises to 100 in Israeli offensive
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 10/14/04) - The Council on American-Islamic
Relations
(CAIR) today condemned the daily killings of Palestinian civilians in
the
Gaza Strip by Israeli armed forces.
The Palestinian death toll recently hit 100 in Israel's latest attack
on
Gaza. An Israeli officer was suspended Wednesday for riddling the body
of a
Palestinian schoolgirl with bullets after she was killed by fellow
soldiers. The girl was shot some 20 times as she walked past an Israeli
military outpost to a Gaza school.
In its statement, the Washington-based Islamic civil rights and
advocacy
group said:
"As American officials stand mute, Israel is treating Gaza like a
fenced
hunting preserve in which human beings are the prey. Muslim
condemnations
of terrorism and extremism are undercut every time an American
taxpayer-funded plane drops an American-made bomb on Palestinian
civilians."
CAIR also called on American Jewish leaders and organizations to
condemn
Israel's brutal actions in the Occupied Territories, particularly the
killing of children.
The U.N. relief agency for Palestinians today called on Israel to end
its
offensive in the Gaza Strip and to permit the delivery of humanitarian
relief supplies.
CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, has 29 regional
offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada.
- END -
CONTACT: Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail:
cair@cair-net.org; Rabiah Ahmed, 202-488-8787 or 202-439-1441, E-Mail:
rahmed@cair-net.org
-----
OHIO MUSLIMS TO FEED NEEDY DURING RAMADAN
(CINCINNATI, OH, 10/14/04) - On Sunday, October 17, the Cincinnati
office
of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Cincinnati), the
Islamic
Center of Greater Cincinnati and Malik Islamic Center will mark the
Muslim
fast of Ramadan by providing hot meals to more than 500 residents of
that
city's Over-the-Rhine neighborhood.
WHAT: Ramadan "Feed the Hungry" Program
WHEN: Sunset, Sunday, October 17, 7 p.m.
WHERE: Malik Islamic Center, 1432 Elm Street, Cincinnati, OH
CONTACT: CAIR-Cincinnati, Karen Dabdoub, 513-281-8200, E-Mail:
karen@cair-ohio.com; Brent Meyer, 513-276-1600
Ramadan is the month on the Islamic lunar calendar during which Muslims
abstain from food, drink and other sensual pleasures from break of dawn
to
sunset. It is scheduled to begin on or about October 15, depending on
the
sighting of the new moon.
"Caring for the less fortunate in our community is an important and
rewarding experience, one emphasized in the Islamic faith," said
CAIR-Cincinnati Director Karen Dabdoub. Dabdoub quoted Islam's Prophet
Muhammad who said Ramadan "is the month of sharing with others." He
also
said: "A man has sinned if he neglects to feed those in need."
CAIR recently launched a nationwide initiative, called "Sharing
Ramadan,"
designed to enhance understanding of Islam and to help Americans of all
faiths meet their Muslims neighbors by taking part in a Ramadan iftar,
or
fast-breaking meal.
The "Sharing Ramadan" Resource Guide is available online at:
http://www.cair-net.org/downloads/ramadan.pdf and
http://www.cair-net.org/downloads/ramadan.doc
CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, is headquartered
in
Washington, D.C., and has 29 regional offices and chapters nationwide
and
in Canada.
- END -
CONTACT: Karen Dabdoub, 513-281-8200, E-Mail: karen@cair-ohio.com;
Brent
Meyer, 513-276-1600, E-Mail: meyer_brent@hotmail.com; Ibrahim Hooper,
202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail: ihooper@cair-net.org; Rabiah
Ahmed,
202-488-8787 or 202-439-1441, E-Mail: rahmed@cair-net.org
SEE ALSO:
CAIR-FL: SO THIS IS RAMADAN: SACRED, UPLIFTING
Parvez Ahmed, Sun-Sentinel, 10/14/04
http://www.sun-sentinel.com
"And what have you done, another year over, and a new one just begun."
John
Lennon spoke of Christmas, but he might have just as well sung about
Ramadan.
Another Ramadan is about to begin. Can another round of terror alerts
be
far behind?
Last year the terror alert was raised to coincide with the month of
Ramadan. This year a major cable-news outlet queried if we should
expect
any major act of terror this Ramadan.
Surely an act of terror can take place in this month, as it can in any
month. Despite the lack of any credible evidence linking acts of terror
to
Ramadan, the constant insinuation of linking the two is of grave
concern to
Muslims for whom the month is sacred, spiritual and uplifting.
Unfortunately, the only time most Americans hear about an Islamic
ritual is
in the context of negativity. Thus it is not surprising that one-fourth
of
respondents to a recent survey sponsored by the Council on
American-Islamic
Relations agreed with stereotypes such as "Muslims teach their children
to
hate" and "Muslims value life less than other people." When asked what
comes to mind when they hear "Muslim," 32 percent of respondents made
negative comments. Only 2 percent had a positive response. One
newspaper
editorial summarized the results as "harmful" to America.
It is not coincidental that American-Muslims are being urged to open up
their homes and places of worship to their neighbors as part of a
national
campaign called "Sharing Ramadan." The impetus behind this effort comes
deep from within Islam's own tradition of sharing and caring. The fact
that
those Americans who believe they are knowledgeable about Islam tend to
have
more positive attitudes toward Muslims certainly serves as a
motivational
point.
CONTACT: Parvez Ahmed of Jacksonville is a board member for the Council
on
American-Islamic Relations. CAIR is headquartered in Washington D.C.,
has
28 offices nationwide and is America's largest Muslim civil liberties
advocacy group. He can be reached at pahmed@cair-florida.org
------
200 ATTEND MUSLIM VOTER FORUM IN SACRAMENTO
Event designed to encourage Muslim political participation
(SACRAMENTO, CA, 10/14/04) - Some 200 members of the Sacramento Valley
Muslim community attended a recent Voter Education and Candidates'
Forum at
the SALAM Community Center in Sacramento. The Forum, organized by the
Council on American-Islamic Relations-Sacramento Valley (CAIR-SV), was
designed to educate the community about the importance of voting and to
give candidates the opportunity to address the Muslim community's
concerns.
"We hope this forum encourages increased voter participation by the
Muslim
community and results in more informed decisions at the polls in
November,"
said CAIR-SV Executive Director Basim Elkarra.
The forum featured candidates Dave Jones (D) and Gaspar Garcia (R), who
are
running for California State Assembly District 9. The second part of
the
program featured former Congressman and California Attorney General Dan
Lungren (R) and Gabe Castillo (D), who are running for the U.S. House
of
Representatives District 3.
The Nader-Camejo Presidential campaign coordinator Dr. Forrest Hill
also
addressed the audience.
The question and answer session, which followed the candidates'
presentations, showed that issues such as civil rights, foreign policy,
education, and health care are of primary concern to the Muslim
community.
CONTACT: Basim Elkarra, (916)289-3748, E-mail: sacval@cair.com
-----
MUSLIMS EAGER TO VOICE OPINIONS
Janet Shamlian, NBC, 10/14/04
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6247728/
DALLAS - The Bairutys are like many young families. They have a busy
household, with four children under the age of nine. But, while the
dinner
is all-American - turkey burgers and soup - the language around the
table
is Arabic.
Saad and Shayma Bairuty are Iraqi-American Muslims living in the Dallas
area. Saad left Iraq over two decades ago. His wife, Shayma, fled
Baghdad
nine years ago, having grown up during the Iran-Iraq war in the
1980's...
The right the Bairutys treasure most is the chance to vote.
They are among the 7 million Muslims living in the United States. Of
those,
as many as 1 million are likely to cast ballots in the 2004
Presidential
race, according to the Council on American Islamic Relations.
That's significantly higher than the number who voted in 2000.
Voter-registration drives in mosques and Muslim communities across the
country have delivered thousand of new voters to the process.
Nihad Awad heads the nation's largest Islamic advocacy group, The
Council
on American Islamic Relations. He said Muslims are becoming more
involved
in politics because they are deeply concerned about foreign policy and
their civil rights here at home.
"I have never seen such interest in the political process within the
Muslim
community as this year," Awad said. "Today, the Muslim community feels
its
future is at stake and they have to define their future by going to the
polls."
He pointed out that American Muslims are a diverse group from many
ethnic
backgrounds. Only about 25 percent are from the Arab world. About 30
percent are African-American and about 30 percent are from South Asia.
While from different ethnic groups, they share the common need to have
a
voice. "Freedom has to be protected at home before we can spread it to
other nations," Awad said…
-----
DENIED TIME OFF FOR RAMADAN, BROOKLYN STUDENTS START PETITION
Jen Brown, New York Times, 10/14/04
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/14/nyregion/14ramadan.html
Since moving to Brooklyn from Yemen two years ago, Mugeeb Sweileh has
had
days off from school for Christmas, the Jewish new year and assorted
national holidays. So Mr. Sweileh, a 17-year-old junior at Brooklyn
International High School, was surprised to learn that officials at his
school may not let him and 20 to 30 other Muslim students take time off
to
attend Friday mosque services for Ramadan, which begins this week.
"It is really important to us as Muslim students," said Mr. Sweileh,
who
said he planned to sign a petition to the Board of Education asking for
the
time off. "Why can't we get two hours off only on Fridays during
Ramadan?"
Ramadan, a month marked by fasting during daylight hours and prayer, is
the
holiest time of the year in Islam.
Muslim students at Brooklyn International say they were denied
permission
to attend the same services last year, even though Department of
Education
policy states that students can be excused "to attend a program of
religious instruction/education." A spokeswoman who answered the phone
at
the Department of Education referred all questions to the department's
Web
site.
School officials have not granted permission to attend services this
year,
either. Some of the students, claiming discrimination, are threatening
to
skip classes if they do not receive permission to leave.
"Going to the mosque on Friday is obligatory for every Muslim male
during
the year," said Wissam Nasr, executive director of the New York chapter
of
the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "Now that it's Ramadan, we
expect that the attendance would rise..."
-----
SC: AREA MUSLIMS DISCUSS PROTECTION DURING RAMADAN WITH FBI
Andrew Dys, The Herald, 10/14/04
http://www.heraldonline.com/local/story/3836576p-3438437c.html
The FBI met with Muslim leaders from the Islamville community near York
on
Wednesday, but not as part of an investigation.
Ramadan, Islam's holiest month, starts this weekend. FBI agents meet
regularly with Islamville residents to make sure they are not harassed,
said FBI agent Dick Watkins.
Islamville, a 40-acre tract where dozens of Muslims have lived for
decades,
attracts hundreds of visitors during Ramadan.
"We talked about security is all, in a free-flowing discussion," said
Ali
Abdul Rashid, a senior leader at Islamville.
The federal government is concerned about terrorism before the Nov. 2
elections, Watkins said, but FBI efforts at Islamville are about
community
outreach.
The FBI terrorism concerns, "have nothing to do with these people,"
Watkins
said.
During events at Islamville, the FBI sometimes receives calls from
neighbors and the community about increased traffic, Watkins said...
Some Muslims have complained about the interview process, but no one in
Islamville has been interviewed, Rashid said.
The 9-11 terrorist attacks raised government concerns about American
Muslims and generated more calls, said Abdul Mumin, an Islamville
leader
who met with Watkins and is considered mayor of the community. The FBI
has
a vital job to protect the community, and law enforcement visits with
Islamville leaders are accepted and encouraged, Mumin said.
"We have nothing to hide," Mumin said. "We are American citizens who
are
Muslims."
SEE ALSO:
IMAGES OF ISLAM IN AMERICA
Saudi Aramco World, 2004
http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200405/
-----
PROPHET MOHAMMED MOVIE
P Parameswaran, AFP, 10/14/04
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/10/14/1097607349021.html
The first animated movie of Prophet Mohammed will finally be screened
in
North America after being delayed by the September 11 tragedy, which
sparked off unprecedented anti-Muslim sentiment, its distributor said
today.
Mohammed: The Last Prophet, will premiere in theatres in 37 US and
Canadian
cities for one week beginning November 14 on Eid Al Fitr, a Muslim
holiday
marking the end of fasting in the holy month of Ramadan.
Oussama Jammal, president of the film's distributing company Fine Media
Group, said it was ironic that Americans would be able to watch the
US-produced movie after much of the world had already seen it.
It was completed just before the September 11, 2001 attacks on the
United
States by the al-Qaeda terror network of Osama bin Laden.
"The film was scheduled to be released in the United States around 2002
but
(was put off) because it was just after September 11 and people were
not in
the mood to go to the movies," Jammal told AFP...
The Council on American Islamic Relations, America's largest Islamic
civil
liberties group, said the movie was an excellent opportunity for
parents
and children of all faiths "to learn more about an historic figure like
Prophet Mohammed and events that shaped today's world".
"It ... is a creative and non-political way for the people to know
about
the history of Islam and the prophet's message," council spokeswoman
Rabiah
Ahmed told AFP.
FOR INFORMATION ABOUT THE MOVIE, GO TO:
http://www.finemediagroup.com
-----
ARABS, MUSLIMS HOLD A RALLY FOR BUSH
Niraj Warikoo, Detroit Free Press, 10/14/04
http://www.freep.com/news/politics/rally14e_20041014.htm
The heated contest for Michigan's Arab and Muslim vote came to
Southfield
on Wednesday evening, as more than 100 supporters of President George
W.
Bush gathered to rally for his re-election.
The crowd, a diverse mix of Arab Americans, Chaldeans, and Muslims of
African and Asian descent, clapped loudly as Republican speakers
explained
why voters of Middle Eastern backgrounds should support Bush.
"This president has done more for our community than any other
administration," said Farmington Hills City Councilman John Akouri, a
Republican of Lebanese descent who supports Bush. "More Arab Americans
have
the ear of him than any other in history."
Last week, the Arab American Political Action Committee overwhelmingly
endorsed the Democratic nominee, U.S. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.
Several members said that Republicans have ignored the community since
Bush
took office. And recent polls show that Bush is behind Kerry among
Arab-American voters.
So at Wednesday's event, the speakers pushed hard to convince Arab
Americans that Bush wants their vote...
ALSO SEE:
BUSH LOSING FAVOR IN DEARBORN
Niraj Warikoo, Detroit Free Press, 10/14/04
http://www.freep.com/news/politics/fppoll30e_20040930.htm
Osama Siblani remembers it well.
Four years ago, the publisher of the Dearborn-based Arab-American News
was
one of 30 community leaders who met with then Texas Gov. George W. Bush
in
a Dearborn hotel.
I need your support, Bush told the gathering of Arab Americans. And I
won't
forget you.
Days later that pledge was reinforced during the second presidential
debate
when Bush surprisingly mentioned Arab Americans and their concerns
about
airport profiling.
Siblani, along with other Arab and Muslim leaders, was elated and
strongly
endorsed his candidacy.
But that has changed.
Upset over President Bush's foreign and civil rights policies, Siblani
and
many other Arab Americans in Dearborn are supporting the Democratic
nominee
this time.
Last week, the Dearborn-based Arab-American Political Action Committee
voted overwhelmingly to endorse Sen. John Kerry.
So even though a majority of Dearborn voters supported Bush in 2000,
the
city could go to Kerry next month...
-----
CONSTRICTING OUR FREEDOMS
Don Wycliff, Chicago Tribune, 10/15/04
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/printedition/chi-0410140135oct14,1,619829
7.column
In August it was Tariq Ramadan, the Islamic scholar from Switzerland
who
had his visa yanked virtually on the eve of his departure for the
United
States and a teaching position at the University of Notre Dame.
In September it was Yusuf Islam, the singer formerly known as Cat
Stevens,
whose London-to-Washington flight was diverted to Bangor, Maine, where
he
was hauled off the plane after U.S. authorities realized his name was
on a
"no-fly" list.
In both of these recent high-profile cases, the exclusion resulted from
decisions taken in the new Department of Homeland Security, decisions
the
department has declined to explain to the press or the public. Its
attitude
resembles that of the bandits who tried to pass themselves off as
lawmen in
the Humphrey Bogart film "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre."
Asked to show their badges, they replied, "Badges? We ain't got no
badges.
We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges!"
Homeland Security's response seems to be, "Explanations? We don't need
no
stinkin' explanations!"
But in view of the reversals the government has been suffering in
recent
months, explanations would seem the least we should demand. All the
more so
since virtually all of these cases involve adherents of the same
religion.
Here are just a few of the growing list of problematic cases:
- It took until June for the U.S. Supreme Court to finally strike down
the
government's breathtaking claim that it could hold enemy
combatants--whether they be the roughly 600 foreigners captured in
Afghanistan and held more than two years at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, or
American citizens such as Yasser Esam Hamdi--indefinitely,
incommunicado,
without legal counsel and without an opportunity to contest their
captivity.
When the court finally did rule, it was emphatic. Justice Sandra Day
O'Connor said: "We have long since made clear that a state of war is
not a
blank check for the president when it comes to the rights of the
nation's
citizens."
- Last month the Justice Department was forced to admit that a Detroit
case
that U.S. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft trumpeted as the smashing of a
terrorist
cell had been riddled with errors and irregularities. On the
department's
motion, the judge in the case set aside the terrorism-related
convictions
of three men.
- Brandon Mayfield, a Portland, Ore., lawyer and a convert to Islam,
was
arrested earlier this year and held for two weeks as a material witness
in
the March 11 train bombings in the Spanish capital of Madrid. Mayfield
was
released after an embarrassed FBI admitted it had mistakenly matched a
fingerprint found near the scene of the Madrid attacks with one of his.
He
is suing the government.
- Capt. James Yee, the Muslim Army chaplain who was charged with the
grave
crime of espionage at the Guantanamo detention facility and detained
for 76
days, ended up being reprimanded for adultery and downloading
pornography.
Obviously, the Department of Homeland Security doesn't deserve the rap
for
all of these cases. They also involved the Justice Department, the
Defense
Department and maybe others as well...
-----
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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
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In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CALIF. MUSLIMS LAUNCH RAMADAN RADIO ADS
Spots explain meaning of Ramadan, air until Nov. 15
(ANAHEIM, CA - 10/14/2004)- The Southern California office of the
Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA), in cooperation with local Islamic
centers, today announced the launch of a radio ad campaign designed to
educate the public about the Muslim fast of Ramadan.
The six 60-second spots will air on 980 AM KFWB beginning Friday,
October
15, and will run for one month. They are scheduled for broadcast
tomorrow
starting between 7:45 a.m. and 8:15 a.m., 12 p.m. to 2 p.m., and 5 p.m.
to
5:30 p.m., and will continue through the month of Ramadan between 5
p.m.
and 6 p.m.
Recent CAIR research has shown that as many as 1-in-4 Americans holds
anti-Muslim views. That same research indicates that anti-Muslim
prejudice
decreases when people have access to accurate information about Islam
and
relate to ordinary Muslims. SEE:
http://www.cair-net.org/downloads/pollresults.pdf
The Ramadan radio ads are one part of CAIR's effort to educate
Americans
about Islam and Muslims. Other campaigns include placing ads in
newspapers,
sending books and videotapes to libraries across the country and
placing
educational messages on billboards.
The first CAIR Ramadan radio ad begins with the Muslim call to prayer
(Adhan) and continues:
"This is the Muslim call to prayer. This call also marks the time for
breaking the fast for millions of American Muslims who are currently
observing the holy month of Ramadan.
"Ramadan is a month of fasting from dawn to sunset. It is a time for
spiritual purification, worship, inner reflection, and increased
charity
and empathy for those less fortunate. It is a time to re-connect with
our
Creator and make peace with all people. We invite our fellow Americans
of
all faiths to join in spreading this spirit of peace and brotherhood in
our
communities.
"The Muslim community wishes everyone a very blessed and peaceful
Ramadan.
"To learn more about Islam and the Muslim community, please contact
CAIR at
888-678-3931 or visit www.cair.com or visit a local mosque."
CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, has 29 regional
offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada.
- END -
CONTACT: CAIR-LA: Sabiha Khan, 714-776-1847 or 714-390-0334, E-Mail:
socal@cair.com; CAIR-DC, Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726,
E-Mail: cair@cair-net.org; Rabiah Ahmed, 202-488-8787 or 202-439-1441,
E-Mail: rahmed@cair-net.org
NOTE: CAIR offers an e-mail list designed to be a window to the
American
Muslim community. Subscribers to the list, called CAIR-NET, receive
news
releases and other materials dealing with American Muslim positions on
issues of importance to our society.
To SUBSCRIBE to CAIR-NET, go to: http://cair.biglist.com/cair-net/
-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
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In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
CAIR ACTION ALERT #437
RAMADAN MUBARAK!
HELP CAIR RAISE $1 MILLION DURING RAMADAN
Funds will be used to enhance understanding of Islam and Muslims
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 10/15/04) - Alhamdulillah (praise be to God), CAIR
today
announced a fundraising campaign intended (inshallah) to raise $1
million
during Ramadan, the month of giving. The “$1 Million for Islam in
Ramadan”
campaign is a nationwide effort to help CAIR continue its important
work on
behalf of American Muslims.
As Muslims worldwide begin their fast, we would like to remind
ourselves
and our community that giving charity during this month holds a special
significance in Islamic teachings. Whether your donation is $20,
$20,000,
or $200,000, every dollar that you donate today will be used to help
empower and protect the American Muslim community.
We succeeded in raising $1 million last Ramadan because most people
donated
whatever they could. Now the need is even more critical. Remember,
scholars
say your donations to CAIR count as one of the ways to pay Zakat.
TO DONATE, GO TO: http://www.cair-net.org/ramadan2004/
A recent CAIR survey indicated that as many as 1-in-4 Americans holds
anti-Muslim views. This has to change! And with the help of Allah and
your
generous donation, it will. (CAIR’s survey also demonstrated that bias
decreases when people have access to accurate information.)
Through our civil rights successes and continued community support,
CAIR
has also become the primary source for national and international media
outlets seeking an Islamic perspective on issues of importance to
Americans
of all faiths. Although we have had great success in the past, we now
live
in a time that has become a defining moment for our future in America.
PAST DONATIONS helped CAIR achieve:
* More than 8,000 U.S. public libraries sponsored in CAIR’s Library
Project
at the cost of $150 each
* CAIR’s “Not in the name of Islam” petition drive signed by more than
800,000 individuals and groups
* Thousands of American Muslims received free CAIR civil rights
services
* The “Hate Hurts America” campaign designed to counter anti-Muslim
hate on
talk radio
* CAIR television public service announcements (PSA) seen by millions
nationwide
* Thousands of journalists given daily information on Islam and Muslims
through CAIR’s e-mail media list, ISLAM-INFONET
FUTURE PROJECTS that your donation may help support:
* Production of short videos/DVDs about Islam
* TV and radio advertisements on Islam in mainstream media
* Newspaper advertisements on issues of concern to Muslims
* Distribution of accurate and objective books about Islam and Muslims
* Production and distribution of guides on Muslim religious practices
* Open houses, iftars, media and congressional briefings, seminars,
workshops, and other outreach events
* Increasing the number of CAIR staff attorneys who defend Muslim civil
rights
* Increasing the number of interns CAIR is able to train
* Staff dedicated to voter registration in all 29 CAIR offices
Your support is needed now more then ever as we continue to enhance
understanding of Islam and protect the constitutional rights that are
guaranteed to all Americans.
IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUESTED:
1) Join thousands of others and be part of this campaign! Help us
achieve
our goal of $1 million by the end of Ramadan.
TO DONATE, GO TO: http://www.cair-net.org/ramadan2004/
You may also call 202-488-8787 or e-mail: membership@cair-net.org
2) Invite all of your friends, family and colleagues to contribute
through
our website during Ramadan.
3) Invite CAIR representatives to raise funds in your area.
- PLEASE ANNOUNCE, POST AND DISTRIBUTE –
-----
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-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
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In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 10/15/04
* VERSE OF THE DAY: GOD IS NEAR
* CAIR-LA: RAMADAN ADDS A POLITICAL DIMENSION (LA Times)
* NJ: MUSLIM CANDIDATE AIMS TO BLAZE TRAIL (Jersey Journal)
- Study: Delay Keeps Immigrants From Polls (AP)
* PRESIDENTIAL MESSAGE FOR RAMADAN
* CAIR-NY: MUSLIM STUDENTS GIVEN TIME OFF IN RAMADAN
- Ramadan Recognized by Schools (Wash Times)
- CAIR-DC: For Muslims, a Beleaguered Feeling (Wash Post)
- CAIR-SV: Muslims Reaching Out to Share Ramadan (Sac Bee)
- CAIR-DC: In Search of More Open Minds (Gazette Times)
- CAIR-SC: Muslims Begin Ramadan Observance (The State)
- CAIR-DC: Muslims Seek Peaceful Fast (DM Reg)
- CAIR-Chicago: Muslim Children Eager to Fast (Chicago Trib)
* CAIR-CA: MUSLIMS RUNNING ADS THROUGH RAMADAN (CNSNews)
- Listen to CAIR-LA’s Ramadan Ads
- Putting Their Faith in Film (Orlando Sentinel)
- Invisible Hero Muhammad is Talk of Movie (Balt. Sun)
* CAIR-NCA: FBI SCRUTINY DOESN'T DETER LOCAL MUSLIMS (SF Chron)
- CAIR-CT: Islamic Leaders Suspicious of FBI Visits
* CAIR-CAN: THE SHARIAH DEBATE (Vancouver Sun)
-----
VERSE OF THE DAY: GOD IS NEAR
"When my servants question you about Me, tell them that I am near. I
answer
the prayer of every suppliant when he calls on Me. Therefore, they
should
respond to Me and put their trust in Me, so that they may be rightly
guided."
The Holy Quran, 2:186
-----
RAMADAN ADDS A POLITICAL DIMENSION
William Lobdell, Los Angeles Times, 10/15/04
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-muslim15oct15,1,4730120.story
Muslims in California and across the nation will add something new to
the
fasting, praying and acts of charity that are traditional during
Ramadan,
Islam's monthlong time of spiritual renewal that begins today: a
get-out-the-vote campaign.
In a rare confluence, the U.S. presidential election falls within the
holy
month of Ramadan. That timing, coupled with anger among some American
Muslims over the Patriot Act and other anti-terrorist measures by the
government, has Islamic leaders organizing voter registration drives,
giving politically inspired talks and constructing voter databases, all
geared to get Muslims to the polls.
"People are feeling extremely resentful and betrayed," said Omar Zaki,
governmental relations director for the Southern California chapter of
the
Council for American-Islamic Relations. "My job was to harness that
energy
and turn it into something productive."
Ramadan marks the revelation of the Koran to the prophet Muhammad.
During
this time, Muslims fast from dawn to sunset, say additional daily
prayers
and give to charity. Fasting ends with Eid al-Fitr, or Feast of the
Fast-Breaking.
The organizing effort during Ramadan marks another step in the
political
maturation of the American Muslim community.
During the 2000 presidential race, Muslims were still debating whether
it
was religiously appropriate for them to participate in American
politics
because the U.S. was not governed by Islamic law.
Muslim scholars dispelled that notion, equating the faith's call for
social
justice as an obligation to vote...
-----
JERSEY CITY CANDIDATE MANSOUR AIMING TO BLAZE TRAIL FOR MUSLIMS
NOT EXPECTING TO WIN, BUT MAKE A STATEMENT FOR THE 'AVERAGE CITIZEN'
Bonnie Friedman, Journal, 10/15/04
http://www.nj.com/news/jjournal/index.ssf?/base/news-3/1097765222305890.xml
In his bid to become mayor of Jersey City, Hosam Mansour has a rather
unusual approach: he will not be asking for anyone's vote.
"If I thought I could actually win this election, I wouldn't be
running,"
said Mansour, 24. "The responsibility is too great. Anyone who says,
'vote
for me,' to me, that is a strong indication not to."
Mansour entered the mayoral race on a fluke. Having grown disaffected
with
the political system, he and a group of friends hatched a plan to run
an
"average citizen" on the November ballot, a post Mansour was then
selected
to fill.
It was not an honor he was angling for.
"We are not doing this because it is something fun to do," Mansour
said.
"It is our duty to do this or else the government will be taken over by
people who don't have our best interests at heart."
For Mansour, politics was never in the master plan.
An avid reader and a self-described hermit, Mansour's political
philosophies are deeply rooted in theology. For role models, he looks
to
figures from the three big religions...
"Moses is the symbol of justice, Jesus is the spirit and purity of
intention, and Muhammad is the melding of the two," Mansour said. "His
(Muhammad's) leadership inspired people to develop a strong community,
which is the hallmark of a true leader."
SEE ALSO:
STUDY: DELAYS KEEP IMMIGRANTS FROM POLLS
Associated Press, 10/15/04
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-ny--immigrantvoters1015oct15,0,
2889636.story
NEW YORK- Federal processing delays have disqualified about 60,000 New
York
State immigrants from being naturalized in time to vote in next month's
presidential election, according to a new study.
Backlogs in the Citizenship and Immigration Services office caused
about
half the state's 126,000 immigrants with citizenship applications
pending
to miss last week's voter registration deadline, the study by the New
York
Immigration Coalition found.
The study, released Thursday, said delays also prevented immigrants
from
achieving citizenship in battleground states such as Florida, where
25,000
applicants were found to have missed the registration deadline.
"This has a potential impact on the election," Margaret McHugh,
director of
the coalition, told The New York Times for Thursday editions. "They
feel
their voices have been silenced and their votes have been robbed..."
-----
PRESIDENTIAL MESSAGE FOR RAMADAN
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/10/20041015-2.html
I send warm greetings to Muslims in the United States and around the
world
as they begin observance of Ramadan, the holiest season in their faith.
Ramadan commemorates the revelation of the Qur'an to Muhammed. By
teaching
the importance of compassion, justice, mercy, and peace, the Qur'an has
guided many millions of believers across the centuries. Today, this
holy
time is still set aside for Muslims to remember their dependence on God
through fasting and prayer, and to show charity to those in need.
American history has taught us to welcome the contributions of men and
women of all faiths, for we share the fundamental values of religious
freedom, love of family, and gratitude to God. Americans who practice
the
Islamic faith enrich our society and help our Nation build a better
future.
Laura joins me in sending our best wishes.
GEORGE W. BUSH
---
CAIR-NY APPLAUDS DECISION TO GIVE STUDENTS TIME OFF IN RAMADAN
(NEW YORK, NY 10/15/04) - The New York office of the Council on
American
Islamic Relations (CAIR-NY) today applauded the decision by the New
York
City Department of Education to allow students at Brooklyn
International
High School to attend religiously-mandated services every Friday during
the
holy month of Ramadan.
The decision by the Board of Education comes amidst the circulation of
a
petition by the students of the high school to attend Friday prayer
services during the holy month of Ramadan. The students have also
claimed
they were denied to attend religious services last year. According to
Sara
Newman, the school’s first principal, a third of the students are
Muslim.
SEE: “TIME OFF IS GIVEN FOR RAMADAN FOR STUDENTS AT BROOKLYN SCHOOL”
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/15/education/15ramadan.html
“We commend the students of Brooklyn International High School for
working
to protect their right to reasonable religious accommodation,” CAIR-NY
Executive Director Wissam Nasr. “The Department of Education also
deserves
credit for being sensitive to the needs of Muslim students.”
CONTACT: CAIR-NY, Wissam Nasr (917) 751-1017
---
RAMADAN RECOGNIZED
Jon Ward, Washington Times, 10/14/04
http://washingtontimes.com/metro/20041014-104500-6059r.htm
Area Muslim students will be able to take two excused absences during
Ramadan to observe the monthlong Islamic holiday of fasting and
feasting
that begins today, though local school systems do not consider the days
official holidays.
Muslim students can miss two days during Ramadan: Lailat al-Qadr, the
"Night of Power," which happens during the final 10 days of the month,
and
Eid al-Fitr, the day that breaks the fast, which also is a day of
celebration for Muslim families and communities.
School closings for religious holidays vary among area districts.
Montgomery County and Prince George's County public schools and offices
are
closed for the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashana.
Prince George's is the only local county to list Ramadan on its
official
school calendar. Good Friday and Easter also are listed, but "winter
break"
is named in place of Christmas.
The other area systems do not specifically address Ramadan, but most
will
grant students excused absences for recognized religious holidays, even
if
they aren't on the official school calendar...
---
FOR MUSLIMS, A BELEAGUERED FEELING
Caryle Murphy, Washington Post, 10/15/04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33857-2004Oct14.html
One recent Saturday night, about 50 Muslim scholars filed into a
classroom
at George Mason University's Arlington campus to hear the keynote
address
of their three-day conference on Islam and modernity. They had to watch
it
on a DVD.
The speaker, Geneva-based Muslim intellectual Tariq Ramadan, could not
attend in person because his U.S. visa had been revoked. Yet to those
in
the audience, his moderate words sounded like the kind of message U.S.
officials would applaud. He urged a serious dialogue on the "universal
values" shared by Islam and the West and added, "We should not blame
the
West for our problems..."
Starting today, Muslims begin observing Islam's holy month of Ramadan,
a
period of daytime fasting and prayer aimed at acquiring spiritual
discipline and deeper faith. But as the George Mason incident
underscores,
many American Muslims feel more beleaguered and discouraged than at any
time since the September 2001 terrorist attacks.
In the weeks after 9/11, American Muslims encountered an angry backlash
that included violence. But many of them considered this to be an
understandable and temporary emotional reaction, and the outbursts were
tempered by many acts of kindness toward Muslims by non-Muslim
neighbors
and co-workers.
Three years later, many Muslims say the atmosphere seems much bleaker.
Anti-Muslim sentiment appears to be hardening into a permanent feature
of
public discourse, and Muslim advocacy groups report an increase in hate
crimes and discrimination...
Leaders of those groups acknowledge that continuing acts of violence by
Islamic terrorists, especially beheadings in Iraq, have contributed to
Islam's deteriorating image in this country. But, they add, so has a
constant stream of invective against Islam by ill-informed talk radio
and
television pundits and some religious leaders.
A recent national poll found that almost one-third of Americans respond
with a negative image when they hear the word "Muslim." Ibrahim Hooper,
spokesman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic
Relations,
which commissioned the poll, said he has a folder of more than 800
e-mails
against Islam or Muslims that have been sent to his organization in the
last two years. The "viciousness" of such messages has gone way up
compared
with the period immediately after 9/11, Hooper said...
---
MUSLIMS REACHING OUT TO SHARE RAMADAN MEALS
Fahizah Alim, Sacramento Bee, 10/15/04
http://www.sacbee.com/content/lifestyle/story/11084600p-12001051c.html
For more than a thousand years, Muslims around the world have observed
Ramadan, a monthlong, daylight fast that culminates in evening dinners
called iftars.
The fasting season is viewed as a time for spiritual renewal and,
during
the iftars, families and communities coming together to strengthen
their
relationships.
This year, to create a better understanding of Islam - and Ramadan,
which
begins with the sighting of the new moon tonight or Saturday - the
Council
on American-Islamic Relations, a national civil rights organization,
has
launched a program called "Sharing Ramadan." The initiative encourages
American Muslims to invite non-Muslims to their iftars.
Organizers say this type of ecumenical outreach is more important now
than
ever, especially after a recent CAIR survey found that as many as one
in
four Americans hold anti-Muslim views, such as a belief that Islam
promotes
violence and hatred.
"Islam and American Muslims are misunderstood," says Basim Elkarra,
executive director of CAIR's Sacramento Valley chapter. "We have to do
our
best to convey to our fellow Americans what this religion is about.
"We are not preaching or trying to convert," he adds. "All we are
trying to
do is to clarify the misconception about our faith. Ramadan is a month
of
peace, sharing, religious reflection - and excellent food..."
---
IN SEARCH OF MORE OPEN MINDS
Carol Reeves, Gazette-Times, 10/15/04
http://www.gazettetimes.com/articles/2004/10/15/news/community/friloc01.txt
As Muslims around the world begin their Ramadan fast, many in America
are
hoping the annual event will convince their neighbors to be more
open-minded when it comes to Islam.
The monthlong fast, during which Muslims abstain from food, drink and
other
sensual pleasures from dawn to sunset, began today in most of the
world. In
Canada and the United States, Ramadan could start today or Saturday
depending on whether a new moon was seen Thursday night.
Either way, the annual observance could be greeted by suspicion or
misunderstanding, according to a new study of Americans' attitudes
toward
the world's fastest-growing religion.
A poll released early this month by the Washington-based Council on
American-Islamic Relations reveals one in four Americans believe a
number
of negative Muslim stereotypes, such as that Islam "teaches violence
and
hatred" and "Muslims want to change the American way of life."
It also showed most people don't know much about Islam and about 75
percent
of Americans say they don't know any Muslims personally.
In response, Islamic leaders across the country are calling on local
mosques to host open houses during Ramadan and welcome people of other
faiths inside.
Muslims fast during Ramadan to learn discipline, self-restraint and
generosity while obeying God's commandments. It is one of the "five
pillars" of Islam, along with a declaration of faith in Allah as the
one
true God, daily prayers, charity and the pilgrimage to Mecca.
When the fast ends Nov. 13, communitywide celebrations and communal
prayers
called Eid ul-Fitr provide a prime opportunity for mosques and
community
centers to "invite their neighbors to join in an iftar meal," said CAIR
executive director Nihad Awad...
---
LOCAL MUSLIMS BEGIN RAMADAN OBSERVANCE
Christina Lee Knauss, The State, 10/15/04
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/local/9923212.htm
Ramadan, the holiest month of the year for followers of Islam, begins
tonight.
A time of fasting, prayer and purification for Muslims (followers of
Islam), Ramadan begins with the first sighting of the crescent moon.
The dates for Ramadan are determined by a lunar cycle and vary from
year to
year. No matter when the month starts, it is a time of self-denial for
Muslims.
“Muslims fast during the daylight hours and spend most of their time
worshipping while also going through their normal daily life,” said
Mirza
Baig, a member of the Islamic Center of Columbia, on Gervais Street.
During the day, Muslims are not supposed to partake of food or drink or
engage in sexual relations with their spouses. During Ramadan in
general,
they also are supposed to focus more on Islamic values of purity and
charity...
Members of CAIR also are hoping to participate in other efforts to feed
the
hungry in Columbia during Ramadan, according to Sabrina Kidwai, CAIR
communications director.
---
MUSLIMS SEEK PEACEFUL FAST
Shirley Ragsdale, Des Moines Register, 10/15/04
http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041015/LIFE05/4101
50373/1039/LIFE
Ramadan, the holiest month of the Islamic calendar, is anxiously
welcomed
by Iowa Muslims this year.
With a new survey reporting that one in four Americans hold anti-Muslim
views, Iowa believers are eager to immerse themselves in the month's
strict
regimen of prayer, fasting and charity demanded by their faith.
"In these troubled times, Ramadan offers a source of relief," said
Rabiah
Ahmed, spokeswoman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations in
Washington, D.C. "It is time to devote ourselves to reflection and
spiritual renewal, a very blessed time."
Several mosques also are reaching out to Iowans by offering them the
chance
to learn more about Islam during Ramadan, which begins today. The month
begins at the first sighting of the new moon.
---
MUSLIM CHILDREN EAGER TO JOIN FAST OF RAMADAN
Manya A. Brachear, Chicago Tribune, 10/15/04
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/printedition/chi-0410150202oct15,1,488757
4.story
Mention the Muslim holy month of Ramadan to 8-year-old Afra Mirza and
her
sparkling brown eyes widen with anticipation.
That's because this year's Ramadan, expected to dawn after the sighting
of
the new moon Friday, will mark Afra's first fast, a rite of passage
into
the adult world of discipline and self-restraint.
"I want to get good deeds," she said. "Allah commanded me to do it, and
I
want to make him happy."
Although Afra and other Muslim children who have not yet reached
puberty
are exempt from the religious requirement to fast, more children are
voluntarily abstaining long before their adolescence.
Eager to grow up and express their faith in adult ways, they are
fasting
with fervor, as long as their parents allow it.
Afra, for example, hopes to fast for 20 of the 30 days. Her mother,
Abida,
says Afra will fast only on the weekends.
"No, not weekends!" Afra protested at the family's Grayslake home
earlier
this week. "If only on weekends, then why am I doing it?"
During Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, Muslims are
commanded to fast from dawn to dusk as a show of patience and piety.
The
fast not only prohibits eating and drinking during daylight hours, it
also
forbids vices such as smoking, profanity and bad temper.
"The whole purpose of fasting is to remind ourselves that all the
bounties
that God has given us can't be taken for granted," said Ahmed Rehab,
communications director for the Chicago chapter of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations...
-----
CALIFORNIA MUSLIMS RUNNING PUBLIC EDUCATION ADS THROUGH RAMADAN
Susan Jones, CNSNews.com, 10/15/04
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=%5CCulture%5Carchive%5C200410%5C
CUL20041015c.html
The Southern California office of the Council on American-Islamic
Relations
is running radio ads intended to education the public about the Muslim
fast
of Ramadan.
The six, 60-second spots will run for the next month, CAIR-LA said.
CAIR points to recent research showing that as many as 1 in 4 Americans
holds anti-Muslim views. But the research also show that the
anti-Muslim
bias decreases when people "get accurate information about Islam and
relate
to ordinary Muslims."
The first ad CAIR-LA is running begins with the Muslim call to prayer.
"Ramadan is a month of fasting from dawn to sunset," the ad says. "It
is a
time for spiritual purification, worship, inner reflection, and
increased
charity and empathy for those less fortunate. It is a time to
re-connect
with our Creator and make peace with all people. We invite our fellow
Americans of all faiths to join in spreading this spirit of peace and
brotherhood in our communities.
"The Muslim community wishes everyone a very blessed and peaceful
Ramadan."
During Ramadan, which begins with the sighting of the new moon on or
around
Oct. 15, Muslims abstain from food, drink and other sensual pleasures
from
sunup to sundown.
Muslims believe it was during Ramadan about 1,400 years ago that the
Quran,
Islam's holy book, was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad.
Fasting (along with the declaration of faith, daily prayers, charity,
and
pilgrimage to Mecca) is one of the "five pillars" of Islam. CAIR said
the
fasting teaches discipline, self-restraint, generosity, and obedience
to
God's commandments...
ALSO SEE:
LISTEN TO CAIR-LA’S RAMADAN ADS
http://www.cair-net.org/
-----
PUTTING THEIR FAITH IN FILM
Mark I. Pinsky, Orlando Sentinel, 10/15/04
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/lifestyle/orl-livramadan101504oct15,
0,1783482.story
Stung by widespread negative media stereotypes, many of America's
Muslims
will take to mainstream movie theaters to mark the end of their holy
month
of Ramadan, which begins today, with a groundbreaking, full-length
animated
feature called Muhammad: The Last Prophet.
The film's screening in November coincides with Eid al-Fitr, the feast
that
concludes Ramadan.
Distributors of the children's film are taking their cue from Christian
filmmakers, although no one connected with the 90-minute cartoon
expects
the limited run to duplicate the half-billion dollar success of Mel
Gibson's The Passion of the Christ.
"It's not about what the box office generates, but about how much
interest
and benefit the people can get out of it," says Oussama Jammal, whose
animation production company owns the North American distribution
rights to
Muhammad...
Central Florida Muslims also hope Muhammad will increase understanding
of
their faith among the larger American community. A poll released Oct. 4
by
the Washington, D.C.-based Council on American-Islamic Relations found
that
25 percent of Americans believe anti-Muslim stereotypes. In a separate
finding, the survey reported that negative images of Muslims in media
and
popular culture far outweigh positive ones...
---
INVISIBLE HERO MUHAMMAD IS TALK OF MOVIE
Frank Langfitt, Baltimore Sun, 10/15/04
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.mohammed15oct15,1,2545696.stor
y
Imagine that you're a movie director preparing to make a bio-pic. The
story
has box office potential, with an exotic desert locale, epic sword
battles
and a compelling hero known to billions.
But there's one hitch: The title character can't actually appear in the
movie. You can't even use his voice.
That's the conundrum the makers of Mohammed: The Last Prophet faced in
bringing the story of Islam's prophet to the big screen in an animated
film
that opens next month around the country. Because Islam forbids
physical
renderings of Muhammad (the preferred spelling) as disrespectful, the
prophet can't appear in paintings or sculpture, let alone a cinematic
cartoon.
"This was the biggest problem," said Muwaffak Al Harithy, chairman of
Badr
International, the Saudi-based entertainment company that produced the
film. "How do you make a 90-minute movie when you cannot see your main
character? How do you get your audience to develop an attachment to
him?"
For American Muslims and others, the answer will come Nov. 14, the
Muslim
holiday of Eid Al Fitr, when the film opens in more than 40 cities in
the
United States and Canada. Eid Al Fitr marks the end of Ramadan, the
Muslim
holy month of fasting.
Ramadan begins today, based on the sighting of the moon last night
marking
the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar. The holy month coincides
with the period nearly 1,400 years ago when the Quran was revealed to
Muhammad in what is now Saudi Arabia. Like the prophet, who fasted
twice a
week, Muslims will observe a fast for the next month, refraining from
eating, drinking and sex during daylight.
By movie standards, Mohammed will have a tiny release -- 100 screens
and a
one-week run. The distributor says the only thing more challenging than
making a film without a visible hero is marketing a Muslim movie in
post-9/11 America.
"We had a tough time with theaters," said Oussama Jammal, president and
CEO
of Fine Media Group, a Chicago-based film distributor.
Jammal said some owners turned him down before they had heard the
film's
title. Others said they had no space. Jammal blames economic and
political
concerns, as well as prejudice -- though he declined to elaborate when
pressed for evidence of discrimination.
TO PURCHASE TICKETS, GO TO: http://www.finemediagroup.com
-----
FBI SCRUTINY DOESN'T DETER LOCAL MUSLIMS
Cicero A. Estrella, San Francisco Chronicle, 10/15/04
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/10/15/BAGV099P6J1.DTL
For the next month, the focus for Bay Area Muslims will be on fasting,
prayer and cultural connectedness during Ramadan. Members of the
community
say the recent scrutiny placed on them by the FBI will not deter them
from
that focus.
"Ramadan is about being spiritual, making a closer connection to God,"
said
Lina Akka, a 23-year-old anthropology student at San Francisco State.
"You
do good deeds, read the Quran, go to the mosque to pray. I don't think
it
will be approached any differently because of the FBI."
"It's very personal," said Ameena Jandali of the Islamic Networks
Group.
"It's a once-a-year experience that we look forward to rejuvenate our
spiritual side. It's not taken lightly. People won't stop going to
mosque
just because the FBI is there."
Muslims around the world will observe Ramadan by abstaining from food
and
drink from dawn to dusk for the lunar month that begins today. The
purpose
of the fast is to learn discipline, self-restraint and generosity.
Traditional practices during the observance also include the breaking
of
the fast with water and dates, the reading of the entire Quran and
social
visits. Nightly mosque services are held about an hour after fast is
broken.
But a pall hangs over this year's observance. In recent weeks, Bay Area
Muslims have reported an increase in the number of interviews that FBI
agents have conducted with Muslims and Arabs. The new investigation --
the
latest in a series of campaigns that followed the terrorist attacks of
Sept. 11, 2001 -- is focusing on the possibility of an attack before
election day Nov. 2 or before the presidential inauguration Jan. 20.
"The main message we want to get out is that these interviews have been
going on since May," said a special agent with the FBI in San
Francisco,
who spoke on condition his name not be used. "We've been doing
interviews
and community outreach all along. It's just getting more attention
now."
The agent added that interviews would continue during Ramadan.
"Based on what we know, there is a threat of attack," he said. "The
window
of time is shrinking, since it is bracketed by the election time
frame."
Helal Omeira, executive director of the Bay Area branch of the Council
on
American Islamic Relations, said there was a misconception that the
Muslim
community was uncooperative. He said his organization had always
stressed
that Muslims and Arabs should report suspicious activities.
Omeira said he knew of at least five instances in the last two weeks in
which FBI agents had conducted voluntary interviews at South Bay
mosques
and that no one had refused to talk to the agents.
"What we would appreciate is a little courtesy -- like not showing up
at
our Friday services," Omeira said. "Every mosque has a phone. Why not
call
first?..."
ALSO SEE:
ISLAMIC LEADERS SUSPICIOUS OF FBI VISITS
Bethe Dufresene, The Day, 10/15/04
http://www.theday.com/eng/web/news/re.aspx?re=C6C371FB-7F5F-4EBD-867A-358E05
1168D3
Groton — The FBI paid a visit to local Muslims two weeks ago as part of
a
national effort to assess security risks for the presidential
elections,
but upon arriving at the mosque here found no one home.
Since then, directors of the mosque, known as the Islamic Center of New
London, have contacted a lawyer from the Connecticut Civil Liberties
Union
who has pledged to be present if and when the FBI calls on them again.
“What happened was we got a call from an FBI agent saying they needed
to
urgently talk to the board,” Imran Ahmed, president of the mosque, said
Thursday. He spoke on the eve of Ramadan, a monthlong observance
commemorating the beginning of divine revelations to the prophet
Muhammad,
founder of Islam.
The message left by the federal agent said it was all part of an
“outreach
program,” said Ahmed. But having heard reports from other Muslims about
being asked questions “outside the scope” of what's proper when no one
is
charged or suspected of anything, he said, board members weren't eager
to
meet without a lawyer present.
“Luckily we were left messages,” said Ahmed. “He couldn't contact us
directly, and then he missed us when he came to the facility two weeks
ago,
so he just left us his card.”
Ahmed said an FBI agent showed up about the same time at a satellite
mosque
in Norwich, unnerving members. “They (agents) have you face-to-face to
create a sense of urgency,” said Ahmed, “and people who aren't trained,
they don't know how to act.”
“A lot of them were Muslim immigrants,” he said, “and they got really
shocked. They said, ‘Did they do anything wrong?'”
The Washington, D.C.-based Council for American-Islamic Relations,
which
last month opened its first office in New England on State Street in
New
London, says the FBI is interviewing members of mosques around the
nation
in response to intelligence reports that al-Qaida plans an attack in
America around the elections.
“Just about every mosque we've spoken to has been contacted,” said
Ahmed,
small and large, from New London to Hartford.
Since Islamic terrorists attacked New York and Washington, D.C., on
Sept.
11, 2001, security agents also have been treating Ramadan as a time of
heightened risk.
The national Interfaith Alliance, a nonpartisan group that claims to
have
150,000 members, last week condemned the government program of
“volunteer
interviews” just prior to the election and during the holy month of
Ramadan.
“The nation would be outraged if this were to happen to Jews or
Christians
during Passover or Easter, for any reason,” said the Rev. Dr. C. Welton
Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance, charging that it “has a
chilling effect on our democracy.”
Ahmed said Islamic Center board members would willingly meet with the
FBI
but want to be sure their civil rights are protected.
“CAIR warned us,” said Ahmed, that the FBI “will ask questions from
many,
many angles. We contacted CAIR just in time,” he said, adding, “It's
fortunate they just established an office here.” CAIR put them in touch
with a CCLU lawyer, he said...
-----
THE SHARIAH DEBATE: THE LETTER OF ISLAMIC LAW DEPENDS ON ITS SPIRIT;
ITS
USE BY MUSLIMS IN CANADA DOES NOT MEAN THE BARBARIANS ARE AT THE GATES
Riad Saloojee, Vancouver Sun, 10/15/04
http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/news/editorial/story.html?id=2f
12e25c-d751-401f-8fb0-1fd3df454c70
The debate on an Islamic arbitration initiative has reached fever pitch
recently with some people concerned that many Canadian Muslims want to
use
Islamic law to resolve personal and family disputes.
Part of this concern is natural, given the undeniable and inequitable
application of the shariah in many countries. Part of the problem, as
well,
concerns a general ignorance of Islamic law -- its history, principles
and
nuances -- that permits intellectual chauvinism to pass for fair
comment.
The shariah is not, as some think, "immutable." The spirit of Islamic
law
-- its universals such as justice, equity and mercy -- is unchangeable.
The
letter of the law, however, varies depending on whether its application
would promote or violate the letter's spirit.
There is a rich body of principles that govern the application of law
to
ensure that law is equitable, gradual, moderate and sensitive to
individual
and communal context.
It is precisely for this reason that many Canadian Muslims support
Islamic-based arbitration.
Given current faith-based arbitration initiatives by the Jewish and
Christian communities, why would the Muslim community not be entitled
to do
the same?
Permitting members of religious minority groups to have the option of
resolving civil disputes according to their own religious doctrine
within a
framework that is respectful of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is
consistent with the Charter's own guarantee of freedom of religion.
In Muslim communities, the line between mediation and arbitration is
porous. The reality on the ground is that many Canadian Muslims resolve
their disputes by referring them to local community leaders.
Opponents of Islamic-based arbitration, far from protecting vulnerable
parties, are ensuring that such processes are not standardized or
scrutinized and do not operate openly and with accountability. Pure
pragmatism indicates that a significant group of people want to, and
will,
resolve their personal disputes quickly, quietly and in keeping with
deeply
held religious convictions. By denying this, opponents are keeping
their
eyes shut.
A number of critical concerns, however, are justified. The
consultations of
Marion Boyd, former attorney-general of Ontario, about the use of
private
arbitration to resolve family issues under Ontario's Arbitration Act,
are
timely...
-----
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453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
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URL: http://www.cair-net.org
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In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 10/17/04
* SCOWCROFT: BUSH IS 'MESMERIZED' BY SHARON
- Bush Appointee Calls for End to Palestinian Aid, Diplomacy
- Alliance Breeds Influence for Israel (St. Pete Times)
* MUSLIM AMERICAN SUPPORT FOR BUSH HAS FALLEN (Express-News)
* STATEMENT BY JOHN KERRY ON THE BEGINNING OF RAMADAN
* CAIR-FL: DEVOUTLY MUSLIM - AND AMERICAN (St. Petersburg Times)
- IL: Ramadan a Challenge for Busy Doctors (Sun-Times)
- AZ: Ramadan a Joy for New Convert (Arizona Republic)
* LA: SCARF INCIDENT MAY ALTER COURT DRESS CODE (Times-Picayune)
- CAIR-Houston: Conference to Examine Hate Crimes (El Paso Times)
-----
SCOWCROFT: BUSH IS 'MESMERIZED' BY SHARON
SCOWCROFT IS CRITICAL OF BUSH
Glenn Kessler, Washington Post, 10/16/04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36644-2004Oct15.html
Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser to President George H.W.
Bush,
was highly critical of the current president's handling of foreign
policy
in an interview published this week, saying that the current President
Bush
is "mesmerized" by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, that Iraq is a
"failing venture" and that the administration's unilateralist approach
has
harmed relations between Europe and the United States.
Scowcroft's remarks, reported in London's Financial Times, are unusual
coming from a leading Republican less than three weeks before a highly
contested election. In the first Bush administration, Scowcroft was a
mentor to Condoleezza Rice, the current national security adviser, and
he
is regarded as a close associate of the president's father.
Scowcroft declined a request for an interview yesterday. When asked if
he
had been quoted correctly, his office responded with a statement: "He
has
been and is a supporter of President Bush and thinks he is the best
qualified to lead our country."
Scowcroft's remarks to the Financial Times reflect a sense of unease
among
some GOP foreign policy experts about the White House's handling of
foreign
policy -- especially those who, such as Scowcroft, are considered part
of
what is called the realist wing. Realists, in contrast to those who are
called neoconservatives, prefer to deal with other nations on their own
terms, whether they are democracies or not, and were skeptical that a
war
in Iraq would help make democracy blossom throughout the Middle East.
Generally, such concerns have been muted and voiced privately, but
Scowcroft's interview was blunt, especially over Bush's handling of the
Arab-Israeli conflict.
"Sharon just has him wrapped around his little finger," Scowcroft told
the
Financial Times. "I think the president is mesmerized." He added: "When
there is a suicide attack [followed by a reprisal] Sharon calls the
president and says, 'I'm on the front line of terrorism,' and the
president
says, 'Yes, you are…' He [Sharon] has been nothing but trouble."
Although both Bush and Kerry have been very supportive of Sharon's plan
to
withdraw from the Gaza Strip, Scowcroft said he warned Rice that this
is a
ruse to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state.
"When I first heard Sharon was getting out of Gaza I was having dinner
with
Condi and she said: 'At least that's good news,'" Scowcroft recounted.
"And
I said: 'That's terrible news…Sharon will say: 'I want to get out of
Gaza,
finish the wall [the Israeli security barrier] and say I'm done.' "
SEE ALSO:
BUSH APPOINTEE CALLS FOR END TO PALESTINIAN AID, DIPLOMACY
PIPES CALLS FOR END TO PALESTINIAN AID
Kelly Rohrs, Chronicle, 1/15/04
http://www.chronicle.duke.edu/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/10/15/416fc6499e890
Pro-Israeli activist Daniel Pipes advocated ending the
Palestinian-Israeli
conflict by cutting off worldwide support to the Palestinian cause in a
Thursday night speech sponsored by the Duke Conservative Union.
"Diplomacy in a time of war is not effective," Pipes said. "It just
gets in
the way…"
[NOTE: President Bush used a recess appointment to place Daniel Pipes
on
the board of the United States Institute for Peace. SEE:
http://www.usip.org ]
---
ALLIANCE BREEDS INFLUENCE FOR ISRAEL
SUSAN TAYLOR MARTIN, St. Petersburg Times, 10/17/04
http://www.sptimes.com/2004/10/17/Worldandnation/Alliance_breeds_influ.shtml
During their debate on foreign policy, President Bush and Sen. John
Kerry
wrangled over Iraq. They also tussled over Iran, North Korea and
Afghanistan.
But except for two fleeting references, there was no discussion of the
issue that so often commands center stage: the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict. It was an omission that surprised few experts.
"This is an area where both candidates, at least in their declared
policies, agree solidly," says Duncan Clarke, professor of
international
relations at American University. "Both of them have repeatedly stated
their undying commitment to Israel and Israel's interests."
Born in 1948 from the ashes of the Holocaust, Israel has inspired
fierce
loyalty among generations of American policymakers. In part, that stems
from a genuine feeling that Israel, with its democratic, pro-Western
government, is the United States' most reliable ally in a tumultuous
region
rife with dictatorships.
But the support has been deftly cultivated by pro-Israel organizations,
particularly the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Through an
aggressive network of members, lobbyists and friends high in the Bush
administration, AIPAC wields a power that keeps politicians toeing a
pro-Israel line.
The result: Israel exerts a significant influence on U.S. foreign
policy,
especially in the Middle East.
A case in point is Iraq. Although protecting Israel was not the only
reason
for invading Iraq, it clearly was a factor. Just days after the Sept.
11
attacks, President Bush told several House members that the biggest
threat
was not al-Qaida but "Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass
destruction."
"He can blow up Israel and that would trigger an international
conflict,"
Bush said, as recounted in Bob Woodward's Plan of Attack.
In the past year, the administration has also backed off efforts to
resolve
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict while appearing to give free rein to
the
hard-line government of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Critics
say
the failure to push for peace is inflaming tensions in the Mideast and
hurting U.S. credibility.
And while Israel is a small nation (pop. 6.2-million) with one of the
world's highest standards of living, it long was the largest recipient
of
American foreign aid. It dropped to second place this year only because
of
the huge sums allocated for Iraq…
The administration's ardent support is widely presumed to be rooted in
the
influence of the "neocons" or neoconservatives - a group of top
officials
and advisers with longtime ties to the Jewish state. Among them are
Paul
Wolfowitz, deputy defense secretary, and Richard Perle, former chairman
of
the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board.
Phyllis Bennis, a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, says the
neocons have a world view in which an aggressive, militarized Israel
plays
the same role on a regional level as America plays on a global scale.
"Let your allies and potential adversaries know that no country or
group of
countries will be allowed to match, let alone supercede, your level of
military capacity," she said. "Let them know you will deal
pre-emptively
and militarily with anything you deem a threat, rather than (using)
diplomacy."
The neocons' vision for Israel was laid out in the 1996 treatise, "A
Clean
Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm." In it, Perle and others
said
Israel should adopt a get-tough policy with Syria and the Palestinians,
and
"focus on removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq."
Thus, in the wake of 9/11 it came as little surprise when the neocons
pressed for action against Iraq as well as al-Qaida…
Even before the neocons became a factor in U.S. foreign policy, Israel
enjoyed almost unqualified support in Congress. One big reason is the
American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
Founded in 1954, AIPAC calls itself "America's Pro-Israel Lobby."
Fortune
once named it the second most powerful lobby in Washington, after AARP.
"AIPAC has become masterful in combining its real political power in
Washington with the perception of power," says Ori Nir, who covers
AIPAC
for the Jewish newspaper Forward. "I have in the past interviewed quite
a
few members of Congress who said things like, "Don't quote me on that,
I
don't want to get in trouble withAIPAC…'"
At the start, AIPAC concentrated on lobbying Congress. But it broadened
its
reach into the executive branch, where in recent years it has
established
close ties to neocons in the Bush administration.
Too close, some say.
The FBI is investigating whether a Pentagon analyst passed a classified
document about U.S. policy on Iran to AIPAC, which in turn may have
given
information to Israeli officials. Israel and AIPAC deny wrongdoing, and
AIPAC mounted a counteroffensive:
"Not only is AIPAC under attack - the U.S.-Israel relationship itself
is
also under assault," the organization's leaders said in a statement.
But critics say the matter raises questions about whether AIPAC has
crossed
the line between lobbying and acting as an agent for a foreign
government.
AIPAC also "risks fueling claims of those who would accuse the Jewish
community" of working with the neocons to pursue a regime change in
Iran,
Nir wrote in Forward…
Stephen Zunes, a Mideast expert at the University of San Francisco,
says
the history of U.S. aid belies a common perception: Israel needs huge
amounts of money because it is weak nation threatened by its Arab
neighbors.
Instead, more than 90 percent of American aid has flowed since 1967,
when
Israel demonstrated its military superiority over Arab armies, occupied
the
West Bank and Gaza Strip, and began building the settlements that have
complicated efforts to create a Palestinian state.
"The more dominant Israel has become, the more aid it has gotten,"
Zunes
says. "If we're really concerned about Israel's survival, we would have
given most of our aid in the first years of existence when it was most
vulnerable."
Critics say some of the money now going to Israel would be better used
in
countries like Afghanistan, with five times as many people and far more
pressing needs. A reduction in aid could also hasten the Mideast peace
process, some say.
"Israelis might have to learn to live with their neighbors, God forbid,
if
they're not subsidized by Uncle Sugar," says Clarke of American
University…
Publicly, there is little daylight between the candidates. Both support
a
Palestinian state but call Arafat a "failed leader." Both support
Sharon's
plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip. Both appeared at AIPAC's annual
conference.
"If you read between the lines, there may be some more flexibility in a
Kerry administration than clearly there has been in the Bush
administration, which has washed its hands of the so-called peace
process,"
Clarke says. "There is a certain internationalism in Kerry's tone
overall
that might carry over into Arab-Israel issues, but I'm speaking now as
an
optimist…"
The Christian right "has a very clear idea what it would like to see
happen
in the Mideast, and that's not based on Israel's pragmatic security but
on
theology - what could be called an apocalyptic foreign policy," says
Gorenberg of the Jerusalem Report.
"When you look at the behavior of the current administration you have
to
wonder to what extent its hands-off policy toward Mideast negotiations
is
determined by the desire to keep its base in the Christian right or
even
the ideological affinity of the president himself to the Christian
right."
But whoever occupies the White House for the next four years, don't
expect
any fundamental change in U.S.-Israeli relations…
-----
MUSLIM AMERICAN SUPPORT FOR BUSH HAS FALLEN
Lisa Marie G�mez, San Antonio Express-News, 10/17/04
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA101704.7B.muslim.626f426.html
Muslim Americans helped put George W. Bush in the White House four
years
ago, but fallout from 9-11 and the domestic war on terrorism have
eroded
the president's support in the Muslim community.
But that doesn't mean their political allegiance will automatically
shift
to Bush's Democratic challenger.
With the election little more than two weeks away, many Muslims remain
undecided on the presidential race. That could change today when a
coalition of national Muslim groups meets in Washington to decide if it
will endorse a candidate. The decision is to be announced this week.
"Except for (Ralph) Nader, neither Bush nor (Sen. John) Kerry are
addressing concerns in the Muslim community," said Surwat Husain, a San
Antonio resident who moved here from Pakistan more than 30 years ago.
"The
bottom line is I'm a Democrat, but I'm still not too very happy with
Kerry.
So it's still up in the air."
She said she feels that if Muslims are not going to get anything from
either party, then "why should we waste our vote?" And if Muslims give
their collective vote to Nader, perhaps the two main party candidates
will
get the hint, she said.
Husain, chairwoman of the San Antonio chapter of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations, said despite the indecisiveness as a whole,
the
interest among Muslim Americans to get out and vote has never been
greater.
The chapter sponsored a series of voter registration drives in
September
that brought in 700 new voters.
Of the 10,000 to 12,000 Muslims living in San Antonio, an estimated
6,000
are expected to vote in the Nov. 2 election. Nationally, there are
about 3
million registered Muslim voters.
Much of the new interest in voting stems from the war on terror and the
effect its domestic aspects have had on Muslim Americans.
"9-11 has woke all of us up," Husain said…
As for Husain in San Antonio, she plans to support a Muslim bloc vote
decision.
"We are stronger when we are unified," she said.
-----
STATEMENT BY JOHN KERRY ON THE BEGINNING OF RAMADAN
http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/releases/pr_2004_1015f.html
For Immediate Release
Ramadan Greetings from John Kerry and John Edwards
Milwaukee, WI - John Kerry issued the following statement today as
Muslims
across America and around the world mark the beginning of Ramadan:
"I send my sincere greetings to Muslims across America and around the
world
who are beginning the fast for the holy month of Ramadan 1425.
"During this month of charity and reflection, we join you in praying
for
peace and understanding. American Muslims span nearly every culture and
race and we honor and recognize the valuable contributions that Muslim
Americans have made to our nation.
"Freedom of religion is a founding principle of our nation. American
society and democracy are stronger when we welcome people of all faiths
and
traditions. America needs people of goodwill, and conscience, to come
together and promote peace, as Islam teaches. True understanding and
real
progress can only come about when we are all willing to look beyond our
differences and embrace our common humanity."
-----
DEVOUTLY MUSLIM - AND AMERICAN
WAVENEY ANN MOORE, St. Petersburg Times, 10/16/04
http://www.sptimes.com/
Search using the term "Bedier."
As Muslims in America begin observing their faith's holiest month -
Ramadan
- many will have more than fasting on their minds.
A new poll finds that one in four Americans holds negative stereotypes
of
Muslims. Many agree with statements that Muslims teach their children
to
hate and that they value life less than others outside the faith.
Local Muslim leaders are disappointed with the findings.
"I knew that there was obviously a negative perception and anti-Muslim
sentiments in the country, but I was very surprised by the results,"
said
Ahmed Bedier, communications director for the Council on
American-Islamic
Relations in Tampa.
"However, there was some hope in it. In the poll, it showed that those
who
actually interacted with Muslims or knew them, over 50 percent had
positive
feelings."
As believers observe this year's Ramadan, they are being urged to
combat
negative stereotypes...
This Ramadan, mosques are being asked to hold open houses for members
of
other faiths and to invite non-Muslims to the traditional evening meals
that break their dawn-to-dusk fast.
Individual members of the Muslim community also are being encouraged to
identify themselves to neighbors and colleagues and to talk openly
about
their faith. In Jacksonville, a company has created a Ramadan postcard
that
can be used to send goodwill greetings to non-Muslims.
Locally, the Tampa Bay Area Muslim Association had a public pre-Ramadan
gathering Wednesday in St. Petersburg. The Islamic Society of the Tampa
Bay
Area held an annual open house last weekend at its large Tampa mosque.
In Hernando County, Dr. Adel Eldin, a Spring Hill cardiologist, said
Muslims plan to ask others in the community to join them for an evening
break-the-fast meal, or iftar, during Ramadan. He said the community
began
distributing Ramadan-Thanksgiving baskets after the Sept. 11, 2001,
terrorist attacks. Eldin added that Hernando Muslims also offer
programs in
local schools about Ramadan.
"Those of us who consider ourselves to be devout Muslims and also
consider
ourselves to be American patriots have to do a better job of
communicating
to the American population in general that we are, in fact, part of the
same society, country and diverse American culture," said Askia
Muhammad
Aquil, an imam, or prayer leader, from St. Petersburg.
"We have to do everything to dispel the myth that Islam is anti-West,
anti-Christian or anti-Jewish…"
---
RAMADAN A CHALLENGE FOR BUSY YOUNG DOCTORS
CATHLEEN FALSANI, Chicago Sun-times, 10/17/04
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-fast17.html
In the pre-dawn darkness, Dr. Sofia Shakir, chief resident at Cook
County's
John Stroger Hospital, will rise to say her morning prayers and eat a
small
meal before heading to the hospital by 7 a.m. to begin a long day of
rounds, lectures and paperwork.
Once the sun rises, Shakir, a Muslim, will take no food, no water, and
--
perhaps most importantly for a young doctor working an average of 80
hours
a week -- no coffee until the sun sets, because it is Ramadan, the
Muslim
holy month.
For young Muslim physicians such as Shakir, 32, the requirements of
Ramadan, with its sunrise-to-sunset fast, spiritual self-examination
and
emphasis on increased prayer, add new demands to their already hectic
schedules…
---
JOY FOR NEW CONVERT
Michael Clancy, Arizona Republic, 10/16/04
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/1016phxramadan16.html
The Muslim holy month of Ramadan has begun, bringing with it high
expectations of joy and fulfillment among the Islamic faithful.
The new moon was spotted Thursday evening, starting Ramadan. Muslims
rely
on the phases of the moon at the end of the eighth month of the Muslim
calendar to start the monthlong event.
The 1,425th year of Islam will be the second year of Ramadan for Alyssa
Yingling of Tempe, who officially converted to the faith last year, a
week
before Ramadan began.
The month of fasting "was a joy, a fantastic experience," said the
20-year-old student at Arizona State University…
-----
SCARF INCIDENT MAY ALTER COURT DRESS CODE
Michelle Hunter, Times-Picayune, 10/16/04
http://nola.com/search/index.ssf?/base/library-58/1097913488171260.xml?nola
Officals at 1st Parish Court in Metairie are working to formulate a new
courtroom dress code after an incident involving a Muslim woman who was
asked to remove her head scarf, officials said.
Fadwa Askar, 36, of Metairie, went to the courthouse Oct. 8 with her
husband, Ayman, and daughter, Fatima, to pay a traffic ticket for an
expired brake tag.
The family passed through security at the front doors of the
courthouse.
But as they entered the courtroom, they said they were approached by
Bailiff Charlie Love, who told Askar she had to remove "that thing" or
leave.
"It was embarrassing in front of all the people there," Fadwa Askar
said.
"He (made) us go out like we are some kind of bad people."
Court officials said the incident was a misunderstanding on the part of
the
bailiff, who did not know the religious significance of the head scarf.
They said the court's two judges and administrator will meet to work
out a
new dress code.
"It's an unfortunate incident," Court Administrator Bee Parisi said
Friday.
"No one wants to be disrespectful of any religion..."
SEE ALSO:
CONFERENCE TODAY TO EXAMINE HATE CRIMES IN EL PASO
Daniel Borunda, El Paso Times, 10/16/04
http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/borderland/20041016-181744.shtml
The tossing of a firebomb onto a playground at the Islamic Center of El
Paso was the most visible hate crime in the city in recent years.
It also raised doubts among El Pasoans about their traditionally
tolerant
community.
"I was devastated after it happened. I almost broke down in tears,"
said M.
Omar Hernandez, president of the Islamic Center of El Paso. "I started
to
ponder, 'Why would somebody do this? We haven't done anything to
anybody.' "
The crimes against the Islamic Center of El Paso were quickly reported
to
police. A firebombing suspect was arrested within minutes while still
driving in the neighborhood. The attacks on the center are part of a
wave
of anti-Muslim crimes in the United States, Muslim civil rights
activists
said.
The Houston office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations asked
Texas
leaders to speak out against "Islamophobia" after the firebombing
attempt,
which was reported internationally.
Antonio Flores, a 57-year-old disabled retiree from the Lower Valley,
who
allegedly tossed two firebombs at the center, told investigators he
disliked Muslims and was angry after watching a program on the Sept.
11,
2001, terrorist attacks, court documents said.
The firebombing was the second crime targeting the Islamic center in
2004.
-----
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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 10/18/04
* VERSE OF THE DAY: PUT YOUR TRUST IN GOD
* JOIN CAIR'S 'SHARING RAMADAN' CAMPAIGN
- CAIR-TX: Ramadan a Time to Build Understanding
- CAIR-CA: Campaign for Ramadan Understanding
* CA: MUSLIM VOTE SHIFTING TO KERRY (Sac Bee)
- DC: MAPS to Announce Results of U.S. Muslim Poll
- Without a Doubt (New York Times)
* MUSLIMS ALLEGE DOUBLE STANDARD IN SPY CHARGES (Chicago Trib)
- Halabi Case a 'Life-Altering Experience' (USA Today)
* CAIR-MI: DIVERSITY DAY ON TAP FOR MONDAY (Flint Journal)
- NJ: Interfaith Dialogue Offers Forum (Princetonian)
* CO: U.S.-BORN IMAM TURNS HEADS, MINDS, HEARTS (Denver Post)
- NY: Speaker - Radicals a Minority in Islam (Saratogian)
- Europe Struggling to Train New Breed of Imams (NYT)
* EX-GITMO WORKERS CLAIM ABUSE WAS WIDESPREAD (Guardian)
* CAIR-DC: GROUPS SPEAK OUT AGAINST 9/11 ACT (Atlanta Journal)
* GAZA: 'WHEN WE CAME BACK THEY HAD DESTROYED ALL THE HOUSES'
- Killing Children No Longer a Big Deal (Haaretz)
- Israeli Thrust Ruins Gazans - Report (Reuters)
- Mass Home Demolitions in Gaza (Human Rights Watch)
-----
VERSE OF THE DAY: PUT YOUR TRUST IN GOD
"If God helps you, none can overcome you. If He forsakes you, then who
else
is there other than Him who can help you? Therefore, in God let the
believers put their trust."
The Holy Quran, 3:160
-----
JOIN CAIR'S SHARING RAMADAN CAMPAIGN
Please, encourage your community to join CAIR's Sharing Ramadan
campaign by
filling out the following form and e-mailing it to:
ramadan@cair-net.org
ORGANIZATION NAME:
DATE OF YOUR IFTAR OPEN HOUSE:
NUMBER OF PEOPLE EXPECTED:
CONTACT PERSON NAME:
STREET ADDRESS:
PHONE NUMBER:
E-MAIL ADDRESS:
Once we receive the form back from, the local events will be listed at
CAIR's web site.
FOR BACKGROUND, SEE:
"U.S. MOSQUES URGED TO REACH OUT WITH 'SHARING RAMADAN' IFTARS"
http://www.cair-net.org/asp/article.asp?id=182&page=AA
---
CAIR-SAN ANTONIO: RAMADAN A TIME TO BUILD UNDERSTANDING
Sarwat Husain, San Antonio Express-News, 10/17/04
http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/stories/MYSA101704.4H.husaincomment.11c2
2220b.html
[Sarwat Husain is chairwoman of the San Antonio chapter of the Council
on
American-Islamic Relations.]
Ramadan, the ninth month on the lunar calendar for Muslims, started
Friday.
This is the month during which more than 1 billion adult Muslims around
the
world, and some 10.5 million in North America, who are in good health,
fast
from sunrise to sunset every day. It is the fourth pillar of Islam.
Muslims are not only to abstain from food and drink and all the other
sensual pleasures of life, but also from any evil or wrongdoing, such
as
falsehood in speech or action, and from arguing and fighting. They are
asked to do good to the society they live in, to reach out, be
generous,
give in charity to the needy and protect civil rights and human rights
for
all. Social responsibility is impressed in the human conscience, and
for
Muslims it is a religious duty and form of worship.
After the horrific attacks of 9-11 on innocent Americans, the one faith
that has come under constant attack is Islam, even though hundreds of
American Muslims also lost their lives in those tragic attacks.
Arbitrary
detention, imprisonment without due process, torture and ill treatment,
discrimination, political persecution and hate crimes commonly take
place
against American Muslims.
Recently, the Council on American-Islamic Relations commissioned a poll
to
understand what Americans of other faiths think about Islam and
Muslims,
the variables associated with anti-Muslim prejudice and to seek ways to
combat the Islamophobic prejudice that often leads to discrimination or
even hate crimes...
---
FRESH CAMPAIGN FOR RAMADAN UNDERSTANDING IN US
Islam Online, 10/15/04
http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2004-10/15/article06.shtml
WASHINGTON - US Muslim organizations have launched a nationwide
campaign in
Ramadan, in an effort to reach out to non-Muslims and create a better
understanding of Islam during the holy fasting month.
The Southern California office of the Council on American-Islamic
Relations
- the largest US Islamic civil liberties group - has run radio
advertisements intended to educate the public about Ramadan.
The six, 60-second spots will run for the next month, CAIR said on its
website on Thursday, October 14.
The first ad begins with adhan (the Muslim call to prayer). "Ramadan is
a
month of fasting from dawn to sunset," the ad says.
"It is a time for spiritual purification, worship, inner reflection,
and
increased charity and empathy for those less fortunate. It is a time to
re-connect with our Creator and make peace with all people.
"We invite our fellow Americans of all faiths to join in spreading this
spirit of peace and brotherhood in our communities," it added.
Ramadan is the holiest month of Islam, a time of spiritual reflection
and
discipline for the world's more than 1 billion Muslims. Besides
abstaining
from food, Muslims avoid drinking, smoking and sexual activity from
dawn to
dusk. Other prohibitions include lying, anger and unkind remarks.
The Islamic Shura Council of North America and the Fiqh Council of
North
America have announced that Friday, October 15, is the first day of
Ramadan...
-----
MUSLIM, ARAB AMERICAN VOTE SHIFTING TO KERRY, POLLS SHOW
Stephen Magagnini, Sacramento Bee, 10/18/04
http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/11133305p-12049737c.html
Davis businessman Hamza El-Nakhal helped elect George W. Bush president
in
2000, along with a majority of the estimated 3 million Muslim and Arab
American voters nationwide.
"It was a big mistake," El-Nakhal says now. "He rejected the whole
world
community to make war on Iraq, and with the Patriot Act, he's really
intruded on our civil rights. I'm scared all the time that I could be
prosecuted for something completely phony - the Constitution does not
protect us any more."
El-Nakhal, a native of Egypt, and at least half a million other Muslim
and
Arab Americans are expected to switch their support to John Kerry on
Nov.
2, according to several nationwide polls.
Their votes could prove key in the battleground states of Florida,
Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
"In just the four battleground states we're polling, over 200,000 Arab
American voters have switched from the Republican to the Democratic
column," said Jim Zogby, senior analyst for Zogby International, which
specializes in Muslim and Arab polling.
A Zogby poll of the four states in September projected a turnout of
510,000
Arab American voters. That includes 120,000 in Florida and 85,000 in
Ohio -
both of which went to Bush in 2000, along with their combined 46
electoral
votes. The poll showed Kerry leading Bush in these states, 47 percent
to
31.5 percent, with 9 percent backing independent candidate Ralph Nader.
A second Zogby poll of 1,700 Muslim voters nationwide conducted for
Georgetown University showed Kerry leading Bush, 68 percent to 7
percent,
with 11 percent backing Nader.
Zogby and other analysts estimate the Muslim electorate at around 2
million
voters. About 40 percent of them are African American and the rest
fairly
evenly divided among Arab Americans, Pakistanis and other immigrants
from
non-Arab countries...
ALSO SEE:
PRESS CONFERENCE TO ANNOUNCE THE AMERICAN MUSLIM POLL 2004
WHAT: A press conference will be held to announce the results of the
American Muslim Poll 2004, Muslims in the American Public Square:
Shifting
Political Winds & Fallout from 9/11, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Project
MAPS
conducted the nationwide poll through Zogby International. Participants
will discuss key findings from the study and answer questions from
audience
members.
WHO: Panelists: John Esposito, University Professor and Founding
Director
of the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding; John Voll, Professor
and
Director of the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding; Sulayman
Nyang,
Professor of African Studies at Howard University; and Dr. Zahid
Bukhari,
Director of Project MAPS and Fellow in the Center for Muslim-Christian
Understanding.
WHEN: Tuesday, October 19, 2004; 9:30 a.m.
WHERE: Leavey Center, Salon E, Georgetown University, 37th & O Streets,
NW,
Washington, D.C. 20057
SPONSORS: Project MAPS and the Center for Muslim-Christian
Understanding in
the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service
COVERAGE: Media planning to attend must RSVP to Andrea Sarubbi in the
Office of Communications at (202) 687-4328. Press will need to present
valid photo ID on campus.
EDITOR'S NOTE: For more information about Project MAPS please visit:
http://www.projectmaps.com/.
For more information about the Center for Muslim-Christian
Understanding
please visit: http://cmcu.georgetown.edu/
---
WITHOUT A DOUBT
RON SUSKIND, New York Times, 10/17/04
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/17/magazine/17BUSH.html
Bruce Bartlett, a domestic policy adviser to Ronald Reagan and a
treasury
official for the first President Bush, told me recently that ''if Bush
wins, there will be a civil war in the Republican Party starting on
Nov.
3.'' The nature of that conflict, as Bartlett sees it? Essentially, the
same as the one raging across much of the world: a battle between
modernists and fundamentalists, pragmatists and true believers, reason
and
religion.
''Just in the past few months,'' Bartlett said, ''I think a light has
gone
off for people who've spent time up close to Bush: that this instinct
he's
always talking about is this sort of weird, Messianic idea of what he
thinks God has told him to do.'' Bartlett, a 53-year-old columnist and
self-described libertarian Republican who has lately been a champion
for
traditional Republicans concerned about Bush's governance, went on to
say:
''This is why George W. Bush is so clear-eyed about Al Qaeda and the
Islamic fundamentalist enemy. He believes you have to kill them all.
They
can't be persuaded, that they're extremists, driven by a dark vision.
He
understands them, because he's just like them. . . .
''This is why he dispenses with people who confront him with
inconvenient
facts,'' Bartlett went on to say. ''He truly believes he's on a mission
from God. Absolute faith like that overwhelms a need for analysis. The
whole thing about faith is to believe things for which there is no
empirical evidence.'' Bartlett paused, then said, ''But you can't run
the
world on faith.''
Forty democratic senators were gathered for a lunch in March just off
the
Senate floor. I was there as a guest speaker. Joe Biden was telling a
story, a story about the president. ''I was in the Oval Office a few
months
after we swept into Baghdad,'' he began, ''and I was telling the
president
of my many concerns'' -- concerns about growing problems winning the
peace,
the explosive mix of Shiite and Sunni, the disbanding of the Iraqi Army
and
problems securing the oil fields. Bush, Biden recalled, just looked at
him,
unflappably sure that the United States was on the right course and
that
all was well. '''Mr. President,' I finally said, 'How can you be so
sure
when you know you don't know the facts?'''
Biden said that Bush stood up and put his hand on the senator's
shoulder.
''My instincts,'' he said. ''My instincts.''
Biden paused and shook his head, recalling it all as the room grew
quiet.
''I said, 'Mr. President, your instincts aren't good enough!'''…
-----
MUSLIMS ALLEGE DOUBLE STANDARD IN SPY CHARGES
E.A. Torriero, Chicago Tribune, 10/18/04
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0410180165oct18,1,5066923
.story
ANAHEIM, Calif.- In his recurrent nightmares, Airman Ahmad Al Halabi
pictured how the military would execute him for espionage: by electric
chair or firing squad.
"I wondered whether I'd be dead before they realized that I wasn't a
spy or
a terrorist," Al Halabi, 25, told a military judge last month at Travis
Air
Force Base in California.
After months of confining and prosecuting him, the U.S. military
concedes
that Al Halabi was not a mole after all.
As the spy charges against him crumpled, so did Bush administration
allegations that a ring of undercover agents linked with Al Qaeda had
permeated the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where
the
Air Force senior airman served as a translator.
Three high-profile cases revolving around the alleged espionage and
mishandling of classified documents at the naval base turned terrorist
detention center were dropped in recent weeks without criminal
convictions.
They included the highly publicized travails of Muslim chaplain Capt.
James
Yee, 36, who spent 76 days in solitary confinement before the Army
dismissed charges.
With one remaining case--Ahmed Mehalba, a former civilian translator of
the
detainees, awaits trial in Boston on charges he lied about carrying
computerized Guantanamo files to Egypt--the government's vigorous
pursuit
of the allegations against the facility's Muslim staff has come into
question.
Now members of Congress, former top military judicial officials,
human-rights groups and leaders of America's Muslim community are
asking
why the military and government rushed to judgment.
"What they did in these cases was simply wrong," said Kevin Barry, a
former
military judge...
ALSO SEE:
SPY CASE WAS A 'LIFE-ALTERING EXPERIENCE' FOR AIRMAN GITMO TRANSLATOR
IS
NOT BITTER, BUT 'CAUTIOUS'
Laura Parker, USA Today, 10/18/04
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-10-17-halabi_x.htm
FAIRFIELD, Calif. ---- The day Ahmad Al Halabi, an Air Force translator
at
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was arrested, he was more puzzled than alarmed.
His focus had been on getting to Syria for his wedding before his
non-refundable airline ticket expired. It wasn't until he had been
jailed
in a windowless cell and told that he could face the death penalty that
he
learned what to him was unthinkable: He had been accused of spying
against
the United States.
Over the next 14 months, he found himself in a kind of hell in an
adopted
country that he had once praised as having so many freedoms that even
"the
animals had rights." Al Halabi, however, spent 10 months in solitary
confinement.
The case against him ---- part of the so-called spy ring case at
Guantanamo
---- collapsed last month, when all of the spy charges were dropped
after a
black comedy of errors. But he pleaded guilty to lesser charges. He has
been reduced in rank to airman basic and is being kicked out of the Air
Force, a place he would like to stay, on a bad-conduct discharge.
Despite the ordeal, Al Halabi, 25, says he is not bitter. "The American
dream is still out there for me. I am pursuing it," he says.
"It may have got a little more difficult because of the charges and
labels," he says of his pursuit. "I am more cautious of what I do. It's
been a life-altering experience."
Al Halabi is still absorbing the consequences of having been accused of
something he says he didn't do.
He is aware that some friends have dropped him out of fear of being
associated with a suspected spy.
Al Halabi's arrest so frightened his fiancee, who was left waiting with
200
relatives for her missing groom, that she's not sure she wants to move
to
the USA. He would like to visit her in the United Arab Emirates, where
she
lives, to calm her. But Al Halabi worries that if he leaves, he'll have
trouble returning, although he's a naturalized U.S. citizen.
He was accused of attempting to deliver about 200 secret documents to
unknown enemies in his native Syria. A week before his court-martial,
however, military officials concluded that only one document was
classified
secret...
-----
MULTICULTURAL DIVERSITY DAY ON TAP FOR MONDAY
Matt Bach, Flint Journal, 10/16/04
http://www.mlive.com/news/fljournal/index.ssf?/base/news-24/1097934621186480
.xml
An evening dinner and a panel discussion about bringing cultures
together
are among activities Monday as part of Multicultural Diversity Day in
Flint.
The event - under the theme "E Pluribus Unum," or "out of many, one" -
starts at 8 a.m. with a breakfast at the International Institute, 515
Stevens St., said Cleorah Scruggs, event organizer and founder of the
National Multicultural Diversity Institute of Flint.
After the breakfast will be a discussion featuring Saginaw Mayor Wilmer
Jones Hamm, Flint Board of Education President Christopher Martin and
others. The main speaker for the event is Celina Khatib, executive
director
for the Council on American Islamic Relations. Donations will be
accepted
at the door.
A dinner will take place from 4-7:30 p.m. at the International
Institute.
The event will include multicultural food and entertainment featuring
area
youths. The cost for the evening event is $15 for adults and $6 for
children 16 and younger. To register, call (810) 787-4543 or e-mail
cookieck50@aol.com.
The school or organization with the most children attending will
receive a
prize. Dressing in ethnic attire is optional but encouraged.
ALSO SEE:
MUSLIM-JEWISH DIALOGUE OFFERS FORUM FOR NON-POLITICAL DISCUSSION
Alexandra Silver, Daily Princetonian, 10/18/04
http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2004/10/18/news/11129.shtml
Muslim and Jewish students shared cookies, conversation and conceptions
of
God in Cafe Vivian Wednesday at the second Muslim-Jewish Dialogue (MJD)
event of the year.
Marc Grinberg, a senior in the politics department, and Rasha
Al-Duwaisan,
a junior in the Wilson School, created the program last year as a
collaboration between the Center for Jewish Life and the Muslim
Students
Association.
Both Grinberg and Al-Duwaisan felt there was a general lack of
interaction
- and consequent lack of knowledge - between students of the two
faiths.
While the University does not release information about religious
identification, the CJL estimates 10 to 11 percent of the undergraduate
population is Jewish. There are substantially fewer Muslim students,
though
no percentage is available.
The casual gatherings of the MJD are meant to increase cultural
understanding and are not forums for political discussions, Grinberg
said.
"It's politics that will be divisive," Grinberg said.
Earlier this month, forum participants gathered in the dining hall of
the
CJL to discuss various holidays. Twenty-seven undergraduates and
graduates,
representing at least three faiths and spanning several academic
departments, attended the first MJD gathering of the year...
-----
U.S.-BORN IMAM TURNS HEADS, MINDS, HEARTS
Eric Gorski, Denver Post, 10/17/04
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~2473591,00.html
Ammar Amonette leads a service at the Islamic Center of Boulder. It's
rare
for someone born in the U.S. to be educated as a Muslim prayer leader.
He didn't choose the name. People started calling him Ammar after he
converted to Islam at 18 in a Michigan dorm room. In Arabic, it means
"builder."
He grew up a military brat, attending a dozen schools in as many years.
He
dreamed of becoming a lawyer or architect like one of his heroes,
Thomas
Jefferson.
But Allah, or God, had different plans: 12 years of study in Saudi
Arabia,
memorization of thousands of texts and a place at the head of the
prayer
room.
Ammar Amonette of Aurora is a rarity: a red-haired, blue-eyed, highly
educated, American-born imam, or Muslim prayer leader.
In a country scarred by terrorist attacks carried out by Muslim
extremists,
the 42-year-old is well-positioned as an ambassador to non-Muslims and
a
leader for a growing melting-pot American Muslim population that
includes
more and more people like him...
ALSO SEE:
SPEAKER: RADICALS A MINORITY IN ISLAM
Matt Leon, Saratogian, 10/18/04
http://www.saratogian.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=13160782&BRD=1169&PAG=461&dep
t_id=17708&rfi=6
SARATOGA SPRINGS -- A discussion about Islam led by a Skidmore College
professor with the Unitarian Universalist congregation on Sunday
quickly
dove into big issues like martyrdom and holy war.
Dr. Laury Silvers, assistant professor of religion at Skidmore,
revealed a
religion that is far more complex and forgiving than the impression
many
Americans have in this post-9/11 world.
'Americans don't know a thing about Islam,' she said. 'The ignorance is
so
profound, it's not to be believed.'
Silvers said that extremist, or fundamentalist, Muslims -- among which
are
those who pulled off the 9/11 attacks -- are a vocal minority, while
noting
that a few can do a lot of damage. While she said she would not be an
apologist for Islam, she said it's important that Americans learn more
about the religion so they can better understand world events rather
than
painting the Middle East or the religion with the same broad brush all
of
the time.
Silvers weaved her presentation through a story known as 'The Hadith of
Gabriel,' which describes the five pillars of Islam: faith in one god,
five
daily prayers, contributing to the community's general welfare, fasting
during the holy month of Ramadan and a pilgrimage to Mecca. To mark
last
week's beginning of Ramadan, the congregation invited Silvers to
increase
its understanding of the religion.
Silvers used the word 'evangelists' to talk about fundamentalist
Muslims.
She equated evangelical Muslims with evangelical Christians, those who
interpret the Bible most strictly and leave no room for any other
understanding. Similarly, she said, regular Muslims accept that early
Islamic stories are open to interpretation, but radicals do not accept
those shades of gray...
---
EUROPE STRUGGLING TO TRAIN NEW BREED OF MUSLIM CLERICS
Elaine Sciolino, New York Times, 10/18/04
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/18/international/europe/18mosque.html
France - On a wooded hillside in deepest rural Burgundy sits a modest
19th-century chateau with a daunting mission: the training of imams to
minister to the Muslims of Europe.
Here, for $3,200 a year, about 150 French and foreign students study
and
live in a damp, dilapidated former corporate summer resort with a tiny
library, few computers, no television and no cellphone reception.
The goal of the European Institute for Human Sciences, as the
coeducational
school is known, is an urgent one shared by political leaders and
intelligence and law enforcement authorities across the Continent.
They believe that the growing Muslim population of Europe must stanch
the
migration of Muslim clerics who often are self-appointed, unfamiliar
with
the West, beholden to foreign interests and in the most extreme cases,
full
of hate and capable of terrorist acts. To that end, they say, a
homegrown
breed of imams must be created.
"We are here to create modern imams who will respond to the needs of
our
Muslims in France and in Europe," said Zuhair Mahmood, the Iraqi-born
director of the school who trained as a nuclear scientist and helped
found
it 12 years ago. "We need more mosques for the faithful and that means
more
imams."
The perceived threat is so great that a number of European governments
closely monitor the activities and sermons of their Muslim clerics...
-----
EX-GUANT�NAMO BAY WORKERS CLAIM PRISONER ABUSE WAS WIDESPREAD
Julian Borger, Guardian, 10/18/04
http://www.guardian.co.uk/guantanamo/story/0,13743,1329810,00.html
The abusive treatment of inmates at Guant�namo Bay was far more
widespread
than the Pentagon has admitted, according to a new report published
yesterday.
Many detainees at the US prison camp were "regularly subjected to harsh
and
coercive treatment" over a long period of time, far beyond the isolated
cases that have been acknowledged to date, according to the report,
which
appeared in the New York Times.
It quoted sources who once worked at the naval base and who were angry
at
the treatment dealt out to the prisoners, suspected terrorists from
around
the world who have been held without charge, most for more than two
years.
The harsh treatment was intended to persuade inmates to talk, and was
matched by incentives to co-operate.
One "regular procedure" was making prisoners strip to their underwear,
sit
on a chair while their hands and feet were shackled to a bolt on the
ground, while they were subjected to strobe lights, loud music
(reportedly
by Limp Bizkit, Rage Against The Machine and Eminem) and cold. Such
sessions could go on for up to 14 hours, with a few breaks.
"It fried them," one official was quoted as saying. Another said: "They
were very wobbly. They came back to their cells and were completely out
of
it."
Responding to the report, a Pentagon spokesman, Major Paul Swiergosz,
said
yesterday: "We take all allegations of detainee abuse seriously, and
...
we've directed several enquiries to be conducted into a number of
allegations..."
-----
GROUPS SPEAK OUT AGAINST 9/11 ACT
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 10/18/04
http://www.ajc.com/
Muslim, civil liberties and human rights organizations are voicing
opposition to legislation they believe expands the Patriot Act and
denies
civil liberties to immigrants.
The 9/11 Recommendations Implementation Act, which passed the House in
a
282-134 vote last week, details a plan to reorganize the U.S.
intelligence
community in light of the recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission,
which
published its report in late August.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations urged its members to contact
their representatives in Congress to oppose provisions in the
legislation
that relate to immigration, saying it "is viewed by CAIR as an
expansion of
the Patriot Act."
Specifically, the group objects to provisions of the bill that would
allow
for immigrants to be deported without any judicial review.
The "expedited removal" provision was absent from a version of the bill
that passed the Senate overwhelmingly last week, but passed in the
House
version. House and Senate leaders continue to debate the provisions as
they
prepare the final version that they will send to the White House for
approval.
The human rights organization Amnesty International also opposes the
legislation, calling it "the outsourcing of torture" because of its
proposal allowing people to be deported to countries where they may
face
torture.
The American Civil Liberties Union also opposes what it refers to as
"mean-spirited measures" in the legislation...
-----
'WHEN WE CAME BACK THEY HAD DESTROYED ALL THE HOUSES'
Chris McGreal, Guardian, 10/18/04
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1329830,00.html
The Israeli general who commanded the destruction of the only Jewish
settlement in the Sinai before it was returned to Egypt recently
offered
Ariel Sharon advice on how to carry out his pledge to remove settlers
from
the Gaza strip.
"Evicting someone from the home they've lived in for 20 years isn't a
simple matter," wrote Brigadier General Obed Tira. "To remove a family
from
its home is embarrassing and difficult, and that is why the removal
needs
to be done with a lot of love and a lot of wisdom."
The soldiers who arrived outside the home of Ghalia Abu Radwan, her
octogenarian parents, blind siblings and assortment of children in Khan
Yunis in the middle of the night showed no love, and, if they were
embarrassed, there was no way to know it because they were hidden
behind
the armour of their bulldozers and tanks.
As the loudspeakers on the tanks ordered the families out, and bursts
of
gunfire sharpened the terror, Mrs Abu Radwan shepherded her blind
brother
and sister to safety.
"I grabbed them by the hand and shouted to my mother to follow us,"
said
Mrs Abu Radwan. "Think of it - 25 children, two blind adults and my
parents
who cannot run. My sister-in-law left her three year-old behind in the
chaos and had to go back to get him. When we came back they had
destroyed
all the houses."
Mrs Abu Radwan's mother, Ommuhammed, said she thought she would also
die.
"I kept imagining a piece of shrapnel hitting my head. I was so
exhausted I
had to crawl in the sand sometimes or put my hand on Ghalia's shoulder
and
let her pull me," she said.
"Since 1948, the Israelis have demolished three of my homes. This is
the
most difficult because before others helped us rebuild but now everyone
needs help and I don't know who will help us..."
ALSO SEE:
KILLING CHILDREN IS NO LONGER A BIG DEAL
Gideon Levy, Haaretz, 10/18/04
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/489479.html
More than 30 Palestinian children were killed in the first two weeks of
Operation Days of Penitence in the Gaza Strip. It's no wonder that many
people term such wholesale killing of children "terror." Whereas in the
overall count of all the victims of the intifada the ratio is three
Palestinians killed for every Israeli killed, when it comes to children
the
ratio is 5:1. According to B'Tselem, the human rights organization,
even
before the current operation in Gaza, 557 Palestinian minors (below the
age
of 18) were killed, compared to 110 Israeli minors.
Palestinian human rights groups speak of even higher numbers: 598
Palestinian children killed (up to age 17), according to the
Palestinian
Human Rights Monitoring Group, and 828 killed (up to age 18) according
to
the Red Crescent. Take note of the ages, too. According to B'Tselem,
whose
data are updated until about a month ago, 42 of the children who have
been
killed were 10; 20 were seven; and eight were two years old when they
died.
The youngest victims are 13 newborn infants who died at checkpoints
during
birth.
With horrific statistics like this, the question of who is a terrorist
should have long since become very burdensome for every Israeli. Yet it
is
not on the public agenda. Child killers are always the Palestinians,
the
soldiers always only defend us and themselves, and the hell with the
statistics.
The plain fact, which must be stated clearly, is that the blood of
hundreds
of Palestinian children is on our hands. No tortuous explanation by the
IDF
Spokesman's Office or by the military correspondents about the dangers
posed to soldiers by the children, and no dubious excuse by the public
relations people in the Foreign Ministry about how the Palestinians are
making use of children will change that fact. An army that kills so
many
children is an army with no restraints, an army that has lost its moral
code...
---
ISRAELI SECURITY THRUST RUINS GAZANS - RIGHTS GROUP
Mark Heinrich, Reuters, 10/18/04
JERUSALEM, Oct 18 (Reuters) - A U.S. human rights watchdog accused
Israel
on Monday of exaggerating threats of Palestinian arms-smuggling tunnels
to
justify a devastating security thrust into a Gaza refugee camp that has
left thousands homeless.
Human Rights Watch said Israeli forces had trampled on international
law by
razing swathes of Rafah to broaden a buffer zone along Gaza's border
with
Egypt and carrying out raids that had killed many camp civilians as
well as
militants.
"Expansion of the patrol corridor has brought Israeli army
fortifications
closer to the camp, exposing them to risks subsequently invoked to
justify
further demolitions," the group said in a study released at a news
conference.
The Israeli army declined immediate comment.
Israel has said that over the past four years it had flattened houses
hiding more than 90 tunnels or served as gun nests in the bullet-pocked
militant hotbed of 80,000 Palestinian refugees. The U.N. agency for
Palestinian refugees put the number of people made homeless at 16,000.
The army has recommended doubling the breadth of the buffer strip to
300
metres (1,000 feet).
Human Rights Watch, in a 133-page report quoting interviews with scores
of
Palestinians, Israelis and Egyptians in the region, said most of the
roughly 1,600 demolitions of homes in Rafah were not warranted by
"military
necessity."
It said army officers acknowledged to its researchers that the figure
of 90
included entrance shafts, some of which led to existing tunnels and
others
to nothing at all.
---
RAZING RAFAH: MASS HOME DEMOLITIONS IN THE GAZA STRIP
Human Rights Watch, 10/18/04
http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/gaza/
Over the past four years, the Israeli military has demolished over
2,500
Palestinian houses in the occupied Gaza Strip.3 Nearly two-thirds of
these
homes were in Rafah, a densely populated refugee camp and city at the
southern end of the Gaza Strip on the border with Egypt. Sixteen
thousand
people - more than ten percent of Rafah's population - have lost their
homes, most of them refugees, many of whom were dispossessed for a
second
or third time.4
As satellite images in this report show, most of the destruction in
Rafah
occurred along the Israeli-controlled border between the Gaza Strip and
Egypt. During regular nighttime raids and with little or no warning,
Israeli forces used armored Caterpillar D9 bulldozers to raze blocks of
homes at the edge of the camp, incrementally expanding a "buffer zone"
that
is currently up to three hundred meters wide. The pattern of
destruction
strongly suggests that Israeli forces demolished homes wholesale,
regardless of whether they posed a specific threat, in violation of
international law. In most of the cases Human Rights Watch found the
destruction was carried out in the absence of military necessity.
In May 2004, the Israeli government approved a plan to further expand
the
buffer zone, and it is currently deliberating the details of its
execution.
The Israeli military has recommended demolishing all homes within three
hundred meters of its positions, or about four hundred meters from the
border. Such destruction would leave thousands more Palestinians
homeless
in one of the most densely populated places on earth. Perhaps in
recognition of the plan's legal deficiencies, the Israel Defense Forces
(IDF) are not waiting for the government to approve the plan. Ongoing
incursions continue to eat away at Rafah's edge, gradually attaining
the
desired goal...
-----
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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
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-----
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In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 10/19/04
* VERSE OF THE DAY: NEVER TOO PROUD
* SUPPORT CAIR'S $1 MILLION DURING RAMADAN CAMPAIGN
- Join CAIR'S 'Sharing Ramadan' Campaign
- CAIR: Insight Offered Into Ramadan (Hartford Courant)
* U.S. REJECTS MUSLIMS' PLEA FOR 'APPROVED' CHARITIES (AP)
- NY: Doctor Faces New Charges (Wash Post)
- Government to Strip Citizenship from TX Muslim (CBS-11)
* CAIR-CA: A KINDER, GENTLER SURVEILLANCE (News Review)
- CA: Interviews Must Not Be Used To Intimidate (Sac Bee)
- CA: Peaceful Muslims Deserve Better (Daily Cal)
* MA: MUSLIMS FIGHTING A BATTLE OF PERCEPTION (Standard Times)
- CA: Comics Poke Clean Fun at Life, Policies (SF Chon)
* 'I WILL STAND WITH YOU, MOTHER KHADIJA' (Beliefnet)
* SHOULD WE OUTSOURCE TORTURE? (Cheboygan News)
* PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH MAY PRESSURE ISRAEL (AP)
- Bush Would Accept Islamic Rule in Iraq (Reuters)
-----
VERSE OF THE DAY: NEVER TOO PROUD
"Surely those who are close to thy Lord are never too proud to worship
Him."
The Holy Quran, 7:206
-----
SUPPORT CAIR'S $1 MILLION DURING RAMADAN CAMPAIGN
For the past 8 years, CAIR has issued a daily digest of information
relating to the American Muslim community. To help us continue offering
these free services, donate generously to the "$1 Million for Islam in
Ramadan" campaign at: http://www.cair-net.org/asp/millionforislam.asp
(NOTE: Scholars says CAIR is able to receive ZAKAT donations.)
ALSO SEE:
JOIN CAIR'S 'SHARING RAMADAN' CAMPAIGN
Please, encourage your community to join CAIR's Sharing Ramadan
campaign by
filling out the following form and e-mailing it to:
ramadan@cair-net.org
ORGANIZATION NAME:
DATE OF YOUR IFTAR OPEN HOUSE:
NUMBER OF PEOPLE EXPECTED:
CONTACT PERSON NAME:
STREET ADDRESS:
PHONE NUMBER:
E-MAIL ADDRESS:
Once we receive the form back from, the local events will be listed at
CAIR's web site.
ALSO SEE:
THE COUNCIL ON AMERICAN-ISLAMIC RELATIONS HOPES TO COUNTER `GROWING
ANTI-MUSLIM' VIEWS LINKING VIOLENCE TO THE SEASON
William Weir, Hartford Courant, 10/16/04
http://www.ctnow.com/hc-ramadan1016.artoct16,0,2288957.story
The Council on American-Islamic Relations recently called on mosques
around
the United States to share the customs and beliefs of Ramadan, the
Islamic
holy season that began Friday, by holding open houses for people of
other
faiths.
The council said the initiative is designed to counter what advocates
say
are ``growing anti-Muslim views.'' The call came as U.S. forces in Iraq
anxiously awaited an anticipated increase in insurgent violence to mark
the
monthlong sacred observances.
Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, is observed through
fasting, prayer and charitable works. Observant Muslims refrain from
eating, smoking and sexual activity during daylight hours. Evenings are
typically spent in family gatherings, at which food is served.
CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper, based in Washington, D.C., spoke about
the
significance of the season against the backdrop of continued violence
in
Iraq and other parts of the Middle East.
Q: Has there been a change in the tone of the celebration [because of
the
situation in Iraq]?
I think when Ramadan comes around, most Muslims put aside what's
happening
in the larger society and focus more on family and community and
carrying
out the requirements of Ramadan.
Q: Could you talk about the general public's perceptions [regarding
links
between terrorism and Ramadan]?
There are two sides to that. We've asked for increased police
protection
around mosques around the country. We've seen a spike in violence, most
particularly in the Midwest. There's have been incidents of vandalism
at
mosques in Minnesota and North Dakota. In cities like New York and Los
Angeles, [police] have paid attention.
The flip side is that Ramadan is unfairly linked to violence in other
parts
of the world...
-----
U.S. REJECTS MUSLIMS' PLEA FOR 'APPROVED' CHARITIES
Wayne Parry, Associated Press, 10/18/04
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-nj--ramadan-muslimcha1018oct18,
0,3331073.story
NEWARK, N.J. -- The federal government rejected a plea Monday by Muslim
groups that wanted a list of preapproved Islamic charities to which
they
could donate without being suspected of helping fund terrorism.
Federal scrutiny has many Muslims in the United States wary of giving
to
Islamic charities because of raids on high-profile organizations by
federal
officials who claimed the groups might have been funding terrorism. The
request and rejection Monday came in the opening week of the Muslim
holy
month of Ramadan, a period when Islam requires giving to the poor.
A coalition of Muslim groups held a news conference outside the federal
building in Newark, calling on officials to publicly identify which
charities are considered suspect, and which can safely receive
donations.
Members of the groups said many Muslims fear that giving to a charity
that
is in good standing now might bring a knock at the door from the FBI
years
later if that charity subsequently runs afoul of the law.
"We want our government to provide the answers today, not five years
later
so we don't have to go into this building and adjudicate this," said
Sohail
Mohammed, a lawyer for the Paterson-based American Muslim Union,
pointing
to the federal building behind him. "If the government knows there are
charities that are misleading the American Muslim community, it's their
obligation to help protect these innocent Americans."
The plea was rejected by the U.S. Justice Department, which called it
impossible to fulfill.
"Our role is to prosecute violations of criminal law," said spokesman
Bryan
Sierra. "We're not in a position to put out lists of any kind,
particularly
of any organizations that are good or bad..."
ALSO SEE:
ARREST WAS CALLED PART OF WAR ON TERRORISM, BUT DOCTOR FACES OTHER
CHARGES
Michael Powell, Washington Post, 10/19/04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43278-2004Oct18.html
SYRACUSE, N.Y., - Federal prosecutors heralded the arrest 19 months ago
as
another blow in the Justice Department's war on terrorism. More than 85
federal agents descended on the home of a prominent local doctor, Rafil
Dhafir, handcuffing him in his driveway and hauling away dozens of
boxes of
books and records.
Attorney General John D. Ashcroft spoke of a terrorism supporter
apprehended. A federal prosecutor suggested that an Arab engineer who
was a
friend of Dhafir's might be proficient in fashioning "dirty bombs." And
a
federal magistrate denied bail to the oncologist, saying he might
escape to
Canada over the ice on the St. Lawrence River.
Syracuse oncologist Rafil Dhafir was arrested 19 months ago by the
Justice
Department and was described by Attorney General John D. Ashcroft as a
terrorism supporter. But no terrorism-related charges were filed
against
him…
In a prison interview and a letter to a newspaper, Dhafir has
attributed
his troubles to anti-Arab bias and fallout from the Sept. 11, 2001,
attacks. Humanitarian groups and prominent American corporations have
violated U.S. sanctions against Iraq without facing criminal charges,
his
lawyer contends.
"We believe the government targeted him because he's an Arab American,"
said Deveraux L. Cannick, Dhafir's attorney. "They rushed to the
conclusion
that this man was sponsoring terrorism. They colored him as the devil
incarnate."
...Last week, U.S. District Judge Norman A. Mordue prohibited Dhafir's
attorneys from raising the question of selective prosecution because he
is
a Muslim. Nor can his attorneys mention that authorities have offered
no
evidence of a terrorism tie. Mordue said that such issues have nothing
to
do with the charges lodged against Dhafir.
Back at the county lockup, Dhafir shrugged when asked about the
prospect of
decades behind bars. "Religion is what keeps me going. I know that
nothing
happens without a reason." He offered a slight smile. "But sometimes
you
won't know what it is until the end."
---
GOVERNMENT MOVES TO STRIP CITIZENSHIP FROM FORMER HLF BOARD MEMBER
Todd Bensman, CBS-11 News, 10/18/04
http://cbs11tv.com/localnews/local_story_292192305.html
The Dallas-based office of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
has
filed a highly unusual civil court motion to strip a wealthy North
Texas
businessman of his American citizenship and eventually deport him to
his
native Middle East.
CBS-11 News has learned that federal authorities have invoked a
rarely-used
federal statute - mainly used in past decades to deport former Nazis -
to
de-naturalize native Palestinian Rasmi Khader Almallah. The
government's
"Complaint to Revoke Naturalization" claims Almallah paid a woman for a
"sham marriage" in 1981 that helped him gain permanent residency and
then
American citizenship in 1988.
But sources tell CBS-11 the motive behind the government effort is
Almallah's long association with the Richardson-based Holy Land
Foundation,
which the Bush administration shuttered in 2001 and accused of
clandestinely providing funds to help the designated terrorist group
Hamas
deploy suicide bombers against Israeli civilians.
Almallah, since remarried, the father of seven U.S.-born children, and
the
founding owner of the booming 50-store Carpet Mills of America chain,
served as a board member of the Holy Land Foundation, according to a
2000
foundation tax return…
Since 9-11, Attorney General John Ashcroft's Department of Justice has
invoked a variety of legal means, short of time-consuming - and
politically
risky - criminal charges, to remove Middle Easterners suspected of ties
to
terrorism or its financial infrastructure. The government, for
instance,
has deported several former Holy Land Foundation employees for
immigration
law violations in recent years, rather than criminally prosecute them.
In the recent deportation case against former Holy Land Foundation
fundraiser Aynan Ismail, covered exclusively by CBS-11, government
attorneys actually cited terrorism as grounds to send him to Jordan,
but
never attempted to try him on criminal charges. He was deported last
month.
Government officials in Dallas have openly acknowledged the Bush
administration's use of alternative means to get suspected Middle
Eastern
terrorists out of the country.
Immigration law experts tell CBS-11 News that use of the
de-naturalization
statutes has been rare. Prior to the 9-11 terror attacks, the statutes
were
invoked mainly as a means to deport former Nazis who were discovered to
have illegally gained American citizenship by lying on application
materials about their pasts.
But since 9-11, although still very rare, a number of denaturalization
lawsuits have been brought against Middle Eastern Americans suspected
of
terrorist ties…
Immigration experts say the proceedings against him may fit an emerging
government pattern in which de-naturalization becomes a more frequently
used weapon in the Bush administration's domestic war on terror.
"Since 9-11, we're seeing more prosecutions and more attempts to take
away
people's citizenship on the basis of memberships in organizations,"
Dallas
immigration attorney Kenneth Wincorn said.
-----
A KINDER, GENTLER SURVEILLANCE
Chrisanne Beckner, News Review, 10/14/04
http://www.newsreview.com/issues/sacto/2004-10-14/news.asp
Special Agent Keith Slotter and U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott explained
that
increasing surveillance before the election would not mean an
"investigative sweep" of the Muslim community.
In September of this year, news agencies began reporting on what became
known as the federal government's October plan, which consisted of
stepped-up surveillance techniques in the weeks leading to the national
election on November 2. CBS News quoted from an internal e-mail
advisory
that discussed aggressive--even obvious--surveillance and extraordinary
methods that would be in place throughout October. Whether this news
quieted Americans fears or warned potential terrorists that law
enforcement
was watching, it had a decidedly negative effect on members of
Sacramentos
local Muslim community.
Feeling harassed since 9/11 by tales of Muslim Americans around the
country
subjected to multiple interviews, detentions, visits from FBI agents
and
deportation, some local Muslims have become hyper-aware of how law
enforcement views their community. Some fear that religious activities
or
other customs, including donating to charities that potentially could
be
linked to terrorist organizations, might identify them as terrorist
sympathizers-- or worse. This became obvious on October 6, when a
meeting
quickly was arranged by Special Agent Keith Slotter of the FBI with
leaders
of the Muslim community. An e-mail sent to Muslim business leaders
called
this a good time to"meet and discuss the FBI's current investigative
actions, timetable and impact it might have on the Muslim-American
community."
Early in the evening, the meeting room at the Sacramento Area League of
Associated Muslims (SALAM) Center filled with religious leaders,
teachers,
business owners and attorneys. Previous meetings between the FBI and
Muslim
leaders had given everyone a chance to discuss concerns, share points
of
view and build bridges. But, armed with alarming news stories from
other
parts of the country on similar meetings held with other Muslim
communities, audience members appeared nervous.
Rashid Ahmad, president of the local chapter of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), opened the meeting by introducing
two
representatives of the federal government, Slotter and U.S. Attorney
McGregor Scott, both dressed in dark suits and wearing American flag
emblems...
ALSO SEE:
INTERVIEWS MUST NOT BE USED TO INTIMIDATE
Sacramento Bee, 10/18/04
http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/story/11142613p-12059009c.html
In Sacramento and across the country, Muslim Americans are facing new,
chilling encounters with the FBI.
FBI agents are interviewing Muslim Americans to investigate rumors that
terrorists will try to disrupt the November elections. Critics say this
amounts to illegal ethnic profiling. That may overstate the case, but
it's
clear the potential for intimidation is real. Many Muslim Americans are
fearful and understandably so.
Locally, FBI agents have contacted Muslims to ask about suspicious
activities they might be aware of, about who attends their mosques or
where
they make charitable donations.
The 9/11 attackers had embedded themselves in local Muslim communities.
That Muslims are being questioned about suspicious activities is not
surprising nor necessarily wrong, but it must be done carefully. FBI
agents
who contact law-abiding citizens at work or question neighbors can
create
fear and suspicion where none is merited. The "October Plan" operation
by
the FBI offers a cautionary tale. Our country's leaders cannot afford
to
alienate Muslim Americans. We need their help...
---
PEACEFUL MUSLIMS DESERVE BETTER
Hiraa Amber Khan, Daily Cal, 10/19/04
http://www.dailycal.org/article.php?id=16580
In light of the commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the Free
Speech
Movement, it is hard to believe that blatant travesties of free speech
not
only still exist in our society, but stand unchallenged by a public
that
highly values freedom of expression.
Two international figures, one a renowned scholar and the other a '70s
pop
icon, have recently been barred from entering the United States.
Despite
the fact that both Dr. Tariq Ramadan and Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat
Stevens)
are prominent Muslims who espouse moderate views, the Department of
Homeland Security has refused them entry to the U.S. without a
sufficient
explanation.
Dr. Ramadan is a respected Swiss scholar at the University of Fribourg
in
Geneva. When Notre Dame University invited him to teach as a professor
in
its Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, the U.S. State
Department granted Dr. Ramadan a work visa. However, just a few days
before
Dr. Ramadan and his family were going to move to the United States, the
Department of Homeland Security revoked his visa, giving no motive for
its
decision.
The Department's withdrawal of its decision infringes upon the most
basic
American liberty, that of freedom of speech.
The American Association of University Professors, which believes that
the
decision is "manifestly at odds with our society's respect for academic
freedom," along with the American Civil Liberties Union, our ASUC and
various other organizations committed to defending First Amendment
rights,
have all encouraged the DHS to reconsider its decision and reinstate
Dr.
Ramadan's visa.
There is also the case of Cat Stevens, the former British pop star who
changed his name to Yusuf Islam after converting to Islam in the '70s.
As Cat Stevens, he rocketed to the top of the charts with hits such as
"Peace Train." In more recent years, Yusuf Islam has opened a school in
Britain and become an outspoken activist and voice for peace and
moderate,
mainstream Islam...
-----
MUSLIM AMERICANS FIGHTING A BATTLE AGAINST PERCEPTION
Dunstan Prial, Standard-Times, 10/17/04
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/10-04/10-17-04/a01lo102.htm
"I am an American like you."
Sherif El Wakil, an engineering professor at UMass Dartmouth and a
Muslim,
votes, is active in his community and contributes to the local economy
by
living and working here.
And, similar to most other Americans, he is appalled at recent events
perpetrated in the name of his religion, events that have captured the
world's attention for the sheer enormity of their brutality.
"It's horrible," Mr. El Wakil said of the videotaped beheadings and
suicide
car bombs targeting children, acts committed by soldiers ostensibly
engaged
in a broad holy war, the goal of which is to retain a way of life
dominated
by religious doctrine rather than secular law.
"Be assured, it makes the Muslims very sad," Mr. El Wakil said. "It is
against the very principles of the Islamic faith."
The fear among Muslims, according to Mr. El Wakil and several other
SouthCoast residents who share his Islamic faith, is that these
horrific
events, inextricably linked as they are to the attacks of Sept. 11,
2001,
are tarnishing all Muslims as radicals, extremists and terrorists.
Abdul Jaami Mahmoud, the 68-year-old imam of New Bedford's only Muslim
mosque, is none of those.
Mr. Mahmoud, a retired businessman and Air Force veteran who converted
to
Islam at 35, oversees the small Masjid Al-Khidhr mosque adjacent to his
home in New Bedford's North End. His wife drives their children to
school
in a late-model sport utility vehicle, and he spars with his son over
the
proper amount of time needed for chores and homework.
In other words, his chosen faith is likely the only notable difference
between him and his non-Muslim neighbors...
A similar message is being spread by the Council on American-Islamic
Relations, an Islamic advocacy Group. It recently funded a survey that
revealed that one in four Americans holds a negative image of Muslims.
Unless you have a Muslim friend, neighbor or co-worker, the stereotypes
of
the Muslim as terrorist as presented in the media is how many Americans
have formed their views, said Rabiah Ahmed, a CAIR spokeswoman.
"A lot of the positive efforts and contributions Muslims have made to
society are not usually highlighted," she said...
ALSO SEE:
MUSLIM COMICS SWAY BELIEVERS, NONBELIEVERS AS THEY POKE CLEAN FUN AT
LIFE,
POLICIES IN U.S.
Jonathon Curiel, San Francisco Chronicle, 10/18/04
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/10/19/DDGTF9BGLC1.DTL
Standing on the stage of the San Jose Improv, in front of 300 people
who
want to laugh, Azhar Usman is riffing about life as an American Muslim.
There's a joke about being on a plane and making other passengers
nervous
because of his black beard, black clothing and Muslim skull cap.
"Look,"
Usman says, "if I'm going to hijack a plane, this isn't the disguise
I'm
going to go with."
There's a joke about the Muslim greeting "Salaam alaikum," in which
Usman
acts like a non-Muslim who misunderstands what he hears. "Salami and
bacon?
I thought you don't eat pork."
And there's a joke about his immigrant uncle who brags to a co-worker
about
America's increasing Muslim population. " 'Can you believe it, Bob? --7
million Muslims in America.' He thinks Bob is impressed. He's not. He's
scared," Usman says. "Bob is on the phone during lunch talking to his
co-workers, 'Can you believe it -- Abdul talking about 7 million of
them?'
We have to do something about this!"
Women wearing hijab laugh at Usman's quips. Men wearing Muslim skull
caps
also laugh. It's an unusual scene for anyone who's never seen a Muslim
laugh, but to Usman and the other comedians on the "Allah Made Me
Funny"
tour, Wednesday's show in San Jose was business as usual. The tour,
which
began in May, has stopped at venues around the United States and
Canada,
drawing adoring crowds and word-of-mouth interest from bookers as far
away
as England, Australia and the Middle East.
Preacher Moss, a main organizer of the tour, who's also one of its
three
comics, calls it nothing short of "historic" -- that it's the first
time
American Muslim comedians have performed in such an organized way.
Moss,
who wrote for "Saturday Night Live" in the 1990s, says the tour "far
exceeded my expectations. We've been overwhelmed with interest. We're
booked into 2005."
So far, the tour has played to audiences that are mostly Muslim, but at
the
San Jose Improv, a smattering of non-Muslims attended, and Moss and
Usman
see a day when Muslim comics are widely embraced by mainstream
audiences...
-----
'I WILL STAND WITH YOU, MOTHER KHADIJA'
Rasheeda Muhammad, Beliefnet.com, 10/18/04
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/154/story_15424_1.html
"I will stand with you Mother Khadija." These are the words that
reverberate in my mind as I think about the first wife of the Prophet
Muhammad, who gave her life in the cause of Islam. I struggle to
comprehend
why these words have chosen to form together as a mantra in my
innermost
thoughts. They take me back to my childhood, when I was first
introduced to
her story. I look over at my tattered old textbook containing stories
on
Khadija, my name neatly written on the front next to a scribbled "4th
Grade." Suddenly I realize it is because Khadija is the quintessential
Muslim woman, the woman I have always hoped to be--beautifully human,
beautifully woman and beautifully Muslim.
Here was a woman born when female infants were often buried alive and
women
were treated as chattel. Yet God gave her extraordinary character and
superior business acumen. She became the richest merchant in all of
Mecca
and was hailed as the Princess of Mecca and the Princess of the
Quraysh.
She was also given the title of Al-Tahira, The Pure One, for her
humanitarian efforts in aiding the poor, widows, orphans, the sick and
disabled.
Khadija was wealthy and accomplished--but also twice widowed and 40
years
old--when she married the future Prophet of Islam, 15 years her junior.
She
had immediately recognized his trustworthiness and high moral standards
and
had taken it upon herself to propose to him. He readily accepted.
Khadija's story gave me hope as I married recently, at age 29, to a man
much younger than me. It also did not hurt that I met my husband during
the
month of Ramadan, which made me think that, like Khadija, I might be
entering into a match made in heaven.
The marriage of Khadija and Muhammad is a model for all Muslims. It was
one
of extraordinary love, commitment and mutual respect. It is arguably
one of
the greatest love stories of all times and a prelude to Islam's
humanistic
beginnings.
Muhammad's first encounter with God's revelation had been terrifying
for
him. He came home shaking with terror at the magnitude of what he had
experienced. He beseeched Khadija, "Cover me, cover me!" And she
shielded
him immediately in her lap, listened to his account and assured him of
his
prophethood. She recounted to him the excellence of his character as
reason
that God could not have turned against him.
Muhammad once said of Khadija, "She believed in me when all others
disbelieved; she held me truthful when others called me a liar; she
sheltered me when others abandoned me; she comforted me when others
shunned
me; and Allah granted me children by her while depriving me of children
by
other women..."
-----
SHOULD WE OUTSOURCE TORTURE?
Nat Hentoff, Cheboygan News, 10/18/04
http://www.cheboygannews.com/articles/2004/10/18/news/opinion/opinion2.txt
After the photographs of the egregious abuses of prisoners at Abu Graib
prison in Iraq flashed worldwide, the president said: "Let me make very
clear the position of my government and our country. We do not condone
torture. I have never ordered torture. I will never order torture. The
values of this country are such that torture is not a part of our soul
and
our being."
Yet, on Oct. 8, the Republican leadership of the House rammed through a
bill, H.R. 10, "the 9/11 Recommendations Implementation Act," that
would
permit the secretary of Homeland Security to deport noncitizen
detainees to
countries known for torturing their prisoners.
A last-minute, deceptive, unrealistic amendment by U.S. Rep. John
Hostettler (R-Ind.) appeared to make it possible for the president to
avoid
vetoing this bill, which officially legitimizes torture.
This amendment allows the permanent imprisonment of "specially
dangerous
aliens" here at the "unreviewable discretion" of the Homeland Security
secretary. But the Supreme Court has ruled (in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, 2004)
that it is unconstitutional for us to lock anyone away permanently
without
due process.
So that part of the Hostettler amendment is a sham. The second part
allows
the rendition of detainees to countries that practice torture, provided
the
secretary of state gets "diplomatic assurances" from such countries
that
the prisoners will not be tortured.
As Congressman Edward Markey (D-Mass.), who has been the leader in
Congress
to prevent the already covert practice of the CIA outsourcing torture,
asks: "Are we really going to trust the assurances of some of the
countries
that our own State Department says torture detainees?..."
-----
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH MAY PRESSURE ISRAEL
Albert Ali, Associated Press, 10/18/04
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apmideast_story.asp?category=1107&slu
g=Syria%20US%20Presbyterians
DAMASCUS, Syria - The head of a visiting U.S. Presbyterian Church
delegation called on Israel to end its occupation of Palestinian
territories and said Monday that his church is studying the possibility
of
withholding investments to increase pressure on Israel.
``The occupation by Israel in the West Bank and Gaza must end because
it is
oppressive and destructive for the Palestinian people,'' the Rev. Nile
Harper said in an interview with The Associated Press.
He criticized as ``unhelpful'' the barrier Israel is building in the
West
Bank to prevent Palestinian suicide bombings.
Harper, of Ann Arbor, Mich., warned that the General Assembly of his
church, whose investments in U.S. firms total $8 billion, had
instructed
its investment agency to study the possibility of withdrawing its money
from U.S. corporations whose products ``are being destructively used
against the Palestinians'' by Israel.
The 24-member delegation traveled to Lebanon on Sunday and met with the
south Lebanon commander of Hezbollah, a group Washington calls
terrorist
but Lebanon sees as a legitimate resistance movement against Israeli
occupation of Arab lands.
On Monday, they traveled to Syria, where they met with the minister of
expatriates. They were scheduled to meet with President Bashar Assad on
Tuesday and to travel to Jordan on Wednesday.
The meeting will aim to gauge the Syrian president's views on Syria's
relationship with the United States, said the delegation's coordinator,
Peter Sulyok.
``We are interested in peace and justice for Palestinians as well as in
the
relationship between Syria and Lebanon and Syria and Israel,'' Sulyok
said.
``We will be looking to see what new initiatives there might be, what
possibilities there might be for peace...''
SEE ALSO:
BUSH WOULD GRUDGINGLY ACCEPT ISLAMIC RULE IN IRAQ
Reuters, 10/18/04
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?sf=2813&art_id=qw1098145801566B262&click_id=2
813&set_id=1
WASHINGTON - U.S. President George W. Bush said on Monday that he would
grudgingly accept an Islamic fundamentalist government in Iraq, if the
Iraqi people voted to create one in free elections.
"I would be disappointed, but democracy is democracy," Bush said in an
interview with the Associated Press, when asked about the possibility
that
Iraqis might some day prefer an Islamic government to secular rule.
"If that's what the people choose, that's what the people choose," the
president added.
AP said the interview took place aboard Air Force One as Bush traveled
to a
campaign stop in New Jersey.
Bush's rare reference to the prospect for Islamic rule appeared to
clash
with previous remarks from an administration that rejected popular
calls
for an Iranian-style Islamic state in Iraq soon after the fall of
Saddam
Hussein's regime in April 2003.
A senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity,
said
the president has long believed that Islam is compatible with
democracy.
Free elections are expected next January in Iraq, and Bush has touted
the
prospect for democratic governments there and in Afghanistan as
evidence
that his administration is making progress in the U.S. war on
terrorism...
-----
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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
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mail2web - Check your email from the web at
http://mail2web.com/ .
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
CAIR ACTION ALERT #438
HELP GET OUT OHIO'S MUSLIM VOTE
Volunteers needed to staff ‘Get Out the Muslim Vote’ phone banks
(COLUMBUS, OH, 10/20/2004) – CAIR-Ohio is seeking volunteers for “Get
Out
the Muslim Vote” election centers in Columbus, Cleveland and
Cincinnati.
Those volunteers will staff phone banks in the election centers to call
eligible Muslim voters and urge them to go to the polls on November 2.
CAIR’s election center in Columbus will also provide information about
voter registration, polling station locations and absentee ballots.
Prior
to the election, CAIR-Ohio plans to issue a voter guide detailing the
candidates’ stances on issues of importance to the Muslims. The Ohio
election centers are part of CAIR’s nationwide strategy to get out the
Muslim vote in key states.
“Ohio is a crucial battleground state in this election and every
additional
Muslim voter at the polls helps strengthen the Islamic community’s
voice in
the political process,” said CAIR-Ohio Executive Director Jad Humeidan.
He
said top Muslims concerns in this election include stemming the
post-9/11
erosion of civil liberties and promoting a productive American foreign
policy toward the Islamic world.
IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUESTED:
Volunteer for a shift on a CAIR-Ohio phone bank by calling 614-451-3232
or
e-mailing csaylor@cair-net.org.
CAIR-Ohio will be calling Muslim voters from its regional offices on
the
following dates: (Phone scripts will be provided.)
Columbus (4700 Reed Road, Suite B)
Saturday, October 23, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. and 1-4 p.m.
Sunday, October 24, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. and 1-4 p.m.
Saturday, October 30, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. and 1-4 p.m.
Sunday, October 31, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. and 1-4 p.m.
Cleveland (2999 Payne Ave., Suite 201)
Saturday, October 23, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. and 1-4 p.m.
Sunday, October 31, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. and 1-4 p.m.
Cincinnati (2938 Vernon Place)
Tuesday, October 26 thru Friday, October 29, 5-6 p.m.
Saturday, October 30, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Sunday, October 31, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- PLEASE ANNOUNCE, POST AND DISTRIBUTE –
-----
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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
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http://mail2web.com/ .
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 10/20/04
* VERSE OF THE DAY: A GREAT REWARD
* SUPPORT CAIR'S $1 MILLION DURING RAMADAN CAMPAIGN
- Join CAIR'S 'Sharing Ramadan' Campaign
* MUSLIM AMERICAN VOTE SHIFTS TO KERRY (FOX)
- Muslim Voters (PBS)
- Muslim Voters: A Demographic Shift (Newsweek)
- American Muslim Poll 2004
* CAIR-CHICAGO: TOLERANCE TAKES A HIT (Daily Herald)
- OK: Parents Concerned About Workshop on Islam (KOTV)
* CAIR-CAN APPLAUDS ARREST OF HATE CRIME SUSPECT
- Canadian Arrested For Anti-Muslim Threats
* NV: HARASSED MUSLIM GIRL SUES RENO SCHOOL SYSTEM (AP)
- First French School Expulsions Linked to Hijab (AP)
* NC: MUSLIM WOMEN SPURN STEREOTYPE (Daily Herald)
- CA: Wearing Hijab Provides Protection (Daily Bruin)
- Religion, Fashion Often at Odds (AP)
* BREAKING RAMADAN'S FAST WITH A FAMILY MEAL (NY Times)
* FAMILY OF 6 FOUND DEAD IN IRAQI HOME HIT BY U.S. (Reuters)
- How Many Iraqis are Dying? (NY Times)
-----
VERSE OF THE DAY: A GREAT REWARD
"Surely the Muslim men and the Muslim women, the believing men and the
believing women, the devout men and the devout women, the truthful men
and
the truthful women, the patient men and the patient women, the humble
men
and humble women, the charitable men and the charitable women, the
fasting
men and the fasting women, the men who guard their chastity and the
women
who guard their chastity, and the men who remember God much and the
women
who remember God much - for all those, God has prepared forgiveness and
a
great reward."
The Holy Quran, 33:35
-----
SUPPORT CAIR'S $1 MILLION DURING RAMADAN CAMPAIGN
Donate generously to the "$1 Million for Islam in Ramadan" campaign at:
http://www.cair-net.org/asp/millionforislam.asp
(NOTE: Scholars says CAIR is able to receive ZAKAT donations.)
ALSO SEE:
JOIN CAIR'S 'SHARING RAMADAN' CAMPAIGN
Please, encourage your community to join CAIR's Sharing Ramadan
campaign by
filling out the following form and e-mailing it to:
ramadan@cair-net.org
ORGANIZATION NAME:
DATE OF YOUR IFTAR OPEN HOUSE:
NUMBER OF PEOPLE EXPECTED:
CONTACT PERSON NAME:
STREET ADDRESS:
PHONE NUMBER:
E-MAIL ADDRESS:
FOR BACKGROUND, SEE:
“U.S. MOSQUES URGED TO REACH OUT WITH 'SHARING RAMADAN' IFTARS”
http://www.cair-net.org/asp/article.asp?id=182&page=AA
-----
MUSLIM AMERICAN VOTE SHIFTS TOWARD KERRY
Liza Porteus, FOX, 10/19/04
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,135970,00.html
NEW YORK — George W. Bush (search) may have received overwhelming
support
from the Muslim American community in the 2000 presidential election
against Al Gore, but it looks like he has lost a lot of ground within
the
community this year.
"The shift by American Muslims away from the president — and the
Republicans — is dramatic, and the truest example of a backlash we've
seen.
This is virtually unprecedented," John Zogby, president of Zogby
International (search), said Tuesday.
Zogby International and Georgetown University's Project MAPS (search)
on
Tuesday released a survey that showed, despite the fact that a
plurality of
Muslims supported Bush in 2000, 76 percent now support Massachusetts
Sen.
John Kerry (search) and only 7 percent support the incumbent.
"The results of this survey are truly astonishing. For American
Muslims,
there has been a sea-change in political alignment and outlook since
Sept.
11," said Zahid Bukhari, director of Project MAPS. "The political
realignment in the Muslim community is unprecedented in all of American
history."
The poll, which also found that 51 percent said it's a good time to be
a
Muslim in America, was based on a survey of 1,846 Muslims chosen
randomly
nationwide, including an over sample of 146 face-to-face interviews of
African-American Muslims in mosques. The poll has a margin of error of
2.3
percentage points. Surveys were conducted Aug. 5 through Sept. 15.
SEE ALSO:
MUSLIM VOTERS
October 15, 2004
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week807/cover.html
BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: Now, we continue our special series on religious
voting blocs. This week, Muslim voters. No one is sure exactly how many
Muslims there are in the U.S. Estimates range from two million to more
than
six million. In recent years, Muslims have been trying to organize into
a
political body that can influence elections. But they've faced
significant
challenges, particularly since 9/11. Kim Lawton has our report.
---
MUSLIM AND ARAB VOTERS: A DEMOGRAPHIC SHIFT
Lorraine Ali, Tamara Lipper and Mehammed Mack, Newsweek, 10/25/04
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6257073/site/newsweek/
When George W. Bush addressed issues like profiling with a Dearborn,
Mich.,
crowd in 2000, he became the first presidential candidate to openly woo
the
Arab-American and Muslim vote. Exit polls showed it paid off: he won 45
percent of the Arab vote nationwide and swept 70 percent of the Muslim
vote. So why isn't he aggressively courting the estimated 3 million
Arab-Americans or the 5 million to 7 million U.S. Muslims now? "The
dissatisfaction among these communities on key issues is too great,"
says
James Zogby of the Arab American Institute. "Those concerned about
Iraq,
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or their civil liberties are not going
to
vote for him." The detainment of thousands of Arabs and Muslims under
the
Patriot Act, the bloodshed in Baghdad and Bush's support of Ariel
Sharon
have eroded his credibility among a group that could be a real factor
in
this tight race.
A Zogby poll of Arab voters in four swing states shows John Kerry
leading
Bush 49 to 32 percent, while a Council on American-Islamic Relations
poll
finds that only 3 percent of U.S. Muslims plan on voting for Bush.
Hassan
Essayli, an Arab-American and Republican who voted for Bush in '00,
feels
"betrayed." Bush spokesman Scott Stanzel says the campaign was
"gratified"
to have these groups' backing in 2000 and that it's "working to
maintain
and build on that support."
---
AMERICAN MUSLIM POLL 2004
http://www.projectmaps.com/
(Washington, DC)- Georgetown University’s Project MAPS and Zogby
International today announced the results of their joint 2004 American
Muslim Poll, “Muslims in the American Public Square: Shifting Political
Winds & Fallout from 9/11, Afghanistan and Iraq.”
“The results of this survey are truly astonishing—for American Muslims,
there has been a sea-change in political alignment and outlook since
9/11,”
said. Dr. Zahid Bukhari, director of Georgetown’s Project MAPS. “The
political realignment in the Muslim community is unprecedented in all
of
American history.”
The 2004 Project MAPS survey found that Muslims had shifted massively
from
2000, when a plurality supported President George W. Bush over Vice
President Al Gore, to today, when 76% support Massachusetts Senator
John
Kerry and just 7% support President Bush. This political realignment
seems
to come from several factors, including a higher emphasis by American
Muslims on domestic policy than on foreign policy; high opposition to
both
the war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan; and a higher percentage of
Muslims than other subgroups saying America is not moving in the right
direction.
The poll found 53% of American Muslim voters say they believe Muslims
should vote as a bloc for a presidential candidate. Four in five (81%)
respondents to the poll also indicated they supported the agenda of the
American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections (AMT), a
U.S.-wide
coalition of the ten largest Muslim organizations, during the
presidential
election. Over two in three (69%) said an AMT endorsement would be
important in making their decision for whom to cast their ballot…
-----
TOLERANCE TAKES A HIT
Sara Burnett, Daily Herald, 10/20/04
http://www.dailyherald.com/news_story.asp?intid=38280367
"Are you Yaser Tabbara?" the man on the other end of the phone wanted
to
know.
Tabbara, the executive director of the Chicago office of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations, barely eked out a "yes," before the unnamed
man
continued.
"I want to ask you," he demanded, "why are you Muslims killing us?
"Why are you bombing us?" he went on, never pausing for a reply. "Why
are
you terrorizing?"
"I finally asked him," Tabbara recalled about a week after the phone
call,
"Sir, are you going to let me respond?"
The answer was quick:
"No."
Then, a dial tone.
The exchange didn't come as a shock for Tabbara, who says his office
receives dozens of pieces of hate mail each week.
Particularly at times of war, it isn't unusual for different religions
to
clash, both on the battlefield and back home. But people of many
religious
faiths say today's tension isn't limited to the differences between
Muslims
and Christians...
SEE ALSO:
TULSA PARENTS EXPRESS CONCERN OVER TEACHER WORKSHOP ON ISLAM
KOTV, 10/20/04
http://www.kotv.com/main/home/stories.asp?whichpage=1&id=70965
Several Tulsa citizens are speaking up about a teacher workshop on the
Muslim world. The workshop is called "The Arab world and Islam".
Organizers say the goal is to give teachers information on the Muslim
culture. But opponents of the class don't want any part of it.
News on 6 Reporter Omar Villafranca looks at both sides.
Opponents of the workshop met at a church Tuesday night. They voiced
their
opposition to what they're calling the indoctrination of their
children. A
pastor, who's also a former Muslim, spoke to the group. He says he
wants
the class stopped before it even starts.
Workshop organizers say the class explains the concepts of Islam, and
then
discusses Arab issues, like politics, natural resources and culture.
Some people at the meeting don't want any of it taught to their kids.
"They've made a big issue about making sure that Christianity and God
is
not talked about in school so I think it's only right that we stand up
and
defend our children against being taught things from another religion."
"I believe in Jesus Christ and I prefer him over the Islamic faith so
that's why I'm here I want to make sure my voice counts in that."
Educators say the class is designed to inform teachers and to let them
use
the information when the lesson calls for it. Tulsa School Board member
Matt Livingood: "We are not implementing any curriculum for Arab
studies or
the study of Islam. What was provided at the particular workshop was a
set
of resources that teacher may or may not incorporate into their regular
classroom instruction."
Schools in 42 states have allowed the workshop and according to
Oklahoma
education standards, one of the goals of teaching history is
understanding
the world's major religions...
-----
MUSLIM COMMUNITY APPLAUDS RYERSON ARREST
Attorney General must proceed with hate crime charges, says CAIR-CAN
(Ottawa, Canada - 20/10/2004) - The Canadian Council on
American-Islamic
Relations (CAIR-CAN) today expressed its relief that a suspect has been
arrested and charged with mischief and two counts of threatening death
in
connection with death threats and hate literature found at Ryerson
University. The suspect also faces hate-crimes charges.
Kevin Haas, 21, was arrested on Monday, October 18, as he was
reportedly
posting hate literature outside the Arab Student Association office
(ASA).
On October 14, the ASA and the Muslim Student Associations (MSA)
received a
note under their door that read, "Those who follow the Islam faith need
to
be killed in the worst possible way imaginable."
For more details, see:
http://www.theeyeopener.com/storydetail.cfm?storyid=1366
http://www.caircan.ca/mw_more.php?id=1191_0_7_0_M
http://www.caircan.ca/mw_more.php?id=1192_0_7_0_M
Earlier this summer, CAIR-CAN called on the administration of Ryerson
University and the Toronto police to investigate the hate incidents
that
targeted Canadian Muslims at the university. (See:
http://www.caircan.ca/itn_more.php?id=A1101_0_2_0_M)
In June, the multi-faith room at Ryerson University was sprayed with
the
words "Die Muslim Die" and Stars of David.
In August, a notice was found signed by a group called "Full Blooded
Israeli Brigades" claiming responsibility the hate graffiti. The
message
stated in part: "...We assure the Muslim students at Ryerson University
that we will continue to send messages and that this incident is only
the
first of many. We want to let them know that no Muslim student will be
safe
and that security isn't going to stop us."
Also in August, flyers were found on bulletin boards at four locations
on
campus. One of the flyers reportedly said: "The Islamic infidels have
no
belonging in Toronto and in the world at all...we ask that whenever you
spot a Muslim...that you beat them and cause harm to them. Kill these
Islamic infidels."
In a statement issued today, CAIR-CAN wrote:
"Canadian Muslims commend the vigilance of Ryerson's security officers
in
apprehending the suspected subject connected with the recent string of
hate
threats and literature.
"We hope the arrest at Ryerson University is the beginning of closure
to
this disturbing episode. Despite the recent arrest, it is welcome to
see
that Toronto Police will continue with their investigation and have not
ruled out the possibility that other individuals may have been
involved.
"The criminal charges against Mr. Haas are not, however, sufficient. We
are
calling on Ontario's Attorney General Michael Bryant to prosecute this
case
as a hate crime."
CONTACT: Abdurahman Salman at 613-254-9704; E-mail: Canada@cair-net.org
SEE ALSO:
ARRESTED FOR THREATS
Robyn Doolittle, The Eye Opener, 10/19/04
http://www.theeyeopener.com/storydetail.cfm?storyid=1366
A man has been arrested in connection with death threats and hate
literature found at Ryerson.
Kevin Haas, 21, has been charged with two counts of threatening death,
and
seven counts of mischief under $5,000. The Crown is seeking the
attorney
general's approval to also charge Haas with hate crimes.
Haas is not a student at Ryerson, nor is he a member of the Ryerson
community.
"Haas has been a person of interest because of his relationship with a
couple of people on campus," said Det. Matt Moyer, the lead
investigator in
the case, at a press conference held at Ryerson yesterday.
Throughout the years, members of Ryerson's Jewish student group, Hillel
knew of Haas from various non-Ryerson events. But the group is not
acquainted with him.
Ryerson security had been on alert since late last week, when both the
Arab
and Muslim Student Associations found death threats slipped under their
office doors.
Nahla Darkazanli, president of the ASA, discovered a threatening flyer
in
her office on Thursday evening and immediately called Ahmed Arshi,
president of the MSA...
-----
HARASSED MUSLIM GIRL SUES RENO SCHOOL SYSTEM
Associated Press, 10/19/04
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/10/19/stat
e1904EDT0106.DTL
Lawyers for a 17-year-old Muslim girl who dropped out of school after
being
bullied by other students sued the Washoe County School District on
Tuesday
for not taking steps to stop such harassment.
The civil rights lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court by Allen
Lichtenstein, ACLU of Nevada general counsel, and Reno lawyer Kenneth
McKenna on behalf of Jana Elhifny, who moved with her family from Egypt
last year.
After enrolling in North Valley High School, Elhifny said she was
insulted
and spat on and even got death threats for wearing a hijab, a religious
head scarf. She stopped attending classes last December.
Laura Mijanovich of the ACLU said the failure of the high school and
the
school districts "to stop the harassment and to provide Jana with a
safe
educational environment was an abdication of their legal
responsibility."
Besides the student harassment, Mijanovich said Elhifny overheard a
school
district staffer call her a "damned Afghani." She added there's
evidence
the high school principal told another student who reported the abuse
to
mind her own business "and be a good American..."
Muslim girls who choose to wear the hijab are more of a target for
harassment, said Rabiah Ahmed, spokeswoman for the Council on
American-Islamic Relations in Washington, D.C...He said there have been
many misconceptions about Muslims and what the scarf stands for since
the
Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
ALSO SEE:
FIRST SCHOOL EXPULSIONS LINKED TO NEW LAW BANNING RELIGIOUS SIGNS
Elaine Ganley, Associated Press, 10/20/0
http://www.wboc.com/Global/story.asp?S=2454348
PARIS - Two Muslim girls who refused to remove their head scarves in
class
have been expelled from their schools and two more risked the same fate
Wednesday as officials began taking action against those who defy a new
French law banning conspicuous religious symbols from public schools.
At least nine disciplinary hearings were being held this week to decide
the
cases of students who risk being expelled from school for refusing to
follow the law, according to the Education Ministry.
Two girls, ages 12 and 13, were expelled from a school in the eastern
city
of Mulhouse on Tuesday night - the first expulsions under the new law,
the
ministry said.
Two 17-year-old girls risk the same fate when their schools convene
disciplinary hearings Wednesday, said Gilles-Jean Klein, spokesman for
the
Academy of Strasbourg, which oversees schools in the area.
At the start of the week, there were 72 cases of students who risk
expulsion for refusing to remove conspicuous religious signs or apparel
-
17 in the Strasbourg area. Most are Muslim girls who wear Islamic head
scarves. However, some Sikh school boys who refuse to remove turbans
are
among the 72.
With two hostages held in Iraq since Aug. 20, France has proceeded
cautiously. The Islamic Army of Iraq, claiming to hold the two
journalists,
Christian Chesnot and Christian Malbrunot, has demanded that the law
banning Muslim head scarves from public schools be lifted. A required
period of dialogue aimed at persuading those who defy the law to change
course has continued for weeks...
-----
MUSLIM WOMEN SPURN STEREOTYPE
Kelly Ochs, Daily Tar Heel, 10/19/04
http://www.dailytarheel.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/10/19/41750843e560f
Wearing a head scarf has not stopped Jamila Boutrid from doing what she
wants to do - going swimming each morning dressed in her scarf and
full-length robe.
Boutrid, a senior journalism major, said Muslim women are supposed to
cover
themselves in front of men they are not related to by blood, with the
exception of their husbands.
People often misunderstand why many women choose to wear a veil, she
said.
"They don't see it as an act of faith. They see it as oppression."
The Muslim Students Association is sponsoring Islamic Awareness Week
this
week to inform students about the religion. And today's theme, "Beyond
the
Veil," focuses on Muslim women.
In the Islamic culture, it is traditional for girls to start wearing a
veil
when they enter puberty.
But not all Muslim women choose to wear a hijab, or covering - and it
is a
choice, said freshman biology major Mona Masood.
"It has to be voluntary," she said. "We can't force our religion on
anybody..."
ALSO SEE:
WEARING HIJAB PROVIDES PROTECTION, LIBERATION
Heather Rabkin, Daily Bruin, 10/20/04
http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/news/articles.asp?id=30445
As a Muslim woman, Rida Hamida, a fourth-year history student, wears
her
hijab for many reasons, but not because women are forced to – a common
misconception.
"I feel more focused wearing my hijab. I'm not distracted by people
when I
wear it," Hamida said, "I feel protected."
The hijab, an Islamic veil, is worn by women when out in public.
"Modesty is the driving force and prescribed to protect women from
molestation. ... Modesty is protection," according to a "Women in
Scarves"
booklet. "Thus, the only purpose of the veil in Islam is protection."
Based on Islamic tradition, once Muslim females reach puberty, they
should
begin wearing the hijab.
"We should wear it, but we are not forced; it should be something we
love
to do," Hamida said...
---
RELIGION, FASHION OFTEN AT ODDS
Richard N. Ostling, Associated Press, 10/20/04
http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/10/20/tem_1020missamerica.html
Islam's emphasis on female modesty is increasingly familiar to
Americans
observing Muslim neighbors wearing headscarves and, during the
Olympics,
some nations' limitations of women's participation in sports such as
archery. Similarly, strictly observant Orthodox Jewish women wear wigs
or
kerchiefs in public.
Many Christians' beliefs about modesty are also continually at odds
with
current dictates of fashion and the mass media.
Consider observations about the Miss America pageant, that fading icon
of
respectability, from Erin Curry, who monitors cultural trends for
Baptist
Press, the news service of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Southerners often excel at beauty contests and the new Miss America,
Alabama's Deidre Downs, graduated from Baptist-related Samford
University
in Birmingham and attends a local Baptist church.
Instead of cheering, Curry felt uncomfortable, writing that changes in
this
year's pageant "implied the emphasis had been moved from scholarship to
sex
appeal to gain viewers" in response to declining TV ratings.
One change was shortening ABC's telecast by limiting the talent
competition
to two brief acts.
Speaking of brief, seven years ago the pageant began permitting
two-piece
swimsuits. This year, 42 contestants wore the string bikinis supplied
by
the pageant, courtesy of a sponsor. Some refused...
Religions' teachings about female modesty have deep and authoritative
roots.
In Islam, the Quran (24:31) directs women, "Let them drape their bosoms
with their veils and not show their finery" except to specified
relatives,
servants or children.
Muslims vary in applying those words. Some simply avoid revealing garb.
Muslim schoolgirls might shun shorts in gym classes. Others believe
women
should expose only their faces and hands. And Afghans don
all-enveloping
burkas with mesh eyeholes...
-----
BREAKING RAMADAN'S FAST WITH A FAMILY MEAL
Joan Nathan, New York Times, 10/20/04
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/20/dining/20RAMA.html
FOR many Muslims, Ramadan, the holy month that began on Friday, is a
family
time.
Omar Chamseddine, 34, lives with his sister Fatima Bourara and her
family
in a mostly Middle Eastern community near Steinway Street in Astoria,
Queens. Each evening of Ramadan they share dates and milk or yogurt,
sometimes tea or coffee, and then pray.
But Mr. Chamseddine will soon be leaving for Florida, to spend the rest
of
the holiday with some fellow Moroccans. Like all observant Muslims, Mr.
Chamseddine and his family fast from sunrise to sunset during this
period,
but his job makes that difficult. He is a waiter at the restaurant Bice
in
Manhattan.
''Florida's climate reminds me of Morocco,'' he said. ''And besides, as
a
waiter, it is hard to stand around and watch people eating all day
long.''
For millions of Muslims in the United States, food takes on a new
significance this month: in a land of gratification they spend a month
denying themselves pleasure. (Sex is also forbidden in daylight hours.)
So
it is nice to spend time with loved ones who know what you're going
through.
Getting together is often difficult, but most families try to break the
fast together sometime during Ramadan. The children of Suad Shallal,
who
came from Iraq in 1966, take their families to her house in Falls
Church,
Va., for the first and last days of the holiday and a few days in
between...
-----
FAMILY OF SIX FOUND DEAD IN IRAQI HOME HIT BY U.S.
Reuters, 10/20/04
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=6552397
FALLUJA, Iraq - Rescuers dug the bodies of six members of one family --
a
couple and their four children -- out of the rubble of an Iraqi house
bombed by U.S. warplanes on Wednesday, witnesses said.
The house was destroyed during air strikes on the insurgent-held town
of
Falluja, 50 km (32 miles) west of Baghdad.
A Reuters cameraman filmed the dead bodies being removed from the
rubble of
the house.
U.S. forces say their strikes are carefully targeted against fighters
loyal
to Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a self-declared ally of al
Qaeda who the U.S. says is hiding in the town.
But Falluja residents say they know nothing about Zarqawi -- some even
doubt his existence -- and that the air raids regularly kill civilians
and
destroy homes.
ALSO SEE:
HOW MANY IRAQIS ARE DYING? BY ONE COUNT, 208 IN A WEEK
Norimitsu Onishi, New York Times, 10/19/04
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/19/international/middleeast/19casualties.html
BAGHDAD, Iraq - It began with the killing of two Iraqi civilians in a
suicide bomb attack against an American military convoy in the northern
city of Mosul last Monday. It ended Sunday evening, when a car bomb
killed
seven Iraqi police officers and civilians at a Baghdad cafe where
police
officers had apparently broken their fast during this month of Ramadan.
A weeklong effort to tally Iraqi casualties shows soldiers, insurgents,
politicians, journalists, a judge, a medic and restaurant workers among
the
victims. They included Dina Mohammed Hassan, a television reporter
killed
by three men who called her a collaborator, and Ali Hussein's son and
nephew, nighttime guards who died when Americans bombed a restaurant in
Falluja.
From Oct. 11 to Oct. 17, an estimated 208 Iraqis were killed in
war-related
incidents, significantly higher than the average week; 23 members of
the
United States military died over the same period.
The deaths of Iraqis, particularly those of civilians, has become an
increasingly delicate topic. Early this month, the Health Ministry,
which
had routinely provided casualty figures to journalists, stopped
releasing
them. Under a new policy that the government said would streamline the
release of the figures - which were clearly an embarrassment to the
government as well as to the Americans - only the Secretariat of the
Council of Ministers is now allowed to do so.
"It's a political issue," a senior Health Ministry official said last
week.
This account was pieced together from partial tallies by the Iraqi
government, reporting by Iraqi employees of The New York Times
stationed in
Falluja, Mosul and Najaf, and counts from hospitals, news agencies and
the
American military...
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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
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In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 10/20/2004
- MEDIA ADVISORY -
NATIONAL MUSLIM PAC TO ANNOUNCE PRESIDENTIAL ENDORSEMENT
WHAT: On Thursday, October 21, the American Muslim Task Force Political
Action Committee (AMT-PAC) will hold a news conference in Washington,
D.C.,
to announce its decision about endorsement of a presidential candidate.
AMT-PAC is an affiliated political action committee of the American
Muslim
Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections (AMT). AMT is an umbrella
organization representing American Muslim Alliance (AMA), Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Islamic Circle of North America
(ICNA),
Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), Muslim Alliance of North
America
(MANA), Muslim American Society (MAS), Muslim Ummah of North America
(MUNA), Muslim Student Association (MSA), Project Islamic Hope (PIH),
and
United Muslims of America (UMA). SEE:
http://www.americanmuslimvoter.net/
Muslims are a potential swing-voting bloc in key battleground states
such
as Ohio and Florida.
WHEN: Thursday, October 21, 10 a.m. (Eastern)
WHERE: National Press Club, Zenger Room, 529 14th Street, NW,
Washington
D.C.
CONTACT: Dr. Agha Saeed, 510-299-9313
---
NOTE: CAIR offers an e-mail list designed to be a window to the
American
Muslim community. Subscribers to the list, called CAIR-NET, receive
news
releases and other materials dealing with American Muslim positions on
issues of importance to our society.
To SUBSCRIBE to CAIR-NET, go to: http://cair.biglist.com/cair-net/
-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
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In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections - Political
Action
Committee (AMT-PAC)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Agha Saeed (510) 299-9313
MUSLIM COALITION OFFERS QUALIFIED KERRY ENDORSEMENT
AMT-PAC calls for 'protest vote' as guarantee of civil rights
WASHINGTON, D.C., 10/21/04 - Following careful consideration of overall
U.S. interests, interaction with presidential campaign officials and
extensive input from the Islamic community, the American Muslim
Taskforce
on Civil Rights and Elections - Political Action Committee (AMT-PAC) is
calling on Muslims nationwide to cast a protest vote for Sen. John
Kerry.
