News, June , 2007

LS/706050368/1003/METRO

The University of Michigan-Dearborn plans to spend $25,000 for foot-washing stations, making it easier for Muslim students to practice their religion but sparking questions about the separation of church and state.

The university claims the stations are needed to accommodate Muslim students, who must ritually wash their bodies -- including the feet -- up to five times each day before prayers. But critics hit conservative blogs and radio airwaves Monday to argue public money shouldn't cover the cost. . .

U-M Dearborn will include the floor-level stations at two bathrooms to be constructed in August at the University Center and Fairlane Center buildings, said Terry Gallagher, spokesman for the university. The units are necessary because some students resorted to washing their feet in sinks.

The university of 8,600 students doesn't track them by religion, Gallagher said.

"This was a reasonable accommodation," he said.

Gallagher argued taxpayer money won't be used for the foot baths because the $100,000 total bill for the bathrooms is underwritten by a fee students pay for building maintenance. . .

The Internet has created the fuss at U-M Dearborn, argued Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

"To my knowledge, none of the students or staff have made any complaints about the foot-washing area," Walid said.

"This whole thing came to light through some right-wing Islama-phobic bloggers that want to promulgate the idea that the university is being Islama-fied." (MORE)

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MI: UNIVERSITY PLANS TO ADD FOOTBATHS - TOP
Detroit Free Press, 6/5/07
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070605/NEWS02/706050424/1004

In order to accommodate its growing Muslim student population, the University of Michigan-Dearborn plans to install footbaths in its restrooms, officials said Monday.

The move comes after an increasing number of students were found washing their feet in restroom sinks before prayers. Islamic tradition requires Muslims to wash their feet and other body parts before praying.

Terry Gallagher, a spokesman for the university, said that the footbaths would cost about $25,000.

Some have criticized the university for catering to Muslims and accused them of violating the constitutional separation of church and state. But Gallagher said that's not true.

"We are not promoting one faith over another," Gallagher said in a statement. "Instead, we are providing a service that many of our students need and value."

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CAIR: 'MUSLIMS CARE' CAMPAIGN IMPROVES AMERICAN HEALTH, COMMUNITIES - TOP
Muslim team wears pink at breast cancer walk
Carolee Walker, USINFO, 6/4/07
http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2007&m=

June&x=20070604171515bcreklaw0.8342096

Summer in the United States is often a time to slow down the pace of everyday life, and for many, including some American Muslims, to get to know neighbors and solve shared problems.

The Muslims Care campaign is a summer volunteer program launched three years ago to encourage Muslims to help their communities. Monthlong themes offer ideas of ways for Muslims to contribute to American society, said Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which spearheads the campaign. CAIR is America's largest Muslim civil liberties group, with 33 chapters in the United States and Canada. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.

To kick off the third annual campaign, a team of 40 Muslims raised money and awareness to fight breast cancer by walking in the Susan G. Komen National Race for the Cure in Washington on June 5.

"We were proud to be part of the race and hope that the combined efforts of all those involved will bring us that much closer to a cure for breast cancer," said CAIR's Rabiah Ahmed.

"Oftentimes we get so caught up with our own issues and affairs that we forget to help someone in need or to do a good deed, which is so important to Islam," Ahmed told USINFO.

Muslims in America have busy professional lives, Ahmed said, but it is their duty to be good neighbors concerned with issues that affect many, including disease and hunger. (MORE)

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CAIR-CA: MUSLIM LEADER REACHES OUT - TOP
El-Nakhal becomes 'local face of Islam' n Editor's note: This is another in a series of articles on local people of faith who live out what they believe.
Susan Cosio, Davis Enterprise, 6/1/07
http://www.davisenterprise.com/

For years, Hamza El-Nakhal led a peaceful, quiet life in Davis. He was professionally successful and personally satisfied.

"I lived my own life, like everyone else," he recalls. "I was focused on my family and isolated as many others are."

That was before Sept. 11, 2001; before, El-Nakhal says, he "became the local face of Islam."

"I used to live for myself," he admits. "Now I am living for the community."

El-Nakhal, 65, came to the United States from his native Egypt in 1969. He went first to Minnesota, and then came to Davis to pursue a Ph.D. in microbiology. He spent many busy years focused on graduate school and career, marriage and raising a family. Except for a few years in Southern California and 11 years in Saudi Arabia, El-Nakhal has lived most of his adult years in Davis.

"I have developed many friendships in this community," he says. "I feel really blessed."

But things haven't always been easy for El-Nakhal, who is Muslim.

"I always felt I was accepted," he says, "at least before 9-11."

After the attack on the World Trade Center, El-Nakhal remembers thinking, "Now everyone thinks I am a terrorist."

He describes the hostile responses many Muslims received from angry Americans.

