CAIR OFFERS CONDOLENCES TO FAMILY OF MARWAN BURGAN - TOP(WASHINGTON, D.C., 3/8/09) - The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today offered sincere condolences to the family of Marwan Burgan, a respected community activist who passed away Thursday after a battle with pancreatic cancer.Mr. Burgan was the founder and president of the Project for American Civic Engagement (PACE), an organization that aims to involve minority populations in the U.S. political process. Before that, he served as chief of staff to Congressman Mervyn Dymally (D-CA). In his political career, Mr. Burgan was instrumental in the passage of amendments to hate crime laws that specifically protect Muslims and mosques. “We offer our heartfelt condolences to the Burgan family at their time of loss,” said CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad. “We are grateful for Marwan’s dedication to the important causes he believed in and supported even in the last days of his life. He will be missed in our community.”Mr. Burgan will be buried in his native Jordan, but memorials are scheduled in the Washington, D.C. area. -----MAINE'S COURT SYSTEM, JAIL TO ALLOW HIJAB - TOPCourts, jail adjust to religious custom The Cumberland County Jail and state courts modify rules on head coverings to reflect Muslim and other religions. David Hench, Portland Press Herald, 3/8/09
For many Muslim women, being seen in public with one's head uncovered is a violation of religious tenets as well as an embarrassing display of immodesty.
Head coverings also can be, to varying degrees, important to Jews, Sikhs and people of other faiths.
But that obligation has collided with security concerns and cultural standards prevalent in American courts and prisons, where removing hats and head coverings is a sign of respect and consistent with long-standing security practices.
Now, Maine's court system and the Cumberland County Jail will no longer require defendants, inmates and visitors to remove head coverings that are required by religious custom. (MORE)
SEE ALSO:OK: KEEP THE SCARF - TOPControversial driver's license bill unnecessaryWorld's Editorial Writers, Tulsa World, 3/7/09
The controversial House bill that would require a woman to remove her hijab for her driver's license photo is best summed up by state Sen. Roger Ballenger, D-Okmulgee, who said it seems to "be a solution looking for a problem."
House Bill 1645, authored by Rep. Rex Duncan, R-Sand Springs, would prohibit Oklahomans from wearing scarves or other head coverings in driver's license photos. The rationale behind Duncan's misguided bill is that the wearing of the hijab — the scarf worn by some Muslim women which covers the head but not the face — somehow makes identification difficult. That, of course, is silly. The woman's entire face is visible.
Duncan tries to cover his reasoning by saying that the bill also would prohibit the wearing of ballcaps, cowboy hats and do-rags in photos. We don't care if Bubba wants to wear his baseball cap or if Tex wants to keep his 10-gallon hat on in the photo, as long as their faces are visible from hairline to chin. (MORE)-----
MA: MUSLIM BASKETBALL PLAYER SETS SCORING RECORD IN HIJAB - TOPSelena Roberts, Sports Illustrated, 3/5/09
How does she do it? In the face of triple teams, with defenders all but linking their arms like paper dolls, Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir is able to exploit the limited daylight she gets and average 42 points a game.
How does she do it? Passing Rebecca Lobo's 17-year-old Massachusetts high school mark of 2,710 career points is about as easy as bumping Julie Andrews off the hilltop, and yet Bilqis graciously eclipsed the legend in January on her way to becoming the first player in state history -- male or female -- to score 3,000 points.
How does she do it? For the last four seasons --beginning one year after her 43-point varsity debut as, yes, an eighth-grader -- the 5-foot-3 1/2 Bilqis has played for New Leadership Charter School in Springfield in full Muslim dress, arms and legs covered beneath her uniform, wearing a head scarf, or hijab.
Bilqis doesn't mind remarks rooted in curiosity; it's the questions out of ignorance that she meets with a confident rejection. "When some people come at me with, 'Oh, is that a tablecloth on your head?' -- it's like, really, don't," Bilqis (pronounced Bill-KEACE) said last Thursday, the day she ended her high school career with 51 of the Wildcats' 57 points in a regional Division III quarterfinals playoff loss. "If you're going to have that kind of question, don't ask me. But some people are truly honest in asking a question, like, 'Oh, I don't want to be rude, but why do you wear that?' That's the kind of question I'd rather answer." . . .