AMT-PAC is an affiliated political action committee of the American
Muslim
Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections (AMT). AMT is an umbrella
organization representing American Muslim Alliance (AMA), Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Islamic Circle of North America
(ICNA),
Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), Muslim Alliance in North
America
(MANA), Muslim American Society (MAS), Muslim Ummah of North America
(MUNA), Muslim Student Association-National (MSA-N), Project Islamic
Hope
(PIH), and United Muslims of America (UMA). SEE:
http://www.americanmuslimvoter.net/
Muslims are a potential swing-voting bloc in key battleground states
such
as Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. There are an
estimated seven million Muslims in the United States.
In its statement, AMT-PAC said:
"We believe that our vote is the best guarantee of our civil rights and
the
best expression of our citizenship.
"Unfortunately, the Bush administration has been insensitive to the
civil
liberties and human rights of American Muslims, Arab-Americans and
South
Asians. Today, American Muslims are being treated like second-class
citizens.
"American Muslims are also disappointed with a number of domestic and
foreign policies instituted by the Bush administration since the 9/11
terror attacks.
"AMT-PAC appreciates the outstanding role of Ralph Nader in
highlighting
the denial of civil liberties to religious and ethnic minorities.
"We acknowledge the considerable outreach to our community by Sen.
Kerry's
campaign, particularly by his campaign co-chair Sen. Edward Kennedy. We
also appreciate the ongoing dialogue with Muslim leaders about problems
posed by the USA PATRIOT Act.
"While the Kerry campaign has critiqued a number of Bush administration
polices, it has so far failed to explicitly affirm support for due
process,
equal justice and other constitutional norms. We are also disappointed
that
his campaign has shied away from expressing unambiguous support for
principles enshrined in the U.S. Constitution that prohibit use of ex
post
facto laws, secret proceedings and secret evidence.
"Because pluralism is based on partial agreements, support for Sen.
Kerry
is premised on our overall effort to help restore liberty and justice
for
all.
"Mindful of disagreements with Sen. Kerry on some domestic and
international issues, including the war in Iraq, we are willing to work
with him to help restore due process and equal justice in accordance
with
the U.S. Constitution.
"AMT-PAC therefore urges American Muslim voters and their allies in the
struggle for civil rights to focus on the real issues: civil liberties,
human rights, international peace and justice, jobs, education, health
care, economic development of inner cities, and sound foreign policy.
It is
vital for the protection of our liberties to vote together, in high
numbers, and for a common purpose."
- END -
---
NOTE: CAIR offers an e-mail list designed to be a window to the
American
Muslim community. Subscribers to the list, called CAIR-NET, receive
news
releases and other materials dealing with American Muslim positions on
issues of importance to our society.
To SUBSCRIBE to CAIR-NET, go to: http://cair.biglist.com/cair-net/
-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
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In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
ACTION ALERT
CALIF. PROF SUGGESTS GENOCIDE AGAINST MUSLIMS
CAIR-LA calls college’s report on incident a ‘whitewash’
(ANAHEIM, CA, 10/21/2004) - The Southern California office of the
Council
on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA) today called the results of an
investigation into anti-Muslim remarks by a college professor who
suggested
genocide against Muslims a "whitewash."
Imperial Valley College (IVC) in Imperial, Calif., failed to reprimand
a
business management professor who suggested that "the only way to end
Islamic terrorism is to eliminate the Islamic religion."
Despite the offensive nature of the remarks, the college’s report
recommends little more than the professor "take more care in the future
in
linking current events to course material."
Earlier this month, a student in the professor's class initially
reported
to CAIR-LA that the professor said, "The only way to end the war on
terrorism is to kill all Muslims." When confronted by the student in
class,
the professor allegedly disagreed with the student's statement that
most
Muslims are good people and instead said the majority of Muslims are
terrorists.
The student, an attorney of the Hindu faith, says that after he
challenged
the professor's bigoted statements, he was told to leave the class for
being "disrespectful."
CAIR requested in an October 8 letter to the college's president that
an
investigation of the incident be launched and that appropriate actions
be
taken.
Though IVC promised to organize sensitivity training, reinstated the
student in the class and the professor apologized for his "out of
context"
remarks, CAIR-LA says the college did not adequately address the
seriousness of the incident. IVC’s report even seemed to equate the
student’s challenge to the offensive remarks with the comments
themselves.
"We thank this courageous student for standing up for Islam and
Muslims,"
said CAIR-LA Communications Director Sabiha Khan. “Unfortunately,
Imperial
Valley College's decision to whitewash this incident sends the message
that
suggesting genocide is acceptable on an American college campus.”
Khan called on the college to publicly repudiate the professor's
remarks
and, at a minimum, issue a formal reprimand.
CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, is headquartered
in
Washington, D.C., and has 29 offices nationwide and in Canada.
CONTACT: CAIR-LA: Sabiha Khan, 714-776-1847 or 714-390-0334
IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUESTED:
Contact Imperial Valley College and ask that they publicly repudiate
the
professor's remark and issue a formal reprimand to the professor.
CONTACT:
Dr. Paul Pai, Ed.D.
Superintendent/President
Imperial Valley College
380 E. Aten Road, Building 10
Imperial, CA 92251
Tel: 760.355.6219
Fax: 760.355.6461
E-MAIL: paul.pai@imperial.edu
COPY TO: kendra.jeffcoat@imperial.edu, shirley.bell@imperial.edu,
louis@yumyum98.com, nadase@adelphia.net, flickamarian@yahoo.com,
cardenasfifield@aol.com, kgkeithly@keithlywilliams.com,
rjmedina@hotmail.com, rlramirez@icoe.k12.ca.us, cal@cair.com,
cair@cair-net.org
- PLEASE COPY, POST, DISTRIBUTE, AND ANNOUNCE –
NOTE: CAIR offers an e-mail list designed to be a window to the
American
Muslim community. Subscribers to the list, called CAIR-NET, receive
news
releases and other materials dealing with American Muslim positions on
issues of importance to our society.
To SUBSCRIBE to CAIR-NET, go to: http://cair.biglist.com/cair-net/
-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
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In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
POLL: MUSLIM VOTERS OVERWHELMINGLY FAVOR KERRY
(WASHINGTON, DC - 10/22/2004) - According to the results of a
post-debate
poll, 80 percent of likely American Muslim voters say they plan to vote
for
Sen. John Kerry on November 2.
The poll, conducted by the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic
Relations (CAIR) following the third presidential debate, also
indicates
that 11 percent of Muslim voters favor Ralph Nader and just two percent
say
they will vote to re-elect President Bush. Only four percent of the
Muslim
voters said they are still undecided.
Thirty-three percent of poll respondents said the Democratic Party most
closely reflected their views, followed by the Green Party at 20
percent
and the Republican Party at 13 percent. One-quarter of Muslim
respondents
said they were not sure which party reflected their views.
When asked to list the most important issue they used to determine a
presidential choice, the issues mentioned most often by respondents
were
related to civil rights and foreign policy.
Muslims from 43 states responded to the survey, with the most responses
coming from California (17 percent), Texas (8 percent), Virginia (7
percent), Michigan (6 percent), Illinois (6 percent), Maryland (5
percent),
New York (5 percent), Ohio (4 percent), Florida (4 percent), New Jersey
(4
percent), and Pennsylvania (3 percent).
Muslims may be swing voters in politically-important states such as
Ohio
and Florida. CAIR is opening "Get Out the Muslim Vote" election centers
this weekend in Ohio.
SEE: "'Get Out the Muslim Vote' Centers to Open in Ohio"
http://www.cair-net.org/asp/article.asp?id=1272&page=NR
Poll results are based on responses from 857 American Muslims who say
they
will vote in the November 2 election. A total of 973 people responded
to
the CAIR survey. Surveys were faxed and e-mailed to Muslim individuals
and
organizations nationwide.
Yesterday, the American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections
-
Political Action Committee (AMT-PAC) called on Muslims to cast their
votes
for Sen. John Kerry.
SEE: "Muslim Coalition Offers Qualified Kerry Endorsement"
http://www.cair-net.org/asp/article.asp?id=1275&page=NR
CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, has 29 regional
offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada.
- END -
CONTACT: Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail:
cair@cair-net.org; Rabiah Ahmed, 202-488-8787 or 202-439-1441, E-Mail:
rahmed@cair-net.org
NOTE: CAIR offers an e-mail list designed to be a window to the
American
Muslim community. Subscribers to the list, called CAIR-NET, receive
news
releases and other materials dealing with American Muslim positions on
issues of importance to our society.
To SUBSCRIBE to CAIR-NET, go to: http://cair.biglist.com/cair-net/
-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS – 10/22/04
* VERSE OF THE DAY: EVERYTHING RETURNS TO GOD
* CAIR OFFERS CONDOLENCES TO FAMILY OF SHARIFA ALKHATEEB
* CAIR-CAN: MUSLIMS MUST HELP FIGHT AIDS (G & M)
- CAIR-CAN: The Spirit of Ramadan (Gazette)
* CAIR-FL TAKES PART IN CIVIL RIGHTS SUMMIT
* TX: MOSQUE ATTACK BRINGS INDICTMENT (Wash Times)
* DE: PARENTS SAY SCHOOL DENIES RIGHTS (News Journal)
- NY: Jail Accommodates Religion (Post Standard)
- Airmen Celebrate Ramadan (Air Force Link)
- France’s Tough Policy on Religious Garb (NY Times)
* MUSLIMS GIVE KERRY QUALIFIED ENDORSEMENT (AP)
* ACLU SEEKS FBI DATA ON MUSLIM INTERVIEWS (AP)
- ACLU-NC Sues FBI and DOJ Seeking Records
- FBI Interviews 'Scary,' (KC Star)
* FORUM WEIGHS STRATEGIES FOR JEWISH-MUSLIM TALKS (Forward)
- MO: Rare Muslim-Jewish Student Group Thrives (Record)
- PA: Concerned Muslims Are Singled Out (Post-Gazette)
- OH: Islam for Non-Muslims (Plain Dealer)
* PENTAGON OFFICIAL DISTORTED INTELLIGENCE (NY Times)
* TWO IRAQI CHILDREN KILLED IN CAR, U.S. BLAMED (Reuters)
- Religious Leaders Ahead In Iraq Poll (Wash Post)
* HARASSMENT AS AN ISRAELI MILITARY DUTY (Haaretz)
-----
VERSE OF THE DAY: EVERYTHING RETURNS TO GOD
“Every soul shall have a taste of death. We test you [all] with the bad
and
good [things of life] by way of trial. To Us you must return.”
The Holy Quran, 21:35
-----
CAIR OFFERS CONDOLENCES TO FAMILY OF DR. SHARIFA ALKHATEEB
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today offered its
heartfelt condolences to the family of American Muslim activist and
community leader Dr. Sharifa Alkhateeb, who passed away this week
following
a long illness. She was buried on Thursday in Northern Virginia.
Sr. Sharifa was founder of the North American Council for Muslim Women
and
president of Muslim Education Council. She was well-known and respected
for
her decades-long work on issues related to women, families, social
justice
and education.
CAIR’s board and staff pray that God grants her His mercy, and gives
her
family the patience and serenity needed at this difficult time.
-----
CAIR-CAN: MUSLIMS MUST HELP FIGHT AIDS
Sheema Khan, Globe and Mail, 10/21/04
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20041021/COSH
EEMA21/TPComment/TopStories
[Dr. Sheema Khan is the chair of CAIR-CAN.]
As we hurtle toward a clash of civilizations, a crash of civilization
has
been unfolding in Africa, barely registering in the consciousness of
the
West or the East. The AIDS pandemic threatens much of the continent: A
population the same size as Canada's is infected with the virus. In the
worst-hit African countries, life expectancy is predicted to dwindle to
29.
Women have been disproportionately affected; a recent United Nations
AIDS
report indicates that women aged 15 to 24 constitute 75 per cent of all
those living with HIV/AIDS in that age group.
One man has made it his business to make sure that the rest of us open
our
eyes to the suffering in the heart of Africa. Stephen Lewis, the UN's
special AIDS envoy for Africa, has worked tirelessly to present a
dignified
human dimension amidst the numbing statistics.
At a African pediatric ward, he told the 2004 Canadian Bar Association
meeting, a heart-piercing wail would be heard every few minutes — the
cry
of a mother whose child had just succumbed to an AIDS-related illness.
Imagine — a blanket of death enveloping tiny souls, while parents watch
helplessly. The reverse scenario is also being played out. Women,
infected
by their husbands, lie on their deathbeds at home. Their bodies are
covered
with open sores, while their children watch them writhing in pain,
waiting
to die.
Both Mr. Lewis and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan have been scathing
in
their characterization of male behaviour, which they hold largely
responsible for this carnage. But perhaps the most daunting feature of
the
pandemic is that children are becoming the head of households as an
entire
generation of parents is swept away. An “explosion of orphans” is under
way.
While governments can do much more, international NGOs such as M�decins
sans fronti�res are at the forefront of the battle to save lives. In
Canada, ordinary citizens are doing the extraordinary by raising
awareness
and money for the Stephen Lewis Foundation, whose goal is threefold: to
provide community care for dying women; to assist orphans and
AIDS-affected
children; and to support associations of people living with HIV/AIDS in
Africa.
Given the importance that Islam places on the welfare of orphans,
widows
and the ill — regardless of faith — one would expect Muslims to help
alleviate such suffering…
ALSO SEE:
CAIR-CAN: THE SPIRIT OF RAMADAN
Riad Saloojee, Gazette, 10/22/04
http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/index.html
[Riad Saloojee is the executive director of CAIR-CAN.]
Growing up, I remember Ramadan by my incessant questioning - "Is it
time to
break fast yet?" - and my growling stomach. And no one made a break for
food as fast as I did when the sun had set. Poutine never looked so
good.
Fasting in Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar, is
generally taught with ritual precision: abstaining from food, drink and
intimate relations from dawn to dusk. Ironically, Ramadan is best
known,
whether by Muslims or others the world over for its exotic culinary
delicacies.
Ramadan, however, has nothing to do with feasting. The spirit and
intent of
Ramadan lies in a human transformation, with hunger and thirst being
merely
the first stage, the external dimension, in a month-long inner journey
of
struggle and discovery.
For starters, fasting is not solely about hunger and thirst. The
prophet
Mohammed taught that God has no need for the hunger and thirst of
someone
who hurts others, violates their dignity or usurps their rights. The
fasting of the stomach must be matched by the fasting of the limbs. The
eyes, ears, tongue, hands and feet all have their respective fasts to
undergo. The tongue's temptations, for example - lies, backbiting,
slander,
vulgarity and senseless argumentation - must be challenged and curbed
to
maintain the integrity of the fast.
Consciousness of behaviour and vigilance over action are meant to lead
to
the most profound dimension of fasting: the fasting of the heart in
focus
on, and attachment to, the divine. It is then that Ramadan really
becomes a
source of peace and solace.
Fasting is meant to impart a sense of what it means to be truly human…
CAIR-CAN
Council on American-Islamic Relations CANADA
P.O. Box 13219, Ottawa, ONT, K2K 1X4
Tel: 1-866-524-0004
URL: www.caircan.ca
-----
CAIR-FL TAKES PART IN CIVIL RIGHTS SUMMIT
(BROWARD, FL, 10/22/04) - The Florida office of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-FL) recently took part in the first
South
Florida Civil Rights Summit in Broward County.
The summit, sponsored by the Office of Equal Opportunity, featured
speakers
such as Broward County Mayor Ilene Lieberman, Derick Daniel, executive
director of the Florida Commission on Human Relations, Florida Attorney
General Charlie Crist, and CAIR-FL Executive Director Altaf Ali.
"We thank the Office of Equal Opportunity of Broward County for giving
us
an opportunity to share Muslim concerns," said Ali. "We hope that
summits
such as this can help build bridges of understanding and tolerance
throughout Florida."
- END -
CONTACT: Altaf Ali, 954-298-8214, altaf@cair-florida.org; Ahmed Bedier,
813-731-9506, abedier@cair-florida.org
-----
TEXAS MOSQUE ATTACK BRINGS INDICTMENT
Washington Times, 10/21/04
http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20041021-013158-9974r.htm
El Paso, TX -- A Texas man was indicted Thursday for an alleged arson
attack on the Islamic Center in El Paso.
The Islamic Center contains the only mosque in the El Paso area, the
Justice Department said.
The government alleges on Sept. 17, Antonio Nunez-Flores of El Paso
fashioned two incendiary devices and threw one at the Islamic Center.
Children playing in the area ran away as the gasoline filled bottle
shattered on the ground, the government said.
The first device scorched the ground but failed to explode. The
government
said Nunez-Flores lit the second device and placed it near a natural
gas
meter, but it was discovered and extinguished before it could explode.
The charges against Nunez-Flores carry a maximum penalty of 100 years
in
prison and a $1.25 million fine.
The indictment is the second time this year that a person has been
charged
with threatening or using violence against the Islamic Center. On Sept.
30,
another El Paso man pleaded guilty to sending a threatening e-mail.
------
PARENTS SAY SCHOOL DENIES RIGHTS
Mike Billington and Michael Besso, News Journal, 10/22/04
http://www.delawareonline.com/newsjournal/local/2004/10/22parentssayschoo.ht
ml
The parents of some Muslim students attending Bancroft Intermediate
School
in Wilmington have charged that the Christina School District is
interfering with their children's observance of Ramadan, Islam's
holiest
month.
The students are required to go to the cafeteria for lunch during a
month
when they are supposed to fast during daylight hours, parents said.
They
also are being denied the opportunity to go to an empty classroom and
pray
during the day. Muslims normally pray five times daily, a religious
practice that is especially important during Ramadan.
Assistant Superintendent David Sundstrom said Thursday that he wasn't
aware
of the cafeteria issue. He said the district would try to find an
alternative place for students to go during lunchtime.
"That's what they said, but today our children were still sent to the
cafeteria so nothing has been solved," parent Antoinette Watson, 30,
said
Thursday evening.
Watson went to the school Thursday afternoon and took two of the seven
Muslim students home to pray. She was not allowed to bring the other
five
to her home, she said, because school officials had not received
permission
from other parents.
"We don't know what is going to happen so we're trying to coordinate
bringing them all home at 1 p.m. so they can pray," said parent Shahida
Fennell, 30. "We're very upset about this…"
ALSO SEE:
JAIL BARS BEND TO ACCOMMODATE RELIGION
Renee K. Gadoua, Post-Standard, 10/18/04
http://www.syracuse.com/news/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/news-1/10980886343
2710.xml
About 5 a.m. Friday, Muslim inmates at Syracuse's Onondaga County
Justice
Center awoke to the news that Ramadan had begun.
About 20 men and women began the holy month of Ramadan with an early
meal -
two hours before the rest of the more than 600 inmates. It would be
their
only food or drink until sunset. For the next month, dinner will also
be
served earlier for Muslim inmates who request it. They will be allowed
to
pray individually during the day and as a group several nights a week.
During Ramadan, officials at the Justice Center adjust policies so that
observant Muslims can participate in prayers and traditions central to
their faith. Similar changes are made for Muslim prisoners at the
Onondaga
County Correctional Facility in Jamesville.
"You give up some rights when you're incarcerated, but we want to give
every religious accommodation we can," said Sgt. Joseph A. Powlina, who
works in the Justice Center's 01.
---
TWO DEPLOYED AIRMEN CELEBRATE RAMADAN
Capt. Aaron Burgstein, Air Force Link, 10/22/04
http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?storyID=123008979
SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) -- For most Airmen, deploying on the current air
and
space expeditionary force rotation means spending the holidays far from
family and home. But for two Airmen with the 386th Air Expeditionary
Wing
here, it means getting closer to their religious roots.
Though a general order prohibits Airmen from entering mosques, Staff
Sgt.
John Autry, of the 386th Expeditionary Communications Squadron, and
Airman
1st Class Adeel Meo, of the 386th Expeditionary Logistics Readiness
Squadron, have been spending time since their deployments began
worshiping
at the local mosque.
In the process, they have been serving as informal ambassadors,
representing their comrades and their country to the local community.
At
the same time, they said they are educating their fellow Airmen about
their
religion.
Sergeant Autry and Airman Meo are practicing Muslims, two of the fewer
than
800 in the Air Force. Through a special arrangement between the 386th
AEW
and its host nation, these Airmen get the chance to not only worship at
the
local mosque, but to do so during Ramadan, one of the holiest months of
Islam.
“I knew that (the order) said no mosques,” Sergeant Autry said. “But
that’s
for non-Muslims. Since I am a Muslim, I asked the chaplain about it.”
“We explored all the options available,” said Chaplain (Maj.) Samuel
Rorer,
a 386th AEW chaplain. “There’s no military Imam in the area, so we
looked
to see what other resources were available. We spoke with the local
base
commander and made contact with the administrator of the mosque and
found
out that not only were they willing to accept our guys, but that they
would
welcome them with open arms, and the Imam himself ensured they were
taken
care of.”
Both Airmen have been attending services at the mosque since shortly
after
they arrived in September. While not quite sure what kind of reaction
to
expect, they were thrilled with the warm reception they received…
---
FRANCE TURNS TO TOUGH POLICY ON STUDENTS' RELIGIOUS GARB
Elaine Sciolino, New York Times, 10/22/04
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/22/international/europe/22france.html
PARIS - To enforce its new law banning religious symbols from public
schools, the Ministry of National Education has decided to get tough.
This week it held formal disciplinary hearings and began expelling
students
who violated the law. The goal was to get rid of those defined as
hopeless
cases before the 10-day All Saints school vacation that ends with a
national holiday honoring all of Catholicism's saints.
The French government sees no contradiction or irony here.
Nine female Muslim students who have refused to remove their Islamic
head
coverings have been thrown out of schools across France. After the All
Saints break, dozens of cases that are pending will be reviewed.
"The phase of dialogue and consultation is over," said an official at
the
ministry, who refused to allow her name to be used. "It was an
unbearable
situation for the teachers and the pupils. It was a crazy situation.
The
law has to be respected at some point."
Since school started a month ago, students who have refused to remove
what
school administrators define as conspicuous religious symbols have been
quarantined in study halls or libraries and not allowed to attend
class.
The banned symbols include anything that can be construed as an Islamic
veil (head scarf, bandanna, beret), a Jewish skullcap, a large
Christian
cross and a Sikh turban.
Officially the law is aimed at enforcing France's republican ideal of
secularism. Unofficially it is aimed at stopping female Muslim public
school students from swathing themselves in scarves or even long veils.
There have been odd, unintended consequences…
-----
MUSLIMS GIVE KERRY QUALIFIED ENDORSEMENT
Rachel Zoll, Associated Press, 10/22/04
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/politics/9979689.htm
Major American Muslim groups gave what they called a "qualified
endorsement" Thursday to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry,
urging Muslims to vote for him while calling his platform on civil
rights
inadequate.
The American Muslim Taskforce had been leaning against backing a
candidate,
but some members felt not making an endorsement could inadvertently
help
President Bush.
In 2000, a committee comprised mainly of the same U.S. Muslim groups
endorsed Republican George W. Bush over Democrat Al Gore, because Bush
had
indicated he would address their concerns about the use of secret
evidence
in deportation hearings.
But the task force said in its statement Thursday that the Bush
administration has "been insensitive to the civil liberties and human
rights" of Muslims since the Sept. 11 attacks.
"American Muslims are being treated like second-class citizens," they
said.
Yet, the group also expressed disappointment in Kerry, urging Muslims
to
vote for him only as a "protest vote." Kerry "has so far failed to
explicitly affirm support for due process, equal justice and other
constitutional norms," they said.
Muslim leaders want a rollback of several parts of the USA Patriot Act,
which gave the government broad powers to monitor citizens. Bush says
the
changes are critical for national security.
-----
ACLU SEEKS FBI DATA ON HANDLING OF MUSLIM INTERVIEWS
David Kravets, Associated Press, 10/22/04
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/the_
valley/9980263.htm
SAN FRANCISCO - The American Civil Liberties Union has sued the FBI,
trying
to get more information about the agency's questioning of Muslims and
Arabs
as it investigates the possibility of pre-election terror attacks.
The ACLU is seeking internal documents under the Freedom of Information
Act
to find out whether the government is protecting the constitutional
rights
of the subjects of its unannounced interviews at homes, workplaces and
mosques.
``We are trying to get much greater sunshine over these activities,''
ACLU
attorney John Crew said Thursday.
The FBI has conducted more than 13,000 interviews this year as part of
an
effort to detect and disrupt a potential election-year terror attack.
The interviews are voluntary and are not meant to indicate that the
person
is a suspected terrorist. Still, Muslim groups have expressed concern
that
they are being singled out for unfair scrutiny.
The ACLU wants to know, among other things, how the agency chooses whom
it
will interview.
``These random interviews or interrogations raise the concern that the
FBI
and the Joint Terrorism Task Forces operating in Northern California
are
infringing upon the civil rights and civil liberties of immigrants,
U.S.
citizens and organizations by interrogating them without any valid
basis,
rationale, or individualized suspicion for doing so,'' the ACLU's FOIA
request says….
ALSO SEE:
ACLU-NC SUES FBI AND DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE SEEKING RECORDS OF ONGOING
QUESTIONING OF MUSLIMS IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Forces May Be Violating the Constitutional
Rights of Immigrants and U.S. Citizens
http://www.aclunc.org/pressrel/041021-foia.html
SAN FRANCISCO -- The ACLU of Northern California, under the Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA), today filed a lawsuit seeking expedited
processing
and release of FBI and other Department of Justice documents pertaining
to
the ongoing investigation, interviews and questioning of Muslims and
U.S.
citizens of Middle Eastern descent in Northern California.
The ACLU-NC is concerned that the questioning by FBI's Joint Terrorism
Task
Forces (JTTF's) of immigrants and U.S. citizens may violate their First
Amendment rights and have a chilling effect on the exercise of
constitutional rights. The JTTF's are made up of state and local
officers
working with agents of the FBI and officers of the Bureau of
Immigration
and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The ACLU's lawsuit charges the federal government with stalling the
release
of public records that would reveal the scope, purpose and policies
behind
controversial tactics currently being pursued throughout Northern
California by the FBI's JTTFs.
The documents sought by the FOIA request would (among other things)
reveal
the scope of JTTF operations in Northern California and whether the
FBI's
JTTFs have any written policies that -
Control the maintenance, storage, use and destruction of the sensitive
religious, political and personal information gathered in these
interviews;
Ensure that state and local officers do not violate stronger California
constitutional rights and local policies while operating under Attorney
General John Ashcroft's drastically loosened intelligence guidelines
for
the FBI; and,
Ensure the rights to lawfully practice one's religion or to express
dissent
from government policies are not, by themselves, appropriate subjects
for
law enforcement inquiry…
The ACLU encourages individuals who are contacted by the FBI to seek
legal
advice before agreeing to respond to questions. The National Lawyers
Guild
has made available a free legal hotline at 415-285-1041.
For more information, call Stella Richardson, ACLU-NC, 415-621-2488 or
Cell 415-845-3042
---
FBI INTERVIEWS 'SCARY,' AREA MUSLIM LEADER SAYS
Mary Sanchez, Kansas City Star, 10/22/04
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/9982011.htm
The FBI has stepped up interviews with Muslims across the country amid
concern about a possible terrorist attack to disrupt the Nov. 2
elections.
Muslim leaders in the Kansas City area say they are willing to
cooperate
but think their community is being unfairly singled out. They say they
fear
that interviews considered voluntary by federal agents will turn into
interrogations.
"Of course, we want peace and security for ourselves and for our
families,"
said Zulfiqar Malik of Overland Park, who regularly sends out news to
area
Muslims through e-mail. "But this is scary."
FBI officials stress that the interviews are part of continuing
terrorism
prevention efforts.
"This is part of an ongoing effort to prevent a terrorist attack in
response to intelligence gathered last spring," said Jeff Lanza, FBI
spokesman in Kansas City. "Nothing gathered to date has changed that
threat. The only thing that has changed is the window of time."
Some area Muslims think the interviews may be especially intimidating
to
new immigrants…
-----
FORUM WEIGHS STRATEGIES FOR JEWISH-MUSLIM TALKS
Eric J. Greenberg, Forward, 10/22/04
http://www.forward.com/main/article.php?ref=greenberg200410201127
In an emerging national conversation about the future of Jewish-Muslim
relations, several experts this week debated the appropriate conditions
under which Jewish community officials should break bread with Islamic
groups.
The issue is a growing concern for Jewish leaders across the country as
Islamic groups are increasing their visibility in national and local
politics in the wake of September 11 attacks, which increased the
mistrust
between Jews and Muslims.
The October 17 forum, sponsored by the Jewish Council for Public
Affairs,
centered on a new study by Raquel Ukeles, a doctoral student in Jewish
and
Islamic studies at Harvard University who is critical of the current
standards used by American Jewish defense organizations in determining
which Muslims should be included in dialogue.
Citing her report, "Locating the Silent Muslim Majority: Policy
Recommendations for Improving Jewish-Muslim Relations in the United
States," Ukeles told a gathering of about 75 Jewish community
representatives from across the country that they have a rare, small
window
of opportunity to take some risks and engage Muslim organizations that
were
previously deemed unacceptable for dialogue.
At issue is whether to dialogue with moderate Muslims who are linked to
organizations or coalitions that do not renounce terrorism against
Israel
or that are associated with terror-funding groups — a policy dubbed a
"secondary boycott…"
ALSO SEE:
RARE MUSLIM-JEWISH STUDENT GROUP THRIVES
Neil Schoenherr, Record, 10/22/04
http://record.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/4070.html
Muslims and Jews sitting down together and talking? Even becoming
friends?
Sound like a fantasy? Well, it's not.
The University's Muslim Jewish Dialogue Group, formed in spring 2003,
is
one of only a few such organizations in the nation.
Composed of Muslim and Jewish students, the group provides a means for
biweekly formal dialogue sessions and educational programs. It allows
Jewish and Muslim students to learn about each other's religion and to
become friends in the process…
The group was founded by Pamela Barmash, Ph.D., assistant professor of
Hebrew bible and biblical literature in Arts & Sciences, along with
several
students. The group has grown to include 15 members who meet often to
discuss issues, have dinner and listen to speakers.
"We are completely apolitical and intentionally include students of a
wide
array of political beliefs and theological ideas," Barmash said. "Other
campuses may have a group of politically left-wing students who pursue
a
political left-wing Middle Eastern agenda, but we do not deal with
politics.
"Rather, we deal with issues of common concern, the issues that young
adults growing up in America face, both as Americans and as Muslims or
Jews. The members of the group are genuinely eager to listen to each
other
and to learn together in an honest and sympathetic way."
The group has fostered positive relations between Muslim and Jewish
students, a very rare situation on American university campuses…
---
WE ARE CONCERNED THAT MUSLIMS ARE BEING SINGLED OUT
Robert Kraftowitz, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 10/22/04
http://www.post-gazette.com/search/redir.asp?path=/pg/04296/399686.stm&date=
10%2F22%2F04+4%3A00%3A33+AM
We are members of a group of Muslims and Jews from Pittsburgh who have
been
meeting together for the past two years. We have enjoyed learning about
each other's faiths and cultures, and we have become friends.
Recently, the local FBI has sent a chill through our group. It has
announced plans to interview a large number of Muslims, citing fear of
a
possible Election Day terrorist attack ("Agents to Mine Muslims for
Data: Questioning Alarms Islamic Community," Oct. 12). The Muslims
among
us, who came to the United States because of their love of liberty and
civil rights, are now very concerned about being detained and possibly
deported.
They are being singled out simply because they are Muslims.
It is time for our community to stand up to those who use fear to
justify
the erosion of our basic rights and liberties. The undersigned members
of
our group have decided that we cannot remain silent while this is
happening.
Robert Kraftowitz is with the Muslim-Jewish Discussion Group of
Pittsburgh.
---
ISLAM FOR NON-MUSLIMS
Cleveland Plain Dealer, 10/22/04
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/109843764
7276130.xml
As they observe their holiest month, local Muslims are inviting the
larger
community into their religion.
A new moon signaled the start of Ramadan Oct. 15, and Muslims began
abstaining from food, drink, smoking and sex from sunrise to sunset.
The fasts are meant to teach self-restraint and compassion for the
poor.
Muslims are also encouraged to say special prayers and act generously
during Ramadan. Increasingly, they are being asked to explain their
faith,
too.
To counter anti-Muslim attitudes, national Islamic groups have urged
the
faithful to invite non-Muslims to Ramadan events. Local groups are
responding with interfaith iftar dinners. The iftar, or "breaking of
the
fast," happens nightly this month in Muslim homes.
The public iftar meals are free and open to all.
The Islamic Discussion Group at Cleveland State University will host an
iftar dinner at Mather Mansion, 2605 Euclid Ave., at 6:30 p.m.
Wednesday,
Oct. 27. Call 440-749-2797 for reservations.
The local chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
will
host its iftar dinner at 5:45 p.m. next Saturday, Oct. 30, at CSU's
Joseph
Cole Center, 3100 Chester Ave. Call 216-830-2247.
The Islamic Society of Akron and Kent will host an interfaith iftar
dinner
at 5 p.m. Nov. 11 at its mosque at 152 E. Steels Corners Road, Cuyahoga
Falls. Call 330-922-9991
-----
PENTAGON OFFICIAL DISTORTED INTELLIGENCE, REPORT SAYS
Douglas Jehl, New York Times, 10/22/04
http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/10/21/news/intel.html
WASHINGTON As recently as January 2004, a top Defense Department
official
misrepresented to Congress the view of American intelligence agencies
about
the relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda, according to classified
documents described in a new report by a Senate Democrat.
The report said that a classified document prepared by Douglas Feith,
the
undersecretary of defense for policy, did not accurately reflect the
intelligence agencies' assessment of the relationship, despite a
Pentagon
claim that it did.
In issuing the report, Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, the top Democrat
on
the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that he would ask the panel
to
take "appropriate action" against Feith. Levin described the Jan. 15
communication from Feith as part of a pattern in which the Defense
Department official, in briefings for Congress and the White House,
repeatedly described the ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda as far more
significant and extensive than the intelligence agencies had assessed.
The broad outlines of the role played by Feith as a champion of the
view
that Iraq and Al Qaeda were closely linked have been disclosed
previously.
The view, a staple of the Bush administration's public statements
before
the Iraq invasion in March 2003, has since been discredited by the
Sept. 11
commission, which concluded that Iraq and Al Qaeda had "no close
collaborative relationship."
Bush administration officials have defended Feith's prewar efforts as
reflecting a legitimate effort to develop an alternative analysis of
the
relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda. But the report by Levin
includes
new details showing that Feith's accounts to the White House and
Congress
through early 2004 deviated from the intelligence agencies' assessments
to
a degree that the Pentagon official did not acknowledge.
The 46-page report by Levin and the Democratic staff of the Armed
Services
Committee is the first to focus narrowly on the role played by Feith's
office. Democrats had sought to include that line of inquiry in a
report
completed in June by the Senate Intelligence Committee, but Republicans
on
that panel succeeded in an effort to postpone that phase of the study
until
after the presidential election.
In an interview, Levin said that he had concluded that Feith had
practiced
a "continuing deception of Congress." But he said he had no evidence
that
Feith's conduct had been illegal in any way…
-----
TWO IRAQI CHILDREN KILLED IN CAR, U.S. BLAMED
Reuters, 10/22/04
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6581922
FALLUJA, Iraq - Two young Iraqi girls were killed on Friday when their
car
came under U.S. fire near the rebel-held city of Falluja, according to
an
Iraqi who helped rescue four people wounded in the incident.
Villager Mahmoud Mohammed said the mother of the two girls and the
driver
of the car, who were both wounded, had told him a U.S. tank had fired
at
the vehicle in Naamiya, 10 km (six miles) southeast of Falluja. Two
other
children in the car were hurt.
Hospital officials in Falluja confirmed the casualties.
There was no immediate comment from the U.S. military, which has
intensified air and artillery strikes around Falluja in the past week
in
what it says is a drive against foreign fighters led by Jordanian
militant
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
ALSO SEE:
RELIGIOUS LEADERS AHEAD IN IRAQ POLL
Robin Wright, Washington Post, 10/22/04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52674-2004Oct21.html
Leaders of Iraq's religious parties have emerged as the country's most
popular politicians and would win the largest share of votes if an
election
were held today, while the U.S.-backed government of interim Prime
Minister
Ayad Allawi is losing serious ground, according to a U.S.-financed poll
by
the International Republican Institute.
More than 45 percent of Iraqis also believe that their country is
heading
in the wrong direction, and 41 percent say it is moving in the right
direction.
Within the Bush administration, a victory by Iraq's religious parties
is
viewed as the worst-case scenario. Washington has hoped that Allawi and
the
current team, which was selected by U.S. and U.N. envoys, would win or
do
well in Iraq's first democratic election, in January. U.S. officials
believe a secular government led by moderates is critical, in part
because
the new government will oversee writing a new Iraqi constitution.
"The picture it paints is that, after all the blood and treasure we've
spent and despite the [U.S.-led] occupation's democracy efforts, we're
in a
position now that the moderates would not win if an election were held
today," said a U.S. official who requested anonymity because the poll
has
not been released.
U.S. officials acknowledge that the political honeymoon after the
handover
of political power on June 28 ended much earlier than anticipated. The
new
poll, based on 2,000 face-to-face interviews conducted among all ethnic
and
religious groups nationwide between Sept. 24 and Oct. 4, shows that
Iraqi
support for the government has plummeted to about 43 percent who
believe it
is effective, down from 62 percent in a late-summer poll.
A senior State Department official played down the results. "When the
interim government took over, the [poll] numbers were artificially
high.
It's very difficult to meet expectations when they're sky-high," he
said on
the condition of anonymity because the data are still being analyzed.
But in another blow, one out of three Iraqis blames the U.S.-led
multinational force for Iraq's security problems, slightly more than
the 32
percent who blame foreign terrorists, the poll shows. Only 8 percent
blame
members of the former government...
-----
HARASSMENT AS A MILITARY DUTY
Amira Hass, Haaretz, 10/20/04
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/490930.html
Every day soldiers confiscate the identity cards of West Bank
Palestinians
even though this is prohibited by the law - even by military orders,
except
under very specific conditions.
It looks like a concentrated mass violation of army instructions. Every
day
soldiers confiscate the identity cards of West Bank Palestinians even
though this is prohibited by the law - even by military orders, except
under very specific conditions.
In the best cases, people are delayed for five, six, or seven hours -
far
more than any reasonable security check - and then they get their cards
back at the end of the day. In the worst cases the ID cards get lost in
the
shuffle between soldiers' shifts. Often, the soldiers tell people "come
tomorrow" to some place where they will get their ID card back - the
district coordination office, another checkpoint. The West Bankers show
up
the next day and are greeted by apathetic shrugs.
In the narrow columns rationed out in the media for reports about the
occupation, the confiscation of ID cards cannot compete with the
killing of
children, the obstruction of olive harvests, the demolition of homes.
But
the confiscation of documents, like the hours of delays at the
checkpoints
using "security checks" as an excuse, are some of the most common
harassment measures that define the Israeli to Palestinians -
arbitrary,
malicious, negligent, arrogant, brutal…
-----
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-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
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http://mail2web.com/ .
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS – 10/24/04
* CAIR’S 'SHARING RAMADAN' IFTAR INITIATIVE
- UT Islamic Groups Invite Public (Deseret Morning News)
- View Local Iftar Listings
- ‘Muhammad: The Last Prophet’ Opens Nationwide on Eid
* SAN DIEGO ORDERS REMOVAL OF RAMADAN BANNERS (Union-Trib)
* CAIR-LA: RIGHTS GROUP CRITICIZES RESPONSE TO PROF'S COMMENTS (AP)
- CA Professor Suggests Genocide Against Muslims (CAIR)
* DE SCHOOL GIVES MUSLIM STUDENTS PLACE TO PRAY (News Journal)
* A SECRET REWRITING OF MILITARY LAW (New York Times)
- Memo Lets CIA Take Detainees Out of Iraq (Wash Post)
* FL: CONDOLEEZZA RICE TO SPEAK AT AIPAC EVENT (Reuters)
-----
CAIR’S 'SHARING RAMADAN' IFTAR OPEN HOUSE INITIATIVE
http://cair-net.org/ramadan2004/ramadan2004.asp?page=rsvp
SEE ALSO:
ISLAMIC GROUPS INVITE PUBLIC
Deseret Morning News, 10/23/04
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,595100042,00.html
During this month of Ramadan mosques and Muslim organizations are being
encouraged by the Council on American-Islamic Relations to open their
doors
to non-Muslims in an effort to spread understanding about their
religion
amid attacks by terrorists who lay a more dubious claim to Islam.
In that spirit, the Iqra Academy of Utah and the Islamic Society of
Greater
Salt Lake City will hold an iftar potluck dinner to which the public is
invited to attend. The dinner will be held on Sunday, Oct. 31, at the
Lone
Peak Park Pavilion, 10140 S. 700 East, in Sandy. Dinner will begin at
sunset, around 5:30 p.m.
The public is also invited to attend a screening of "Muhammad the Last
Prophet" at the Broadway Cinemas, 111 E. 300 South, on Nov. 14 at noon,
2:15 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. and Nov. 15 and 16 at 7 p.m.
The film, which will debut across the country, is a cartoon depiction
of
the life of Muhammad.
---
VIEW LOCAL IFTAR LISTINGS
http://cair-net.org/ramadan2004/ramadan2004.asp?page=listings
---
‘MUHAMMAD: THE LAST PROPHET’ OPENS NATIONWIDE ON EID
SEE: http://finemediagroup.com/
-----
DISPLAY OF RAMADAN BANNERS AT ISSUE
Removal upsets Muslim group
Kristen Green, UNION-TRIBUNE, 10/23/04
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20041023-9999-7m23ram.html
Muslim business owners in southeastern San Diego are angry over the
city's
ordering the removal of 16 green-and-white Ramadan banners from
lampposts
this week.
For the past five years, the signs have been a fixture in the community
during the monthlong holiday, a time of fasting and prayer. The banners
feature a half moon, a star and the words "Ramadan Mubarak," which mean
blessed Ramadan.
Yet, this week, a city code enforcement officer who received a
complaint
said the banners needed to be taken down because of their religious
content.
Abdur-Rahim Hameed, president of the Black Contractors Association,
said
the removal of the Ramadan banners is "a very upsetting thing." He
questions whether Christmas displays are also going to be outlawed by
the
city.
The code officer who inspected the banners found they didn't meet city
code
because of their religious subject matter. The officer's supervisor,
code
enforcement coordinator Melody Negrete, also noted that the Diamond
Business Improvement District, which runs the neighborhood's banner
program, had not obtained a permit to display them.
The city asked the district, which stores the banners and pays to have
them
put up and taken down every year, to immediately take down the banners.
The
district complied the following day, the district's executive director,
Cordell Thomas, said.
The city of San Diego reimburses the district for putting up and
removing
the banners, Thomas said.
Negrete said the officer cited city code that says "banners shall be
used
for the purpose of promoting cultural or civic events or activities of
general public interest." The officer also referred to a city special
event
flier, which says that "the banners cannot be political or religious in
subject matter."
The attorney for the district, John Stump, takes issue with the city's
decision. He said the district has a contract with the city that allows
it
to place banners up throughout the year.
He questions the determination that the banners are religious, saying
the
U.S. Postal Service has issued a Ramadan stamp in its holiday series,
which
has been out for years.
Stump said he was waiting for a call on the matter from the City
Attorney's
Office. But Maria Velasquez, that office's spokeswoman, said, "It's a
very
straightforward matter that is being handled by neighborhood code
compliance."
Hameed said the decision is an attack on Muslims, who he believes have
become an easy target since 9/11. "It's open season on Muslims," he
said…
SEND POLITE COMMENTS TO:
Mr. Dick Murphy
Mayor of San Diego
E-MAIL: dickmurphy@sandiego.gov, manager@sandiego.gov,
Crudy@sandiego.gov,
bw@sandiego.gov
COPY TO: socal@cair.com, cair@cair-net.org
-----
RIGHTS GROUP CRITICIZES RESPONSE TO IMPERIAL PROFESSOR'S COMMENTS
MICHELLE MORGANTE, Associated Press, 10/22/04
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/coun
ties/alameda_county/9990318.htm
SAN DIEGO - A civil liberties group criticized Imperial Valley College
on
Friday for declining to reprimand a professor who suggested to his
students
that Islamic terrorism could only be wiped out by eliminating the
Islamic
religion.
Jeff Beckley, an assistant professor of business, was discussing the
presidential campaign with his students at the campus in Imperial on
Oct. 7
when the talk turned to terrorism.
Beckley, 42, said Friday he told the class: "Terrorism is a fact of
life.
Terrorists are people."
"I said 'The only way to eliminate Islamic terrorism would be to end
the
Islamic religion. The only way to eliminate Christian terrorism, would
be
to end the Christian religion. The only way to eliminate terrorism,
would
be to eliminate people.'"
One student, Prabhath Shettigar, an El Centro attorney, objected to
Beckley's statements, according to the Southern California office of
the
Council on American-Islamic Relations. Beckley said Shettigar's
comments
became personal and he asked the student to leave the class…
The Council on American-Islamic Relations said the college has not
adequately addressed the seriousness of the incident and commended
Shettigar, whom it said was of the Hindu faith, for "standing up for
Islam
and Muslims."
The college's response "sends the message that suggesting genocide is
acceptable on an American college campus," said Sabiha Khan,
spokeswoman
for the Anaheim-based council.
SEE ALSO:
CALIFORNIA PROFESSOR SUGGESTS GENOCIDE AGAINST MUSLIMS
http://cair-net.org/asp/article.asp?id=189&page=AA
-----
MUSLIMS SEE CHANGE AT SCHOOL
Parents say children have been given place to pray during holiday
By MIKE BILLINGTON, News Journal, 10/23/04
http://www.delawareonline.com/newsjournal/local/2004/10/23muslimsseechang.ht
ml
A day after Muslim students at Bancroft Intermediate School were told
they
could not pray in school and had to sit in the cafeteria at lunch
despite
fasting in observance of Islam's holy month of Ramadan, one child was
allowed Friday to go to a private room to pray.
The Christina School District said the students will not be forced to
sit
in the lunchroom as long as their parents submit in writing that the
children are fasting.
The mothers of two Muslim students said Friday they were pleased with
the
district's response to their request that the students be allowed to
observe Ramadan properly.
Shaida Fennell said that her son, Hashim, 12, was escorted by a teacher
to
a private room twice during the day so he could pray. He also was not
forced to remain in the lunchroom with other students, she said.
The two mothers had complained that it was unfair that their children
sit
in the lunchroom because Muslims are required to abstain from food and
drink during daylight hours during Ramadan...
-----
AFTER TERROR, A SECRET REWRITING OF MILITARY LAW
TIM GOLDEN, New York Times, 10/24/04
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/24/international/worldspecial2/24gitmo.html
WASHINGTON - In early November 2001, with Americans still staggered by
the
Sept. 11 attacks, a small group of White House officials worked in
great
secrecy to devise a new system of justice for the new war they had
declared
on terrorism.
Determined to deal aggressively with the terrorists they expected to
capture, the officials bypassed the federal courts and their
constitutional
guarantees, giving the military the authority to detain foreign
suspects
indefinitely and prosecute them in tribunals not used since World War
II.
The plan was considered so sensitive that senior White House officials
kept
its final details hidden from the president's national security
adviser,
Condoleezza Rice, and the secretary of state, Colin L. Powell,
officials
said. It was so urgent, some of those involved said, that they hardly
thought of consulting Congress.
White House officials said their use of extraordinary powers would
allow
the Pentagon to collect crucial intelligence and mete out swift,
unmerciful
justice. "We think it guarantees that we'll have the kind of treatment
of
these individuals that we believe they deserve," said Vice President
Dick
Cheney, who was a driving force behind the policy.
But three years later, not a single terrorist has been prosecuted. Of
the
roughly 560 men being held at the United States naval base at
Guant�namo
Bay, Cuba, only 4 have been formally charged. Preliminary hearings for
those suspects brought such a barrage of procedural challenges and
public
criticism that verdicts could still be months away. And since a Supreme
Court decision in June that gave the detainees the right to challenge
their
imprisonment in federal court, the Pentagon has stepped up efforts to
send
home hundreds of men whom it once branded as dangerous terrorists…
SEE ALSO:
MEMO LETS CIA TAKE DETAINEES OUT OF IRAQ
Practice Is Called Serious Breach of Geneva Conventions
Dana Priest, Washington Post, 10/24/04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57363-2004Oct23.html
At the request of the CIA, the Justice Department drafted a
confidential
memo that authorizes the agency to transfer detainees out of Iraq for
interrogation -- a practice that international legal specialists say
contravenes the Geneva Conventions.
One intelligence official familiar with the operation said the CIA has
used
the March draft memo as legal support for secretly transporting as many
as
a dozen detainees out of Iraq in the last six months. The agency has
concealed the detainees from the International Committee of the Red
Cross
and other authorities, the official said…
-----
BUSH, AIDES COURT JEWISH VOTES IN TIGHT RACE
Adam Entous, Reuters, 10/24/04
WASHINGTON, Oct 24 (Reuters) - A speech by President George W. Bush's
national security adviser to a powerful pro-Israel lobbying group in
Florida eight days before the election caps a concerted Republican
drive
for Jewish votes that has so far yielded minimal results.
Seemingly undeterred by a probe into whether the AIPAC lobbying group
passed classified information to Israel -- an allegation it denies --
the
White House has given the organization almost unparalleled access to
top
officials, from Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney on down.
Bush addressed the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC,
in
May, and declared that it was "serving the cause of America."
Now his national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, who described AIPAC
as
"a great asset to our country," will address the group on Monday in
Hollywood, Florida, in one of the most hotly contested battleground
states
in the Nov. 2 race…
-----
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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
--------------------------------------------------------------------
mail2web - Check your email from the web at
http://mail2web.com/ .
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 10/25/04
* VERSE OF THE DAY: RIGHTEOUS DEEDS REWARDED
* SUPPORT CAIR'S $1 MILLION DURING RAMADAN CAMPAIGN
- Join CAIR's 'Sharing Ramadan' Campaign
- CAIR Library Project: 7774 Sponsorships
* MUSLIMS SEEN ABANDONING BUSH (Wash Post)
- Arab and Jewish Votes (NY Times)
- Poll: Muslim Voters Overwhelmingly Favor Kerry
- AMT-PAC Offers Qualified Kerry Endorsement
* NY: LAWMAKER VOWS TO FIGHT FOR MUSLIMS' RIGHTS (PJ)
* WI: ISLAMIC SCHOOLS TEACH AGE-OLD LESSONS (Journal Sent)
* IN: MUSLIMS PLAN TO BUILD HOMES IN M'VILLE (Times)
-----
VERSE OF THE DAY: RIGHTEOUS DEEDS REWARDED
"Whoever does righteous deeds - whether man or woman - and has faith,
We
shall surely grant him a new life, a life that is good. And We will
certainly reward such people according to the noblest of their deeds."
The Holy Quran, 16:97
-----
SUPPORT CAIR'S $1 MILLION DURING RAMADAN CAMPAIGN
For the past 9 years, CAIR has been issuing reports on the status of
American Muslim's civil rights. These one-of-a-kind reports provide
invaluable information to help track anti-Muslim discrimination and
bias.
Donate generously to the "$1 Million for Islam in Ramadan" campaign at:
http://www.cair-net.org/asp/millionforislam.asp
(NOTE: Scholars says CAIR is able to receive ZAKAT donations.)
ALSO SEE:
JOIN CAIR'S 'SHARING RAMADAN' CAMPAIGN
Please, encourage your community to join CAIR's Sharing Ramadan
campaign by
filling out the following form and e-mailing it to:
ramadan@cair-net.org
ORGANIZATION NAME:
DATE OF YOUR IFTAR OPEN HOUSE:
NUMBER OF PEOPLE EXPECTED:
CONTACT PERSON NAME:
STREET ADDRESS:
PHONE NUMBER:
E-MAIL ADDRESS:
FOR BACKGROUND, SEE:
"U.S. MOSQUES URGED TO REACH OUT WITH 'SHARING RAMADAN' IFTARS"
http://www.cair-net.org/asp/article.asp?id=182&page=AA
---
CAIR PUBLIC LIBRARY PROJECT UPDATE: 7440 SPONSORSHIPS
The goal of CAIR's library project is to send accurate and objective
information about Islam to America's 16,000 public libraries.
For only $150, Muslim individuals and groups may sponsor 18-item
packages
about Islam and Muslims, which are then distributed to the library of
their
choice.
To sponsor a library call, 1-800-392-7876, ext. 320, or visit:
http://www.cair-net.org/libraryproject/
-----
MUSLIMS SEEN ABANDONING BUSH
Caryle Murphy, Washington Post, 10/25/04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A59781-2004Oct24
Absar Chowdhury of Sterling cast his ballot for George W. Bush in 2000
because the Republican candidate vowed to stop the use of secret
evidence
in deportation hearings, opposed abortion and "looked like he was
religious."
But the Bangladesh-born Muslim said he will vote for Democrat John F.
Kerry
next week because President Bush has disappointed him in several ways.
In
particular, Chowdhury cited an erosion of civil liberties, including
the
continuing use of secret evidence, and the war in Iraq, which has left
thousands of Iraqis and more than 1,100 Americans dead.
"He was saying that he was religious, but the Fifth Commandment says we
shall not kill," said Chowdhury, 45, a computer center shift manager.
Chowdhury is emblematic of a dramatic switch among Muslim voters. Four
years ago, 42 percent of them voted for Bush. But in this year's race,
they
are expected to vote overwhelmingly for his Democratic opponent, with
one
recent poll showing 76 percent of the Muslim vote going to Kerry and 7
percent to Bush.
"For American Muslims, there has been a sea change in political
alignment
and outlook since 9/11," said Zahid H. Bukhari, director of Georgetown
University's Project MAPS, a long-term research project on American
Muslims, which commissioned Zogby International to conduct the recent
poll.
"No matter what Bush says to Muslims right now, it doesn't matter
because
he's broken so much trust with our community," said Nabil Yousef, 21,
of
Arlington, a Georgetown University senior who started
www.muslimsforKerry.com in August.
The election also has sparked unprecedented Muslim activism. After
months
of voter registration drives and candidate forums, Muslim organizations
are
arranging transportation for voters on Election Day, phone banks to get
out
the vote and volunteers to explain ballot designs. Mosque prayer
leaders,
or imams, are encouraging their congregations to vote, and Muslim
leaders
anticipate the highest-ever turnout in their community.
"Muslims are probably the most sensitized and motivated group to vote
this
year," said Mukit Hossain of Sterling, president of the Muslim American
Political Action Committee, which endorsed Kerry. "Voter registration
is in
the 90 percent range, and I would be very surprised if almost 80
percent of
those people don't come out to vote..."
ALSO SEE:
ARAB AND JEWISH VOTES
William Safire, New York Times, 10/25/04
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/25/opinion/25safire.html
Washington - You have to give credit to Arab-Americans, and to the
overlapping category of American Muslims, for knowing what side they
are on
in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - and for voting for those they
believe
would address their concerns.
Four years ago, they voted almost two to one for George W. Bush,
thinking
he would act like his father. Today, according to the Zogby poll,
American
Muslim voters are going 10 to 1 in the opposite political direction -
for
John Kerry over Bush. Not only do they see Bush's Patriot Act as
discriminatory, most of these Americans dislike the president's
unwavering
support of Israel - including his backing of Ariel Sharon's security
fence
and the diplomatic isolation of Yasir Arafat.
This stunning reversal of opinion within a growing voting bloc is
having an
impact. For example, about a half million Arab-Americans live in
Michigan,
according to the Arab American Institute; most have turned strongly
anti-Bush. That's why pollsters are counting Michigan, with its 17
electoral votes, as "leaning toward Kerry."
What about the other voting group that has a special interest in ending
the
war launched against Israelis after Yasir Arafat turned down the offer
brokered by President Clinton?
Jewish American voters who differ with their Arab and Muslim
compatriots,
one might logically conclude, would seriously consider supporting the
candidate who many Israelis believe has been their best friend in the
White
House.
But such logic is misleading. Four years ago, candidate Bush received
20
percent of the "Jewish vote," about halfway between the low point for a
Republican candidate (5 percent for Goldwater) and the high point (39
percent for Reagan). Today, it appears that Bush is getting only
slightly
more than the 20 percent of last time.
Despite the fact that this president has firmly backed Israel's
vigorous
self-defense - and time and again vetoed or denounced lopsided U.N.
votes
to ostracize Israel - 8 out of 10 Jewish American voters will still
vote as
a bloc to oust him...
---
POLL: MUSLIM VOTERS OVERWHELMINGLY FAVOR KERRY
http://cair-net.org/asp/article.asp?id=1277&page=NR
---
MUSLIM COALITION OFFERS QUALIFIED KERRY ENDORSEMENT
http://cair-net.org/asp/article.asp?id=1275&page=NR
-----
HINCHEY VOWS TO FIGHT FOR MUSLIMS' RIGHTS
Nik Bonopartis, Poughkeepsie Journal, 10/25/04
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/today/localnews/stories/lo102504s5.shtml
NEW HACKENSACK -- In a campaign stop at the Masjid Al-Noor mosque
Sunday,
U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey broke the Ramadan fast with local Muslims and
vowed to help protect their civil rights.
It was the first appearance by a politician at the Wappinger mosque,
but
not the first visit to a mosque by Hinchey, D-Hurley. He said he last
fasted on Ramadan in Damascus, Syria.
Hinchey is running against Republican Bill Brenner of Sullivan County.
After participating in evening prayers, Hinchey spoke to the assembly,
warning them of the stakes in the upcoming election.
''This is a critical moment where we can't afford not to be honest with
each other,'' Hinchey said, referring to the presidential race and his
bid
for a seventh term. ''There is very much at stake here.''
Hinchey fielded questions ranging from topics such as immigration to
why
there aren't days off in the public school calendar for Muslim
holidays.
But the crowd seemed most interested in issues they say hit closer to
home:
racial profiling and anti-Muslim bias since the terrorist attacks of
Sept.
11, 2001, and the implications of the Patriot Act on civil liberties.
Muslims ''lost respect'' after Sept. 11, said Arif Muslim, chairman of
the
board of the Mid-Hudson Islamic Association.
Muslim said ''many Americans watched us with one eye open and feared
that
the majority of Muslims were like the terrorists they now feared,
instead
of like the friends they once respected...''
-----
ISLAMIC SCHOOLS TEACH AGE-OLD LESSONS
Jamaal Abdul-Alim, Journal Sentinel, 10/24/04
http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/oct04/269383.asp
In the second-floor science lab at Salam School - where a telescope
sits
near a window and a human model with an exposed heart sits atop a shelf
-
12-year-old Afreena Kahn recites passages from a book more than 14
centuries old.
You can memorize 100 suras. But if you don't know what they mean, they
will
not have an impact on your life.
As her instructor listens intently, she reads aloud from a chapter
called
"The Light."
Most textbooks would be considered outdated if they were more than 10
years
old, let alone 1,400. But for Kahn and a growing cadre of students at
two
Islamic schools in Milwaukee, this particular book - which describes
itself
as a book "explaining all things" - could never be obsolete.
The book is the Qur'an, and Islam's faithful regard it as the word of
God,
whom Muslims call Allah.
The students at Salam School, 4707 S. 13th St., and Clara Mohammed
School,
317 W. Wright St. - choice schools where more than 75% of the students
attend with taxpayer funds - are studying the text in Arabic.
Those lessons will take on added importance over the next few weeks, as
Muslims worldwide observe the Islamic holy month of Ramadan - the month
in
which Muslims believe the Qur'an was revealed. Arabic is the language
spoken by Mohammed, the unlettered, 7th century caravan trader to whom
Muslims believe the book was revealed...
-----
MUSLIMS PLAN TO BUILD HOMES IN M'VILLE
Deborah Laverty, Times Online, 10/25/04
http://www.thetimesonline.com/articles/2004/10/25/news/top_news/89486edd4969c9cb86256f370070d3a9.txt
MERRILLVILLE -- Spurned by some Chicago suburbs, Muslims are planning a
large scale subdivision near the Lake-Porter county line.
Congregants of the Northwest Indiana Islamic Center have been quietly
buying land adjacent to the center in Merrillville with the dream of
building a large residential subdivision modeled after one of Northwest
Indiana's most prestigious communities, but centered around a mosque
instead of a golf course clubhouse.
"It would be like a Briar Ridge (in Schererville/Dyer). A lot of
subdivisions, like Briar Ridge, have country clubs but we're giving
buyers
an option to have a mosque as a centerpiece," said Northwest Indiana
Islamic Center spokesman Ali Khan.
He said the subdivision would be built on 300 to 400 acres to the west
of
the center, 9803 Colorado St.
Plans are to build high-end to medium-priced houses as well as high-end
apartments on surrounding acreage owned by members of the local Islamic
center.
Some Chicago suburbs, including Orland Park and Palos Heights, have
found
themselves at odds with growing Muslim populations, but Muslim leaders
in
Northwest Indiana said their favorable reception locally encouraged
them to
plan to build their own community on open fields in Merrilville.
Even so, some Merrillville officials suggest the plan has obstacles to
cross before gaining approval, including extension of water and sewer
lines
and concerns about increased traffic...
-----
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-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 10/26/04
* HADITH OF THE DAY: MODESTY IS PART OF FAITH
* SUPPORT CAIR'S $1 MILLION DURING RAMADAN CAMPAIGN
- CAIR Library Project: 7774 Sponsorships
* CAIR-KY OFFERS WORKSHOP ON ISLAM FOR FBI AGENTS
- CAIR-Houston Offers Training to Hospital Chaplains
- CAIR-GA: Muslim Students Seek Friday Prayer Sessions
- CAIR-CT Files Bias Complaint Against Circuit City
* CAIR REP DISCUSSES MUSLIM VOTE ON CNN
- INCITEMENT WATCH: Will Muslims Elect Sen. Kerry?
* NY: ISLAMIC CENTER BUILDS COMMUNITY (Daily Orange)
* MN: HATE ATTACKS ARE UN-MINNESOTAN (Twin Cities)
- NJ: Arab-Americans Find Their Voice (Herald News)
* P.S. - AL-ARIAN HASN'T BEEN TRIED (Palm Beach Post)
* RADIO ISLAM A FIRST IN CHICAGO (NPR)
* U.S. BARS RIGHT OF SOME CAPTURED IN IRAQ (NY Times)
* 78 PEOPLE SUFFOCATED OR KILLED IN THAILAND (AP)
- Muslims Beg Thai Army for News of Kin (Reuters)
-----
HADITH OF THE DAY: MODESTY IS PART OF FAITH
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "Modesty is part of
faith
and faith is in Paradise, but obscenity is a part of hardness of heart
and
hardness of heart is in Hell."
Al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 1313
-----
SUPPORT CAIR'S $1 MILLION DURING RAMADAN CAMPAIGN
In the past 10 years, CAIR representatives have taken part in thousands
of
print, television and radio interviews, contributing to a dramatic
increase
in the positive and accurate coverage of Islam and Muslims.
Donate generously to the "$1 Million for Islam in Ramadan" campaign at:
http://www.cair-net.org/asp/millionforislam.asp
(NOTE: Scholars says CAIR is able to receive ZAKAT donations.)
---
CAIR PUBLIC LIBRARY PROJECT UPDATE: 7440 SPONSORSHIPS
The goal of CAIR's library project is to send accurate and objective
information about Islam to America's 16,000 public libraries.
For only $150, Muslim individuals and groups may sponsor 18-item
packages
about Islam and Muslims, which are then distributed to the library of
their
choice.
To sponsor a library call, 1-800-392-7876, ext. 320, or visit:
http://www.cair-net.org/libraryproject/
-----
CAIR-KY OFFERS WORKSHOP ON ISLAM FOR FBI AGENTS
FBI supervisor to speak at Ramadan fast-breaking
(LEXINGTON, KY, 10/26/04) - The Kentucky office of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-KY) held a sensitivity training
workshop
on Islam and the American Muslim community yesterday for FBI agents in
Lexington.
Thirteen FBI agents, including supervisory personnel, attended the
workshop
that examined basic Islamic beliefs and concepts, common stereotypes of
Islam and Muslims and ways in which to improve interactions with the
Muslim
community. Agents were able to ask questions throughout the formal
CAIR-KY
presentation.
"These types of educational workshops help build a better relationship
between law enforcement agencies and the Muslim community," said
CAIR-KY
Chairman Abdul Quayyum. "We hope to expand this successful program to
help
the police and FBI in other areas of our state."
Quayyum said CAIR-KY is also hosting a Ramadan fast-breaking event, or
iftar, for public and law enforcement officials on October 29 in
Lexington.
A senior FBI official who attended the CAIR-KY sensitivity training
session
will speak at that event.
CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, is headquartered
in
Washington, D.C., and has 29 regional offices and chapters nationwide
and
in Canada.
- END -
CONTACT: CAIR-Kentucky, Abdul Quayyum, 859-221-9081, E-Mail:
cairky@cairky.org; Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726,
E-Mail:
ihooper@cair-net.org; Rabiah Ahmed, 202-488-8787 or 202-439-1441,
E-Mail:
rahmed@cair-net.org
SEE ALSO:
CAIR-HOUSTON OFFERS TRAINING TO HOSPITAL CHAPLAINS
(HOUSTON, TX, 10/26/04) - The Houston office of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Houston) provided sensitivity and
diversity training yesterday for local health care professionals and
chaplains at Ben Taub Hospital.
The CAIR-Houston presentation, part of Pastoral Care Week events,
covered
basic Islamic beliefs and practices, as well as specific information
about
Muslim perspectives on illness, medical treatment, gender relations and
the
sanctity of human life. Attendees received copies of CAIR's booklet, "A
Health Care Professional's Guide to Islamic Religious Practices." (The
booklet may be requested by e-mailing pubs@cair-net.org. Include name,
address and phone number in the request.)
"I just want to thank you for the wonderful presentation this morning,
the
Chaplains found that they learned a lot in order to serve the Muslim
community more effectively," said Chaplin Luis Gomez, Director of
Spiritual
Care at LBJ Hospital in Houston.
"We thank Ben Taub Hospital for this opportunity to provide an accurate
portrayal of Islam and the Muslim community," said CAIR-Houston
Executive
Director Iesa Galloway.
Recent CAIR research has shown as many as 1-in-4 Americans hold
anti-Muslim
views. That same research indicates that anti-Muslim prejudice
decreases
when people have access to accurate information about Islam and relate
to
ordinary Muslims. SEE:
http://www.cair-net.org/downloads/pollresults.pdf
Galloway said CAIR-Houston training is available to other
organizations.
Speaker requests may be submitted online at:
http://www.cairhouston.org/speaker.htm
CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, has 29 regional
offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada.
- END -
CONTACT: CAIR-Houston, Iesa Galloway, 713-838-CAIR-(2247) or
832-656-0449,
E-Mail: iesa.galloway@cairhouston.org
---
MUSLIM STUDENTS SEEK FRIDAY PRAYER SESSIONS
Brian Feagans, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 10/26/04
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/gwinnett/1004/26prayer.html
Isam Rashied memorized the Quran at age 13. Illnesses aside, Isam has
prayed at a mosque every Friday since he was a toddler.
But the 15-year-old says he has hit a spiritual wall at Duluth High
School.
The Gwinnett County school hasn't been willing to excuse Isam and his
17-year-old brother, Imaad, from their last class period on Fridays for
the
weekly juma'a prayer required of Muslims.
"It's like stopping others from practicing their religion," said Isam,
a
freshman who until this year attended private Islamic schools that had
the
prayer.
Schools around the country perform a delicate balancing act when asked
to
accommodate juma'a.
Administrators have to balance respect for the religious practice with
a
responsibility to provide a sound education and abide by the principles
of
the separation of church and state.
Bobby Crowson, chief of staff at Gwinnett County schools, said
districts
look at each case individually. "Is the request that has been made
reasonable, given our accountability for educating all children?" he
said.
The Quran commands Muslims to pray in congregation, not alone, on
Friday
afternoons. And in the Atlanta region, most mosques hold juma'a prayer
by 2
p.m., before schools let out.
When asked to help Muslim students meet that obligation, metro area
schools
have responded with everything from a polite "no" to offers to set
aside
classroom space for prayer. Crowson will tackle the issue Wednesday.
He's
scheduled to meet with officials from the Council on American-Islamic
Relations (CAIR) to discuss the Rashied family's request and others
like it
in Georgia's largest school system...
CONTACT: CAIR-NGA Executive Director Chris Burke (770) 220-0082,
E-mail:
bagindo@comcast.net
---
CAIR-CT FILES BIAS COMPLAINT AGAINST CIRCUIT CITY
Muslim customer says he was falsely accused of bomb threat
(NEW LONDON, CT, 10/26/04) - The Connecticut office of the Council of
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CT) today announced that it has filed
a
discrimination complaint against Circuit City with the Massachusetts
Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD) on behalf of a Muslim customer
who
says he was falsely accused of making a bomb threat.
The Muslim customer, who is of Pakistani origin and lives in
Middleboro,
alleges that employees of a Circuit City store in Taunton, Mass., made
the
false accusations to the FBI after he complained about customer service
when he attempted to return a computer purchased at the store earlier
this
month.
On Oct 18, an FBI agent visited the Muslim customer and notified him
that
Circuit City had filed a complaint against him alleging that he said he
"was going to put a bomb in the computer" and that he would "be back so
they better watch out." The customer says no such exchange took place
and
believes he was targeted by store employees because of his Muslim name.
CAIR-CT has called the Circuit City headquarters in Virginia, but has
not
yet received a response.
CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, is headquartered
in
Washington, D.C., and has 29 regional offices and chapters nationwide
and
in Canada.
- END -
CONTACT: CAIR-CT, Badr Malik, 860-995-6628, 860-575-4400
-----
CAIR REP DISCUSSES MUSLIM VOTE ON CNN
CNN International
INSIGHT 11:00 PM EST
October 25, 2004
HEADLINE: The Muslim American Vote
HOSTS: Jonathan Mann, Octavia Nasr
HIGHLIGHT: How will Arab and Muslim American voters impact the upcoming
presidential election?
JONATHAN MANN, CNN HOST: Alienated, uneasy and acting on it. Muslim and
Arab Americans have been buffeted by events since 9/11. When they go to
the
polls to elect a president, they'll be pushing for change.
Hello and welcome.
The numbers are a little unclear, but the broad trend is not. There are
believed to be between 3 and 7 million Muslims in the United States, a
figure that overlaps with the nearly 2 million registered Arab American
voters. Polls suggest Muslims voted overwhelmingly to elect President
Bush
in the year 2000 and that this time things will be different. Could it
cost
him the election?
On our program today, minority momentum. CNN senior Arab affairs editor
Octavia Nasr…
Joining us now to talk about that is Nihad Awad, executive director of
the
Council on American Islamic Relations.
Thanks so much for being with us.
There are millions of Muslim Americans in this country. Why don't the
political institutions of this country, why don't the rest of us hear
more
from them?
NIHAD AWAD, COUNCIL ON AMERICAN ISLAMIC RELATIONS: It is I believe a
matter
of time. There are 7 million Muslims in the United States. Many of them
are
immigrants. Many of them are becoming more involved in the political
process.
You know, one administration after the other is paying attention to
what
Muslims have to say. Are they being included in the decision making?
Not
yet.
The Muslim organizations who base themselves on political platforms are
just new and therefore the experience, the American Muslim experience,
is
fresh, but I think parties and politicians, candidates, are paying
attention, because they can be a critical mass in the elections,
especially
in the swing states.
MANN: Let me ask you about that in fact. Where do you think they're
going
to be most important? And do you think that Muslims by and large will
vote
all the same way? Strength in numbers?
AWAD: Well, of course, you know, the concentration of American Muslims
are
in California, New York, Michigan, Florida and Ohio, including
Pennsylvania. I believe that this year they may hold the margin of
victory
in their hands the same way they had it in the year 2000.
In the year 2000 for the first time they formed the American Muslim
voting
block and they voted 78 percent for George Bush. George Bush now has
lost
most of this support because of certain policies and we have seen in
the
previous debate talking about civil rights and foreign policy.
Today I think from the surveys and polls, most American Muslims are
planning to vote for John Kerry. Now what will help American Muslims to
vote together and maintain the voting block they started in the year
2000
is the formation of the coalition or the American Muslim Task Force on
Civil Rights and Election, and that represents I believe the majority
of
American Muslims, immigrant Muslims, indigenous Muslims and the second
generation.
There is great enthusiasm about this election because how Muslims feel
that
what went wrong in the past few years, whether on the domestic level or
foreign policy…
SEE ALSO:
INCITEMENT WATCH: WILL MUSLIMS ELECT SEN. KERRY?
Chattanooga Times Free Press, 10/26/04
http://class.timesfreepress.com/
Everyone agrees next Tuesday's presidential election will be very, very
close. Will 7 million Muslims in America elect Sen. John Kerry?
That's what they intend to do, according to their plan that has not
been
widely reported by American wire news services, most newspapers, big TV
news broadcasts and cable TV news programs.
We reported on this editorial page last Saturday that nearly a dozen
Muslim
groups in the United States, which seek to guide 7 million Muslims,
have
declared their opposition to President George W. Bush and support for
Sen.
Kerry.
The Muslim organizations say the presidential election may be decided
by
the way several battleground states -- Florida, Michigan, Ohio,
Pennsylvania and Wisconsin -- go.
Since polls suggest voters in those states are nearly equally divided,
the
Muslims say they believe that if the 7 million Muslims vote for Sen.
Kerry,
that will tip the scales and make Sen. Kerry president.
There are 538 electoral votes. Imagine a map of the United States.
California's 55 electoral votes are surely going for Sen. Kerry. Color
California blue. New York's 31 electoral votes surely are going for
Sen.
Kerry. Color New York blue, along with a nest of little states in that
area.
Then look at the vast rest of the United States, particularly the South
and
West. Most of those states are for President Bush. Color them red.
It is easy to check off states and find about 200 electoral votes for
each
candidate. But a winner must have 270.
That's why President Bush and Sen. Kerry are frantically seeking to win
Florida's 27 electoral votes, Michigan's 17, Ohio's 20, Pennsylvania's
21,
Wisconsin's 10, and others that may be in doubt.
The question Americans should be asking is whether the interests of 7
million Muslims in supporting Sen. Kerry correspond with the best
interests
of the United States as we are fighting a worldwide war against
terrorism
and seeking to establish democratic rule in Iraq.
Will we let 7 million Muslims make Sen. Kerry our next president by
determining the outcome in the closely contested states?
Or do the best interests of all Americans call for the re-election of
President Bush?
SEND LETTERS TO THE EDITOR AT: haustin@timesfreepress.com,
landerson@timesfreepress.com
COPY TO: cair@cair-net.org
-----
NY: ISLAMIC CENTER BUILDS COMMUNITY
Molly Murkett, Daily Orange, 10/26/04
http://www.dailyorange.com/news/2004/10/26/Pulp/Islamic.Center.Builds.Commun
ity-781060.shtml
Urooj Khan had been on campus for only two days when he discovered the
Islamic Society of Central New York Mosque on Comstock Avenue.
The Syracuse University graduate accounting student soon became a
regular
at the center, attending prayer meeting every Friday. He finds the
Muslim
community in Syracuse far stronger than that in India, where he was
born,
as people are more committed to the cause of Islam.
"It made me feel like I should give back to the community," Khan said.
And now, in the midst of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, even more
people have demonstrated their devotion to their doctrines and
community at
the center. More than 200 people attend services at the center, said
Anwer
Ahmed, president of the society and an associate professor of
management at
SU. Normally, about 40 to 60 students attend services, but this greater
attendance is nothing unusual for this time of reflection and
self-assessment...
-----
HATE ATTACKS ARE UN-MINNESOTAN
Zafar Siddiqui, Twin Cities, 10/26/04
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/editorial/10012486.htm
Since the 9/11 attacks, Muslims across the United States have faced
unprecedented harassment and discrimination, including death threats,
arson, loss of employment and isolation.
The recent increase in hate crimes against the Muslim communities in
Minnesota is disturbing to say the least. According to a poll released
recently by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, one in four
Americans believes a number of anti-Muslim stereotypes, and negative
images
of Muslims are 16 times more prevalent than positive ones. The other
factors contributing to this increase in hate is the hate-mongering in
some
political circles and in some media outlets.
Minnesota Muslims have been somewhat shielded from these hate campaigns
sweeping America. While we experienced some harassment and
discrimination,
it was to a much smaller degree than what most Muslims have been
enduring
in other states in the aftermath of 9/11. Immediately after the 9/11
terrorist attacks, Minnesotans demonstrated great understanding and
concern
for their Muslim compatriots. Lawmakers, law enforcement officials and
faith-based organizations made great efforts to reassure the Muslim
community, which feared backlash.
By and large, Minnesotans have been gracious in welcoming thousands of
refugees from Muslim countries. Indigenous and immigrant Muslims are
very
much part of the mosaic of Minnesota's social fabric. We have always
felt
that Minnesota is a shining example for America as a whole.
The Islamic Resource Group communicates with dozens of Islamic
speakers'
bureaus across the United States, and we always praise the civility and
tolerance that Minnesota provides.
While some speakers' bureaus would tell stories of the difficulty and
challenges to speak and build rapport with non-Muslims, we would tell a
much different story of many requests from schools and other public
institutions seeking to create a better understanding.
In nearly 900 presentations on Islam, our experience with the 40,000
audience members has been extremely edifying. This emphatically
underscores
the point that there is no substitute to bilateral education...
SEE ALSO:
FIND THEIR VOICE
JONATHAN MASLOW, HERALD NEWS, 10/26/04
http://www.northjersey.com
Basima Mustafa checked out of her American skin after Sept. 11, 2001.
When the Paterson teacher led a discussion of the terrorist acts with
her
School 9 social studies classes, she felt herself reeling from the
shock,
hurt and confusion. She would never forget one Hispanic blind girl, who
asked the question on the minds of most Americans, "Why do they hate
us,
Ms. Mustafa?"
Us. In the following months, Mustafa, 43, who was born in Jordan,
raised in
Paterson and graduated from William Paterson University, retreated from
the
fine line she had always walked between her identity as a modern
American
professional woman and the traditional culture of her Palestinian
parents.
She shrank from the flag waving and patriotic fervor. Instead of
following
her lifelong habit of reading The New York Times every day, she found
herself gazing numbly at shows like "The Bachelor" on television.
"And that's so not me," Mustafa said.
Then came the winter of 2003 and the debate over whether Saddam Hussein
had
weapons of mass destruction and posed an imminent threat to the United
States. Suddenly, Mustafa got angry at the idea that a war she was
skeptical about could be started in her name as an American - and she
lifted her post-9/11 veil.
She began by attending an anti-war rally in Washington. In time, she
would
join the Arab-American Democratic Caucus and the Network of
Arab-American
Professionals. Last year, she was appointed to the New Jersey Arab and
Muslim Advisory Committee to the Attorney General. She registered
parents
of students, teacher colleagues and neighbors to vote. In September,
she
started teaching night classes in English to immigrants, most of them
Arabic speaking. Now it's hard to keep up with her whorl of engagement.
"Anger is a great feeling. Because you start to get angry, and you
start to
care about something." Mustafa said.
Like Mustafa, a number of Arab-Americans in North Jersey have overcome
the
challenges of the past three years by doing what Americans do best:
speaking out to defend their constitutional rights and organizing to
fight
injustice as they see it…
-----
P.S.: AL-ARIAN HASN'T BEEN TRIED
C.B. Hanif, Palm Beach Post, 10/24/04
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2004/10/2
4/m12e_lp_1024.html
Bill Neubauer "was fascinated by an element that the professional
analysts
did not mention after the debate by Betty Castor and Mel Martinez,
candidates for the U.S. Senate. As nearly as I could tell," said the
West
Palm Beach reader, "they spent the most time on the status of the
tenured
professor at the University of South Florida accused of aiding
terrorists."
The reference was to Sami Al-Arian, whom Mr. Martinez has made the
issue in
that campaign, despite the fact that Dr. Al-Arian campaigned with
candidate
George Bush and his wife in 2000 and even was invited to the White
House in
2001 while Mr. Martinez was a member of President Bush's Cabinet. Mr.
Neubauer's point?
"Both candidates seemed to assume that the professor is guilty.
Actually,
they are not alone. In articles about school vouchers, The Post has
suggested that the school founded by the professor was somehow tainted
because the founder was accused of helping terrorists. What nobody
seems to
acknowledge is that the guy has not been convicted of anything. I
couldn't
help wondering what ever happened to that fine American tradition of a
presumption of innocence until proven guilty."
Mr. Neubauer is correct in his assessment of how the school has been
characterized. He also has spotlighted another case of news
organizations'
failure to hold not only government officials accountable.
The Post accurately reported the facts, for example, in the case of
Mustafa
Abu Sway. The State Department-vetted Fulbright scholar was a visiting
professor at Florida Atlantic University's Honors College a year ago.
Then,
he was accused of being tied to a terrorist group, based on no known
evidence other than that claim in a document on Israeli government
stationery. Leading the charge in that case was Daniel Pipes, infamous
for
his Islam- and Arab-baiting. But news organizations don't appear to be
questioning how he and others are getting away with their "tied to
terrorists" strategy, whose object seems to be to discourage academic
freedom and certain viewpoints...
-----
RADIO ISLAM, A FIRST, IN CHICAGO
NPR, 10/27/04
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4125875
All Things Considered, October 25, 2004 � Radio Islam, the nation's
first
daily English-language Muslim radio program produced in the United
States,
began airing this month in Chicago. NPR's Cheryl Corley reports...
(Soundbite of radio broadcast)
Unidentified Announcer: This is WCEV, 1450 AM, Cicero, Illinois.
CHERYL CORLEY reporting:
In the tiny control room of WCEV Radio, an engineer and a producer,
already
hunched by the phone, take a quick glance at the clock. The station
sells
time to producers of ethnic programs, and its newest show is about to
begin.
(Soundbite of "Radio Islam" broadcast)
Ms. SAMIRA SAEED (Host, "Radio Islam"): WCEV now presents "Radio
Islam,"
produced by...
CORLEY: This day, Samira Saeed, one of the program's seven Muslim
hosts,
starts "Radio Islam's" hourlong show with a newscast, while producer
Chuck
Ruby(ph) gets ready for the next segment.
Mr. CHUCK RUBY (Producer, "Radio Islam"): OK. We have about two
minutes, I
think. We're coming out of news. I'm going to put you on hold.
CORLEY: The guest on the telephone is Professor Jack Shaheen, who
examines
how Muslims and Arabs are portrayed in film in his book "Real Bad
Arabs:
How Hollywood Vilifies a People."
(Soundbite of "Radio Islam" broadcast)
Professor JACK SHAHEEN (Author, "Read Bad Arabs"): So what we have is
an
unending barrage of images that teach audiences that Muslims are
different,
that they're not to be trusted.
CORLEY: "Radio Islam" is the latest offering of SoundVision Foundation,
a
program that produces video, audio and Web-based programs for Muslims
and
others interested in learning more about Islam. The foundation's
president,
Abdul Malik Mujahid, says he wants the call-in radio show to foster
dialogue and a better understanding between neighbors…
CORLEY: "Radio Islam" is among a number of Islam-related radio talk
shows,
but the research director for the Council on American-Islamic
Relations, or
CAIR, says most others are weekly, not in English, often deal with
religious issues and are mainly geared towards new immigrants. Mohamed
Nimer says a national poll released by CAIR earlier this month shows
ventures like "Radio Islam" are needed.
Mr. MOHAMED NIMER: Well, the poll asked an open-ended question: `What
comes
to mind when you hear the word "Muslim"?' Only 2 percent could come up
with
something that was deemed positive. About a fourth agreed or strongly
agreed with statements like `Muslims value life less than other
people,'
`Islam teaches hate and violence,' and `Muslims teach their children
hate
and violence.'
CORLEY: And it's those perceptions the organizers of "Radio Islam" say
they
hope to dispel...
-----
U.S. ACTION BARS RIGHT OF SOME CAPTURED IN IRAQ
Douglas Jehl, New York Times, 10/26/04
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/26/politics/26detain.html
WASHINGTON - A new legal opinion by the Bush administration has
concluded
for the first time that some non-Iraqi prisoners captured by American
forces in Iraq are not entitled to the protections of the Geneva
Conventions, administration officials said Monday.
The opinion, reached in recent months, establishes an important
exception
to public assertions by the Bush administration since March 2003 that
the
Geneva Conventions applied comprehensively to prisoners taken in the
conflict in Iraq, the officials said.
They said the opinion would essentially allow the military and the
C.I.A.
to treat at least a small number of non-Iraqi prisoners captured in
Iraq in
the same way as members of Al Qaeda and the Taliban captured in
Afghanistan, Pakistan or elsewhere, for whom the United States has
maintained that the Geneva Conventions do not apply.
The officials outlined the opinion on Monday in response to a report in
The
Washington Post over the weekend that the Central Intelligence Agency
had
secretly transferred a dozen non-Iraqi prisoners out of Iraq in the
past 18
months, despite a provision in the conventions that bars civilians
protected under the accords from being deported from occupied
territories.
Since early 2002, the United States has moved hundreds of Qaeda and
Taliban
prisoners to the American base at Guant�namo Bay, Cuba. American
officials
have said prisoners captured in Iraq would not be moved to Guant�namo,
but
they declined to say Monday where any prisoners transferred out of Iraq
were being sent...
-----
78 PEOPLE SUFFOCATED OR CRUSHED TO DEATH IN TRUCKS AFTER RIOT IN
SOUTHERN
THAILAND
Associated Press, 10/26/04
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20041026-0640-thailand-southernviol
ence.html
PATTANI, Thailand (AP) - At least 78 people were suffocated or crushed
to
death after being arrested and packed into police trucks after a riot
in
southern Thailand, officials said Tuesday.
The announcement dramatically increased the death toll from the latest
eruption of violence in Thailand's Muslim-dominated south to 84.
Officials
had earlier said that six people were shot to death during clashes
Monday
at a police station in Narathiwat province.
Dr. Pornthip Rojanasunan, a forensics expert who works for the Justice
Ministry, told a news conference Tuesday that she and a team of doctors
conducted autopsies on 78 bodies at an army camp in Pattani province
and
found that most of them had perished from suffocation.
The dead were among some 1,300 people arrested Monday following the
police
station riot.
Maj. Gen. Sinchai Nujsathit, deputy commander of the fourth army, said
the
victims may have died from suffocation ``because we had more than 1,300
people packed into the six-wheel trucks.''
SEE ALSO:
MUSLIMS BEG THAI ARMY FOR NEWS OF MISSING KIN
Noppawan Bunluesilp, Reuters, 10/26/04
PATTANI, Thailand, Oct 26 (Reuters) - A crowd of around 50 Muslims
gathered
outside an army compound in southern Thailand on Tuesday, begging for
news
of relatives they fear could be among scores who died in military
custody
following a bloody protest.
Most were women, sobbing as they cried out to soldiers patrolling the
barbed wire fence for a list or photographs of those who died following
Monday's demonstration.
"I don't know if my husband's alive or not," wept Piwarat Arwae, 38.
"He
took our two kids to school and must have dropped by at the protest on
the
way back. He never came home."
Officials said on Tuesday 78 male protesters had died of suffocation as
they were taken in army trucks from the scene of the protest to the
army
compound around 100 km (62 miles) away. The journey took five hours,
one
army official said.
Another six died at the demonstration -- the worst violence since April
in
the restive, mostly Muslim deep south of the predominantly Buddhist
kingdom.
A local journalist paced outside the army camp as evening fell on
Tuesday.
He had lost his 14-year-old son in the confusion as troops fired water
canon and tear gas to try to disperse the 1,500-strong rally.
"I was reporting on the protest and my son just came to join me to see
what
was happening," the man, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters.
Another local reporter said officials let journalists take photographs
of
soldiers quelling the protest but then told them to leave when the
regional
army commander arrived. They left before the protesters were herded
onto
trucks.
Pornthip Rojanasunan, the chief forensic expert at the justice ministry
who
examined the 78 bodies, told a news conference no life-threatening
wounds
were found. But the men could have been gagged to death.
"It wasn't a case of not enough air to breathe," Pornthip said. "But
they
might have had something stuffed in their mouths or nostrils," she
said…
-----
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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
--------------------------------------------------------------------
mail2web - Check your email from the web at
http://mail2web.com/ .
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
SEND A NOTE OF APPRECIATION TO:
Mr. Dick Murphy
Mayor of San Diego
202 "C" Street, 11th floor
San Diego, CA 92101
Telephone: 619-236-6330
Fax: 619-236-7228
E-MAIL: DickMurphy@sandiego.gov, manager@sandiego.gov,
Crudy@sandiego.gov,
bw@sandiego.gov
COPY TO: socal@cair.com, cair@cair-net.org
-----
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
RAMADAN BANNERS GO UP AGAIN IN SAN DIEGO
Muslims nationwide protested removal of banners
(LOS ANGELES, CA, 10/27/2004) - The Southern California office of the
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA) today announced that
Muslim
businesses in San Diego have once again been allowed to display banners
marking the Muslim fast of Ramadan.
City officials ordered the removal of 16 green-and-white Ramadan
banners
from lampposts last week, despite the fact that they had been displayed
for
the past five years. The banners feature a star and crescent and the
words
"Ramadan Mubarak," or "blessed Ramadan."
A city official said the banners had to be taken down because of their
religious content. One of the Muslim business owners told CAIR that the
banners went up again sometime early this morning.
SEE: "Display of Ramadan Banners at Issue"
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20041023-9999-7m23ram.html
After learning of the order to remove the banners, CAIR urged Muslims
nationwide to contact city officials in protest. Many Muslims responded
by
sending e-mails requesting that display of the banners be permitted.
"The decision to permit display of the banners demonstrates San Diego's
commitment to religious accommodation and sensitivity to the cultural
needs
of all city residents," CAIR-LA Civil Rights Director Ra'id Faraj.
CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, has 29 regional
offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada.
- END -
CONTACT: CAIR-LA, Sabiha Khan, 714-776-1847 or 714-390-0334; Ra'id
Faraj,
714-776-1847, 714-390-1077
-----
NOTE: CAIR offers an e-mail list designed to be a window to the
American
Muslim community. Subscribers to the list, called CAIR-NET, receive
news
releases and other materials dealing with American Muslim positions on
issues of importance to our society.
To SUBSCRIBE to CAIR-NET, go to: http://cair.biglist.com/cair-net/
-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 10/27/04
* HADITH OF THE DAY: GENEROSITY IN RAMADAN
* AN APPEAL TO CAIR-NET SUBSCRIBERS
* INCITEMENT WATCH: CASUAL BIGOTRY ON ABC
- CO: Candidate Smears Quran (Rocky Mtn. News)
* CAIR-OHIO: 'GET OUT THE MUSLIM VOTE' A SUCCESS
- Officials Attend CAIR-Ohio Iftar
- CAIR-Cleveland: Ohio Muslims Meet with FBI
* CAIR-LA: MUSLIM GROUP ISSUES CALIF. VOTER GUIDE
* CAIR CALLS FOR PROBE OF THAI MUSLIM DEATHS
- Muslims in Thailand Grieve Deaths (Reuters)
- Thai PM Defiant Amid Anger over Deaths (AP)
* CAIR-CT: MUSLIM CUSTOMER FILES BIAS COMPLAINT (Globe)
* U.S. ACTS AGAINST GENERAL BOYKIN (Reuters)
* LAWYERS SEEK DAMAGES FOR ABUSED DETAINEES (AP)
- Torture in the 'War on Terror' (Amnesty)
* SHARIFA ALKHATEEB: MUSLIM SCHOLAR DIES (Wash Post)
-----
HADITH OF THE DAY: GENEROSITY IN RAMADAN
Narrated Ibn Abbas - (The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him) was the
most
generous of all the people, and he used to be (even) more generous in
the
month of Ramadan.
Sahih Al-Bukhari, 4:443
-----
AN APPEAL TO CAIR-NET SUBSCRIBERS
HELP CAIR ACHIEVE ITS RAMADAN FUNDRAISING GOAL
At the beginning of Ramadan, CAIR announced a fundraising campaign
intended
(inshallah) to raise $1 million so that we can continue to enhance
understanding of Islam and defend the rights of Muslims, as
demonstrated in
the news releases below. To date, we have collected more than $135,000.
God
willing, we will easily reach our goal if every member of CAIR-NET
donates
just $25, $50, or whatever they can. No amount is too small!
TO DONATE, GO TO:
http://www.cair-net.org/ramadan2004/ramadan2004.asp
-----
INCITEMENT WATCH: CASUAL BIGOTRY ON ABC
CAIR has received complaints about an offensive comment made today by a
host of ABC's "The View." In a discussion of who airline passengers
should
sit next to on a plane, host Joy Behar said: "You want somebody who's
calm,
you don't want somebody who's reading the Quran as you're going down."
Behar's remark solicited laughter from the studio audience.
SEND POLITE REQUESTS FOR AN ON-AIR APOLOGY TO:
ABC Audience Relations Department
E-MAIL: netaudr@abc.com
COPY TO: cair@cair-net.org
E-mail the hosts directly through:
http://abc.go.com/daytime/theview/index.html
Click under the "Email your View" section.
TEL: (818) 460-7477
ALSO SEE:
COMMENTS ABOUT ISLAM IRK MUSLIM
M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News, 10/27/04
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/election/article/0,1299,DRMN_36_328423
8,00.html
Republican Senate hopeful Pete Coors lost at least one vote Tuesday for
his
comments about Islam in the wake of a pep talk for his Colorado Springs
supporters.
Coors and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist were talking with campaign
workers Tuesday when one woman said she had heard a media report that
an
American Muslim organization had endorsed Democratic Sen. John Kerry
for
president.
"Well, that'll tell you something, won't it," Coors responded.
"It's anti-Christian, is what it is," said campaign worker Shirley
Maresko,
of Colorado Springs, who was wearing a sparkling, twin-towers lapel
pin.
Coors didn't respond to her comment. Later in the day, during the drive
to
another campaign event in Douglas County, Coors said he didn't have
enough
information about the endorsement to say whether he agreed with
Maresko.
Last week, a coalition of organizations called the American Muslim Task
Force issued a "qualified endorsement" of Kerry, although the group
criticized both presidential candidates and said it was only endorsing
Kerry "to send a message to President Bush."
In an interview later Tuesday, Coors questioned whether Islam is as
tolerant as other religions.
"Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus are pretty tolerant of other
people's
religions," he said.
Referring to the Quran, Coors said, "It does tell you if you don't go
along
with their beliefs, you are infidel and can be subject to jihad.
Radicals
take it to an extreme." Anwar Ahmed, president of the Aurora Islamic
Center, said that Coors' interpretation of the Quran was false...
SEND POLITE COMMENTS TO U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE PETE COORS:
info@petecoorsforsenate.com
COPY TO: cair@cair-net.org
-----
OHIO 'GET OUT THE MUSLIM VOTE' CENTERS A SUCCESS
Volunteers staffing phone banks in Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati
(COLUMBUS, OH, 10/27/2004) - The Ohio office of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Ohio) today reported the ongoing
success
of its "Get Out the Muslim Vote" election centers in Columbus,
Cleveland
and Cincinnati. The centers are using phone banks staffed by volunteers
to
urge eligible Muslim voters to go to the polls on November 2.
On Saturday and Tuesday, volunteers made more than 3,000 phone calls to
registered Muslim voters. More than 650 of those contacted took a voter
pledge, committing to going to the polls on election day.
"We have 22,000 more numbers to call this weekend," said CAIR-Ohio
Executive Director Jad Humeidan. "Muslims are not sitting by and
watching
this election, we are full participants."
"You can see the volunteers becoming more energized as they get
positive
response after positive response," said CAIR-National Government
Relations
Director Corey Saylor, who is in Ohio to help coordinate the voter
outreach
effort.
Saylor said that even during the fast of Ramadan, volunteers who cannot
eat
or drink during their daytime shifts have stayed past their three-hour
commitment.
CAIR's election center in Columbus will also provide information about
polling station locations and voter rights on election day.
CAIR-Ohio will be calling Muslim voters from its regional offices on
the
following dates:
Columbus (4700 Reed Road, Suite B)
Saturday, October 30, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. and 1-4 p.m.
Sunday, October 31, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. and 1-4 p.m.
Cleveland (2999 Payne Ave., Suite 201)
Sunday, October 31, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. and 1-4 p.m.
Cincinnati (2938 Vernon Place)
Saturday, October 30, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Sunday, October 31, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
(Anyone wishing to volunteer for a shift on a CAIR-Ohio phone bank may
call
614-451-3232 or e-mail csaylor@cair-net.org.}
CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, is headquartered
in
Washington, D.C., and has 29 regional offices and chapters nationwide
and
in Canada.
CONTACT: CAIR-Ohio Executive Director Jad Humeidan, 614-451-3232 or
614-571-2770, E-mail: jad@cair-ohio.com; CAIR-Ohio President, Ahmad
Al-Akhras, 614-989-5916, E-mail: ahmad@cair-ohio.com
ALSO SEE:
OFFICIALS, COMMUNITY LEADERS ATTEND CAIR-OHIO IFTAR
(COLUMBUS, OH, 10/27/2004) � The Ohio office of The Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Ohio) today said more than 400 people,
including some 20 officials and community leaders, turned out for the
6th
annual Ramadan Iftar banquet in Columbus on Sunday, October 24th.
Attendees at the event included Columbus City Councilwoman Mary Jo
Hudson,
Columbus City Attorney Rick Pfeiffer, representatives of different
state
and local governments, and a number of interfaith leaders.
Councilwoman Mary Jo Hudson presented CAIR-Ohio with a resolution from
Columbus City Council: "To recognize and congratulate The Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) for its continued efforts in leading
the
way for social and increased understanding of the Islamic faith."
"We would like to thank all those who made our dinner such a success,"
said
CAIR-Ohio President Ahmad Al-Akhras. "The success of this event clearly
demonstrates the tremendous support CAIR enjoys in the American Muslim
community and the respect it has earned in religious and political
circles
through its civil rights and interfaith work."
CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil liberties group, is headquartered
in
Washington, D.C., and has 29 offices and chapters nationwide and in
Canada.
CONTACT: Jad Humeidan, 614-451-3232 or 614-571-2770, E-Mail:
jad@cair-ohio.com; Ahmad Al-Akhras, 614-989-5916, E-Mail:
ahmad@cair-ohio.com
---
OHIO MUSLIMS MEET WITH FBI
Meeting prompted by concerns over interviews
(CLEVELAND, OH, 10/27/04) - Leaders of the Northeast Ohio Muslim and
Arab-American communities met recently with officials from the FBI, the
Justice Department and local law enforcement agencies to discuss issues
of
mutual concern, including a new round of FBI interviews taking place
during
October.
The meeting included officials from the Cleveland office of the FBI,
the
U.S. Attorney's office and the Cleveland Police Department. Islamic
leaders
who attended the meeting raised concerns about the treatment of
out-of-status Muslim immigrants, citing such treatment as a factor in
the
community's wariness of FBI interviews.
Cleveland Police Department Chief Edward Lohn spoke of the many ethnic
groups in Cleveland and expressed interest in reaching out to Muslims.
Chief Lohn also requested diversity training for the police academy.
The outgoing Director of the Cleveland FBI, Gerald Mack, called on
those at
the meeting to "increase the level of dialogue," stating that his
agency
wanted the community to be "fully informed about the things we do
here."
Muslim and Arab-American groups represented at the meeting included the
Islamic Society of Akron and Kent, the Islamic Center of Cleveland,
First
Cleveland Mosque, the Muslim Association of Cleveland East, AACCESS,
Task
Force for Community Mobilization, and Uqbah Mosque Foundation. Local
immigration and ACLU attorneys were also in attendance.
CONTACT: CAIR-Cleveland, Julia A. Shearson 216-830-2247 or
216-440-2247;
CAIR-Ohio President Ahmad Al-Akhras, 614-989-5916, E-Mail:
ahmad@cair-ohio.com; CAIR-Ohio Executive Director Jad Humeidan,
614-571-2770, E-Mail: jad@cair-ohio.com
-----
MUSLIM GROUP ISSUES CALIF. VOTER GUIDE
Congressional scorecard provided to Muslim voters
(ANAHEIM, CA - 10/27/04) - The California office of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CA) today released a non-partisan
voter
guide designed to help educate and inform Muslim voters in that state.
SEE: http://www.cair-net.org/downloads/cair-ca-voter-guide-2004.pdf
http://www.cair-net.org/downloads/congressional-scorecard-108th-ca.pdf
The CAIR-CA voter guide will assist Muslim voters as they make
decisions on
ballot initiatives and political candidates. It lists the voting record
of
members of Congress on issues such as the war in Iraq, civil rights,
immigration, and foreign policy.
"We hope this voter guide will be a valuable tool as the estimated
200,000
registered Muslim voters in the state of California go to the polls
next
week," said Omar Zaki, director of governmental relations for CAIR-CA's
Los
Angeles chapter.
The guides are being distributed at Islamic centers and mosques
throughout
California.
CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, is headquartered
in
Washington, D.C., and has 29 regional offices and chapters nationwide
and
in Canada.
CONTACT: CAIR-LA, Omar Zaki, 714-776-1847, E-MAIL: socal@cair.com
-----
CAIR CALLS FOR PROBE OF THAI MUSLIM DEATHS
The following are excerpts from a letter sent to the Ambassador of
Thailand
to the United States on behalf of CAIR, expressing concern about the
death
of some 80 Thai Muslim protestors.
October 27, 2004
H.E. Kasit Piromya
Ambassador of Thailand
1024 Wisconsin Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20007
Your Excellency,
As the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations
(CAIR), the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group in the
United
States, I am writing to you today to express my sorrow and concern
about
the tragic deaths of some 80 Thai Muslim protestors who were suffocated
to
death while being transported to a detention center.
I respectfully call for a full investigation into this tragedy and
demand
that the rights of the Muslim Thai minority within your country be
respected within the precepts of international law...
International human rights groups, such as Amnesty International, have
also
condemned these heavy-handed state actions and urged the Thai
government to
impartially investigate the deaths, in the province of Narathiwat.
We appreciate the regret and concern voiced by Prime Minister Thaksin
Shinawatra and would like to know what the Thai government will do in
order
to stop this crisis from escalating.
As our world tries to maintain its global equilibrium, I hope that your
government will continue to protect the rights of religious minorities
so
that all people are free to practice their faith, provide for their
families and contribute to greater society at large.
Most Sincerely,
Nihad Awad
Executive Director
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
ALSO SEE:
MUSLIMS IN THAILAND GRIEVE DEATHS IN ARMY CUSTODY
Noppawan Bunluesilp, Reuters, 10/27/04
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/BKK155987.htm
PATTANI, Thailand - Grieving relatives sought loved ones among the dead
in
Thailand's restive Muslim south on Wednesday amid fears of a violent
backlash after almost 80 Muslim protesters suffocated to death in army
custody.
More than 300 relatives, many of them sobbing women, pored over lists
of
the dead, alive and unidentified outside an army barracks in Pattani
province where more than 1,000 Muslim protesters are being held after
Monday's violent demonstration.
"I came to pick up my dead nephew. I am sad for what has happened. I
never
thought this would happen," said a 58-year-old village chief from
Narathiwat province where the protest erupted.
His 21-year-old nephew was among 78 male protesters who died of
suffocation
as they were taken in trucks from the scene of the protest in
Narathiwat to
the barracks 100 km (62 miles) away.
Another six were killed at the demonstration -- the worst violence
since
April in the restive, mostly Muslim deep south of the predominantly
Buddhist kingdom...
---
THAI PM DEFIANT AMID ANGER OVER DEATHS
Alisa Tang, Associated Press, 10/27/04
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=202152
BO THONG, Thailand (AP) - Thailand's prime minister was defiant in the
face
of mounting anger at home and from his country's Asian neighbors and
the
United States over the deaths of 78 Muslims while in army detention
after a
riot, insisting Wednesday that the military used ``the soft approach.''
Grieving relatives of the dead crowded outside an army base in southern
Thailand, as outraged Islamic leaders warned the deaths could worsen
sectarian violence in the Muslim-dominated south of predominantly
Buddhist
Thailand.
The victims suffocated or were crushed when hundreds of Muslim
protesters
were crammed into army trucks for hours. The deaths, during the Islamic
holy month of Ramadan, threatened to increase Muslim complaints that
they
are unfairly treated by the government. The resentment has fueled a
revival
of a long-simmering insurgency in the south in which more than 400
people
have been killed this year.
In a stormy appearance before the Thai Senate, Prime Minister Thaksin
Shinawatra expressed his regrets for the deaths but staunchly defended
the
military's actions in Monday's riot in southern Narathiwat province.
Thaksin sought to partly blame the deaths on the detainees' weakness
from
dawn-to-dusk fasting during Ramadan, saying they died of dehydration or
suffocation.
The leader acknowledged ``there were some mistakes,'' including that
authorities lacked enough trucks to properly transport the nearly 1,300
people arrested in the unrest because it was a public holiday.
Gen. Sirichai Thunyasiri, commander of a regional task force on
security,
said detainees spent more than six hours in them before arriving at an
army
camp in a neighboring province...
-----
CIRCUIT CITY CUSTOMER FILES BIAS COMPLAINT
Diane E. Lewis, Boston Globe, 10/27/04
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2004/10/27/circuit_city_customer_fil
es_bias_complaint/
A Muslim man has filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Commission
Against Discrimination alleging that a Circuit City in Taunton
contacted
federal authorities and falsely accused him of threatening to rig a
store-bought computer with a bomb.
Mohammad A. Butt, a native of Pakistan and the owner of a discount
Dollar
Express in Fall River, is alleging that investigators from the Federal
Bureau of Investigation in Boston came to his house nearly two weeks
after
he returned a defective computer to Circuit City at 70 Taunton Depot
Drive
and asked the company to fix it.
"Unexpectedly on Oct. 18th, I was contacted by the FBI and told that
Circuit City had filed a complaint," Butt alleges. "They claimed I
threatened them by saying I was going to place a bomb into the computer
I
had purchased. I believe that Circuit City perceived me as dangerous
because I am Muslim, and I believe I was discriminated against."
Steve Mullen, a spokesman at Circuit City's corporate headquarters in
Richmond, Va., declined to comment yesterday.
FBI special agent Gail A. Marcinkiewicz, public affairs coordinator for
the
agency in Boston, said she could neither confirm nor deny that agents
spoke
to Butt.
"All I can say is that if there was a threat of a bomb, we would
respond,"
Marcinkiewicz said.
The case has attracted the attention of the Council for American
Islamic
Relations, an advocacy group in Washington that tracks discrimination
complaints brought by Muslims. Hamza Collins, director of civil rights
for
the organization's division in Connecticut, said the group is
investigating
the charges and will provide Butt with legal counsel if necessary.
Collins
said Butt never threatened to plant a bomb in the returned computer...
-----
U.S. ACTS AGAINST GENERAL WHO SAW A 'CHRISTIAN' WAR
Andrea Shalal-Esa, Reuters, 10/26/04
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Army has taken action against Lt. Gen. William
Boykin, who embarrassed the Bush administration by giving speeches in
which
he described the war on terrorism as a Christian battle against Satan.
Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Richard Cody declined to give any details
of
the action taken in response to Boykin's remarks, which violated
Pentagon
rules, but said it was not "significant."
"I took the appropriate action based on the recommendations of the
Inspector General," Cody told Reuters while attending the annual
meeting of
the Association of the U.S. Army.
He did not say when the action was taken.
"If it was something significant, it would be something we would talk
about. So that should give you an indication," Cody said.
Boykin, who was at the meeting, declined comment.
The Pentagon inspector general concluded in an August report that
Boykin
should face "appropriate corrective action" because he failed to clear
official data in some of the 23 religious-oriented speeches he gave
after
January 2002.
Although he initially described the war against terrorism as a
"crusade,"
President Bush has since worked to shore up relations with Muslim
states
and avoid the appearance of a Christian-Muslim struggle.
The Bush administration has come under fire from Muslim Americans for
what
they see as heavy-handed law enforcement in a crackdown against groups
associated with al Qaeda, blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the
United States...
-----
LAWYERS SEEK DAMAGES FOR GUANTANAMO DETAINEES WHO WERE ALLEGEDLY ABUSED
Associated Press, 10/27/04
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - Four prisoners released from Guantanamo
Bay
have filed the first lawsuit against the United States seeking US$10
million each in damages for abuse they allegedly suffered at the U.S.
military outpost in Cuba, attorneys said Wednesday.
The suit was filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights and the
Washington-based law firm of Baach Robinson and Lewis on behalf of four
British citizens released from the camp in March. The men are Shafiq
Rasul,
26; Asif Iqbal, 22; Rhuhel Ahmed, 22; and Jamal Al-Harith, 37.
Although the abuse allegations out of Guantanamo Bay are not as
widespread
as those at the U.S.-controlled Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, there have
been
at least eight substantiated cases of abuse at the Cuba camp, according
to
a report by James R. Schlesinger, who headed a U.S. congressional
committee
to investigate abuses in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo...
ALSO SEE:
TORTURE AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN THE 'WAR ON TERROR'
Amnesty, 10/27/04
http://www.amnestyusa.org/
A report based on Amnesty International's 12-point Program for the
Prevention of Torture by Agents of the State
Summary
Then [the guard] brought a box of food and he made me stand on it, and
he
started punishing me. Then a tall black soldier came and put electrical
wires on my fingers and toes and on my penis, and I had a bag over my
head.
Then he was saying 'which switch is on for electricity?' Iraqi
detainee,
Abu Ghraib prison, 16 January 2004(1)
The image of New York's Twin Towers struck by hijacked airliners on 11
September 2001 has become an icon of a crime against humanity. It is
tragic
that the response to the atrocities of that day has resulted in its own
iconography of torture, cruelty and degradation. A photograph of a
naked
young man captured in Afghanistan, blindfolded, handcuffed and
shackled,
and bound with duct tape to a stretcher. Pictures of hooded detainees
strapped to the floor of military aircraft for transfer from
Afghanistan to
the other side of the world. Photographs of caged detainees in the
United
States (US) Naval Base in Cuba, kneeling before soldiers, shackled,
handcuffed, masked and blindfolded. Television images of orange-clad
shackled detainees shuffling to interrogations, or being wheeled there
on
mobile stretchers. A hooded Iraqi detainee sitting on the sand,
surrounded
by barbed wire, clutching his four-year-old son...
The struggle against torture and ill-treatment by agents of the state
requires absolute commitment and constant vigilance. It requires
stringent
adherence to safeguards. It demands a policy of zero tolerance. The US
government has manifestly failed in this regard. At best, it set the
conditions for torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment by
lowering safeguards and failing to respond adequately to allegations of
abuse raised by Amnesty International and others from early in the "war
on
terror". At worst, it has authorized interrogation techniques which
flouted
the country's international obligation to reject torture and
ill-treatment
under any circumstances and at all times...
-----
SHARIFA ALKHATEEB DIES; U.S. MUSLIM SCHOLAR
Matt Schudel, Washington Post, 9/27/04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A766-2004Oct26.html
Sharifa Alkhateeb, 58, who founded advocacy groups for Muslim women and
explained the ways of Islam to America and the world as a scholar,
journalist and educator, died Oct. 21 of pancreatic cancer at her home
in
Ashburn.
Mrs. Alkhateeb embraced both American and Islamic ways in her lifelong
effort to bridge gaps between the two cultures. Often quoted in news
reports about Muslim matters, particularly pertaining to women, she
also
advised schools, police departments, corporate directors, governmental
agencies and textbook publishers on the nature of Islamic life.
Sharifa Alkhateeb wrote about Islam and the lives of Muslim women.
As founder of the North American Council for Muslim Women, she focused
attention on domestic violence and other problems of women in the
Islamic
world. She edited an English translation of the Koran, chaired the
Muslim
caucus at the United Nations World Conference on Women in Beijing in
1995
and helped get Arabic introduced as a subject in Northern Virginia
public
schools.
In many ways, Mrs. Alkhateeb lived a conventional Muslim life. She was
the
mother of three daughters, faithfully prayed five times a day and
observed
her religion's dietary practices and other customs. Although she wore
western dresses and slacks, she had covered her hair with a scarf since
she
was 16.
Yet within the bounds of her faith, Mrs. Alkhateeb sought -- and
usually
found -- a way to forge a strong, independent voice for herself and for
other Islamic women...
-----
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To reach the list moderator, send a message to: cair@cair-net.org
-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
--------------------------------------------------------------------
mail2web - Check your email from the web at
http://mail2web.com/ .
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 10/28/04
* VERSE OF THE DAY: SPEAK FOR JUSTICE
* AN APPEAL TO CAIR-NET SUBSCRIBERS
* FLORIDA MUSLIMS MOBILIZE TO GET OUT THE VOTE
* CA: MUSLIMS FACING TOUGH CHOICE AT POLLS (NC Times)
- CAIR-Seattle: Elections in Ethnic Communities (SPI)
- MI: Arab Americans Could Sway Crucial States (SF Chron)
- IL: Volunteers Needed for Election Phone Bank
* CAIR-GA: MUSLIMS, SCHOOLS DRAW UP PRAYER DEAL (AJC)
* CAIR-LA: MUSLIMS CHEER RETURN OF RAMADAN BANNERS (AP)
* NON-MUSLIM STUDENTS GIVE UP FOOD FOR RAMADAN (AZ Daily)
* ABU GHRAIB, UNRESOLVED (NY Times)
- Scientists Estimate 100,000 Iraqi Deaths (AP)
-----
VERSE OF THE DAY: SPEAK FOR JUSTICE
“Show forgiveness, speak for justice and avoid the ignorant.”
The Holy Quran, 7:199
-----
AN APPEAL TO CAIR-NET SUBSCRIBERS
HELP CAIR ACHIEVE ITS RAMADAN FUNDRAISING GOAL
At the beginning of Ramadan, CAIR announced a fundraising campaign
intended
(inshallah) to raise $1 million so that we can continue to enhance
understanding of Islam and defend the rights of Muslims, as
demonstrated in
the news releases below. To date, we have collected more than $135,000.
God
willing, we will easily reach our goal if every member of CAIR-NET
donates
just $25, $50, or whatever they can. No amount is too small!
TO DONATE, GO TO:
http://www.cair-net.org/ramadan2004/ramadan2004.asp
-----
FLORIDA MUSLIMS MOBILIZE TO GET OUT THE VOTE
CAIR-FL will bus voters to early polls after Friday prayers
(MIAMI, FL, 10/28/04) - The Florida office of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-FL) today announced plans for a
statewide
"Get Out the Muslim Vote" campaign that includes busing voters to early
polls and using phone banks to increase voter turn-out.
CAIR-FL's campaign began with action alerts distributed to Florida
Muslims
urging them to cast their ballots in early voting. The Muslim civil
rights
and advocacy group has also designated this Friday, the day of Islamic
communal prayer, as "Get Out the Muslim Vote Day."
Registered Muslim voters in Broward and Hillsborough counties will be
bused
from area mosques after Friday prayers to early polling stations.
Buses will be available at:
BROWARD COUNTY
Darul Uloom Institute, 7050 Pines Blvd., Pembroke Pines, FL Caravan
leaves
on Friday, October 29, at 2:30 p.m.
HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY
Islamic Society of Tampa Bay Area (ISTBA)
7326 E Sligh Ave., Tampa, FL
Bus leaves at Friday 10/29/04 at 2:30pm
Islamic Community of Tampa (ICT)
5910 E 130th Ave, Tampa
Bus leaves at Friday, October 29, at 2:30 p.m.
CAIR-FL is also planning phone bank operations in its Pembroke Pines
and
Tampa offices to encourage Muslim voter turn-out on November 2. Similar
phone banks have been set up in Ohio, another battleground state. (To
volunteer for a phone bank shift, contact CAIR-FL at 813-514-1414 or
954-272-0490. E-mail: abedier@cair-florida.org [Tampa] or
altaf@cair-florida.org [S. Florida])
"This is an historic first for the American Muslim community," said
Parvez
Ahmed, Chairman of CAIR-FL. "Our year-long efforts, from voter
registration
to voter education campaigns, are now culminating in a final push to
get
the maximum numbers of Muslims to the polls." Ahmed said the Florida
Muslim
vote could be a key factor in the presidential election.
CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, has 29 regional
offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada.
- END -
CONTACT: Ahmed Bedier, 813-731-9506, abedier@cair-florida.org; Altaf
Ali,
954-298-8214, altaf@cair-florida.org; Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or
202-744-7726, E-Mail: cair@cair-net.org
-----
AMERICAN MUSLIMS FACING TOUGH CHOICE AT POLLS
Agnes Diggs, North County Times, 10/28/04
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2004/10/28/special_reports/religion/15_41_59
10_27_04.txt
Pundits and predictions notwithstanding, in the close-fought battle for
the
presidency, when all is weighed and measured, American Muslims might be
the
voting bloc that tips the scales, some polls say.
But they are facing a tough choice between the two major candidates,
said
Nader Dehani, who serves as imam at the Masjid Al-Ittehad mosque in
Vista.
"We're pushing toward Kerry, although we don't believe in some of the
things he stands for," Dehani said. "It's really change that we're
pushing
for."
In the 2000 election, reportedly 78 percent of American Muslims ----
including Dehani ---- voted for George W. Bush. Issues related to civil
rights and foreign policy have eroded that support, Muslim leaders say.
On the other hand, some of the issues espoused by the Democratic party
are
a sticking point for members of the Islamic community.
"I voted for Bush because I don't agree with the gay and lesbian and
abortion issues," Dehani said. "But at the same time, you have a guy
going
into war after war without really knowing what he's getting into,
without
understanding the culture he's dealing with. I see us ---- Americans
----
losing our kids there because of decisions that are stupidly made. I'd
like
a change for the sake of a change, because I know where this line is
going
for us. It's tough, but what do you do? We have to vote. My wife and I,
we're both voters. And we will vote. We will all vote."
An estimated 7 million Muslims live in the United States, immigrants as
well as first- and second-generation citizens. Although they are
ethnically
and racially diverse, they are bound by their common religion ---- a
religion that has often been demonized as a result of the acts of some
of
its radical followers...
In America, Muslim numbers are concentrated in states like Michigan,
Florida and Ohio ---- also known as battleground states.
A recent survey conducted among Muslim Americans by polling group Zogby
International revealed a greater level of involvement in the election
process and a greater level of organization and cooperation among the
various ethnic groups and community organizations.
Several grass-roots organizations, including the Council on
American-Islamic Relations and the American Muslim Taskforce, have
established "get out the vote" efforts. AMT gave a "qualified"
endorsement
to John Kerry.
The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations conducted a
poll
after the last of the three presidential debates and found that 80
percent
of likely Muslim American voters said they planned to vote for Kerry.
Ralph
Nader came in second with 11 percent, undecided voters polled at 4
percent
and President Bush received just 2 percent. Again, civil rights and
foreign
policy were the concerns most often mentioned by poll respondents...
ALSO SEE:
SKY-HIGH INTEREST IN ELECTION IN ETHNIC COMMUNITIES
John Iwasaki, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 10/28/04
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/197160_ethnicvote28.html
Jirdeh Abdalallah escaped civil war in Somalia to become a U.S. citizen
in
2000, a year in which his new country was split not by tribal bloodshed
but
by a presidential election.
Mindful of that lesson in democracy, he mailed in his absentee ballot
last
weekend, the first time the Seattle man has voted here.
"We were foreigners. We don't know all the situation in this country,"
Abdalallah said yesterday, explaining why he hadn't exercised his
voting
rights before. "Day after day, we understand the situation. ... Now
it's
time to vote -- everyone -- because it's a presidential election."
The election is driving interest skyward in the ethnic and immigrant
communities, where concern over the Iraq war, civil liberties and
health
care has prompted thousands of people of color to register to vote for
the
first time.
Several local organizations have targeted specific groups in their
campaigns to increase voting by Muslims, Asian/Pacific Islanders,
African
Americans and Latinos.
"With a presidential election, it's like a worldwide presidency -- the
interest is tremendous," said Cheryl Lee, president of the Korean
American
Voters Alliance, which held its convention last weekend. "We're getting
lots of phone calls -- people like my granny's friend -- asking, 'where
do
I vote, where do I call?' I'm delighted."
A joint campaign by Hate Free Zone Washington and the Seattle chapter
of
the Council on American Islamic Relations has registered more than
1,200
voters, mostly Muslims. The advocacy groups are presenting information
this
week in several cities on the electoral process, candidates and issues…
---
ARAB AMERICANS COULD HELP SWAY CRUCIAL STATES
San Francisco Chronicle, 10/28/04
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/10/28/MNGIE9HQ6S1.D
TL
Dearborn, Mich. -- Four years ago, Husham al-Husainy voted for George
W.
Bush as president. In the run-up to the Iraq war, al-Husainy even
rallied
in favor of the planned conflict and met at the Pentagon with Deputy
Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz.
On Tuesday, however, al-Husainy will cast his ballot for Massachusetts
Sen.
John Kerry. He said the continuing presence of U.S. troops in his
native
Iraq is inciting more bloodshed there, not less.
"I supported Bush's policy for liberation, not occupation," says Al-
Husainy, sitting in the Karbala Islamic Education Center here, where
he's
the spiritual leader. "And we never supported a policy that kills
Iraqis.
No way. . . We hope our vote can bring peace to Iraq and more stability
to
the region."
Al-Husainy is indicative of a key voting bloc in Michigan: Arab
Americans
and Muslims, whose ballots could help sway the hotly contested state
and
its 17 electoral votes to Kerry. In 2000, Vice President Al Gore
carried
Michigan by just 200,000 votes. Among Arab Americans in Michigan, more
than
235,000 are likely to vote Tuesday, according to the Arab American
Institute, a Washington, D.C., political organization. And a growing
majority favors Kerry.
The institute released a poll this week saying that 54 percent of
Michigan's Arab American voters plan to vote for Kerry. In Ohio,
Pennsylvania and Florida -- three other swing states that are crucial
for
either candidate -- Bush also is losing ground to Kerry among Arab
Americans, according to the poll.
The war in Iraq, which the president has championed as a key success of
his
administration, is one of the biggest negatives for Arab Americans, the
poll says. Also negative: the Bush administration's implementation of
the
Patriot Act and its policies regarding Israel and the Palestinian
territories. In 2000, Bush won about 54 percent of the Arab American
vote.
This year, polls suggest he won't do as well...
---
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR MCC’S ELECTION PHONE BANK
WHAT: MCC has set up a phone bank to encourage the community to go out
and
vote on Election Day. Volunteers are needed to make the telephone
calls.
The sessions are from 6.30-8 pm each evening. Call lists will be
provided.
MCC is targeting to make 500 calls each session. Ten lines have been
set up
and 10 or more volunteers are still needed each night to do the
calling.
MCC provides free iftar and dinner each evening at its premises, during
Ramadan. After the phone banking, Taraweeh prayers will be offered.
WHEN and WHERE: Volunteers meet on the second floor next to the Library
at
MCC, tonight and each night until Election Day. On Sat and Sun we will
be
calling between 2-4pm also.
MCC is teaming up with other community partners such as Albany Park
Neighborhood Council in this effort. Please join us in this grass root
activity and help in getting the vote out.
For more information, please call 773 775-1990 to volunteer or e-mail
info@mccchicago.org
-----
MUSLIMS, SCHOOLS DRAW UP PRAYER DEAL
Brian Feagans, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 10/27/04
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/gwinnett/1004/28muslimprayer.html
Muslim students in Gwinnett County schools would be excused for Friday
afternoon prayer under a tentative compromise reached Wednesday by
Muslim
leaders and officials in Georgia's largest school system.
School officials proposed three options. Muslim leaders plan to
circulate
the choices at five Gwinnett mosques this weekend and choose one by
next
week.
The compromise grew out a 90-minute meeting between Gwinnett Schools
chief
of staff Bobby Crowson, two local Muslim officials and Khalid Rashied,
the
father of two students at Duluth High School.
Three years ago, Rashied couldn't get the school to excuse his eldest
son
from the final class period to attend the juma'a prayer required of
Muslims
on Friday afternoons.
Rashied renewed his request this year and enlisted the help of the
Council
on American-Islamic Relations, which set up the meeting Wednesday.
"The meeting was very, very nice," Rashied said. "I think it should be
resolved by Monday..."
-----
SAN DIEGO MUSLIMS CHEER RETURN OF RAMADAN BANNERS FOLLOWING CONTROVERSY
Michelle Morgante, Associated Press, 10/28/04
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/peni
nsula/10030845.htm
SAN DIEGO - Muslim business leaders in a San Diego neighborhood cheered
Wednesday to find banners celebrating the holy month of Ramadan hanging
from light posts as they drove to work. The 16 green and white banners
were
restored following protests over a city decision to remove them.
Abdur-Rahim Hameed, president of the Black Contractors Association,
said he
was surprised to see the banners - with the words Ramadan Mubarak, or
Blessed Ramadan around a star and crescent moon - flying in a
rainstorm.
"I cried with joy," Hameed said. "It was just like the 'Grinch Who
Stole
Christmas.'"
Entrepreneurs in the Diamond Business Improvement District, an
organization
in southeastern San Diego, raised objections last week when a city code
enforcement officer ordered the 2-by-6-foot banners be taken down.
It is somewhat unclear why the banners, which have been raised annually
for
six years, were ordered removed last week.
Bob Didion, a deputy director with the city's Department of Development
Services, said Wednesday that someone complained to the code
enforcement
office, and a check found there was no permit for them.
But a city Web site also said such banners could not have religious
content
- a message that was conveyed to the Diamond district when the removal
order came.
That prompted Hameed and others to accuse city officials of hypocrisy
since
symbols of Christian holidays, such as Christmas trees, lights, and
doves,
are commonly tolerated in December...
In the meantime, the dispute prompted media coverage and led the
national
Council on American-Islamic Relations to rally supporters to e-mail the
city in protest. A public meeting this week had City Council candidates
for
the ethnically diverse neighborhood unanimously express support...
-----
NON-MUSLIM STUDENTS GIVE UP FOOD FOR RAMADAN FAST-A-THON
Natasha Bhuyan, Arizona Daily Wildcat, 10/28/04
http://wildcat.arizona.edu/papers/98/48/01_3.html
More than 300 non-Muslim students gave up food and water yesterday, in
an
effort to raise money for the poor and gain insight into the Islamic
religion.
Organized by the Muslim Student Association, the Ramadan Fast-a-thon
invited non-Muslim students to fast for 12 hours from sunrise to sunset
yesterday.
For each of students who participated, local business donated money to
the
Tucson Community Food Bank, said Miriam Hoda, student coordinator for
MSA.
The fast was broken last night after sunset, when students were served
a
free dinner, watched the Maghrib (sunset) Prayer and listened to guest
speakers.
Hoda said the purpose of the event, which raised $1,000 for Tucson
Community Food Bank, was to let non-Muslim students experience fasting
and
gain empathy for the poor by realizing what the impoverished must go
through every day.
Sandra Lujan, a Tucson Community Food Bank representative, said 60,000
children in Pima County go to bed hungry every night, even though
mothers
and fathers are also giving up meals just to feed their children.
Although the food bank distributes 34,000 meals daily to the homeless
and
working poor, it only meets 20 percent of the need in Pima County,
Lujan
said.
Andrew Friedman, an engineering freshman, said he fasted although he
had to
study for a test, and realized how difficult it was to concentrate
while
hungry...
-----
ABU GHRAIB, UNRESOLVED
New York Times, 10/28/04
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/28/opinion/28thu1.html
When the Abu Ghraib prison scandal first broke, the Bush administration
struck a pose of righteous indignation. It assured the world that the
problem was limited to one block of one prison, that the United States
would never condone the atrocities we saw in those terrible photos,
that it
would punish those responsible for any abuse - regardless of their rank
-
and that it was committed to defending the Geneva Conventions and the
rights of prisoners.
None of this appears to be true. The Army has prosecuted a few
low-ranking
soldiers and rebuked a Reserve officer or two, but exonerated the top
generals. No political leader is being held accountable for the
policies
set in Washington that led to the abuses at Abu Ghraib and at other
prison
camps operated by the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency in
Iraq
and Afghanistan, and at Guant�namo Bay, Cuba, where prisoner abuse was
systemic. And we've learned that the administration's respect for the
Geneva Conventions, which some senior officials openly disdain as an
antiquated nuisance, is highly conditional.
The Times's Tim Golden documented this week the way the Bush
administration
secretly created a parallel - and unconstitutional - judicial universe
for
Gitmo. The White House was so determined to suspend the normal rights
and
processes for the hundreds of men captured in Afghanistan - none of
them
important members of Al Qaeda and most of them no threat at all - that
it
hid the details from Secretary of State Colin Powell and never bothered
to
consult Congress.
The Washington Post and The Times also reported this week that over 18
months, the C.I.A., which has a record of hiding prisoners in Iraq from
the
Red Cross, secretly spirited a dozen non-Iraqi civilians out of prisons
in
Iraq to undisclosed locations - another evident violation of the Geneva
Conventions. To justify that operation after the fact, the same legal
offices that produced the infamous paper on how to pretend that torture
is
legal drew up a new opinion claiming that the president has the right
to
decide which prisoners are covered by the Geneva Conventions and which
are
not.
This happened in secret, at the same time that administration officials
were testifying at the Senate's Abu Ghraib hearings about the
president's
allegiance to the Geneva Conventions and to American constitutional
values
when it came to the treatment of prisoners...
SEE ALSO:
SCIENTISTS ESTIMATE 100,000 IRAQI DEATHS
Emma Ross, Associated Press, 10/24/04
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-iraq-death-toll,0,
7799287.story
LONDON - A survey of deaths in Iraqi households estimates that as many
as
100,000 more people may have died throughout the country in the 18
months
after the U.S. invasion than would be expected based on the death rate
before the war.
There is no official figure for the number of Iraqis killed since the
conflict began, but some non-governmental estimates range from 10,000
to
30,000. As of Wednesday, 1,081 U.S. servicemen had been killed,
according
to the U.S. Defense Department.
The scientists who wrote the report concede that the data they based
their
projections on were of ``limited precision,'' because the quality of
the
information depends on the accuracy of the household interviews used
for
the study. The interviewers were Iraqi, most of them doctors.
Designed and conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins University,
Columbia
University and the Al-Mustansiriya University in Baghdad, the study is
being published Thursday on the Web site of The Lancet medical journal.
The survey indicated violence accounted for most of the extra deaths
seen
since the invasion, and air strikes from coalition forces caused most
of
the violent deaths, the researchers wrote in the British-based journal.
``Most individuals reportedly killed by coalition forces were women and
children,'' they said.
-----
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To reach the list moderator, send a message to: cair@cair-net.org
-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
--------------------------------------------------------------------
mail2web - Check your email from the web at
http://mail2web.com/ .
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 10/28/04
- MEDIA ADVISORY -
AMERICAN IMAMS TO CALL FOR RELEASE OF IRAQ HOSTAGES
Islamic religious leaders will denounce targeting of civilians
WHAT: On Friday, October 29, the Council on American-Islamic Relations
(CAIR) will hold a news conference in Washington, D.C., at which
American
Imams will call for the release of all hostages currently being held in
Iraq. The Muslim religious leaders will also refute the claims of
hostage-takers who say they are acting in the name of Islam.
WHEN: Friday, October 29, 10 a.m.
WHERE: CAIR's Capitol Hill Headquarters, 453 New Jersey Avenue S.E.,
Washington, D.C.
CONTACT: Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726,
ihooper@cair-net.org
More than 150 foreigners have been kidnapped this year in Iraq and
about
one-third of them have been killed. The most recent kidnap victims have
included a Japanese traveler, a Polish woman who has lived in Iraq for
decades, drivers from Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, and Margaret Hassan,
the
director of a foreign relief organization working in Iraq.
CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, recently
launched an
online petition drive designed to disassociate Islam from the violent
acts
of a few Muslims.
SEE: CAIR "NOT IN THE NAME OF ISLAM" PETITION
http://www.cair-net.org/asp/article.asp?id=169&page=AA
- END -
CONTACT: Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail:
ihooper@cair-net.org; Rabiah Ahmed, 202-488-8787 or 202-439-1441,
E-Mail:
rahmed@cair-net.org
-----
NOTE: CAIR offers an e-mail list designed to be a window to the
American
Muslim community. Subscribers to the list, called CAIR-NET, receive
news
releases and other materials dealing with American Muslim positions on
issues of importance to our society.
To SUBSCRIBE to CAIR-NET, go to: http://cair.biglist.com/cair-net/
-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
U.S. IMAMS SAY IRAQ HOSTAGE-TAKERS VIOLATE ISLAMIC BELIEFS
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 10/29/04) - A number of American Imams today issued
a
statement calling for the release of all hostages currently being held
in
Iraq. The declaration by Muslim religious leaders, released at a
Capitol
Hill news conference hosted by the Council on American-Islamic
Relations
(CAIR) stated: (The statement was read in English and Arabic.)
"As leaders of American mosques and as representatives of the American
Muslim community, we call for the immediate and unconditional release
of
all civilian hostages currently being held in Iraq, whatever their
nationality or faith.
"The targeting of civilians has always been prohibited in Islam. Those
who
kidnap and murder civilians are violating Islamic norms and deserve to
be
repudiated by Muslims in America, in Iraq and throughout the Islamic
world.
As it states in the Quran, Islam's revealed text: 'If anyone slays a
human
being…it shall be as though he had slain all mankind, and if anyone
saves a
life, it shall be as though he had saved the lives of all mankind.'
(5:32)
"It is time for all parties to the tragic conflict in Iraq to end any
actions that result in harm to the civilian population and the
destruction
of property. Reports now indicate that some 100,000 Iraqi civilians
have
died as a result of the invasion of Iraq. All human beings, whether
hostages or ordinary Iraqis, have a right to life and liberty that must
be
protected."
SEE: "100,000 Iraqi Civilians Have Died in Coalition Actions, Study
Estimates"
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1029iraq-casualties29.html
http://www.thelancet.com/journal/vol364/iss9445/early_online_publication
More than 150 foreigners have been kidnapped this year in Iraq and
about
one-third of them have been killed. The most recent kidnap victims have
included a Japanese traveler, a Polish woman who has lived in Iraq for
decades, drivers from Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, and Margaret Hassan,
the
director of a foreign relief organization working in Iraq.
CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, recently
launched an
online petition drive designed to disassociate Islam from the violent
acts
of a few Muslims.
SEE: CAIR's"Not in the Name of Islam" Petition
http://www.cair-net.org/asp/article.asp?id=169&page=AA
- END -
CONTACT: Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail:
ihooper@cair-net.org; Rabiah Ahmed, 202-488-8787 or 202-439-1441,
E-Mail:
rahmed@cair-net.org
NOTE: CAIR offers an e-mail list designed to be a window to the
American
Muslim community. Subscribers to the list, called CAIR-NET, receive
news
releases and other materials dealing with American Muslim positions on
issues of importance to our society.
To SUBSCRIBE to CAIR-NET, go to: http://cair.biglist.com/cair-net/
-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
--------------------------------------------------------------------
mail2web - Check your email from the web at
http://mail2web.com/ .
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 10/29/04
* HADITH OF THE DAY: GOOD CHARACTER
* AN APPEAL TO CAIR-NET SUBSCRIBERS
* CAIR JOB OPENING: CIVIL RIGHTS COORDINATOR
* ABC TALK SHOW HOST APOLOGIZES FOR QURAN REMARK
* CAIR-OHIO HOSTS RAMADAN INTERFAITH BANQUET
* NEW CA MUSLIM PAC LAUNCHES WEBSITE
- CAIR-FL: Muslims Plan Voter Turnout Campaign (UPI)
- CAIR-Ohio: Muslims Getting Out Vote (Cinn Enquirer)
- Muslims Cite Betrayal by Bush (Houston Chron)
- Iraqi Americans Waver on Bush (Detroit Free Press)
* INTELLIGENCE ON ELECTION THREAT QUIETED (AP)
* CAIR-OH: RAMADAN BRINGS NEARNESS TO GOD (Dispatch)
- Animated Film About Prophet Muhammad Opens on Eid
- Purchase Tickets for 'Muhammad: The Last Prophet'
-----
HADITH OF THE DAY: GOOD CHARACTER
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "By his good character,
a
believer will attain the degree of one who prays during the night and
fasts
during the day."
Abu Dawood, Hadith 2233
-----
AN APPEAL TO CAIR-NET SUBSCRIBERS
HELP CAIR ACHIEVE ITS RAMADAN FUNDRAISING GOAL
At the beginning of Ramadan, CAIR announced a fundraising campaign
intended
(inshallah) to raise $1 million so that we can continue to enhance
understanding of Islam and defend the rights of Muslims, as
demonstrated in
the news releases below. To date, we have collected more than $135,000.
God
willing, we will easily reach our goal if every member of CAIR-NET
donates
just $25, $50, or whatever they can. No amount is too small!
TO DONATE, GO TO:
http://www.cair-net.org/ramadan2004/ramadan2004.asp
-----
CAIR JOB OPENING: CIVIL RIGHTS COORDINATOR
CAIR has an immediate opening for an experienced dynamic person to fill
the
position of Civil Rights Coordinator. The position involves handling of
civil rights cases, doing research on issues pertaining to civil and
religious rights in America, maintaining a civil rights data base
system,
and generating reports, charts and graphs. Candidates should have a
Bachelor degree in a related field with general knowledge of the US
Constitution and the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
All those interested and eligible to work in US (citizens or proper
work
visa holders) are encouraged to apply in confidence via email to:
hr@cair-net.org, or by fax 202-488-0833. When applying via email please
ensure to write the position title "Civil Rights Coordinator" in the
subject of the email. Please send your application with cover letter
and
complete resume and references. Absolutely no phone calls please.
-----
ABC TALK SHOW HOST APOLOGIZES FOR QURAN REMARK
Joy Behar says she did not mean to 'offend any religion'
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 10/29/04) - Following complaints from Muslim
viewers, a
host of ABC's "The View" talk show has apologized for a remark she made
about the Quran, Islam's revealed text.
SEE: http://abc.go.com/daytime/theview/index.html
On Wednesday's episode of "The View," host Joy Behar said in a
discussion
of who airline passengers should sit next to on a plane: "You want
somebody
who's calm, you don't want somebody who's reading the Quran as you're
going
down."
Behar's apology came one day after the Washington-based Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) issued an alert urging viewers to
e-mail
ABC's Audience Relations Department and express their concerns about
the
insensitive nature of the remarks. CAIR issued the alert after
receiving
complaints from Muslims who watched Wednesday's program.
In her apology, Behar stated: "Yesterday I said something on the air
and I
received all these letters from people. I really did not mean to offend
any
religion yesterday. I was talking about being on a plane and how if
someone
is reading a Holy Book I get scared because it looks like they know
something. I mentioned one particular religion, it could have been any
person, any prayer book and I upset people and I'm sorry about that. I
don't mean to be disrespectful to any religion."
"We thank all those viewers who took the time to express their concerns
to
ABC, and we also thank Ms. Behar for her swift and sincere apology,"
said
CAIR Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper.
CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, is headquartered
in
Washington, D.C., and has 28 regional offices and chapters nationwide
and
in Canada.
CONTACT: Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, Email:
ihooper@cair-net.org; Rabiah Ahmed, 202-488-8787 or 202-439-1441,
Email:
rahmed@cair-net.org
-----
CAIR-OHIO HOSTS RAMADAN INTERFAITH BANQUET
(CLEVELAND, OH, 10/28/2004) - On Saturday, October 30, the Cleveland
office
of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Ohio) will host its
1st
annual Ramadan Iftar banquet. Guests will include public officials,
civic
leaders and members of the interfaith community. ("Iftar" is the meal
eaten
after sunset each day during the Islamic fast of Ramadan.)
WHEN: SATURDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2004
TIME: Registration 5:15-5:45 p.m., Program begins 6 p.m.
WHERE: Cleveland State University, Joseph Cole Center, 3100 Chester
Ave.
Cleveland Ohio 44115
CONTACT: CAIR-OHIO, Cleveland Office, Julia A. Shearson, Director,
216-440-2247 or 216-830-2247; e-mail: Julia@cair-ohio.com
Ramez Islambouli, President of the Uqbah Mosque Foundation will speak
about
the spiritual significance of fasting and prayer during the Holy Month
of
Ramadan. Bashir G. Ahmed, President of Samad Group, Inc., will discuss
the
role of Muslims in the upcoming election. CAIR staff will highlight the
Cleveland office's civil rights and educational outreach work. Muslims
will
break the day's fast and offer communal prayers during the program.
"The Month of Ramadan is a time of spiritual renewal, charitable giving
and
personal humility," said Isam Zaiem, Chairman of the Cleveland office
of
CAIR-OHIO. "This event is a wonderful chance for Americans of all
faiths to
move beyond stereotypes by getting to know their Muslim neighbors."
CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil liberties group, is headquartered
in
Washington, D.C., and has 29 offices and chapters nationwide and in
Canada.
- END -
CONTACT: CAIR-OHIO, Cleveland Office, Julia A. Shearson, Director,
216-440-2247 or 216-830-2247; e-mail: Julia@cair-ohio.com
-----
NEW CA MUSLIM PAC LAUNCHES WEBSITE
CAIR-CA PAC issues endorsements on key federal and state elections
(PASADENA, CA, 10-29-04) - A newly formed political action committee
(PAC),
CAIR-CA PAC, announced today the launch of its website
www.caircapac.com
designed to create awareness of political candidates and issues related
to
the California Muslim community and to urge them to vote in the
elections
on November 2nd.
CAIR-CA PAC's voter advisory for the November 2nd elections located on
the
website includes endorsements of candidates for U.S. President,
California
Congressional seats, U.S. Senate seat from California, and select seats
in
the State Assembly and Senate.
"We wish to educate, inform and inspire American Muslims to partake in
the
American political process through voting, supporting candidates, and
other
similar political activity," said Paul Shaikh, board member and one of
the
founders of CAIR-CA PAC.
The PAC plans to increase its membership base significantly to help
support
its political efforts.
CAIR-CA PAC is a duly-registered and independent PAC. It is a separate
entity, and is not financed, managed or controlled by the California
Office
of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CA).
- END -
Contact: Paul Shaikh 818-404-1162; E-MAIL: pauls@caircapac.com
SEE ALSO:
MUSLIMS PLAN FLA. VOTER TURNOUT CAMPAIGN
United Press International, 10/28/04
http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20041028-034341-4340r.htm
Miami, FL -- An Islamic group said Thursday it will use buses and phone
banks in a statewide "Get Out the Muslim Vote" campaign across Florida.
The Florida office of the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic
Relations said the campaign has already begun with action alerts
distributed to Florida Muslims, urging them to cast their ballots in
early
voting.
The Muslim civil rights and advocacy group has also designated Friday,
the
day of Islamic communal prayer, as "Get Out the Muslim Vote Day."
Registered Muslim voters in Broward and Hillsborough counties will be
bussed from area mosques after Friday prayers to early polling
stations,
CAIR said.
CAIR said it is also planning phone bank operations in its Pembroke
Pines
and
Tampa offices to encourage Muslim voter turnout Tuesday.
Similar phone banks have been set up in Ohio, the group said.
ALSO SEE:
MUSLIMS GETTING OUT VOTE
Cincinnati Enquirer, 10/29/04
http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/10/29/loc_ohpreznotebook29.html
Ohio's Muslims said they made more than 3,000 phone calls to registered
Muslim voters last weekend - and they've got 22,000 more calls to make
this
weekend.
"Muslims are not sitting by and watching this election; we are full
participants," said Jad Humeidan, executive director of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations' Ohio chapter. Muslims are so energized
that,
despite the fact that most are fasting during the days as part of
Ramadan,
they stay past their three-hour shifts to make more calls.
In Cincinnati, local Muslims will be making calls from 2938 Vernon
Place in
Walnut Hills from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For more
information contact csaylor@cair-net.org.
---
MUSLIMS CITE BETRAYAL BY BUSH
Kristen Mack, Houston Chronicle, 10/28/04
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/politics/2872161
Syed Ahmed voted for George W. Bush in 2000. But he won't this year.
Ahmed, an engineering consultant and one-time delegate to the state
Republican convention, said he believes the president has taken the
country
in the wrong direction.
Like many Muslims around the country who overwhelmingly supported Bush
in
the last presidential election, Ahmed now appears to be backing
Democratic
candidate John Kerry, according to several polls.
Muslim-Americans, who often identify themselves as fiscal and social
conservatives, would appear to be a natural constituency for Bush. But
when
it comes to civil liberties, especially since the Sept. 11, 2001,
terrorist
attacks, their support is changing.
Muslims are disenchanted with the Bush administration for its support
of
the Patriot Act, which has left them feeling betrayed, several Muslims
leaders said.
"The Patriot Act has many nonpatriotic provisions in it," Ahmed said.
The Bush-Cheney campaign realizes that it can't take any group's votes
for
granted, said Danny Diaz, a spokesman for the campaign.
"Every single vote is significant in this election. We are reaching out
to
people on an individual level. We recognize and appreciate the
contributions that are made every day by Muslim-Americans in
contributing
to our national security and (ensuring) that progress continues," he
said.
"The Patriot Act is an important tool that allows law enforcement to
fight
terrorism."
The Patriot Act, which Congress passed shortly after 9/11, expands the
government's authority to identify, track and apprehend suspected
terrorists, including using roving wiretaps on any telephone.
The Bush administration has said the act breaks down legal and
bureaucratic
walls that hampered intelligence and law enforcement agencies from
collecting and sharing information.
Yet, many Muslims and other critics view it as an attack on civil
liberties
and say it has led to the perception of racial profiling, especially at
airports.
While it is difficult to define the Muslim community as strictly
liberal or
conservative, it appears to be more actively engaged in this year's
presidential election...
---
IRAQI AMERICANS WAVER ON BUSH
NIRAJ WARIKOO, Detroit Free Press, 10/29/04
http://www.freep.com/news/politics/iraqivote29e_20041029.htm
In a photo that hangs in a Dearborn mosque, a Muslim leader is pointing
at
a crowd, his jaw jutted as he pounds home why President George W.
Bush's
plan to liberate Iraq is the right one.
It's a still frame of Sheikh Husham al-Husainy, a reminder to him and
visitors that not too long ago, he passionately supported Bush and his
Iraq
war. Two years ago this week, al-Husainy organized dozens of local
Iraqis
on a trip to Washington, D.C., to counter one of the largest antiwar
protests in the United States since Vietnam with their own pro-Bush
rally.
"You know how many times I demonstrated and supported the
change-of-regime
policy of Bush?" said al-Husainy, the Iraqi-born head of the Karbalaa
Islamic Education Center, as he gestured toward the photo this week.
"You
can see."
But not anymore. Upset with how Bush has handled the Iraq war,
al-Husainy
and some other Iraqi Americans are turning against him. A poll last
month
by EPIC/MRA found that 46 percent of Iraqi Americans in Michigan have
an
unfavorable view of Bush, while 43 percent hold a favorable view. A
similar
poll in May 2003 found that 64 percent had a positive view of Bush.
Both
polls had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.
-----
INTELLIGENCE ON ELECTION THREAT QUIETED
Katherine Pfleger Shrader, Associated Press, 10/27/04
http://newsobserver.com/24hour/politics/story/1780134p-9634318c.html
Since Oct. 1, agents have arrested 137 people on immigration violations
in
a stepped-up enforcement action aimed at finding those who may pose a
threat to national security, ICE officials said. The names of some of
those
arrested appear on government lists of those with possible connections
to
terrorism.
Those people under heightened government scrutiny were identified
through
methods such as intelligence gathered inside and outside the United
States;
FBI interviews with an estimated 10,000 Muslims, Arabs and others based
on
investigative leads; and immigration database alerts triggered when
someone
violates the terms of a visa, such as failing to attend college as
promised...
Some Muslims worry the arrests and interviews could intimidate Muslims
from
voting, said Council on American-Islamic Relations spokeswoman Rabiah
Ahmed. The FBI has had town-hall meetings and other forums hoping to
ease
those fears.
"Members of our community have been targeted for reasons that are often
unexplained or untold," Ahmed said...
-----
RAMADAN OFFERS PROMISE OF NEARNESS TO GOD
Asma Mobin-Uddin, Columbus Dispatch, 10/29/04
http://www.dispatch.com/news/religion/faith-story.php?story=dispatch/2004/10
/29/20041029-F2-01.html
Busy with the worldly demands of our hectic lives, many of us leave the
deepest needs of the human heart unattended. For Muslims, the holy
month of
Ramadan, which began this year on Oct. 15, is a time to subjugate the
needs
of the body to tend to the needs of the heart. This month, the call of
the
heart and its longing for connection with God take precedence.
Every year before Ramadan starts, I am filled with anticipation, hope
and
usually some apprehension. I wonder if I will be able to meet the
demands
of the fast. Abstinence from all food and drink, even water, is
required
every day during daylight hours. Even in a state of hunger and fatigue,
a
fasting person must do his or her best to be patient, avoid harshness
with
anyone, show compassion and mercy to others, give of time and wealth in
charity, and avoid any falsehood or bad deed.
Every year, I quickly realize that the greatest challenges of this
month
lie not in the physical abstinence but in the struggle to improve my
character. Muslims believe God provides tremendous support, love, mercy
and
forgiveness for those struggling to attain piety and nearness to him.
Islam
teaches that, during Ramadan, God binds the forces of evil so their
negative influences on people are restrained. The gates of God's mercy
being wide open, even the smallest acts of goodness are rewarded
exponentially by him.
What I cherish most about Ramadan are the opportunities for quiet
moments
in solitude with God. The stillness of the morning before dawn provides
a
perfect setting for communication with God. In a silence far removed
from
the frenzied pace of the day, with intimacy, I pour out my soul's
thoughts
to God. In those moments of devotion, I deeply sense God's love and
compassion.
Another part I love about this sacred month are the taraweeh prayers
held
at the mosque every evening. During these prayers, held only in
Ramadan,
the Quran is usually recited in its entirety over the course of the
month...
(Dr. Asma Mobin-Uddin is vice president of the Ohio chapter of the
Council
on American-Islamic Relations.)
ALSO SEE:
A RAMADAN RELEASE
Mark I. Pinsky, Orlando Sentinel, 10/20/04
http://www.newsday.com/features/religion/ny-lsfaith1030,0,3448212.story
Stung by widespread negative media stereotypes, many of America's
Muslims
will take to mainstream movie theaters in New York and elsewhere to
mark
the end of their holy month of Ramadan with a groundbreaking, full-
length
animated feature called "Muhammad: The Last Prophet."
The November screening of the children's film coincides with Eid
al-Fitr,
the feast that concludes Ramadan.
Distributors of the film are taking their cue from Christian
filmmakers,
although no one connected with the 90-minute cartoon expects its
limited
run to duplicate the half-billion-dollar success of Mel Gibson's "The
Passion of the Christ..."
Many Muslims also hope "Muhammad" will increase understanding of their
faith among the larger American community. A poll released Oct. 4 by
the
Washington, D.C.-based Council on American-Islamic Relations found that
25
percent of Americans believe anti-Muslim stereotypes. In a separate
finding, the survey reported that negative images of Muslims in media
and
popular culture far outweigh positive ones...
TO PURCHASE TICKETS, GO TO:
http://www.finemediagroup.com/
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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
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In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
CAIR ACTION ALERT #439
MUSLIMS URGED TO VOTE IN RECORD NUMBERS
Exercise your rights, defend your future
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 11/1/2004) – CAIR is urging every eligible Muslim
voter
to got to the polls on November 2 and vote for the candidates of their
choice. To help get out the Muslim vote, particularly in key
battleground
states such as Ohio and Florida, CAIR:
* Opened “Get Out the Muslim Vote” Election Centers in Columbus,
Cleveland
and Cincinnati
* Called more than 18,000 Ohio Muslim voters to ask for a commitment to
vote
* Distributed Ohio community voter guides at Friday and Taraweeh
prayers
* Bused Florida Muslim voters to early polls after Friday prayers
* Called Florida Muslim voters using volunteer phone banks
* Published a voter guide for Muslim voters in California
* Cooperated in a civil rights phone bank for Illinois voters
“More Muslim voters are being mobilized for this election than at any
time
in the past,” said CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad. Awad said CAIR
will
conduct an exit poll of Muslim voters.
ACTION REQUESTED:
1. GO TO THE POLLS on Tuesday and VOTE!
2. TAKE A MUSLIM friend or family member along with you to vote.
3. REPORT any incidents of voter intimidation, harassment or denial of
the
right to vote to CAIR. Contact CAIR by calling 202-488-8787, or by
e-mailing csaylor@cair-net.org.
4. DISTRIBUTE this alert at taraweeh prayers and on your personal
e-mail
list.
WHAT TO DO ON ELECTION DAY:
1. KNOW WHERE TO GO. In many states, you will NOT be allowed to vote if
you
show up at the wrong polling place. Your board of elections can tell
you
where to vote. Call today to locate your polling place. If you can't
reach
your board, call 1-866-OURVOTE.
2. BRING PROPER IDENTIFICATION. Proper forms of ID can include a
driver’s
license, a utility bill or another document that includes your name and
address. Make sure the ID matches your address.
3. READ SIGNS AT POLLING PLACES for instructions on how to vote and how
to
file a complaint if you believe your rights have been violated.
4. REVIEW THE SAMPLE BALLOT BEFORE VOTING. Ballots are often confusing,
and
their designs can change considerably from election to election. If you
have questions about how to vote on your ballot, ask a poll worker or
poll
monitor for help.
5. CHECK YOUR BALLOT BEFORE CASTING YOUR VOTE. If you are having a
problem
understanding instructions, or if you just want to make sure you are
voting
in the correct manner, ask to speak to a poll worker
6. KNOW YOUR RIGHTS CONCERNING “PROVISIONAL BALLOTS.” No voter can be
turned away in any state this year without being allowed to vote. If
there
is a question about your eligibility, you must be allowed to vote on a
provisional ballot, the validity of which will be determined later. But
if
you are entitled to vote on a regular ballot, you should insist on
doing
so, since a provisional ballot may be disqualified later on a
technicality.
7. KNOW WHERE TO TURN FOR HELP. It is a good idea to bring a cell phone
and
phone numbers of nonpartisan hotlines such as 1-866-OURVOTE and
1-866-MYVOTE1.
8. BE PREPARED FOR LONG LINES. Try to get to your polling place very
early
in the morning, or between the before-work and after-work rushes. As
long
as you are in line before the polls close, you are legally entitled to
vote. Do not let poll workers close the polls until you have voted.
SEE: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/01/opinion/01mon1.html
http://www.lwv.org/voter/read.cfm?pid=elections101
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/e4/
- PLEASE ANNOUNCE, POST AND DISTRIBUTE –
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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
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In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS – 11/1/04
* VERSE OF THE DAY: MUTUAL CONSULTATION
* CAIR-OH: 18K MUSLIM VOTERS CALLED BY CAIR VOLUNTEERS
- CAIR-FL: Minorities Key to Election (Brad Herald)
- CAIR-FL: Muslim Vote Shifts (Broward)
- CAIR-Seattle: Muslims Urged to Vote (King 5 News)
* 350 TURN OUT FOR CAIR-CLEVELAND INTERFAITH BANQUET
- CAIR-FL to Hold Interfaith Iftar
* NY: SLURS USED DURING ATTACK ON MUSLIM STUDENT (WNBC)
- MN: Somalis Picket Firm Over Alleged Bias (Star Trib)
* MA: CALLING MUSLIMS TO GET OUT AND VOTE (Globe)
- NC: Candidates Reach Out to Local Muslims (News 14)
- AZ: Palestinian Tells Why he Backs Kerry (Republic)
- IN: Muslims May be Abandoning Bush (Indy Star)
- FL: Muslims Switch Sides in Tampa (St Pete Times)
* CAIR-DC: IRAQ KIDNAPPINGS ATTACKED (Wash Post)
- Understanding Islamic Ethics (Centre Daily)
* CA: MUSLIMS SEEK HALAL FARE IN RAMADAN (Press Enterprise)
- PA: Songs Shine Light on Ramadan (Phil Inq)
- FL: Muslim Fasts While Playing B-Ball (CC Times)
* PENTAGON SUPPRESSES DETAILS OF IRAQI CIVILIAN CASUALTIES
-----
VERSE OF THE DAY: MUTUAL CONSULTATION
“Whatever you are given is nothing but a provision for the transitory
life
of this world. Better and everlasting is the reward which God has for
those
who
believe, put their trust in their Lord, avoid major sins and shameful
deeds, forgive even when they are angry, answer the call of their Lord,
establish prayer, conduct their affairs with mutual consultation, spend
out
of the sustenance which We have given them, and when they are
oppressed,
help and defend themselves.”
The Holy Quran, 42:36-39
-----
18K OHIO MUSLIM VOTERS CALLED BY CAIR VOLUNTEERS
Muslim voter guides distributed at mosques during Ramadan prayers
(COLUMBUS, OH, 11/1/2004) - The Ohio office of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Ohio) today said that volunteers in
its
"Get Out the Muslim Vote" election centers have called more than 18,000
eligible Muslim voters.
Volunteer staffers at CAIR-Ohio election center phone banks in
Columbus,
Cleveland and Cincinnati asked the Muslim voters for a commitment to go
to
the polls on November 2. Of the Muslim voters who could be reached,
more
than 3,000 committed to vote on Tuesday.
"Muslims are not sitting by and watching this election, we are going to
be
full participants," said CAIR-Ohio Executive Director Jad Humeidan. He
said
there are an estimated 50,000 registered Muslim voters in Ohio.