"Muslims were spit on or called names," he says. "Some people grabbed head scarves off the heads of Muslim women, and Muslims were harassed for praying publicly.

"We struggled for a while," he admits. "In fact, we are still struggling in many ways."

El-Nakhal believes the angry reactions were based on fear and ignorance.

"Islam unequivocally condemns terrorism," he explains. "Islam is a merciful religion, and calls for peace if there is no aggression, injustice or mischief. When some Muslims kill others, they are acting despite Islam, therefore Islam should not be blamed or put on trial.

"I am just trying to fight this ignorance," adds El-Nakhal, who is president of the Sacramento chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil liberties and advocacy group that promotes justice and mutual understanding. (MORE)

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CAIR: STEVEN EMERSON'S DISTURBING TRACK RECORD - TOP
Ahmed Rehab, InFocus, 6/5/07
http://www.infocusnews.net/content/view/15129/135/

Masquerading as an Islam/terrorism expert, Steven Emerson's apparent lifelong goal is to banish Muslim Americans from American civil life. He recently went after the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC); now it is CAIR.

In his latest anti-CAIR attack, Steven Emerson once again unleashes one of his trademark tirades designed to stifle free and open debate (The New Republic Online, 03/28/2008). This time, his wrath is focused against The New York Times. Its crime? Offering two sides of the story in its recent coverage of the "mounting criticism" against the nation's largest Muslim civil rights organization, CAIR.

Emerson conveniently fails to disclose to his readers that the relentless source of this "mounting criticism" is non-other than Emerson himself and his merry band of collaborators. But like all professional propagandists, Emerson aspires to be detective, prosecutor, judge, and jury.

It should come as no surprise that Emerson bears a severe aversion to common standards of professional journalism like those displayed by Neil MacFarquhar of The New York Times. After all, Emerson is not a professional journalist but an agenda-driven demagogue on a mission.

Going many years back, his track record is fraught with well-documented anti-Muslim bias.

Unlike neutral journalists, he is not remotely concerned with facts; rather, he prefers proselytizing his narrow agenda wherever and whenever it is feasible to do so. His modus operandi is not to inform, but to brainwash.

Free speech and open debate provide the most serious obstacles to professional propagandists. It is no wonder then that Emerson balks at the notion that there are two sides to a story; the only noteworthy side, in his view, is his own. (MORE)

Ahmed Rehab is CAIR-Chicago's Executive Director. Prior to joining CAIR, Ahmed was a freelance speaker, writer, and activist in the fields of interfaith collaboration, education, and community outreach. Ahmed can be reached at director@cairchicago.org .

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MEMRI IS 'PROPAGANDA MACHINE,' EXPERT SAYS - TOP
Lawrence Swaim, InFocus, 6/5/07
http://www.infocusnews.net/content/view/15069/135/

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) provides daily English translations of film and print media stories originating in Arabic, Iranian and Turkish media.

It also furnishes original analysis of cultural, political and religious trends in the Middle East.

It sends its daily postings to every news outlet in the United States and Europe, in addition to politicians and cultural leaders.

And it's free, which makes it a Godsend for journalists, editors and policy analysts.

But according to its critics, it is also a dangerous, highly sophisticated propaganda operation, disseminating hate and disinformation on an unprecedented worldwide basis.

"They use the same sort of propaganda techniques as the Nazis," Professor Norman G. Finkelstein, a well-known scholar on Israel/Palestine, told InFocus. "They take things out of context in order to do personal and political harm to people they don't like."

Take the case of Professor Halim Barakat, a novelist and scholar associated with the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University.

In 2002, he published an article on Zionism in London's Al-Hayat Daily, but says that in certain instances, MEMRI selectively edited what he wrote.

"I know how to make a distinction between Judaism and Zionism, but they distorted the article," Barakat told InFocus. "They left out certain things and tried to make it look anti-Semitic."

Shortly afterward, Campus Watch, the brainchild of notorious Islamophobe Daniel Pipes, used the allegedly doctored translation in an effort to smear Georgetown University. (MORE)

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CA: SECURITY AGENCY ENLISTING MUSLIMS TO REBUT RADICALS - TOP
Idea is to engage young minds in ideological battle
Matthai Chakko Kuruvila, San Francisco Chronicle, 6/5/07
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/06/05/MNGPOQ7IRT1.DTL

After nearly six years of intense law enforcement scrutiny of Muslims in the United States, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is reshaping his agency's approach to Muslims and invited four prominent Muslims to help the agency prevent homegrown radicalism.

The four leaders Chertoff called on -- a former ambassador from Pakistan, a Santa Monica author who grew up in San Jose, a Houston city councilman and an Austin, Texas, blogger -- suggest increasing youth services, working with bloggers to fight extremist ideology on the Web and even changing the terminology the government uses to describe terrorists.

