www.ccun.org

    Muslim American News Briefs, August 17, 2007

Opinion Editorials

News

News Photos

* Hadith: Seek Knowledge
* CAIR-FL Co-Sponsors School Supply Giveaway
            - CAIR-OK Co-Hosts Benefit Dinner for Orphans
* FL: FBI Says Bomb Charges May Be False (SP Times)
            - Video: FL Muslim Says He Was Assaulted at Mall
* CAIR-CA: $10,000 Offered for Mosque Fire Info
* DC: Fed Worker Charged for threatening Arab Group
* Incitement: Daniel Pipes Compares Muslims to Rapists
* ID: Rep's Comments on Muslim Congressman Stir Debate
            - VA: Davis Outraged Over Tancredo Comments
* CAIR: Groups Critical of NYPD Terror Report (NY Times)
            - NY Muslims Pan Terrorism Report (Newsday)
* TX: Anonymity for Israeli Agent in Holy Land Case
* CAIR: Muslims, Christians, Jews Worship the Same God
* CA: African-American Muslims Fight False Impressions
* Backlash Over Book on Pro-Israel Lobby (NY Times)
            - U.S., Israel Sign $30 Billion Aid Deal (AP)
            - 10 Percent of House Heads to Israel (Forward)

-----

HADITH OF THE DAY: SEEK KNOWLEDGE - TOP

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "Someone who sets forth in search of knowledge is busy in the cause of God until he returns from his quest."

Al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 420

-----

CAIR-FL CO-SPONSORS SCHOOL SUPPLY GIVEAWAY - TOP

(MIAMI, FL, 8/16/07) - The South Florida Office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-SFL) and more than 20 other Islamic organizations recently distributed school supplies to needy children and families.

The August 11th event, which drew some 400 people from the area surrounding the Miami Gardens Mosque, was part of CAIR's annual "Muslims Care" campaign designed to encourage communities to reach out to their neighbors and make a positive contribution to our society.

CONTACT: CAIR-SFL Executive Director Altaf Ali, 954-272-0490

SEE ALSO

CAIR-OK CO-HOSTS BENEFIT DINNER FOR ORPHANS - TOP
The Oklahoman, 8/15/07
http://newsok.com/

Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City, "Orphans - Think. Care. Act," benefit dinner to support orphans, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Crowne Plaza Hotel, 2945 Northwest Expressway. Event is in partnership with Islamic Relief and Council on American-Islamic Relations-Oklahoma City. 210-4475.

-----

FBI'S CAUTION PUZZLES EXPERTS - TOP
Abbie Vansickle, St. Petersburg Times, 8/16/07
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/08/16/Hillsborough/FBI_s_caution_puzzles.shtml

TAMPA - For days after the arrest of two University of South Florida students accused of having pipe bombs, the FBI remained silent.

On Wednesday, the agency released a statement telling the public it's possible there's no merit to the accusations against Youssef Megahed, 21, and Ahmed A. Mohamed, 26. Both were arrested Aug. 4 in Goose Creek, S.C., on charges of possession of explosives.

"The FBI would like to remind everyone that this is an ongoing investigation and there is the possibility that the publicly reported allegations involving the students may be proven to be false," it read.

An FBI spokesman said the agency is still investigating, that it released the statement only because there's so much interest in the case, and it wants to be fair.

"We're just making a request for everybody to be very objective at this time, very neutral," said Special Agent Dave Couvertier.

But local legal experts say there's likely more to it. (MORE)

SEE ALSO:

VIDEO: MUSLIM MAN SAYS HE WAS CALLED "TERRORIST" AT ORLANDO MALL - TOP
http://www.wftv.com/video/13908313/index.html

Local Muslim man is demanding action after, he said, he was verbally assaulted and even called a terrorist at an Orlando mall. He said security guards failed to help when he asked and now he wants Orlando police to get involved.

-----

$10,000 OFFERED FOR MOSQUE FIRE INFO - TOP
Cassandra Braun, Inside Bay Area, 8/16/2007
http://www.insidebayarea.com/argus/localnews/ci_6637255

ANTIOCH - Islamic community leaders are hoping a reward will help investigators track down the arsonist who set fire to one of East Contra Costa's only mosques during the weekend.

