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    Muslim American News Briefs, September 17, 2007

Opinion Editorials

News

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* Hadith: Fasting Removes Sins
      - CAIR-FL: Is It Time for 'Happy Ramadan?'
* Support CAIR’s Important Work
* CAIR: FBI Asked to Probe Bias Attack on NY Muslim
      - Police Probe Anti-Muslim Attack (AP)
* CAIR: Shot Fired at Texas Mosque 
* CAIR: AZ Imam Verbally Assaulted on 9/11 Anniversary
* Paper Profiles CAIR-MI Rep (Detroit Free Press)
      - CAIR-OH Rep Helps Test Interfaith Board Game
      - CAIR-IL Rep Responds to Offhand Slur with Lunch
* CAIR: Cartoon Poked Fun at Characters, Not Islam (Wash Post)
* CAIR-CAN: Face Veil a Rallying Point for Muslim-Bashers
* CAIR: Airport's Sinks to Help Muslims Carry Out Rituals
      - IL: Muslim Cabbies Get Tickets While Praying (Sun-Times)
      - Muslims in the Military (Stars and Stripes)
* Democrat Rep: Pro-Israel Lobby Promoted Iraq War (Wash Post)
      - Neocon Hawks Go All-Out for Giuliani (NY Daily News)
* Inflating the Threat of Radical Islam (Chicago Tribune)
      - DC Discussion: Media’s Role in West-Islam Relations
 
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HADITH OF THE DAY: FASTING REMOVES SINS - TOP
 
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "Whoever fasts the month of Ramadan with faith, and seeks God’s pleasure and reward, will have his previous sins forgiven."
 
Fiqh-us-Sunnah, Volume 3, Number 109
 
SEE ALSO:
 
CAIR-FL: IS IT TIME FOR 'HAPPY RAMADAN?' - TOP
C.B. Hanif, Palm Beach Post, 9/16/07
 
"I would like to thank you for your insightful and accurate article on the holy month of Ramadan," wrote Omer Subhani, community relations director for the Council on American Islamic Relations. "This is a special time for all Muslims, and it means a great deal to all of us to be acknowledged and presented in a positive light in spite of the false stereotypes that have been spread by a small but vocal group of Islamophobes. Our nation was founded on tolerance and liberty. Your article demonstrates both ideas profoundly." (MORE)
 
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SUPPORT CAIR’S IMPORTANT WORK – TOP
 
Donate TODAY
 
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CAIR: FBI ASKED TO PROBE BIAS ATTACK ON NY MUSLIM – TOP
 
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 9/16/07) – A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group today called on the FBI to investigate an attack on a Muslim businesswoman in New York as a hate crime.
 
The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said the Muslim owner of a nail and facial salon was beaten Saturday in what local police are calling a bias attack. The woman was badly beaten and anti-Muslim slurs were scrawled on mirrors in the salon. The attackers allegedly told her, “Your kind isn't welcomed here. You don't belong here."
 
SEE: Muslim Biz Gal Beaten (NY Post)
http://www.nypost.com/seven/09162007/news/regionalnews/muslim_biz_gal_beaten.htm
 
CONTACT: CAIR-NY Civil Rights Director Aliya Latif, 212-870-2002, 732-429-4268, alatif@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail: ihooper@cair.com
 
SEE ALSO:
 
POLICE PROBE ANTI-MUSLIM ATTACK AT L.I. SALON - TOP
http://www.wnbc.com/news/14125001/detail.html
 
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SHOT FIRED AT TEXAS MOSQUE - TOP
CAIR asks authorities to probe possible bias motive
 
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 9/16/07) – The Council on American-Islamic Relations today called on local law enforcement authorities to investigate a shooting at a Texas mosque as a possible bias-motivated crime.
 
A shot from a “high-caliber weapon” hit the Islamic Center of South Texas in Corpus Christi Friday afternoon. Initial reports indicated there were two shots, but investigators were only able to locate damage from one hit. FBI agents took part in the investigation of the shooting.
 
