BREAKING: DETROIT FEDS, ARABS SAY ALLEGATIONS CAUSE STRAINS - TOPJeff Karoub, Associated Press, 4/29/09
A task force formed after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 to bring Arab- and Muslim-Americans together with local and federal authorities became a national model. But members say recent allegations that the FBI hired informants to infiltrate mosques have shaken the group's foundation. (Full Article)
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CAIR: MUSLIMS MEDIATE FOR US-IRAN JOURNALIST - TOPMuhammed Qasim, Islam Online, 4/29/09
America's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group is preparing to send a delegation to Iran in a mediation effort seeking the release of jailed American journalist Roxana Saberi.
"We are hoping to secure Ms. Saberi's release and to remove a roadblock to better relations between our two nations," Nihad Awad, Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), told IslamOnline.net.
Saberi, 32, was sentenced to eight years in jail by an Iranian court in a closed-door trial on charges of spying for the US, in the harshest sentence meted out to a dual national on security charges in the Islamic Republic.
The Muslim delegation groups Awad, CAIR Board Chairman Senator Larry Shaw, Board Member Sarwat Husain and Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper.
They are preparing to leave for Iran during the next few days once their visas are issued and approved.
In an April 17 letter to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, CAIR requested that a delegation be allowed to travel to Tehran to discuss Saberi’s case with Iranian officials.
"This initiative is based on CAIR's request for a 'gesture of reconciliation' from the Iranian government and does not deal with the merits of the case one way or another," Awad clarified.
The Obama administration has blasted the Iranian charges against Saberi as unfounded. (More)
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CAIR-FL: WITH SLOTH, BLOGGER FOILS MUSLIM PLOT TO CRASH NEWS CONFERENCE - TOPThomas Francis, Broward Palm Beach New Times, 4/28/09
Poor George Orwell, dying before blogs were born. He'd have had a field day with the folks behind the Free Speech Summit, who have proven themselves adept at silencing debate. That summit was staged last night, not at the Delray Beach Marriott as originally planned but at an undisclosed location in Boca Raton. Though organizers wouldn't admit it, the tactic was clearly to avoid protesters, if not some more sinister, paranoia-driven threat. I wrote about the summit in a post yesterday afternoon, and by this morning, I'd received a note from Altaf Ali, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in South Florida.
Ali wanted to know the exact location of the noon news conference that summit speakers had scheduled for today. By the time I opened the message and phoned Ali, noon had come and gone. The news conference was over. My bad. I'd have happily given him Mapquested directions to the Hilton Suites on Glades Road in Boca.
The "plot" I reference in the headline above? Ali told me, "I wanted to go and ask them a few questions. I'm very disturbed by these hateful things they are saying." (e.g. The most prominent speaker, Netherlands parliamentarian Geert Wilders, has called Islam "the ideology of a retarded culture.") A questioner at a news conference? That's nearly as scary a prospect as CAIR going to Tallahassee to lobby, an event that prompted House Majority Leader Adam Hasner to fly into a panic last month. Hasner was among those scheduled to speak at today's news conference.
After the jump, Ali gets to exercise his right to free speech.
CAIR is the largest Islamic civil liberties group in the United States. It represents the nation's Muslim community on political matters but has also sought to broker an easing of tensions between Americans and the Muslim world. For example, CAIR aims to send a delegation to Iran to negotiate for the release of American journalist Roxana Saberi, who was recently sentenced to eight years in prison after a secret Iranian court found her guilty of spying. Saberi is a week into a hunger strike.
If organizers of last night's Free Speech Summit aimed to avoid dialogue, they succeeded. "We were planning to send a representative from CAIR to answer questions people might have had or at least offer a balance of viewpoints," says Ali. "But for some reason, it was changed to a secret location. Under the guise of free speech, this was an event geared to a certain segment of the community, and it was not open to the public." (More)
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JAILED HOUSTON IMAM ZOUBIR BOUCHIKHI SPEAKS FROM PRIVATE IMMIGRATION PRISON - TOPDemocracy Now!, 4/29/09
We look at the case of Sheikh Zoubir Bouchikhi, who has been held without bail at a private immigration prison in Houston for the past four months. Bouchikhi, a native of Algeria, has lived in the United States for the past eleven years and has four children, three of them American-born citizens. In 2007, he received notice that the US Citizenship and Immigration Services had denied his application for permanent residency status. He was arrested by immigration authorities in December 2008. He has been held without bail ever since. He speaks from immigration jail in his first national broadcast interview.
