ANTI-ISLAM AU SPEAKER TIED TO ‘EUROFACISTS’ - TOP
Even other extremists critical of Robert Spencer’s ‘neo-Nazi’ links

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 4/24/09) - The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) revealed today that a speaker for an event next week at American University (AU) in Washington, D.C., will also take part in an upcoming “Eurofacist” conference in Europe.

Robert Spencer, publisher of the anti-Islam Internet hate site “Jihad Watch,” is scheduled to speak at AU on April 27 about “The Threat of Militant Islam.” The event is sponsored by a student group called Youth for Western Civilization (YWC), which describes itself as the “West’s right wing youth movement.” YWC’s mission statement says: “This movement is focused on the support of Western history, identity, high culture, and pride and opposition to radical multiculturalism, political correctness, racial preferences, mass immigration, and socialism.”

SEE: Youth for Western Civilization

A March 30, 2009, article in The Tennessean said of YWC: “The Southern Poverty Law Center issued a warning last month that the national founders of Youth for Western Civilization, Marcus Epstein and Kevin DeAnna, have posted to white supremacist Web sites in the past.” Center spokeswoman Heidi Beirich said of the language the group is using: "To us, it's racism, pure and simple."

SEE: Youth for Western Civilization Group at Vanderbilt Stirs Furor

In recent weeks, even other anti-Muslim Internet sites have criticized Spencer for his ties to “Eurofacists.”

SEE: Civil War Raging in Right-Wing Blogosphere

The blog “Little Green Footballs” (LGF) notes that Spencer will speak at a European conference in May “organized by a group called ‘Pro Köln’ — a successor to the notorious fascist group ‘Deutsche Liga für Volk und Heimat’ (the ‘German League for People and Homeland’).”

LGF goes on to note that the Pro Köln group “is under observation by the German inland secret service…One of the main organizers of ‘Pro Köln’ is Manfred Rouhs. Here are two photos of Rous with hardcore neo-Nazi activist Axel Reitz, who the local media call ‘the Hitler of Cologne.’”

SEE: Robert Spencer Confirmed to Attend Eurofascist Conference

In responding to LGF’s criticism, Spencer claims, “Racist parties such as the BNP and antisemites such as Jean Marie LePen's National Front are not welcome and have not been invited.”

But a September 19, 2008, article in Britain’s Independent newspaper about a similar Pro Köln conference said, “Pro Cologne [Pro Köln] claimed on its website that…guest speakers would include the French National Front leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen, and Heinz-Christan Strache, the leader of Austria's right-wing Freedom Party…Pro Cologne said the Flemish far-right leader Filip Dewinter…would address the conference today. Mario Borghezio, of Italy's Northern League, was also scheduled to attend.”

Another speaker at the May event in Europe, Pamela Geller, operates one of the Internet’s most vicious anti-Islam sites. Her blog features categories such as “Advancing Islamic Lies,” “Islam 2008: Religion of Barbarism” and “Slavery: An Arab custom.” Geller has also been criticized by other Islamophobes for her extremism and for supporting far-right groups in Europe.

Both Geller and Spencer are supporting an anti-Islam conference on April 27 in Florida. CAIR has called on Rep. Adam Hasner, the leader of that state’s House Republicans and a member of the conference’s “host committee,” to disassociate himself from the event, calling it a “hate fest.”

SEE: Fla. House GOP Leader Linked to Anti-Islam Hate Fest

In 2007, Spencer spoke at a so-called "Counterjihad Brussels 2007" conference in Belgium attended by those with links to far-right parties such as Filip Dewinter of Vlaams Belang (Belgium) and Ted Ekeroth of Sverigedemokraterna (Sweden). Both parties have been accused of either having a racist platform, a neo-Nazi past or having links to neo-Nazis and other racists.

Vlaams Belang is the successor to the Vlaams Blok party, which was banned in 2004 for being an illegal racist political faction. (Vlaams Belang's founders were Nazi collaborators in World War II.)

SEE: Court Rules Vlaams Blok is Racist 

Of Sverigedemokraterna, the International Herald Tribune wrote: “Sverigedemokraterna, or the Sweden Democrats, have been part of this country's political landscape for almost 20 years, but they were considered too close to the Nazi-inspired far-right to contend for large numbers of votes.” (7/7/06)

Robert Spencer's Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald wrote on that hate site: "Only one group, only one belief-system, distinguishes itself by appearing incapable of fitting in. And that is Muslims, and Islam…if one really knew what Islam contained…then how could any decent person remain a Muslim?"

