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Muslim American News Briefs, June 26, 2007

June 2007 News Links

June 2007 News Photos

 June 2007 Opinion Editorial Links

* Hadith: Avoid Evil Speech
* Breaking: Vandals Target FL Church that Supports Muslims
* CAIR-IL: Report to Examine Muslim Role in Foreign Policy
* CAIR-MN: Muslim Attacked Outside Mosque
            - CAIR-MN, School Settle Anti-Muslim Harassment Case
            - CAIR-CA: Muslim Girl Student's Rights Violated
* CA: Signal Hill to Be New Mosque Site (Press-Telegram)
            - IL: Where Muslim Heritage and Hip-Hop Meet (Chicago Trib)
            - NV: Methodists Welcome Muslim Leader (Gazette-Journal)
* VP Cheney: Pushing the Envelope on Torture (Wash Post)
* More Afghan Civilians Killed by U.S., NATO than Insurgents (AP)
* Neo-Cons Spinning Hearts and Minds in Arab World (IPS)

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HADITH OF THE DAY: AVOID EVIL SPEECH - TOP

The Prophet Jesus (peace be upon him) once encountered a pig on the road. He said to it: "Go in peace." Someone then asked: "(Why) do you say this to a pig?" Jesus replied: "I (said it so as not to) accustom my tongue to evil speech."

Al-Muwatta, Volume 56, Number 4

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BREAKING NEWS: VANDALS TARGET FL CHURCH THAT SUPPORTS MUSLIMS - TOP

(TAMPA, FL, 6/25/07) - On June 26, the Tampa chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Tampa) will hold a news conference at a local church targeted by vandals. According to church officials, the vandals wrote "Traitors Support Terrorist" on a wall of the church. The church is known for its support of the local Muslim community on civil rights issues.

WHERE: Christ the Servant Apostolic Catholic Church, 7813 N. Nebraska, Tampa. FL
WHEN: Tuesday, June 26, 1:30 p.m.
CONTACT: CAIR-Tampa Executive Director Ahmed Bedier, 813-731-9506 or 813-514-1414

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REPORT TO EXAMINE U.S. MUSLIMS' ROLE IN FOREIGN POLICY - TOP
CAIR-Chicago official available to discuss report findings

(CHICAGO, IL, 6/25/07) - On June 26, a representative of the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Chicago) will be available to discuss the findings of a task force of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs that considered how to engage American Muslims more fully in the national discourse on foreign policy. CAIR-Chicago Executive Director Ahmed Rehab is a member of the task force.

The task force's report will be release June 26 at a Wilson Center event in Washington, D.C. Rehab will be available for comment after the release of the report.

SEE: Chicago Council on Global Affairs' Task Force Report on Muslim Americans in the U.S. Foreign Policy Discourse
http://wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=events.event_summary&event_id=217566

The recommendations of the report will focus on engaging Muslims in the policy process, addressing national security needs, improving cooperation between the American Muslim community and government agencies, increasing American Muslim civic engagement, educating the American public about the Muslim community, strengthening the structure and capacity of existing American Muslim organizations, and developing new institutions for serving these goals.

CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil liberties group, has 33 offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.

CONTACT: CAIR-Chicago Executive Director Ahmed Rehab, (847) 971-3963 or (312) 212-1520, E-Mail: arehab@cair.com

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CAIR-MN: FEDERAL CHARGES SOUGHT IN ATTACK ON ST. CLOUD MUSLIM - TOP
Man attacked as he left local mosque, called 'Muslim terrorist'

(ST. PAUL, MN, 6/25/2007) - The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN) today asked that federal civil rights charges be filed against a man alleged to have attacked a Muslim who was leaving a St. Cloud mosque this past weekend.

According to police, a white male reportedly called the 26-year-old victim a "Muslim terrorist" and then shoved and elbowed him in the head. Police are calling the attack a bias-motivated crime. A 33-year-old man from Isanti, Minn., is under arrest in Stearns County Jail.

SEE: Police: Bias is Behind Attack on Man Leaving St. Cloud Mosque
http://www.startribune.com/crime/story/1265586.html

SEE ALSO: Isanti Man Arrested in Biased Assault Case
http://www.sctimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070625/NEWS01/106250058

"We urge the FBI to determine whether federal civil rights charges may be filed in this case," said CAIR-MN Communications Director Valerie Shirley. "Federal charges would send a strong message that anti-Muslim bigotry will not be tolerated in our society."

