Verse: Conduct Your Affairs Through Mutual Consultation

CAIR: Muslim Group Issues National Voter Guides

Tea Party Leader: Defeat Ellison Because He's Muslim

Funding Behind Pre-Election Anti-Islam DVD Campaign Revealed

CAIR-OK Video: Anti-Islam Ballot Measure Sparks Debate

CAIR Seeks Protection for NY Mosque Vandalized for 4th Time

CAIR-NY: A Mosque Grows in Brooklyn

CAIR-LA: Muslim, Jewish Leaders Condemn Anti-Muslim Rabbi

Editorial: Muslim-Bashers Use Hate for Profit

MD: CAIR Rep to Join Legal Panel on Shariah and Constitution

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VERSE OF THE DAY: CONDUCT YOUR AFFAIRS THROUGH MUTUAL CONSULTATION - TOP

"(Remember that) whatever you are given (now) is nothing but a provision for the transitory life of this world. Better and more enduring is the reward that God has for those who believe, put their trust in their Lord, avoid major sins and shameful deeds, forgive even when they are angry...are constant in prayer, conduct their affairs with mutual consultation, spend out of the sustenance that We have given them, and when they are oppressed, help and defend themselves."

The Holy Quran, 42:36-39

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CAIR: MUSLIM GROUP ISSUES NATIONAL VOTER GUIDES - TOP

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 10/26/10) -- A prominent national Muslim civil rights and advocacy group today issued voter guides for a number of states in the 2010 election. 

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) says the guides are designed to inform Muslim voters about polling times and locations, how to register to vote, how to cast an absentee ballot, and about voter rights in each state.

CAIR Voter Guides

CAIR has also published a "Civic Participation Handbook" designed to provide best practices and step-by-step guides for everything from holding voter registration drives to making the most of a meeting with elected officials. 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 Legislative Director Corey Saylor, Tel: 202-384-8857, E-Mail: csaylor@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, or 202-488-8787, E-Mail: ihooper@cair.com; CAIR Communications Coordinator Amina Rubin, 202-488-8787, 202-341-4171, E-Mail: arubin@cair.com

SEE ALSO:

TEA PARTY LEADER: DEFEAT ELLISON BECAUSE HE'S MUSLIM - TOP Justin Elliott, Salon, 10/26/10

Via TPM via the Maddow blog: The leader of one of the three biggest Tea Party groups has called for Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) to be defeated this election explicitly because he is Muslim.

The call came in a weekend Web posting not by a fringe member of a Tea Party group, but by Tea Party Nation leader and founder Judson Phillips, a Tennessee attorney. (Tea Party Nation, with over 30,000 online members, is now the third largest Tea Party network, according to an NAACP report.) Phillips asked Tea Party Nation members to support an opponent of Ellison, with this reasoning: (More)

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FUNDING BEHIND MASSIVE ANTI-ISLAM DVD CAMPAIGN REVEALED - TOP Pam Martens, CounterPunch, 10/26/10

A secretive libertarian nonprofit with ties to Charles Koch bankrolled what was widely perceived to be a fear mongering effort to throw the Presidential election to Senator John McCain in 2008. Until now, where the money came from has been a hotly debated mystery.

Seven weeks before the Presidential election of 2008, approximately 100 newspapers and magazines in the U.S., including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Miami Herald, Philadelphia Inquirer, and St. Petersburg Times, distributed millions of DVDs of the documentary, "Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West." The DVDs were included in the Sunday editions. Altogether, including a separate direct mail campaign, 28 million DVDs flooded households in the swing voter states.

The newspapers did not know who was funding this massive propaganda campaign and, apparently, did not care. They inserted the DVD in their Pulitzer properties with the casualness of throwing in a sample of suds free detergent. The nonprofit organization named on the packaging of the DVD as the entity behind the film, the Clarion Fund, Inc., had no known history of operations and had a virtual office address in New York City with no physical presence and no employees on site. Documents submitted to the IRS to obtain its tax-exempt status show the Clarion Fund demanded total secrecy from its vendors....

CounterPunch can now report what this race-baiting, fear-mongering campaign cost and where the money, at least nominally, came from. (More)

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VIDEO: PROPOSED BAN ON ISLAMIC LAW IN OKLA. COURTS SPARKS DEBATE - TOP

Watch the video.

TULSA, Oklahoma -- Besides electing Oklahoma's next governor in next Tuesday's elections, voters will also weigh in on 11 state questions.

One of the most controversial is a constitutional amendment that would ban the use of Islamic Law in Oklahoma courts...

"What he's probably trying to do is create a sense of fear, a sense of Islama-phobia in the community, which is really not ethical," said JK Alam, with the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Alam, a board member with the Council on American-Islamic relations, says State Question 755 makes no sense. He says there are already statutes in place that prevent the use of international law in Oklahoma courts. He believes the prospect of Sharia Law ever being recognized here is laughable.