CAIR-Ohio also distributed a community voter guide designed to help
educate
and inform Muslim voters in that state. The voter guide was distributed
at
Friday congregational prayers throughout Ohio and are being handed out
at
mosques and Islamic centers during special evening prayers (Taraweeh)
conducted each night throughout the month or Ramadan.
The CAIR-Ohio voter guide, which was printed in both English and
Somali,
can be viewed at:
English: http://www.cair-ohio.com/election_guide_English.pdf
Somali: http://www.cair-ohio.com/election_guide_Somali.pdf
CAIR-Ohio's election centers and voter guides are part of CAIR's
nationwide
effort to get out the Muslim vote in key states.
CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, is headquartered
in
Washington, D.C., and has 29 regional offices and chapters nationwide
and
in Canada.
CONTACT: CAIR-Ohio Executive Director Jad Humeidan, 614-451-3232 or
614-571-2770, E-mail: jad@cair-ohio.com; CAIR-Ohio President, Ahmad
Al-Akhras, 614-989-5916, E-mail: ahmad@cair-ohio.com
ALSO SEE:
CAIR-FL: MINORITY VOTES KEY TO ELECTION
Sylvia Lim, Bradenton Herald, 10/31/04
http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradentonherald/news/local/10059456.htm
MANATEE - Local minority communities realize their votes could sway the
outcome of the elections on both local and national fronts.
Since the presidential race is projected to be a close one, each group
hopes to tip Tuesday's election.
With pet issues such as racial profiling, gay marriage, immigration
policies and fears that their votes may not be counted, some minorities
worry their voices will be drowned out in the midst of fierce campaign
battles.
Muslim representatives have strong opinions about both presidential
candidates but feel disenfranchised by the Bush administration.
Some of the county's gays and lesbians are voting for John Kerry
because
his campaign appears to be less vehement on the gay marriage debate.
Hispanic voters in the area are torn between both candidates.
Local Asian-Americans, particularly Filipino-Americans, have decided to
endorse Bush's campaign.
Even if sentiments vary sharply among different groups when it comes to
trusting one particular party or candidate, the minority community in
Manatee County as a whole could prove important to candidates come
Tuesday...
The two regional offices for Council on American-Islamic Relations in
Florida have been overwhelmed with volunteers canvassing local Muslims
to
vote, said its director, Altaf Ali.
Buses were hired to take Muslims to the polls in Broward and
Hillsborough
counties on Friday.
"We decided this year to play an active role in encouraging Muslims to
vote," Ali said...
---
POLLS FIND MUSLIM VOTE SHIFT
Ruth Morris, Broward, 10/31/04
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/elections/sfl-carabvoteoct31,0,318826.story
A week after the 9-11 terror attacks, President Bush removed his shoes
and
stepped into a quiet mosque in Washington, D.C. Hate crimes against
Muslims
had begun to crackle across the country and the visit was meant to
forestall further retaliatory violence.
"The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam," Bush said in a
speech
that drew deep appreciation from Muslims across the country.
Three years later, with the presidential campaigns in their final
frenetic
stage, the sentiment has shifted. Citing lengthy and humiliating
airport
checks, detentions and taunts, many Arab Americans say they'll be
voting
for Sen. John Kerry on Tuesday in the hopes that he will reverse the
racial
profiling.
"If your first name is Mohammad you're looked on with a doubtful eye,"
said
Mohammad Ahmad, 38, who stood in line outside a Pembroke Pines polling
station after leaving Friday prayers at a nearby mosque. Referring to
Bush's mosque visit in the aftermath of the 9-11 attacks, he added: "If
he
had a sincere feeling about it, he should have stayed in touch with the
Muslim community."
Polls show a virtual sea change in political allegiance among Arab
Americans and Muslims who voted decisively for Bush four years ago,
partly
because his emphasis on family values was a snug fit with their
conservative leanings. A Project MAPS/Zogby International poll released
last month found 76 percent of Muslim Americans supported Kerry over
Bush,
compared with 2000 when Bush garnered 42 percent of the Muslim vote vs.
31
percent for Democrat Al Gore.
While their numbers are not huge in swing states -- Arab Americans
account
for about 2 percent of Florida voters -- leaders in the communities are
fond of pointing to the 537 votes that swayed the last presidential
election. When every vote counts, they say, this sector of disgruntled
voters counts in a big way.
"The civil rights issues have kind of alienated the Muslim community,
from
the Patriot Act to the war on Iraq," said Ahmed Bedier, a spokesman for
Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, referring
to
post-9-11 legislation that handed federal agents greater access to
private
records in their hunt for terror suspects. "It's not necessarily that
people think it will be any better with Kerry ... but they want to try
something different..."
---
MUSLIMS ENCOURAGED TO VOTE
Roberta Romero, King 5 News, 10/30/04
http://www.king5.com/localnews/stories/NW_103004ELBmuslimvoteEL.bc2b2dc.html
SEATTLE - With the clock ticking closer to Election Day, local Muslims
are
taking every opportunity they can to get the vote out.
Muslims feel they could make a big difference in choosing the next
president and now it's just a matter of making sure they go to the
polls.
At a ballot party Ahmad Alkabra was learning the ins and outs of voting
in
a presidential election.
“The primary thing is to get educated and.. listen to each other and
get
focused on this,” he said.
Muslim voters were briefed on the voting process.
Traditionally, Muslims tend to vote more conservatively. In fact, four
years ago the majority of Muslims voted Bush into office. But this
year,
after Sept. 11, the Patriot Act and the Iraq War, the choice is not as
clear cut...
-----
350 TURN OUT FOR CAIR-CLEVELAND INTERFAITH BANQUET
(CLEVELAND, OH, 11/1/2004) - The Cleveland office of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-OHIO) today said that more than 350
people, including public officials, civic leaders and members of the
interfaith community, attended its 1st Annual Ramadan Iftar Banquet in
the
Joseph Cole Center at Cleveland State University on October 30.
(Iftar is the meal eaten after sunset each day during the Islamic fast
of
Ramadan.)
CONTACT: Julia A. Shearson, 216-830-2247 or 216-440-2770, E-Mail:
julia@cair-ohio.com
SEE ALSO:
CAIR-FL: FLORIDA MUSLIMS TO HOLD INTERFAITH IFTAR
(JACKSONVILLE, FL, 11/1/2004) - The Florida office of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-FL), in cooperation with the Islamic
Center of Northeast Florida and the Islamic Circle of North America,
will
host an interfaith Ramadan Iftar Banquet November 3rd in Jacksonville.
(Iftar is the meal eaten after sunset each day during the Islamic fast
of
Ramadan.) Invited guests include local elected officials, as well as
interfaith and community leaders.
The effort is part of CAIR's nationwide "Sharing Ramadan" program.
SEE: http://www.cair-net.org/ramadan2004/ramadan2004.asp?page=rsvp
WHEN: Wednesday, November 3, 2004, 5-7:30 p.m.
WHERE: Islamic Center of Northeast Florida, 2333 St. Johns Bluff Road,
Jacksonville, FL 32246
CONTACT: Parvez Ahmed, (904) 710-6514, E-Mail: pahmed@cair-florida.org
"Iftar dinners offer an excellent opportunity for people of other
faiths to
learn more about their Muslim neighbors," said Parvez Ahmed, Chairman
of
Board, CAIR-FL.
CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil liberties group, is headquartered
in
Washington, D.C., and has 29 offices and chapters nationwide and in
Canada.
The group's Florida office has chapters in Broward and Tampa.
-----
NY: 2 ARRESTED IN ALLEGED HATE CRIME AT STONY BROOK
WNBC, 11/1/04
http://www.wnbc.com/news/3875751/detail.html
STONY BROOK, N.Y. -- Two Staten Island men were arrested and charged
Friday
with hate crimes for allegedly hitting a Muslim student at Stony Brook
University while using anti-Muslim slurs.
Suffolk police charged 19-year-old Michael Parker and 20-year-old Marat
Bravin, both Staten Island residents, with criminal trespass in the
second
degree and aggravated harrassment in the second degree as a hate crime.
The two men were visiting a friend on the campus when they allegedly
knocked on a student's door to wake him at about 4 a.m. The alleged
victim,
who asked not to be identified, said he opened the door and the two men
went into his room and began throwing items at him, hitting him and
overturning furniture, while calling him anti-Muslim names.
Stony Brook police detained the suspects for Suffolk County police.
The men are scheduled to be arraigned Saturday.
ALSO SEE:
SOMALI WORKERS PICKET CHANHASSEN CELL PHONE FIRM
H.J. Cummins, Star Tribune, 10/30/04
http://www.lucianne.com/threads2.asp?artnum=179952
About 100 Somali workers set up a picket line Friday at the Teleplan
Wireless Co. in Chanhassen, protesting conditions they said include
ethnic
slurs, religious insensitivity and hiring discrimination.
Almost twice that number reportedly walked off their jobs on Monday.
Some
have returned to work. The rest rejected a company offer to settle on
Wednesday and said they will begin to consider contacting labor unions
this
weekend.
The company, which assembles and refurbishes cell phones, released a
statement Friday saying "the door is still open" to workers who want to
return. However, like any business serving customers, it continued, "we
will have to begin to replace workers who choose not to come back."
The conflict is part of a growing trend as the numbers of Somali,
Hmong,
Latino and even Bosnian immigrants bring greater diversity to Minnesota
workplaces. The state's Department of Human Rights has fielded
complaints
about Muslim prayer schedules and days-long Asian bereavement periods,
for
example. Employers have struggled with foreign-language translations of
company handbooks and dietary restrictions at company functions, said
Janice Downing, CEO of Fredrickson Human Resources Consulting in
Minneapolis.
A list of complaints
Teleplan's Somali workers have sought help from the Somali Justice
Advocacy
Center in St. Paul.
"We are concerned about the basic rights of these people," said Omar
Jamal,
the center's director. "All they're asking is to be treated decently
and
with respect..."
---
CALLING MUSLIMS TO GET OUT AND VOTE
Colleen Walsh, Boston Globe, 10/31/04
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2004/10/31/calling_m
uslims_to_get_out_and_vote/
These days his alarm rings at 4:30 a.m. The wakeup call gives Mushtaque
Alikhan Mirza, a practicing Muslim fasting for the celebration of
Ramadan,
just enough time for breakfast before sunrise. Then he settles in to
work
for the next 15 hours -- for free.
Within minutes he's installed in front of the computer in his Cambridge
home. There he will remain until 9 or 10 p.m., volunteering his time by
sending countless e-mails and making call upon call to Muslims around
the
country.
"I have been calling the Somalian communities in Minneapolis and the
Arab
communities in Michigan," said Mirza. "I have been traveling to New
Hampshire and driving to Maine and campaigning among its large Somalian
community."
The chairman of the Cambridge Ward 4 Democratic Committee for the last
10
years, Mirza has taken on the task of helping organize Muslims around
the
nation to mobilize, register, and vote.
Phil Johnston, chairman of the state Democratic Party, who has worked
with
Mirza for years, called his contributions invaluable. "He is a great,
great
Democrat, a great activist," said Johnston. "Mushtaque is certainly one
of
the key leaders in the [Muslim] community."
Johnston recalled a moving speech Mirza gave to the state committee
days
after Sept. 11. "He said he and his family and his community shared in
our
sorrow. There wasn't a dry eye in the room when he got through
speaking."
Currently, Mirza's work focuses on John Kerry's presidential bid, but
it
was a visit from another famous Massachusetts resident to his homeland
more
than 40 years ago that planted the seed of political interest. As a
young
Muslim of Iranian ancestry growing up in India, he was inspired by John
Kennedy's simple message and outreach to the poor. "He went around and
talked to average people and asked what you can do for your nation,"
Mirza
said.
Violent clashes between Hindus and Muslims in the late '60s made Mirza
look
toward America as an escape. "That was October 1969. So many Muslims
were
killed; some of my relatives' houses were burned. I said this was just
not
the place to live."
His first act after becoming an American citizen in 1978 was to cross
the
street from his home and vote. "At St. Peter's Church one older lady
was
standing there with a sign. She said, 'Will you vote for my son?' “The
woman was the mother of Scott Harshbarger, who was running for district
attorney.
Since then Mirza has become engrossed in local and national politics.
In
1986 he joined the Cambridge Democratic City Committee, and in 1988 was
involved with the Dukakis campaign. In 1996, he worked on John Kerry's
re-election run for US Senate. He joined the Massachusetts Democratic
State
Committee in 1999, and in 2000 that committee's executive board...
---
CANDIDATES REACH OUT TO LOCAL MUSLIMS
News 14 Carolina, 10/31/04
http://www.news14charlotte.com/content/local_news/?ArID=77971&SecID=2
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Some of the candidates running in Tuesday's
elections
met with members of the Islamic community Saturday at the south branch
of
the Islamic Center of Charlotte.
It was an opportunity for community members and neighbors to share in a
Muslim tradition. To mark the end of each day of fasting during the
holy
month of Ramadan, Muslims hold a special ceremony and feast.
The event gave community members and neighbors an opportunity to share
in a
Muslim tradition.
Muslims who attended the event believe that in recent years they have
been
left out of the election process. They feel it is time more people
seeking
office make the effort to reach out to them.
"If you look in the past, especially the past three years, no one group
has
been such disenfranchised as the Muslims here in America and abroad,"
said
Muslim Jibril Hough.
Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, prayer, doing good deeds
and
spending time with family and friends. The goal of fasting is to help
teach
Muslims self-discipline, self-restraint and generosity. It also reminds
them of the suffering of the poor.
---
PALESTINIAN- AMERICAN TELLS WHY HE BACKS KERRY
Bishara A. Bahbah, Arizona Republic, 10/31/04
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/viewpoints/articles/1031bahbah1031.
html
Though I'm a proud Republican, I have already mailed my early ballot
and
cast my vote in the presidential election for a Democrat - John F.
Kerry.
As much as I would like to see a Republican occupy the White House, I
simply could not bear another four years of George W. Bush. Here's why:
In the face of the vicious attacks on the United States on 9/11,
President
Bush acted promptly and decisively in the face of the ominous danger
facing
the nation. He seemed strong, presidential, and confident. Americans of
all
walks of life rallied around him. It did not take long before we
witnessed
the emergence of a cocky, confused and ideologically driven president.
Bush's first mistake was to lose focus on the war on terror. Instead of
hunting down Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida terror network in
Afghanistan, he switched his focus to Iraq's Saddam Hussein. The result
has
been an Afghanistan in which security exists only in the capital city.
The
central government controls but pockets of the country and Osama bin
Laden
and his thugs roam free, uncaptured, and able to strike targets around
the
world.
President Bush waged the war in Iraq without the support of the United
Nations Security Council and the vast majority of countries around the
world, claiming that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and
connections to al-Qaida terror group. With neither claim remotely
substantiated; with over 1,000 U.S. soldiers killed and many more
wounded;
with Saddam Hussein captured; and with billions of dollars spent on an
invasion that went awry, the president still claims that he was
justified
in invading Iraq.
Today, Iraq is chaotic, dangerous and ungovernable. Its oil industry
that
was supposed to fuel its reconstruction is in flames, forcing this
country
with the second largest oil reserves in the world, to import oil and,
thus,
significantly contributing to skyrocketing oil prices around the world.
In Europe, Asia and the Muslim and Arab worlds, the United States is
scorned and resented. President Bush, unlike his father, failed to
create
an international coalition to deal with world crises.
Much of the world sees the United States and its few allies as
committing
blunders in their conduct of international diplomacy. The United States
might still be the sole superpower in terms of its military and
economic
strength; unfortunately, it is widely viewed as a misguided giant led
by an
intellectual midget.
With regard to the Arab-Israeli conflict, a major foreign policy issue
that
has dogged every U.S. president, President Bush, to his credit, has
been
the first president to support publicly the establishment of a
Palestinian
state. Ironically, his strong words of support have been unmatched by
his
actions. The president has given the Israelis carte blanche in their
dealings with the Palestinians allowing them to build a monstrous wall
to
encircle the West Bank and not stopping them from continuously bombing
and
invading the Gaza Strip. Under President Bush, the Arab-Israeli peace
process has died...
---
MUSLIMS MAY BE ABANDONING BUSH
Robert King, Indianapolis Star, 11/1/04
http://www.indystar.com/articles/0/191073-3300-009.html
Four years ago, Muslim Americans were heartened to hear Republican
presidential candidate George W. Bush assure them he would end racial
profiling and the use of secret evidence in criminal investigations.
What's more, Bush's conservative views about abortion and other social
issues lined up with their own. As a result, Muslims voted
overwhelmingly
for Bush in the 2000 election.
Four years later, though, Muslims are abandoning Bush in droves. Some
polls
say Sen. John Kerry could receive more than 80 percent of the Muslim
vote
and that Bush may do well to finish ahead of Ralph Nader.
"I would say -- as Bush says -- that he has a proven record. And I
would
not say it is very favorable for Muslim rights around the world," said
Muhammad Abdul-Wahid, an Indianapolis resident and regular at the
Masjid
Al-Fajr mosque on Cold Spring Road.
"I've yet to hear anybody claim to be a supporter of Bush."
Seated shoulder-to-shoulder with hundreds of other Muslims on Friday at
the
Westside mosque, Abdul-Wahid heard a sermon about the equality of all
people in the eyes of Allah, regardless of race, class or nationality.
Muslims say equality and justice are themes of their faith, and that
lately
they haven't felt so equal in America. Since the terrorist attacks of
2001,
many Muslims say their rights have been eroded, that the Patriot Act
has
put them disproportionately at risk for unchecked surveillance and that
they live under suspicion.
Dr. Haroon Qazi, a native of Pakistan who immigrated to America decades
ago
and served in the U.S. Army during the 1970s, said after Friday's
service
that he was weary of routinely having his bags searched at airports and
being the only person pulled out of line.
"I've been a Republican all my life until now," said Qazi, a plastic
surgeon.
Andrea Quarles, another member of the mosque, blames Bush for lost jobs
and
lost health care for many Americans and a war in Iraq that she sees as
bad
choice. "Nothing good has come from it, and we are still losing
soldiers."
Umar Al-Khattab, the mosque's imam, and friend Ahmad Abdul-Majid, say
they
expect 90 percent of the people in their mosque to vote for Kerry.
They say Muslims opposed the war and are disenchanted with what they
see as
Bush's lopsided support for Israel in dealing with the Palestinians.
But
there is also great concern about the deportation of Muslims since
Sept.
11, 2001, and what they see as the unjustified detention of Muslim
Americans.
"This has turned a lot of people off," said Abdul-Majid. "It's about
freedom and equality."
Luke Messer, executive director for the Indiana Republican Party, said
he's
not aware of any national trends that show Muslims abandoning Bush.
He said he understands concern about the Patriot Act, and he expects
that
law to be revised soon.
But Messer said some Muslim groups have expressed appreciation for Bush
and
how America's military efforts have spread freedom to new lands.
"I know (Bush) has Iraqi groups who are American citizens today who are
very supportive of the president," Messer said. "I know that's true of
Afghan citizens as well."
Still, Bush and the course America has taken since Sept. 11, 2001, has
inspired new heights of political activism. At the Indianapolis mosque,
leaders have helped members register and urged them to vote.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation's largest Muslim
civil rights group, has set up phone banks in Ohio, Election Day
transportation in Florida and issued Arabic voter guides in Michigan --
all
battleground states considered too close to call and likely to hinge on
turnout...
---
IN TAMPA: MUSLIMS SWITCH SIDES
Adam C Smith, St Petersburg Times, 11/1/04
http://www.sptimes.com/2004/11/01/Decision2004/Democracy_s_foot_sold.shtml
Four years ago, the crowd leaving Ramadan services at the Islamic
Society
of Tampa Bay was ripe for Republicans. Bush overwhelmingly won over
Muslim-Americans and Arab-Americans; they account for roughly 120,000
votes
in a state Bush won by 537 four years ago.
The scene Friday offered a stark reminder of how much has changed with
this
socially conservative electorate. After services, buses drove some 70
worshipers to early voting sites, offering sheets of candidate
recommendations that amounted to nearly straight Democratic tickets.
"This is life and death," Saleh Mubarek, a Bush supporter in 2000 who
now
backs Kerry, said as he left services. "The most fundamental things in
this
country - freedom and civil liberties - are threatened right now."
Over and over, the Tampa Muslims said they fretted about the Patriot
Act
and how American authorities have targeted them for suspicion since
Sept.
11. In get-out-the-vote phone banking, the Council on American-Islamic
Relations is finding more than 80 percent support for Kerry, a virtual
reversal of how area Muslims are believed to have voted in 2000.
"I have a bad feeling about this election," Yudebsy Aissam said as she
waited on the bus to vote early, citing drug costs, the economy and
resolving the war in Iraq as her top priorities. "I am afraid they will
try
everything in their power to get President Bush back in power."
-----
KIDNAPPINGS ATTACKED
Caryle Murphy, Washington Post, 10/29/04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10805-2004Oct29.html
Six Muslim leaders from the Washington area yesterday condemned the
taking
of hostages in Iraq and demanded the release of all prisoners.
"Those who kidnap and murder civilians are violating Islamic norms and
deserve to be repudiated by Muslims in America, in Iraq and throughout
the
Islamic world," the imams said in a statement read at a news conference
at
the offices of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a
Washington-based Muslim advocacy group.
The statement was read a second time in Arabic by Mohamad al Hanooti, a
former imam of Dar Al Hijrah in Falls Church. Council officials said
they
intend to disseminate it widely in the Arabic press of the Middle East,
where they hope it will have an impact despite the region's high level
of
anti-American sentiment.
"I think our message was very loud and clear to the kidnappers: That
they
are harming Islam by these actions [which] are counterproductive . . .
and
inhumane," said Nihad Awad, the council's executive director. The
hostage
takers, he added, "cannot quote one verse in the Koran" to justify what
they are doing.
In addition to Hanooti, the imams included Abdul Fazal Nahidian,
Mohamad El
Sheikh, Faizul Khan, Mohamad Bashar Arafat and Daoud Nassimi.
More than 150 foreigners have been kidnapped this year in Iraq and
about
one-third of them have been killed, several by beheading.
ALSO SEE:
UNDERSTANDING ISLAMIC ETHICS
Jonathan E. Brockopp, CentreDaily, 11/1/04
http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/opinion/10059279.htm
The Islamic tradition sees religiously sanctioned war as a positive
means
by which God effects change in this world. But it also prohibits
murder. It
is no surprise, then, that Muslim scholars have long argued over the
ethics
of war.
In ethical terms, the normal prohibition of killing can disappear
during
times of war.
Indeed, winning a war brings the risk of death and killing the enemy.
This
suggests that war aims at some good that conflicts with the good of
human
life, rendering it a means to an end.
For this reason, religious traditions that place a high value on human
life
have an uneasy relationship with this most bloody of human endeavors.
While it may surprise some people, Islam does place a high value on
human
life, and Muslim authorities also place clear limits on killing in war.
There are even Muslim pacifists who reject war altogether.
Major Muslim authorities have condemned the terrorist attacks of Sept.
11,
2001, and the Beslan massacre as murder and not acceptable under the
rules
of war.
Yet, as a way to combat injustice, war can be a moral good in Islam.
This does not mean that killing in war is an undifferentiated act or
that
enemies are sub-human. All life is valued in Islam, and rules of war
even
protect vegetative life, such as crops and trees.
Further, the Quran explicitly recognizes a common humanity, all of whom
are
"children of Adam," so the simple state of unbelief does not cause
one's
life to be forfeited.
Likewise, the fact that attackers are often motivated by politics,
poverty
and desperation does not explain the use of religious rhetoric in
justifying their actions.
The world wants to know how a supposedly peaceful religion, one with a
history of religious tolerance, can also be the foundation of such
violence.
There are at least two answers to this question, historical and
structural.
Historically, we can trace the meaning of the word "jihad" and its
function
as a central concept in the Islamic tradition...
-----
MUSLIMS SEEK HALAL FARE DURING RAMADAN
Bettye Wells Miller, Press Enterprise, 10/31/04
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_halal01.a1382.html
The meat counter at Hala Produce & Market in Riverside is an
international
smorgasbord.
Legs of lamb imported from Australia. Tins of corned beef from Uruguay.
Beef hot dogs from Iowa.
All bear a halal stamp, a designation that tells Muslim shoppers that
the
food has been prepared according to Islamic dietary rules. Halal means
"lawful" in Arabic.
A lamb from Australia bears the Halal stamp, which indicates it was
handled
in accordance with Muslim dietary rules.
"It's very important to eat halal," said Omar Zaki, a Riverside Muslim.
"Muslims believe everything they do they are being judged on. ... There
are
many Muslims who won't eat meats sold in (super)markets because they
are
not certain it is halal."
Eating halal food is important year-round, Zaki said. It becomes even
more
so during the holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims fast from dawn to
dusk.
Ramadan began Oct. 16.
Families that might otherwise buy meat from a supermarket and pray over
it
before cooking "will go out of their way to buy halal meat" during the
holy
month, Zaki said.
Sales of halal meat increase significantly during Ramadan, the owners
of
two Middle Eastern markets in the Inland area said.
"Our Ramadan business goes up at least 10 to 15 percent extra,
sometimes 25
percent if there are a lot of iftar invitations," said Shaker Mohammad,
who
has owned the Hala market for 19 years.
An iftar is the evening meal that breaks the daytime fast...
ALSO SEE:
MUSLIM MOTHER SHINES A LIGHT ON THE FAITH WITH SONGS
Philadelphia Inquirer, 10/31/04
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/10061283.htm
'Music can be the bridge that connects one culture or religion to
another,"
Lisa Abdelsalam writes in the liner notes to her children's CD, We
Believe.
While that may seem like a message with global aspirations, for the
Hatfield Township woman it literally began at home.
Like many Muslims, the 41-year-old mother of three was horrified at the
events of Sept. 11, 2001, and worried how the actions of a few would
reflect upon a religion she had come to embrace. As the holiday season
approached, Abdelsalam and her family prepared for Ramadan, the
monthlong
period of fasting, which in 2001 coincided with the Christmas, Hanukkah
and
Kwanzaa holidays.
A music teacher at the Abdelsalam children's former school, York Avenue
Elementary in Lansdale, was aware of their faith and approached their
mother about including a Ramadan song in the holiday pageant.
Abdelsalam
searched but wasn't happy with the English-language songs she found.
They
were too "hokey," she said, and were set to well-known American
melodies.
The idea of writing a song herself came one night as she lay in bed -
as
did the lyrics and melody, too. "I ran in and woke up my son, I was so
excited," Abdelsalam said with a laugh.
"We Stand as One in Ramadan" was performed at York Avenue's holiday
pageant
by the older Abdelsalam children - Joseph, now 13, and Sophia, now 11 -
and
22 other Muslim children at the school.
For Abdelsalam, who had never before written or performed music, it
felt
like a revelation. She was compelled to write more. She had taken the
song
to Connie Cooper, a secretary at York Avenue, who helped her "bang out
the
melody" and transcribed it into sheet music for use by the school's
music
teachers.
Cooper, now at North Wales Elementary, said the teachers were thrilled
to
have Ramadan music for the school's holiday festivities. "With a
changing
population, we try to represent everyone as much as possible."
The CD "embodies the new American Muslim culture," said Tarek
el-Messidi,
inventory manager for the Muslim site Astrolabe.com, which is selling
it.
He said it's proving very popular…
---
GAELS' 7-FOOT CENTER REBOUNDS FROM KNEE SURGERY
Jennifer Starks, Contra Costa Times, 11/1/04
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/sports/10068573.htm
MORAGA - Every day, members of the St. Mary's College men's basketball
team
take a break from the rigors of practice and jog to the sidelines for a
swig of water. And every day, center Reda Rhalimi stays behind.
It's not that Rhalimi isn't thirsty. He's really thirsty. But for now,
his
religious convictions trump his thirst.
Rhalimi, a Morocco native, is currently observing the Muslim holy month
of
Ramadan, a 30-day holiday marked by worship and fasting. He must
abstain
from food and drink from sunrise to sunset until Ramadan ends Nov. 12.
"I give him so much credit," Gaels sophomore Blake Sholberg said. "Just
not
being able to drink water during our breaks. ... I give him a bunch of
props for that."
Rhalimi admits fasting is difficult, but waiting 12 hours for a
sandwich
and a Coke is nothing compared to the waiting game he's endured for the
past two years.
Rhalimi tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee while
playing
at Daytona Beach (Fla.) Community College in January 2003. The road
back to
health has been an arduous one for the 7-footer, involving two surgical
procedures and months of rehabbing. But with the 2004-05 season about
to
begin, Rhalimi is finally ready to go.
"This is the best I've felt since I injured it," said Rhalimi, a
junior.
"I'm getting my confidence back and trusting my knee. I need to be able
to
make a move and do it without thinking about it. I just need to forget
it
ever happened..."
-----
PENTAGON SUPPRESSES DETAILS OF CIVILIAN CASUALTIES, SAYS EXPERT
Raymond Whitaker, Independent, 10/31/04
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=577793
The Pentagon is collecting figures on local casualties in Iraq,
contrary to
its public claims, but the results are classified, according to one of
the
authors of an independent study which reported last week that the war
has
killed at least 100,000 Iraqis.
"Despite the claim of the head of US Central Command at the time,
General
Tommy Franks, that 'We don't do body counts', the US military does
collect
casualty figures in Iraq," said Professor Richard Garfield, an expert
on
the effects of conflict on civilians. "But since 1991, when Colin
Powell
was head of the joint chiefs of staff, the figures have been kept
secret."
Professor Garfield, who lectures at Columbia University in New York and
the
London School of Hygiene and Public Health, believes the Pentagon's
stance
has confused its response to the latest study. "The military is saying:
'We
don't believe it, but because we don't collect figures, we can't
comment,"
he said.
"Mr Powell decided to keep the figures secret because of the
controversy
over body counts in Vietnam, but I think democracies need this
information."
The first scientific study of the human cost of the Iraq war, published
last week in The Lancet, showed a higher level of casualties than
previous
estimates. Iraqbodycount.net, a website which collects accounts of
Iraqi
civilian deaths reported by two separate media sources, said yesterday
the
toll was between 14,181 and 16,312, but admits that the spreading
violence
in Iraq, which has made it all but impossible for journalists to move
around safely, has undermined its method. That did not prevent the
Foreign
Secretary, Jack Straw, from using its figures to cast doubt on the
academic
survey.
The Government would examine the results "with very great care", Mr
Straw
told BBC Radio 4's Today programme last week. "It is an estimate based
on
very different methodology from standard methodology for assessing
casualties, namely on the number of people reported to have been killed
at
the time or around the time." Previously the Government has dismissed
the
findings of the Iraqbodycount website.
The study by US and Iraqi researchers, led by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg
School of Public Health in Baltimore, surveyed 1,000 households in 33
randomly chosen areas in Iraq. It found that the risk of violent death
was
58 times higher in the period since the invasion, and that most of the
victims were women and children...
-----
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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
--------------------------------------------------------------------
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http://mail2web.com/ .
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
NOVEMBER 2004 MUSLIM VOTER EXIT POLL
As-salaamu alaykum: Please take a minute to fill out the following CAIR
Muslim voter exit poll. Forward this poll to your personal e-mail list
so
that we may have as diverse a sample as possible. Please respond by
Wednesday, November 3. (NOTE: All exit poll responses are
confidential.)
-----
RETURN TO:
E-Mail: survey@cair-net.org
Fax: 202-488-0833
-----
1. Are you Muslim?
___ Yes
___ No
2. Who did you vote for?
___ George Bush
___ John Kerry
___ Ralph Nader
___ Other - Specify: ________________
3. In which state did you vote? ________________
4. Did you experience any problems in casting your vote?
___ No
___ Yes - Specify: ___________________________________________
NOTE: If you did experience harassment or intimidation at the polls,
please
provide your contact information for CAIR’s Civil Rights Department:
Name:
Address:
Phone:
E-Mail:
-----
PLEASE FORWARD A BLANK COPY OF THIS SURVEY TO MUSLIM FRIENDS AND
COLLEAGUES.
-----
NOTE: CAIR offers an e-mail list designed to be a window to the
American
Muslim community. Subscribers to the list, called CAIR-NET, receive
news
releases and other materials dealing with American Muslim positions on
issues of importance to our society.
To SUBSCRIBE to CAIR-NET, go to: http://cair.biglist.com/cair-net/
-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
--------------------------------------------------------------------
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In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS – 11/2/04
* HADITH OF THE DAY: RACISM REJECTED
* PAY YOUR ZAKAT TO CAIR
* MUSLIM VOTER EXIT POLL TO BE RELEASED
* CAIR-CAN: MOSQUE VANDALISM MAY BE HATE CRIME
- Canadian Muslims Fear Shattered Windows (CP)
- INCITEMENT WATCH: Searching the Quran for Intolerance
* CAIR-CAN: B'NAI BRITH ASKED TO REPUDIATE TERROR COMMENTS
- Official Apologizes For Backing State Terrorism (G&M)
* CAIR-OH: MUSLIMS TO HOLD ‘SHARING RAMADAN’ BANQUET
- OH: Volunteers Flock to Get-Out-The-Vote Efforts (AP)
* MANY ARAB AMERICANS NOW SUPPORT KERRY (Mercury News)
- Elections Key to UW Muslims (The Daily)
* GA: MUSLIM STUDENTS FACE NEW HURDLES (AJC)
* LECTURE ON WOMEN'S ROLES IN ISLAM (Western Herald)
- CA: Patriot Act Invasive Of Rights (Daily Bruin)
-----
HADITH OF THE DAY: RACISM REJECTED
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) once told a companion: "You
are
not better than people (of other races) unless you excel them in
piety."
Al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 1361
-----
PAY YOUR ZAKAT TO CAIR
Alhamdulilah (praise be to God), almost half a million has been raised
to
date for CAIR’s $1 Million during Ramadan campaign. Please continue
donating generously to the campaign at
http://www.cair-net.org/asp/millionforislam.asp.
We have half a million more to go and with your help, we can achieve
our
goal!
Remember that scholars say CAIR is able to receive ZAKAT donations.
-----
MUSLIM VOTER EXIT POLL TO BE RELEASED
CAIR is currently compiling the results of a Muslim voter exit poll and
will release preliminary figures when they are available.
-----
CAIR-CAN: POLICE SHOULD INVESTIGATE MOSQUE VANDALISM AS HATE CRIME
Vandalism follows threatening phone calls to Winnipeg mosque
(Ottawa, Canada - 11/1/04) - The Canadian Council on American-Islamic
Relations (CAIR-CAN) today called on local police to treat the recent
vandalism of the Manitoba Islamic Association mosque in Winnipeg as a
possible hate crime.
Reports indicate that on Sunday, October 31, 2004, vandals broke the
glass
panels on both sides of the front entrance of the mosque. No worshipers
were present inside the mosque at the time.
Earlier in the week, threatening phone calls were made to the mosque
and
subsequently reported to the police.
This is the second time that the mosque was vandalized. The first
incident
occurred in 2001, when vandals smeared the front of the mosque with
animal
feces, eggs and white paint. Garbage was also thrown in the area of the
mosque. No arrests have been made.
In a statement issued today, CAIR-CAN wrote:
"We call on local officials and the Winnipeg police to work together
with
the Muslim community to ensure the safety of the mosque.
"Canadian Muslims must have assurances that their institutions will be
protected, particularly during the holy month of Ramadan, where
worshipers
frequent the mosque more often and in large numbers."
Since September 2001, CAIR-CAN has documented hate activity against 19
Islamic institutions and mosques, including attempted arson,
destruction
and defacement of mosque property, and graffiti threats. Six of those
incidents have occurred in the last 7 months.
CONTACT: Abdurahman Salman at 613-254-9704; E-mail: Canada@cair-net.org
ALSO SEE:
WINNIPEG MUSLIMS FEAR SHATTERED WINDOWS AT MOSQUE MORE THAN VANDALISM
Steve Harris, Canadian Press, 11/1/04
WINNIPEG (CP) - Muslims who found the windows at Winnipeg's main mosque
shattered on Sunday say they fear there was more behind the act than
vandalism.
"Maybe it's a hate crime,'' said Ghassan Joundi, president of the
Manitoba
Islamic Association. "It's a shock. It's really cruel when you see
something like that.''
Joundi said police declined to investigate, even though the mosque has
been
attacked twice before and threatening phone calls have recently been
made
to Winnipeg Muslim agencies.
"(Police) said it's only broken glass,'' said Joundi.
Const. Bob Johnson said Monday he could find no report about vandalism
at
the mosque.
Joundi said the attack is especially upsetting given its timing during
the
holy month of Ramadan.
"Every day, people come and pray at the mosque five times a day. Every
night there are more than 300 people, so there is a concern for their
safety.''
In February 2001, vandals smeared the building with animal feces,
pelted
the front doors with eggs and paint and threw garbage around the site.
The previous December, eggs were thrown at the building. In a show of
support to the Muslim community, then-mayor Glen Murray visited the
mosque
and publicly condemned the act and police investigated it as a hate
crime.
"Given the history that it is not the first incident we would like it
to be
taken seriously,'' said Abdurahman Salman, the Canadian director of
communications for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
"We're asking the Winnipeg police as well as local officials to condemn
it
and to work with the Muslim community to make sure they're safe...''
---
INCITEMENT WATCH: SEARCHING THE QUR'AN FOR INTOLERANCE
Steve Harris, Calgary Herald, 11/2/04
http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/news/letters/story.html?id=1bc2f
5f3-e294-4a53-9787-6b8e04ef28c4
Re: "Why tolerate intolerance?" Danielle Smith, Opinion, Oct. 30.
Danielle Smith is right that political correctness demands Canadians be
"tolerant of intolerance."
But that only begs questioning: where does this intolerance come from,
and
how prevalent is it within the Muslim world?
Considering that Islam and the Qur'an are one and the same, could it be
possible the Qur'an is the source of hatred towards others? Most of us
don't know the answer to that because we, as a nation, are reluctant to
objectively investigate its teachings. I have -- only to find God
calling
me ape, swine, evil-doer, blasphemer, the worst of beasts, ridiculer of
truth, liar and patron of the devil. Talk about intolerance.
When I lived in Egypt, the expatriates in the company tried to organize
a
picnic to get to know our Egyptian co-workers and their families
better.
They told us "we aren't ready for that yet." Apparently, they didn't
want
to subject their wives and children to a day spent with infidels.
As to worldwide Muslim sentiment, look no further than Friday sermons
in
mosques calling for the killing of infidels, and to streets named after
Palestinian suicide bombers. If, as we are constantly being told, the
vast
majority of Muslims are peace-loving, why are there no fatwas calling
for
an end to acts of terror being perpetrated in their name, and why are
there
no mass demonstrations for peace in Muslim countries?
SEND POLITE COMMENTS TO: letters@theherald.canwest.com
COPY TO: Canada@cair-net.org
------
MUSLIMS, ARABS CALL ON B'NAI BRITH TO REPUDIATE "TERROR" COMMENTS
Israeli "terror" against civilians acceptable, says spokesperson on
Coren
show
(Ottawa, Canada - 1/11/2004) - Three prominent national Muslim and Arab
organizations today called on the B'nai Brith to repudiate and clarify
comments made by its spokesperson that Israel's "terror" against
Palestinian civilians is acceptable.
The comments, on the October 19, 2004 Michael Coren Show, were made by
Adam
Aptowitzer, Ontario chairperson of B'nai Brith's Institute for
International Affairs. The episode was entitled, "What is a
Terrorist?"
In one statement, Mr. Aptowitzer notes that "terror is means to an
end":
Aptowitzer: When Israel uses terror to go and, I say, uses terror to
destroy a home and convince people to be terrified of what the possible
consequences are, I'd say that's acceptable use to terrify someone.
Coren: Is it?
Aptowitzer: I'd say so.
Later in the show, the following exchange occurs:
Coren: When you fire into a building and you're not sure who will be
there
and people die, that's an act of terrorism.
Aptowitzer: It would depend on the specific facts... I'll agree with
you
and say Israel does make use of, I know I'll be misquoted, but the
truth is
that terror is an option to be used by states in order to prevent
deaths of
their own citizens and of others. Acts that take place in Gaza and West
Bank, you might want to classify them as terrorists sponsored by the
state.
But when that is being done to prevent deaths, are we going to say that
that is wrong?
In a statement released today, the Canadian Council on American-Islamic
Relations (CAIR-CAN), the Canadian Arab Federation (CAF) and the
National
Council on Canada Arab Relations (NCCAR) wrote:
"Acceptance and promotion of terror tactics against a civilian
population -
especially one suffering under a 37-year illegal occupation - have no
place
within Canada.
"The comments by Mr. Aptowitzer legitimizing Israel's terror tactics
against civilians are a violation both of the most basic Canadian human
values and international law.
"We have every confidence that fair-minded Canadians will repudiate
these
views in keeping with the universal principles of justice. The use of
violence against innocent civilians is unacceptable, regardless of the
perpetrator.
"We call on the B'nai Brith to unequivocally repudiate Mr. Aptowitzer's
comments and to condemn Israel's use of terror against Palestinian
civilians."
Recently, all three organizations issued statements and repudiated
comments
made on the same show regarding the targeting of Israeli citizens over
18
years of age.
-END-
Contacts: Riad Saloojee, Executive Director, CAIR-CAN at 254-9704
Audrey Jamal, Executive Director, CAF at 416-493-8635 x23
Mazen Chouaib, Executive Director, NCCAR
ALSO SEE:
JEWISH OFFICIAL APOLOGIZES FOR BACKING STATE TERRORISM
Marina Jim�nez, Globe and Mail, 11/2/04
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20041102/NATS
02-2/TPNational/Briefs
A B'nai Brith official who called Israeli-sponsored state terrorism an
acceptable way to defend its citizens has retracted his comments and
apologized.
Adam Aptowitzer, Ontario chairman of the B'nai Brith Institute for
International Affairs, told The Michael Coren Show on the Crossroads
Television System, that state terrorism "that is being done to prevent
deaths" is not wrong.
His comments prompted criticism from the Canadian Arab Federation and
the
Council on American-Islamic Relations Canada
-----
MUSLIMS TO HOLD ‘SHARING RAMADAN’ BANQUET
People of all faiths will break the fast with Muslim community
(CINCINNATI, 11/1/04) - On Sunday, November 7, the Cincinnati office
of
the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Ohio) will host its 1st
annual Ramadan Iftar Banquet. Guests will include public officials,
civic
leaders and members of the interfaith community. "Iftar" is the meal
eaten
after sunset to break the fast each day during the Islamic observance
of
Ramadan.
WHAT: 1st Annual Interfaith Ramadan Iftar Banquet
WHEN: November 7, 2004, 5:00 p.m.
WHERE: Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati
CONTACT: CAIR-OH, Cincinnati, Karen Dabdoub, 513-281-8200, E-Mail:
cincinnati@cair-ohio.com; Brent Meyer, 513-276-1600
“As more than one billion Muslims worldwide observe the fasting of
Ramadan,
it is important for the American Muslim community to reach out to its
neighbors as an example of true Islamic ideals,” said CAIR-Ohio’s
Cincinnati Director Karen Dabdoub. “We are pleased to be able to share
our
American Muslim culture with our friends and neighbors during this
special
month,” said Dabdoub.
The evening’s program will include presentations on Ramadan and
CAIR-Ohio.
Ramadan is the month on the Islamic lunar calendar during which Muslims
abstain from food, drink and other sensual pleasures from break of dawn
to
sunset.
CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil liberties group, is headquartered
in
Washington, D.C., and has 29 offices and chapters nationwide and in
Canada.
CONTACT: Karen Dabdoub, 513-281-8200, E-Mail: karen@cair-ohio.com;
Brent
Meyer, 513-276-1600, E-Mail: meyer_brent@hotmail.com
-----
VOLUNTEERS FLOCK TO BUCKEYE STATE IN GET-OUT-THE-VOTE EFFORTS
Allen G. Breed, Associated Press, 11/2/04
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/politics/10074435.htm
CLEVELAND - They spent the summer registering people to vote. Now the
two
major political parties will try to make sure those people turn out to
vote.
Volunteers from across the country descended on Ohio to take part in a
pitched battle to keep their man in the White House or to install a new
occupant...
Across this battleground state, unions and church groups were
mobilizing to
bring voters to the polls, even as political operatives readied
themselves
to challenge the results, should they not favor their candidate. In the
past week, Ohio voters have been bombarded with recorded telephone
pitches
from across the political spectrum, from Laura Bush and Arnold
Schwarzenegger to Bill Clinton and comedian Chris Rock.
In a more targeted effort, the Ohio office of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations said Monday its volunteers had contacted
more
than 18,000 voters in its "Get Out the Muslim Vote" effort, which
included
distributing Muslim voter guides at mosques during Ramadan prayers. The
group's national office has made much of recent polls showing American
Muslims drifting away from President Bush and toward Sen. John Kerry as
the
war in Iraq continued.
"Muslims are not sitting by and watching this election," said Jad
Humeidan,
director of CAIR-Ohio, who estimates there are 50,000 Muslim registered
voters in Ohio. "We are going to be full participants."
-----
BACKERS OF BUSH IN 2000, MANY ARAB AMERICANS NOW SUPPORT KERRY
Ruth Morris, Mercury News, 11/1/04
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/special_packages/election200
4/10071530.htm
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - A week after the Sept. 11 terror attacks,
President
Bush removed his shoes and stepped into a quiet mosque in Washington,
D.C.
Hate crimes against Muslims had begun to crackle across the country and
the
visit was meant to forestall further retaliatory violence...
Three years later, with the presidential campaigns in their final
frenetic
stage, the sentiment has shifted. Citing lengthy and humiliating
airport
checks, detentions and taunts, many Arab Americans say they'll be
voting
for Sen. John Kerry on Tuesday, and not Bush, in the hopes that he will
reverse the racial profiling that has shadowed their communities...
Polls show a virtual sea change in political allegiance among Arab
Americans and Muslims who voted decisively for Bush four years ago,
partly
because his emphasis on family values was a snug fit with their own
conservative leanings. A Project MAPS/Zogby International poll released
last month found 76 percent of Muslim Americans supported Kerry over
Bush,
compared with 2000 when Bush garnered 42 percent of the Muslim vote
versus
31 percent for Democrat Al Gore.
While their numbers are not huge in swing states, leaders in the Arab
American community are fond of pointing to the meager 537 votes that
swayed
the last presidential election. When every vote counts, they say, this
sector of disgruntled voters counts in a big way.
``The civil rights issues have kind of alienated the Muslim community,
from
the Patriot Act to the war on Iraq,'' said Ahmed Bedier, a spokesman
for
Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, referring
to
post Sept. 11 legislation that handed federal agents greater access to
private records in their hunt for terror suspects. ``It's not
necessarily
that people think it will be any better with Kerry ... but they want to
try
something different...''
ALSO SEE:
ELECTIONS KEY TO UW MUSLIMS
Kayla Webley, The Daily, 11/1/04
http://thedaily.washington.edu/news.lasso?-database=DailyWebSQL&-table=Artic
les&-response=newspage.lasso&-keyField=__Record_ID__&-keyValue=10604&-search
For members of the UW Muslim Student Association (MSA), Tuesday's
election
has larger implications than economic policy, health care and taxes.
"The Muslim vote is important because I'd say, more than any other
population, we've been affected the most by the policies after 9/11,"
said
Irmina Haq, public relations officer for the MSA.
Eighty percent of likely American Muslim voters say they plan to vote
for
Sen. John Kerry in the upcoming presidential election, according to the
Council on American-Islamic relations Web site.
Though the MSA cannot officially endorse one candidate over another,
members align with national statistics in their support Kerry for
president
because of the effect the current administration has had on their
community.
"I think four more years of [George W.] Bush will be extremely
detrimental
to the Muslim population, in considering immigration, residency status,
getting jobs and working within society," said Sara Levy, graduate
student
in social work.
Haq feels that young members of the Muslim community have recently
become
politically involved because of the direct effect the election could
have
on their community.
"After 9/11 a lot of Muslim people, young Muslims in particular, felt
the
need to really get politically involved. We've had demonstrations, we
joined groups, we created campaigns," said Haq. "When policy affects
you,
the only way you can improve your standing is by getting involved and
not
staying out of the picture. We had to get involved."
Legislation passed since Sept. 11, 2001 is the main issue of concern
for
Muslims in regards to the election...
-----
MUSLIM STUDENTS FACE NEW HURDLES ON EARLY RELEASES
Brian Feagans, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 11/01/04
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/gwinnett/1004/02muslimprayer.html
Gwinnett County schools and the family of two students at Duluth High
School continued negotiations Monday over how best to accommodate
Muslims
who want to attend congregational prayer on Friday afternoons.
Last week, the school system presented three options excusing Muslims
students from the final class period every day of the week.
Members of the Rashied family of Duluth, who raised the question of
Friday
prayer with school officials, initially were encouraged by the offer
because it would allow students in the state's largest school system to
attend the juma'a prayer required of Muslims on Friday.
But the arrangement could create another set of problems for families
unable to pick up their children early from school every day, said Isam
Rashied, a freshman at Duluth High. Isam's father first asked Duluth
High
three years ago to release his eldest son early on Fridays, but was
rebuffed.
"I think my dad was enthusiastic [at first] because he actually got
somewhere after three years," Isam said. "But then I talked to him
about it
and we realized how many problems there were."
Attempts to reach his father, Khalid Rashied, for comment Monday were
not
successful.
Isam said he would prefer to enroll in a sixth-period class and be
excused
early only on Fridays. He would ask teachers to arrange make-up work.
But schools Chief of Staff Bobby Crowson rejected that, saying in an
e-mail
to the Rashied family that excusing students only on Fridays would
increase
both the workload and the political pressure on teachers...
-----
LECTURE TO CLARIFY WOMEN'S ROLES IN ISLAM
Matt Fritz, Western Herald, 11/2/04
http://www.westernherald.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/11/02/4186ec3b9adf1
The Muslim Student Association will be combating misconceptions of
Muslim
women for their semester event.
The lecture titled, "Women in Islam: Rights and Responsibilities," will
be
held Nov. 16 and will include a dinner.
The purpose of this event, according to Yaser Al-Alawi, MSA president,
is
to clarify some of the misunderstanding of women's roles in Islam for
both
Muslims and non-Muslims. This is especially important today, he said,
because of the common misconceptions of Islam as a religion that treats
women unjustly.
Last year's events covered Islam in general, said Sarah Husain,
community
relations representative of MSA's public relations committee, but now
MSA
is tackling more specific issues.
"We wanted to focus on women in Islam because it's definitely one of
the
most misrepresented groups among Muslims," she said. "People don't get
to
hear the voice of Muslim women."
Speaking at the event will be Islamic scholar Imam Sirraj Wahhaj, the
Imam
of Masjid Taqwa in Brooklyn, N.Y. Al-Alawi said Wahhaj was chosen to
speak
because of his knowledge of the subject and experience communicating
with
non-Muslims...
ALSO SEE:
PRESENTATION SPEAKER SAYS PATRIOT ACT INVASIVE OF MUSLIMS’ RIGHTS
Noah Cason-Zesiger, Daily Bruin, 11/2/04
http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/news/articles.asp?id=30687
Americans will go to the polls today to express their views on such
issues
as counterterrorism, the war in Iraq and the economy, but for some
voters,
the most important issue will be the fate of civil liberties under the
USA
Patriot Act.
The act, which passed almost unanimously just six weeks after Sept. 11,
2001 without a public hearing in Congress, codified previously gray
areas
of law enforcement and information gathering and initiated a massive
rethinking of immigration law.
Last Wednesday, a day after the third anniversary of the act's passage,
a
group largely comprised of Muslim students filed into Kerckhoff Hall,
fresh
from breaking their daylight fast in observance of Ramadan and itching
to
discuss a perceived assault on their Fourth Amendment rights.
The presentation, titled "The Realities Behind the Patriot Act," was
hosted
by the Academic Affairs Commission of the undergraduate student
government,
the Muslim Student Association and the United Arab Society.
Speaker Ban Al-Wardi, president of the Southern California chapter of
the
Anti-Discrimination Committee, talked to the students about the act and
its
impact on Muslim communities as well as her own family.
Al-Wardi said that FBI agents came to her home and the homes of many in
her
community, sometimes carrying guns and tape recorders.
"They put a map of Iraq on the wall and asked my father, who immigrated
from Iraq 30 years ago, 'In which cities do you think it would be
possible
for weapons of mass destruction to be hidden?'" Al-Wardi said...
-----
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To reach the list moderator, send a message to: cair@cair-net.org
-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
--------------------------------------------------------------------
mail2web - Check your email from the web at
http://mail2web.com/ .
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
EXIT POLL: 93 PERCENT OF MUSLIMS VOTING FOR KERRY
Samplings in Ohio and Florida show overwhelming support
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 11/2/2004) - Preliminary results of an exit poll by
a
prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group indicate
that
more than 90 percent of Muslim voters are casting their ballots for
John
Kerry in today's election.
In that early survey of 537 Muslim voters, conducted by the
Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), 93
percent
of respondents said they voted for Kerry, 5 percent favored Ralph Nader
and
less than 1 percent said they supported President Bush.
The exit poll exceeds the results of a post-debate CAIR survey
indicating
that 80 percent of likely American Muslim voters planned to vote for
Kerry.
Today's poll results are also in line with the American Muslim
Taskforce on
Civil Rights and Elections - Political Action Committee (AMT-PAC)
endorsement of John Kerry. SEE: http://www.americanmuslimvoter.net/
In the key battleground state of Florida, a CAIR sampling of 335
Muslims
who cast their votes today or in early polling shows that 95 percent
voted
for Kerry and just 3 percent voted for President Bush. Ralph Nader
received
under 2 percent of Muslim votes.
In Ohio, a similar sampling of 222 Muslim voters showed 86 percent
voting
for Kerry, 4 percent for Bush and 10 percent for "other" or a third
party.
"We are seeing an unprecedented level of voter mobilization by the
American
Muslim community in this election," said CAIR Executive Director Nihad
Awad. "I believe Muslim voters have come of age and will be a factor in
all
future elections."
Muslims from almost every state responded to the exit poll, with the
most
responses coming from California, Virginia, Texas, Maryland, Illinois,
New
York, Florida, and Ohio.
Surveys were faxed and e-mailed to Muslim individuals and organizations
nationwide this afternoon.
In the weeks leading up to the election, CAIR launched a nationwide
"Get
Out the Muslim Vote" campaign that included phone banks in a number of
election centers, distribution of Muslim voter guides and
transportation
services for Muslim voters.
CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, is headquartered
in
Washington, D.C., and has 29 regional offices and chapters nationwide
and
in Canada.
- END -
CONTACT: CAIR Government Affairs Director, Corey Saylor, 202-646-6039,
E-Mail: csaylor@cair-net.org; Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or
202-744-7726,
E-Mail: cair@cair-net.org
NOTE: CAIR offers an e-mail list designed to be a window to the
American
Muslim community. Subscribers to the list, called CAIR-NET, receive
news
releases and other materials dealing with American Muslim positions on
issues of importance to our society.
To SUBSCRIBE to CAIR-NET, go to: http://cair.biglist.com/cair-net/
-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 11/3/04
* VERSE OF THE DAY: RUSH TO FORGIVENESS
* VIEW CAIR'S 10TH ANNIVERSARY AD
* CAIR-OH: SCHOOLS ALTER RULES TO FIT RELIGIONS (Dispatch)
* LA: MOSQUE FIRE MAY HAVE BEEN ARSON (Times-Picayune)
- MN: Islamic Center's Growth Sparks Debate (Star Trib)
* MD: BLACK, MUSLIM AND REPUBLICAN (Baltimore Sun)
* INTEREST IN ARABIC GROWING AT COLLEGES (Knight Ridder)
* CAIR-CAN: B'NAI BRITH OFFICIAL QUITS AFTER REMARK (G&M)
- Official Quits After Backing Israeli Terror (OC)
- B'nai Brith Official Quits (The Record)
* GA: MCKINNEY HEADED BACK TO WASHINGTON (AJC)
* WA: MUSLIMS TRY TO SAVE HALAL SLAUGHTERHOUSE (Seattle PI)
* A DILEMMA: WHAT'S MODEST DRESS? (JTA)
- AZ: Muslim Woman Calls for Understanding (Daily Star)
-----
VERSE OF THE DAY: RUSH TO FORGIVENESS
"Be quick in the race for forgiveness from your Lord and for a garden
whose
width is that (of the whole) of the heavens and of the earth that has
been
prepared for the righteous. (The righteous are) those who spend (in His
way), whether in prosperity or in adversity, who control their anger
and
forgive other people. For God loves those who do good."
The Holy Quran, 3:133-134
-----
VIEW CAIR'S 10TH ANNIVERSARY AD
CAIR has produced an advertisement marking its 10th anniversary of
service
to the Muslim community. To view the ad, go to:
http://www.cair-net.org/
To support CAIR's important work, please donate generously to CAIR's
"$1
Million for Islam in Ramadan" campaign. We are already halfway to our
goal.
TO DONATE, GO TO: https://www.cair-net.org/asp/donate.asp
REMEMBER: Scholars say CAIR is able to receive ZAKAT donations.
-----
SCHOOLS ALTER RULES TO FIT RELIGIONS
Bill Bush, Columbus Dispatch, 11/3/04
http://www.columbusdispatch.com
The Columbus Board of Education last night passed a policy governing
religion in the schools that creates rules for an increasingly diverse
student body.
Under the policy, the district will try to meet the dietary needs of
students whose religion restricts what they eat, prohibit organized
prayer
in the classroom during school hours and permit religious organizations
to
use buildings during nonschool hours.
In a last-minute amendment, the board added a provision allowing
students
to wear "loose-fitting, nonrevealing clothing as required by
established
religious practice," including head coverings, at all times, "even
during
physical-education instruction."
The district may require a written explanation for such dress from a
religious leader, parent or guardian.
The board also added a provision allowing students who are fasting to
request to be seated apart from students who are eating meals.
But the district will not require schools to operate "a special-diet
kitchen." Instead, schools must "endeavor to offer an alternative
entree.''
Board vice president Karen Schwarzwalder said the changes were largely
the
result of input from religious groups.
Jad Humeidan, executive director of the Council on American Islamic
Relations in Columbus, said he was pleased with the policy, which had
been
in the works about a year.
"We thought it was something that was definitely needed in Columbus
Public
Schools," he said…
CONTACT: CAIR-Ohio Executive Director Jad Humeidan, 614-451-3232 or
614-571-2770, E-Mail: jad@cair-ohio.com; CAIR-Ohio President, Ahmad
Al-Akhras, 614-989-5916, E-Mail: ahmad@cair-ohio.com
-----
BLAZE DAMAGES MOSQUE IN ARABI
Steve Cannizaro, Times-Picayune, 12/3/04
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/metro/index.ssf?/base/news-5/109938246196800.xm
l
A possible arson fire Sunday afternoon in a Muslim mosque in Arabi
closed
for the Islamic month of Ramadan is being investigated by both St.
Bernard
Parish and federal agencies.
No one was injured in the 2:45 p.m. fire at the Islamic Association of
Arabi, 7527 West Judge Perez Drive. The blaze was under control in 15
minutes and extinguished within 45 minutes, Fire Department officials
said.
The fire began in rear sleeping quarters and caused moderate fire
damage
and heavy smoke damage, officials said.
The building had been closed for at least three weeks for the religious
observance and there were no utilities connected, officials said.
Fire officials suspect vandalism; a broken window pane means someone
may
have entered the building, Deputy Fire Chief Raleigh Richards said.
The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
were
notified of the investigation and will be involved because of the
possibility of a hate crime, said Col. Richard Baumy of the St. Bernard
Parish Sheriff's Office.
The mosque was opened in 1985 by the Islamic Association of Arabi as a
place of worship for the parish's growing community of Muslims.
In the 1990s, the Islamic Association included more than 200 families
in
St. Bernard Parish. Unlike New Orleans, where a large number of the
Muslims
are Arabs, the majority of Muslims in St. Bernard are from India or
Pakistan. Many have been in the United States for several
generations...
SEE ALSO:
ISLAMIC CENTER'S GROWTH SPARKS DEBATE
Sarah Mc Cann, Star Tribune, 11/3/04
http://www.startribune.com/stories/142/5063213.html
The Islamic Center of Minnesota has outgrown its Fridley building and
wants
to expand, but upset neighbors fear the center may grow too big for the
neighborhood.
"I think neighbors really want to see them [the center] succeed in
their
mission, but sometimes you get so big you need to move," said Tim
Byrne,
who has lived near the center for 11 years. "Maybe their mission could
be
fulfilled in a location that would meet their needs for parking and
traffic."
The center is trying to address neighbors' concerns about parking,
privacy
and traffic in the expansion's design, said Anwar Abdul Karim, the
center's
vice president.
The center's main function is housing a school for preschool-grade 12
students, but it is used for other activities as well, including
weekend
youth and adult education classes, a medical clinic, a food shelf and
prayer.
The center wants to expand the school in two phases, the first to add
14
classrooms. The school now has about 350 students and its leaders want
to
plan for 400 to 500 long term.
The city doesn't want to deal with the center's plan piecemeal,
however, so
it asked the center to lay out a long-term vision.
That vision includes a second phase of development including a
multipurpose
room/gymnasium, offices, meeting rooms, a library, a kitchen and locker
rooms...
-----
BLACK, MUSLIM AND REPUBLICAN
BILAL'S NOT TILTING AT WINDMILLS; HE'S MAN ON A MISSION
GREGORY KANE, Baltimore Sun, 11/3/04
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/elections/bal-md.kane03nov03,1,5331562.colu
mn
HE'S BLACK. He's a Muslim. And he's Republican.
How's that for being a minority within a minority within a minority?
As if that weren't enough, Baltimore attorney Melvin A. Bilal decided
to
add another - trying to wrest a City Council seat in the newly created
6th
District away from Democrat Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, one of the
incumbents
in the old 5th District.
But it's not that Bilal chose what may seem a quixotic mission. Folks
at
his campaign headquarters on Liberty Heights Avenue said last night
that
Bilal is a draftee.
"We came to Melvin," said John Cason, a Muslim in Bilal's Northwest
Baltimore neighborhood. "We told him we need somebody who's not owned
and
operated by anyone other than the people of the community…"
"We need to get off this thing of Democrats or Republicans," Cason
said.
"We need who's going to best represent us."
For Cason, that would have been Bilal, who has already done extensive
work
on education, drugs and crime, boarded-up houses, and bringing jobs to
the
district.
"My knowledge of the business community is going to be very helpful,"
Bilal
said.
Cason said Bilal is part of a Muslim community that hopes to bring
stable,
crime-free neighborhoods to the district. Cason and Bilal worked
together
to shut down a liquor store in a neighborhood that already has far too
many. In Cason's view, Bilal has already done the work many feel
Rawlings-Blake hasn't done.
"We pray that Melvin wins," he said. "But if he doesn't win, we're
going to
keep the message going."
-----
INTEREST IN ARABIC GROWING AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS
EDWARD M. EVELD, Knight Ridder News Service, 11/3/04
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/10078784.htm
LAWRENCE, Kan. -- Tanner Wycoff is studying Arabic. His reasons are
both
personal and global.
"There's a lot of hatred right now," he said. "Maybe I could be a good
influence."
During class recently at the University of Kansas, Wycoff and fellow
students huddled in threes, struggling to perfect a translation. They
are
among a burgeoning number of American college students enrolled in
Arabic
courses.
The growing interest led the university to add a new section of Arabic
this
fall. It's the same across the country. Enrollment in Arabic studies at
the
University of Kansas jumped 58 percent, compared with last fall.
Enrollment
has quadrupled in the past two years at the University of Pennsylvania.
At
Georgetown University, where 370 students make up the largest Arabic
program among U.S. colleges, fall enrollment is up 36 percent over last
year.
Wycoff, a 25-year-old senior from Lawrence, Kan., wanted to experience
a
new language and culture. So he studied Arabic in Morocco through the
university's study-abroad program. He made lasting friendships with the
family he stayed with.
"I was so grateful," Wycoff said. "They took me under their wing."
Wycoff had dropped out of college for a time but returned the semester
after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, determined to make a
difference. He's interested in a Mideast foreign service assignment
with
the State Department.
Arabic is the language of about 200 million people and the liturgical
language of more than 1 billion Muslims. Europeans and other Westerners
have studied Arabic language and culture for 1,000 years, experts said.
But wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian
conflict helped create new demand for Arabic college courses in the
United
States. The most recent national numbers, which cover the period from
1998
to 2002, show enrollment in Arabic language classes jumping from 5,000
to
more than 10,000, according to the Modern Language Association, a group
of
educators and scholars.
A shortage of Arabic speakers has been lamented by U.S. military and
intelligence officials for years. But their objectives can be at odds
with
academic interests.
The proposition that Americans suddenly need to understand Arabic to
fight
terrorism upsets many who teach and love the language and culture…
-----
B'NAI BRITH OFFICIAL QUITS AFTER TERRORISM REMARK
Marina Jimenez, Globe and Mail, 11/3/04
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20041103/BRIT
H03/TPNational/Canada
An official with B'nai Brith Canada resigned after statements he made
on
The Michael Coren Show that Israel's use of state-sponsored terrorism
is
justified to protect its citizens.
Adam Aptowitzer, former Ontario chairman of B'nai Brith Institute for
International Affairs, apologized for the comments, and the
organization
announced yesterday it had accepted his resignation.
His remarks were condemned by Muslim groups, including the Canadian
Council
on American-Islamic Relations, the Canadian Arab Federation and the
National Council on Arab Relations.
The groups said Mr. Aptowitzer's apparent endorsement of terrorism did
not
receive the same degree of scrutiny by the news media as Mohamed
Elmasry's
controversial statement on the same program that all Israeli citizens
over
18 are fair targets for Palestinian suicide bombers. Mr. Elmasry,
president
of the Canadian Islamic Congress, later apologized for his comments,
but
his organization did not accept his offer to resign...
ALSO SEE:
B'NAI BRITH OFFICIAL QUITS AFTER BACKING ISRAELI ARMY'S 'TERROR
TACTICS'
Bob Harvey, Ottawa Citizen, 11/3/04
http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/index.html
B'nai Brith, the Jewish human rights organization, has accepted the
resignation of one of its spokesmen after Muslim organizations made
public
a transcript from a television program in which he said it is
acceptable
for Israel to use terror against Palestinian civilians.
On Oct. 19, Adam Aptowitzer, the Ontario chairman for B'nai Brith's
Institute of International Affairs, and Mohamed Elmasry, the president
of
the Canadian Islamic Congress, appeared on the Michael Coren Show. Mr.
Elmasry said all Israelis over 18 were legitimate targets for suicide
bombers.
Mr. Aptowitzer told journalists: "This Elmasry guy considers any Jew to
be
a valid target. I was appalled." Two weeks later, a transcript of Mr.
Aptowitzer's remarks was given to the Council on American-Islamic
Relations
Canada (CAIR-CAN). Mr. Aptowitzer justified the use of "terror" tactics
by
the Israeli military as necessary to save Israeli lives.
"When Israel uses terror to go, and, I say, uses terror to destroy a
home
and convince people to be terrified of what the possible consequences
are,
I'd say that's acceptable use to terrify someone," he said. Later, he
said
"acts that take place in Gaza and West Bank, you might want to classify
them as terrorists sponsored by the state. But when that is being done
to
prevent deaths, are we going to say that that is wrong?"
When his remarks were made public Monday by a group of Arab-Canadian
organizations, B'nai Brith said the statements did not reflect its
positions and accepted his resignation...
Riad Saloojee, executive director of CAIR-CAN, proposed yesterday that
Muslim and B'nai Brith leaders meet and start discussions between
Muslim
and Jewish organizations...
---
B'NAI BRITH OFFICIAL QUITS; QUOTED ON COREN SHOW AS SAYING ISRAELI
TERROR
ON CIVILIANS 'LEGITIMATE'
Mirko Petricevic, The Record, 11/3/04
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20041103/BRIT
H03/TPNational/Canada
An official with a Canadian Jewish advocacy group has resigned after
making
controversial remarks on the same TV talk show that has a local Muslim
leader in trouble.
Adam Aptowitzer, Ontario chairman of the B'nai Brith Institute for
International Affairs, resigned Monday for saying that Israel
legitimately
terrorizes Palestinian civilians to protect Israeli citizens.
Aptowitzer made his remarks on The Michael Coren Show on Oct. 19...
Aptowitzer's remarks were challenged this week in a joint news release
from
the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN), the
Canadian
Arab Federation and the National Council on Canada Arab Relations.
The groups asked why the words had not attracted the same flurry of
media
attention as what was said on the same show by Mohamed Elmasry,
national
president of the Canadian Islamic Congress. They demanded that B'nai
Brith
"repudiate and clarify" the remarks.
The same day, in a brief news release, B'nai Brith said "the measures
Israel is forced to take to protect itself against ongoing Palestinian
terrorist attacks against its civilians constitute legitimate
self-defence
and not 'state terrorism.' "
Riad Saloojee, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic
Relations Canada, said yesterday he wasn't satisfied with the
statement.
The council was one of the groups that demanded the clarification.
"The fact remains that terror is terror," he said. "There is no good
form
of terror. The only way that we're actually going to achieve true
dialogue
and peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is if we used, all of us,
a
benchmark of universal justice. That means condemning terror. No matter
who
perpetrates it..."
-----
MCKINNEY HEADED BACK TO WASHINGTON
Mae Gentry, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 11/03/04
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/election/1104georgia/03mckinney.html
Former U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney, who lost her District 4
congressional
seat two years ago after criticism of the Bush administration's war on
terrorism, is headed back to Washington.
McKinney, who swamped Republican rival Catherine Davis with 64 percent
of
the vote, will fill a seat vacated by Denise Majette, who lost her bid
for
the U.S. Senate.
"What we represent is the future of America, the first step in taking
our
country back," McKinney told supporters Tuesday.
Her heavily Democratic district encompasses most of DeKalb County and a
small slice of Gwinnett County.
The former five-term U.S. lawmaker was ousted from office in 2002,
losing
to Majette after asserting the Bush administration knew of terror
threats
before Sept. 11 but did nothing to prevent them so the president's
friends
in the defense industry would profit.
Davis, a human resources manager for Sprint, faced an uphill battle
against
McKinney.
From July through September, McKinney raised $174,345, according to the
Federal Election Commission. Davis raised $5,460.
McKinney said her priorities will be job creation, economic stability
and
diplomatic alternatives to war.
-----
MUSLIMS TRY TO SAVE HALAL SLAUGHTERHOUSE
Vanessa Ho, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 11/3/04
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/197904_nsecondary03.html
As local Muslims observe Ramadan this month, many have heeded the
holiday's
call for charity by going to a halal slaughterhouse in the rural Pierce
County town of Sumner.
There, on a few gravelly acres tucked against the mountains, they can
have
lambs, cows and goats killed in accordance with Islamic dietary laws.
Then,
they give the meat away or cook it for a fast-breaking feast to share
with
friends and strangers.
But the slaughterhouse, called Crescent Custom Meats and the only halal
one
in Washington, is in danger of closing down. That's because the city of
Sumner is proposing to change the zoning of the property to
residential,
which means Crescent can still operate but won't be able to do much
expansion.
The plant's president, Mohamed Aden, said a cap on expansion would
severely
curtail business and possibly shut it down, because the aging
facilities of
the slaughterhouse need much work to continue.
"That building is very old," said Aden, who is Ethiopian and opened the
business four years ago with a group of other East African immigrants.
"We
cannot do anything..."
-----
FOR WOMEN OF DIFFERENT FAITHS, A DILEMMA: WHAT'S MODEST DRESS?
Lisa Sopher, JTA, 11/2/04
http://www.jta.org/page_view_story.asp?strwebhead=Religious+women+contemplat
e+dress&intcategoryid=5&SearchOptimize=Jewish+News
NEW YORK, Nov. 2 (JTA) - Though much else separates them, religious
women
of Muslim, Christian and Jewish backgrounds struggle with similar
issues
related to their clothing.
According to Devora Zlochower, an Orthodox woman who directs the Drisha
Institute for Jewish Education, the Hebrew term tzniut, translated as
"modesty," comes from a biblical verse stating that man should "walk
humbly
with God."
But while modesty can be associated with many types of behaviors, it
most
often is associated in Judaism with women's dress, a link Zlochower
finds
disturbing.
As is customary among many Orthodox women, Zlochower covers her head
with a
hat - though she leaves some of her hair showing, unlike her mother,
who
wears a wig or a hat that covers all of her hair.
Similarly, Sarah Sayeed, a Muslim who is an assistant professor at
Baruch
College's School of Public Affairs, wears a scarf that covers all of
her
hair - but not her face, as some Muslim women do.
As is traditional among Orthodox Jews, Zlochower began covering her
hair
when she married. Sayeed decided to wear a head scarf after her first
child
was born and she began to think of herself as a role model...
SEE ALSO:
U.S. MUSLIM WOMAN CALLS FOR UNDERSTANDING
Maryam Mir, ARIZONA DAILY STAR, 11/2/04
http://www.dailystar.com/dailystar/allheadlines/46172.php
Attitudes of negativity toward Muslim women do play a role in our fight
against worldwide terrorism. The answers do not lie in requiring Muslim
women to remove their scarves, whether in schools in France or on the
streets of Tucson, but are in the very core of our misunderstandings as
humans. Once we get over our misconceptions of one another, we are able
to
begin building constructive avenues of communication and education.
This
will bring us closer to understanding our common bonds. After all,
we're
all made from the same clay.
Without patience and understanding, the likes of the letter writer may,
horribly, grow into a continuous flood of paranoia resulting in the
shredding of the Constitution and Bill of Rights of the United States
of
America.
-----
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-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
--------------------------------------------------------------------
mail2web - Check your email from the web at
http://mail2web.com/ .
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 11/4/04
* HADITH OF THE DAY: LAYLAT AL-QADR
* VIEW CAIR'S 10TH ANNIVERSARY AD
* CAIR CONGRATULATES PRESIDENT ON ELECTION WIN
- Quote of the Day: Equally American
* CAIR-OH: MUSLIMS PROVIDE MEALS TO NEEDY
- CAIR-FL to Feed Needy During Ramadan
- CAIR-FL: America Mending Political Wounds
- CAIR-FL: Election Disappoints Groups of Minorities
* IN: MUSLIM TACKLE FEELS AT HOME AT NOTRE DAME (Mercury News)
* WA: MUSLIM STUDENTS HOST CHARITY DINNER TONIGHT (The Daily)
- IL: Iftar Spotlights Goals People Share (Pioneer Local)
- NM: Muslims Counter Misconceptions (Abq. Journal)
* ESPOSITO: UNDERSTANDING MUSLIM OPINION (VOA)
- Who’s Afraid of Tariq Ramadan? (Foreign Policy)
* MN: SOMALI WORKERS RETURN TO PHONE FIRM (Star Trib)
* DETAINEES' CASES SHOW ANOTHER SIDE OF GITMO (USA Today)
* SHARIFA ALKHATEEB, FEMINIST WITHIN ISLAM (NY Times)
-----
HADITH OF THE DAY: LAYLAT AL-QADR
The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: "Search for Laylat al-Qadr in the
last ten days of Ramadan."
Al-Muwatta, 19:11
NOTE: Laylat al-Qadr (“Night of Power” or “Night of Destiny”) marks the
anniversary of the night on which the Prophet Muhammad first began
receiving revelations from God, through the angel Gabriel. Muslims
believe
Laylat al-Qadr is one of the last odd-numbered nights of Ramadan.
-----
VIEW CAIR'S 10TH ANNIVERSARY AD
CAIR has produced an advertisement marking its 10th anniversary of
service
to the Muslim community. To view the ad, go to:
http://www.cair-net.org/
To support CAIR's important work, please donate generously to CAIR's
"$1
Million for Islam in Ramadan" campaign. We are already halfway to our
goal.
TO DONATE, GO TO: https://www.cair-net.org/asp/donate.asp
REMEMBER: Scholars say CAIR is able to receive ZAKAT donations.
-----
CAIR CONGRATULATES PRESIDENT ON ELECTION WIN
Islamic civil rights groups calls for ‘positive cooperation’ with
Muslims
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 11/4/04) - A prominent national Islamic civil rights
and
advocacy group today congratulated President George W. Bush on his win
in
the November 2nd election and offered American Muslim support for
building
a better America.
In a letter to the president, Nihad Awad, executive director of the
Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said:
“CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group, offers
its
congratulations on your win in Tuesday's election.
“We recognize the heavy burden placed on those in a leadership role. We
also appreciate the fact that, to be effective, any person in a
position of
authority needs the involvement and support of those he or she leads.
The
American public turned out in record numbers and we have faith in the
democratic process that has been a hallmark of our society for more
than
two centuries.
“In your victory speech, you stated that, 'A new term is a new
opportunity
to reach out to the whole nation.' As a nation of different races and
faiths, I hope that we can take advantage of this historic opportunity
to
build a better America by turning aside the divisiveness of the past
and
looking to a future based on positive cooperation in all that is good
and
just.
“We look forward to having the opportunity to work with your
administration
in projecting an accurate image of America in the Muslim world and
envision
playing a positive role in building bridges of understanding.”
CAIR’s mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage
dialogue,
protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions
that promote justice and mutual understanding.
CONTACT: Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail:
ihooper@cair-net.org; Rabiah Ahmed, 202-488-8787 or 202-439-1441,
E-Mail:
rahmed@cair-net.org
SEE ALSO:
QUOTE OF THE DAY: EQUALLY AMERICAN
"I think the great thing that unites us is the fact you can worship
freely
if you choose, and if you - you don't have to worship. And if you're a
Jew
or a Christian or a Muslim, you're equally American."
- President George W. Bush responding to a question on faith and
politics
at a news conference today in Washington, D.C.
------
CENTRAL OHIO MUSLIMS PROVIDE MEALS TO NEEDY DURING RAMADAN
(COLUMBUS, 11/04/04) - On November 6, the Ohio office of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Ohio), the Islamic Foundation of
Central
Ohio (IFCO), and the Islamic Society of Greater Columbus (ISGC), will
commemorate the fasting month of Ramadan by providing more than 400 hot
meals to needy residents of central Ohio. The event will take place at
5
p.m. on Saturday at the Islamic Center of Columbus, a local mosque in
the
downtown area, located at 1428 E. Broad St.
Ramadan is a month during which Muslims abstain from food, drink and
other
sensual pleasures from dawn to sunset. It is a month of spiritual
reflection and renewal and a time to reach out the community,
especially to
those in need.
Caring for the less fortunate in our community is an important and
rewarding experience, one highly emphasized in the Islamic faith,
especially during the holy month of Ramadan said CAIR-Ohio Executive
Director, Jad Humeidan. Ramadan is a time of deep spiritual
significance
for Muslims all over the world. It is a time of purification, charity,
and
humility added Humeidan.
This is the fourth such event that CAIR-Ohio has sponsored in the past
year, but it is the first to be held in central Ohio..
CONTACT: CAIR-Ohio Executive Director, Jad Humeidan, 614-451-3232 or
614-571-2770, E-mail: jad@cair-ohio.com; Or CAIR-Ohio President, Ahmad
Al-Akhras, 614-989-5916, E-mail: ahmad@cair-ohio.com
SEE ALSO:
FLORIDA MUSLIMS TO FEED NEEDY DURING RAMADAN
(FT. LAUDERDALE, FL., 11/4/04) - On Saturday, November 6, the Florida
office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Florida)
will
mark the Muslim fast of Ramadan by providing hot meals to more than 100
residents in the city of Hollywood.
WHAT: Ramadan "Feed the Needy" Program
WHEN: Saturday, November 6, 10:30AM.
WHERE: Jubilee Ministry Center of South Broward, Inc.
CONTACT: Altaf Ali 954-272-0490 or 954-298-8214, Email:
altaf@cair-florida.org: Syed Rahman 954-205-1048.
Ramadan is a month during which healthy Muslims abstain from food,
drink
and other sensual pleasures from dawn to sunset. It is a month of
spiritual
reflection and renewal and a time to reach out the community,
particularly
to those in need.
As Muslims it is our duty to be charitable and giving back to our
community
is one way we can help those in needs and build bridges of
understanding.
During this month Muslims focus on improving themselves and on the less
fortunate in society, said CAIR Florida executive director, Altaf Ali.
CONTACT: Altaf Ali, 954-298-8214, altaf@cair-florida.org; Ahmed Bedier,
813-731-9506, abedier@cair-florida.org
---
AMERICA MENDING POLITICAL WOUNDS
Jennifer Brice, First Coast News, 11/3/04
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/local/news-article.aspx?storyid=26997
JACKSONVILLE, FL -- Both President Bush and Senator Kerry are speaking
out
about putting the country back together again after such a divisive
campaign. Now, community leaders are doing the same.
Now, the election is over and healing is the focus, says voter Charles
Hartwig. He says looking to community leaders may help.
"We have to look to our leaders, of faith and government."
Parvez Ahmed, with the Council on American Islamic Relations, says it's
a
driving force behind why he organizes inter-faith gatherings like the
one
held at the Islamic Center of Northeast Florida Wednesday night.
"If we want respect for our viewpoint, then it is incumbent that we
respect
other viewpoints. That is the nature of democracy..."
---
ELECTION DISAPPOINTS GROUPS OF MINORITIES
Sylvia Lim, Bradenton Herald, 11/4/04
http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/local/10093521.htm
Muslims living in Florida also were apprehensive about Tuesday's
election
results.
Discouraged by the Bush administration's policy on the Middle East and
alleged racial profiling, Muslim-Americans mobilized a record turnout
at
the polls.
"This is just the beginning for us, the Muslim-American community is
new to
politics," said Altaf Ali, director of the Council on American-Islamic
Relations office in Florida. "We saw the difference what a swing vote
can
make, and the Muslims and the country now see us as a whole as swing
voters."
-----
MUSLIM TACKLE FEELS AT HOME AT NOTRE DAME
Tom Coyne, Mercury News, 11/3/04
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/10091477.htm
SOUTH BEND, Ind. - Like many students at Notre Dame, offensive tackle
Ryan
Harris finds time everyday to pray, thanking God for his many
blessings.
Unlike most other students at Notre Dame, though, Harris prays facing
Mecca.
Harris is Muslim and finds nothing unusual in attending the nation's
best-known Roman Catholic university.
"This is just a great place to be for anybody of any faith," Harris
said.
"I definitely like the morals that are taught at this school that
weren't
taught at other schools."
Harris, a sophomore from St. Paul, Minn., thinks a lot of Muslims are
drawn
to faith-based schools because the stricter codes fit their lifestyles.
Coming to Notre Dame just seemed natural to him. Harris had attended a
Catholic high school, and Notre Dame let him know the university had a
Muslim student association.
"Notre Dame did a good job in recruiting me, introducing me to Muslims
and
the type of Muslims that are here in the community," he said.
Coach Tyrone Willingham said an obstacle he faces in recruiting
non-Catholics to Notre Dame is that opponents try to convince players
that
they might not fit in at the school...
-----
MUSLIM STUDENTS HOST CHARITY DINNER TONIGHT
Jen Ludington, The Daily, 11/4/04
http://thedaily.washington.edu/news.lasso?-database=DailyWebSQL&-table=Artic
les&-response=newspage.lasso&-keyField=__Record_ID__&-keyValue=10684&-search
The second annual UW Fast-A-Thon is being held today, hosted by the
Muslim
Student Association (MSA).
The Fast-A-Thon is a nationwide fundraising effort put on by colleges
across the United States. The money raised goes to the college's choice
of
a charity that helps to feed the hungry.
Money raised by UW's Fast-A-Thon will go to Northwest Harvest, a
Washington
hunger relief agency. This year, the MSA hopes to reach a goal of
$1,000,
according to graduate student Hadi Armouche.
Last year, the UW's Fast-A-Thon had approximately 400 participants, and
this year expects around 300.
To raise money, the MSA asks members of the community to fast for one
day,
from 5:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., during which time no food or drink can be
intentionally consumed.
According to Irmina Haq, head of MSA public relations, the goal of the
UW's
Fast-A-Thon is to raise awareness and money for hunger.
"We also want to raise awareness about Muslims and bridge the gap
between
Muslims and non-Muslims," said Haq.
For each person who fasts, volunteering businesses around Seattle will
donate $2 to Northwest Harvest. Most are local Muslim businesses,
including
the Ave. Copy Center and the Pakistani Indian Grocery.
A dinner is being held at 4:30 p.m. in the HUB West Ballroom for those
who
participated in the fast.
ALSO SEE:
IFTAR SPOTLIGHTS GOALS PEOPLE OF FAITH SHARE
Sara Loeb, Pioneer Local, 11/4/04
http://www.pioneerlocal.com/cgi-bin/ppo-story/localnews/current/gv/11-04-04-
427688.html
Successful interfaith dialogue is a good start, but people of different
religions should build on those conversations to advance their common
values, Catholic and Muslim leaders agreed last week at the annual
Interfaith Iftar at a Northbrook mosque last week.
"The progression in dialogue is the arrival at this kind of
solidarity,"
remarked Cardinal Francis George, who was one of the speakers at the
seventh annual event last Thursday at the Islamic Cultural Center of
Greater Chicago. "Solidarity is a recognition of respect ... and of
shared
goals."
George and fellow Catholics, many of whom are involved in interfaith
efforts, were invited to join area Muslims for the meal, which breaks
the
daily fast during Islam's holy month of Ramadan.
The center hosted its first Interfaith Iftar program in 1998, noted Dr.
Esmail Koushanpour, the center's executive director, during his
welcoming
remarks. Since then, a number of different Chicago-area Islamic
organizations have hosted it. Most visitors this year were of the
Catholic
faith, but Protestant and Jewish leaders also were invited, he said.
Koushanpour told the guests gathered in the center's lecture hall that
he
was "grateful for your friendship and for the help you've given to our
community, especially in the recent past..."
In his speech, the cardinal highlighted a variety of Catholic-Muslim
dialogues --from discussions held between Pope John Paul II and
Egyptian
Muslim clerics to meetings that bring together members of the
Northbrook
mosque and Our Lady of the Brook, the Catholic parish minutes north of
the
center in Northbrook.
Noting that the Second Vatican Council stated Catholics should try to
improve relations with people of other faiths, George said
inter-religious
dialogue should strive to involve more and more individuals from many
religious backgrounds, not just "the same familiar faces" already
dedicated
to the cause.
"Solidarity" -- inter-religious unity -- means those of different
faiths
work to recognize the values they share and choose to work to promote
social justice and other common goals, the cardinal said.
---
LOCAL MUSLIMS COUNTER MISCONCEPTIONS DURING HOLY MONTH OF RAMADAN
Paul Logan, Albuquerque Journal, 11/4/04
http://www.abqjournal.com/news/metro/252843metro11-04-04.htm
Atifa Chiragh, a Muslim born in New Mexico, says the myth that Islamic
women are kept behind men "drives me crazy." Chiragh, a gregarious
graduate
student, was one of more than 100 Muslims at Islamic Center of New
Mexico
for Ramadan services and to break their fast recently.
During Islam's holiest month, which began Oct. 15, 1.5 billion Muslims
do
acts of charity and abstain from food, drink and sexual relations
between
sunrise and sunset. It also is a time for building bridges with
non-Muslims, such as eliminating misconceptions about Islam.
Chiragh's modest clothing includes a beige scarf, cell phone and fake
ruby
in her pierced nostril— a Pakistani tradition. She recalled the
reaction
when she served as president of the Muslim Student Association at the
University of New Mexico.
"A lot of people who aren't Muslim individuals might think that men
want to
keep their women, their daughters, their wives in submissive roles,"
she
said assertedly, her dark eyes flashing and with wide smile. "My dad .
..
he couldn't have been more proud..."
-----
UNDERSTANDING MUSLIM OPINION
Freshta Azizi, Voice of America, 11/2/04
http://www.voanews.com/english/NewsAnalysis/Freshta-Azizi-Understanding-Musl
im-Opinion2004-11-02-voa46.cfm
America's troubled relationship with the Islamic world was the topic at
a
recent conference held by The World Affairs Council of Washington along
with the League of Women Voters and the American Academy of Diplomacy.
Since Islam is now the world's fastest growing religion with some 1.2
billion adherents, conference speakers said reaching a proper
understanding
of it and of Muslim opinion is urgent.
John Esposito, director of the Center for Muslim-Christian
Understanding at
Georgetown University, said Muslims today feel under attack:
"The fact is across the Muslim world today, not among extremists, but
among
mainstream Muslims, the belief is that what they are seeing for many of
them is a war against Islam in the Muslim world. And I think one needs
to
ask why?"
The reason, according to conference participants, is to a large extent
the
war in Iraq, which they opposed. Edward Gnehm, professor of
international
relations at George Washington University and a former U.S. ambassador
to
Jordan and Kuwait, was emphatic:
"Iraq- a cataclysmic decision without question. Extremely unpopular in
the
Middle East. Our Arab friends, the king of Jordan, offered advice in a
very
friendly way: don't go there militarily..."
ALSO SEE:
WHO’S AFRAID OF TARIQ RAMADAN?
Foreign Policy, 11/4/04
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=2709
The U.S. government is so convinced that Tariq Ramadan is dangerous, it
revoked the Muslim scholar’s visa to teach at the University of Notre
Dame.
Some in Europe think Ramadan is an anti-Semite who preaches moderation
out
of one side of his mouth and hate out of the other. Others, though,
think
he’s the man to reconcile Islam with modernity. So, who is right?
Excerpts
below:
FOREIGN POLICY: What do you think is more of a problem in Europe today:
Islamophobia or Judeophobia?
Tariq Ramadan: I think that both are problematic. I think that, yes, we
have Judeophobia, and this is unacceptable and we have to condemn it.
To
tell you the truth, beyond discussing and comparing Islamophobia and
Judeophobia, there is a new wave of racism arising in many European
societies. And I think we don’t have to put a hierarchy between this
and
that. All racism is unacceptable. Some Muslims today feel they are
targeted
because they are Muslims or Arabs, and this is the case. But it is
dangerous to speak in that way. Especially in Europe now, there is a
competition: Are the Arabs or Muslims more targeted than the Jews? I
think
that all together, if really we are citizens—and it’s exactly the same
in
the United States—all kinds of racism are wrong. If we see acts of
anti-Semitism or Islamophobia, we should condemn them not simply as
Jews or
Muslims. As citizens, we have to condemn all these cases.
FP: Would you like to see Europe become a Muslim-majority continent?
TR: No. Not at all. For me, the most important challenge is for
everyone to
remain who he or she wants to be. The challenge today is to make
Muslims
understand [that] you don’t have to be less Muslim to be more European.
You
can be both. And this is also what I am saying to the converts…. Remain
European. Do not Arabize yourself, or Turkishize yourself, or
Pakistanize
yourself! Remain who you are. The pluralistic society I want is a
society
where anyone can chose what he or she wants to be and [remain] faithful
to
his or her principles. So for me the point is not to Islamize Europe.
The
only thing I want is for Muslims in Europe and America to be able to
remain
who they want to be and to live with others.…I don’t want to spread my
religion. I just want to share with people, knowing that when I
encounter
the other, he or she helps me to be more of who I want to be. The
dialogue
between the other and me is the richness I want to keep.
FP: Do you think there is a special role for Arabs within Islam?
TR: No! I am telling the Muslims and the Arab Muslims to be careful.
The
Arabic language is the language of Islam. But the Arab culture is not
the
culture of Islam. I am saying this to the Western Muslims and also the
Asians. I visited Indonesia last year, and sat with the Majelis Ulama,
which is the council of scholars. And there, among the 30 scholars,
were
seven women; and this is not happening in the Arab world…. The Arabs
should
learn from others, because this is the best way of facing new
challenges.
And in the near future, the Western Muslims are going to send new
answers
to the Arab world...
------
SOMALI WORKERS RETURN TO CHANHASSEN PHONE FIRM
H.J. Cummins, Star Tribune, 11/3/04
http://www.startribune.com/stories/1405/5065686.html
About 100 Somali workers are back on the job at the Teleplan Wireless
Co.
in Chanhassen, after walking out last week complaining of hiring
discrimination and poor religious accommodations.
The two sides reached an agreement over the weekend, and the employees
returned to work on Monday, they reported. About 200 Somalis had
initially
walked off their jobs at Teleplan, a company that assembles and
refurbishes
cell phones.
Neither side would reveal the terms of the settlement, but it appears
there
is no final resolution yet.
The Somali workers complained the company discriminated against them by
hiring several white people instead of converting some longtime Somali
employees to permanent status. The workers, largely Muslim, also
complained
the company's workplace security policies kept them from being able to
pray
during their breaks.
"Everybody came back under the same policies, procedures and conditions
they left under," Teleplan human resources director Shirley Curran
said.
"We just agreed to look at their concerns, including conversion from
temporary to permanent employees."
Curran said the company agreed to report back to the employees within
60
days...
-----
DETAINEES' CASES SHOW ANOTHER SIDE OF GITMO FEDERAL COURT PAPERS REVEAL
COMPLEXITIES OF CAPTIVES
Toni Locy, USA Today, 11/4/04
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-11-03-gitmo-detainees_x.htm
Bisher Al-Rawi says he left Britain in 2002 for The Gambia to start a
peanut-oil processing business. Emad Abdalla Hassan says he set out for
Pakistan from Yemen in 2000 to study the Koran. Hadj Boudella, a
professor
of physics in Algeria, claims he went to Bosnia in 1992 to do
humanitarian
work.
All three men say they have been illegally incarcerated at the
controversial prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the U.S. military
has
detained 550 suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban operatives for nearly three
years.
The stories of how they came to be swept up in the United States'
worldwide, anti-terrorism dragnet are emerging in federal court in
Washington, D.C. Their cases offer a more complex picture of Guantanamo
captives than what has been described by U.S. officials, who generally
have
portrayed men held in Cuba as fighters picked up on the battlefields of
Afghanistan.
The three detainees are among more than 60 Guantanamo captives who have
taken advantage of a Supreme Court ruling in June that allows them to
challenge their detentions in federal court. The ruling has set the
stage
for federal judges to force the Bush administration to reveal who is
being
held at this remote U.S. Navy base -- and why.
Since the Pentagon began transferring detainees to the base in January
2002, U.S. officials have described Guantanamo captives collectively as
"the worst of the worst," hardened terrorists determined to kill
Americans.
Court papers filed in recent weeks suggest that the government indeed
could
be holding al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters and financiers of al-Qaeda
leader
Osama bin Laden's network...
-----
SHARIFA ALKHATEEB, FEMINIST WITHIN ISLAM, IS DEAD AT 58
Jennifer Bayot, New York Times, 11/4/04
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/04/arts/04alkhateeb.html
Sharifa Alkhateeb, an advocate for Muslim culture in the United States
who
helped place courses in Middle Eastern cultures and Arabic in public
schools, died on Oct. 21 at her home in Ashburn, Va. She was 58.
The cause was pancreatic cancer, said her daughter Nasreen.
Ms. Alkhateeb, who was born and raised in Philadelphia, spent much of
her
life interpreting Islam. Even as she adhered to Muslim traditions like
covering her hair, she encouraged Muslim women to be active in their
larger
communities.
''She was dedicated to understanding Islam for herself as opposed to
Islam
coming to us with all the cultural wrappings,'' said her sister Nafeesa
Ahmad.
In 1992, she founded the North American Council for Muslim Women, an
education and advocacy group, and was president of the Muslim Education
Council, which instructed public-school teachers on Middle Eastern
cultures, Islam and Muslim society.
In 2000, she created the Peaceful Families Project, which studies and
raises awareness of domestic violence in Muslim communities and is
financed
by the Department of Justice. At the United Nations Fourth World
Conference
on Women, held in Beijing in 1995, she was chairwoman of the Muslim
caucus.
Ms. Alkhateeb wrote and lectured extensively to challenge stereotypes
of
Muslims, and particularly of Muslim women. She was a co-author of ''The
Arab World Notebook,'' a secondary school textbook; for eight years she
waged a campaign, which was successful, to make Arabic part of the
language
offerings in several high schools in Northern Virginia. Publishers of
social studies textbooks would seek her comments, and she was an
adviser to
North American Muslim student groups...
-----
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To reach the list moderator, send a message to: cair@cair-net.org
-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
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http://mail2web.com/ .
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CA BEATING VICTIM TOLD 'GO BACK TO IRAQ'
CAIR asks for FBI probe, offers reward for information
(WASHINGTON, DC, 11/5/04) - A prominent national Islamic civil rights
and
advocacy group today asked the FBI to investigate an attack on a
California
man during which the alleged assailants shouted "go back to Iraq."
The Southern California office of the Council on American-Islamic
Relations
(CAIR-LA) said the victim, a man of Portuguese descent, told police he
was
beaten late Wednesday by five white men who apparently mistook him for
an
Arab. As they left the scene of the attack, the alleged perpetrators
said
they would return to kill the victim. CAIR-LA is offering a $1,000
reward
for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the assailants.
SEE: "ANTI-ARABIC SLURS YELLED DURING ATTACK"
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20041105-9999-7m5ccrime.html
"MAN BEATEN IN APPARENT HATE CRIME"
http://www.10news.com/news/3890483/detail.html
"These types of incidents do not occur in a vacuum," said CAIR-LA
Communications Director Sabiha Khan. "We need all people of conscience
to
speak out against the anti-Muslim and anti-Arab rhetoric that can
prompt
such attacks."
Khan said CAIR recently released the results of a survey indicating
that
1-in-4 Americans holds anti-Muslim views. SEE: "Islam and Muslims: A
Poll
of American Public Opinion,"
http://www.cair-net.org/downloads/pollresults.pdf
Last month, CAIR called on law enforcement authorities nationwide to
step
up police protection at American mosques during the Muslim fast of
Ramadan.
That request came following a series of incidents targeting Islamic
institutions in the Midwest.
In Fargo, N.D., vandals smeared feces on a mosque. In the neighboring
state
of Minnesota, two Islamic centers were also vandalized. Other incidents
of
vandalism targeting Islamic institutions and attacks on individuals
have
also taken place nationwide.
In Texas, firebombs were thrown at an El Paso mosque. In Washington,
D.C.,
a Muslim prayer area at American University was vandalized. At the end
of
August, a Muslim in Tucson, Ariz., reported that his family's car was
vandalized and a racist note was taped to the vehicle. A New York
Muslim
reported finding his car window smashed with a brick. In Virginia, a
Muslim
reported two separate incidents of vandalism to a car. And in New
Jersey, a
Muslim found his car's windshield smashed in his driveway.
Also in New Jersey, a Muslim driver reported being attacked by a white
male
in another car who punched him in the face while he was sitting in his
car
at a traffic light. During the incident, the attacker reportedly called
the
victim a "terrorist" and a "sand n*gger."
In July, two Muslims in Buffalo, N.Y., say they were targeted by white
teenagers who shouted ethnic slurs and then tried to hit the girls with
their car. A Muslim woman driver in Illinois and a Muslim shopper in
California were assaulted at the end of June by attackers shouting
anti-Muslim and racist slurs.
Earlier this year in Florida, vandals wrote "Kill all Muslims" inside
the
Islamic Community Center in the Tampa suburb of Lutz. The FBI is also
investigating vandalism and threatening messages targeting the Islamic
Community of Southwest Florida in Charlotte Harbor. In Missouri,
vandals
painted a Nazi swastika and the word "die" on an addition under
construction at the Islamic Foundation of Greater St. Louis. Three
Miami
Islamic centers were vandalized.
In Texas, a man was arrested for threatening an El Paso Islamic center,
an
arson suspect was arrested at the scene of a fire at a Muslim business
in
San Antonio and vandals scrawled racist graffiti on the interior of a
Lubbock mosque. A home-made bomb exploded in the mailbox of a Houston
Islamic center.
As a response to these and other anti-Muslim incidents, CAIR published
a
"Muslim Community Safety Kit." The safety kit may be obtained free of
charge by e-mailing pubs@cair-net.org. (Include name, address and phone
number when requesting the safety kit.)
CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, has 29 regional
offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada.
- END -
CONTACT: CAIR-LA, Sabiha Khan, 714-776-1847 or 714-390-0334; Ibrahim
Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail: ihooper@cair-net.org;
Rabiah
Ahmed, 202-488-8787 or 202-439-1441, E-Mail: rahmed@cair-net.org
NOTE: CAIR offers an e-mail list designed to be a window to the
American
Muslim community. Subscribers to the list, called CAIR-NET, receive
news
releases and other materials dealing with American Muslim positions on
issues of importance to our society.
To SUBSCRIBE to CAIR-NET, go to: http://cair.biglist.com/cair-net/
-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
--------------------------------------------------------------------
mail2web - Check your email from the web at
http://mail2web.com/ .
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 11/5/04
* HADITH OF THE DAY: SEEK RECONCILIATION
* CAIR LIBRARY PROJECT: 7804 SPONSORSHIPS
* SUPPORT CAIR'S $1 MILLION DURING RAMADAN CAMPAIGN
* CAIR OPEN LETTER TO MUSLIMS ON THE NOVEMBER 2 ELECTIONS
- 500 Attend CAIR-FL Interfaith Iftar
- CAIR-LA: Four New CAIR Ramadan Radio Ads
- CAIR-NCA: Muslims Feed Homeless During Ramadan
* DC: EXPLORE ISLAMIC ART AT NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART
* OFFICIALS UNSURE IF PRE-ELECTION TERROR PLOT DISRUPTED (AP)
- Govt Hinders Muslim Giving (Detroit News)
* U.S. IMAMS URGE HOSTAGE RELEASE (Chicago Trib)
-----
HADITH OF THE DAY: SEEK RECONCILIATION
The gates of Paradise will be opened...and every servant [of His] who
does
not associate anything with God will be forgiven, except for the man
who
has a grudge against his brother. [About them] it will be said: "Delay
these two until they are reconciled. Delay these two until they are
reconciled."
Hadith Qudsi, Number 20
-----
CAIR LIBRARY PROJECT: 7804 SPONSORSHIPS
CAIR's Library Project has received 7804 sponsorships for $150 book and
tape packages on Islam to be placed in libraries across the country.
Take
part in this first-of-its-kind campaign by sponsoring an 18-item
"library
package." Our goal is to send accurate and objective information about
Islam to America's 16,000 public libraries.
TO SPONSOR A LIBRARY PACKAGE, GO TO:
http://www.cair-net.org/libraryproject/
OR CALL: 1-800-392-7876, ext. 320
-----
SUPPORT CAIR'S $1 MILLION DURING RAMADAN CAMPAIGN
To support CAIR's important work, please donate generously to CAIR's
"$1
Million for Islam in Ramadan" campaign. We are already halfway to our
goal.
TO DONATE, GO TO: https://www.cair-net.org/asp/donate.asp
REMEMBER: Scholars say CAIR is able to receive ZAKAT donations.
CAIR has produced an advertisement marking its 10th anniversary of
service
to the Muslim community. To view the ad, go to:
http://www.cair-net.org/
-----
CAIR OPEN LETTER TO MUSLIMS ON THE NOVEMBER 2 ELECTIONS
Assalamu alaikum,
In light of Tuesday's election results and the months of preparation
that
preceded the general election, we would like to take this opportunity
to
congratulate the Muslim community on its success. American Muslims have
a
lot to celebrate. You proved yet again by your record turnout at the
polls
that Muslims are an important part of our society's rich religious and
ethnic heritage.
We extend our sincerest thanks to each and every American Muslim who
worked
hard to mobilize and empower their community. American Muslims obtained
state voter lists, with particular emphasis on Florida and Ohio, and
organized volunteers in "get out the vote" efforts nationwide. These
volunteers also contacted tens of thousands of voters, asking for their
pledge to go to the polls on November 2nd. CAIR, along with the
indispensable assistance of individual Muslim activists, responded to
the
need for more proactive initiatives in the 2004 elections by:
* Registering thousands of people to vote, both in-person and online
* Organizing town hall meetings with candidates nationwide
* Getting out the vote by calling potential voters and transporting
them to
polling stations
* Issuing candidate scorecards and voter guides
* Conducting research on and surveys of American Muslim voters
* Distributing exit polls and analyzing the results
* Communicating newsworthy information about the elections to the
Muslim
community
* Publicizing the American Muslim political endorsement
All of this is an indication of an ongoing process of political
maturation.
As we look forward, we should reflect on lessons learned. In order to
sustain and advance on the successes of this year's mobilization
efforts,
there are a few steps American Muslims can begin to take today to
further
empower our community in the years to come. Among the necessary steps,
a
few are to:
* Train our community to become more politically active, specifically
in
the areas of voter registration, get out the vote efforts and election
officer certification.
* Issue a report that will analyze the voting trends of Americans and
American Muslims and determine strategies to maximize the power of our
vote.
* Build coalitions with groups that share common ground on issues of
importance to the Muslim community.
* Compile an exhaustive list of registered voters nationwide and other
data
on our community to take advantage of demographic strengths.
* Use the example of other Muslims who have run for public office, and
become more active at the local level, advocating our issues in
district,
city and regional elections.
Be sure to keep informed by visiting our website: www.cair-net.org.
Rest
assured that CAIR will, insha'Allah, continue its mission of enhancing
understanding of Islam, encouraging dialogue, protecting civil
liberties,
empowering American Muslims, and building coalitions in support of
justice
and mutual understanding.
We remain devoted to the cause of advocating for the American Muslim
community's issues in the corridors of power--regardless of which
political
party holds a majority.
We are dedicated to reaching out to the re-elected President and his
administration, advancing the twin causes of pluralism and diversity in
American society.
The values we uphold know neither party affiliation nor sectarian
creed.
Their universality is what inspires us to continue our crucial work. We
ask
that you help us in that regard by implementing the above steps and by
continuing to reach out to others in an attempt to make the next four
years
a propitious time in the history of American Muslims.
Congratulations on a job well done. We look forward to improving on our
past successes in the months and years to come.
SEE ALSO:
500 ATTEND CAIR-FLORIDA INTERFAITH IFTAR
Jacksonville mayor delivers keynote address
(JACKSONVILLE, FL, 11/4/2004) - The Florida office of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-FL) said today that more than 500
people
attended an interfaith Ramadan Iftar Banquet November 3rd in
Jacksonville.
(Iftar is the meal eaten after sunset each day during the Islamic fast
of
Ramadan.)
The banquet, held in cooperation with the Islamic Center of Northeast
Florida and the Islamic Circle of North America, was part of CAIR's
nationwide "Sharing Ramadan" program.
SEE: http://www.cair-net.org/ramadan2004/ramadan2004.asp?page=rsvp
The evening's keynote address was offered by Jacksonville Mayor John
Peyton, who spoke about the need to unify the community after a
divisive
election and about how such interfaith events can be part of the
healing
process.
Mayor Peyton also spoke about his commitment for promoting diversity,
literacy and employment. He acknowledged the vibrant role played the
Muslim
community in ensuring Northeast Florida's progress towards economic
success
and social diversity.
Several interfaith and public officials were also present at the
dinner.
Among the attendees were:
* Robert Cromwell, Special Agent in Charge, FBI
* Ken Hurley, President ACLU-Jax
* Claude Myers, Executive Director, NCCJ
* Rev. Ken Myers, Hendricks Baptist Church
* Rev. Richard Turk, Fresh Ministries
* Gary Detman, Producer, Firstcoast News
* Susan Lloyd, Vice-President, Clear Channel Corp, CBS 47-FOX 30
* Staci Spanos, Anchor, Morning Show, WJXT
* Gary Fane, Dean, Coggin College of Business, UNF
"This was a wonderful show of unity, mutual respect and
bridge-building,"
said CAIR-FL Board Chairman Parvez Ahmed. "We are gratified by this
high
turnout and look forward to putting together more of such events in the
future."
CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil liberties group, is headquartered
in
Washington, D.C., and has 29 offices and chapters nationwide and in
Canada.
The group's Florida chapter has offices in Broward and Tampa.
CONTACT: Ahmed Bedier, 813-731-9506, abedier@cair-florida.org; Altaf
Ali,
954-298-8214, altaf@cair-florida.org; Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or
202-744-7726, E-Mail: cair@cair-net.org
---
FOUR NEW CAIR RAMADAN RADIO ADS - SUPPORT THE CAMPAIGN
(ANAHEIM, CA, 11/5/04) - The Southern California office of the Council
on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA), in cooperation with local Islamic
centers, launched the radio ad campaign at the beginning of the month
of
Ramadan. Four new unique ads have been produced to educate the public
about
the Muslim fast of Ramadan.
The 60-second spots are currently airing on 980 AM KFWB throughout the
month of Ramadan between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m.
All of the CAIR Ramadan radio ads begin with the Muslim call to prayer
(Adhan) and continue with information on Islam and the Muslim
community.
The audio for the CAIR Ramadan radio ads are available online at:
www.cair-california.org
ACTION REQUESTED:
Your support is necessary for this important project. CAIR is asking
the
Muslim community to sponsor the Ramadan ads, which total over $15,000.
CAIR-LA invites the Muslim community (individuals, businesses, and
Islamic
centers) to help sponsor the Ramadan ads. Please help continue
educating
the larger community about the truth about Islam. Send your support
today.
To donate contact CAIR-LA at 714-776-1847, socal@cair.com, reply to
this
email or mail donations to:
CAIR-LA
Ramadan Radio Ads
2180 W. Crescent Ave. Suite F
Anaheim, CA 92801
---
MUSLIMS TO FEED HOMELESS IN SAN JOSE DURING HOLY MONTH OF RAMADAN
Over 22 Muslim Organizations Sponsor Humanitarian Day for the Homeless
http://www.dignitycoalition.org/phd_flyer_nocal.jpg
WHAT: Muslims of the greater San Francisco Bay Area will join the
Coalition
to Preserve Human Dignity, and host the Bay Area's 1st Annual
Humanitarian
Day for the Homeless on Saturday, November 6th from 10 AM to 2 PM at
the
Salvation Army building located at 405 N. 4th St. in downtown San
Jose. The organizations will provide food, water, t-shirts, blankets,
and
hygiene packages to the homeless community.
The Coalition selected the holy month of Ramadan as a global observance
that transcends race and gender in a spirit of love, equality, and
respect
for each other and all of humanity. Last year the Coalition
successfully
served nearly 3,000 individuals in the Los Angeles area. The goal this
year
is to replicate those efforts and serve over 1,000 homeless in San Jose
on
Saturday and assist more than 4,000 homeless people in the Los Angeles
area
in a similar undertaking on Sunday.
Homelessness is a national epidemic in America. It is a condition that
does
not discriminate and it can affect anyone at anytime. The Humanitarian
Day
is a day for the homeless to access multiple services without leaving
their
own precincts of the downtown community.
"Ramadan is a time of increased compassion and caring for others. Our
goal
is to give the homeless community hope and relief to ease their
struggle,"
said Habibe Husain, founder of the Rahima Foundation in Santa Clara.
WHEN: Saturday, November 6th, 2004 from 10 AM to 2 PM
WHERE: Salvation Army, 405 N. 4th St. (just north of Julian Ave.), San
Jose
Event Sponsors: Rahima Foundation, Muslim Community Association (MCA),
South Bay Islamic Association (SBIA), Islamic Society of East Bay
(ISEB),
Islamic Center of Fremont (ICF), Masjidul Waritheen, Masjid Al-Islam,
Zaytuna Institute, Muslim American Society (MAS) - Bay Area, Islamic
Networks Group (ING), Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) -
Bay
Area, Hidaya Foundation, Granada Islamic School, Stanford Islamic
School,
Latino Muslims of Bay Area, Food not Bombs, Muslim Students Association
(MSA) - Bay Area, Generation M (Bay Area), Indian Muslim Council (IMC)
-
USA, Halal Meats and American Muslim Voice (AMV)
Contact: Dahlia Eltoumi, CAIR SFBA, (408) 206-1207 (Cell),
dahlia@cair.com
or visit www.dignitycoalition.org
-----
DC: EXPLORE ISLAMIC ART AT NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART
Visit the exhibition Palace and Mosque Islamic Art from the Victoria
and
Albert Museum. Pick up a family activity sheet at the exhibition
entrance.
CREATE
Saturday and Sunday all day
East Building ground floor
National Gallery of Art
Washington, DC
Color shapes and patterns found in Islamic Art and paint a ceramic tile
to
take home! Art activities recommended for ages 4 and up.
LISTEN
Saturday and Sunday at 12, 1 and 3 pm
East Building Mezzanine
National Gallery of Art
Washington, DC
Enjoy performances by the Sharq Arabic Music Ensemble, specialists in
the
traditional court music of past Arab kingdoms.
For more info call 202-842-6254 or visit www.nga.gov/kids
------
U.S. OFFICIALS UNSURE IF PRE-ELECTION TERROR PLOT DISRUPTED
Curt Anderson, Associated Press, 11/4/04
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/terror/20041104-1342-terrorthreat.html
WASHINGTON - More than 700 people were arrested on immigration
violations
and thousands more subjected to FBI interviews in an intense government
effort to avert a terrorist attack aimed at disrupting the election.
As with past unrealized al-Qaeda threats, law enforcement officials
said
Thursday they don't know for sure whether any of those arrests or
interviews foiled an attack.
"It's very hard to prove a negative," Michael Garcia, chief of
Immigration
and Customs Enforcement, said in an interview Thursday. "We did cases
and
operations for people we thought posed national security concerns. We
didn't arrest anyone who had a bomb."
For example, ICE agents arrested a 23-year-old Pakistani man in late
October who had illegally entered the United States through Mexico in
2000
and was working as a fuel tanker truck driver with access to a major
U.S.
seaport. The man, who was not further identified, is charged with
making
false statements about how he entered the country and remains under
investigation for any links to terrorism...
Although the election season passed without an attack, officials say
al-Qaeda remains a dangerous foe intent on striking the United States
again. The day after the election, Attorney General John Ashcroft told
his
senior staff to not let their guard down...
Still, there were reports of heavy-handed tactics in some places. The
Council on American-Islamic Relations provided several examples,
including
a young Pakistani man who was held for five hours in Las Vegas after
books
on the Muslim holiday of Ramadan and Arabic grammar were found in his
possession.
"This was viewed as an extension of the ongoing policies that have been
targeting Muslim and Arab-American communities," said CAIR spokesman
Ibrahim Hooper. "These communities view themselves as law-abiding and
contributing to society in a very positive way."
ALSO SEE:
GOVERNMENT HINDERS, BUT DOESN'T STOP FAITHFUL MUSLIMS FROM GIVING
DURING
RAMADAN
Michael H. Hodges, Detroit News, 11/5/04
http://www.detnews.com/2004/lifestyle/0411/05/b01-325884.htm
Nowadays when he gives to charity in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan,
as
his religion dictates, Mohamad Makki says he donates locally, mostly to
the
Islamic Center of America in Detroit.
Makki's choice reflects the uncertainty Arab-Americans have faced since
September 11, when a number of long-established charities doing work in
the
Middle East were banned by the U.S. government because of terrorist
ties.
Says the Dearborn Heights resident, "We try to make sure we give to
charities that are not politically tied to anything."
It's a way of playing it safe, and not attracting government attention
in
this terror-charged world. But it also highlights what is, for most
Arab-Americans, a dismaying shift. Before the Twin Towers collapsed,
nobody
worried about giving to charities doing work in the Middle East.
Still, three years into the war on terror, Makki's inclined to believe
that
the government's ferreted out most groups with unsavory ties. Even if
he
doesn't give to international organizations, he adds, "We assume the
charities that are left have been combed over by the government, and
are OK."
That may well have been the reasoning behind donations from about 10
Metro
Detroit residents to a Missouri-based charity, the Islamic American
Relief
Agency, whose offices in Columbia, Mo., were raided by federal agents
on
Oct. 14.
In the weeks following, FBI and Treasury agents appeared on the
doorsteps
of those local contributors, says Huntington Woods attorney Shereef
Akeel,
who is representing the agency.
Akeel, who filed a class-action lawsuit last June on behalf of eight
prisoners allegedly tortured in the Abu Ghraib scandal, declines to
name
the individuals involved...
-----
U.S. IMAMS URGE HOSTAGE RELEASE
Chicago Tribune, 11/5/04
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-0411050058nov05,1,3901059.story
WASHINGTON - Six American Muslim imams have urged the immediate release
of
all civilian hostages in Iraq and say Muslims involved in terrorism are
"betraying the values of the faith they claim to represent."
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, which sponsored the
announcement
just before release of Osama bin Laden's latest videotaped threat, is
asking mosques, Muslim organizations and individuals across the nation
to
endorse the imams' statement via its Web site.
The imams said, "The targeting of civilians has always been prohibited
in
Islam. Those who kidnap and murder civilians are violating Islamic
norms
and deserve to be repudiated by Muslims in America, in Iraq and
throughout
the Islamic world."
"No injustice done to Muslims can ever justify the massacre of innocent
people, and no act of terror will ever serve the cause of Islam," the
group
said. "We repudiate and dissociate ourselves from any Muslim group or
individual who commits such brutal and un-Islamic acts."
-----
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-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 11/8/04
* VERSE OF THE DAY: PATIENTLY PERSEVERE
* COUNTDOWN FOR CAIR RAMADAN CAMPAIGN: 5 DAYS LEFT!
- CAIR Job Opening: Civil Rights Coordinator
* CAIR-CAN: DEMAND CHANGE TO SECURITY CERTIFICATE PROCESS
* 150 ATTEND CAIR-OHIO INTERFAITH IFTAR
- CAIR-OH: Muslims Share Their Traditions (Enquirer)
- CAIR-FL: Muslims Display Generosity (Miami Herald)
* FILM ON PROPHET TO BE RELEASED IN U.S. (Daily Times)
- 'Muhammad' In the Metroplex (Orlando Sentinel)
* CAIR-LA: MUSLIMS TEMPER RAMADAN GIVING (LA Times)
- CA: FBI Eases Up; Muslims Still Feel Pain (LA Times)
- CT: Ordeal for Muslim Businessman Continues (AP)
* IL: MUSLIM RAPPERS COMBINE BELIEFS WITH MUSIC (AP)
* WHAT AMERICANS DON'T KNOW (Citizen Times)
* NC: MUSLIMS SEEK APOLOGY AFTER WOMAN INJURED (News Record)
* BLAST HITS DUTCH ISLAMIC SCHOOL (Reuters)
- Netherlands Reports Anti-Muslim Incidents (AP)
* THAILAND'S DANGEROUS BLUNDERS (Los Angeles Times)
-----
VERSE OF THE DAY: PATIENCE IN ADVERSITY
"All that is with you is bound to come to an end, whereas that which is
with God is everlasting. And most certainly shall We grant unto those
who
are patient in adversity their reward in accordance with the best that
they
ever did."
The Holy Quran, 16:96
-----
COUNTDOWN FOR CAIR'S $1 MILLION IN RAMADAN: 5 DAYS LEFT!
Alhamdulillah (praise be to God), CAIR has raised over $836,000 for its
"$1 Million During Ramadan" campaign. With 5 days left in Ramadan, we
have
$164,000 to go! Whether your donation is $50 or $100, every dollar that
you
donate today will count and be used to help empower the American Muslim
community.
We need 1640 people to donate $100 to meet our goal!
NOW is the time to show your support for CAIR.
To support CAIR's important work, please donate at:
https://www.cair-net.org/asp/donate.asp
REMEMBER: Scholars say CAIR is able to receive ZAKAT donations.
---
CAIR JOB OPENING: CIVIL RIGHTS COORDINATOR
CAIR has an immediate opening for an experienced dynamic person to fill
the
position of Civil Rights Coordinator. The position involves handling of
civil rights cases, doing research on issues pertaining to civil and
religious rights in America, maintaining a civil rights data base
system,
and generating reports, charts and graphs. Candidates should have a
Bachelor degree in a related field with general knowledge of the US
Constitution and the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
All those interested and eligible to work in US (Citizens or proper
work
visa holders) are encouraged to apply in confidence via email to:
hr@cair-net.org, or by fax 202-488-0833. When applying via e-mail
please
ensure to write the position title "Civil Rights Coordinator" in the
subject of the email. Please send your application with cover letter
and
complete resume and references. Absolutely no phone calls please.
-----
CAIR-CAN: DEMAND CHANGE TO SECURITY CERTIFICATE PROCESS
(OTTAWA, CANADA - 8/11/2004) - CAIR-CAN is calling on all Canadians of
conscience to demand that our government overhaul the current security
certificate process to make it comply with international human rights
standards.
The call marks the first hearing in the Federal Court of Appeal of Adil
Charkaoui's (an individual held under the process) constitutional
challenge
to the security certificate process.
Security certificates have been soundly condemned by human rights and
social justice advocates. Recently, more than 60 law experts and legal
associations in Canada, including the Canadian Bar Association, sent a
letter to the Minister of Public Safety Anne McLellan to express their
grave concerns with the legal process of security certificates.
HOW DO SECURITY CERTIFICATES WORK?
The process begins with the Solicitor-General and the Minister of
Citizenship and Immigration signing a security certificate alleging
that a
non-citizen presents a risk to national security.
The person may then be immediately arrested and jailed, often for
years, as
the government takes steps to seek his or her removal.
Currently, there are at least five people in Canada - all Arabs or
Muslims
- who have been subject to security-certificate procedures on the basis
of
alleged links to terrorism: Muhammad Mahjoub (since June, 2000);
Mahmoud
Jaballah (August, 2001); Hassan Almrei (October, 2001); Mohamed Harkat
(December, 2002); and Adil Charkaoui (May, 2003).
The court process of reviewing the certificates is held in secret. Our
government is not required to disclose the precise nature of the
allegations; and normal rules of evidence are dispensed with, including
the
right to cross-examine witnesses and to challenge evidence obtained
through
normally unacceptable means, such as hearsay or even torture.
Without knowing and being able to challenge the specific allegations
and
evidence against a person, it is nearly impossible to mount an
accurate,
credible defence.
People held under security certificates can be deported to face
torture.
ACTION REQUESTED:
VOICE your concerns about the security certificate process by calling
or
e-mailing the following Ministers:
Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
Anne McLellan
Telephone: (613) 992-4524
Fax (613) 943-0044
E-mail: McLellan.A@parl.gc.ca
Minister of Citizenship and Immigration
Judy Sgro
Telephone: (613) 992-7774
Fax (613) 947-8319
E-mail: Sgro.J@parl.gc.ca
Minister of Justice
Irwin Cotler
Telephone: (613) 995-0121
Fax (613) 992-6762
E-mail: Cotler.I@parl.gc.ca
DEMAND:
* That the five individuals held under security certificates be either
released or given a fair trial in accordance with international human
rights standards.
* That the individuals not be deported. Amnesty International has
recognized that all five face torture and human rights abuses if
deported.
* That the security certificate process be overhauled to make it comply
with international human rights standards.
COPY Canada@cair-net.org on your correspondence
CAIR-CAN
Council on American-Islamic Relations CANADA
P.O. Box 13219, Ottawa, ONT, K2K 1X4
Tel: 1-866-524-0004
Fax: 613-254-9810
URL: www.caircan.ca
-----
150 ATTEND CAIR-OHIO INTERFAITH IFTAR
(CINCINNATI, OH, 11/8/2004) - The Cincinnati office of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Ohio) said today that some 150 people,
including public officials, civic leaders and members of the interfaith
community, turned out on Sunday for its 1st Annual Ramadan Iftar
Banquet.
("Iftar" is the meal eaten after sunset to break the fast each day
during
the observance of Ramadan.)
"It is important for American Muslims to reach out to their neighbors
of
all faiths in an atmosphere of sharing and mutual respect," said
CAIR-Ohio's Cincinnati Director Karen Dabdoub. The evening's program
included presentations on Ramadan and CAIR.
CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil liberties group, is headquartered
in
Washington, D.C., and has 29 offices and chapters nationwide and in
Canada.
CONTACT: Karen Dabdoub, 513-281-8200, E-Mail: karen@cair-ohio.com;
Brent
Meyer, 513-276-1600, E-Mail: meyer_brent@hotmail.com
SEE ALSO:
MUSLIMS SHARE THEIR TRADITION
Karen Vance, Enquirer, 11/8/04
http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/11/08/loc_loc4ram.html
WEST CHESTER - More than 150 people of different faiths broke bread
together Sunday to mark the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
"Anytime we can get together to celebrate the goodness of the
traditions of
a people, it benefits not only the people who attend, but the community
as
a whole," said Sister Alice Gerdeman, who attended the "Sharing Ramadan
Interfaith Iftar Dinner" at the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati in
West Chester.
Gerdeman, executive director of the Intercommunity Justice and Peace
Center, was among many Catholic religious sisters who attended the
event.
"I think it helps with an understanding of the differences in religious
theologies, especially when we live in a world where we need to
cooperate
with each other," she said. "There are so many misconceptions that pass
between us."
The iftar, a meal that breaks the day's fast, was a first for the
Cincinnati office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations-Ohio,
which
opened in March. The non-profit, grassroots organization aims at
promoting
an accurate image of Islam in America and hopes to make the dinner an
annual event…
---
FL: MUSLIMS DISPLAY THEIR GENEROSITY
Darran Simon, Miami Herald, 11/8/04
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/states/florida/counties/brow
ard_county/10118979.htm
Donald Kostka does back-straining work at warehouses and on
construction
sites for $5 or $6 an hour. But at the end of the day, he can barely
afford
to eat.
His meals come from outreach centers that feed the hungry and the poor.
On Saturday, he got a helping hand from local Muslims. They provided a
seafood sandwich, butter cookies, homemade macaroni salad, chips and
soda
-- among other items -- for him and about 60 other hungry people at the
Jubilee Center of South Broward in Hollywood.
The soup kitchen is normally closed on Saturdays, but opened at the
request
of the Florida office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
''It helps me understand that, at least in the community, there are
people
who care about people that are less fortunate than themselves,'' said
Kostka, 51, who stays with friends in Hollywood.
In South Florida and around the world, local Muslims have been reaching
out
to those less fortunate than themselves during the holy month of
Ramadan.
The annual celebration of spiritual and physical cleansing commemorates
the
month that the prophet Muhammad is said to have received the word of
Allah,
or God...
The Columbus, Ohio chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations
also fed 400 people Saturday, said Altaf Ali, executive director of the
council's Florida office.
''The vast majority of Americans don't understand that charity is an
integral part of our life,'' Ali said...
-----
FILM ON HOLY PROPHET TO BE RELEASED IN NORTH AMERICA
Khalid Hasan, Daily Times, 11/7/04
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_7-11-2004_pg7_47
WASHINGTON: An animated film on the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him)
will
be released across the United States and Canada on 14 November to
coincide
with Eidul Fitr.
The 90-minute movie called 'Muhammad: The Last Prophet' has been
produced
by the creators of such animated hits as 'The King and I' and 'The Fox
and
the Hound' for Badr International. It will be shown in theaters in 37
US
and Canadian cities from 14 November. Because of Islamic tradition
prohibiting the visual representation of religious figures, no images
of
the Holy Prophet will appear in the film. According to Nihad Awad,
executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, "This
is
an exciting opportunity for parents and children of all faiths to learn
more about a historic figure like the Holy Prophet."
ALSO SEE:
'MUHAMMAD' IN THE METROPLEX
Mark I. Pinsky, Orlando Sentinel, 11/8/04
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/living/religion/10106543.htm
Stung by widespread negative media stereotypes, many of America's
Muslims
will take to mainstream movie theaters to mark the end of their holy
month
of Ramadan with a groundbreaking, full-length animated feature called
Muhammad: The Last Prophet. The film's screening this month coincides
with
Eid al-Fitr, the feast that concludes Ramadan, on Nov. 14.
Distributors of the children's film are taking their cue from Christian
filmmakers, although no one connected with the 90-minute cartoon
expects
the limited run to duplicate the half-billion-dollar success of Mel
Gibson's The Passion of the Christ.
"It's not about what the box office generates but about how much
interest
and benefit the people can get out of it," says Oussama Jammal, whose
animation production company owns the North American distribution
rights to
Muhammad.
Because of resistance by theater chains, which question whether there
is an
audience for the film, Jammal's company, Fine Media Group, has had to
rent
the theaters and sell tickets on its Web site: www.finemediagroup.com.
"For us, it is about calming down the anxiety about Islam and Muslims
in
this country," he says.
Many Muslims also hope Muhammad will increase understanding of their
faith
among the larger American community. A poll released Oct. 4 by the
Washington, D.C.-based Council on American-Islamic Relations indicates
that
25 percent of Americans believe anti-Muslim stereotypes. In a separate
finding, the survey reported that negative images of Muslims in media
and
popular culture far outweigh positive ones...
TO PURCHASE TICKETS, OR FOR MORE INFORMATION, GO TO:
http://finemediagroup.com
-----
U.S. MUSLIMS TEMPER RAMADAN GIVING WITH CAUTION
Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times, 11/6/04
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/state/la-me-beliefs6nov06,1,5163795.story
Like many Muslims, Southern California businessman Safi Qureshey plans
to
contribute to charity during Islam's current holy season of Ramadan,
when
it is said that the blessings of all donations are multiplied 70 times
in
the book of God.
But since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S. heightened suspicions
that some Islamic relief organizations were covertly funneling
donations to
terrorists, Qureshey is far more cautious about which charities he
supports. Now, he says, he no longer contributes directly to individual
charities but funnels his giving through the California Community
Foundation and Citibank, which check the recipients for him to make
sure
they have a clean bill of health.
"We have all become much more cautious," said Qureshey, one of Southern
California's leading Muslim philanthropists, whose largess includes a
$1-million gift to UC Irvine for brain research and seed money for a
new
foundation to produce documentaries promoting understanding of Islam
and
harmony with other religions. "Now you feel much more of a burden as a
donor that you have never felt. If you see an appeal that looks OK on
the
surface, how do you know the details? You just don't know where your
money
may end up."
For many American Muslims, the war on terror is forcing modern
adjustments
to Islam's age-old tradition of charitable giving. Their faith requires
them to contribute a religious tax known as zakat, amounting to 2.5% of
their assets, to the poor and other needy people listed in the Koran.
In
addition, Muslims are required to pay zakat fitr, or a fee to feed a
family
during Ramadan; without that contribution, many Muslims believe, their
spiritual benefits gained from fasting and praying will be forfeited.
But the U.S. crackdown on Islamic charities has complicated this
religious
obligation and, some Muslims say, impeded the free practice of their
faith.
Since 9/11, the U.S. government has designated 27 Islamic charitable
groups
worldwide as supporters of terrorism, including five it shut down in
the
United States.
According to Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Anaheim office
of
the Council on American-Islamic Relations, many American Muslims are
sending less money to international relief organizations and keeping
more
at home for U.S. organizations or such local projects as mosque
renovations. His own organization, which promotes Muslims' civil rights
and
education about Islam, has benefited from the shift. He said the
council's
California budget has increased from $300,000 in 2000 to $1.1 million
in
2003, and its staff has grown from two to eight.
"In all honesty, I'm not happy about this," Ayloush said. "Yes, I'm
glad
and very grateful that the community is putting more resources into
[the
council], but I don't want it to be at the expense of feeding widows
and
orphans and helping with the education of young children overseas..."
ALSO SEE:
FBI EASES UP; MUSLIMS STILL FEEL PAIN
Solomon Moore, Los Angeles Times, 11/6/04
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/2004/la-me-interviews6nov06,1,5069567.s
tory
Abdul Munim, owner of an Anaheim medical supply business, was surprised
to
walk into his home office a few weeks ago and find the embossed
business
card of an agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation on his desk
with
a note asking him to call as soon as possible.
The agent later called Munim, a Libyan American, and set up a meeting
at a
Denny's near Munim's home. He said the agent assured him that it would
be a
friendly interview and that he was not suspected of a crime.
Munim said the talk was cordial. Two agents asked him about his
educational
background, his business associates and even an acquaintance at the
local
Islamic center. After a few minutes, the interview was over and the
agents
thanked Munim for his time.
It's an awkward dance that hundreds, perhaps thousands, of American
Muslims
across the country have been doing with FBI agents.
The FBI began the interviews, officials said, to preempt possible
terrorist
attacks aimed at disrupting last Tuesday's election. Agents plan to
continue them through the presidential inauguration in January.
The sessions began shortly after U.S. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft said in
June
that intelligence revealed that preparations for a suspected summer
terrorist attack were 90% complete. No attack occurred.
The meetings are proving delicate for both sides...
---
ORDEAL FOR MUSLIM BUSINESSMAN CONTINUES
MATT APUZZO, Associated Press, 11/8/04
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/consumer_news/10127853.htm
CROMWELL, Conn. - As a Muslim and frequent flyer, businessman Syed
Maswood
is used to being wrongly suspected as an Islamic terrorist. He's not
used
to being called a U.S. spy in the Arab world.
The Connecticut nuclear engineer, whose home was raided this spring,
was
arrested during a September business trip in the United Arab Emirates
on
suspicion of being a CIA and FBI informant.
He spent a night in jail before U.S. Embassy officials won his release
-
only to return to the United States, where he was detained and
questioned a
second time by Homeland Security officials, he said.
Suspected of being a terrorist at home and a spy overseas, Maswood
believes
he's the victim of two forces: prejudice against Muslims in the United
States and distrust of Americans abroad.
Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations
in
Washington, said he hasn't heard of other cases like Maswood's.
But it doesn't surprise him that Maswood is stopped at U.S. airports or
that an American would be held on vague charges while traveling
overseas,
given a growing anti-American feeling in the Muslim world, Hooper said.
"Nothing surprises me anymore," Hooper said.
Though he has been charged with no crime, Maswood, a 41-year-old U.S.
citizen and father of three, has become accustomed to airport searches.
He
has spent months writing government officials, demanding to know why he
is
searched and held when he travels.
"We have looked into the matter and determined that you will no longer
encounter any automatic special attention beyond normal probabilities,
upon
future returns to the United States," the Bureau of Immigration and
Customs
Enforcement wrote him in August. He has since carried that letter when
traveling…
-----
MUSLIM RAPPERS SEEK TO COMBINE ISLAMIC BELIEFS WITH POPULAR MUSIC
Anna Johnson, Associated Press, 11/6/04
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/10117215.htm
CHICAGO - When David Kelly - aka "Capital D" - raps, he doesn't follow
the
mainstream hip-hop mantra: women, cars and jewelry.
Instead, the Chicago rapper uses his rhymes to dish out praise for
Allah,
criticize the war in Iraq and blast corporate America.
Kelly is among a new group of Muslim hip-hop artists gaining popularity
among Muslim-Americans looking for music that reflects both their
mainstream music tastes and their religious beliefs.
"Muslims in the United States are not going away. They're part of the
culture, but they're not creating their own culture," said Kelly, 34.
"I
try to show them that you can be creative, artistic, happy and still be
Muslim."
Islam is not new to hip-hop. Nation of Islam and other nontraditional
sects
have influenced hip-hop through lyrics and images since the late 1970s
-
with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan repeatedly mentioned and
his
voice featured in raps.
But this new wave of Muslim-influenced rap music seeks to convey
messages
and images more in line with orthodox Islam...
-----
WHY MUSLIMS AROUND WORLD HATE US, AND WHAT MOST AMERICANS DON'T KNOW
ABOUT
OUR POLICIES
John K. Wilson, Citizen Times, 11/6/04
http://www.citizen-times.com/cache/article/editorial/70397.shtml
I am surprised and disappointed that in the three years since Sept. 11,
2001, I have never heard or seen the media or our administration ask
the
question "why?" Why do they hate us so intensely that dozens of men
(hijackers) would plan and carry out their own deaths along with nearly
3,000 innocent Americans? Why did Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, now number one
on
the U.S. wanted list, behead two U.S. civilian workers last month? When
asked why he hated the U.S., he said "The occupation" ("Sixty Minutes,"
Sept. 26). For the past 50 years, the Israeli occupation of Palestine
and
the U.S. support of Israel in that occupation has been the main reason
for
that intense hatred. Recently what many Muslims consider "the
occupation of
Iraq" has added fuel to that hatred.
Immediately after the infamous Sabra-Shatilla massacre in Beirut in
1982,
Tom Friedman and I witnessed the horrors of that massacre where more
than
2,000 women and children and old men had been murdered under the flares
of
Israeli Gen. Ariel Sharon's army. Friedman won the Pulitzer Prize for
International Journalism for his report (New York Times, Sept. 26,
1982).
Sharon was found personally responsible by the Israeli-appointed Kahane
Commission for what happened in the camps, was forced to step down as
defense minister and spent the next several years in internal exile on
his
farm, ostensibly never to serve in public office again. He has been
indicted by a court in Brussels, and today cannot travel to Belgium,
where
he would be tried as a war criminal.
For two months I worked in two bombed-out Palestinian hospitals. I saw
blood on the walls of the nursery where newborns had been bashed
against
the wall, and I can tell you why they hate us. Palestinian hospitals
had
been bombed by the Israeli planes, in spite of red crosses on their
roofs.
Dr. James Zogby, founder and president of the Arab American Institute
and
former Batten Professor at Davidson College recently stated that,
"Positive
attitudes towards Americans are between 3 and 9 percent in all Arab
countries that we polled. Our leadership has failed us. Since Vietnam
ended
we have spent more money, sent more troops and invested more political
capital in the Middle East than anywhere else in the world, yet we find
ourselves in a war that we cannot win. . Arabs hate American policies,
and
those policies have actually put Americans in more danger than they
were
before the invasion of Iraq" (The Davidsonian, Sept. 22)...
Dr. John K. Wilson is formerly an associate clinical professor of
pediatrics, University of Virginia Medical School.
-----
MUSLIM LEADERS CALL FOR APOLOGY AFTER WOMAN INJURED
News Record, 11/7/04
http://www.news-record.com/news/now/womanhurt110704.htm
GREENSBORO - Some Muslim leaders are demanding an apology - issued in
either Arabic or French - from a Greensboro police officer they say
broke
the shoulder of a 68-year-old Egyptian-American woman.
Afaf Saudi, arrested Saturday for resisting police officers and
assaulting
an employee of Walmart on Battleground Avenue, also suffered a broken
rib,
a mild heart attack and cuts and bruises on her wrists. She remained in
Moses Cone Hospital today awaiting shoulder surgery.
The woman, a naturalized citizen who has lived in America for 12 years,
doesn't speak English.
The Greensboro Police Department would say little about the incident
earlier today. Initial reports show the officer did nothing improper,
said
Sgt. J.P. Gunn, a department spokesman. He said the department will
investigate, as it does in all cases in which suspects are injured.
The officer, R.R. Neal Jr., hasn't been placed on administrative leave,
Gunn said. Efforts to reach Neal earlier today were unsuccessful.
Chief David Wray didn't return telephone calls to his home and office
earlier today.
Saudi's son, Sam Helmi of Greensboro, said he's outraged something like
this could happen in America.
"I'm not the person to shout and do crazy things," he said. "But I am
burning inside..."
-----
BLAST HITS DUTCH ISLAMIC SCHOOL
Reuters, 11/8/04
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=61704
1§ion=news
AMSTERDAM - An explosion has damaged the entrance of an Islamic school
in
the southern Dutch town of Eindhoven, police say, the latest attack on
a
Muslim institution following the killing of a filmmaker.
The blast in the early hours of Monday followed a series of violent
incidents against Muslim institutes since last Tuesday's killing of
filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, who was critical of Islam.
Alexander Sakkers, mayor of Eindhoven, told NOS television that the
"idiotic" attack should not raise tension between groups of the
population.
At the weekend, mosques in the city of Rotterdam and the towns of Breda
and
Huizen were attacked, though not badly damaged, in response to
Tuesday's
murder of Theo Van Gogh, who was critical of Islam.
Police detained a 24-year-old man on suspicion of setting fire to the
mosque in Rotterdam on Sunday morning. Only the door was damaged.
Pamphlets
insulting Islam and showing pictures of pigs heads were plastered on
another mosque in Rotterdam.
In Amsterdam, a centre for immigrants was daubed with red paint. A
Dutch-Moroccan man, suspected of being an Islamic militant, was charged
with Van Gogh's murder on Friday...
ALSO SEE:
NETHERLANDS REPORTS ANTI-MUSLIM INCIDENTS
Associated Press, 11/7/04
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - Arsonists and vandals angered over the alleged
Muslim-inspired slaying of a controversial Dutch filmmaker have
conducted a
series of attacks on Islamic targets, including attempts to burn down
two
mosques, Dutch media reported Sunday.
Eight suspected Islamic extremists have been arrested in connection
with
Tuesday's slaying of Theo van Gogh, who earlier this year released a
film
critical of Islam's treatment of women. Among those arrested was the
alleged 26-year-old killer, identified only as Mohammed B.
Though mainstream Muslim groups condemned the killing, it has caused an
outpouring of anger in the Netherlands.
Vandals threw red paint Saturday night on an Amsterdam center that
assists
immigrants, many of them Muslim. Abdou Menebhi, director of the Emcemo
center, several blocks from the spot where Van Gogh was killed, told
AT5
television he "assumed (the vandalism) was done by a racist group of
some
kind."
In the town of Huizen, police arrested two men allegedly trying to
start a
fire at the An-Nasr mosque Friday night, the national news service NOS
reported. A mosque in the city of Breda sustained minor fire damage in
another reported arson attempt.
Earlier this week, a small fire was set at a mosque in Utrecht, police
said, and a pig's head was left in a plastic bag outside a mosque in
Amsterdam.
NOS reported Sunday that pamphlets with the image of a pig and a slur
against Muslims were circulating in Rotterdam.
Van Gogh, a distant relative of the famous painter Vincent van Gogh,
released "Submission" in August. The film was criticized as insensitive
by
some Muslim groups.
On Tuesday, Van Gogh was shot while riding his bicycle and then stabbed
and
had his throat cut. His killer left a 5-page note quoting from the
Quran
and threatening more attacks.
Of the eight suspects arrested, six remain in detention for the
killing,
including Mohammed B.
Judges ordered two suspects released Friday for lack of evidence, a
decision prosecutors said they will appeal.
-----
THAILAND'S DANGEROUS BLUNDERS
Los Angeles Times, 11/8/04
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-thailand8nov08,1,300007
2.story
Thailand's prime minister appears finally to recognize that he has made
a
potentially explosive situation much worse in the southern part of his
country, where Muslims outnumber the Buddhists who predominate in the
rest
of the nation.
Two weeks ago, more than 1,000 Muslims in Narathiwat province protested
against the arrest of six men who allegedly supplied Islamic militants
with
guns. Police opened fire on the crowd, killing seven. Army troops
arrested
hundreds more, stacking the detainees one atop another in trucks that
later
took them to jail. Seventy-eight people were crushed to death or
suffocated. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, instead of calling the
army
to account, blamed the victims. He contended they died because their
fasting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan had weakened them. The
furious response from neighboring Malaysia and Indonesia, predominantly
Muslim countries, underscored the seriousness of his blunder.
Thailand's southern provinces have long been known for their poverty,
poor
schools and lack of jobs. This year's protests occurred against the
backdrop of feared links to Al Qaeda or other radical Islamic groups.
More than 400 people have died in the south since January, many the
victims
of drive-by shootings by motorcyclists suspected of being Islamic
radicals.
In April, militants armed mainly with machetes tried to launch
simultaneous
attacks on police stations across the south. An informant alerted
security
forces, who killed more than 100 of the assailants, most of them
teenagers.
Thirty were killed in a mosque where they sought refuge.
Thaksin, instead of recognizing the conditions that have led to unrest,
declared that the deaths would end the rebellion. Most analysts doubt
formal links exist between the southern Muslim extremists and groups
like
Al Qaeda, though there may be contacts between them. Thaksin's
blindness
could push moderate Muslims not yet demanding more autonomy or
independence
for the south toward radical action…
Thaksin belatedly named an independent panel to investigate the deaths
and
invited diplomats from Muslim nations to join him for an evening meal
breaking the Ramadan fast. Those are helpful gestures, but not enough
to
slow the violence. The prime minister has to include the south in the
nation's plans for economic development, getting more of the region's
unemployed and undertrained young people into the workforce.
International
assistance in the name of preventing a new source of Islamic militancy
would also be money well spent.
-----
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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
--------------------------------------------------------------------
mail2web - Check your email from the web at
http://mail2web.com/ .
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
SAMPLE EID NEWS RELEASE FOR USE BY LOCAL COMMUNITIES
ACTION REQUESTED: Modify the CAIR Eid ul-Fitr news release below for
distribution to local media outlets. Just insert local Eid dates,
times,
locations, and contact information. Make sure to send a copy to the
main
daily newspaper “city desk,” TV station “assignment desk,” radio
station
“news director,” and Associated Press local bureau “daybook editor.”
Call
each outlet to obtain contact information.
SEND COPIES of local media advisories to: cair@cair-net.org
-----
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
- MEDIA ADVISORY -
U.S. MUSLIMS TO MARK END OF RAMADAN WITH PRAYERS
‘Muhammad’ film release to coincide with Eid ul-Fitr
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 11/9/04) - On November 13th or 14th (exact date
depends
on sighting of the new moon), the Muslim community in America will
celebrate the end of the month-long fast of Ramadan with communal
prayers
around the country. (Ramadan is the month on the Islamic lunar calendar
during which Muslims abstain from food, drink and other sensual
pleasures
from break of dawn to sunset.)
The prayers mark the beginning of the Eid ul-Fitr (EED-al-FITTER), or
“feast of fast breaking” holiday, in which Muslims exchange social
visits
and seek to strengthen bonds of brotherhood in the community. During
this
holiday, Muslims greet each other by saying “Eid mubarak”
(EED-moo-BAR-ak),
meaning “blessed Eid,” and “taqabbalallah ta’atakum,” or “may God
accept
your deeds.” Many communities also hold multicultural bazaars and other
family activities following the prayers.
This year, a new animated film, “Muhammad: The Last Prophet,” is
scheduled
for nationwide theatrical release on Eid ul-Fitr. The feature-length
film
chronicles the early life and teachings of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.
SEE:
http://www.finemediagroup.com/
Eid ul-Fitr is the first of the two major Muslim holidays. The second
holiday, Eid ul-Adha, comes at the end of the Hajj, or pilgrimage to
Mecca.
WHEN: November 13th or 14th, 2004 (Because Ramadan is a lunar month,
the
actual date is governed by sighting of the new moon.) Prayers are held
early in the morning. Ask local prayer coordinators for exact dates,
times
and locations.
WHERE: The Eid prayers are held either in local mosques or in public
facilities designed to accommodate large gatherings.
CONTACT: Call local Muslim organizations for details about Eid
celebrations. If there are no known contacts in a particular community,
go
to: http://www.islamicfinder.com/
PHOTO OPPORTUNITY: Each year, Muslims come to the prayers in colorful
attire representative of different areas of the Islamic world. The
prayers
themselves are quite visual, with worshipers arranged in neat rows and
bowing in prayer in unison. Participants exchange embraces at the
conclusion of the prayers.
NOTE: Because this is a religious service, reporters and photographers
of
both sexes should dress modestly. Some communities may ask female
reporters
and photographers to put a scarf over their hair while in the actual
prayer
area. Photographers should arrive early to get into position for the
best
shots. Photographers are also advised not to step directly in front of
worshipers and to seek permission for close-up shots. Shots of shoes
removed for prayer, and rear-angle shots of prostrating worshipers are
considered inappropriate.
- END -
CONTACT: Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail:
cair@cair-net.org; Rabiah Ahmed, 202-488-8787 or 202-439-1441, E-Mail:
rahmed@cair-net.org
NOTE: CAIR offers an e-mail list designed to be a window to the
American
Muslim community. Subscribers to the list, called CAIR-NET, receive
news
releases and other materials dealing with American Muslim positions on
issues of importance to our society.
To SUBSCRIBE to or UNSUBSCRIBE from this list, go to:
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To reach the list moderator, send a message to: cair@cair-net.org
-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
--------------------------------------------------------------------
mail2web - Check your email from the web at
http://mail2web.com/ .
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 11/9/04
* VERSE OF THE DAY: SPEAK IN A KINDLY MANNER
* COUNTDOWN FOR CAIR'S $1 MILLION IN RAMADAN: 4 DAYS LEFT!
* 200 ATTEND CAIR INTERFAITH IFTAR IN FLORIDA
- DC: CAIR Participates in CFR Interfaith
- VA: Teen Fast for the First Time (Virginia Pilot)
- NH: Students Join Fast-A-Thon for Charity (AP)
* MORAL MISSION MAY UNIFY MUSLIMS, AMERICANS (Detroit News)
* MN: FORMER STUDENT FIGHTS DEPORTATION (Star Tribune)
- Judge Says Detainees' Trials are Unlawful (Wash Post)
- Canadian Group Protests Use of Secret Evidence (CBC)
* VA: HOMESCHOOLING SEMINAR AT MOSQUE
* FIGHTING PREVENTS FALLUJA WOUNDED GETTING HELP (Reuters)
-----
VERSE OF THE DAY: SPEAK IN A KINDLY MANNER
"Tell My servants that they should speak in the most kindly manner [to
those who do not share their beliefs]: For Satan is always ready to
stir up
discord between men."
The Holy Quran, 17:53
-----
COUNTDOWN FOR CAIR'S $1 MILLION IN RAMADAN: 4 DAYS LEFT!
Alhamdulillah (praise be to God), CAIR has raised over $836,000 for its
"$1 Million During Ramadan" campaign. With 5 days left in Ramadan, we
have
$164,000 to go! Whether your donation is $50 or $100, every dollar that
you
donate today will count and be used to help empower the American Muslim
community.
We need 1640 people to donate $100 to meet our goal!
NOW is the time to show your support for CAIR.
To support CAIR's important work, please donate at:
https://www.cair-net.org/asp/donate.asp
REMEMBER: Scholars say CAIR is able to receive ZAKAT donations.
-----
200 ATTEND CAIR INTERFAITH IFTAR IN FLORIDA
(TAMPA, FL, 11/9/2004) - The Florida office of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-FL) said today that more than 200
people
attended its interfaith Ramadan Iftar banquet Sunday evening in
Hernando
County. (Iftar is the meal eaten after sunset each day during the
Islamic
fast of Ramadan.)
The banquet, held in cooperation with the Islamic Community of Hernando
County, was part of CAIR's nationwide "Sharing Ramadan" program.
SEE: http://www.cair-net.org/ramadan2004/ramadan2004.asp?page=rsvp
Several interfaith leaders and public officials took part in the
dinner,
including county commissioners and representatives of the Hernando
County
Human Rights Commission.
SEE: "SHARING FOOD, FAITH, MUSLIMS DISPEL FEARS"
http://www.sptimes.com/2004/11/09/Hernando/Sharing_food__faith__.shtml
CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil liberties group, is headquartered
in
Washington, D.C., and has 29 offices and chapters nationwide and in
Canada.
The group's Florida office has chapters in Broward and Tampa.
CONTACT: Ahmed Bedier, 813-731-9506, abedier@cair-florida.org; Altaf
Ali,
954-298-8214, altaf@cair-florida.org
SEE ALSO:
CAIR PARTICIPATES IN CFR INTERFAITH IFTAR
A CAIR representative took part in an interfaith iftar hosted by the
Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Monday, November 8 in Washington
D.C.
Among invited guests were officials from the Department of State,
Office of
the Secretary of Defense, Congress, and Department of Defense.
---
MUSLIM TEEN JOINS IN RAMADAN FASTING RITUAL FOR FIRST TIME
Steven G. Vegh, Virginian-Pilot, 11/9/04
http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=77830&ran=214300
NORFOLK - As afternoon turned into evening, 13-year-old Alisha
Al-Ummatallah stood around a table with fellow Muslims at Masjid
William
Salaam, a mosque on West 35th Street. With hands extended and palms
turned
up, all bowed their heads to mark the passage of another day in the
holy
month of Ramadan.
"I believe in God," Alisha murmured in unison with the group. "In God I
trust, and with what he provides, I break my fast."
It was a ritual familiar for the adults, all practiced at abstaining
each
day from food and water throughout Ramadan, as required by Islam.
But as she joined her elders and bit into a sticky date - her first
food
since a pre-dawn bowl of Rice Krispies - Alisha was tasting a new
experience. For the first time in her young life, the Chesapeake girl
is
attempting to fast every single day during Ramadan, which will end this
year on or about Saturday. Exactly when the holiday concludes depends
on
when the crescent of the new moon is sighted.
For Muslims, the "first fast" is a coming of age marking the transition
from childhood to a spiritual maturity that accepts religious
obligations
such as Ramadan fasting and the pilgrimage to Mecca...
---
MUSLIMS, NON-MUSLIMS AT SCHOOL TAKE PART IN FAST-A-THON FOR CHARITY
Associated Press, 11/9/04
http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/11_8special.htm
SALEM, N.H. - Like other Muslims around the world, students at Salem
High
School's Muslim Students Association are fasting during daylight hours
through the holy month of Ramadan.
But the students added a twist this year: They created a Fast-A-Thon.
People pledged money to non-Muslim students and teachers who, in a show
of
support, skipped lunch Friday. The Muslim students and friends went to
classmates and teachers seeking contributions.
In the end, the Muslim Students Association raised $1,000 for the New
Horizons Soup Kitchen in Manchester, more than double the group's $500
goal.
"It was literally quarter by quarter and penny by penny," club adviser
Tasneem Mohammed said.
Muslims and non-Muslims alike broke the daily fast with a feast at
school
Friday just after 4:30 p.m. The parents of Muslim students brought
pasta,
lasagna, rice, chicken and other meals.
The students hope to make the Fast-A-Thon an annual event...
-----
MORAL MISSION MAY UNIFY MUSLIMS, AMERICANS
Imam Mohammad Ali Elahi, Detroit News, 11/9/04
http://www.detnews.com/2004/editorial/0411/09/a09-328678.htm
Over the years, Muslims in the United States and perhaps people in the
Muslim world have looked at the United States as immoral, just as many
Americans have looked at Muslim society and judged us for our lack of
technological progress as a backward people.
The people of both civilizations have suffered from an imbalanced
perception of life that led to immense human suffering. The West caused
the
people to believe politics and science could have nothing to with
religion,
and that religious people could not lead a nation to material
prosperity.
In the East, many of us have not enjoyed the progress and freedom in
some
areas, because the people felt religious piety was opposed to
scientific
progress and economic and social development.
Now, today, we are poised for changes in the East and the West. The
issue
of moral values reportedly played a role in determining the president,
which is a good development.
The people of the Bible have revived the belief that you can gain the
entire world and still lose your soul, and have nothing. Meanwhile the
people of the East are reviving God's word in the Koran that says "Who
is
forbidding the good things that I have created for my servants? I
created
it for them in this life, and my bounties are solely for them alone in
the
next life."
This timely reunion, or meeting, of East and West, of the teachings of
God,
is creating a common moral ground for human progress.
The world is perhaps ready to move beyond the violence and strife that
characterized the previous century to create a century of peace,
achieved
through cooperation to destroy poverty, illiteracy and all types of
immorality.
Muslims in the United States must find our place in this new moral
mission,
and make our voices heard. Our activism should contribute to the
restoration of a moral and diverse United States where citizens enjoy
freedom, including the freedom of religious expression, and choice.
Then we will use our moral voice to call for change in the Muslim
world,
for justice for the oppressed and freedom for those who have
materially,
spiritually and psychologically enslaved.
Imam Mohammad Ali Elahi heads the Islamic House of Worship in Dearborn
Heights.
-----
FORMER STUDENT FIGHTS DEPORTATION
Randy Furst, Star Tribune, 11/8/04
http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/5073351.html
RUSH CITY, MINN. -- More than eight months after he was handcuffed and
arrested, Mohammed Haider remains in prison, facing imminent
deportation
back to his native Bangladesh. Haider, who married an American last
year,
says he doesn't understand why.
"In 10 years I haven't had a single crime, not even a parking ticket,"
said
Haider, 30, sitting in a small conference room at the state prison at
Rush
City.
Immigration officials say otherwise: Haider dropped out of Winona State
University while in the country on a student visa a decade ago and
illegally went to work.
"He violated the terms of his [student] visa," said Tim Counts, Twin
Cities
spokesman for U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "He
came
as a student and then he continued breaking the law all of those years.
All
of that was illegal and ... a consequence of that is removal from the
United States."
Legal experts say that under normal circumstances, Haider would
probably be
free, regardless of his student visa violations, because he is married
to a
U.S. citizen. But in a post-Sept. 11 world, immigration law is a lot
less
forgiving, they say.
Haider's deportation process, now under appeal, was set in motion
because
he failed to show up for a deportation hearing in Bloomington in August
2003.
He said he missed it because he and his wife had moved from their
third-floor apartment in Roseville to a first-floor apartment but
didn't
file a formal change-of-address notice. And Haider's attorney was not
informed of the hearing because the immigration court had not been
informed
that she was representing him.
So the hearing notice that was mailed to Haider was returned to
authorities. And after Haider missed the hearing, a judge ordered the
deportation...
SEE ALSO:
JUDGE SAYS DETAINEES' TRIALS ARE UNLAWFUL
Carol D. Leonnig and John Mintz, Washington Post, 11/9/04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34519-2004Nov8.html
The special trials established to determine the guilt or innocence of
prisoners at the U.S. military prison in Cuba are unlawful and cannot
continue in their current form, a federal judge ruled yesterday.
In a setback for the Bush administration, U.S. District Judge James
Robertson found that detainees at the Navy base at Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba,
may be prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions and therefore
entitled
to the protections of international and military law -- which the
government has declined to grant them.