Shirley also asked for stepped-up police protection for the St. Cloud mosque and called on state religious and political leaders to repudiate the Islamophobic attitudes that can lead to such incidents.

CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, has 33 offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.

CONTACT: CAIR-MN Communications Director Valerie Shirley, Tel: 763-226-5866; E-Mail: vshirley@cair.com; CAIR-MN Vice-Chair Thasneem Ahmed, Tel: 651-206-6568, E-Mail: thasneemhahmed@hotmail.com ; CAIR-MN Board Chair Lori Saroya, E-Mail: lsaroya@cair.com; CAIR-MN Executive Director Omar Merhi, E-Mail: omerhi@cair.com

SEE ALSO:

CAIR-MN: BLAINE SCHOOL, RIGHTS GROUP SETTLE ANTI-MUSLIM HARASSMENT CASE - TOP
Abdi Aynte, Minnesota Monitor, 6/25/07
http://www.minnesotamonitor.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1972

A public school in Blaine has agreed to improve its internal communications and to revamp its geography curriculum to include world religions after an allegation of Anti-Muslim harassment last month.

An eighth-grade Muslim girl reported that on Sept. 11 last year, a fellow student called her a "terrorist." Other Muslim students complained that they were taunted and told to go back to their country. They allegedly reported the incident to a school counselor, who didn't take any action.

The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN) announced in a statement that Westwood Middle School will create a "school climate task force" comprised of staff and students to "assess changes that may be needed to make the school a better place for all."

CAIR-MN said the district is also planning to hire a diversity coordinator in the wake of this incident.

"We thank Westwood Middle School officials for their prompt and professional handling of these reported incidents and appreciate the comprehensive nature of the steps taken to promote diversity and mutual respect," CAIR-MN Vice Chair Thasneem Ahmed said in a statement.

In an interview with Minnesota Monitor last month, school Superintendent Don Helmstetter said he will do everything in his capacity to resolve the incident.

"We are treating this incident very seriously," he said.

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CAIR-SFBA: MUSLIM GIRL STUDENT'S RIGHTS VIOLATED IN US - TOP
SUNA, 6/24/07
http://www.suna-sd.net/DetialsE.asp?id=428237

As part of the continuing attacks on Muslims and Islamic rituals in the United States of America, and according to a grand Islamic institution in US, a school supervisor ordered a girl student to remove her veil, and when she didn't respond, he shouted on her to do so.

The incident took place on June19 , where a school official asked a Muslim girl student to remove the veil. According to the statements of the Muslim student, the supervisor of the dining room at Seaside High School in California asked her to remove her veil even after she had told him that she was putting on the veil for religious reasons.

The student, who was visiting the school to attend a summer programme for teaching algebra, cried after the supervisor yelled at her, according to her story. She said, before over 100 other students in the dining room he screamed at her "you should put it off now". However, the student refused to put off her veil despite his screams.

In the wake of the incident, a branch of the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) at San Francisco Bay called for public apology, and organizing special training for all employees in the school. To this end, CAIR branch at San Francisco Bay contacted the school director, who acknowledged that the incident took place as was reported, and offered to arrange a face-to-face apology between the supervisor and the student, but he did not agree on public apology.

Executive Director of CAIR branch Safa' Ibrahim described the incident as a violation for the US laws that prohibit all forms of discrimination such as ordering a girl student to break the principles of her religion to get educated. (MORE)

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CA: SIGNAL HILL TO BE NEW MOSQUE SITE - TOP
Religion: Islamic Center will build 1-story structure on lot
Hanna Chu, Press-Telegram, 6/24/07
http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_6221345

The Long Beach Islamic Center has finally found a home in Signal Hill.

Since the religious group formed in 2004, it has not had a permanent location, only an office on Long Beach Boulevard.

"Sometimes we hold prayer and service in different locations like people's homes because we don't have a center right now," said Tarek Mohamed, chairman of the center's board. Mohamed is also listed as the group's imam, or leader, in a community religious directory.