"We kind of giggled about it. Bottom line is we were kind of baffled about it," he said. "Why is it even coming up as a ballot question?"...

Oklahoma will be the only state with a Sharia Law-related question on its ballot on next Tuesday, November 2, 2010.

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CAIR SEEKS PROTECTION FOR NY MOSQUE VANDALIZED FOR 4TH TIME - TOP

(NEW YORK, N.Y., 10/26/10) -- The New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-NY) today called on law enforcement authorities to step up protective measures for a mosque in that state that has again been targeted by vandalism.

In the fourth such incident since August, members of Masjid Noor in Huntington, N.Y., yesterday found broken glass and nails scattered on the driveway of the facility. The vandalism occurred while some 30 people attended religious classes in the mosque. Police are investigating the incidents as possible hate crimes.

SEE: Second Incident in a Week at Huntington Mosque (Newsday)

Last week, CAIR-NY called on the FBI to investigate a previous nail attack on the mosque as a hate crime.

SEE: CAIR Asks FBI to Probe Nail Attack on NY Mosque

"We urge local law enforcement authorities to step up patrols in the area of the mosque and again ask the FBI to add its resources to the investigation of these disturbing incidents," said CAIR-NY Community Affairs Director Faiza N. Ali. "We ask state and national religious and political leaders to speak out against the growing anti-Muslim hatred in our society that can lead to such incidents." Last week, CAIR's Washington State office held a news conference in Seattle with two Muslim women who were allegedly attacked at a gas station by an assailant shouting racial and religious slurs.

CAIR-WA Video: Hate Crime Charges Filed in Attack on Muslim Women

Other recent anti-Muslim incidents include an attack on a New York Muslim mother and child, the arrest of New York teens who allegedly harassed a Muslim student because of his faith and the defacement of a South Carolina mosque.

Mosques in California, Tennessee, New York, Illinois, Wisconsin, Arizona, Louisiana, Kentucky, Texas, and Florida have faced vocal opposition or have been similarly targeted by hate incidents in recent months.

SEE: CAIR-NY Seeks Hate Crime Charges in Attack on Muslim Mother, Child CAIR-NY Seeks Federal Charges for Hate Attacks on Muslim Student FBI Meets with Members of S.C. Mosque Defaced with Pork Hate Packages Sent to U.S. Mosques

CAIR's national office recently announced the launch of a department devoted to addressing the alarming rise of Islamophobic sentiment in American society.

American Muslim individuals and institutions are being urged to review advice on security procedures contained in CAIR's "Muslim Community Safety Kit."

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-NY Community Affairs Director Faiza N. Ali, 212-870-2002, 718-724-3041, E-Mail: fali@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, or 202-488-8787, E-Mail: ihooper@cair.com; CAIR Communications Coordinator Amina Rubin, 202-488-8787, 202-341-4171, E-Mail: arubin@cair.com

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CAIR-NY: A MOSQUE GROWS IN BROOKLYN - TOP By Alex Kane, The Indypendent, 10/20/10

When a mosque and Islamic community center in Sheepshead Bay were formally proposed in the summer of 2009, the estimated 200 Muslim families living in the south Brooklyn neighborhood greeted the news happily. For many years, they’ve had to travel to mosques in Bensonhurst, Canarsie and Bay Ridge.

But the proposed three-story project at 2812 Voorhies Ave., which was approved Oct. 13 by the Department of Buildings, is now facing a storm of opposition, some of it from outside the community. The main opposition group, a group of local residents called Bay People Inc., has mobilized since the beginning of this year to oppose the mosque for a number of reasons, including concerns over increased traffic, parking problems, noise and property values.

But Bay People, Inc., as well as other opponents, also have an agenda aligned with anti-Muslim groups and individuals that have been stoking opposition to mosques around the city and country. On its website, Bay People states that, "the neighborhood residents are mostly of Italian/Russian/Jewish/Irish descent and will not benefit from having a mosque and a Muslim community center."

The claims about "sharia" law and Islam as a "political doctrine" echo similar claims from anti-Muslim activists actively working to oppose the construction of new mosques around the country from lower Manhattan to Tennessee to California.

"The opponents against the proposed mosque in Sheepshead Bay erroneously brushstroke the entire Muslim community as ‘the other’ based on misinformation and at times outright bigotry," Aliya Latif, the civil rights director for the New York chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations, wrote in an email to the Indypendent.

Anti-Muslim accusations have been leveled by opponents of the mosque at a series of heated protests in the community, including a June 27 anti-mosque rally where one Sheepshead Bay resident threatened to "bomb the mosque" if it’s built, according to the Brooklyn Paper. (More)

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CAIR-LA: MUSLIM AND JEWISH LEADERS CONDEMN ANTI-MUSLIM BIGOTRY OF EXTREMIST RABBI - TOP

(LOS ANGELES, CA, 10/25/10) - The Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA) today joined Southern California Jewish community leaders in condemning the hateful remarks of a local candidate for state Senate.