He also recommended that western nations be "Islam-proofed the way a house is child-proofed," compared Muslims to Nazis and urged that they be boycotted: "[I]t should not be hard to find ways to limit the spread or practice of Islam. And if in addition to whatever local, state and federal government officials do, private parties simply conduct their own boycott of goods and services offered by Muslims, in the same way that they would have refused to buy, in 1938, a German Voigtlander camera…"

CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization, has 35 offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada. 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 National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726, E-Mail: ihooper@cair.com; CAIR Communications Coordinator Amina Rubin, 202-488-8787, 202-341-4171, E-Mail: arubin@cair.com

SEE ALSO:

CAIR-SAN DIEGO REP SPEAKS ON ISLAMOPHOBIA - TOP

(SAN DIEGO, CA 4/24/09) - A representative of the San Diego office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-San Diego) yesterday spoke to university students and faculty on the topic of “Islamophobia: It’s Components, Root Causes, and Remedies.”

The talk was part of Islam Awareness Week sponsored by the California State University San Marcos (CSU San Marcos) Muslim Student Association.

"Islamophobia is a result of centuries of misperceptions and misunderstanding in the West with regards to Islam and Muslims," said CAIR San Diego Public Relations Director Edgar Hopida, who spoke at the event. “Understanding these root causes will help us find practical solutions anti-Muslim sentiment around the world.”

CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization, has 35 offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada. 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-San Diego Public Relations Director Edgar Hopida, 619-913-0719, 858-278-4547, E-Mail: ehopida@cair.com

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CAIR: NEW FBI GUIDELINES USED TO TARGET U.S. MUSLIMS - TOP
Julia A. Shearson, Online Journal, 4/22/09

[Julia A. Shearson is executive director of Council on American Islamic Relations - Cleveland (CAIR).]

On March 17, 2009, the American Muslim Task Force (AMT) announced that it was considering suspending outreach ties with the FBI. The announcement came after continued civil rights abuses perpetrated by the bureau, abuses that have gone largely unchecked by Congress and the courts, and unnoticed by the American public.

After more than eight years of dialogue between the American Muslim community and the FBI, that agency continues to employ pressure tactics against the Muslim community. The dialogue has frequently been one-sided, with the Muslim community airing serious legitimate grievances that seem to fall on deaf ears.

Those inside the FBI who believe that certain policies toward the Muslim community are counterproductive apparently do not hold sway. Thus, expediency has won out over sound policy, and the advice of Muslim leaders about how to combat extremism without alienating the community remains unheeded.

The fishing expeditions, border detentions, visa revocations, infiltrations, provocations, and arrests continue, as do the abuses involving the watch-lists, the national security letters, and the immigration system. Outspoken Muslim leaders and groups continue to be demonized and marginalized.

When it became clear in February that the FBI was sending agents provocateurs like the ex-convict Craig Monteilh into Muslim houses of worship, the AMT was forced to consider the suspension of outreach ties. The possible suspension would in no way affect the duty to report crimes or threats of violence to our nation’s law enforcement agencies.

To continue business as usual would be unwise, particularly for organizations and individuals whose civil rights mission must trump their desire for good public relations.

The AMT statement has caught the attention of those in Congress who hold civil rights dear, such as Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) who read from the AMT’s list of alleged FBI abuses while questioning FBI Director Robert Mueller before the Judiciary Committee on March 25. Senator Feingold wanted to know whether the new attorney general guidelines were “helping or hurting the FBI’s relationship with the U.S. Muslim community.”

“My expectation is that our relationships are as good now as before the guidelines generally across the country,” said Mueller. In reality, there has been a clamor against the guidelines from Arab-American, American Muslim and civil liberties groups from the outset.

The guidelines represent a radical policy shift. They give the FBI authority to use intrusive investigative techniques to collect information in the absence of particularized evidence of a crime or risk to national security. They allow religion and ethnicity to be taken into consideration in opening an investigation. They also diminish the ability of Congress and the Department of Justice to oversee FBI investigative operations by delaying or eliminating altogether certain reporting requirements between the field offices and headquarters for some types of investigations.