Some nights on the floor in visiting gyms, she would hear the catcalls derived from the fear of the unknown, shouted in stupidity: "Terrorist!" But slowly, the more heads she turned with her step-back threes and her sleights of hand, the more minds Bilqis opened. This wasn't grudging tolerance but joyous acceptance of an exceptional player and student. Not only does she possess a cashmere-soft touch and flinty defensive skills, but she's also on the honor roll, with an interest in premed and the stomach for the Discovery Health Channel. ("I'm good with the scalpel scenes," she says.) Bilqis has been embraced for all she is. With 1:23 to go before halftime on Feb. 17, the Wildcats' game was stopped for 10 minutes as the home crowd cheered her 3,000th point. (MORE)
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MA: MUSLIM COMMUNITY RALLIES BEHIND SUDBURY MAN CHARGED BY THE FBI - TOPMilton J. Valencia, Boston Globe, 3/8/09
To friends and family, he was a maturing leader in the Muslim community, a passionate writer who was departing for Saudi Arabia for a career as a pharmacist. But the arrest of Tariq Mehanna in November, as he was about to board a plane at Logan International Airport for his new life in the Middle East, has cast the 26-year-old in darker terms, as a liar supporting and associating with terrorists.
With an indictment in federal court, the Sudbury man faces a maximum sentence of eight years in prison on charges of lying to investigators in a terrorism inquiry. But a community of supporters has rallied around him, questioning how Mehanna could have been ensnared in a federal case and whether he is being used a pawn in the FBI's war on terrorism.
"They're kind of painting the wrong picture of the Muslim community," said S. Ahmad Zamanian of Houston, a friend of Mehanna's. "Anyone who has met Tariq . . . would all tell you that this man is far removed from anyone's definition of a terrorist."
Mehanna has been released pending trial after his parents posted more than $1 million in surety, including their sprawling Sudbury home. His lawyers, led by J.W. Carney Jr. of Boston, are challenging the case.
But he is also fighting a separate battle to shed a stigma that has shadowed him since his arrest, as he faces scrutiny over his blog postings, his acquaintances, and his associations with people such as Daniel Maldonado, who later became the first American charged with terrorism activities in Somalia. (MORE)
-----MI: A HOMETOWN BANK HEEDS A CALL TO SERVE ITS MUSLIM CLIENTS - TOPSamuel G. Freedman, New York Times, 3/7/09
Until a stranger without an appointment showed up one day in late 2001, Stephen L. Ranzini was feeling rather pleased with himself. University Bank here, which he led as president, had just won a national award for community service. The honor attested to Mr. Ranzini’s success in working with local black ministers and a nonprofit agency to increase home-ownership in African-American neighborhoods.
Then, disturbing the aura of satisfaction, a well-dressed man arrived and insisted on seeing the president. “If your bank is so outstanding for community service,” the visitor said, as Mr. Ranzini recently recalled, “how come you’re not servicing my community?”
What community, the banker asked, would that be?
“I’m a Muslim,” the man responded.
Mr. Ranzini started to explain that University Bank already had plenty of Muslim customers, hardly a surprise in a college town in the area of southeast Michigan with the largest concentration of Arab-Americans in the United States.
That answer did not satisfy the visitor. Those Muslims, he said, were paying or earning interest.
“So what?” Mr. Ranzini said. Wasn’t interest sort of the whole point of what banks did?
Over the next 10 minutes, Mr. Ranzini, a Roman Catholic executive who had grown up in the vanilla suburbs of New Jersey, started an education that would ultimately transform an otherwise conventional hometown bank into a national leader in the growing specialty of Islamic finance. This year, the bank won an award from the American Bankers Association largely for its service to Muslim clients. (MORE)
SEE ALSO:PA: ISLAM ENCOURAGES BELIEVERS TO LOOK FOR THE BEST IN EVERYONE - TOPFatima Kermalli, Morning Call, 3/8/09
Helen Keller had said, ''Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.''