As much as $10,000 will be given for information leading to the capture and conviction of the persons who started the Sunday morning fire that investigators say was intentionally set, Islamic Center of the East Bay and the Bay Area Council on American-Islamic Relations announced at a news conference Wednesday.

"We want to send out a message that these violent acts are unacceptable," council Executive Director Safaa Ibrahim said.

The Islamic Center on West 18th Street was ravaged by a single-alarm fire at 12:30 a.m., causing an estimated $200,000 in damage. Investigators quickly concluded that four separate fires had been set in the mosque. Three burned out before doing any damage.

Shortly before the fire, neighbors recalled seeing suspicious people lingering around the mosque, which has been repeatedly vandalized. Beyond that, investigators reported no new developments in the case, Contra Costa fire Inspector Bob Davis said.

Meanwhile, the city of Antioch announced that it has agreed to allow Islamic Center members to hold services at the Nick Rodriguez Community Center downtown until they find a new facility or rebuild the ruined one.

Abdul Rahman, chairman of the East Bay Islamic Center Trustees, expressed his gratitude for the outpouring of support from the public and the religious community. He also recognized the Antioch Police Department for its partnership and support in ensuring the safety of mosque members. (MORE)

SEE ALSO:

$10,000 REWARD OFFERED IN ANTIOCH MOSQUE ARSON
CBS 5.com, 8/15/07
http://cbs5.com/local/local_story_227161725.html

ANTIOCH Bay Area Muslims on Wednesday announced a reward worth up to $10,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons that set fire to an Antioch mosque.

The fire that broke out early Sunday morning caused $200,000 in damage to the Islamic Center of the East Bay, located at 311 W. 18th Street. Investigators believe the blaze was intentionally set, but have not found evidence it was motivated by religion.

Most of the reward money was raised from the Bay Area Muslim community, and the amount could increase as more funds are raised, said Safaa Ibrahim, who heads the Bay Area chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

The Antioch Police Department, which contributed $2,000 of the reward money, has agreed to increase patrols around the mosque as the arson investigation continues, she said.

"It's created a lot of fear in the community," Ibrahim said. "At the same time, we've seen an amazing outpouring of support from the greater community."

People who wish to contribute to the reward fund can do so by sending a check to ICEB Arson Reward Fund, 4464 Lone Tree Way, Antioch, CA 94531.

-----

FEDERAL WORKER FACES CHARGES IN THREATS AGAINST ARAB GROUP - TOP
Henri E. Cauvin, Washington Post, 8/16/07
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/15/AR2007081502190.html

A State Department employee was indicted yesterday on charges that he threatened and intimidated employees of the Arab American Institute, including James Zogby, the president of the organization.

In e-mail and voice-mail messages, the employee, Patrick Syring, is said to have lashed out at Zogby and others in profane, provocative language described in the indictment, which was returned by a grand jury at the federal courthouse in Washington.

"The only good Lebanese is a dead Lebanese. The only good Arab is a dead Arab," Syring said in a voice-mail message left late July 17, 2006, after he read comments made by Zogby that he regarded as offensive, the indictment says.

Syring appears to have worked in the Middle East at points in his career, but he is stationed in Washington. He works in human resources and career development, according to a State Department directory.

The messages were left last summer during the war between Israel and Hezbollah. More than once, Syring praises Israel and its armed forces and accuses Zogby and his organization of being part of Hezbollah.

"You and your Arab American Institute . . . should burn in the fires of hell for eternity," he wrote in an e-mail, according to the indictment. (MORE)

-----

INCITEMENT: DANIEL PIPES COMPARES MUSLIMS TO RAPISTS - TOP
http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=14422

"I believe such a school requires scrutiny beyond that of any other groups school, he said. It fits into a larger pattern in which Muslim officials require greater scrutiny, whether they be chaplains [or] law enforcement officers. There is a tendency to sympathize with Islamism that we ignore at our peril. . .When law enforcement is looking for a rapist, it looks at men, not men and women. If you're looking for terrorism you must give special scrutiny to this community."