SEE: Worship Goes On After Shooting (Caller-Times)
http://www.caller.com/news/2007/sep/16/worship-goes-on-after-shooting/  
 
CONTACT: CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail: ihooper@cair.com
 
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AZ IMAM VERBALLY ASSAULTED ON 9/11 ANNIVERSARY - TOP
 
(PHOENIX, AZ, 9/16/07) – The Arizona chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-AZ) reported today that an imam, or Islamic religious leader, in that state was verbally assaulted in a Tempe mosque on the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks.
 
The imam of the Islamic Community Center of Tempe told CAIR-AZ that three white men entered the mosque on the afternoon of September 11, 2007, and demanded to know “what you guys are hiding here.” When the men were asked to leave the mosque, one of them began screaming obscenities such as “f**k all you guys.”
 
The incident was reported to local police and to the FBI.
 
CONTACT: CAIR-AZ Civil Rights Coordinator Mohammed AbuHannoud, 602-460-9987, E-Mail: mabuhannoud@cair.com
 
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DETROITER MAKES AN IMPACT ON U.S. MUSLIM COMMUNITY - TOP
ALEX P. KELLOGG, Detroit Free Press, 9/16/07
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070916/CFP11/709160339/1110/NEWS
 
He first felt the urge to convert religions when listening to the rhetoric of hip-hop lyricists such as south Bronx native KRS-One and the fiery-tongued Chuck D of Public Enemy.
 
The rhythmic Islamic references in those seminal raps, mostly asides, caught his attention, he says, and inspired him to dig further.
 
And so the black kid born in Detroit and raised in the South did convert from a southern Baptist to a northern Muslim.
 
He's now a spokesman for Islamic causes of every shade.
 
Dawud Walid's search for spiritual direction saw him skipping from college to college as a 20-something until he read Malcolm X's best-selling autobiography. The work traces Malcolm X's journey from Michigan to Mecca.
 
Walid's journey, though of course less celebrated, is not too far off from that one.
 
The 35-year-old is just over a decade removed from his conversion to Islam, and just 3 1/2 years from his first hajj, or religious pilgrimage to Mecca. Yet he's swiftly becoming a powerful presence in U.S. Muslim leadership.
 
For two-plus years, Walid has been the executive director of the Michigan office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Southfield; CAIR is headquartered in Washington, D.C., has 32 offices in the United States and Canada and is considered the leading civil rights group in the United States for Muslims.
 
Walid is everywhere, it seems. His eloquence and charisma have him speaking throughout metro Detroit and even nationwide, including appearances on CNN and C-SPAN. (MORE)
 
SEE ALSO:
 
INTERFAITH GAME INJECTS FUN INTO UNDERSTANDING OTHERS - TOP
David Briggs, Religion News Service, 9/15/07
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/14/AR2007091402078.html
 
Testing out the game recently were Wilhelm; Julia Shearson, executive director of the Cleveland chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations; Marty Plax, retired executive director of the Cleveland chapter of the American Jewish Committee; and the Rev. Larry Larson, associate pastor of Church of the Covenant in Cleveland.
 
They had a good time, often using the questions and answers as a springboard for more nuanced explorations of their faiths. There also was a lot of humor around the table as players appreciated one another's company.
 
"It's a very enjoyable game, and I think it can bring people together," Shearson said afterward. "It's a good . . . introduction." (MORE)
 
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CAIR-CHICAGO: ACTUAL VS. SYMBOLIC UNITY - TOP
NEIL STEINBERG, Chicago Sun-Times, 9/16/07
http://www.suntimes.com/news/steinberg/559210,CST-NWS-stein16.article
 
Mocking Chicago's Unity Month should not be construed as mocking unity itself, however. One glance at Iraq is enough to remind us that sectarianism is one of society's great malign forces, and we need to do all we can to make sure that it never takes root here. To do that, we need to talk to one another, listen to one another, respect one another. Even a wisenheimer like me knows that.
 
I had lunch last week with Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations' Chicago office. It wasn't a Unity Month event, but an ad hoc event whose occurrence bodes well for the future.
 