A positive outlook and confidence in ourselves and others are the ingredients toward success and happiness. Truly having an optimistic view of others can bring about a prosperous society. The preaching of hate and fear will in turn create disunity and malice.
Such examples can be easily illustrated. For instance, when a leader constantly speaks about fear and terror for nearly a decade, then automatically the people become apprehensive and skeptical. Trust is shattered. But in one day, another leader speaks about hope then the entire tone of the nation and world is changed.
It seemed as if President Obama realized the ramifications of exhibiting negative behavior and speech toward any people. His desire to move forward and work together based on mutual respect and interest is laudable. Islam has always been a faith that propagated good will toward one another. The Last Messenger of Islam, Prophet Muhammad emphasized, ''Have a good opinion of your brothers, through that you will gain purity of heart and firmness of nature.'' (MORE)
[Fatima Kermalli is a member of and a Sunday School Teacher at Shia Ithna Asheri Jamaat of Pennsylvania, Allentown.]
---QURAN COMPATIBLE WITH AMERICAN VALUES, FILMMAKER SAYS - TOPTrevor Williams, Global Atlanta, 3/6/09
Despite a perceived cultural clash between the West and Islam, many of the values upheld by Americans are also enshrined in the religion’s holy book, the Quran, an Indian filmmaker said in Atlanta.
“The Quran is already there, it’s being played out every day, day in and day out in American life,” said Faruq Masudi, who is promoting his newest movie in Georgia. “To say that American lifestyle or society is at loggerheads with the concept of the Quran is very, very wrong.”
Mr. Masudi, who hails from northern India, has produced soap operas and other TV shows in multiple languages for distribution in India, Pakistan and around the Middle East.
He had already produced two feature films in Hindi and Arabic, but his latest project was filmed entirely in the U.S., in English, with a cast of American scholars.
Titled “Quran: Contemporary Connections,” the film blends genres but mostly resembles a documentary, which Mr. Masudi hopes will correct much of what he calls “misinformation” about Islam in America. (MORE)
---LIKE OTHER U.S. MUSLIMS, THE FAITH'S FOLLOWERS IN UTAH ARE DIVERSE - TOPPeggy Fletcher Stack, Salt Lake Tribune, 3/6/09
The American Muslim community is more racially diverse than many other religious groups and its women are among the most highly educated.
Muslims in the United States also see themselves as more prosperous than fellow believers in other countries.
These were among the findings of a Gallup poll released this week that compares the demographics of Muslim Americans with those of the general U.S. population.
Utah's more than 20,000 Muslims, who attend one of five mosques, share many of the same characteristics as those polled, religious leaders said.
The state's Muslim community has no statistics on educational attainment by its members, but "a significant segment of our female population [has] high university degrees and works in various professional careers such as doctors, engineers, professors, and researchers," said Imam Muhammed Mehtar of Khadeeja Islamic Center of Salt Lake City.
That's because Islam emphasizes the importance of women's education, said Sanwat Chaudhury, who works for Salt Lake City's health department. (MORE)
---GROUP RACIALLY DIVERSE AND YOUNG, STUDY FINDS - TOPReligion News Service, 3/7/09
Muslims in America attend worship services weekly just as much as Protestant Americans. Among the nation's faith groups, they are the most racially diverse. And they're younger than average: More than a third of Muslim adults -- 36 percent -- are between 18 and 29, double the percentage of young U.S. adults overall.
So says a study by the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, which also indicates that U.S. Muslims reflect the successes and challenges of American life. Although 30 percent of Muslim Americans work in professional occupations, 27 percent said there were times in the previous year when they lacked enough money to buy the food they needed.
The 137-page report, "Muslim Americans: A National Portrait," reveals similarities and differences between Muslims and other Americans from the perspectives of race, age, gender, political viewpoints and economic standing. (MORE)