Muslim American News Briefs, July 8, 2007

* Action: Help Support CAIR's Important Work
* CAIR-MO: Muslim Doctors Angered by Terror Plot (Video)
            - CAIR-St. Louis: Muslim Doctors Condemn UK Attacks
            - CAIR-St. Louis: 'Life Must be Protected'
* NY: Muslim Woman Threatened with Sexual Assault (Buffalo News)
            - CAIR-TX: Dallas Discussion on Islamophobia (DMN)
* CAIR-AZ: Valley Muslims Question FBI (Video)
* CAIR: GA Muslim's Scarf Sparks Controversy (13WMAZ)

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ACTION: HELP SUPPORT CAIR'S IMPORTANT WORK - TOP

Become a member: https://www.cair.com/asp/membership.asp
Donate: https://www.cair.com/asp/default.asp
Subscribe to CAIR-NET: http://cair.biglist.com/cair-net/

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CAIR-ST. LOUIS: LOCAL MUSLIM DOCTORS ANGRY AND SADDENED BY POSSIBLE TERRORIST PLOT SAY THEY ARE LAW ABIDING CITIZENS - TOP
KMOV, 7/7/07
http://www.kmov.com/localnews/stories/kmov_localnews_070706_muslimdoctors.4cfe57e1.html

(KMOV) - Several Muslim doctors are accused of carrying out failed terror attacks in the United Kingdom.

News of their arrest is having an impact on Muslim doctors in the St. Louis area.

Friday is the most important day of the week, for Muslims. It is the one prayer each week when the Muslim community comes together for a group prayer.

It is one of five daily prayers for Muslims.

Some Muslim physicians in our area, want the public to know they are angry and saddened by the possible terrorist plot, in the United Kingdom, which possibly includes Muslim medical professionals.

Dr. Khaled Hamid a CAIR board. Member says, "We are part of the society, to stay and are not a threat."

Born in Cairo, Egypt Dr. Hamid is an allergy and asthma specialist practicing in St. Charles and St. Louis. He has lived in the United States for 10 years and is an American citizen.

He is on the board of CAIR St. Louis, which stands for the Council of American Islamic Relations.

Members of the group CAIR and members of a St. Louis mosque want you to know that the vast majority of Muslims here are non-violent and law abiding American citizens. . .

To learn more about Islam and their beliefs go to: http://www.cair.com/

SEE ALSO:

CAIR-ST. LOUIS: MUSLIM DOCTORS HERE CONDEMN UK ATTACKS - TOP
Kim Bell, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 7/7/07

Muslim doctors here say they are trying to be more vocal in denouncing terrorism. They condemned the "crazies" who are "misguided" and did those acts.

"If we keep quiet, we become kind of a silent supporter of that, although we are not," said Dr. Ghazala Hayat, a professor of neurology at St. Louis University. "This is actually sickening and shocking to doctors, that this would happen.". . .

On Friday, about 20 Muslim doctors who practice medicine in the St. Louis area gathered for a news conference in the lecture hall at the Islamic Foundation of Greater St. Louis, 517 Weidman Road. The turnout represented about 10 percent of the 200 or so local Muslim doctors.

"I just hope to appeal to the general public, not to develop into a mob tendency, having received these messages from abroad," said Dr. Noor Ahmed, a plastic surgeon.

Ahmed is president of the St. Louis chapter of the Islamic Medical Association of North America. If the public is fearful or distrustful of all Muslim physicians, the terrorists will have won, Ahmed said. . .

The local chapter of a Muslim civil liberties group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, helped coordinate the news conference. Some other council chapters across the country have made similar denouncements, but Friday's news conference here was not timed as part of a national effort to speak out, organizers say.

British Muslim communities have taken out newspaper ads condemning the bomb plots.

Dr. Khaled Hamid, an allergist who has offices in St. Charles and Des Peres, said Muslims have felt a backlash before - and now he hopes being a physician won't be a "double whammy," of sorts.

"As a community, we are in pain. As a physician, we are in twice the pain," said Hamid, who is a board member for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

In an interview, Hamid added: "We are tired of being labeled because of a few idiots among us who do these things."

What's going on in Britain demonstrates that bad people can be found in health care, just like any other job, Hamid said.

"We have the crazies amongst us, like any other profession," Hamid said.