Despite the lack of a physical worship site, the center has been growing. It began with 10 members and has since risen to 25 members, and with the growth, a permanent mosque became more of a necessity, Mohamed said.

During the search, the center's board found that its options were limited for budget reasons.

Mohamed said some locations that they considered in Long Beach cost as much as $2 million to $3 million.

"We cannot afford that, we don't have that money," Mohamed said.

In November 2004, the group bought a 13,500-square-foot vacant lot for $169,000 at 995 27th St. in Signal Hill.

A conditional use permit for the center was approved at Signal Hill's City Council meeting on June 12.

The group plans to build a 2,025-square-foot, one-story mosque and a parking lot.

"We are very excited, and we really appreciate the city of Signal Hill for welcoming us," Mohamed said. (MORE)

SEE ALSO:

IL: WHERE HERITAGE AND HIP-HOP MEET - TOP
Festival brings young, old together to show and celebrate Muslim community's diversity
Azam Ahmed, Chicago Tribune, 6/25/07
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/west/chi-muslimfest_25jun25,1,4636165.story

Along the grass-lined streets of Marquette Park, women strolled in colorful hijabs, Islamic head scarves, with teens in miniskirts and tank-tops.

Religious scholars gathered in white tents to discuss Islam, just a short walk from a stage where rappers spat socially conscious lyrics to a crowd of head-nodding youths.

Thousands gathered Sunday as part of "Takin' It to the Streets," a festival to show the diversity of young Muslim America and engage society in an effort to improve their communities and show solidarity among all races and cultures.

Organized by the Inner-City Muslim Action Network, "Streets" is one of the largest community festivals in Chicago. IMAN says is the only event of its kind in the nation put together by Muslim Americans.

The event, the sixth in 10 years, is unique in that it gathers religious scholars, young musicians, performers and artists to celebrate the breadth of the Islamic culture and community. (MORE)

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NV: METHODISTS WELCOME MUSLIM LEADER - TOP
Steve Timko, Reno Gazette-Journal, 6/25/07
http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070625/NEWS10/706250326/1002

Methodists and Muslims are mingling in Reno.

An imam discussed his Muslim faith Sunday at the Reno First United Methodist Church and has invited the Christians to Friday's 1 p.m. service at the mosque in Sparks.

The First United Methodist Church has been reviewing a PBS television show on the Muslim faith for its adult education class and capped it with a visit by Abdul Barghouti from the Northern Nevada Muslim Community attending Sunday services.

Barghouti spoke to the congregation at the 8 a.m. service, gave a history of Islam at the 9 a.m. adult education class and then spoke to a group of children gathered at the front of the church during the 10 a.m. service.

During the adult education class, Barghouti described how Islam has a shared heritage with Judaism and Christianity, including a reverence for Jerusalem. He called Islam a religion of peace, "in spite of a few idiots who try to give us a bad name."

"I hope this is only the beginning of our dialog and building a community together," said First United Methodist Pastor John Auer.

After the adult education class, Patti Bengtson of Reno said she hopes it does not end there.

"I would like to have more interaction," Bengtson said. "I'm very hopeful this is a beginning, and we'd like to have more dialogue." (MORE)

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PUSHING THE ENVELOPE ON PRESIDENTIAL POWER - TOP
Barton Gellman and Jo Becker, Washington Post, 6/25/07
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/cheney/chapters/pushing_the_envelope_on_presi/index.html

Shortly after the first accused terrorists reached the U.S. naval prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Jan. 11, 2002, a delegation from CIA headquarters arrived in the Situation Room. The agency presented a delicate problem to White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales, a man with next to no experience on the subject. Vice President Cheney's lawyer, who had a great deal of experience, sat nearby.

The meeting marked "the first time that the issue of interrogations comes up" among top-ranking White House officials, recalled John C. Yoo, who represented the Justice Department. "The CIA guys said, 'We're going to have some real difficulties getting actionable intelligence from detainees'" if interrogators confined themselves to treatment allowed by the Geneva Conventions.

From that moment, well before previous accounts have suggested, Cheney turned his attention to the practical business of crushing a captive's will to resist. The vice president's office played a central role in shattering limits on coercion of prisoners in U.S. custody, commissioning and defending legal opinions that the Bush administration has since portrayed as the initiatives, months later, of lower-ranking officials.