A U.S. Army soldier stands guard at Camp Delta at Guantanamo Naval
Base,
where some detainees have been held for nearly three years. (Pool Photo
Mark Wilson)
The decision came in a lawsuit filed by the first alleged al Qaeda
member
facing trial before what the government calls "military commissions."
The
decision upends -- for now -- the administration's strategy for
prosecuting
hundreds of alleged al Qaeda and Taliban detainees accused of terrorist
crimes.
Human rights advocates, foreign governments and the detainees'
attorneys
have contended that the rules governing military commissions are
unfairly
stacked against the defendants. But Robertson's ruling is the first by
a
federal judge to assert that the commissions, which took nearly two
years
to get underway, are invalid.
The Bush administration denounced the ruling as wrongly giving special
rights to terrorists and announced that it will ask a higher court for
an
emergency stay and reversal of Robertson's decision. Military officers
at
Guantanamo immediately halted commission proceedings in light of the
ruling.
"We vigorously disagree. . . . The judge has put terrorism on the same
legal footing as legitimate methods of waging war," said Justice
Department
spokesman Mark Corallo. "The Constitution entrusts to the president the
responsibility to safeguard the nation's security. The Department of
Justice will continue to defend the president's ability and authority
under
the Constitution to fulfill that duty..."
---
GROUP PROTESTS USE OF SECURITY CERTIFICATES
Ottawa CBC, 11/8/04
http://ottawa.cbc.ca/regionalnews/caches/ot_charkaoui20041108.html
OTTAWA - Dozens of demonstrators gathered outside a Federal Court
building
in downtown Ottawa Monday to protest against Canada's
security-certificate
process.
That's the law the federal government can use to detain non-citizens on
suspicion of terrorist ties, and deport them without revealing the
evidence
against them.
Supporters of that challenge include Monia Mazigh, the wife of Maher
Arar,
the Syrian-born Canadian who was held in a Syrian jail for a year
because
of alleged ties to Al-Queda.
The Syrians didn't reveal what evidence they had against him before
finally
letting him go.
Mazigh says what Canada is doing with its security-certificate system
is no
better.
"We want those people to be given the right to defend themselves,"
Mazigh
says. "You know we are an open society. We are a democratic society,
and we
want this to apply on everyone. How can we go and defend human rights
abroad in Darfour, in Iran, and other countries if we don't start by
our
country here?"
Six men are currently being held on security certificates, some of whom
have been detained for up to two years...
-----
"BEGINNING HOMESCHOOLING" AT ADAMS
A public service seminar by the Virginia Home Education Association
www.vhea.org
WHAT: Topics will include Virginia Law, Filing /Papers, Testing and
Assessments, Academic/Social/Personal Benefits of Homeschooling,
Various
Methods, How to Find Support and Activities, Resources, and a
Q&A. Speakers include Ms. Shay Seaborne, President of VHEA and
homeschooling mother for 10+ years; and Mr. Will Shaw, VHEA Co-Founder,
former President, and homeschooling father for 15+ years.
WHEN: Saturday, January 29th, 2005 from 10 am to 1 pm
WHERE: All Dulles Area Muslim Society, Sterling, VA
Registration begins in December at www.vhea.org
-----
FIGHTING PREVENTS FALLUJA WOUNDED GETTING HELP
Fadel al-Badrani, Reuters, 11/9/04
FALLUJA, Iraq, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Mohammed Abboud said he watched his
nine-year-old son bleed to death at their Falluja home on Tuesday,
unable
to take him to hospital as fighting raged in the streets and bombs
rained
down on the Iraqi city.
In the midst of a U.S. onslaught and hemmed in by a round-the-clock
curfew,
he said he had little choice but to bury his eldest son, Ghaith, in the
garden.
"My son got shrapnel in his stomach when our house was hit at dawn, but
we
couldn't take him for treatment," said Abboud, a teacher. "We buried
him in
the garden because it was too dangerous to go out. We did not know how
long
the fighting would last."
Residents say scores of civilians have been killed or wounded in 24
hours
of fighting since U.S.-led forces pushed deep into the rebel-held city
on
Monday evening.
Doctors said people brought in at least 15 dead civilians at the main
clinic in Falluja on Monday. By Tuesday, there were no clinics open,
residents said, and no way to count casualties.
U.S. and Iraqi forces seized control of the city's main hospital,
across
the Euphrates river from Falluja proper, hours before the onslaught
began.
Overnight U.S. bombardments hit a clinic inside the Sunni Muslim city,
killing staff and patients, residents said. U.S. military authorities
denied the reports…
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Monday he did not
foresee
large numbers of civilian casualties in the assault, saying U.S. forces
were disciplined and precise.
Those words were of little comfort to the Abboud family, sitting in a
house
damaged by the bomb that killed their child.
"We just bandaged his stomach and gave him water, but he was losing a
lot
of blood. He died this afternoon," said Abboud.
-----
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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 11/10/04
* VERSE OF THE DAY: REMAIN CONSCIOUS OF GOD
* MARYLAND COUNTY PROHIBITS HEARINGS ON MUSLIM HOLIDAYS
* CAIR-CAN RELEASES ANNUAL REVIEW
- CAIR-FL: Civil Rights Empowerment Workshop
* US MUSLIM EFFORT TO CLEAR STEREOTYPES OF ISLAM
* ASHCROFT QUITS (Reuters)
- Gonzales to Replace Ashcroft (Fox News)
- PA: Feds No Longer Interested in Man as Suspect
* ARAB WINDS BLOWING AGAINST AMERICA (USA Today)
* YUSUF ISLAM RECEIVES PEACE PRIZE IN ROME (AP)
- Islam Says Many Americans Apologized To Him (Reuters)
* LA: CHARGES DISMISSED AGAINST TEACHER IN SCARF CASE (AP)
- IL: Mosque Lawsuit Delayed (Daily Southtown)
* CHURCH GOES FORWARD ON ISRAEL DIVESTMENT (Chicago Trib)
* FALLUJA A HUMANITARIAN CRISIS (Reuters)
----
VERSE OF THE DAY: REMAIN CONSCIOUS OF GOD
“O Mankind! Be conscious of your Lord, who created you from a single
soul,
and from that soul He created its mate, and out of the two spread
abroad a
multitude of men and women. And remain conscious of God, in whose name
you
demand (your rights) from one another, and (revere) the wombs (that
bore
you).”
The Holy Quran, 4:1
-----
MARYLAND COUNTY PROHIBITS HEARINGS ON MUSLIM HOLIDAYS
CAIR applauds recognition of ‘Eids’ by Howard County Council
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 11/10/04) - The Council on American-Islamic
Relations
(CAIR) today applauded a move by Maryland’s Howard County Council to
prohibit public hearings on Eid ul-Fitr and Eid ul-Adha, the two major
Islamic holidays.
(Eid ul-Fitr marks the end of the fast of Ramadan and Eid ul-Adha comes
at
the conclusion of the Hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca. Eid ul-Fitr will
begin
on November 13 or 14th.)
The legislation, introduced by Council Member Ken Ulman and passed with
unanimous support on November 1, bans hearings on the two “Eids,” as
well
as on the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
In a letter to constituents, Ulman wrote: “I am sure you will agree
that no
resident of Howard County should be forced to choose between observing
his
or her faith and being an actively engaged citizen.”
The legislation does not close county government offices on the
holidays,
it just ensures that hearings at which residents have an opportunity to
testify will not be scheduled. Ulman’s office said some technical
details
related to the legislation have yet to be worked out.
“We thank Councilman Ulman for helping to make sure that America is a
nation that respects and accommodates religious diversity,” said Rizwan
Mowlana, executive director of CAIR’s Maryland office.
CAIR, America’s largest Islamic civil liberties group, has 29 regional
offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada. Its mission is to
enhance
understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties,
empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and
mutual understanding.
- END -
CONTACT: Rizwan Mowlana at 301-986-1900, 301-672-9355; Ibrahim Hooper,
202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail: ihooper@cair-net.org
ACTION REQUESTED:
SEND NOTES OF APPRECIATION TO: kulman@co.ho.md.us, jnrobey@co.ho.md.us
COPY TO: cair@cair-net.org
-----
CAIR-CAN RELEASES ANNUAL REVIEW
Muslims asked to support CAIR-CAN for the next year
(OTTAWA, CANADA, 10/11/2004) - CAIR-CAN today released a downloadable
copy
of its annual review for 2003-2004. The review summarizes the depth and
breadth of CAIR-CAN's activism until mid-2004.
See: http://www.caircan.ca/downloads/CAIR-CAN_2004.pdf
Please forward the link to the portfolio to your personal e-mail lists
and
all your friends and family. Ask them to support CAIR-CAN by filling
in
the membership form (http://www.caircan.ca/downloads/form.pdf) and
enclosing a donation through your preferred method.
Shaikh Jamal Badawi, Shaikh Ahmed Kutty, Shaikh Mohammed Zahid
Aboguddah
and Shaikh Mohammed Iqbal Al-Nadvi have all issued statements calling
on
Canadian Muslims to support CAIR-CAN through zakah donations.
Shaikh Ahmed Kutty: "Muslims should have no hesitation in giving part
of
their Zakah to CAIR-CAN which is providing a most timely and essential
service for the cause of Islam and Muslims; they have a reputation for
professionalism, efficiency, commitment and integrity which in my mind
are
the most valuable assets of any Islamic organization worthy of the
name."
Shaikh Mohammad Zahid Aboguddah: "CAIR-CAN is an Islamic organization
that
has an impressive track record of Islamic work in Canada....CAIR-CAN
definitely qualifies to be a recipient of zakah and I would strongly
recommend to Muslims to consider CAIR-CAN when they distribute their
zakah."
Shaikh Mohammed Iqbal Al-Nadvi: "I hope Muslims all over the country
help
CAIR-CAN by their donating zakah money for CAIR-CAN's noble cause...."
CAIR-CAN
Council on American-Islamic Relations CANADA
P.O. Box 13219, Ottawa, ONT, K2K 1X4
Tel: 1-866-524-0004
Fax: 613-254-9810
URL: www.caircan.ca
SEE ALSO:
CAIR-FL: CIVIL RIGHTS EMPOWERMENT WORKSHOP
On Saturday, November 20th, from 9 a.m. to noon, the ACLU of Florida,
FIAC,
DOJ, AMANA, the Miami Dade Asian American Advisory Board, and CAIR-FL,
will
hold an Empowerment Forum to train members of the Muslim, Arab, and
Asian
communities to respond in a timely and effective manner to civil right
issues.
The Forum will be held at NANAY COMMUNITY CENTER, 659 NE. 125th Street,
North Miami Avenue, Miami, Fla.
While admission is free, seating is limited, so we urge that you call
CAIR-FL to reserve your seat. You can reach our office at 954-272-0490
or
you can e-mail us at info@cair-florida.org.
CONTACT: AMANA, 305-898-9314, amanavoice@aol.com; CAIR Florida,
954-272-0490, info@cair-florida.org; Miami-Dade County Asian-American
Advisory Board, 305-375-1570, mshakir@miamidade.gov
-----
US MUSLIM EFFORT TO CLEAR STEREOTYPES ON ISLAM
Islamonline, 11/10/04
http://www.islamonline.org/English/News/2004-11/10/article03.shtml
FLORIDA - Seeking to create a better understanding between Muslims and
non-Muslims in American society, Muslim activists have launched a
mosque
effort to assuage doubts and fears stemming from misconceptions about
Islam.
"Since Sept. 11, people have been getting the wrong impression of
Muslim
people," Florida's much-hit PalmBeachPost.com quoted Tuesday, November
9,
as saying Mohammad Osman Chowdhury, president of the Muslim Community
of
Palm Beach County.
"We want to show others who we are. We are Americans and we have a
voice."
Arena Maleque, 15, a Muslim student at Suncoast High school said her
neighbors had no longer spoken to her since the September attacks.
"People didn't understand the difference between ordinary Muslims and
the
terrorists," Maleque said.
"It took awhile for them to understand that I'm a normal teenager. My
religion is just different."
A May report released by the US Senate Office Of Research concluded
that
the Muslim community in the United States has taken the brunt of the
Patriot Act and other federal powers applied in the aftermath of the
9/11
terrorist attacks.
The Muslim heartfelt effort includes inviting non-Muslims to share
Iftar
banquets with Muslims during the holy fasting month of Ramadan with
around
300 people attending the event in a suburban West Palm Beach mosque...
The Southern California office of the Council on American-Islamic
Relations
- the largest US Islamic civil liberties group - has also run radio
advertisements intended to educate the public about Ramadan.
-----
BUSH'S ATTORNEY GENERAL QUITS
Reuters, 11/10/04
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=618
218§ion=news
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, a lightning
rod
of criticism by civil liberties groups for his anti-terror policies
after
the September 11 attacks and who once even ordered the robing of two
partially nude statues in his department, has resigned.
A leading candidate to replace Ashcroft is former Deputy Attorney
General
Larry Thompson, who once ran the department under Ashcroft and
faithfully
implemented his policies.
Others likely candidates were White House counsel Alberto Gonzales,
President George W. Bush's election campaign chairman Marc Racicot and
former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American Islamic
Relations, a
Washington-based civil rights and advocacy group, said many American
Muslims had concerns about Ashcroft's application of a number of
provisions
of the Patriot Act.
"We would hope that his successor would have strong support for
American
traditions of civil liberties," Hooper said...
SEE ALSO:
GONZALES TO REPLACE ASHCROFT
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,138160,00.html
WASHINGTON — White House counsel Alberto Gonzales (search) has been
chosen
by President Bush to be the next attorney general, U.S. officials
confirmed
to FOX News on Wednesday. An announcement from the White House could
come
later Wednesday…
---
FEDS SAY GOVERNMENT NO LONGER INTERESTED IN MAN AS TERROR SUSPECT
Stephen Dyer, Knight Ridder, 11/9/04
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/nation/10139534.htm
YORK, Pa. - For the first time, the federal government indicated
Tuesday
that it is no longer interested in a former Kent resident as a terror
suspect.
During an asylum hearing Tuesday afternoon for 40-year-old Ashraf
Al-Jailani, government lawyer Jeff Bubier asked a series of questions
that
hinted the government is willing to say it no longer considers
Al-Jailani a
"first stringer" in an alleged al-Qaida terror network plot to blow up
GOJO
Industries.
That allegation is why the government has detained Al-Jailani for more
than
two years, although he has not been charged.
Noting Bubier's line of questioning, U.S. Immigration Judge Walter
Durling,
asked Bubier point blank: Is the government willing to say it is not
interested in Al-Jailani as a terror suspect?
Bubier paused.
"That may be a possibility, yes," he replied.
The hearing was to determine if the government's terror allegations
against
Al-Jailani have so colored him that he can't be deported to his
homeland of
Yemen because he would be tortured for his status as a terror
suspect...
-----
ARAB WINDS BLOWING AGAINST AMERICA
Youssef M. Ibrahim, USA Today, 11/10/04
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2004-11-09-arab-edit_x.htm
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Two cartoons this past week summed up
Arab
feelings about the re-election of President Bush. A cartoonist in the
Saudi
daily Asharq Al Awsat drew a split frame, one portraying Uncle Sam
carrying
a sign: "With US or against US," Bush's motto of the past three years.
Its
companion frame about the next four years has Uncle Sam diluting the
choice
to simply: "With us ... Or with us."
Gulf News, the United Arab Emirates daily, was far blunter in its
cartoon
Sunday. It had a map of the United States in human form draped with a
Nazi
uniform marching in goose step with Nazi boots and an arm stretched
with a
stiff Nazi salute. Across the map were the words "Bush II."
Tough, yet widely shared, views. From Algeria to Saudi Arabia and in
vast
Muslim countries such as Pakistan, scores of opinion pieces, as well as
ample TV commentary, illustrated a deep sense of disappointment and
apprehension about Bush's re-election. A senior Arab Cabinet official
in a
Persian Gulf country very friendly to the U.S. remarked that the latter
cartoon "went too far." When prodded further, he went on to say that
his
"inner self" shares widespread visceral hatred of Bush and his
policies,
but his "official self" has little choice.
The divide between citizens and many Arab and Muslim leaders is
shrinking.
At some point, governments will have to choose between joining the
anti-American voices in the street or perishing under their sway. As
the
antipathy builds, U.S. interests in the region will suffer….
-----
SINGER ONCE KNOWN AS CAT STEVENS RECEIVES PEACE PRIZE IN ROME
Associated Press, 11/10/04
ROME (AP) - Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev presented the singer
once known as Cat Stevens with a peace prize on Wednesday, honoring his
work for charity.
Yusuf Islam received the ``Man for Peace'' award from Gorbachev's
foundation and Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni's office at the opening of a
meeting of Nobel Peace Prize laureates.
In September, the British musician was expelled from the United States
after authorities diverted his London-to-Washington flight to Maine to
remove him, saying he was suspected of ties to terrorism. He says he
was a
victim of an ``unjust and arbitrary system,'' and that he has denounced
terrorism.
Gorbachev alluded to the musician's troubles as he presented the award.
``Cat Stevens' life has not been simple,'' Gorbachev said. ``Every
person
who takes a critical stance to make the world a better place ... has a
difficult life.''
The meeting of Nobel Peace Prize laureates is organized every year in
Rome
by the Gorbachev Foundation.
``I'm very honored to be here today, not as a rock 'n' roller, but as
someone who is sharing a platform with these noble examples,'' said
Islam,
who founded Small Kindness, a charity to raise money for children and
families suffering from poverty and war in the Balkans and Middle
East...
ALSO SEE:
CAT STEVENS SAYS MANY AMERICANS APOLOGISED TO HIM
Reuters, 11/10/04
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=6771
307
ROME - Yusuf Islam, the pop star formerly known as Cat Stevens, says he
has
received "more apologies than you can count" from Americans embarrassed
after their government deported him over potential terrorism links.
In an interview with Reuters on Wednesday before he received a peace
award
from a group of Nobel Prize winners, Islam said he would be making more
music soon but did not think September's episode would figure in the
new
songs.
Islam, who changed his name after converting to Islam in the 1970s, was
travelling on a commercial plane from London to Washington when it was
diverted to Bangor, Maine.
U.S. Homeland Security said he was deported after his name turned up on
U.S. "no fly" lists because of activities they said could be
potentially
linked to terrorism.
"I have got more apologies from Americans since that time than you can
count," he said in the interview in a frescoed waiting room of Rome's
city
hall as Nobel laureates gathered.
"So, I'm quite satisfied with the spirit of most people and probably it
was
a mistake. But let's hope it will be solved soon. The lawyers are
looking
into it," he said...
-----
CHARGES DISMISSED AGAINST JEFFERSON TEACHER IN HEAD SCARF CASE
Associated Press, 11/9/04
http://www.nola.com/newsflash/louisiana/index.ssf?/base/news-12/110004236015
0960.xml
GRETNA, La. (AP) - Misdemeanor charges were dismissed Tuesday against a
Jefferson Parish teacher accused of pulling the scarf off the head of a
Muslim student.
Parish Court Judge Roy Cascio dismissed the simple battery charge after
teacher Wes Mix's accuser failed to appear in court for a second time.
The
charge carried a sentence of up to six months in prison and up to a
$500
fine.
As he left the courthouse, Mix told reporters: "I feel better."
Mix, a West Jefferson High School history teacher, still faces a school
board hearing later this week. He is accused of using religious slurs
against the student and removing the religiously mandated scarf from
her
head during a class in January.
The student, Maryam Motar, has said the teacher told her: "I hope God
punishes you. No, I'm sorry. I hope Allah punishes you."
The student's mother told WWL-TV that the family had not known that
Motar
had been scheduled for court Tuesday. Motar is no longer enrolled at
West
Jefferson.
ALSO SEE:
MOSQUE LAWSUIT DELAYED
Chris Hack, Daily Southtown, 11/10/04
http://www.dailysouthtown.com/southtown/yrtwn/south/105syt2.htm
A federal judge has pushed back the planned trial date for the civil
rights
lawsuit filed against Palos Heights by a Muslim group that wanted to
build
a mosque in the city four years ago.
U.S. District Judge James Zagel vacated the Nov. 15 trial date for the
$6.2
million lawsuit. A new date has not been set, but attorney Richard T.
Ryan,
who represents the city, said Tuesday he does not expect the case the
go to
trial until next year.
The Al Salam Mosque Foundation filed the lawsuit in July 2000 after a
highly publicized fight with the city over plans to build a mosque on
the
site of a church on 127th Street. Some aldermen and residents objected
to
the proposal and said the city should buy the church and turn it into a
recreation center.
Eventually, the city council offered the mosque group $200,000 to walk
away
from the project. But the offer was vetoed by then-Mayor Dean
Koldenhoven,
who called the proposed pay-off an "embarrassment."
The group later sued, alleging the city conspired to deny the mosque
proponents' religious freedom. Koldenhoven - who later won the
prestigious
John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage award for his stand on the mosque
controversy - is a defendant in the lawsuit.
-----
CHURCH GOES FORWARD ON DIVESTMENT
Manya A. Brachear, Chicago Tribune, 11/10/04
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0411100156nov10,1,3231913
.story
Despite an outcry from American Jews, a Presbyterian Church (USA)
committee
has taken its first steps toward a process of selective divestment of
its
financial stake in companies that profit from the Israeli occupation of
Palestinian territories.
On Tuesday, the church announced the standards it would use to identify
which companies in its portfolio perpetuate the Israeli-Palestinian
discord. Once identified, those companies will be asked to change their
business practices with parties that play a role in the conflict.
The church, which traces its history to the 16th Century and the
Protestant
Reformation, has about 2.5 million members, 11,200 congregations and
21,000
ordained ministers.
The church has not determined how much of its $8 billion in holdings
would
qualify for potential divestment. The last time the church voted with
its
portfolio to protest a foreign government was to deter Sudan's Islamic
government from waging war on Christians and animists in the southern
part
of the country. Divestment was also used to encourage an end to
apartheid
in South Africa.
The step toward divestment in the Middle East further deepens the rift
between Presbyterians and Jews, among whom relations were starting to
fray.
Anger intensified last month when, shortly after a visit to Chicago, a
Presbyterian theologian accompanied a church delegation to Lebanon to
meet
with leaders of the militant group Hezbollah. Local Jews were offended
by
his comments that Islamic leaders were easier to talk to than Jews.
On Wednesday about 30 Presbyterian and Jewish delegates from Chicago
will
resume a formal dialogue to confront the explosive issues head o
Jewish opponents view the divestment strategy, adopted in July, as an
effort to undermine Israel. Presbyterian proponents say it's an attempt
to
end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that threatens their missions in
the
Middle East and to end oppression of the Palestinians.
-----
FALLUJA A HUMANITARIAN CRISIS, AID WORKERS SAY
Fadel al-Badrani, Reuters, 11/10/04
FALLUJA, Iraq, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Fighting in Falluja has created a
humanitarian disaster in which innocent people are dying because
medical
help cannot reach them, aid workers in Iraq said on Wednesday.
In one case, a pregnant woman and her child died in a refugee camp west
of
the city after the mother unexpectedly aborted and no doctors were on
hand,
Firdoos al-Ubadi, an official from the Iraqi Red Crescent Society, told
Reuters.
In another case, a young boy died from a snake bite that would normally
have been easily treatable, she said.
"From a humanitarian point of view it's a disaster, there's no other
way to
describe it. And if we don't do something about it soon, it's going to
spread to other cities," she said...
Between a nightly curfew and the danger of venturing onto the streets,
many
are effectively trapped at home.
"We've asked for permission from the Americans to go into the city and
help
the people there but we haven't heard anything back from them," Ubadi
said.
"There's no medicine, no water, no electricity. They need our help."
The Red Crescent Society has teams of doctors and relief experts ready
to
go in to each of Falluja's districts with essential aid, but needs U.S.
approval first.
The U.S. military was not immediately available to comment on the aid
agency's request, but has said its first priority is to defeat the
rebels
holed up in Falluja…
On Tuesday, a 9-year-old boy died after being hit in the stomach by
shrapnel. His parents were unable to get him to hospital because of the
fighting and so resorted to wrapping a sheet around him to stem the
blood
flow.
He died hours later of blood loss and was buried in the garden of the
family home.
"We buried him in the garden because it was too dangerous to go out,"
said
his father, teacher Mohammed Abboud. "We did not know how long the
fighting
would last."
The International Committee for the Red Cross says there are thousands
of
elderly and women and children who have had no food or water for days.
At
least 20,000 have gathered in the town of Saqlawiya, south of Falluja.
"The Red Cross is very worried. We urge all combatants to guarantee
passage
to those who need medical care, regardless of whether they are friends
or
enemies," spokesman Ahmad al-Raoui said. "They must be allowed to
return
home as soon as possible."
Aid workers say there are still hundreds of families left in the city,
which has been pummelled by sustained aerial bombardment and artillery
fire
in recent days.
"We know of at least 157 families inside Falluja who need our help,"
said
Ubadi.
For some it is already too late.
One mother and her three daughters had intended to flee but their home
was
hit by a bombardment earlier this week and all died, neighbours who
escaped
told aid workers.
-----
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To reach the list moderator, send a message to: cair@cair-net.org
-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
--------------------------------------------------------------------
mail2web - Check your email from the web at
http://mail2web.com/ .
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
HOUSE MEMBERS HOST RAMADAN IFTAR ON CAPITOL HILL
2nd annual Islamic fast-breaking dinner sponsored by 10 representatives
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 11/10/04) - More than 150 congressional staffers,
American Muslim leaders, diplomats from Islamic-majority nations, and
elected officials from both major political parties turned out tonight
for
the second annual Ramadan iftar, or fast-breaking meal, on Capitol
Hill.
The iftar, held in the foyer of the Rayburn House Office Building, was
co-sponsored by 10 House members. It featured the breaking of the fast,
the
Islamic sunset prayer (maghrib) and an ecumenical prayer by
congressional
staffer Tannaz Haddadi.
In her prayer, Haddadi said: "Oh Lord, help us remember those actions
that
are most loved by You: making others happy, feeding the hungry, helping
the
afflicted, lightening the sorrow of those who are suffering, and
assisting
the injured."
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) offered a welcome on behalf of the
sponsoring House members and wished everyone "Ramadan mubarak," or
blessed
Ramadan.
"We thank all those representatives who made this event possible and
whose
respect for religious diversity reflects the values of tolerance and
mutual
understanding that we all hold dear," said Omar Ahmad, board chairman
of
the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil liberties group, helped facilitate
the
event and provided the iftar meal. The Washington-based group's mission
is
to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil
liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote
justice and mutual understanding.
- END -
CONTACT: CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper,
202-488-8787
or 202-744-7726, E-Mail: ihooper@cair-net.org
NOTE: CAIR offers an e-mail list designed to be a window to the
American
Muslim community. Subscribers to the list, called CAIR-NET, receive
news
releases and other materials dealing with American Muslim positions on
issues of importance to our society.
To SUBSCRIBE to CAIR-NET, go to: http://cair.biglist.com/cair-net/
-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
--------------------------------------------------------------------
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http://mail2web.com/ .
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 11/11/04
* HADITH OF THE DAY: AN EASY AND STRAIGHTFORWARD RELIGION
* CAIR OFFERS CONDOLENCES ON DEATH OF YASSER ARAFAT
* TN: ZONING CHANGE DENIED FOR MUSLIM CEMETERY
* CAIR-CAN: 'MUHAMMAD' CARTOON A TOUGH SELL (Globe and Mail)
- B'nai Brith Criticized for Official's Terror Remarks
* CAIR-GA: MUSLIMS COMPROMISE ON STUDENT PRAYER ISSUE
- CAIR-MD: Council Prohibits Hearings on Muslim Holidays (AP)
* DC: MUSLIMS SERVE MEALS TO HOMELESS (Washington Post)
- CO: Imam Joins Church Staff for Bridge-Building Effort (AP)
* NJ MUSLIMS, LIBERTARIANS GLAD TO SEE ASHCROFT GO (AP)
* FRIEDMAN: 'GROUNDHOG DAY' IN IRAQ (New York Times)
* WHITE HOUSE FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS
----
HADITH OF THE DAY: AN EASY AND STRAIGHTFORWARD RELIGION
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "(Islam) is spacious
(and
has room for relaxation). I have been sent with an easy and
straightforward
religion."
Fiqh-us-Sunnah, 2:153
(NOTE: The Prophet's comment was in reference to celebrations marking
the
two "Eids," or major Muslim holidays. Eid ul-Fitr, the holiday marking
the
end of the Ramadan fast will begin this weekend.)
-----
CAIR OFFERS CONDOLENCES ON DEATH OF YASSER ARAFAT
Islamic civil rights groups says Palestinian freedom essential for
peace
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 11/11/04) - A prominent national Islamic civil
rights
and advocacy group today offered its condolences to the Palestinian
people
on the death of President Yasser Arafat.
The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) also
said
that U.S. support for the Palestinian people's right to justice and
freedom
from occupation is an essential prerequisite for peace in the Middle
East
and is a key factor in winning the war on terror.
In its statement, CAIR said:
"CAIR offers it sincere condolences to the Palestinian people on the
death
of President Yasser Arafat. We come from God and to God we return.
"President Arafat was the embodiment of the Palestinian struggle for
justice and freedom. His death should prompt all parties to the Middle
East
conflict to reinvigorate any efforts that could lead to peace with
justice
in the region. In particular, the United States must reexamine its
Middle
Eastern policy and refocus on helping to free the Palestinian people
from
Israeli occupation.
"As many objective observers have stated, the United States' seeming
indifference to the plight of the Palestinian people is one of the main
causes for anti-American feeling in the Muslim world. A just resolution
to
the Middle East conflict would be a key factor in winning the war on
terror. It is in America's interest to promote freedom for all people,
including the Palestinians."
CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil liberties group, is headquartered
in
Washington, D.C., and has 29 offices and chapters nationwide and in
Canada.
Its mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue,
protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions
that promote justice and mutual understanding.
CONTACT: Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail:
ihooper@cair-net.org
-----
TN: ZONING CHANGE DENIED FOR MUSLIM CEMETERY
COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS ZONING CHANGE DENIAL
Fayette County Review, 11/10/04
http://www.fayettecountyreview.com/articles/2004/11/10/news/news04.txt
The Fayette County Development Committee has recommended the County
Commission not approve a rezoning request by the North American Islamic
Trust to allow a cemetery to be established in a residential district
on
Orr Road.
The vote was held Monday night in front of a packed courtroom
consisting
mostly of Hickory Withe area residents against the rezoning.
The recommendation goes against the wishes of the Fayette County
Planning
Commission that voted 7-1 to grant the special activity rezoning
request on
November 1. At that meeting Joanne Allen opposed the rezoning while
Gresham, Beydler, Clark, Cutliff Armour, Tomlin and Johnson voted yes.
The rezoning proposal will be on the agenda at the November 23 meeting
of
the County Commission…
Dr. Jamil Akbik, a vascular surgeon from Memphis said. "We raise our
children to pay respect to us and after we die. He said the cemetery
being
used by Muslims in Munford was running out of space. He said "Muslims
come
here for the same reason your forefathers did. We chose to be here."
Belinda and Lee Ghoshel identified themselves as owners of the
property.
Belinda said the rezoning can not be denied because of racism and
prejudice. "I was appalled at the hatred in this room last week
(Planning
Commission Meeting).
Lee Ghoshel said he came to America after High School 23 years ago.
"You
trust us in your house. I'm an electrician, yet you cannot trust us to
put
our dead in our land? "We fight for this country...we fight for every
one
of you...
-----
CARTOON ABOUT ISLAM A TOUGH SELL IN U.S.
SARAH RICHARDS, Globe and Mail, 11/11/04
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20041111/MUHAMMAD11/TPEntertainment/Film
Oussama Jammal, a businessman from Illinois, is confronting a stark
job:
marketing to Americans an animated film about the life of Islam's most
famous prophet. Even starker is the fact that audiences won't get to
see or
hear the prophet in the film.
"Oh, boy," says Jammal, stretching out a long sigh that ends in a
laugh.
Friends told him he was crazy. It would be difficult. A cartoon about
Islam? Here -- now -- in America?
"We were hoping to get rights for this movie a long time ago, and then
unfortunately, the events of 9/11 were terrible and the proposed
theatrical
release in 2002 was put off," says Jammal.
So Jammal waited. In the meantime, his animation production company,
Fine
Media Group, released the award-winning animated film The Jar: A Tale
from
the East. But discussions regarding the prophet continued, and at last,
the
go-ahead was given to bring Mohammed to America.
Muhammad: The Last Prophet opens Sunday for a four-day stint in more
than
35 cities across the United States. It's also being shown in the
Ontario
cities of London, Mississauga, Toronto and Windsor. (Tickets can be
ordered
at http://www.finemediagroup.com or by calling 1-800-364-2000.) The
movie
chronicles the life of the prophet Mohammed and the rise of Islam some
1,400 years ago. Muhammad (which is the spelling favoured by the
filmmakers) was directed by Richard Rich, who made Disney's 1981 film
The
Fox and the Hound…
"It was extremely difficult, and the difficulties came from the
theatres
themselves," says Jammal.
Although Islam is one of the fastest-growing religions in the United
States, Jammal says no one was interested in the cartoon.
"Especially Loews theatres, they refused even to rent us their
theatres,"
he says. "At least other theatres -- they didn't book the movie, but at
least we were able to rent out their theatres…"
"I think what the movie industry is probably most fundamentally
concerned
about is whether there will be a market for the film," says Riad
Saloojee,
executive director of the Canadian Council on American-Islamic
Relations.
"It's the first time something like this has ever been developed, a
presentation of Islamic history that's accessible and in a friendly,
contemporary format…"
SEE ALSO:
B'NAI BRITH CRITICIZED FOR OFFICIAL'S TERROR REMARKS
RON CSILLAG, Canadian Jewish News, 11/11/04
http://www.cjnews.com/viewarticle.asp?id=4778
A leading Canadian Arab group says last week's resignation of a B'nai
Brith
Canada official over controversial remarks he'd made on a television
talk
show isn't enough.
Adam Aptowitzer apologized and resigned as Ontario chair of B'nai Brith
Canada's Institute for International Affairs for statements he made
supporting the use of terror to protect Israel's citizens…
On the show, which discussed the topic, "What is a Terrorist?"
Aptowitzer
called terror a "means to an end."
"When Israel uses terror… to destroy a home and convince people to be
terrified of what the possible consequences are, I'd say that's
acceptable
use to terrify someone," he said.
Later in the show, he said: "Israel does make use of - I know I'll be
misquoted - but the truth is that terror is an option to be used by
states
in order to prevent deaths of their own citizens and of others. Acts
that
take place in Gaza and [the] West Bank, you might want to classify them
as
terrorists sponsored by the state. But when that is being done to
prevent
deaths, are we going to say that that is wrong?"
A coalition of three Muslim and Arab groups, CAIR-CAN, the Canadian
Arab
Federation and the National Council on Canada Arab Relations called on
B'nai Brith to "unequivocally repudiate Mr. Aptowitzer's comments and
to
condemn Israel's use of terror against Palestinian civilians.
"The comments by Mr. Aptowitzer legitimizing Israel's terror tactics
against civilians are a violation both of the most basic Canadian human
values and international law," the groups said.
Aptowitzer, a lawyer, apologized and resigned the lay position the
following day.
But Riad Saloojee, executive director of the Canadian Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN), said Aptowitzer's resignation is
"insufficient."
"He was speaking as a representative of B'nai Brith Canada and what we
really wanted, and asked for, is a statement denouncing Israel's policy
of
targeting civilians. Does B'nai Brith support Mr. Aptowitzer's
[advocacy]
of terror as collective punishment?..."
Saloojee sees a silver lining in the controversy, saying it could bring
Jews and Muslims together.
"Maybe it will propel us to more dialogue on this and other issues," he
said.
He also said that the Muslim and Arab groups will soon consider how to
respond to a recent editorial cartoon in B'nai Brith's in-house
publication, the Jewish Tribune.
The cartoon, in the Sept. 15 edition, showed an octopus wearing a
keffiyah,
a traditional Arabic headdress. Its tentacles were encircling a globe
and
were holding bombs and a knife.
"It was grotesque and offensive," Saloojee said.
-----
MUSLIMS COMPROMISE ON EARLY RELEASE ISSUE
BRIAN FEAGANS, Atlanta Journal, 11/11/04
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/gwinnett/1104/11muspray.html
The parents of two Duluth High School students have accepted an offer
from
Gwinnett schools officials that would allow Muslim students to attend
congregational prayer on Fridays.
Under the policy, Muslim students can be excused for the sixth and
final
period every school day. Those students would then have to take an
online
course, return for after-school study or attend a religious study class
off-campus.
Khalid Rashied, father of a freshman and junior at Duluth High, said he
didn't get his preferred choice - which would have allowed his sons
early
release just on Fridays - but compromised with the state's largest
school
system in order to get the three other options in place as soon as
possible.
The new policy won't require action by the school board and should be
in
effect next semester, said Sloan Roach, a Gwinnett schools spokeswoman.
The case has drawn interest not only from Muslims in Gwinnett, but also
from Islamic leaders who want more schools around metro Atlanta to
accommodate requests for juma'a, the Friday prayer. Muslim men who have
reached puberty are required to pray together, not alone, during
juma'a.
Metro Atlanta mosques hold the congregational prayer by 2 p.m., before
schools let out. The prayer's timing is tied to the position of the
sun.
Schools in the city of Atlanta have allowed early release for juma'a.
Other
metro school systems, such as those in Fulton and Henry counties, have
denied similar requests...
Yusof Burke, director of the Islamic relations council's North Georgia
office, said that while the compromise isn't ideal, it represents real
progress.
He and leaders of Gwinnett mosques are studying how to get a religious
studies course accredited by the state, much like the Christian
institutions where Gwinnett students already can earn up to half a
course
credit.
Burke expects fewer Muslim students to participate under the new policy
than if the schools had allowed early release on Fridays alone.
"But we understand it's a negotiation," Burke said, "and we have to
look at
both sides."
SEE ALSO:
HOWARD COUNCIL PROHIBITS PUBLIC HEARINGS ON ISLAMIC HOLIDAYS
Associated Press, 11/11/04
http://www.wtopnews.com/?sid=327763&nid=25
ELLICOTT CITY, Md. - The Howard County Council this month banned public
hearings on two Islamic holidays and two Jewish holidays.
The legislation was introduced by Ken Ulman and passed unanimously on
Nov.
1. It bars the council from scheduling public hearings on Eid ul-Fitr
and
Eid ul-Adha, as well as on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington praised the
action.
"We thank Councilman Ulman for helping to make sure that America is a
nation that respects and accommodates religious diversity," said Rizwan
Mowlana, executive director of CAIR's Maryland office.
---
IN SPIRIT OF RAMADAN, MUSLIMS SERVE MEALS TO HOMELESS
Julie Rasicot, Washington Post, 11/11/04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39696-2004Nov10.html
Shaliq Islam knew he could have spent Sunday evening munching candy and
lounging on the couch in his family's Bethesda home, but instead the
13-year-old chose to help serve a chicken dinner at a Washington
homeless
shelter.
So did his friend, Sabir Uddin, 13, of Germantown, and dozens of other
local Muslims who served food provided by the Montgomery County Muslim
Council and the Bangladesh Association of America to about 600 people
at
the Community for Creative Non-Violence homeless shelter and the nearby
D.C. Central Kitchen.
Omar Ayyub, 16, helps the Montgomery County Muslim Council feed the
needy
Sunday at a District homeless shelter. (James M. Thresher -- The
Washington
Post)
"It's pretty cool. I get to help out people," said Shaliq as he took a
break with several other volunteers from serving drinks on the women's
floor of the homeless shelter on Second Street NW.
"If nobody did, how is anybody going to get anything done?" Sabir
added.
"If nobody even made this building, where would these people go?"
The event marked the third year that local Muslims have donated meals
of
traditional foods such as Sunday's chicken tandoori and vegetable
biryani
to the Washington homeless shelter during the holy month of Ramadan.
During Ramadan, which ends Sunday, Muslims are required to fast most
days
from dawn to dusk. Charity or almsgiving is a fundamental pillar of
Islam,
and Muslims use Ramadan as a time to give more to the community, said
Rashid Makhdoom, a director and spokesman for the Montgomery County
Muslim
Council…
SEE ALSO:
IMAM JOINING CHRISTIAN CHURCH STAFF FOR BRIDGE-BUILDING EFFORT
Associated Press, 11/11/04
DENVER - A Muslim imam will join the staff of a Christian church in
Denver
this weekend in what may be a national first.
Ibrahim Kazerooni, a Shiite cleric, will direct St. John's Cathedral's
fledgling Abrahamic Initiative, a bridge-building effort between
Christians, Jews and Muslims.
"I really don't feel out of place here," said Kazerooni, an Iraq native
who
will continue to head the Islamic Center of Ahl Al-Beit in Denver.
"Whether
it is a church, a synagogue or a mosque, it's just the medium. The
message
is the work we do."
The initiative seeks to find common ground of the three monotheistic
faiths
through lectures and dialogues in private homes where people from each
faith share stories.
"Our society is polarized," said Greg Movesian, the cathedral's canon
and
chairman of the initiative's steering committee. "We hope this appeals
to
people who don't look upon people of other religions as a target for
conversion but rather potential partners in maintaining a civil
society."
Hiring Kazerooni is "a breakthrough," Movesian told The Denver Post. "I
don't know if there is any other church in the country that has an imam
on
its staff."
Kazerooni, 46, won't be paid for serving as interim director of the
initiative, which is named for the Biblical figure linking the three
faiths. Instead, the church will cover a year's tuition at Iliff School
of
Theology, where he is pursuing a master's degree…
-----
NJ MUSLIMS, LIBERTARIANS GLAD TO SEE ASHCROFT GO
WAYNE PARRY, Associated Press, 11/10/04
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-nj--ashcroft-nj1110nov10,0,6140991.story
NEWARK, N.J. -- Still angry over mass detentions and what they describe
as
the trampling of rights after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks,
Muslims
and civil libertarians in New Jersey on Wednesday cheered U.S. Attorney
General John Ashcroft's resignation announcement.
But they also feared his legacy would live on during President Bush's
second term through a renewed USA Patriot Act or similar measures.
Ashcroft, who suffered health problems earlier this year and had his
gall
bladder removed, said he will remain in his post until a successor is
approved.
That can't happen too soon for some in northern New Jersey, where
hundreds
of Muslims and south Asians were among the more than 1,200 people
detained
as part of the post-9/11 dragnet. Most were held on immigration charges
and
later deported.
"This is the best Ramadan gift I ever got," said Sohail Mohammed, a
Clifton
immigration lawyer who has been a harsh critic of the attorney general.
"Hopefully with his departure we will see improvement in the protection
of
our civil liberties."
Mohammed, whose business expanded greatly as Muslims came to him
seeking
legal help for family members who were detained or threatened with
deportation, said civil rights will likely remain under attack even
without
Ashcroft…
-----
'GROUNDHOG DAY' IN IRAQ
THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN, New York Times, 11/11/04
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/11/opinion/11friedman.html
I got a brief glimpse of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's news
conference on Monday, as the battle for Falluja began. I couldn't help
but
rub my eyes for a moment and wonder aloud whether I had been
transported
back in time to some 20 months ago, when the war for Iraq had just
started.
Watching CNN, I saw the same Rummy joking with the Pentagon press
corps,
the same scratchy reports from the front by "embedded reporters,'' the
same
footage of U.S. generals who briefed the soldiers preparing for battle
about how they were liberating Iraq.
There was only one difference that no one seemed to want to mention. It
wasn't 20 months ago. It was now. And Iraq has still not been fully
liberated. In fact, as the fight for Falluja shows, it hasn't even been
fully occupied…
But don't worry. Rummy has it all under control. He hasn't made any
mistakes. Everything is going as planned. The plan was always to fight
running street battles in Falluja 20 months after Saddam's fall.
So lay off. Shut up. Watch Fox. Wave a flag. Visit a red state. Don't
ask
how we got into this fix. Shut up. Lay off. Watch Fox...
-----
PRESIDENT'S COMMISSION ON WHITE HOUSE FELLOWSHIPS ACCEPTING
APPLICATIONS
FOR THE 2005-2006 CLASS
http://www.whitehouse.gov/fellows/news/20040907.html
WASHINGTON, September 7, 2004 - The White House today announced that
the
President's Commission on White House Fellowships now is accepting
applications for the 2005 - 2006 Class of Fellows. Applications are
available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/fellows/about/apply.html.
Completed
applications must be postmarked by February 1, 2005 and sent to:
White House Fellows Program
c/o O.P.M. - Sheila Coates
1900 E Street, NW, Room B431
Washington, D.C. 20415
Phone for express mail: 202-606-1818
Applicants are encouraged to check the program website prior to mailing
the
application for any potential changes to the mailing instructions.
Founded in 1964, the White House Fellows Program is one of America's
most
prestigious programs for leadership and public service. White House
Fellowships offer exceptional young men and women first-hand experience
working at the highest levels of the Federal government. White House
Fellows typically spend a year working as full-time, paid special
assistants to senior White House Staff, the Vice President, Cabinet
Secretaries and other top-ranking government officials. Fellows also
participate in an education program consisting of roundtable
discussions
with renowned leaders from the private and public sectors, and trips to
study U.S. policy in action both domestically and internationally. In
return for the privilege of participating in the Fellowship year,
Fellows
are expected to repay the privilege by contributing to the Nation as
future
leaders.
Selection as a White House Fellow is highly competitive and based on a
record of remarkable professional achievement early in one's career,
evidence of leadership potential, a proven commitment to public
service,
and the knowledge and skills necessary to contribute successfully at
the
highest levels of the Federal government. Fellowships are awarded
strictly
on a non-partisan basis…
-----
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-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 11/12/04
* HADITH OF THE DAY: THE BEST ACT OF WORSHIP
* CAIR: MUSLIMS COMMITTED TO PEACE, RESPECT (Seattle PI)
- CAIR-SV: CA Legislators Sponsor Ramadan Dinner
- CAIR-NCA: Muslims Feed Homeless in San Jose
- NH: Muslims Raise Funds for Soup Kitchen (Salem Observer)
* LOSS OF LIBERTIES IS A THREAT EQUAL TO TERRORISM (Miami Herald)
* PRAYERS, FILM TO MARK END OF RAMADAN (Chicago Tribune)
- 'Muhammad: The Last Prophet' Animated Film
- Telling the Story of Islam (Los Angeles Times)
- DC Muslims to Hold Eid Prayers at New Convention Center
* CAIR-MD: HEARINGS BARRED ON 2 FAITHS' HOLIDAYS (Wash Times)
- IL: Civil Suit Filed in Beating of South Asians
* IL: PANEL CONDITIONALLY BACKS MOSQUE PLAN (Chicago Trib)
* CASES FALTER AGAINST SUSPECTED SPIES IN U.S. MILITARY
* JACK SHAHEEN MASS COMMUNICATIONS SCHOLARSHIP
- CA: MPAC 4th Annual Convention in Long Beach
* AZ: SALIM ZAMIR TAKES ON LEADERSHIP ROLE (Albuquerque Journal)
* ISRAEL PLANS POSTHUMOUS ANTI-ARAFAT CAMPAIGN (Haaretz)
----
HADITH OF THE DAY: THE BEST ACT OF WORSHIP
Narrated Aisha: "Once the Prophet (Muhammad) came while a woman was
sitting
with me. He said, 'Who is she?' I replied, 'She is so and so,' and told
him
about her (excessive) praying. He said disapprovingly, "Do (good) deeds
that are within your capacity (without being overtaxed), because God
does
not get tired (of giving rewards) but (surely) you will get tired. The
best
(act of worship) in the sight of God is that which is done regularly."
Sahih Al-Bukhari, Volume 1, Hadith 41
-----
CAIR: MUSLIMS COMMITTED TO PEACE, RESPECT
OMAR AHMAD, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 11/12/04
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/199287_muslim12.html
[Omar Ahmad is the founder and chairman of the Council on
American-Islamic
Relations, the leading Muslim civil rights organization in the United
States.]
It is with a combination of hope and fear that nearly 7 million Muslim
Americans are ending their celebration of Ramadan, a month of daylight
fasting, reflection and prayer that concludes with the "eid" feast
Sunday.
During Ramadan, the world's 1.2 billion Muslims rededicate themselves
to
two central Islamic values: sharing and tolerance.
So it was sobering for me to review a recent poll revealing disturbing
levels of intolerance toward Muslims among a random sample of 1,000
Americans. The poll was conducted by an independent firm at the request
of
the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Some of the findings were chilling: 29 percent of Americans strongly or
somewhat agree that Muslims teach their children to hate; 27 percent
believe we value life less than other people; 29 percent believe in a
kind
of world Muslim conspiracy "to change the American way of life."
With negative stereotypes prevailing among more than a quarter of the
American people, there is no wonder that reported hate crimes and
discrimination against Muslim Americans increased 70 percent from last
year
alone.
More than 700 violent attacks, including several murders, against us,
or
those mistaken for us, occurred in the first nine weeks following 9/11.
Scores of us were illegally removed from aircraft, sometimes because
the
flight crew "did not feel comfortable flying with someone named
Muhammad."
Public leaders made defamatory statements, including the Rev. Jerry
Falwell
who said on "60 Minutes" that our prophet Muhammad was a "terrorist."
Louisiana's U.S. Rep. John Cooksey stated on radio that any "guy with a
diaper on his head, and a fan belt wrapped around it" should be pulled
over
by police.
The silver lining to the survey was that those with Muslim friends or
colleagues had significantly more positive perceptions of Muslims.
For this reason, it is imperative for Muslim Americans to overcome our
fears and let our friends and colleagues know more about us. As
Muslims, we
must be proud ambassadors of a faith committed to peace, justice and
mutual
respect among peoples.
We also ask Muslims and people of other faiths to join more than
700,000
Muslims who have already signed the online petition "Not in the Name of
Islam," which rejects violence committed in the name of Islam and
unequivocally condemns those who perform un-Islamic acts of terror and
cruelty.
This year, Muslim Americans launched a special "Sharing Ramadan"
initiative. Hundreds of mosques across the country opened their doors
at
the end of the daily fast and invited neighbors to celebrate the
evening
meal with delicious food from countries all across the globe.
However, we Muslims cannot fight anti-Muslim racism by ourselves…
Racial or religious discrimination hurts all Americans. Our nation
cherishes certain fundamental principles -- among them, the right to
live
without fear of prejudice and with equal protection of the laws. Like
Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr., Muslim Americans also dream of the day when we
are
judged by the content of our character and by our contributions to this
society, not by our race, religion or ethnic background.
SEE ALSO:
CA LEGISLATORS SPONSOR RAMADAN DINNER
1st Annual CAIR-SV Ramadan Dinner sponsored by five legislators
(SACRAMENTO, CA, 11/12/04) - More than 60 California state officials,
staff
members, civic leaders, and representatives of American Muslim
community
turned out Tuesday evening for the 1st annual Ramadan Iftar, or
fast-breaking meal, in the State Capitol.
The Iftar was co-sponsored by five legislators, including Assemblywoman
Dr.
Judy Chu (D-49 Monterey Park), Assemblyman Manny Diaz (D-23 San Jose),
Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg (D-9 Sacramento), Senator Deborah Ortiz
(D-6
Sacramento), and Senator Sheila Kuehl (D-23 Los Angeles).
"I am honored to co-sponsor the first observance of Iftar at the State
Capitol. Iftar is a time for worship, contemplation and strengthening
of
family and community ties. So, it is only appropriate that we observe
Iftar
at the State Capitol. With a growing Muslim population in California,
we
must continue to make sure that we come together to discuss issues
faced by
Muslim-Americans. I look forward a continuing tradition of observing
Iftar
at the State Capitol," said Assemblywoman Dr. Judy Chu.
Dr. Judy Chu presented CAIR-Sacramento Valley (CAIR-SV) with a
California
Legislature Assembly Resolution No. 3603 celebrating CAIR's 1st Annual
Iftar at the State Capitol.
CAIR-SV Executive Committee Member Javed Iqbal said: "This is truly a
historic moment. Muslims have been part of California society for more
than
a century, and this is the first time an Islamic event was held in the
State Capitol. We thank our public representatives and their staff for
immense encouragement and help in making this event a reality and for
their
genuine desire to embrace diversity in the state of California. We also
thank community members for their support and participation."
CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil liberties group, helped facilitate
the
event and provided the Iftar meal. Its mission is to enhance
understanding
of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American
Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual
understanding.
CONTACT: Basim Elkarra (916) 441-6269, E-Mail: sacval@cair.com
---
MUSLIMS FEED HOMELESS IN SAN JOSE
www.cair-california.org, www.dignitycoalition.org
More than 500 Muslims of the greater San Francisco Bay Area joined the
Coalition to Preserve Human Dignity, to host the Bay Area's 1st Annual
Humanitarian Day for the Homeless on Saturday, November 6, at the
Salvation
Army building in downtown San Jose.
The Coalition selected the holy month of Ramadan as a global observance
that transcended race and gender in a spirit of love, equality, and
respect
for each other and all of humanity. The Coalition, comprised of over 22
Bay
Area organizations, served more than 850 homeless in San Jose on
Saturday
and assisted some 2,000 homeless people in the Los Angeles area in a
similar undertaking on Sunday, November 7. More than 500 volunteers
organized the event at each location and distributed food, water, and
t-shirts, as well as blankets, hygiene packages and toys for children.
Organizers look forward to making this, not only an annual event in
Ramadan, but a regular commitment through out the year, reaching out to
neighborhoods in Oakland and San Francisco as well.
As the day came to a close, CAIR-SFBA President Hyder Ali, who also
volunteered, told one woman who attended the event, "God bless you."
She
quickly replied, "He just did."
Bay Area Event Sponsors: Rahima Foundation, Muslim Community
Association
(MCA), South Bay Islamic Association (SBIA), Islamic Society of East
Bay
(ISEB), Islamic Center of Fremont (ICF), Masjidul Waritheen, Masjid
Al-Islam, Zaytuna Institute, Muslim American Society (MAS) - Bay Area,
Islamic Networks Group (ING), Council on American-Islamic Relations
(CAIR)
- Bay Area, Hidaya Foundation, Granada Islamic School, Stanford Islamic
School, Latino Muslims of Bay Area, Food not Bombs, Muslim Students
Association (MSA) - Bay Area, Generation M (Bay Area), Indian Muslim
Council (IMC) - USA, Halal Meats and American Muslim Voice (AMV)
---
MUSLIM GROUP RAISES MORE THAN $1K FOR SOUP KITCHEN
STANLEY DANKOSKI, Salem Observer, 11/11/04
http://www.salemobserver.com/issues/2004/11/11/schools_01.aspx
The tables in the high school cafeteria were adorned with white
tablecloths
and sprinkled with shiny sparkling star shapes. The school day had
ended
more than two hours before, and hungry students and staff sat patiently
in
their seats to break the fast.
Soon after sunset last Friday, the Muslim students led the prayer that
broke the fast. Salem High School senior Mohammad Jafferji stepped up
to a
podium in front of them and thanked everyone for their support during
the
last couple of weeks.
In that time, the school's Muslim Students Association has raised
$1,021.83
from pledges and donations by students, teachers and staff in an effort
called the Fast-a-Thon, in which students recognize Ramadan, the
Islamic
month of fasting, and raise money to benefit a Manchester soup kitchen.
"Every one of you are very special, doing this amazing thing for people
who
need it," said Susan Howland, the development director of New Horizons
food
shelter, the largest one in New England north of Boston…
-----
LOSS OF LIBERTIES IS A THREAT EQUAL TO TERRORISM
LEONARD PITTS JR., Miami Herald, 11/12/04
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/columnists/leonard_pitts/1015892
6.htm
I doubt you've heard what the judge said.
About the Patriot Act and the loss of civil liberties, I mean. As near
as I
can tell, federal Judge A. Wallace Tashima's comments on Saturday to a
conference at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles were
reported only by The L.A. Times and The Associated Press.
I also doubt many of us would be all that concerned even if we had
heard.
The Land of the Free can be rather ambivalent about its freedoms. Or,
perhaps more accurately, our attitude toward them is often at odds with
our
words.
Consider that 89 percent of us said the right to due process was either
''crucial'' or ''very important'' in a Gallup poll last year. Then
consider
the indignation that did not erupt over the detention of hundreds of
Muslim
men swept up after 9/11. They had no access to lawyers, no charges
filed
and no masses of Americans in an uproar about it.
So for me, Tashima's concerns resonate. ''It's happening all over
again,''
he said...
No wonder, then, that Tashima watches the present state of affairs so
warily: He's been here before. He finds it hard to be sanguine when he
sees
Muslims spirited away to who knows where for who knows why. Difficult
to
look away as government is empowered to search your home without your
knowledge. Tough to ignore it as investigators are authorized to search
your library records and Internet activities without showing probable
cause.
''The war on terrorism,'' Tashima said, ''threatens to destroy the very
values of a democratic society governed by the rule of law.''
I happen to think he's right. I also think being right won't win the
argument, that people will brush his fears aside, too consumed by fears
of
their own. I think they'll dismiss his experience, too. That was then,
they'll say. This is now…
-----
PRAYERS, FILM TO MARK END OF RAMADAN
Manya A. Brachear, Chicago Tribune, 11/12/04
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-0411120178nov12,1,40321
30.story
Ushering in one of the holiest days of the year, throngs of Muslims
will
pray in mosques Sunday, then head to theaters to see "Muhammad: The
Last
Prophet," the first American film released in honor of Eid al-Fitr.
Screened for accuracy by Islamic scholars, the 90-minute animated film
depicts the 7th-Century struggles of the faith's founder and first
followers.
The movie adheres to Islam's sacred guideline of not allowing graven
images. The cartoon's hero is never shown and his words are taken from
the
Koran, the holy book, and read by a narrator.
Because of this attention to detail, Muslim advocacy groups have
endorsed
the film not only as an affirmation of faith, but also as an
educational
tool for non-Muslims who may not understand the Prophet Muhammad's role
in
founding the Islamic faith.
The three-day Eid festival, expected to start Sunday after the sighting
of
the crescent moon Saturday, concludes the holy month of Ramadan, which
commemorates the revelation of the Koran to the Prophet Muhammad…
"We're encouraging people to invite friends of other faiths so they can
appreciate what their Muslim friends and neighbors believe and think,"
said
Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman of the Council of American-Islamic Relations
in
Washington, D.C.
"It's also accessible for people of other faiths to get an idea of what
kind of person Prophet Muhammad was…"
SEE ALSO:
'MUHAMMAD: THE LAST PROPHET' ANIMATED FILM
http://www.finemediagroup.com
---
TELLING THE STORY OF ISLAM
Kevin Crust, Los Angeles Times, 11/12/04
http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/reviews/cl-et-capsules12nov12,2,3584030.s
tory
Told as a children's fable, "Muhammad: The Last Prophet" is the story
of
Islam's divinely inspired teacher and serves as a primer, presenting
the
religion's basic principles in a straightforward manner.
Director Richard Rich, whose numerous mainstream animation credits
include
"The Fox and the Hound" and "The Trumpet of the Swan," faces the
daunting
task of not being able to actually show Muhammad in accordance with
Islamic
law.
He and screenwriter Brian Nissen are for the most part successful,
focusing
on the struggles of Muhammad's followers in 7th century Arabia. The
reliance on point-of-view shots, however, is at times disorienting and
creates the unintentionally comedic effect of a prophet-cam panning
back
and forth or up and down as Muhammad moves his head.
"Muhammad: The Last Prophet," unrated. Some war action. Running time: 1
hour, 33 minutes. Opens Sunday in selected theaters.
-----
DC MUSLIMS TO HOLD EID PRAYERS AT NEW CONVENTION CENTER
http://www.dceid.org/
-----
HEARINGS BARRED ON 2 FAITHS' HOLIDAYS
Gary Emerling, WASHINGTON TIMES, 11/11/04
http://washingtontimes.com/metro/20041111-111157-5949r.htm
Lawmakers in Howard County, Md., have passed legislation prohibiting
public
hearings from being held on major Islamic and Jewish holidays.
The legislation bars officials from holding public hearings or meetings
on
the Islamic holy days Eid ul-Fitr and Eid ul-Adha, and the Jewish holy
days
Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
The Maryland chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations
(CAIR)
said Howard County's council is the first in the state to bar public
meetings on Islamic holidays…
"It's a small step toward something big that can happen eventually,"
said
Rizwan Mowlana, executive director of the Maryland chapter of CAIR.
"The
community is excited because we're making headway and we've been trying
to
do something like this for a while."
SEE ALSO:
CIVIL SUIT FILED IN BEATING OF SOUTH ASIANS
Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights
http://www.mcrcnet.org/ENewsletters/ENews_details_2004.htm#73
CHICAGO - On Tuesday, October 26, Toby Paulose and Amer Zaveri filed a
lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court against Joseph Gutierrez and
George
Petroski for a vicious November 2002 attack on the near west side of
Chicago in which they allege they were assaulted because of their
perceived
ethnicity, nationality and/or religion.
According to the lawsuit, Paulose and Zaveri were asked, "Are you
Taliban?"
before defendants punched, kicked and beat them with beer bottles. The
lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages for physical injuries,
loss
of civil rights and emotional distress. Gutierrez pled guilty to
aggravated
battery and hate crime charges earlier this year in criminal court and
was
sentenced to probation.
"This was a heinous post-9/11 hate crime," said Diana M. Lin, Chicago
Lawyers' Committee Equal Justice Works Fellow. "All Americans grieved
after
the 9/11 attack, including South Asian, Muslim and Arab Americans. To
beat
an innocent person because of the color of their skin, ethnicity, or
religion is un-American, and a crime that terrorizes entire
communities."
Paulose and Zaveri are represented by Betsy Shuman-Moore and Diana M.
Lin
of the Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Inc. and
pro
bono attorneys Jonathan Baum and Ferris Hussein of Katten Muchin Zavis
Rosenman. "We hope to obtain just compensation for Paulose and Zaveri
for
their injuries and the suffering they have endured," said Hussein, "And
to
deter others from committing ethnically-motivated attacks."
For further information, contact: Betsy Shuman-Moore, Chicago Lawyers'
Committee, 312-630-9744, bshuman-moore@clccrul.org
-----
PANEL CONDITIONALLY BACKS MOSQUE PLAN
Graydon P. Megan, Chicago Tribune, 11/11/04
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/northwest/chi-0411110273nov11,1,542
1123.story
It took seven meetings and 31 conditions, but Morton Grove's Plan
Commission has recommended that the Village Board approve the Muslim
Community Center's request to build a mosque in the village.
The permit application approved 6-1 Tuesday will go to the board Nov.
22
with a list of conditions from weeks of negotiation.
The Muslim group first proposed building the mosque at 8601 Menard Ave.
and
expanding its school two years ago, but the village turned them down.
A mediation agreement with the village ended a civil rights lawsuit by
the
group and required the village to consider the permit application in
good
faith. Seven Plan Commission meetings were held over four weeks.
The long process has not dimmed the Muslim group's enthusiasm.
Tuesday's
vote drew applause from the crowd, which stayed past 11 p.m. to hear
the
decision.
"We're delighted," said Dr. Mohammed Kaiseruddin, the Muslim group's
president. "Tonight is a historic night for Morton Grove…"
-----
CASES FALTER AGAINST SUSPECTED SPIES IN U.S. MILITARY
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4163619
All Things Considered, November 10, 2004 � High profile cases at the
Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba involving espionage charges against
several members of the U.S. military have largely evaporated. NPR's
Jackie
Northam reports.
-----
EIGHTH ANNUAL JACK G. SHAHEEN MASS COMMUNICATIONS SCHOLARSHIP
Purpose: To recognize Arab American students who excel in Media
Studies.
Eligibility: Juniors, Seniors, or Graduate Students. Attending college
in
the 2005-06 academic year. Must be majoring in Journalism, Radio,
Television, and/or Film. Must have at least a 3.0 GPA and a U.S.
citizen of
Arab heritage
Applicants will send the following to the ADC Research Institute:*
A one-page statement stating you are a US citizen, explaining your
goals,
and why you merit the scholarship.
Two letters of recommendation from Mass Communication professors.
Copies of Articles, Videos, Films, and so forth.
Official academic transcripts including your GPA.
Permanent home address, phone number, E-mail address
Deadline is April 12, 2005
Send material to:
ADC Research Institute
4201 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Suite 300
Washington, DC 20008
Tel: 202-244-2990
SEE ALSO:
MPAC'S 4TH ANNUAL CONVENTION
"Countering Religious & Political Extremism"
http://www.mpac.org/
(Los Angeles, 11/12/04) - The Muslim Public Affairs Council announced
today
they will hold their fourth annual convention on December 18th to
address
the theme of "Countering Religious and Political Extremism." The
day-long
event, which expects to draw over 2,000 attendees, will feature
prominent
speakers including Dr. Tariq Ramadan, the European professor whose visa
was
revoked just days before he was scheduled to begin his academic post at
the
University of Notre Dame.
CONTACT: Edina Lekovic, 213-383-3443, communications@mpac.org
-----
COMMITTED TO ISLAM, SALIM ZAMIR TAKES ON LEADERSHIP ROLE
Polly Summar, Albuquerque Journal, 11/12/04
http://www.abqjournal.com/venue/personalities/257448person11-12-04.htm
Lots of kids in Albuquerque grow up with a mom of one faith and a dad
of
another. But not every kid grows up with a Muslim dad from Afghanistan
and
a Christian mom from Ohio.
"We went to Grace Church with my mom and to the mosque with my dad,"
says
Salim Zamir, 27, the middle child of three. As a teenager at
Albuquerque
High, his inner circle included friends of both faiths- soccer buddies
and
cousins from his dad's side of the family.
That ability to connect with all kinds of people was partly why the
Islamic
Center of New Mexico named Zamir its general secretary. "We felt he
would
be a great asset," says Abdul Rauf Campos-Marquetti, 50, who previously
held the position…
-----
ISRAEL PLANS POSTHUMOUS ANTI-ARAFAT CAMPAIGN
Aluf Benn and Amos Harel, Haaretz, 11/12/04
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/500075.html
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said yesterday that after the funeral of
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, Israel will launch a
propaganda campaign against him. The political-security cabinet
yesterday
approved the proposed plans to bury Arafat in Ramallah.
"It is feared that after his funeral Arafat will become a national hero
and
freedom-fighter," Sharon said. "We will launch a tough struggle to
portray
his murderous character and the fact that he is a strategist of world
terror who hurt innocent people, both Israelis and American diplomats,"
he
said…
-----
To SUBSCRIBE to or UNSUBSCRIBE from this list, go to:
http://cair.biglist.com/cair-net/
To reach the list moderator, send a message to: cair@cair-net.org
-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
--------------------------------------------------------------------
mail2web - Check your email from the web at
http://mail2web.com/ .
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CAIR SAYS CIVILIANS IN FALLUJAH MUST RECEIVE AID
Islamic civil rights groups calls for probe of alleged war crimes
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 11/15/04) - A prominent national Islamic civil
rights
and advocacy group today called on American military authorities in
Iraq to
lift the ban on delivery of humanitarian relief supplies to the people
of
Fallujah.
SEE: "Relief convoy Turned Back from Fallujah: Red Cross"
http://www.boston.com/dailynews/320/world/Relief_convoy_turned_back_from:.shtml
The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) also
called for an independent probe of allegations by Amnesty International
(AI) and human rights experts that both sides in the recent fighting
have
violated the rules of war.
SEE: "Fears of Serious Violations of the Rules of War in Falluja"
http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engmde140562004
"Rights Lawyers See Possibility of a War Crime"
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/13/international/middleeast/13legal.html
Media reports indicate that U.S. troops have blocked aid convoys trying
to
reach people trapped in Fallujah and that some military personnel may
have
targeted civilians.
A Baghdad spokesman for the Red Cross told Associated Press that
ambulances
and trucks carrying supplies got only as far as the hospital on the
edge of
the city before being stopped. An Associated Press photographer said he
watched in horror as a family of five was shot dead by American
helicopters
as they tried to cross Euphrates River, which flows on the western side
of
Fallujah.
SEE: "AP Photog Escapes Fallujah"
http://news.bostonherald.com/international/view.bg?articleid=54058
A Reuters correspondent said a drive through the city "reveals a
picture of
utter destruction, with concrete houses flattened, mosques in ruins,
telegraph poles blown over, power and phone lines hanging slack and
rubble
and human remains littering the empty streets." Fallujah residents
contacted by Reuters on Sunday said their children were suffering from
diarrhea and had not eaten for days.
SEE: "A City Lies in Ruins, Along with the Lives of the Wretched
Survivors"
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=582915
According to one Iraqi journalist quoted by The Observer newspaper,
civilian casualties were caused by the massive firepower directed at
Fallujah neighborhoods during the battle. "If the fighters fire a
mortar,
US forces respond with huge force," said the journalist, who asked not
to
be named.
SEE: "Civilian Cost of Battle for Falluja Emerges"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1350926,00.html
"Fallujah Turned into Disaster area"
http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1309252004
"Inside Fallujah: One Family's Diary of Terror"
http://www.sundayherald.com/46056
In its statement, CAIR said:
"The desperate situation that now exists in the city of Fallujah
requires
that all impediments to the delivery of humanitarian relief supplies be
lifted immediately. We call on American military authorities to do
whatever
is necessary to ensure that those supplies reach Iraqi civilians who
are
suffering and dying today in that city.
"It is also essential that reports of attacks on civilians be
investigated
thoroughly by an independent international body and the results of that
investigation be made known. There must be an accounting of civilian
casualties in Fallujah and those forced to flee their homes must be
allowed
to return. American journalists embedded with our military should also
examine the impact of the war on Iraqi civilians.
"We call on President Bush, elected officials and all Americans of
conscience to re-think our disastrous policies in Iraq and to recognize
that those policies are making us less safe and less respected as a
nation."
CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil liberties group, is headquartered
in
Washington, D.C., and has 29 offices and chapters nationwide and in
Canada.
Its mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue,
protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions
that promote justice and mutual understanding.
- END -
CONTACT: Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail:
ihooper@cair-net.org; Rabiah Ahmed, 202-488-8787 or 202-439-1441,
E-Mail:
rahmed@cair-net.org
NOTE: CAIR offers an e-mail list designed to be a window to the
American
Muslim community. Subscribers to the list, called CAIR-NET, receive
news
releases and other materials dealing with American Muslim positions on
issues of importance to our society.
To SUBSCRIBE to CAIR-NET, go to: http://cair.biglist.com/cair-net/
-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 11/16/04
* HADITH OF THE DAY: THE BEST SUPPLICATION
* FL MUSLIMS SPONSOR THANKSGIVING BASKETS FOR NEEDY
* CAIR-FL: EVENT WAS UNIFYING
- CAIR-DC: Worst Since Era of J. Edgar Hoover
* U.S. TO PROBE SHOOTING OF WOUNDED IRAQI (AP)
- Marines Rally Round Iraq Probe Comrade (Reuters)
- CAIR Calls for Probe of War Crimes in Fallujah
- Private Jet Takes Men for 'Torture' (Australian)
* INCITEMENT WATCH: CA BAPTISTS HEAR LESSON OF HATE
- NC Muslims Pray for Release of Hostage
- LA: Anti-Muslim Bias Plays into Terrorists' Hands
- Flames Engulf Mosque in Netherlands (AP)
- Muslims give $50,000 to NJ City Medical Center
* SINCE 9/11, MUSLIMS DONATE CLOSER TO HOME (New York Times)
- Charities Protest 'Global Terrorist' label (Wash Post)
* CO: IMMIGRANT TRAPPED IN LEGAL LIMBO (Rocky Mountain News)
* PRESBYTERIANS THREATENED OVER ISRAEL DIVESTMENT (Jerusalem Post)
* MUHAMMAD AT THE MOVIES: VENERATED, AND ANIMATED (NY Times)
- Mixing Popcorn and Religion (Wash Post)
* REMEMBERING SHARIFA ALKHATEEB (Pluralism Project)
-----
HADITH OF THE DAY: THE BEST SUPPLICATION
A man once asked the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him): "Which is
the
best supplication?" The Prophet replied: "Supplicate to your Lord for
forgiveness and security in this world and in the Hereafter." The man
came
again the next day, and then again on the following day, and asked the
same
question. The Prophet gave him the same answer, and then said: "If you
are
given forgiveness and security in this world and in the Hereafter you
have
attained success."
Fiqh-us-Sunnah, 4:112C
-----
FL MUSLIMS SPONSOR THANKSGIVING BASKETS FOR NEEDY
Hernando County passes resolution recognizing CAIR-FL
(TAMPA, FL, 11/16/2004) - The Florida office of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-FL) today announced plans to sponsor
the
distribution of Thanksgiving food baskets to low-income families and
veterans living in that state's Hernando County. The announcement was
made
as representatives of CAIR-FL accepted a county resolution recognizing
the
local Muslim community and the council for their charitable giving.
After accepting the resolution, CAIR-FL Communications Director Ahmed
Bedier addressed the Board of County Commissioners and explained that
the
Islamic faith obligates its followers to give to the poor and the
hungry.
Bedier concluded by praising the county commissioners and leaders of
Hernando County for their efforts to reach out and embrace all members
of
the community.
The Hernando Food Basket Program is part of CAIR-FL's "Feed the Hungry"
campaign. CAIR-FL recently held a similar event in Broward County and
has
plans for a "Feed the Hungry" event in Tampa on the evening before
Thanksgiving.
CONTACT: Ahmed Bedier, 813-731-9506 abedier@cair-florida.org; Altaf
Ali,
954-298-8214 altaf@cair-florida.org
-----
CAIR-FL: EVENT WAS UNIFYING
Parvez Ahmed, Jacksonville, 11/15/04
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/111304/opl_17176023.shtml
The day after the most divisive election in our nation's history, Mayor
John Peyton did something that will impact this city for years to come.
The Muslim community in Jacksonville, following a nationwide call by
the
Council on American-Islamic Relations, organized an event called
Sharing
Ramadan. The program was co-sponsored by the Islamic Center of
Northeast
Florida and the Islamic Circle of North America.
The idea was to invite our neighbors, colleagues, friends and
acquaintances
to our house of worship and share with them an evening meal, which
followed
the dawn-to-dusk fasting where Muslims refrain from eating and
drinking.
Peyton graciously accepted to be the keynote speaker for this event. To
his
credit, the mayor did not do the politically expedient thing of
shunning
American Muslims, unfortunately and regrettably the stance of many
elected
and public officials.
Peyton spoke about the need to unify the community after a divisive
election and how such interfaith events can be part of the healing
process.
He communicated his admiration for the concept of such a program that
helps
in building bridges of understanding. He further acknowledged the
vibrant
role played by the Muslim community in ensuring Northeast Florida's
progress toward economic success and social diversity.
Nearly 500 people of different faiths attended this dinner and heard
the
mayor speak. For almost three hours we ate, laughed and shared our
aspirations with each other. In the process, we learned about our
common
humanity...
PARVEZ AHMED is board chairman of the Council on American-Islamic
Relations, Jacksonville
SEE ALSO:
THE WORST SINCE ERA OF J. EDGAR HOOVER
Arsalan T. Iftikhar, Sun-Sentinel, 11/16/04
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-16forum16nov16,0,7656349.story?
coll=sfla-news-opinion
Saying that John Ashcroft was a controversial attorney general would be
as
understated as stating that Ohio's electoral votes were only slightly
relevant in our most recent presidential election. Although many
believe
that the job of attorney general should never have been his in the
first
place, his recent departure marks the end of the most ideologically
driven
tenure the Department of Justice has seen in decades.
The Wall Street Journal once wrote that, "May we trust a man like John
Ashcroft, whose outlook appears to be saturated by faith, to serve as
U.S.
attorney general?" After all, Ashcroft was once awarded an honorary
degree
from racially "retrograde" and unabashedly evangelical Bob Jones
University.
The editors of Esquire magazine once wrote that, "If there is one thing
that always comes out of a terrible tragedy, it is really dumb
legislation." Although there are many other similarly draconian
sections of
the USA PATRIOT Act, section 412 of USA PATRIOT allowed Ashcroft to
round
up and imprison 1,200 Muslim and Arab men based solely on pretextual
immigration violations and refused to disclose their identity, give
them
access to lawyers or contact with their families.
Even though his own inspector general reprimanded him for his policies
and
not even one terrorist was captured during this dragnet, Ashcroft had
the
self-righteous audacity to proclaim during congressional testimony that
anyone who raised concerns about his actions would "aid terrorists" and
"give ammunition to America's enemies…"
Although any replacement would be better for the rule of law than
Ashcroft's status quo, we must come to terms with the fact that
Ashcroft's
resignation marks the end of the most ideological, theocratic and
controversial Justice Department administration since our last Draco,
the
late J. Edgar Hoover.
Arsalan T. Iftikhar is national legal director for the Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation's largest American Muslim
civil rights and advocacy group in Washington.
-----
U.S. TO PROBE SHOOTING OF WOUNDED IRAQI
STEVEN R. HURST, Associated Press, 11/16/04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53198-2004Nov16.html
NEW YORK - The U.S. military is investigating the videotaped fatal
shooting
of a wounded and apparently unarmed Iraqi prisoner by a U.S. Marine in
a
mosque in the former insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, a Marine
spokesman
said.
The dramatic footage was taken Saturday by pool correspondent Kevin
Sites
of NBC television, who said three other prisoners wounded a day earlier
in
the mosque had also apparently been shot the next day by the Marines.
The incident played out as the Marines 3rd Battalion, 1st Regiment,
returned to the unidentified Fallujah mosque Saturday. Sites was
embedded
with the unit.
Sites reported that a different Marine unit had come under fire from
the
mosque on Friday. Those Marines stormed the building, killing ten men
and
wounding five, Sites said. The Marines said the fighters in the mosque
had
been armed with rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 rifles.
The Marines had treated the wounded, he reported, left them behind and
continued on Friday with their drive to retake the city from insurgents
who
have been battling U.S.-led occupation forces in Iraq with increasing
ferocity and violence in recent months.
The same five men were still in the mosque on Saturday, Sites reported.
On the video, as the camera moved into the mosque during the Saturday
incident, a Marine can be heard shouting obscenities in the background,
yelling that one of the men was only pretending to be dead.
The video then showed a Marine raising his rifle toward a prisoner
lying on
the floor of the mosque. The video shown by NBC and provided to the
network
pool was blacked out at that point and did not show the bullet hitting
the
man. But a rifle shot could be heard.
The blacked out portion of the video tape, provided later to Associated
Press Television News and other members of the network pool, showed the
bullet striking the man in the upper body, possibly the head. His blood
splatters on the wall behind him and his body goes limp…
SEE ALSO:
U.S. MARINES RALLY ROUND IRAQ PROBE COMRADE
Michael Georgy, Reuters, 11/16/04
FALLUJA, Iraq, Nov 16 (Reuters) - U.S. Marines rallied round a comrade
under investigation for killing a wounded Iraqi during the offensive in
Falluja, saying he was probably under combat stress in unpredictable,
hair-trigger circumstances.
Marines interviewed on Tuesday said they didn't see the shooting as a
scandal, rather the act of a comrade who faced intense pressure during
the
effort to quell the insurgency in the city.
"I can see why he would do it. He was probably running around being
shot at
for days on end in Falluja. There should be an investigation but they
should look into the circumstances," said Lance Corporal Christopher
Hanson.
"I would have shot the insurgent too. Two shots to the head," said
Sergeant
Nicholas Graham, 24, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. "You can't trust
these
people. He should not be investigated. He did nothing wrong..."
---
CAIR CALLS FOR PROBE OF WAR CRIMES IN FALLUJAH
http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/middle_east_full_story.asp?ser
vice_id=5762
---
PRIVATE JET TAKES MEN FOR 'TORTURE'
The Australian, 11/15/04
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,11387412%255E2
703,00.html
LONDON: An executive jet is being used by US intelligence agencies to
fly
terrorist suspects to countries that use torture in their prisons.
The movements of the Gulfstream 5, leased by agents from the US Defence
Department and the CIA, are detailed in confidential logs obtained by
The
Sunday Times which cover more than 300 flights.
Countries with poor human rights records to which the Americans have
delivered prisoners include Egypt, Syria and Uzbekistan, according to
the
files. The logs have prompted allegations from critics that the agency
is
using such regimes to carry out "torture by proxy" - a charge denied by
the
US Government.
The Gulfstream and a similarly anonymous-looking Boeing 737 are hired
by US
agents from Premier Executive Transport Services, a private company in
Massachusetts.
The white 737 is a frequent visitor to US military bases, although its
exact role has not been revealed.
-----
INCITEMENT WATCH: CA BAPTISTS HEAR LESSON OF HATE
FORMER MUSLIM WARNS RIDGE BAPTISTS ABOUT ISLAM
Valerie Lum, Paradise Post, 11/15/04
http://www.paradisepost.com/Stories/0,1413,292~30282~2537525,00.html
A former Muslim spoke at the Ridge Southern Baptist Church on Sunday
evening to explain the "True Under-standing of Islam."
According to el-Masih, Allah, the Muslim God, told Muslims to go forth
and
spread the religion through out the whole world by any means.
Therefore,
Muslims justify warfare as a means to spread the religion.
Any arguments such as passages in the Quran of tolerance for other
religions were also quickly dismissed by el-Masih. He claimed that
Mohammad
had said the passages of tolerance before Muslims started having any
clout.
Once the Muslims gained some power, they rejected the idea of tolerance
for
other religions in favor of conquering a nation and telling them to
either
convert to Islam, pay a tax or be put to death.
"Muslims are allowed to lie when they are in danger," el-Masih said as
an
explanation for the turn around…
The content of el-Masih's lectures has been controversial for years.
El-Masih's accounts of the confrontations he has received only support
his
arguments and he has a challenge for the people who claim that Islam is
a
peaceful religion.
El-Masih cited the $14 billion that the Muslim nations have spent to
promote the teachings of Islam in the U.S. to show the slow filtration
of
Islam into the states.
"They plan to take over America in 2020," el-Masih said.
Silent jihad was a way into the American public according to el-Masih.
First the Muslims would establish businesses and then slowly take over
the
political realm with the goal of having a Muslim president.
"Every time you're at the pump for gas, a part of that dollar goes
towards
terrorists groups," el-Masih said…
SEND POLITE COMMENTS TO: newsroom@paradisepost.com
COPY TO: cair@cair-net.org
SEE ALSO:
LOCAL MUSLIMS PRAY FOR SADEK'S LIFE
Jaime Fettrow, News 14 Carolina, 11/14/04
http://www.news14charlotte.com/content/local_news/?ArID=79172&SecID=2
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- More than 3,000 Muslims from the Charlotte area
gathered
at the Convention Center in uptown Charlotte on Sunday to mark the end
of
the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
In their thoughts was the family of Dean Sadek, the local contractor
who
recently appeared in a clip on Arab television, holding his passport
and ID
card. They say they are praying for a peaceful resolution.
"We pray to Allah that our brother Sadek is released and sent home to
his
family to safety," said Jibril Hough of the Islamic Center of
Charlotte.
Sadek, who had a home in east Charlotte, was working as a contractor in
Iraq when he was captured by a militant group.
The Muslim community hopes Dean Sadek can be reunited with his family
soon…
---
ANTI-MUSLIM BIAS PLAYS INTO TERRORISTS' HANDS
Kent Jensen, Times-Picayune, 11/14/04
http://www.nola.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1100420401271830.xml?nola
Everyone seems to feel the world changed with 9-11. Only our perception
changed. Isolated terrorist groups, including Timothy McVeigh and other
American paramilitary groups, had threatened America before. Terrorism
has
been around for hundreds of years. Bin Laden and his al-Qaida group are
only a few thousand strong, grown and trained in an insurgency against
the
Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
I believe 9-11 was a clever attempt to undermine the loyalty of
Muslim-Americans to America. We play into bin Laden's hands by
persecuting
our own with bigoted knee-jerk reactions like the one teacher Wes Mix
is
accused of committing. It alienates us from Muslim-Americans and the
Muslim
world.
We can win the hearts and minds of the world if all Americans stand
together. It may also cost the world less blood and money if it is
clear we
stand for defending rights, rather than attacking them.
---
FLAMES ENGULF MOSQUE IN NETHERLANDS
Associated Press, 11/13/04
THE HAGUE Netherlands - Flames engulfed a mosque in southeastern
Netherlands early Saturday, the latest in a string of fires at Muslim
institutions since the killing of a Dutch filmmaker who was critical of
Islam.
A local broadcaster said the building, in the village of Helden near
the
German border, was largely destroyed.
There was no immediate word on the cause.
There have been more than 20 incidents of fires or vandalism at Muslim
buildings - and a handful of retaliatory attacks on Christian churches
-
since the Nov. 2 killing of filmmaker Theo van Gogh by a suspected
Muslim
radical.
---
MUSLIMS GIVE $50,000 TO NEW JERSEY CITY MEDICAL CENTER
Nursing Home & Elder Business Week, November 21, 2004
Four Muslim businessmen donated $50,000 to Jersey City Medical Center
in
New Jersey to fulfill their religious obligation to give to charity
during
the holy month of Ramadan.
Mohamed Choukeir, Nasser Saber and Khaled El-Shamma, who together own
20
Dunkin' Donuts stores in New Jersey, and Ahmed Shedeed, director of the
Islamic Center of Jersey City, made the donation.
Saber said the group acted in part to try and reverse negative
stereotypes
about Muslims in America.
"We are Americans, just like you guys," he said. "We love our country,
America, and our flag and our city. We want to keep our country safe
for
our children and to protect our flag."
-----
SINCE 9/11, MUSLIMS LOOK CLOSER TO HOME
Laurie Goodstein, New York Times, 9/15/04
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/15/giving/15GOOD.html
THE crackdown on Islamic charities since Sept. 11 has led to a shift in
giving by Muslims in America: far more of their donations are going
close
to home, instead of overseas.
Groups that have become vocal advocates for Muslim civil liberties have
seen big increases, but the change has been felt by smaller groups as
well.
For instance, when the first free medical clinic for the Muslim
community
opened its doors to the poor in a neighborhood in South-Central Los
Angeles
in 1996, few of its donors were Muslims. Most of the financial support
for
the center, the University Muslim Medical Association Community Clinic,
came from foundations and the government, said Yasser Aman, the
clinic's
chief executive and president.
Last year the clinic's holiday mailing brought in twice the amount of
donations that came in 2001, although the increase was on a modest
scale,
to $37,000 from $16,000. But Muslims around the country have also
recently
opened about six more free clinics modeled on the Los Angeles example,
Mr.
Aman said…
Since Sept. 11, the government has designated 27 Islamic charities as
financiers or supporters of terrorism. Most are international relief
agencies that for years canvassed the mosques and raised millions.
Perhaps in response to the crackdown, donations have increased
substantially to some national Muslim groups that have become civil
liberties advocates. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, an
advocacy
group based in Washington, has nearly doubled its annual budget since
2001,
to about $3 million -- and that is just for the Washington office, said
Nihad Awad, the council's executive director. The group's branch
offices
have also increased, to 29 in 2004 from nine in 2001, and each office
raises money for its own budget, he said...
SEE ALSO:
CHARITIES PROTEST 'GLOBAL TERRORIST' LABEL
Washington Post, 11/15/04
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6479704/
Three years ago, two dozen FBI agents raided the headquarters of the
Global
Relief Foundation outside Chicago, the second-largest Islamic charity
in
the United States. Without a warrant, they stripped it clean of records
and
froze $900,000 in assets.
The same day, NATO troops searched the charity's offices halfway across
the
world in Kosovo, the strife-torn southern province of Serbia. A NATO
statement cited "intelligence information" that some Global Relief
officials may have been "planning attacks against targets in the U.S.A.
and
Europe."
It was another 10 months before the U.S. Treasury Department officially
designated the charity a supporter of terrorism, citing links to Osama
bin
Laden. By then, Global Relief was already out of business.
"Our organization is dead and gone and cannot be revived now," said
Roger
C. Simmons, the charity's lawyer.
Charities, government at odds
The designation process has set off an intense debate between attorneys
for
several Islamic charities in the United States, who say their clients
are
being denied normal U.S. legal protections, and government officials,
who
say that the designations are being carefully managed and reflect the
realities of the post-9/11 world.
As of today, neither Global Relief nor any of its officials have been
charged with a crime. Charity officials have also not had a chance to
confront all of the government's evidence linking the group to
terrorism.
The classified evidence remains out of reach, and much of the
unclassified
evidence turned out to be allegations in newspaper clippings.
Global Relief is one of three Islamic charities that were forced to
shut
down before they were formally declared "specially designated global
terrorists" as part of the U.S. government's three-year-old campaign to
starve terrorists of funds. So far, more than 390 groups and
individuals
have been designated supporters or financiers of terrorism under the
program - meaning they are subject to seizure of assets and prevented
from
doing business with anyone without government permission...
-----
IMMIGRANT TRAPPED IN ARAPAHOE COUNTY LIMBO
Rocky Mountain News, 11/12/04
http://rockymountainnews.com/drmn/news_columnists/article/0,1299,DRMN_86_332
2987,00.html
Who exactly is Ayman Abdu and, more critically, why is he still in
jail?
I have asked Arapahoe County officials these questions repeatedly. I
haven't received an answer. Attempts to see the man in the jail have
been
rebuffed.
Instead, all I know of Ayman Abdu is from court records, documents that
indicate little reason why this 30-year-old Sudanese man should still
be
incarcerated months after he was arrested.
Is he a bad man? A terrorist? A bigger threat to the republic than the
court record shows?
These are the questions I have put several times now to Michael Knight,
the
Arapahoe County District Attorney's Office spokesman. He promises
answers.
I haven't received them.
Repeated telephone calls to Ayman Abdu's public defender, Laurie Rose
Kepros, also have gone unreturned.
All I wanted to know was how a simple drunken yelling match at an East
Evans Avenue gasoline station last January led to his never sniffing
freedom for 10 months, an attempt to deport him, and the loss of his
job at
Denver International Airport.
When I attempted this week to visit Ayman Abdu, jailers said he was in
solitary confinement and not eligible to see me...
-----
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH THREATENED OVER ISRAEL
Jerusalem Post, 11/15/04
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid
=1100492202814
The Presbyterian Church USA stepped up security at its headquarters and
its
churches after receiving a letter threatening arson attacks because of
its
policies in the Middle East.
The letter, received Nov. 10 at the church's Louisville headquarters,
threatened to set churches on fire while people were inside in
retaliation
for "anti-Israel and anti-Jewish attitudes," said Jerry Van Marter,
director of the Presbyterian news service.
The letter had no return address, but it was postmarked from Queens,
N.Y.,
Van Marter said. The letter gave a Nov. 15 deadline for the church to
reverse its Middle East policies, he said.
In June, the church's General Assembly decided to begin selective
divestment from corporations doing business in or with Israel.
-----
MUHAMMAD AT THE MOVIES: VENERATED, AND ANIMATED
Andrea Elliott, New York Times, 11/15/04
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/15/nyregion/15mohammed.html
No limousines pulled up yesterday outside the United Artists theater in
Brooklyn Heights. There was no red carpet, not even a poster announcing
the
film that opened there and at 92 other theaters around the country.
But for thousands of Muslims who flocked to those theaters, the
American
premiere of the animated feature "Muhammad: The Last Prophet," was
unquestionably a landmark cultural event...
By almost any measure, the film's journey to commercial theaters in the
United States was a long and arduous one, complicated by Sept. 11. Five
years after the film went into production, it finally opened in the
United
States after a national grass-roots marketing effort that enlisted the
help
of mosques, Islamic schools, the Internet and Arab-language newspapers.
And
by late yesterday, the effort seemed to be paying off.
"Everywhere it's full, it's packed," said Oussama Jammal, the film's
United
States distributor. "It is just unbelievable. Phone calls every single
minute, people still looking for tickets."
The 90-minute movie, which recounts the story of the birth of Islam,
began
as the dream of a Saudi real estate investor, Muwaffak Alharithy, who
said
he felt that his children and other Muslim youth had been shortchanged
by
religious film offerings of Hollywood and decided to remedy the
situation
himself...
ALSO SEE:
AT THE MALL, MIXING POPCORN AND RELIGION
Jose Antonio Vargas, Washington Post, 11/15/04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50304-2004Nov14.html
"On the third floor?" asks a woman in stonewashed jeans with an
off-white
hajib on her head, holding her daughter's arm. She's standing on the
first
floor of Ballston Common Mall in Arlington, in view of a towering
Christmas
tree.
"Yes, in Theater 12," answers a man in a fitted gray suit, pointing to
the
escalator.
They nod.
Up they go. Past the Tropik Sun, the Radio Shack, the T-Mobile kiosk,
families rush to their seats in the Regal theater, bags of popcorn and
sodas in hand. It's Eid al-Fitr (pronounced EED-al-FITTER) -- the
Festival
of Fast-Breaking, marking the end of the month-long Ramadan -- and, for
the
first time, a very exciting time, a very important time, there's a film
to
help celebrate it.
"Muhammad: The Last Prophet" -- a lush, solemn, 90-minute animated film
directed by Disney veteran Richard Rich ("The Fox and the Hound" and
"The
Black Cauldron") -- made its U.S. debut yesterday, showing in about 40
cities in 86 theaters nationwide, four of them in Northern Virginia.
The
English-language film has been released in a handful of countries,
including Lebanon, Jordan, Malaysia and Turkey, with subtitles. But
9/11
came, and the $10 million film -- produced by Badr International and
financed by Saudi investors -- was shelved in the United States.
Then Fine Media Group, a small, independent film distributor in
Chicago,
picked it up.
Oussama Jammal, the distributing company's owner and a Muslim, has
spent
nearly $1 million, renting relatively small theaters and placing ads on
Arab satellite TV. Loews and AMC, two of the biggest theater chains in
the
country, opted to not show it, to Jammal's dismay. But he wanted to get
the
film out at any cost...
The D.C.-based Council on American-Islamic Relations released a poll of
more than 1,000 respondents Oct. 4 showing that one in four Americans
holds
anti-Muslim views such as "Muslims teach their children to hate" and
"Muslims value life less than other people..."
-----
REMEMBERING SHARIFA ALKHATEEB
http://www.pluralism.org/wn/sharifa/
-----
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-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
--------------------------------------------------------------------
mail2web - Check your email from the web at
http://mail2web.com/ .
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 11/17/04
* VERSE OF THE DAY: INVITE TO ALL THAT IS GOOD
* HELP CAIR MEET ITS GOAL OF $1 MILLION
- TV Viewer Praises CAIR PSA
* CAIR CONDEMNS MURDER OF MARGARET HASSAN
- Nothing Islamic About Human Sacrifice (USA Today)
- Slaying of Wounded Iraqi Dominates Arab Media (AP)
- 800 Civilians Feared Dead In Fallujah (IPS)
* CAIR-DC: US MUSLIMS IN A QUANDARY OVER CHARITIES (CSM)
- CAIR-SV: James Yee to Address CAIR-SV Banquet
- CAIR-CAN: Quebec Commission Asked to Issue Hijab Ruling
- Hijab Ruling Leaves Question Unanswered (CBC)
- CAIR-NY: Muslim Community Forum
- CAIR-LA: Reflections on Another Ramadan (Daily Breeze)
* MI: THREATS AGAINST MUSLIMS ALLEGED (Free Press)
- MA: Youth Gets Prison in Attack on Grad Student (INE)
* OH: DOME TAKES ITS PLACE ATOP MOSQUE (Toledo Blade)
* VA: NATIVE DEEN EID CONCERT 2004
-----
VERSE OF THE DAY: INVITE TO ALL THAT IS GOOD
"Let there arise from among you a band of people inviting to all that
is
good, enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong. They are
the
ones who will be successful."
The Holy Quran, 3:104
-----
HELP CAIR MEET ITS GOAL OF $1 MILLION
Alhamdulillah (praise be to God), CAIR raised almost $900,000 in its
Ramadan campaign. With only $102,912 left, we are asking everyone to do
their part to help us reach our goal! Whether your donation is $50 or
$100,
every dollar that you donate today will count and be used to help
empower
the American Muslim community.
We need about 1000 people to donate $100 to meet our goal!
NOW is the time to show your support for CAIR.
To support CAIR's important work, please donate at:
https://www.cair-net.org/asp/donate.asp
REMEMBER: Scholars say CAIR is able to receive ZAKAT donations.
SEE ALSO:
TV VIEWER PRAISES CAIR PSA
Earlier this year, CAIR launched a nationwide television and radio
public
service announcement (PSA) campaign, called "I am an American Muslim,"
designed to help reduce anti-Muslim discrimination and stereotyping.
Since then, almost 3 million people have viewed the 30 and 60-second
PSA
and have offered positive feedback, one of which is the following:
"I just saw your marvelous 'I am an American Muslim' public service
announcement at 1:45 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 13, on channel 25, South Bend,
Indiana. Congratulations on producing such a marvelous, uplifting,
positive
image of American Muslims. I hope everyone in the country sees it."
TO VIEW THE PSA, GO TO:
http://www.cair-net.org/default.asp?page=PSAJun2004
-----
CAIR CONDEMNS MURDER OF MARGARET HASSAN
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 11/17/04) - The Council on American-Islamic
Relations
(CAIR) today condemned the apparent murder of British-Iraqi aid worker
Margaret Hassan.
Hassan was kidnapped Oct. 19 in Baghdad, where she was the local
director
of the relief group CARE International. A video released to the
Al-Jazeera
satellite network showed what was purported to be Hassan's execution by
her
kidnappers.
In its statement, the Washington-based Islamic civil rights and
advocacy
group said:
"We condemn this cold-blooded murder and repudiate all those who commit
such acts of mindless violence. We offer sincere condolences to Ms.
Hassan's family and once again call on people of all faiths and
cultures to
work together for peace and reconciliation, not continued war and
destruction."
In October, CAIR held a news conference in Washington, D.C., at which a
number of American Imams issued a statement calling for the release of
all
hostages held in Iraq. Their declaration stated in part: "As leaders of
American mosques and as representatives of the American Muslim
community,
we call for the immediate and unconditional release of all civilian
hostages currently being held in Iraq, whatever their nationality or
faith."
SEE: http://www.cair.com/asp/article.asp?id=1294&page=NR
Also in October, CAIR sent a letter of support to CARE International
Secretary General Denis Caillaux. The letter read in part: "It is
beyond
contempt that anyone would attempt to thwart the humanitarian work of
CARE
International and human rights advocates likes Mrs. Hassan…We hope that
this terrible ordeal will soon be over and Mrs. Hassan can return to
her
family and her wonderful work helping the people of Iraq."
CAIR recently launched an online petition drive, called "Not in the
Name of
Islam," designed to disassociate Islam from the violent acts of a few
Muslims.
SEE: http://www.cair-net.org/asp/article.asp?id=169&page=AA
The "Not in the Name of Islam" petition states:
"We, the undersigned Muslims, wish to state clearly that those who
commit
acts of terror, murder and cruelty in the name of Islam are not only
destroying innocent lives, but are also betraying the values of the
faith
they claim to represent. No injustice done to Muslims can ever justify
the
massacre of innocent people, and no act of terror will ever serve the
cause
of Islam. We repudiate and dissociate ourselves from any Muslim group
or
individual who commits such brutal and un-Islamic acts. We refuse to
allow
our faith to be held hostage by the criminal actions of a tiny minority
acting outside the teachings of both the Quran and the Prophet
Muhammad,
peace be upon him."
CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil liberties group, is headquartered
in
Washington, D.C., and has 29 offices and chapters nationwide and in
Canada.
Its mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue,
protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions
that promote justice and mutual understanding.
CONTACT: Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail:
ihooper@cair-net.org; Rabiah Ahmed, 202-488-8787 or 202-439-1441,
E-Mail:
rahmed@cair-net.org
ALSO SEE:
NOTHING ISLAMIC ABOUT HUMAN SACRIFICE
Ralph Peter, USA Today, 111/16/04
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2004-11-16-peters-edit_x.htm
Suicide bombings. Assassinations. The wholesale murder of prisoners.
The
mass slaughter of 9/11. Videotaped beheadings and the execution studios
recently discovered in Fallujah. We describe it as "Islamic terrorism."
And
we're wrong.
The hard-core terrorists spawned by the breakdown of the Middle East
quote
the Koran. They wear Muslim garments. They perform the daily rituals
prescribed by the faith into which they were born. But all of us, in
the
West and the Middle East, have mistaken the identity of these butchers.
For all of their Muslim trappings, the terrorists of al-Qaeda and its
affiliates have returned to pre-Islamic practices, to behaviors that
Moses,
Christ and Mohammed uniformly rejected: They practice human sacrifice.
The grisly decapitations caught on film and the explosives-laden cars
driven into crowds, the bombings of schools and the execution of
kidnapped
women are not sanctioned by a single passage in the Koran. Nor are they
political acts committed by freedom fighters. These are the actions of
a
resurrected blood cult that has nothing to do with the message of the
Prophet Mohammed and everything to do with the bloodthirsty winged
devils
and gory altars that haunted the ancient Middle East.
The terrorists may believe that they're good Muslims - self-awareness
is
not a widespread human trait - but their deeds are those of the pagans
Mohammed condemned...
---
MARINE SLAYING OF WOUNDED IRAQI DOMINATES ARAB MEDIA, OVERSHADOWING
BRITISH
AID WORKER'S KILLING
Sam F. Ghattas, Associated Press, 11/17/04
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/11/17/interna
tional1414EST0573.DTL
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - The chilling video of a U.S. Marine shooting and
killing a wounded and apparently unarmed man in Iraq dominated the Arab
world's media Wednesday, overshadowing the slaying of a British aid
worker
who had been kidnapped by Iraqi insurgents.
The Marine shooting in a mosque in Fallujah was played and replayed,
debated and portrayed as ``evidence'' of what many Arabs believe: that
the
United States is destroying Iraq and Iraqis.
Frames of the Fallujah shooting appeared on many newspaper front pages
Wednesday and Arab satellite stations repeatedly aired the footage
taken by
an American television crew.
Al-Jazeera was among the stations airing the Marine shooting. The
station
said Tuesday it also had received a videotape showing a blindfolded
woman
believed to be Margaret Hassan being shot in the head at close range,
but
had chosen not to broadcast it.
``We don't show acts of killing,'' Jihad Ballout, Al-Jazeera spokesman,
said of the decision not to show the slaying of the longtime director
of
CARE in Iraq. ``We've never done it before, outside war.''
Adnan Abdul-Rahman, a 34-year-old Syrian government employee, was one
of
those loosely linking the two killings and placing blame for both at
the
feet of the United States. He said Hassan's death was ``a normal
response
to the crimes which the Americans are committing in Iraq.''
``Violence breeds violence,'' he said.
The U.S. military said Tuesday it was investigating the shooting in the
mosque to determine whether the Marine acted in self-defense.
Some Arabs portrayed the shooting by the Marine as a war crime
committed by
trigger-happy Americans, and the video as revealing the true face of
the
U.S. invasion. Others saw it as another debacle in the Iraq war that
hurts
America's image and efforts to restore stability in Iraq...
---
800 CIVILIANS FEARED DEAD IN FALLUJAH
Dahr Jamail, IPS News, 11/17/04
http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=26303
BAGHDAD - At least 800 civilians have been killed during the U.S.
military
siege of Fallujah, a Red Cross official estimates.
Speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of U.S. military reprisal,
a
high-ranking official with the Red Cross in Baghdad told IPS that "at
least
800 civilians" have been killed in Fallujah so far.
His estimate is based on reports from Red Crescent aid workers
stationed
around the embattled city, from residents within the city and from
refugees, he said.
"Several of our Red Cross workers have just returned from Fallujah
since
the Americans won't let them into the city," he said. "And they said
the
people they are tending to in the refugee camps set up in the desert
outside the city are telling horrible stories of suffering and death
inside
Fallujah."
The official said that both Red Cross and Iraqi Red Crescent relief
teams
had asked the U.S. military in Fallujah to take in medical supplies to
people trapped in the city, but their repeated requests had been turned
down.
A convoy of relief supplies from both relief organisations continues to
wait on the outskirts of the city for military permission to enter.
They
have appealed to the United Nations to intervene on their behalf...
-----
CAIR-DC: US MUSLIMS IN A QUANDARY OVER CHARITIES
Jane Lampman, Christian Science Monitor, 11/17/04
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1117/p11s02-lire.html
During Ramadan, American Muslims do more than devote themselves to
fasting
for spiritual renewal. Most choose this time to fulfill another annual
obligation of the faith - zakat, or charitable giving. One can't really
be
a Muslim, they say, without contributing 2.5 percent of savings to the
needy.
"If you don't give, it's like saying, 'I'm not going to pray,'" says
Anwar
Kazmi, owner of a software business in the Boston area. "We're taught
that
this is not even our money; God has given you things and others have a
share in what you have."
Yet this year, as Ramadan drew to a close last week, Muslims found
themselves once again distressed over the impact of US government
shutdowns
of Islamic charities for possible links to terrorism.
The assets of a fourth US-based charity - Islamic American Relief
Agency in
Columbia, Mo. - were frozen in mid-October at the start of Ramadan. And
the
following week, a plea from Muslim organizations for the US government
to
provide a list of "approved" charities for donations was turned down.
(It
just isn't feasible, US officials said, since new information could
come to
light at any time.)
Since 9/11, millions of dollars in donations have been seized and
frozen,
leaving Muslims with unfulfilled obligations. Some have found FBI
agents at
their doors, asking about specific checks they have written....
"Closing down groups without charging them with a crime raises the
question
of whether American Muslims' right to free association is being
chilled,"
suggests Arsalan Iftikhar, legal counsel for the Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a civil rights group in
Washington...
SEE ALSO:
CAIR-SV: JAMES YEE TO ADDRESS CAIR-SV BANQUET
(SACRAMENTO, CA, 11/17/04) - The Sacramento Valley office of the
Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-SV) today said some 400 government
officials, civic leaders and interfaith representatives are expected to
take part in the group's Second Annual Banquet on November 20th in
Sacramento. Chaplain James Yee, former Chaplain at Camp Delta in
Guantanamo
Bay, will be a keynote speaker at the event.
WHAT: Second Annual Banquet of the Council on American Islamic
Relations,
CAIR-Sacramento Valley
WHEN: Saturday, November 20, 2004, 6 PM
WHERE: Hilton Hotel, 2200 Harvard Street, Sacramento
CONTACT: CAIR-SV Executive Director Basim El-Karra, 916-289-3748
Council on American-Islamic Relations
Sacramento Valley Chapter
717 K St., Suite 306, Sacramento, CA 95818
Tel: (916) 441-6269
Fax: (916) 441-6271
---
CAIR-CAN: QUEBEC HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION ASKED TO ISSUE HIJAB RULING
Decision in 1995 against hijabs in private schools came without formal
complaint
(Ottawa, Canada - 16/11/2004) - The Canadian Council on
American-Islamic
Relations (CAIR-CAN) today called on the Quebec Human Rights Commission
to
issue a ruling on the right of Muslim students to wear a hijab, or
Islamic
headscarf, in Quebec's private schools citing a 1995 precedent when the
commission decided against forcing non-Muslim teachers to wear the
hijab in
a Montreal Muslim private school.
The call by CAIR-CAN came after the commission recently declined to
rule on
the case of Irene Waseem who was prevented from wearing her hijab by
College Charlemagne, a private school in Pierrefonds, Quebec. Ms.
Waseem
and the school reached a private settlement.
In 1994, the commission also reserved comment in the similar case of
Dania
Bali and her private school, Regina Assumpta.
In February 1995, however, the commission decided that a requirement
imposed by a private Montreal Muslim school that all female teachers,
including non-Muslims, wear the hijab as a condition of employment was
discriminatory and contravened human rights legislation. No complaints
were filed with the commission in that case.
In a statement issued today, CAIR-CAN wrote:
"While we fully respect Ms. Waseem's decision to reach a private
settlement
with College Charlemagne on this issue, we believe the Quebec Human
Rights
Commission must be fair and consistent in addressing issues that affect
the
public interest.
"The situation faced by Ms. Waseem is, without doubt, one that affects
other Quebec Muslims and their constitutionally guaranteed right to
practice the requirements of their faith.
"With its precedent ruling in 1995, and its role as the watchdog of
human
rights in Quebec, the commission has the duty to clarify this issue
without
delay and prevent any further misunderstanding or miscarriage of the
law."
CAIR-CAN's op-ed on the history of the hijab issue in Quebec entitled,
"Why
does a head scarf have us tied up in knots?" may be viewed at
www.caircan.ca in the op-ed portfolio.
CONTACT: Abdurahman Salman at 613-254-9704; Cell: 613-795-2012
ALSO SEE:
HIJAB RULING LEAVES QUESTION UNANSWERED
CBC, 11/16/04
http://montreal.cbc.ca/regionalnews/caches/qc_hijab20041116.html
MONTREAL - A family who filed a complaint against a school for
expelling
its daughter for wearing a hijab has dropped its case.
'For the moment, we haven't taken a position...but we can reflect on
the
question'
The decision is leaving people guessing about hijabs in private
schools.
The Quebec Human Rights Commission is stepping away from the case of
Irene
Waseem, who was expelled from her private school last year for wearing
a
hijab...
-----
CAIR-NY: MUSLIM COMMUNITY FORUM
WHAT: CAIR-NY, in cooperation with the New York City Human Rights
Commission, will bring speakers from various city agencies to discuss
how
the city can better serve the Muslim community, immigrant rights in the
workplace, citizenship issues, and the right to city services.
Light refreshments will be served. Guest Speakers include:
*Imam Abdul Malik--How can the Muslim community be an integral part of
the
city
*Omar Mohammedi, Commissioner, New York City Commission on Human Rights
*Speakers from the Dept's of Health, Education, Public Safety, Social
Services
WHEN: Saturday November 20th, 2004 from 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm
WHERE: Long Island University -1 University Plaza Room HS 107,
Brooklyn,
New York. Entrance at Flatbush and Dekalb Ave. 2,3,4,5 Trains to
Nevins/B,M,Q,R Trains to Dekalb
For more information, contact Wissam Nasr @ (212)870.2002 or
wnasr@cair-ny.com
-----
CAIR-LA: REFLECTIONS ON ANOTHER RAMADAN
Sabiha Khan, Daily Breeze, 11/16/04
http://www.dailybreeze.com/opinion/articles/1192361.html
As Ramadan came to a close this year and Muslims around the world and
in
Southern California celebrated Eid-ul-Fitr, the "Festival of Breaking
the
Fast," I found myself pondering the question: "Have I become a better
person as a result of this blessed month?"
Every year before Ramadan starts, I am filled with anticipation, hope
and
usually some apprehension. I wonder if I will be able to meet the
demands
of the fast. Even in a state of hunger and fatigue, a fasting person
must
do his or her best to be patient, avoid harshness with anyone, show
compassion and mercy to others, give of time and wealth in charity, and
avoid any falsehood or bad deed.
Muslims fast each day for the entire month of Ramadan. This means that
they
refrain from eating and drinking, including water, from dawn to dusk
each
day.
But Ramadan is more than a time to abstain from food and drink, it is a
time to subjugate the needs of the body to tend to the needs of the
heart.
This month, the call of the heart and its longing for connection with
God
take precedence.
For Muslims, Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar.
Muslims,
like Jews, use a lunar calendar, in which each month begins with the
sighting of the new moon. The lunar calendar is about 11 days shorter
than
the Gregorian calendar and thus Islamic holidays "move" each year. This
year, Ramadan began on Oct. 15.
Ramadan ends with a festival called "Eid," which in 2004 was to occur
on
Sunday. Eid al-Fitr is one of the two most important Islamic
celebrations.
At Eid, people dress in their finest clothes, adorn their homes with
lights
and decorations, give treats to children, and enjoy visits with friends
and
family...
Sabiha Khan is communications director for the Council on
American-Islamic
Relations, Southern California, which is based in Anaheim.
-----
MI: THREATS AGAINST MUSLIMS ALLEGED
Cecil Angel, Detroit Free Press, 11/17/04
http://www.freep.com/news/locway/indict17e_20041117.htm
A grand jury in U.S. District Court in Detroit indicted two men from
New
York state on charges of sending e-mails to the Islamic Center of
America
threatening to kill Muslims, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced
Tuesday.
John Barnett, 54, and Michael Bratisax, 45, sent e-mails in May from
their
home computers in New York to the Detroit mosque, according to the U.S.
Attorney's Office.
The men apparently were reacting to the kidnapping and beheading in May
of
Nicholas Berg, an American businessman working in Iraq, according to
the
indictment unsealed Tuesday.
"Threats against a person based upon that person's free exercise of
their
religious beliefs undermine the foundation upon which our country is
built," U.S. Attorney Craig Morford said. "This prosecution shows our
dedication to the enforcement of the federal criminal civil rights laws
and
federal criminal laws that enhance such enforcement."
Part of Bratisax's e-mail message allegedly said, "Saw your video
cutting
off an American head. ...I pray to get the opportunity to kill a
Muslim.
You're not even 'real people.' "
In a second e-mail, authorities allege Bratisax wrote: "I pray every
one of
Allah's followers enjoys hell. ... That's where you belong..."
Barnett's e-mail message allegedly said, "Keep coming here and now you
will
be hunted by me and the rest of the world. ... Your Mohammed sucks. He
was
a pedophile. ... Death to you all! Or I will kill you. JB..."
SEE ALSO:
2D YOUTH GETS PRISON IN ATTACK ON GRAD STUDENT
India New England, 11/15/04
http://www.indianewengland.com/news/2004/11/15/Community/2d.Youth.Gets.Priso
n.In.Attack.On.Grad.Student-805093.shtml
NEW BEDFORD, Mass. - A second man has been sentenced to state prison in
the
2003 attack on an Indian graduate student who was delivering food.
Christopher Pereira, 21, of New Bedford, pleaded guilty on Oct. 27 in
New
Bedford Superior Court to armed robbery and other charges related to
the
attack on Saurabh Bhalerao.
Pereira lived in the home where Bhalerao was beaten and kidnapped on
June
22, 2003. He was arrested that night after police spotted him on the
street
eating a steak sandwich, the type of food Bhalerao had delivered to
Pereira's home.
Bhalerao had just started work as a pizza deliveryman last June, when
he
arrived at Pereira's home, where several young men were hanging out.
The
group allegedly mistook Bhalerao for a Muslim and began to beat him.
Pereira is one of four youths charged in the attack. Ryan Marsh, 18,
pleaded guilty earlier this year to a list of charges, including
kidnapping
and armed robbery, and was sentenced to seven and a half years in state
prison. The cases of Christopher Hansen and Tyrell Tavares, both 18,
are
pending in court.
Pereira pleaded guilty to charges of kidnapping, armed robbery, a civil
rights violation, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. For
the
most serious charge, armed robbery, Judge Robert J. Kane sentenced
Pereira
to five to six years in Walpole state prison...
-----
OH: GOLDEN DOME TAKES ITS PLACE ATOP MOSQUE
David Yonke, Toledo Blade, 11/17/04
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041117/NEWS08/411170
337/-1/NEWS
The Islamic Center of Greater Toledo - the Middle Eastern-style mosque
prominently located at the juncture of I-475 and I-75 in Perrysburg
Township - got a new look yesterday when it was capped with a golden,
30-foot-high geodesic dome.
The 18,000-pound aluminum dome, built by the California-based firm
Temcor
at a cost of about $300,000, was hoisted by crane yesterday morning and
placed atop the mosque's white dome.
The old dome, which has been on top of the building since its 1983
construction, was made of plaster, concrete, and Styrofoam.
Although the old dome was structurally sound, its epoxy surface
frequently
cracked and needed cosmetic touch-ups, according to Hussien Shousher, a
civil engineer and member of the board of the Islamic Center who
spearheaded the construction project.
The gold-painted aluminum dome is expected to be maintenance-free for
25 to
30 years, he said.
The Toledo architectural firm SSOE Inc. oversaw the structural and
architectural aspects of the dome project, and the Lake Township
construction company Rudolph-Libbe Inc. lifted the dome atop the
mosque...
-----
VA: NATIVE DEEN EID CONCERT 2004
WHAT: MSA of Northern Virginia Community College presents "Native Deen
at
Eid Concert 2004." Songs to Inspire & Instill Pride In Being Muslim!
Featuring renowned Hip-Hop drummer "SNARE" Hear old jams & New Songs
from
the upcoming album!
WHEN: Sunday, November 21, 2004 - 6 PM SHARP
WHERE: Richard J. Ernst Community Cultural Center, 703-323-3159
8333 Little River Turnpike, Annandale, VA 22003
Park only in Cultural Center parking lot (E Lot)
Directions: http://www.nvcc.edu/annandale/continuing/cultural/map.htm
Parking: http://www.nvcc.edu/annandale/continuing/cultural/parking.htm
Ticket Price Per Seat: $10 Before Sun. Nov. 21, 2004
$10 With Student ID, $15 Online, $15 At Door
Limited Seating.
Purchase Tickets Online at:
http://www.nativedeen.com/pages/events/dates.shtml
For more information contact info@NativeDeen.com or 703-707-0270
Check out the site to learn more about the Muslim Music group, Native
Deen!
www.NativeDeen.com
-----
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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
--------------------------------------------------------------------
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http://mail2web.com/ .
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
CAIR ACTION ALERT #441
PALESTINIANS CALLED ‘FILTHY ANIMALS’ ON MSNBC’S ‘IMUS’
Muslims urged to demand apology for hate-filled remarks
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 11/18/04) – CAIR today called on American Muslims
and
other people of conscience to contact the MSNBC cable television
network to
demand an apology for comments made on its “Imus in the Morning”
program
that referred to Palestinians as “filthy animals” and suggested that
they
all be killed.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations also asked that the program’s
host, Don Imus, be reprimanded for failing to challenge his colleagues’
inflammatory remarks. CAIR, which says it received numerous complaints
about the comments, quoted a transcript of Imus’ November 12th program
in
which he and his on-air colleagues engaged in the following discussion
about live coverage of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s funeral:
DON IMUS: They’re (the Palestinians) eating dirt and that fat pig wife
of
his is living in Paris.
COLLEAGUE: They’re all brainwashed, though. That’s what it is. And
they’re
stupid, to begin with, but they’re brainwashed now. Stinking animals.
They
ought to drop the bomb right there, kill ‘em all right now…
IMUS: Well, the problem is we have (reporter) Andrea (Mitchell) there;
we
don’t want anything to happen to her.
COLLEAGUE: Oh, she’s got to get out. Andrea, get out and then drop the
bomb
and kill everybody…
COLLEAGUE: Look at this. Animals. Animals!
In a letter to MSNBC President Neal Shapiro, CAIR stated: “We are firm
defenders of the First Amendment, but these hate-filled and racist
remarks
can only serve to legitimize anti-Muslim and anti-Arab bigotry in our
society and could lead to further discrimination against members of the
Islamic and Arab-American communities.” (CAIR also filed a complaint
with
the FCC because “Imus in the Morning” is a nationally-syndicated radio
program.)
This is not the first time Imus has been involved in a controversy over
anti-Arab and Islamophobic remarks. As early as 1985, he was forced to
apologize for referring to Arabs as “goat-humping weasels.” (Sunday
Mail,
4/21/85) He has also been criticized for using the derogatory term
“raghead.” (Accuracy in Media) In a reference to the crash of an
Iranian
airliner earlier this year that killed 43 passengers, Imus said, “When
I
hear stories like that, I think who cares.” He then stated: “Too bad it
wasn't full of Saudi Arabians.” (National Iranian American Council)
Earlier this year, CAIR announced a campaign designed to counter hate
speech on talk radio. The campaign, called “Hate Hurts America,” is
based
on the premise that the increasing attacks on Islam by talk show hosts
harm
the United States by creating a downward spiral of interfaith mistrust
and
hostility. As part of that campaign, Muslims were given step-by-step
instructions on how to monitor local and syndicated radio programs,
report
anti-Muslim hate, file FCC complaints, and contact advertisers to
register
their concerns.
SEE: http://www.cair-net.org/hatehurtsamerica/
Reports of anti-Muslim hate may be filed at:
http://www.cair-net.org/hatehurtsamerica/hatewatch.asp
To learn “How to Challenge Anti-Muslim Hate on the Radio,” go to:
http://www.cair-net.org/hatehurtsamerica/hatehurtsamerica.asp?page=challenge
radio
ACTION REQUESTED: (As always, be POLITE and RESPECTFUL.)
Contact MSNBC to demand an apology and a reprimand for all those
involved
in the program.
CONTACT:
Mr. Neal Shapiro
President, MSNBC
30 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10112-0002
E-MAIL: neal.shapiro@nbc.com COPY TO: imus@msnbc.com, fccinfo@fcc.gov,
cair@cair-net.org
FAX: 212-664-2264
- PLEASE ANNOUNCE, POST AND DISTRIBUTE –
-----
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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
--------------------------------------------------------------------
mail2web - Check your email from the web at
http://mail2web.com/ .
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 11/18/04
* VERSE OF THE DAY: WHAT IS RIGHT AND JUST
* HELP CAIR MEET ITS GOAL OF $1 MILLION
- CAIR Job Opening: Civil Rights Coordinator
* CAIR-FL: MUSLIMS TO FEED NEEDY
- CAIR-CAN Calls for Clear Policy on Hijab
- CAIR-LA: Patriot Act Panel Discussion
* MA: POLICE INVESTIGATING ANTI-ISLAMIC FLIER (MetroWest)
* THIS MUSLIM WALKS INTO A MOSQUE...(Philadelphia Inquirer)
- CA: Muslim Woman Focuses on Humanitarianism (SJMN)
* IMMIGRANT DETAINEES TELL OF ATTACK DOGS AND ABUSE (NPR)
* IRAQ: MUDDY BOOTS IN THE MOSQUE (UPI)
- Israeli Soldiers Accused of Mistreating BODIES (ABC)
- Gaza's Blocked Arteries (BBC)
* WHAT IF ISLAM ISN'T AN OBSTACLE TO DEMOCRACY? (Wash Monthly)
* TX: A CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE ON AMERICAN MUSLIMS (ISNA)
-----
VERSE OF THE DAY: WHAT IS RIGHT AND JUST
"It is not your wealth nor your children that will bring you nearer to
Us.
Only those who attain to faith and do what is right and just (come near
to
Us.) For them, there will be a double reward for their deeds and in
high
mansions shall they live in peace."
The Holy Quran, 34:37
-----
HELP CAIR MEET ITS GOAL OF $1 MILLION
Alhamdulillah (praise be to God), CAIR raised almost $900,000 in its
Ramadan campaign. With only $102,912 left, we are asking everyone to do
their part to help us reach our goal! Whether your donation is $50 or
$100,
every dollar that you donate today will count and be used to help
empower
the American Muslim community.
We need about 1000 people to donate $100 to meet our goal!
NOW is the time to show your support for CAIR.
To support CAIR's important work, please donate at:
https://www.cair-net.org/asp/donate.asp
REMEMBER: Scholars say CAIR is able to receive ZAKAT donations.
ALSO SEE:
CAIR JOB OPENING: CIVIL RIGHTS COORDINATOR
CAIR has an immediate opening for an experienced dynamic person to fill
the
position of Civil Rights Coordinator. The position involves handling of
civil rights cases, doing research on issues pertaining to civil and
religious rights in America, maintaining a civil rights data base
system,
and generating reports, charts and graphs. Candidates should have a
Bachelor degree in a related field with general knowledge of the US
Constitution and the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
All those interested and eligible to work in US (Citizens or proper
work
visa holders) are encouraged to apply in confidence via email to:
hr@cair-net.org, or by fax 202-488-0833. When applying via e-mail
please
ensure to write the position title "Civil Rights Coordinator" in the
subject of the email. Please send your application with cover letter
and
complete resume and references. Absolutely no phone calls please.
-----
FL MUSLIMS TO FEED NEEDY
(TAMPA, FL, 11/18/04) - On Wednesday, November 24, the Florida office
of
the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-FL) plans to serve hot
meals to more than 1000 low-income residents in the city of Tampa on
the
night before Thanksgiving.
WHAT: CAIR Pre-Thanksgiving Community Dinner to Feed the Needy
WHEN: Wednesday, November 24, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
WHERE: University Community Center, 14013 N 22nd Street, Tampa, FL
(813-558-5212)
CONTACT: Ahmed Bedier 813-514-1414 or 813-731-9506, E-mail:
abedier@cair-florida.org
The Islamic faith obligates its followers to give to the poor and the
hungry. Islam's Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "He is not
a
true believer who sleeps with a full stomach, while his neighbor is
hungry."
"Muslims have an obligation to give back to the communities in which
they
live," said CAIR-FL Communications Director Ahmed Bedier. "This is a
great
way to reach out and build bridges of understanding."
The Tampa Thanksgiving Community Dinner is part of CAIR-FL's "Feed the
Hungry" campaign. CAIR-FL was recognized earlier this week by the
Hernando
County Commission for a similar effort in that county to distribute
food
baskets to the needy. CAIR-FL also held a similar event in Broward
County
earlier in the month.
CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil liberties group, is headquartered
in
Washington, D.C., and has 29 offices and chapters nationwide and in
Canada.
Its mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue,
protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions
that promote justice and mutual understanding.
- END -
CONTACT: Ahmed Bedier, 813-731-9506, abedier@cair-florida.org; Altaf
Ali,
954-298-8214, altaf@cair-florida.org
SEE ALSO:
CANADIAN MUSLIM AND CIVIL RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS CALL ON QUEBEC HUMAN
RIGHTS
COMMISSION TO ISSUE CLEAR POLICY ON HIJAB
(OTTAWA, CANADA � 17/11/2004) � Canadian Muslim and civil rights
organizations today called on the Quebec Human Rights Commission to
issue a
clear policy on the right of students to wear a hijab, Islamic
headscarf,
in Quebec's private schools.
At a press conference in Montreal, spokespersons from the Canadian
Council
on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN), the Muslim Council of
Montreal
(MCM), the Alliance of South Asian Communities (ASAC) and the Centre
for
Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR) made known their views on the
Quebec Human Rights Commission's handling of the issue of private
schools
banning the hijab.
CONTACT: Abdurahman Salman at 613-254-9704; Cell: 613-795-2012
---
PATRIOT ACT PANEL DISCUSSION
Nov. 18, 6:30 p.m. -- PATRIOT ACT PANEL DISCUSSION -- A panel will
discuss
"USA Patriot Act -- Three Years Later," taking a "retrospective look at
the
implications of the Patriot Act on our rights, civil liberties,
privacy,
freedoms and safety as a nation" following the third anniversary of its
passage, according to contact. Speakers will include former ACLU of
Southern California President Stephen Rohde; Chapman University law
professor Katherine Darmer, author of "National Security and Civil
Liberties in a Post 9/11 World"; and Sherman Austin, a Los Angeles
activist
who was incarcerated under the Patriot Act. Event co-sponsors are the
Southwestern Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, the Southwestern
Latino
American Student Association, Southwestern Black Law Student
Association,
and Southwestern Public Interest Law Society.
Location: Southwestern University School of Law, Bullocks Wilshire
Building, Room 330, 675 S. Westmoreland Ave., Los Angeles, California,
United States
CONTACTS: (Council on American Islamic Relations), (714) 776-1847
-----
WAYLAND POLICE INVESTIGATING ANTI-ISLAMIC FLIER
John Hilliard, MetroWest Daily News, 11/18/04
http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=83344
WAYLAND -- Police are investigating the origin of a flier that alleges
a
local Islamic group raised money for terrorists while law enforcement
protected the group from "citizen retribution."
Several residents living near the home of the Wayland-based Islamic
Center
of Boston found the anti-Islamic flier in their mailboxes on Monday.
However, police believe the flier was not isolated to that neighborhood
after letter carriers found several copies across town over the last
several days.
"It could be more than an isolated, one-day affair," said Police Chief
Robert Irving.
Headlined "Wayland Residents Beware," the typewritten flier alleged the
Islamic Center of Boston supported terrorism in the United States and
housed several Sept. 11 terrorists.
"Very few of us are aware that this (is) where six of the 9-11
hijackers
stayed while planning (their) attacks on America on Sept. 11," wrote
the
flier's author.
The flier, with both grammatical and spelling errors, even claims the
ICB
held a "going away party" for the hijackers while Wayland police were
hired
to provide security for the event. It alleges police guarded the ICB
campus
for a year after Sept. 11...
----
THIS MUSLIM WALKS INTO A MOSQUE...
Daniel Rubin, Philadelphia Inquirer, 11/18/04
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/10210880.htm
TEMPE, Ariz. - A Google search for the phrase "uproarious Muslims"
produces
no results - but that's part of the joke for the Allah Made Me Funny
troupe, three comedians of Islamic faith who use humor to treat what
they
call the 9/11 Hangover.
Azhar Usman, for instance, is just the sort of fellow one would want to
sit
next to on a long flight - a witty, erudite and well-traveled former
lawyer, 6-foot-2 with a bushy beard, black skullcap, and bearish
countenance that invariably cause double-takes in airports.
"If I were a Muslim-extremist-terrorist intent on blowing up a plane,"
he
assures nervous travelers, "this is not the disguise I'd go with."
Usman was headlining Tuesday's early show, sending roars of laughter
across
the rows of men and women in headscarves, Arab robes and Western dress
at
an Arizona State University hall. The early show was modestly attended,
maybe 65 people, prompting Preacher Moss, the tour's founder, to crack:
"We could have held it in an FBI interrogation room."
More typical in their 30-city tour are sold-out crowds. Yesterday they
were
to perform three times in Dearborn, Mich., the heart of the country's
Muslim community. Tomorrow they come to Temple University's Anderson
Hall
for two shows.
ALSO SEE:
WOMAN'S LIFE FOCUSES ON HUMANITARIANISM
Kellie Schmitt, San Jose Mercury News, 11/19/04
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/10212494.htm
When Samina Faheem Sundas was 6 and living in Pakistan, she volunteered
to
package supplies for victims of a monsoon. Sundas, whose grandmother
called
her ''a bundle of love,'' was a humanitarian before she even knew what
it
meant.
Decades later, the Palo Alto resident is dedicating her life to a
bigger
mission as the founder of American Muslim Voice. The group works to
unite
people in a campaign for human rights, respect and understanding of
other
cultures.
In the year since it was founded, Sundas, 49, and her organization have
tried to voice concerns about civil rights while also forging ties with
other groups nationally, such as Amnesty International, the American
Civil
Liberties Union, Global Exchange, and the Blue Triangle Network.
Sundas started the group after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, when
the
backlash against Muslims made her part of a ''target community.'' She
wanted to help people move through that to create friendships between
Muslims and Americans, something she hoped would lead to the
preservation
of civil liberties and human rights.
''What I wanted to see was friendships between Muslims, Arabs and
fellow
Americans,'' Sundas said. ''American Muslim Voice was founded to fill a
void and take dialogue to the next level...''
-----
IMMIGRANT DETAINEES TELL OF ATTACK DOGS AND ABUSE
NPR, 11/17/04
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4170152
All Things Considered, November 17, 2004 � Since Congress revamped the
nation's immigration laws in the 1990s, the government has rounded up
tens
of thousands of immigrants each year who've committed a crime -- from
murder to offenses such as overstaying their visas -- even if the
offenders
had already been punished.
These immigrants have been jailed for months or years while Homeland
Security officials obtained a court order to deport them. Some have
allegedly experienced brutal and violent conditions while in detention.
In a two-part series, NPR's Daniel Zwerdling investigates allegations
that
guards have beaten up detainees and mistreated them in other ways at
two
jails in New Jersey used by Homeland Security.
Zwerdling's first report looks at the case of Hemnauth Mohabir, a
native of
Guyana. In the spring of 2002, Mohabir returned to Guyana to visit his
mother, who was ill. On his way back to New York that April, an
immigration
agent at Kennedy International Airport noticed Mohabir had a criminal
record: Six years earlier, he'd been convicted of possessing about $5
worth
of drugs. The judge fined him $250 for a misdemeanor and let him go.
Because of that past conviction, Mohabir was deported to Guyana and
banned
from ever coming back to the United States. But before returning to his
native country, Mohabir was detained for almost two years at New
Jersey's
Passaic County Jail, where he alleges that guards taunted and beat
detainees and terrorized them with dogs. One detainee was attacked by a
dog
earlier this year and sent to the hospital. Evidence obtained by NPR
during
the course of a five-month-long investigation suggests Mohabir's tale
of
abuse, corroborated by other detainees, is true...
-----
OUTSIDE VIEW: MUDDY BOOTS IN THE MOSQUE
Youssef M. Ibrahim, United Press International, 11/18/04
Last week a number of newspapers published a picture of U.S. Marines
relaxing inside the Khulafah Al Rashid mosque in Fallujah after
storming
it. The Marines, shown in full-battle gear trampling prayer carpets
with
their boots, were members of Charlie Company, First Battalion, Eighth
Marine Regiment. Some were shown lying nonchalantly on the carpets of
the
holy site, eating and drinking with their weapons next to them, or
brandished by those standing and still entering the mosque.
The photographer, Louis Binco, who took the picture, did his job. It
was a
very good shot, one for which he should be complimented. The Los
Angeles
Times, one of the many papers that published it, also did its job too.
It
was part of a very good story. But the folks in the military who
allowed
those Marines to sit, sleep, keep their boots and weapons and have
their
pictures taken inside a holy site in Fallujah, did the United States a
huge
disfavor.
This picture has since developed a life of its own.
Just as those other pictures of abused Iraqi prisoners inside the now
infamous Abu Ghraib prison, a picture speaks volumes during a war,
especially as it has now migrated from website to website, as well as
being
published repeatedly, sent and resent over the internet a million times
to
become part of a solid wall of hatred against America among Muslims.
Very few things can be more provocative than an enemy soiling your
place of
worship, especially as it is sent out with the subject identification
that
says: "Get Your Feet Out of My Mosque…"
ALSO SEE:
ISRAELI SOLDIERS ACCUSED OF MISTREATING BODIES
ABC, 11/17/04
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200411/s1246580.htm
The Israeli Army has launched an inquiry into allegations that soldiers
posed and photographed the bodies of several Palestinians killed in the
West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Ynet, the website of Israel's largest-circulation daily Yedioth
Ahronoth,
reported four separate incidents in which unidentified soldiers accused
comrades of treating Palestinian corpses disrespectfully.
"On the surface, it appears we are speaking of serious actions the
Israeli
Army strongly condemns," the military said in a statement.
It said that such behaviour would be in violation of its code of
conduct.
The alleged incidents appear to have occurred in the course of a
Palestinian uprising that began four years ago and has been marked by
Palestinian suicide bombings and an Israeli Army crackdown in the West
Bank
and Gaza…
---
GAZA'S BLOCKED ARTERIES
Martin Asser, BBC News, 11/18/04
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4021095.stm
It is a public holiday in Gaza - with Eid and the period of official
mourning for Yasser Arafat - so there is no better time to sample what
it
is like for Palestinians travelling through the Israeli-occupied
strip...
-----
BERNARD LEWIS REVISITED
What if Islam isn't an obstacle to democracy in the Middle East but the
secret to achieving it?
Michael Hirsh, Washington Monthly, 11/17/04
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0411.hirsh.html
America's misreading of the Arab world-and our current misadventure in
Iraq-may have really begun in 1950. That was the year a young
University of
London historian named Bernard Lewis visited Turkey for the first time.
Lewis, who is today an imposing, white-haired sage known as the "doyen
of
Middle Eastern studies" in America (as a New York Times reviewer once
called him), was then on a sabbatical. Granted access to the Imperial
Ottoman archives-the first Westerner allowed in-Lewis recalled that he
felt
"rather like a child turned loose in a toy shop, or like an intruder in
Ali
Baba's cave." But what Lewis saw happening outside his study window was
just as exciting, he later wrote. There in Istanbul, in the heart of
what
once was a Muslim empire, a Western-style democracy was being born.
The hero of this grand transformation was Kemal Ataturk. A generation
before Lewis's visit to Turkey, Ataturk (the last name, which he
adopted,
means "father of all Turks"), had seized control of the dying Ottoman
Sultanate. Intent on single-handedly shoving his country into the
modern
West-"For the people, despite the people," he memorably
declared-Ataturk
imposed a puritanical secularism that abolished the caliphate,
shuttered
religious schools, and banned fezes, veils, and other icons of Islamic
culture, even purging Turkish of its Arabic vocabulary. His People's
Party
had ruled autocratically since 1923. But in May 1950, after the passage
of
a new electoral law, it resoundingly lost the national elections to the
nascent Democrat Party. The constitutional handover was an event
"without
precedent in the history of the country and the region," as Lewis wrote
in
The Emergence of Modern Turkey, published in 1961, a year after the
Turkish
army first seized power. And it was Kemal Ataturk, Lewis noted at
another
point, who had "taken the first decisive steps in the acceptance of
Western
civilization."
Today, that epiphany-Lewis's Kemalist vision of a secularized,
Westernized
Arab democracy that casts off the medieval shackles of Islam and enters
modernity at last-remains the core of George W. Bush's faltering vision
in
Iraq. As his other rationales for war fall away, Bush has only
democratic
transformation to point to as a casus belli in order to justify one of
the
costliest foreign adventures in American history. And even now Bush,
having
handed over faux sovereignty to the Iraqis and while beating a
pell-mell
retreat under fire, does not want to settle for some watered-down or
Islamicized version of democracy. His administration's official goal is
still dictated by the "Lewis Doctrine," as The Wall Street Journal
called
it: a Westernized polity, reconstituted and imposed from above like
Kemal's
Turkey, that is to become a bulwark of security for America and a model
for
the region.
Iraq, of course, does not seem to be heading in that direction. Quite
the
contrary: Iraq is passing from a secular to an increasingly radicalized
and
Islamicized society, and should it actually turn into a functioning
polity,
it is one for the present defined more by bullets than by ballots. All
of
which raises some important questions. What if the mistakes made in
Iraq
were not merely tactical missteps but stem from a fundamental
misreading of
the Arab mindset? What if, in other words, the doyen of Middle Eastern
studies got it all wrong?...
-----
I.S.N.A. DAY IN AUSTIN, TX ON SAT., NOV. 20TH 2004
Holiday Inn Located at 3401 South Interstate 35, Austin, TX 78741
(Ph# 512-448-2444)
DALLAS, Nov. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Islamic Society of North America
(I.S.N.A.)
the largest and the oldest Muslim organization of North America, with
the
Muslim Community of Austin would like to cordially invite you to a
seminar
and dinner banquet.
Challenges facing the Muslim Community in North America & The Muslim
Community in the US: A Christian's Perspective
When: On Saturday November 20th 2004
Time: 5:00PM sharp (Press Conference and Media interaction)
Tickets: Complimentary for Media
Venue: Holiday Inn located at 3401 South Interstate 35, Austin, TX
78741
(Ph# 512-448-2444)
Guest Speakers:
Dr. Scott Alexander - Director of Catholic Muslim Studies, Catholic
Theological Union
Dr. Sayyid M. Syeed - Secretary General of Islamic Society of North
America
Dr. Louy Safi - Executive Director I.S.N.A. Leadership Development
Center
(ILDC)
Dr. Mohamed Rajabally - Member I.S.N.A. Executive Council
Mr. Azhar Azeez - Member I.S.N.A. Executive Council
I.S.N.A.'s Mission: I.S.N.A. is an association of Muslim organizations
and
individuals that provides a common platform for presenting Islam,
supporting Muslim communities, developing educational, social and
outreach
programs and fostering good relations with other religious communities,
and
civic and service organizations. (http://www.isna.net )
SOURCE Islamic Society of North America
Web Site: http://www.isna.net
-----
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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
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In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
CAIR ACTION ALERT #442
MSNBC 'IMUS' SEGMENT REFERS TO 'RAGHEAD CADAVER'
Muslims urged to renew demand for apology, reprimand
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 11/19/04) - CAIR is once again calling on people of
conscience to demand an apology from the MSNBC cable television network
for
anti-Arab/anti-Muslim remarks made on its "Imus in the Morning"
program.
In a segment today commenting on the apparent execution of a wounded
Iraqi
in Fallujah by a U.S. Marine, a fictitious "Senior Military Affairs
Advisor" to the program justified the killing by referring to a
"booby-trapped raghead cadaver." The fictitious advisor also said the
killing provided an "Al-Jazeera moment" causing the "Muslim masses to
respond with their routine pack of rabid sheep mentality."
Yesterday, CAIR issued a similar call for an apology for a November
12th
"Imus" program that referred to Palestinians as "stinking animals" and
suggested that they all be killed.
SEE: Palestinians Called 'Stinking Animals' on MSNBC's 'Imus'
http://www.cair-net.org/asp/article.asp?id=201&page=AA
"We thank all those who already contacted the network to express their
concerns about the racist remarks and ask that they keep up the
pressure
until those concerns are properly addressed," said CAIR Executive
Director
Nihad Awad.
Don Imus, the program's host, has a long history of controversy over
anti-Arab and Islamophobic remarks. As early as 1985, he was forced to
apologize for referring to Arabs as "goat-humping weasels." (Sunday
Mail,
4/21/85) He has also been criticized for using the derogatory term
"raghead." (Accuracy in Media) In a reference to the crash of an
Iranian
airliner earlier this year that killed 43 passengers, Imus said, "When
I
hear stories like that, I think who cares." He then stated: "Too bad it
wasn't full of Saudi Arabians." (National Iranian American Council)
Earlier this year, CAIR announced a "Hate Hurts America" campaign
designed
to counter hate speech on talk radio.
SEE: http://www.cair-net.org/hatehurtsamerica/
ACTION REQUESTED: (As always, be POLITE and RESPECTFUL.)
Contact NBC and MSNBC to renew your demand for an apology and a
reprimand
for all those involved in both programs. (Send a demand for an apology
even
if you sent one based on the earlier alert.)
CONTACT:
Mr. Rick Kaplan
President
MSNBC
1 MSNBC Plaza
Secaucus, NJ 07094-2419
TEL: 201-583-5050
FAX: 201-583-5179
Mr. Neal Shapiro
President
NBC News
30 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10112-0002
E-MAIL: rick.kaplan@msnbc.com, neal.shapiro@nbc.com
COPY TO: imus@msnbc.com, alana.russo@msnbc.com,
leslie.schwartz@msnbc.com,
fccinfo@fcc.gov, cair@cair-net.org
- PLEASE ANNOUNCE, POST AND DISTRIBUTE -
-----
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http://cair.biglist.com/cair-net/
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-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
--------------------------------------------------------------------
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In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 11/18/04
* VERSE OF THE DAY: SIGNS FOR THOSE WHO KNOW
* HELP CAIR MEET ITS GOAL OF $1 MILLION
* CAIR CONDEMNS ATTACK ON BAGHDAD MOSQUE
* PROSECUTOR SAYS DETAINEE ‘HAS NO FINGERNAILS LEFT’ (Wash Post)
- WA: U-W Workers Rally Around Detainee (The Daily)
* CAIR-OH: ARAB-AMERICANS RESENT FBI QUESTIONS (Plain Dealer)
- Cole: Less Safe, Less Free (Salon.Com)
* CAIR-OH: COMMUNITIES SEEK BLESSED MEAT (Columbus Disp)
- NJ: Changes Sought In Mosque Plan (Courier Post)
* NJ: BRINGING MUSLIMS, HINDUS TOGETHER (Record)
* CAIR: ISLAMIC GROUP SLAMS IMUS SHOW COMMENTS (UPI)
- MSNBC 'Imus' Segment Refers to 'Raghead Cadaver'
* CAIR-DC: BODIES OF IRAQIS ARE BROUGHT TO U.S. (Balt Sun)
* TBCJP: TWO BOOKS ON SAMI AL-ARIAN
-----
VERSE OF THE DAY: SIGNS FOR THOSE WHO KNOW
“And among His Signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth and
the
variations in your languages and your colors. Verily these are Signs
for
those who know.”
The Holy Quran, 30:22
HADITH OF THE DAY: BE BROTHERS
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "Do not hate one
another,
nor be jealous of one another. And do not desert one another, but O
God’s
worshipers, be brothers.
Sahih Al-Bukhari, 8:99
-----
HELP CAIR MEET ITS GOAL OF $1 MILLION
Alhamdulillah (praise be to God), CAIR raised almost $900,000 in its
Ramadan campaign. With only $102,912 left, we are asking everyone to do
their part to help us reach our goal! Whether your donation is $50 or
$100,
every dollar that you donate today will count and be used to help
empower
the American Muslim community.
We need about 1000 people to donate $100 to meet our goal!
NOW is the time to show your support for CAIR.
To support CAIR's important work, please donate at:
https://www.cair-net.org/asp/donate.asp
REMEMBER: Scholars say CAIR is able to receive ZAKAT donations.
-----
CAIR CONDEMNS ATTACK ON BAGHDAD MOSQUE
At least four worshipers killed by U.S. and Iraqi forces
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 11/19/04) - A prominent national Islamic civil
rights
and advocacy group today condemned an attack on a Baghdad mosque by
U.S.
and Iraqi forces that resulted in the deaths of at least four
worshipers.
The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said
media reports indicate that soldiers opened fire when angry worshippers
shouted "God is Great” and tried to beat back troops by throwing shoes
at
them.
Witnesses to the attack say soldiers denied Iraqi Red Crescent medical
teams access to the mosque and said pieces of brain were splattered on
one
of the mosque’s walls. (Article 63 of the Geneva Conventions prohibits
blocking medical and relief activities.)
SEE: “As U.S. Forces Raided a Mosque”
http://www.ipsnews.net/new_nota.asp?idnews=26351
“US, Iraqi Troops Raid Baghdad Mosque, Kill Four”
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=6871191
In its statement, CAIR said:
“An attack on worshippers after Friday prayers is an act of religious
provocation and likely to be counterproductive. This incident may
inflame
Muslim public opinion at a time when all parties to the conflict should
seek peace and reconciliation.
“Violating the sanctity of a mosque by firing on unarmed worshippers
will
only help to reinforce the perception held by many in the Muslim world
that
the war on terror is turning into a war on Islam.”
Earlier this week, CAIR called for an independent probe of allegations
by
human rights groups that both sides in the recent fighting have
violated
the rules of war. SEE:
http://cair-net.org/asp/article.asp?id=1324&page=NR
CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil liberties group, is headquartered
in
Washington, D.C., and has 29 offices and chapters nationwide and in
Canada.
Its mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue,
protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions
that promote justice and mutual understanding.
- END -
CONTACT: Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail:
ihooper@cair-net.org; Rabiah Ahmed, 202-488-8787 or 202-439-1441,
E-Mail:
rahmed@cair-net.org
-----
VA: PROSECUTOR SAYS DETAINEE ‘HAS NO FINGERNAILS LEFT’
OFFICIAL ALLEGEDLY HINTED AT SAUDI TORTURE OF VA. MAN
Caryle Murphy, Washington Post, 11/19/04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60916-2004Nov18.html
A federal prosecutor in Alexandria made a comment last year suggesting
that
a Falls Church man held in a Saudi Arabian prison had been tortured,
according to a sworn affidavit from a defense lawyer that was recently
filed in federal court in Washington.
The alleged remark by Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon D. Kromberg
occurred
during a conversation with the lawyer, Salim Ali, in the federal
courthouse
in Alexandria, according to Ali's affidavit. The document was filed
Oct. 12
in connection with a petition by the parents of the detained man, Ahmed
Abu
Ali, who are seeking his release from Saudi custody.
The lawyer stated in the affidavit that he asked Kromberg about
bringing
Abu Ali back to the United States to face charges so as "to avoid the
torture that goes on in Saudi Arabia."
Kromberg "smirked and stated that 'He's no good for us here, he has no
fingernails left,'" Salim Ali wrote in his affidavit, adding: "I did
not
know how to respond [to] the appalling statement he made, and we
subsequently ceased our discussion about Ahmed Abu Ali."
Kromberg did not return a reporter's call seeking comment on the
affidavit.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in Alexandria said that
Kromberg had forwarded the reporter's request to her and that "the
office
has no comment" on the affidavit's contents...
ALSO SEE:
U-W WORKERS RALLY AROUND DETAINEE
Brian Turner, The Daily, 11/18/04
http://thedaily.washington.edu/news.lasso?-database=DailyWebSQL&-table=A
rticles&-response=newspage.lasso&-keyField=__Record_ID__&-keyVal
ue=10930&-search
The letter that staff in the UW's School of Nursing received from a
co-worker on Nov. 4 was a pleasant, yet unexpected message. Considering
that the sender, Majid al-Massari has been imprisoned by immigration
authorities since July, the School of Nursing didn't think they would
hear
from him anytime soon.
But the four-paragraph letter summarizes the bond forged between
al-Massari, a Saudi expatriate employed at the UW since 2001, and his
closest co-workers in the School of Nursing.
They have covered some of al-Massari's legal fees, looked after his
personal belongings and rallied behind him with "Free Majid" T-shirts.
The small group of software engineers in the nursing school also sees
it as
a matter of fairness for their co-worker.
After al-Massari was arrested during the summer by Immigration and
Customs
Enforcement, a branch of the homeland security department, he was held
in
solitary confinement for a month.
In July, the FBI searched al-Massari's home and his office in the
School of
Nursing, seizing his personal and work computers.
Immigration authorities are trying to deport al-Massari on a visa
violation, but instead are treating him as a terrorist suspect,
according
to al-Massari's attorney, Cheryl Nance
Co-workers say al-Massari has been denied due process...
-----
ARAB-AMERICANS RESENT FBI QUESTIONS
Grant Segall, Plain Dealer, 11/19/04
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/110086023
740892.xml
The FBI has stopped quizzing Arab-American immigrants about potential
election-season terrorism. But the fear and resentment linger.
"Why me?" said Matt Daghstani, a Westlake engineer interviewed by the
FBI
in August. "I have no criminal background. Why would I know more about
terrorism than anybody else?"
Daghstani, a Syrian native and U.S. citizen, said the FBI agents
explained
only that "my name came through."
In May, according to Angela Albanna of Fairview Park, two agents asked
her
husband, Taha, about sums of up to $4,000 wired to his Jordanian
homeland.
In truth, Angela, an American native, said she had wired the money to
relatives of Taha, a legal U.S. resident.
The agents also wondered if anyone had asked Taha, a trucker, to ship
illegal goods. And "they asked if we knew anyone who didn't like Bush .
. .
that we felt would be a threat against the president," said Angela.
Angela, an American-born Muslim and a secretary at Cleveland's Al-
Ihsan
School of Excellence, said, "It's nerve-racking when you have the FBI
want
to come visit you."
The sweep ran in 100 cities, including Cleveland, from May until the
day
after the presidential election.
"We had nothing but total cooperation," said Gary Klein, the FBI's
acting
Cleveland chief.
But critics said the interviews scared Arab-Americans here and
elsewhere,
already shaken by mass roundups, secret searches, hate crimes and other
un-American assaults since Sept. 11, 2001.
"The Muslim-American community is suffering tremendously," said Isam
Zaiem,
chairman of the Cleveland branch of the Council on American-Islamic
Relations. Zaiem accused the Bush administration of talking inclusively
but
policing selectively...
ALSO SEE:
LESS SAFE, LESS FREE
David Cole, Salon.com, 11/19/04
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2004/11/19/justice/
Being John Ashcroft apparently means never having to say you're sorry.
On
Nov. 10, the attorney general congratulated himself in a farewell
letter
"to the American people" with this assessment: "I am blessed to leave
public office in a nation that is safer and stronger than the one I
found;
a nation in which the flame of freedom illuminates every American and
burns
a signal fire to a watching world." In fact, there is little reason to
believe Ashcroft's claim that the nation is safer and stronger; file
boxes
of evidence to demonstrate that if the "flame of freedom" still burns,
it
is despite Ashcroft's efforts, not because of them; and every
indication
that the "signal fire" America is sending to the "watching world" is
not
one of freedom.
Whether Alberto Gonzales, nominated to be Ashcroft's replacement, can
set
us on the road to recovery is now a critical question. Unfortunately,
the
damage is already so deep that there is little reason for optimism.
Consider first the state of freedom at home. With the possible
exception of
the right to bear arms, it is difficult to name a constitutional
guarantee
that Ashcroft did not trample upon.
The right to liberty itself has given way to mass preventive detention,
effected through pretextual law enforcement, abuse of the
material-witness
authority and designation of detainees as "enemy combatants." Ashcroft
oversaw the preventive detention of more than 5,000 foreign nationals
in
anti-terrorism initiatives in the United States after Sept. 11, 2001,
mostly on immigration charges. Many were arrested in secret, without
charges, held without any evidence that they were dangerous or a flight
risk, denied access to lawyers and the courts, tried in secret
immigration
hearings, physically beaten by guards, and held for months even after
their
immigration cases were fully resolved...
-----
GROWING IMMIGRANT COMMUNITIES SEEK BLESSED MEAT
Neal C. Lauron, Columbus Dispatch, 11/19/04
http://www.dispatch.com/news/religion/faith-story.php?story=dispatch/2004/11
/19/20041119-F1-02.html
Joe Maina, a butcher at the Aaran Business Center, demonstrates
techniques
used in producing specific cuts of halal goat.
For Muslims and Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, a trip to the grocery
store
can mean stocking up on all the staples for a meal, except for the core
ingredient: meat.
Consuming meat that is not halal or kidus butchered in a fashion that
recognizes their faith is not allowed.
Central Ohio s growing Muslim population is creating a need for
specially
slaughtered meat that the Economic and Community Development Institute,
a
community development group, is attempting to fill by creating a
network of
Ohio meat producers and immigrant butchers and consumers.
The group sought to assist the immigrant community to develop business
opportunities based on their unique needs.
The Community Meats project will produce halal beef, lamb and goat meat
for
Muslims in central Ohio, said Seleshi Asfaw, director of programs with
the
Economic and Community Development Institute.
There are about 35,000 Muslims in central Ohio and 160,000 in the
state,
said Jad Humeidan, executive director of the Council on
American-Islamic
Relations in Ohio...
ALSO SEE:
CHANGES SOUGHT IN MOSQUE PLAN
Voorhees zoning board to hear proposal tonight
Bill Duhart, Courier-Post, 11/19/04
http://www.courierpostonline.com/news/southjersey/m111804m.htm
An effort to transform a vacant lot into a mosque in a far corner of
the
township has once again stirred up some neighbors.
Rumors this week coursed through the community of single, detached
homes
near the mosque at Lafayette Avenue and Haddonfield-Berlin Road about
changes to a site plan.
The Muslim American Community Association, a group of mostly township
residents, is scheduled to appear before the zoning board tonight at
town
hall on Haddonfield-Berlin Road to seek approval of an amended final
site
plan.
Changes to a previously approved site plan include a basement,
additional
space on the second floor, elevation revisions, a cupola to the roof
and
the overall appearance of the building.
A Muslim leader said Wednesday the cupola that will rise 10 feet above
the
29-foot-high roof is within township regulation and would not require a
variance. Some neighbors feared the structure above the roof is a
minaret,
a tower traditionally used to call Muslims to prayer.
Zia Rahman, managing director of the Muslim group, said rumors about
the
minaret were unfounded. He said the cupola will be used to bring light
into
the sanctuary, which does not have windows along one of its walls. The
group previously said it did not plan to do prayer calls outside of the
building.
Rahman and his group have received praise and support, as well as
opposition, during several zoning board hearings...
-----
BRINGING MUSLIMS, HINDUS TOGETHER
Gala uses holidays to bridge differences
Yung Kim, The Record, 11/19/04
http://www.bergen.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2MDkmZmdiZWw3
Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTY2MTUxMDAmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk0
Conflicts flare between India and Pakistan, but local leaders want to
stress cooperation between the two communities in North Jersey, and
teach
students peaceful ways to build bridges.
Emerson High School officials and the Asian American Political
Coalition
will host a festival tonight in Lyndhurst to celebrate the Muslim and
Hindu
holidays of Eid al-Fitr and Diwali.
Eid al-Fitr is a Muslim celebration that commemorates the end of
Ramadan, a
monthlong religious fast.
Diwali, also called Deepavali, is a Hindu festival of lights that marks
the
new year and is meant to symbolize the lifting of spiritual darkness.
The two religions also represent the great divide between Pakistan, a
mostly Muslim nation, and India, which is overwhelmingly Hindu.
Students from Verona High School and Emerson High School, which offers
a
college-credit course in Asian studies for teachers and students, will
attend the event, as will members of the Pakistani and Indian
communities,
said Hemant Wadhwani, president of the Asian American Political
Coalition,
which helped fund the Emerson program and organize the event.
"It is important for students to learn about diplomacy and different
ways
to approach diplomacy in a real-world setting," Wadhwani said. "I would
like to see people think things through from a more humanitarian
perspective versus a superficial, higher political level..."
-----
ISLAMIC GROUP SLAMS IMUS SHOW COMMENTS
United Press International, 11/18/04
WASHINGTON - A Washington-based Islamic group Thursday said MSNBC
should
apologize for comments on "Imus in the Morning" that Palestinians are
"stinking animals."
The Council on American-Islamic Relations also urged the program's
host,
Don Imus, be reprimanded for failing to challenge his colleagues'
inflammatory remarks.
CAIR said it received numerous complaints about the comments, and
quoted a
transcript of Imus's program last Friday in which he and his on-air
colleagues engaged in a discussion about live coverage of Palestinian
President Yasser Arafat's funeral.
The transcript quoted Imus as saying the Palestinians are "eating dirt
and
that fat pig wife of his is living in Paris."
CAIR said a colleague responded in part, "They're all brainwashed,
though.
That's what it is. And they're stupid, to begin with, but they're
brainwashed now. Stinking animals. They ought to drop the bomb right
there,
kill 'em all right now."