Hamid cited examples of non-Muslim doctors doing harm, including those who helped Nazis conduct medical experiments on Jews, and, he said, a podiatrist who plotted to bomb a mosque in Florida in 2002 in revenge for the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

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CAIR: 2 DOCTORS HELD IN BRITISH BOMB PLOTS HAD LOOKED TO U.S. - TOP
ALAN COWELL and SCOTT SHANE, New York Times, 7/7/07
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/07/world/europe/07britain.html

Dr. Khaled Hamid, an Egyptian-born allergy and asthma specialist, helped organize a news conference of local Muslim physicians in St. Louis on Friday to denounce the terrorist plots in Britain. When he heard that those arrested in Britain were doctors, Dr. Hamid said in an interview, "I felt sick. The idea that a physician would participate in that is incomprehensible to me."

He and others called the news conference to "make it very clear where we stand," said Dr. Hamid, who is active in the local chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "We're hurt as Muslims and as physicians who believe sacred life must be protected."

Silence, he said, "can wrongly be interpreted as approval." (MORE)

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NY: HATE CRIME CHARGED IN THREAT TO MUSLIM - TOP
By Chrissie Thompson, Buffalo News, 7/7/07
http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/buffaloerie/story/114670.html

A 17-year-old male charged late Friday with a hate crime is accused of threatening to sexually assault a Muslim woman who at the Amherst Metro Rail station, Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority police said.

Darelle Drayton of East Depew Avenue is charged with felony aggravated harassment and criminal trespass. The woman was confronted shortly before 9 p.m. at the Metro Station and outside Parker Mosque at Amherst Street and Parker Avenue. The hate crime statute escalates the harassment charge from a misdemeanor to a felony, police said.

Drayton, accused of harassing the woman as she entered the station, told the woman, "You are not allowed to talk to me because of your religion," according to the police report. (MORE)

SEE ALSO:

CAIR: ADVOCACY GROUP PLANS DISCUSSION ON ISLAMOPHOBIA - TOP
Dallas Morning News, 7/6/07

A national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group will kick off a nationwide discussion of Islamophobia, or fear and hatred of Islam and Muslims, with a panel discussion from 1:30 to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Crowne Plaza Park Central, 7800 Alpha Road in Dallas. The panel is the first in a series of similar public discussions scheduled around the nation by the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations.

The event titled "Do U.S. Policies Fuel Islamophobia?" will provide resources for gaining a better understanding of the negative impact anti-Muslim bigotry has on American society and on the nation's interests worldwide. Panelists will also discuss the government's actions in the case against officials of the closed Holy Land Foundation, which was based in Richardson.

The event is free and open to the public.

Call 972-849-9188 or 972-221-7241.

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CAIR-AZ: VALLEY MUSLIMS QUESTION FBI - TOP
Melissa Blasius, 12 News, 7/6/07
http://www.azcentral.com/12news/news/articles/muslimmeeting0706-CR.html

The FBI and Valley Muslims are gathering for meetings to address issues or concerns in the community.

Attendees can ask the FBI about issues or concerns in the community. FBI agents hope to better educate the community about their civil rights and to seem more approachable.

Arizona FBI agents say since the September 11th terrorist attacks, the have made themselves available to speak and answer questions at mosques.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations says a wide range of topics will be covered. (MORE)

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CAIR: MUSLIM SCARF SPARKS CONTROVERSY - TOP
Suzanne Lawler, 13 WMAZ, 7/7/07
http://www.13wmaz.com/news/state_story.aspx?storyid=40739

Valdosta officials say they plan next week to review a policy that prohibited a Muslim woman from wearing her headscarf in municipal court.

Aniisa Karim refused to remove her headscarf when she came to the courtroom of Municipal Court Judge Vernita Lee Bender on June 26th to contest a speeding ticket.

Court officers cited homeland security reasons and said wearing the headscarf would be a sign of disrespect to the judge.

In a statement released Thursday, Valdosta Public Information Officer Sementha Mathews said court officers acted properly, but expressed regret that Karim was offended by the court's rules and procedures.

When Karim's experience made news, it generated some anti-Arabic slurs from Internet bloggers.

But Karim is not Arabic.

The lifelong Muslim is African-American, born and raised in Baltimore.

She is a disc jockey for WAAC-FM Country Music Radio in Valdosta.

Karim said, "There are some real misconceptions out there. I saw comments on Web sites like, 'If you don't like the rules here, go back home. We don't try to make rules for Middle Eastern countries.' But I am an American. This is my home." . . .

The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations and attorneys with the Georgia Association of Muslim Lawyers asserted that the judge's actions violated Karim's civil rights.

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