Tellingly, when Sen. Feingold asked Director Mueller about the numbers of “threat assessments” being conducted, the director could not say. Under the new guidelines, threat assessments are not reported to headquarters, making oversight even more difficult.

In pushing the guidelines through in the last days of the Bush administration, Attorney General Mukasey left the new attorney general, Eric Holder, in a quandary. There is significant pressure for Holder to revisit the guidelines, but he will likely find the task difficult. The guidelines are a milestone in the FBI’s efforts to reconstitute itself as the United States’ premier domestic intelligence agency.

In reality, the unveiling of the guidelines was likely no more than a public debut of what had already been going on in the bureau since 9/11.

Take for example the successful young engineer in Ohio who was recently stripped of his visa by the State Department and then given a chance to redeem it by becoming an informant for the FBI. When he politely demurred, he and his young wife were sent packing by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) back to the Middle East. Essentially, the crushing power of three US agencies were brought to bear in abridging his due process rights.

Sen. Feingold was right to ask about the relationship between the FBI and the American Muslim community. To get a clearer picture, he should hold in-depth hearings and gather testimony from Muslims affected by FBI tactics.

And before making a decision on the new guidelines, the attorney general and the inspector general of the Department of Justice should meet with a wide range of Muslim groups and individuals to hear their perspective.

SEE ALSO:

MA: FBI REPS, HUB SOMALIS TALK PARTNERSHIP AT HUB MOSQUE - TOP
Frederick Ellis Dashiell Jr., Bay State Banner, 4/23/09

In a meeting last Saturday, Warren Bamford, special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Boston field office, and outgoing U.S. Attorney Michael J. Sullivan reassured members of the local Somali Muslim community that the FBI works to protect the civil rights of American citizens.

“Investigating civil rights violations is one of the top priorities of the FBI,” Sullivan said.

The meeting drew about 50 attendees to the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center in Roxbury and was a follow-up to one held in November, at which time Bamford outlined a strategy to begin outreach efforts aimed at establishing a partnership between the FBI and Boston’s Somali community. (More)

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CAIR: BLANK LOOKS WON'T FIX WHAT'S BROKEN - TOP
Ahmed Rehab, Huffington Post, 4/23/09

[Ahmed Rehab is Executive Director of the Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. CAIR is the nation’s largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization.]

On a brisk late morning last week, over 100 loud and colorful protesters organized by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR), an organization on whose board I sit, lined up on the corner of Clark and Grand. The protesters, young and old, men and women, white, black, Arab, Latino, and Asian came to register their dismay with Congressman Mark Kirk (R-IL) over the anti-immigrant remarks he has made recently.

This was the site of Chicago's upscale Italian eatery, Maggiano's. The City Club of Chicago was hosting a luncheon at the restaurant and Kirk was the keynote speaker. Protesters carried signs saying "We Are America," "Get Real Mark Kirk," and handed "condoms" to guests as they made their way into the restaurant - more on that later.

I stood there for a few minutes enjoying the sights and sounds of democracy at work before I had to get inside. I had received a ticket and would represent ICIRR at the banquet. As I sat at my crowded table, I could see that many of the guests were sifting through the material protesters had handed them outside. The material quoted Kirk on his ant-Latino and anti-Arab remarks and raised awareness on the need for real solutions to the immigration crisis our nation has ignored for far too long.

Kirk was introduced and got off to an interesting start. For the first few minutes, he spoke mostly in Spanish though most of the audience was clearly white. He went on about his days in Mexico as a student and how he liked Mexico and loved President Calderon, who is one of his "heroes." It was unclear what the context of that introduction was as it really did not tie in to the rest of his speech. I suppose he had seen the protest outside and this was his beat-around-the-bush way of overcompensating for something or another.

Kirk's speech covered three areas: national security, health care and the economy. He seemed poised and articulate and managed to get a few laughs. And then all too quickly, the question and answer session came up, I managed to get my question in, and the laughter was gone:

"Congressman, what is your stance on comprehensive immigration reform (CIR), do you believe in racial profiling, and what solution do you propose for the 12 million undocumented?"

Gone was his smile, gone too was the poise, and gone was the eloquence. In their place stood a shaky and stuttering Mark Kirk.