SEE: MSNBC 'IMUS' SEGMENT REFERS TO 'RAGHEAD CADAVER'
http://www.cair-net.org/asp/article.asp?id=203&page=AA
-----
BODIES OF FOUR IRAQIS ARE BROUGHT TO U.S.
Tom Bowman, Sun National, 11/18/04
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/health/bal-forensic1118,1,7724043.story?col
l=bal-home-headlines
WASHINGTON -- The bodies of four Iraqi insurgents who died in the
battle of
Fallujah were expected to arrive Thursday night at an Air Force base in
Dover, Del., for autopsies as part of an expanding investigation into
whether they were killed by U.S. forces after they stopped fighting,
Defense Department officials said.
The examinations are part of a Naval Criminal Investigative Service
inquiry
of the videotaped shooting of an apparently wounded and unarmed
insurgent
by a Marine at a Fallujah mosque last week, according to three Defense
Department officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The Pentagon decided to bring the bodies to the United States to take
advantage of the sophisticated mortuary and forensic experts at Dover,
which is also the gateway for American service personnel killed abroad,
the
officials said.
"All the right equipment's there, and the expertise, too," one official
said.
The number of bodies flown to the United States for autopsies reflects
how
the nature of the investigation has expanded since Saturday, when Kevin
Sites, an embedded NBC News cameraman, videotaped a Marine from the 3rd
Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment shooting the insurgent at a mosque.
Defense Department officials could not say whether all the bodies came
from
the same mosque, although Sites suggested in an interview that other
Marines may have shot additional insurgents. Five wounded insurgents
were
in the mosque at the time, Sites told the Associated Press this week.
Since
then, he has declined to answer questions.
A Pentagon spokesman, Bryan Whitman, and a spokeswoman for Dover Air
Force
Base, Air Force 2nd Lt. Caroline J. Lorimer, declined to discuss
whether
the Iraqis' bodies were being brought to Dover.
The Marine pictured shooting the insurgent on the video has been
removed
from the battlefield pending the results of the investigation into the
fatal shooting of a wounded "enemy combatant," the military said. The
Marine's name has not been released...
Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic
Relations,
a Washington-based civil rights and advocacy group, said "it's a good
idea"
for the Pentagon to conduct the autopsies and investigate what occurred
at
the Fallujah mosque. But Hooper said it may be "too little too late."
"I think the damage already has been done," he said.
Moreover, under Muslim practices, the dead are typically buried as soon
as
possible, usually within 24 hours. "Generally autopsies are discouraged
unless there's some dire necessity," Hooper said...
-----
TBCJP JUST PUBLISHED: TWO BOOKS ON SAMI AL-ARIAN
10/19/04
The Tampa Bay Coalition for Justice and Peace is proud to announce that
two
books on Dr. Sami Al-Arian have been published and are available for
information).
"Shackled Dreams," a biography which details the life and work of
Al-Arian,
contains illuminating interviews, speeches and articles by the former
professor. Among the contributors to the book are Peter Erlinder, law
professor and former president of the National Lawyers Guild; Dr. Agha
Saeed, a leader in the American Muslim community; and professor Charles
Butterworth.
Offering an inside look into life in a federal penitentiary,
"Conspiring
Against Joseph" is a collection of 62 poems written by Dr. Al-Arian.
His use of vivid imagery to describe day-to-day life in the suffocating
prison will both astound and enrage readers who have never pictured
such
abuses.
This beautiful anthology offers insightful commentary on subjects as
diverse as the 56-year Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the American
dream
before and after 9/11.
For more information on the case of Dr. Sami Al-Arian, please visit:
www.freesamialarian.com
-----
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To reach the list moderator, send a message to: cair@cair-net.org
-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
--------------------------------------------------------------------
mail2web - Check your email from the web at
http://mail2web.com/ .
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
CAIR ACTION ALERT #443
TENN. MUSLIMS DENIED RIGHT TO CEMETERY
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 11/22/04) - CAIR is calling on American Muslims and
other people of conscience to contact elected officials in Fayette
County,
Tenn., to request that they grant local Muslims the right to construct
a
cemetery.
The Muslim Society of Memphis, which brought a proposal before the
Fayette
County Planning Commission to rezone an area of land for an Islamic
cemetery, told CAIR that while the commission approved the rezoning,
the
proposal was later rejected by the Fayette County Development
Committee.
Tennessee Muslims believe that decision was swayed by a packed
courtroom of
area residents who expressed anti-Muslim sentiment in their opposition
to
the proposal.
One resident equated Muslims with Nazis. Another claimed that many
people
he knew had been killed by Muslims.
SEE: "Committee Recommends Zoning Change Denial"
http://www.fayettecountyreview.com/articles/2004/11/10/news/news04.txt
"This seems to be the first time a similar planning commission
recommendation has been turned down by the development committee," said
CAIR Civil Rights Coordinator Khadija Athman. "The Muslim community's
proposal should not be denied because of the bigoted attitudes some
residents have toward the Islamic faith."
The Fayette County Commission will make a final decision on the
proposal on
Tuesday, November 23.
ACTION REQUESTED: (As always, be FIRM but POLITE.)
Contact Fayette County Mayor Rhea "Skip" Taylor to ask that the
commission
1) repudiate the bigoted views expressed by some area residents and 2)
permit the construction of a Muslim cemetery.
CONTACT:
Mr. Rhea "Skip" Taylor
Mayor, Fayette County
13095 N. Main
P.O. Box 218
Somerville, TN 38068
TEL: 901-465-5202
FAX: 901-465-5229
E-MAIL: mayor@fayettetn.us
COPY TO: cair@cair-net.org
SEE ALSO:
Fayetteville County Commissioners
http://www.fayettetn.us/commission.asp
- PLEASE ANNOUNCE, POST AND DISTRIBUTE -
-----
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http://cair.biglist.com/cair-net/
To reach the list moderator, send a message to: cair@cair-net.org
-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS – 11/22/04
* HADITH OF THE DAY: A PRUDENT MAN
* CAIR JOB OPENING: CIVIL RIGHTS COORDINATOR
- CAIR LIBRARY PROJECT: 7817 SPONSORSHIPS
* ‘STINKING ANIMALS. THEY OUGHT TO DROP THE BOMB’ (MM)
- CAIR’s Hate Hurts America Campaign
* NH: HEADSCARF DAY CHANGES STEREOTYPES (Telegraph)
- Finding True Islam (New York Post)
* MN: ISLAMIC CENTER SETS FIRST OPEN HOUSE (JS Online)
- NJ: Mosque Expansion Voted Down (Courier Post)
* TX: RELATIVE UPSET KIDS AREN'T IN MUSLIM FOSTER HOME (RC)
- LA: Teacher to Keep Job in Scarf Incident (Times Pic)
* CA: STUDENTS AWARDED $289,000 FOR ROLE IN PRISON SUIT (AP)
- Civil Rights Laws Not Enforced as Before (AP)
* WA: EX-SPY SUSPECT RECEIVES AWARD, HERO'S WELCOME (Sac Bee)
- Order CAIR’s ‘Know Your Rights Guide’
- ID: A Terrorism Case that Went Awry (Seattle Times)
* FL: MUSLIM SCHOOL DESPERATE TO STAY AFLOAT (Miami Herald)
* REPORT: 'ISLAMOPHOBIA' GROWING IN BRITAIN (UPI)
* MALNUTRITION RISING AMONG IRAQ'S CHILDREN (AP)
-----
HADITH OF THE DAY: A PRUDENT MAN
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "A prudent man subdues
(his
passions) and works for what comes after death, but an imprudent man
follows his passions and puts his hope in God (for forgiveness)."
Al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 1399
-----
CAIR JOB OPENING: CIVIL RIGHTS COORDINATOR
CAIR has an immediate opening for an experienced dynamic person to fill
the
position of Civil Rights Coordinator. The position involves handling of
civil rights cases, doing research on issues pertaining to civil and
religious rights in America, maintaining a civil rights data base
system,
and generating reports, charts and graphs. Candidates should have a
Bachelor degree in a related field with general knowledge of the US
Constitution and the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
All those interested and eligible to work in US (Citizens or proper
work
visa holders) are encouraged to apply in confidence via email to:
hr@cair-net.org, or by fax 202-488-0833. When applying via e-mail
please
ensure to write the position title "Civil Rights Coordinator" in the
subject of the email. Please send your application with cover letter
and
complete resume and references. Absolutely no phone calls please.
ALSO SEE:
CAIR LIBRARY PROJECT UPDATE: 7817 SPONSORSHIPS
The goal of CAIR's library project is to send accurate and objective
information about Islam to America's 16,000 public libraries.
For only $150, Muslim individuals and groups may sponsor 18-item
packages
about Islam and Muslims, which are then distributed to the library of
their
choice.
To sponsor a library call, 1-800-392-7876, ext. 320, or visit:
http://www.cair-net.org/libraryproject/
-----
IMUS ANCHOR ON PALESTINIANS: "STINKING ANIMALS. THEY OUGHT TO DROP THE
BOMB
RIGHT THERE, KILL 'EM ALL RIGHT NOW"
http://mediamatters.org/items/200411190009
MSNBC's Imus in the Morning offered derisive, racist commentary about
Palestinians during the November 12 funeral of deceased Palestinian
Authority leader Yasser Arafat. Regular Imus guest and sports anchor
Sid
Rosenberg referred to Palestinians as "stinking animals" and suggested:
"They ought to drop the bomb right there, kill 'em all right now." On
November 19, the program broadcast a radio segment featuring a guest --
parodying General George S. Patton, Jr. -- who said that the recent
report
of a U.S. Marine shooting an unarmed, injured Iraqi insurgent provided
the
enemy "with another cozy 'al Jazeera moment' for the Muslim masses to
respond to with their routine pack-of-rabid-sheep mentality." The guest
also referred to a deceased Iraqi insurgent as "a booby-trapped raghead
cadaver..."
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) demanded an apology
from
MSNBC for both of these incidents.
SEE ALSO:
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT CAIR'S HATE HURTS AMERICA CAMPAIGN, VISIT:
http://www.cair-net.org/hatehurtsamerica/hatehurtsamerica.asp
-----
HEADSCARF DAY CHANGES STEREOTYPES
Hattie Bernstein, Nashua Telegraph, 11/20/04
http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041120/NEWS01/11
1200050/-1/news
MANCHESTER - Mary Schwarzer-Hampton dressed for work Friday in a long
floral, printed skirt, a tailored tan jacket, and a blue headscarf
similar
to the traditional hajab Muslim women wear.
During her lunch hour, Schwarzer-Hampton, still covered in the
headscarf,
walked up and down Main Street, stopping at a pharmacy to buy make-up
and
at a sandwich shop to buy lunch.
“Most people would not look me in the eye,” said the 5-foot-10-inch
attorney. She was the organizer of Headscarf Day, an event held in
Manchester and Concord on Friday to celebrate diversity and discourage
negative stereotyping of Muslim- and Arab-Americans.
The daylong observance, which was modeled on similar ones by students
at
the University of Tennessee and the University of California, Los
Angeles,
was sponsored by a coalition of state organizations named JADE (Justice
and
Dignity for Everyone), created after Sept. 11, 2001. It ended in Walker
Auditorium of Robert Frost Hall at Southern New Hampshire University,
where
about 25 people gathered to reflect on the experience and share their
thoughts.
Schwarzer-Hampton said she was riding an elevator in the Legislative
Office
Building in Concord very big,” as if it was her stature rather than her
headscarf that caught his attention.
Claire Ebel, executive director of the New Hampshire Civil Liberties
Union,
and a participant in the Headscarf Day, also spoke in Walker
Auditorium.
“People treated me differently,” she reflected. “The people who know
me,
asked me why I had the headscarf . . . It generated interesting
conversation...”
ALSO SEE:
FINDING TRUE ISLAM
Ralph Peters, New York Post, 11/22/04
http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/34732.htm
November 22, 2004 -- LAST week, I had an inspiring conversation with a
Muslim-American. An immigrant from Pakistan, he hadn't yet been granted
citizenship, but he had more faith in America than our native-born
elite
does.
"I write to my brothers and sisters," he said, "And I tell them that
they
do not know true Islam. If you want to see true Islam, you must come to
America."
He meant the social justice and the respect for the individual, rich or
poor, prescribed by the Koran. He had not found those qualities in the
land
of his birth. Nor do they prevail in any Muslim state between
Casablanca
and Karachi.
Islam sets high standards for the daily behavior of its adherents — but
all
too often the Koran's calls for fairness, charity and common decency
are
rejected in favor of social strictures misinterpreted by bitter old men
and
fanatics. The oppression of women, terrorism and the police states of
the
Middle East were not part of the Prophet Mohammed's vision.
My Muslim friend had recently found yet another reason to believe in
America — in a place the rest of us would overlook. Coming from a land
where the rich can even murder with impunity, he was thrilled that
Olympic
swimmer Michael Phelps had to face drunken-driving charges.
"Seven gold medals!" my friend said. "He is a hero, sir! And still he
must
face the court!
"It is not hidden away because he is powerful. This is very good, this
is
Islam."
The crime and possible punishment of young Mr. Phelps looks very
different
to a man born where the poor are eternal victims.
Nor is this soon-to-be citizen an exception among our immigrants. In
his
personal life, he follows the trail that so many newcomers of various
faiths walked before him. He works two jobs. Family finances are tight,
but
he discourages his sons and daughters from working part-time jobs,
insisting that they concentrate on their studies.
The result? His eldest son is studying business and accounting in a
good
university. The younger kids are determined to emulate their big
brother
and make the honor role at school. One boy is a gifted athlete.
In this country less than five years, they're as American as overpriced
coffee.
Not all of our fellow Americans who happen to be Muslims are as vocal
as my
pal, but I believe that they overwhelmingly share his affection for
their
new home. The headlines will always go to the bad apples, but the very
few
American Muslims who've engaged in extremist behavior are often
converts to
the faith, jailbirds or troubled young people of the sort drawn to the
worst elements in any belief system, from white supremacists to Islamic
extremists.
No matter their backgrounds, new immigrants have to work through a
period
of disorientation. Emotional ties to their native cultures tug hard in
difficult times — and no one likes to be vilified over an accident of
birth...
-----
ISLAMIC CENTER SETS FIRST OPEN HOUSE
Organization hopes to counter negative stereotypes
Tom Heinen, JS Online, 11/19/04
http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/nov04/276742.asp
To counter negative images many Americans have of Muslims, Milwaukee's
Islamic Center is planning its first public open house since it was
established in the early 1980s in a former public school building at
4707
S. 13th St.
The free event will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Dec. 4.
"Although the Islamic Society of Milwaukee and other Muslim
organizations
have repeatedly condemned violence carried out by 'Muslim' extremists,
the
negative attitudes expressed by many Americans implies that our message
and
the message of legitimate Muslim organizations is either not being
heard or
is being drowned out by the hateful rhetoric which emanates from
anti-Muslim groups and individuals in this country," said Othman Atta,
an
attorney and president of the society, which owns and operates the
center.
"Our organization's Open House is intended to allow the general public
to
visit our center, to find out who we are and to feel comfortable
engaging
in dialogue with us."
Local Muslim leaders have arranged limited-attendance open houses
through
groups such as the Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee, while
doing
more public speaking at area churches and other sites since the
terrorist
attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
But they were concerned by a national poll conducted this summer for
the
Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington-based advocacy
group,
and released in October. It found that more than a fourth of Americans
agree with stereotypes such as "Muslims teach their children to hate"
and
"Muslims value life less than other people."
Most Americans believe that terrorists are misusing the teachings of
Islam,
but 50% do not believe that American Muslims are actively "condemning"
terrorist acts, the poll showed.
Atta also cited a Pew Research Center poll that was released in
September.
It found that 46% of Americans think Islam is more likely than other
religions to encourage violence among its believers, about the same as
in a
poll the previous year. But that is dramatically higher than the 25% of
Americans who had that view in a March 2002 Pew poll.
"The Islamic Society of Milwaukee and thousands of Muslim organizations
and
individuals have signed onto the 'Not in Our Name Petition' organized
by
the Council on American-Islamic Relations," Atta added...
ALSO SEE:
MOSQUE EXPANSION VOTED DOWN
Bill Duhard, Courier-Post, 11/20/04
http://www.courierpostonline.com/news/southjersey/m112004e.htm
In a contentious and sometimes tense hearing, the zoning board late
Thursday night unanimously rejected a plan to enlarge a proposed mosque
by
adding a basement and increasing floor space and the roof height.
There was near-unanimous opposition to the changes from a group of
about 40
who attended the meeting, including many who opposed a mosque of any
size
at the proposed site at Lafayette Avenue and Haddonfield-Berlin Road.
But a board member who voted against the proposal said Friday he
thought
the board, and the community as a whole, still supported the
establishment
of the mosque.
Jeff Senges, a board member who pointedly questioned the applicant and
its
lawyer Thursday, said he - and he believes the board - still wants the
mosque to proceed.
"Nobody wanted to see this project die," said Senges. "Everybody on
that
zoning board voted in favor of the use variance and in favor of the
project
originally and I believe would be supportive of the applicant building
the
mosque as originally approved."
Senges said the applicant, the Muslim American Community Association, a
group of about 15 families, mostly township residents, could still
build
under a previously approved plan. The group had sought to add a
basement,
additional space on the second floor, elevation revisions, a cupola to
the
roof and other improvements to the building.
The original plan included building a mosque on a double lot of a
long-vacant storefront.
A leader of the Muslim group said he believes the mosque will be a vast
improvement for this community of single-family homes. He said Friday
he
and other Muslim leaders were still deciding what to do next...
-----
TX: RELATIVE UPSET THAT KIDS AREN'T IN MUSLIM FOSTER HOME
Donna Fielder, Denton Record-Chronicle, 11/22/04
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/city/denton/stories/112004d
nmetreid.22d43.html
DENTON – The grandmother of three Denton children taken from their
parents
because of allegations of abuse is unhappy that her grandchildren, who
are
Muslim, are with a foster family that is not Muslim.
Falahat Agha of Houston is the mother of Nadia Agha Reid, who was
arrested
with her husband after they were accused of keeping their 14-year-old
son
out of school for several years and forcing him to live in the garage
of
their four-bedroom home.
Ms. Agha has hired Denton lawyer Jamie Beck to represent her in a bid
for
custody of the children of her daughter and husband Lorenzo Reid. The
boy
is her daughter's stepson, but Ms. Agha wants him to live with her, Ms.
Beck said.
Denton police arrested Mr. Reid and his wife Nov. 5. Police and Child
Protective Services began investigating after neighbors reported that
the
boy had been begging for food and pleading with them not to tell his
father.
The boy and his two young sisters were placed together in a foster home
in
another city and enrolled in school.
Ms. Agha is Pakistani and the family is Muslim, Ms. Beck said. Mr. Reid
converted to Islam and also uses the name Ahmad Abdullah Reid.
Ms. Beck said Ms. Agha was concerned because she does not think the
children are being allowed to practice their faith...
ALSO SEE:
ACCORD TO LET JEFF TEACHER KEEP JOB IN SCARF INCIDENT
Decision is called insult to Muslims
Rob Nelson, Times Picayune, 11/12/04
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-2/11002463628037
0.xml
A suspended Jefferson Parish public school teacher accused of using
religious slurs and yanking the head scarf off a Muslim student will be
allowed to return to the classroom next school year after an unpaid
suspension and sensitivity training, the School Board decided Thursday.
Rejecting Superintendent Diane Roussel's recommendation to fire former
West
Jefferson High School teacher Wes Mix, the board backed a detailed
agreement hammered out by attorneys for Mix and the school system.
An attorney for student Maryam Motar blasted the outcome as an insult o
the
Muslim community.
Under the agreement, Mix must apologize to Motar and will be suspended
without pay until Jan. 19, the first day of the second semester. He
then
will take a medical sabbatical during which time he must undergo at
least
30 hours of training on sensitivity, diversity and classroom
management.
He will receive about two-thirds of his $35,625 annual salary during
that
sabbatical and must foot the bill for the training, according to the
agreement.
Mix, who was suspended with pay in February pending an internal
investigation, will not be allowed to return to West Jefferson High and
will have to reapply for a post within the system during its annual
teacher
placement process next summer, according to the agreement.
He can resume teaching at the start of the 2005-06 school year if all
those
requirements are met. For a year after his return, he will be placed in
the
system's Intensive Assistance Program, which is designed to boost
teacher
performance.
After the hearing, Mix called the agreement "satisfactory," and said it
allows everyone involved to "move on" with their lives.
Board members Mark Morgan, Libby Moran, Etta Licciardi, Ray St. Pierre
and
Karen Barnes attended Thursday's five-hour hearing. Board President
Gene
Katsanis and members Judy Colgan, Julie Quinn and Martin Marino were
absent.
About 20 witnesses were scheduled to testify, but the board heard from
four, including Mix and Motar, before attorneys huddled to craft the
agreement...
-----
STUDENTS AWARDED $289,000 FOR ROLE IN PRISON SUIT
Associated Press, 11/22/04
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/nort
hern_california/10233988.htm
SACRAMENTO - A federal judge has awarded $289,000 in legal fees to
nearly
three dozen law students and their supervisor for their role in winning
religious rights for Muslim inmates in the California prison system.
Over the seven-year life of the lawsuit, 34 students at the King Hall
Civil
Rights Clinic at the University of California, Davis School of Law
dedicated nearly 2,000 hours of work.
U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton on Friday ruled they should be
paid
$60 an hour for their work between October 1997 and June 2001, or a
total
of $114,780.
The balance will go to Susan Christian, who took on the inmates' case
while
she was supervising attorney at the clinic and kept it after she moved
to
private practice in June 2001.
Their work resulted in 15 preliminary injunctions on behalf of Muslim
inmates at California State Prison, Solano, who sued for the right to
practice their religion. All but one of the injunctions was
unsuccessfully
appealed by the state.
Prison system attorneys objected to paying the students so much, but
Karlton ruled their work was more complex and sophisticated than that
typically performed by law clerks or paralegals.
Carter White, who now supervises the clinic, told The Sacramento Bee
the
award is the largest ever for one case handled by students there. The
clinic was founded in 1993 with the expectation it would be partly
funded
by such fees.
"This is the ultimate realization of that goal," he said...
ALSO SEE:
CIVIL RIGHTS LAWS NOT ENFORCED AS BEFORE, STUDY SAYS
Curt Anderson, Associated Press, 11/22/04
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/10242617.htm
WASHINGTON - Federal enforcement of civil rights laws has dropped
sharply
since 1999, even though the level of complaints received by the Justice
Department has remained relatively constant, according a study released
Sunday.
Criminal charges alleging civil rights violations were brought last
year
against 84 defendants, down from 159 in 1999, according to Justice
Department data analyzed by the Transactional Records Access
Clearinghouse
at Syracuse University.
In addition, the study found that the number of times the FBI or other
federal investigative agency recommended prosecution in civil rights
cases
has fallen by more than one-third, from more than 3,000 in 1999 to just
over 1,900 last year. Federal court data also show the government has
sought fewer civil sanctions against civil rights violators.
The study's coauthor, David Burnham of the Transactional Records Access
Clearinghouse, said the results show that civil rights enforcement
dropped
across-the-board during President Bush's first term in office. The
Justice
Department enforces a wide range of civil rights laws ranging from
guaranteeing fair housing access to prosecuting hate crimes.
''Collectively, some violators of the civil rights laws are not being
dealt
with by the government,'' Burnham said. ``They've declined by a huge
number
of cases. This trend, we think, is significant.''
It's unlikely that the decline has occurred because fewer civil rights
violations are occurring, the study suggested. The number of complaints
about possible violations received by the Justice Department has
remained
level at about 12,000 annually for each of the past five years.
The Justice Department had no comment...
-----
EX-SPY SUSPECT RECEIVES AWARD, HERO'S WELCOME
Emily Bazar, Sacramento Bee, 11/22/04
http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/11526750p-12429407c.html
When Army Capt. James Yee was presented with a "Courage and Inspiration
Award" by a local Muslim organization Saturday night, a diverse
audience
rose to its feet to congratulate him:
Muslims and Christians, Arab Americans and African Americans, imams and
politicians.
Asian Americans made up an especially large contingent at the Council
on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) fund-raiser, which drew more than 400
people to the Hilton near Arden Fair mall.
Many Asian Americans said they attended because they felt a special
bond
with Yee, a Muslim Army chaplain formerly stationed at the U.S.
military
prison in Guant�namo Bay, Cuba.
Yee, who is Chinese American, was charged last year with mishandling
classified information, and spent 76 days in solitary confinement.
Military
officials had said they might have a Guant�namo-based spy ring on their
hands, but the government's case against Yee disintegrated. The
criminal
charges against him were dismissed earlier this year...
On Saturday, Yee addressed the issue of profiling, albeit indirectly.
He
asked audience members whether they carry copies of a "Know Your
Rights"
card distributed by CAIR.
"If you don't," he said, pausing, "please get one. You may need it, at
least for the next four years."
ALSO SEE:
ORDER CAIR’S ‘KNOW YOUR RIGHTS GUIDE’
To order CAIR’S FREE “Know Your Rights Guide,” email pubs@cair-net.org.
Include your name, address and telephone number.
---
A TERRORISM CASE THAT WENT AWRY
Maureen O'Hagan, Seattle Times, 11/22/04
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002097570_sami22m.html
John Ashcroft called Sami al-Hussayen part of "a terrorist threat to
Americans that is fanatical, and it is fierce."
Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne said al-Hussayen is proof that terrorists
are
hiding in the heartland.
Yet al-Hussayen, a 34-year-old doctoral candidate at the University of
Idaho, didn't exactly fit the profile when he was arrested in February
2003
and likened in court documents to Osama bin Laden.
Instead, al-Hussayen's alleged crimes occurred at his keyboard in
Moscow,
Idaho, where he volunteered his computer skills to run Web sites for a
Muslim charity. While the charity on its face was geared toward
peaceful
religious teachings, prosecutors alleged that buried deep within the
Web
sites were a handful of violent messages — written by others —
encouraging
attacks on the United States and donations to terrorist organizations.
Al-Hussayen was charged under a law prohibiting "material support" to
terrorism, a provision that has been used routinely in alleged
terrorist
cases since 2001.
But al-Hussayen's case was nothing like the rest. There was no evidence
the
Web sites recruited terrorists, or, for that matter, that he even
believed
their hateful message. And even if he did, the First Amendment would
protect his right to speak his mind, as long as there was no imminent
threat of violence...
-----
BLACK MUSLIM SCHOOL DESPERATE TO STAY AFLOAT;
Nadine Drummond, Miami Herald, 11/22/04
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/education/10242274.htm
Some Friday nights, the line at the fish fry at the Clara Muhammad
School
in Liberty City goes right around the block, as people wait for the $7
plates of fried yellow tail or red snapper.
The school sells up to 125 plates each week at what's become a
community
happening. And that's not counting the barbecue and jerk chicken
sandwiches.
''It was like going to eat at a long-lost family member's house,'' said
Kaseem Smith, who was taking a stroll when he smelled fish being cooked
and
then followed his nose. ''The people were open and warm and did not
speak
to me like a stranger.''
It really is a family event, said Afrah J. Hamin, acting director of
the
school, 5245 NW Seventh Ave. ''Everybody comes out to help.''
The fish fry is a fundraiser for Clara Muhammad, the only black Muslim
school in South Florida.
And while the school enjoys the neighborhood attention, the fish fry
and
other fundraising efforts have not generated enough money to pull it
out of
a financial hole created by the small enrollment and low tuition fees.
Its efforts so far have netted about $20,000 toward a yearly budget of
$71,400. If a summer school and camp are added, the budget rises to
$108,000.
School officials had hoped that a Sept. 25 gala dinner and fundraiser
for a
meeting in Miami of the Florida Conference of Muslim Americans would
bring
in badly needed dollars. But uncertainty over where Hurricane Frances
would
come ashore forced cancellation of the conference...
-----
REPORT: 'ISLAMOPHOBIA' GROWING IN BRITAIN
United Press International, 11/22/04
http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20041122-092047-5746r.htm
Eighty percent of Muslims living in Britain claim to have been
discriminated against based on their religion, a report published in
The
Independent said Monday.
Published by the Open Society Institute to launch Islam Awareness Week,
the
report called on the government to do more to tackle discrimination and
engage the Muslim community in society.
The study said between 2001 and 2003, the number of Asian people
stopped
and searched under the Terrorism Act rose by 302 percent, compared with
230
percent for black people and 118 percent for whites.
Two thirds of British Muslims felt they were perceived and treated
differently from other groups, and 32 percent said they had been
discriminated against at British airports because of their religion.
However, Sher Khan, a spokesman for the Muslim Association of Britain,
told
the newspaper Muslims bear some responsibility to address what the
report
dubbed "Islamophobia."
"It has to be a two-way process. British Muslims have got to build
bridges
and be proactive in terms of integrating with the rest of society,"
Khan
said.
-----
MALNUTRITION RISING AMONG IRAQ'S CHILDREN
Matt Moore, Associated Press, 11/22/04
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/world/10246690.htm
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Malnutrition among Iraq's youngest children
has
nearly doubled since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq despite U.N. efforts
to
deliver food to the war-ravaged country, a Norwegian research group
said
Monday.
Since the March 2003 invasion, malnutrition among children between the
ages
of 6 months and 5 years has grown from 4 percent to 7.7 percent, said
Jon
Pedersen, deputy managing director of the Oslo, Norway-based Fafo
Institute
for Applied Social Science, which conducted the survey.
The U.N. Development Program and Iraq's Central office for Statistics
and
Information Technology also took part in the survey.
``It's in the level of some African countries,'' Pedersen told The
Associated Press. ``Of course, no child should be malnourished, but
when
we're getting to levels of 7 to 8 percent, it's a clear sign of
concern.''
Figures from different countries are hard to compare, said Caroline
Hurford, a U.N. World Food Program spokeswoman in Rome, noting that
surveys
may be out of date or apply different sampling methods...
-----
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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
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http://mail2web.com/ .
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS – 11/23/04
* HADITH OF THE DAY: GENEROSITY
* CAIR JOB OPENING: CIVIL RIGHTS COORDINATOR
- CAIR Library Project: 7819 Sponsorships
* CAIR: TERRORISTS' ACTIONS NOT ROOTED IN ISLAM (USA Today)
* MSNBC APOLOGIZES FOR ‘IMUS’ REMARKS
* LA: SUSPECT SAYS HE KILLED 12 MUSLIMS (Times Picayune)
* VA: SUIT ACCUSES BUSINESS OF RELIGIOUS BIAS (Roanoke Times)
* MR. GONZALES'S RECORD (Wash Post)
* WOMEN SAY AIRPORT PAT-DOWNS ARE A HUMILIATION (NY Times)
- Yee: U.S. Liberty Erodes (The Reporter)
* RIGHTS GROUP TO CATERPILLAR: STOP SALES TO ISRAEL (Reuters)
-----
HADITH OF THE DAY: GENEROSITY
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: “Indeed, an ignorant man
who
is generous is dearer to God than a worshipper who is miserly.”
Al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 580
-----
CAIR JOB OPENING: CIVIL RIGHTS COORDINATOR
CAIR has an immediate opening for an experienced dynamic person to fill
the
position of Civil Rights Coordinator. The position involves handling of
civil rights cases, doing research on issues pertaining to civil and
religious rights in America, maintaining a civil rights data base
system,
and generating reports, charts and graphs. Candidates should have a
Bachelor degree in a related field with general knowledge of the US
Constitution and the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
All those interested and eligible to work in US (Citizens or proper
work
visa holders) are encouraged to apply in confidence via email to:
hr@cair-net.org, or by fax 202-488-0833. When applying via e-mail
please
ensure to write the position title "Civil Rights Coordinator" in the
subject of the email. Please send your application with cover letter
and
complete resume and references. Absolutely no phone calls please.
ALSO SEE:
CAIR LIBRARY PROJECT UPDATE: 7819 SPONSORSHIPS
The goal of CAIR's library project is to send accurate and objective
information about Islam to America's 16,000 public libraries.
For only $150, Muslim individuals and groups may sponsor 18-item
packages
about Islam and Muslims, which are then distributed to the library of
their
choice.
To sponsor a library call, 1-800-392-7876, ext. 320, or visit:
http://www.cair-net.org/libraryproject/
-----
CAIR: TERRORISTS' ACTIONS ARE NOT ROOTED IN ISLAM
Fouad Khatib, USA Today, 11/23/04
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20041123/letad23.art.htm
(Fouad Khatib is a board member of the Council on American-Islamic
Relations.)
Commentary writer Ralph Peters aptly describes human sacrifice and
terrorism as phenomena not rooted in the religious traditions of Islam
and
as practices rejected by the religion of Islam (Nothing Islamic about
human
sacrifice: Terrorists in the Middle East are resurrecting a blood cult,
The
Forum, Wednesday).
Most Americans perceive the opposite, thanks to a growing industry of
reckless opining and writing about Islam by pundits and the vulgar
alike.
The prevalent use of such terms as Islamic terrorism in the media is
undoubtedly fueling perceptions in the Muslim world that the United
States
is at war with Islam. That does not bode well for a peaceful world. We
must
amplify such voices as Peters'.
-----
MSNBC APOLOGIZES FOR ‘IMUS’ REMARKS
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 11/23/04)- The Council on American-Islamic Relations
(CAIR) announced today that MSNBC cable television network has
apologized
for anti-Arab/anti-Muslim remarks made on its "Imus in the Morning"
program.
CAIR filed an FCC complaint over comments on a November 12th ‘Imus’
program
that referred to Palestinians as "stinking animals" and suggested that
they
all be killed.
SEE: Palestinians Called 'Stinking Animals' on MSNBC's 'Imus'
http://www.cair-net.org/asp/article.asp?id=1331&page=NR
In a November 19th segment commenting on the apparent execution of a
wounded Iraqi in Fallujah by a U.S. Marine, a fictitious "Senior
Military
Affairs Advisor" to the program justified the killing by referring to a
"booby-trapped raghead cadaver." The fictitious advisor also said the
killing provided an "Al-Jazeera moment" causing the "Muslim masses to
respond with their routine pack of rabid sheep mentality."
SEE: MSNBC 'Imus' Segment Refers to 'Raghead Cadaver'
http://www.cair-net.org/asp/article.asp?id=1334&page=NR
SEE ALSO: Imus anchor on Palestinians: "Stinking animals”
http://mediamatters.org/items/200411190009
In response to hundreds of e-mails prompted by CAIR action alerts,
MSNBC
stated in part:
"The views expressed on the program are not those of MSNBC. Having said
that, it was unfortunate that these remarks were telecast on MSNBC. We
sincerely apologize to anyone who was offended by these remarks.”
CAIR National Communication Director Ibrahim Hooper thanked all of
those
who took the time to express their dismay over the offensive comments
made
on MSNBC's "Imus in the Morning" show.
Earlier this year, CAIR announced a "Hate Hurts America" campaign
designed
to counter hate speech on talk radio.
SEE: http://www.cair-net.org/hatehurtsamerica/
CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil liberties group, is headquartered
in
Washington, D.C., and has 29 offices and chapters nationwide and in
Canada.
Its mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue,
protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions
that promote justice and mutual understanding.
CONTACT: Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail:
cair@cair-net.org; Rabiah Ahmed, 202-488-8787 or 202-439-1441, E-Mail:
rahmed@cair-net.org.
-----
LA SUSPECT SAYS HE KILLED 12 MUSLIMS
Man terrorized store, cops say
Times-Picayune, 11/23/04
http://www.nola.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-4/110119852962010.xml?nola
A man who threatened to blow up a Kenner convenience store Friday was
booked with terrorizing, hate crimes and simple criminal damage to
property, Kenner police said.
William B. Miller, 41, walked into Brother’s Food Mart, 1227 Veterans
Memorial Blvd., on Friday afternoon and began threatening the store’s
cashier and manager after questioning their nationality, police
spokesman
Capt.
Steve Caraway said.
Miller told the employees that he had killed 12 Muslims and that they
were
next, police said.
He left the store, used a knife to cut the hose to a gasoline pump, and
threw things at the front of the store.
The store employees later identified Miller, of 2850 Idaho Ave., Apt.
2007,
Kenner, as the assailant, Caraway said.
Miller has an extensive police record, including arrests on attempted
murder, aggravated assault and battery charges, Caraway said.
Miller was being held in the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in
lieu
of $51,000 bond.
-----
SUIT ACCUSES BUSINESS OF RELIGIOUS DISCRIMINATION
Jen McCaffery, Roanoke Times, 11/23/04
http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke%5C14302.html
The first time Jennifer Abdelwahed asked her boss at the Goodwill store
in
Pulaski if she could cover her head with a hijab as required by her
Muslim
faith, her boss said no because she was not wearing the hijab when she
got
hired.
The second time Abdelwahed, a Pulaski County native who converted to
Islam
from Christianity in 2001, asked her boss if she could wear her hijab
at
work, she pointed out a co-worker who wore a "'do-rag" at work. Her
boss
told her that the co-worker was allowed to wear the head wrap because
"we
are not at war with him."
These are allegations made by Abdelwahed in a lawsuit filed in federal
court last week. Abdelwahed, 29, argues that Goodwill Industries of the
New
River Valley violated federal law by firing her and refusing to make a
reasonable accommodation of her religious faith.
Debates over the wearing of the hijab are playing out in schools and
workplaces around the world.
Abdelwahed is seeking reinstatement in her position, back wages and
benefits, overtime compensation owed her, compensatory damages for her
suffering, punitive damages and attorneys' fees. She is represented by
Washington, D.C., attorney Michael Deeds.
But Bruce Phipps, president and chief executive officer of Goodwill
Industries of the Valleys, said that all the actions taken against
Abdelwahed were not taken for discriminatory reasons…
-----
MR. GONZALES'S RECORD
Washington Post, 11/22/04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3187-2004Nov21.html
INVESTIGATIONS have determined that some U.S. interrogators who
tortured
Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison reasonably believed that their
actions had been authorized by a memorandum from the headquarters of
Lt.
Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, who approved such techniques as hooding,
imposing
"stress positions" and using dogs to inspire fear. According to one
official report, although those methods clearly violate the Geneva
Conventions, they were sanctioned by Gen. Sanchez's legal staff "using
reasoning from the president's memorandum of February 7, 2002," which
determined that the conventions should be set aside for people deemed
"unlawful combatants."
The architect of that presidential memorandum was Alberto R. Gonzales,
the
White House counsel who now has been nominated by President Bush to
serve
as attorney general. Like several other senior administration
officials,
Mr. Gonzales has never accepted responsibility, or been held
accountable,
for his role in setting administration policies that led to extensive
violations of international law -- and U.S. standards of justice -- in
Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay and in other still-secret
detention
facilities. Mr. Gonzales should not become attorney general without
being
asked by the Senate to answer for that record.
The starting point was Mr. Gonzales's recommendation to Mr. Bush that
he
declare the Geneva Conventions -- whose rules on the questioning of
prisoners he derided as "obsolete" -- inapplicable to detainees from
Afghanistan. That decision caused enormous damage to U.S. standing even
with close allies, yet from a practical point of view was entirely
unnecessary. Mr. Gonzales ignored the advice of the administration's
most
seasoned national security officials, including Secretary of State
Colin L.
Powell and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who told him it
was
possible to indefinitely detain and vigorously interrogate al Qaeda
members
without violating Geneva, and that he risked undermining a U.S.
military
culture of treating prisoners humanely. That prophecy came true when
Gen.
Sanchez used Mr. Gonzales's logic to authorize the abuse of prisoners
at
Abu Ghraib. The position Mr. Gonzales endorsed, that the president
could
declare that all those captured in Afghanistan were not entitled to
Geneva
protections, has since been ruled illegal by one federal judge and has
led
to numerous other judicial complications...
-----
MANY WOMEN SAY AIRPORT PAT-DOWNS ARE A HUMILIATION
Joe Sharkey, New York Times, 11/23/04
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/23/business/23grope.html?oref=login&th
At a security checkpoint recently at the Fort Lauderdale airport, Patti
LuPone, the singer and actress, recalled, she was instructed to remove
articles of clothing. "I took off my belt; I took off my clogs; I took
off
my leather jacket," she said. "But when the screener said, 'Now take
off
your shirt,' I hesitated. I said, 'But I'll be exposed.' "When she
persisted in her complaints, she said, she was barred from her flight.
Heather L. Maurer, a business executive from Washington, had a similar
experience at Logan Airport in Boston recently. And a few weeks ago,
Jenepher Field, 71, who walks with the aid of a cane, was subjected to
a
breast pat-down at the airport outside Kansas City, Mo.
These women and a good many others, both frequent and occasional
travelers,
say they are furious about recent changes in airport security that have
increased both the number and the intensity of pat-downs at the
nation's
450 commercial airports. And they are not keeping quiet.
In dozens of interviews, women across the country say they were
humiliated
by the searches, often done in view of other passengers, and many said
they
had sharply reduced their air travel as a result.
ALSO SEE:
U.S. LIBERTY ERODES, SAYS HONORED CLERIC
The Reporter, 11/23/04
http://www.thereporter.com/Stories/0,1413,295~30195~2553314,00.html
SACRAMENTO - A Muslim chaplain imprisoned for 76 days in solitary
confinement and then cleared in an espionage investigation says he and
a
former Travis Air Force Base airman who were accused of spying are
victims
of a "new culture of eroding civil liberties" in the United States.
Army Capt. James Yee was greeted with an award and a standing ovation
Saturday night by the Council on American-Islamic Relations when he was
presented with a "Courage and Inspiration Award" at the organization's
Sacramento fund-raising event. He was saluted by a racially and
ethnically
diverse audience of 400 that included both Muslims and Christians.
Yee said he and former Travis Air Force Base airman Ahmad Al Halabi,
one of
Yee's assistants at the United States internment center for suspected
terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were both victims of an overzealous
government. Al Halabi also attended the event.
Al Halabi, who worked as an interpreter at Guantanamo Bay, was arrested
last year on a 30-count complaint charging everything from disobeying
an
order to attempted espionage and aiding the enemy. During pretrial
hearings
earlier this year at Travis, Al Halabi was described as a member of
what
the government alleged was a spy ring, a charge that brought him 10
months
in custody and could have resulted in his execution. Prosecutors
alleged Al
Halabi had stolen classified documents, taken unauthorized photographs
of
the installation and was planning on trading secrets with hostile
foreign
powers during an undercover trip to Qatar via Syria.
Like Yee, he was cleared of criminal charges and pleaded guilty in
September to mishandling military materials, bringing him a reduction
in
rank and a bad-conduct discharge.
The Army charged Yee last year with mishandling classified material,
failing to obey an order, making a false official statement, adultery
and
conduct unbecoming an officer. The case against him also disintegrated.
------
RIGHTS GROUP TO CATERPILLAR STOP SALES TO ISRAEL
Reuters, 11/23/04
RAMALLAH, West Bank - Human Rights Watch called on U.S. heavy equipment
maker Caterpillar Inc. on Tuesday to stop selling heavy bulldozers to
Israel because they are used to destroy Palestinian homes.
The New York-based rights group said the bulldozers, which are armoured
by
Israel, were the army's "primary weapon" to raze Palestinian houses,
destroy agriculture and ruin infrastructure such as sewage pipes and
roads.
"Caterpillar betrays its stated values when it sells bulldozers to
Israel
knowing they are being used to illegally destroy Palestinian homes,"
Sarah
Leah Whitson, Middle East Director at Human Rights Watch, said in a
statement.
"Until Israel stops these practices, Caterpillar's continued sales will
make the company complicit in human rights abuses."
The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees says roughly 25,000
people have lost their homes in a four-year-old Palestinian uprising,
mostly in Gaza's Rafah refugee camp where swathes of homes have been
razed
to broaden a buffer zone along the border with Egypt.
Israel says it is targeting militants during raids in which homes and
fields are destroyed and that it only demolishes buildings used by
gunmen
who fire at troops or houses that conceal weapons-smuggling tunnels.
Caterpillar representatives in Israel and the Israeli Defence Ministry
declined to comment.
More than 3,200 Palestinians and 950 Israelis have been killed since
the
start of the uprising.
A United Nations human rights investigator said in June the sale of
bulldozers to the army could violate Palestinians' human rights and
that
bulldozers had also destroyed lives.
U.S. peace activist Rachel Corrie, 23, became a hero of the Palestinian
uprising after she was crushed to death last year when she tried to
stop an
army bulldozer from demolishing a house in Rafah. The army said the
driver
never saw her.
Caterpillar has said its sales to Israel comply with U.S. law and are
conducted through Washington's Foreign Military Sales Program.
At an April 14 meeting, 96 percent of shareholders backed the company's
position that it cannot enforce how its equipment is used.
-----
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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
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In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 11/24/04
* VERSE OF THE DAY: BE GRATEFUL TO GOD
* CAIR-FL: MUSLIMS TO FEED NEEDY FOR THANKSGIVING (TB 10)
- VA: Muslim Charity Group Raises $10,000
* CALIF. ATTORNEY GENERAL SPEAKS AT CAIR-SV DINNER
* INCITEMENT WATCH: EURABIA
- Group Protests Comment on Imus Radio Program (RNS)
* TN: MUSLIMS ABANDON PLAN FOR CEMETERY (Commercial Appeal)
- IL: Group to Accept Limits on Mosque (Chicago Trib)
* U.S. FAILS TO EXPLAIN POLICIES TO MUSLIM WORLD (NY Times)
- Apocalypse (Almost) Now (NY Times)
* CA: PROF SAYS QURAN PROMOTES GENDER EQUALITY
* WITNESSES SAY US FORCES KILLED CIVILIANS (Independent)
- 'We Live Like Dogs' (Antiwar.com)
- Iraqi Journalist Tells of U.S. Captivity (AP)
- Ten days in Fallujah Battlefield (Xinhau)
- Dead-Check in Falluja (Village Voice)
* ISRAELIS FIRED ON A 10-YEAR-OLD GIRL (Independent)
* REPRESSIVE MEMRI (Antiwar.com)
* U.N. SEMINAR ON CONFRONTING ISLAMOPHOBIA
-----
VERSE OF THE DAY: BE GRATEFUL TO GOD
"So eat of the good and lawful things that God has provided for you,
and be
grateful to God for His favors."
The Holy Quran, 16:114
"(The righteous) feed the poor, the orphan and the captive for the love
of
God, saying: "We feed you for the sake of God alone. We seek from you
neither reward nor thanks."
The Holy Quran, 76:8-9
-----
TAMPA MUSLIMS TO FEED NEEDY FOR THANKSGIVING
Preston Rudie, Tampa Bays 10, 11/24/04
http://www.tampabays10.com/news/news.aspx?storyid=10964
WATCH THE VIDEO:
http://www.wtsp.com/video/player.aspx?aid=14457&sid=10964
Islamic faith obligates its followers to give to the poor and the
hungry.
So on Wednesday the Council on American-Islamic Relations or CAIR will
serve hot meals to more than 1000 low income people in Tampa. The
dinner
will be served at the University Community Center on N. 22nd Street.
AHMED BEDIER/CAIR-FL:
"This is hitting 2 birds with one stone. We're able to give back to
society
and help the less fortunate, but at the same time being able to dispel
the
fears and the stereotypes."
Ahmed Bedier says surveys have found about 30% of Americans have a
negative
opinion about Muslims and only 2% had something positive to say about
Muslims.
AHMED BEDIER/CAIR-FL:
"There are more than 7 million Muslim-Americans in this country and
over
99.9% are law abiding citizens that love America."
Bedier hopes Wednesday's free dinner will help break some of those
stereotypes.
WHAT: CAIR Pre-Thanksgiving Community Dinner to Feed the Needy
WHEN: Wednesday, November 24, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
WHERE: University Community Center, 14013 N 22nd Street, Tampa, FL
(813-558-5212)
CONTACT: Ahmed Bedier 813-514-1414 or 813-731-9506, Email:
abedier@cair-florida.org
ALSO SEE:
VA: MUSLIM CHARITY GROUP RAISES $10,000
Kali Schumitz, Times Community, 11/24/04
http://www.timescommunity.com/site/tab5.cfm?newsid=13422562&BRD=2553&PAG=461
&dept_id=511691&rfi=6
At the second meeting of Project Hope and Harmony Thursday, a group
formed
recently to assist day laborers in Herndon, a Reston Interfaith
representative announced that the group had $400 allocated to provide
winter coats for the laborers.
Mukit Hossain and the Muslim charity group Foundation for Immediate and
Appropriate Temporary Help (FAITH) thought this was not sufficient.
They
began contacting Muslim businesses and charitable organizations and by
Saturday morning had more than $10,000 in pledges to buy winter coats
and
food for the day laborers; 15 people volunteered to distribute coats
Saturday morning.
They distributed about 30 coats Saturday, Hossain said, and made a list
of
others who need coats. Those people will be invited to a community
dinner
this week where they will be able to pick up their new coats.
Hossain said the recipients of the coats were extremely happy. Even
though
it was a warm day, he said, they ripped off the tags and put on the new
coats right away.
"We were all wearing T-shirts, and they wanted to put on their winter
coats," he said. "It really was a wonderful, human moment..."
-----
CALIFORNIA ATTORNEY GENERAL SPEAKS AT CAIR-SV DINNER
450 turn out for CAIR-SV Second Annual Fundraising banquet
(SACRAMENTO, CA, 11/24/2004) - Some 450 elected leaders, government
officials, civic and Muslim organization leaders, and community members
turned out for the Second Annual Fundraising Banquet of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations - Sacramento Valley (CAIR-SV) on Saturday.
Speakers included Assemblywoman Dr. Judy Chu, Muslim Student
Association-National President Hadia Mubarak and CAIR National Board
Chairman Omar Ahmad.
In keeping with the theme of "Restoring the American Dream," keynote
speaker California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, one of the sponsors
of
the anti-hate crime legislation Assembly Joint Resolution (AJR) 64,
assured
Muslims that hate crimes against members of any faith community will
not be
tolerated. He said, "As California's top cop, I will not allow it."
CAIR presented its annual Courage and Inspiration Award to Chaplain
James
Yee for his steadfastness and patience while being held for 76 days in
a
military prison. Yee was accused of spying, espionage while serving as
a US
Army Muslim Chaplain in at Camp Delta in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
SEE: EX-SPY SUSPECT RECEIVES AWARD, HERO'S WELCOME
http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/11526750p-12429407c.html
"I would like to thank all those who helped make the banquet such a
success," said CAIR-SV Executive Director Basim Elkarra. "CAIR-SV looks
forward to working with our fellow citizens to help restore the
American
dream."
CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil liberties group, is headquartered
in
Washington, D.C., and has 29 offices and chapters nationwide and in
Canada.
Its mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue,
protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions
that promote justice and mutual understanding.
- END -
CONTACT: CAIR-SV Executive Director Basim El-Karra, 916-289-3748
Council on American-Islamic Relations
Sacramento Valley Chapter
717 K St., Suite 306, Sacramento, CA 95818
Tel: (916) 441-6269
Fax: (916) 441-6271
------
INCITEMENT WATCH: EURABIA
FOX REPORT W/ SHEPARD SMITH
Wednesday 7pm ET
http://www.foxnews.com/fnctv/index.html
Sweden Under Siege - Muslim immigration is out of control and causing a
bitter cultural clash. Why are some turning a blind eye? Steve Harrigan
exposes the truth in part two of his "Eurabia" series.
ACTION REQUESTED:
Watch the program and then send POLITE comments to:
E-MAIL: shepard.smith@foxnews.com, steve.harrigan@foxnews.com,
Foxreport@foxnews.com, Viewerservices@foxnews.com, Comments@foxnews.com
COPY TO: cair@cair-net.org
TEL: 1-888-369-4762
ALSO SEE:
MUSLIM GROUP PROTESTS COMMENT ON IMUS RADIO PROGRAM
Holly Lebowitz Rossi and Mark O'Keefe, Religion News Service, 11/24/04
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/75/story_7521_1.html
(RNS) A national Muslim civil liberties organization is protesting
comments
made on talk show host Don Imus' program, which is nationally broadcast
on
radio and on television network MSNBC.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is urging its members
to
contact MSNBC to express their discontent. The group has also filed a
complaint with the Federal Communications Commission.
According to the Washington-based CAIR, on Friday (Nov. 19) an on-air
personality pretended to be a "senior military affairs adviser" on the
"Imus in the Morning" program. He referred to a wounded Iraqi who was
shot
and killed by a U.S. Marine in a mosque as a "booby-trapped raghead
cadaver."
Imus, broadcast on 90 radio stations in addition to MSNBC, often
engages in
caustic humor and criticism bordering on cruelty. But CAIR said this
comment crossed the line into bigotry.
On Nov. 12, Imus engaged in an on-air discussion with a colleague
during
footage of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's funeral.
"They're stupid to begin with, but they're brainwashed now," the
colleague
said, referring to Palestinians. "Stinking animals. They ought to drop
the
bomb right there, kill 'em all right now."
This past spring, CAIR launched a campaign called "Hate Hurts America,"
which is specifically aimed at what the group identifies as increasing
anti-Muslim attacks on talk radio.
In a letter to NBC President Neal Shapiro, CAIR national communications
director Ibrahim Hooper wrote, "We are firm defenders of the First
Amendment, but these hate-filled and racist remarks can only serve to
legitimize anti-Muslim and anti-Arab bigotry in our society and could
lead
to further discrimination against members of the Islamic and
Arab-American
communities."
On Tuesday (Nov. 23), MSNBC spokeswoman Leslie Zeller Schwartz issued a
statement pointing out that views expressed on the Imus program are not
those of MSNBC.
"Having said that, it was unfortunate that these remarks were telecast
on
MSNBC," she said. "We sincerely apologize to anyone who was offended by
these remarks."
That didn't satisfy CAIR.
"I suppose we should appreciate the fact that they responded at all,"
said
Hooper. "But it's hard to characterize it as a strong apology."
-----
MUSLIMS ABANDON PLAN FOR FAYETTE CEMETERY
Bartholomew Sullivan, Commercial Appeal, 11/24/04
http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/local_news/article/0,1426,MCA_437_335119
5,00.html
SOMERVILLE, Tenn. -- Representatives of the Muslim Association of
Memphis
told Fayette County commissioners Tuesday night they were withdrawing
--
for now -- a proposal to build a cemetery in the county.
The decision came after the commission declined a written request by
the
group's attorney to delay discussion on the proposal, which has
generated
national attention because of the opposition of some Fayette residents.
The issue has received national attention among Muslim groups who are
reading E-mailed press releases saying Fayette County opponents of the
cemetery are intolerant and ignorant bigots who have likened Muslims to
Nazis and suggested they are harbingers of terrorism.
"The Muslim community's proposal should not be denied because of the
bigoted attitudes some residents have toward the Islamic faith," said
Khadija Athman, Civil Rights coordinator of the Council on
American-Islamic
Relations (CAIR) in Washington.
Ibrahim Hooper, another CAIR spokesman in Washington, said earlier
Tuesday
that a tape recording of one meeting in Fayette County suggests some
residents went "off the deep end" in their denunciation of Muslims. A
summary of that meeting provided by cemetery proponents indicates
someone
in the audience suggested turning down the request because "We are at
war
with Muslims."
R. Siddiqui, a representative of the Muslim Association, said the
decision
to withdraw the proposal Tuesday night was made on the advice of
attorney
Donald Donati, who was in court and could not be at the commission
meeting.
"We have several options in front of us," Siddiqui said. "One of them
could
be resubmitting the proposal..."
ALSO SEE:
GROUP LIKELY TO ACCEPT LIMITS ON MOSQUE PLAN
Graydon P. Megan, Chicago Tribune, 11/24/04
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/north/chi-0411240186nov24,1,7434234
.story
Muslim Community Center officials likely will accept next month what
they
call "troubling" restrictions that will allow them to open a mosque in
Morton Grove and end a two-year dispute with the village.
"Chances are very high that we will accept it," center president Dr.
Mohammed Kaiseruddin said Monday night after village trustees voted 4-1
for
a special-use permit that allows the group to build a mosque and expand
its
elementary school.
The approval came with 32 conditions, including no high school classes,
a
10 p.m. curfew on non-religious uses of the facility and a limit on the
combined capacity of the mosque and a proposed multipurpose room of 675
people. The MCC's plan calls for the mosque to have a capacity of 525.
MCC lawyer Yasir Aleemuddin complained to trustees that those
restrictions
were "troubling and won't stand the test of time."
"Some of the conditions they imposed on us, we think, are
unconstitutional," he said after the meeting.
MCC members must now approve the agreement and dismiss a lawsuit the
group
filed last year against the village. The organization likely will
discuss
the agreement by mid-December, Kaiseruddin said.
"We will take a very deliberate decision," he told the trustees. "If we
accept it, we will accept it faithfully and will implement it
faithfully."
The conditions were worked out two weeks ago when the Morton Grove
Planning
Commission ended more than 30 hours of hearings on the case. Many who
had
spoken at the hearings reminded trustees Monday about their concerns
about
parking and traffic congestion, along with the glare of parking lot
lights
and worries that the project would overload drains and sewers and lead
to
flooding in the neighborhood.
Kaiseruddin lauded the village for its work but said the group still
had
concerns.
"None of the other churches [in the village] have that kind of
condition,"
Kaiseruddin said. "It bothers us."
Village Administrator Ralph Czerwinski said Tuesday that other churches
either had been built years ago under different zoning codes or had not
requested a use that required a special permit.
"If those churches were built under today's zoning and special-use
procedures, there would be different types of restrictions applied," he
said. "This is the process we have in place today."
The Muslim group's first attempt to gain approval for the proposal
failed
in 2002. That led to a lawsuit alleging that the village had violated
the
group's civil rights. A mediation agreement reached in June between the
group and the village put the lawsuit on hold and required the village
to
consider in good faith a special-use permit for the project.
Trustees spoke of the time and effort they had spent on the issue.
Steve
Blonz pointed to his notes on the back of a used plane ticket and said,
"I
want to tell you how I spent my vacation last week."
Dan DiMaria addressed complaints that the outcome was preordained.
"There
were no done deals," he said. "They conform. Therefore, I vote yes."
Rick Krier cast the only dissenting vote. "The mosque is too big for
this
site," he said.
The mediation agreement requires the MCC board to accept or reject the
village's action within 30 days of the permit being issued.
"If we don't accept, then we'll be back in court," Aleemuddin said.
-----
U.S. FAILS TO EXPLAIN POLICIES TO MUSLIM WORLD, PANEL SAYS
Thom Shanker, NY Times, 11/24/04
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/24/politics/24info.html
WASHINGTON - A harshly critical report by a Pentagon advisory panel
says
the United States is failing in its efforts to explain the nation's
diplomatic and military actions to the Muslim world, but it warns that
no
public relations plan or information operation can defend America from
flawed policies.
The Defense Science Board report, which has not been released to the
public, says the nation's institutions charged with "strategic
communication" are broken, and calls for a comprehensive reorganization
of
government public affairs, public diplomacy and information efforts.
"America's negative image in world opinion and diminished ability to
persuade are consequences of factors other than the failure to
implement
communications strategies," says the 102-page report, completed in
September. "Interests collide. Leadership counts. Policies matter.
Mistakes
dismay our friends and provide enemies with unintentional assistance.
Strategic communication is not the problem, but it is a problem."
The study does not constitute official policy, but it is described by
the
Pentagon's civilian and military leadership as capturing the essential
themes of a debate that is now roiling not just the Defense Department
but
the entire United States government. The debate centers on how far the
United States can and should go in managing, even manipulating,
information
to deter enemies and persuade allies or neutral nations.
There is little disagreement about the importance and utility of
battlefield deception to help assure the success of a military
operation
and protect American or allied soldiers. But there is great concern
among
public affairs officials in the military at proposals for regional or
even
global information operations, especially if those efforts include
falsehoods.
The rub is that in an environment of 24-hour news and the Internet,
overseas information operations easily become known to the American
people,
and any specific government-sponsored information campaign not based on
fact risks damaging the nation's overall credibility...
ALSO SEE:
APOCALYPSE (ALMOST) NOW
Nicholas D. Kristof, New York Times, 11/24/04
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/24/opinion/24kristof.html?oref=login
If America's secular liberals think they have it rough now, just wait
till
the Second Coming.
The "Left Behind" series, the best-selling novels for adults in the
U.S.,
enthusiastically depict Jesus returning to slaughter everyone who is
not a
born-again Christian. The world's Hindus, Muslims, Jews and agnostics,
along with many Catholics and Unitarians, are heaved into everlasting
fire:
"Jesus merely raised one hand a few inches and . . . they tumbled in,
howling and screeching."
Gosh, what an uplifting scene!
If Saudi Arabians wrote an Islamic version of this series, we would
furiously demand that sensible Muslims repudiate such hatemongering. We
should hold ourselves to the same standard.
Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, the co-authors of the series, have both
e-mailed me (after I wrote about the "Left Behind" series in July) to
protest that their books do not "celebrate" the slaughter of
non-Christians
but simply present the painful reality of Scripture.
"We can't read it some other way just because it sounds exclusivistic
and
not currently politically correct," Mr. Jenkins said in an e-mail.
"That's
our crucible, an offensive and divisive message in an age of plurality
and
tolerance."
Silly me. I'd forgotten the passage in the Bible about how Jesus
intends to
roast everyone from the good Samaritan to Gandhi in everlasting fire,
simply because they weren't born-again Christians...
-----
PROF SAYS QURAN PROMOTES EQUALITY BETWEEN GENDERS
Barlas blames false readings of Quran
Anthony Ha, Daily Stanford, 11/23/04
http://daily.stanford.edu/tempo?page=content&id=15431&repository=0001_articl
e
Asma Barlas argued yesterday that, contrary to popular belief, the
Quran is
a "radically egalitarian and liberating text" and does not condone
misogynistic treatment of women.
During her lecture and the sometimes contentious question-and-answer
session that followed, Barlas challenged many of the dominant
interpretations of the Quran and offered an alternative reading, one
that
puts patriarchal societies in opposition to true Islam.
"There is not a single verse in the Quran that grants men that power
over
life and death," she said.
Barlas, a professor of politics at Ithaca University, spent the first
33
years of her life in Pakistan. Her book "'Believing Women' in Islam:
Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Quran" was released in
2002.
"Muslims have not dealt in a fine way with the Quran itself," she said.
"There is a tendency to be crude and arbitrary."
Barlas said she based her interpretation on her belief that "the Quran
as
God's word is eternal and perfect, but our readings of it are not."
She said that while there are texts that interpret the Quran as
supporting
a patriarchal society, the Quran itself does not.
"We must read the Quran for its best meaning and as a whole," Barlas
said.
She also argued that Muslims must address the relationship between
"knowledge and the means of its production. The Quran was revealed to a
patriarchy and interpreted within the context of that patriarchy."
Barlas' own reading of the Quran begins, in her words, with "a sound
theological understanding of God." In Barlas' view, the "just God"
described in the Quran - one who would not transgress against others -
would not approve of "patriarchies that transgress against the rights
of
women . . . Divine sovereignty and male sovereignty are not
compatible."
After the lecture, some attendees praised Barlas and her ideas, while
others were more critical...
-----
WITNESSES SAY US FORCES KILLED UNARMED CIVILIANS
Kim Sengupta, Independent, 11/24/04
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=586045
Allegations of widespread abuse by US forces in Fallujah, including the
killing of unarmed civilians and the targeting of a hospital in an
attack,
have been made by people who have escaped from the city.
They said, in interviews with The Independent, that as well as deaths
from
bombs and artillery shells, a large number of people including children
were killed by American snipers. US forces refused repeated calls for
medical aid for injured civilians, they said.
Some of the killings took place in the build-up to the assault on the
rebel
stronghold, and at least in one case - that of the death of a family of
seven, including a three-month baby - the American authorities have
admitted responsibility and offered compensation.
The refugees from Fallujah describe a situation of extreme violence in
which remaining civilians in the city, who have been told by the
Americans
to leave, appeared to have been seen as complicit in the insurgency.
Men of
military age were particularly vulnerable. But there are accounts of
children as young as four, and women and old men being killed.
The American authorities have accused militant sympathisers of
spreading
disinformation, and have also claimed that people in Fallujah have
exaggerated the number of casualties and the level of damage in the air
campaign that preceded the assault.
The US military, which is inquiring into last week's shooting of an
injured
Iraqi fighter in Fallujah by a US marine, has said that any claims of
abuse
will be investigated. They also maintain that the dead and injured
civilians may have been victims of insurgents.
The claims of abuse and killings, from different sources, appear,
however,
to follow a consistent pattern. Dr Ali Abbas, who arrived in Baghdad
from
Fallujah four days ago, worked at a clinic in the city which was bombed
by
the Americans. He said that at least five patients were killed...
ALSO SEE:
'WE LIVE LIKE DOGS'
Dahr Jamail, Antiwar.com, 11/24/04
http://www.antiwar.com/jamail/?articleid=4039
"Doctors in Fallujah are reporting there are patients in the hospital
there
who were forced out by the Americans," says Mehdi Abdulla, a
33-year-old
ambulance driver at a hospital in Baghdad. "Some doctors there told me
they
had a major operation going, but the soldiers took the doctors away and
left the patient to die." He looks at the ground, then away to the
distance.
Honking cars fill the chaotic street outside the hospital, where they'd
just received brand new desks. The empty boxes are strewn about
outside. Um
Mohammed, a doctor at the hospital sits behind her old, wooden desk.
"How
can I take a new desk when there are patients dying because we don't
have
medicine for them?" she asks while holding her hands in the air. "They
should build a lift so patients who can't walk can be taken to surgery,
and
instead we have these new desks!" Her eyes were piercing with fire,
while
yet another layer of frustration is folded into her work.
"And there are still a few Iraqis who think the Americans came to
liberate
them," she adds, looking out the broken window. The glass lay about
outside, shattered from a car bomb that had detonated in front of the
hospital. "These people will change their minds about the liberators
when
they, too, have had a family member killed by them."
Mehdi then takes us to a refugee camp of Fallujans over on the campus
of
the University of Baghdad. Tents surround an old mosque. Kids run
about,
several of them kicking around a half-inflated soccer ball. Some women
are
using two water taps to clean pots and wash clothing. Many people stand
around, walking aimlessly, waiting...
---
IRAQI JOURNALIST TELLS OF U.S. CAPTIVITY
Mariam Fam, Associated Press, 11/23/04
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/world/10256509.htm
BAGHDAD, Iraq - An Iraqi journalist who stayed in Fallujah to report on
the
battle for his hometown says he and hundreds of other civilians who
eventually turned themselves in to escape the violence suffered tough,
sometimes humiliating, treatment from American and Iraqi guards.
Abdul-Qader Saadi said he was subjected to multiple searches and
interrogations; went unfed the first two days; was blindfolded and
handcuffed; and had to sleep for days in a wooden cage buffeted by cold
winds at a desert detention camp.
Saadi, who has reported part-time for The Associated Press since early
in
the year, also complained of having to strip naked for a medical
examination by doctors he didn't know, a humiliating experience for an
Arab.
"This was really painful," he said Tuesday, several days after his
release
on Sunday.
Saadi said he was held 10 days as U.S. interrogators tried to sort out
civilians and insurgents who were detained as troops moved across
Fallujah.
U.S. officials confirmed to AP that Saadi was among those screened.
They
said 1,450 people had been detained, with more than 400 released after
it
was determined they weren't combatants...
---
TEN DAYS IN FALLUJAH BATTLEFIELD
Li Jizhi, Xinhua, 11/21/04
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-11/22/content_2244359.htm
BAGHDAD -- Twelve days after losing contact with a correspondent based
in
Fallujah, Xinhua reporters were relieved to see him report back for
work in
deplorable shape on Saturday.
Abdul Rahman, a 30-year-old Fallujah resident working for Xinhua, made
a
phone call to the Xinhua office in Baghdad with his Iraqna mobile on
Nov.
9, which became the last message Xinhua received from him.
He reported on that day that Fallujah had been ripped into two parts
controlled by US-Iraqi forces and fighters respectively. With his words
still resonating, Xinhua reporters were happy to see Rahman safe and
sound.
Relaxing on a sofa for the first time after 10 days in hell, Rahman
calmed
down and recounted his experience as a correspondent and eyewitness of
the
bloody fighting in the past two weeks, as well as his tale of escaping
alive.
"I could either escape for life or stay to cover the truth. I chose the
latter," he said...
---
DEAD-CHECK IN FALLUJA
Evan Wright, Village Voice, 11/24/04
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0447/wright.php
On April 9, 2003, the day the statue of Saddam Hussein was being
toppled in
Baghdad, symbolizing the promised liberation of Iraq, I was embedded
with a
Marine unit engaged in fierce combat about 30 miles north of the city,
on
the outskirts of Baquba. Late that afternoon, the Humvee I was in was
following about 50 feet behind a Marine Light Armored Vehicle when it
pulled alongside a Toyota pickup pushed to the side of the road, its
doors
riddled with bullet holes. The head of at least one occupant was
visible in
the truck, but I couldn't determine if he was moving or not. Nor did I
see
any weapons. As our Humvee stopped behind the truck, a Marine in the
vehicle ahead of us leapt out, pointed his rifle into the window of the
pickup and sprayed it with gunfire. It was a cold-blooded execution.
As we continued forward, passing the truck, I glimpsed at least two
corpses
sprawled on the seats, the interior spattered with blood. During the
brief
moment I looked, I was unable to determine whether the dead men
possessed
weapons. None of the four Marines in our Humvee said anything. We had
been
awake for more than 30 hours, much of that time under steady mortar,
rifle,
machine-gun, and rocket-propelled grenade fire from enemy combatants
who
dressed in civilian clothes and moved around on the battlefield in
Toyota
pickups. (To make matters even more confusing, during the height of
combat
farmers were racing into the surrounding fields-where enemy soldiers
were
shooting at us from dug-in, concealed positions-in order to rescue
sheep
from the gunfire.)
In the previous few minutes we had already passed more than a dozen
corpses
strewn by the side of the road. Some had the tops of their heads
missing,
expertly hit by Marine riflemen. Others were burned-still smoking,
actually-having crawled out of other vehicles set ablaze by rockets
fired
from Marine helicopters. The execution of one or two more men wasn't
worth
commenting on.
I greeted the sight of dead Iraqis in the pickup with a sense of numb
relief. At least they would not be trying to kill us that day. In the
preceding two-and-a-half weeks, the unit I was embedded with had come
under
frequent enemy attack, with three Marines wounded. There were 23 bullet
holes in the Humvee I rode in-miraculously, none of the five of us
inside
had been hit. I had developed a strange relationship with the sight of
dead
Iraqis. I felt safer when I saw them...
-----
ISRAELIS FIRED ON GIRL 'HAVING IDENTIFIED HER AS A 10-YEAR-OLD',
MILITARY
TAPE SHOWS
Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem, Independent, 11/24/04
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=586044
Israeli soldiers continued firing at a Palestinian girl killed in Gaza
last
month well after she had been identified as a frightened child, a
military
communications tape has revealed.
The tape is likely to be crucial in the prosecution case against the
men's
company commander, who faces five charges arising from the killing of
Iman
al-Hams, 13, in the southern border town of Rafah on 6 October.
It shows that troops firing with light weapons and machine guns on a
figure
moving in a "no entry zone" close to an army outpost near the border
with
Egypt had swiftly discovered that she was a girl.
In the recorded exchanges someone in the operations room asks: "Are we
talking about a girl under the age of 10?" The observation post, housed
in
a watchtower, replies: "It's a little girl. She's running defensively
eastwards, a girl of about 10. She's behind the embankment, scared to
death."
Not until four minutes later was it reported that the girl had been hit
and
had fallen. The observation post reports: "Receive, I think that one of
the
positions took her out..."
-----
REPRESSIVE MEMRI
Juan Cole, AntiWar.com, 11/24/04
http://www.antiwar.com/cole/?articleid=4047
I just checked my campus mail and found a letter in it from Colonel
Yigal
Carmon, late of Israeli military intelligence, now an official at the
Middle East Media Research Organization, or MEMRI. He threatened me
with a
lawsuit over blog comments I made at Informed Comment. This technique
of
the SLAPP, or Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, has
already
been pioneered by polluting industries against environmental activists,
and
now the pro-Likud lobby in the U.S. has apparently decided to try it
out
against people like me.
I urge all readers to send messages of protest to memri@memri.org.
Please
be polite, and simply urge MEMRI, which has a major Web presence, to
withdraw the lawsuit threat and to respect the spirit of the free
sharing
of ideas that makes the Internet possible.
Here is the letter:
November 8, 2004
Professor Juan Cole
University of Michigan History Department
1029 Tisch Hall
435 S. State Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1003
Dear Professor Cole,
I write in response to your article "Osama Threatening Red States?"
published on November 3, 2004 on Antiwar.com. The article included
several
statements about MEMRI which go beyond what could be considered
legitimate
criticism, and which in fact qualify as slander and libel. While we
respect
your right to argue the veracity of our translations, you certainly may
not
fabricate information about our organization. You make several claims
that
are patently false:
Trying to paint MEMRI in a conspiratorial manner by portraying us as a
rich, sinister group, you write that "MEMRI is funded to the tune of
$60
million a year." This is completely false.
You also write that MEMRI is an "anti-Arab propaganda machine" that
"cherry-picks the vast Arabic press." If you have any level of
familiarity
with MEMRI, you should be aware of our Reform Project, which is one of
the
most important of MEMRI's projects, and which receives much of our
energy
and resources. The Reform Project (www.memri.org/reform.html) is
devoted
solely to finding and amplifying the progressive voices in the Arab
world.
It is especially disappointing that these charges do not come from an
overzealous journalist, but from a member of the academic community,
from
whom one should be able to expect at least the minimum amount of
research
and corroboration.
In addition, you write that "MEMRI is one of a number of public
relations
campaigns essentially on behalf of the far right-wing Likud Party in
Israel." This, too, is completely false. MEMRI is totally unaffiliated
with
any government, and receives no government funding. While I was
formerly an
Israeli official (and retired more than a decade ago), I have never
been
affiliated with the Likud Party, or any other party...
-----
'UNLEARNING INTOLERANCE': SECRETARY-GENERAL TO OPEN SEMINAR ON
CONFRONTING
ISLAMOPHOBIA.
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2004/hr4798.doc.htm
Secretary-General Kofi Annan will open a seminar on "Confronting
Islamophobia: Education for Tolerance and Understanding" at United
Nations
Headquarters in New York on 7 December. The seminar will be the second
in a
series entitled "Unlearning Intolerance", organized by the Educational
Outreach Section in the Outreach Division of the United Nations
Department
of Public Information (DPI).
The series aims to examine different manifestations of intolerance and
explore ways to promote respect and understanding among peoples. As its
name suggests, the "Unlearning Intolerance" series offers opportunities
to
discuss how intolerance, wherever it exists and for whatever reason,
can be
"unlearned" through education, inclusion and example.
Part of DPI's mission is to bring together voluntary organizations,
educators and other components of civil society for discussions with
the
United Nations system on issues that are not just universal in their
scope,
but have a direct and palpable impact upon the lives of children, women
and
men everywhere. This series falls squarely within that effort.
It also responds to a specific request to DPI from the Committee on
Information (a committee of the United Nations General Assembly),
asking
the Department help disseminate information relevant to the "dialogue
among
civilizations" and the "culture of peace".
The seminar will be held at United Nations Headquarters in Conference
Room.
For more information or register, please write including your name and
affiliation to: Vikram Sura, Educational Outreach Section, Outreach
Division, Department of Public Information, e-mail: sura@un.org, tel:
212-963-8274, fax: 917-367-6075; or Lisa Krutky, Educational Outreach
Section, Outreach Division, DPI, e-mail: krutky@un.org, tel:
917-367-3609,
fax: 917-367-6075
-----
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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
--------------------------------------------------------------------
mail2web - Check your email from the web at
http://mail2web.com/ .
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 11/25/04
* HADITH OF THE DAY: MANY FORMS OF CHARITY
* CAIR-NY INTERNSHIPS/JOB OPENING
* CAIR-FL: CATHOLICS, MUSLIMS TO CREATE AWARENESS (Knight Ridder)
- FL: Help Reaches Across Cultures (St. Pete Times)
- VA: Muslims Warm Needy, Inside and Out (Wash Times)
* CA: CRUSADERS AT THE GATES (OC WEEKLY)
- MSNBC Apologizes for 'Unfortunate' Remarks (Wash Post)
* LEAVE SCARVES ALONE, SAYS NOBEL LAUREATE (UPI)
- Palestinian Forced to Play Violin at Checkpoint (Haaretz)
----
HADITH OF THE DAY: MANY FORMS OF CHARITY
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "There is a (compulsory
form
of) charity to be given for every joint of the human body (as a sign of
gratitude to God) every day the sun rises. To judge justly between two
people…to help a man with his riding animal…(Saying) a good word…(the
steps) one takes toward (prayer)…and to remove a harmful thing from the
way…(are all forms of charity.)"
Sahih Al-Bukhari, 4:232
-----
CAIR-NY INTERNSHIPS/JOB OPENING
CIVIL RIGHTS INTERNSHIP
Responsibilities include assisting the Civil Rights Coordinator in
contacting individuals with civil rights cases, communicating with
involved
parties, civil rights research, data entry and filing. An interest in
law
and civil rights is recommended. Preference will be given to law school
students. Send resume and cover letter to Wissam_nasr@hotmail.com.
TEACHING AND CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT INTERNSHIPS
CAIR-NY is now offering an education internship to individuals who have
a
working knowledge lesson plan development. The focus of the internship
will
be to help develop a holistic and fresh approach to presenting
educational
workshops to the diverse Muslim communities of New York. This project
will
challenge interns to develop civil rights and community involvement
workshops as well as safety seminars based on the 'whole-group-whole'
workshop model. Preference will be given to graduate students in an
affiliated field. Send resume and cover letter to
Wissam_nasr@hotmail.com.
MEMBERSHIP COORDINATOR
Part time position 10-15 hours a week/$10 an hour.
Description: Responsible for all facets of CAIR-NY membership,
including
organization, outreach and adminstrative duties. Must be outgoing,
organized and determined.
Send Resume and cover letter to: Wissam_nasr@hotmail.com
-----
CATHOLIC, MUSLIM COMMUNITIES TO CREATE AWARENESS
THOMAS MONNAY, Knight Ridder Tribune News Service, 11/25/04
http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/local/10267568.htm
When he read about the bombings of five Catholic churches in Baghdad on
the
dawn of the first day of Ramadan, the Rev. Paul E. Edwards cried. Then
the
pastor of St. Katharine Drexel Catholic Church in Weston appealed for
help.
In response, leaders from two South Florida Muslim organizations are
pledging to work with Catholics to create awareness about religious
persecution and to help rebuild the churches.
Representatives of the Council on American-Islamic Relations -- CAIR --
will address congregants at St. Katharine's at 10 a.m. today during a
Thanksgiving service.
"I will let [them] know that Muslims stand side-by-side with them at
this
time of trial and tribulation," said Altaf Ali, CAIR's Florida
director.
"We want to show that in America, we can be a coalition of interfaith
[groups] that work toward the best interest of humanity."
Mary Ross Agosta, a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Miami, hopes the
dialogue at the church at 2700 Glades Circle will cement better
relations.
"This is a wonderful opportunity for two religious communities to come
together, especially on this day of Thanksgiving," she said. "As we
join
together in prayer, we ask God for peace in our lives and in our
countries."
The initiative comes after Edwards wrote a column that was published
Nov. 5
in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. In it, he said he cried after
learning
of the church bombings on Oct. 16 and the deaths of 12 people in
similar
incidents in August.
Edwards wrote that Catholics and Muslims have been at odds for
centuries,
including the times of the Crusades, when Catholics committed excesses
in
Muslim nations.
The Catholic Church has apologized and "disavowed any harm done to
Muslims
by our ancestral brothers and sisters," he said, adding it's
appropriate
for the Muslim community to denounce persecution of Catholics and
support
Catholics around the world.
Ali said CAIR officials would ask local Muslims to raise money to help
repair the churches. He already met in private with Edwards to express
his
concerns about the incidents.
Edwards said offerings collected by his congregants at today's service
would go toward the rebuilding effort in Iraq…
SEE ALSO:
HELP REACHES ACROSS CULTURES, ACROSS TOWN
JENNIFER LIBERTO, St. Petersburg Times, 11/25/04
http://www.sptimes.com/2004/11/25/Hernando/Help_reaches_across_c.shtml
Dr. Adel Eldin never expected that American and Muslim traditions could
mesh so well.
The Spring Hill cardiologist first thought to link Thanksgiving with
Ramadan when the American holiday started coinciding with the Muslim
holy
season for the first time in many years - a few months after the
terrorist
attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
"We thought, how could we make that Thanksgiving really special," said
Eldin, 42, who organized Ramadan-Thanksgiving food baskets for Hernando
County's needy, a program that is now in its fourth year. "We wanted a
nice
gesture from fellow American Muslims to show that they do love their
citizens and they do know what hunger feels like, especially during
Ramadan."
This year, following Hernando's lead, Muslims nationwide have taken to
sharing the spirit of Ramadan through charitable Thanksgiving
endeavors,
sponsoring dinners and food baskets in communities as far away as San
Francisco and Cincinnati. Muslims in Tampa sponsored a Thanksgiving
dinner
Wednesday for the needy, based on Eldin's concept, even though Ramadan
ended two weeks ago.
"Even a year ago, we didn't have these types of sharing events,
introducing
Muslim communities to feeding the hungry," said Ahmed Bedier, spokesman
for
the Florida chapter of Council of American-Islamic Relations, which has
sponsored many of the dinners in local chapters nationwide. "This year,
we
launched this campaign to feed the needy, based partly on the success
we've
had in Brooksville…"
In 2003, the last time Thanksgiving and Ramadan coincided, the Hernando
program attracted the attention of the Council on American-Islamic
Relations, a nonprofit Muslim advocacy and civil rights group that goes
by
the acronym CAIR.
Given the national climate, with continued hostility and isolated
attacks
against American Muslims, the national organization decided to
broadcast
the concept of sharing Thanksgiving dinners and food baskets during the
Ramadan season to all of its chapters.
That's not to say that American Muslims had never shared meals with the
public previously.
In fact, several communities, especially those near universities, have
often invited the public to iftars, the dinner after sunset that breaks
the
daily fast during Ramadan. Those dinners had not been linked to
Thanksgiving, however, and tended to be more educational than
charitable.
Once CAIR got involved, more Muslims took notice and embraced the idea
of
feeding the needy during Ramadan.
In Cincinnati, the local CAIR chapter sponsored a dinner to feed the
homeless in 2003 and also gave out Thanksgiving baskets. That event
grew
this year, and dinners were organized in inner-city Cincinnati and
Columbus, with hundreds in attendance.
"We try to look at some of the best projects, and we took this idea
from
Florida," said Jad Humeidan, executive director of CAIR-Ohio, who plans
to
launch a third dinner next year in Cleveland.
Muslims also sponsored similar dinners for the needy earlier this month
in
California and Michigan, according to the national organization in
Washington. Fort Lauderdale and Tampa Muslims also sponsored charitable
dinners.
"You draw on the common value during Thanksgiving and Ramadan, the
giving
to the poor and the sharing of meals," said Rabiah Ahmed, spokeswoman
for
the national CAIR organization. "It's something very popular, and
American
Muslims feel comfortable and can relate to that..."
---
MUSLIMS WARM NEEDY, INSIDE AND OUT
Judith Person, WASHINGTON TIMES, 11/25/04
http://washingtontimes.com/metro/20041124-111546-1075r.htm
Muslims passed out new winter coats and served hot meals to low-income
families in the Herndon area last night to celebrate Thanksgiving.
At least 100 members of the town's Hispanic community crowded Zuhair's
Cafe
on Grant Street, where they received a nontraditional Thanksgiving meal
of
beef kebabs and rice.
"It is not the traditional Thanksgiving meal, but hey, what is America
without a little diversity?" said Mukit Hossain, who heads the
Herndon-based Foundation for Appropriate and Immediate Temporary Help
(FAITH), which organized the dinner.
About 20 FAITH volunteers served the dinners on paper plates and soda
in
paper cups. The volunteers had made enough food to feed at least 120
persons. After picking up their meals at the counter, the families sat
down
at the booths or tables that were set up for the dinner.
Before dinner was served at 7 p.m., the FAITH volunteers began the
evening
by giving away a van full of new winter coats to those who came to the
event.
"We are glad to get the coats," said Elvis Ayala Sr., whose son Elvis
Jr.
also received one. Elvis Jr., 5, put on his baby-blue coat as soon as
he
received it, even though it was still warm outside.
Several minutes earlier, the FAITH volunteers had received more coats
from
Ray Mhattab, a bus driver for the Fairfax Connector, who stopped by
Zuhair's and made the donation.
"I drive the bus every day and see the need," Mr. Mhattab said. "I'm so
glad this group is doing this. It compelled me to buy up coats, also."
Last night's dinner and coat giveaway were only two of many ways
Muslims in
Northern Virginia dedicated their Thanksgiving to charitable outreach
projects.
The Islamic faith obligates its followers to give to the poor and the
hungry, so many Muslims participated in charitable events.
"The concept of charity in the West is very different from Islam at a
fundamental level," Mr. Hossain said. "We believe that when one does
charity, it is charity to oneself..."
Over the past week, about 100 volunteers with the All Dulles Area
Muslim
Society (ADAMS) took the canned goods every day to the intersection of
Elden Street and Alabama Drive in Herndon, where day laborers
congregate.
Others are taking part in an annual coat drive held by Reston
Interfaith,
which runs through Feb. 12…
-----
CRUSADERS AT THE GATES
Avoiding Christian Proselytizers at the Islamic Society of Orange
County
Gustavo Arellano, OC Weekly, 11/26/04
http://www.ocweekly.com/ink/05/12/news-arellano2.php
Around 2 p.m. every Friday, following the conclusion of afternoon
prayers,
the Muslim faithful at the Islamic Society of Orange County in Garden
Grove
find out that the prophet Muhammad is the agent of Satan.
Sometimes, they read this in pamphlets and fliers mixed in with ads for
restaurants and clothing stores at the Islamic Society's information
table.
Other times, they discover Jesus-praising, Muhammad-hating letters
allegedly written by former Muslims strewn about the mosque's grounds.
Occasionally, a group of Christians stands outside the Islamic
Society's
parking-lot gates and rush the exiting cars. Stuck in traffic, the
drivers
can do little but accept the Christians' charity: booklets and
audiotapes
warning that submission to Allah guarantees hell.
The Christians seek damned souls; the Muslims drive on.
"They walk up to you and, instead of showing how great Christianity is,
spend their time badmouthing Islam," says one Muslim who has
encountered
Christians at the Islamic Society several times. "It's not a
conversation.
The Christians don't yell or anything-they're pushy but in a nice sort
of way."
Christian proselytizing at the Islamic Society has occurred
intermittently
since its founding in the early 1970s. But after Sept. 11, 2001, and
especially in the months following the start of the Iraq war, Orange
County's largest mosque has weathered increased visits from Christians
simultaneously preaching the loving compassion of Jesus and His wrath
toward nonbelievers-the dove and the sword, if you will. Other local
mosques have reported visits by Christians in the past year, but none
report evangelizing as frequent or inflammatory as that experienced at
OC's
Islamic Society.
Although various Christians leaflet at the Islamic Center, members say
the
two principal groups are Courageous Christians United and the Arabic
Christian Education Center. The former, a Hemet-based organization, is
familiar to local Muslims thanks to previous protests outside the
Anaheim
offices of the Council on American Islamic Relations. The website for
Courageous Christians United warns readers about Muslim events held at
the
Anaheim Convention Center that "try to entice thousands of SoCal
College
kids to become Muslims" and includes a chart asserting that the royal
Saud
family controls everything from Condoleezza Rice to Fox News.
More sinister is the Arabic Christian Education Center, a nonprofit
founded
by Muslims-turned-Christians that operates from a one-room headquarters
in
the heart of Anaheim's Little Arabia district. Most anti-Muslim fliers
sneaked into the Islamic Society bear contact information for the
center,
which advertises Friday "outreach to Muslims" activities in Southern
California-based Christian newspapers. This spring, they also sponsored
a
lecture series titled "Islam or Liberty? It's Your Choice," which
toured
evangelical churches across the county under the name Arabic Christian
Perspective. Speakers included David Hocking, a Tustin-based
Christian-radio host who once told his audience that tolerance of
Muslims
in this country "is a plot"; Emmanuel Ali el-Shariff Abdallah, a former
Muslim celebrated in evangelical circles for his acceptance of Christ;
and
Dr. Robert Morey, author of The Islamic Invasion: Confronting the
World's
Fastest-Growing Religion and a much-distributed 2002 essay that urged
Christians to "launch a new Crusade against Islam" titled "Will Islam
Cause
WWIII?"
Phone calls and e-mails to the Arabic Christian Education Center
weren't
returned, but one longtime Islamic Society congregant told the Weekly
that
their fellow Muslims view the Christian-conversion efforts as an
expected
annoyance rather than a grave threat...
SEE ALSO:
MSNBC APOLOGIZES FOR 'UNFORTUNATE' REMARKS
The Reliable Source
Richard Leiby, Washington Post, 11/25/04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11481-2004Nov25.html
o MSNBC, the network that telecasts Don Imus's rollicking radio show,
has
issued an apology for what it called "unfortunate" recent remarks on
the
program about Arabs and Muslims. In shows earlier this month, sports
anchor
Sid Rosenberg referred to Palestinians as "stinking animals" and an
unidentified guest doing a George S. Patton parody characterized a dead
Iraqi insurgent as "a booby-trapped raghead cadaver." Responding to
protests from the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic
Relations,
the network issued a statement this week saying, "We sincerely
apologize to
anyone who was offended by these remarks."
-----
LEAVE SCARVES ALONE, SAYS NOBEL LAUREATE
United Press International, 11/25/04
http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20041125-041157-2770r.htm
Tokyo, Japan, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- Shirin Ebadi, the first Muslim woman to
win
the Nobel Peace Prize, said wearing a headscarf should be left to the
discretion of Muslim women.
The Iranian lawyer and human rights activist, on a visit to Japan,
commented Wednesday on the recent discord in some European countries
over
Islamic culture. France has banned most religious garb -- including the
headscarves -- from public schools.
"I believe women shouldn't be forced to wear chador (scarf) or any
other
kind of hejab (scarf). At the same time, I believe they shouldn't be
forced
to remove it from their heads. This is Muslim women's choice," she told
a
Tokyo news conference…
Ebadi also stressed the importance of a non-nuclear world.
"The world doesn't need nuclear weapons," she said. "No country in the
world needs the atomic bomb, neither Iran nor Israel nor any other
countries."
SEE ALSO:
SOLDIERS FORCE PALESTINIAN TO PLAY VIOLIN AT W. BANK CHECKPOINT
Akiva Eldar, Haaretz, 11/25/04
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/505915.html
An Israel Defense Forces officer and soldiers at the Beit Iba
checkpoint
near Nablus forced a young Palestinian on November 9 to open a violin
case
he was carrying and play the instrument, while local residents waited
behind him in a long line.
The incident was filmed by Horit Herman-Peled, a volunteer for the
women's
human rights organization Machsom Watch, and a complaint was reviewed
by
the regional brigade commander who conveyed to his troops the severity
of
the matter.
According to Machsom Watch, another volunteer reported several months
ago
about a similar incident in which a Palestinian was forced to play for
soldiers at a checkpoint in the Jerusalem region…
-----
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-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 11/26/04
* VERSE OF THE DAY: RIGHTEOUSNESS LEADS TO LOVE
* AMERICAN MUSLIMS GET TV NETWORK OF THEIR OWN (Buffalo News)
* CAIR-FL: MUSLIM REACHES OUT TO CATHOLICS (Sun-Sentinel)
- FL: ISNA Conference in Minnesota (Star Trib)
- MN: Muslims Look to Young for Leadership (Home News Trib)
* INTERPRETING THE MUSLIM VOTE (Boston Globe)
* NY: GROCERY OWNER FILES BIAS SUIT AGAINST BANK (Buffalo News)
* TX: ISLAM POST 9/11 (News 8 Austin)
* NM: GUARDSMEN SAY THEY FEEL LIKE PRISONERS (LA Times)
-----
VERSE OF THE DAY: RIGHTEOUSNESS LEADS TO LOVE
"(God) the Most Gracious will bestow (His love and the love of
fellow-humans) on those who believe and work deeds of righteousness."
The Holy Quran, 19:96
-----
AMERICAN MUSLIMS TO GET A TV NETWORK OF THEIR OWN
JAY TOKASZ, Buffalo News, 11/26/04
http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20041126/1037612.asp
One show features a Muslim newspaper reporter named Jinnah who solves
whodunits. A soap opera explores the melodrama of a Muslim father
confronted with his daughter's desire to marry a non-Muslim. "Allah
Made Me
Funny" chronicles a Muslim comedy tour.
Islamic television, beamed from Buffalo, is coming to a station near
Muslims across the country and in Canada.
Bridges TV debuts Tuesday, weaving news coverage with music videos,
animated children's shows, classic movies and programs about food,
travel
and culture - all with an underlying theme appealing to American
Muslims.
The new cable television network is the first in English to be aimed at
this demographic, one of the fastest-growing in the country.
Its founder and chief executive officer, Muzzammil S. Hassan, 40, hopes
the
network will help balance negative portrayals of Muslims that have
dominated American media since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
"The name "Bridges TV' is to build bridges with mainstream America," he
said. "The very purpose of Bridges is to build bridges of friendship
and
understanding."
It will be unlike Al-Jazeera or other controversial networks beamed
from
Arab or predominantly Muslim countries, said Hassan, an Orchard Park
resident and former M&T Bank vice president.
"It's more of a cultural, lifestyle and entertainment network. It's not
a
religious or political network," he said. "Our focus is life right here
in
North America."
Programming will be delivered nationwide via a fiber-optic link from
the
studios of WNED-TV in downtown Buffalo to a satellite provider in
Staten
Island.
Bridges anticipates 50,000 initial subscribers. It already has carriage
agreements with Comcast Cable Co., the nation's largest cable operator,
in
Detroit, home to a large American Muslim population and with Buckeye
Cable,
a smaller firm that serves northern Ohio and southern Michigan.
The network also is available by GlobeCast satellite and by broadband
television. It costs $14.99 as a premium channel.
It premieres at noon Tuesday with "Bridges News," an original newscast
anchored by former NBC News correspondent Asad Mahmood.
Bridges TV employs about 20 people. Hassan hired an Emmy award-winning
television producer, Jamilah Fraser, as program director, and Tayie
Rehem,
formerly of the CBC Network in Canada, as executive producer.
The nightly news program, the centerpiece of the network, will air at
7:30
p.m. weekdays with "an unbiased view of what's going on in the world
from
an Islamic perspective," Fraser said.
Bridges TV is aiming for PBS-style programming to appeal to a variety
of
viewers, she said…
Hassan was able to sell investors on key demographics for the nation's
estimated 7 million Muslims.
At 6.2 percent per year, their growth rate, for example, far outpaces
that
of the total U.S. population, which is less than 1 percent per year.
American Muslims' average annual household income is $11,000 more than
the
overall U.S. average, and more American Muslims have bachelor's degrees
and
advanced degrees, according to census data and a 2002 study by Cornell
University. Two-thirds of American Muslims are younger than 40...
FOR MORE INFORMATION, GO TO:
http://www.bridgestv.com/
------
CAIR-FL: SENIOR MUSLIM REACHES OUT TO CATHOLICS
Ruth Morris, Sun-Sentinel, 11/26/04
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-pcmuslims26nov26,0,2870
147.story
Weston - In a gesture of sympathy and outreach, local Muslim leader
Altaf
Ali on Thursday stood before the parishioners of St. Katharine Drexel
Catholic Church and condemned recent militant attacks on Catholic
churches
in Baghdad, insisting the violence ran counter to the "true tenet" of
Islam.
The Thanksgiving speech, delivered before a hushed congregation,
referred
to a string of bombings at churches in Baghdad, including predawn
assaults
on Oct. 16, the first day of Ramadan, that killed three and injured
about
40 civilians.
"Your suffering is my suffering. Your sorrow is my sorrow. Your
happiness
is my happiness," said Ali, executive director of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations in Miami. "We are brothers and sisters in
faith."
Ali's visit came in response to a commentary published last week in the
South Florida Sun-Sentinel by the church's pastor, the Rev. Paul
Edwards.
In it, Edwards lamented the assaults on Baghdad churches and
parishioners,
and noted that after the 9-11 terror attacks the archbishop of Miami
had
visited a local Islamic center to stand behind Muslims who might be
targeted in reactionary violence.
"Would it be overly bold to ask for a show of support and solidarity
from
the local community?" after the targeting of Iraqi churches, he wrote.
The remark prompted Ali to call the pastor, which led to the visit. It
was
the first time Ali attended Mass. Upon arriving, he bowed politely to
women
who extended a hand to him and explained that his religion did not
permit
him to touch them…
ALSO SEE:
MUSLIM EVENT FOCUSES ON HOW TO FIT IN
Mike Meyers, Star Tribune, 11/26/04
http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/5105403.html
As many as 2,000 Muslims from Minnesota and other Midwestern states
begin a
three-day conference today in Minneapolis on the role of Islam in the
family and the community.
Among the goals of the conference will be to offer suggestions to
immigrants on how to integrate with U.S. society, to forge contacts
with
other religions and to take part in social, educational and civic
activities with people who do not share the Muslim faith.
Too many people believe that the Muslim religion fosters terrorism or
advocates violence against non-Muslims, said Muhammad Lodhi, an
organizer
of the event sponsored by the Islamic Society of North America and the
Muslim Community of Minnesota.
"There is no connection with [terrorism and] the religion," Lodhi said.
To underscore that point, the topics of the conference include "Jihad
and
terrorism, "Global terrorism and its roots" and "Impact of current U.S.
foreign policy on long-term U.S. interests in the Middle East…"
---
MUSLIMS LOOK TO YOUNG FOR LEADERSHIP
Michelle Sahn, Home News Tribune, 11/26/04
http://www.thnt.com/thnt/story/0,21282,1124412,00.html
SOMERSET: There are scores of young Muslim college students and
professionals who were born, raised and educated in this country, but
many
are not taking leadership roles in their mosques or communities.
But that could hamper Muslims' efforts to succeed and be represented
here,
said Ibrahim Mansour, an 18-year-old Rutgers College student.
In some cases, young Muslims are not taking over the responsibilities
of
leadership roles, and, in others, elder Muslims are not delegating that
authority, he said.
But Mansour and other young people hope to bridge that generation gap
this
weekend, when the sixth annual Muslim Leadership Retreat is held in
Somerset.
Young professionals, college students, religious leaders, scholars, and
a
television producer are among those that will gather this weekend at
the
Somerset DoubleTree Hotel and Conference Center in the Somerset section
of
Franklin.
About 90 young Muslims are expected to attend the event, which will
start
with an afternoon prayer session today, said Mansour, the Rutgers
representative for the Muslim Leaders Foundation Inc...
The scheduled speakers include Heba Abdullah, a producer for Al-Jazeera
and
former CNN correspondent, who is expected to talk tomorrow about "the
new
Muslim face in the media."
-----
INTERPRETING THE MUSLIM VOTE
Peter Skerry and Devin Fernandes, Boston Globe, 11/26/04
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/11/26/
interpreting_the_muslim_vote/
OF ALL the groups scrutinized since the election, one has been
overlooked:
Muslim-Americans. For whom did they vote? Were they motivated by moral
or
religious values? Which mattered more to them, foreign policy or
domestic
issues?
These questions have not been asked in part because exit polls did not
provide data about Muslim voters. Nonetheless, there is much
fragmentary
evidence offering valuable insights.
According to James Gimpel at the University of Maryland, registration
levels for individuals with Arabic names in places like San Jose, Los
Angeles, Tampa, and Queens increased dramatically since 9/11. If such
new
registrants voted, then record numbers of Muslims overcame
long-standing
misgivings about their political participation in a non-Muslim society.
Pre-election surveys indicate that between 70 and 80 percent of Muslims
voted for John Kerry. This is hardly surprising, given that most
Muslims,
certainly most leaders, accuse President Bush of betraying his 2000
campaign promise to protect them from racial profiling and other
infringements on their civil liberties.
Pre-emptive war in Iraq and Bush's staunch support for Israeli Prime
Minister Sharon also contributed to this lopsided outcome -- although
Muslims generally did not discern much difference between Bush and
Kerry on
Mideast issues.
One surprise is that the partisan shift of Muslim voters since 2000 is
not
quite as dramatic as claimed. Then as now, there was no reliable exit
poll
data. Then as now, the void was filled by leaders claiming to have
delivered a bloc vote -- as much as 72 percent to Bush. But a more
reasonable estimate, based on pre- and post-election surveys, is that
in
2000 Bush received about 50 percent of the Muslim vote, Gore about 25
percent, and Ralph Nader 10 percent.
Nevertheless, does this year's vote suggest an emergent Muslim unity?
Not
exactly. Many national-origin, linguistic, and sectarian fault lines
continue to fragment Muslims here. Not the least are those between
immigrant-origin Muslims, primarily from the Mideast and South Asia and
often well-educated and affluent, and African-American Muslims, native
born
but much less well off. The latter comprise about one-third of all
Muslims
in America, and among these the largest contingent are Sunni Muslims
led by
W.D. Mohammed, who over the last 30 years has steered his followers
away
from the cultish racism of the Nation of Islam, founded by his father,
Elijah Mohammed…
-----
GROCERY OWNER FILES BIAS SUIT AGAINST BANK
Dan Herbeck, Buffalo News, 11/25/04
http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20041125/1010121.asp
The owner of two Buffalo grocery stores has filed a discrimination
lawsuit,
claiming that Charter One Bank has threatened to shut down all his bank
accounts because he is an Arab-American.
Erie County Judge Eugene M. Fahey this week issued a temporary
restraining
order, preventing the bank from closing the accounts of Ali K. Saleh,
at
least until a hearing on Dec. 14.
Saleh, 48, said he believes ethnic discrimination is behind the bank's
plans to close his accounts, because bank officials refuse to tell him
their reasons.
"Everyone I talk to at the bank tells me the same thing - the decision
was
made by higher-ups," said Saleh, who owns stores on William Street and
Walden Avenue. "I am a citizen of this country, and I love this
country.
There is no reason to treat me this way."
A Charter One spokeswoman, Sylvia Bronner, assured The Buffalo News
that
the bank's actions were not discriminatory, but said she could not
disclose
why the bank no longer wants Saleh as a customer.
"I want to assure you, it has nothing to do with discrimination,"
Bronner
said. "We don't disclose information to the public about customer
accounts.
My information is that Mr. Saleh is aware why the accounts are being
closed."
Saleh, a married father of four who lives in Orchard Park, insisted
that he
does not know why the bank is closing his accounts…
-----
ISLAM POST 9/11
News 8 Austin, 11/25/04
http://www.news8austin.com/content/headlines/?ArID=125588&SecID=2
The people of Islam are woven into the fabric of Austin. Three years
after
the Sept. 11 tragedy, are we more tolerant or skeptical of Muslims in
our
community?
Hear how they are dealing with their future and their faith in this
four-part series produced by News 8 videojournalist, Jitin Hingorani.
The series will begin Monday, Nov. 29 and run through Thursday, Dec. 2.
-----
GUARDSMEN SAY THEY FEEL LIKE PRISONERS
Scott Gold, Los Angeles Times, 11/24/04
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-na-guard25nov25,1,1153456.story
DONA ANA ARMY CAMP, N.M. - Members of a National Guard battalion
preparing
for deployment to Iraq said this week that they are under lockdown and
being treated like prisoners rather than soldiers by Army commanders at
the
remote desert camp where they are training.
A number of the Guard troops also said that the training they have
received
is so poor and equipment shortages so prevalent they fear their
casualty
rate will be needlessly high when they arrive in Iraq early next year.
They said they think that their treatment and training reflects bias
against National Guard troops by commanders in the active-duty Army, an
allegation Army commanders denied.
The 680 members of the 1st Battalion of the 184th Infantry Regiment
were
activated in August, and are preparing for deployment at Dona Ana, a
former
World War II prisoner-of-war camp 25 miles from its large parent base,
Fort
Bliss, Texas.
Members of the battalion, with headquarters in Modesto, Calif., said in
two-dozen interviews that they are allowed no visitors or travel
passes,
have scant contact with their families and that morale is terrible.
"I feel like an inmate with a weapon," said Cpl. Jajuane Smith, 31, a
six-year Guard veteran from Fresno, Calif.
Several soldiers have fled Dona Ana, vaulting over barbed wire, the
Guard
troops interviewed said. Others, they said, might go AWOL, at least
temporarily, to be with their families for Thanksgiving.
Army commanders noted that the military is shoring up its strained
ranks by
turning "citizen-soldiers" into front-line troops. About 40 percent of
troops in Iraq are reservists or National Guard troops.
-----
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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
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-----
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In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 11/28/04
* HADITH OF THE DAY: PRAYERS WASH AWAY SINS
- Verse of the Day: Hasten to the Remembrance of God
* CAIR-GA: GA SCHOOL DIVIDED OVER MUSLIM PRAYER (NPR)
* RACIST GRAFFITI LEFT AT SCENE OF VA FIRE
- Graham Renews Anti-Muslim Rhetoric (LA Time)
- CA: “Why I am not a Muslim” Sign Called Offensive (SJMN)
- Turkish Store Attacked in Dutch City (AP)
- Racist Murder Attempt on French Imam (AFP)
* MN: ARE MUSLIMS REALLY SILENT? (Pioneer Press)
- CAIR-FL Add to Meaning of Season (Sun-Sentinel)
* U.S. BUILDING DESIGN FLAVORED BY ISLAM (San Fran Chronicle)
* GENERATION M: DEVELOPING YOUNG MUSLIM LEADERS (AP)
- MO: First Muslim Charity Thrift Store (Post-Dispatch)
* A GIRL'S CHILLING DEATH IN GAZA (Washington Post)
- MA Suburb May be First City to Divest from Israel (JPost)
- The Other Side of the Wall (SD Union-Tribune)
-----
HADITH OF THE DAY: PRAYERS WASH AWAY SINS
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) told his companions: “If one
of
you had a stream running at his door and bathed in it five times every
day,
do you think any dirt would be left on him?” His companions answered:
“No
dirt at all would be left.” To which the Prophet replied: “That is what
the
five (daily) prayers are like, with which God washes away your sins.”
Sahih Al-Bukhari, Volume 1, Hadith 506
The Prophet once went out when the leaves were falling from the trees.
He
took hold of a branch and said: "Verily, when a servant of God prays
seeking only His pleasure, his sins fall away just as the leaves have
fallen from this tree."
Al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 199
VERSE OF THE DAY: HASTEN TO THE REMEMBRANCE OF GOD
“O believers! When the call for prayer is made on Friday (the day of
congregational prayers), hasten to the remembrance of God and cease
your
business. That is better for you if you but knew.
“When you finish the prayer, then disperse through the land and seek
the
bounty of God (go back to your normal business). Remember God
frequently,
so that you may prosper.”
The Holy Quran, 62: 9-10
-----
CAIR-GA: GEORGIA SCHOOL DIVIDED OVER MUSLIM PRAYER
National Public Radio, 11/28/04
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4189949
All Things Considered, November 28, 2004 • A school in Georgia is
wrestling
with the problem of how to allow Muslim students to observe a religious
tradition and pray with fellow Muslims on Friday. The students are
asking
to miss classes on Friday afternoon. The school has made some proposals
but
no solution has yet emerged. Joshua Levs reports.
CONTACT:
CAIR - Northern Georgia
3920 North Peachtree Road, Suite 205
Atlanta, GA 30341
Contact Name: Yusof Burke
Main Telephone: 770-220-0082, 770-312-0426
E-Mail: cair@cair-northgeorgia.org
Website: http://www.cair-northgeorgia.org
-----
RACIAL ATTACK ON SIKH GAS STATION IN US
Gurmukh Singh, Hindustan Times, 11/28/04
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1126465,00050001.htm
In yet another racial attack on the members of the US Sikh community
who
are misunderstood for Muslims, a gas station owned by two Sikhs at
Chesterfield in Virginia has been set on fire and vandalized.
According the Sikh Coalition which monitors race-related issues in the
US,
the attackers put the gas station on fire on Wednesday and left after
smearing the remaining property with graffiti containing ethnic slurs.
The words "Go Back to Bin Laden B..." and "Never Again Indian Monkey
Nig***" were sprayed on a dumpster in the rear of the gas station
property.
In addition, the words, "F*** Arab Gas" were spray painted on the gas
station's shed.
Gas station owners, Sarabjit Singh and Sukhjinder Singh, said no
graffiti
existed on the gas station property before the fire.
The Sikh Coalition has reported the matter to both the Civil Rights
Division of the United States Justice Department and the FBI…
SEE ALSO:
GRAHAM RENEWS ANTI-MUSLIM RHETORIC
ONCE-'REBEL' SON BECOMES HEIR TO GRAHAM MINISTRY
Larry B. Stammer, Los Angeles Times, 11/27/04
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-beliefs27nov27,1,5645353.story
He was on the stage, but went unnoticed by most of the tens of
thousands
who turned out one night last week at the Rose Bowl to hear Billy
Graham
preach.
He escorted the aging evangelical patriarch to the pulpit and placed
Graham's Bible on the lectern for him.
Then, Franklin Graham -- Billy Graham's oldest son and heir to the
evangelical legend's worldwide ministry -- quietly returned to his seat
in
a row of chairs behind the pulpit as a first-night crowd, estimated at
45,000, rose to its feet to applaud his father…
After the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Franklin Graham called
Islam
"an evil and wicked religion." The remark, made during an interview on
"NBC
Nightly News," created a furor. Some said it endangered Christians
working
in Muslim countries. American Muslim leaders denounced Graham's
statement
as bigoted.
In an interview with The Times, he was asked if he still thought of
Islam
in the same way. "I haven't changed my mind," he said. "When people's
heads
get chopped off and throats are cut and innocent people are murdered
and
slaughtered, my mind hasn't changed…"
---
NEIGHBOR CALLS SIGN OFFENSIVE
Chuck Carroll, Mercury News, 11/27/04
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/10282969.htm
The sign in front of the Church of the Nazarene in Sunnyvale, promoting
a
sermon by Sunday's guest speaker, is raising a few eyebrows.
“Why I am not a Muslim,” reads the electric signboard in front of the
church at 975 Fremont Ave. But church officials and the speaker say the
message isn't intended to inflame.
Guest speaker Donald Fareed said the sermon he will deliver is intended
to
explain to Nazarene church members how he arrived at his own decision
to
convert to Christianity. It is not, he said, a spiritual attack on
Islam.
In fact, far from it.
But the sign surprised Jay Keller and his wife, who have lived around
the
corner from the church for the past 12 years.
“I thought that is an offensive sign per se,” he said. “I work with a
lot
of Muslims and don't know why someone would put up a sign like that.
They
can't possibly be oblivious to the fact that it might be offensive to
some
people…”
---
TURKISH STORE ATTACKED IN DUTCH CITY OF ROERMOND, MOTIVE UNCLEAR
Associated Press, 11/28/04
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - An apparent explosive was thrown into a
Turkish-owned shop in the southern Dutch city of Roermond early Sunday
morning, causing minor damage but no injuries, media reports said.
Police spokeswoman Annemiek Mols said an incident took place at the
store,
but could not immediately confirm details.
It was not clear whether the reported bombing was related to a spate of
recent attacks on mosques and Islamic buildings in the Netherlands in
the
wake of the Nov. 2 murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh by an alleged
Islamic
radical...
According to Dutch media reports, the store had been vandalized in the
past
before the Van Gogh killing, possibly by people having a dispute with
the
owner.
More than 20 mosques and Islamic buildings - and Christian churches -
had
been damaged in apparent retaliatory attacks in the days following Van
Gogh's murder, which unleashed a wave of anti-immigrant sentiment among
native Dutch. The last reported major incident was Nov. 13, when a
mosque
was burned to the ground in Helden.
---
RACIST MURDER ATTEMPT AGAINST ISLAMIC CLERIC ON FRENCH ISLAND
Agence France Presse, 11/27/04
AJACCIO - Unknown assailants tried to murder the imam of a mosque on
the
French Mediterranean island of Corsica in the early hours of Saturday,
then
fled leaving racist graffiti on the building with the cleric unhurt,
the
local public prosecutor said.
Prosecutor Jose Thorel said a group of men drove up to a house which
serves
as a mosque in the southern Corsican town of Sartene at 2:30 am and
shouted
racist insults which brought the cleric to the door, although he did
not
open it.
The assailants then fired several bullets through the door of the
building,
which would have hit the imam if he had not had the good sense to
flatten
himself against the wall, he added.
The group then left after daubing a swastika and the slogan "Arabi
Fora"
(Arabs Out in the Corsican language) on the walls of the building…
-----
ARE MUSLIMS REALLY SILENT?
NAHEED ALI, Pioneer Press, 11/28/04
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/editorial/10278626.htm
These days the safest thing for Muslims is to be less Muslim. The list
of
suspicious behavior includes praying regularly and going to the mosque.
Mona Mayfield understood this when she tried to defend her husband,
wrongfully accused in the Spain bombing. She pleaded that her husband
"was
on the less religious side." As if the crime were being Muslim itself.
Supposedly this war is not against Islam, and moderate Muslims are
called
on to voice their opposition to extremism. Yet it seems we are less
interested in faithful Muslims who vehemently condemn terrorism (as do
the
millions of Muslims in America and the world) and we embrace those who
shed
Islam and are ready to vilify it.
This has become the acceptable "moderate" Muslim, which is to be not
Muslim
at all. These Muslims are not self-critical Muslims who contribute and
change Islam's interaction with the West, but they are self-promoting
individuals whose quickest way to fame is to attack Islam's core
tenets…
Muslim organizations like the Council on American-Islamic Relations
have
without fail condemned each and every terrorist act these past few
years.
CAIR has the overwhelming if not unanimous support of Muslims. Leading
Muslim scholars like Hamza Yusuf in the United States and Yusuf
Qaradawi in
the Arab world have condemned the renegades who preach violence.
Intellectuals like Tariq Ramadan call for an end to anti-Western
rhetoric
among Muslims. These men have more far-reaching influence than the man
wrongfully perceived as the Muslim spokesman, Osama bin Laden. They
also
have far more influence than those who resort to changing Islam's basic
beliefs.
SEE ALSO:
CAIR-FL: ADD TO MEANING OF SEASON
Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board, 11/27/04
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/editorial/sfl-editafinterfaithmeeti
ngnov27,0,2566750.story
The holiday season is off to a strong start this year, but not merely
because the malls are packed with shoppers. Instead, the real spark was
a
gesture of good faith that South Floridians should build on throughout
this
hopeful time of year.
During Thanksgiving Day Mass at St. Katharine Drexel Catholic Church in
Weston, a leader of South Florida's Muslim community spoke to
parishioners,
condemning the recent attacks by militants on Catholic churches in
Baghdad.
Altaf Ali, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic
Relations
in Miami, told the congregation that the violence ran counter to the
"true
tenet" of Islam, and that he sympathized with the sorrow and suffering
of
all.
Ali's gesture is a welcome breakthrough.
U.S. officials have been encouraging Muslim leaders across the country
to
speak out against atrocities committed by Islamic fundamentalists.
Others,
including members of the American public, have been critical of U.S.
Muslims for not being more vocal. In fact, Ali's appearance at
Thursday's
service followed a commentary in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel by St.
Katharine's pastor lamenting the assaults on Baghdad churches and
parishioners.
Ali has responded, and it's up to South Florida's religious leaders and
worshippers of all faiths to reach out as well with similar invitations
and
pilgrimages…
-----
BUILDING DESIGN FLAVORED BY ISLAM
Jonathan Curiel, San Francisco Chronicle, 11/28/04
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/11/28/INGMR9SEUB1.DTL
In 1961, a year before designing the World Trade Center towers,
American
architect Minoru Yamasaki completed a much smaller project that would
influence the look of his new creation in New York City.
The project was 6,000 miles away, in a country Yamasaki would visit
many
times over the next decade, Saudi Arabia. It's clear from the layout of
the
World Trade Center that Yamasaki incorporated aspects of Islamic design
into the towers.
This pattern was most visible at the base of the buildings, which were
ringed by pointed arches resembling those found in mosques and on
Muslim
prayer rugs. The plaza fronting the towers paid homage to Mecca,
Islam's
holiest place, by replicating that city's courtyard layout, according
to
architect Laurie Kerr, who has studied Yamasaki's work.
Yamasaki himself described the trade center plaza, which featured a
circular fountain and places to sit, as a mecca -- "an oasis, a paved
garden where people can spend a few moments to relieve the tensions and
monotonies of the usual working day."
For 29 years -- from the time the first World Trade Center tower was
completed in 1972 to Sept. 11, 2001, when two hijacked planes leveled
the
buildings -- there was little general awareness that New York's tallest
and
most visible towers reflected Yamasaki's interest in Islamic
architecture.
No plaque pointed out this connection. No literature extolled it.
Yamasaki
himself didn't publicize it, even though he dropped plenty of hints in
his
1979 autobiography, "A Life in Architecture," in which he expressed his
admiration for Islamic arches and included photos of all his important
projects -- photos that reveal a pattern of Islamic-inspired design.
"The idea of a pointed, ribbed arch was beautifully replicated in the
World
Trade Center," says Nezar AlSayyad, a UC Berkeley architecture
professor
who worked with Yamasaki for two years on another project. "It's ironic
it
was used in the World Trade Center, which is then understood by the
hijackers as a symbol of Western capitalism."
Although the trade center was perhaps the most prominent example of
Islamic-influenced architecture in the United States, there are other
notable examples in every major American city…
-----
GENERATION M: DEVELOPING YOUNG MUSLIM LEADERS
WAYNE PARRY, Associated Press, 11/26/04
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-nj--youngmuslims1126nov26,0,548
1152.story
SOMERSET, N.J. -- Arif Rafiq dreams of becoming the first Muslim
president
of the United States.
The 23-year-old Georgetown University political science student is all
cell
phones and e-mail and Google searches and boundless optimism that, in
this
country, anything is possible.
"My administration would be rooted in traditional American values,
particularly a sense of individual responsibility," he says. "It would
be
open to the America of old, and also an America of new Americans from
different parts of the world."
Rafiq was one of about 120 young Muslims attending a forum this weekend
aimed at developing new leaders for the Muslim community in America _ a
mission made more urgent by the aging of the immigrant generation that
settled here decades ago, establishing businesses and mosques, and
laying
the groundwork for the next generation.
Call them Generation M: A group of 20 and 30-something doctors,
lawyers,
software engineers, sales executives and college students, all of whom
happen to be Muslim and who want to more fully participate in their own
American dreams.
"We're focused on turning out a new generation of Muslims to face the
challenges that they'll encounter as leaders of the Muslim community
after
9/11," said Ibrahim Mansour, one of the organizers of Muslim Leaders, a
Secaucus-based organization that has held similar conferences for the
past
six years.
Much of the emphasis is on outreach efforts to non-Muslims, and better
integration with and participation in every aspect of American society.
"This is about us stepping up and joining the communities and using our
skills to have an improvement on the job our parents started," said
Shireif
Battat, 29, of Somerset…
SEE ALSO:
NEW THRIFT STORE OFFERS UNIQUE, ETHNIC ITEMS
AISHA SULTAN, Post-Dispatch, 11/28/04
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/73
F4EFA9B4E94DDF86256F5A004ABE4E?OpenDocument&Headline=New+thrift+store+offers
+unique,+ethnic+items&highlight=2%2Cthrift%2Cstore
Rummaging for stuff in one of the area's newest thrift stores may turn
up
some unusual finds -- a beaded sari, chunky silver ankle bracelets or
traditional handmade, embroidered shoes from Pakistan.
Next to the row of typical housewares and children's rompers, is a
carousel
of brightly colored shalwar kameez, a South Asian type of dress with a
long, flowing tunic, pants and scarf. The ethnic touches at Universal
Thrift Store in south St. Louis County are largely a product of the
store's
primary donors -- the local South Asian and Arab communities.
Farhat Shekhani came up with the idea two years ago when looking for
ways
to raise money for Al-Salam Day School in West County. Shekhani, who
was
trained as a physician in Pakistan, had no experience in retail. She
began
researching on the Internet.
"Church thrift stores generate so much revenue, and they do so many
programs with that money, so I thought, 'Why not?'" she said. She
joined
the National Association of Resale and Thrift Shops and started
searching
for support among Muslims. A small group of volunteers formed a
nonprofit
organization to run the future store and recently launched the first
Muslim-operated charity thrift store in the area…
-----
A GIRL'S CHILLING DEATH IN GAZA
Molly Moore, Washington Post, 11/28/04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16886-2004Nov27.html
JERUSALEM -- On the morning of Oct. 5, Iman Hams, a slight girl of 13
wearing a school uniform and toting a backpack crammed with books,
wandered
past an Israeli military outpost on the Gaza Strip's southern border
with
Egypt.
The Israeli captain on duty alerted his troops to reports of a
suspicious
figure about 100 yards from the outpost. Soldiers fired into the air,
according to radio transmissions, military court documents and
witnesses.
"It's a little girl," a soldier watching from a nearby Israeli
observation
post cautioned over the military radio. "She's running defensively
eastward. . . . A girl of about 10, she's behind the embankment, scared
to
death."
Four minutes later, Israeli troops opened fire on the girl with machine
guns and rifles, the radio transmissions indicated. The captain walked
to
the spot where the girl "was lying down" and fired two bullets from his
M-16 assault rifle into her head, according to an indictment against
the
officer. He started to walk away, but pivoted, set his rifle on
automatic
and emptied his magazine into the girl's prone body, the indictment
alleged.
"This is Commander," the captain said into the radio when he was
finished.
"Whoever dares to move in the area, even if it's a 3-year-old -- you
have
to kill him. Over."
The girl's body was peppered with at least 20 bullets, including seven
in
her head, said Ali Mousa, a physician who is director of the Rafah
hospital
where her corpse was examined…
SEE ALSO:
BOSTON SUBURB MAY BECOME FIRST US CITY TO DIVEST FROM ISRAEL
HILARY LEILA KRIEGER, Jerusalem Post, 11/26/04
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid
=1101356023532
Somerville, a community abutting both Boston and Cambridge, could
become
the first US city to divest from Israel. According to those who track
the
issue, the city has already distinguished itself as the first place to
formally consider a divestment resolution.
The measure stems from alleged Israeli human rights abuses and calls on
Somerville's retirement board to rid the city's pension fund of
$250,000 of
Israel Bonds and other investments in American companies that
"manufacture
military equipment used in Israel's illegal military occupation," such
as
Caterpillar and Boeing.
The city of 80,000 can be described as both blue-collar and
progressive.
The proposal came close to passing without debate when it was
introduced on
October 28, but the Board of Aldermen, Somerville's 11-member
legislative
body, decided to host a public hearing on November 8 to let the other
side
have its say. They will consider whether or not to modify the measure
and
hold a final vote at a legislative committee meeting on December 7. The
resolution is non-binding, since the retirement board is independent of
the
board of aldermen.
The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston (JCRC) is
optimistic that the flood of e-mails, phone calls and public testimony
its
constituency has unleashed in the past month will stymie the measure…
SEE ALSO: http://www.ci.somerville.ma.us/contact/default.asp
E-MAIL COMMENTS TO THE MAYOR OF SOMERVILLE:
The Honorable Joseph A. Curtatone
mayor@ci.somerville.ma.us
COPY TO: cair@cair-net.org
---
ENDURING ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WALL
Khalid Turaani, San Diego Union Tribune, 11/28/04
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20041128/news_z1e28endurin.html
Because of the central role that the United States plays in the
brokerage
of peace in the Middle East, it is important for Americans to have a
clearer understanding of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in general,
and
of the most neglected aspect of this conflict, in particular – that is,
what life is like for the Palestinian people, what their aspirations
are,
and what they are fighting for.
For starters, about 3.5 million Palestinians live in the West Bank and
the
Gaza Strip. Another 1.2 million live inside Israel as second-class
citizens, and 5 million more live mostly in refugee camps in
neighboring
Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
Israel took control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967,
maintaining an
oppressive military occupation ever since. The West Bank and Gaza Strip
are
physically separated by 30 miles, with Israel right in the middle. The
Gaza
Strip is a small sliver of land which is fenced off on three sides by
Israel, and by the Mediterranean Sea to the west. It is inhabited
mainly by
refugees who were expelled from their towns and villages in 1948 in
order
to make room for the new state of Israel and the Jewish immigrants it
attracted from around the world.
The squalor of many of the refugee camps in Gaza is unimaginable. The
dubious distinction of being the world's "most densely populated area"
teeters back and forth each year between camps like Rafah and Jabaliya,
each with populations of around 80,000 people per square mile. The Gaza
Strip is the world's largest open air prison. Getting out of Gaza
requires
special permits and border crossings. While others would see the
Mediterranean as a sanctuary away from the hardships of the world, most
Gazans see it as a liquid wall, housing them against their will like
the
inmates of Alcatraz.
In the larger West Bank, Israel is building a wall to supposedly
protect
itself from suicide bombers, and in the process, it is gobbling up
large
swaths of Palestinian land. This wall, which in some areas is 25 feet
tall,
is equipped with electronic sensors and watch towers. It has cut off
thousands of villagers from their farmlands and water wells.
The wall is just the latest manifestation of Israel's policy of
collective
punishment through isolation. Hundreds of roadblocks have been set up
throughout the West Bank, cutting people off from schools, hospitals
and
businesses. There are countless stories of sick Palestinians dying, and
of
pregnant women giving birth at checkpoints because Israeli soldiers
refused
to let them pass…
Bush administration policies toward the conflict, however, give rise to
the
perception that America expects the Palestinians to sit idle while they
are
being oppressed. That wasn't the American way in 1776, and that's not
the
Palestinian way in 2004. The struggle might be different now, and its
resolution will be reached through diplomacy, not war, but the
principle is
the same. The rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness
belong
to the Palestinian people too, and the Golda Meirs and Ariel Sharons of
the
world can never change that.
SEND LETTERS TO: letters@uniontrib.com
COPY TO: amj@amjerusalem.org
-----
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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
--------------------------------------------------------------------
mail2web - Check your email from the web at
http://mail2web.com/ .
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 11/29/04
* HADITH/VERSE OF THE DAY: FORGIVENESS
* FBI ASKED TO ASSIST PROBE OF VA FIRE, RACIST GRAFFITI
* INCITEMENT WATCH: MUSLIMS A 'FIFTH COLUMN' IN U.S.
- UK Schoolboy Maimed Muslim Student in Attack (PA)
* FL: MUSLIMS VOTE WITH RELIGIONS IN MIND (UCF News)
- TX: Unveiling the Face of Islam in Austin (News 8)
* JOHN ASHCROFT'S ACHIEVEMENTS (Village Voice)
- Spy Ring at Gitmo? (CBS News)
- Canadian Muslims Increase 129 Percent in Decade (GM)
* SUSPECTS' TORTURE CLAIMS HAVE MASS. LINK (Boston Globe)
* GETTING TO KNOW THE HUI CHINESE MUSLIMS (Chicago Trib)
- TX: Scholar Bridges Islam and West (SA Express)
* MUSLIM CHANNEL AIMS AT BIASES (CC Times)
- Start-Up TV Venture Aims at Muslims (NY Times)
* KS: GROUPS A BOON FOR ISLAMIC YOUTHS (Wichita Eagle)
* VA: SEMINAR FOCUSES ON ISLAMIC FINANCE (Times Dispatch)
- MO: Program to Focus on Islam (SEMisourrian)
* ISRAEL SHOCKED BY FORCING VIOLINIST TO PLAY (Guardian)
- Checkpoints Take Toll on Palestinians (Wash Post)
-----
HADITH OF THE DAY: FORGIVENESS
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said the best supplication for
God's forgiveness is to say: "O God, You are my Lord, there is no god
but
You. You created me and I am Your servant, and I try my best to keep my
covenant with You and to live in the hope of Your promise. I seek
refuge in
You from evil done by me. I acknowledge Your favors upon me and I
acknowledge my sins. So forgive me, for none forgives sins but You."
Fiqh-us-Sunnah, 4:115
VERSE OF THE DAY: SEEK GOD'S FORGIVENESS
"If anyone does evil or wrongs his own soul, but afterwards seeks God's
forgiveness, he will find God Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful."
The Holy Quran, 4:110
-----
FBI ASKED TO ASSIST PROBE OF VA FIRE, RACIST GRAFFITI
(WASHINGTON, DC, 11/29/04) - A prominent national Islamic civil rights
and
advocacy group today called on the FBI to assist in the investigation
of a
fire at a Virginia gas station that may have been motivated by
anti-Muslim
or anti-Arab bias.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said officials with
the
Chesterfield County Police Department reported racist graffiti such as
"F*** Arab go home" in the vicinity of a fire that did extensive damage
to
a local gas station early last Wednesday morning. The gas station is
owned
by members of the Sikh faith. (Since the 9/11 terror attacks, a number
of
Sikh men who wear turbans have been targeted because they were mistaken
for
Muslims.)
SEE: "Racial Attack on Sikh Gas Station in US"
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1126465,00050001.htm
Local law enforcement authorities tell CAIR that the incident is under
investigation as a possible hate crime. Arson investigators say the
blaze
is being treated as a "set fire." A suspect had initially been
identified,
but no charges have been filed.
CAIR's Virginia office (CAIR-MD/VA) is also in communication with the
FBI
and with local representatives of the Sikh Coalition, the group that
first
reported the incident. SEE: http://www.sikhcoalition.org/
As a response to post-9/11 anti-Muslim incidents, CAIR published a
"Muslim
Community Safety Kit." The safety kit may be obtained free of charge by
e-mailing pubs@cair-net.org. (Include name, address and phone number
when
requesting the safety kit.)
CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil liberties group, is headquartered
in
Washington, D.C., and has 29 offices and chapters nationwide and in
Canada.
Its mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue,
protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions
that promote justice and mutual understanding.
- END -
CONTACT: CAIR-MD/VA, Rizwan Mowlana, 301-672-9355; Ibrahim Hooper,
202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail: ihooper@cair-net.org; Rabiah
Ahmed,
202-488-8787 or 202-439-1441, E-Mail: rahmed@cair-net.org
-----
INCITEMENT WATCH: MUSLIMS A 'FIFTH COLUMN' IN U.S.
Radical Islam is indeed our enemy
Maxwell A. Fenig, Providence Journal, 11/28/04
http://www.projo.com/opinion/letters/content/projo_20041128_28lefe.11a745.ht
ml
This nation is at war with radical Islam. Our brave soldiers are
carrying
this fight to the enemy in Iraq. Radical Muslims are said to number
about
100 million worldwide (10 percent of the total Muslim population),
though I
believe the number could be much larger.
The "religion of peace" calls for the death of all infidels (that is,
you
and me) and the Koran tells us that it is permissible for any Muslim to
lie
to the infidels. This should be our framework as we analyze the Nov. 23
Commentary piece written by Sheikh Abu Hakim Abdullah ("Bush must stop
seeming to war on Islam").
First, I wonder if this Muslim remembers the events of Sept. 11? I have
never heard a word from this sheikh, or any other Islamic cleric,
denouncing this act, but I am sure that he has his own "lies and
hearsay,"
spinning 9/11 away from Islam. He states that al-Qaida was not in Iraq.
Does he believe that Al-Qaida was operating in almost every Western
nation
and in many of our states, but not in Iraq?
President Bush is correct in the belief that if basic human freedoms
are
guaranteed to all, and that if suffrage is granted to all genders of
majority age, then it could be assumed that a climate would exist for
people to live in peace, raise their children and prosper in their
pursuits
of property and happiness in consort with their neighbors. This is the
only
path for peace to embrace the Middle East.
If Islam, radical and non-radical, cannot accept this form of society,
then
Islam must reform. This Muslim states that he and other Muslims see
Bush's
actions as an "invasion to control and/or destroy Islam as they know
and
understand it." If the form of Islam they know and understand includes
beheadings, suicide bombers and terrorism, he is right. Islam must
reform
and enter the 21st Century. If reform can only come at the point of a
sword, then we will supply the sword.
I am one of many who cannot view any Muslim in the same light as prior
to
9/11. I will be forever vigilant in scrutinizing any and every Muslim
with
whom I come in contact. This sheikh proves the point that we have
within
our midst a fifth column of those wishing us harm and death. They are
working to change us and not themselves in this cultural war being
waged
throughout the world.
SEND POLITE COMMENTS TO: letters@projo.com
COPY TO: cair@cair-net.org
SEE ALSO:
SCHOOLBOY MAIMED MUSLIM STUDENT IN STREET ATTACK
Melvyn Howe, Press Association, 11/29/04
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3820590
A "laughing" schoolboy was behind bars today for a "ferocious" attack
which
left a university graduate blind and bedridden.
The 14-year-old launched the unprovoked assault after spotting devout
Muslim Yasir Abdelmouttalib wearing "traditional" garb as he made his
way
to a local mosque for Friday afternoon prayers.
After spitting at him repeatedly, the teenager, who cannot be named for
legal reasons, snatched up a road sweeper's broom and knocked him to
the
ground.
Then, as his victim lay stunned and helpless, he continued the "savage"
attack, hitting his head "like a croquet ball".
He then laughed as ran off with a couple of friends.
London's Harrow Crown Court heard the injured 22-year-old is still in
hospital more than five months later and is not expected to recover...
-----
MUSLIMS VOTE WITH RELIGIONS IN MIND
Kate Howell, UCFNews, 11/29/04
http://www.ucfnews.com/news/2004/11/29/News/Muslims.Vote.With.Religions.In.M
ind-815424.shtml
Religion may have affected the decisions of many young Muslim voters,
but
not as strongly as foreign policy. "The main issue Muslims care about
is
foreign policy because it affects them and their families overseas,"
Ameer
Zufari, vice president of UCF's Muslim Student Association, said.
Abdullah Sheikh, a Muslim student and member of MSA, agreed. "The block
vote was much different this time than last time because last election
the
Muslim vote was geared toward social issues and this time it was
international affairs," Sheikh explained. He continued, "There isn't a
party that clearly identifies with Muslim needs."
Zufari and Sheikh's statements can be supported by facts. A Project
MAPS/Zogby International poll released last month found that while 42
percent of the Muslim vote supported Bush in 2000, largely because his
emphasis on family values fit nicely with their conservative leanings,
in
the 2004 election 72 percent of Muslims supported Kerry, often citing
opposition to Bush's handling of Iraq.
Another poll, conducted post-debate by the Washington-based Council on
American-Islamic Relations, showed that 80 percent of likely Muslim
voters
planned on supporting Kerry…
SEE ALSO:
UNVEILING THE FACE OF ISLAM IN AUSTIN
Jitin Hingorani, News 8 Austin, 11/28/04
http://www.news8austin.com/content/your_news/default.asp?ArID=125734
A prayer service at the Islamic Center of Greater Austin Islam is the
fastest-growing religion in the United States. It's predicted to
overtake
Judaism and come in second to Christianity within the next few decades.
Its growth is mainly due to two reasons - the number of Muslim
immigrants
flocking to America and the number of Americans converting to Islam.
"We are a part of the U.S. community, and there are facets to our
community
that people should know about," Austin Muslim Zafar Sadiq said.
There are about 1,200 mosques in America, more than half of which were
founded in the last 20 years. Texas has about 70 mosques, and Austin is
home to seven. Five Austin mosques are Sunni, one is Shi'a and the
other is
the Nation of Islam.
There are no exact numbers on Muslims in Austin. The number of people
who
attend mosque at the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month, is the
best
estimate.
Based on that, close to 15,000 Muslims live and work in Central Texas.
Eighty-five percent are Sunni and 15 percent are Shi'a, which is
similar to
the national average.
"Pre-9/11, the Muslim community didn't really have its own identity,
and
that's sort of the course we're taking right now is establishing our
identity as Muslims in the west and in America, specifically," Muslim
student Annia Raja said…
-----
JOHN ASHCROFT'S ACHIEVEMENTS
Nat Hentoff, Village Voice, 11/19/04
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0447/hentoff.php
I once suggested to the American Civil Liberties Union that it award
John
Ashcroft its Medal of Liberty because he has done more-however
inadvertently-than any American since 9-11 to educate the public on how
fragile our constitutional liberties are, and why it's so essential to
never let up on the agents of government who strive to strip them away.
In October 2001, Ashcroft bullied the Patriot Act through Congress. The
bill was so huge-including the late-night changes at the White House,
with
only the Republican leadership present-that many members of Congress
did
not have time to read it. Most who did, and had qualms, voted for it
anyway
for fear of jeopardizing their re-election prospects on charges of
being
soft on patriotism. In the House, Wisconsin Democrat David Obey, who
did
vote against it, said bitterly: "Why should we care? It's only the
Constitution."
Only one senator, Democrat Russ Feingold, voted against the Patriot
Act. On
the floor, on the night of the vote, then Democratic Senate leader Tom
Daschle told the Democratic caucus not to vote for any of Feingold's
amendments. He wanted the Democrats to also show their patriotism.
Confident that he held most of the electorate in his hand, Ashcroft was
gratified when, for some time, the polls showed that a considerable
majority of Americans were indeed willing to trade their individual
liberties under the Constitution-insofar as they knew what those
liberties
are-for supposed security against homicidal jihadists.
Nor could Ashcroft resist tarring the dissenters, declaring at a Senate
hearing toward the end of 2001: "To those who would scare peace-loving
people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your tactics
only
aid terrorists, for they erode our national unity and diminish our
resolve."
But the designated traitors were not intimidated and indeed fired up
their
resolve to protect the Constitution against this frenzied hit man.
Their
numbers kept growing as our chief law-enforcement officer, fortified by
the
morning prayer meetings he held at the Justice Department, feasted on
the
omnivorous advances in surveillance technology that not even George
Orwell
could have imagined.
Gradually, a foreboding arose across political, ethnic, racial,
religious,
and other lines that we were entering the twilight of our liberties…
ALSO SEE:
SPY RING AT GITMO?
CBS News, 11/28/04
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/11/24/60minutes/main657704.shtml
(CBS) Around this time last year, a U.S. Army chaplain and an Air Force
translator were sitting in jail, facing the death penalty.
Their crime: supposedly running a spy ring out of the U.S. naval base
at
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where hundreds of suspected terrorists are being
held.
The U.S. servicemen were described as al Qaeda sympathizers in
newspapers
across the country. But today, they have come to represent something
entirely different.
They are victims of a growing catalogue of botched terrorism
investigations
-- cases that start out with a bang of charges but ultimately collapse
with
a whimper, Correspondent Lesley Stahl reports.
"I'm not a spy and I was never a spy. And I will maintain that
forever,"
says Ahmad Al Halabi, the Air Force translator charged in the case.
A Syrian-born, naturalized U.S. citizen, he joined the Air Force nearly
five years ago. He says he was eager to serve his adopted country, and
the
last thing he expected was to be accused of betraying it. "I did not
believe it at first," he says. "It was just unbelievable. How could
this
happen?"
At one point, Al Halabi was facing the death penalty. "I was wondering
if
they were going to use a firing squad or electric chair on me, or
whether I
will be dead before they know I'm not a spy. I'm not a traitor," he
says.
"I was terrified."
Al Halabi had been charged with 30 crimes, including attempted
espionage
and aiding the enemy. He spent 10 months in jail, and the Air Force
allowed
him to show 60 Minutes where he spent part of that time.
He stayed in a tiny, windowless, metal cell at Travis Air Force Base in
California, where he was kept under round-the-clock surveillance….
-----
TERROR SUSPECTS' TORTURE CLAIMS HAVE MASS. LINK
Farah Stockman, Boston Globe, 11/29/04
http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2004/11/29/terror_suspects_torture
_claims_have_mass_link
DEDHAM Most here know Hill & Plakias as a family law firm that handles
real
estate and civil squabbles for the residents of this Boston suburb.
But the inconspicuous office above a Sovereign Bank, across from the
red,
white, and blue flags of a used car lot called Patriot Motors, is also
the
address of a shadowy company that owns a Gulfstream jet that secretly
ferried two Al Qaeda suspects from Sweden to Egypt.
That prisoner transfer, which occurred outside the normal extradition
procedures and without notifying the men's lawyers, sparked an
international uproar after the two men contended that they had been
forcibly drugged by masked US agents and tortured with electric shocks
in
Egypt.
This spring, the Swedish government launched a series of investigations
into the 2001 operation.
Since that time, the jet apparently on long-term lease to the US
military
has surfaced in other alleged cases of what the CIA calls
"extraordinary"
rendition the secret practice of handing prisoners in US custody to
foreign
governments that don't hesitate to use torture in interrogations…
-----
GETTING TO KNOW THE HUI CHINESE MUSLIMS, ONE DISH AT A TIME
Michael A. Lev, Chicago Tribune, 11/29/04
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/chi-0411290022nov29,1,57614
26.story
XINING, China -- The danger of befriending natives at a
hole-in-the-wall
restaurant in the central covered market is that someone is likely to
recommend a bit of the local cuisine, and you will feel obliged to
order it.
"You really should try the skewered lamb kidneys."
Most of the other traditional Chinese Muslim fare at the Ma De Hu Old
Famous-Name barbecue joint looked delicious, making it easier to put
aside
an organ meat phobia -- at least for a bite.
Then it was back to business: lamb shish kebab seasoned with cumin;
Tibetan
barley soup; and round bread painted with a red pepper-oil sauce and
then
toasted over the open grill. Served chopped into pieces, it was
uniquely
crusty and piquant. Call it Qinghai pizza, named after this sprawling
Western province.
This was the first day of a two-week reporting trip to the Tibetan
plateau.
And while I was just off the airplane from Beijing, it already looked
and
felt like a different China -- and not even the one I was intending to
visit.
My plan was to explore Tibetan Buddhist issues and culture, but outside
my
hotel room was a market where many of the restaurant signs featured
pictures of mosques and the chefs all wore Muslim skullcaps…
ALSO SEE:
SCHOLAR BRIDGES ISLAM AND WEST
San Antonio Express-News, 11/28/04
http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/columnists/sives/stories/MYSA112804.3H.i
ves.8be40640.html
In his 1973 book "The Best and the Brightest," David Halberstam
described
how firing most of the State Department's Far East experts during
McCarthy-era witch hunts left a gap in knowledge and experience that
inexorably led to the quagmire in Vietnam.
Let's all breathe a sigh of relief. Now that we understand the
implications
of cutting ourselves off from the very expertise we need in time of war
and
crisis, we'll never be stupid enough to pull that stunt again.
Or will we?
Last Sunday, Dr. Tariq Ramadan was scheduled to be one of the keynote
speakers at the annual conference of the American Academy of Religion.
His
visa was denied.
The disappointed scholars attending the conference in San Antonio saw
him
via a live video feed. The moderator told him he got a standing
ovation. He
was touched.
Ramadan, a Swiss-born Islamic scholar, quit his job as a professor at
the
University of Fribourg to accept a yearlong visiting professorship at
Notre
Dame. In August, four days before he, his wife and four children were
scheduled to fly to the United States, the State Department rescinded
his
visa at the direction of the Department of Homeland Security.
He reapplied seven weeks ago and is still awaiting a decision. All the
Ramadans' stuff - from bed linens to his daughter's toys - is sitting
in a
warehouse in Indiana.
Neither Ramadan nor Notre Dame has been given an explanation of why his
visa was pulled. He's visited the United States 30 times in the past
four
years, he said, and in 2000 was named one of Time Magazine's most
important
innovators for the 21st century. He considers himself a reformer and
has
been called the Islamic Martin Luther.
He speculated the visa was rescinded based on incendiary French reports
that have erroneously claimed that he has spoken in favor of violence
and
that terrorists have attended some of his classes…
---
OLD-TIME RELIGION GIVES WAY TO DIVERSITY
Michael Valpy, Globe and Mail, 11/29/04
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20041129/FAMI
LYRELIGION29/TPNational
For Yusra Ahmad, 23, the phenomenal increase in the number of Canadians
declaring themselves Muslim -- 129 per cent between the 1991 and 2001
censuses -- has had a concrete impact on her life.
It means that almost every day the second-year University of Toronto
medical student feels less different, less "other," as a member of
Canadian
society. "I walk down any given street in downtown Toronto," she says,
"and
I am bound to run into a fellow Muslim wearing the hijab. Because I am
identifiably Muslim [she also wears the hijab, the traditional head
scarf],
the Muslims I run into greet me with 'Salaam' and they give me a lot of
respect.
"I feel a personal connection to complete strangers and that is always
a
pleasant experience. I feel a lot of positive energy and support. . . .
It
gives me the courage, strength and patience to face any discrimination
I
might encounter."
The Vanier Institute's profile of the family shows increases in other
non-traditional religions almost as dramatic as the growth in Islam --
the
census numbers of Buddhists, Hindus and Sikhs are all up by more than
80
per cent.
Yet, over all, the country's statistical data on religion create more
fog
than light. Consider Victoria's venerable St. Andrew's Presbyterian
Church,
which has been nourishing the spirituality of the B.C. capital's
residents
for 138 years. Statistically, it should have closed down, been
converted
into condos…
-----
MUSLIM CHANNEL AIMS AT BIASES
Jack Chang; Contra Costa Times, 11/29/04
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/10293993.htm
The country's first Muslim-themed television channel is set to launch
Tuesday with the aim of countering what its founders say are biased
images
of Muslims in the mainstream media.
The first day of Muslim-themed programming on Bridges TV will feature
movies, a cooking show and an original news show, all presented in
English,
said program director Jamilah Fraser. The channel already claims more
than
10,000 subscribers.
Bay Area Muslims such as Dublin resident Kalam Momin are helping to
raise
money and awareness for the channel.
Almost a third of Bridges TV's subscribers come from the Bay Area, and
many
have contributed $10 a month for the past year to help launch the
channel.
"They feel the need," Momin said. "American Muslims feel Bridges TV can
change the stereotype and shatter the distortions some people may have
about Muslims."
The station has received financial and moral support from high profile
American Muslims, including former boxing superstar Muhammad Ali.
"Bridges TV gives American Muslims a voice of their own on the airways
for
Americans of all races and religions to hear," Ali said in a statement.
Station founder Muzzammil Hassan said he and his wife developed the
idea
after hearing what they considered anti-Muslim comments on a radio talk
show.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, many Muslims have felt persecuted
both
by the U.S. government and by public opinion…
ALSO SEE:
START-UP TELEVISION VENTURE IS AIMING ITS PROGRAMMING AT AMERICAN
MUSLIMS
Laurie Goodstein, New York Times, 11/29/04
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/29/business/media/29muslim.html
On many nights in the living rooms of Muslim families across the United
States, parents and grandparents who immigrated here are tuned in to
Arabic
television stations like Al Jazeera or PTV, the state-run Pakistan
Television, while in another room their Americanized, English-speaking
children are watching ''The Apprentice'' or CNN.
Tomorrow, broadcasts of Bridges TV, an English-language network with
programming aimed at American Muslims, will begin. The network's
president
and chief executive, Muzzammil S. Hassan, said that he and his
investors
believed that there was a market among viewers looking for wholesome
programs with Muslim themes.
''When we did our research, we found that the foreign-language channels
like Al Jazeera appeal primarily to the immigrant parents, and not
their
U.S.-born children,'' said Mr. Hassan, who left his job as a vice
president
at a bank to start the network. ''Their programming is all about life
back
home, and not life in North America.''
''The primary purpose of Bridges TV,'' he said, ''is to build bridges
of
understanding between American Muslims and mainstream America, as well
as
to provide unique programming needs that American Muslims have.''
Programming is intended to appeal to all generations of Muslims in the
United States and Canada and includes news, comedy and even a soap
opera --
about a Muslim daughter who vexes her parents by deciding to marry
outside
the faith.
The programs will originate from many sources, including independent
producers, the BBC and cable channels, said Jamilah Fraser, the
programming
director for Bridges TV. Only the daily news program will be produced
internally, she said…
-----
GROUPS A BOON FOR ISLAMIC YOUTHS
Abe Levy, Wichita Eagle, 11/29/04
http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/10291570.htm
Blending a committed Islamic faith with American culture presents a
challenge for 15-year-old Nureen Syed.
On one hand, she's on the debate team at Maize High School and a member
of
the Spanish Club.
But on the other hand, she doesn't date, avoids clothes she thinks are
immodest and doesn't eat pork products.
Besides her Islamic family, she finds peer support for this unusual
lifestyle in a 2-year-old Muslim youth group.
"We have more in common," Syed said of the youth group. "We used to
live in
Chicago. There are fewer people here who know about Islam."
The youth group was organized under the auspices of the Wichita chapter
of
the Muslim Public Affairs Council, an Islamic community service and
advocacy group.
It is divided into two age divisions -- middle school and high school
--
and draws about 30 youths for a variety of bi-monthly events.
Social outings range from bowling to pizza nights. However, the youth
group
gathers more often for volunteer service projects.
Those have ranged from mowing lawns at a Muslim cemetery to taking part
in
community food drives and serving meals at homeless centers.
"The idea is to build bridges not just in the Muslim community," said
Donna
Sibaai, an adult coordinator for the high school youth group. "The
things
we're doing is a requirement of our faith. It's giving back to our
community and an obligation to God."
The idea of a youth group with a male and female membership is a
distinctly
American phenomenon, organizers said.
Many Muslim countries discourage coed youth groups, said Sayyid M.
Syeed,
secretary general for the Islamic Society of North America, a national
association of Muslim groups and individuals.
Some Muslim cultures also discourage interfaith events, even if they
are
charitable in nature, he said.
He said he doesn't know how many Muslim youth groups there are
nationwide
but most medium to large cities have one or more.
-----
SEMINAR AT VCU FOCUSES ON ISLAMIC FINANCE AND TAPPING INTO THE MARKET
Kerry Grace, Times-Dispatch, 11/29/04
http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRT
D_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031779394446
Virginia Commonwealth University will offer a one-day seminar,
"Understanding Islamic Finance: A New Market Alternative," on Friday.
The program will be held at the VCU Student Commons. (See Friday
events,
This Week.)
The Islamic market is considered one of fastest-rising economic
segments,
with about $500 billion in assets and an annual growth rate of 10
percent.
The program will discuss its emergence.
Presenters include Yusuf DeLorenzo, AbdulKader Thomas and Michael
McMillen.
DeLorenzo is a member of several Shariah supervisory boards for
worldwide
financial institutions such as Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes, Royal
Bank
of Scotland, Societe General in France and the Kuwait Investment
Advisory
Group. He is the author of "A Compendium of Legal Opinions on the
Operations of Islamic Banks" and the co-developer of "Fundamentals of
Islamic Investing" for the Dow Jones Online University.
Thomas, a banker with more than 20 years of experience in the Middle
East,
is chief executive officer for Shape Financial Corp. in Northern
Virginia.
He is the author of "The Guide to Islamic Home Finance," "Euromoney's
Islamic Bonds" and "The Book of Riba." He recently has conducted
workshops
in Malaysia, Great Britain, Singapore, New York and the Middle East…
ALSO SEE:
SEMO PROGRAM TO FOCUS ON ISLAM
Mark Bliss, Semisourian, 11/28/04
http://www.semissourian.com/story.html$rec=151268
The images of war in Iraq on the nightly news paint a picture of
murderous
Muslims who hate Americans and thrive on car bombs, kidnappings and
beheadings.
Most Muslims abhor such violence, says Dr. Tahsin Khalid, a Southeast
Missouri State University faculty member and practicing Muslim from
Pakistan.
"Killing innocent people is not for the sake of God. It's wrong." he
said.
"That has nothing to do with Islam."
Arab terrorists publicly justify their violent acts in the name of
religion. But Khalid said in reality they're not promoting Islam.
"Their
religion is terrorism," said Khalid, who will lecture about Muslim
beliefs
Wednesday at a campus program called "Understanding Islam."
The event also will feature a panel discussion involving other area
Muslims. They include: Khalid's wife, Naghma; Waleed Malik, a Southeast
student from Pakistan; Shafiq Malik, owner of Fountainbleau Lodge
nursing
home in Cape Girardeau; Dr. Ismeth Abbas, a physician at Southeast
Missouri
Hospital; Rania Majed, a Southeast graduate student from Syria; and Dr.
Amjad Roumany, a rheumatologist in Cape Girardeau.
The program is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Rose Theatre in the Grauel
Building
at Pacific Street and Normal Avenue. Admission is free, and the program
is
open to the public.
Southeast's social work department is sponsoring the program in
cooperation
with the university's office of international programs and campus
ministries…
What: Lecture and panel discussion on "understanding Islam"
When: 7 p.m. Wednesday
Where: Rose Theatre in the Grauel Building, Pacific Street and Normal
Avenue
Admission: Free
-----
ISRAEL SHOCKED BY IMAGE OF SOLDIERS FORCING VIOLINIST TO PLAY AT
ROADBLOCK
Chris McGreal in Jerusalem, Guardian, 11/29/04
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1361755,00.html
Of all the revelations that have rocked the Israeli army over the past
week, perhaps none disturbed the public so much as the video footage of
soldiers forcing a Palestinian man to play his violin.
The incident was not as shocking as the recording of an Israeli officer
pumping the body of a 13-year-old girl full of bullets and then saying
he
would have shot her even if she had been three years old.
Nor was it as nauseating as the pictures in an Israeli newspaper of
ultra-orthodox soldiers mocking Palestinian corpses by impaling a man's
head on a pole and sticking a cigarette in his mouth.
But the matter of the violin touched on something deeper about the way
Israelis see themselves, and their conflict with the Palestinians.
The violinist, Wissam Tayem, was on his way to a music lesson near
Nablus
when he said an Israeli officer ordered him to "play something sad"
while
soldiers made fun of him. After several minutes, he was told he could
pass.
It may be that the soldiers wanted Mr Tayem to prove he was indeed a
musician walking to a lesson because, as a man under 30, he would not
normally have been permitted through the checkpoint.
But after the incident was videotaped by Jewish women peace activists,
it
prompted revulsion among Israelis not normally perturbed about the
treatment of Arabs...
ALSO SEE:
CHECKPOINTS TAKE TOLL ON PALESTINIANS, ISRAELI ARMY
Molly Moore, Washington Post, 11/29/04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A18597-2004Nov28?language=printer
HAWARA, West Bank -- At a sandbagged military checkpoint on a bleak
patch
of asphalt in the West Bank, an Israeli soldier yanked 29-year-old
Mohammad
Yousef out of a Palestinian ambulance. When Yousef's medical papers
were
produced, the soldier waved them off and bellowed, "I wouldn't let you
in
even if you brought God here with you!"
In long lines nearby, hundreds of Palestinians on foot jammed against a
narrow turnstile, each waiting to be allowed to proceed -- one by one
--
through concrete lanes resembling cattle chutes. All males under the
age of
30 were turned away. So were all students, male and female.
"Open! Open!" a chorus of angry men shouted at the armed Israeli
soldiers
who controlled the gates holding back the Palestinians. As a thin man
with
a swath of black stubble across his face squeezed through the
turnstile,
his 18-month-old toddler became wedged between the bars. "Open it! Open
it!" he screamed, cursing at the soldiers and gripping the whimpering
child
by one arm.
For two neighboring societies segregated by the physical and
psychological
barriers of a conflict dragging into its fifth year, the most intimate
contact between Israelis and Palestinians occurs over the barrel of a
gun
at the 61 manned military checkpoints throughout the West Bank and Gaza
Strip. Such encounters exact a heavy toll on both sides, as evinced by
accounts from former checkpoint guards who describe working under
dehumanizing conditions, and by numerous reports of abuses committed by
such soldiers against Palestinian civilians…
-----
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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
--------------------------------------------------------------------
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http://mail2web.com/ .
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 11/30/04
* VERSES OF THE DAY: GOD FORGIVES ALL SINS
* CANADA PROBES 'IMUS' SLURS (Toronto Star)
* MUSLIM NETWORK HOPES TO BRIDGE CULTURE GAPS (Chicago Trib)
- Bridges TV Contacts
- Muslim-Themed U.S. Satellite TV Channel (Phil Inq)
- Paula Zahn Segment Tonight on Bridges TV (CNN)
* RED CROSS FINDS DETAINEE ABUSE IN GUANT�NAMO (NY Times)
- Rumsfeld War Crimes Probe Urged in Germany (Reuters)
- 'They Hate Our Policies, Not Our Freedom' (CS Monitor)
* TX: ISLAM POST 9/11: ISLAMOPHOBIA IN AUSTIN (News 8)
* NY: ISLAMIC CENTER SEARCHING FOR A NEW HOME (NYU News)
- NY: Pakistani Group Provides Feast for Homeless
* SHOULD TARIQ RAMADAN COME TO THE U.S.? (US News)
* CHANGING AMERICA, CHANGING TASTES (Chicago Trib)
-----
VERSE OF THE DAY: GOD FORGIVES ALL SINS
"God says: 'O My servants who have transgressed against their souls, do
not
despair of God's mercy, for God forgives all sins. It is He who is the
Forgiving, the Merciful.'"
The Holy Quran, 39:53
VERSE OF THE DAY: ENCOURAGE KINDNESS AND COMPASSION
"And what will explain to you the path that is steep? It is the freeing
of
a (slave) from bondage, or the giving of food in a day of famine to an
orphan relative, or to a needy (stranger) in distress, and being of
those
who believe, enjoin fortitude, and encourage kindness and compassion."