We met after I printed -- in my typical offhand manner -- a casual slur against Egypt, where Rehab was born and raised. Most people, finding their homeland insulted, would have responded in an equally harsh fashion and we'd have one of those exchanges of nastiness that clog the Internet.
 
Rehab didn't -- he expressed his disappointment emphatically but politely, and I suggested we have lunch.
 
The more you talk to people, the more you understand that they are just that: people.
 
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CAIR: WHY WERE THESE COMICS DROPPED? - TOP
Deborah Howell, Washington Post, 9/15/07
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/14/AR2007091401935.html
 
Readers were confused and angry that "Opus" comic strips with a Muslim theme did not appear in the Aug. 26 and Sept. 2 Sunday print editions. The strips, created by Berkeley Breathed, were distributed by the Washington Post Writers Group and published on washingtonpost.com.
 
Most of the controversy involved the Aug. 26 strip, which showed regular character and spiritual seeker Lola Granola in her version of a burqa, declaring that she has become a "radical Islamist. Hot new fad on the planet." Her boyfriend, the piggish super-patriot Steve Dallas, is horrified. She tells him he "won't be getting a girlfriend obsessed with Western crud" or one "who resists a man's rightful place." Steve, with a leer and then a concerned look, asks: "Anything else I won't be getting?" Lola answers: "God willing." . . .
 
Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a civil rights and advocacy group, wasn't offended. "'Opus' poked fun at the strip's characters, not Muslims or Islam. I see hundreds worse on the Internet every day," he said. (MORE)
 
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IT'S A 'RALLYING POINT FOR MUSLIM BASHERS' - TOP
Kashif Ahmed, Calgary Herald, 9/16/07
http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/theeditorialpage/story.html?id

=01e6b805-ba3c-4ea5-b618-d5c1cc264e62
 
[Kashif Ahmed lives in Calgary and is the national board member of the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations.]
 
"I endured them then and now I have to endure them again," stated a Quebecer, referring to Muslims as he recently spoke before a public commission set up by Quebec to examine what constitutes unreasonable accommodation of minorities.
 
His comments apparently raised no eyebrows in the room -- then again, Islamophobia is becoming rampant in la belle provence. Media street interviews with ordinary Quebecers during the recent veiled voting controversy revealed that most thought Muslims were imposing their beliefs on society. Nothing could be farther from both truth and reality.
 
Elections Canada's legitimate position that Muslim women wearing face veils can vote by providing identification like any other Canadian in upcoming Quebec federal byelections has sparked a gratuitous debate, which has been anything but civil. (MORE)
 
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CAIR: AIRPORT'S SINKS TO HELP MUSLIMS CARRY OUT RITUALS - TOP
Wash basins will aid cab drivers who need to cleanse feet before prayers; critics say installation violates law
Francesca Jarosz, Indianapolis Star, 9/16/07
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070916/LOCAL/709160457/-1/LOCAL17
 
Three times a day during their shifts at the Indianapolis International Airport, more than 100 Muslim cab drivers wash their feet.
 
In the parking lot where they wait to be dispatched, some fill plastic bottles with water and pour it over the right foot, then the left. Others clean their feet in the restroom sink.
 
The practice is the last step in a ritual called ablution -- "wudu" in Arabic -- which involves washing several parts of the body to cleanse before Muslims' five daily prayers.
 
And by November 2008, when the new $1.07 billion airport terminal is scheduled to be complete, the restroom near the parking lot where taxi drivers stay between runs will include floor-level sinks that will make their daily ritual easier.
 
Such foot baths have started to crop up across the country, in schools such as the University of Michigan-Dearborn, where more than 10 percent of students are Muslims, and at airports such as Kansas City International Airport.
 
They have drawn the ire of bloggers and pundits, who say they violate the separation of church and state, and the praise of advocacy groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations. (MORE)
 
SEE ALSO:
 
IL: MUSLIM CABBIES GET TICKETS WHILE PRAYING - TOP
Drivers say police at O'Hare have fined 500 for blocking lanes
LEONARD N. FLEMING, Chicago sun-Times, 9/16/07
http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/religion/559988,CST-NWS-taxi16.article
 
Faisal, a taxicab driver who works at O'Hare Airport, wants to be a good cabbie while staying true to his Muslim faith.
 