-----

SALI'S REMARKS ABOUT MUSLIM CONGRESSMAN ATTRACT ATTENTION - TOP
Gregory Hahn, Idaho Statesman, 8/11/07
http://www.idahostatesman.com/localnews/story/130604.html

The election of a Muslim congressman by Minnesota voters was not "envisioned by the Founding Fathers," Idaho Congressman Bill Sali said this week.

But that doesn't mean Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison doesn't have every right to serve in Washington, D.C., Sali said.

He told the Statesman Friday that his comments quoted on a conservative Web site should not have given the impression that Ellison did not belong in Congress.

"He got elected the same way I did," Sali said. "People certainly have the right to elect anyone they want."

But Sali said he hopes the country's leaders continue to follow Christian principles.

In an interview posted online this week by the Christian news outlet American Family News Network, Sali said: "We have not only a Hindu prayer being offered in the Senate, we have a Muslim member of the House of Representatives now, Keith Ellison from Minnesota. Those are changes - and they are not what was envisioned by the Founding Fathers. The principles that this country was built on, that have made it great over these centuries were Christian principles derived from Scriptures. You know, the Lord can cause the rain to fall on the just and the unjust alike."

Sali was quickly attacked by some liberal blogs around the country, including ThinkProgress.org, which pointed out that the founders wrote Article VI to say that "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."

Ellison, a Democrat, was elected in 2006 as the first Muslim in Congress.

"The congressman just doesn't respond to comments like that," said a spokesman, Micah Clemens, in an e-mail to the Statesman.

Sali said he has met fellow freshman Ellison and that he planned to call him to clarify what he was trying to say. (MORE)

SEE ALSO:

DAVIS OUTRAGED OVER TANCREDO COMMENTS - TOP
Congressman Tom Davis, Potomac News, 8/15/07

I write to join in the outrage over comments made by one of my congressional colleagues, Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo. His comments were clearly inappropriate.

In response to a question about potential future attacks on the United States, Rep. Tancredo reportedly said, "If it is up to me, we are going to explain that an attack on this homeland of that nature would be followed by an attack on the holy sites in Mecca and Medina."

Threatening to respond in anger to a terrorist attack is terrible foreign policy. But more importantly, his remarks are inflammatory and disrespectful to the many Muslim-Americans who have come here simply in search of a better life.

His is exactly the wrong response to the threats we still face as a nation. Those who threaten us seek to divide us, and we can't allow that to happen. We need to continually remind ourselves that our diversity -- ethnic, racial, religious -- has always been our greatest strength.

I agree with the U.S. Department of State that it is "absolutely outrageous and reprehensible for anyone to suggest attacks on holy sites, whether they are Muslim, Christian, Jewish or those of any other religion." Further, brash statements like Mr. Tancredo's only serve to undermine our shared fight against terrorism.

Last month, I spoke at the opening of the new Islamic Center at the Dar Al Noor mosque on Hoadly Road. I spoke to hundreds of constituents that day. That American foreign policy could be damaged by reckless statements is bad enough.

That American Muslims, such as the Prince William County residents I represent in Congress, could be personally hurt by these comments, especially when they are undertaking new efforts to reach out to other people of faith, is far worse.

The American spirit is better than this.

CONGRESSMAN TOM DAVIS
Republican, 11th District of Virginia

-----

POLICE REPORT EXPLORES HOMEGROWN TERRORISM - TOP
Al Baker, New York Times, 8/16/07
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/16/nyregion/16terror.html

Understanding how seemingly ordinary people become radicalized and hatch homegrown terror plots is essential for law enforcement officials in the United States and abroad to stay one step ahead, a study released yesterday by the New York Police Department concluded.

The study found that unassimilated Muslims in the United States are vulnerable to extremism, but less so than their European counterparts.

The report's findings were immediately hailed by proponents of law enforcement and some politicians, while harshly criticized by civil libertarians and advocates for Arab-Americans.

Police analysts studied 11 cases from the past six years to better understand terrorist patterns.

Their 90-page report highlighted how ordinary people in Western nations, with unremarkable jobs and with little or no criminal histories, sometimes come to adopt a terrorist ideology. It found a similar dynamic at work in recent terror plots in Britain, Spain, Canada, Australia and the Netherlands.

