Islamophobia Today:
 
* CAIR: GOP Takes Harsher Stance Toward Islam
* Newt Gingrich to Join Islam Hater Wilders at NY Anti-Mosque Rally
* CAIR: Obama Defends Plans for Islamic Center Near Ground Zero
* CAIR Video: Is Islamophobia Growing in Connecticut?
* CAIR-CT: Muslims Rally Against Islamophobia 
 
Challenging Islamophobia:
 
* Video: CAIR-TX Seeks Aid for Pakistan Flood Victims
* Tulsa Shelter Helps Abused Muslim Women
* Oklahoma Muslims Launch Statewide Food Drive
 
 
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GOP Takes Harsher Stance Toward Islam
Ben Smith & Maggie Haberman, Politico.com, 8/15/10
 
The harsh Republican response to President Barack Obama's defense of a mosque near Ground Zero marks a dramatic shift in the party's posture toward Islam - from a once-active courtship of Muslim voters to very public tolerance after 9/11 to an openly aired sense of mistrust.
 
Republican  leaders have largely abandoned former President George W. Bush's post-9/11 rhetorical embrace of American Muslims and his insistence - always controversial inside the party - that Islam is a religion of peace.
 
This weekend, former Bush aides were among the very few Republicans siding with Obama, as many of the party's leaders have moved toward more vocal denunciations of Islam's role in violence abroad, and suspicion of its place at home. . .
 
Muslim leaders say, regretfully, that they also see a dramatic change.
 
Republicans have "shifted completely away from the Bush administration line on relations with Islam and they've obviously made the political calculation that bashing Islam and Muslims is a winning issue for them," said the spokesman for the Council on American Islamic Relations, Ibrahim Hooper, who blamed the "tea party movement [for] liberating the inner bigot in people." (More)
 
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Newt Gingrich to Join Islam Hater Wilders at NY Anti-Mosque Rally
 
The confirmed list of speakers includes 9/11 family members; former U. S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton; former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich; the Dutch Parliamentarian and freedom fighter Geert Wilders; Gary Berntsen, a candidate for the U.S. Senate from New York; Jordan Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice, which has filed suit to stop the Ground Zero mega-mosque; Ginny Thomas, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas's wife; Michael Grimm, a candidate for Congress from New York's 13th district and a 9/11 first responder; and journalist Andrew Breitbart.
 
SEE: SIOA Condemns Obama's Blessing of Ground Zero Mega-Mosque; Bolton, Wilders, Gingrich to Speak At 9/11 Rally
 
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CAIR: Obama Defends Plans for Ground Zero Mosque

By Michael D. Shear and Scott Wilson, Washington Post, 8/14/10
 
President Obama on Friday forcefully joined the national debate over construction of an Islamic complex near New York's Ground Zero, telling guests at a White House dinner marking the holy month of Ramadan that opposing the project is at odds with American values. . . 
 
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington-based advocacy group, expressed satisfaction that Obama had finally decided to address the controversy.
 
"There was some disappointment when his press secretaries relegated it to being a local issue. But we're pleased," CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said. "It was something that needed to be done by the president. The level of anti-Muslim hysteria has gotten out of control over this manufactured controversy." (More)
 
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CAIR Video: Is Islamophobia Growing in Connecticut?
 
View the video.
 
 
Some members of local Muslim organizations are addressing what they call "Islamophobia
" and  they cite recent evangelizing outside a Bridgeport mosque. But some of those who were at that demonstration say they did nothing wrong. News 8's Jamie Muro has more from the State Capitol in Hartford.
 
 
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Conn. Muslims Rally Against Islamaphobia  
By David Huck, Journal Inquirer, 8/14/10
 
They, as all Americans, have the right to worship freely without any fear of intimidation, without any fear of harassment," said Mongi Dhaouadi, executive director of the Connecticut office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
 
He said as people of faith, they have an obligation to "save America from the extreme groups, from all sides."
"The time is now for us to reclaim the eternal message of all religions, that it is a message of peace," Dhaouadi said.
 
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Video: CAIR-San Antonio President Seeks Aid for Pakistan Flood Victims
 
View the video.
 
Sarwat Husain may be thousands of miles away from her birth country, but her mind is still back at home in Pakistan.
 
"It hurts, you can't eat, you can't sleep when you see those pictures of little kids carrying weight on their heads, trying to cross the waters," Said Husain, President of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in San Antonio

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Tulsa Shelter
Helps Abused Muslim Women
BILL SHERMAN, Tulsa World, 8/15/10
 
Volunteers from the Tulsa Muslim community support the women by taking them shopping or to doctors appointments, preparing food or providing baby-sitting. Rent, utilities and food are provided. (More)
 
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Oklahoma Muslims Planning to Educate and Give Back to Others During Ramadan
Carla Hinton, Oklahoman, 8/14/10
 
Muslims who gather today for prayer at an Oklahoma City mosque will bring food donations to be given to the needy in the community.
The food drive is part of a statewide initiative spearheaded by the Islamic Council of Oklahoma during Ramadan, the holy month of fasting. (More)
 
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CAIR is America's largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. 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.

CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726,

E-Mail: ihooper@cair.com; CAIR Communications Coordinator Amina Rubin, 202-488-8787, 202-341-4171,

E-Mail: arubin@cair.com