Verse: Do Not Despair

Video: Jon Stewart Blasts Fox for Anti-Muslim Rhetoric

TN: Mosque Protest a Perversion of American Values

NY: A Move on Staten Island to Broker Mosque Peace

GA: Muslim Charged in Marietta Mosque Arson

CAIR-MI Rep Speaks on Muslim Legal Advocacy Panel

CAIR-MI: Arrested Missionaries Broke Rules of Arab Fest

CAIR-FL: Potential Immigration Law Divides Public, Law Enforcement

Muslim Chosen as Mayor by New Jersey Town (NY Times)

Tapping The Growing Muslim-American Market

The FBI: Foiling its Own Plots Since 2001

Backlash Against Imaginary Muslim Perils in Oklahoma

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VERSE/HADITH OF THE DAY: DO NOT DESPAIR - TOP

"Say: 'O My servants who have transgressed against your own souls, do not despair of God's mercy, for God forgives all sins. It is He who is the Forgiving, the Merciful.'"

The Holy Quran, 39:53

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "I would not trade this verse for the whole world."

Al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 752

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VIDEO: JON STEWART BLASTS FOX FOR ANTI-MUSLIM RHETORIC - TOP The Daily Show with John Stewart 7/7/10

Obama uses NASA to reach out to the Muslim world, while plans to build more mosques in America spark outrage. (More)

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MOSQUE PROTEST A PERVERSION OF AMERICAN VALUES - TOP Knoxville News Sentinel, 7/8/10

An anti-American protest is planned for July 14 in Murfreesboro, Tenn.

A group of Rutherford County residents will be exercising its constitutional right to free association and free speech to attack another pillar of the First Amendment - the free exercise of religion.

The group, organized by a man named Kevin Fisher, opposes the building of a mosque. (More)

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SEE ALSO: A MOVE ON STATEN ISLAND TO BROKER MOSQUE PEACE - TOP Amy Padnani, SILive.com, 7/8/10

Muslims rallying on the steps of Borough Hall yesterday in support of the Midland Beach mosque unveiled a plan to form an Islamic civic association on Staten Island.

The group said the move was prompted by the heated response to the planned conversion of a former convent owned by St. Margaret Mary R.C. Church into a mosque and community center. (More)

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MUSLIM COMMUNITY MEMBER CHARGED IN MARIETTA MOSQUE FIRE - TOP Janel Davis, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 7/8/10

A member of the Muslim community is suspected of setting the fire that occurred at a Marietta mosque Monday night, Marietta fire officials said Thursday.

Tamsir Mendy, 26, a native of Gambia, has been charged with 1st degree arson and is being held without bail at the Cobb County detention center, said Scott Tucker, Marietta assistant fire chief. (More)

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CAIR-MI REP SPEAKS ON MUSLIM LEGAL ADVOCACY PANEL - TOP

(SOUTHFIELD, MI, 7/8/10) ­ A representative of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI) spoke yesterday on a panel discussion at the Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Auburn Hills focusing on issues relating to American Muslims and legal advocacy.

CAIR-MI Executive Director Dawud Walid discussed the correlation between the ongoing civil rights movement of African-Americans and the current civil rights advocacy of American Muslims. Walid also touched on the parameters of Muslim advocacy based on spiritual principles set forth in the Quran, Islam's revealed text.

The panel discussion, which was sponsored by the Cooley Muslim Law Society (CMLS), was attended by law students, law professors and the dean of the law school.

Other speakers on the panel included ADC Advisory Board Member attorney Ihsan Alkhatib and attorney Ali Hamoud.

"We welcome such opportunities to engage law students, who will be on the front lines of addressing the civil rights challenges of our time," said CAIR-MI Executive Director Dawud Walid.

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.

CONTACT: CAIR-MI Executive Director Dawud Walid, 248-559-2247, E-Mail: dwalid@cair.com

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SEE ALSO: CAIR-MI: STATE REP BLASTS ARRESTS OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES AT ARAB FEST - TOP Jennifer Chambers, The Detroit News, 7/7/10

State Rep. Tom McMillin is asking the Attorney General's Office to investigate an incident involving four Christian missionaries who were arrested at the Arab International Festival in Dearborn after talking to festivalgoers about religion . . .