The report identified four steps in the process of radicalization: pre-radicalization, self-identification, indoctrination and jihadization. Pre-radicalization, it said, "describes an individual's world - his or her pedigree, lifestyle, religion, social status, neighborhood and education - just prior to the start of their journey down the path of radicalization." Self-identification, it said, marks the point where people begin to explore militant Islam "while slowly migrating away from their former identity." Personal crises - such as losing a job or suffering from racism - can serve as a catalyst for this "religious seeking," the report said. While people can move gradually through the early phases, over two or three years, they can pivot quickly toward violence, the report said. The Internet, it said, can enable them...

The "sweeping generalizations" of the report may serve to cast a pall of suspicion over the entire American Muslim population, the Council on American-Islamic Relations said yesterday.

"The report also claims that signs of radicalization include positive changes in personal behavior such as giving up smoking, drinking and gambling," said Parvez Ahmed, chairman of the group's board, adding that the report made similar claims about those who wore Islamic clothing. "Is Islamic attire or giving up bad habits, which is something recommended by leaders of all faiths, now to be regarded as suspicious behavior?" (MORE)

SEE ALSO:

LI MUSLIMS PAN TERRORISM REPORT - TOP
Bart Jones, Newsday, 8/16/07
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-bc-ny--nypd-terrorthrea

t0816aug15,0,551042.story

Long Island Muslim leaders yesterday criticized a report by the New York City Police Department on homegrown terrorism, saying they are all for fighting terrorism but that the findings may help perpetuate stereotypes about Muslims.

The report warns of "radicalization" among otherwise unremarkable young Muslim men in the United States who grow disillusioned with life and sign on with jihad terrorists.

"I'm confident that [terrorism among Muslims] is not a major problem in this country, at least compared to European countries where assimilation of Muslims has not been very successful," said Habeeb Ahmed, president of the Islamic Center of Long Island, based in Westbury.

He added that "I don't have any problem if somebody does something wrong, definitely arrest that person to the fullest extent of the law. But if everybody is a suspect that does become a problem. You cannot have six to seven million people as possible terrorists, possible suspects." (MORE)

-----

MORE ANONYMITY IN TERROR-LINKED HOLY LAND CASE - TOP
Jason Trahan, Dallas Morning News, 8/15/07
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/

081607dnmetholyland.2efd673.html

The Holy Land Foundation was part of a global network of organizations that raised money from Muslims throughout the world and funneled it to Hamas, according to a second Israeli secret agent who testified under a pseudonym Wednesday.

The testimony of an anonymous agent as an expert witness could be a first in the U.S. legal system. It also could end up being a point of appeal in the event of convictions in the case involving the former Richardson charity and its organizers.

The agent, a lawyer in the counterterrorism section of the Israeli Security Agency, also known as Shin Bet, said that most of Hamas' money "is coming from outside the territories [the West Bank and Gaza], from nongovernmental organizations overseas," particularly the U.S., Europe, the Gulf countries and North Africa.

"When I'm talking about a network, a global network that would serve Hamas goals in the financial aspect, this ... structure was by design," said the agent, who testified under the name "Avi." "Someone wanted to create it. It wasn't created just like this, out of the blue."

He then testified that money collected by this network ended up in the coffers of several Palestinian zakat, or charity, committees that are run by known Hamas activists.

Prosecutors have charged the Holy Land Foundation and five of its organizers with violating a 1995 presidential order outlawing support of Hamas by sending at least $12 million to these committees.

Defense attorneys have said that their clients merely provided humanitarian aid to needy Palestinian orphans and families and did not support Hamas. They also have objected to Avi and another Israeli secret agent who testified last week under the moniker "Major Lior," on the grounds that their anonymous testimony violates their clients' constitutional right to confront their accusers.

Holy Land supporters, who listened to Avi's testimony from an overflow room after the judge cleared the courtroom of spectators for security reasons, say the agent is not credible because his government is bent on defeating Hamas. (MORE)

SEE ALSO:

ISRAELI AGENT TIES CHARITY TO TERRORISTS
Greg Krikorian, LA Times, 8/16/07
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-holyland16aug16,1,284321.story

Amid extraordinary secrecy and security, the Israeli government took a key role Wednesday in helping the U.S. Justice Department prosecute American citizens accused of supporting anti-Israeli terrorists.