The Holy Quran, 90:12-17
-----
CANADA PROBES 'IMUS' SLURS
PROBE HERE OVER AIRED ARAB SLURS
Antonia Zerbisias, Toronto Star, 11/30/04
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Artic
le_Type1&call_pageid=971358637177&c=Article&cid=1101768608249
The all-news MSNBC, which recently got the go-ahead for unrestricted
access
to Canada's digital dial, may have run afoul of our hate laws when its
Imus
In The Morning advocated dropping a bomb on Palestinians to "kill 'em
all."
Both the RCMP and the federal broadcast watchdog are on the case,
investigating complaints from some two dozen Canadians.
They include Paul Jay, best known as the independent producer behind
CBC
Newsworld's recently cancelled counterSpin.
"I watched (Imus) and immediately I was outraged," he told me
yesterday.
Morning jock Don Imus, whose syndicated shock-talk radio show is
simulcast
on MSNBC, was probably just joking when he and his crew made racist,
derogatory remarks during coverage of Yasser Arafat's funeral on Nov.
12.
But many Americans, and obviously a few Canadians, weren't laughing
when
they caught this exchange between Imus, his sports anchor Sid Rosenberg
and
their producer Bernard McGuirk over images of the crowds mourning the
death
of the Palestinian leader…
In the U.S., the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations
(CAIR) complained and, last week, received an apology from MSNBC…
As for Imus, his in-your-face, Howard Stern pseudo style is ill-suited
to a
supposedly serious news channel co-owned by NBC News and Microsoft.
And this isn't the first time he's run afoul of Arab-Americans.
According
to CAIR, he has called Arabs "goat-humping weasels" and has repeatedly
referred to them as "ragheads."
You'd think MSNBC and NBC could do better than this.
SEE ALSO:
MSNBC APOLOGIZES FOR 'IMUS' REMARKS
http://www.cair-net.org/asp/article.asp?id=1338&page=NR
-----
NEW NETWORK HOPES TO BRIDGE CULTURE GAPS
Manya A. Brachear, Chicago Tribune, 11/30/04
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/northshore/chi-0411300218nov30,1,49
70433.story
Hoping to dispel stereotypes that have stacked up since the attacks of
Sept. 11, 2001, more than 50 private investors and almost 10,000
individual
donors have poured millions of dollars into the first national
television
network for Muslims, which premieres Tuesday.
Bridges TV will debut through GlobeCast World TV, a national satellite
provider that has signed up more than 50,000 subscribers for the new
channel, 2,915 in the Chicago area. The network also will broadcast via
broadband on the Internet, and Comcast cable plans to add it to the
Chicago
menu of premium channels next year.
Tuesday's curtain-raiser will be the network's original news show,
"Bridges
News," hosted by former NBC news correspondent Asad Mahmood at 11 a.m.
Network executives say the show will take a more in-depth approach to
Middle East issues than do other networks.
But this is not the American Al Jazeera. Instead, call it Lifetime for
Muslims, with a dash of CNN.
The lineup includes an Emeril-like chef who can whip up Indonesian,
Middle
Eastern or South Asian fare; a soap opera about an Egyptian father
dealing
with his daughter's interfaith marriage; and a comedy show featuring
shtick
between a rabbi and a Palestinian-American.
"It is this kind of bridge-building situation that Bridges TV is all
about," said Mo Hassan, founder and CEO of Bridges TV, which is based
in
Buffalo. "Foreign-language channels appeal primarily to the immigrant
parent, not to their U.S.-born children. The programming of those
channels
is all about life back home. What Bridges TV is doing is programming
...
focused on life here in North America…"
Ahmed Rehab, spokesman for the Chicago chapter of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations, said his parents, who emigrated from Egypt,
watch Al Jazeera via satellite. Once Bridges TV is on cable, he might
subscribe to provide options the whole family can enjoy.
"I'm not expecting a news alternative," he said. "What I am looking for
them to do is to shed light on issues seldom covered through drama and
talk
shows ... that are not heavy to handle for the viewer…"
ALSO SEE:
BRIDGES TV CONTACTS
For a promotional DVD of Bridges TV, call 716-578-1317 or email
info@bridgestv.com
Additional contacts:
Muzzammil S. Hassan
President & CEO: 716-308-6593
mohassan@bridgestv.com
Samina Salahuddin
Media Relations: 716-870-9434
samina@bridgestv.com
---
MUSLIM-THEMED U.S. CHANNEL ON SATELLITE TV
Gaiutra Bahadur, Philadelphia Inquirer, 11/30/04
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/nation/10291264.htm
A channel conceived after the Sept. 11 terror attacks as a
counterweight to
negative images of Muslims in the media launches on satellite
television
today.
Bridges TV, the country's first Muslim-themed channel, had subscribers
before it even had a platform. About 10,000 Muslims in the United
States
paid $10 a month, some of them for more than a year, to signal support
and
a potential market for the station. Muslim celebrities such as Muhammad
Ali
and former NBA star Hakeem Olajuwon gave money and testimonials to back
the
project.
Now, it finally has a platform: Globecast, a satellite broadcaster of
world
television programming. Bridges is its only American channel. The first
day
will feature movies, a cooking show, and an original news show, all in
English. It will also be available on broadband at www.bridgestv.com
"The idea of Bridges TV," founder Muzzammil Hassan has said, "is not
only
to build bridges within the Muslim community, but also with mainstream
America."
Hassan, 40, a former Procter & Gamble executive in Philadelphia, and
his
wife came up with the idea for the TV station on a road trip from
Buffalo
to Detroit a few weeks after Sept. 11…
---
CNN: AMERICAN MUSLIM NETWORK TELEVISION
http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/paula.zahn.now/index.html
WHAT: CNN's Paula Zahn Now takes a look at the first-ever American
Muslim
television network and who's behind it.
WHEN Tuesday, November 30, 2004 at 8 p.m. ET.
-----
RED CROSS FINDS DETAINEE ABUSE IN GUANT�NAMO
Neil A. Lewis, New York Times, 11/30/04
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/30/politics/30gitmo.html
WASHINGTON, Nov. 29 - The International Committee of the Red Cross has
charged in confidential reports to the United States government that
the
American military has intentionally used psychological and sometimes
physical coercion "tantamount to torture" on prisoners at Guant�namo
Bay,
Cuba.
The finding that the handling of prisoners detained and interrogated at
Guant�namo amounted to torture came after a visit by a Red Cross
inspection
team that spent most of last June in Guant�namo.
The team of humanitarian workers, which included experienced medical
personnel, also asserted that some doctors and other medical workers at
Guant�namo were participating in planning for interrogations, in what
the
report called "a flagrant violation of medical ethics."
Doctors and medical personnel conveyed information about prisoners'
mental
health and vulnerabilities to interrogators, the report said, sometimes
directly, but usually through a group called the Behavioral Science
Consultation Team, or B.S.C.T. The team, known informally as Biscuit,
is
composed of psychologists and psychological workers who advise the
interrogators, the report said.
The United States government, which received the report in July,
sharply
rejected its charges, administration and military officials said.
The report was distributed to lawyers at the White House, Pentagon and
State Department and to the commander of the detention facility at
Guant�namo, Gen. Jay W. Hood. The New York Times recently obtained a
memorandum, based on the report, that quotes from it in detail and
lists
its major findings.
It was the first time that the Red Cross, which has been conducting
visits
to Guant�namo since January 2002, asserted in such strong terms that
the
treatment of detainees, both physical and psychological, amounted to
torture. The report said that another confidential report in January
2003,
which has never been disclosed, raised questions of whether
"psychological
torture" was taking place…
SEE ALSO:
US GROUP URGES RUMSFELD WAR CRIMES PROBE IN GERMANY
Philip Blenkinsop, Reuters, 11/30/04
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6955896
BERLIN, Nov 30 (Reuters) - A U.S. human rights group urged German
prosecutors on Tuesday to investigate accusations that U.S. Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and senior U.S. officers are guilty of war
crimes
over the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal.
In an unusual legal move, the U.S. Center for Constitutional Rights
(CCR)
has filed a criminal complaint with Germany's Federal Prosecutors along
with four Iraqis who say they were tortured and humiliated alongside
other
prisoners by U.S. soldiers at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison outside
Baghdad.
CCR is taking advantage of a 2002 German law allowing prosecutions for
human rights and war crimes regardless of where the acts took place or
the
nationalities of the perpetrators.
The group says Rumsfeld, former CIA Director George Tenet, a senior
defense
official and seven U.S. military officers, including the former top
U.S.
commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, were ultimately
responsible
for the torture and humiliation of the Iraqis by U.S. soldiers at Abu
Ghraib.
CCR says the action is a last resort after the failure of the U.S.
Congress
to properly investigate Abu Ghraib. It argues that the Pentagon has
essentially appointed investigators into the abuse, while U.S.
prosecutors
look away.
"In a way I am here with a very heavy heart... I would have preferred
that
our own courts would have taken what happened seriously... but that is
not
the case in the United States at the moment," CCR President Michael
Ratner
said in Berlin…
---
'THEY HATE OUR POLICIES, NOT OUR FREEDOM'
Tom Regan, Csmonitor.com, 11/29/04
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1129/dailyUpdate.html
Late on the Wednesday afternoon before the Thanksgiving holiday, the US
Defense Department released a report by the Defense Science Board that
is
highly critical of the administration's efforts in the war on terror
and in
the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
'Muslims do not hate our freedom, but rather they hate our policies
[the
report says]. The overwhelming majority voice their objections to what
they
see as one-sided support in favor of Israel and against Palestinian
rights,
and the long-standing, even increasing, support for what Muslims
collectively see as tyrannies, most notably Egypt, Saudi Arabia,
Jordan,
Pakistan and the Gulf states. Thus, when American public diplomacy
talks
about bringing democracy to Islamic societies, this is seen as no more
than
self-serving hypocrisy.' The Pentagon released the study after The New
York
Times ran a story about the report in its Wednesday editions.
The Defense Science Board, reports Disinfopedia, is "a Federal advisory
committee established to provide independent advice to the Secretary of
Defense."
'The current Board is authorized to consist of thirty-two members plus
seven ex officio members': the chairmen of the Army, Navy, Air Force,
Policy, Ballistic Missile Defense Advisory Committee, and Defense
Intelligence Agency Science and Technology Advisory Committee.
'Members,
whose appointed terms range from one to four years, are selected on the
basis of their preeminence in the fields of science, technology and its
application to military operations, research, engineering,
manufacturing
and acquisition process.'
China's Xinhuanet reported that the board's report criticized the US
for
failing in its efforts to communicate its military and diplomatic
actions
to the world, and the Muslim world in particular, "but no public
relations
campaign can save America from flawed policies." The report also takes
the
administration to task for talking about Islamic extremism in a way
that
offends many Muslims.
In stark contrast to the cold war, the United States today is not
seeking
to contain a threatening state empire, but rather seeking to convert a
broad movement within Islamic civilization to accept the value
structure of
Western Modernity - an agenda hidden within the official rubric of a
'War
on Terrorism,' [the report states]…
-----
ISLAM POST 9/11: ISLAMOPHOBIA IN AUSTIN
Jitin Hingorani, News8Austin, 11/30/04
http://www.news8austin.com/content/your_news/default.asp?ArID=125810
Before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the word
"Islamophobia"
was not part of American vocabulary. Now, more than three years later,
the
fear of Muslims or their potential link to terrorism has permeated the
American psyche.
Austin Muslim Nahid Khataw would have described herself as shy and
introverted in the past, but now she considers herself outgoing, even
an
activist.
"I feel like I'm more confident now than I was before," she said.
Khataw and her friends began spreading the word about Islam to clarify
misconceptions.
"I've done quite a bit, and I would like to see and go to other places,
and
to other churches and synagogues and teach them or just tell them about
Islam. This is my mission," Khataw said.
Khataw began her mission to teach people about Islam after her son was
harassed at school for being a Muslim. She also decided to stop wearing
the
hijaab, the traditional Muslim veil, to protect herself.
"I was scared. I heard so many cases that people were being harassed
because they were wearing hijaab. Children were pulling the hijaab off
and
hurting them. I thought it would be better for me and my family not to
wear
it," she said.
The word hijaab literally means screen or partition. Muslim women wear
the
veil to prevent the mingling of opposite sexes, which could lead to
pre-marital sex, a sin according to the Quran.
But many modern Muslim women believe the hijaab is too restrictive.
They
say after Sept. 11, 2001, wearing the veil is like stamping the scarlet
letter on your chest…
-----
ISLAMIC CENTER SEARCHING FOR A NEW HOME
Kara Clark, NYU News, 11/30/04
http://www.nyunews.com/news/campus/8440.html
It's Friday afternoon, just after 1 p.m., and the Thompson Center
auditorium is packed. White sheets blanket the linoleum floor, and
hundreds
of empty shoes sit by the door. A white barrier sits in the middle of
the
room, dividing kneeling men and women praying quietly in Arabic while a
student leads them in a teaching.
For the past 25 years, the NYU Islamic Center has offered a spiritual
base
to more than 200 practicing Muslim students who use the facilities for
five
daily prayers, the weekly Jummah prayer held on Fridays and Iftar
dinners
during Ramadan, where Muslim students broke their daily fast.
But in just a few months, this may become a thing of the past.
The Islamic Center's lease for its Thompson Center location expires in
mid-May, and Muslim students are struggling to gather the funds
necessary
to acquire a space of their own.
Since the center moved from the Loeb Student Center to the Thompson
Center
seven years ago, NYU has paid for the lease on the space, which is
owned by
the Archdiocese of New York, said CAS senior Mohammed Umar, the
president
of the Muslim Student Association.
But two years ago, the Office of Student Affairs told Umar that to be
fair
to other campus religious organizations, which are required to pay for
space from private funds - NYU would no longer subsidize the center's
rent.
"They said that they couldn't pay for the prayer space anymore," he
said.
"The Bronfman Center [for Jewish Student Life] and the Catholic Center
are
paid for by outside sources."
Now, Umar is overseeing a massive fund-raising drive with a long-term
goal
of collecting $10 million over six years to secure a permanent prayer
and
community space for dinners and social activities in a separate
building.
The money will also help pay for a full-time security guard, as well as
maintenance and upkeep fees for a permanent location.
With help from the NYU Office for University Development and Alumni
Relations, the center is reaching out to campus Muslims, and the local
Muslim community for financial support.
ALSO SEE:
ISLAND PAKISTANI GROUP PROVIDES HOLIDAY FEAST FOR THE HOMELESS
Nearly 100 people dine on food provided by the organization at Project
Hospitality
Kacey Semler, Staten Island Advance, 11/29/04
http://www.silive.com/news/advance/index.ssf?/base/news/1101739534145720.xml
Nearly 100 homeless people dined yesterday at Project Hospitality in
St.
George on food provided by the Pakistani Civic Association.
Representing the Muslim community at the event were Dr. Salman Zafar,
vice
president of the association; Ashfaq Sheikh, recording secretary, and
Shahid Mustaqueem, a member of the board of directors, and his wife,
Shahin.
"They are the most significant Muslim group that works with us on an
ongoing basis, which is very important because we are an interfaith
effort," said the Rev. Terry Troia, executive director of Project
Hospitality, about the Pakistani Civic Association.
She said: "We really need the faith of their community to be a part of
serving the poor."
The donated food included fried chicken from Javaid Syed, treasurer of
the
group, and baked ziti and salad, from Shams Syed, chairman.
Beverages and dessert were also provided.
"We've been doing this twice a year for the past few years," said Dr.
Zafar, who serves on Project Hospitality's equality assurance
committee.
The association has served dinner on Christmas Eve for the past six
years…
-----
SHOULD THIS MAN COME TO THE U.S.?
Jay Tolson, U.S. News and World Report, 12/6/04
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/041206/misc/6islam.htm
GENEVA--In search of a restaurant to break the day's fast, Tariq
Ramadan
negotiates the crowded rush-hour streets of his native city with the
easy
grace of the athlete he once was. But the soft-spoken scholar, whose
short,
receding hair and closely cropped beard reveal flecks of gray, is
barely
remembered, if at all, for those displays of soccer brilliance that
almost
turned a semi-professional career into a professional one. Instead, his
renown--some would say his infamy--derives from his standing as one of
Europe's most influential and provocative Muslim thinkers.
The renown has spread. Named by Time magazine as one of the top 100
intellectual innovators of the new century, Ramadan is the author of
some
20 books (including the recent Western Muslims and the Future of Islam)
and
countless articles that project his reformist vision of an Islam
adaptable
to liberal western societies far beyond the lecture halls of the
universities of Geneva and Fribourg, where he formerly taught both
European
philosophy and Islamic studies. His lectures, cassettes, and talk-show
appearances have even made him something of a media star, albeit a
controversial one. In much of contemporary Europe and particularly
France,
where state secularism verges on the sacrosanct, simply being serious
about
religion invites as much suspicion as curiosity, even among some
Muslims.
"For me," says Fatima Lalem, a nonpracticing Muslim and family-planning
counselor in Paris, "Tariq Ramadan is someone who is good with words,
but
he's not the modern, enlightened scholar that he likes to pretend he
is."
Many other European Muslims, however, find Ramadan's reformist critique
bracing and liberating. Oguz Ucuncu, a Berlin-based mechanical engineer
and
a leader of Milli Gorus, a Turkish Muslim organization with 513 mosques
in
its network, says, "Tariq knows how to deal with the young generation
and
how to begin to find answers of what is our place in European society."
Lhaj Thami Breze, president of the Union of Islamic Organizations of
France, similarly hails Ramadan as "someone who symbolizes a modern
understanding of Islam, adaptable to a European context."
And, arguably, to an American one as well. That, in any case, was the
consensus of the administration and faculty of the University of Notre
Dame's Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, which
earlier this year offered Ramadan the Henry R. Luce professorship of
religion, conflict, and peace building. But a controversial reputation
has
its costs. As what should have been his first semester at Notre Dame
draws
to a close, Ramadan finds himself living in limbo in his nearly empty
Geneva apartment. The furnishings were shipped off to South Bend, Ind.,
more than four months ago, but nine days before Ramadan, his wife,
Iman,
and their four children were to depart for their new home, the U.S.
State
Department, acting on advice from the Department of Homeland Security,
informed Ramadan that his visa had been "prudentially revoked."
Homeland Security will not specify why Ramadan--who has visited the
States
for conferences and lectures scores of times in the past--might be
considered a threat to the nation's security, apart from saying that
there
are many possible grounds for denying or revoking a visa. "We don't
discuss
particular cases," says DHS spokesman Dean Boyd, adding that, in any
case,
the final call rested with the State Department. Officials at State
clearly
evince some ambivalence about having to make that call. After revoking
his
visa, they urged the scholar to reapply so that DHS's findings could be
re-evaluated. Embassy officials in Geneva interviewed Ramadan in early
October, but a decision is still pending…
SEND POLITE COMMENTS TO: letters@usnews.com
COPY TO: cair@cair-net.org
-----
CHANGING AMERICA, CHANGING TASTES
Andrew Martin, Chicago Tribune. 11/30/04
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0411300189nov30,1,5834707.story?c
oll=chi-business-hed
NEW HOLLAND, Pa. - A growing demand for goat meat among New York City
Muslims has been a boon to a livestock auction tucked away in the
middle of
Amish country.
Here, where a covered shelter in a parking lot keeps Amish buggies dry
when
it rains, Mohammad Khalid arrives from Queens every Monday morning to
buy
as many as 50 goats, which end up in the meat case of Queens Discount
Halal
Meat by Wednesday afternoon.
"A good goat is a Boer goat," said Khalid, a Pakistani immigrant,
pointing
to a redheaded goat standing in a pen with his other purchases, all of
them
bleating and staring nervously at their new owner. "It's very good
meat.
Tender."
Khalid is one of a handful of Muslim buyers who trek to New Holland
every
week to buy goats and, to a lesser extent, sheep, for Muslim markets in
New
York and other East Coast cities.
While the idea of eating goat is considered distasteful by some in the
United States, goat is the primary meat dish in many parts of the
world.
With the number of immigrants arriving from the Middle East, Mexico and
Asia surging, so, too, does the demand for goat meat.
According to the most recent Census of Agriculture, which the
Department of
Agriculture publishes every five years, goats are among the fastest
growing
sectors of the livestock industry. The number of goats raised annually
for
meat increased from 1.2 million to 1.9 million--a jump of 58
percent--from
1997 to 2002. The number of farms that raise meat goats grew to 74,980
from
63,422…
-----
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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
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In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS – 12/1/04
* HADITH OF THE DAY: PARADISE GUARANTEED
* CAIR-FL TRAINS FBI AGENTS ON ISLAM AND MUSLIMS
* VA: ARSON PROBED AS POSSIBLE HATE CRIME (Times-Dispatch)
* NC: PRAYER, A BREAK FROM LIFE FOR MUSLIMS (Technician)
- NY: Islamic School Planned For Apartment Tower (NY Sun)
* U.S. GENERALS IN IRAQ WERE TOLD OF ABUSE EARLY (Wash Post)
- Abu Ghraib, Caribbean Style (NY Times)
* AFTER FALLUJAH, SON IS GONE BUT FERVOR REMAINS (Wash Post)
- Why the Fallujah Mosque Shooting Matters (Chicago Trib)
-----
HADITH OF THE DAY: PARADISE GUARANTEED
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "If you guarantee me six
things on your part, I shall guarantee you Paradise. Speak the truth
when
you talk, keep a promise when you make it, when you are trusted with
something fulfill your trust, avoid sexual immorality, lower your gaze
(in
modesty), and restrain your hands from injustice."
Al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 1260
VERSE OF THE DAY: GOD IS JUST
"God does not do injustice to mankind in any way: It is man that wrongs
his
own soul."
The Holy Quran, 10:44
-----
CAIR-FL TRAINS FBI AGENTS ON ISLAM AND MUSLIMS
(MIAMI, FL, 12/1/04) - The Florida office of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-FL) today held a diversity training
workshop on Islam and the American Muslim community at the FBI’s
Jacksonville Division All Employee Conference.
More than 150 law enforcement agents, including FBI and Joint Terrorism
Task Force supervisory personnel, attended the workshop that examined
basic
Islamic beliefs and concepts, common stereotypes of Islam and Muslims
and
ways in which to improve interactions with the Muslim community. Agents
were able to ask questions throughout the two-hour CAIR-FL
presentation.
"This type of positive interaction between law enforcement officials
and
the Muslim community helps break down barriers to communication and
promotes mutual understanding," said CAIR-FL Chairman Parvez Ahmed.
Ahmed said CAIR-FL hopes that it will continue to expand the program to
help train law enforcement authorities in other parts of the state,
just as
it did today in Jacksonville and earlier in Miami. CAIR offices in
other
states have offered similar training programs.
CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil liberties group, is headquartered
in
Washington, D.C., and has 29 offices and chapters nationwide and in
Canada.
- END -
CONTACT: Ahmed Bedier, 813-731-9506, abedier@cair-florida.org; Altaf
Ali,
954-298-8214, altaf@cair-florida.org; Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or
202-744-7726, E-Mail: ihooper@cair-net.org
-----
VA: ENON ARSON PROBED AS POSSIBLE HATE CRIME
Meredith Bonny, Times-Dispatch, 12/1/04
http://www.times-dispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FR
TD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031779439073&path=%21news&s=1045855934842
A fire that destroyed an Enon gas station is being investigated as a
possible hate crime because of graffiti left at the scene, Chesterfield
County police officials confirmed yesterday.
The fire occurred last Wednesday at the Chevron service station at 2730
E.
Hundred Road. No one was injured in the blaze, which took about 90
minutes
to bring under control.
However, anti-Muslim or anti-Arab graffiti found at the scene has
prompted
county investigators to consider whether the written remarks were
connected
to the suspicious fire.
"We have got to attempt to establish that connection," police Capt.
Paige
Foster said. "We are continuing to follow leads."
The fire is being treated as arson, he said.
The graffiti was found on a nearby trash container and shed, Foster
said.
Foster said he did not recall the actual wording but said the phrases
left
there included "the F word, Arabs and gas."
"This is very disconcerting," said Rizwan Mowlana, executive director
of
the Maryland-Virginia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic
Relations.
"It sets a dangerous precedent."
The council, a national Islamic civil-rights and advocacy group, this
week
asked the FBI to probe the matter after learning about the graffiti…
CONTACT: CAIR-MD/VA, Rizwan Mowlana, 301-672-9355; Ibrahim Hooper,
202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail: ihooper@cair-net.org
-----
NC: PRAYER: A BREAK FROM LIFE FOR MUSLIMS
technicianonline.com, 12/1/04
http://technicianonline.com/story.php?id=010718
The striking thing about Islam is how individual it is.
In a prayer room at a local mosque Ibraheem Khalifa interacts little
with
the other 30 Muslims accompanying him.
Explaining his faith, Ibraheem said that praying builds a direct link
with
God. "Prayer is when you talk to God, and with it comes a sense of
peace
and tranquility within your heart," he said.
Drawing his fingers from his ear down to his chin in an act of
cleansing,
Ibraheem and the others begin the prayer by kneeling on the floor.
Initiating a routine of kneeling and standing up during the prayer, the
imam at the head of the room does not so much as lead the prayer as
much as
he keeps the rhythmic pace of the prayer.
Facing Mecca, where in Saudi Arabia the holiest of sites for Muslims
lies,
Ibraheem doesn't pray eastward, the seemingly logical direction, but
instead to the northeast.
With a smile, he acknowledges that observation to a visitor. The
shortest
straight-line distance is over the globe he explained.
Already past noon, the prayer is Ibraheem's third one of the day. A
five-part regimen, conducted at sunrise, midday, late afternoon, dusk
and
night, prayer is more than just part of the routine. "Prayers are
interspersed throughout the day so that we can take a break from life.
It
really gives you a time to relax," Ibraheem said.
But prayer is only one part of a mesh of precepts that Muslims follow
through out their lives…
SEE ALSO:
NY: ISLAMIC SCHOOL PLANNED FOR BOTTOM FLOORS OF UPPER EAST SIDE
APARTMENT
TOWER
Julie Satow, New York Sun, 12/1/04
http://www.nysun.com/article/5579
A luxury apartment tower is being built at the Upper East Side on land
leased from a neighboring mosque, which plans to open an Islamic school
on
the building's bottom floors.
In a deal that cost roughly $100 a square foot, the Related Companies
leased 425,000 square feet for 99 years from the Islamic Cultural
Center of
New York, according to Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, who sits on the board of
the
Islamic center and negotiated the deal with the Related Companies. The
development firm, headed by Stephen Ross, also developed the Time
Warner
Center.
The cultural center, at 96th Street and Third Avenue, reserved 63,000
square feet of the property, where it is building an Islamic school for
children in kindergarten through 12th grade and for
continuing-education
classes for adults, Mr. Abdul Rauf, who leads a congregation in
TriBeCa,
told The New York Sun. The school, which will have a separate entrance
on
East 97th Street, would occupy most of the first two floors of the
high-rise.
"The site adjacent to our mosque will be a platform to house a school
and
cultural center, on top of which will be built a residential tower,"
the
imam said. "We don't wish to sell the land, because our objective is to
maximize the long-term value of the property, to provide the means of
funding an endowment for the Islamic center."
Some Muslim employees at the United Nations and at various embassies
hope
to buy or rent units in the building across from the mosque, Mr. Abdul
Rauf
said. "Absolutely, members have expressed interest about living in the
building," he said.
The Web site advertising One Carnegie Hill, as the 42-story development
is
known, does not mention the Islamic school, focusing instead on the mix
of
rental units on the lower floors with for-sale apartments on the 23rd
floor
and higher.
The building will boast such high-end amenities as a health club, a
swimming pool, a terrace, a business center, and a playroom on the
third
floor, just above the Islamic school. The building is scheduled to open
next November. The Related Companies has begun selling the units, which
range in price from $390,000 for a 477-square-foot studio to $2.11
million
for a 1,704-square-foot three-bedroom apartment…
-----
U.S. GENERALS IN IRAQ WERE TOLD OF ABUSE EARLY, INQUIRY FINDS
Josh White, Washington Post, 12/1/04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23372-2004Nov30.html
A confidential report to Army generals in Iraq in December 2003 warned
that
members of an elite military and CIA task force were abusing detainees,
a
finding delivered more than a month before Army investigators received
the
photographs from Abu Ghraib prison that touched off investigations into
prisoner mistreatment.
The report, which was not released publicly and was recently obtained
by
The Washington Post, concluded that some U.S. arrest and detention
practices at the time could "technically" be illegal. It also said
coalition fighters could be feeding the Iraqi insurgency by "making
gratuitous enemies" as they conducted sweeps netting hundreds of
detainees
who probably did not belong in prison and holding them for months at a
time.
Spec. Duwayne Moore works at Abu Ghraib prison, which became known for
photographs depicting detainee abuse. A report warned Army generals
early
that an elite military and CIA task force was abusing detainees
throughout
Iraq. (Andrea Bruce Woodall -- The Washington Post)
The investigation, by retired Col. Stuart A. Herrington, also found
that
members of Task Force 121 -- a joint Special Operations and CIA mission
searching for weapons of mass destruction and high-value targets
including
Saddam Hussein -- had been abusing detainees throughout Iraq and had
been
using a secret interrogation facility to hide their activities.
Herrington's findings are the latest in a series of confidential
reports to
come to light about detainee abuse in Iraq. Until now, U.S. military
officials have characterized the problem as one largely confined to the
military prison at Abu Ghraib -- a situation they first learned about
in
January 2004. But Herrington's report shows that U.S. military leaders
in
Iraq were told of such allegations even before then, and that problems
were
not restricted to Abu Ghraib. Herrington, a veteran of the U.S.
counterinsurgency effort in Vietnam, warned that such harsh tactics
could
imperil U.S. efforts to quell the Iraqi insurgency -- a prediction
echoed
months later by a military report and other reviews of the war effort.
U.S. treatment of detainees remains under challenge. Representatives of
the
International Committee of the Red Cross recently told U.S. military
officials that the treatment of inmates held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,
was
"cruel, inhumane and degrading" (story, Page A10). Herrington's report,
which was commissioned by Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast, the top intelligence
officer in Iraq, said some detainees dropped off at central U.S.
detention
facilities other than Abu Ghraib had clearly been beaten by their
captors.
ALSO SEE:
ABU GHRAIB, CARIBBEAN STYLE
New York Times, 12/1/04
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/01/opinion/01wed1.html
Ever since the Abu Ghraib scandal broke, the Bush administration has
claimed that the abuses depicted in those horrible photos were an
isolated
problem that was immediately fixed. The White House has repeatedly
proclaimed its respect for the Geneva Conventions, international law
and
American statutes governing the treatment of prisoners.
An article in The Times on Tuesday by Neil A. Lewis showed how hollow
those
assurances are. According to the International Committee of the Red
Cross,
prisoners at Guant�namo Bay, where the United States warehouses men
captured in Afghanistan, have been subject to unremitting abuse that is
sometimes "tantamount to torture." This continued well after the Abu
Ghraib
scandal came to light, and it may still be going on.
The Red Cross said it first complained about Guant�namo in January
2003. It
found mistreatment similar to that at Abu Ghraib, including beatings,
prolonged isolation, sexual humiliation and prolonged "stress
positions"
for prisoners. But the Red Cross found a new, disturbing practice at
Guant�namo: the use of medical personnel to help interrogators get
information.
The Red Cross reported the same level of abuse in the spring of 2003.
By
this June, it said, the regime was "more refined and repressive." The
Red
Cross did say fearful Guant�namo prisoners complained less frequently
in
2004 than in 2003 about female interrogators who exposed their breasts,
kissed prisoners, touched them sexually and showed them pornography.
But
it's hard to see that as progress.
The administration's response to the Red Cross report was unsurprising.
The
military brushed off the Red Cross's complaints when they were made,
just
as it did at Abu Ghraib. Yesterday, Lawrence Di Rita, a spokesman for
Mr.
Rumsfeld, said the Red Cross had "their point of view," which was not
shared by the Bush administration. The Red Cross's point of view,
however,
is reflected in the Geneva Conventions and in American law. The recent
debate over prisoner abuse has not been brought to the courts, but the
Supreme Court has ruled that Mr. Bush cannot suspend due process for
prisoners of his choosing.
The White House, the Pentagon and the Justice Department clearly have
no
intention of addressing the abuse. Indeed, Mr. Bush has nominated one
of
the architects of the administration's prisoner policy, the White House
counsel Alberto Gonzales, to be attorney general. The general who set
up
the system at Guant�namo is now in charge of prisons in Iraq…
-----
AFTER FALLUJAH, SON IS GONE BUT FERVOR REMAINS
Father Who Left Reluctantly Waits to Fight Another Day
Anthony Shadid, Washington Post, 12/1/04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23464-2004Nov30.html
BAGHDAD - In a cramped room that has become his refuge, with walls of
grimy
plaster and sloppy brickwork, a man known as Abu Mohammed sat with his
children.
It was evening in Baghdad, and the Muslim call to prayer wafted over
the
neighborhood that takes its name from its main avenue, Palestine
Street. As
the invocation became audible, scratchy but melodic, Abu Mohammed
paused
for a moment in respectful silence. Soon after, the electricity
returned to
his shack, powering a lone fluorescent light that offset the gray of
dusk.
He sipped his sweet, dark tea and dragged again from a locally made
Miami
cigarette.
During fighting in Fallujah in mid-November, forces from the 1st Marine
Division moved toward the bridge in the western part of the city where
the
bodies of two American contractors killed by militants were strung up
in
March.
Then, with humility and pride, 39-year-old Abu Mohammed began his story
--
a tale of death, life and prospective martyrdom. Unlike so many
accounts of
a conflict that has reshaped Iraq, it came not from the U.S. forces
prosecuting the war, but from among the ranks of the men they fought.
A blacksmith turned insurgent, Abu Mohammed undertook an odyssey this
month
that carried him from the battlefields of Fallujah, roiled with
religion,
to a harrowing escape across the Euphrates River and a lonely exile in
Baghdad, where he waits to fight another day. It began with the death
of
his son, Ahmed, whose short life was ended by an American bullet.
"He was only 13, but he was the equal of a thousand men," Abu Mohammed
said, in words that served as an epitaph…
ALSO SEE:
WHY THE FALLUJAH MOSQUE SHOOTING MATTERS
Thomas J. Raleigh, Chicago Tribune, 12/1/04
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/oped/chi-0412010349dec01,1,586940
0.story
Images of war sometimes produce ramifications disproportionate to the
act
captured on film itself. Can one bullet, one round, fired in the midst
of
the Hobbesian chaos of a combat zone assume global significance?
Absolutely. Recall the late Eddie Adams' Pulitzer Prize-winning photo
of a
South Vietnamese general executing a Viet Cong prisoner on a Saigon
street
during the Tet Offensive.
And now more than 30 years later, the U.S. is fighting a war in Iraq
and
there's another arresting image. For more than a fleeting moment, we
forgot
about the 51 U.S. soldiers killed and 425 wounded in the ferocious
battle
to liberate Fallujah. We forgot about the insurgents who have
never--not
once--in this conflict demonstrated that they will observe the
provisions
of the "Law of Armed Conflict," while at the same time, U.S. Marines
and
soldiers have suffered death and injury by observing often restrictive
rules of engagement. We forgot about the execution room discovered in
Fallujah earlier that week, where dozens were brutally murdered by
Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his henchmen. For
a
moment we forgot about these things, riveted instead by that chilling
image
of one Marine, killing one Iraqi, with one round to the head.
Our military justice system works. The mosque shooting case will again
demonstrate this.
However, a myopic focus on the innocence or guilt of one Marine flat
out
misses the point. In the broader context, in the court of world
opinion,
where the wheels turn quickly, and not always proportionally, it is the
United States that is being judged, not the lone Marine.
Regardless of what any investigation may eventually reveal (and one
hopes
that the investigation is transparent), the shooting is bound to have
significant foreign policy implications for the United States.
If the Bush administration fails to swiftly respond to that shooting,
that
incident will undermine whatever scarce international support remains
for
the war, and further fan the flames of hostility in the Arab and Muslim
worlds toward the United States. The incident could be as damaging to
broad
U.S. interests in the region as were the abuses uncovered at Abu
Ghraib.
Hyperbole? Hardly…
-----
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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
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In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 12/2/04
* VERSE OF THE DAY: THE BEST OF ALL GOALS
* CAIR-CHICAGO: FBI ASKED TO MAKE 'SPY FILES' PUBLIC
- IL: Who's in FBI 'Spy Files'? (Sun-Times)
- CAIR-FL: Forum on Post-9/11 Treatment of Immigrants
- NV: Pakistani Says Police Violated Rights (LV Sun)
- Government Asserts Power to Keep Detainees (AP)
- Judge Questions Sweep of War on Terrorism (Wash Post)
- Canada: Details of Torture Could be Sealed (IPS)
* INCITEMENT WATCH: 'WE ARE AT WAR WITH ISLAM'
* MD: NEW CLASS, MUSLIMS IN THE UNITED STATES
* FBI RAIDS AIPAC OFFICES ONCE AGAIN (Haaretz)
- FBI Searches Israel Lobbying Group Offices (USA Today)
- FBI Searches Pro-Israel Lobbyists' Office (AP)
* IRAQ'S CIVILIAN DEAD GET NO HEARING IN U.S. (Daily Star)
-----
VERSE OF THE DAY: THE BEST OF ALL GOALS
"Alluring unto man is the enjoyment of worldly desires through women,
children, heaped-up treasures of gold and silver, horses of high mark,
cattle, and lands. All this may be enjoyed in the life of this world -
but
the best of all goals is with God."
The Holy Quran, 3:14
-----
PROMINENT CHICAGO AREA ORGANIZATIONS AND SOCIAL JUSTICE ACTIVISTS ASK
FBI
TO MAKE "SPY FILES" PUBLIC
http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=17112&c=206
CHICAGO - Citing a need for public accountability and to guard against
the
wholesale surveillance of religious and political organizations, a
diverse
group of Chicago-area associations and individuals sharing a commitment
to
social justice and community service today filed federal Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) requests with the Federal Bureau of
Investigation
(FBI) asking that agency to release surveillance files about those
groups
and individuals that were opened and maintained by FBI agents. The
organizations and individuals reflect a broad coalition, including the
local affiliates of legal organizations, groups committed to serving
the
Muslim and Arab population in the Chicago region, and local peace and
justice coalitions…
The groups filing FOIA requests today include: the American Civil
Liberties
Union of Illinois; the American Friends Service Committee Great Lakes
Region; the Community Renewal Society; the Council on American Islamic
Relations Chicago Chapter; the Council of Islamic Organizations of
Greater
Chicago; the Fellowship of Reconciliation Chicago Area Chapter; the
Muslim
Bar Association; the Muslim Civil Rights Center; and, the Oak Park
Coalition for Peace and Justice. In addition to these organizations,
FOIA
requests also have been filed on behalf of a number of religious and
political activists in the Chicago area. Those individuals are:
Community
Renewal Society Executive Director, Reverend Calvin Morris; Kareem M.
Irfan, chair of the Council on Islamic Organizations of Greater
Chicago;
Muslim Civil Rights Center President, Rasheed Ahmed; Muslim Civil
Rights
Center Vice President Seema Imam; CAIR Chicago Executive Director, M.
Yaser
Tabbara; Zubair Khan, president of the Muslim Bar Association; Michael
McConnell, Executive Director for the American Friends Service
Committee
Great Lakes Region; Kevin McDermott of the Oak Park Coalition for Peace
and
Justice; Ed McManus of the Fellowship of Reconciliation Chicago; and,
ACLU
of Illinois Executive Director Colleen Connell.
CONTACT: CAIR-Chicago Executive Director Yaser Tabbara, 312-212-1520 or
312-718-3725, E-Mail: director@cairchicago.org
SEE ALSO:
ACLU WANTS TO KNOW WHO'S IN FBI 'SPY FILES'
FRANK MAIN, Chicago Sun-Times, 12/2/04
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-aclu02.html
The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois is asking the FBI to
reveal
whether agents are keeping "spy files" on Islamic groups and anti-war
protesters in the Chicago area.
The requests are being made under the Freedom of Information Act --
part of
a national effort by the ACLU to obtain FBI surveillance files on the
groups and their leaders...
The other groups asking the FBI to turn over any surveillance files
include
the Community Renewal Society; the Council on American Islamic
Relations of
Chicago; the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago; the
Fellowship of Reconciliation Chicago; the Muslim Bar Association; the
Muslim Civil Rights Center, and the Oak Park Coalition for Peace and
Justice.
---
FORUM FOCUSES ON IMMIGRANTS' TREATMENT AFTER SEPT. 11
CHRIS ECHEGARAY, Tampa Tribune, 12/2/04
http://tampatrib.com/floridametronews/MGBZFLPI82E.html
TAMPA - Federal antiterrorism legislation and the backlash against the
Arab
community is driving the undocumented population away from the
mainstream,
according to immigration and civil rights advocates.
Dalia Hashad, the American Civil Liberties Union's national advocate
for
Arabs, Muslims and South Asians, recounted anecdotes of Arab and Muslim
men
who were detained, harassed and targeted by police after the Sept. 11
attacks…
Hashad and several panelists spoke at a community forum on immigration
legislation Wednesday night at Viva La Frida Cafe y Galleria. About 40
people attended the forum, sponsored by the ACLU's Tampa office and the
Council of American-Islamic Relations…
CONTACT: Ahmed Bedier, 813-731-9506, abedier@cair-florida.org; Altaf
Ali,
954-298-8214, altaf@cair-florida.org
---
PAKISTANI MAN SAYS POLICE VIOLATED HIS CIVIL RIGHTS
Jace Radke, LAS VEGAS SUN, 12/1/04
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/lv-crime/2004/dec/01/517912380.html
The Council on American Islamic Relations has filed a complaint with
Metro
Police internal affairs alleging that a 25-year-old Muslim Pakistani
national had his civil rights violated by officers at a casino parking
garage when he was questioned and his car was searched.
CAIR attorney Engy Abdelkader would only identify the Pakistani man as,
"Mr. John Doe" and said that officers asked the man if he felt men and
women were equal, what in his opinion is the right way for Muslims to
deal
with non-Muslims and how he relates to terrorists and their use of
Islamic
text.
"The general public expects local law enforcement officials to uphold
and
preserve the freedom of speech, religion and assembly, as well as
privacy
rights, and the rights to counsel, due process and protection from
unreasonable searches and seizures," the complaint states. "Mr. Doe is
entitled to the right to be free from government disclosing private
facts
about him and from government inquiring into matters in which it does
not
have a legitimate and proper concern."
The man was detained for several hours by police and hotel security,
but
was not charged with any crime, Abdelkader said.
According to the complaint the Pakistani man was stopped by security
personnel inside the New York-New York parking garage on the evening of
Oct. 17. He was planning to attend a show at the casino with friends
who
were staying there, but he never made it out of the parking garage,
Abdelkader said.
After hotel security questioned him and searched his car, Metro Police
were
called, and plain clothes officers arrived at the garage, the complaint
states.
The officers questioned the man, and found children's books on Islam
and
notebooks of Arabic grammar in his car. The man told authorities that
he
was an Islamic Sunday school teacher, and that the grammar books were
for a
class in the Arabic language he had been taking.
Later an agent with the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement
questioned the man about his immigration status.
The man was able to prove that he came to the U.S. on a student visa
and
had obtained a bachelor of science and computer science degree from
Arizona
State University in December 2003, Abdelkader said.
"In my opinion this was egregious because there was no indication of
criminal activity," said Abdelkader, who added that CAIR is exploring
legal
action but has not yet filed a lawsuit.
Abdelkader said that the man who was allegedly harassed does not want
his
name released to the media…
---
GOVERNMENT ASSERTS POWER TO KEEP DETAINEES
MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN, Associated Press, 12/1/04
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/2927692
WASHINGTON (AP) - Under detailed questioning by a federal judge,
government
lawyers asserted Wednesday the U.S. military can hold foreigners
indefinitely as enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, even if they
aided terrorists unintentionally and never fought the United States.
Could a "little old lady in Switzerland" who sent a check to an
orphanage
in Afghanistan be taken into custody if unbeknownst to her some of her
donation was passed to al-Qaida terrorists? asked U.S. District Judge
Joyce
Hens Green.
"She could," replied Deputy Associate Attorney General Brian Boyle.
"Someone's intention is clearly not a factor that would disable
detention."
It would be up to a newly established military review panel to decide
whether to believe her and release her.
Boyle said the military can pick any foreigner who provides support to
terrorists or might know of their plans. And the foreigners held on the
U.S. naval base in Cuba "have no constitutional rights enforceable in
this
court," Boyle told the judge.
"That's really shocking," Thomas B. Wilner, attorney for 12 Kuwaiti
detainees, told reporters after Green's hearing. "People throughout the
world will fear the United States is asserting the power to pick up
little
old ladies and men who made a mistake…"
---
JUDGE QUESTIONS SWEEP OF BUSH'S WAR ON TERRORISM
Carol D. Leonnig, Washington Post, 12/2/04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26448-2004Dec1.html
A federal judge yesterday questioned the Bush administration's broad
definition of its powers to indefinitely imprison alleged Taliban and
al
Qaeda fighters at the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,
especially
those who have never taken up arms against the United States.
U.S. District Judge Joyce Hens Green's questions came as the Defense
Department argued during a hearing that it has properly imprisoned 550
people as "enemy combatants" at Guantanamo Bay, based on at least some
evidence that they were Taliban or al Qaeda members or assisted or
supported terrorist groups…
After hearing Green's hypothetical questions, the military agreed it
could
imprison a Muslim teacher whose class includes a family with Taliban
connections. It also agreed that it could detain a man who does not
report
his suspicions that his cousin may be an al Qaeda member, or a reporter
who
knows where Osama bin Laden is located but does not divulge the
information
to protect an anonymous source.
Green said the Supreme Court ruled this summer that the military has
the
authority to detain people but expressly for the purpose of preventing
their return to the battlefield and keeping them from continuing to
wage
war. Several Guantanamo Bay detainees, the government acknowledged,
were
arrested or seized in Britain, Bosnia and Zambia.
"What's the purpose of detaining someone who never came within 1,000
miles
of a battlefield?" she asked the government lawyers. "What, quote,
'battlefield' is the United States trying to prevent the detainees from
returning to? Back to Africa? Back to London? Back to some acreage of
land
somewhere?"
Boyle said the boundaries of a war on terrorism are unlimited, and he
urged
the judge not to set artificial ones. But lawyer George Brent Mickum
IV,
who represents detainees seized in Africa, questioned how the
president's
authority could be limitless around the globe.
"To detain anyone, anytime, anywhere in the world, indefinitely, under
any
rules they devise, that just can't be -- must not be -- the law of the
land," he said.
---
DETAILS OF ARAR TORTURE COULD BE SEALED
Paul Weinberg, IPS, 12/1/04
http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews=26510
TORONTO, Dec 1 (IPS) - How to shed light on one Canadian's nightmare
experience in a jail in Syria and the secretive U.S.-inspired,
extralegal
global system of interrogation and torture that put him there are
challenges facing one judge here, who must also confront "national
security" barriers put up by Ottawa.
The circumstances surrounding the treatment of Maher Arar, who has
never
been charged with a crime, is the subject of a federal commission of
inquiry that since the summer has been held in closed-door hearings,
where
Canadian security and intelligence officials have been secretly
cross-examined.
Judge Dennis O'Connor is expected to issue a ruling in early 2005 on
what
details from the evidence presented by the Royal Canadian Mounted
Police
(RCMP) and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) can be
made
public.
"We are very confident that we are getting to the bottom of this
story,"
commission counsel Paul Cavalluzzo told Canadian Press last week. "We
are
confident that the public will learn what happened to Mr. Arar."
But observers say the Canadian government, which reluctantly agreed
under
public pressure to hold the commission of inquiry, is expected to
appeal
O'Connor's ruling at the Federal Court of Canada in order to keep much
of
the information regarding the investigation of the Syrian Canadian
under
wraps…
-----
INCITEMENT WATCH: 'WE ARE AT WAR WITH ISLAM'
'MIRED IN A RELIGIOUS WAR'
Sam Harris, Washington Times, 12/2/04
http://washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20041201-090801-2582r.htm
It is time we admitted that we are not at war with "terrorism." We are
at
war with Islam. This is not to say that we are at war with all Muslims,
but
we are absolutely at war with the vision of life that is prescribed to
all
Muslims in the Koran. The only reason Muslim fundamentalism is a threat
to
us is because the fundamentals of Islam are a threat to us. Every
American
should read the Koran and discover the relentlessness with which
non-Muslims are vilified in its pages. The idea that Islam is a
"peaceful
religion hijacked by extremists" is a dangerous fantasy - and it is now
a
particularly dangerous fantasy for Muslims to indulge.
SEND POLITE COMMENTS TO: letters@washingtontimes.com
COPY TO: cair@cair-net.org
-----
MD: NEW CLASS, MUSLIMS IN THE UNITED STATES
New Spring 2005 Class at the Community College of Baltimore County
Sociology Special Topics Course: SOCL 193
Tues. and Thurs. 12:30 -1:55; T101, Catonsville campus
3 Credits, No Pre-requisites
Overview
This course examines the Islamic faith, its community in the United
States,
and its place in America. The course will provide knowledge about the
history of Muslims in America; the practice of Islam in the American
context; and the evolution of Muslim community organizations and their
interaction with state and society institutions.
About the Instructor
Dr. Mohamed Nimer is research director at CAIR and author of The North
American Muslim Resource Guide: Muslim Community Life in the United
States
and Canada. Dr. Nimer has conducted extensive community based research
covering American Muslim life and Muslim institution building.
For more information
Please contact mnimer@cair-net.org.
-----
FBI RAIDS AIPAC OFFICES ONCE AGAIN
Nathan Guttman, Haaretz, 12/2/04
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/508669.html
WASHINGTON - For the second time in 13 weeks, FBI agents raided the
pro-Israel American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) offices
yesterday searching for information against Larry Franklin, an analyst
at
the Middle East desk of the Pentagon.
Franklin is suspected of obtaining classified material from internal
Bush
administration discussions of policy on Iran and Iraq, and transmitting
it
to AIPAC staffers.
FBI spokeswoman Debbie Weirman confirmed that agents had conducted the
search, but refused to provide additional details. Weirman said the
order
authorizing the search was sealed.
This is the second time that FBI agents have searched AIPAC's
Washington
offices. On the previous occasion in late August, they confiscated
files
from the computer of Steven Rosen, AIPAC's director of foreign policy
issues.
The investigation into Franklin's activities has been going on secretly
for
a year.
Rosen and another AIPAC employee, Keith Weissman, an Iran expert, have
been
the focus of U.S. media attention as Franklin's alleged contacts.
According
to media reports, the FBI is investigating the possibility that AIPAC
employees passed on the information to the Israeli Embassy. Classified
information on Iran transmitted at this point could ostensibly have
given
Israel an opportunity to influence the administration's decision-making
process, because Israel would allegedly have been aware of the
considerations guiding policy- makers.
Rosen and Weissman were questioned by investigators a short time after
the
story broke at the end of August. Shortly thereafter, the pair took a
leave
of absence from AIPAC for several weeks…
SEE ALSO:
FBI SEARCHES OFFICES OF ISRAEL LOBBYING GROUP AS PART OF SPY PROBE
Barbara Slavin and Toni Locy, USA TODAY, 12/2/04
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-12-01-fbi-israel-iran_x.htm
WASHINGTON - The FBI searched the offices of the premier pro-Israel
advocacy group in the United States for more than six hours Wednesday,
took
away computer files and issued subpoenas to four senior staffers in a
continuing probe of whether a midlevel Pentagon analyst passed
classified
information to Israel.
Deb Weierman, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Washington field office, said
agents arrived at the headquarters of the American Israel Public
Affairs
Committee (AIPAC) near Capitol Hill at about 10 a.m. and stayed until
past
4 p.m.
A grand jury has been investigating whether Lawrence Franklin, a career
analyst at the Defense Intelligence Agency who specializes in Iran,
passed
a classified Pentagon draft on U.S. Iran policy to two AIPAC officials
in
the summer of 2003. Two federal law enforcement officials with
knowledge of
the probe have said prosecutors are trying to determine whether the
AIPAC
officials shared information from Franklin with Israel. Both law
enforcement officials asked not to be named because the investigation
is
ongoing…
---
FBI SEARCHES PRO-ISRAEL LOBBYISTS' OFFICE
CURT ANDERSON, Associated Press, 12/1/04
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4647948,00.html
WASHINGTON (AP) - FBI agents searched files and served subpoenas
Wednesday
at the offices of the major pro-Israel lobbying organization as part of
an
investigation into whether Israel improperly obtained classified U.S.
information on Iran…
Agents also have interviewed two AIPAC employees about whether a
Defense
Department analyst, Larry Franklin, gave them classified information
that
would up with Israel. Franklin works on Iran and Middle East issues in
the
office of policy undersecretary Douglas Feith. Franklin has not
commented
on the probe and has not been charged.
AIPAC said FBI agents on Wednesday requested and received files related
to
those same two employees, who previously were identified - Steve Rosen,
the
director of research, and Keith Weissman, deputy director of foreign
policy
issues.
The FBI has copied computer hard drives and files from both men.
In addition, the AIPAC statement said subpoenas were served by the FBI
requiring four unidentified senior AIPAC officials to testify before
the
federal grand jury investigating the case…
-----
IRAQ'S CIVILIAN DEAD GET NO HEARING IN THE UNITED STATES
Jeffrey D. Sachs, Daily Star, 12/2/04
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=10594
Evidence is mounting that America's war in Iraq has killed tens of
thousands of Iraqi civilians, and perhaps well over 100,000. Yet this
carnage is systematically ignored in the United States, where the media
and
government portray a war in which there are no civilian deaths, because
there are no Iraqi civilians, only insurgents.
American behavior and self-perceptions reveal the ease with which a
civilized country can engage in large-scale killing of civilians
without
public discussion. In late October, the British medical journal Lancet
published a study of civilian deaths in Iraq since the U.S.-led
invasion
began. The sample survey documented an extra 100,000 Iraqi civilian
deaths
compared to the death rate in the preceding year, when Saddam Hussein
was
still in power - and this estimate did not even count excess deaths in
Fallujah, which was deemed too dangerous to include.
The study also noted that the majority of deaths resulted from
violence,
and that a high proportion of the violent deaths were due to U.S.
aerial
bombing. The epidemiologists acknowledged the uncertainties of these
estimates, but presented enough data to warrant an urgent follow-up
investigation and reconsideration by the Bush administration and the
U.S.
military of aerial bombing of Iraq's urban areas.
America's public reaction has been as remarkable as the Lancet study,
for
the reaction has been no reaction. On Oct. 29 the vaunted New York
Times
ran a single story of 770 words on page 8 of the paper. The Times
reporter
apparently did not interview a single Bush administration or U.S.
military
official. No follow-up stories or editorials appeared, and no Times
reporters assessed the story on the ground. Coverage in other U.S.
papers
was similarly meager. The Washington Post, also on Oct. 29, carried a
single 758-word story on page 16.
Recent reporting on the bombing of Fallujah has also been an exercise
in
self-denial. On Nov. 6, The New York Times wrote that "warplanes
pounded
rebel positions" in Fallujah, without noting that "rebel positions"
were
actually in civilian neighborhoods. Another story in The Times on Nov.
12,
citing "military officials," dutifully reported: "Since the assault
began
on Monday, about 600 rebels have been killed, along with 18 American
and 5
Iraqi soldiers." The issue of civilian deaths was not even raised…
-----
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-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 12/3/04
* HADITH OF THE DAY: HARBOR GOOD THOUGHTS
* CAIR-MD/VA RESOLVES PRAYER CASE
- CAIR-San Antonio Offers Library Lectures
- CAIR-LA Winter Internship
* PAULA ZAHN TO LOOK AT ANTI-MUSLIM HATE (CNN)
* FL: MUSLIMS SUPPORT COUPLE BATTLING CANCER (Miami Herald)
- TX: Islamic Center Honors Police Officer (KFOX TV)
* OR: DANIEL PIPES DROPS ACCUSATION AGAINST PROF (Register-Guard)
- Professor Settles Libel Suit Against Pipes, Schanzer
* INCITEMENT WATCH: ‘NO MECCA, NO PRAYER’ (WorldNetDaily)
* TN: MUSLIMS DESERVE DIGNITY IN BURIAL (Commercial Appeal)
- Cemetery Plan Deserves Chance (Comm Appeal)
* TULSA POLICE CHIEF BACKS OFF TERROR REMARKS (AP)
- Tulsa Police Chief Irresponsible (Wichita Eagle)
* ID: MUSLIM STUDENTS FACE CHALLENGES POST-9/11 (Arbiter)
- ACLU Says FBI Spied On Muslims (Chicago Trib)
- Bias Suit Against Merrill Lynch is Alive (NY Law Journal)
* TARIQ RAMADAN REJECTS 'CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS'(RFE)
- TX: Islam Post 9/11: The Future of Islam (News 4 Austin)
* U.S. FREE-TRADE DEALS INCLUDE FEW MUSLIM COUNTRIES (Wash Post)
- Evidence Gained By Torture Used By Officials (AP)
- UN Fears for Refugees Who Fled Fallujah (Guardian)
-----
HADITH OF THE DAY: HARBOR GOOD THOUGHTS
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "To harbor good thoughts
is
a part of well-conducted worship."
Sunan of Abu Dawood, Hadith 2352
VERSE OF THE DAY: FORGIVE OTHERS
"The blameworthy are those who oppress their fellow men and conduct
themselves with wickedness and injustice in the land...Those who endure
with fortitude and forgive others surely exhibit courage in conducting
their affairs."
The Holy Quran, 42:42-43
-----
CAIR-MD/VA RESOLVES PRAYER CASE
(BETHESDA, MD, 12/3/04) - The Maryland and Virginia office of the
Council
on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MD/VA) today announced that it has
resolved a Friday prayer accommodation case.
The case involved a Muslim worker who was denied the right to attend
obligatory Friday (Jummah) prayers by his employer. The employee, who
works
as an electronic technician for Bellsouth in North Carolina, said that
he
had previously been allowed to attend the prayers, but had recently be
told
that accommodation would no longer be offered. The worker was thereby
forced to take some Fridays off as vacation days, and faced
disciplinary
action if he took off more time than his usual lunch-hour.
CAIR MD/VA's Civil Rights Department worked with the employee to file
an
internal complaint with Bellsouth and helped negotiate an arrangement
that
would meet Bellsouth's concerns and allow the Muslim employee to attend
the
prayers.
CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil liberties group, is headquartered
in
Washington, D.C., and has 29 offices and chapters nationwide and in
Canada.
Its mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue,
protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions
that promote justice and mutual understanding.
CONTACT: CAIR-MD/VA, Rizwan Mowlana, 301-672-9355; Ibrahim Hooper,
202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail: ihooper@cair-net.org; Rabiah
Ahmed,
202-488-8787 or 202-439-1441, E-Mail: rahmed@cair-net.org
SEE ALSO:
CAIR-SAN ANTONIO OFFERS LIBRARY LECTURES ON ISLAM
(SAN ANTONIO, TX, 12/3/04) - The San Antonio office of The Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-SA) today announced a series of
lectures
at area libraries designed to promote a better understanding of Islam
and
Muslims in America. The lectures are free and open to the public.
As part of the "Islam in America" lecture series, each library will be
presented with a CAIR Library Package, containing books, DVDs and other
educational materials dealing with Islam and Muslims.
SEE: http://cair-net.org/libraryproject/
WHAT: CAIR ISLAM IN AMERICA LECTURE SERIES
WHEN: 6:30 - 9:30 p.m.
WHERE:
December 6 - Brook Hollow
December 7 - Thousand Oaks
December 8 - McCrelles
December 14 - Oakwell
January 6 - Memorial
January 10 - Carver
January 12 - Guerra
January 19 - Wesfall
January 24 - Central's Teen Summit
February 9 - Cody
CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil liberties group, is headquartered
in
Washington, D.C., and has 29 offices and chapters nationwide and in
Canada.
Its mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue,
protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions
that promote justice and mutual understanding
CONTACT: Sarwat Husain 210-378-9528, sanantonio@cair-net.org; Ibrahim
Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail: ihooper@cair-net.org
---
CAIR-LA WINTER INTERNSHIP - DEADLINE DECEMBER 20
WHAT: The Council on American-Islamic Relations-Southern California
(CAIR-LA) is seeking applicants for its winter internship program. The
program is open to Muslim college or university students age 18 and
older
who have legal status in the U.S. to receive a monthly stipend.
CAIR's internship program provides first-hand experience and training
in
Community Outreach, Education, Governmental Relations, Lobbying, Public
and
Media Relations, Legal and Civil Rights, Research, and Leadership
Training.
WHEN: Internship Dates: January 3 - March 18
Application Deadline: December 20, 2004
Interested and qualified applicants should contact Alia Aboul-Nasr at
aliaa@cair.com, to download the application please visit the CAIR
website
at www.cair-california.org.
For more information please call 714.776.1847
-----
PAULA ZAHN TO LOOK AT ANTI-MUSLIM HATE (CNN)
http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/paula.zahn.now/
Broadcasters are being hit with record fines for foul language. But
wait
until you hear what's still getting on air. Tune in at 8 p.m. ET.
(NOTE: CAIR representatives will discuss anti-Muslim rhetoric in the
media.)
-----
MUSLIM COMMUNITY UNITES TO HELP SUNRISE COUPLE BATTLING CANCER
Darran Simon, Miami Herald, 12/3/04
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/states/florida/counties/brow
ard_county/10326822.htm
After 25 years of marriage and three daughters, Taj and Carmen Hosein
are
sharing a battle for their lives.
Carmen was diagnosed with breast cancer in June. In September, Taj was
told
he has lung cancer. Both are undergoing chemotherapy.
They sat together on Thursday in the living room of their Sunrise home,
two
bald people, bringing each other tissues and finishing each other's
sentences.
''This is the first time we had to care for each other from an illness
point of view,'' said Carmen, a nurse. ''It was a double whammy.''
Cancer and chemotherapy have weakened the Trinidadian natives, drained
spirits at times, stolen their hair and kept them out of work. The
treatments, prescriptions and doctors visits are sapping their savings.
On Sunday, fellow Muslims will hold a fundraiser to help with the
medical
costs.
''It's important in this community to reach out to one another, to
assist
each other as members of the Islamic community, as members of a
particular
jamaat [community],'' said Farzan Mohammed, a member of the Caribbean
American Islamic Association, which is organizing the fundraiser.
Mohammed hopes to raise $5,000 from the 50,000 to 75,000 Muslims who
religious leaders estimate live in South Florida.
Carmen, 56, and Taj, 54, who is an imam at several mosques, have
focused
more on paying for their children's college education than on their
savings
account.
Their daughter, Shantel Atisha, 24, graduated from Florida
International
University in Miami. Another daughter, Saauda, 23, attends FIU.
Saaisha,
17, goes to college next year.
Carmen's chemotherapy sessions cost $400 each. Taj hasn't received a
bill
yet for his chemotherapy. Co-payments for medication and visits to
specialists range from $10 to $25…
Doctors discovered a lump in her breast during a routine mammogram in
March. She underwent surgery on June 25 -- the day after the couple's
25th
wedding anniversary -- at Westchester General Hospital in Miami.
The night before, the two stayed home together.
ALSO SEE:
ISLAMIC CENTER HONORS EL PASO POLICE OFFICER
KFOXTV, 12/2/04
http://www.kfoxtv.com/news/3967698/detail.html
An arson in progress... that was the call El Paso Police Officer Moises
Avila responded to in September.
Avila's quick response led to the arrest of a man allegedly attempting
to
burn down the El Paso Islamic Center.
Members of the Islamic Community formally thanked Officer Avila with a
plaque and ceremony this afternoon.
"Detectives that which actually got there very, very, quick managed to
talk
to the subject right there and then and managed to get a statement from
them, all in all the case was very solid and it wasn't only me." says
Officer Avila, El Paso Police Department.
Members of the Islamic Center were also grateful Officer Avila took the
call seriously and apprehended the subject within minutes of the call.
-----
UO PROFESSOR, AUTHORS SETTLE DEFAMATION SUIT
Bill Bishop, The Register-Guard, 12/2/04
http://www.registerguard.com/news/2004/12/02/c1.cr.cardsuit.1202.html
A University of Oregon sociology instructor has settled a defamation
lawsuit against authors of a column that labeled him anti-Semitic and
listed him as one of six examples of "left-wing extremists" who
indoctrinate students.
Douglas Card sued the column's authors: Daniel Pipes, a Middle East
scholar; and Pipes' research assistant, Jonathan Schanzer, a specialist
in
radical Islamist movements.
Card claimed the pair is wrong about how and what he teaches and their
column defamed him.
Terms of the settlement are confidential.
In a joint statement issued by both parties, Pipes and Schanzer said
they
"are now convinced that Card does not condone extremism in the
classroom."
In their 2002 column, published in the New York Post and on several Web
sites, Pipes and Schanzer accused Card of describing Israel as "a
terrorist
state" and Israelis as "baby killers" in his course. They also charged
that
Card forced students to agree in a final exam with Card's view that
Israel
"stole land."
Pipes and Schanzer said they have reviewed Card's exam, which had been
the
basis for their column, and also have considered Card's public
condemnation
of anti-Semitism and of professors who use their classrooms to promote
anti-Semitism.
While Pipes and Schanzer said they still dispute one aspect of Card's
exam,
they nevertheless agreed to drop their accusation that he espouses
extremism in his classroom.
In a news release prepared by Card and his lawyer, David Force of
Eugene,
Card said he was compelled to file the suit to defend his reputation,
the
reputation of the UO and the concept of academic freedom.
The lawsuit seeking $1.1 million, filed in 2003, had been dismissed
from
federal court on what Card described as "procedural grounds." Card was
appealing the dismissal when the case settled out of court.
"If Mr. Pipes and I can reach a compromise, there may really be hope
for
Israel and the Palestinians to reach a just settlement," Card said. He
declined to comment further about the settlement.
ALSO SEE:
PROFESSOR SETTLES LIBEL SUIT AGAINST PIPES, SCHANZER
University of Oregon adjunct sociology professor Dr. Douglas Card has
settled his libel lawsuit against Daniel Pipes and Johathan Schanzer.
The lawsuit, filed in Lane County Circuit Court in 2003, was removed to
the
U.S. District Court in Eugene by the defendants, who then moved to
dismiss
it on procedural grounds. U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan granted the
motion, and Card appealed that decision to the 9th Circuit U.S. Court
of
Appeals. The case was terminated by the recent settlement.
All terms of the settlement are confidential, except for the contents
of a
“joint statement” by the parties.
Professor Card said today that he believes the joint statement makes it
clear that he did not make the anti-Semitic and anti-Israel statements
which were attributed to him by Pipes and Schanzer in their
widely-published article entitled “Extremists on Campus.” Card said
that
some people had discouraged him from commencing the lawsuit, advising
him
that he would never gain any vindication and that he should simply
allow
the matter to be forgotten. However the article by Pipes and Schanzer
remained on internet web sites they control, and therefore Card said he
concluded that he could not ignore it. “I felt very strongly that if I
did
not pursue the case, it would appear that I was acknowledging that I
really
said and did the things they attributed to me. I decided that I could
not
allow that to happen. My reputation, the University’s reputation, and
the
concept of academic freedom, are just too important.”
Before filing the lawsuit, Card had attempted to obtain a retraction of
the
allegations against him by Pipes and Schanzer for more than a year.
Jewish
students in his class and leaders of the campus and Eugene Jewish
community
had written to Pipes, urging an investigation of the facts and
declaring
that they did not believe that Card was anti-Semitic or anti-Israel.
“If
Mr. Pipes and I can reach a compromise, there may really be hope for
Israel
and the Palestinians to reach a just settlement”, Card said.
Links on the web sites maintained by Pipes and Schanzer, including the
sites campus-watch.org, meforum.org, and danielpipes.org, now connect
readers to the joint statement whenever Card’s name appears on those
sites.
“I really want to thanks the leaders of the Interfaith community in
Eugene,
and my attorney David Force, for standing b y me and supporting me
through
this ordeal,”, Card said. “I could not have gone through this alone.”
-----
INCITEMENT WATCH: ‘SEND IN THE PIGS! NO MECCA, NO PRAYER’
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/letters.asp
SEND IN THE PIGS!
Yvonne Knickerbocker, Worldnetdaily.com, 12/2/04
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/letters.asp
It's not enough that they die – we need to inform them that there will
be
tons of pig remains in the bomb or following right behind in another
one to
deny them entry into their fantasy paradise.
When people are stupid enough to believe something like that, then we
need
to be smart enough to use it to our advantage!
---
NO MECCA, NO PRAYER
Malcolm Charles, Worldnetdaily.com, 12/2/04
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/letters.asp
It would be kind of hard for radical Muslims to wake up and face Mecca
to
pray if it were no longer there. I not only support, but encourage our
nation to make it known that if a WMD attack occurs within the United
States, that the "holy" city of Mecca will be no more.
Unfortunately, I'm not holding my breath.
-----
MUSLIMS DESERVE DIGNITY IN BURIAL
Rafique Uddin, Commercial Appeal, 12/1/04
http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/letters_to_editor/article/0,1426,MCA_538
_3364850,00.html
I am shocked at the strong, organized opposition of some residents of
Fayette County to rezoning a tract for a Muslim cemetery (Nov. 24
article,
"Muslims abandon plan for Fayette cemetery"). I am also outraged at the
assent of the county's commissioners to this biased show of force.
A recording of a planning commission meeting on Nov. 1 shows some
residents
made discriminatory and offensive remarks about Muslims and the Islamic
faith.
The tract selected is in an area sufficiently away from the community's
residential centers. It is about 3,000 feet from the closest
residential
dwelling, in a desolate, recently sold sod farm off of Interstate 40.
There is another cemetery directly across Orr Road from the proposed
site
-- one of 17 existing cemeteries in the Hickory Withe community.
The landowners surrounding 90 percent of the cemetery tract's perimeter
have voiced in the affirmative to the rezoning, whereas residents
living 5
to 10 miles away are concerned about their property values.
The Muslim community's proposal should not be denied because of the
bigoted
attitudes of some residents toward the Islamic faith.
There are 10,000 to 15,000 Muslim Americans living in the greater
Memphis
area. Many of them are native Mid-Southerners. Some are residents of
Fayette County whose families have lived there for generations.
Many Muslims in greater Memphis are physicians, professors, teachers,
engineers and other professionals at the core of our community. Like
others, they deserve to be buried in a dignified way after giving
lifelong
service to our community.
Let all free-thinking and conscientious citizens of Memphis stand
together
in defending the rights of every ethnic group in greater Memphis and
establish a tolerant, compassionate and exemplary civil society that
stands
out against past history.
ALSO SEE:
CEMETERY PLAN DESERVES CHANCE
Commercial Appeal, 12/3/04
http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/todays_editorial/article/0,1426,MCA_537_
3370725,00.html
Reports of a meeting at which Fayette County residents discussed a
proposed
Muslim cemetery suggest some speakers denounced Muslims in general and
portrayed the war against terrorism as a war against Islam.
If that's so, it surely represents a minority viewpoint in Fayette
County
and one in conflict with statements by President Bush about the nature
of
the war.
On numerous occasions, the President has urged Americans to put the
question of Islam's role in the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, in
perspective.
Responding to anti-Islamic remarks made by religious leaders in the
United
States, the President said some of the comments "do not reflect the
sentiments of my government or the sentiments of most Americans. Islam,
as
practiced by the vast majority of people, is a peaceful religion, a
religion that respects others."
The President is correct. Muslim fundamentalists are among those on a
deadly campaign against the United States, but to brand every member of
the
Islamic faith for the sins of a minority is an unfair characterization.
It also challenges the right to religious freedom in Tennessee -- a
right
guaranteed by both the U.S. and state constitutions…
-----
MUSLIM STUDENTS FACE CHALLENGES POST-9/11
Mary Grace Lucas, Arbiteronline.com, 12/2/04
http://www.arbiteronline.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/12/02/41af0ed16f190
Boise State’s Muslim Student Association Chapter President Maryam
Mesmarian
is speaking up about Muslim student life and concerns, trying to
counter
what she sees as cultural misconceptions.
During the month-long celebration of Ramadan, the BSU chapter of the
MSA
operated a booth in the Student Union building to increase cultural
awareness and start a dialogue.
"I encourage people to talk to us," says Mesmarian. She says at times
she
can feel different or disconnected from students who aren’t of
Middle-Eastern descent. "When you have a different culture, or a
disability, or you’re just not normal, people can give you a hard
time."
She says the actions of a few extremists out of more than one billion
Muslims worldwide have limited the ability of Muslim-Americans to live
as
they did before the attacks. "[Osama bin Laden] just used Islam to get
what
he wanted. He’s an extremist using religion to acquire political
gains."
Mesmarian says as a student in Boise, post 9/11 changes in attitude are
hard to ignore and the local Muslim community has had to adjust to an
increase in law enforcement inquiries. "We’re all more careful now."
In early October, local community organizations spoke out against the
volunteer interview programs with local law enforcement, reports
idaho.indymedia.org. The American Civil Liberties Union Web site
details
the interviews, noting they involve personal questions as well as more
general questioning about any anti-American sentiment heard by the
interviewee. The ACLU says coercion may not be overt, but could be
implied
and the divisive nature of the program may do more harm than good…
ALSO SEE:
ACLU SAYS FBI SPIED ON ACTIVISTS, MUSLIMS
Tom Rybarczyk, Chicago Tribune, 12/3/04
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/southsouthwest/chi-0412030209dec03,
1,6174203.story
The American Civil Liberties Union on Thursday took legal action to get
documents the group says show the FBI, with the help of local
authorities
that include Chicago police, is spying on faith-based and activist
organizations.
The ACLU's Illinois chapter filed Freedom of Information Act requests
on
behalf of several Muslim and peace-activist organizations to see their
FBI
files.
The ACLU and the groups are also asking for information about the
National
Joint Terrorism Task Force, which has a local branch in each major
American
city. The Chicago task force is made up of law-enforcement agencies,
including the FBI's Chicago office and the Illinois State Police.
"Give up the files. Tell us what you are doing," said Harvey Grossman,
director of ACLU's Illinois chapter. "We don't know how the FBI is
operating."
Nationally on Thursday, the ACLU filed requests for information in nine
other states and Washington, D.C., to find out more on how, Grossman
said,
the FBI is "wasting our tax dollars."
Officials from the FBI and Chicago police said Thursday they follow the
law
when it comes to surveillance.
"The FBI has no interest in investigating individuals who are engaged
in
their exercise of their constitutional rights," FBI spokesman Bill
Carter
said. "It's our job to investigate terrorism."
Carter declined to comment on the information request, saying his
office
had not received it yet.
The FBI posted a description on its Web site Wednesday of what the
joint
terrorism task forces do and how they operate. The task forces exist in
100
cities worldwide and employ 2,196 agents and 838 local law-enforcement
officers, according to the Web site.
But at a news conference Thursday to announce the information request,
several representatives of faith-based groups gave a different account
of
what the FBI and the task forces do. Leaders from Muslim organizations
told
stories of FBI agents showing up at people's homes late at night or at
their jobs to interview and harass them. These individuals did nothing
wrong--they were just Muslim, the leaders said…
---
MUSLIM'S BIAS SUIT AGAINST MERRILL LYNCH IS KEPT ALIVE
Mark Hamblett, New York Law Journal, 12/3/04
http://biz.yahoo.com/law/041203/b4934068e0e10a383146092cb6de8d4f_1.html
A Muslim employee who claims he was fired after the Sept. 11, 2001,
terror
attacks because of his religion has shown enough evidence to keep his
lawsuit alive, a federal judge has ruled.
Judge Harold Baer Jr. of the Southern District of New York found that
Muhamed Pjetrovic's suit can survive a motion for summary judgment
because
he presented evidence that Merrill Lynch and an electrical services
company
fired him on the pretext that he was a security risk and had made
disruptive, upsetting comments about the attacks.
Following the destruction of the World Trade Center, thousands of
Merrill
Lynch employees were moved from the adjacent World Financial Center to
the
company's data processing center on Washington Street in lower
Manhattan.
On Sept. 13, Pjetrovic argued with a co-worker who stated that Muslims
were
certainly involved in the terror attacks.
Pjetrovic denies responding that there were several groups that could
have
been involved, including Chinese, Russians and Jews.
He also denies telling another colleague in a separate argument that
Jews
or the United States government, possibly through the CIA, could have
been
responsible.
These altercations were reported to Pjetrovic's foreman at Knight
Electrical Services, Richard Vigliotti, who later learned that
Pjetrovic
downloaded information about assault rifles and submachine guns at a
Merrill Lynch computer.
After Vigliotti reported this information to his superior, the superior
and
a second official met with Pjetrovic on Sept. 18 and told him he was
fired.
Pjetrovic filed suit claiming he had been terminated because of his
religion…
-----
PROMINENT WESTERN MUSLIM REJECTS 'CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS' IDEA
Don Hill, Radio Free Europe. 12/2/04
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2004/12/DACA603E-9F3C-4CD4-A86C-F1025E9
C4E07.html
Prague -- After U.S. historian Samuel Huntington of Harvard University
published his article "The Clash of Civilizations" in 1993, many people
adopted the idea of an impending confrontation between Islam and the
West.
And after the 2001 terrorist attacks on America and the U.S.-led wars
in
Afghanistan and Iraq, that idea took on an aura of inevitability.
But Tariq Ramadan says the notion of a "clash of civilizations" fails
to
take into account the fact that Muslims already comprise an integral
part
of Western civilization.
"I think we have to go beyond this binary vision of reality, you know,
and
the struggle is not on the borders. The struggle is within our [Muslim]
society, because we are experiencing democracy. We are free. We can
speak.
Even though it is very difficult, even though we have still prejudices,
discrimination. But the Muslims -- the European, the American, the
Canadian
-- should be involved in their society," Ramadan says. "I think we have
to
go beyond this binary vision of reality, you know, and the struggle is
not
on the borders. The struggle is within our [Muslim] society."
Ramadan made his remarks yesterday at an interfaith conference in
Prague
that was sponsored by Vaclav Havel, the former Czech president…
SEE ALSO:
ISLAM POST 9/11: THE FUTURE OF ISLAM
Jim Hingorani, News 4Austin, 12/2/04
http://www.news8austin.com/content/your_news/default.asp?ArID=125989
Every time the federal government raises the terror alert level or
there is
a terrorist attack anywhere in the world, Austin Muslims hold their
breath
hoping it's not one of their own.
"Our initial reaction is usually, not again,” Austin Muslim Zafar Sadiq
said.
"I'm always at the edge. I hope it's not a Muslim because it just gives
a
wrong image and it's the image, the image is getting tarnished,” Austin
Muslim Nahid Khataw said.
Organizations like the Islamic Society of North America are protecting
the
image. They are the first to publically denounce any and every act of
terrorism.
"This has to be done through our sermons, through our writings, through
our
speech, through our conduct. So, it's quite a big job, in that sense,”
Islamic Society of North America Secretary General Sayyid Syeed said.
Austin Muslims have taken it upon themselves to complete the take on an
individual basis as well.
"If any Muslim, in his right mind, knows of an impending attack, we are
the
first to step up to it and the first to condemn it. We try to prevent
it.
We try to alert the authorities so such events do not happen,” Sadiq
said.
But every time it does happen, Muslims say they are back at square one,
spiraling in a tornado of accusations and insults.
"It's a daily issue in that sense because it's a new environment where
we
are transplanting the message of Islam, where we are engaged in passing
on
our legacy, our Islamic legacy, to new generations,” Syeed said.
The new generation is confident their future in this country is secure
because of the hard work of their predecessors…
Local Muslims are confident their religion will soon be integrated
American
society…
-----
TULSA POLICE CHIEF BACKS OFF TERROR REMARKS
Clayton Bellamy, Associated Press, 12/2/04
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/10324509.htm
TULSA, Okla. - The police chief here backed away Thursday from comments
about terrorists living in Tulsa and Wichita, Kan., saying he has no
evidence supporting the existence of al-Qaida "cells" in either city.
Tulsa police chief Dave Been caused a stir Wednesday with comments to
the
local Rotary Club that terrorists with ties to al-Qaida are in Tulsa
and
Wichita. Citing security concerns, he did not elaborate.
Been explained Thursday that he meant that financial and philosophical
supporters of terror are so prevalent nationally that they are probably
in
heartland cities like Tulsa and Wichita, which he said he included as a
"generic example" of another heartland city.
In a phone interview, Been said he was trying to stress that Tulsa and
Wichita must remain vigilant against terror even though the cities are
not
population centers on either coast.
"I mentioned the word "cell" for Godsakes," Been said Thursday. "I
think
that keyed it. I have absolutely not seen any information or seen any
evidence of that in Tulsa, Oklahoma."
"It's something that's been kind of hammered into us at the national
level,
using that terminology for those people who are gathering together to
do
harm," he said. "I think that was at the top of my mind as I spoke."
He called Wichita police chief Norman Williams Thursday to apologize.
"He was very gracious, and said, "I appreciate the call and don't you
worry
about it a bit," Been said of Williams.
Wichita police Lt. Joe Dessenberger, who coordinates emergency planning
and
security for the city, said Been did not need to apologize and said the
city's threat level remained at its routine "yellow."
"We don't have any specific concerns about specific people within the
community," Dessenberger said. "If there was something here to elevate
the
threat level to orange or red, we would be there."
Been's comments Wednesday puzzled other law enforcement officials,
including those with the FBI and the Oklahoma Office of Homeland
Security.
Officials with those agencies said Wednesday they had no indication of
cells linked to Osama bin Laden's organization in the two cities.
Gary Johnson, spokesman for the FBI in Oklahoma City, said Thursday the
bureau's relationship with Been and the Tulsa police department remains
very strong as they cooperate on an anti-terrorism task force…
SEE ALSO:
READER VIEW: TULSA POLICE CHIEF IRRESPONSIBLE
Nabil Seyam, Wichita Eagle, 12/3/04
http://www.kansas.com/mld/eagle/news/editorial/10324287.htm
The Islamic Society of Wichita and more than 5,000 Wichita Muslims
condemn
the allegations and false accusations that were made by Tulsa Police
Chief
Dave Been to the Tulsa Rotary Club that terrorists are living in Tulsa
and
Wichita ("Terror remarks mystify some," Dec. 2 Local & State).
Been's comments are not just humiliating and insulting to the Muslim
Americans of Wichita, but they are an insult to all of our friends
within
the FBI and the Wichita Police Department with whom we are partners.
These
comments should not pass easily. To accuse our community of having
al-Qaida
cells without providing names or any evidence proves that the motive of
the
chief was political. We refuse to be a punching bag that is hanging to
be
pushed sideways for political gain.
Muslim Americans of Wichita have always been productive and
professional in
all aspects of the society. We, members of the Islamic Society of
Wichita,
were the first in the country to condemn the 9/11 attacks on America.
As
one of the members of the community, I am a member of the FBI citizen
academy.
We have contacted officials at our FBI office in Wichita, and they were
as
surprised by the chief's comments as we were. We also contacted Wichita
Police Chief Norman Williams, who spoke to the Tulsa police chief
Thursday
morning. The Tulsa police chief apologized to Williams for his
comments. We
were able to call the office of the Tulsa police chief demanding an
apology. At this writing, we are still waiting on a phone call.
If the Tulsa chief of police does not apologize to the Muslim American
community of Wichita, we will take the issue all the way to the Tulsa
City
Council, demanding the chief's resignation.
Wichita residents must stay united and be aware of those who make
comments
for political gain.
NABIL SEYAM is Spokesman of the Islamic Society of Wichita
-----
U.S. FREE-TRADE DEALS INCLUDE FEW MUSLIM COUNTRIES
Paul Blustein, Washington Post, 12/3/04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30078-2004Dec2.html
The war on terrorism was high on the mind of U.S. Trade Representative
Robert B. Zoellick as he signed a free-trade agreement with the Persian
Gulf kingdom of Bahrain in mid-September. "A contest for the soul of
Islam"
is raging, and "we can help" by striking trade deals that generate jobs
and
reduce poverty, Zoellick said.
But Bahrain, an island nation with a population of 678,000, is an
exception
in securing access to the giant U.S. market. Excluding oil, imports
from
Muslim countries have increased by just 3.2 percent since 2000, their
growth suppressed by tariffs of 20 percent or more on key goods such as
textiles, according to an analysis of U.S. trade statistics.
Meanwhile, countries in the Andean region, sub-Saharan Africa and
elsewhere
-- granted preferential, duty-free access to the U.S. market -- have
enjoyed a comparative boom, with exports to the United States rising
nearly
40 percent in some cases.
The figures reflect a bias in U.S. trade rules that work against
strategic
allies such as Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey. Under current rules, for
example, T-shirts made in Lesotho or Peru or El Salvador come into the
country duty-free, while shirts from Turkey or Pakistan are hit with a
20
percent tariff. Looking at trade statistics in light of the 2001
terrorist
attacks, some analysts question whether U.S. trade policy is adequately
backing the country's national security goals…
SEE ALSO:
EVIDENCE GAINED BY TORTURE USED BY OFFICIALS
Michael J. Sniffen, Associated Press, 12/3/04
http://www.news-leader.com/today/1203-Evidencega-240874.html
Washington — U.S. military panels reviewing the detention of foreigners
as
enemy combatants are allowed to use evidence gained by torture in
deciding
whether to keep them imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the government
conceded in court Thursday.
The acknowledgment by Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Brian
Boyle came during a U.S. District Court hearing on lawsuits brought by
some
of the 550 foreigners imprisoned at the U.S. naval base in Cuba.
U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon asked if a detention would be
illegal
if it were based solely on evidence gathered by torture, because
"torture
is illegal. We all know that."
Boyle replied that if the military's combatant status review tribunals
(or
CSRTs) "determine that evidence of questionable provenance were
reliable,
nothing in the due process clause (of the Constitution) prohibits them
from
relying on it."
The International Committee of the Red Cross said Tuesday it has given
the
Bush administration a confidential report critical of U.S. treatment of
Guantanamo detainees. The New York Times reported the Red Cross
described
the coercion used at Guantanamo as "tantamount to torture…"
---
UN FEARS FOR REFUGEES WHO FLED ATTACK ON FALLUJA
Rory McCarthy, Guardian, 12/3/04
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1365163,00.html
Aid agencies and UN officials are growing increasingly concerned about
the
fate of more than 200,000 Iraqis who fled their homes before the US-led
assault on Falluja.
At least 210,000 Iraqis are now living as refugees in deteriorating
conditions and are unlikely to be able to return to their badly damaged
city for several weeks, according to reports compiled by a UN-led
emergency
working group.
Families fled to at least nine villages in the desert around Falluja in
the
weeks before the assault began last month. Others are staying in
Baghdad,
often with relatives. At least 100 families are camped out at Baghdad
University mosque. Access to the refugees "remains sporadic due to
insecurity and military operations", said the latest report.
"Shortages in fresh food items and cooking fuel have also been
reported.
The temperature has dropped, underscoring an urgent need for
winterisation
items and appropriate shelter," it said.
US troops still maintain a tight cordon around Falluja as they move
from
house to house, searching for insurgents and removing arms stores…
-----
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-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
--------------------------------------------------------------------
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http://mail2web.com/ .
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 12/6/04
* VERSE OF THE DAY: NEIGHBORLY NEEDS
* CAIR-SA: LIBRARIES OFFER SERIES ON ISLAM (Express-News)
* CA: MUSLIMS RECIPROCATE FOR POLICE CHIEF'S FAST (SJMN)
- NY: Star and Crescent Join Christmas Tree (PJ)
- FL: Jewish Supporters Back Muslim (Sun-Sentinel)
* GROUP MIXES HIP-HOP WITH ISLAM (Sun-Sentinel)
- MN: Muslim School Gives Sense of Belonging (AP)
* NJ: RAMADAN EVENT IN SCHOOL DRAWS BIAS (WH Herald)
- Muslim Holidays Earn Growing Recognition (State Dept)
* INCITEMENT WATCH: VAPORIZE 100 MUSLIM CITIES
* MUSLIM CRITIC SETTLES DEFAMATION SUIT (Wash Time)
- NC: 'Say Hello to Osama for Me' (Charlotte Observer)
* PA: MUSLIM STUDENT SAYS POLICE TOO VIOLENT IN ARREST
- DC: Muslim Dies in Police Custody (Wash Post)
* NE: IRAQI STUDENT AT U NEBRASKA WRONGLY DETAINED (AP)
* RETURNING FALLUJANS FACE RETINA SCANS, FORCED LABOR (Globe)
- Displaced Grow Angry In Harsh Conditions (Reuters)
* KLEIN: US ELIMINATES THOSE WHO COUNT THE DEAD (Guardian)
- Navy Probes New Iraq Prisoner Photos (AP)
* CAIR REPS DISCUSS RADIO HATE SPEECH ON CNN (Transcript)
-----
VERSE OF THE DAY: NEIGHBORLY NEEDS
"Have you seen the one who denies the Judgment (to come)? Behold, it is
the
(kind of person) who repulses the orphan (with harshness) and does not
encourage the feeding of the indigent. So woe to worshippers who are
neglectful of their prayers, those who make a show of piety but refuse
(to
supply even) neighborly needs."
The Holy Quran, Chapter 107
-----
CITY LIBRARIES OFFER SERIES ON ISLAM
San Antonio Express-News, 12/04/2004
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA120404.2B.religion_briefs
.bb8a0eb0.html
City libraries will host lectures to promote better understanding of
Islam
and Muslims in America as part of the "Islam in America" lecture
series,
sponsored by the San Antonio office of the Council on American-Islamic
Relations (CAIR).
Each library will be presented with a CAIR Library Package, containing
books, DVDs and other materials.
The presentations will be from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Dates are: Brook
Hollow,
Dec. 6; Thousand Oaks, Dec. 7; McCreless, Dec. 8; Oakwell, Dec. 14;
Memorial, Jan. 6; Carver, Jan. 10; Guerra, Jan. 12; Westfall, Jan. 19;
Central Library, Jan. 24; and Cody on Feb. 9.
SEE: http://www.cair-net.org/libraryproject/
-----
CA: MUSLIMS RECIPROCATE FOR POLICE CHIEF'S FAST
MUSLIMS RECIPROCATE
San Jose Mercury News, 12/5/04
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/10344637.htm?1c
Scroll down.
San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis won widespread kudos when he decided to
fast during the holy month of Ramadan in a gesture of outreach to the
local
Muslim community. Today, some Muslims plan to reciprocate by skipping
two
consecutive meals and donating food or money to the needy. That's a
tradition of Davis' Mormon faith on the first Sunday of each month.
"It's pretty awesome," Davis said of their plans.
SEE ALSO:
STAR AND CRESCENT JOIN CHRISTMAS TREE
NY: CITY LIGHTS UP ITS NIGHT
Kathianne Boniello, Poughkeepsie Journal, 12/4/04
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/saturday/localnews/stories/lo120404s2.sht
ml
A crowd gathers around the tree on Main Street near Market Street
Friday
for the tree lighting in the City of Poughkeepsie's Celebration of
Lights…
This year the event was more inclusive than ever before: a Muslim
symbol of
a star and half moon was placed next to the Christmas tree.
The symbol has been incorporated in celebrations in Wappingers Falls
and
East Fishkill, said Aziz Ahsan, a spokesman for the Mid-Hudson Islamic
Association.
''It's the Judeo-Christian community reaching out to the Muslim
community,
and the Muslim community reaching back,'' said Ahsan, who said he
enjoyed
hearing the crowd voice their curiosity about the symbol.
---
JEWISH SUPPORTERS BACK MUSLIM TO UNITE DEMOCRATS
Anthony Mann, Sun Sentinel, 12/4/04
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/columnists/sfl-panthony04dec04,0,1795099.co
lumn
In an impressive display of the South Florida melting pot, Palm Beach
County Democrats elected a Muslim as their party chairman for the next
two
years. His strongest supporters were Jewish politicians, activists and
club
presidents from south county.
He narrowly was elected by leaders of a deeply divided party. But the
division shown by his 109-103 victory over incumbent Carol Ann
Loehndorf
had nothing to do with Wahid Mahmood's religion.
It didn't happen overnight.
One of his earliest champions, Sylvia Wolfe-Herman, is a vice president
of
the United South County Democratic Club. One of her missions in the
past
year was getting Mahmood acquainted with the largely Jewish Democratic
leadership in south county.
Wolfe-Herman, who is Jewish, said there was initially some unease.
"Until
they got to know who he was and what he was all about ... there was a
mistrust," she said.
Eventually his personality, enthusiasm for politics and affection for
the
Democratic Party won many converts.
Andre Fladell, a prominent south county activist, helped Mahmood's
effort
to become chairman, and considers Jewish support for the Muslim leader
significant. He said Jewish party activists understand that Mahmood,
who is
originally from Bangladesh, doesn't share attitudes held by people
Fladell
characterized as extremists.
"The public will learn," Fladell said. "He's just an extraordinary
character."
Mahmood, 42, said his winning with a Jewish base of supporters shows
followers of different faiths don't have to be divided.
He said he wants to bring all kinds of people together, at least if
they're
Democrats…
-----
GROUP MIXES HIP-HOP WITH ISLAM
Rafael A. Olmeda, Sun-Sentinel, 12/4/04
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-cmuslim04dec04,0,21012.st
ory
It's not difficult to imagine the sounds of hip-hop merging with the
message of Islam -- not if you're Naeem Muhammad and his partners in
Native
Deen.
The Washington D.C.-based trio is headed to Davie tonight to
participate in
a concert to raise money for a Muslim charity, and Muhammad is hoping
American-raised Muslims will find pleasure when the sounds of sons
meets
the faith of fathers.
"It's kind of wild," said Muhammad, 29, an African-American who grew up
in
Baltimore and was raised Muslim. "A lot of the kids that grow up here,
they
have the culture of their family back home, but they're also very much
American."
Muhammad said he grew up listening to hip-hop, drawn to its energy but
put
off by lyrics that put too much emphasis on sexuality and materialism.
When
he and friends Joshua Salaam, 31, and Abdul Malik Ahmad, 29, formed
Native
Deen in 2000, they decided to blend the music with lyrics that
glorified
prayer, humility and commitment to their faith.
Muhammad translated Native Deen as native "way of life."
"Grew up Muslim in public school," read the lyrics to one song. "As far
as
Islam is concerned it really wasn't where my head was at ... maybe when
I
am 30 I'll become religious. But later came, my disposition stayed the
same. Live your life one way too long it's not so easy to change."
Another song, aimed at young Muslim women, encourages them to dress
modestly, and not to worry about what others might think of them.
"When we address these issues, that's when the poet has to come out,"
said
Muhammad, before reciting more lyrics: "It's such a shock to their
system
to see such purity."
Native Deen has produced an album every year since it formed, and taken
its
act to Europe and Africa on various tours. The group is signed with
Mountain of Light Productions, the label owned by Yusuf Islam (better
known
to Americans as folk singer Cat Stevens)…
SEE: http://www.nativedeen.com/
ALSO SEE:
ISLAMIC CHARTER SCHOOL GIVES STUDENTS A SENSE OF BELONGING
Tammy J. Oseid, Associated Press, 12/5/04
http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/news/state/10346467.htm
INVER GROVE HEIGHTS, Minn. - In the middle of a Twin Cities suburb,
more
than 200 Muslim students study their own heritage and culture, and most
importantly, they feel they belong.
When Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy opened its doors for the second year this
fall
in the former Inver Grove Heights Elementary School, the Islamic
charter
school had 765 applicants for about 215 seats in kindergarten through
fifth
grade. Forty of 50 spots for next year's kindergarten class are already
reserved. Eight 2-year-olds already have been signed up for the 2007
kindergarten class.
"We were quite shocked when we opened our doors, the demand we tapped
into," said executive director Asad Zaman, also the school's principal.
"It
was clear to us that there was a need. Our kids were not being served
at
other schools."
Islamic private and charter schools are springing up around the nation
as
the American Muslim community grows. More than 80 such schools now
operate
in the United States, according to the Islamic Schools' League of
America.
As numbers grow - as many as 7 million Muslims now live in the United
States - American Muslim families are increasingly looking for
schooling
options. About 21,000 people in the Twin Cities metro area are from
predominantly Muslim countries, almost double the population in 1990,
according to an analysis of the 2000 U.S. Census.
At some mainstream public schools, Muslim children - especially girls
who
wear headscarves - are teased. Getting permission for daily prayers or
ensuring that cafeteria meals follow Muslim law can be a hassle.
But like parents who choose Christian private or charter schools, some
Muslim families simply want to ensure their children learn their
culture's
values and history…
-----
RAMADAN EVENT AT HHS DRAWS CRITICS
Michael Ross, Windsor-Hights Herald, 12/3/04
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=13485630&BRD=1091&PAG=461&
amp;dept_id=425728&rfi=6
HIGHTSTOWN - A Muslim congregation that recently convened at Hightstown
High School triggered an outburst of criticism and prompted the school
board last week to vigorously defend its policies.
An assembly of 500 gathered on Sunday, Nov. 14, at HHS for
congregational
prayers and a traditional feast to mark the end of Ramadan. The
gathering
was sponsored by the Institute of Islamic Studies of East Windsor - one
of
dozens of groups that rent East Windsor Regional School District
facilities
every year.
Talk radio hosts Craig Carton and Ray Rossi of New Jersey 101.5
(WKXW-FM)
induced public reaction to the assembly during an afternoon show the
week
of Nov. 15. The pair host "The Jersey Guys" program airing weekdays
between
2 p.m. and 7 p.m.
"I heard enough after 10 minutes that I didn't want to hear any more,"
Superintendent Ronald Bolandi said last week.
Mr. Bolandi said he received a telephone call alerting him that the
Muslim
assembly was being discussed on-air. He said he tuned in to the program
and
heard one of the hosts recommending the high school be swept for bombs.
"That's kind of going a little hysterical," Mr. Bolandi said.
Mr. Carton said he made the bomb comment because it "might make the
community feel better." In an interview Wednesday, he suggested a bomb
sweep would have guaranteed public safety following the assembly. Mr.
Carton said he was uncertain as to exactly when he made the comment but
believes the assembly was discussed on his show shortly after the
gathering
took place. A station receptionist said neither a taped recording of
the
program nor a transcript is available.
Mr. Carton said the on-air discussion was warranted because he received
half-a-dozen e-mails from area residents who had expressed concern over
the
assembly. When citizens of the community are upset about an issue, Mr.
Carton said, he investigates their concern…
SEE ALSO:
MUSLIM HOLIDAYS EARN GROWING RECOGNITION IN U.S.
State Department, 12/3/04
http://news.findlaw.com/wash/s/20041203/20041203104427.html
Washington -- The county council of Howard County, Maryland -- a suburb
of
Washington and Baltimore -- made headlines recently when it passed
legislation prohibiting the scheduling of public hearings on the two
Eid
holidays, the most holy days in Islam.
Although Howard County's action is unusual, it does reflect a growing
trend
toward official recognition of Muslim holidays in the United States,
according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which
informally tracks such developments.
Especially since the attacks of September 11, 2001, "more and more
Muslims
are working to get their communities integrated into U.S. society and
have
made efforts to get their religious holidays recognized and
accommodated at
school and in the workplace," says Rabiah Ahmed, communications
coordinator
in CAIR's national office in Washington.
Even before 9/11, public school systems in the states of Michigan and
New
Jersey with large Muslim populations declared school holidays on Eid
ul-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan; and Eid ul-Adha, which
celebrates
Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmael.
The Dearborn, Michigan, public school system and colleges such as
Syracuse
University in New York, offer Halal meals prepared according to Islamic
standards in their cafeterias. At Syracuse, Eid ul-Fitr is also an
official
holiday for students and faculty…
Celena Khatib, director of the Michigan office of CAIR, says she has
seen
an increased effort by both Muslims and non-Muslims to achieve a better
mutual understanding in recent years.
"I have seen an increase in people requesting diversity training,
people
requesting speakers on Islam, and I get calls all the time from human
resources officials who want information so they accommodate their
employees' needs," she says. "I think the Muslim community realized
after
9/11 that we need to be more open for people to get to know us, so
we've
also become more proactive…"
-----
INCITEMENT WATCH: VAPORIZE 100 MUSLIM CITIES
A threat to vaporize 100 Muslim cities
David C. Atkins, Worldnetdaily.com, 12/4/04
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=41771
I propose that the U.S. immediately adopt and publish the following
nuclear
doctrine:
In the event of a WMD attack by terrorists on the U.S. homeland or U.S.
military facilities overseas, the U.S will immediately and without
discussion use its immense nuclear weapons capabilities to destroy the
100
largest Islamic cities on earth, regardless of state, and destroy all
of
the military facilities of Islamic-dominated states. This will include
all
of the capitals and at least the 10 largest cities of all
Islamic-dominated
states and the "holy" cities of Mecca and Medina. In addition, North
Korean
cities and military installations will be destroyed…
-----
MUSLIM CRITIC SETTLES DEFAMATION SUIT
Washington Times, 12/23/04
http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20041203-030734-5478r.htm
Eugene, OR-- An Oregon educator has settled a lawsuit against a
prominent
U.S. critic of Islam who labeled him an anti-Semite and an extremist in
a
newspaper column.
University of Oregon sociology instructor Douglas Card said he was
defamed
by the column's authors, Middle East scholar and U.S. Institute of
Peace
board member Daniel Pipes and his research assistant Jonathan Schanzer
when
they identified Card as an example of "left-wing extremists" who use
their
classrooms to indoctrinate students.
The terms of the settlement are confidential, the Eugene (Ore.)
Register-Guard reported Friday, but the parties issued a joint
statement in
which Pipes and Schanzer said they "are now convinced that Card does
not
condone extremism in the classroom."
In their 2002 column, published in the New York Post and on several Web
sites, Pipes and Schanzer accused Card of describing Israel as "a
terrorist
state" and Israelis as "baby killers" in his course. They also charged
Card
forced students to agree in a final exam with Card's view that Israel
"stole land."
Card sued in federal court in 2003, seeking $1.1 million in damages.
The
suit was dismissed on what Card described as "procedural grounds." The
dismissal was being appealed when the case settled out of court…
ALSO SEE:
NC: 'SAY HELLO TO OSAMA FOR ME'
POLICE INVESTIGATE PHONE CALLS TO JAMES
Carrie Levine, Charlotte Observer, 12/5/04
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/10348888.htm
Also, on Sunday, the head of a local group of Muslim professionals said
he
received an e-mail from James on Sunday telling him to "say hello to
Osama
for me."
The man, Shaun Ahmad, said it came as a response to a critical e-mail
he
had sent to the head of the county Republican party and copied to
James.
When asked about the "Osama" e-mail Ahmad received, James said Sunday
he
was sure he had not sent the e-mail. He emphasized that he was not
accusing
Ahmad of lying when Ahmad said he received an e-mail that looked as if
it
had been sent by James.
Ahmad, a Bank of America employee who is president of the
Charlotte-based
chapter of the Council of American Muslim Professionals, a networking
group, forwarded the e-mail to the Observer.
"If he's saying he didn't send it, then I don't know," Ahmad said. "I
woke
up and saw that."
Ahmad's original e-mail, sent shortly before 2 a.m. Sunday, called upon
county GOP Chairman John Aneralla to "take action" on James' original
comments, and commended 20 Republicans who had signed a statement
denouncing them.
James, a prolific e-mailer who regularly sends messages to a list of
nearly
1,300 people, said he has an electronic copy of his sent e-mail
messages
dating back to June, and cannot find a message to Ahmad...
-----
STUDENT: POLICE TOO VIOLENT IN ARREST
Jason Schwartz, Daily Pennsylvanian, 12/6/04
http://www.dailypennsylvanian.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/12/06/41b4121adb6
65
A Penn student is claiming that University police officers exercised
unnecessary violence because of his race while mistakenly arresting him
for
theft in late November.
Warith Deen Madyun, a black sophomore in the College, was apprehended
and
handcuffed by Penn Police on the evening of Nov. 21. He and three
companions, all males unaffiliated with the University aged between 12-
and
15-years-old, fit the description of a group of juveniles wanted for
stealing Penn President Amy Gutmann's limousine driver's cell phone --
which police said had been stolen earlier that evening.
Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush declined to comment on
the
particulars of the incident other than to say that it was under
investigation and "being treated as a high priority assignment."
Madyun said that he and his companions were walking from an area mosque
to
an on-campus Muslim function when they were approached by a police
officer
on Locust Walk in front of Steinberg-Dietrich Hall.
"I'm thinking to myself maybe [the police officer] figures we're ...
just
some kids in Philadelphia trespassing," Madyun said, adding that he
showed
his PennCard to the officer in an attempt to identify himself as a
student
and not a trespasser.
Madyun alleges that the officer then grabbed him, slammed him to the
ground, bent his arm back and proceeded to handcuff him without
informing
him why he had been apprehended.
But Rush said that Penn Police officers are trained in something called
"verbal judo," in which they are taught to be up-front in identifying
themselves and identifying why they are approaching a given person.
Madyun reported that shortly after he was handcuffed about eight
additional
police officers arrived on the scene. He stated that he was walked over
in
the direction of the Annenberg Center on Walnut St. All the while
Madyun
was shouting at police officers that they were going to lose their jobs
over the incident.
College junior Nazia Siddiqi said she arrived on the scene as police
were
handcuffing Madyun, with whom she sits on the Muslim Students
Association
board.
"They were yelling 'shut up' in his ear," Siddiqi said…
ALSO SEE:
DC: MUSLIM DIES IN POLICE CUSTODY
PRAY FOR JONATHAN MAGBIE
Shuaib B. Neel, Washington Post, 12/6/04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38322-2004Dec5.html
The Concerned Muslims of Annapolis (CMA) knew Jonathan Magbie as a
young
African American who had been a practicing Muslim for 18 months before
his
death in September while in the custody of the D.C. Department of
Corrections [Metro, Oct. 1]. Mr. Magbie, a quadriplegic who depended on
a
ventilator to breathe, was sentenced to 10 days in jail for a crime he
committed before his conversion to Islam.
Mr. Magbie told us that he became a Muslim to escape the criminal
elements
of his prior lifestyle. He anticipated punishment for his first-time
offense, but should the sentence have cost him his life?
This question prompted the CMA to write to Chief Judge Rufus King of
the
D.C. Superior Court, to Odie Washington, director of the Corrections
Department, and to Greater Southeast Community Hospital. The CMA has
requested that all three entities thoroughly investigate the
circumstances
of Mr. Magbie's death.
We remember him as a delightful young believer who reminded us that
faith
exceeds any physical limitation. We pray that the agencies involved in
his
death will report their findings publicly as well as keeping his family
informed. More important, we pray that provisions will be enacted to
prevent more deaths from what appears to have been medical negligence.
SHUAIB B. NEEL is the Concerned Muslims of Annapolis
-----
IRAQI STUDENT AT UNO WRONGLY DETAINED
Associated Press, 12/6/04
OMAHA, Neb. - A Kurdish woman from Iraq studying at the University of
Nebraska at Omaha was handcuffed, interrogated, searched and detained
in an
immigration cell because of a federal mix-up, the Omaha World-Herald
reported Monday.
Banaz Ali, 25, came to the United States legally in April in an
exchange
program funded by the U.S. State Department to generate good will in
Muslim
countries.
At 7 a.m. on Oct. 29, two FBI agents and two agents of U.S. Immigration
and
Customs Enforcement knocked on the door of the dormitory apartment Ali
shared with three other students.
After questioning Ali, they led her away in handcuffs. She was searched
and
placed in a cell for a time, but released from immigration offices the
same
day when authorities realized their mistake.
Ali is among international students tracked by the Student and Exchange
Visitor Information System, which was developed by the U.S. government
to
help prevent terrorists from sneaking into the country as students.
The system had no data showing that Ali was supposed to attend UNO,
said
Tim Counts, regional spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
"Everything that our agents had indicated that there was a violation of
her
visa status," Counts said.
Thomas Gouttierre, dean of international studies at UNO, said he took
Ali
back to campus after officials in Washington reassured the federal
agents
that she was attending UNO legally.
"The wrinkles didn't get ironed out effectively," Gouttierre said…
-----
RETURNING FALLUJANS FACE RETINA SCANS, FORCED LABOR
RETURNING FALLUJANS WILL FACE CLAMPDOWN
Anne Barnard, Globe, 12/5/04
http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2004/12/05/returning_fallujans_wil
l_face_clampdown/
FALLUJAH, Iraq -- The US military is drawing up plans to keep
insurgents
from regaining control of this battle-scarred city, but returning
residents
may find that the measures make Fallujah look more like a police state
than
the democracy they have been promised.
Under the plans, troops would funnel Fallujans to so-called citizen
processing centers on the outskirts of the city to compile a database
of
their identities through DNA testing and retina scans. Residents would
receive badges displaying their home addresses that they must wear at
all
times…
One idea that has stirred debate among Marine officers would require
all
men to work, for pay, in military-style battalions. Depending on their
skills, they would be assigned jobs in construction, waterworks, or
rubble-clearing platoons.
"You have to say, 'Here are the rules,' and you are firm and fair. That
radiates stability," said Lieutenant Colonel Dave Bellon, intelligence
officer for the First Regimental Combat Team, the Marine regiment that
took
the western half of Fallujah during the US assault and expects to be
based
downtown for some time.
Bellon asserted that previous attempts to win trust from Iraqis
suspicious
of US intentions had telegraphed weakness by asking, " 'What are your
needs? What are your emotional needs?' All this Oprah [stuff]," he
said.
"They want to figure out who the dominant tribe is and say, 'I'm with
you.'
We need to be the benevolent, dominant tribe…"
ALSO SEE:
FALLUJA'S DISPLACED GROW ANGRY IN HARSH CONDITIONS
Fadel al-Badrani, Reuters, 12/6/04
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/iraq/20041206-0257-iraq-falluja-dis
placed.html
NEAR FALLUJA, Iraq - Forced out of their homes by a U.S.-led offensive
in
Falluja in November, thousands of Iraqis facing winter cold, medicine
shortages and contaminated water are eager to return home.
But there are no signs they will be able to leave tent camps outside
Falluja and head back to the western city any time soon.
"We are asking the occupation forces and the interim government to
allow
the return of the people of Falluja to their homes and to rebuild the
destroyed homes and infrastructure, water, electricity and schools,"
said
Abdul Kadir Muhammed.
"More importantly we want school doors to open. They are depriving us
from
education," added the 17-year-student.
The U.S.-Iraqi assault crushed Iraqi insurgents and foreign Muslim
militants but Marines are still clearing Falluja of huge weapons caches
in
houses across the city.
They still face sporadic resistance that is slowing down weapons
searches
vital for security. Clashes, including U.S. tank and machinegun fire,
erupted in several parts of Falluja on Monday, witnesses said.
The U.S. military has said Falluja's residents can only return when the
city is secured…
---
IN IRAQ, THE US DOES ELIMINATE THOSE WHO DARE TO COUNT THE DEAD
Naomi Klein, Guardian, 12/4/04
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1366278,00.html
David T Johnson,
Acting ambassador,
US Embassy, London
Dear Mr Johnson, On November 26, your press counsellor sent a letter to
the
Guardian taking strong exception to a sentence in my column of the same
day. The sentence read: "In Iraq, US forces and their Iraqi surrogates
are
no longer bothering to conceal attacks on civilian targets and are
openly
eliminating anyone - doctors, clerics, journalists - who dares to count
the
bodies." Of particular concern was the word "eliminating".
The letter suggested that my charge was "baseless" and asked the
Guardian
either to withdraw it, or provide "evidence of this extremely grave
accusation". It is quite rare for US embassy officials to openly
involve
themselves in the free press of a foreign country, so I took the letter
extremely seriously. But while I agree that the accusation is grave, I
have
no intention of withdrawing it. Here, instead, is the evidence you
requested.
In April, US forces laid siege to Falluja in retaliation for the
gruesome
killings of four Blackwater employees. The operation was a failure,
with US
troops eventually handing the city back to resistance forces. The
reason
for the withdrawal was that the siege had sparked uprisings across the
country, triggered by reports that hundreds of civilians had been
killed.
This information came from three main sources: 1) Doctors. USA Today
reported on April 11 that "Statistics and names of the dead were
gathered
from four main clinics around the city and from Falluja general
hospital".
2) Arab TV journalists. While doctors reported the numbers of dead, it
was
al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya that put a human face on those statistics.
With
unembedded camera crews in Falluja, both networks beamed footage of
mutilated women and children throughout Iraq and the Arab-speaking
world.
3) Clerics. The reports of high civilian casualties coming from
journalists
and doctors were seized upon by prominent clerics in Iraq. Many
delivered
fiery sermons condemning the attack, turning their congregants against
US
forces and igniting the uprising that forced US troops to withdraw.
US authorities have denied that hundreds of civilians were killed
during
last April's siege, and have lashed out at the sources of these
reports.
For instance, an unnamed "senior American officer", speaking to the New
York Times last month, labelled Falluja general hospital "a centre of
propaganda". But the strongest words were reserved for Arab TV
networks.
When asked about al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya's reports that hundreds of
civilians had been killed in Falluja, Donald Rumsfeld, the US secretary
of
defence, replied that "what al-Jazeera is doing is vicious, inaccurate
and
inexcusable ... " Last month, US troops once again laid siege to
Falluja -
but this time the attack included a new tactic: eliminating the
doctors,
journalists and clerics who focused public attention on civilian
casualties
last time around…
SEE ALSO:
NAVY PROBES NEW IRAQ PRISONER PHOTOS
Seth Hettena, Associated Press, 12/3/04
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20041203/D86OEJ7G0.html
CORONADO, Calif. (AP) - The U.S. military has launched a criminal
investigation into photographs that appear to show Navy SEALs in Iraq
sitting on hooded and handcuffed detainees, and photos of what appear
to be
bloodied prisoners, one with a gun to his head.
Some of the photos have date stamps suggesting they were taken in May
2003,
which could make them the earliest evidence of possible abuse of
prisoners
in Iraq. The far more brutal practices photographed in Abu Ghraib
prison
occurred months later.
An Associated Press reporter found more than 40 of the pictures among
hundreds in an album posted on a commercial photo-sharing Web site by a
woman who said her husband brought them from Iraq after his tour of
duty.
It is unclear who took the pictures, which the Navy said it was
investigating after the AP furnished copies to get comment for this
story.
These and other photos found by the AP appear to show the immediate
aftermath of raids on civilian homes. One man is lying on his back with
a
boot on his chest. A mug shot shows a man with an automatic weapon
pointed
at his head and a gloved thumb jabbed into his throat. In many photos,
faces have been blacked out. What appears to be blood drips from the
heads
of some. A family huddles in a room in one photo and others show debris
and
upturned furniture.
"These photographs raise a number of important questions regarding the
treatment of prisoners of war (POWs) and detainees," Navy Cmdr. Jeff
Bender, a spokesman for the Naval Special Warfare Command in Coronado,
said
in a written response to questions. "I can assure you that the matter
will
be thoroughly investigated."
The photos were turned over to the Naval Criminal Investigative
Service,
which instructed the SEAL command to determine whether they show any
serious crimes, Bender said Friday. That investigation will determine
the
identities of the troops and what they were doing in the photos…
-----
CAIR REPS DISCUSS RADIO HATE SPEECH ON CNN
FCC CRACKS DOWN ON RADIO
Andrea Koppel, Drew Griffin, Paula Zahn, Thelma Gutierrez, Tom Foreman,
CNN, 12/3/04
GUESTS: Tom Doyle, Thomas Reese, Edward Landry, Joelle Casteix, Jeff
Brantley, Ibrahim Hooper, Armstrong Williams
ZAHN: The battle over the public airwaves is heating up again. Recently
during a radio call-in show, radio shock jock Howard Stern confronted
FCC
chairman Michael Powell, accusing him of being a danger to free speech.
Stern has been cited by the FCC for making indecent comments on his
show.
And in an op-ed piece in today's "New York Times," Powell said the law
requires the FCC to regulate indecent content on public airwaves. He
writes, "We do not watch or listen to programs hoping to catch
purveyors of
dirty broadcasts. Instead, we rely on public complaints."
Well, the FCC's indecency rules apply to broadcast TV and radio,
because
they use public airwaves. That doesn't apply to cable. But while
explicit
content may be out, there is some very offensive programming the FCC
can't
touch.
Here's Thelma Gutierrez.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From Los Angeles to
Chicago to Seattle, something in the air is making some people squirm.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get 'em all right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go on back to Israel.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you refer to Condoleezza Rice as Aunt Jemima?
GUTIERREZ: It is shock radio, where these derogatory and racial slurs
go
beyond the usual controversial talk to build ratings.
REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D), CALIFORNIA: In my view, there shouldn't be any
room
for those kind of remarks on the radio.
GUTIERREZ: California Congressman Adam Schiff is not alone. Last
month's
presidential election showed some of the country is very concerned
about
values and morality, especially over the airwaves.
Who can forget the outrage over Janet Jackson's exposed breasts seen
during
the Super Bowl halftime show on CBS? It's clear, sexually explicit
material
on air is not tolerated, but most everything else is fair game on the
public airwaves.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Drop the bomb. Kill everybody.
GUTIERREZ: But what about derogatory racist comments? On November 12,
during Yasser Arafat's funeral, this was said against Palestinians on
Don
Imus' national radio show.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're all brainwashed, though. That's what it is.
And
they're stupid to begin with, but they're brainwashed. Stinking
animals.
They ought to drop the bomb right there, kill them all right now.
GUTIERREZ: Los Angeles rabbi Steven Jacobs says he's deeply bothered by
this kind of talk.
RABBI STEVE JACOBS, TEMPLE KOL TIKVAH: If the same attack were to throw
a
bomb on blacks or Jews, there would be an outrage in the organized
community.
GUTIERREZ: Johnny Angel has his own radio show in Los Angeles. He says
he's
trying to do something about what he refers to as hate on radio.
JOHNNY ANGEL, LOS ANGELES RADIO HOST: I'm not saying I'm the greatest
talk
radio host that ever lived, I don't have a bad bone in my body, but I
would
never resort to this kind of crap, never.
REV. LEONARD JACKSON, FIRST AME CHURCH: People of like minds must come
together on these issues.
GUTIERREZ: The Reverend Leonard Jackson of the First AME Church in Los
Angeles, Rabbi Jacobs and Hussam Ayoush of CAIR, the Council of
Islamic-American Relations, launched a joint effort to put a stop to
hate
talk.
JACKSON: We must be concerned when one minority is depicted as the
so-called enemy. OK? We must stand up for the right of all minorities.
HUSSAM AYOUSH, CAIR: Whether it's the Latinos, the African- Americans,
the
Jews, the Polish. Today it happens to be the Arabs.
GUTIERREZ: In March, a skit about the Iraqi constitution aired on a Los
Angeles radio station, which later issued an apology.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Section 5: Everybody in the name of Allah should be
given 72 virgins upon entering heaven. The virgins, however, will not
be
hairy Iraqi women but lovely Japanese schoolgirls.
AYOUSH: It's extremely hurtful. One has to wonder, isn't there a way to
poke fun at politics and political affairs and current affairs without
having to resort to dehumanizing and ridiculing?
JACOBS: How do we profess values of how we treat one another? Thou
shall
not hate another in thy heart.
GUTIERREZ: After complaints were filed, an FCC spokesman told us they
have
no jurisdiction over racism on airwaves. Offensive as the slurs may be,
they are protected by the First Amendment, and so those complaints go
nowhere.
SCHIFF: It really is kind of a terrible irony of the current situation,
that you can prohibit the showing of Janet Jackson's breasts on a
halftime
demonstration, but you can't prohibit hate filled, racist speech that
many
people would find far more destructive.
GUTIERREZ: But the congressman says there is plenty the public can do,
like
writing letters to stations and boycotting products. SCHIFF: The only
really effective way of dealing with this problem is organizing the
power
of the dollar to force this content off the radio and off television.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: That was Thelma Gutierrez reporting for us.
Joining me from Washington, Ibrahim Hooper, the communications director
for
the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Mr. Hooper's organization
complained to the FCC about Don Imus' November 12 show.
Also joining us from Washington tonight, conservative radio talk show
host,
Armstrong Williams.
Great to have both of you with us.
ARMSTRONG WILLIAMS, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: That's right.
ZAHN: Armstrong, I'm going to start with you this evening and quickly
review what Don Imus said on his show about Palestinians, calling them
brainwashed, stinking animals: "They ought to drop the bomb, kill them
all
right now."
Does it make sense to you that nudity or partial nudity is off limits,
but
this kind of language can go unchallenged?
WILLIAMS: Yes, it does.
ZAHN: Why?
WILLIAMS: The highest form of protected speech in this country is
political
speech. It should never be curtailed. I would never use it. You would
not.
I find it to be offensive.
But that's the beauty of the freedom of speech. It's what separates us
from
any other country in the world is the beauty that we have the freedom
to
express whatever we believe, whether it's offensive, whether it's
derogatory.
And...
ZAHN: But Armstrong...
WILLIAMS: ... as the Congressman said, if we don't like it, let the
marketplace decide.
But when it comes to nudity and indecency, the bar is much lower for
that
kind of behavior and activity than it is for political speech.
ZAHN: Would you let that kind of language used -- be used on your show,
Armstrong?
WILLIAMS: No, absolutely not. I wouldn't use it. But I would defend
someone
else's right to use it, even though I hate it and despise it. That's
the
meaning of freedom.
ZAHN: OK. But what if that same guest used slurs against blacks and
used
the "N" word?
WILLIAMS: They do it to themselves. Everyone does it. That is nothing
new.
We've had these debates where blacks use it against each other. Whites
have
used it. Everybody uses it.
But I would fight for their rights just as much as I would for anybody
else. You cannot have where you curtail some freedoms and then allow
others
to express theirs. You've got to have a consistent policy on this.
And I think the FCC is right. They should stay out of it. It's no place
for
them. They should regulate issues of indecency like Janet Jackson and
ESPN
and Nicolette Sheridan.
But when it comes to political speech, we should always fight to
protect
that, because that's what gives us the kind of freedom and the kind of
power we have as Americans, free citizens, that separates us from the
rest
of the world.
ZAHN: Ibrahim, you just heard what Armstrong had to say. How would you
police this?
IBRAHIM HOOPER, COUNCIL ON AMERICAN-ISLAMIC RELATIONS: Well, it's not
so
much a matter of policing. We're firm believers in the First Amendment.
But the First Amendment is a two-way street. Somebody is free to be a
bigot
or a racist, as we see everyday, but we're also free to protest. We're
free
to go to the advertisers. We're free to go to the companies that own
these
programs and distribute these programs, as hundreds and hundreds and
hundreds of people contacted the Imus program and MSNBC and NBC to
express
their concerns.
ZAHN: Do you think it will make any difference in the debate at all?
HOOPER: It makes a difference. I think when people don't challenge hate
speech, it's perceived as normal. It's legitimized. And unfortunately,
in
the post-9/11 era, we've seen the legitimatization of anti-Muslim hate
speech. And that's something we need to speak out about, because
silence
means consent.
ZAHN: All right. But, Armstrong, we also need to make the distinction
here
that we're really talking about radio and public airwaves. Cable
television
is a different thing altogether.
The bottom line here tonight, Armstrong Williams, is it really a
two-way
street?
WILLIAMS: Listen. There are contradictions. There -- there's
inconsistency.
Obviously, I would like to see them have the same policy for cable. But
it's different, because they feel that is something you decide to buy
and
purchase. It's not open airwaves where just anybody can access it.
I think -- you know, I find it offensive. It upsets me. I get really
disturbed. I hear it. But I would defend their right to say it.
But most Americans are decent. Ninety percent of us would never say
those
things because we don't feel that way. But we should defend the right
of
the 10 percent that want to say it. It creates a debate.
And like the rabbi -- like the imam said, we should protest. We should
go
to advertisers, but I would never, ever not defend their right to say
those
bigoted, ugly things that they say. That is a part of being America --
Americans in this country.
ZAHN: In closing tonight, you agree this, obviously, it stokes the
debate,
but you also think this could lead to unintended consequences, you
think,
like violence? A brief answer on that, sir.
HOOPER: Well, we see it every day. We just saw it near Richmond,
Virginia,
a gas station burned down, anti-Muslim, anti-Arab graffiti left at the
scene. And we think they were attacked because they were Sikhs. They
weren't even Muslim, but they wear a turban, so bigots, not being brain
surgeons, think anybody who wears a turban is an Arab or a Muslim.
So we see the results of this kind of rhetoric.
ZAHN: And you see those slurs, you think, being repeated on radio, and
maybe leading people to some of those actions.
Ibrahim Hooper, Armstrong Williams, thank you both for joining us
tonight.
-----
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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
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In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 12/7/04
* VERSE OF THE DAY: DEEDS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
* CAIR-FL: MUSLIMS HELP FIGHT TERRORISM (SP Times)
- Sign CAIR's 'Not in the Name of Islam' Petition
* CAIR-DC: GA SCHOOLS ACCOMMODATE RELIGIOUS NEEDS (VOA)
* OR: PROF SETTLES LIBEL SUIT AGAINST DANIEL PIPES (Daily Emerald)
* FBI LETTER ALLEGES MISTREATMENT OF GITMO DETAINEES (AP)
- CIA Reports Offer Warnings on Iraq's Path (NY Times)
- Military Lawyers Defend Civil Liberties (Military Times)
* FROM CHURCHES, A CHALLENGE TO ISRAELI POLICIES (CSM)
- UK: Muslim Woman Suffers Race Attack (PA)
-----
VERSE OF THE DAY: DEEDS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
"If anyone does deeds of righteousness -- be they male or female -- and
have faith, they will enter Heaven, and not the least injustice will be
done to them."
The Holy Quran, 4:124
"By (the token of) time (through the ages). Verily, mankind is in loss,
except those who have faith and do righteous deeds and (join together)
in
the mutual teaching of truth, patience and constancy."
The Holy Quran, Chapter 103
HADITH OF THE DAY: THE KEYS TO PARADISE
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) once asked his companions:
"Who
has fasted today?...Who (took part in a funeral procession)
today?...Who
fed a poor man today?...Who visited an invalid today?" He then said:
"Anyone in whom (these good deeds) are combined will certainly enter
Paradise."
Sahih Muslim, Hadith 505
-----
U.S. MUSLIMS HELP FIGHT TERRORISM
Ezzat Zaki, St. Petersburg Times, 12/7/04
http://www.sptimes.com/2004/12/07/Opinion/United_States_should_.shtml
Scroll down.
I was surprised that your newspaper published a hate letter against
Muslims. The letter was in response to your article about Muslims
reaching
out to the homeless and needy on Thanksgiving. The tone of the letter
was
extremely aggressive and intolerant (I doubt if your paper can publish
any
similar letters against any different minority); however, it was not
surprising.
People easily recognize it in media outlets like Fox News, many
right-wing
radio talk shows, the 700 Club, etc., and the theme is basically,
first,
that American Muslims do not denounce terrorism. This has become an old
one
because all Muslims and their organizations in this country vehemently
and
categorically denounced all sorts of terrorism that is committed in the
name of their religion; there are no ifs, ands or buts.
Second, American Muslims do not identify al-Qaida members and do not
help
law enforcement. There is nothing that can be further from the truth.
The
American Muslims know that this country simply cannot afford another
9/11,
and they (the American Muslims) have everything to lose if the
terrorists
attack us again (God forbid). On the same day that letter was
published,
one of the Muslim organizations (CAIR-FL) was training 150 agents of
the
FBI in Jacksonville to help them better understand the Muslim culture
and
to help them be more efficient in fighting terrorism.
Finally, the American Muslims should be thankful that they live here.
On
that one we all agree that we (all Americans) should be thankful that
God
almighty blessed us with this land.
SEE: SIGN CAIR'S 'NOT IN THE NAME OF ISLAM' PETITION
http://cair-net.org/asp/article.asp?id=169&page=AA
-----
GEORGIA SCHOOLS ACCOMMODATE RELIGIOUS NEEDS
Joshua Levs, Voice of America News, 12/6/04
http://www.voanews.com/english/AmericanLife/Georgia-Schools-Accomodate-Musli
m-Religious-Needs.cfm
Religious instruction is prohibited in America's taxpayer-supported
public
schools because of a strict separation between church and state
mandated by
the U.S. Constitution. But public schools do try to accommodate the
religious traditions of students -- for example, by allowing them to
miss
class for religious holidays. Now, increasing numbers of schools are
facing
a new challenge: they're being asked to let some Muslim students out
early
every Friday throughout the entire year. That's when Muslims come
together
for the most important service of the week, Juma'ah.
"Juma'ah is the Arabic word for collecting," explains Jamal Haysaw, who
teaches Islam at a private school in Atlanta and delivers sermons at
mosques throughout the area. "We come together every day in the
mosques,
open every day for five daily prayers," he says. "But this is a time
where
we're told we have to make it. Congregation is very important in
prayers -
there are more blessings received when you do that."
Mr. Haysaw says the service provides Muslims with an important
opportunity
for community building. That's especially important to the Rashied
family
of Duluth, Georgia, just north of Atlanta. "Many smaller mosques close
down," says Khalid Rashied, a father of five. "You go to a bigger one,
a
bigger community, get to know them, find out difficulties if anybody's
in
need, to help each other out."
Mr. Rashied's two oldest children attend a public school, Duluth High.
In
earlier grades they went to a private Muslim school. Now, their classes
end
too late for them to make it to the Juma'ah service. Isam Rashied says
it
is as if part of his life is missing. "Since I've been learning about
it
all my life, I've been practicing it," he says. "And suddenly it's like
you
do something every day - like eat breakfast - and somebody suddenly
stops
you from eating a meal."
So Khalid Rashied asked Duluth High School to let his children out
early
every Friday to attend services. The school gave its permission during
the
holy month of Ramadan, but not for the entire year. "The system
concerns in
this matter had to do with attendance requirements at both the federal
and
state levels," said Sloan Roach, spokeswoman for the school district,
"as
well as the fact that students who missed every Friday of a sixth
period
class, they would be missing 20 percent of classroom instruction for
that
sixth period class."
School officials say they are concerned about a student's ability to
make
up so much missed work. Teachers would also have to manage each
student's
makeup work and could never hold tests on Fridays -- which could affect
class scheduling for the entire year. Ms. Roach says that, in making
the
decision, the school looked at legal cases involving the U.S.
Constitution's First Amendment, which protects freedom of religion and
freedom of expression.
Based on rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court, the government -- including
a
public school -- is within its rights to turn down a religious request,
according to Eric Segall, a First Amendment expert at Georgia State
University Law School. "When a student wants to receive a special
accommodation because of religious practices from a public school," he
says, "the school under the most recent precedent does not really have
any
First Amendment constitutional obligation to make that accommodation."
But
Mr. Segall notes that schools can choose to agree to the accommodation.
Across the country, more parents are beginning to make such requests.
"We
get a fairly steady amount of calls on this issue," says Ibrahim Hooper
of
the Council on American Islamic Relations, a Washington-based civil
rights
and advocacy group. He says different schools are coming up with
different
solutions, including changes in the students' schedules. "It's always
some
kind of negotiating process that we have to go through to try and
resolve
the situation," says Mr. Hooper. "One of the best ways to resolve it is
to
have the Friday prayers in the school if there's a sufficient number of
Muslim students..."
-----
PROFESSOR SETTLES LIBEL SUIT AGAINST POST COLUMNISTS
Douglas Card filed the lawsuit in 2003 over a 2002 column that labeled
him
an anti-Semitic extremist
Ayisha Yahya, Oregon Daily Emerald, 12/6/04
http://www.dailyemerald.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/12/06/41b4193c9d953
A University professor has resolved a long process to clear his name of
bias charges. Adjunct sociology professor Douglas Card recently settled
a
libel lawsuit against New York Post columnists Daniel Pipes and
Jonathan
Schanzer. Card said the terms of the settlement are confidential.
Card said he feels like, "I got the weight of the world off my
shoulders."
Card filed the lawsuit in 2003, after Pipes and Schanzer published an
article in June, 2002 titled "Extremists on Campus," that claimed Card
had
made anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli statements in his "Social
Inequality"
class…
Card said he tried to get the columnists to retract their statements
before
he filed the suit. Several members of the campus and the local Jewish
communities also spoke out in Card's support.
But Pipes and Schanzer initially stood by their statements, stating in
a
2002 letter to the Jewish Review, a Portland newsletter, that Card had
not
fulfilled their requests to warrant a retraction. One of the requests
was
providing them with a copy of the contentious final exam…
Card said the charges troubled him especially when he was accused of
forcing students to agree with him.
"That's really frightful," he said. "They don't have to agree with
anything
I say."
He said even when facts are presented in controversial issues, people
may
disagree on the details. However, professors must try to obtain
objectivity
at all times in the classroom.
"The key thing is to stick to the facts and show both sides," he said.
In the case of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it is vital to examine
both groups' position fairly, he said.
In his classes, Card said he goes so far as to bring in guest speakers
to
present different views.
"We are professors, and a professor's job is to be objective," he said.
Card also stressed the need for academic freedom, saying faculty should
not
feel intimidated about speaking on controversial issues.
"I think that the issue of academic freedom during this time of
political
crises is extremely important," he said.
-----
FBI AGENTS ALLEGE PRISONER MISTREATMENT IN GUANTANAMO
Paisley Dodds, Associated Press, 12/7/04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42917-2004Dec7.html
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- FBI agents witnessed "highly aggressive"
interrogations and mistreatment of terror suspects at the U.S. prison
camp
in Cuba starting in 2002 -- more than a year before the prison abuse
scandal broke in Iraq -- according to a letter a senior Justice
Department
official sent to the Army's top criminal investigator.
In the letter obtained by The Associated Press, the FBI official
suggested
the Pentagon didn't act on FBI complaints about the incidents,
including a
female interrogator grabbing a detainee's genitals and bending back his
thumbs, another where a prisoner was gagged with duct tape and a third
where a dog was used to intimidate a detainee who later was thrown into
isolation and showed signs of "extreme psychological trauma."
One Marine told an FBI observer that some interrogations led to
prisoners
"curling into a fetal position on the floor and crying in pain,"
according
to the letter dated July 14, 2004.
Thomas Harrington, an FBI counterterrorism expert who led a team of
investigators at Guantanamo Bay, wrote the letter to Maj. Gen. Donald
J.
Ryder, the Army's chief law enforcement officer who's investigating
abuses
at U.S.-run prisons in Afghanistan, Iraq and at Guantanamo.
Harrington said FBI officials complained about the pattern of abusive
techniques to top Defense Department attorneys in January 2003, and it
appeared that nothing was done…
ALSO SEE:
2 C.I.A. REPORTS OFFER WARNINGS ON IRAQ'S PATH
Douglas Jehl, New York Times, 12/7/04
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/07/international/middleeast/07intell.html
WASHINGTON - A classified cable sent by the Central Intelligence
Agency's
station chief in Baghdad has warned that the situation in Iraq is
deteriorating and may not rebound any time soon, according to
government
officials.
The cable, sent late last month as the officer ended a yearlong tour,
presented a bleak assessment on matters of politics, economics and
security, the officials said. They said its basic conclusions had been
echoed in briefings presented by a senior C.I.A. official who recently
visited Iraq.
The officials described the two assessments as having been "mixed,"
saying
that they did describe Iraq as having made important progress,
particularly
in terms of its political process, and credited Iraqis with being
resilient.
But over all, the officials described the station chief's cable in
particular as an unvarnished assessment of the difficulties ahead in
Iraq.
They said it warned that the security situation was likely to get
worse,
including more violence and sectarian clashes, unless there were marked
improvements soon on the part of the Iraqi government, in terms of its
ability to assert authority and to build the economy.
Together, the appraisals, which follow several other such warnings from
officials in Washington and in the field, were much more pessimistic
than
the public picture being offered by the Bush administration before the
elections scheduled for Iraq next month, the officials said. The cable
was
sent to C.I.A. headquarters after American forces completed what
military
commanders have described as a significant victory, with the retaking
of
Falluja, a principal base of the Iraqi insurgency, in mid-November.
The American ambassador to Iraq, John D. Negroponte, was said by the
officials to have filed a written dissent, objecting to one finding as
too
harsh, on the ground that the United States had made more progress than
was
described in combating the Iraqi insurgency. But the top American
military
commander in Iraq, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., also reviewed the cable
and
initially offered no objections, the officials said. One official said,
however, that General Casey may have voiced objections in recent days.
The station chief's cable has been widely disseminated outside the
C.I.A.,
and was initially described by a government official who read the
document
and who praised it as unusually candid. Other government officials who
have
read or been briefed on the document later described its contents. The
officials refused to be identified by name or affiliation because of
the
delicacy of the issue. The station chief cannot be publicly identified
because he continues to work undercover.
Asked about the cable, a White House spokesman, Sean McCormack, said he
could not discuss intelligence matters. A C.I.A. spokesman would say
only
that he could not comment on any classified document…
---
LETTER: MILITARY LAWYERS DEFEND CIVIL LIBERTIES
Robert Hodierne, Military Times, 12/5/04
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4066775.stm
Robert Hodierne, an editor of publications for and about the American
military, considers alleged infringements of civil liberties in the
United
States that are a result of security measures in President Bush's war
against terror.
He says that, surprisingly, it is often military lawyers who are
turning
out to be the main defenders of basic freedoms and challenging the
government.
Muslims in America have come under pressure since 9/11
One of the things you count on when you're a law-abiding citizen of a
place
like America or Britain is that the police won't show up at your office
one
fine morning, haul you away and throw you into solitary confinement.
Portland, Oregon, does not seem a likely setting for such a draconian
police action. The city, in the Pacific northwest, is an earnestly
progressive place: San Francisco without the colourful characters,
Canada
without socialised medicine.
Brandon Mayfield has a small, one-man law practice there. The
38-year-old
man served eight years as a military intelligence officer in the US
Army.
He had a top secret clearance. He is married, the father of three
daughters. He had never before been arrested.
But one morning last May a pair of FBI agents showed up at his office,
handcuffed him and took him away…
-----
FROM CHURCHES, A CHALLENGE TO ISRAELI POLICIES
Jane Lampman, Christian Science Monitor, 12/6/04
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1206/p11s02-lire.html
A vote by the Presbyterian Church (USA) to use economic sanctions
against
certain companies doing business with Israel - namely those that profit
from the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza - has set off a quiet
firestorm within the American religious community.
The Presbyterians' decision to consider divesting such businesses from
its
$8 billion portfolio, coupled with the prospect that the Episcopal
Church
and other churches might do the same, is adding to tensions that have
risen
over recent years between mainline Protestant churches and the American
Jewish community over their differing views of the Israeli- Palestinian
conflict.
It is also stirring Jewish groups to try to head off divestment - and
to
rebuild a rapport with these churches, with whom they have long worked
to
further civil rights and social justice.
"To call for divestment played into all the language of boycott, from
earlier periods in Jewish history to the Arab boycott of Israel. It
caused
an explosion in the Jewish community," says David Elcott, director of
interreligious affairs for the American Jewish Committee (AJC).
In some ways, last summer's divestment vote has forced a conversation
about
the Middle East conflict. It also raises the stakes for those who,
earlier
this year, launched a bid to renew the old coalition. Christian and
Jewish
leaders have met twice, hosted by AJC and the National Council of
Churches.
From discussions on the "theology of land" to the divestment issue, the
religious leaders "spoke from their pain" and asked tough questions of
one
another, says the Rev. Shanta Premawardhana, NCC interfaith secretary.
Tensions rose when a Presbyterian delegation traveling in the Middle
East
in October met with members of Hizbullah, the Lebanese group on the US
terrorist list. The church's national leadership disavowed the action.
Then
in November, the church received a letter threatening arson against
Presbyterian churches unless it halted the divestment process. Jewish
groups condemned the threat.
Last week, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs asked Protestants to
reject divestment in favor of joint efforts to end the conflict.
Elaborating on Jewish concerns, it said the divestment process is
discriminatory, will provoke intransigence on both sides, and "is
dangerously ill-matched to our passionately shared vision of a peaceful
resolution to the conflict…"
SEE ALSO:
MUSLIM WOMAN SUFFERS RACE ATTACK
Neville Dean, Press Association, 12/7/04
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3852166
A young Iraqi woman was racially abused and hit in the face with a
toolbox
in an unprovoked and "unacceptable" racist assault, police said today.
The 25-year-old victim, who was wearing religious dress and hijab, was
walking along Kilburn High Road in Camden, north London, at 2pm on
Sunday
when she was attacked.
She felt somebody kick her in the back of the leg and when she turned
round
she saw the suspect, who spat on the floor.
As he started to shout racist abuse at her, she sought refuge in a
nearby
Poundland store.
The man followed her into the shop, hit her in the face with a toolbox
and
then tried to take off her hijab - the traditional Muslim headscarf.
-----
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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
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In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AZ MUSLIMS TO CALL FOR FBI PROBE OF MOSQUE FIRE
Blaze destroys Glendale mosque, injures two firefighters
(PHOENIX, AZ, 12/8/04) - The Arizona office of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-AZ) will hold a news conference today
to
call for an FBI investigation of a fire that destroyed a Phoenix-area
mosque. CAIR-AZ officials say the local Muslim community needs to be
reassured that it is not being targeted by Islamophobic bigots.
WHAT: CAIR-AZ News Conference Calling for FBI Probe of Mosque Fire
WHEN: 1 p.m. (local time)
WHERE: Outside Al Sadiq Mosque, 6017 Glendale Avenue, Glendale, Arizona
CONTACT: CAIR-AZ, Deedra Abboud, 602-790-9319, E-Mail:
director@cairaz.org
Fire officials say the blaze broke out early Tuesday morning in the Al
Sadiq Mosque in Glendale, Ariz. Two firefighters suffered burns when
the
mosque's ceiling collapsed. Because the fire involved a house of
worship,
federal investigators have been notified. (Regular worshippers at the
mosque include many Iraqi refugees.) After initially saying the fire
was of
"suspicious origins," local investigators now say the cause is
"undetermined."
SEE: "2 Firefighters Escape Glendale Mosque Fire"
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1208wvmosque08.html
"We ask national law enforcement authorities to take over the
investigation
of this incident," said CAIR-AZ Executive Director Deedra Abboud.
"Without
some kind of hard evidence one way or another, the local Islamic
community
will image the worst case scenario of an anti-Muslim hate crime."
Abboud
also thanked firefighters for their efforts to save the mosque and
expressed hope for the speedy recovery of those who were injured in the
blaze.
Earlier this year in Tucson, a children's health clinic with Muslim
doctors
received a bomb threat from a caller who said, "Muslims suck. I'm going
to
blow up your building." In another incident, a Tucson Muslim's car was
vandalized with graffiti stating, "You are not welcome here. Go back
home
you stupid f****rs."
In late November, CAIR called on the FBI to assist in the investigation
of
a fire at a Virginia gas station that may have been motivated by
anti-Muslim or anti-Arab bias. Racist graffiti such as "F*** Arab go
home"
was left in the vicinity of the Sikh-owned station. (Since the 9/11
terror
attacks, a number of Sikh men who wear turbans have been targeted
because
they were mistaken for Muslims.)
Other incidents targeting American Islamic institutions have taken
place
recently nationwide. In Fargo, N.D., vandals smeared feces on a mosque.
In
the neighboring state of Minnesota, two Islamic centers were also
vandalized.
In Texas, firebombs were thrown at an El Paso mosque. Also in Texas, a
man
was arrested for threatening an El Paso Islamic center, an arson
suspect
was arrested at the scene of a fire at a Muslim business in San Antonio
and
vandals scrawled racist graffiti on the interior of a Lubbock mosque. A
home-made bomb exploded in the mailbox of a Houston Islamic center.
In Washington, D.C., a Muslim prayer area at American University was
vandalized. Earlier this year in Florida, vandals wrote "Kill all
Muslims"
inside the Islamic Community Center in the Tampa suburb of Lutz. The
FBI is
also investigating vandalism and threatening messages targeting the
Islamic
Community of Southwest Florida in Charlotte Harbor. In Missouri,
vandals
painted a Nazi swastika and the word "die" on an addition under
construction at the Islamic Foundation of Greater St. Louis. Three
Miami
Islamic centers were vandalized.
As a response to post-9/11 anti-Muslim incidents, CAIR published a
"Muslim
Community Safety Kit." The safety kit may be obtained free of charge by
e-mailing pubs@cair-net.org. (Include name, address and phone number
when
requesting the safety kit.)
CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil liberties group, is headquartered
in
Washington, D.C., and has 29 offices and chapters nationwide and in
Canada.
Its mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue,
protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions
that promote justice and mutual understanding.
- END -
CONTACT: Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail:
ihooper@cair-net.org; Rabiah Ahmed, 202-488-8787 or 202-439-1441,
E-Mail:
rahmed@cair-net.org
NOTE: CAIR offers an e-mail list designed to be a window to the
American
Muslim community. Subscribers to the list, called CAIR-NET, receive
news
releases and other materials dealing with American Muslim positions on
issues of importance to our society.
To SUBSCRIBE to CAIR-NET, go to: http://cair.biglist.com/cair-net/
-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 12/8/04
* VERSE OF THE DAY: AN ATOM'S WEIGHT OF GOOD
* CAIR-NY ATTENDS U.N. SEMINAR ON ISLAMOPHOBIA
- Annan Opens First Islamophobia Seminar (AP)
* INCITEMENT WATCH: EX-CIA OFFICIAL SAYS TERROR IS FROM QURAN
* KS: INTOLERANCE SCARS MUSLIMS IN U.S. (KC Star)
- Boxer Threatens Pull-Out Over Beard (Reuters)
- American Muslims Hope For the Best (Newsday)
* CANADA: MUSLIMS TO REFLECT ON TEACHINGS OF JESUS (CP)
* MEMO: WORKERS THREATENED OVER PRISON ABUSE (AP)
- US Army Drilled To See All Muslims as Terrorists (AP)
- Soldiers Accused Of Executing 2 Unarmed Iraqis (LA Times)
- Disgruntled Troops Complain To Rumsfeld (AP)
- US Marine Claims Unit Killed Iraqi Civilians (ABC)
* MEN DISTORT RELIGION TO JUSTIFY 'HONOR' KILLINGS (Reuters)
* IN EUROPE'S JAILS, NEGLECT OF ISLAM BREEDS TROUBLE (NY Times)
- Ban on Religious Symbols in Belgium (Reuters)
* AIPAC PROBE INTENSIFIES (Jewish Times)
- Advance U.S., Not Israel's Interests (Seattle PI)
* IL: CIOGC 12 ANNUAL COMMUNITY DINNER
* MD MUSLIMS COLLECT WINTER CLOTHES FOR NEEDY FAMILIES
-----
VERSE OF THE DAY: AN ATOM'S WEIGHT OF GOOD
"(On the Day of Judgment) all mankind will issue forth in scattered
groups
to be shown their (past) deeds. Then whoever has done an atom's weight
of
good shall see it, and whoever has done an atom's weight of evil shall
(also) see it."
The Holy Quran, 99:6-8
----
CAIR-NY ATTENDS U.N. SEMINAR ON ISLAMOPHOBIA
(NEW YORK, NY, 12/8/04) - Representatives of the New York Office of the
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-NY) and the Muslim Public
Affairs Council (MPAC) yesterday attended a United Nations seminar on
Islamophobia.
SEE: http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2004/hr4798.doc.htm
The seminar, "Confronting Islamophobia: Education for Tolerance and
Understanding," was part of the U.N.'s "Unlearning Intolerance" series.
It
brought together academics and activists from around the world to
discuss
the growing phenomenon of anti-Muslim bias. CAIR-NY representatives
brought
several points to the attention of the assembly, including the need to
better define who is an "Islamophobe."
"This seminar was a productive first-step toward confronting the rising
tide of Islamophobia worldwide," said Wissam Nasr, executive director
of
CAIR-NY. "We need to reach out to those who harbor anti-Muslim
prejudice
and help them realize that Islam is not their enemy, but is in fact a
way
of life that emphasizes peace and freedom."
CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil liberties group, is headquartered
in
Washington, D.C., and has 29 offices and chapters nationwide and in
Canada.
Its mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue,
protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions
that promote justice and mutual understanding.
CONTACT: CAIR-NY, Wissam Nasr, 212-870-2002 or 917-751-1017
ALSO SEE:
ANNAN OPENS FIRST ISLAMOPHOBIA SEMINAR
Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press, 12/8/04
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/nation/10365276.htm
UNITED NATIONS - Secretary-General Kofi Annan opened the first U.N.
seminar
on confronting Islamophobia Tuesday with a plea not to judge Muslims by
the
acts of extremists who deliberately target and kill civilians.
The daylong forum came six months after a U.N. seminar devoted to
confronting anti-Semitism, also a first for the world body. Both were
part
a series entitled "Unlearning Intolerance," sponsored by the U.N.
Department of Public Information.
"The few give a bad name to the many, and this is unfair," he told
Islamic
scholars, writers and religious leaders as well as representatives of
other
religions.
Annan urged people to condemn terrorist and violent acts carried out in
the
name of Islam but which "no cause can justify."
"Muslims themselves, especially, should speak out, as so many did
following
the September 11 attacks on the United States, and show a commitment to
isolate those who preach or practice violence, and to make it clear
that
these are unacceptable distortions of Islam," he said.
Annan said "it is essential that solutions come from within Islam
itself"
and suggested and suggested that the Islamic scholarly principle of
"ijtihad," a process of critical inquiry, could foster free debate into
what is good and bad in Muslim cultures as well as others.
He stressed that Islam "should not be judged by the acts of extremists
who
deliberately target and kill civilians..."
-----
INCITEMENT WATCH: ISLAMIC TERROR BASED ON QURAN: EX-CIA OFFICIAL
Sheldon Kirshner, Canadian Jews News, 12/8/04
http://www.cjnews.com/viewarticle.asp?id=5056
A former top official of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency paints a
menacing picture of the relationship between Islam and terrorism.
"Islamic terrorism is based on Islam as revealed through the Qu'ran,"
keynote speaker Bruce Tefft claimed in a panel discussion at the
University
of Toronto on jihad and global terrorism. The session, held late last
month, was sponsored by the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center and the
Speakers Action Group.
Tefft, a founder of the CIA's counter-terrorism center and now an
advisor
to the New York Police Department's intelligence and counter-terrorism
divisions, said that without Islam, the long-term strategy of Al Qaeda
and
its followers make little sense.
Linking Osama bin Laden to the attacks against the World Trade Center
and
the Pentagon in 2001, Tefft said: "To pretend that Islam has nothing to
do
with Sept. 11 is to willfully ignore the obvious and to forever
misinterpret events."
In a harsh indictment of Islam � the world's fastest growing religion
and
the second-largest faith after Christianity � Tefft said that while
there
may be moderate Muslims, Islam itself is immoderate.
And, he added, "There is no difference between Islam and Islamic
fundamentalism, which is a totalitarian construct..."
Islam cannot be reformed because its teachings, as revealed through the
Qu'ran, are regarded as the word of God, and to be a Muslim, a believer
must accept the Qu'ran on a literal basis, Tefft said…
Of the 6,000 or more mosques in North America, 80 per cent are radical
in
orientation and devoted to spreading an intolerant Wahabi strain of
Islam.
They are funded by Saudi Arabia, he said…
-----
INTOLERANCE SCARS MUSLIMS IN U.S.
Lewis W. Diuguid, Kansas City Star, 12/8/04
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/FK12Ae02.html
On Sunday the cutest little girls dressed in costumes of many Muslim
countries and shared sweet details of those nations at the 2004 Eid
Celebration Dinner of the Crescent Peace Society.
It was clear from seeing them that kids of all faiths need to grow up
in a
peaceful world to have a productive future. But they're hurt by
violence
that adults create.
Muslim students discussed that last month at an "Exploring Islam" forum
at
Maple Woods Community College. Jessica Dumas, who teaches sociology and
is
a member of the Maple Woods Global Education Committee, said people
need to
know how world events affect Muslims at home.
Three students, Neda, Ashty and Hamad, said in our post-Sept. 11, 2001,
world they've been scarred by others' bigotry. People equate Muslims
with
terrorism.
"Some people don't understand," said Neda, who is Palestinian, wears a
head
scarf, or hijab, and is studying to be a nurse. "I want to make them
understand…"
Hamad's experiences mirror the trauma other Muslims have faced in
America.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations reported in the spring that
Muslims last year filed 1,019 claims citing physical and verbal
attacks,
on-the-job discrimination and racial profiling by law enforcement. In
2002
the group received 602 complaints…
ALSO SEE:
WILLIAMS IN PULL-OUT THREAT OVER BEARD INSPECTION
Reuters, 12/8/04
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=sportsNews&storyID=7028075
LONDON - British heavyweight fighter Danny Williams has threatened to
pull
out of Saturday's World Boxing Council title fight with champion Vitali
Klitschko if he is forced to shave his beard, British media reported.
"If they ask me to shave or even trim it there won't be a fight,"
Williams
was quoted as saying by the Daily Telegraph.
Marc Ratner, head of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, said: "If
the
beard is considered abrasive then the fighter will be asked to cut it
back."
However, Klitschko's camp is not taking the threat to the million
dollar
event seriously.
"As long as there's not a horseshoe hidden up there we don't mind," a
spokesman for the Ukrainian said.
Williams has a shot at the title after knocking out former champion
Mike
Tyson in the fourth round of their fight in July.
---
AMERICAN MUSLIMS HOPE FOR THE BEST
Shaik Ubaid, Newsday, 12/8/04
http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpuba084073317dec08,0,5227852.story
Shaik Ubaid is president of the Indian Muslim Council-U.S.A. and a
founding
member of the Council of Mosques and Muslim Organizations of Nassau and
Suffolk.
The last few years have been a difficult period for American Muslims.
The twin dawns of the post-Ashcroft and post-Arafat eras bring more
hope
for us, as does a report by the Defense Science Board of the Pentagon
that
echoes the stand of the American Muslim leadership.
The Pentagon report describes U.S. public diplomacy as being in crisis
and
urges the creation of a strategic communications apparatus within the
White
House. It says that improving public relations is not enough. "Muslims
do
not hate our freedom, but rather they hate our policies," it concludes.
The
board recommends that Washington make some immediate changes to its
attitude toward Muslims.
American Muslims are deeply hurt by the persecution of Muslims in other
lands by their own corrupt and tyrannical rulers and by foreign
occupiers.
Feelings of betrayal and guilt are added to this hurt by our
government's
support of these oppressors.
Domestically, we feel acute anxiety caused by the growing anti-Muslim
sentiment in the United States. It is the propagation by certain
right-wing
U.S. elements of the unexamined perception of Islam and terrorism being
synonymous that has led to this state of affairs.
American Muslims are a fast-growing multi-ethnic group. Economic and
other
"quality-of-life" factors have brought the immigrant Muslim American
community to this country. Like their indigenous Muslim-American
counterparts, they have no greater wish than to witness the end of
conflicts, occupations, dictatorships and other political excesses that
lie
at the root of terrorist violence. Only then can they get on with their
quest of realizing their American dreams and securing a better future
for
their children without perpetual fear of the increasing Islamophobia in
America.
The U.S. decision this year to storm Fallujah without waiting for
Ramadan
to be over and to actually initiate the attack on our most holy night
of
Lailatul Qadr filled us with despair. We are worried about the
consequences
of such actions for our military personnel…
-----
MUSLIMS TO CONTEMPLATE TEACHINGS OF JESUS CHRIST AT CONFERENCE
Canadian Press, 12/7/04
TORONTO (CP) - The teachings of Jesus Christ and altruism are among
topics
that will be on the agenda when more than 12,000 Muslims from the
Toronto
area gather over Christmas to contemplate their Islamic roots.
Reviving the Islamic Spirit, featuring an international line-up of top
Islamic scholars and speakers, is expected to be one of the largest
Islamic
conferences ever held in Canada.
The event, which takes place Dec. 24-26 at Toronto's SkyDome, will be
capped off by a fundraising dinner on Dec. 27 featuring talks by three
of
North America's leading Islamic intellectuals.
They are Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, who will address the role of Christ in
Islam;
Imam Zaid Shakir, who will speak on the importance of Muslims joining
with
non-Muslims to work together on social justice issues; and Umar
Abd-Allah,
who will lecture on the importance of formulating a Muslim identity in
the
West
-----
MEMO: WORKERS THREATENED OVER PRISON ABUSE
Paisley Dodds, Associated Press, 12/7/04
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20041208/D86R7M401.html
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - U.S. special forces accused of abusing
prisoners in Iraq threatened Defense Intelligence Agency personnel who
saw
the mistreatment, according to U.S. government memos released Tuesday
by
the American Civil Liberties Union.
The special forces also monitored e-mails sent by defense personnel and
ordered them "not to talk to anyone" in the United States about what
they
saw, said one memo written by the Defense Intelligence Agency chief,
who
complained to his Pentagon bosses about the harassment.
In addition, the special forces confiscated photos of a prisoner who
had
been punched in the face.
Prisoners arriving at a detention center in Baghdad had "burn marks on
their backs" as well as bruises and some complained of kidney pain,
according to the June 25, 2004 memo.
FBI agents also reported seeing detainees at Abu Ghraib subjected to
sleep
deprivation, humiliation and forced nudity between October and December
2003 - when the most serious abuses allegedly took place in a scandal
that's remains under investigation.