Cheney and his allies, according to more than two dozen current and former officials, pioneered a novel distinction between forbidden "torture" and permitted use of "cruel, inhuman or degrading" methods of questioning. They did not originate every idea to rewrite or reinterpret the law, but fresh accounts from participants show that they translated muscular theories, from Yoo and others, into the operational language of government.

A backlash beginning in 2004, after reports of abuse leaked out of Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and Guantanamo Bay, brought what appeared to be sharp reversals in courts and Congress -- for Cheney's claims of executive supremacy and for his unyielding defense of what he called "robust interrogation."

But a more careful look at the results suggests that Cheney won far more than he lost. Many of the harsh measures he championed, and some of the broadest principles undergirding them, have survived intact but out of public view.

The vice president's unseen victories attest to traits that are often ascribed to him but are hard to demonstrate from the public record: thoroughgoing secrecy, persistence of focus, tactical flexibility in service of fixed aims and close knowledge of the power map of government. On critical decisions for more than six years, Cheney has often controlled the pivot points -- tipping the outcome when he could, engineering stalemate when he could not and reopening debates that rivals thought were resolved. (MORE)

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AFGHAN CIVILIANS REPORTEDLY KILLED MORE BY U.S., NATO THAN INSURGENTS - TOP
Associated Press, 6/24/07
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-06-24-karzai_N.htm

U.S.-led coalition and NATO forces fighting insurgents in Afghanistan have killed at least 203 civilians so far this year - surpassing the 178 civilians killed in militant attacks, according to an Associated Press tally.

Insurgency attacks and military operations have surged in recent weeks, and in the past 10 days, more than 90 civilians have been killed by airstrikes and artillery fire targeting Taliban insurgents, said President Hamid Karzai.

On Sunday, another civilian may have been killed when British troops opened fire in a populated area after their convoy was hit by a roadside bomb, officials and witnesses said.

Separate figures from the U.N. and an umbrella organization of Afghan and international aid groups show that the numbers of civilians killed by international forces is approximately equal to those killed by insurgents.

After a seething speech by Karzai on Saturday - in which he accused NATO and U.S. forces of viewing Afghan lives as "cheap" - NATO conceded that it had to "do better." Coalition spokesman Maj. Chris Belcher suggested that some civilians reportedly killed by foreign forces may in fact have been killed by insurgents.

"One of the problems is sometimes determining who exactly caused the casualties. It's not always clear if a civilian casualty is caused by an extremist or coalition forces," Belcher said. (MORE)

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POLITICS-US: NEO-CONS SPINNING HEARTS AND MINDS - TOP
Khody Akhavi, Inter Press Service, 6/24/07
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=38294

As the George W. Bush administration struggles through its last two years in office, it appears that the agenda of neoconservative ideologues has finally lost its appeal among strategic parts of the U.S. foreign policy apparatus.

But as their influence has waned at the Pentagon and State Department, neo-conservative hawks have taken charge on the battlefield of public diplomacy.

Intent on fixing what American Enterprise Institute (AEI) fellow Joshua Muravchik termed Bush's "public diplomacy mess," right-wing hawks have gained control of the weapons in the "war of ideas" -- U.S. government-funded and supported media outlets such as Voice of America (VOA), Al-Hurra, and Radio Farda, which broadcast to the Middle East and aim to offer an alternative view of the news.

The recent appointment of Jeffrey Gedmin, a veteran neo-conservative polemicist, as the director of Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty (RFE), and a smear campaign that led to the recent resignation of Larry Register, Al-Hurra's former news director, appears to herald a turn towards more ideologically rigid programming.

As a result, viewers and listeners of U.S.-supported media in the Middle East are being exposed to a tougher ideological line that endorses the hallmarks of the neoconservative agenda -- regime change and interventionist policies in the region.

"No group other than neocons is likely to figure out how to do that," wrote Muravchik, in a December 2006 article in Foreign Policy magazine entitled "Operation Comeback", a reference to the declining influence of neo-conservatives in the Bush administration. "We are, after all, a movement whose raison d'etre was combating anti-Americanism in the United States. Who better then to combat it abroad?" (MORE)

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

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