The May 8 meeting -- the first of its kind the Homeland Security secretary has called with Muslims -- was part of a series of gatherings that Chertoff told Congress in March would be "an unprecedented level of cooperation" with various ethnic and religious communities to "prevent radicalization."

Daniel Sutherland, the department's officer for civil rights and civil liberties, said Chertoff invited the four leaders last month because they are among the most influential Muslim scholars and thinkers in the nation. Sutherland, who has been with Homeland Security since its inception, said he believes that previous secretary Tom Ridge never had such a meeting.

The department also is working with Sikhs, South Asians, Arabs and Iranians to counter radicalism, Sutherland said, and Chertoff has pointed to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing as the best example of homegrown radicalism.

Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, domestic anti-terrorism efforts have included sweeping measures such as requiring all men and boys without permanent residency from many largely Muslim nations to register with the government. Federal authorities have also planted informants in mosques.

Participants in last month's meeting praised Chertoff's desire to gain a more sophisticated understanding of the 2.5 million to 8 million Muslims in the United States and figure out how to find terrorists of all nationalities. (MORE)

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CO: 'GUNNY BOB' TIRADE SPARKS A VOICE FOR MUSLIMS ON RADIO - TOP
Dick Kreck, Denver Post, 6/5/07
http://www.denverpost.com/entertainment/ci_6058541

When host "Gunny Bob" Newman launched his anti-Muslim missile on his KOA 850-AM talk show last month, it created an uproar that led some advertisers to bail on his show.

What he said: "I want every Muslim immigrant to America who holds a green card, a visa, or who is a naturalized citizen to be required by law to wear a GPS tracking bracelet at all times."

The Muslim community was not pleased. Unfortunately, that community hasn't had much of a chance to voice its response in the media - until Taj Ashaheed.

A Denver-based market researcher and a Muslim, Ashaheed is a self-described "typical looking American guy" from Maryland whose father was in the Air Force and worked at Martin Marietta.

With little hope of success, he arranged to state his case to Lee Larsen, senior vice president of Clear Channel Radio's Rocky Mountain Region. Clear Channel owns KOA.

To his surprise, the reaction was positive, says Ashaheed, who is executive director of the Colorado Muslim Council. "I was quite shocked, to be honest. I thought I would get the brush-off." Instead, "We had a good, hour-long meeting. I didn't expect an apology, I didn't ask for one. We agreed that it would be good to have a consistent voice from the Muslim community."

That voice will be Ashaheed. He'll be on with Jay Marvin Wednesday (6-10 a.m, KKZN 760-AM) and has tentative hook-ups with Peter Boyles and even Gunny Bob.

"We just don't have a voice," says Ashaheed. "When we do, it's always reactive. It would be nice to have a consistent voice out there."

Gunny's rant didn't surprise him. "It was just a matter of time. I'm all for people's right to have an opinion (but) it would be interesting if there were a counter voice then and there."

Well-spoken and flashing a quick sense of humor, Ashaheed thinks he can hold his own with anyone, including Gunny. "I'm ready. I work in market research. I can see all the curve balls coming." (MORE)

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CIA RUNNING BLACK PROPAGANDA OPERATION AGAINST IRAN, SYRIA AND LEBANON, OFFICIALS SAY - TOP
Some intelligence sources more wary of covert Pentagon operations
Larisa Alexandrovna, Raw Story, 6/4/07
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/CIA_running_black_propaganda

_operation_against_0604.html

The Central Intelligence Agency has received approval at least twice in the last several years to conduct an "information war" against several countries in the Middle East, including Iran, Lebanon and Syria, according to current and former intelligence officials.

In addition, the Bush Administration has been running operations out of the Defense Department that are not subject to Congressional oversight, intelligence sources say. These programs appear murkier, and have included support for an alleged terrorist group in Iran.

A recent ABC News report revealed that President George W. Bush had signed a presidential finding giving the CIA the authority to conduct "non-lethal" covert operations against Iran. Former and current intelligence sources tell RAW STORY, however, that there have been "at least two" presidential findings over the past few years which have empowered the agency to run an "open-secret" information war against Iranian interests, mainly leveraging resources and assets "within the United States and France."

Although the resources - people, groups, organizations - were not identified, sources say that they are not terrorist organizations or groups using violent tactics to achieve their goals. "It's a propaganda operation," said a former intelligence case officer who wished to remain anonymous due to the sensitive nature of the information. "It is not new or aggressive," the source added, explaining that the operation has been going on for some time and has Congressional funding and oversight.

CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano would not comment about the allegations made in the ABC report or discuss the existence of the presidential findings identified to RAW STORY.