But Muslim cabdrivers are finding the latter difficult lately, as they've been hit with a rash of tickets for parking in access lanes leading to the airport terminals near where the city helped set up a prayer trailer for them.
 
"For most of us who need to pray, that's part of our religious duty," said Faisal, a 13-year-cab veteran who declined to give his last name.
 
"It doesn't do us any favors if you write us a ticket and you know this guy's going to come back in five minutes and his friend is waiting outside to move the car in case of an emergency," the cabbie complained.
 
Drivers such as Faisal say they mean no harm by parking in the lanes leading to the prayer trailer on the grounds of O'Hare's commercial lot -- which either have no-parking signs posted or are meant for brief stops.
 
The cabbies say they are caught in a Catch-22 -- that the city provided them the location in which to practice their faith, but punishes them when they park and pray. (MORE)
 
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MUSLIMS IN MILITARY SAY ‘EVERYBODY BELONGS’ - TOP
Many troops in Pacific say their faith has been met with tolerance
Jennifer H. Svan, Stars and Stripes, 9/16/07
http://stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=48781
 
While serving their country, they find time to pray to Allah at least five times a day.
 
On Fridays, they recite their Jumah prayers in community worship, whether at the Camp Foster Chapel masjid on Okinawa or at a room set aside for them in the base chapel at Misawa Air Base, Japan.
 
Like other members of faith groups in the minority among U.S. troops, their numbers at Pacific bases overseas are small. But their religion is center stage in the U.S.-led war against terrorism and Islamic extremism. (MORE)
 
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U.S. HOUSE DEMOCRAT SAID PRO-ISRAEL LOBBY PROMOTED WAR - TOP
Amy Gardner, Washington Post, 9/15/07
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/14/AR2007091402171.html
 
Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.) has again come under fire from local Jewish organizations for remarking in a magazine interview that the "extraordinarily powerful" pro-Israel lobby played a strong role promoting the war in Iraq. (MORE)
 
SEE ALSO:
 
NEOCON HAWKS GO ALL-OUT FOR GIULIANI - TOP
David Saltonstall, Daily News, 9/16/07
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/2007/09/16/2007-09-16_

neocon_hawks_go_allout_for_giuliani.html
 
They are officially known as Rudy Giuliani's senior foreign policy advisory board, but they also could be dubbed something else: Neocons For Rudy.
 
As in neoconservatives, the Republican faction that many see as among the most potent forces of Bush-era Washington - a well-funded, sharply analytical bunch that provided the ideological basis for invading Iraq and is now training its cross hairs on Iran. (MORE)
 
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INFLATING THE THREAT OF RADICAL ISLAM - TOP
No, America is not fighting WW IV
Steve Chapman, Chicago Tribune, 9/16/07
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-oped0916chapmansep16,1,6969008.column
 
Most Muslims are not terrorist sympathizers. A recent Gallup poll found that only 7 percent of the world's Muslims regard "the 9/11 attacks as completely justifiable and have an unfavorable view of the United States." Nor do many of them yearn to stamp out our freedoms. "When asked what they admire most about the West," reports Gallup, "Muslims frequently mention political freedom, liberty, fair judicial systems and freedom of speech." The striking thing about American Muslims is not how poorly they fit into a tolerant society, but how well.
 
SEE ALSO:
 
THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA IN WEST-ISLAM RELATIONS - TOP
 
SPONSOR: The Center for Study of Islam and Democracy
 
TOPIC/SUBJECT: holds a discussion on "The Role of the Media in West-Islam Relations" with Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary of the Organization of the Islamic Conference.
 
DATE: 9 a.., September 21, 2007
 
LOCATION: Georgetown University, 37th and O Streets NW, Washington, D.C.
 
CONTACT: 202-687-4328 [Note: RSVP to Brian Glenn at bpg7@georgetown.edu]
 
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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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