The release of the ACLU documents comes a day after The Associated
Press
reported that a senior FBI official wrote a letter to the Army's top
criminal investigator complaining about "highly aggressive"
interrogation
techniques at the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay dating back to
2002 -
more than a year before the scandal broke at the Iraqi prison…
ALSO SEE:
US ARMY DRILLED TO SEE ALL ARABS, MUSLIMS AS TERRORISTS - DESERTER IN
CANADA
Associated Press, 12/8/04
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/html/20041207T230000-0500_71016_OBS_US_A
RMY_DRILLED_TO_SEE_ALL_ARABS__MUSLIMS_AS_TERRORISTS___DESERTER_IN_CANADA.asp
TORONTO - An American seeking to become the first US soldier granted
refugee status in Canada after refusing to serve in Iraq told
immigration
officials yesterday that the Army was drilling its soldiers to think of
all
Arabs and Muslims as potential terrorists.
"We were being told that it was a new kind of war, that these were evil
people and they had to be dealt with," Pfc Jeremy Hinzman, 26, told the
Immigration and Refugee Board on the second of his three-day hearing
for
political asylum.
"We were told that we would be going to Iraq to jack up some
terrorists,"
said Hinzman, who fled from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, on January 2
and
now lives in Toronto with his 31 year-old wife, Nga Nguyen, and 2
year-old
son Liam.
He said US military training since Sept 11 is designed to "foster an
attitude of hatred. It gets your blood boiling to carry out the
mission."
Hinzman is arguing that the war in Iraq is illegal and fighting in it
would
have made him a war criminal.
He also said he would face prosecution if forced to return to the
United
States because he likely would be court-marshalled and sentenced to an
Army
jail.
Immigration and Refugee Board officials noted that others who had
deserted
from the military typically spent only one year in jail.
"Serving one day in prison for refusing to comply with an illegal order
is
one day too long," Hinzman told the tribunal, which likely will take
several weeks to reach its decision.
Hinzman said he enlisted for four years in 2000 to experience the army,
believing it would give him guidance and maturity. But he fled the 82nd
Airborne Division about two weeks after learning his outfit would be
sent
to Iraq. Hinzman had served three years in the Army and applied for
conscientious objector status before his unit was sent to Afghanistan
in
2002, but the Army told him it lost his application.
He said he wanted to fulfil his service obligation but not to
participate
in combat. "The military is to fight justified wars," said his lawyer
Jeffrey House, an American who first came to Canada as a draft dodger
during the Vietnam War…
---
2 U.S. SOLDIERS ACCUSED OF EXECUTING 2 UNARMED IRAQIS
Edmund Sanders, Los Angeles Times, 12/7/04
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/12/07/MNG56A7P2G1.D
TL
Baghdad -- U.S. military prosecutors alleged Monday that American
soldiers
shot to death two unarmed Iraqi men in their homes, then tried to cover
up
their crimes by claiming that the Iraqis had reached for guns.
In chilling detail, the prosecutors and other U.S. soldiers described
in a
makeshift courtroom here how the two accused U.S. servicemen casually
executed the Iraqis even though the civilians posed no immediate
danger.
Sgt. Michael P. Williams, 25, of Memphis, Tenn., and Spc. Brent W. May,
22,
of Salem, Ohio, are the second pair of soldiers from the 1st Battalion,
41st Infantry Regiment from Fort Riley, Kan., to face murder charges
stemming from separate incidents in August. Williams and May could face
the
death penalty if convicted.
Williams and May were charged in September, but details of the killings
were made public for the first time Monday at a preliminary hearing for
May.
Monday's hearing focused on the killing of an unidentified Iraqi man on
Aug. 28, when the regiment conducted house-to-house searches in Sadr
City…
---
DISGRUNTLED TROOPS COMPLAIN TO RUMSFELD
Robert Burns, Associated Press, 12/8/04
http://www.portervillerecorder.com/articles/2004/12/08/ap/headlines/d86ri358
0.txt
CAMP BUEHRING, Kuwait - Disgruntled U.S. soldiers complained to Defense
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Wednesday about the lack of armor for
their
vehicles and long deployments, drawing a blunt retort from the Pentagon
chief.
``You go to war with the Army you have,'' he said in a rare public
airing
of rank-and-file concerns among the troops.
In his prepared remarks earlier, Rumsfeld had urged the troops - mostly
National Guard and Reserve soldiers - to discount critics of the war in
Iraq and to help ``win the test of wills'' with the insurgents.
Some of soldiers, however, had criticisms of their own - not of the war
itself but of how it is being fought.
Army Spc. Thomas Wilson, for example, of the 278th Regimental Combat
Team
that is comprised mainly of citizen soldiers of the Tennessee Army
National
Guard, asked Rumsfeld in a question-and-answer session why vehicle
armor is
still in short supply, nearly two years after the start of the war that
ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
``Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of
scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to uparmor our vehicles?''
Wilson asked. A big cheer arose from the approximately 2,300 soldiers
in
the cavernous hangar who assembled to see and hear the secretary of
defense.
Rumsfeld hesitated and asked Wilson to repeat his question…
---
US MARINE CLAIMS UNIT KILLED IRAQI CIVILIANS
ABC, 12/8/04
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200412/s1260377.htm
A former US Marine said his unit killed more than 30 innocent Iraqi
civilians in just two days, in graphic testimony to a Canadian tribunal
probing an asylum claim by a US Army deserter.
Former Marine Sergeant Jimmy Massey appeared as a witness to bolster
claims
by fugitive paratrooper Jeremy Hinzman that he walked out on the 82nd
Airborne Division to avoid being ordered to commit war crimes in Iraq.
Mr Hinzman, 26, claims he would face persecution if sent home to the
United
States, in a politically charged case which could set a precedent for
at
least two other US deserters seeking asylum in Canada.
Mr Massey told Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) that men
under
his command in the 3rd battalion, 7th Marines, killed "30 plus"
civilians
within 48 hours while on checkpoint duty in Baghdad…
Mr Massey said that in some incidents, Iraqi civilians were killed by
between 200 and 500 rounds pumped into four separate cars which each
failed
to respond to a single warning shot and respond to hand signals at a
Baghdad checkpoint.
At the time, US soldiers feared suicide bombers would try to ram
checkpoints, he said.
Searches found no weapons in the vehicles or evidence that those killed
were anything but innocent civilians, he said.
He also said Marines killed four unarmed demonstrators, and more Iraqis
the
next day during another spell of checkpoint duty in the occupied Iraqi
capital…
-----
MEN DISTORT RELIGION TO JUSTIFY "HONOUR" KILLINGS
Jan Strupczewski, Reuters, 12/8/04
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=7028750
STOCKHOLM - Men all over the world distort the teachings of Islam and
Christianity to justify abusing their wives and daughters, leading to
thousands of "honour" killings a year for which courts provide virtual
impunity, experts say.
United Nations estimates show that more than 5,000 women are murdered
every
year in "honour"-related violence, but the real number could be much
higher, said experts at an international conference near Stockholm,
which
ended on Wednesday.
Horror stories of women and even girls as young as seven being
beheaded,
burnt to death, maimed, beaten, raped, forced into suicide or mentally
abused underscored that patriarchal violence against women pays no heed
to
religion.
In many cases it is rooted in cultural and tribal beliefs.
"Islam as a reason for the honour killings is rubbish," Nilofar
Bakhtiar,
adviser to Pakistan's prime minister on Womens' Development, told
Reuters.
She blamed such violence in Pakistan on "the feudal tradition, the
culture
and the tribal system." She said that men found it "very convenient to
say
that what they don't want to do is against Islam and what they want to
do
is in the name of Islam."
While most cases are reported in Muslim countries, "honour" violence
also
occurs among Christian families, delegates said…
-----
IN EUROPE'S JAILS, NEGLECT OF ISLAM BREEDS TROUBLE
Craig S. Smith, New York Times, 12/8/04
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/08/international/europe/08prisons.html
ANTERRE DETENTION CENTER, France - Abdullah, tall and muscular, with a
shaved head and closely cropped goatee, sat on a metal bunk in the
cramped
cell here and described how he got religion.
"When I was in La Sant�, I read books about the Prophet," he said,
referring to a notorious Parisian detention center, the third of five
jails
where he has spent time during the past two years for dealing drugs and
stealing cars.
When he arrived at the fourth, Fleury-Merogis, Europe's largest,
another
inmate gave him a DVD about the life of Muhammad and later, while
enduring
a three-week stint in solitary confinement, he vowed to devote himself
to
Islam.
"People here find God," he said.
In less than a decade, there has been a radical shift in France's
prison
population, a shift that officials and experts say poses a monumental
challenge.
Despite making up only 10 percent of the population, Muslims account
for
most of the country's inmates and a growing percentage of the prison
populations in many other European countries, an indication of their
place
at the bottom of the Continent's hierarchy...
ALSO SEE:
BAN ON RELIGIOUS SYMBOLS FOR CIVIL SERVANTS-BELGIUM
Reuters, 12/8/04
BRUSSELS - Belgium plans to ban civil servants who directly deal with
the
public from wearing overt religious symbols, a minister said on
Wednesday,
following the example set in France to ban religious symbols in
schools.
"It concerns all religious symbols of all religions," Socialist
Minister
Christian Dupont told VRT radio.
Dupont oversees the country's public administration.
He said he will check first with the administration's top managers
whether
the measure would necessitate a change in the statute of civil
servants.
"After that, we will adopt the measure," he said.
Belgian Interior Minister Patrick Dewael earlier this year called for a
law
similar to French legislation banning Islamic headscarves in schools.
-----
AIPAC PROBE INTENSIFIES
Ron Kampeas and Matthew E. Berger, Jewish Times, 12/7/04
http://www.jewishtimes.com/News/4374.stm
A federal prosecutor's decision to bring an investigation involving the
American Israel Public Affairs Committee to a grand jury is, at the
least,
an unwanted distraction at a critical time for the top Israel lobby -
and
some worry that it could hamper the organization's effectiveness.
FBI agents searched AIPAC's headquarters here Wednesday, seizing files
associated with two senior staffers who were interviewed in August amid
allegations that a classified Pentagon document was leaked and passed
on to
Israel.
The agents also served subpoenas on four other senior staffers to
appear
before a grand jury later this month. The four were Howard Kohr, the
group's executive director; Richard Fishman, the managing director;
Renee
Rothstein, the communications director; and Raphael Danziger, the
research
director.
Though AIPAC in past months had sought to portray the investigation as
dying down, sources told JTA that federal investigators have
interviewed
several former AIPAC employees in recent weeks.
AIPAC officials deny that any staff member has done anything wrong…
ALSO SEE:
ADVANCE U.S. -- NOT ISRAEL'S -- INTERESTS
George E. Bisharat, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 12/8/04
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/202721_provoke08.html
Democrats, searching for ways to regain ground lost to Republicans in
November, should take guidance from an unusual source: a just-reported
Defense Department study of attitudes toward the United States in the
Arab
and Muslim worlds. That study confirms that we are resented worldwide
not
for our freedoms but for our policies.
In particular, it is our support for Israel, and more recently our
occupation of Iraq, that most offend 1.2 billion Arabs and Muslims.
Friendly relations with this big slice of humanity are key to our
economic
and strategic well-being.
Democrats should seize the moment to champion Middle East policies that
actually advance U.S. -- not Israeli -- interests. Our lavish support
of
Israel includes more than $90 billion in aid since 1949, our most
advanced
weaponry and 39 protective vetoes in the U.N. Security Council. This
has
been splendid for Israel -- at least for right-wing forces there
seeking
permanent colonization of Palestinian lands. What is not clear is how
this
benefits us.
I wouldn't cite Osama bin Laden as authority for much. But on his own
motivations, there's no better source. Per his recent video, bin Laden
first envisioned "towers falling" in the United States during Israel's
1982
invasion of Lebanon. That travesty alone killed more than 20,000
Palestinians and Lebanese and drove hundreds of thousands from their
homes.
Democrats are just as responsible for our lack of even-handedness as
Republicans. In his presidential campaign, John Kerry trumpeted his
"100
percent voting record for Israel," spoke of Israel's "right to defend
itself from terror" and distributed a syrupy account of his visit to
Israel. Democrats and Republicans in Congress line up obediently behind
the
latest pro-Israel resolution -- like one attacking the International
Court
of Justice decision on Israel's illegal separation wall...
-----
CIOGC 12 ANNUAL COMMUNITY DINNER
WHAT: The Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago announces
its
flagship event, the 12th annual community dinner "Faith & Opportunity:
The
Future of Islam in America," featuring Dr. John L. Esposito, world
renowned
contemporary American scholar of Islam, Georgetown Professor of
Religion &
International Affairs and Islamic Studies, Foreign-Affairs Analyst:
Bureau
of Intelligence & Research (Clinton Presidency), and founding director
of
the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown
University.
Dinner will also include the CIOGC Excellence Awards Presentation.
Tickets: Adults $50 Children (12 & Under) $25
LIMITED SEATING - PLEASE RESERVE IN ADVANCE
WHEN: Sunday, December 12, 2004
Dinner and Program, 6 PM Sharp
WHERE: Chicago Marriott, 1200 Burr Ridge Pkwy, Burr Ridge, IL 60527
For more information, call the Council of Islamic Organizations of
Greater
Chicago at (630) 629.7490.
-----
MD MUSLIMS COLLECT WINTER CLOTHES FOR NEEDY FAMILIES
WHAT: Winter season is upon us and there are lots of people who do not
have
proper attire for the cold weather. Baltimore County Muslim Council is
collecting winter coats, mittens, gloves and scarves for the needy
families
from various Masajid around Baltimore region. Please look around in
your
closets & ward robes to see if any of the above items can be donated.
Make
sure that your donation is in good condition. You can also make cash
donation towards the purchase of winter clothing.
WHEN: All donations must be received by December 15th, 2004.
WHERE: Donations of the above can be dropped at Masjid Al-Rahmah (ISB)
or
at 118 Galewood Road, Timonium 21093.
For any questions, please call Sr. Nasrin Rahman, 410-252-4211.
-----
To SUBSCRIBE to or UNSUBSCRIBE from this list, go to:
http://cair.biglist.com/cair-net/
To reach the list moderator, send a message to: cair@cair-net.org
-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
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In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
MUSLIMS IN U.S., CANADA ASK WIESENTHAL CENTER TO CONDEMN ANTI-ISLAM
REMARKS
- CAIR-LA: Muslims Call on Wiesenthal Center to Repudiate Islamophobia
- CAIR-CAN: Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre Asked to Condemn
Islamophobic Comments
-----
MUSLIMS CALL ON WIESENTHAL CENTER TO REPUDIATE ISLAMOPHOBIA
Center's Canadian office sponsored speaker who blamed Islam for terror
(ANAHEIM, CA, 12/9/2004) - The Southern California office of Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA) today called on the Simon
Wiesenthal
Center in Los Angeles to repudiate Islamophobic comments blaming the
faith
of Islam for terror made at a recent conference sponsored by the
center's
Canadian branch.
The comments were reportedly made by Bruce Tefft, a former CIA
official, in
a panel discussion on "jihad and global terrorism" co-sponsored by the
Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center at the University of Toronto.
For the links between the two groups, see:
http://www.wiesenthal.com/about/office_canada.cfm
Tefft reportedly made the following statements:
"Islamic terrorism is based on Islam as revealed through the Qu'ran."
"To pretend that Islam has nothing to do with Sept. 11 is to willfully
ignore the obvious and to forever misinterpret events."
"There is no difference between Islam and Islamic fundamentalism, which
is
a totalitarian construct."
SEE: "Islamic Terror Based on Qu'ran: Ex-CIA Official"
http://www.cjnews.com/viewarticle.asp?id=5056
TO VIEW A NEWS RELEASE ABOUT THE EVENT, GO TO:
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/November2004/15/c3271.html
In a statement issued today, CAIR-LA wrote:
"We call on the Simon Wiesenthal Center to condemn these Islamophobic
remarks in the strongest possible terms. Characterizing Islam and its
revealed text as promoting terrorism can only lead to increased
anti-Muslim
prejudice and intolerance.
"As an organization that says it is committed to 'fostering tolerance
and
understanding,' the Simon Wiesenthal Center must immediately repudiate
all
Islamophobic rhetoric and hold its Canadian office accountable for
failing
to challenge the speaker's hate-filled views."
Just this week, CAIR representatives attended a U.N. conference on the
negative impact of Islamophobia.
SEE: http://www.cair-net.org/asp/article.asp?id=1348&page=NR
CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil liberties group, is headquartered
in
Washington, D.C., and has 29 offices and chapters nationwide and in
Canada.
Its mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue,
protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions
that promote justice and mutual understanding.
- END -
CONTACT: CAIR-LA, Sabiha Khan, 714-776-1847 or 714-390-0334, E-Mail:
socal@cair.com
-----
CAIR-CAN: FRIENDS OF SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTRE ASKED TO CONDEMN
ISLAMOPHOBIC
COMMENTS
Speaker at group's event said Qur'an promotes terror, called Islam
'immoderate,' 'totalitarian'
(OTTAWA, CANADA - 9/12/2004) - The Canadian Council on American-Islamic
Relations (CAIR-CAN) today called on the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal
Center
(FSWC) to publicly condemn recent Islamophobic comments made by an
invited
keynote speaker at a conference sponsored by the group and held at the
University of Toronto.
At the FSWC event, Bruce Tefft, a former official with the CIA and
counter-terrorism and intelligence advisor to the New York Police
Department, reportedly stated:
"Islamic terrorism is based on Islam as revealed through the Qu'ran."
"To pretend that Islam has nothing to do with Sept. 11 is to willfully
ignore the obvious and to forever misinterpret events."
"There is no difference between Islam and Islamic fundamentalism, which
is
a totalitarian construct."
For the press release on the event, see:
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/November2004/15/c3271.html
For media coverage, see:
http://www.cjnews.com/viewarticle.asp?id=5056
In a statement issued today, CAIR-CAN wrote:
"Mr. Tefft's comments were hateful, Islamophobic and have no place
within a
civilized Canadian discourse. Characterizing Islam as synonymous with
terrorism can only lead to the demonization and marginalization of
Canadian
Muslims.
"It is appalling that Mr. Tefft made such statements in a public forum
organized by an organization that prides itself on 'fostering tolerance
and
understanding' and has as its goals the fighting of 'bigotry, racial
hatred, and ethnic intolerance.'
"We are calling on the Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center to
immediately condemn Mr. Tefft's statements and to issue an apology to
Canadian Muslims.
"We would also hope that both the University of Toronto and fellow
speakers
and panelists repudiate Mr. Tefft's comments in the strongest possible
terms."
Recently, the United Nations held a conference to deal with
Islamaphobia
entitled "Confronting Islamophobia: Education for Tolerance and
Understanding."
- END -
CONTACT: CAIR-CAN, Abdurahman Salman at 613-254-9704; Cell:
613-795-2012
CAIR-CAN
Council on American-Islamic Relations CANADA
P.O. Box 13219, Ottawa, ONT, K2K 1X4
Tel: 1-866-524-0004
Fax: 613-254-9810
URL: www.caircan.ca
-----
NOTE: CAIR offers an e-mail list designed to be a window to the
American
Muslim community. Subscribers to the list, called CAIR-NET, receive
news
releases and other materials dealing with American Muslim positions on
issues of importance to our society.
To SUBSCRIBE to CAIR-NET, go to: http://cair.biglist.com/cair-net/
-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
--------------------------------------------------------------------
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In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TWO U.S. MOSQUES BURNED IN ONE WEEK
CAIR calls on feds to rule out possibility of hate crimes
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 12/9/04) - A prominent national Islamic civil rights
and
advocacy group today called on federal authorities to help rule out the
possibility that fires this week at mosques in Massachusetts and
Arizona
were anti-Muslim hate crimes. The Washington-based Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) says that Muslim communities in
Arizona
and Massachusetts need to be reassured that they are not being
targeted.
A fire last night heavily damaged the Al-Baqi Islamic Center in
Springfield, Mass. Arson investigators have not yet determined the
cause of
the fire, but did say that the blaze was not sparked by electrical
problems.
SEE: "Mosque Burns; Cause Probed"
http://www.masslive.com/hampfrank/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-6/11025819
5857981.xml
Yesterday, CAIR's Arizona office held a news conference to call for an
FBI
investigation of a fire that destroyed a Phoenix-area mosque. The blaze
broke out early Tuesday morning in the Al Sadiq Mosque in Glendale,
Ariz.
After initially saying the fire was of "suspicious origins," local
investigators now say the cause is "undetermined."
SEE: "Muslims Seek FBI Aid in Fire Investigation"
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/1209wvmosque09.html
In a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division,
CAIR
Legal Director Arsalan Iftikhar wrote: "Given the recent pattern of
incidents targeting Islamic institutions in the United States, and the
Muslim community's concerns about the rising tide of Islamophobic
rhetoric
in our society, I would respectfully request that the Department of
Justice
assist in ruling out the possibility that these most recent incidents
were
bias-motivated hate crimes."
Iftikhar also noted that in late November, CAIR called on the FBI to
assist
in the investigation of a fire at a Virginia gas station that may have
been
motivated by anti-Muslim or anti-Arab bias. Racist graffiti such as
"F***
Arab go home" was left in the vicinity of the Sikh-owned station.
(Since
the 9/11 terror attacks, a number of Sikh men who wear turbans have
been
targeted because they were mistaken for Muslims.)
Other incidents targeting American Islamic institutions have taken
place
recently nationwide. In Fargo, N.D., vandals smeared feces on a mosque.
In
the neighboring state of Minnesota, two Islamic centers were also
vandalized.
In Texas, firebombs were thrown at an El Paso mosque. Also in Texas, a
man
was arrested for threatening an El Paso Islamic center, an arson
suspect
was arrested at the scene of a fire at a Muslim business in San Antonio
and
vandals scrawled racist graffiti on the interior of a Lubbock mosque. A
home-made bomb exploded in the mailbox of a Houston Islamic center.
In Washington, D.C., a Muslim prayer area at American University was
vandalized. Earlier this year in Florida, vandals wrote "Kill all
Muslims"
inside the Islamic Community Center in the Tampa suburb of Lutz. The
FBI is
also investigating vandalism and threatening messages targeting the
Islamic
Community of Southwest Florida in Charlotte Harbor. In Missouri,
vandals
painted a Nazi swastika and the word "die" on an addition under
construction at the Islamic Foundation of Greater St. Louis. Three
Miami
Islamic centers were vandalized.
In August of last year, investigators determined that a blaze at the
Islamic Center of Savannah in Savannah, Ga., was an act of arson. In
2003,
a Florida man was sentenced to more than 12 years in federal prison for
plotting to attack some 50 Islamic institutions in that state. Similar
incidents have occurred in a number of other states, particularly since
the
9/11 terror attacks.
As early as 1994, a nearly completed mosque in Yuba City, Calif.,
burned to
the ground in what was ruled an arson attack. In 1995, arson destroyed
a
Springfield, Ill., Islamic center. In 1996, a suspect was charged for
involvement in an arson attack on a Greenville, S.C., mosque. In 1999,
an
arson attack severely damaged a Minneapolis, Minn., mosque. Also in
1999, a
would-be terrorist was arrested after fleeing from the area of a mosque
near Denver, Colo. The suspect's car was found to contain loaded
weapons
and bomb-making materials.
As a response to post-9/11 anti-Muslim incidents, CAIR published a
"Muslim
Community Safety Kit." The safety kit may be obtained free of charge by
e-mailing pubs@cair-net.org. (Include name, address and phone number
when
requesting the safety kit.)
CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil liberties group, is headquartered
in
Washington, D.C., and has 29 offices and chapters nationwide and in
Canada.
Its mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue,
protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions
that promote justice and mutual understanding.
- END -
CONTACT: Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail:
ihooper@cair-net.org; Rabiah Ahmed, 202-488-8787 or 202-439-1441,
E-Mail:
rahmed@cair-net.org
NOTE: CAIR offers an e-mail list designed to be a window to the
American
Muslim community. Subscribers to the list, called CAIR-NET, receive
news
releases and other materials dealing with American Muslim positions on
issues of importance to our society.
To SUBSCRIBE to CAIR-NET, go to: http://cair.biglist.com/cair-net/
-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
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http://mail2web.com/ .
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 12/10/04
* VERSE OF THE DAY: THE BEST OF CREATURES
* QUOTE OF THE DAY: GET TO KNOW YOUR MUSLIM NEIGHBORS
* CAIR JOB OPENING: PUBLICATION COORDINATOR
* CAIR REP TAKES PART IN DISCUSSION OF POST-9/11 DEPORTATIONS
- CAIR-CAN: Canadians Want Security Certificates Abolished
* INTEL BILL EXPANDS POLICE POWERS (Wash Post)
- Anti-Terror Bill Worries Liberties Groups (AP)
- Gitmo Detainee Details Abuse (AP)
* MASS. MUSLIMS FEAR ARSON HIT MOSQUE (Boston Globe)
- Muslim Group Asks U.S. to Probe Mosque Blazes (Reuters)
- MA: Mosque Fire's Cause Remains Mystery (Republican)
- MA: Investigators Probe Fire at Springfield Mosque (AP)
* CT: POLICE TRAINING TO UNDERSTAND ISLAMIC CULTURE (WTNH)
- UT: Muslims File Bias Suit (Salt Lake Trib)
* READERS RESPOND TO ANTI-ISLAM ARTICLE (Wash Times)
- GA: Step Up and Unite Us All (GSU Signal)
* CA: RELIGIOUS EXPOSURE IS "A PLUS" AT MUSLIM SCHOOL (NGNO)
* AIPAC SCANDAL PROMPTS TALK OF POWERHOUSE'S DEMISE (Forward)
- FBI Steps Up AIPAC Probe (UPI)
- INCITEMENT WATCH: Editor Seeks 'Transfer' of Palestinians
* U.S. TO USE BIOMETRIC SCANS ON CIVILIANS IN FALLUJAH (AFP)
-----
VERSE OF THE DAY: THE BEST OF CREATURES
"Those who have faith and do righteous deeds, they are the best of
creatures."
The Holy Quran, 98:7
-----
QUOTE OF THE DAY: GET TO KNOW YOUR MUSLIM NEIGHBORS
WHO'S AGAINST US - AND WHO'S NOT
Steve Blow, Dallas Morning News, 12/10/04
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/localnews/columnists/all/stor
ies/121004dnmetblow.db9c8.html
Until we knock down the notion that we are the enemy of Muslims
everywhere,
our war on terrorism will never end…
Want to help our troops in Iraq? Want to fight terrorism?
Then get to know your Muslim neighbors. You have 7 million of them
here.
Build bridges of understanding. Seek justice. Fight prejudice.
Yes, it's important to know our enemies. But it's also important to
know
who our enemies aren't - and that's the vast, vast majority of the 1.2
billion Muslims in this world.
SEND NOTES OF APPRECIATION THROUGH:
http://www.dallasnews.com/cgi-bin/lettertoed.cgi
COPY TO: sblow@dallasnews.com, cair@cair-net.org
-----
CAIR JOB OPENING: PUBLICATION COORDINATOR
CAIR is seeking applicants for the full-time position of Marketing and
Publications Coordinator.
Responsibilities include marketing of CAIR's work, programs,
membership,
and publications. This position involves travel and some weekend and
off-hour work.
The ideal candidate will be self-motivated and a self-starter with two
years experience in a related field that will assist CAIR in reaching
out
to the public. Candidate must have basic computer and graphic design
skills, good interpersonal and communications skills, and be a team
worker.
Good typing skills and working experience with data base programs will
be
an asset.
Interested candidates should apply with a cover letter, comprehensive
resume stating education, work history, and references and CAIR
employment
application available from our website at www.cair-net.org to:
CAIR (Council of American Islamic Relations)
453 New Jersey Ave SE
Washington DC 20003
Fax: 202-488-0833
Email: hr@cair-net.org
Note: Please indicate "Marketing and Publications Coordinator
Application"
in the subject of your email or on top of fax or envelope. No phone
calls
please.
-----
ACLU REPORT DOCUMENTS EFFECTS OF POST-9/11 DEPORTATIONS ON IMMIGRANT
COMMUNITIES
http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=17163&c=206
NEW YORK- At a roundtable discussion today with more than 20 human
rights
advocates and Muslim community members, the American Civil Liberties
Union
released a new report documenting the devastating effects that the Bush
administration's "anti-terrorism" policies have had on immigrant
families
and communities…
The report was the focus of a roundtable discussion sponsored by the
Open
Society Institute today in New York. The discussion, which was
moderated by
the ACLU's Beeson and began with an introduction by OSI President Aryeh
Neier, featured comments from more than 20 Muslim and human rights
advocates as well as family members of some of the men profiled in the
report. One relative, Hosni Abualeinen, said that his uncle, Ahmed, is
"really suffering from the way he's been deported." Ahmed Abualeinen,
60,
was imprisoned in the U.S. for five months before agreeing to voluntary
departure.
In addition to Beeson and Neier, participants in the discussion
included:
Engy AbdelKader of the Council on American Islamic Relations; Aisha
Al-Adiwya of Women in Islam; Adem Carroll of the Islamic Circle of
North
America; Anthony Richter of the Open Society Institute; Parastou
Hassouri
of the ACLU of New Jersey; Omar Jadwat of the ACLU Immigrants Rights
Project; Bobby Kahn of the Coney Island Avenue Project; Louis
AbdelLatif
Cristillo of the Muslims of New York City Project; Dalia Hashad of the
ACLU; Moe Razvi of the Council of Pakistani Organizations; Bryan
Lonegan of
New York City Legal Aid; Partha Banerjee of New Immigrant Community
Empowerment; Sin-Yen Ling of Asian American Legal Defense Fund; Susan
Davies of the Chatham Peace Initiative; Subhash Kateel of Families for
Freedom; Udi Ofer of the New York Civil Liberties Union; Monica Tarazi
of
the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee; and Bhairavi Desai of
New
York City Taxi Workers Alliance...
For a copy of the report, go to:
http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=17160&c=207.
SEE ALSO:
CAIR-CAN: PROMINENT CANADIANS TO DEMAND ABOLITION OF SECURITY
CERTIFICATES
OTTAWA - Abolish security certificates and secret trials in Canada,
prominent Canadians will urge the federal government at a December 10th
news conference in support of Mohamed Harkat and other security
certificate
detainees.
December 10th, International Human Rights Day, has been declared a
national
day of action against secret trials, with events and actions happening
in
Ottawa, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax, among other cities.
WHAT: News conference against security certificates
WHO:
- Ed Broadbent - Member of Parliament (NDP), Past President of the
International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development
- Alex Neve - Amnesty International Canada, Secretary General for
English
Speaking Branch
- Riad Saloojee - Council for American-Islamic Relations Canada
(CAIR-CAN),
Executive Director
- Warren Allmand - International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group
(ICLMG),
former Solicitor General of Canada
- Deborah Bourque - Canadian Union of Postal Workers, President
WHEN: Friday, December 10th, 10:00 AM
WHERE: Charles Lynch Room, Centre Block, Parliament Hill, Ottawa
December 10th also marks the second anniversary of the detention of
Mohamed
Harkat in Ottawa.
More information on the five detainees may be found at:
www.zerra.net/freemohamed
For further information: Contacts: Jessica Squires, Justice for Mohamed
Harkat Committee, (613) 328-5831; Christian Legeais, Comit� Justice
pour
Mohamed Harkat: (613) 276-9102.
CONTACT: CAIR-CAN, Abdurahman Salman at 613-254-9704; Cell:
613-795-2012
CAIR-CAN
Council on American-Islamic Relations CANADA
P.O. Box 13219, Ottawa, ONT, K2K 1X4
Tel: 1-866-524-0004
Fax: 613-254-9810
URL: www.caircan.ca
-----
INTELLIGENCE BILL INCLUDES DISPUTED ANTI-TERROR MOVES
Dan Eggen, Washington Post, 12/10/04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A53452-2004Dec9
The intelligence package that Congress approved this week includes a
series
of little-noticed measures that would broaden the government's power to
conduct terrorism investigations, including provisions to loosen
standards
for FBI surveillance warrants and allow the Justice Department to more
easily detain suspects without bail.
Other law-enforcement-related measures in the bill -- expected to be
signed
by President Bush next week -- include an expansion of the criteria
that
constitute "material support" to terrorist groups and the ability to
share
U.S. grand jury information with foreign governments in urgent
terrorism
cases.
These and other changes designed to strengthen federal counterterrorism
programs have long been sought by the Bush administration and the
Justice
Department but have languished in Congress, in part because of
opposition
from civil liberties advocates…
But civil liberties advocates and some Democrats said the measures
would do
little to protect the public while further eroding constitutional
protections for innocent people caught up in investigations.
Critics also say the proposed changes were overshadowed by the debate
over
other aspects of the bill, which puts in place many intelligence agency
reforms proposed by the independent commission that investigated the
Sept.
11, 2001, attacks. Some Democrats say they reluctantly approved the
package
because they favored the broader intelligence changes.
Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) said that while he voted for the bill
because of its intelligence reforms, he opposed much of the expansion
of
law enforcement power. Most of it was not part of the Sept. 11 panel's
recommendations.
"I am troubled by some provisions that were added in conference that
have
nothing to do with reforming our intelligence network," Feingold said.
He
later added: "This Justice Department has a record of abusing its
detention
powers post-9/11 and of making terrorism allegations that turn out to
have
no merit."
Charlie Mitchell, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties
Union, said the law enforcement measures are "most troubling in terms
of
the trend they represent." He added: "They keep pushing and pushing
without
any attempt to review what they've done…"
One key change is a provision in the new intelligence package that
targets
"lone wolf" terrorists not linked with established terrorist groups
such as
al Qaeda. In language similar to earlier Senate legislation, the bill
would
allow the FBI to obtain secret surveillance and search warrants of
individuals without having to show a connection between the target of
the
warrant and a foreign government or terrorist group…
Other provisions in the bill include:
o Suspects in major terrorism crimes automatically would be denied bail
unless they show they are not a danger or a flight risk. Advocates say
the
provision is modeled on similar rules for certain drug crimes, but
Mitchell
said it would increase the possibility of indefinite detention in
alleged
terrorism cases.
o Penalties would be increased for such crimes as harboring illegal
immigrants, perpetrating a terrorist hoax, and possessing smallpox,
anti-aircraft missile systems and radiological "dirty" bombs. The
measure
also is more explicit than current statutes in making it illegal to
attend
military-style training camps run by terrorist groups.
o Federal prosecutors would be allowed to share secret information
obtained
by grand juries with states or foreign governments to protect against
terrorist attacks. German authorities, among others, have complained
about
difficulties obtaining information from the FBI and other U.S. agencies
about foreign terrorist suspects.
SEE ALSO:
ANTI-TERROR BILL WORRIES LIBERTIES GROUPS
The Associated Press, 12/9/04
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/wire/sns-ap-intelligence-te
rror-powers,0,486799.story
People indicted on terror charges will have a much harder time getting
free
on bail under a provision in the new intelligence bill. The provision
also
broadens the government's authority to spy on terror suspects.
Critics say the enforcement powers, attached to the bill with little
debate
in Congress, weaken civil liberties and privacy rights that already
were
undermined by the Patriot Act that was approved shortly after the Sept.
11
attacks.
The new legislation broadens prohibitions against providing material
support to terror groups, makes it a crime to visit a terror camp that
provides military-style training and allows the FBI to obtain secret
surveillance warrants against "lone wolf" extremists not known to be
tied
to a specific terrorist group. It also makes terrorism hoaxes a federal
crime and toughens penalties against people who possess weapons of mass
destruction...
Critics say the provisions escaped close scrutiny because they were
tucked
into the massive bill creating a new national intelligence director.
"Overall, it's another threat to civil liberties in this country," said
Charlie Mitchell, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties
Union. "It's just a continuation of what the administration's been
doing."
Under the bill, a legal presumption would be established denying bail
for
anyone indicted by a grand jury on terrorism charges. Although the
suspect
could appeal to a judge, the burden of proof would be on the defendant
to
show release would be prudent...
Skeptics say the provision has the potential to be abused, possibly
resulting in long detentions for people ultimately found innocent.
"Unfortunately, this Justice Department has a record of abusing its
detention powers post-9/11 and of making terrorism allegations that
turn
out to have no merit," said Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis…
---
AUSTRALIAN DETAINEE AT GUANTANAMO DETAILS ABUSE AND MISTREATMENT IN
AFFIDAVIT
Associated Press, 12/9/04
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4664497,00.html
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - Prisoners at the U.S. detention center in
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been beaten while blindfolded and
handcuffed,
terrorized by attack dogs and forced to take drugs, an Australian
detainee
said in an affidavit released Thursday.
He also said U.S. jailers withheld food to encourage cooperation with
interrogators…
The release of the affidavit comes the same week as the publication of
several documents that show FBI agents sent to Guantanamo Bay warned
the
government of abuse and mistreatment as early as the start of the
detention
mission. One letter, written by a senior Justice Department official
Thomas
Harrington and obtained by The Associated Press, suggested the Pentagon
did
not act on the FBI complaints.
The memos document abuses, including a female interrogator grabbing a
detainee's genitals and bending back his thumbs, most of a prisoner's
head
being covered with duct tape because he would not stop quoting from the
Quran and an attack dog used to intimidate a detainee, who later showed
"extreme psychological trauma."
Hicks' affidavit said he was forcibly injected with sedatives and then
struck, and that he reported the abuse to the International Committee
of
the Red Cross, the only independent organization with access to the
detainees...
-----
SPRINGFIELD MUSLIMS FEAR ARSON HIT MOSQUE
Stephanie Ebbert and Mac Daniel, Boston Globe, 12/10/04
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2004/12/10/springfie
ld_muslims_fear_arson_hit_mosque/
SPRINGFIELD -- Federal agents yesterday joined the investigation into a
fire that tore through a Springfield mosque Wednesday, severely
damaging
the building and raising concern among authorities and some local
Muslims
that someone set the blaze.
The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives
yesterday
joined the probe of the fire at the Al-Baqi Islamic Center, as is
customary
when a place of worship may have been the target of a crime. The fire,
reported at 5 p.m. Wednesday, probably means the building will be
demolished, authorities said.
Mosque member Gha-Is Shakr, 58, of Springfield, said the fire followed
at
least two recent incidents involving his mosque and another mosque
nearby.
He said there was a break-in at Al-Baqi several weeks ago in which
items
were stolen. About a week later, someone broke a window at nearby
Muhammad
Mosque No. 13.
"It seems to be following a pattern," said Shakr, a member of Al-Baqi
since
1975. "I think it's in the atmosphere right now. It's disheartening.
Something seems to be brewing here."
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a national, Washington-based
Muslim organization, called for federal help in the probe, which also
involves local officials, the state Fire Marshal's Office, and State
Police. Springfield officials welcomed the federal cooperation, fearing
a
repeat of the hate-motivated attacks targeting Muslims since Sept. 11,
2001…
The Council on American-Islamic Relations also asked for federal agents
to
investigate a fire at an Arizona mosque Tuesday.
"It is entirely possible that it could be a sheer coincidence that two
mosques were burned in the same week, but we unfortunately see these
incidents as a pattern of growing attacks against American Muslims,"
said
Arsalan T. Iftikhar, national legal director for the group.
A July 27, 2003, arson fire at the Islamic Center of New England in
Quincy
remains unsolved. The fire, which may have started in a trash
receptacle,
caused an estimated $10,000 in damage. Yesterday, a spokesman for
Norfolk
District Attorney William R. Keating said the investigation into that
fire
was still open, but the motive remains unknown.
SEE ALSO:
MUSLIM GROUP ASKS U.S. TO PROBE MOSQUE BLAZES
Reuters, 12/9/04
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=7045601
BOSTON (Reuters) - An Islamic civil rights group on Thursday asked
federal
authorities to step in and investigate whether two separate fires at
U.S.
mosques this week were hate crimes.
In a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights
Department,
the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations called on
the
government to investigate blazes at mosques in Arizona and
Massachusetts.
Citing local press reports, CAIR said two firefighters suffered burns
on
Tuesday when a ceiling collapsed during a fire at the Al Sadiq Mosque
in
Glendale, Arizona, while a "suspicious blaze" on Wednesday gutted the
Al-Baqi Islamic Center in Springfield, Massachusetts…
CAIR said violence against Arabs and Muslims -- as well as people
presumed
to be Arabs and Muslims -- has risen in the United States since the
Sept.
11, 2001, attacks.
---
MOSQUE FIRE'S CAUSE REMAINS MYSTERY
PATRICK JOHNSON, Republican, 12/10/04
http://www.masslive.com/chicopeeholyoke/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-2/11
02668343122802.xml
SPRINGFIELD - As officials investigate the cause of a fire that heavily
damaged the Al-Baqi Islamic Center Wednesday, local Muslims are
expressing
their concerns.
"I would prefer to see that something happened inside the building than
someone coming in of free mind and willfully burning the building
down,"
said Rasul F. Seifullah, the iman or leader of the Al-Baqi Islamic
Center,
a Sunni Muslim mosque at 495 Union St.
Investigators are trying to determine whether the fire is suspicious,
said
Fire Department spokesman Lt. Neil A. Hawley. Investigators found
evidence
of a break-in on the second floor, he said.
Seifullah surveyed the burnt-out shell of the mosque yesterday. "I'm
praying it is not anyone coming in and doing it intentionally,"
Seifullah
said. "We've had no problems with the community."
As have other Muslims, Seifullah noted the increased hostilities toward
Muslims in this country since Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the
war
in Iraq.
"These are the times we live in," he said…
The Washington, D.C.-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, an
advocacy group, issued a press release demanding that federal
authorities
help in determining whether the fire here and another Tuesday at a
mosque
in Glendale, Ariz., were hate crimes. Federal authorities already are
working on the fire here…
---
INVESTIGATORS PROBE FIRE THAT DESTROYED SPRINGFIELD MOSQUE
Associated Press, 12/9/04
http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=58064
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - Investigators said Thursday they found evidence of
a
break-in at a city mosque that was destroyed by fire.
Lt. Neil Hawley of the Springfield Fire Department would not disclose
any
details of the break-in, and said arson investigators are still trying
to
figure out what started the fire at the Al-Baqi Islamic Center on
Wednesday…
Advocates with the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic
Relations
called on the federal government to investigate whether the fires in
Springfield and at another mosque in Glendale, Ariz., are the results
of
hate crimes against Muslims.
"Given the recent pattern of incidents targeting Islamic institutions
in
the United States, and the Muslim community's concerns about the rising
tide of Islamophobic rhetoric in our society, I would respectfully
request
that the Department of Justice assist in ruling out the possibility
that
these most recent incidents were bias-motivated hate crimes," Arsalan
Iftikhar, the group's legal director, wrote in a letter sent to the
U.S.
Department of Justice Civil Rights Division.
-----
CT: POLICE TRAINING TO UNDERSTAND ISLAMIC CULTURE
WTNH, 12/8/04
http://www.wtnh.com/Global/story.asp?S=2667395&nav=3YeXTz2v
(New Haven) - We've all heard of police profiling, using someone's race
as
a reason to question them. Many young Muslim men feel they are being
targeted in the name of fighting terrorism, so today some police
officers
got training to better understand the Muslim and Islamic cultures.
"All Muslims are not terrorists.
Uthman Wells is Muslim. He says others from his mosque sometimes feel
police target them in the name of fighting terrorism.
"I know other people feel the cops have treated them unfairly because
of
their faith," he says.
Police officers from across Connecticut got training Wednesday to
improve
Islamic relations.
"Since 9/11 there has been a lack of context and misunderstanding,"
says
Abdul-Majid Karim Hasan of the Muhammad Islamic Center.
Two men from the local Islamic community talked about everything from
cultural differences to style of dress.
"We want to try and clarify the differences," says Karim Hasan. "We
want
people to know just because we look a certain way we're not all the
same."
In the post 9/11 atmosphere many officers complain they get generic
alerts
to look for Middle Eastern men. These instructors advice?
"Seek out details. Seek out more details. What does a Middle Eastern
look
like? What does a Muslim look like? So, get more information when you
get
your call…"
ALSO SEE:
MUSLIMS FILE UTAH BIAS SUIT
Pamela Manson, Salt Lake Tribune, 12/8/04
http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_2483994
From the time they started work at a Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream
manufacturing
plant in Salt Lake City, three Muslims from Africa were subjected to
derogatory comments from co-workers about their race and religion, they
contend.
In addition, the black men say their white American counterparts
received
better pay raises and more opportunities to work overtime. They allege
their complaints about discrimination were ignored and their
mistreatment
got worse after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Now, the three from Sudan have gone to court over the alleged
harassment.
In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court, they accuse the
Oakland,
Calif.-based company of creating a hostile work environment and
discriminating based on race and national origin. The three - Alaeldin
Ahmedomer, Elsadig Osman and Mohammed Ahmedomer, who no longer work at
the
Sugar House area plant - are seeking unspecified damages.
A representative of Dreyer's legal department said Wednesday the
company's
lawyers cannot comment because they have not seen the suit.
The suit alleges the men were sent home before white American workers
when
there was not enough work to do; were required to submit doctors'
notes,
while other employees were not; received less desirable job
assignments;
and were left out of company functions when Dreyer's repeatedly denied
their requests to include food without pork products that they could
eat…
-----
READERS RESPOND TO ANTI-ISLAM ARTICLE
ISLAM MISUNDERSTOOD?
Edward Ott, Washington Times, 12/9/04
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20041205-123303-1953r.htm
I found Sam Harris' Thursday Op-Ed column, "'Mired in a religious
war,'"
very disturbing. I thought for a moment, "Am I reading the Klan
monthly?"
This type of hatemongering and misinformation has no place in any
newspaper
or magazine in America. All Mr. Harris has done has been to provide
propaganda for the Muslim extremists who want it to be a religious war.
ALSO SEE:
ISLAM MISUNDERSTOOD?
Dierdre M. Freamon, Wash Times, 12/9/04
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20041205-123303-1953r.htm
I am responding to Sam Harris' assertion that Koranic doctrine is
essentially violent. I hope he reads this so he can understand Islam
better.
In Mr. Harris' opinion, the "vision of life" in the Koran is murderous
and
violent. Has he read the section where God says: "God has sent down
signs
to his servant to lead you out of darkness and into light. And he is to
you
(all people) Most Full of Pity, Most Merciful." Has he read the
repeated
mentions of God as "Most Gracious" and "Most Merciful"? Does he
understand
that the Koran is written in such strong language to wake mankind out
of
its slumber of apathy and toward a more fulfilling and just life? Does
Mr.
Harris know the history of the Koran?
At the time of the prophet Muhammad, there was severe arrogance and
greed
in all worldly affairs. When the Koran mentions nonbelievers, it talks
of
people so overcome with love of their status that they refuse to
believe or
practice anything that might mean a loss of their power.
In a similar way, Jesus admonished the Jews who wanted to be seen
worshipping just for the power and prestige their outward behavior
garnered
and not for the sincere love of God. The Bible talks of the everlasting
punishment of spiteful, arrogant, rebellious and perverse people. Do
you
call the central doctrine of the Bible murderous and violent?...
---
ISLAM MISUNDERSTOOD?
Dr. Louay M. Safi, Wash Times, 12/9/04
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20041205-123303-1953r.htm
I read with pain and dismay Sam Harris' "'Mired in a religious war.'"
It
saddens me that such ignorance and bigotry can be propagated.
The Times should not, in the name of free expression, allow hatred,
bigotry
and incitement against a religious community and a religious tradition
to
become part of our national discourse.
Mr. Harris should make a serious attempt to understand Islam's sacred
book
and learn what Muslims believe before passing judgment on them and
their
book.
-----
ISLAM MISUNDERSTOOD?
Suhail A. Khan, Wash Times, 12/9/04
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20041205-123303-1953r.htm
I was deeply saddened to read Sam Harris' Op-Ed column "'Mired in a
religious war,'" in which he questions the nature of the faith of Islam
and
criticizes President Bush (without naming him) by disputing Mr. Bush's
claim that Islam is a "peaceful religion hijacked by extremists." I
humbly
ask that Mr. Harris and your readers make a distinction between an
entire
faith and the actions of misguided individuals.
History is replete with instances of fanatics twisting religion to
further
their own hateful agendas: Thousands of Muslim, Christian and Jewish
civilians were killed by "Christian" soldiers during the Crusades;
thousands of Jews and Muslims were tortured and murdered in the
Catholic
Church's Spanish Inquisition; Puritan elders presided over the shameful
Salem Witch Trials; and, more recently, Eastern Orthodox Christian
Serbs
engaged in the mass rape and murder of tens of thousands of Muslim
Bosnians
and Catholic Croats in the former Yugoslavia. In these instances, and
in
the cases of the Christian "identity movement," the Ku Klux Klan and
countless others, many have twisted the tenets of their faith to
perpetuate
hate and often violence…
----
ISLAM MISUNDERSTOOD?
Capt. Yahya Radwan, Wash Times, 12/9/04
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20041205-123303-1953r.htm
I was extremely offended by the Op-Ed column "Mired in a religious
war."
I am a fundamentalist Muslim (in that I believe in the fundamentals of
Islam), an officer in the U.S. Army and a veteran of Operation Iraqi
Freedom. Mr. Harris claims that "we are absolutely at war with the
vision
of life that is prescribed to all Muslims in the Koran."That is false.
The vision of life prescribed to all Muslims in the Koran is one of an
entire way of life, including justified military self-defense. If Mr.
Harris thoroughly researched the Koran, in context, he would understand
that any measures that were taken against enemies of early Muslims were
done so after years of humiliation, torture and unbearable violence
simply
because they professed a faith that was different from that of their
countrymen. Muslims are never allowed to take an innocent human life...
---
GA: STEP UP AND UNITE US ALL
Rukshana Razu, Georgia State University Signal, 12/8/04
http://www.gsusignal.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/12/08/41b7041dd3ffb
President Bush's second term is almost on its way. The president seems
confident enough to take on the challenges his second term will bring.
Important changes have already occurred in the president's
administration.
Along with these changes, I hope he will make a few others regarding
his
administration's policies.
During the president's first term, many of the president's decisions
repelled many people. Since this nation decided to give him a second
chance, the president should revisit overlooked foreign policy issues
and
revive harmony in the country.
The Bush administration often characterizes the war on terrorism as a
global war. Here is a chance for them to expand their list of allies
and to
make this war actually a global effort. Recently, French President
Jacques
Chirac met with Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair. During the
meeting,
President Chirac criticized the United State's effort to fight
terrorism.
However, he expressed willingness to put aside the differences and help
rebuild Iraq.
This offer can produce beneficial results for Iraq and the United
States.
The Bush administration should try to seize this opportunity to revive
relationships. If the administration welcomes this offer, it may
encourage
other nations to step forward with their aid…
-----
FOR SOME LOCAL FAMILIES RELIGIOUS EXPOSURE IS "A PLUS" AT ISLAM SCHOOL
Timothy Wheeler, North Gate News, 12/8/04
http://journalism.berkeley.edu/ngno/stories/004039.html
OAKLAND-Every weekday, second and fourth grade students Tau and Addae
Preciado, dressed in green sweater vests with crests that read, "Faith,
Fidelity, Integrity, and Knowledge," kneel in Salat prayer and study
the
Quran with their fellow classmates at the Clara Mohammad School in
Oakland.
Although the school was born out of the Nation of Islam, a spiritual
and
political black supremacist movement dating from the 1920's, it today
embraces a more inclusive Islamic teaching-Sunni. The two Preciado
brothers
are among the approximately 35 percent non-Muslim children who study
there.
"Nation of Islam is a thing of the past," said Imam Faheem Shuaibe,
Director of the Oakland Clara Mohammad School. "We accept children of
all
faiths and ethnicities."
"It may be one of the Bay Area's best kept secrets," said second and
third
grade teacher Zakiyah Rashed.
The school is one of the cheapest private schools in the Bay Area with
an
average monthly tuition of $651.25, depending on the grade of the
child.
Most area private schools charge between $440 and $2,444.00 per-month.
And it is also one of the smallest schools in the area with an average
of
six children per classroom…
-----
MOUNTING SCANDAL AT AIPAC PROMPTS TALK OF LOBBYING POWERHOUSE'S DEMISE
Ori Nir, Forward, 12/9/04
http://www.forward.com/main/article.php?ref=nir200412081101
WASHINGTON - With senior officials at America's top pro-Israel
organization
facing the specter of federal indictments, staffers at other groups are
beginning to waver in their support and are warning that the mounting
legal
scandal could damage the political credibility of the entire Jewish
community.
The doubts were prompted by last week's FBI raid of the offices of the
American Israel Public Affairs Committee and by news that four of its
top
officials had been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury. In particular,
the
doubters said, the decision of a federal prosecutor to turn to a grand
jury
on a matter involving Aipac was ominous and severely undermined the
organization's claim that it was the victim of a few rogue
investigators.
Communal insiders warn that an indictment of an Aipac official or a
trial
that casts the association in a negative light could severely weaken
the
lobbying prowess of all Jewish organizations at a time when Israel and
Jewish agencies are facing rising hostility in many corners, and
depending
increasingly on support from Washington lawmakers…
Last week, four Aipac officials - executive director Howard Kohr,
managing
director Richard Fishman, communications director Renee Rothstein and
research director Rafi Danziger - were hit with subpoenas. The U.S.
attorney in Alexandria, Va., Paul McNulty, a prosecutor with experience
in
criminal cases involving national security, is handling the case.
Investigators first raided Aipac's offices in August, at which time
some
observers suggested that the probe was focused mainly on Larry
Franklin, a
Pentagon employee suspected of passing to the group classified
documents on
Iran. However, insiders say the investigation has moved away from
Franklin
and toward Aipac and its director of research, Steve Rosen…
During a December 10 conference call, Kohr and Bernice Manocherian,
Aipac's
volunteer president, asked key Jewish communal leaders for patience and
pledged that eventually Aipac would be vindicated. The two Aipac
officials
accused unnamed agencies within the administration of nefarious
motives,
and conducted a baseless fishing expedition against the pro-Israel
lobbying
group.
Some participants in the call were skeptical. "I sure hope that what
they
are saying is true, and that they really made sure, internally, that
none
of them has done anything wrong," one participant said. "If it turns
out to
be different, there is going to be a big problem for all of us, not
just
for Aipac..."
This week, on Capitol Hill, the new developments in the scandal are
causing
little furor, congressional staffers said, noting that the news came
while
Congress was not in session. In addition, according to congressional
staffers, Aipac enjoys a great deal of credit on the Hill and, in the
words
of one aide, "is being held untouchable until proven otherwise."
SEE ALSO:
FBI STEPS UP AIPAC PROBE
Richard Sale, UPI, 12/10/04
http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20041208-045115-7516r.htm
An FBI investigation into alleged Israeli espionage against the United
States and the possibility a pro-Israel lobby group was involved in
passing
classified U.S data to Tel Aviv has intensified because a confessed
Pentagon spy has stopped cooperating with federal law enforcement
officials, U.S. government sources said.
Larry Franklin, a Pentagon analyst in the Near East and South Asia
office
who worked for the Defense Department's Office of Special Plans
confessed
last August to federal agents he had held meetings with a contact from
the
Israeli government during which he passed a highly classified document
on
U.S. policy toward Iran, these sources said. The document advocated
support
for Iranian dissidents, covert actions to destabilize the Iranian
government, arming opponents of the Islamic regime, propaganda
broadcasts
into Iran, and other programs, these sources said.
The FBI was also interested in finding out if Franklin was involved or
could name any Pentagon colleagues who were involved in passing to
Israel
certain data about National Security Agency intercepts, these sources
said.
Franklin was caught quite by accident last summer as part of a larger
investigation, these sources said.
In 2001, the FBI discovered new, "massive" Israeli spying operations in
the
East Coast, including New York and New Jersey, said one former senior
U.S.
government official. The FBI began intensive surveillance on certain
Israeli diplomats and other suspects and was videotaping Naor Gilon,
chief
of political affairs at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, who was
having
lunch at a Washington hotel with two lobbyists from the American Israel
Public Affairs Committee lobby group. Federal law enforcement officials
said they were floored when Franklin came up to their table and sat
down.
The FBI confronted Franklin in August 2004, and there seemed to be
progress
on the case, but after Franklin hired Washington lawyer Plato Cacheris,
Franklin's cooperation abruptly ceased, federal law enforcement
officials
said. The turnabout apparently infuriated the FBI, former federal law
enforcement officials said. Franklin could not be reached for comment.
Vince Cannistraro, a former CIA counter-terrorism chief, who has good
ties
with law enforcement officials said, "The FBI was extremely
displeased."
An FBI consultant told United Press International: "The FBI were
hopping
mad. The FBI had been kicked very hard in their macho. They are very,
very
macho."
On Dec. 1, FBI agents visited the AIPAC offices in Washington and
seized
the hard drives and files of Steven Rosen, director of research, and
Keith
Weissman, deputy director of foreign policy issues.
The FBI also served subpoenas on AIPAC Executive Director Howard Kohr,
Managing Director Richard Fishman, Communications Director Renee
Rothstein,
and Research Director Raphael Danziger.
All are suspected of having acted as "cut outs" or intermediaries who
passed highly sensitive U.S. data from high-level Pentagon and
administration officials to Israel, said one former federal law
enforcement
official…
---
INCITEMENT WATCH: ISRAEL ADVISED TO 'TRANSFER' PALESTINIANS
Sheldon Kirshner, Canadian Jewish News, 12/9/04
http://www.cjnews.com/viewarticle.asp?id=5055
Joseph Farah would probably be the first to admit that his "road map to
peace" in the Middle East leaves little room for mutual compromise and
accommodation.
Farah - an Arab-American Christian of Syrian and Lebanese Catholic
origin
whose grandparents immigrated to the United States in the early 20th
century - argues that Israel and the Palestinians cannot resolve their
differences through political means.
In an interview, he said, "There won't be peace without a military
solution. Israel will have to re-occupy the West Bank and the Gaza
Strip."
Farah, who was here recently as the keynote speaker at a Canada
Christian
College conference on Arab persecution of Jews and Christians, added:
"Violence will be required to bring peace. People don't want to hear
that.
It's not politically correct. But it's historically correct."
The 50-year-old founder, editor and chief executive officer of
WorldNetDaily.com, a politically and socially conservative news site,
advised Israel to annex the West Bank and Gaza and "transfer" its 3.5
million inhabitants to neighbouring Arab states.
"Population transfers are not pretty and not without problems," said
Farah,
an evangelical Christian who cites biblical passages in his writings to
buttress his views…
Warming to the topic, Farah added that the Palestinian refugee problem
is a
purely Arab creation. "It was a relatively minor refugee crisis that
could
have been settled within a year.
"The Arabs - and I can say this as an Arab - are great storytellers,
the
Arabian Nights and all these things. They lie that the Jews threw the
Arabs
out of their homes. If you tell a big lie often enough, people will
believe
it."
Echoing a view held by the late Golda Meir, a former Israeli prime
minister, Farah said the Palestinians do not even exist as a separate,
identifiable group.
Very few of the Arab inhabitants in the West Bank and Gaza have deep
indigenous roots, he noted. The Palestinians are really a multitude of
Arabs from all corners of the Arab world.
"Arafat was an Egyptian," said Farah, who has called the Palestinian
leader
a "degenerate pervert," "a liar," and "pro-Nazi scum…"
-----
US TO USE BIOMETRIC SCANS ON CIVILIANS IN FALLUJAH
Agence France Presse, 12/9/04
NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq - Fingerprint and iris scans will be used to track
civilians returning to Fallujah, which was only last month wrested away
from rebels, the US marines' top commander in Iraq said Thursday.
But while the Sunni-Muslim enclave has been mostly cleared of rebels,
intimidation remains a problem in tackling the insurgency amid
continued
attacks on Iraqi security forces throughout Iraq, Lieutenant General
John
Sattler said.
The scans are one of several measures coalition forces are putting in
place
amid fears that insurgents hiding among the tens of thousands of
refugees
expected to return to the battered city in coming weeks will renew
their
violent campaign against US and Iraqi troops.
"When people start to return, military aged men will be entered into a
biometric (system). Their fingerprint and iris scans will be taken and
they
will be given an ID card," Sattler said...
But this will be the first time the system is used on civilians in
Iraq,
said Major Francis Piccoli, spokesman for the 1st Marine Expeditionary
Force, who acknowledged there has been some opposition to the
measure...
-----
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In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 12/12/04
* HADITH OF THE DAY: GOD'S LOVE
* QUOTE OF THE DAY: 'KILL THEM ALL' FOR DEMOCRACY
* CAIR-NJ JOB OPENING: EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
* CAIR-CAN: WESTERN MUSLIMS HAVE A ROLE TO PLAY (Gazette)
- CAIR-CAN: Court Upholds 'Security Certificates (G&M)
- Were Freedoms a Casualty of 9/11? (Edmonton Journal)
* WV: MYSTERY CLOAKS FIRING OF IRANIAN COUPLE (New York Times)
* MA: MOSQUE FIRE WAS SET (Mass Live)
- Officials say Arson was Cause of Fire (Boston Globe)
* ARAB ACTORS HOPE FOR CHANGE IN HOLLYWOOD STEREOTYPES (Reuters)
- Davey & Goliath Back to Teach New Lessons (AP)
* MI: JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES REACH OUT TO MUSLIMS (Detroit News)
- Spain's Islamic Era Can Teach Tolerance (Citizen Times)
* CA: GUILTY OF 'FLYING WHILE MUSLIM'? (LA Times)
- Detainee Hearings Bring New Disputes (Wash Post)
- Conyers Says DOJ Cannot Verify Patriot Act Claims
* IAEA LEADER'S PHONE TAPPED (Wash Post)
* IL: MUSLIMS HOST ANNUAL DINNER
* NY: THE LIVES OF MUSLIM WOMEN IN AMERICA (Newsday)
-----
HADITH OF THE DAY: GOD'S LOVE
A man once came to the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) carrying a
wrapped-up piece of cloth. He told the Prophet: "I saw a group of trees
and
heard the sound of young birds. I took them and put them in my garment.
Their mother then came and began to hover around my head. I showed (the
baby birds) to her, and she fell on them. I wrapped them (all) in my
garment." The Prophet then said to his companions: "Are you surprised
at
the affection of the mother for her young?...God is more affectionate
to
His servants than a mother to her young." The Prophet told the man to
put
the baby birds back where he got them.
Sunan of Abu-Dawood, Hadith 1359
-----
QUOTE OF THE DAY: 'KILL THEM ALL' FOR DEMOCRACY
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1399990_3,00.html
One marine had returned only six weeks ago from a seven-month posting
in
Iraq. He will be going back soon. "It's what I do," he said...If he
were in
charge, how would he deal with the Iraqis? "I'd kill them all," he
replied.
"They don't know what democracy is."
----
CAIR-NJ JOB OPENING: Executive Director
The New Jersey chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations in
Totowa, NJ, is looking to fill the part/full time permanent salaried
position of Executive Director.
This person will be responsible for all communications, activities, and
programs of the CAIR-NJ regional office.
Please contact CAIR-NJ for details of position requirements. E-Mail:
jobs@cair-nj.org
-----
CAIR-CAN: WESTERN MUSLIMS HAVE A MAJOR ROLE TO PLAY, KEPEL SAYS
Sheema Khan, The Gazette, 12/11/04
http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/news/artsbooks/story.html?id=ea703948-399e-4bc6-863e-bc4f28774d69
Many of the books on the market about the management of global
geopolitics
are written from the perspective of the world's sole superpower. The
War
for Muslim Minds, by French academic Gilles Kepel, provides a
distinctly
French view of what he portrays as a struggle between the forces of
U.S.
hegemony and Muslim religious extremists, who aspire to impose their
own
hegemony. Call it "Le Clash." Caught in the middle, according to Kepel,
is
the growing Muslim population in Europe, which has the potential to
have a
major influence on how this confrontation plays out...
The book opens with Kepel's thesis that the U.S. "war on terror" is not
so
much a battle between "good" and "evil" as a battle between two
absolutist
visions of the world.
Kepel describes how, in preparation for the demise of the Soviet Union
during the Reagan administration, a core group of analysts prepared the
groundwork for foreign policy that would extend U.S. control over much
of
the world. The group, dubbed "the neo-conservatives," continued its
planning during the Clinton years, and emerged with a distinct vision
of
the U.S. role in the world upon the election of George W. Bush in 2000.
Its
twin pillars are access to oil, and the security of Israel. According
to
Kepel, plans to redraw the Middle East - including having a
U.S.-compliant
administration at the helm in Iraq, home to the world's second-largest
oil
reserves - were in the works as early as 1996. The events of Sept. 11,
2001, merely accelerated the neocon agenda to invade Iraq, he suggests.
Kepel demonstrates an expansive breadth of knowledge in his detailed
analysis of both Israeli security and the geopolitics of oil. Israeli
security is viewed in light of the failure to arrive at an equitable
solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In analyzing the
geopolitics
of oil, he dissects the dysfunction that besets Saudi Arabia and
describes
the political complexities of Iraq and Iran in impressive detail.
Surprisingly, any discussion of the emerging role of China as a major
oil
consumer and world power is completely absent.
Kepel also describes the defeat of the Soviets in Afghanistan by the
CIA-funded, and trained, mujahideen, and suggests that U.S. abandonment
of
Afghanistan was a colossal mistake, as the mujahideen dispersed, and
looked
to export their military zeal…
Sheema Khan is chairperson of the Canadian Council on American-Islamic
Relations, an Ottawa-based advocacy group.
SEE ALSO:
COURT UPHOLDS 'SECURITY CERTIFICATES'
Globe & Mail, 12/12/04
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20041210.wadil1210/BNStory/National/
It is constitutional to hold suspected terrorists without charge or
appeal,
the Federal Court of Appeal ruled Friday.
The decision is a blow to the hopes of Moroccan-born Adil Charkaoui,
whose
supporters have been fighting against the "security certificate" under
which he has been held since the spring of last year.
Mr. Charkaoui has lost three bids for bail. He is accused of being an
al-Qaeda agent and faces deportation to his native country, where his
supporters say he could be tortured.
On Friday, the three-judge Court of Appeal upheld a lower-court ruling
that
the security certificate sections of the Immigration and Refugee
Protection
Act are constitutional.
Also Friday, Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan defended the
certificates
in the House of Commons, rejecting a Bloc Qu�b�cois accusation that the
government is "totally insensitive" to human rights...
"For many Muslims and Arabs, security certificates embody an arbitrary
and
non-transparent legal process that they never expected to find in a
democratic country they now call home," said Riad Saloojee, head of
CAIR-Canada.
"Muslims and Arabs have unfortunately been the most common casualties
under
this deeply flawed process."
---
WERE CANADIANS' FREEDOMS A CASUALTY OF 9/11?
Ian MacLeod, Edmonton Journal, 12/11/04
http://www.canada.com/edmonton/edmontonjournal/news/headlinescan.html
OTTAWA - Software developer Momin Khawaja was working at Ottawa's
Department of Foreign Affairs on March 29 when the Mounties walked in.
Hours later, with him in custody and incommunicado, hundreds of British
police and MI5 security service officers fanned out across pre-dawn
London.
They arrested several people and seized 600 kilograms of ammonium
nitrate
they say was to be used in chemical attacks against public
transportation
sites in and around London.
British media, citing security sources, said the alleged plan involved
turning the ammonium nitrate into an explosive to disperse the lethal
chemical osmium tetroxide. One report described Khawaja as "The Fixer"
in
the alleged dirty-bomb plot, claiming he was a "mentor or guide" for a
suspected British terrorist cell directed from Pakistan.
British police charged 10 suspects, all men of Pakistani descent, with
terrorism offences. Khawaja is accused as a co-conspirator. The RCMP
also
charged the 25-year-old with participating in a terrorist group and
facilitating a terrorist activity, making him the first and only
individual
charged under Canada's hard-hitting new Anti-terrorism Act.
Until Khawaja's arrest, those detained for suspected terrorist links in
Canada have been immigrants or refugees, and the government has relied
on
immigration laws to quietly deport them back to their countries of
origin.
But Khawaja is Canadian. Presumably, there will now be an open criminal
court trial, offering a peek inside Canada's counter-terrorism
apparatus...
-----
MYSTERY CLOAKS FIRING OF IRANIAN COUPLE
JAMES DAO, New York Times, 12/12/04
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/12/national/12shiite.html
Morgantown, W.Va. -May 5, the day that changed Aliakbar and Shahla
Afshari's lives, began like most others. They shared coffee, dropped
their
12-year-old son off at Cheat Lake Middle School here, then drove to
their
laboratories at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and
Health,
a federal agency that studies workplace hazards.
But that afternoon, their managers pulled the Afsharis aside and
delivered
a stunning message: they had failed secret background checks and were
being
fired. No explanations were offered and no appeals allowed. They were
escorted to the door and told not to return.
Mrs. Afshari, a woman not prone to emotional flourishes, says she stood
in
the parking lot and wept. ''I just wanted to know why,'' she said.
Seven months later, the Afsharis, Shiite Muslims who came from Iran 18
years ago to study, then stayed to build careers and raise three
children,
still have no answers.
They have been told they were fired for national security reasons that
remain secret. When their lawyer requested the documents used to
justify
the action, he was told none existed. When he asked for copies of the
agency's policies relating to the background checks, he received a
generic
personnel handbook.
Without any official explanations of why they failed their background
checks, they came up with their own theory: their attendance, more than
five years ago, at two conventions of a Persian student association
that
has come under F.B.I. scrutiny, once with a man who was later
investigated
by the bureau.
The Afsharis' case comes at time when immigrants from many nations, but
particularly Islamic ones, are facing tougher scrutiny from government
agencies...
-----
MOSQUE FIRE WAS SET
Patrick Johnson, Mass Live, 12/12/04
http://www.masslive.com/metrowest/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-2/110284120547150.xml
SPRINGFIELD - Arson investigators determined yesterday the fire that
destroyed a mosque Wednesday was arson, a Fire Department spokesman
said.
After searching through the remains of the Al-Baqi Islamic Center, 495
Oak
St., investigators concluded the fire started in a second-floor
activity
room, said Lt. Neil Hawley.
"It was deliberately set," Hawley said.
The determination was based on evidence found in the activity room,
Hawley
said. He declined to describe that evidence.
It is too early to say whether the building, used as a mosque since the
1970s, was the target of a hate crime, he said.
Officials previously revealed the discovery of an apparent break-in on
the
second floor. Hawley said yesterday the break-in and the fire may be
related but declined to elaborate.
He would not disclose whether there are any suspects...
Thursday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington,
D.C.-based advocacy group, issued a statement demanding federal
authorities
investigate whether the two fires were hate crimes....
ALSO SEE:
OFFICIALS SAY ARSON WAS CAUSE OF FIRE IN SPRINGFIELD MOSQUE
Jack Encarnacao, Boston Globe, 12/12/04
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2004/12/12/officials_say_arson_was_cause_of_fire_in_springfield_mosque/
Investigators probing a fire Wednesday night that severely damaged a
Springfield mosque have concluded that it was arson, but have not yet
been
able to determine whether the blaze was a hate crime, a fire official
said
yesterday.
"They have determined that it was a deliberately set fire," Springfield
Fire Department spokesman Lieutenant Neil Hawley said.
The fire, which is also being investigated by federal agents, was set
on
the second floor of the Al-Baqi Islamic Center about 5 p.m. Wednesday,
officials said. No one was hurt, but the 121-year-old former school
building suffered severe damage.
Mosque officials reacted cautiously to the report about the arson
determination yesterday, saying that the arsonist or arsonists must
have
come from outside the neighborhood where the mosque has been a fixture
for
decades.
"There's been a great deal of suspicion and rumors to that effect
[arson];
I was waiting for the verdict," said Mujahid Aleem, a spokesman for
Al-Baqi
center. "We've had such good relations [with neighbors]. It must be
someone
outside of the community."
Hawley said investigators are checking leads on a suspect, but declined
to
elaborate...
-----
ARAB ACTORS HOPE FOR CHANGE IN HOLLYWOOD STEREOTYPES
Andrew Hammond, Reuters, 12/12/04
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=637414
DUBAI (Reuters) - Sayed Badreya doesn't act very well, but then he
never
really had to -- Hollywood has only ever wanted him to look crazy like
a
terrorist.
Now the Egyptian actor who played the bad guy in films like "The
Insider,"
"Three Kings" and "Executive Decision" has got his own back with comic
drama "T for Terrorist."
Badreya plays a bit-part actor who looses his temper at a director's
demands for more and more wild-eyed looks in a "terrorism scene." So he
holds up the set at gunpoint and forces the pasty-faced director to
play
the gun toting lunatic.
But it turns out to be a dream and the short film ends as a resigned
Badreya resumes work with: "On your knees, you stinking Americans! In
the
name of Allah I will kill you all!"
The $30,000 film, which has toured the U.S. festival circuit over the
past
year, was shown this weekend at the Dubai International Film Festival
as
part of movies focusing on East-West relations…
Arabs and Muslims have complained of ill-feeling toward them in the
United
States after the September 11 attacks in 2001. Anti-U.S. sentiment is
strong in the region because of the Iraq war and perceived U.S. support
for
Israel against the Palestinians…
SEE ALSO:
DAVEY & GOLIATH BACK TO TEACH NEW LESSONS
DAVID BAUDER, Associated Press, 12/12/04
After a nearly 30-year hiatus, Davey Hansen and his faithful dog
Goliath
are back to teach values to a new generation of young people.
The Lutheran church is reviving the 1960s-era animated series for a
holiday
special, "Davey & Goliath's Snowboard Christmas," on the Hallmark
Channel
Dec. 19. It airs at noon, and will be repeated the same time on the day
after Christmas…
In the modern update Davey tries to show off his snowboarding prowess
to
two friends: Sam, a Jewish boy, and Yasmeen, a Muslim girl.
Along the way, the three children compare their celebrations of
Christmas,
Hanukkah and Ramadan. They get into some trouble, of course, but it's
all
resolved in the end. And Yasmeen wins the snowboarding race.
The lesson of respect for other religions is purposeful. Clokey
credited
his agent, Patrick Lauerman, for developing the concept in the
anguished
days following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
-----
JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES REACH OUT TO MUSLIMS
Gregg Krupa, Detroit News, 12/12/04
http://www.detnews.com/2004/religion/0412/12/A01-30648.htm
DEARBORN -- Recina Ward will wake up early to get there, clutching her
Bible, brushing up on her Arabic.
Ward's regularly scheduled opportunity to go door-to-door in Dearborn
as a
Jehovah's Witness is at hand. She is prepared, waking up at 6 a.m. at
her
home in Westland to reach the Kingdom Hall on Tireman and remembering
her
training in talking to strangers about Jehovah.
She will ring the doorbells of many Muslims and Arab-Americans today.
Long famous for using the most rudimentary technique to market their
religion -- the method of the door-to-door salesman -- Jehovah's
Witnesses
are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their quest to bring people
to
their spiritual beliefs. With some 6 million adherents in 230
countries,
the Jehovah's Witnesses say their growing task in Metro Detroit, where
there are about 125,000 to 200,000 Muslims, is to speak in Arabic about
the
Bible.
In the same neighborhoods, just a decade ago, the Jehovah's Witnesses
approached a largely Christian population to talk about the Bible and
Jesus
Christ. Now, Christianity is meeting Islam on the front porch.
The Jehovah's Witnesses say 30-40 people affiliated with the Kingdom
Hall
on Tireman have learned Arabic, and they make trips into Arab
neighborhoods
on at least a monthly basis. Similar activity is occurring in New York,
California and in other areas where there is a substantial Arab and
Muslim
population...
Said Ibrahim Hooper, a national spokesman for the Council on American
Islamic Relations, "in principle, we are not opposed to people trying
to
persuade others that theirs is the faith that should be followed. We
have
no problem with that. Muslims love a good religious debate..."
ALSO SEE:
SPAIN'S ISLAMIC ERA CAN TEACH US PLENTY ABOUT TOLERANCE
Sarah-Ann Smith, Citizen Times, 12/11/04
http://www.citizen-times.com/cache/article/editorial/72183.shtml
My recent trip to Spain has prompted some thoughts about our post-Sept.
11,
2001, relationship to the Islamic world. A wonderful book, "The
Ornament of
the World" by Maria Rosa Menocal, had excited my interest in Spain's
medieval Islamic period, and I had to see the relics of that beautiful
culture for myself.
The highlight of my visit was the awe-inspiring Cordoba mosque. Now a
Christian cathedral, it is so vast that its mysterious Islamic flavor
still
dominates. This immense space, the equivalent of about four city
blocks,
reflects the best in the religious tradition of Spain's Islamic rulers.
The structure's history symbolizes the universality of the human need
to
connect with the divine. The Islamic - and now once again Christian -
edifice rests on and incorporates the remains of a Roman temple which
had
been converted into a Christian church by the Visigoths who ruled that
part
of Spain until they were defeated by the invading Muslims in the 8th
century.
The mosque's dominant feature is a forest of horseshoe- shaped arches
of
alternating red brick and white stone which define and separate the
aisles.
They go on and on, seemingly into an endless space. Standing in the
midst
of them, one is caught up in the timelessness and universality of the
spiritual impulse, deeper than any specific religious tradition.
The experience recalled my visit to the only living mosques I've ever
entered, in Indonesia. The tall, open architecture, punctuated by
columns,
filled with kneeling worshipers, shoeless to show respect for the space
and
the God beyond it, evokes a sense of calm and peace that is quite
extraordinary in contrast to the dominant idea we have of the Muslim
religion, based on political events of the past several years...
-----
GUILTY OF 'FLYING WHILE MUSLIM'?
Salam Al-Marayati, Los Angeles Times, 12/11/04
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-vo-marayati11dec11,0,4713167.story
Over Thanksgiving, my wife and I took our kids to Puerto Vallarta,
Mexico.
After our relaxing vacation, we returned home to Los Angeles, only to
face
some disconcerting homeland insecurity.
We were met by two Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers as soon
as
we left the jetway at LAX. Evidently, they were looking for someone,
and it
turned out to be me.
When they looked at my name, they provided us with an armed escort to a
special area. All I could think about at the time was my kids. I prayed
they would not be exposed to anything that would cause them to resent
their
birthplace, the United States, as a result of this encounter with law
enforcement.
One officer told us that we had nothing to worry about; if something
was
wrong, then we would be in handcuffs. I thought to myself: If I was on
a
"no fly" list, then why was I allowed to leave L.A. on an airplane in
the
first place and to board another flight for my return?
One officer asked whether we had committed any criminal act in the past
or
had done anything that would warrant an investigation. I looked at my
children, and my heart sank. Of course the answer was no, but just
being
asked such a question in front of your children was appalling.
Then came a man named Tommy Scott, dressed in civilian clothes, who
seemed
to be experienced in interrogations. He had no credentials, at least
none
that were visible, and we were too disoriented to ask. He asked about
the
purposes for our travels. He wanted to know which charities we donated
to
and whether those organizations send money overseas.
This line of questioning reminded me of a brochure issued by the FBI
two
months ago in partnership with Arab, Muslim and Sikh organizations: "If
I
give money to charity that is investigated for ties to terrorism, will
I be
investigated? It is not a crime to contribute to a legitimate charity
and
no one will be prosecuted for doing so. You may wish to discuss with
your
mosque and community leaders where the money is going before you
contribute...
Salam Al-Marayati is the executive director of the Muslim Public
Affairs
Council.
ALSO SEE
DETAINEE HEARINGS BRING NEW DETAILS AND DISPUTES
Carol D. Leonnig and Julie Tate, Washington Post, 12/11/04
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6694475/
The government contends that Feroz Abbasi trained as a suicide bomber,
that
Martin Mubanga had a list of Jewish targets in New York he was studying
for
future attack and that three Bosnian men were plotting to blow up the
U.S.
Embassy in Sarajevo.
Abbasi, they charge, was training in guerrilla warfare at an al Qaeda
base
called Camp Farooq when Osama bin Laden gave a speech to future
fighters
just before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
"Detainee volunteered for advanced courses . . . because this training
was
a [prerequisite] for being sent to the front of the front lines," the
government concluded. "After completing his basic training . . . he
volunteered for a martyrdom mission" to defend an airport in Kandahar
from
American troops, it said.
The allegations, and dozens like them, have been trickling in to a
federal court in Washington in the past several weeks. They publicly
reflect for the first time the Pentagon's justifications for detaining
some
of the 550 captives at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba.
The information comes from special hearings -- conducted by the
government
at Guantanamo Bay in an attempt to comply with a landmark Supreme Court
ruling in June -- in which three military officers weigh the assembled
information about the detainees and decide whether they were rightfully
held because of links to the Taliban or al Qaeda. The tribunals have
conducted 475 hearings. One man has been freed, 193 have been ordered
to
remain in prison and the cases of the others are pending...
---
CONYERS SAYS JUSTICE DEPARTMENT CANNOT VERIFY PATRIOT ACT CLAIMS
Congressman John Conyers, Jr. issued the following statement regarding
the
Justice Department's answers to questions relating to their efforts
concerning the war on terror:
"The Justice Department finally sent answers to questions we asked over
six
months ago; considering how non-responsive the answers are, it is
difficult
to understand why it took so long. Overall, these responses
demonstrate a
law enforcement agency that is unaware of what it is doing, that is
seeking
powers it may not even need, and that believes it is unaccountable to
the
American people. For instance:
* The Justice Department wants people imprisoned if they disclose that
they
received secret FBI subpoenas, but dodges questions about whether its
own
officials should be held similarly accountable for violating gag orders
imposed upon the Department (page10).
* The Department and the FBI want people imprisoned for violating gag
orders in secret subpoenas. When asked how many such gag orders have
been
violated, the FBI could not provide evidence that any violations have
even
occurred (pages 23-24).
* The Department and the FBI want courts to be able to force people to
comply with secret FBI subpoenas. When asked how many recipients of
such
subpoenas have failed to deliver the requested information, the FBI
could
not produce a single instance of non-compliance (page 24).
* A Department official testified before the Subcommittee that the
government has decided against using secret wiretap evidence in
immigration
proceedings because it would have had to disclose the use of such
wiretaps. When asked how many times the government had made such a
decision, the Department said it had no records of this occurring (page
17).
* A Department official testified that there have been cases where the
government did not try to deport dangerous persons because deportation
would have required the disclosure of secret evidence. When asked for
specifics on these cases, the Department replied that it has
information
but refuses to provide it (page 17).
* The Department says the law does not prohibit people suspected of
membership in terrorist organizations from buying firearms. At the
same
time, the Department does not believe the law should be changed to
prohibit
terrorists from obtaining firearms (pages20-22).
* The Department would not even acknowledge that keeping assault
weapons
away from terrorists will help in the war on terrorism (pages 20-22).
"I can only hope that John Ashcroft's successor as Attorney General
will
ensure that the Department is able to answer basic questions about what
it
is doing in the war on terrorism and will seek authorities that
actually
will keep Americans safe from the threat of terror."
The response can be found on the Democratic Judiciary Committee website
at:
http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/crimehr3179followupresp112404.pdf
-----
IAEA LEADER'S PHONE TAPPED
Dafna Linzer, Washington Post, 12/11/04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A57928-2004Dec11?language=printer
The Bush administration has dozens of intercepts of Mohamed ElBaradei's
phone calls with Iranian diplomats and is scrutinizing them in search
of
ammunition to oust him as director general of the International Atomic
Energy Agency, according to three U.S. government officials.
But the diplomatic offensive will not be easy. The administration has
failed to come up with a candidate willing to oppose ElBaradei, who has
run
the agency since 1997, and there is disagreement among some senior
officials over how hard to push for his removal, and what the
diplomatic
costs of a public campaign against him could be.
Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, had
calls with Iranians intercepted.
Although eavesdropping, even on allies, is considered a well-worn tool
of
national security and diplomacy, the efforts against ElBaradei
demonstrate
the lengths some within the administration are willing to go to replace
a
top international diplomat who questioned U.S. intelligence on Iraq and
is
now taking a cautious approach on Iran.
The intercepted calls have not produced any evidence of nefarious
conduct
by ElBaradei, according to three officials who have read them. But some
within the administration believe they show ElBaradei lacks
impartiality
because he tried to help Iran navigate a diplomatic crisis over its
nuclear
programs. Others argue the transcripts demonstrate nothing more than
standard telephone diplomacy....
-----
CHICAGO MUSLIM-AMERICANS HOST ANNUAL DINNER FEATURING AWARDS TO
COMMUNITY
LEADERS
The Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago (CIO), an
umbrella
organization representing over 400,000 Muslims throughout Chicagoland,
will
host its annual fundraising dinner on Sunday, December 12, 2004 at 6:00
PM
at the Chicago Marriott Southwest at Burr Ridge, 1200 Burr Ridge
Parkway,
Burr Ridge, Illinois 60527.
The theme of the event is "Faith & Opportunity: The Future of Islam in
America." The keynote speaker is Dr. John L. Esposito, founding
director
of Georgetown University's Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding.
He
is also the author of the books "The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality"
and
"Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam".
A featured event will be the presentation of the CIO's Award of
Excellence
to four individuals: Genevieve Abdo, a journalist with USA Today;
Thomas
Kneir, former Director of the Chicago field office of the F.B.I.; Imam
W.
D. Muhammad, an internationally recognized Muslim leader and former
head of
the American Society of Muslims; and Rev. Paul Rutgers, President of
the
Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago.
Contact: Farhan Younus, Esq., Chair, Media Relations Committee, Ph.
630-926-5566
----
"THE LIVES OF MUSLIM WOMEN IN AMERICA"
Newsday, 12/11/04
www.newsday.com
Manhattan: "The Lives of Muslim Women in America" explores Muslim women
in
public and private, 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Interfaith Center of New
York, 40
E. 30th St.; 212-685-4242.
-----
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-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 12/13/04
* VERSE/HADITH OF THE DAY: WITH HARDSHIP COMES RELIEF
* CAIR LIBRARY PROJECT: 7836 SPONSORSHIPS
* SHOOTER, VANDALS TARGET ARIZONA MUSLIM FAMILY
* KERRY OPPONENT TAKING AIM AT NEW TARGET: IRAN (LA times)
* NY: JEWISH, MUSLIM STUDENTS CONNECT AT TEMPLE (PJ)
- MD: Muslim, Jewish and Christian Plays Joined in One
* MD: ISLAMIC SCHOLAR DR. MUHAMMAD ABDUL RAUF DIES
* DEMAND FOR ARABIC LINGUISTS OUTWEIGHS SUPPLY (Post-Disp)
-----
VERSE OF THE DAY: WITH HARDSHIP COMES RELIEF
"Verily, with every hardship there is relief. Therefore, when you are
freed
(from your immediate task), remain steadfast. And turn all your
attention
toward your Lord."
The Holy Quran, 94:6-8
HADITH OF THE DAY: EXPECT RELIEF
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "The most excellent
worship
is expectation of relief."
Al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 702
-----
CAIR LIBRARY PROJECT: 7836 SPONSORSHIPS
CAIR's library project has received 7836 sponsorships for $150 book and
tape packages on Islam to be placed in libraries across the country.
Our
goal is to send accurate and objective information about Islam to
America's
16,000 public libraries. GO TO: http://www.cair.com/libraryproject/
-----
SHOOTER, VANDALS TARGET ARIZONA MUSLIM FAMILY
CAIR-AZ to call for action following series of incidents targeting
Muslims
(PHOENIX, AZ, 12/13/04) - On Tuesday, December 14, the Arizona office
of
the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-AZ) will hold a news
conference in Tucson to call for stepped-up efforts to investigate a
series
of incidents targeting Muslims in that state.
WHAT: CAIR-AZ News Conference Reacting to Incidents Targeting Muslims
WHEN: 11 a.m. (local time)
WHERE: Islamic Center of Tucson, 901 East First Street, Tucson, Arizona
CONTACT: CAIR-AZ, Deedra Abboud, 602-790-9319, E-Mail:
director@cairaz.org
Last night, a truck parked in front of a Muslim family's home in Tucson
had
its window smashed. The same family reports that bullets
narrowly-missed
hitting family members eating dinner in their home in October. (Female
family members wear religiously-mandated head scarves.)
To learn more about the October shooting incident, SEE: "Hate Crime,
Were
They Targets?" http://www.kold.com/Global/story.asp?s=2490503
"Arizona Muslims need to know that these incidents are being taken
seriously by local and national authorities, and that the possibility
of
bias-related motives are being taken into consideration," said CAIR-AZ
Executive Director Deedra Abboud. Abboud said people of all faiths in
Arizona should work together on interfaith educational programs to
challenge stereotyping and bias.
The FBI is already investigating a fire that destroyed a Phoenix-area
mosque last week. Earlier this year in Tucson, a children's health
clinic
with Muslim doctors received a bomb threat from a caller who said,
"Muslims
suck. I'm going to blow up your building." A Muslim family in Tucson
also
reported to CAIR-AZ that they were threatened in a local park by a
group of
people shouting racist slurs. In another incident, a Tucson Muslim's
car
was vandalized with graffiti stating, "You are not welcome here. Go
back
home you stupid f****rs."
Other incidents targeting American Islamic institutions have taken
place
recently nationwide.
Last week, an arson fire heavily damaged the Al-Baqi Islamic Center in
Springfield, Mass. In late November, CAIR called on the FBI to assist
in
the investigation of a fire at a Virginia gas station that may have
been
motivated by anti-Muslim or anti-Arab bias. Racist graffiti such as
"F***
Arab go home" was left in the vicinity of the Sikh-owned station.
(Since
the 9/11 terror attacks, a number of Sikh men who wear turbans have
been
targeted because they were mistaken for Muslims.)
In Fargo, N.D., vandals smeared feces on a mosque. In the neighboring
state
of Minnesota, two Islamic centers were also vandalized.
In Texas, firebombs were thrown at an El Paso mosque. Also in Texas, a
man
was arrested for threatening an El Paso Islamic center, an arson
suspect
was arrested at the scene of a fire at a Muslim business in San Antonio
and
vandals scrawled racist graffiti on the interior of a Lubbock mosque. A
home-made bomb exploded in the mailbox of a Houston Islamic center.
In Washington, D.C., a Muslim prayer area at American University was
vandalized. Earlier this year in Florida, vandals wrote "Kill all
Muslims"
inside the Islamic Community Center in the Tampa suburb of Lutz. The
FBI is
also investigating vandalism and threatening messages targeting the
Islamic
Community of Southwest Florida in Charlotte Harbor. In Missouri,
vandals
painted a Nazi swastika and the word "die" on an addition under
construction at the Islamic Foundation of Greater St. Louis. Three
Miami
Islamic centers were vandalized.
As a response to post-9/11 anti-Muslim incidents, CAIR published a
"Muslim
Community Safety Kit." The safety kit may be obtained free of charge by
e-mailing pubs@cair-net.org. (Include name, address and phone number
when
requesting the safety kit.)
CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil liberties group, is headquartered
in
Washington, D.C., and has 29 offices and chapters nationwide and in
Canada.
Its mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue,
protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions
that promote justice and mutual understanding.
- END -
CONTACT: Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail:
ihooper@cair-net.org; Rabiah Ahmed, 202-488-8787 or 202-439-1441,
E-Mail:
rahmed@cair-net.org
-----
KERRY OPPONENT TAKING AIM AT NEW TARGET: IRAN
Sonni Efron, Los Angeles Times, 12/13/04
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-corsi13dec13,1,2611417.story
WASHINGTON - Jerome R. Corsi, a leader of the Swift Boat Vets and POWs
for
Truth campaign against former Democratic presidential candidate Sen.
John
F. Kerry, is hard at work on his next political project: preparing
American
public opinion for what he sees as a likely war with Iran.
"The world cannot tolerate the potential that these mad mullahs would
have
a deliverable nuclear weapon, even one, secretly developed," Corsi said
in
a recent interview. "They might just launch on Tel Aviv. The moment the
world intelligence community becomes convinced that could happen,
either
the U.S. alone or the U.S. plus Israel or Israel alone will seriously
contemplate a preemptive strike, and I'd be in favor of it."
Corsi's credits include a doctorate in political science from Harvard
University and more than 10 books. He was not a Swift Boat veteran
himself,
but rose to fame as coauthor of the bestselling book "Unfit for Command
--
Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry." The group was
accused of
distorting the facts of Kerry's Vietnam War record, but their campaign
was
nevertheless seen as damaging to Kerry's candidacy.
The group also raised millions of dollars for television ads attacking
Kerry, although the Bush campaign insisted that the group was not
acting on
the president's behalf.
Corsi, who believes a U.S.-Iran war could occur as soon as March, said
his
Iran campaign is an independent mission, with no backing from either
the
White House or from the Swift Boat veterans group. His forthcoming book
on
Iran's nuclear program, due out in 2005, is funded by an advance from
publisher Joseph Farah, editor of the conservative website
WorldNetDaily.com…
It is unclear whether Corsi's credibility on the Iran issue will be
affected by revelations that he had posted anti-Muslim slurs on another
conservative website, called freerepublic.com. Corsi said he had since
repudiated and apologized for those comments…
-----
JEWISH, MUSLIM STUDENTS CONNECT AT TEMPLE
Rasheed Oluwa, Poughkeepsie Journal, 12/13/04
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/today/localnews/stories/lo121304s3.shtml
Muslim and Jewish students gathered for food, games and other
Hanukkah-inspired fun at the Vassar Temple in the City of Poughkeepsie
Sunday.
The event was part of the third annual Salaam-Shalom Series, a
collaborative effort between Vassar Temple and the Town of Wappinger's
Masjid Al-Noor. It is designed to foster understanding between the two
religions.
More than 35 students from the temple and the mosque attended.
''It's important because it opens up the dialogue between two religions
and
two communities,'' said Rafiq Majeed, the newly elected president of
the
Mid-Hudson Islamic Association. ''It proves that there is no good
excuse
for other religions not to reach out to each other. You can learn a lot
from other religions.''
Sunday night marked the sixth night of Hanukkah, which commemorates the
rededication of the temple in Jerusalem in the second century B.C.
After
reclaiming the sacked temple from their Greek-Syrian oppressors, the
Jewish
Maccabee warriors found just enough oil to relight the holy perpetual
light
for one night, but according to legend, the oil burned for eight days
--
the exact amount of time required to make more.
ALSO SEE:
MUSLIM, JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN PLAYS JOINED IN ONE PRODUCTION
WHAT: A Muslim school will open its doors to all faiths to present
Muslim,
Jewish and Christian one-act plays -- performed and directed by theatre
professionals and students of all three religions -- in a holiday
program
celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah and the Muslim holiday of Eid-ul-Adha.
WHEN and WHERE: "Spirit of the Faiths," a production of the Muslim
Community School of Rockville, Md., in partnership with Calliope
Theatre
Productions, will be presented Dec. 18 at 8 p.m.,and Dec. 19 at 2 p.m.
at
the Muslim Community School, 7917 Montrose Rd., Potomac, MD.
The family program will dramatize the spiritual, ethical, and doctrinal
similarities of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity in three original
plays.
Tickets for all performances are $10 for adults and $8 for children 12
and
under. Tickets may be purchased at the door or reserved in advance by
calling the school at 301-340-6713 or Calliope Theatre Productions at
301-770-3110.
-----
ISLAMIC SCHOLAR TAN SRI DR. MUHAMMAD ABDUL RAUF DIES
Pro Bernama News, 12/12/04
http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v3/news.php?id=108350
Washington, Dec. 11 (Bernama)- Well-known professor of Islamic studies
and
education, Tan Sri Dr. Muhammad Abdul Rauf died of a ruptured aortic
aneurysm Saturday at a Bethesda hospital in Maryland, near here.
Professor Abdul Rauf, 86, whose students included the young Abdullah
Ahmad
Badawi at University Malaya, passed away just before 7.30 pm at the
Suburban Hospital hours after doctors battled for four hours in an
early-morning surgery on Friday to repair his aorta in the abdomen
area…
The late professor Abdul Rauf will be buried at the Washington National
Cemetery in Suitland, Maryland, next to his son, Ali, who died in 1993.
Dr.
Abdul Rauf is survived by his wife, Buthayna, and his four children,
Feisal, Aisha, Salwa and Ayman.
Born in Egypt on Dec. 27, 1917 in the town of Abusir, north of Cairo,
Dr.
Abdul Rauf was sent to then Malaya by the University Al-Azhar in 1955
to
open Kolej Islam in kelang in 1955. Later, he headed the Department of
Islamic Studies at University Malaya. In 1965, he was Director of the
Islamic Center in New York and then Director of the Islamic Center in
Washington from 1970-80.
He was later invited back to Malaysia by then Prime Minister Dr.
Mahathir
Mohamad to become the first Rector of the International Islamic
University
of Malaysia (IIU) from 1983-84, and then moved on to KUZA (Kolej Ugama
Sultan Zainal Abidin) in Terengganu before retiring in 1992. Although
he
spent the rest of his days in his Washington home with his family, he
frequently visited his homes in Egypt and Malaysia, said Feisal.
Ambassador Datuk Ghazzali Sheikh Abdul Khalid said he was very saddened
by
the loss of Dr. Abdul Rauf, who has made an important contribution to
education in Malaysia, especially in Islamic studies. "He is a very
enlightened and refreshing person particularly when engaged in Islamic
issues."
Feisal, an Imam for the past 22 years at Masjid Al Farah in Tribeca,
New
York, is also trustee of the Islamic Center in New York established by
his
father. The prime real estate in Manhattan on 96th and 3rd street will
soon
see the creation of an Islamic cultural center which will be adjacent
to
the mosque built under his father's directorship. ~~ Feisal, the eldest
in
the family appears to follow his father's foot step and he has written
a
book called "What's Right With Islam," published and released in May
2004
by Harper San Francisco.~ Bernama
CONTACT:
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf
ASMA Society
E-mail: daisy@asmasociety.org
Phone: 917-492-8690
Web: http://www.asmasociety.org
-----
DEMAND FOR LINGUISTS FAR OUTWEIGHS SUPPLY
Harry Levins, Post-Dispatch, 12/12/04
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/nation/story/F2C1DF5D5633581286256F69001DEE45?OpenDocument&Headline=Demand+for+linguists+far+outweighs+supply
People who can read, write and speak Arabic are a key weapon in the war
on
terrorism. But they're in short supply.
True, things look rosy in percentage terms. At Washington University,
for
example, the number of students majoring or minoring in Arabic language
studies has more than tripled in the past four years and is on its way
to
quadrupling.
That rise mirrors a national surge. But locally and nationally, the
percentage jump masks a stark statistical reality:
In actual numbers, the ranks of U.S. collegians studying Arabic remains
surprisingly small - at last count, not quite 10,600. That's less than
1
percent of the collegians studying any foreign language.
"When I came here in the fall of 2000," says Washington University
Arabic
professor Nargis Virani, "we had maybe one student majoring in Arabic,
and
one minoring in it. Last June, we graduated four majors and three
minors.
And now, we have three majors and five minors in the pipeline."
So in real numbers, the big percentage jump translates into a mere
blip. As
a result, the demand for college graduates who can speak Arabic far
outweighs the supply.
America's intelligence agencies are scrambling for Arabic speakers. But
the
supply is held down by many factors, chiefly the sheer difficulty of
mastering Arabic.
Kirk Belknap runs the government-financed National Middle East Language
Resource Center at Utah's Brigham Young University, where he also
teaches
Arabic...
-----
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-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 12/14/04
* HADITH/VERSE OF THE DAY: HOPE AND FEAR
* CAIR-AZ OFFERS REWARD ON INCIDENTS TARGETING MUSLIMS
- CAIR Opens New Office in Virginia
- CAIR-St. Louis Sponsors Blood Drive
- CAIR Offers Condolences on Death of Dr. Abdul Rauf
* US JUSTICE DEPT ASKED TO PROBE MOSQUE BURNINGS (Arab News)
- Arabs, Muslims Victims in Terror War (Orlando Sent)
* ISLAMIC SCHOLAR GIVES UP POST FOR LACK OF VISA (Reuters)
- Muslim Scholar Gives Up Notre Dame Post (AP)
* A CULT IS TRYING TO HIJACK OUR IRAN POLICY (LA Times)
* MI: DETROIT IS FIRST TO CARRY BRIDGES TV
-----
HADITH OF THE DAY: HOPE AND FEAR
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) once went to see a young man
who
was on his deathbed. The Prophet asked him: "How are you?" The young
man
said: "I hope for God's pardon, but I am fearful because of my sins."
The
Prophet replied: "These two things never gather in the heart of a
person at
such a time without God granting him what he hopes for and sheltering
him
from what he dreads."
Fiqh-us-Sunnah, Volume 4, Number 15A
VERSE OF THE DAY: FEAR AND HOPE
"Pray to Him with fear and hope. Surely God's mercy is always close to
those who do good to others."
The Holy Quran, 7:56
-----
CAIR-AZ OFFERS REWARD FOR INFO ON INCIDENTS TARGETING MUSLIMS
(PHOENIX, AZ, 12/14/04) - The Arizona office of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-AZ) today offered a $1000 reward for
information about a series of incidents targeting Muslims in that
state.
Earlier this week, a truck parked in front of a Muslim family's home in
Tucson had its window smashed. The same family reports that bullets
narrowly-missed hitting family members eating dinner in their home in
October.
The FBI is already investigating a fire that destroyed a Phoenix-area
mosque last week. Earlier this year in Tucson, a children's health
clinic
with Muslim doctors received a bomb threat from a caller who said,
"Muslims
suck. I'm going to blow up your building." A Muslim family in Tucson
also
reported to CAIR-AZ that they were threatened in a local park by a
group of
people shouting racist slurs. In another incident, a Tucson Muslim's
car
was vandalized with graffiti stating, "You are not welcome here. Go
back
home you stupid f****rs."
The reward will be given to anyone offering information that leads to
the
arrest and conviction of the perpetrators in any of these cases.
CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil liberties group, is headquartered
in
Washington, D.C., and has 30 offices and chapters nationwide and in
Canada.
Its mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue,
protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions
that promote justice and mutual understanding.
- END -
CONTACT: CAIR-AZ Executive Director Deedra Abboud, 602-790-9319,
E-Mail:
director@cairaz.org; Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726,
E-Mail:
ihooper@cair-net.org; Rabiah Ahmed, 202-488-8787 or 202-439-1441,
E-Mail:
rahmed@cair-net.org
SEE ALSO:
CAIR OPENS NEW OFFICE IN VIRGINIA
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 12/14/04) - The Council on American-Islamic
Relations
(CAIR), the nation's largest Muslim civil liberties group, announced
today
that it has opened a new office in Virginia.
Attendees at an opening ceremony yesterday in Herndon, Va., included
Muslim
community and interfaith leaders, elected officials and representatives
of
the FBI and local law enforcement agencies.
CAIR's Virginia office will deal with issues related to political
participation, civil rights and interfaith dialogue for CAIR Maryland
and
Virginia (CAIR-MD/VA). It joins 29 other regional offices and chapters
the
Washington-based Islamic civil rights and advocacy group has nationwide
and
in Canada. (For the past year, CAIR's Maryland and Virginia office has
been
serving the Virginia Muslim community from its office in Bethesda, Md.)
"Currently, more than half of our civil rights cases come from Northern
Virginia," said CAIR-MD/VA Executive Director Rizwan Mowlana. "Our new
office will help us better serve the Muslim community of Virginia and
the
Washington metro area."
Mowlana said the opening of a CAIR office in Virginia is the
fulfillment of
a promise made to local Muslims during CAIR-MD/VA's June 2004
fundraising
banquet.
"We appreciate the tremendous support CAIR has received nationwide from
the
American Muslim community," said CAIR Board Chairman Omar Ahmad. "It is
this support that allows us to continue to defend civil liberties and
to
promote justice for Americans of all faiths."
CAIR's mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage
dialogue,
protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions
that promote justice and mutual understanding.
- END -
CONTACT: CONTACT: CAIR-MD/VA, Rizwan Mowlana, 301-986-1900,
301-672-9355;
CAIR-National, Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-MAIL:
ihooper@cair-net.org; Rabiah Ahmed, 202-488-8787 or 202-439-1441,
E-Mail:
rahmed@cair-net.org
---
CAIR-ST. LOUIS SPONSORS BLOOD DRIVE
WHAT: CAIR-St. Louis is sponsoring a blood drive to help the American
Red
Cross at a time of the year when there are shortages in blood banks.
WHEN: December 18th (Saturday), 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.
WHERE: Auditorium (Tafseer Hall) of the Islamic Foundation Center, 517
Weidman Rd., St. Louis, Missouri
CONTACT: 636-394-7878, Ext. 12
For More Information contact: Khaled Abdel-Hamid at
khaled_hamid@yahoo.com
CONTACT CAIR-ST. LOUIS: 314-602-3794
---
CAIR OFFERS CONDOLENCES ON DEATH OF DR. MUHAMMAD ABDUL RAUF
(WASHINGTON, DC, 12/14/2004) - CAIR today offered its condolences on
the
death of noted Islamic scholar Dr. Muhammad Abdul Rauf, who passed away
Saturday in Bethesda, Md.
"To Allah we belong, and to Him we return. On behalf of the entire CAIR
board of directors and staff, I offer the deepest sympathy and
condolences
for this great loss to Muslims worldwide," said CAIR Executive Director
Nihad Awad. "Dr. Muhammad Abdul Rauf was a well-known professor of
Islamic
studies and education and the knowledge he leaves behind will benefit
future generations of Muslims."
The late professor Abdul Rauf was buried yesterday at the Washington
National Cemetery in Suitland, Md., next to his son, Ali, who died in
1993.
Dr. Abdul Rauf is survived by his wife, Buthayna, and his four
children,
Feisal, Aisha, Salwa and Ayman.
-----
US JUSTICE DEPT ASKED TO PROBE MOSQUE BURNINGS
Barbara Ferguson, Arab News, 12/14/04
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=56023&d=14&m=12&y=2004
WASHINGTON- Federal authorities are investigating whether attacks last
week
on two mosques in Massachusetts and Arizona were anti-Muslim hate
crimes.
Earlier this week, the Al-Baqi Islamic Center in Springfield, Mass.,
burned
to the ground. Arson investigators have not yet determined the cause of
the
fire, but said the blaze was not sparked by electrical problems.
Across the continent, an investigation has begun over a fire that
destroyed
a Phoenix-area mosque. The blaze broke out early Tuesday morning in the
Al
Sadiq Mosque in Glendale, Arizona.
The burning of the mosques has sent shock waves throughout the
Muslim-American community.
"We are very alarmed at the rate of these incidents, but I'm confident
that
the authorities will find the answers to the question regarding these
crimes," said Nihad Awad, executive director of the Washington-based
Council on American-Islamic Relations.
In response to these attacks, CAIR's legal director, Arsalan Iftikhar,
wrote to the US Department of Justice Civil Rights Division saying:
"Given
the recent pattern of incidents targeting Islamic institutions in the
United States, and the Muslim community's concerns about the rising
tide of
Islamophobic rhetoric in our society, I would respectfully request that
the
Department of Justice assist in ruling out the possibility that these
most
recent incidents were bias-motivated hate crimes…"
ALSO SEE:
ARABS, MUSLIMS VICTIMS IN TERROR WAR
Mohammad Lufti, Orlando Sentinel, 12/14/04
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/orl-edpmyword14121404dec14,1,615
5912.story
Imagine that you are an Arab living in Saudi Arabia, Syria, Morocco,
Egypt
or Jordan. Perhaps you are a Muslim living in India, Iran or Indonesia.
You
are listening to two voices.
One voice comes from George W. Bush, president of the United States. He
led
what I consider an illegal invasion of Iraq, which has led to the
deaths of
innocent civilians. He led an intervention in Afghanistan, which also
contributed to the killing of innocent people who had no relation with
al-Qaeda or with politics in general. Bush tells you, an Arab, how
peaceful
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is. He's warning Iran, one of the
world's largest Muslim nations, to surrender its peaceful nuclear
program
while recruiting the United Nations and allied nations to impose
sanctions
against Syria and Iran. Yet in the heart of Arab and Muslim land, Bush
justifies maintaining Israel's weapons of mass destruction. He also
threatens Syria. The United States and Israel claim that Hamas' offices
in
Syria pose a threat even though, to my understanding, these Palestine
resistance fighters have refused to declare war on America.
Bush accepts the idea of at least some Israeli settlements, which I
consider illegal in the occupied West Bank. The International Court of
Justice -- commonly known as the World Court -- has condemned Israel's
security wall and land grabbing. It has demanded that Israel remove the
wall, return the property and compensate the owners for their
hardships.
Bush has downplayed the court's order. In fact, the United States has
vetoed many U.N. resolutions against Israel through the years.
On the other hand, you have Osama bin Laden, a Muslim Arab, saying that
the
United States is evil, anti-Arab, anti-Muslim and interested in
controlling
Arab land and oil and in maintaining brutal Arab dictators in power.
Bin
Laden is recruiting Muslims and Arabs to stand up and fight against
their
enemies -- that's Israel and America. As an Arab or Muslim listening to
both Bush and bin Laden, whom should you believe and whom should you
trust?...
Mohammad Y. Lutfi is an Arab-American businessman in Orlando.
-----
ISLAMIC SCHOLAR GIVES UP U.S. POST FOR LACK OF VISA
Reuters, 12/14/04
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7086477
GENEVA - A prominent Swiss-based Islamic scholar said Tuesday he had
given
up plans to teach at a leading U.S. university after waiting months in
vain
for a visa from the State Department.
Tariq Ramadan, who is also well known in France, said he had sent a
letter
of resignation earlier this week to Notre Dame University in Indiana.
Ramadan was issued a U.S. visa last May but it was revoked in early
August
-- just before he was to move to the United States to take up his
tenured
post as professor of religion -- after the Department of Homeland
Security
changed its position.
Notre Dame, a Catholic university, said at the time it was "deeply
disappointed and concerned" about that decision.
Ramadan said he was encouraged to reapply in early October but had not
heard from U.S. authorities since then.
"I sent a letter of resignation ... This has been extremely difficult
for
my family," Ramadan told Reuters in Geneva, where he has lived in limbo
with his wife and four children since their furniture was sent to South
Bend, site of the university.
"The U.S. administration does not want my voice heard. I consider this
an
attack on academic freedom," he added.
Critics in the French media have portrayed Ramadan as a fundamentalist
preaching a moderate Islam in French but a radical Islam in Arabic.
Ramadan said Tuesday his aim was to promote dialogue and peace. "I
expect
the U.S. authorities to clear my name because there is nothing in my
file,"
he said.
ALSO SEE:
MUSLIM SCHOLAR GIVES UP NOTRE DAME POST
Tom Coyne, Associated Press, 12/14/04
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/10414609.htm
SOUTH BEND, Ind. - A Muslim scholar whose work visa was abruptly
revoked
after he was hired by the University of Notre Dame said Tuesday he has
resigned his appointment.
``I'm abandoning the idea of moving to the United States,'' Tariq
Ramadan
told The Associated Press from Geneva. ``I want to maintain my
dignity.''
Ramadan notified the university on Monday, citing the stress on him and
his
family from the uncertainty of their situation, said R. Scott Appleby,
director of Notre Dame's Kroc Institute for International Peace
Studies.
Ramadan, a Swiss citizen, was barred from working in the United States
in
August just days before he was to begin teaching at Notre Dame. The
Department of Homeland Security cited security concerns but released no
specifics.
Ramadan said Tuesday there is nothing in his past to justify the ban
and
demanded that U.S. authorities give details of its investigation of him
in
order to clear him of the ``untrue and humiliating'' claims that he was
barred because of ties to terrorism.
``This is an obstacle to academic freedom of expression,'' he said.
He took a year's unpaid leave from his posts in Switzerland in order to
work at Notre Dame and is now out of a job. ``I don't have any new
plans
for the moment,'' he said.
-----
A CULT IS TRYING TO HIJACK OUR IRAN POLICY
These fanatics seek to replace Tehran's religious tyranny with their
own.
Reza Aslan, Los Angeles Times, 12/10/04
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-aslan10dec10,1,3662214.
story
About 15,000 people, most of them Iranian Americans or exiles, recently
flocked to Washington to denounce the fundamentalist Islamic government
of
Iran. The crowd shouted slogans against Iran's reviled clerical regime
and
hoisted placards encouraging President Bush to take whatever action
necessary - including preemptive military strikes - to ensure that Iran
did
not develop nuclear weapons.
By all appearances, the march seemed like a protest by concerned
Iranians
who supported regime change in Iran. In reality, it was a meticulously
orchestrated political rally in support of a violent, pseudo-Marxist
Iranian religious cult - the People's Mujahedin of Iran, also known as
the
Mujahedin Khalq (MEK) - an organization that has been on U.S. and
European
Union terrorist watch lists for years.
Ever since the invasion of Iraq, the MEK (and its Paris-based political
front, the National Council of Resistance in Iran) has tried to
establish
itself as the Iranian equivalent of Ahmad Chalabi's "government in
exile,"
the Iraqi National Congress - and not without success. Like the INC
before
the war, the MEK has advocates in the highest levels of government. And
like the INC, the MEK has been inundating the U.S. intelligence
community
with uncorroborated and, according to some intelligence officials,
highly
suspect information meant to encourage the White House to carry out the
same policy of regime change in Iran that it did in Iraq. But the
United
States will probably discover that the MEK - just like the INC - can't
be
trusted.
The MEK, formed in the 1960s as one of several anti-imperialist
organizations struggling to overthrow the oppressive and corrupt regime
of
Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, gained widespread fame by killing dozens of
the
shah's political cronies, as well as several U.S. soldiers and civilian
contractors who were working in Iran at the time. But after the shah's
expulsion in 1979, the MEK found itself left behind in the ensuing
power
struggle over who would control the new Iran. Neither the secular
democrats
who formed the provisional government nor the religious factions who
followed Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini wanted anything to do with the
MEK's
Marxist agenda…
Reza Aslan is the author of the forthcoming book, "No God but God: The
Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam," to be published by Random
House.
-----
DETROIT IS FIRST TO CARRY BRIDGES TV, THE AMERICAN MUSLIM TELEVISION
NETWORK, ON CABLE
DETROIT, Dec. 14 -- Bridges TV, the first American Muslim television
network, has launched in southeast Michigan on Comcast, the nation's
largest cable company with nearly 22 million customers. Details of the
channel and the launch will be discussed during a media availability on
Friday, Dec. 17, 2004 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Dearborn, MI, at 10
a.m. The historic launch marks Detroit as the first cable market in the
country to broadcast Bridges TV.
Bridges TV is a subscription-based network that targets primarily the 8
million Muslims of North America and features English language programs
focused on celebrating the American Muslim lifestyle and culture.
Bridges TV CEO and founder Muzzammil Hassan noted that the launch of
Bridges TV in Detroit is significant because the largest concentration
of
Muslims in the United States live in Detroit and more than two thousand
households in Detroit have already pledged support for the network.
During a drive to Detroit, Hassan and his wife Aasiya Zubair were
disturbed
by derogatory remarks about Muslims on a radio talk show. Zubair, who
was
pregnant at the time, worried that her child would grow up watching
Muslims
mainly portrayed as terrorists or insurgents. She encouraged her
husband to
start a network of his own to portray Muslims in a positive light.
After
three years of research and development, Hassan launched Bridges TV
nationwide in November.
"It seems fitting that Detroit is the first cable market to carry
Bridges
TV since it is here where the idea was born and initial research was
done,"
Hassan said. "Muslims in the Detroit area are doing so much for their
city.
Through the support of Comcast Cable and the forum of Bridges TV, we
can
share the stories of service and accomplishments of Detroit Muslims
with
our entire nation," he added.
For a media kit, please go to http://www.bridgestv.com/, or contact
Samina
Salahuddin at (716) 870-9434/ samina@bridgestv.com, or Muzzammil Hassan
at
(716) 308-6593/ mohassan@bridgestv.com.
-----
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-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
--------------------------------------------------------------------
mail2web - Check your email from the web at
http://mail2web.com/ .
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 12/15/04
* VERSE OF THE DAY: COOPERATE IN RIGHTEOUSNESS
* CA TOWN HALL MEETING TO ADDRESS TARGETING OF MUSLIMS
* CAIR-SAN ANTONIO LIBRARY LECTURE ON ISLAM
- CAIR-FL: Muslims Request School Holiday (Tampa Trib)
* CAIR-AZ: MUSLIMS SAY THEY'RE TARGET OF HATE (Tucson Citizen)
- Family says Hate is Behind Shooting (Daily Star)
* MA: TEENS CHARGED IN MOSQUE FIRE (Mass Live)
* MI: OFFICERS GET LESSON IN ISLAM (GR Express)
- Response to Islam Provides Perspective (KC Star)
* MI: JAMEEL AND THE ISLAMIC MUSICAL DREAM (Free Press)
* DETAINEE ABUSE BY MARINES IS DETAILED (Wash Post)
- Navy Documents Detail Abuse Claims (AP)
* U.S. MEDIA HIDING BAD NEWS FROM AMERICANS (The Star)
* DEMOCRACY, ISLAM SHARE A HOME IN MALI (Chicago Trib)
- Report: We Need to Understand Islamic Law (Boston Globe)
-----
VERSE OF THE DAY: COOPERATE IN RIGHTEOUSNESS
"Cooperate with one another in righteousness and piety, and do not
cooperate in sin and transgression."
The Holy Quran, 5:2
HADITH OF THE DAY: THE PROVISION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
A man once asked the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) to pray for
him
because he was about to embark on a journey. The Prophet said: "May God
grant you the provision of righteousness...And may He make it easy for
you
to do virtuous deeds, wherever you may be."
Al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 235
-----
CALIF. TOWN HALL MEETING TO ADDRESS TARGETING OF MUSLIMS
Coalition of civil rights, interfaith and community groups to focus on
DHS
tactics
TO VIEW THIS RELEASE IN HTML FORMAT, GO TO:
http://www.cair-net.org/asp/article.asp?id=1358&page=NR
(LOS ANGELES, CA, 12/15/04) On Monday, December 20, a coalition* of
community, interfaith and civil rights organizations will host an
emergency
town hall meeting to discuss what they say is the unfair targeting of
Muslims by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
WHAT: Town Hall Meeting on Selective Targeting of Muslims
WHEN: Monday, December 20, 2004, 6 p.m.
WHERE: Holiday Inn Select, 14299 Firestone Blvd., La Mirada, CA
CONTACT: Sabiha Khan at CAIR-LA, 714-776-1847 or 714-390-0334, E-Mail:
socal@cair.com
Invited speakers will include representatives of DHS, Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE), FBI, and Department of Justice (DOJ), as
well as
local attorneys and family members of immigration detainees. Hundreds
of
community members are expected to attend.
Over the last few months, several Muslim religious leaders in
California
have been detained on minor immigration infractions and have been
denied
bail. Recent cases include the detentions of Imam Wagdy Ghoneim
(Islamic
Institute of Orange County in Anaheim), Abdul Jabbar Hamdan (West Coast
Islamic Society in Anaheim) and Abdel Malik (Islamic Center of Irvine).
According to their attorneys, these individuals have been in the
country
legally and have filed all necessary documents to maintain their
status.
Dozens of complaints of harassment have also been filed by American
Muslim
travelers. The incidents include being unable to remove their names
from
the 'No Fly List,' repeated stops and interrogations at airports,
exclusion
from entry to the United States, and revocation of visas for no stated
reason. Islamic leaders and activists prevented from entering this
country
include Yusuf Islam (formerly known as Cat Stevens) and Swiss professor
Dr.
Tariq Ramadan.
"While we are all in full support of securing our nation and its
borders,
we believe the selective application of the law only reinforces the
widespread perception that government officials are targeting Islam and
Muslims," said Sabiha Khan, communications director for the Council on
American-Islamic Relations in Southern California (CAIR-LA).
- END -
* Southern California Civil Rights Coalition (CRC): Council on
American-Islamic Relations - Southern California (CAIR-LA), Islamic
Shura
Council of Southern California, Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC),
Free
Imam Wagdy Committee (FIWC), Airman Halabi Justice Committee (AHJC),
National Lawyers Guild (NLG), League of United Latin American Citizens
(LULAC) - Orange County Chapter, Los Amigos of Orange County, Coalition
for
Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), South Asian Network
(SAN)
-----
CAIR-SAN ANTONIO LIBRARY LECTURE ON ISLAM
San Antonio Express-News, 12/12/04
http://www.mysanantonio.com/salife/stories/MYSA121204.3P.goodcause.d13f15.html
CAIR-San Antonio Library Lectures on Islam, 6:30-9:30 p.m. Oakwell
Branch
Library, 4134 Harry Wurzbach Road. The San Antonio office of the
Council on
American-Islamic Relations is presenting a series of lectures at area
libraries to promote a better understanding of Muslims in America.
According to CAIR-San Antonio spokeswoman Sarwat Husain, there are 7
million to 10.5 million Muslims in the United States, making up 2
percent
to 3 percent of the U.S. population. More lectures are scheduled in
January
and February. Free admission. As part of the "Islam in America" lecture
series, each participating library will receive books, DVDs and other
educational materials having to do with Islam and Muslims.
For more information, contact Sarwat Husain at (210) 378-9528.
SEE ALSO:
CAIR-FL: MUSLIM GROUP REQUESTS SCHOOL HOLIDAY
Marilyn Brown, Tampa Tribune, 12/15/04
http://news.tbo.com/news/MGBJ1T03R2E.html
TAMPA - Members of a local Muslim group arrived en masse at a
Hillsborough
school board meeting, asking for recognition of their religious
holidays.
Every year thousands of Muslim students watch classmates enjoy their
holidays while "our holidays go unnoticed," Ahmed Bedier, director of
the
Tampa chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told the
board
Tuesday...
Some 30 to 40 members of CAIR watched from the audience and indicated
approval when Bedier asked that Nov. 4, 2005, be declared a non-student
day
on the district's calendar so students may observe Eid al-Fitr, a holy
day
marking the end of Ramadan. In addition, he and other speakers asked
that
the district also note on teachers' calendars another holy day, Eid
al-Adha, in January 2006.
Mariam Osman, 16, a junior at King High School, told the board that the
Muslim population at her school is the third largest minority. "How can
you
continue to ignore our needs, our holidays, our interests?" she asked…
CONTACT: Ahmed Bedier, 813-731-9506, abedier@cair-florida.org; Altaf
Ali,
954-298-8214, altaf@cair-florida.org
----
MUSLIM SIBLINGS SAY THEY'RE LIKELY TARGET OF HATE CRIMES
David L. Teibel, Tucson Citizen, 12/15/04
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/index.php?page=local&story_id=121504a4_hatecrime
Two Tucson area siblings think their family is being targeted for
gunfire
and vandalism because they are Muslims of Middle Eastern descent.
In late October, six shots were fired at the Dehdashti home in
unincorporated Pima County, near Oro Valley, said Hoda Dehdashti, 18.
The young woman said three of the shots came through the living room
window, one of them passing between her head and that of her
20-year-old
brother, Haudi Dehdashti, as they ate dinner. Both incidents were
reported
to the Pima County Sheriff's Department.
Hoda and Haudi Dehdashti's parents came here from Iran in the late
1970s,
but the brother and sister were born in Flagstaff and grew up in
Tucson.
The family suspected they were targeted because of their ethnicity or
religion, but with another incident at their home Sunday evening, Hoda
said
they "definitely" feel they have been targeted in hate crimes.
In Sunday's incident, someone smashed the windows on a family pickup
parked
outside the home but took nothing from the truck, Hoda said.
There are no suspects in either case, said Deputy Dawn Barkman, a
sheriff's
spokeswoman…
She did not know if the crimes against the Dehdashti family have been
classified as hate crimes…
The soft-spoken brother and sister talked of their fear and frustration
over their family being targeted at a news conference yesterday at the
Islamic Center of Tucson, on East First Street near the University of
Arizona.
Deedra Abboud, executive director of the Council on American Islamic
Relations' Arizona chapter, said the Islamic Center is offering a
$1,000
reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the
attacks.
"We think, perhaps, that some of the hate speech or ignorance is
spreading," said Abboud said, calling for more awareness…
---
CONTACT: CAIR-AZ Executive Director Deedra Abboud, 602-790-9319,
E-Mail:
director@cairaz.org
ALSO SEE:
MUSLIM FAMILY SAYS HATE IS BEHIND SHOOTING, VANDALISM
Stephanie Innes, Arizona Daily Star, 12/15/04
http://www.dailystar.com/dailystar/allheadlines/52621.php
When asked if her family is being targeted by unknown suspects because
of
its Muslim faith, Hoda Dehdashti, an 18-year-old University of Arizona
sophomore, nods a firm "yes."
"It's not an accident," she said Tuesday, referring to two suspicious
incidents at her family's Northwest Side home, the latter on Sunday
night,
when a truck window was smashed.
"It is a very decent neighborhood," Dehdashti said. "We have been there
for
10 years. But we didn't doubt - starting with the first incident - that
it
was deliberate."
The Pima County Sheriff's Department is investigating both incidents
but
has not established a suspect or a motive. Therefore, neither has been
classified as a hate crime.
The first incident at the family's home, near Oro Valley, occurred on
Oct.
26 when Dehdashti and her brother, 20-year-old Haudi Dehdashti, were
sitting on a couch and a bullet flew through the front window and
passed
between their heads.
Another bullet came into the house and lodged in the dining room wall,
and
a total of six bullets were found, they said.
They said the head scarves Hoda and her mother wear make the family's
religion visible.
Officials with the Islamic Center of Tucson, 901 E. First St., and the
Arizona Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, are
certain
the incidents were hate crimes.
"We as a community feel targeted," said Deedra Aboud, executive
director of
the chapter.
Islamic Center of Tucson spokesman Muhammad As'ad said the center is
raising money for a $1,000 reward for information that leads to an
arrest.
Haudi Dehdashti and his sister were born in the United States, but
their
parents are from Iran. "We're definitely a peaceful people," he said.
"Maybe if they were more educated about our faith, this would not have
happened."
-----
TEENS CHARGED IN MOSQUE FIRE
Patrick Johnson, Mass Live, 12/14/04
http://www.masslive.com/springfield/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-8/110308230139870.xml
SPRINGFIELD - Police charged seven Springfield teenagers with setting
the
fire last week that destroyed the Al-Baqi Islamic Center at 495 Oak St.
and
sparked suspicions among area Muslims that they had been targeted
because
of their religion.
The arrests beginning Monday night came slightly less than a week after
a
fire Dec. 8 gutted the mosque housed in an 1883 historic schoolhouse
first
called Oak Street School and later Strickland School. The value of the
building near the intersection with Oak Street was estimated at
$800,000.
District Attorney William M. Bennett, speaking yesterday at a press
conference at the Raymond M. Sullivan Safety Complex on Carew Street,
said
investigators determined the fire "had nothing to do with anti-Islamic
sentiments."
After breaking into the building and stealing cash, candy and other
items,
the teenagers set the fire that consumed the Islamic center, he said.
"The only reason these juveniles targeted that building was because
they
wanted to steal something," Bennett said. "This was really an act of
vandalism."
All of the teenagers live near the mosque, but neither the boys nor
their
parents are members, Bennett said.
Rasul F. Seifullah, the mosque's imam or leader, said he was relieved
that
investigators ruled out the possibility that the fire was a hate crime.
Still, he was disheartened that neighborhood teenagers were charged
with
burning a place of worship for about 100 area Sunni Muslims.
"A lot of young people are actually lost," Seifullah told The
Associated
Press. "They have no focus, no discipline, no purpose. I'd like to sit
down
and talk to them and find out where they're coming from and what was on
their minds when they did this..."
-----
OFFICERS GET LESSON IN SENSITIVITY TO ARABS
Juanita Westaby, Grand Rapids Press, 12/14/04
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-19/11030391564920.xml
EAST GRAND RAPIDS -- The next time East Grand Rapids Officer Gary
Parker
sees a woman in traditional Islamic clothing, he will know what to say.
"'Salaam alaikum (pronounced sa-lam a-like-um),' which means 'Peace be
with
you,'" explained Karen Henry, a third-generation Arab-American, whose
grandparents came from Lebanon and Syria.
During an Arab-Islamic sensitivity workshop for the department's
officers
-- the first in Kent County -- Parker recalled seeing an Arabic family
in
Collins Park. The wife was wearing traditional clothing. Very little of
her
face or body was showing.
He conceded he was uncomfortable. But, as a black police officer, he
wanted
to get past that.
"If I had had to deal with that couple, I would have had a very hard
time,"
he said.
"The Arabs who dress that way are doing so out of very strong
convictions,"
Henry said. "They will wear the head-covering in opposition to the
western
culture. A lot of them believe our western values are in the toilet."
In a talk that Public Safety Director Peter Gallagher called "very
practical" and "a working understanding for police officers," Henry
explained the basics.
Not all Arabs are Muslims. Some Arab-Americans, like Henry, are
Christian.
Not all Muslims are from the Middle East, she said. Many Muslims hail
from
Africa, or they can be Americans who have converted…
ALSO SEE:
RESPONSE TO ISLAM PROVIDES PERSPECTIVE
Vern Barnet, The Star, 12/15/04
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/living/10415245.htm
Regular readers of this column know I believe that studying others'
faiths
deepens one's own. Reports from laypeople and my own experience in the
ministry assure me this is so.
For the testimony of another clergyman, I invited the Rev. Jim Eller to
write about his response to Islam. He has served All Souls Unitarian
Universalist Church as senior pastor for the last six years. Perhaps he
has
a head start in understanding different perspectives because his wife
is a
United Methodist minister. Here is what he wrote:
"Studying Islam has made a positive change in my religious and family
life.
"Prairie Group, a scholarly ministerial gathering, convenes each fall
for
shared reading, presenting papers and discussion on a preselected
topic.
This year our study focused on liberal Islam. The required reading
included
Islam Today, by Akbar Ahmed, and Islam: A Short History and Muhammad: A
Biography of the Prophet, both by Karen Armstrong. I read several other
related books. I particularly enjoyed Azar Nafisi's Reading Lolita in
Tehran: A Memoir in Books. The result has been a kind of personal
conversion experience.
"We hear so many bad things about Islam that I wanted more depth than
what
we get on the evening news or in other casual references. I wanted to
better understand one of the fastest-growing religions in the world.
"In the study of zakat, almsgiving and charity, one of the Five Pillars
of
Islam, I found a thoughtful way of managing wealth and privilege.
"Another pillar, salat, invites people to pray five times a day. I
admire
the frequent reminder that we are called to spiritual awareness
throughout
the day, especially in a culture like ours that has so many
distractions.
"Sawm, another pillar, is fasting during the month of Ramadan.
-----
JAMEEL AND THE ISLAMIC MUSICAL DREAM
Martin F. Kohn, Detroit Free Press, 12/15/04
http://www.freep.com/entertainment/newsandreviews/islamictuner15e_20041215.htm
Jameel Syed, with the help of some friends, will be presenting "The
Poem of
the Cloak" at the Ford Community and Performing Arts Center in
Dearborn.
In September, entrepreneur Jameel Syed telephoned Ray Alcodray and
asked
him to direct a play. It would be, Syed claimed, the first
American-Islamic
musical in history.
Alcodray was pretty sure Syed was correct. An actor, playwright,
director
and founder of the Dearborn-based Arab Theatrical Arts Guild, Alcodray
is
Muslim. Given his background, if anyone can say authoritatively that
there
has never before been an American-Islamic musical, it would be he…
-----
DETAINEE ABUSE BY MARINES IS DETAILED
Variety of Units In Iraq Involved
Thomas E. Ricks, Washington Post, 12/15/04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64736-2004Dec14.html
Marines operating in Iraq over the past two years committed a variety
of
abuses against Iraqi prisoners, including burning a detainee's hands by
igniting alcohol-based cleanser in August 2003, according to internal
Defense Department documents released yesterday.
Several other incidents, most of them previously undisclosed, are
described
in investigative reports and legal summaries. In Karbala in May 2003,
one
Marine held a 9mm pistol to the back of a bound detainee's head while
another took a photograph. Two months later, in Diwaniyah, four Marines
ordered teenage Iraqi looters to kneel alongside holes and then fired a
pistol "to conduct a mock execution."
We want to give you the opportunity to show firsthand what it is like
to
live and work in Iraq.
In April of this year, shortly before the Abu Ghraib prison abuse
scandal
shook the U.S. military, three Marines in Mahmudiya shocked a detainee
with
an electric transformer, forcing him to "dance" as the electricity hit
him,
according to a witness, one document states. The Washington Post
reported
that incident in June, after two of the Marines pleaded guilty in the
case.
This new catalogue of abuses involves members of a variety of units,
and is
distinct from earlier disclosures of the torture of prisoners by Army
reservists at Abu Ghraib and the maltreatment of detainees in
Afghanistan
by Army soldiers and Special Operations troops.
Overall, according to a summary prepared for the Pentagon's inspector
general but obtained and released by the American Civil Liberties
Union,
there were 10 substantiated incidents of Marines abusing prisoners.
Those
involved 24 members of the Corps, and resulted in 11 court-martial
convictions and three lesser punishments. Charges were dismissed
against
six other Marines, and four cases are pending, the summary said. All
the
abuse involved members of various units within the 1st Marine Division.
..
ALSO SEE:
NAVY DOCUMENTS DETAIL ABUSE CLAIMS
More cases unrelated to those at Abu Ghraib prison
Associated Press, 12/15/04
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6714221/
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Newly released U.S. Navy documents portray a
series of abuse cases stretching beyond Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison where
photos surfaced this year of U.S. troops forcing prisoners - often
naked -
to pose in humiliating positions.
The files released Tuesday document a crush of abuse allegations, most
from
the early months of the U.S. occupation of Iraq, including U.S. Marines
forcing Iraqi juveniles to kneel while troops discharge a weapon in a
mock
execution and the use of an electric shock on a prisoner.
The approximately 10,000 files include investigation reports from the
Naval
Criminal Investigative Service and witness interviews.
All names have been blacked out in the documents, which were released
after
a federal court ordered the government to comply with a Freedom of
Information Act petition filed by the American Civil Liberties Union,
the
Center for Constitutional Rights and other organizations…
-----
U.S. MEDIA STILL HIDING BAD NEWS FROM AMERICANS
Antonia Zerbisias, The Star, 12/15/04
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_PrintFriendly&c=Article&cid=1102547410018&call_pageid=968256290204
And now the good news from America's accomplished mission in Iraq ...
The other night on ABC News Nightline, Ted Koppel asked National Public
Radio war correspondent Anne Garrels, who has been in Iraq throughout
the
war, "When you hear people in this country, Anne, say, look, the media
is
only giving the negative side of what's going on there, why don't they
ever
show the good side, what do you tell 'em?"
"I tell them that there isn't much good to show," she replied,
describing
how even military commanders have only bad news to share.
Two weeks ago on CNN, Time's Michael Ware, who has been covering Iraq
for
two years, gave an alarming account of being trapped in his Baghdad
compound, which is regularly bombed and encircled by "kidnap teams."
He reported that the U.S. military has "lost control" and that
Americans
are "the midwives of the next generation of jihad, of the next Al
Qaeda."
At the end of the exchange, anchor Aaron Brown warned, "(O)ther people
see
the situation there differently than Michael. We talk to them as well."
The next day, when the interview was repeated, anchor Carol Lin closed
with, "And of course there are others who disagree with that."
Never mind that those others never had Iraqi sand in their shoes, let
alone
been under fire there…
------
BUSH TO SIGN MUSLIM-SPECIFIC LAW SOON
Anwar Iqbal, United Press International, 12/15/04
http://www.wpherald.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20041215-122447-9777r
WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush is expected this week to sign
into
law a bill that officially binds Washington to engage into a long-term
economic and political partnership with its key Muslim allies.
The bill, called the Sept. 11th Recommendations Implementation Act, was
passed by Congress last week, and with Bush's signature it will become
a law.
The Sept. 11 Act also suggests various proposals for improving
America's
image in the Islamic world and for helping its Muslim allies combat
internal extremism.
The bill calls on Bush to submit a report within 90 days with a
strategy
for addressing and eliminating terrorist sanctuaries.
Although the bills for promoting U.S. interests in the entire Muslim
world
- from the Far East to North Africa - the emphasis on the U.S.
interaction
with three key allies, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
In the war against terror, so far Afghanistan is the only success story
for
the Bush administration. Despite initial problems, and contrary to the
predictions of the doomsday pundits, the United States and its allies
succeeded in holding Afghanistan's first-ever direct elections.
In the elections, the Afghans not only showed an unprecedented support
for
democracy but also endorsed Hamid Karzai, a close U.S. ally, as their
first
popularly elected president.
The Sept. 11 Act devotes a large section to Afghanistan to the U.S.
efforts
to build democracy while fighting terrorists and opium cultivation.
-----
DEMOCRACY, ISLAM SHARE A HOME IN MALI
Lisa Anderson, Chicago Tribune, 12/15/04
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0412150328dec15,1,6447751.story
ARAOUANE, Mali - Bell softly tinkling, the guide wove his way among the
scattered sleepers, singing out his wake-up call into the warm
stillness of
a Saharan summer dawn.
"Cinq heures. Il est cinq heures. Cinq heures," he chanted, announcing
the
early hour in French, the official language in this former French
colony.
The 5 a.m. sun inched up above the massive, wind-sculpted dunes,
casting a
pale lemon light across the ragtag camp of cots and SUVs to the nearby
jumble of sand-swept mud-brick houses that compose this ancient
settlement
in far northeastern Mali.
With temperatures rocketing into the triple digits by midmorning and
neither man nor beast active between noon and dusk, rising early is key
to
accomplishing anything.
As the camp began to stir, a tall, slender, dark-haired woman moved
quickly
to pack her gear and trudge off into the dunes in search of a secluded
spot
for a bathroom break ahead of the morning rush.
Soon she would embark on another sweltering day of bouncing for
bone-jarring hours across trackless desert in a four-wheel-drive
vehicle to
reach the most distant settlements in this predominantly Muslim nation.
Vicki Huddleston is not an aid worker or one of the 90,000 intrepid
tourists who brave heat, dust and discomfort to visit this desperately
poor
but culturally rich nation each year.
She is the U.S. ambassador to Mali, and her post in this West African
nation is just as unique as the tough, charismatic, 62-year-old career
diplomat, a woman who carried a Swiss Army knife in her handbag before
the
security restrictions after Sept. 11.
Mali is a successful, if unlikely, democracy. A nation racked by
illiteracy
and poverty, it also is one of the few places on Earth where Islam and
democracy prosper peacefully. It has been that way since the country's
first truly democratic elections in 1992. Huddleston's job is to see
that
it stays that way, mainly by helping moderate Muslims counter Islamic
extremists who have turned Mali's far northern reaches into the front
lines
of the newest and least-known theater in the global war against
terrorism
and Islamic extremism…
ALSO SEE:
REPORT CITES NEED FOR UNDERSTANDING OF ISLAMIC LAW
Bryan Bender, Boston Globe, 12/15/04
http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2004/12/15/dim_view_of_mideast_democracy
WASHINGTON A new Pentagon study paints a bleak picture of the prospects
for
creating democracy in the Middle East, declaring that US attempts to
bring
free elections to the Muslim world risk stoking internal religious
conflicts and giving rise to further anti-American sentiments.
The study, by two researchers at the US Army War College, also
concludes
that the failure so far to successfully counter the misinterpretations
of
Islamic law espoused by militants has undercut the war on terrorism.
The report notes that American military officers and diplomats can
improve
the chances of a peaceful outcome by developing a deeper understanding
of
Islamic history. But American officials should "factor in the
possibility
of failure" in their efforts to subdue militant and suicidal forms of
Islam.
President Bush has described the war on terrorism and the US invasion
of
Iraq as part of a broader US strategy to bring democracy to the Middle
East
and the wider Muslim world.
Yet the war college paper says policymakers need to find new ways to
strengthen moderate Islamic voices or risk fanning the flames of a
militant
religious movement that has grown in the three years since the Sept.
11,
2001, terrorist attacks.
The authors warned US officials they shouldn't presume to dictate to
the
Islamic world how to bypass militant thought…
-----
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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 12/16/04
* VERSE OF THE DAY: ABRAHAM AND MOSES
* CAIR-MD/VA: INTERNSHIP POSITIONS AVAILABLE
* JUDGE RULES U.S. DETAINEE MAY HAVE RIGHTS (AP)
* NC: SCHOOL BOARD RECOGNIZES MUSLIM HOLIDAY (Charlotte Obs)
* MA: TEENS PLEAD INNOCENT TO SETTING MOSQUE FIRE (AP)
- WI: Lawsuit Says Firm is Biased (Capital Times)
* U.S. FINDS HIGH ASTHMA RATE AMONG ARAB IMMIGRANTS (Free Press)
* A FLOOD OF TROUBLED SOLDIERS IS IN THE OFFING (NY Times)
* DOES YOUR CREDIT REPORT SAY YOU'RE ON A TERRORIST WATCHLIST?
* UK CAN'T HOLD TERROR SUSPECTS INDEFINITELY (AP)
- Study: British Muslims Face Increasing Prejudice (AFP)
- Dutch Arrest Islamic School Bomb Attack Suspect (Reuters)
* CANADA: TORTURE LINK SUSPECTED (Ottawa Citizen)
* ISRAELIS HASTEN LAND GRAB IN SHADOW OF WALL (Guardian)
-----
VERSE OF THE DAY: ABRAHAM AND MOSES
"You prefer the life of this world; while the Hereafter is better and
more
anduring. Surely the same was said in the earlier scriptures; the
scriptures of Abraham and Moses."
The Holy Quran, 87:16-19
-----
INTERNSHIP POSITIONS AVAILABLE AT NEW CAIR-MD/VA
CAIR MD/VA is seeking interns for its new office in Herndon, Va.
Interns
will assist in client intake, civil rights case management and
follow-up,
media monitoring, community outreach and organizing, legislative
lobbying
and coalition work, the annual banquet, and the general operation of
the
office. In addition, each intern will be required to perform at least
one
community service project in the Northern Virginia area.
For more information, call 301-986-1900 or e-mail: shama@cairmd.org
-----
JUDGE RULES U.S. DETAINEE MAY HAVE RIGHTS
SAM HANANEL, Associated Press, 12/16/04
http://www.fresnobee.com/24hour/world/story/1933533p-9895821c.html
WASHINGTON (AP) - An American jailed in Saudi Arabia on suspicion of
terrorist ties may have a right to challenge his detention in an
American
court if evidence shows he was arrested at the behest of the U.S.
government, a federal judge ruled Thursday.
U.S. District Judge John Bates rejected the government's request to
dismiss
the case for lack of jurisdiction. He ordered federal lawyers to
produce
documents that would show whether U.S. officials played a role in the
arrest of Ahmed Abu Ali, a 23-year-old who grew up in Falls Church, Va.
Abu Ali was enrolled in a Saudi university when he was imprisoned
without
charges on June 11, 2003. Since then the FBI has questioned Abu Ali
twice
in Saudi Arabia about alleged terrorist activity in Virginia.
A lawsuit filed by Abu Ali's family in U.S. District Court said he
should
have the same chance to contest his detention that the Supreme Court
gave
to foreign-born terrorism suspects held at the U.S. Navy base at
Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba.
Lawyers for Abu Ali contend the United States ordered the Saudi
government
to arrest and hold Abu Ali so he could be tortured for information
without
recourse in U.S. courts. Justice Department officials say Saudi
officials
acted on their own and plan to file charges against Abu Ali.
Bates rejected the U.S. government's position that an American court
could
never have jurisdiction to consider the plight of a U.S. citizen held
captive in a foreign country.
Bates wrote that such a declaration is too sweeping and would allow the
government "to deliver a United States citizen to a foreign country to
avoid constitutional scrutiny, or...work through the intermediary of a
foreign country to detain a United States citizen abroad."
"The court concludes that a citizen cannot be so easily separated from
his
constitutional rights," he said...
-----
SCHOOL BOARD RECOGNIZES MUSLIM HOLIDAY
CMS BOARD OKS ITS PLANS AND CALENDAR
Peter Smolowitz, Charlotte Observer, 12/15/04
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/10419340.htm
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board Tuesday finalized plans for next
year, approving a calendar and changing a controversial student
assignment
plan for a new middle school.
With a new law dictating when school years can start and end, districts
throughout the state have struggled to keep traditions while also
scheduling breaks that don't interfere with instruction.
The CMS calendar was unanimously approved and seemed to please more
people
than expected. About 75 percent of teachers and principals supported
one
version, according to survey results, which Superintendent James
Pughsley
later tweaked. He moved two teacher workdays to recognize Jewish and
Muslim
holidays, emphasize religious diversity and reduce the number of
students
who would have been absent those days.
Recognizing the Nov. 4 Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha -- which
commemorates
Abraham's willingness to obey God by sacrificing his son -- would mean
holding school on Election Day, Nov. 8. That has been done in the past,
board members said, but it causes concerns about voter convenience and
student safety.
"We will have to do some strong planning," Pughsley said.
District officials do not know the number of Muslim students and
teachers.
Board member Larry Gauvreau said: "You've got to deal with the majority
as
opposed to the very small minority, as politically incorrect as that
sounds…"
A preliminary vote to recognize the Muslim holiday passed 7-2, with
Kaye
McGarry joining Gauvreau…
-----
MORE TEENS PLEAD INNOCENT TO SETTING MOSQUE FIRE
Associated Press, 12/15/04
http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=59079
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - Four more teenagers pleaded innocent in
Springfield
Juvenile Court on Wednesday to setting a fire that destroyed a city
mosque.
They were ordered held in lieu of bail that ranged from $200 to $1,000,
Hampden Assistant District Attorney Brett Vottero said.
Three other teens pleaded innocent on Tuesday to charges stemming from
the
fire at the Al-Baqi Islamic Center.
The seven boys, all 15 years old, are charged with arson, larceny and
breaking and entering.
The boys broke into the mosque last week to steal money and candy, then
set
the fire, prosecutors said. The fire was an act of vandalism and not a
hate
crime prompted by anti-Islamic sentiment, authorities said. Nobody was
hurt
in the blaze.
The investigation is still underway and authorities have not decided
whether to prosecute the teens as adults or juveniles, Vottero said.
A hearing is scheduled for Friday to determine whether five of the
teens
are too dangerous to be allowed released on bail. If a judge finds them
dangerous, their bail would be revoked.
ALSO SEE:
LAWSUIT SAYS FIRM IS BIASED
Kevin Murphy, Capital Times, 12/15/04
http://www.madison.com/tct/news/stories/index.php?ntid=21278&ntpid=1
A former Nicolet Biomedical sales executive of Lebanese descent claims
that
the Fitchburg-based instrument maker fired him because his ethnic
heritage
"was not good for the company in light of 9/11," according to a lawsuit
filed Tuesday in federal court.
The complaint alleges that Sami Elestwani began working at Nicolet as a
consultant to a sales manager in 1992 and within two years was the
firm's
sales representative in Saudi Arabia. He was promoted to regional sales
manager in 1997 for the Middle East and Africa. In January 2000, he was
promoted to be a key accounts manager, working out of the Fitchburg
offices
as part of the sales management team and traveling weekly on visits to
sales prospects.
On Nov. 8, 2002, Elestwani's supervisor, Philip Moses, told Elestwani
that
he was reassigning him because he had concerns about Elestwani's
ability to
do the job due to the situation in the country after Sept. 11, 2001,
according to the complaint.
Moses mentioned that because Elestwani was a Muslim and from the Middle
East, his extensive travel schedule in a high-profile job was "not good
for
the company in light of 9/11," according to the complaint.
Moses offered Elestwani a lower-ranking job as a product rep in Texas.
Elestwani talked about the position with the regional manager but then
complained to a Nicolet human resources employee about Moses'
discriminatory remarks and plans to reassign him to Texas solely
because of
his race, ethnic and religious background.
According to the complaint, instead of meeting with Elestwani and human
resource personnel on Dec. 2, 2002, to discuss Elestwani's complaint,
Moses
told Elestwani that the Texas job was no longer available. About six
weeks
later, Elestwani was informed that he was terminated effective Feb. 3,
2003, due to an "internal reorganization." A non-Arab man was later
hired
to replace him.
Until that time, Elestwani's job performance "met or exceeded all
expectations," said his attorney, Mary Kennelly, and Moses' intent to
reassign him came "out of the blue…"
-----
U.S. FINDS HIGH ASTHMA RATE AMONG ARAB IMMIGRANTS
Detroit Free Press, 12/15/04
http://www.freep.com/news/statewire/sw108744_20041215.htm
DEARBORN, Mich. -- A new federal study says Arab Americans in some
parts of
metropolitan Detroit have asthma at about twice the rate expected.
"Communities of color and low-income neighborhoods, have a greater
exposure
to environmental hazards and a greater risk of health problems," said
Adnan
Hammad, health director for the Arab Community Center for Economic and
Social Services or ACCESS. He spoke Tuesday in Dearborn at a community
briefing on the study.
The four-year, $800,000 Arab American Environmental Health Project was
conducted by ACCESS and the University of Michigan's School of Public
Health.
The study began with a survey of 600 Arab-surnamed households in
Detroit,
Dearborn, Hamtramck and Oak Park, to gauge knowledge of environmental
hazards. Most of the participants were from Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq.
From that group, 200 with the highest exposure to asthma triggers,
such as
dust, air pollution, cockroaches, rats and household chemicals, were
selected for further education, with four home visits during a two-year
period.
Previously, 7.5 percent of Detroiters in the survey and 7 percent of
Dearborn residents had been diagnosed with asthma. But the number of
people
in those communities most likely to have asthma doubled when exposure
to
asthma triggers was included, the Detroit Free Press said.
It appeared that low family income levels were a strong predictor of
asthma
severity, the researchers found.
-----
A FLOOD OF TROUBLED SOLDIERS IS IN THE OFFING, EXPERTS PREDICT
Scott Shane, New York Times, 12/16/04
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/16/national/16stress.html
WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 - The nation's hard-pressed health care system for
veterans is facing a potential deluge of tens of thousands of soldiers
returning from Iraq with serious mental health problems brought on by
the
stress and carnage of war, veterans' advocates and military doctors
say.
An Army study shows that about one in six soldiers in Iraq report
symptoms
of major depression, serious anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder,
a
proportion that some experts believe could eventually climb to one in
three, the rate ultimately found in Vietnam veterans. Because about one
million American troops have served so far in the conflicts in Iraq and
Afghanistan, according to Pentagon figures, some experts predict that
the
number eventually requiring mental health treatment could exceed
100,000.
"There's a train coming that's packed with people who are going to need
help for the next 35 years," said Stephen L. Robinson, a 20-year Army
veteran who is now the executive director of the National Gulf War
Resource
Center, an advocacy group. Mr. Robinson wrote a report in September on
the
psychological toll of the war for the Center for American Progress, a
Washington research group.
"I have a very strong sense that the mental health consequences are
going
to be the medical story of this war," said Dr. Stephen C. Joseph, who
served as the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs from
1994
to 1997.
What was planned as a short and decisive intervention in Iraq has
become a
grueling counterinsurgency that has put American troops into sustained
close-quarters combat on a scale not seen since the Vietnam War.
Psychiatrists say the kind of fighting seen in the recent retaking of
Falluja - spooky urban settings with unlimited hiding places; the
impossibility of telling Iraqi friend from Iraqi foe; the knowledge
that
every stretch of road may conceal an explosive device - is tailored to
produce the adrenaline-gone-haywire reactions that leave lasting
emotional
scars.
And in no recent conflict have so many soldiers faced such uncertainty
about how long they will be deployed. Veterans say the repeated
extensions
of duty in Iraq are emotionally battering, even for the most stoical of
warriors.
Military and Department of Veterans Affairs officials say most military
personnel will survive the war without serious mental issues and note
that
the one million troops include many who have not participated in ground
combat, including sailors on ships. By comparison with troops in
Vietnam,
the officials said, soldiers in Iraq get far more mental health support
and
are likely to return to a more understanding public.
But the duration and intensity of the war have doctors at veterans
hospitals across the country worried about the coming caseload…
-----
DOES YOUR CREDIT REPORT SAY YOU'RE ON A TERRORIST WATCHLIST?
Some credit bureaus are now putting red flags on credit reports of
people
whose names are similar to those on terrorist watchlists. Before
issuing a
credit report, credit bureaus check the names of applicants against
watchlists maintained by the Treasury Department Office of Foreign
Asset
Control. The watchlist contains more than 5000 names, including many
names
that are very common in the Muslim world. If your name is similar to
that
of somebody listed, you might find that your credit report has an alert
saying that your name potentially matches the government watchlist.
You may especially have problems if two or more parts of your full name
are
very common. For example, there is someone named "Mohamad Iqbal Rahman"
on
the list. If your name is "Mohammed Rahman" or "Mohammed Iqbal," your
credit report may identify you as a possible match. That means that
whoever
accesses your credit report - your landlord, employer, car dealership,
insurance company, or home loan provider -- sees that red flag. They
are
supposed to request additional information from you to verify whether
you're the same person.
If you live in California, you can now get your credit report for free
from
each of the three major credit reporting agencies. It's worth doing. To
order, go to www.annualcreditreport.com or call 1-877-322-8228.
If you live in California and learn that your credit report has such a
red
flag, please contact Shirin Sinnar to report the problem. An attorney
at
the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights in San Francisco, Sinnar can be
reached at 415-543-9444 ext. 233 or at ssinnar@lccr.com.
-----
UK CAN'T HOLD TERROR SUSPECTS INDEFINITELY
The Associated Press, 12/16/04
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=335689
LONDON- Britain's highest court dealt a huge blow to the government's
anti-terror policy Thursday by ruling that it cannot detain foreign
terror
suspects indefinitely without trial.
Nine judges in the House of Lords ruled in favor of a group of foreign
men
jailed without charge for up to three years. Their lawyers say their
detention is a violation of human rights.
The British government had argued that the detention without trial of
some
terrorist suspects is a tough but necessary measure to protect a free
society from the threat of devastating attacks.
The Home Office said Parliament would now decide whether detention
without
trial continues, and that the suspects would remain in prison for the
time
being.
ALSO SEE:
BRITISH MUSLIMS FACE INCREASING PREJUDICE, STUDY FINDS
Agence France Presse, 12/16/04
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=12166
LONDON - Increasing numbers of British Muslims have faced
discrimination in
the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, a
study by
an Islamic group said on Thursday.
Four out of five people surveyed by the Islamic Human Rights Commission
said they had experienced discrimination, well up on the 45 percent
figure
reported by a similar poll in 2000.
The report, called "Social Discrimination: Across the Muslim Divide",
lists
the results of a survey of 1,200 British Muslims along with individual
interviews and case studies.
It was "a wake-up call" for the government, which must take immediate
action, IHRC spokesman Arzu Merali said.
"This report reveals that prejudice against Muslims pervades all
aspects of
society and has become normal and is even considered justifiable in
social
circles," he said.
"This is a wake-up call for Britain. The British government cannot
continue
to ignore the depth and nature of anti-Muslim prejudice in the UK."
Case studies cited in the report include discrimination at work and
school,
as well as more overt issues such as abuse and violence on public
transport.
---
DUTCH ARREST ISLAMIC SCHOOL BOMB ATTACK SUSPECT
Reuters, 12/16/04
AMSTERDAM, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Dutch police have arrested a man
suspected of
involvement in a bomb attack on an Islamic school in the southern town
of
Eindhoven last month, the public prosecutor's office said on Thursday.
The 18-year-old suspect from Eindhoven was arrested on Sunday. A court
agreed on Thursday to extend his period of detention. Police expect to
make
further arrests, the public prosecutor's office said.
A bomb damaged an Islamic primary school in Eindhoven on Nov 8, one of
a
series of attacks on Muslim buildings in the wake of the killing of a
filmmaker critical of Islam. Nobody was hurt in the blast, which
damaged
the entrance and shattered windows…
-----
TORTURE LINK SUSPECTED: IS CANADA USING FOREIGN REGIMES TO EXTRACT
INFORMATION FROM CANADIANS?
Shelley Page, Ottawa Citizen, 12/16/04
http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=710b2573-ccd4-4579-9cdd-ac6506387eb0
Muayyed Nureddin's interrogation was chilling, not just because he was
forced to lie on his stomach while his captors repeatedly lashed his
feet
with a cable, but also because of the questions they asked: the very
same
as CSIS agents had put to him weeks earlier at the Toronto airport.
The 36-year-old Iraqi-Canadian wondered if the Canadian Security
Intelligence Service was behind his torture.
Nureddin, a former member of Iraq's military, came to Canada as a
refugee
fleeing persecution from Saddam Hussein in 1994 and became a citizen
three
years later.
Last fall, he left to visit his family in Iraq. Before boarding the
plane
in Toronto, he was pulled out of line by CSIS agents who questioned him
for
45 minutes about his visits to Iraq, and about his previous work at the
Salaheddin Islamic School in Scarborough, Ont., which is affiliated
with a
mosque where terror suspects such as Ahmed Khadr worshiped.
He was allowed to leave, but was imprisoned for a month in Syria while
en
route to Canada last December.
His lawyer, Barbara Jackman, claims that Nureddin's overseas torture
was
ordered by CSIS, which she says is using lawless regimes to do its
"dirty
work."
"CSIS didn't have any evidence he was plotting anything, they just
wanted
to see what might come from an overseas detention so they sent out an
alert
while he was travelling," she said in an interview.