"The CIA does not, as a matter of course, publicly discuss allegations of covert action, whether the assertions are wrong, right, or somewhere in-between," Gimigliano said. "That's one reason why the term 'covert action' still exists." (MORE)

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4.2 MILLION IRAQIS ARE NOW DISPLACED - TOP
Eliane Engeler, Associated Press, 6/5/07
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070605/ap_on_re_mi_ea/un_iraq_refugees_1

More than 4 million Iraqis have now been displaced by violence in the country, the U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday, warning that the figure will continue to rise.

The number of Iraqis who have fled the country as refugees has risen to 2.2 million, said Jennifer Pagonis, spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. A further 2 million have been driven from their homes but remain within the country, increasingly in "impoverished shanty towns," she said.

Pagonis said UNHCR is receiving "disturbing reports" of regional authorities doing little to provide displaced people with food, shelter and other basic services.

"Individual governorates inside Iraq are becoming overwhelmed by the needs of the displaced," Pagonis told reporters in Geneva, where UNHCR has its headquarters.

More than half of Iraq's 18 governorates are preventing displaced people from entering their territories, either by stopping them at checkpoints or by refusing to register them for food aid and other basic services.

Astrid van Genderen Stort of UNHCR said checkpoints are increasing in northern governorates, specifically along the "green line" that divides Kurdish-controlled zones from the rest of the country. Displaced people are also being stopped on the roads leading out of the cities of Karbala and Najaf, which are both south of Baghdad and considered holy by Shiite Muslims.

While many of the checkpoints were originally established for security reasons, they are being increasingly used to prevent displaced Iraqis from moving around the country, van Genderen Stort said.

Almost half of all displaced people have no access to official food distribution programs, according to U.N. estimates. (MORE)

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IRAQ: ANGER BUILDS IN BESIEGED FALLUJAH - TOP
Ali al-Fadhily, Asia Times, 6/6/07
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IF06Ak07.html

The city that was mostly destroyed by the US military operation Phantom Fury in November 2004 has been under curfew for more than two weeks, with no signs of relief.

Located 70 kilometers west of Baghdad, the city made headlines when four Blackwater security mercenaries were killed and their bodies horrifically mutilated on March 31, 2004.

That April the city was attacked by the US military, but resistance fighters repelled occupation forces. That set the stage for the November siege that left about 70% of the city destroyed and turned a quarter of a million residents into refugees.

A recent spike in attacks against Iraqi and US forces in and around the city has prompted harsh measures by the US military, including imposing curfews, limiting movement in and out of Fallujah, and setting up more checkpoints throughout the city - moves which have greatly angered residents.

On May 19, most of these measures, perceived by many people here as a form of collective punishment, began to be more strictly enforced.

"Americans and their Iraqi collaborators are blaming us for their failure in controlling the city and the whole country," Ahmed Alwan of a Sunni religious group, the Muslim Scholars Association, told Inter Press Service (IPS). "This kind of collective punishment only means slow death to the people of the city and is adding to their agonies that have continued since April 2003." (MORE)

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BLAIR CAN NO LONGER DENY A LINK EXISTS BETWEEN TERRORISM AND FOREIGN POLICY - TOP
Rather than insisting on Muslims' own duty to integrate, British society must reconcile itself with its self-professed values
Tariq Ramadan, Guardian, 6/4/07
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2094484,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=11

Let us look closely at recent developments in government policy toward Muslims. The British Muslim reaction to the July 7 attacks was exemplary, as Ken Livingstone pointed out, and this was a proof that they were well integrated into society. A policy of constructive engagement would have spared no effort to make the best of these tragic events.

Instead, the British government has adopted an attitude of double denial, at home and abroad. Obsession with the "terrorist threat" rapidly colonised debate and drove the government headlong into an approach restricted to the "fight against radicalisation and extremism". Though it appeared normal to deal with the issue, the "Muslim question" could in no way be reduced to one of security. Further, this policy was accompanied by a demeaning - and frequently paternalistic - argument on the necessity of "integration". Muslims, so it went, must accept those British values (liberty, tolerance, democracy, etc) that make up the essence of "Britishness".

This reductive argument is dangerous on two counts. First, it tendentiously associates terrorism with integration. It is common knowledge that the authors of the terrorist acts were thoroughly integrated: they were educated, held jobs and were culturally westernised. Second, in today's social and political debate it normalises a formula that only parties of the extreme right once dared to articulate: that Muslims, on the whole, have a problem with western values and must offer more convincing "proof" that they accept them. On December 8 last year, Tony Blair called on minorities to conform to "our essential values", stating that they have "a duty to integrate". The Muslim community, because it is perceived as "badly integrated", has become suspect. (MORE)

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