An Israeli intelligence official testifying under an assumed name in a closed courtroom told a federal jury here that a now-defunct Islamic charity in the United States was part of a global fundraising network that helped finance terrorism by the Palestinian group Hamas.

The assertions by an Israeli Security Agency officer, identified as "Avi," are pivotal to U.S. government claims that the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development and five of its former officers knowingly funded extremists in the guise of charity. The allegation is denied by the defendants, all but one of whom is a U.S. citizen.

During his first day on the witness stand, Avi testified that Holy Land and other fundraising groups surreptitiously raised vast sums of money abroad that were funneled to Hamas through a network of local charities in the West Bank and Gaza.

He said that those charities, known as zakat committees, provided not only the lifeblood of Hamas' social work but helped support families of suicide bombers, Israeli prisoners and others. (MORE)

-----

ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP WANTS EVERYONE TO CALL GOD 'ALLAH' - TOP
Fox News, 8/16/07
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,293394,00.html

A proposal by a Roman Catholic bishop in the Netherlands that people of all faiths refer to God as "Allah" is not sitting well with the Catholic community.

Tiny Muskens, an outgoing bishop who is retiring in a few weeks from the southern diocese of Breda, said God doesn't care what he is called.

"Allah is a very beautiful word for God. Shouldn't we all say that from now on we will name God Allah? ... What does God care what we call him? It is our problem," Muskens told Dutch television.

"I'm sure his intentions are good but his theology needs a little fine-tuning," said Father Jonathan Morris, a Roman Catholic priest based in Rome. Morris, a news analyst for FOX News Channel, also called the idea impractical.

"Words and names mean things," Morris said. "Referring to God as Allah means something."

Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington, D.C.-based Islamic civil liberties and advocacy group, backs the idea as a way to help interfaith understanding.

It reinforces the fact that Muslims, Christians and Jews all worship the same God," Hooper told FOXNews.com. "I don't think the name is as important as the belief in God and following God's moral principles. I think that's true for all faiths."

Christians who are Arabic speakers speak of Allah when they speak of God, Hooper added.

"There's not a theological leap to make on the part of Christians," Hooper said. (MORE)

-----

AREA BLACK MUSLIMS FIGHT COMMON FALSE IMPRESSIONS - TOP
Christine Morente, Inside Bay Area, 8/15/07
http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_6637618

MENLO PARK - Your Black Muslim Bakery was once an establishment that symbolized self-reliance and black empowerment in Oakland.

Now, it's a skeleton of what it once was and has lost its level of contribution in society many years ago, said Imam Ben Ahmad of Menlo Park.

"Something obviously happened," said Ahmad, who once bought a bean pie at the Islamic bakery 15 years ago. "If there was criminal behavior, that's totally contrary to the tenets of Muslim beliefs."

Ahmed refers to recent media reports on 21-year-old Yusuf Bey IV, the head of Your Black Muslim Bakery, who not only has been accused of kidnapping and torturing a woman, but also of filing false documents, forgery, grand theft, and identity theft.

Additionally, Devaughndre Broussard, a 19-year-old handyman at the bakery, currently is being held on charges that he killed journalist Chauncey Bailey in downtown Oakland on Aug. 2.

Because of these incidents, Ahmad said, there will be a distortion of the public's perception of Muslims who, like himself, are African-American.

One of the fastest-growing Islamic groups, African-American Muslims make up 30 percent of all American Muslims, according to ReligionLink. (MORE)

-----

BACKLASH OVER BOOK ON POLICY FOR ISRAEL - TOP
Patricia Cohen, NY Times, 8/16/07
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/16/books/16book.html

"The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy" is not even in bookstores, but already anxieties have surfaced about the backlash it is stirring, with several institutions backing away from holding events with the authors.

John J. Mearsheimer, a political scientist at the University of Chicago, and Stephen M. Walt, a professor at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, were not totally surprised by the reaction to their work. An article last spring in the London Review of Books outlining their argument - that a powerful pro-Israel lobby has a pernicious influence on American policy - set off a firestorm as charges of anti-Semitism, shoddy scholarship and censorship ricocheted among prominent academics, writers, policymakers and advocates. In the book, published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux and embargoed until Sept. 4, they elaborate on and update their case.