Plodding along, Kirk began with the easy one: "I am against racial profiling."

He said it kind of quickly and unsurely, but he said it.

You see it was none other than Mark Kirk who, On November 5, 2005, during another Q&A segment at Northwestern University, stated: "I'm okay with discrimination against young Arab males from terrorist-producing states. I'm okay with that."

Now you tell me, which Mark Kirk are we supposed to believe?

If it is the discrimination-is-cool Mark Kirk, then we have a serious problem on our hands: a Congress that has racists for leaders. If it is the I-am-against-racial-profiling Mark Kirk, then that is to be welcomed. But first, he needs to put his money where his mouth is. He needs to recant his explicit support for discrimination and apologize for it. Only then will his record on the subject be settled. Until then, it remains in limbo at best.

Mind you, that was the good part of his three-bit answer to my three-bit question.

On the CIR part, Kirk took the audience on a whirlwind tour of the Mexican cartel drug war, failing to explain the significance of that to the question. Kirk does not need to convince anyone that the cartel war is bad news. The pro-immigrant community are all against it, in both heart and mind. But we are also against using it as a divergence card to escape a response to a problem that will not go away by pretending it will: our broken immigration system.

Kirk finally wrapped up his cartel sermon by stating that only when we succeed in having secured borders will there be a bi-partisan push for comprehensive immigration reform.

Bogus.

Secure borders are absolutely necessary, but that is not a precondition to CIR, it is part of CIR. There is no reason why other aspects of CIR cannot be rolled out in parallel with policies that ensure secure borders in the south.

Lastly, Kirk addressed the 12 million part of the question. Actually, I lied. He didn't. I am not sure what happened to that part. Either he conveniently forgot it, or he blatantly evaded it. Either way, it went right back under the carpet where it has been repeatedly shoved back, far and deep, by one weak-kneed politician after another.

Here's my issue with that: we send our representatives to Washington to tackle the nation's tough problems, not run away from them. The problems don't run away and they'll be right there waiting for them when they get back - if they ever get back.

The moral of the story is this: far too many Washington leaders simply lack a solution to our broken immigration system. That's why they mumble, stutter, or evade. But the fact is, it is broken and someone has to fix it.

When leaders like Kirk manage to come up with ridiculous responses like "passing out condoms in Mexico" or being "OK with discrimination," it is not because they are stupid. And I am willing to believe it is not even because they are racist. The fact is they come up with them because they have no real solutions -- and so they brain fart.

There is a way forward in which America can deal in a humane, civil, and fair manner with the 12 million workers in this country living in the shadows of our system; ensure strong, secure borders; and enable fair and consistent visa and naturalization programs. It's called fix what is broken, or as we call it, CIR.

President Obama has declared his intention to deal with CIR in the near future. Leaders from coast to coast have as well. But there are still far too many weak-kneed leaders who seek refuge from destiny under the let's-close-our-eyes-and-hope-it-will-go-away tree.

It's time they caught on, and it's up to us the voters to send them a clear message.

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CAIR-FL: WHEN IT COMES TO THE U.S. CENSUS, LANGUAGE COUNTS - TOP
U.S. officials seek foreign -language speakers to make sure no group of people is left out
Georgia East, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 4/23/09

Urdu anyone?

How about Hindi, Vietnamese or Q'anjob'al?

With Census 2010 about a year away, the U.S. Census Bureau is recruiting employees with hard-to-find language skills to canvass South Florida communities and build relationships.

"This is the first time we're making such a concerted effort to hire people with these skills," said Pam Page Bellis, a census spokeswoman for Florida.

Census officials want to make sure no one is left out of the count, and they know that newcomers may be more comfortable speaking their native languages. They used census data and information from community leaders to determine which languages were most needed. . .

"The issue of reaching the minority community is one of our highest goals because, traditionally, minorities are the ones who are not counted," said Scott Medvin, with Broward County's Census 2010 Complete Count Committee.

Altaf Ali, of Pembroke Pines, said he wasn't surprised to learn the Census Bureau was looking for employees who speak Urdu, the language of Pakistan.

"The growth in the Indo-Pakistani and Arabic community in South Florida is evident in the Islamic centers that are popping up here and there," said Ali, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. (More)