The candidate, Rabbi Nachum Schifren, spoke at a rally in London over the weekend, which was sponsored by the extremist English Defense League, where he said Muslims "eat each other alive, like the dogs that they are." He further said: "We shall prevail, we will not let them take over our countries. We will never surrender to the sword of Islam." In a commentary written in February of this year, Rabbi Shifren stated: "We are at war with Islam!"

SEE: Surfing Rabbi tells EDL demo 'We shall prevail'

In statements today, CAIR-LA Executive Director Hussam Ayloush, Interfaith Communities United for Justice & Peace (ICUJP) Chair Stephen Rohde, and Jews on First Co-Founder Rabbi Haim Beliak expressed outrage over the rabbi's racist remarks and urged Americans to unite against such hatred.

"Religious and political leaders have a special obligation to promote tolerance and mutual understanding in the communities they serve," said Ayloush. "Rabbi Shifren, unfortunately, has done the opposite. What is even more abhorrent is that he is using his bigotry to try towin a political seat and is being supported broadly by members of the GOP and the Tea Party movement. As conscientious Americans, we call on the GOP and the Tea Party to repudiate Rabbi Shifren's bigotry and work with Americans of various faiths, including Muslims and Jews, and ethnicities toward a more pluralistic society. Being silent about the rabbi's hateful remarks will imply that those who endorse him as a California Senate candidate support his bigotry as well."

"Nachum Shifren's expressions are repugnant to Judaism," Rabbi Beliak said. "Shifren's anti-Muslim hate speech are not isolated ideas but part of a pattern which includes anti-immigrant and racist expression. Using the sobriquet "Surfing Rabbi" does not diminish his moronic thoughts. His visit to England, his candidacy for the California State Senate, his association with Chabad and his teaching position at Dorsey High School raise further concern. Since Shifren associates himself with the "Tea Party" and the GOP it is reasonable to ask that they condemn his words."

"Few slurs are more despicable and incendiary than to dehumanize an entire people by comparing them with disdain to animals," Rohde said. "For Rabbi Shifren to call Muslims 'dogs' is beneath contempt. It feeds hatred and bigotry and must be condemned by all decent people."

SEE: List of Politicians and Others who have Endorsed Rabbi Shifren

CONTACT: CAIR-LA Communications Manager Munira Syeda, 714 776 1847, Email: info@losangeles.cair.com

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GAIL KERR: MUSLIM BASHERS AREN'T NEW TO ART OF HATE FOR PROFIT - TOP Gail Kerr, The Tennessean, 10/26/10

Some people have no problem making a financial killing by spreading fear.

A two-day, front-page series in The Tennessean on Sunday and Monday by reporter Bob Smietana shone the bright light of truth on the people who are making millions of dollars perpetuating the current trend to hate Muslims.

They make a financial killing spreading fear.

They skirt facts and intellectual investigation by making stuff up. It's mind-boggling, both that any humans would want to spend their lives wallowing in such muck, and that thinking people fall for it.

Here are some of the highlights from Smietana's report:

• Washington-based SAE Productions, owned by Steven Emerson, collected $3.39 million in 2008 for "researching" alleged ties between American Muslims and terrorists. The money came from a nonprofit charity Emerson also started, which asks for donations by telling the ignorant they are in danger from Muslims.

The relationship between this nonprofit and for-profit appears to be a blatant violation of IRS laws. The IRS has strict rules about how grants are given and received, and what has to be disclosed. Emerson may end up paying a goodly part of his Muslim-hating windfall to attorneys.

• A Nashville-based for-profit group called the Center for the Study of Political Islam is led by a man named Bill French, a former physics professor. He leads a revival-like presentation outlining what he calls an ideology that undermines America. He points to a book as proof. He wrote the book. He made up the so-called Muslim ideology. He sells the book. (More)

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CAIR: SHARIAH, THE CONSTITUTION AND AMERICAN MUSLIMS - TOP

Details here.

Friday, November 5th, 2010

Confronting Islam: Shari’ah, the Constitution and American Muslims University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class Fall Symposium University of Maryland School of Law 500 W. Baltimore St. Baltimore, MD 21201 Friday, November 5th, 2010 8:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

2:15 – 3:45: Panel 3: Perceptions of Muslims in America: The face of Islam

This panel will give some insight into the perception of Muslims in America and current case law and challenges faced by the Muslim community. A few panelists will give anthropological insight into the Muslim community and its ethnic identity and struggles in American society while others will discuss civil rights, and hate crimes, post 9/11 employment discrimination as well as national security and detention cases faced by Muslims. This panel will also discuss the impact of current events on the Muslim American community.

* Professor Barbra Olshansky * Salam Al-Marayati * Corey Saylor * Professor Saeed Khan * Professor Sahar Aziz * Imam Khalid Latif (tentative)