"Now that the cold war is over, Israel has become a strategic liability for the United States," they write. "Yet no aspiring politician is going to say so in public or even raise the possibility" because the pro-Israel lobby is so powerful. They credit the lobby with shutting down talks with Syria and with moderates in Iran, preventing the United States from condemning Israel's 2006 war in Lebanon and with not pushing the Israelis hard enough to come to an agreement with the Palestinians. They also discuss Christian Zionists and the issue of dual loyalty.

Opponents are prepared. Also being released on Sept. 4 is "The Deadliest Lies: The Israel Lobby and the Myth of Jewish Control" (Palgrave Macmillan) by Abraham H. Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League. The notion that pro-Israel groups "have anything like a uniform agenda, and that U.S. policy on Israel and the Middle East is the result of their influence, is simply wrong," George P. Shultz, a former secretary of state, says in the foreword. "This is a conspiracy theory pure and simple, and scholars at great universities should be ashamed to promulgate it."

The subject will certainly prompt furious debate, though not at the Center for the Humanities at the Graduate Center at the City University of New York, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, a Jewish cultural center in Washington and three organizations in Chicago. They have all turned down or canceled events with the authors, mentioning unease with the controversy or the format. (MORE)

SEE ALSO:

U.S., ISRAEL SIGN $30 BILLION AID DEAL - TOP
AP, 8/15/07
http://www.abcmoney.co.uk/news/162007119729.htm

JERUSALEM (AP) - The United States offered Israel on Thursday an unprecedented $30 billion military aid package, bolstering its closest Mideast ally.

The aid deal represents a 25 percent rise in U.S. military aid to Israel, from a current $2.4 billion each year to $3 billion a year over 10 years.

Nicholas Burns, the U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, and Israeli Foreign Minister Director-General Aharon Abramovitz signed the memorandum of understanding on the assistance at a ceremony in Jerusalem.

The package was meant in part to offset U.S. plans to offer Saudi Arabia advanced weapons and air systems that would greatly improve the Arab country's air force. Israel has said it has no opposition to the U.S. aid to Saudi Arabia.

Burns said regional threats to Israel -- Iran and the Hezbollah and Hamas militant groups -- also threaten the United States.

'We look at this region and we see that a secure and strong Israel is in the interest of the United States,' Burns said. (MORE)

---

MEMBERS OF CONGRESS HEAD TO ISRAEL FOR SUMMER SUN AND SUMMITRY - TOP
Nathan Guttman, Forward, 8/15/07
http://www.forward.com/articles/11407/

Jerusalem - The summer tour season to Israel for American politicians reached its peak this month, with nearly 10% of the House of Representatives visiting Jerusalem in the past two weeks. Forty Republicans and Democrats met with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in two separate rounds of intensive touring mixed with high-level policy meetings.

This year's tours came at a crucial moment, as Congress is considering a massive and controversial arms deal proposed by the White House and aimed at both Israel and Saudi Arabia. In addition, American policymakers are readying for an international summit in November that will deal with the situation in the Middle East. The Congressional trips, sponsored by pro-Israeli groups, have become one of the main attractions offered during the summer recess.

"They have us on our feet at 8 o'clock in the morning, and we run around until late at night," said one of the staff members accompanying the members of Congress.

For first-time congressman Paul Hodes, the visit was also a chance to get a closer look at the Jewish state. Hodes, the first Jewish congressman to represent New Hampshire, had never visited Israel.

"This is my first trip outside the United States as a congressman, and I'm happy it is to Israel," Hodes said while walking to a quick lunch, after which he headed out for a bus tour. "As someone who follows the issue for many years, I was especially interested in coming here."

On a hot Tuesday morning, 18 Democrats - most of them members of the 2006 freshman class - mounted a tour bus on their way to Ramallah for a meeting with the new Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad. Dressed in khakis and sport jackets - the preferred attire for an adventure in the Levant - Democratic members of Congress returned from their trip to the Palestinian territories with a clear sense of excitement over the new Palestinian leadership. (MORE)

-----

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: info@cair.com
URL: http://www.cair.com

Opinions expressed in various sections are the sole responsibility of their authors and they may not represent ccun.org.

editor@ccun.org