Since 9/11, at least eight Muslim-Canadians have been jailed outside of
Canada after being questioned first by security agents here…
-----
ISRAELIS HASTEN LAND GRAB IN SHADOW OF WALL
Bulldozers go in as expansion of settlements continues
Chris McGreal in Jayyous, Guardian, 12/14/04
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5085008-103552,00.html
Sharif Omar has been waiting two years for the bulldozers, ever since
Israel's steel and barbed wire "security fence" carved its way between
his
village and its land. Last week the excavators and diggers finally
arrived
on the outskirts of Jayyous to lay the foundations for an expansion of
the
nearby Jewish settlement of Zufim, fulfilling the fears and warnings of
its
Palestinian neighbours.
The bulldozers were preparing the ground for hundreds of new homes,
despite
the Israeli government's claim that it is not expanding Jewish
settlements
in the West Bank. Like other building work along the route of the
barrier,
it seems to be an attempt to ensure that the land between the fence and
the
1967 border remains in Israeli hands in any final agreement with the
Palestinians.
"When they built the fence, we said they would use it to build a much
bigger settlement, and they would take our land to do it," said Mr
Omar,
whose olive and citrus groves are now encircled. "It is very clear to
us,
they are planning to confiscate all of our land and drive us from here.
They came and told us to finish harvesting because they were going to
begin
building 80 houses. They are beginning with my neighbour's land but if
they
do it there they will do it on mine."
At least five other sites along the barrier have settlement work in
progress. Israeli human rights groups say the government appears to be
racing to fill in the gap between the barrier and the Israeli border
before
a US team arrives next year to mark out the final limits of settlement
expansion.
Zufim, where about 200 families live, is built on 136 hectares (336
acres)
of land confiscated from Jayyous in 1986. An Israeli rights group,
Bimkom,
says that developers in Zufim plan to build about 1,200 new homes.
Yehezkel
Lein, a researcher for another Israeli human rights group, B'Tselem,
said
the military government in the occupied territories had issued permits
for
the work…
-----
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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 12/17/04
* VERSE OF THE DAY: EXCEL ONE ANOTHER IN GOOD
* 44% OF AMERICANS WOULD CURTAIL MUSLIM CIVIL RIGHTS
- MA: Interfaith Group Saddened by Anti-Muslim Flier
- Australian Church Vilified Muslims: Ruling (AAP)
* SC: INTERFAITH SERVICE TO WELCOME MOSQUE (The State)
- NJ: Do Carols Discriminate? (AP)
- TX: Muslim Perspective on Jesus (Houston Chron)
* IN: WOMAN CONVERTS TO ISLAM (SB Tribune)
- NY: Making Up For an Education Denied (NY Times)
* VA: HALAL SITE GUIDES HUNGRY MUSLIMS (BBC)
- MI: Comcast Offers Bridges TV (Det News)
- AZ: Arab American Culture Rich in Artifacts (AZ Rep)
* NJ: BECHTEL TO PAY IRAQI WORKER $90K IN BIAS CASE (Newsday)
- MA: Imam Blames Teens, Adults in Mosque Arson
* U.S. ACCUSES ISRAELI OFFICIALS OF SPYING (Wash Times)
- Israel's Fifth Column in Washington (Antiwar.com)
- FBI Steps Up AIPAC Espionage Probe (CS Monitor)
* AT GUANTANAMO, A PRISON WITHIN A PRISON (Wash Post)
- CAIR-CAN: Canada's 'Dirty Little Secret' (Star)
----
VERSE OF THE DAY: EXCEL ONE ANOTHER IN GOOD
"We have ordained a law and a way of life for each of you. If God
wanted,
He could have made all of you a single nation. But He willed otherwise
in
order to test you in what He has given you. Therefore try to excel one
another in good works."
The Holy Quran, 5:48
HADITH OF THE DAY: COMBINE TO DO GOOD
When the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) congratulated a man on
his
marriage, he said: "May God bless you and combine both of you in good
(works)."
Sunan of Abu-Dawood, Hadith 872
-----
SURVEY: 44 PERCENT OF AMERICANS WOULD CURTAIL MUSLIM CIVIL RIGHTS
CAIR says officials need to address rising level of Islamophobia
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 12/17/04) - A prominent national Islamic civil
rights
and advocacy group today called on elected representatives and
government
officials to address the rising level of Islamophobia in America.
The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
issued
that call following today's release of a survey by the Media and
Society
Research Group in Cornell University's Department of Communication
indicating that 44 percent of Americans believe the government should
curtail the civil rights of American Muslims in some manner.
A Cornell University news release on the report states:
"About 27 percent of respondents said that all Muslim Americans should
be
required to register their location with the federal government, and 26
percent said they think that mosques should be closely monitored by
U.S.
law enforcement agencies…About 22 percent said the federal government
should profile citizens as potential threats based on the fact that
they
are Muslim or have Middle Eastern heritage. In all, about 44 percent
said
they believe that some curtailment of civil liberties is necessary for
Muslim Americans."
SEE: "44 Percent of Americans Queried in Cornell National Poll Favor
Curtailing Some Liberties for Muslim Americans"
http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Dec04/Muslim.Poll.bpf.html
TO VIEW THE ENTIRE STUDY, GO TO:
http://www.comm.cornell.edu/msrg/report1a.pdf
"Elected representatives, government officials and other opinion
leaders
must finally recognize that Islamophobia is a growing phenomenon in
American society that must be urgently addressed," said CAIR Executive
Director Nihad Awad. "Our nation and its values are diminished whenever
any
faith or ethnic group is viewed with such suspicion and hostility."
Awad said the Cornell study confirms the results of a CAIR survey
released
in October indicating that 1-in-4 Americans believes anti-Muslim
stereotypes.
SEE: "Poll: 1-in-4 Americans Holds Anti-Muslim Views"
http://www.cair.com/asp/article.asp?id=1248&page=NR
CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil liberties group, is headquartered
in
Washington, D.C., and has 30 offices and chapters nationwide and in
Canada.
Its mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue,
protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions
that promote justice and mutual understanding.
CONTACT: Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail:
ihooper@cair-net.org; Rabiah Ahmed, 202-488-8787 or 202-439-1441,
E-Mail:
rahmed@cair-net.org
SEE ALSO:
LETTER: INTERFAITH GROUP SADDENED BY FLIER
Catherine Fallon, Weston Town Crier, 12/16/04
http://www2.townonline.com/weston/opinion/view.bg?articleid=145906
To the editor:
The Weston-Wayland Interfaith Action Group (WWIAG) is profoundly
disturbed
and saddened to learn from The Wayland Town Crier on Nov. 25 ("Police
investigating anti-Islamic flier") that Wayland was recently subjected
to
untruthful, anonymous leafleting that slandered our Muslim friends and
neighbors at the Islamic Center of Boston.
Illegally inserted into residential post boxes, the unsigned letter
also
made false statements about the Wayland police, a municipal department
that
exists, in part, to protect all citizens, including those who may be
victimized by injustice.
Disseminated shortly before Thanksgiving, the letter spread
misinformation,
invaded personal privacy and generated unwarranted suspicion. We become
concerned when individuals (or groups) acting on mistaken and
stereotypical
information attempt to communicate in a one-way fashion. In fact
dialogue
is more appropriate - and often more constructive.
Fortunately, many community organizations and resources exist as forums
that can transform misinformation into increased understanding. WWIAG
is
one such organization whose mission is to "build community by
developing
better understanding, acceptance and appreciation of individual,
cultural
and religious differences through education, dialogue and action."
For more than 15 years, WWIAG has provided educational, social and
community outreach programs and has successfully resolved issues of
inter-communal misunderstanding. We continue to learn and grow as a
result
of our close association with one another.
The Muslim community is an integral part of WWIAG. We hope that
informative
programs will continue to be held at Wayland's Islamic Center as well
as at
schools, churches and synagogues in the area.
We encourage anyone interested to attend our programs. To receive a
brochure, please send a request to WWIAG at P.O. Box 274, Weston MA
02493.
Catherine Fallon is the Christian community co-chair
Barbara Holtz is the Jewish community co-chair
Asif Razvi, MD is the Muslim community co-chair
ALSO SEE:
CHURCH VILIFIED MUSLIMS: RULING
AAP, 12/17/04
http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,11717178%255E421,00.html
AN evangelical Christian ministry has been found to have vilified Islam
during a seminar and in a newsletter which mocked the religion.
The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) today blasted
the
Catch the Fire Ministries, its pastor Danny Nalliah and speaker Daniel
Scot
over the March 2002 seminar in Melbourne and several articles in the
church's newsletter.
In a decision handed down today in a key test of Victoria's
three-year-old
racial and religious vilification laws, Judge Michael Higgins found in
favour of the Islamic Council of Victoria, which took the action
against
Catch The Fire.
Judge Higgins found that Catch the Fire and Pastor Scot had breached
section eight of the Religious and Racial Tolerance Act.
Also found in breach was church leader Pastor Nalliah, who was an
unsuccessful senate candidate for the Family First party in this year's
federal election. Judge Higgins will decide on penalties, which could
include orders for an apology or damages, early next year…
-----
SC: INTERFAITH SERVICE TO WELCOME MOSQUE
The State, 12/17/04
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/local/10436481.htm
A former Christian pastor has organized an interfaith event to offer
community support to a mosque that recently opened off Fairfield Road.
The Rev. H. Lloyd Norris, who used to serve as pastor for Martin Luther
King Jr. Baptist Church, organized a "Community Service of Welcome," to
be
held at 2 p.m. Saturday at Masjid Noor ul Huda Mosque of Islam, located
at
517 Winmet Drive off Fairfield Road in Columbia.
Lunch will be served following the program. Anyone is welcome to attend
the
nondenominational service.
Call (803) 786-2369 or (803) 754-2632.
SEE ALSO:
SAME OLD SONG AT CHRISTMAS: DO CAROLS DISCRIMINATE?
David Porter, Associated Press, 12/17/04
http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/state/ny-bc-nj--carolcontroversie1217dec17,0,372816.story
NEWARK, N.J. -- As a Jewish youth growing up in Texas in the early
1980s,
Joel Schwartzberg sang in an elementary school choir that performed
traditional Christmas songs, many of which contained religious lyrics.
"Some part of me felt uncomfortable singing the evangelical versions of
songs like 'Silent Night,"' Schwartzberg, 36, recalled. "So I'd keep my
lips sealed during those parts."
Schwartzberg remembers being told by his teacher that he had to sing
all
the words if he wanted to participate, creating an uncomfortable
situation
for an 11-year-old.
Schwartzberg, a resident of Maplewood with young children about to
enter
school, said those memories surfaced this month when the South
Orange-Maplewood school district decided to ban instrumental Christmas
carols at school-sponsored holiday concerts.
The move has brought a considerable amount of publicity _ some of it
laced
with ridicule _ to Maplewood, a town about 10 miles west of Newark
known
for its diversity and liberal leanings. Last summer, several hundred
people
rallied there to celebrate the first day of legal same-sex domestic
partnerships in New Jersey.
The controversy over holiday music in Maplewood echoes a larger debate
over
what types of public religious expressions or displays are acceptable
during the Christmas season, a December rite that has become as
familiar as
long lines at the mall…
Muslims in Paterson have generally not taken issue with the performance
of
Christmas carols in schools, Murez said. There are more pressing issues
facing the religion and its adherents in the post-Sept. 11 era,
according
to Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based Council on
American-Islamic Relations.
"We have other priorities at this point," Hooper said. "We just need to
reach a balance where everybody feels their rights are maintained, in
an
atmosphere of mutual understanding. If there's a display case in the
school, have a Christmas display one month, have a Ramadan display
another
month, have a Hanukkah display. You don't want to completely eliminate
religious displays from the public square. I don't think anyone's in
favor
of that, except perhaps extremists."
---
TX: ISLAMIC CENTER TO HOST SEMINAR
Event aimed to increase awareness, understanding
Annette Baird, Houston Chronicle, 12/17/04
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/thisweek/zone12/news/2945661
The Islamic Education Center of Houston, a mosque in west Houston, will
host a special program in conjunction with an open house to increase
awareness of the Islamic perspective on Jesus and Mary.
Three speakers will cover an array of topics that include what Islam
teaches about the birth of Jesus, the Islamic perspective of Mary, the
miracles of Jesus and the coming of Jesus. Following the talks, there
will
be a question and answer session and refreshments.
The main purpose of the seminar, said one of the organizers, Ali Rizvi,
is
to increase awareness of the mosque and the teachings of Islam among
non-Muslims.
"It is something we decided to do this year because we felt that people
have a great deal of misconceptions about Islam," Rizvi said.
Fatima Sabour, also an organizer, converted to Islam and is a teacher
at
the mosque's school. Sabour said it was important for them as a
community
to open their doors and communicate with other groups and individuals
about
their teachings.
"The stakes are higher now," Sabour said. "Since 9/11 occurred, we
realized
we don't know our neighbors, and they don't know us."
Sabour said they want others to understand that what Muslims believe is
not
that different from what Christians believe. However, in Islam, Jesus
is
regarded as a highly respected prophet and messenger of divine
revelations,
and not the son of God, as in Christian teachings.
"We believe that the birth of Jesus is a miraculous event," Sabour
said.
"We endorse the miracles performed by Jesus. We believe in the return
of
Jesus Christ. We refer to Jesus as the Messiah. We acknowledge that
Mary is
one of the most pious women throughout time and the Virgin birth."
She said, "We are hoping that people if they want to know about us,
then
they should come and get it from the horse's mouth. Come and ask us…"
o What: Jesus in Islam seminar
o Where: 2313 S. Voss
o When: 2-5 p.m. Saturday
o Why: To increase awareness of the Islamic perspective on Jesus and
Mary
o Details: The event is free and open to the public. Women are
requested to
wear head scarves inside the Islamic center.
o Info: Call 713-787-5000, Ext. 12 or visit www.iec-houston.org
-----
YOUNG WOMAN TAKES PRECEPTS TO HEART, CONVERTS TO ISLAM
Sara Toth, South Bend Tribune, 12/16/04
http://www.southbendtribune.com/stories/2004/12/16/faith.20041216-sbt-MICH-D1-A_new_life_and.sto
A young woman with a pink head scarf and blue eyes doesn't speak during
a
Quran study group at the Islamic Society of Michiana.
She just smiles and nods intently as the other three women in the group
discuss the Quran, capping most of their English sentences with the
Arabic
phrase "Insha-Allah," which literally means "if God wills it."
This quiet woman is 21-year-old Brandy Korman. But soon she will be
Zahra
Abaza. In the spring, Korman converted to Islam, then married a Muslim
from
Egypt.
She has replaced sweaters and jeans with long dresses and scarves, and
switched from being a single woman to a wife who didn't date her
husband
before she agreed to marry him.
Even as Christmas -- a pillar of her old faith, Roman Catholicism --
draws
near, she voices few doubts about her new creed and new life...
ALSO SEE:
57, AND TRYING TO MAKE UP FOR AN EDUCATION DENIED
Kari Haskell, New York Times, 12/17/04
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/17/nyregion/nyregionspecial/17neediest.html
Fennie May Williams, 57, changed her name to Najeeulluh Maydun in the
1970's, when she converted to Islam.
You would think ''that if you change your name then you become anew,
but
that is not true.'' she said recently at the offices of the Brooklyn
Bureau
of Community Service, one of the seven agencies supported by The New
York
Times Neediest Cases Fund.
''It didn't take away anything,'' she said. Her problems and her past
had
dogged her before the name change. And they were still with her.
Dressed in a long jean skirt and pink button-down shirt, with her hair
wrapped in a purple scarf, Ms. Maydun was just finishing her day's
classes
at the Pride program at the bureau's center on Chapel Street. She
travels
there every weekday to improve her reading and writing and learn
secretarial skills. ''I know that I won't be able to make it unless I
get
the education that I really need,'' she said.
''What I really want is a job, a good paying job, to get off public
assistance,'' she said. But at her age, without a high school education
and
in fragile health (she has diabetes, glaucoma and circulatory
problems), it
is not easy to make up for lost years.
Growing up in South Carolina in the 1950's, her options seemed limited
from
the start. Getting an education simply wasn't allowed, she said. The
way
she understood it as a child, her family was ''given'' from one farm to
another; now, she said, she knows that they were sold from owner to
owner
as farm laborers.
At one 25-acre plantation, her family lived in a ragged two-bedroom
home.
The 13 children slept side by side on handmade mattresses: pine straw
stuffed between pieces of cloth.
She worked from sunrise to sunset. She tended to tobacco plants,
cleaned
the plantation home, cooked for the owners, and picked cotton -- 200
pounds
a day, by her estimate. ''Sometimes the cotton rows looked like they
ran to
the end of earth, and the sun would come down into your face,'' she
said.
She attributes her glaucoma to those long days toiling in the hot
southern sun…
-----
HALAL SITE GUIDES HUNGRY MUSLIMS
Clark Boyd, BBC, 12/17/04
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4092947.stm
Halal meat has to be prepared in Islamic fashion
A website called zabihah.com is helping Muslims find markets and
restaurants with halal products, prepared according to Islamic dietary
law.
Shahed Amanullah is strolling through the isles of Halalco, a
supermarket
in Falls Church, Virginia, that specialises in halal products.
At the checkout, cashiers ring up groceries from across the Muslim
world.
"I'm looking for things that sort of meet my very broad palate," says
Mr
Amanullah.
"I've got halal-spiced sausage. I've got Persian yogurt drink, and I've
got
Indian chutney."
Mr Amanullah's family is originally from southern India but he was
raised
in California.
Growing up, there were few halal markets near his home. But he watched
as
the Muslim community in the US expanded over the years.
"About five or six years ago, establishments started popping up that
were
catering to the Muslim community," he says.
"And several friends of mine and I started to try to hunt them down,
and
look at them, and we were really excited when something would come up,
and
we would tell our friends about it.
"So I decided, wouldn't it be a great idea to establish a website to
tell
people about them…"
ALSO SEE:
COMCAST OFFERS OPTIONAL BRIDGES TV THAT COVERS ETHNIC LIFESTYLE AND
CULTURE
Christopher M. Singer, Detroit News, 12/17/04
http://www.detnews.com/2004/metro/0412/17/metro-35955.htm
DEARBORN - A cable channel aimed at American Muslims has debuted in
southeast Michigan.
Bridges TV targets primarily the 8 million Muslims of North America and
features English-language programs focused on celebrating the American
Muslim lifestyle and culture. It is available on Comcast, at a charge
that
varies from community to community, and is in addition to regular
Comcast
service.
M. Renee Ahee of Sterling Heights, an Arab-American and public
relations
professional, hasn't seen Bridges TV yet, but thinks it may be helpful
dispelling misinformation about Arab-Americans and Muslims.
"From the point of view of fostering understanding, I think it's a good
idea," Ahee said. "I've not seen it, so I'm commenting in the dark.
Encountering Muslim children born in America, they possibly can learn a
more positive image of themselves and their role in America."
Samina Salahuddin, a Bridges TV spokeswoman in Buffalo, said, "It's
important to note Bridges TV is in English. It's focused on life here
at
home in the United States. Our main target audience is American
Muslims, to
show them in a positive light."
Imad Hamad, director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
of
Michigan in Dearborn, sees the debut "as a turn in the right direction.
"It is one of the few channels that is introducing Arabs and Muslims,"
Hamad said. "It is welcome."
Bridges TV originates in Buffalo, where there is a growing
Arab-American
community.
Founder and chief executive officer Muzzammil Hassan of Buffalo noted
that
the launch of Bridges TV in Detroit is significant because it is home
to
the largest concentration of Muslims in the United States. An estimated
200,000 Arab Americans live in Metro Detroit.
Jerzy W. Rozalski knows a thing or two about ethnic broadcasting. He's
been
host of Polish Varieties Radio on WMZK-AM for a generation.
"I am Polish-American," Rozalski said. "I see many similarities among
the
ethnic groups the American media does not cover well. I think (Bridges
TV)
is a good idea…"
---
VALLEY'S EARLY ARAB AMERICAN CULTURE RICH IN ARTIFACTS
Roberta Burnett, The Republic, 12/17/04
http://www.azcentral.com/community/ahwatukee/articles/1217evarts17Z6.html
An exhibit like the one at Mesa Southwest Museum brings to mind an old
bit
of social knowledge: "Art is the first thing a culture makes after
people
discover how to survive."
"Arab Americans in Arizona: Stories, Traditions, Experiences" is built
on
two principles. The first is that immigrant Arab Americans helped build
this Valley's civilization from scratch, working very hard to do it.
Already acclimated to desert skills, they set their energies to making
businesses and lives. Second, they brought with them and created
incredibly
beautiful objects and activities that had come from the native cultures
and
lands of north Africa and the Middle East.
Their family names still flavor metro-Phoenix, and particularly the
east
Valley: Tibshraeny, Basha, Habeeb, Saba, Itule, and Coury.
Their American histories started with passports; some have family
photos
from Arizona's territorial era. The exhibit is co-curated by Franak
Hilloowalla and Keith Foster...
The exhibit continues through April 17 at 53. N. Macdonald St., Mesa.
It is
open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and 1-5 p.m. Sundays.
Admission is free on the second Sunday of each month but is normally $6
for
adults and $3 for children ages 3-12. There are discounts for seniors
and
students. Information: (480) 644-5083 or www.mesasouthwestmuseum.com
-----
BECHTEL TO PAY IRAQI WORKER $90,000 TO SETTLE BIAS CASE
Newsday, 12/16/04
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/state/ny-bc-nj--bechtel-eeocsuit1216dec16,0,3260919.story
NEWARK, N.J. -- Bechtel Inc., the giant construction company helping to
rebuild Iraq's infrastructure, has settled a bias lawsuit by agreeing
to
pay $90,000 to an Iraqi-American employee fired from its Hackensack
facility, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said
Thursday.
The company denied the allegations, but consented to provide annual
anti-discrimination training to managers and supervisors at its
locations
in Hackensack, Chicago and Melville, N.Y..
The EEOC brought the lawsuit in September 2003 on behalf of Sahir Kizy
of
Royal Oak, Mich., charging the company did nothing to stop
discrimination
and harassment against him after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks
and
fired him in June 2002.
Last year, the company said Kizy was let go after his temporary work
assignment ended.
Kizy, who worked as a site acquisition specialist at the San Francisco
company's Hackensack facility, was hired on June 29, 2001.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Newark, said that on the
day
of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and
continuing
afterward, Kizy was subjected to physical attacks, as well as verbal
assaults, including being called "(expletive) Arab," and was told to
"go
home to wherever you came from."
His complaints to Bechtel officials were not addressed, and he was
excluded
from meetings without justification, according to the lawsuit. Despite
the
continuing availability of work on a New York City project, the suit
asserted, Kizy was sent to his hotel room to await instructions on June
12,
2002, and was terminated two days later.
The privately owned company's Bechtel National division, of Frederick,
Md.,
and Parsons Corp. have a $1.8 billion contract for Iraq work, including
electricity and water projects…
ALSO SEE:
IMAM BLAMES TEENS, ADULTS
Patrick Johnson, Mass Live, 12/16/04
http://www.masslive.com/metrowest/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1103186775196060.xml
SPRINGFIELD - The spiritual leader of the Al-Baqi Islamic Center said
yesterday that the failure of adults in the community to provide
direction
to youths is linked to the arson of the mosque.
Seven 15-year-old boys have been charged with the Dec. 8 arson that
gutted
the Sunni Muslim mosque at 495 Union St. They pleaded innocent in
arraignments held yesterday and Tuesday. Bail amounts ranged from $200
to
$1,000.
Imam Rasul F. Seifullah said the crime reflects the failure of adults
to
offer direction and purpose.
"We failed them in many ways," he said of the teens.
"I'm not taking their responsibility away," he added. "They are still
accountable for their decision. God gave them free will."
Hampden County District Attorney William M. Bennett said earlier that
the
teens live in the community, but are not members of the mosque.
One day after authorities charged the teens with breaking into the
mosque,
Seifullah said he is relieved the building was not a target of a hate
crime, but finds it puzzling that it was targeted at all.
"They told me it was a break-in. I can see it, but I can't understand
it,"
he said. "I still have a problem with making the decision to burn the
building down." Seifullah said he wants to meet with the teens.
The teens are accused of breaking into the mosque to steal money, candy
and
other items. They then set a fire on the second floor, although
officials
declined to say exactly why...
Donations may be made to the Interfaith Council of Churches, 39 Oakland
St., Springfield, MA, 01108. Inquiries may be made to (413) 733-2149.
-----
U.S. ACCUSES OFFICIALS OF SPYING
Joshua Mitnick, Washington Times, 12/17/04
http://washingtontimes.com/world/20041215-101444-5836r.htm
TEL AVIV - Israeli defense officials in the United States have been
accused
by the FBI of industrial espionage, the second spying complaint leveled
against Israel in four months, Israel's Army Radio has reported…
The Army Radio report said Israeli officials were questioned by FBI
agents
on several occasions about their behavior. The problem prompted Israel
to
convene all of its defense envoys in New York earlier this month to
discuss
new guidelines.
The FBI already is probing suspicions that Pentagon analyst Larry
Franklin
passed classified information to Israel via the American Israel Public
Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a pro-Israel lobby…
ALSO SEE:
ISRAEL'S FIFTH COLUMN IN WASHINGTON
Justin Raimondo, Antiwar.com, 12/17/04
http://antiwar.com/justin/
In the 1950s, when the cold war was at its height, a series of
spectacular
espionage scandals - involving top-level spies for the Soviet Union,
our
former WWII ally - roiled American politics and defined the political
culture for decades to come, giving us such additions to the American
political lexicon as "McCarthyism" and "fellow traveler." In the new
millennium, a similar drama is being reenacted, with another U.S. ally,
Israel, in the role of friend-turned-adversary. The story of how and
why
Lawrence A. Franklin, who works as an Iran specialist under Pentagon
policy
director Douglas Feith, betrayed his country, and funneled American
secrets
to Israel, parallels the tragic saga of pro-Soviet American moles, who
played a similar role in the administration of Franklin Roosevelt and
into
the Truman era. Larry Franklin is an Alger Hiss for our times. Law
enforcement clearly believe him to be a key witness to crimes that
could
lead them to a spy nest in the top echelons of the U.S. government -
one
that surpasses anything the KGB ever dreamed of…
---
FBI STEPS UP AIPAC ESPIONAGE PROBE
Tom Regan, CS Monitor, 12/16/04
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1216/dailyUpdate.html
The FBI has stepped up its investigation into alleged Israeli espionage
against the US, United Press International reported last week, and in
particular the operations of the most powerful pro-Israel lobbying
group in
Washington, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, also know as
AIPAC.
The FBI raided AIPAC's offices in early December. Time magazine
reported
that the raid, the second in four months, was "seeking evidence to
determine whether two AIPAC officials received classified information
from
a former Pentagon analyst and passed the data to Israeli government
officials." The FBI had a search warrant for "the files of officials
Steven
Rosen, AIPAC director of foreign policy issues, and AIPAC Iran expert
Keith
Weissman." The FBI also served grand jury subpoenas on four senior
AIPAC
officials.
The Forward reported that staffers at other pro-Israel organizations
believe that the subpoenas "severely undermined [AIPAC]'s claim [see
below]
that it was the victim of a few rogue investigators." (Registration
required.)
'It's okay to say once that the FBI is ticked at AIPAC, but a grand
jury
with subpoenas - that's not someone running a grudge campaign,' said an
official with a major Jewish organization. 'Clearly, somebody has
thought
this through. And they are looking for something.' Steve Pomerantz, a
former FBI investigator who consults for Jewish organizations sounded a
similar note. He said the nature of the subpoenas suggests that FBI
investigators know what they're looking for. 'This is not a fishing
expedition,' he said. 'It's clear to me they have some specific
information
which is leading them in a specific direction...'
-----
AT GUANTANAMO, A PRISON WITHIN A PRISON
Dana Priest and Scott Higham, Washington Post, 12/17/04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5918-2004Dec16.html
Within the heavily guarded perimeters of the Defense Department's
much-discussed Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, the CIA has maintained a
detention facility for valuable al Qaeda captives that has never been
mentioned in public, according to military officials and several
current
and former intelligence officers.
The buildings used by the CIA are shrouded by high fences covered with
thick green mesh plastic and ringed with floodlights, officials said.
They
sit within the larger Camp Echo complex, which was erected to house the
Defense Department's high-value detainees and those awaiting military
trials on terrorism charges.
At the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the CIA maintained a
heavily
guarded prison inside a prison where it held al Qaeda detainees for
interrogation.
The facility has housed detainees from Pakistan, West Africa, Yemen and
other countries under the strictest secrecy, the sources said. "People
are
constantly leaving and coming," said one U.S. official who visited the
base
in recent months. It is unclear whether the facility is still in
operation
today. The CIA and the Defense Department declined to comment.
Most international terrorism suspects in U.S. custody are held not by
the
CIA but by the Defense Department at the Guantanamo Bay prison. They
are
guaranteed access to the International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC)
and, as a result of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling this year, have the
right
to challenge their imprisonment in federal courts.
CIA detainees, by contrast, are held under separate rules and far
greater
secrecy. Under a presidential directive and authorities approved by
administration lawyers, the CIA is allowed to capture and hold certain
classes of suspects without accounting for them in any public way and
without revealing the rules for their treatment. The roster of CIA
prisoners is not public, but current and former U.S. intelligence
officials
say the agency holds the most valuable al Qaeda leaders and many
mid-level
members with knowledge of the group's logistics, financing and regional
operations…
ALSO SEE:
CANADA'S 'DIRTY LITTLE SECRET'
Toronto Star, 12/17/04
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1103237410061&call_pageid=968256290204&col=968350116795
International Human Rights Day usually passes without notice in Canada.
There aren't many egregious violations of human rights to talk about.
This year, things were different. On Dec. 10 - the 56th anniversary of
the
adoption of Universal Declaration of Human Rights - the Federal Court
of
Appeal handed down a ruling that got a lot of people talking.
A three-judge panel affirmed Ottawa's right to use security
certificates to
detain suspected terrorists without charging them or giving them full
access to the evidence against them. The court said such treatment -
while
unusual - was neither unjustified nor unconstitutional.
This procedure makes it virtually impossible for a person accused of
threatening Canadian security to mount a credible defence. It strips
him or
her of the presumption of innocence until proven guilty, on which
Canada's
justice system is based. It gives the state the power to deport
individuals
for reasons they will never know.
"People's lives are being destroyed but they face no charges and they
have
no effective way to defend themselves," said Ed Broadbent, former
leader of
the New Democratic party.
"For many Muslims and Arabs, security certificates embody an arbitrary
and
non-transparent legal process that they never expected to find in a
democratic country," said Riad Saloojee, executive-director of the
Canadian
Council on American-Islamic Relations…
-----
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-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 12/19/04
* CAIR ISLAM-OPED: A MUSLIM-CHRISTIAN LINK (Milwaukee Journal)
- More in Common Than You Think (Providence Journal)
- Muslims Honor Him, Too (Capitol-Journal)
- Positive Response to CAIR Commentary on Jesus
* CAIR-LA: TOWN HALL MEETING ON SELECTIVE TARGETING OF MUSLIMS
* AZ: A HATEFUL CRIME (Tucson Citizen)
- CAIR-OH: Suit Over School Ban on 'Islam is a Lie' T-Shirt
- Survey: Support for Restricting U.S. Muslim Freedoms (AP)
- MS: Middle Eastern Customers' Bank Accounts Closed (AP)
- Law Lets Passengers Appeal No-Fly List (Washington Post)
* SC: MUSLIM REFUGEES TAUGHT CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS (AP)
* DUBIOUS EVIDENCE SPURRED GITMO SPY HUNT (NY Times)
- Briton Freed from Guantanamo Tells of Abuse (AP)
* CAIR-CAN: KNOW YOUR RIGHTS
- Canada: Indefinite Jailing Tests Legal System (Wash Post)
* 2001 DOJ MEMO LAID GROUNDWORK FOR IRAQ INVASION (Newsweek)
- Gen. Boykin Pushes Pentagon Intel Plan (NY Times)
* PALESTINIAN TEXTBOOKS: WHERE IS THAT 'INCITEMENT'? (IH Trib)
-----
NOTE: The following commentary is available for local publication
through
ISLAM-OPED, CAIR's national editorial syndication service. To obtain
permission to publish this or other commentaries offering an American
Muslim perspective on issues of importance to our society, contact
Ibrahim
Hooper at 202-488-8787, or e-mail ihooper@cair-net.org.
---
CAIR ISLAM-OPED: A MUSLIM-CHRISTIAN LINK
IBRAHIM HOOPER, Milwaukee Journal, 12/18/04
http://www.jsonline.com/news/editorials/dec04/285104.asp
"Behold! The angels said: 'O Mary! God giveth thee glad tidings of a
Word
from Him. His name will be Jesus Christ, the son of Mary, held in honor
in
this world and the Hereafter and in (the company of) those nearest to
God.' "
Before searching for this quote in the New Testament, you might first
ask
your Muslim co-worker, friend or neighbor for a copy of the Qur'an,
Islam's
revealed text.
The quote is from Verse 45 of Chapter 3 in the Qur'an.
It is well known, particularly in this holiday season, that Christians
follow the teachings of Jesus.
What is less well understood is that Muslims also love and revere Jesus
as
one of God's greatest messengers to mankind.
Other verses in the Qur'an, regarded by Muslims as the direct word of
God,
state that Jesus was strengthened with the "Holy Spirit" (2:87) and is
a
"sign for the whole world" (21:91).
His virgin birth was confirmed when Mary is quoted as asking: "How can
I
have a son when no man has ever touched me?" (3:47)
The Qur'an shows Jesus speaking from the cradle and, with God's
permission,
curing lepers and the blind (5:110).
God also states in the Qur'an: "We gave (Jesus) the Gospel (Injeel) and
put
compassion and mercy into the hearts of his followers." (5:27)
As forces of hate in this country and worldwide try to pull Muslims and
Christians apart, we are in desperate need of a unifying force that can
bridge the widening gap of interfaith misunderstanding and mistrust.
That force could be the message of love, peace and forgiveness taught
by
Jesus and accepted by followers of both faiths.
Christians and Muslims would do well to consider another verse in the
Qur'an reaffirming God's eternal message of spiritual unity:
"Say ye: 'We believe in God and the revelation given to us and to
Abraham,
Ismail, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and that given to Moses and
Jesus,
and that given to (all) prophets from their Lord.
"We make no distinction between any of them, and it is unto him that we
surrender ourselves' " (2:136).
The Prophet Mohammed himself sought to erase any distinctions between
the
message he taught and that taught by Jesus, whom he called God's
"spirit
and word."
Prophet Mohammed said: "Both in this world and in the Hereafter, I am
the
nearest of all people to Jesus, the son of Mary. The prophets are
paternal
brothers; their mothers are different, but their religion is one."
When Muslims mention the Prophet Mohammed, they always add the phrase
"peace be upon him."
Christians may be surprised to learn that the same phrase always
follows a
Muslim's mention of Jesus, or that we believe Jesus will return to
earth in
the last days before the final judgment.
Disrespect toward Jesus, as we have seen all too often, is very
offensive
to Muslims.
Unfortunately, violent events and hate-filled rhetoric around the world
provide ample opportunity for promoting religious hostility.
And yes, Muslims and Christians do have some differing perspectives on
Jesus' life and teachings.
But his spiritual legacy offers an alternative opportunity or people of
faith to recognize their shared religious heritage.
America's Muslim community stands ready to honor that legacy by
building
bridges of interfaith understanding and challenging those who would
divide
our nation along religious or ethnic lines.
We have more in common than we think.
Ibrahim Hooper is national communications director for the
Washington-based
Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation's largest Muslim
civil
liberties group.
SEE ALSO:
MUSLIMS AND CHRISTIANS: MORE IN COMMON THAN YOU THINK
http://www.projo.com/opinion/contributors/content/projo_20041219_cthoop.18e691.html
---
MUSLIMS HONOR HIM, TOO
http://cjonline.com/stories/121904/opi_muslims.shtml
---
POSITIVE RESPONSE TO CAIR COMMENTARY ON JESUS
CAIR received the following e-mail in response to the commentary above:
"I read your article…in my local paper today. I was glad to see a
Muslim
perspective on the common values that both religions share. People
would be
better served to realize that we both strive to glorify God and live
accordingly to those values. It is unfortunate that both of our faiths
have
extreme elements that distract from the raising the glory of God to
more
people. Thank you again for sharing these words of harmony and common
link
of our religions…"
-----
CAIR-LA: TOWN HALL MEETING ON SELECTIVE TARGETING OF MUSLIMS
On Monday, December 20, a coalition* of community, interfaith and civil
rights organizations will host an emergency town hall meeting to
discuss
what they say is the unfair targeting of Muslims by the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS).
WHAT: Town Hall Meeting on Selective Targeting of Muslims
WHEN: Monday, December 20, 2004, 6 p.m.
WHERE: Holiday Inn Select, 14299 Firestone Blvd., La Mirada, CA
CONTACT: Sabiha Khan at CAIR-LA, 714-776-1847 or 714-390-0334, E-Mail:
socal@cair.com
Invited speakers will include representatives of DHS, Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE), the FBI, and the Department of Justice
(DOJ), as
well as local attorneys and family members of immigration detainees.
Hundreds of community members are expected to attend.
* Southern California Civil Rights Coalition (CRC): Council on
American-Islamic Relations - Southern California (CAIR-LA), Islamic
Shura
Council of Southern California, Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC),
Free
Imam Wagdy Committee (FIWC), Airman Halabi Justice Committee (AHJC),
National Lawyers Guild (NLG), League of United Latin American Citizens
(LULAC) - Orange County Chapter, Los Amigos of Orange County, Coalition
for
Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), South Asian Network
(SAN),
Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance (OCAPICA),
Islamic Center of Irvine (ICOI), American Arab Anti-Discrimination
Committee - Los Angeles/Orange County Chapter (ADC-LA/OC), The Greater
Long
Beach National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ), American
Civil
Liberties Union of Southern California (ACLU)
-----
A HATEFUL CRIME
Tucson Citizen, 12/18/04
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/index.php?page=opinion&story_id=121804b7_edits
Two Tucson siblings of Middle Eastern descent are worried about
vandalism
to their home and car.
In October, six shots were fired into their Northwest Side home. One
shot
narrowly missed a 20-year-old man and his 18-year-old sister as they
ate
dinner.
And Sunday, someone smashed the windows of the family's pickup truck,
though nothing was stolen.
Family members think they have been targeted because of their ethnicity
or
religion. Sheriff's deputies say while that's possible, they just don't
know. The Islamic Center of Tucson is offering a $1,000 reward for the
arrest and conviction of the criminals.
This is not the kind of crime that is tolerated in Tucson. Although it
is
not clear if this meets the legal definition of a hate crime, it is a
hateful crime.
SEE ALSO:
STUDENT'S FAMILY SUES OVER T-SHIRT BAN AT SCHOOL
Randy Ludlow, Columbus Dispatch, 12/17/04
http://www.dispatch.com/
James Nixon's fashion statement did not go unnoticed on Sept. 1 as he
stood
at his locker at Sheridan Middle School in Perry County.
The front of the seventh-grader's black T-shirt proclaimed in white
block
letters: "INTOLERANT: Jesus said . . . I am the way, the truth and the
life. John 14:6."
The back of the T-shirt read: "Homosexuality is a sin, Islam is a lie,
abortion is murder. Some issues are just black and white!"
Spotted by a guidance counselor after third period, the 12-year-old was
sent to the vice principal's office, where he was asked to remove the
garment or turn it inside-out, James' family says in a lawsuit filed
Dec. 3.
School officials that day told the boy that the wording was offensive
and
disruptive. After he politely refused to remove the shirt, according to
the
lawsuit, his parents were told to take him home and James was
threatened
with suspension if he returned to school wearing it.
The lawsuit accuses the Northern Local School District of violating the
boy's rights of free speech and free exercise of religion…
The school district's code of student conduct forbids clothing "that
disrupts the educational process," including dress with "suggestive,
obscene or offensive gang-related words and/or pictures..."
Executive directors of groups representing Muslims, abortion-rights
supporters and gays questioned Nixon's choice of attire.
Jad Humeidan, executive director of the Ohio office of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations, saw dozens of people wearing the same shirt
declaring "Islam is a lie" when Operation Rescue/Operation Save America
rallied in Columbus in July, principally to protest abortion.
"To me, the shirt is very offensive. We have to be careful about hate
speech and making sure the civil rights of other students are not
violated
by persons bringing hateful material into schools," he said…
---
SURVEY FINDS SUPPORT FOR RESTRICTING MUSLIM-AMERICANS' FREEDOMS
WILLIAM KATES, Associated Press, 12/17/04
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/state/ny-bc-ny--fearfactor1217dec17,0,4929167.story
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Nearly one in two Americans believe the U.S. government
should restrict civil liberties for Muslim-Americans, according to a
nationwide Cornell University poll on terrorism fears.
The survey also found respondents who identified themselves as highly
religious supported restrictions on Muslim-Americans more strongly than
those less religious.
Curtailing civil liberties for Muslim-Americans also was supported more
by
Republicans than Democrats, the survey found. The amount of attention
paid
to TV news also had a bearing on how strongly a respondent favored
restrictions…
The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, meanwhile,
responded by calling on the nation's elected officials to "recognize
that
Islamophobia is a growing phenomenon in American society that must be
urgently addressed."
"Our nation and its values are diminished whenever any faith or ethnic
group is viewed with such suspicion and hostility," said the council's
executive director Nihad Awad.
Cornell student researchers queried 715 people in a random nationwide
telephone poll conducted between Oct. 25 and Nov. 23. The margin of
error
was 3.6 percentage points.
"We are not offering this data as a warning signal or to make policy
decisions," James Shanahan, an associate professor of communications
and a
principal investigator in the study, said Friday. "But our results
highlight the need for continued dialogue about issues of civil
liberties
in this time of war…"
---
MIDDLE EASTERN CUSTOMERS SEEK ANSWERS AFTER BANK ACCOUNTS CLOSED
KATHY HANRAHAN, Associated Press Writer
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/12/17/financial1236EST0132.DTL
RIDGELAND, Miss. (AP) -- After three years as an AmSouth Bank customer,
Imad Aleithawe got a one-page form letter telling him his account had
been
closed.
The bank refuses to explain why, citing confidentiality and a broadly
written customer agreement allowing accounts to be shut down at any
time
"for any reason."
Aleithawe, a civil engineer with the Mississippi state transportation
department, says that without answers he is left with only the
lingering
suspicion that it has something to do with his Middle Eastern heritage.
At least three other Mississippi residents with Middle Eastern
backgrounds
-- including a university instructor and business owners -- have also
had
their accounts closed. Those affected say others with Middle Eastern
ties
have complained to them about closed accounts but were unwilling to go
public…
---
LAW LETS PASSENGERS APPEAL NO-FLY LIST
Sara Kehaulani Goo, Washington Post, 12/18/04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8986-2004Dec17.html
Passengers will have a way to appeal if their name turns up on the
government's no-fly list, under provisions of the intelligence bill
signed
into law yesterday.
The law requires the Transportation Security Administration to create a
system for travelers to correct inaccurate information that has landed
them
on the no-fly list. It also directs the Department of Homeland Security
to
create a Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board to ensure that
anti-terrorist government actions do not infringe on people's rights.
The provisions, among several airline security improvements in the
bill,
follow a series of embarrassing incidents in which hundreds of private
citizens and some members of Congress were initially denied boarding
because their names were flagged by a TSA computer security system that
maintains the government's watch lists…
-----
SC: MUSLIM REFUGEES TAUGHT CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS
S.C. CELEBRATES MULTICULTURAL CHRISTMAS WITH IMMIGRANTS
AMY GEIER EDGAR, Associated Press, 12/19/04
http://www.wcnc.com/news/southcarolina/stories/121904cckkWCNCchristmas.2628e868.html
Christmas celebrations in most of South Carolina and across much of the
country involve visits from Santa and presents under the tree, but
these
traditions are foreign to the state's growing immigrant population.
Census estimates showed 114,000 Latinos in South Carolina in 2003, but
actual numbers may be closer to 400,000, said Elaine Lacy, director of
the
University of South Carolina's Consortium for Latino Immigration
Studies.
Meanwhile, some communities in Columbia are learning about the Islamic
culture through the 75 Somali Bantu refugees that have settled here
this
year. Officials eventually hope to have about 120 Bantus resettle here.
It's the first Christmas in the United States for the Bantus, said
Debbie
McDowell, director of Missions Mobilization for the South Carolina
Baptist
Convention.
The Bantus are Muslim, so they are unfamiliar with the entire Christian
celebration, McDowell said.
Church leaders held a Christmas dinner Thursday where they taught the
Bantus about some common traditions such as decorating, baking and
Christmas trees. The Bantus also heard the biblical Christmas story
translated in the Somali language, McDowell said…
-----
HOW DUBIOUS EVIDENCE SPURRED RELENTLESS GUANT�NAMO SPY HUNT
TIM GOLDEN, New York Times, 12/19/04
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/19/politics/19gitmo.html
Capt. Theodore C. Polet Sr., an Army counterintelligence officer at the
detention camp for terrorism suspects at Guant�namo Bay, Cuba, had just
begun investigating a report of suspicious behavior by a Muslim
chaplain at
the prison last year when he received what he thought was alarming new
information.
The F.B.I. had found that a car belonging to the chaplain, Capt. James
J.
Yee, had been spotted twice outside the home of a Muslim activist in
the
Seattle area who, years earlier, had been a host for a visit from Omar
Abdel Rahman, the militant Egyptian cleric convicted in a 1993 plot to
blow
up various New York landmarks.
Although it was unclear what the activist had done or whether Captain
Yee
even knew him, Captain Polet took the report to the Guant�namo
commander,
Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, and laid it out in stark terms.
"I said we had found something that connected Yee with a known
terrorist
supporter in Washington State, and at that point, he got very upset,"
Captain Polet said, noting that General Miller's ears turned red with
anger. "This became far more serious than a basic security violation.
The
case was going to get bigger."
In fact, documents and interviews show that the case grew much bigger
than
has been publicly disclosed, spinning into a web of counterintelligence
investigations that eventually involved more than a dozen suspects, a
handful of military and civilian agencies and numerous agents in the
United
States and overseas.
Within less than a year, however, the investigations into espionage and
aiding the enemy grew into a major source of embarrassment for the
Pentagon, as the prosecutions of Captain Yee and another Muslim
serviceman
at the base, Airman Ahmad I. Al Halabi, unraveled dramatically…
SEE ALSO:
BRITON FREED FROM GUANTANAMO PRISON TELLS EUROPEAN RIGHTS BODY OF U.S.
ABUSE
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/041217/w121766.html
PARIS (AP) - A Briton released from the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo
Bay,
Cuba, told Europe's top human rights body Friday he was beaten,
shackled,
kept in a cramped cage and fed rotten food as part of "systematic
abuse" in
custody.
Jamal al-Harith's testimony before a Council of Europe panel came as
part
of an inquiry by the body into human rights abuses at the U.S. prison
camp
to be made public in a report due out early next year.
Reading from a 10-page statement, al-Harith described his two-year
detention at Guantanamo Bay as a period of continual mistreatment that
ranged from humiliation and 15-hour interrogations to physical abuse he
said left scars.
At one point, al-Harith said he refused to take an unidentified
injection
and was chained up and attacked by five men wearing helmets, body
armour
and shields.
"They jumped on my legs and back and they kicked and punched me," said
the
37-year-old website designer and father of three from Manchester,
England.
"Then I was put in isolation for a month."
Al-Harith said he was kept mostly in a wire cage and given food marked
"10
to 12 years beyond their usable date," as well as "black and rotten"
fruit.
Sometimes, unmuzzled dogs were brought to the cage and encouraged to
bark,
he said…
-----
CAIR-CAN: KNOW YOUR RIGHTS
'ENEMY WITHIN'
Juliet O'Neill, Ottawa Citizen, 12/18/04
http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/news/observer/story.html?id=5cd08f58-952e-47a1-8966-b17cbc5a882c
After 10 RCMP officers invaded my home last January to search for clues
as
to the identify of a source, I wondered about other "knocks on the
door" -
those experienced by Muslim and Arab-Canadians in the years since 9/11.
I
was fortunate because I knew my basic rights. I had a Citizen lawyer
and
was confident the police actions would be subject to public scrutiny
because journalists were camped out in my yard.
But what about those individuals unaware of their rights, those without
access to a lawyer, those pressured by the authorities far from the
warm
lights of a sympathetic media?...
But some Canadians are quietly fighting against those scare tactics and
"the culture of suspicion" that has enshrouded the Muslim community --
a
place where many understandably fear that an unfounded accusation can
ruin
their lives.
"The terrorist label is akin to pedophile or serial killer," says Riad
Saloojee of CAIR-CAN, the Canadian wing of the Council on
American-Islamic
Relations. "If you're stigmatized as a terrorist, your life is ruined,
there's no way to vindicate yourself. We're living in an age where
everyone
is six degrees removed from Osama bin Laden. The slightest semblance of
a
link is enough to throw you under suspicion."
CAIR-CAN has waged intense know-your-rights campaigns, educating people
across the country about what to do and who to call in the event CSIS
or
the RCMP come calling. They're told they're not obliged to talk to the
police or intelligence agents and that, if they want to, they should
only
do so with a lawyer present.
Not everyone, however, can afford a lawyer.
"Most people are too scared not to see them," says Mr. Saloojee. "For
most
people, the first question is 'How will it look if I don't see them?'
'Will
they think I have something to hide?' 'What will they write on my
file?'
Who knows what information is kept on people and who knows how verified
it
is and where it comes from and where it will be sent?"
The fear of what Mr. Saloojee calls "a visitation" has been compounded
by
the case of Maher Arar. Mr. Arar, an Ottawa wireless engineer, was
virtually kidnapped by the United States and shipped to Syria where he
spent 10 months in a grave-like prison cell and says he was tortured
into
making a false confession of having received terrorist training in
Afghanistan, a country he says he has never visited…
SEE ALSO:
INDEFINITE JAILING OF 6 IN CANADA TESTS LEGAL SYSTEM
Doug Struck, Washington Post, 12/1/9/04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10779-2004Dec18.html
For a long time, Mona el-Fouli lied to her young children. Their father
was
working, she told them at first. He was on a trip, she said later. But
when
she took her boys, 5 and 7, to see their father behind a glass
partition,
they knew he was in jail.
"Please mom, can I break this glass and go inside to play with my dad?"
pleaded the 7-year-old, she recounted.
For 41/2 years, el-Fouli's husband, Mohammed Zeki Mahjoub, has been
imprisoned in Toronto without being charged, without facing trial, and
without being fully told what evidence is being used to keep him there.
The
government has said he is a potential terrorist. His wife and defenders
say
the authorities should prove it or let him go.
Mahjoub is one of six men being held in Canada as security risks on
secret
evidence. In a country that boasts of its tolerance and respect for
legal
rights, the jailings present an awkward dilemma for judges, lawmakers
and
some members of the public...
-----
2001 MEMO REVEALS PUSH FOR BROADER PRESIDENTIAL POWERS
Michael Isikoff, Newsweek, 12/1/8/04
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6732484/site/newsweek/
Just two weeks after the September 11 attacks, a secret memo to White
House
counsel Alberto Gonzales' office concluded that President Bush had the
power to deploy military force "preemptively" against any terrorist
groups
or countries that supported them-regardless of whether they had any
connection to the attacks on the World Trade Towers or the Pentagon.
The memo, written by Justice Department lawyer John Yoo, argues that
there
are effectively "no limits" on the president's authority to wage war-a
sweeping assertion of executive power that some constitutional scholars
say
goes considerably beyond any that had previously been articulated by
the
department.
Although it makes no reference to Saddam Hussein's government, the
15-page
memo also seems to lay a legal groundwork for the president to invade
Iraq-without approval of Congress-long before the White House had
publicly
expressed any intent to do so. "The President may deploy military force
preemptively against terrorist organizations or the States that harbor
or
support them, whether or not they can be linked to the specific
terrorist
incidents of Sept. 11," the memo states…
SEE ALSO:
GEN. BOYKIN PUSHES PENTAGON INTEL PLAN
PENTAGON SEEKS TO EXPAND ROLE IN INTELLIGENCE
DOUGLAS JEHL and ERIC SCHMITT, New York Times, 12/19/04
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/19/politics/19military.html
The Pentagon is drawing up a plan that would give the military a more
prominent role in intelligence-collection operations that have
traditionally been the province of the Central Intelligence Agency,
including missions aimed at terrorist groups and those involved in
weapons
proliferation, Defense Department officials say.
The proposal is being described by some intelligence officials as an
effort
by the Pentagon to expand its role in intelligence gathering at a time
when
legislation signed by President Bush on Friday sets in motion sweeping
changes in the intelligence community, including the creation of a
national
intelligence director. The main purpose of that overhaul is to improve
coordination among the country's 15 intelligence agencies, including
those
controlled by the Pentagon…
The details of the plan remain secret and are evolving, but indications
of
its scope and significance have begun to emerge in recent weeks. One
part
of the overall proposal is being drafted by a team led by Lt. Gen.
William
G. Boykin, a deputy under secretary of defense…
General Boykin, who attracted controversy last year for saying in
remarks
to Christian groups that Muslims worship ''an idol'' and describing the
battle against Muslim radicals as a fight against Satan, has been the
prime
architect of the proposal, which has been under review at the Pentagon
since January 2004. The general reports to Stephen A. Cambone, who
since
2003 has used his newly created post as under secretary of intelligence
to
assert a role in which he has competed with George J. Tenet, the former
director of central intelligence, and his successors for influence over
American intelligence agencies…
-----
PALESTINIAN TEXTBOOKS: WHERE IS ALL THAT 'INCITEMENT'?
Roger Avenstrup, International Herald Tribune, 12/18/04
http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/12/17/opinion/edavenstrup.html
JERUSALEM Palestinian textbooks contain incitement to hatred of Israel,
right? Both President George W. Bush and President Bill Clinton have
said
so. Zionist groups constantly lobby European foreign ministries to stop
support for Palestinian textbooks on that basis, and Prime Minister
Ariel
Sharon affirmed it at a recent Likud party meeting.
Detailed analyses of the textbooks have been done by research
institutes.
The U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem commissioned studies from the
Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information (IPCRI), and in
Europe
the Georg Eckert Institute facilitated research. Research papers have
also
been published in international fora such as the Hebrew University's
Harry
S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace, the
Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics and Culture, and
presented
at the Oslo Coalition on Freedom of Religion or Belief.
At the political level, a U.S. Senate subcommittee on Palestinian
education
and the Political Committee of the European Parliament have both held
hearings on the matter. No country's textbooks have been subjected to
as
much close scrutiny as the Palestinian.
The findings? It turns out that the original allegations were based on
Egyptian or Jordanian textbooks and incorrect translations. Time and
again,
independently of each other, researchers find no incitement to hatred
in
the Palestinian textbooks.
-----
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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 12/20/04
* HADITH OF THE DAY: BOUNTIES WITHOUT MEASURE
* CAIR-LA: TREATMENT SOUGHT FOR MUSLIM LEADER (LA Times)
- CA: Town Hall Meeting on Targeting of Muslims
* SYRIAN OFFICIAL TURNED AWAY AT AIRPORT (NY Times)
* CA: YOUNG PEOPLE EVINCE FAITH IN HELPING (Sac Bee)
- CA: Gifts Taken For Granted (LA Times)
- MA: School Offers Muslims Lessons, Comforts (Globe)
- CANADA: Hampers Reflect Diversity (Record)
* MAHER ARAR: TIME CANADA'S NEWSMAKER OF THE YEAR
- Islam Shaping a New Europe (Chicago Trib)
* FRANKLIN GRAHAM ON ISLAM (MSNBC)
* ADDRESS GUANTANAMO ABUSES (USA Today)
- Liberty vs. Security (SL Dispatch)
-----
HADITH OF THE DAY: BOUNTIES WITHOUT MEASURE
When the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) woke up, he would say:
"Glory
be to You. O God, I seek Your forgiveness of my sins, and ask for Your
mercy. O God, increase me in knowledge, and let not my heart deviate
after
You have guided me on the right path. Grant me Your mercy, for You are
the
Grantor of bounties without measure."
Fiqh-us-Sunnah, Volume 4, Number 121
-----
TREATMENT SOUGHT FOR MUSLIM LEADER
David Reyes and H.G. Reza, Los Angeles Times, 12/20/04
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/los_angeles_metro/la-me-muslim20dec20,1,5860641.story
An attorney for a jailed Muslim leader who was hospitalized with chest
pains over the weekend plans to file an emergency motion in immigration
court today asking that the 53-year-old man be released to allow him to
seek treatment from his own doctors.
Wagdy Mohamed Ghoneim, an Egyptian who serves as an imam at the Islamic
Institute of Orange County in Anaheim, was arrested Nov. 4 and has been
held ever since at a federal detention facility in San Pedro on
suspicion
of being in the country illegally. His attorneys have said he had a
valid visa.
On Saturday morning, Ghoneim was taken to an undisclosed hospital after
complaining of chest pains, according to Lori Haley, a spokeswoman for
U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Haley said Sunday that Ghoneim had been returned to the detention
center.
But his attorney Valerie Curtis-Diop said he remained hospitalized
Sunday
night.
Ghoneim's bond hearing was originally scheduled for Nov. 30 but was
delayed
until Dec. 28 so the court could find an interpreter.
Curtis-Diop, noting that Ghoneim has medical insurance and a private
physician, said Sunday that she planned to file an emergency motion in
immigration court to move up the bond hearing.
The latest developments, in a case that has been closely followed in
the
Muslim community, prompted Ghoneim's family to call for an "urgent
investigation" into what they described as "callous" treatment at the
hands
of government officials.
Sabiha Khan, a spokeswoman for the Council on American-Islamic
Relations,
said no family members had been permitted to visit Ghoneim in the
hospital.
Khan, who said she spoke for the family, said, "Such callous treatment
of
someone who is only charged with minor immigration violations goes
against
American values of compassion and justice…"
CONTACT: Sabiha Khan at CAIR-LA, 714-776-1847 or 714-390-0334, E-Mail:
socal@cair.com
ALSO SEE:
CAIR-LA: TOWN HALL MEETING ON SELECTIVE TARGETING OF MUSLIMS
On Monday, December 20, a coalition* of community, interfaith and civil
rights organizations will host an emergency town hall meeting to
discuss
what they say is the unfair targeting of Muslims by the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS).
WHAT: Town Hall Meeting on Selective Targeting of Muslims
WHEN: Monday, December 20, 2004, 6 p.m.
WHERE: Holiday Inn Select, 14299 Firestone Blvd., La Mirada, CA
CONTACT: Sabiha Khan at CAIR-LA, 714-776-1847 or 714-390-0334, E-Mail:
socal@cair.com
Invited speakers will include representatives of DHS, Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE), the FBI, and the Department of Justice
(DOJ), as
well as local attorneys and family members of immigration detainees.
Hundreds of community members are expected to attend.
* Southern California Civil Rights Coalition (CRC): Council on
American-Islamic Relations - Southern California (CAIR-LA), Islamic
Shura
Council of Southern California, Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC),
Free
Imam Wagdy Committee (FIWC), Airman Halabi Justice Committee (AHJC),
National Lawyers Guild (NLG), League of United Latin American Citizens
(LULAC) - Orange County Chapter, Los Amigos of Orange County, Coalition
for
Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), South Asian Network
(SAN),
Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance (OCAPICA),
Islamic Center of Irvine (ICOI), American Arab Anti-Discrimination
Committee - Los Angeles/Orange County Chapter (ADC-LA/OC), The Greater
Long
Beach National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ), American
Civil
Liberties Union of Southern California (ACLU)
-----
SYRIAN OFFICIAL IS TURNED AWAY AT DULLES INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
New York Times, 12/20/04
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/20/international/middleeast/20syria.html
DAMASCUS, Syria- A prominent member of Syria's Parliament who had flown
to
Washington last week to attend a conference said Sunday that he had
been
denied entry at Dulles International Airport.
The legislator, Muhammed Habash, who is also the president of the
Center of
Islamic Studies in Damascus and one of Syria's leading moderate Muslim
thinkers, had planned to spend several days in Washington taking part
in a
conference on interfaith dialogue.
Dr. Habash arrived in Washington on Austrian Airlines on Dec. 13, but
was
turned away by immigration officials who told him that his passport had
not
been properly stamped when he left the United States on a previous
visit.
Despite his protests that he was a member of Parliament, Dr. Habash
said in
an interview here, his visa was summarily canceled, and he was returned
to
Syria on the same plane.
"I believe they made a bad mistake, and I'm waiting now for an
apology,"
Dr. Habash said. "I was going to America to represent the tolerant
voice of
Islam, to talk about the renewal of religious speech in Syria. I am not
angry with the Americans, but I feel sad, very sad, that I will not
have
the chance to share my message."
Dr. Habash has, however, been sharing the story of his rejection with
Syrian news media, and publicly demanding an apology.
Robert Bozzo, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, said
Sunday that Dr. Habash's experience did not appear in the department's
records of "significant events" at American airports.
"We turn people away all the time," Mr. Bozzo said. "How would we know
that
this guy was a senior official?"
In May, the Bush administration imposed tougher penalties on Syria,
saying
it had failed to halt the flow of foreign fighters into Iraq or take
action
against terrorist groups fighting Israel.
-----
YOUNG PEOPLE EVINCE FAITH IN HELPING
David Richie, Sac Bee, 12/19/04
http://www.sacbee.com/content/community_news/placer/story/11803678p-12691368c.html
Hundreds of teenagers, representing multiple faiths, recently joined
forces
to assemble hygiene kits for families of refugees and disaster victims
throughout the world.
The multicultural Youth for a Better Understanding organized the
effort,
called the Helping Hands Service Project. The program was hosted last
month
by the Citrus Heights Stake, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints on
Van Maren Lane.
While packing the hygiene kits, Christian, Muslim, Sikh and Hindu
teenagers
worked and talked together. Event organizers said the opportunity for
interaction among the teens was almost as important as the work at
hand.
For the evenings' work, the young people were asked to separate from
their
acquaintances so they could meet and talk with teens from other beliefs
and
cultures.
Two of those who participated were Placer County residents Zaki Syed,
16,
and Basil Siddigui, 14, both of whom said they are basically like all
the
other teenagers, except they happen to be Muslim. In addition to Youth
for
a Better Understanding, the teens also are involved with Sacramento
Area
League of Associated Muslims…
ALSO SEE:
REMINDING US OF GIFTS TAKEN FOR GRANTED
Los Angeles Times, 12/19/04
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lopez19dec19,1,5799330.column
Mohammed Meah left a message on my answering machine, telling me the
biggest day of his life was coming up. When I got to his Westlake house
a
little on the early side Friday morning, I re-read a story I wrote
about
him three years ago.
Mohammed grew up in Bangladesh, where he fell in love with a girl whose
family felt that he wasn't good enough for her. Broken-hearted, he took
a
foreign ministry posting in South Korea.
One day, Mohammed was lounging in his apartment when the phone rang. It
was
the wrong number, but he had a nice chat with the caller, a young woman
named Young Moon.
Another phone call led to a meeting, which began a friendship, from
which a
romance blossomed.
Just one problem.
Moon's family decided Mohammed wasn't good enough for her.
A two-time loser, Mohammed devised a plan. He would move to the United
States and find a job, save his money and send for Young Moon. They'd
get
married in the United States, where no one would stand in their way.
And so it was that in 1990, Mohammed began working at two 7-Elevens in
Los
Angeles, eventually pulling 10- and 15-hour shifts as a manager…
---
CAMBRIDGE SCHOOL OFFERS MUSLIMS LESSONS, COMFORT
Angelica Medaglia, Boston Globe, 12/20/04
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2004/12/20/finding_a_haven_amid_the_storm/
CAMBRIDGE -- The hour commute from Lynn is a long way to drive to take
their son to preschool, and the $550 monthly tuition is a lot to pay.
But
Amina Mirrane and Amin Maati are willing to sacrifice time and money so
that their son, Adam, can begin his education in an Islamic school.
At the Al Bustan school in Cambridge, the 4-year-old learns songs, how
to
read in English and Arabic, and to pray; his female teachers wear hijab
head scarves and infuse their lessons with an introduction to Muslim
customs and practices.
''We want him to be able to maneuver both worlds," said Maati, a
computer
programmer who emigrated from Morocco with his wife five years ago.
''But
we want him to grow up feeling good about his Muslim identity."
In the past three years, Muslim families increasingly have chosen such
schools as Al Bustan, hoping that they will be havens from anti-Muslim
sentiment their children might encounter in public schools, parents and
Muslim educators say. Parents worry that their customs are unwelcome in
a
country at war in Iraq and Afghanistan; some Muslims say they detect an
anti-Islam bias in the US media.
Parents and educators at Al Bustan became more concerned after a
teacher's
parked car was battered in Revere. Though the act of vandalism was
never
proven to be a hate crime, when the school held an open house in
October,
two parents had withdrawn their children, said Al Bustan's director,
Heidi
Prio.
One of only nine private Islamic schools in Massachusetts, Al Bustan
opened
in mid-October with about 12 students, with plans to expand by a grade
each
year. Each morning, the students sit in a circle in a brightly lit
classroom, decorated by colored letters in English and Arabic, singing:
''If you meet a little Muslim, say Assalamu alaikum [Peace Be Upon
You]."
The lessons are in English and rooted in American traditions but
interwoven
with Islamic religion. A recent exercise about learning to draw a
turkey
provided Prio with an introduction to Thanksgiving as an American
holiday
and a ''time to thank Allah."
At lunch, the children and their teachers pray…
---
HAMPERS REFLECT DIVERSITY; DRIVE AIMS TO ADDRESS SHORTAGE OF FOODS FOR
OBSERVANT MUSLIMS, RECENT ARRIVALS
Karen Kawawada, The Record, 12/20/04
http://www.therecord.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=record/Layout/Article_Type1&call_pageid=1024322398726&c=Article&cid=1103496612151
Peanut butter. Macaroni and cheese. Creamed corn. Wieners. These might
be
available in a typical emergency food hamper from the House of
Friendship
in Kitchener.
It's good food, appreciated by many. But imagine being a recent arrival
from Sudan or Afghanistan, used to eating lentils, rice and halal meat.
Many items on a typical Canadian grocery list would not only bewilder
observant Muslims, but some are also wholly unacceptable.
That's why a group of local Muslims and social service workers is
coordinating a drive for halal meat and other food familiar to Muslims
and
newcomers from Asia and Africa.
Muslims can eat only meat that is halal, or permissible, explained
Fauzia
Mazhar, 39, a former House of Friendship employee who still returns to
volunteer.
Islamic law requires the faithful to eat only animals that have been
fed a
vegetarian diet and ritually slaughtered so as to completely drain the
blood. All pork is forbidden.
The food drive is planned to coincide with Eid-ul-Adha, the Festival of
Sacrifice, which will be celebrated in the new year from Jan. 21 to 24.
The second-most important festival in the Muslim calendar, Eid-ul-Adha
marks the end of the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. It's also a
celebration of the deep devotion of the prophet Ibrahim.
Allah appeared to Ibrahim in a dream and ordered him to sacrifice his
son
Ishmael, explained Mazhar. Ibrahim had such faith in God he would have
obeyed, but Allah intervened at the last minute and allowed Ibrahim to
sacrifice a sheep instead of his beloved son.
Today, Muslims who can afford it feast during the Festival of
Sacrifice.
But according to religious dictates, they're supposed to divide their
meat
into three equal portions -- one for immediate family, one for friends
and
neighbours, and one for the poor…
-----
TIME CANDA'S NEWSMAKER OF THE YEAR: MAHER ARAR
http://www.timecanada.com/CNOY/story.adp?year=2004
Who is Maher Arar? We all know the basic contours of his story. In
2002,
U.S. officials detained the Canadian software engineer at New York
City's
John F. Kennedy International Airport. They alleged that he was linked
to
al-Qaeda and secretly deported him to Syria, where he says he was
tortured.
When Arar was freed more than a year later and the public got a glimpse
of
him, he seemed to be a likable, hard-working family man caught up in a
monstrous international screwup. Was there more? Simultaneously,
officials,
most of them anonymous, were leaking information and dropping hints
suggesting that Arar was a security risk with something to hide.
Well, if Arar is a terrorist, he is unlike any other. In contrast to
other
suspects dispatched to harsh justice, Arar did not vanish into oblivion
in
his Middle East cell. Nor, after his release, did he recoil from public
view. Instead, Arar, who has a modest home in Ottawa, has stepped into
the
spotlight as a vocal proponent of human rights in Canada, a symbol of
how
fear and injustice have permeated life in the West since 9/11. To this
day,
it has not been revealed why Arar was detained. And no one has pushed
harder to shed light on his case than Arar. "I have nothing to hide,"
he
said in late 2003. "I want a public inquiry…"
Canada's Muslims and Arabs, especially those who are from "problem
countries" with suspected links to terrorism, can easily identify with
them, says Riad Saloojee, head of the Council on American-Islamic
Relations-Canada. Among Arar's many supporters, the perception is that
what
happened to him could happen to almost anyone else. Muslims "live in
the
shadow of Arar," Saloojee says…
ALSO SEE:
ISLAM SHAPING A NEW EUROPE
Evan Osnos, Chicago Tribune, 12/19/04
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0412190554dec19,1,2183319.story
ST.-DENIS, France -- Butchered piglets hang in tidy rows at the
open-air
market, and shoppers haggle over cheese and oysters in a scene hardly
altered since the last Bourbon king was buried at the Gothic church on
the
corner.
But slip out of the market on a Friday, and a quarter-mile up the road
you
will find a very different France: Hundreds of Muslims squeezed hip to
hip
into an unheated canvas tent, bowing in sacred silence toward Mecca,
the
birthplace of Islam, which few of them have ever seen.
The worshipers at this makeshift mosque on the edge of Paris are men
and
women, dressed in the latest fashions and traditional robes, Arab,
European
and African. They are moderate, conservative and fundamentalist. They
are
first-, second- and third-generation immigrants. They are content and
they
are enraged. They are the future that Europe is straining to handle.
What is happening in Europe may provide a partial preview of what lies
ahead for the United States and its fast-growing Muslim population.
For the first time in history, Muslims are building large and growing
minorities across the secular Western world--nowhere more visibly than
in
Western Europe, where their numbers have more than doubled in the past
two
decades. The impact is unfolding from Amsterdam to Paris to Madrid, as
Muslims struggle -- with words, votes and sometimes violence--to stake
out
their place in adopted societies.
Disproportionately young, poor and unemployed, they seek greater
recognition and an Islam that fits their lives. Just as Egypt, Pakistan
and
Iran are witnessing the debate over the shape of Islam today, Europe is
emerging as the battleground of tomorrow...
ON THE INTERNET For more stories and photos in the series "Struggle for
the
soul of Islam," go to chicagotribune.com/news/ specials/
-----
THE PERSUADER
Billy Graham's son and heir apparent discusses evangelism, Iraq and why
he
feels Christians are 'under attack'
MSNBC, 12/20/04
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6730194/site/newsweek/
It hasn't helped having the more mediagenic leaders-Oral Roberts, Jerry
Falwell, you yourself-making inflammatory comments about Islam.
The problem with our country is that we do not understand Islam. We
still
don't. You get into Islamic countries, there is no separation between
the
government and between the religion. Islamic law, like in Saudi Arabia,
is
the law of the land. It's not a secular law, it's a religious law based
on
the religious faith. It's a strange concept for us, to live under a
religious law. Religion and government is one and the same. As far as
the
teaching and faith of the people, I think since 9/11 there has been a
strong debate in America over Islam. There are millions of Muslims in
this
country who have fled Islamic law; they have fled Islamic law but they
have
kept their faith but they want to live in peace. They want the American
dream and they have every right to it. We as a nation, our values
system is
based on a whole different set of principles.
You were quoted a couple years ago as calling Islam an "evil and wicked
religion." Would you care to revisit that comment?
Those comments started a debate in this country. I don't know what I
can
add to it. I respect the people of the Islamic faith that have come to
this
country. I have Muslim friends. But that doesn't stop me from wanting
to
help them. That doesn't stop me from loving them. I certainly don't
believe
the way they believe, and they don't believe the way I believe, either.
That doesn't make me dislike them, and I love them very much. I want to
do
all I can to help them. In Khartoum, we have been working for years in
a
mission in the south. I want to demonstrate to those Muslims that my
love
for them is sincere. I want them to know about God's son, Jesus Christ.
I
want them to know but I certainly don't want to force it on them. I
would
like some day for Muslims to know what Christians do…
-----
ADDRESS GUANTANAMO ABUSES
USA Today, 12/19/04
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2004-12-19-detainees-ourview_x.htm
In December 2001, as the campaign to overthrow the Taliban regime in
Afghanistan was winding down, the Pentagon announced that it would use
the
U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to hold prisoners swept up
in
the fighting.
That seemed like a good idea at the time. In many cases, it is a good
idea
now. But questionable arrests and recurring allegations of prisoner
abuse
are beginning to undercut U.S. goals. With 550 men from 40 nations
still
detained indefinitely three years after their arrest, a new approach is
needed.
The Bush administration contends that the detainees are illegal enemy
combatants who can be held indefinitely. In spite of a U.S. Supreme
Court
ruling in June that the prisoners may challenge their incarceration in
U.S.
courts, Justice Department lawyers continue to tell federal judges that
the
men have no rights that can be enforced by the courts.
Complaints of abusive treatment are rising and attracting headlines
around
the world. A recently leaked summary of an International Red Cross
report
complained of tactics "tantamount to torture." Even the FBI has warned
Pentagon officials that harsh treatment would produce "unreliable
results."
Fresh claims of "systematic abuse" were raised Friday in front of
Europe's
top human-rights body by a former detainee from England who was
released in
March. He and three other Britons are suing the U.S. government for $10
million each in damages. And The Washington Post reported Friday that
the
CIA maintained a secret prison within a prison at Guantanamo, hiding
some
al-Qaeda captives from outside observers.
Some of the Guantanamo detainees were seized not on the battlefield but
thousands of miles away in Africa and Europe. In one case, six men were
snatched by U.S. agents in Bosnia and taken to Guantanamo even though
the
Bosnian Supreme Court had found no credible evidence to support a claim
that they were plotting to bomb the U.S. Embassy in neighboring Serbia.
A Justice Department lawyer told a federal judge this month that the
United
States is entitled to grab anyone, anywhere in the world, it suspects
of
aiding al-Qaeda, even inadvertently, and hold that person indefinitely…
ALSO SEE:
LIBERTY VS. SECURITY: JUSTICE'S NEW IMAGE
St. Louis Dispatch, 12/19/04
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/editorialcommentary/story/DB3870B0A68FA6EA86256F6E0037D25A?openDocument&Headline=LIBERTY+VS.+SECURITY%3A+Justice's+new+image
First of three editorials ONE OF THE CASUALTIES of the war on terrorism
was
the American ideal of justice. Much of that damage was inflicted by two
men: Attorney General John D. Ashcroft and his proposed successor,
White
House Counsel Alberto R. Gonzales. The confirmation hearings for Mr.
Gonzales next month will give the U.S. Senate and the nation an
opportunity
to assess the war on terrorism and the damage it has done to the
liberties
we cherish.
Three ideas about justice are fundamentally American: Every person is
born
with rights the government cannot take away unfairly; no one, not even
the
president, is above the law; America is a beacon for freedom and the
rule
of law throughout the world.
These are neither conservative beliefs nor liberal beliefs. They are
foundational beliefs that undergird our system of justice: due process
of
law, open courts, jury trials, an independent judiciary, checks and
balances among the branches of government, the right to be secure in
our
homes against unreasonable searches, the right to say what we want
without
government interference, the protection from cruel punishments.
As President George W. Bush's two most important legal strategists in
the
war on terrorism, Mr. Gonzales and Mr. Ashcroft have compromised and
weakened these bedrock rights.
In fall 2001, Mr. Gonzales ginned up the idea of creating military
commissions to conduct closed trials of prisoners without due process
of
law. Meanwhile, Mr. Ashcroft was holding incommunicado 700 Middle
Eastern
detainees with immigration violations, even though they were not
connected
to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Most of them were deported later; their
names still are secret.
In 2002, the president was advised by Mr. Gonzales to turn his back on
what
he called the "obsolete," and "quaint" requirements of the Geneva
Conventions for the humane treatment of prisoners of war. Then Mr.
Gonzales
and Mr. Ashcroft supervised the preparation of a memo providing the
legal
rationale for abusing terrorist suspects to extract information from
them.
The memo argued that the president had the power to order torture.
In 2003, Mr. Gonzales and Mr. Ashcroft engineered the legal defense of
Mr.
Bush's imperial claim that he could unilaterally classify citizens as
"enemy combatants" and hold them without trial. Mr. Ashcroft also
instructed FBI agents to spy on antiwar rallies for possible links to
terrorism.
Due process, jury trials, open court proceedings, humane treatment of
prisoners, international norms of justice, the right to protest - all
these
were undermined with breathtaking hubris.
But perhaps the most disturbing assumption of the Bush administration's
legal response to 9/11 was the elevation of the powers of the president
beyond the reach of the other branches of government. Mr. Ashcroft and
Mr.
Gonzales argued that the courts lacked authority to challenge the
president
about who could be classified as a prisoner of war or enemy
combatant...
-----
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-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
* STUDY: MOST STATES ALLOW MUSLIM SCARVES IN DRIVER PHOTOS
* MD MUSLIM ALLOWED ISLAMIC SCARF IN ID PHOTO
-----
STUDY: MOST STATES ALLOW MUSLIM SCARVES IN DRIVER PHOTOS
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 12/21/04) - A prominent national Islamic civil
rights
and advocacy group today issued a nationwide review of religious
accommodation in requirements for driver's license photographs.
The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) says
the
report, titled "Religious Accommodation in Driver's License
Photographs: A
Review of Codes, Policies and Practices in the 50 States," was prompted
by
complaints from Muslim women drivers who faced difficulties wearing
Islamic
head scarves in license photographs.
According to CAIR's review, most states, with the exception of Georgia,
Kentucky and New Hampshire, have addressed religious accommodation
concerns. Five states - Arkansas, Mississippi, Kansas, Missouri, and
Maine
- recognize some religious practices, while the other 42 states have
adopted more inclusive approaches to religious accommodation policies.
TO VIEW THE REPORT, GO TO:
http://www.cair-net.org/downloads/driversphoto.pdf
The CAIR study recommended review of driver's license photograph
requirements in those states that do not permit religious accommodation
or
have policies that need to be clarified.
"Muslims are not alone in being impacted by driver's license photograph
policies," said Dr. Mohamed Nimer, the report's author. "Members of the
Christian, Sikh and Jewish communities also face issues related to
religiously-mandated head coverings or other religious practices."
CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil liberties group, is headquartered
in
Washington, D.C., and has 30 offices and chapters nationwide and in
Canada.
Its mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue,
protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions
that promote justice and mutual understanding.
- END -
CONTACT: Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail:
ihooper@cair-net.org; Rabiah Ahmed, 202-488-8787 or 202-439-1441,
E-Mail:
rahmed@cair-net.org
---
MD MUSLIM ALLOWED ISLAMIC SCARF IN ID PHOTO
CAIR-MD/VA to submit proposal for MVA sensitivity training
(BETHESDA, MD, 12/21/04) The Maryland and Virginia office of the
Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MD/VA) today announced that a Muslim
woman
in Maryland will be allowed to wear her Islamic head scarf in an
identification card photograph. The woman had previously been told she
had
to remove her religiously-mandated scarf.
The Muslim woman told CAIR-MD/VA she was ordered to take off her scarf
for
an ID photograph at the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA) in
Frederick, despite her insistence that it was against her religious
beliefs
and in spite of an MVA policy allowing religious head coverings.
After being approached by the Islamic Society of Frederick, CAIR-MD/VA
contacted MVA officials, who then took prompt action to resolve the
issue.
"We thank the MVA for its swift action in helping to resolve this
case,"
said CAIR-MD/VA Executive Director Rizwan Mowlana. "Muslims in Maryland
should know that their religious practices will be accommodated."
Mowlana said CAIR-MD/VA was also invited to submit an Islamic
sensitivity
training proposal for MVA employees.
CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil liberties group, is headquartered
in
Washington, D.C., and has 30 offices and chapters nationwide and in
Canada.
Its mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue,
protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions
that promote justice and mutual understanding.
- END -
CONTACT: CONTACT: CAIR-MD/VA, Rizwan Mowlana, 301-986-1900,
301-672-9355;
CAIR-National, Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-MAIL:
ihooper@cair-net.org; Rabiah Ahmed, 202-488-8787 or 202-439-1441,
E-Mail:
rahmed@cair-net.org
-----
NOTE: CAIR offers an e-mail list designed to be a window to the
American
Muslim community. Subscribers to the list, called CAIR-NET, receive
news
releases and other materials dealing with American Muslim positions on
issues of importance to our society.
To SUBSCRIBE to CAIR-NET, go to: http://cair.biglist.com/cair-net/
-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
--------------------------------------------------------------------
mail2web - Check your email from the web at
http://mail2web.com/ .
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 12/21/04
* VERSE OF THE DAY: ALL THE EARTH CONTAINS
* MORE POSITIVE FEEDBACK ON CAIR 'JESUS' OP-ED
- We Have So Much in Common (SL Post-Dispatch)
* INCITEMENT WATCH: THE REAL FACE OF ISLAM
* CAIR-LA: MUSLIMS HOLD FORUM, WITH ABSENCES (LA Times)
- CA: Arabs, Muslims Vent Frustrations (OC Register)
- Registration Program Fails as Anti-Terror Tool (NYT)
* CAIR-CAN WELCOMES RECOMMENDATIONS ON FAITH-BASED ARBITRATION
- Canadian Muslims May Use Shariah in Disputes (Bloomberg)
* TARIQ RAMADAN: MY FIGHT AGAINST AMERICAN PHANTOMS (LA Times)
* FBI FILES DESCRIBE ABUSE OF IRAQ INMATES (New York Times)
- Interrogations in Iraq Went Beyond FBI Standards (KR)
- Prisoners Wrapped in Israeli Flags (LA Times)
- ACLU: President Authorized Interrogation (Wash Times)
* 56% IN SURVEY SAY IRAQ WAR WAS A MISTAKE (Wash Post)
* MI: BANKS OFFER NO-INTEREST OPTIONS FOR MUSLIMS (Det News)
* TRAVELERS KEEPING THE FAITH (Wash Post)
- Airport Chapels Help Keep the Faith (USA Today)
-----
VERSE OF THE DAY: ALL THE EARTH CONTAINS
"If every person that has done injustice possessed all that the earth
contains, they would be willing to offer it all in ransom to redeem
themselves (on Judgment Day) if they could."
The Holy Quran, 10:54
-----
MORE POSITIVE FEEDBACK ON CAIR 'JESUS' OP-ED
CAIR received the following e-mail:
"Thank you so much for writing a short article about what Christians
and
Muslims have in common. I read it in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch this
morning. It comforted me to learn that Jesus' message of love, peace
and
forgiveness is accepted by followers of both faiths. Your words are a
candle being lit during these dark times."
SEE ALSO:
WE HAVE SO MUCH IN COMMON
Ibrahim Hooper, St. Louis Dispatch, 12/21/04
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/editorialcommentary/story/
6B58941102CC3EB086256F710037E01B?OpenDocument&Headline=RELIGION%3A+We+have+s
o+much+in+common
"Behold! The angels said: 'O Mary! God giveth thee glad tidings of a
Word
from Him. His name will be Jesus Christ, the son of Mary, held in honor
in
this world and the Hereafter and in (the company of) those nearest to
God.'"
Before searching for this quote in the New Testament, you might first
ask
your Muslim co-worker, friend or neighbor for a copy of the Quran,
Islam's
revealed text. The quote is from verse 45 of chapter 3 of the Quran.
What is little understood, particularly in this holiday season, is that
Muslims love and revere Jesus as a one of God's greatest messengers to
mankind. Other verses in the Quran - which is regarded by Muslims as
the
direct word of God - state that Jesus was strengthened with the "Holy
Spirit" (2:87) and is a "sign for the whole world." (21:91) His virgin
birth was confirmed when Mary is quoted as asking: "How can I have a
son
when no man has ever touched me?" (3:47)
The Quran shows Jesus speaking from the cradle and, with God's
permission,
curing lepers and the blind. (5:110) God also states in the Quran: "We
gave
(Jesus) the Gospel (Injeel) and put compassion and mercy into the
hearts of
his followers." (5:27)
As forces of hate in this country and worldwide try to pull Muslims and
Christians apart, we are in desperate need of a unifying force that can
bridge the widening gap of interfaith misunderstanding and mistrust.
That
force could be the message of love, peace and forgiveness taught by
Jesus
and accepted by followers of both faiths...
-----
INCITEMENT WATCH: THE REAL FACE OF ISLAM
A.E. Briseno, Augusta Free Press, 12/21/04
http://www.augustafreepress.com/stories/storyReader$29932
I have been following the Islamic terrorists and their plotting as is
visible to those of us who follow various different Web sites and agree
that the Islamic threat is real and that they are trying to
indoctrinate
our youth with lies about the peaceful nature of Islam.
Unfortunately, a good number of our politicians have parroted that same
idiocy - "Islam is a religion of peace," say the apologists.
Islam preaches conversion or heavy taxation or kill the infidel, in
that
sequence. There is nothing peaceful about a Muslim who has carefully
read
the three seminal documents of Islam - the Koran, the Haddith and the
Sira.
The three so-called Holy Books of Islam basically lay out Islam and
their
minor god's plan (the satanic Allah, that is) to have Islam become the
supreme religion in the world…
It is true that there are large numbers of peaceful Muslims; however,
we do
not need to concern ourselves with these deceived innocents…
SEND POLITE COMMENTS TO: letters@augustafreepress.com
COPY TO: cair@cair-net.org
-----
CAIR-LA: MUSLIMS HOLD FORUM, WITH ABSENCES
Daniel Yi and David Haldane, Los Angeles Times, 12/21/04
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-muslim21dec21,1,5062369.story
Muslim American groups from Southern California held a town hall
meeting
Monday to discuss with federal officials what they call unfair
targeting of
Muslim travelers and immigrants in the wake of 9/11.
Nearly 500 people attended the meeting, held at a La Mirada hotel. But
not
everyone on the coalition's guest list showed up.
A representative of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said that
a
week ago he invited officials from the Department of Homeland Security,
including the local heads of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
and
the Transportation Security Administration.
The officials declined, said Omar Zaki, director of government
relations
for CAIR's office in Anaheim. The officials said that their local
offices
handle only enforcement and do not set policy, Zaki said.
Lori Haley, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,
declined to comment Monday.
The Department of Homeland Security has "completely closed the door on
this
community," said Zaki at Monday's meeting. "They've taken the position
that
it isn't important for them to be here. They've avoided every
opportunity
to talk with us. Their arrogance is not acceptable. This is about
accountability."
The FBI, which is part of the U.S. Department of Justice and not
Homeland
Security, did send a representative. Matt McLaughlin, special projects
coordinator for an outreach program to the Muslim community, told the
audience that the FBI "wants to be sensitive when it makes sense. Our
government isn't perfect - mistakes can occur. We are trying to treat
everyone with dignity and respect, but also do the very difficult job
of
protecting you all."
In an interview before the meeting, McLaughlin said that the FBI and
the
Muslim community "need to remain in dialogue, whether it's a happy day
or a
sad day. I think it's important that the FBI be here to listen to the
community."
Muslim community leaders, however, had hoped that immigration and
transportation safety officials would attend to address some of the
apprehensions in their community.
"What message are they sending?" CAIR spokeswoman Sabiha Khan asked of
the
absent officials. "Whatever happened to accountability?"
Khan said the meeting was meant to give officials an opportunity to
respond
to charges that Muslims are being unfairly targeted by immigration
authorities and unnecessarily scrutinized when traveling…
ALSO SEE:
ARABS, MUSLIMS VENT FRUSTRATIONS
Vik Jolly, Orange County Register
http://www.ocregister.com/ocr/2004/12/21/sections/local/local/article_351281
.php
LA MIRADA - About 450 members of the Arab and Muslim communities were
joined by several civil-rights organizations Monday night to express
solidarity against what they say is unfair targeting of community
members
by immigration officials and the agency responsible for securing U.S.
transportation systems.
"There's confusion, there's rumor and a lot of worry," said Sabiha
Khan,
spokeswoman for the Council on American Islamic Relations, which led
the
meeting at the Holiday Inn.
"Yes, people are worried that we are being persecuted because we are
Muslim."
Khan said the community had hoped to speak with representatives from
Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Transportation Security
Administration, but both agencies declined to attend the town-hall
meeting.
"We are really frustrated that they're not coming," Khan said. "They're
accountable to the taxpayers, and what if anything do they do if not
dialogue?"
While ICE spokeswoman Lori Haley would not say why the agency could not
attend the meeting - billed as an "emergency town hall" - a TSA
official
said the agency got very short notice.
Nico Melendez, the TSA's Western regional spokesman, said he told
council
officials that the agency would be open to talking at a later date.
In its three years of existence, the TSA has repeatedly made clear that
it
"will not profile," Melendez said.
"We don't profile because profiling is not an effective tool for
providing
security…"
---
PROGRAM'S VALUE IN DISPUTE AS A TOOL TO FIGHT TERRORISM
Rachel L. Swarns, New York Times, 12/21/04
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/21/national/21deport.html
The anxious man with silvering hair joined the sea of immigrants
pouring
into the steel and glass building in Manhattan that houses one of the
nation's busiest immigration courts. When a judge called his name on
one
recent morning, the man, Rafiqul Islam of Bangladesh, steeled himself
to
hear that his life in America was finally over.
Last year, Mr. Islam and thousands of other Arab and Muslim men came
forward to be fingerprinted, photographed and interviewed by
immigration
officials hunting for terrorists. Officials ultimately determined that
almost none of them had links to terrorism. But Mr. Islam was in this
country illegally, and the judge said he had no choice but to deport
him.
"You must leave the United States no later than Feb. 25," the judge,
Gabriel Videla, told Mr. Islam, 63. "Good luck, sir."
Mr. Islam is one of nearly 13,000 illegal immigrants from Arab and
Muslim
countries who were placed in deportation proceedings after voluntarily
participating last year in the nation's largest effort to register
immigrants in decades. The counterterrorism program, created after the
attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, was hailed as a success by Justice
Department
officials, who said they had arrested suspected terrorists and gathered
vital information about more than 83,000 immigrants from countries
considered breeding grounds for terrorism.
But though the program made the government aware of thousands of
illegal
immigrants like Mr. Islam, officials now say there is little evidence
to
suggest that it succeeded in capturing suspected terrorists. Homeland
Security officials, who said that six men linked to terrorism were
arrested
as a result of the call-in program, have been challenged by the Sept.
11
commission, which reported this year that it had found little evidence
to
support that claim…
-----
CAIR-CAN WELCOMES RECOMMENDATIONS ON FAITH-BASED ARBITRATION
CAIR-CAN: Recommendations address issues of vulnerability, offer
comprehensive safeguards
(OTTAWA, CANADA - 21/12/2004) - The Canadian Council on
American-Islamic
Relations (CAIR-CAN) today welcomed the comprehensive recommendations
proposed by Marion Boyd in her review of the use of arbitration in
family
and inheritance cases in the province of Ontario. Boyd has recommended
the
continuance of faith-based arbitration as a valid alternative in family
and
inheritance cases subject to a number of safeguards.
In its meeting with Ms. Boyd in early August 2004, CAIR-CAN proposed
recommendations such as independent legal advice, extensive community
education, safeguards for the training and qualifications of
arbitrators,
and a registry of arbitration decision. For CAIR-CAN's position paper,
see: http://www.caircan.ca/downloads/sst-10082004.pdf
Boyd's recommendations include extensive conditions for an arbitration
agreement to be valid; that parties receive independent legal advice
and a
statement of faith-based principles; public and community education;
and
closer oversight and evaluation of arbitrators.
In a statement released today, CAIR-CAN wrote:
"Marion Boyd's recommendations offer practical and comprehensive
solutions
to the general issue of faith-based arbitration that recognize both the
value of faith-based arbitration and the challenges associated with its
implementation.
"Far from stigmatizing one community or providing a chauvinistic and
one-sided analysis, Ms. Boyd has attempted to address issues of power
imbalances, and the lack of transparency and accountability within the
arbitration system. Her recommendations provide for oversight and
reporting mechanisms, along with an extensive list of legal safeguards.
"We hope that the Ontario government gives her recommendations the
attention they merit and proceeds with this issue in the same spirit
and
rigor."
CONTACT:
Mihad Fahmy, Director of Legal Affairs, at 613-254-9704
Abdurahman Salman, Communications, at 613-254-9704; 613-795-2012
ALSO SEE:
ONTARIO MUSLIMS MAY USE SHARIAH TO SETTLE DISPUTES, REPORT SAYS
Bloomberg, 12/20/04
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000082&sid=a6.T40jg8aFk&refer=canad
a
Ontario Muslims should be able use the code of law based on the Koran,
or
Shariah, to settle civil disputes if all parties involved agree, a
report
commissioned by the provincial government said.
``Arbitration is a private action because there is no state compulsion
to
arbitrate,'' former Ontario Attorney General Marion Boyd wrote in the
report, which was published on the government's Web site. ``Muslims in
Ontario retain, as do all Ontarians, the right to choose the
traditional
justice system or any alternative to it for the resolution of their
disputes.''
Some groups, such as the Muslim Canadian Congress and the Canadian
Council
of Muslim Women, say they oppose religiously based arbitration in
family
issues like child custody or division of property because Shariah
favors
men over women and they're not seen as equals.
Boyd led a six-month review of the provincial Arbitration Act, at the
request of Premier Dalton McGuinty, to determine if the use of
religious
laws to settle civil disputes was appropriate. Her report, which isn't
binding on the government, was released this morning.
Orthodox Jews are already strongly encouraged to bring their disputes
before the Beis Din, or House of Judgment, which arbitrates disputes
under
Jewish law, Rabbi Reuven Tradburks told the review panel. Some
Christian
organizations also settle disputes according to religious laws…
-----
MY FIGHT AGAINST AMERICAN PHANTOMS
Tariq Ramadan, Los Angeles Times, 12/21/04
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-ramadan21dec21,0,623522
.story
Tariq Ramadan, Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan's most recent book is
"Western
Muslims and the Future of Islam" (Oxford University Press, 2003). His
website is www.tariqramadan.com.
Over the last four years, I have visited the United States more than 20
times. I have lectured on philosophy and Islam at numerous academic
institutions from Dartmouth to Stanford and at organizations from the
Brookings Institution to the United States Institute of Peace. I was
invited to a meeting organized by former President Clinton, and I spoke
before officials of the CIA.
So when I was offered a professorship at the University of Notre Dame,
I
did not see it as anything particularly controversial, and I accepted
the
position as an opportunity for greater engagement and dialogue with
Americans.
After the necessary security clearance, my visa was approved in May. We
shipped our belongings and were only nine days away from moving when I
was
informed that my visa had been revoked. Though no explanation was given
to
us, government officials were quoted anonymously in the media citing
the
Patriot Act as the legal basis - but without stating exactly what I had
been accused of.
The media speculated endlessly; all my detractors' old and baseless
allegations were listed: "possible terrorist links," "Islamist," and
the
particularly inexplicable "gentle jihadist." I was accused of being an
anti-Semite and of engaging in "double talk" by delivering a gentle,
moderate message to non-Muslims but a "radical and extremist" message
to
Muslims. To bolster their argument, my critics pointed to my pedigree -
my
grandfather was the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt - as if
one's thoughts and morals descend from the vices and virtues of one's
lineage.
Time and again I fought to disprove these malicious allegations. But it
didn't work. In 20 years of studying and teaching philosophy, I have
learned to appreciate the inherent difficulty in recognizing "the
truth."
But I have also learned that in the world of mass media, "truth" is not
based on clarity but on repetition. An assumption repeated three times
becomes a fact…
-----
NEW F.B.I. FILES DESCRIBE ABUSE OF IRAQ INMATES
Neil A. Lewis and David Johnson, New York Times, 12/21/04
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/21/politics/21abuse.html
WASHINGTON - F.B.I. memorandums portray abuse of prisoners by American
military personnel in Iraq that included detainees' being beaten and
choked
and having lit cigarettes placed in their ears, according to newly
released
government documents.
The documents, released Monday in connection with a lawsuit accusing
the
government of being complicit in torture, also include accounts by
Federal
Bureau of Investigation agents who said they had seen detainees in
Guant�namo Bay, Cuba, being chained in uncomfortable positions for up
to 24
hours and left to urinate and defecate on themselves. An agent wrote
that
in one case a detainee who was nearly unconscious had pulled out much
of
his hair during the night.
One of the memorandums released Monday was addressed to Robert S.
Mueller
III, the F.B.I. director, and other senior bureau officials, and it
provided the account of someone "who observed serious physical abuses
of
civilian detainees" in Iraq. The memorandum, dated June 24 this year,
was
an "Urgent Report," meaning that the sender regarded it as a priority.
It
said the witness "described that such abuses included strangulation,
beatings, placement of lit cigarettes into the detainees' ear openings
and
unauthorized interrogations."
The memorandum did not make clear whether the witness was an agent or
an
informant, and it said there had also been an effort to cover up the
abuses. The writer of the memorandum said Mr. Mueller should be aware
of
what was occurring because "of potential significant public, media and
Congressional interest which may generate calls to the director." The
document does not provide further details of the abuse, but suggests
that
such treatment of prisoners in Iraq was the subject of an investigation
conducted by the bureau's Sacramento office.
Beyond providing new details about the nature and extent of abuses, if
not
the exact times or places, the newly disclosed documents are the latest
to
show that such activities were known to a wide circle of government
officials.
The documents, mostly memorandums written by agents to superiors in
Washington over the past year, also include claims that some military
interrogators had posed as F.B.I. officials while using harsh tactics
on
detainees, both in Iraq and at Guant�namo Bay.
In one memorandum, dated Dec. 5, 2003, an agent whose name is blanked
out
on the document expressed concern about military interrogators' posing
as
F.B.I. agents at the Guant�namo camp…
ALSO SEE:
HARSH INTERROGATIONS IN IRAQ WENT BEYOND FBI STANDARDS, MEMO SAYS
Frank Davies, Knight Ridder, 12/20/04
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/10462815.htm
WASHINGTON - Harsh interrogation methods of Iraqi prisoners went
"beyond
the bounds of standard FBI practice," the FBI's top official in Iraq
said
in a memo released Monday.
While the memo doesn't directly say who authorized the practices, two
government officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said the
methods
were approved by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
The two-page e-mail, which was sent to the FBI's top counterterrorism
officials, was one of 21 documents released after a federal judge
ordered
the disclosure in a Freedom of Information lawsuit brought by the ACLU
and
four other groups.
Other memos detail concerns about what one FBI agent called "torture
techniques" used in Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. Navy base in Cuba where
about
550 terror suspects are held.
Maj. Michael Shavers, a Defense Department spokesman, declined to
comment
on specific allegations outlined in the memo.
"We're not going to go point by point through all of these documents
that
were released," Shavers said.
The memos were released as Rumsfeld has come under fire for his
response to
a soldier's question about armored vehicles in Iraq and for using a
machine
to sign condolence letters to the families of troops killed in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
It couldn't be determined Monday whether the harsh methods of
questioning
those held in Iraq are currently permissible or whether those practices
have been curtailed.
The memo about interrogations in Iraq shows the FBI trying to distance
itself from such techniques as sleep deprivation, use of military dogs,
"environmental manipulation" such as the use of loud music and "sensory
deprivation through the use of hoods, etc…"
---
FBI CLAIMS MORE ARAB PRISONERS ABUSED
Richard A. Serrano, Los Angeles Times, 12/20/04
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-122004abuse_lat,0,7182832.
story
WASHINGTON - FBI agents are increasingly complaining about what they
consider abusive physical and mental torture by military officials
against
prisoners held in Iraq and Cuba, including lighted cigarettes stuck in
detainees' ears and Arab captives being humiliated with Israeli flags
wrapped around them, according to new documents released today.
The FBI records are the latest set of documents obtained by the ACLU in
its
lawsuit against the federal government and include instances in which
bureau officials were disgusted that military interrogators pretended
to be
FBI agents and used the scheme as a "ruse" to glean intelligence
information from prisoners.
In addition, the FBI complained that military interrogators have gone
far
beyond the restrictions of the Geneva Conventions prohibiting torture
and
have followed an apparently new executive order from President Bush
that
permits the use of dogs and other techniques to harass prisoners.
"We know what's permissible for FBI agents but are less sure what is
permissible for military interrogators," the FBI's "on-scene
commander-Baghdad" complained to his bureau colleagues last May, well
after
the abuse scandal at the Abu Ghraib prison had become public.
"We cannot have our (FBI) personnel embedded with military units
abroad,
which regularly use these interrogation techniques…"
Another unidentified FBI agent told his superiors in July that he had
witnessed military interrogators and government contract employees at
the
U.S. Navy Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, using "aggressive treatment and
improper interview techniques" on prisoners…
---
ACLU: PRESIDENT AUTHORIZED INTERROGATION
Michael Kirkland, Wash Times, 12/20/04
http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20041220-013140-6821r.htm
Washington, DC -- An FBI document suggests the president authorized
inhumane interrogation methods against Iraqi detainees, the American
Civil
Liberties Union said Monday.
The document is among those obtained from the government by the ACLU in
a
Freedom of Information Act lawsuit in New York.
A two-page FBI e-mail message refers to "a Presidential Executive
Order"
and contends President George W. Bush directly authorized interrogation
techniques that included sleep deprivation, stress positions, the use
of
military dogs and "sensory deprivation through the use of hoods, etc.,"
the
ACLU said.
The FBI message was sent in May 2004 from "On Scene Commander --
Baghdad"
to senior FBI officials.
The techniques are "beyond the bounds of FBI practice but within the
parameters of the executive order…" The message said some FBI personnel
witnessed the use of the techniques but did not participate.
"We frankly do not equate any of these things our personnel witnessed
with
the clearly unlawful and sickening abuse at Abu G (Abu Ghraib prison)
that
has come to light," the e-mail message said, adding later, "We assume
the
(headquarters) instruction does not include the reporting of these
authorized interrogation techniques, and that the use of these
techniques
does not constitute 'abuse'."
The FBI message is accessible, along with other documents, at
aclu.org/torturefoia/released/fbi.html.
In a statement, the ACLU urged the White House to confirm or deny the
existence of the order referred to in the message and to release it
immediately if it exists.
"The FBI agent was mistaken regarding the existence of an Executive
Order
on interrogation techniques. No such Executive Order exits or has ever
existed," a senior administration official told United Press
International.
"The Department of Defense determines the methods of interrogation of
military detainees in the Iraq conflict. Any directions to the military
regarding particular interrogation techniques emanated from within the
Department of Defense.
"Again, the agent was mistaken. No such Executive Order exists or ever
existed," the official said…
-----
56 PERCENT IN SURVEY SAY IRAQ WAR WAS A MISTAKE
John F. Harris and Christopher Muste, Washington Post, 12/21/04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14266-2004Dec20.html
President Bush heads into his second term amid deep and growing public
skepticism about the Iraq war, with a solid majority saying for the
first
time that the war was a mistake and most people believing that Defense
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld should lose his job, according to a new
Washington Post-ABC News poll.
While a slight majority believe the Iraq war contributed to the
long-term
security of the United States, 70 percent of Americans think these
gains
have come at an "unacceptable" cost in military casualties. This led 56
percent to conclude that, given the cost, the conflict there was "not
worth
fighting" -- an eight-point increase from when the same question was
asked
this summer, and the first time a decisive majority of people have
reached
this conclusion.
Bush lavished praise on Rumsfeld at a morning news conference
yesterday,
but the Pentagon chief who soared to international celebrity and
widespread
admiration after the terrorist attacks three years ago can be glad he
answers to an audience of one. Among the public, 35 percent of
respondents
approved of his job performance and 53 percent disapproved; 52 percent
said
Bush should give Rumsfeld his walking papers.
Seven weeks since his reelection victory over Democrat John F. Kerry
and
four weeks before his second inauguration, the poll suggests Bush is in
a
paradoxical situation -- a triumphant president who remains acutely
vulnerable in public opinion on a national security issue that is
dominating headlines and could shadow his second term.
While the results are bad for Bush as people look at past decisions --
whether the Iraq war should have been waged in the first place -- the
president has more support for his policies over the choices he faces
going
forward.
A strong majority of Americans, 58 percent, support keeping military
forces
in Iraq until "civil order is restored," even in the face of continued
U.S.
causalities. By a slight margin, 48 percent to 44 percent, more voters
agreed with Bush's position that the United States is making
"significant
progress" toward its goal of establishing democracy in Iraq. Yet, by a
similar margin, the public believes the United States is not making
significant progress toward restoring civil order.
This was just one area where there was considerable ambivalence and
even
pessimism about the challenges confronting U.S. policy in the coming
months…
-----
BANKS OFFER NO-INTEREST OPTIONS FOR MUSLIMS
Karen Dybis, Detroit News, 12/21/04
http://www.detnews.com/2004/business/0412/21/B01-38534.htm
Sumaya Boomgaard's situation is familiar to area Muslims who want to
balance their faith with the practices of the U.S. banking system.
Boomgaard makes dinner in her new home.
Arabic terms commonly used in discussions about Islamic finance:
Sharia:
Islamic religious law Halal: Permitted for Muslims under Sharia Haram:
Not
permitted for Muslims under Sharia Riba: Interest; riba is haram Ijara
wa
iqtina: Rent to own, usually of a house
Many Muslims believe the Koran forbids its followers to accept
interest,
also known as usury or "riba." The following verse is often quoted as
the
basis for an economic system where interest is prohibited.
(3:130) O ye who believe! Devour not usury, doubling and quadrupling
(the
sum lent). Observe your duty to Allah, that ye may be successful…
-----
TRAVELERS KEEPING THE FAITH
Steven Ginsberg, Washington Post, 12/21/04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14929-2004Dec20.html
Well north of the Capital Beltway, 50 miles beyond Baltimore, where the
landscape flanking Interstate 95 turns to a dull repetition of trees
and
the occasional service island, Our Lady of the Highways stands vigil.
Our Lady is a 20-foot statue of Mary, a shrine erected on the side of
the
road to watch over the tens of thousands of motorists who pass her way
each
day. She is a guiding force for many, and she has spawned a group of
followers, known as Mary's Travelers, who place themselves and others
under
the protection of the Virgin Mother for safe travel.
She is also a reminder of the peril of travel, having been put there by
the
Oblates of St. Francis de Sales in 1972, four years after they rushed
to
the scene of a 17-car pileup that claimed the lives of three drivers
and
injured several others.
"We thought she would be some way to prevent accidents in the future,"
the
Rev. Richard DeLillio said. "If we have the statue, maybe there would
be a
little bit of light" to reenergize drivers.
Many of the millions of Americans making pilgrimages by land, air or
sea to
visit family and friends this holiday season will invoke a higher power
to
ensure their safe arrival. In an age of global positioning devices,
explosives-detection machines, air bags and other man-made safety
devices,
some travelers still turn to the heavens to ensure their safe passage
across the earth.
Many Catholics carry an image of St. Christopher, the traditional
protector
of travelers. Other Christians put a statue of Jesus on their
dashboards,
while some bless their cars. Jews and Muslims recite traditional
prayers.
Other worshipers visit airport chaplains, gather in prayer circles or
carry
religious articles…
ALSO SEE:
AIRPORT CHAPELS HELP FLIERS KEEP THE FAITH, OR JUST RELAX
Barbara De Lollis, USA Today, 12/21/04
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2004-12-20-chapel-usat_x.htm
At many big airports in the USA, fliers seeking spiritual solace this
religious season don't have to go it alone.
Though not widely known, about three dozen U.S. airports -- including
most
of the big ones -- have chapels or chaplains.
"So many people using our airports this time of year don't realize that
there are chapels and chaplaincies readily available for them," says
Rev.
John Jamnicky. He was Chicago O'Hare's chaplain for 20 years and now
oversees travel chapels for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Traveler Chris Kepler, technology director for software provider SAS
Institute, says he often visits a Dallas/Fort Worth chapel during
layovers
on monthly Latin American trips.
"I don't stay there long, but I like to stop by from time to time, sit
in
the peace and quiet, meditate, pray and then move on," says Kepler, of
Cary, N.C.
Chapels have mostly been organized by Catholics and Protestants but
welcome
people of all faiths. New York John F. Kennedy has the country's only
airport synagogue. O'Hare's chapel has services for Muslims. Chaplains
say
they're not there to convert.
Travel chaplains may be most visible at times of crisis, such as a
plane
crash. But normally they tend to everyday issues: Reassuring a nervous
flier; comforting a grieving widow; praying for a family sending their
son
to Iraq, or helping a traveler clear security with an urn filled with a
loved one's ashes.
And there's the occasional wedding -- or marriage intervention.
Chaplain
Brett Jones at Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport recalls last
year
helping a woman who changed her mind after throwing her husband out.
Jones
tracked down the husband, who was connecting flights at Bush, to let
him
know that his wife would take him back.
Travel chaplains serve a mix of travelers and airport and airline
employees…
-----
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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
--------------------------------------------------------------------
mail2web - Check your email from the web at
http://mail2web.com/ .
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 12/22/04
* VERSE OF THE DAY: FEED THE NEEDY
* VA MUSLIMS TO FEED THE HOMELESS
* TX MUSLIM FORUM EXAMINES SECURITY, CIVIL LIBERTIES
* KY LICENSE PHOTO POLICY CRITICIZED (Enquirer)
- OH: Judge Sets Deportation Conditions
* CAIR-FL: VICTIMS TELL OF BIGOTRY (Herald Trib)
- Racism Is All Around (Bradenton Herald)
- Combating Racism and Prejudice (Baynews 9)
* 'ISLAMOPHOBIA' SPREADING FAR AND WIDE (IPS)
- FL: Some Would Still Deny Rights (Miami Herald)
* PAPERS SUGGEST DETAINEE ABUSE WIDESPREAD (Wash Post)
- Congressional Letter to IG on Detainee Abuse
- Laws, Not Lip Service (AJC)
* PATH TO PEACE RUNS THROUGH PALESTINE (LA Times)
* THE CHRISTMAS STORY THROUGH ISLAMIC EYES (KR)
* ISRAELI HUBRIS VS. THE U.S. (Wash Times)
- Grand Jury Query of AIPAC Postponed (Haaretz)
- FBI Waited to Make AIPAC Move (JTA)
-----
VERSE OF THE DAY: FEED THE NEEDY
"Have you seen the one who denies the Day of Judgment? It is he who
drives
away the orphan with harshness and does not encourage feeding the
needy.
The Holy Quran, 107:1-3
HADITH OF THE DAY: ENTER PARADISE IN PEACE
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "God...will say on the
Day
of Resurrection: 'O son of Adam, I asked you for food but you did not
feed
Me.' (The person) will reply: 'My Lord, how could I feed Thee when Thou
art
the Lord of the worlds?' (God will then) say: 'Didn't you know that a
servant of Mine (once) asked you for food, but you did not feed him.
And
were you not aware that if you had fed him, you would have found him by
My
side?'"
Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1172
The Prophet also said: "O (my) people! Spread greetings of peace, feed
(the
poor and needy), behave kindly to your relatives, offer prayer when
others
are asleep, and (thus) enter Paradise in peace."
Al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 269
-----
VA MUSLIMS TO FEED THE HOMELESS
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 12/22/04) - Muslims will prepare and distribute food
to
the homeless in Fairfax, Va., on Thursday, December 23rd, and Friday,
December 24th. Food preparation starts at 3:30 p.m. in the kitchen of
Fairfax Presbyterian Church and distribution to shelters and other
locations begins at 6 p.m. and lasts until about 8 p.m.
WHAT: VA Muslims to Feed the Homeless
WHEN: December 23rd and 24th, 3:30 - 8 p.m.
LOCATION: Fairfax Presbyterian Church, 10723 Main Street, Fairfax, VA
Volunteers are needed for both days. (More help is needed to prepare
the
food.)
CONTACT: Mukit Hossain, 703-507-7223, e-mail: shoma@prodigy.net
-----
TX MUSLIM FORUM EXAMINES SECURITY, CIVIL LIBERTIES
Panel organizers seek law enforcement perspective
(HOUSTON, TX, 12/22/04) - On Sunday December 26, the Texas Dawah Annual
Convention IV will host representatives of the FBI, the American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU-TX) and the Council on American-Islamic Relations
(CAIR-Houston) in a discussion of the challenges that the community and
law
enforcement authorities face when attempting to balance the safety of
America with the protection of civil liberties.
WHAT: "How to Keep America Safe"
WHEN: Sunday, December 26, 4-6:30 p.m.
WHERE: Sheraton North Houston, 15700 John F. Kennedy Blvd., Houston, TX
CONTACT: Call Jim Coats at 281-793-5073, or contact Iesa Galloway
(CAIR-Houston) at 832-656-0449.
-----
KY. DRIVER'S LICENSE PHOTO POLICY CRITICIZED
Andrea Remke, Enquirer, 12/22/04
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041222/NEWS0103/412220
363/1059/NEWS01
FRANKFORT - The state of Kentucky is one of three states that have not
addressed religious accommodations in policies for driver's licenses,
according to a civil rights advocacy group.
The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations released its
report, "Religious Accommodation in Driver's License Photographs: A
Review
of Codes, Policies and Practices in the 50 States," Tuesday, after
receiving complaints from Muslim women drivers who dealt with
difficulties
in wearing head scarves in license photographs.
Kentucky, along with Georgia and New Hampshire, the report states, has
not
addressed religious accommodation concerns in codes, policy manuals or
administrative practices, and should therefore enact rules for the
purpose
of preventing unnecessary denial of religious accommodation to driver's
license applicants.
"Muslims are not alone in being impacted by driver's license photograph
policies," report author Dr. Mohamed Nimer said in a statement.
"Members of
the Christian, Sikh and Jewish communities also face issues related to
religiously-mandated head coverings..."
Kentucky's policy, as outlined in Kentucky Code, states, "When taking
the
photograph, the applicant shall be prohibited from wearing sunglasses
or
any other attire that obscures any features of the applicant's face as
determined by the clerk. The clerk shall require an applicant to remove
sunglasses or other obscuring attire before taking the photograph…"
ALSO SEE:
OH: JUDGE SETS CONDITIONS TO DEPORT
Al-Jailani won't go to Yemen unless safety can be assured
Stephen Dyer, Beacon Journal, 12/22/04
http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/10471491.htm
Supporters of former Kent resident Ashraf Al-Jailani are more hopeful
than
ever that he will soon return home from his 26-month federal detention.
While federal Immigration Judge Walter Durling ordered Al-Jailani's
deportation in a ruling Friday, he also said Al-Jailani cannot be sent
to
his native Yemen unless the United States can obtain diplomatic
assurances
Al-Jailani will not be tortured there.
Al-Jailani has said he could be tortured in Yemen because of terror
allegations the U.S. government has made against him…
-----
CAIR-FL: VICTIMS OF BIGOTRY TELL OF EXPERIENCES
Dale White, Herald Tribune, 12/22/04
http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041222/NEWS/412220
357/1060
MANATEE COUNTY -- A diverse group of people gathered Tuesday to teach a
lesson: that even people who aren't bigots can make discriminatory
comments
without realizing it.
Rabbi Aaron Koplin of Temple Beth El said he has endured such treatment
at
public school functions. At a recent Manatee County School Board
meeting, a
Boy Scout told Koplin that people who didn't join in a Christian prayer
should just leave -- the meeting and maybe even the country.
"I personally resent being put on the outside," Koplin said during a
forum
on racism and hatred hosted Tuesday by the League of Women Voters in
Bradenton.
All speakers agreed that the most effective weapon against racism and
the
demeaning of others is intensive self-searching by individuals to see
if
they are unwittingly spreading stereotypes and demeaning cultural
references.
"We're all in the same family," said Susie Copeland, who is black.
"That's
how we have to treat each other."
Any assumption that the civil rights movement rid American culture of
prejudice would be wrong, forum participants said.
Swastika graffiti and burning crosses still pop up from time to time,
including a swastika drawn by students on the classroom door of a
Jewish
schoolteacher in Venice last week.
But discrimination in 21st-century America is largely taking on more
subtle
or even socially acceptable forms.
"Just because it doesn't affect you doesn't mean it doesn't exist,"
said
Ahmed Bedier of Tampa, a spokesman for the Council on American Islamic
Relations…
ALSO SEE:
RACISM IS ALL AROUND, FORUM TOLD
Michael Barber, Bradenton Herald, 12/22/04
http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/10471749.htm
BRADENTON - Growing up black in Alabama during the height of the civil
rights movement, Susie Copeland came to recognize racism first hand.
That's
why she was alarmed when she saw traces of racism in her own behavior.
In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Copeland
said
she noticed she would tighten up whenever she encountered someone with
a
scarf covering their head.
Copeland apologized to Muslims for those feelings Tuesday during a Hot
Topic Forum on racism and discrimination sponsored by the League of
Women
Voters of Manatee County held at the Unitarian Universalist Church in
downtown Bradenton.
Copeland said tales of anti-Muslim behavior in America after 9/11 made
her
aware of her actions.
"As I saw these reports unfold, I said, 'Gee whiz, they are going
through
the exact same things that African Americans experienced,' " Copeland
said." So, I apologize for those thoughts."
Ahmed Bedier, a Muslim and the communications director for the Tampa
office
of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, accepted the apology.
Copeland and Bedier were two of the featured panelists at Tuesday's
forum.
They were joined on the podium by Rabbi Aaron Koplin of Temple Beth-El
in
Bradenton, and Louis Paladino, a resident of Manatee County who is the
community coordinator for ALSO Out Youth in Sarasota, a support group
for
gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex and questioning youth.
During his comments, Bedier condemned the Sept. 11 attacks.
"Human beings of all races, colors, religion, paid the price of losing
loved ones on that ill-fated day," Bedier said. "Muslims, who account
for
about two percent of the population in America, accounted for anywhere
between 5 to 10 percent of those who died in the Sept. 11 attacks.
Despite
this, Muslims in America have been made the scapegoats in a witch-hunt
that
followed. The backlash which started after 9/11 continues unabated
today..."
---
CAIR-FL: COMBATING RACISM AND PREJUDICE
Baynews 9, 12/21/04
http://www.baynews9.com/content/36/2004/12/21/65706.html
The panel met to come up with ways to fight racism and discrimination.
Louis Paladino of Bradenton has to fight for who he is almost every
day.
He's openly gay.
"We have people who have been called names, been discriminated against
by
teachers," said Paladino. "Students been harassed, kicked out by family
members."
Paladino wants to put an end to discrimination, so he participated in
an
annual panel on racism and prejudice Tuesday. It was sponsored by the
League of Women Voters of Manatee County.
An African American woman, a Muslim and a rabbi shared their stories at
the
event.
"Things are only going to get better when people are comfortable and
can
have diverse dialogue," said Ahmed Bedier, the regional director for
American-Islamic Relations.
Bedier says the latest numbers show there was a 70 percent increase in
anti-Muslim incidents in the U.S. from 2002 to 2003.
The event was sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Manatee
County.
"As we move away from September 11, we thought emotions would die down
and
numbers would go down," said Bedier. "However, we are seeing a
different
trend where we're actually going up."
Bedier says there needs to be more education, while Paladino thinks
there
needs to be policy changes…
-----
CHALLENGES 2004-2005: 'ISLAMOPHOBIA' SPREADING FAR AND WIDE
Thalif Deen, IPS News, 12/21/04
http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=26762
UNITED NATIONS - A renowned Islamic scholar of Egyptian origin is
barred
from taking up a post in one of the most prestigious institutions in
the
United States -- the University of Notre Dame -- after the U.S. State
Department invokes an anti-terrorism law to keep him out of the
country.
A nationwide survey discovers that nearly one-half of all Americans
believe
the U.S. government should restrict the civil liberties of
Muslim-Americans.
The growing new phenomenon labelled "Islamophobia" -- the paranoid fear
of
Muslims -- is fast spreading, both in the United States and in Western
Europe, warn academics, Middle East experts and senior U.N. officials.
Alarmed at the rising racial and religious intolerance, the United
Nations
is expressing ''deep concern'' over the increase in anti-Semitism,
Christianophobia and Islamophobia worldwide.
A resolution adopted by the 191-member U.N. General Assembly this week
calls upon all states to cooperate with the U.N. Commission on Human
Rights
to eliminate the growing new trends in racial and religious
discrimination.
For the first time, the United Nations earlier this month hosted a
seminar
zeroing in on the subject of Islamophobia, symbolising the gravity of
the
situation…
Last week, Cornell University released the results of a survey it
conducted
in September revealing U.S. citizens' willingness to restrict the civil
liberties of Muslim-Americans. The Washington-based Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has previously accused U.S. law
enforcement agencies of racial profiling of Muslims living in the
United
States…
ALSO SEE:
SOME OF US WOULD STILL DENY RIGHTS
Robert Steinback, Miami Herald, 12/22/04
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/10471832.htm?1c
The next time you're in a restaurant or movie theater, consider this.
If a
study released by Cornell University last week is accurate, the person
either on your left or your right likely would approve of denying
certain
civil rights to American citizens based on ethnicity.
So this is how little we've progressed since the racially motivated
internment of American citizens with the outbreak of World War II.
Call me crazy, but it disturbs me that 44 percent of respondents to the
poll agreed with one or more of the following statements: Muslim
Americans
should be required to register their whereabouts with the federal
government; mosques should be surveilled by U.S. law enforcement
agencies;
the government should profile citizens as potential threats because
they
are Muslim or of Middle Eastern heritage; and Muslim organizations
should
be infiltrated by undercover agents to monitor their activities.
Why not, I figure 44 percent of you are saying, if it makes our country
safer from the threat of a terrorist attack? Which is to say, Don't the
ends justify the means?...
The poll question suggests that after more than 228 years, Americans
still
haven't grasped what it means to be an American.
No particular ethnicity or religious affiliation is required to be a
U.S.
citizen; you'd think we'd know that by now. The United States was
conceived
as a nation of principles, not tribes. Yet 44 percent of us believe
rights
in this country should be rationed by tribal affiliation.
But our motives are good, you might be saying. Those who have nothing
to
hide should have nothing to fear, you might argue…
-----
NEW PAPERS SUGGEST DETAINEE ABUSE WAS WIDESPREAD
R. Jeffrey Smith and Dan Eggen, Washington Post, 12/22/04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17883-2004Dec21.html
The Bush administration is facing a wave of new allegations that the
abuse
of foreign detainees in U.S. military custody was more widespread,
varied
and grave in the past three years than the Defense Department has long
maintained.
New documents released yesterday detail a series of probes by Army
criminal
investigators into multiple cases of threatened executions of Iraqi
detainees by U.S. soldiers, as well as of thefts of currency and other
private property, physical assaults, and deadly shootings of detainees
at
detention camps in Iraq.
ALSO SEE:
CONGRESSIONAL LETTER TO THE INSPECTOR GENERAL ON DETAINEE ABUSE
December 21, 2004
The Honorable Glenn Fine
Inspector General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530
Dear Mr. Inspector General:
We write with an urgent request that you investigate circumstances
surrounding the torture of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
According to
FBI documents disclosed by the American Civil Liberties Union, FBI
agents
witnessed military personnel torturing detainees and admirably
attempted to
put a halt to these tactics. Just this past summer, however, the White
House stated it did not permit torture and disavowed an August 2002
Justice
Department memorandum that attempted to legalize such treatment. We
ask
that you determine exactly what transpired regarding the treatment of
detainees during interrogations.
In the course of your investigation, we ask that you pay particular
attention to:
* the types of torture and inhumane treatment described by FBI
personnel in
the various memoranda;
* what presidential or military directives, including Executive Orders,
describe permissible or impermissible interrogation tactics;
* what steps either the Justice Department or FBI took to inform the
White
House or Defense Department of the torture or inhumane treatment taking
place at Guantanamo Bay, and how the White House or Defense Department
responded to such information;
* Justice Department and FBI policies regarding the use of inhumane
treatment and torture, how such policies may have changed since
September
11, 2001, and any internal conflicts pertaining to what types of
treatment
are legally permissible;
* how and when the Justice Department and FBI made government personnel
in
Cuba (both military and FBI) aware of permissible interrogation
techniques;
* any personnel decisions or other administrative actions taken
regarding
government employees, who may have disclosed the use of inhumane
treatment
or torture, after such disclosures were made (i.e., were FBI agents who
disclosed the use of torture later transferred to less desirable or
less
prestigious positions); and
* the legality of military personnel posing as FBI agents (see December
5,
2003 FBI e-mail);
Because of the conflict within the Executive Branch regarding which
agency
authorized this torture, only a thorough investigation by your office
can
get to the bottom of it. Please reply through Perry Apelbaum or Ted
Kalo
of the Judiciary Committee staff, 2142 Rayburn House Office Building,
Washington, DC 20515 (tel: 202-225-6504; fax: 202-225-4423).
SIGNATORIES:
Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (MI)
Rep. Marty Meehan (MA)
Rep. Bill Delahunt (MA)
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (NY)
Rep. Maxine Waters (CA)
Rep. Bobby Scott (VA)
---
LAWS, NOT LIP SERVICE
Atlanta Journal Constitution, 12/22/04
http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/1204/22edtorture.html
Top officials of the Bush administration, including the president and
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, have repeatedly promised the
American
people and the world that prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba were
being treated humanely and in accordance with the Geneva Conventions.
The
United States long ago adopted those conventions not just as policy but
also as part of U.S. law, with strict criminal penalties for those who
violate them.
But those officials lied. E-mails, memos and other internal government
documents generated by American eyewitnesses to interrogations at
Guantanamo Bay detail beatings, stranglings and psychological abuse of
prisoners. The documents, made public through Freedom of Information
Act
requests filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, include accounts
of
lighted cigarettes placed in prisoners' ears, of prisoners dropped
naked
onto barbed wire and other barbarities. Those accounts provide powerful
evidence that U.S. law has been broken not occasionally or by rogue
individuals, but systematically and with approval --- or at the very
least,
clear acceptance --- at the highest levels of our government…
-----
PATH TO PEACE RUNS THROUGH PALESTINE
Los Angeles Times, 12/22/04
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-hirst22dec22,0,1122506.
story
BEIRUT - Since Yasser Arafat's death, there has been a shift of
international attention away from Iraq to the other, older, most
imperishable of Middle East crises. Tony Blair has urged the reelected
President Bush to revitalize the Israeli-Palestinian peace process,
which
he called "the single most pressing political challenge in our world
today," while British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has called it more
important than Iraq itself.
And the view that the two crises are malignantly linked found forceful
corroboration in a surprising quarter. In a report flatly contradicting
Bush administration orthodoxy, the Pentagon's Defense Science Board
said
Washington's problems in Iraq and elsewhere arose not from Muslims'
hatred
of American freedoms but of its policies and "what they see as
one-sided
support in favor of Israel and against Palestinian rights."
To Arabs and Muslims, this discovery is less than Archimedean. For
them, it
has always been self-evident: The Palestine problem, a legacy of
Western
colonialism as virulent today as it ever was, has always been the
greatest
single source of anti-Western sentiment in the region. So if terrorism
now
ranks as the greatest single contemporary threat to global order, and
if
Iraq is its most profitable arena, Palestine must have a great deal to
do
with it...
-----
THE CHRISTMAS STORY THROUGH ISLAMIC EYES
Bill Tammeus, Knight Ridder, 12/22/04
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/news/editorial/10475091.htm
One reason the Christmas story engages so many hearts is that it
portrays a
God of surprises.
God, for instance, assumes human form - and as a baby, no less. But not
a
royal baby. No, it's a child born to poor, wandering parents. And not
in a
cosmopolitan population center but in a small village of the Roman
Empire's
hinterlands.
This unpredictability is why I like to reread the birth narratives in
the
New Testament. But I also have found it enlightening to read the story
as
it's told in the Quran, the holy book of Islam, which considers Jesus a
major prophet.
Because I'm Christian, I don't go to the Quran looking for confirmation
of
what my own tradition teaches about Christ. Rather, I go to find fresh
wording and unfamiliar ways of understanding what theologians call the
"Christ event."
In a similar way, earlier this year I suggested in a column that even
though the man who introduced yoga to America had quite a different
theology than I do, his new, posthumously published book, ``The Second
Coming of Christ: The Resurrection of the Christ Within You,'' contains
insights that can help Christians see their faith in fresh ways.
Islam, unlike Christianity, does not consider Jesus divine. In that way
it
shares common ground with Judaism. But unlike much of Judaism, which
tends
to see Jesus as an interesting if misguided man, Islam honors him as a
great prophet who called people to love - and submit to - the one God.
So I know the Quran will not tell the orthodox Christian story. But I
find
it worth reading, nonetheless...
-----
OUTSIDE VIEW: ISRAELI HUBRIS VS. THE U.S.
Youssef M. Ibrahim, Washington Times, 12/21/04
http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20041221-074429-8040r.htm
Dubai, United Arab Emirates -- The latest spy tale in Washington, D.C.,
involving Larry Franklin, an intelligence analyst at the Defense
Department, and some of Israel's most important lobbyists in America,
is
becoming deeper by the week.
Spy stories are always like that, but this one packs an intricate tale
of a
trusted ally betraying America, a White House intent on using the
misstep
to leverage its influence, and an American intelligence community that
feels it has been made to wear horns.
Clearly Israel has aroused the formidable bull and will be made to pay
a
price. One can speculate from what we already know.
It started in late July this year, when a Catholic Pentagon analyst,
Franklin, telephoned a Jewish acquaintance of his who worked at a
pro-Israel lobbying group, the very influential American Israel Public
Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
The two men knew each other professionally. They spoke of U.S. policies
on
Iran and Iraq periodically. That call was monitored by American
intelligence authorities who did not like what they heard, and it led
to a
chain of events including an investigation of passing secret
intelligence
information to Israel via intermediaries.
A report published by The Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) last week
asserts
that matters have progressed to a point that a grand jury investigation
is
underway and may lead to the indictment of several prominent Jewish
lobbyists in the United States on charges of passing secret information
to
Israel…
But whenever greed and hubris take over, Israelis have gotten
themselves
and their friends in trouble. With this particular White House of
George W.
Bush, which takes no prisoners, the price Israel may be forced to pay
is
make some concession to the Palestinians…
ALSO SEE:
GRAND JURY QUERY OF AIPAC OFFICIALS POSTPONED UNTIL NEW YEAR
Nathan Guttman, Haaretz, 12/22/04
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/517500.html
WASHINGTON - The interrogation of four American Israel Public Affairs
Committee senior officials, which was to take place this week, has been
postponed until after the New Year holiday.
The four are slated to testify before a grand jury investigation into
the
Pentagon mole affair, and to answer questions that will focus,
according to
sources following the case, on AIPAC's modus operandi and the type of
ties
it maintains with U.S. and Israeli government officials. The four AIPAC
officials are executive director Howard Kohr, managing director Richard
Fishman, research director Rafi Danziger, and communications director
Renee
Rothstein.
At the outset of the investigation this summer, American officials
stressed
that the four officials are viewed as witnesses, not targets of a probe
of
AIPAC officials suspected of conveying classified information to
Israeli
embassy officials. The targets, as far as the lobby's activities are
concerned, are Steve Rosen and Keith Weisman, who handle foreign policy
issues for the committee.
The investigation, which is being overseen by a grand jury in
Arlington,
Virginia, is taking place in secrecy. The U.S. Justice Department has
provided no information regarding its progress. But since a raid at the
beginning of this month on AIPAC offices in Washington, two major
directions have emerged in the case - one that AIPAC officials, not
Pentagon official Larry Franklin, are at the center of the
investigation,
and the other, which has only been hinted, concerns the American Jewish
community's stance on the case. The community came to AIPAC's defense
when
the story broke, and officially remains solidly behind the lobby.
However,
in recent informal conversations, there have been signs of discomfort
and
concern among community representatives. This discomfort erupted
largely
after AIPAC offices were raided for a second time and subpoenas were
issued
to the four officials to testify before the grand jury. AIPAC insisted
to
Jewish leaders that the charges were false and an attempt to frame the
lobby, but community leaders began questioning whether they were
getting
the full picture. The use of a grand jury indicates the seriousness of
the
case, and increases the chances of indictments.
"If something comes out of this, indictments or anything else, for sure
there will be those who will want to distance themselves from AIPAC,"
one
Jewish source in Washington said yesterday. "No one wants AIPAC hurt,
but
no one wants to get into trouble for something that might go wrong," he
said…
---
FBI WAITED MORE THAN A YEAR TO MAKE MOVE AGAINST AIPAC
Edwin Black, JTA, 12/21/04
http://www.jta.org/page_view_story.asp?strwebhead=FBI+waited+to+move+on+AIPA
C&intcategoryid=5
WASHINGTON - The FBI's investigation of the American Israel Public
Affairs
Committee did not go into high gear until more than a year after the
Pentagon's top Iran analyst allegedly passed foreign policy strategy
information to two AIPAC officials.
The investigation only intensified in July 2004, when the FBI allegedly
directed the same Pentagon analyst, Larry Franklin, to conduct a sting
operation against AIPAC officials, providing them with purportedly
classified information to pass on to Israel, according to sources close
to
the investigation.
A month later, the FBI raided AIPAC offices, confiscating files from
two
senior staffers.
On Dec. 1, the FBI returned to the headquarters of the pro-Israel
lobby,
searching staffers' offices. The FBI also issued subpoenas to four
AIPAC
staffers to appear before a grand jury at the end of this month.
Most accounts of the AIPAC investigation have focused on the Franklin
lunch
with Steve Rosen, AIPAC's director of foreign policy issues, and Keith
Weissman, an Iran specialist, a meeting, it has been learned, that
occurred
on June 26, 2003, at the Tivoli restaurant in Arlington, Va…
-----
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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
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In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TX SCHOOL GROUP QUESTIONS 'SPREAD OF ISLAM IN AMERICA'
Private school association demands that Muslim applicants answer
questions
on Islam
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 12/23/04) - A prominent national Islamic civil
rights
and advocacy group today called on the state of Texas to investigate
the
discriminatory actions of a private school association that required
Muslim
applicants to answer a series of hostile questions about Islam.
The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) says
at
least two Muslims schools in Texas, one in Houston and the other in
Dallas,
have received letters from the Texas Association of Private and
Parochial
Schools (TAPPS) demanding a response to the biased questions before
their
applications for admission to the association could be approved.
SEE: "Local Muslim School Taken Aback by Letter"
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/2960589
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/news/122304_APlocal_islamic.html
The 10 hostile questions, which listed a number of distorted and
stereotypical views of Islamic beliefs, included: (To read the entire
TAPPS
letter, go to: http://www.cair-net.org/downloads/TAPPSletter.pdf )
* "Why do you wish to join an organization whose membership is
basically in
total disagreement with your religious beliefs?"
* "What is your attitude about the spread of Islam in America? What are
the
goals of your school in this regard?"
* "Why do you think the current member schools of TAPPS will not be
biased
against your school, based on the fundamental difference in your
religion
and Christianity, since about 90% of TAPPS schools embrace
Christianity?"
(Note: The TAPPS constitution does not list a religious requirement for
admission.)
In a letter to TAPPS, CAIR-Houston Executive Director Iesa Galloway
wrote:
"The TAPPS letter demonstrates a profound ignorance of Islam and
Muslims
and a clear disdain for the American Muslim community." He called the
letter "a symbol of religious intolerance (that) has no place in a
nation
that was originally built by those seeking asylum from such
intolerance."
Galloway's letter also demanded an investigation, a reprimand for those
involved, a formal apology, and sensitivity training.
CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil liberties group, is headquartered
in
Washington, D.C., and has 30 offices and chapters nationwide and in
Canada.
Its mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue,
protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions
that promote justice and mutual understanding.
- END -
CONTACT: CAIR-Houston, 713-838-2247, 832-656-0449; Ibrahim Hooper,
202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail: ihooper@cair-net.org; Rabiah
Ahmed,
202-488-8787 or 202-439-1441, E-Mail: rahmed@cair-net.org
NOTE: CAIR offers an e-mail list designed to be a window to the
American
Muslim community. Subscribers to the list, called CAIR-NET, receive
news
releases and other materials dealing with American Muslim positions on
issues of importance to our society.
To SUBSCRIBE to CAIR-NET, go to: http://cair.biglist.com/cair-net/
-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
-----
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In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 12/23/04
* VERSE OF THE DAY: A SIGN FOR THE WHOLE WORLD
* MUSLIM YOUTH FORGE OWN PATH IN AMERICA (Chicago Trib)
- MD: Panel to Add Holidays for Religious Observances
- MO: Number of Students Studying Arabic Falls Short
- PA: Fitting in is Hard on Somali Teens (Post-Gazette)
* CAIR: TEXAS ASSOCIATION QUESTIONS BIASED (UPI)
* NJ: HIGH COURT WON'T BAR RELIGIOUS JURORS (AP)
* IL: CAN AMERICA AFFORD CIVIL LIBERTIES? (Daily Southtown)
- NE: Anti-Arab Graffiti at Site of Arson Fire (WOWT)
* WAR CRIMES IN IRAQ AND GITMO (Wash Post)
* UN DISTANCES ITSELF FROM ARAB REFORM REPORT (UN)
- Clerics Say Bethlehem is a Prison (Reuters)
-----
VERSE OF THE DAY: A SIGN FOR THE WHOLE WORLD
"And We blessed (Mary), who guarded her chastity. We breathed into her
of
Our Spirit, and We made her and her son a sign for the whole world."
The Holy Quran, 21:91
-----
MUSLIM YOUTH FORGE OWN PATH IN AMERICA
Barbara Brotman, Chicago Tribune, 12/23/04
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0412230227dec23,1,4940419.story
Maheen Sheikh, a 21-year-old junior, rushed into the Loyola University
Muslim Students' Association mosque, tied a scarf around her head and
faced
Mecca to pray.
Just then the secular interrupted the divine, in the form of her
ringing
cell phone.
"No way!" she said into the phone. "Oh, my God. . . . Guess who I
talked to?"
Islam, meet Verizon. And dorm rooms, Freud, women's studies, hip-hop
dance
class and a world of fellow students for whom a date over a beer is
ordinary, not heresy.
The future of Islam in America?
Part of it is here.
The children of Muslim immigrants who began coming to this country in
larger numbers in the 1970s are going to college. Born in America or
brought here when they were young, they are defining what it means to
be a
Muslim American.
The guys with their baggy jeans and cell phones downloaded with Biggie
and
Jay-Z, the girls with their head scarves tucked into hoodies and
sometimes
a cell phone stuck inside making a kind of Islamic hands-free phone,
the
other girls with their uncovered hair up in ponytails--they are all
making
a way of Muslim life that is distinctly theirs.
Their Islam is not necessarily their parents' Islam. Many are pursuing
what
they call a "pure" Islam, separate from the cultural traditions their
parents brought with them.
They are negotiating the sometimes complex path between Muslim faith
and
American culture. Is it acceptable to watch MTV? To listen to music? At
what point does makeup cross the modesty line?
How much should they avoid contact between men and women? That issue
flared
into an angry conflict in the fall over who would get to use the MSA's
lounge.
Is America the land of opportunity, temptation or both?
These are part of larger questions that pit the American value of
freedom
of choice against the Muslim tradition of conforming to divine law and
take
into account all the permutations in between.
The students are at a stage of life when American culture is most at
odds
with Islam. They are at college, and not drinking. They are at college,
and
not dating.
They are living a faith whose name means "submission," in a country
founded
on revolt.
They are making their way with so many individual variations that you
can't
really say what they, as a group, are doing.
Except that it starts with Islam…
SEND COMMENTS THROUGH:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/services/site/chi-lettertotheeditor.customform
COPY TO: bbrotman@tribune.com, cair@cair-net.org
ALSO SEE:
PANEL WANTS TO ADD 2 HOLIDAYS FOR MD. STUDENTS
Sara Neufeld, Baltimore Sun, 12/23/04
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.holidays23dec23,1,5888025.story
Responding to calls from the Muslim community to close Baltimore County
schools for the faith's two most sacred holidays, a state education
department committee yesterday proposed that public school students
across
Maryland be given up to two "floating holidays" for religious
observance.
The proposal, which state education officials said would likely require
a
legal review, was made by a committee on minority student achievement
whose
chairwoman has watched Muslims lobby the Baltimore County school board
for
months.
"I realized that this went beyond Baltimore County," said Barbara
Dezmon,
an assistant superintendent in Baltimore County schools and chairwoman
of
the Achievement Initiative for Maryland's Minority Students Steering
Committee. "This is an issue that applies to different religious groups
all
over the state and all over the country."
The Muslim community has turned out in force at every Baltimore County
school board meeting for the past year asking for equal opportunities
for
religious observance.
Bash Pharoan, president of the Baltimore County Muslim Council, called
the
proposal "a step in the right direction, no doubt about it."
He emphasized, however, that he would not be satisfied until Muslims
receive equal treatment for their holidays. Either schools must close
for
Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha along with the Jewish holidays of Rosh
Hashanah
and Yom Kippur, or close for none of them, he said.
It is up to local school districts to decide whether to close on
individual
holidays, Dezmon said.
She said the proposal is a compromise in a debate confronting school
districts with a multicultural population: Districts must be respectful
of
all religions, but they can't close school for every holiday…
ALSO SEE:
NUMBER OF STUDENTS STUDYING ARABIC FALLS SHORT OF NEED
Harry Levins, St Louis Post-Dispatch, 12/22/04
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/nation/10475021.htm
ST. LOUIS - People who can read, write and speak Arabic are a key
weapon in
the war on terrorism. But they're in short supply.
True, things look rosy in percentage terms. At Washington University in
St.
Louis, for example, the number of students majoring or minoring in
Arabic
language studies has more than tripled in the last four years and is on
its
way to quadrupling.
That rise mirrors a national surge. But locally and nationally, the
percentage jump masks a stark statistical reality:
In actual numbers, the ranks of U.S. collegians studying Arabic remains
surprisingly small - at last count, not quite 10,600. That's less than
1
percent of the collegians studying any foreign language.
"When I came here in the fall of 2000," says Washington U. Arabic
professor
Nargis Virani, "we had maybe one student majoring in Arabic, and one
minoring in it. Last June, we graduated four majors and three minors.
And
now, we have three majors and five minors in the pipeline."
So in real numbers, the big percentage jump translates into a mere
blip. As
a result, the demand for college graduates who can speak Arabic far
outweighs the supply.
America's intelligence agencies are scrambling for Arabic speakers. But
the
supply is held down by many factors, chiefly the sheer difficulty of
mastering Arabic.
Kirk Belknap runs the government-financed National Middle East Language
Resource Center at Utah's Brigham Young University, where he also
teaches
Arabic.
He says: "On the advanced level, it would be good if we were cranking
out
300 a year nationally. We're lucky right now if we're producing more
than
40 graduates a year with fully competent language ability."
Even 40 may be an optimistic estimate. In "The 9/11 Commission Report,"
the
authors write, "The total number of undergraduate degrees granted in
Arabic
in all U.S. colleges and universities in 2002 was six."
The need for more Arabic students has been obvious since Sept. 11,
2001,
when terrorists who plotted in Arabic attacked the United States…
---
FITTING IN IS HARD ON EVERYONE, TEENS FIND
Amy McConnell Schaarsmith, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 12/23/04
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04358/431253.stm
The shoving started just before lunchtime, during the edgy five minutes
when hundreds of hungry students at Schenley High School line up
outside
the locked doors to the cafeteria. Elbows and backpacks poke and jostle
in
the shifting, buzzing crowd. The scent of sweat and strawberry lip
gloss
and perfume mingle as the crowd grows hot. Students push through to
walk
down the hall, knocking waiting students against one another.
During one such wait last month, two American girls approached Sowdo
Darbane, a Somali refugee, and said they wanted to fight. One of them
pushed Sowdo, who said she didn't push back.
"I said, 'Don't touch me on the body, just talk to me out of your
mouth,' "
Sowdo, 15, said last week as she waited for the other Somali girls
after
playing beach volleyball in gym class.
Without Sowdo's participation, the fight went nowhere. But on other
occasions, American girls held their noses and pointed and laughed at
the
Somali girls, teasing that they smelled. Administrators spoke to the
girls
who had confronted Sowdo and the others, and nothing else has happened
in
the weeks since, according to Sowdo. But while she doesn't know if that
peace will hold, Sowdo said, she doesn't fear the future.
"No, I am not afraid of them," Sowdo said. "They are not Allah."
Now in their fourth month at Schenley, the six Somali students --
Sowdo,
Amina Muya, Ehedo Sekondo, Bahati Muya, Halima Abdulla and Amina's
brother,
Muya Muya -- are struggling with a more intense version of all high
school
students' wrenching dilemma: fitting in with their peers while
remaining
true to themselves.
The students, who are discovering a world they barely knew existed
while
growing up in refugee camps in Kenya, have been flooded by a rush of
experiences at Schenley since September -- learning to swim, learning
to
read, getting their first library cards, seeing dinosaur skeletons for
the
first time -- that make them beam with delight. While some of the
Somali
children attended school at the refugee camps in Kenya, the classes
were so
overcrowded that they arrived in Pittsburgh with almost no English
skills
or basic knowledge about the world beyond the camps.
But while the Somalis can eagerly soak up that knowledge now, they also
must learn to navigate a sometimes-cruel teenage world in which subtle
differences in hairstyle, clothing, physique, friends, grades and
extracurricular activities mark a student's place in a complicated and
often unforgiving caste system. And in a process that many American
teenagers find difficult, the Somali students -- and in particular, the
five girls -- are under even more pressure to decipher where they
belong…
-----
CAIR: TEXAS ASSOCIATION QUESTIONS BIASED
United Press International, 12/23/04
http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20041223-121535-9047r.htm
Washington, DC, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- A Washington-based Islamic group
Thursday
urged Texas to investigate alleged discrimination by a private school
association against Muslim schools.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations said the Texas Association of
Private and Parochial Schools, a lobbying group, asked Muslim school
applicants to answer a series of questions that were hostile toward
Islam.
CAIR said at least two Muslims schools, one in Houston and the other in
Dallas, have received letters from the association demanding a response
to
the questions before their applications for admission can be processed.
The 10 questions included:
"Why do you wish to join an organization whose membership is basically
in
total disagreement with your religious beliefs?" "What is your attitude
about the spread of Islam in America? What are the goals of your school
in
this regard?"
"Why do you think the current member schools of TAPPS will not be
biased
against your school, based on the fundamental difference in your
religion
and Christianity, since about 90 percent of TAPPS schools embrace
Christianity?"
-----
N.J. HIGH COURT WON'T BAR RELIGIOUS JURORS
Jeffrey Gold, Associated Press, 12/26/04
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=Religious%20Jurors
NEWARK, N.J. - The state's highest court ruled Wednesday that New
Jersey
prosecutors cannot bar overtly religious people from serving on juries.
The 6-0 ruling by the state Supreme Court overturned an appellate court
decision and ordered a new trial for Lloyd Fuller, who was convicted in
2000 of armed robbery in Essex County and is serving a 14-year term.
The prosecutor during Fuller's trial, who was not identified in court
documents, used two of his challenges to exclude a man who said he was
a
missionary and another man the attorney believed was Muslim.
The prosecutor argued that religious people would be too sympathetic to
the
defense. Fuller appealed, claiming that the juror removals violated his
14th Amendment right to equal protection.
Chief Justice Deborah T. Poritz, writing for the court, said Wednesday
that
the prosecutor's belief that ``demonstrably religious persons are all
alike
in sharing defense-minded sympathies'' is too broad.
Such a belief ``suggests the very stereotypes that have been used to
justify a blanket exclusion that the law condemns,'' she wrote.
Attorney Frank J. Pugliese, who represented Fuller, said the ruling was
a
blow against religious discrimination. ``Obviously, the court has
established for the first time that prospective jurors cannot be
excluded
based on their religion,'' he said.
During jury selection in Fuller's trial, the prosecutor excused a white
man
who said he was a missionary and a black man wearing a long black
garment
and a skull cap. Neither juror was asked about his religious beliefs…
-----
CAN A NATION AT WAR AFFORD CIVIL LIBERTIES?
Daily Southtown, 12/22/04
http://www.dailysouthtown.com/southtown/columns/kadner/x22-pkd1.htm
When a news story reports that a recent poll shows that nearly half of
all
Americans believe the U.S. government should restrict the civil
liberties
of Muslim-Americans, people ought to take notice.
The survey, conducted by Cornell University, found that 44 percent of
the
715 people questioned favored at least some restriction on the civil
liberties of Muslim Americans.
The good news, I suppose, is that 48 percent said liberties should not
be
restricted in any way.
Asked if "we need to outlaw some un-American actions, even if they're
constitutionally protected," 36 percent of the people surveyed agreed.
One-third of the people in the survey said that the news media should
not
cover anti-war protests during a time of war or crisis and 31 percent
said
the news media should not report the comments of individuals who
criticize
the government during such times.
While those numbers may be surprising to some people, I think it's
important to point out once again that the vast majority of the people
surveyed said that the news media should cover protest demonstrations
and
report comments critical of the government.
Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, I've been telling people that
I
fear the reaction of my fellow Americans should another terrorist
attack
occur on U.S. soil.
And there are hints in this poll that my fears are well-founded.
Even now, 27 percent of the population believes Muslim-Americans should
be
required to register their whereabouts with the federal government,
according to the poll…
ALSO SEE:
HATE MESSAGE IN ASHES
Fire Linked To Hate Message
http://www.wowt.com/news/headlines/1303956.html
Arson investigators are looking into a fire at a used car lot. The
owner of
the business is convinced that this is a hate crime.
Even after the fire, swastikas spray-painted on the walls are clearly
visible. Some of the other graffiti inside All Cars and Trucks at 72nd
&
Ohio is too offensive to mention.
Most of that graffiti involves derogatory references to Latinos and
Arabs
but owner Benjamin Padilla isn't sure that the arsonist knew who owned
the
business that was damaged.
"I'm an American," Padilla says. "I'm a U.S. citizen."
For the past six months, Padilla has been working hard to make his
little
car lot a success.
Padilla says, "I've been working hard all my life and I don't know what
to
say."
Padilla was making his American dream a reality until early Tuesday
morning
when someone or some people started the fire that destroyed the
building.
He lost a lot of paperwork and a couple of vehicles he was working on
but
not the used car business…
Even though the racist graffiti is offensive, it might prove helpful to
investigators.
One message in particular is directed to someone named Jerry. Jerry
owns
the property and was leasing to Padilla.
Although this case has the appearance of a hate crime, Omaha Police
cannot
call it that. At this point, the arson investigation takes precedence.
Police will not begin their investigation until fire inspectors release
control of the building.
-----
WAR CRIMES
Washington Post, 12/23/04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20986-2004Dec22.html
THANKS TO a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union and other
human
rights groups, thousands of pages of government documents released this
month have confirmed some of the painful truths about the abuse of
foreign
detainees by the U.S. military and the CIA -- truths the Bush
administration implacably has refused to acknowledge. Since the
publication
of photographs of abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison in the spring the
administration's whitewashers -- led by Defense Secretary Donald H.
Rumsfeld -- have contended that the crimes were carried out by a few
low-ranking reservists, that they were limited to the night shift
during a
few chaotic months at Abu Ghraib in 2003, that they were unrelated to
the
interrogation of prisoners and that no torture occurred at the
Guantanamo
Bay prison where hundreds of terrorism suspects are held. The new
documents
establish beyond any doubt that every part of this cover story is
false.
Though they represent only part of the record that lies in government
files, the documents show that the abuse of prisoners was already
occurring
at Guantanamo in 2002 and continued in Iraq even after the outcry over
the
Abu Ghraib photographs. FBI agents reported in internal e-mails and
memos
about systematic abuses by military interrogators at the base in Cuba,
including beatings, chokings, prolonged sleep deprivation and
humiliations
such as being wrapped in an Israeli flag. "On a couple of occasions I
entered interview rooms to find a detainee chained hand and foot in a
fetal
position to the floor, with no chair, food or water," an unidentified
FBI
agent wrote on Aug. 2, 2004. "Most times they had urinated or defecated
on
themselves, and had been left there for 18 to 24 hours or more." Two
defense intelligence officials reported seeing prisoners severely
beaten in
Baghdad by members of a special operations unit, Task Force 6-26, in
June.
When they protested they were threatened and pictures they took were
confiscated.
Other documents detail abuses by Marines in Iraq, including mock
executions
and the torture of detainees by burning and electric shock. Several
dozen
detainees have died in U.S. custody. In many cases, Army investigations
of
these crimes were shockingly shoddy: Officials lost records, failed to
conduct autopsies after suspicious deaths and allowed evidence to be
contaminated. Soldiers found to have committed war crimes were excused
with
noncriminal punishments. The summary of one suspicious death of a
detainee
at the Abu Ghraib prison reads: "No crime scene exam was conducted, no
autopsy conducted, no copy of medical file obtained for investigation
because copy machine broken in medical office…"
-----
UN DISTANCES ITSELF FROM ARAB REFORM REPORT
Reuters, 12/23/04
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7170011
CAIRO - The United Nations has distanced itself from the Arabs who
wrote
this year's report on reform in the Middle East, after reports that the
United States has threatened to cut funding to the U.N. agency which
sponsored it.
The U.N. Development Programme said the writers did not express U.N.
policies and the agency favours giving them an "institutional home"
independent of the United Nations.
It was responding to reports that under financial pressure from
Washington,
which did not like what a draft version says about Iraq and Israel,
this
year's report will break with past practice by not carrying the U.N.
logo.
The reports, known as Arab Human Development Reports (AHDRs), are the
work
of independent Arab specialists, mostly development experts, social
scientists, liberals and reformers, but UNDP has financed and sponsored
their work.
The lead writer of this year's report, Nader Fergani, said on Wednesday
he
no longer expected it to come out under the UNDP name because of a U.S.
threat to deprive UNDP of funding.
UNDP said in a statement received by Reuters on Thursday that reports
of a
U.S. threat to cut contributions to the UNDP budget were inaccurate and
no
government had asked for the suppression of the report.
But it added: "The AHDRs are the product of an independent editorial
team
of Arab scholars, policymakers and practitioners. As such they are not
statements of U.N. or UNDP policy.
"Any report coming out under UNDP's name must meet the high standards
of
impartiality expected of a U.N. agency. Further, the difficult
political
climate in the region makes our principal motive -- finding common
ground
around reform -- difficult," it added.
"UNDP has for some time been exploring the possibility of helping to
create
a new, independent centre, situated in the region, that could become
the
institutional home of an editorially independent AHDR," it said.
The UNDP would support such a centre and would follow up
recommendations in
current and future reports, it said.
This year's report, which criticises U.S. policy in Iraq and Israeli
policy
towards Palestinians, was meant to come out in October but it has been
delayed because of the controversy.
The UNDP statement gave no date for its release and did not say whether
UNDP would let the report carry its name…
Ironically, the United States repeatedly cited previous reports,
written by
largely the same team, as evidence for the need for reform in the
Middle
East. Fergani said the United States had misused the reports.
SEE ALSO:
CLERICS SAY BETHLEHEM IS A PRISON
Magnus Johanssen, Reuters, 12/23/04
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=643341
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (Reuters) - The town where Jesus was born is being
turned into a "big prison" by the Israeli barrier going up in the West
Bank, say the heads of churches in the Holy Land in a pre-Christmas
message…
The churchmen said the barrier and years of conflict were also spurring
emigration of minority Christians
"Many Christian families have already left the Bethlehem area because
of
the hardships they have experienced, not least from the building of the
'separation wall', and the incredible structure at the entrance to the
city," they said.
They were referring to a series of towering Israeli concrete blocks
meant
to protect visitors from Jerusalem going to Rachel's Tomb, where Jews
believe the biblical matriarch is buried…
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In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CAIR, MPAC DISCUSS MUSLIM CONCERNS WITH DHS OFFICIALS
(ANAHEIM, CA - 12/24/04) - Representatives of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations - Southern California (CAIR-LA) and the
Muslim
Public Affairs Council (MPAC) met yesterday with senior officials from
the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its largest investigative
arm,
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The meeting was designed to develop dialogue and communication between
the
American Muslim community and both government agencies. Concerns
addressed
at the meeting included the perceived lack of openness by ICE and DHS
officials, targeting of Muslim immigrants and ways to enhance the
nation's
security without undermining civil liberties.
Although DHS and ICE officials declined to discuss specific cases, the
Muslim community's concerns about the detentions of Imam Wagdy Ghoneim
and
Abdul Jabbar Hamdan were brought to their attention.
The recent detentions of these local religious leaders and the dozens
of
complaints of harassment filed by American Muslim travelers, which
include
being unable to remove their names from the 'No Fly List,' repeated
stops
and interrogations at airports, exclusion from entry to the United
States,
and revocation of visas to enter the country for no stated reason (such
as
in the cases of Yusuf Islam and Dr. Tariq Ramadan) have been of concern
to
the Islamic community.
Future meetings to address these issues are being planned with Muslim
organizations, religious and community leaders, DHS, ICE, and the
Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil liberties group, is headquartered
in
Washington, D.C., and has 29 offices and chapters nationwide and in
Canada.
Its mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue,
protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions
that promote justice and mutual understanding.
- END -
CONTACT: Omar Zaki, CAIR-LA Director of Governmental Relations,
714-776-1847; Sabiha Khan, 714-776-1847 or 714-390-0334, E-Mail:
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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org
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