Officials with the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said they support the Dearborn police in their decision to arrest the men, who were passing out Christian missionary literature. In a statement, CAIR said the group did not play by the rules of the festival, which require religious groups to pass out their materials at a paid booth or outside of the festival area. (More)

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CAIR-FL: POTENTIAL ARIZONA-STYLE IMMIGRATION LAW DIVIDES FLORIDA PUBLIC, LAW ENFORCEMENT - TOP Cristina Silva, Times Staff, 7/7/10

Neil Lewis' cramped immigration law office reverberates from the ring of yet another telephone call. Each anxious voice on the other end poses the same question.

"Is that going to come here?" Lewis said, echoing his clients' apprehensive queries.

Across the state, Floridians are paying close attention as state lawmakers begin to craft a tough, Arizona-style immigration law that would grant law enforcement officials broad authority to act as immigration investigators.

Under the proposed law, criminal suspects and traffic law violators would need to show proof of legal residency if questioned. Insufficient documentation could result in a trip to a local federal detention center . . .

Critics of the law also bewail an inept immigration system . . .

"Our federal immigration system is currently broken," said Ramzy Kilic, director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations Tampa.

Lawmakers have yet to look at the potential costs of enforcing a Florida law. It would, however, mean a significant shift for many law enforcement departments. (More)

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BROTHERHOOD AND POLITICS, CONSORTING! - TOP By Peter Applebome, New York Times, 7/8/10

You'd like to think there's just a feel-good story in the unlikely selection of Mohammed Hameeduddin as mayor of this diverse Bergen County town that is increasingly a stronghold of Orthodox Jews.

And, on balance, that's probably the bottom line: a Muslim, who first got involved in local politics when his mosque was planning to expand, was picked by his fellow town council members, 5-to-2, as the town's new mayor on July 1. (More)

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TAPPING THE GROWING MUSLIM-AMERICAN MARKET - TOP Sarah Mahoney, Media Post, 7/7/10

When it comes to wooing Muslim Americans, U.S. marketers are pretty oblivious, leaving potential customers to scramble for product information on their own. Are Halal meals at Kentucky Fried Chicken Halal enough? How about Oreos? What's new at Forever 21 that is hot and modest? Is that mutual fund compliant with Shariah investment principles?

But while the universe of advertisers reaching out to these estimated 6 to 8 million Americans has remained pretty small, there are signs of new awareness of this growing demographic. National marketers like Ann Taylor, ESPN, Verizon and U.S. Healthcare are popping up on Web sites like hijabtrendz.com or chillyoislamyou.com, as well as in niche publications. And Hallmark sells Eid cards, to help celebrate the holiday marking the end of Ramadan. (More)

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THE FBI: FOILING ITS OWN PLOTS SINCE 2001 - TOP By Stephan Salisbury, Salon, 7/6/2010

Informers have by now become our first line of defense in our battles with the evildoers, the go-to guys in the never-ending domestic war on terror. They regularly do the dirty work -- suggesting and encouraging the plots, laboring as bag men to move the money, fashioning the bombs, and eliciting the flamboyant dialogue, even while following the scripts of their handlers to the letter.

They have attended to all the little details that make for the successful and now familiar arrests, criminal complaints, trials, and (for the most part) convictions in the ever-distracting war against... what? Al-Qaeda? Terror? Muslims? The inept? The poor? (More)

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A BACKLASH AGAINST IMAGINARY PERILS - TOP The Economist, 7/8/10

THERE are only 30,000 Muslims in Oklahoma, a state of 3.7m people, making them well under 1% of the population. That's still enough to worry some people, though. Rex Duncan, a Republican member of Oklahoma's House of Representatives, has just had a measure placed on the November ballot that would ban local courts from considering sharia, or Islamic law, in their judgments, a dubious first for the nation.

Mr Duncan describes his proposed measure, which would also bar courts from considering any other forms of international law, as a "Save Our State" constitutional amendment. He cites Britain, and the alleged readiness of its courts to consider sharia (though in fact it is only applied in some civil and family cases when both parties agree, and the primacy of the law of the land remains paramount in all cases) as an example of how prevalent Islamic law might become. Mr Duncan calls it a "cancer upon the survivability of the UK", and declares that "this is a war for the survival of America."

The odd thing is that no one has ever proposed making appeals to sharia in America. But proponents of this and similar measures elsewhere point to the example of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, who has sometimes cited foreign laws in her opinions on cases before the Supreme Court. Opponents worry that such a measure would bring into question any reference to English statute, for instance Blackstone's useful "Commentaries on the Law of England". Since the American legal system was originally based on English common law, that would be an inconvenience. (More)