Click here to read the transcript, or here to listen to the audio. You can watch the video here.
SEE ALSO:
SURVEILLANCE EFFORT DRAWS CIVIL LIBERTIES CONCERN - TOPEric Schmitt, New York Times, 4/28/09
A growing number of big-city police departments and other law enforcement agencies across the country are embracing a new system to report suspicious activities that officials say could uncover terrorism plots but that civil liberties groups contend might violate individual rights.
Here and in nearly a dozen other cities, including Boston, Chicago and Miami, officers are filling out terror tip sheets if they run across activities in their routines that seem out of place, like someone buying police or firefighter uniforms, taking pictures of a power plant or espousing extremist views.
Ultimately, state and federal officials intend to have a nationwide reporting system in place by 2014, using a standardized system of codes for suspicious behaviors. It is the most ambitious effort since the Sept. 11 attacks to put in place a network of databases to comb for clues that might foretell acts of terrorism.
But the American Civil Liberties Union and other rights groups warn that the program pioneered by the Los Angeles Police Department raises serious privacy and civil liberties concerns…
Muslim-American groups here also view the program with suspicion, especially after the police department’s counterterrorism and criminal intelligence bureau proposed in November 2007 to create a map detailing the Muslim communities in the city, ostensibly as a step toward thwarting radicalization. Muslim leaders said the idea amounted to racial or religious profiling, and it was dropped. (More)
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MN: TSA NOT REQUIRED TO RELEASE 'SENSITIVE' INFORMATION IN IMAM CASE - TOPElizabeth Stawicki, Minnesota Public Radio, 4/28/09
St. Paul, Minn. — The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) says it doesn't have to release sensitive information for a federal case in Minnesota -- at least not yet. The case concerns six Islamic leaders who sued U.S. Airways for discrimination after being removed from a flight at the Twin Cities airport in 2006.
The Imams' lawyers say they cannot respond to U.S. Airways pending motions for summary judgment without knowing what information the TSA redacted from certain U.S. Airways documents. The TSA calls the redactions "sensitive security information" that, if released publicly, could be "detrimental to the security of transportation."
The TSA, which is not a party to the case, said if the Court is concerned that the lack of access to the documents would prejudice the Imams' case, the Court should allow U.S. Airways to file the information under seal. The Court could then view the documents privately in chambers and decide whether they are relevant to the case.
The Imams contend they were removed from the U.S. Airways flight from Minneapolis to Phoenix because of racism and religious intolerance. They were leaving the Twin Cities after attending a religious conference in November 2006 when airport security removed them from the plane, handcuffed and questioned them. They had been praying shortly before they boarded the flight at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and after they boarded, some passengers told the crew they felt uncomfortable with the clerics on board. U.S. Airways refused to allow them to fly on the airline and refunded their fare. The Imams filed suit against the airline in March of 2007. (More)
---FL: ATLANTA LAWYER TO REPRESENT MEGAHED IN DEPORTATION CASE - TOPElaine Silvestrini, Tampa Tribune, 4/27/09
TAMPA - The family of Youssef Megahed has hired an Atlanta lawyer to represent him in his fight against deportation on terrorism charges.
"I believe they're railroading this guy," said Charles H. Kuck, who said he is taking the case for free. "He's innocent. It's not just that he's not guilty. This kid is innocent."
Megahed was arrested by immigration agents April 6, three days after a federal jury acquitted him of explosives charges. Born in Egypt, Megahed, 23, has lived in the United States with his family since he was a child and had a pending application for citizenship.
Kuck's Web site lists him as national president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. (More)
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CALIF. MUSLIMS JOIN PILGRIMAGE TO JAPANESE-AMERICAN INTERNMENT CAMP - TOP
(ANAHEIM, CA, 4/29/09) On Saturday, April 25, the Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA), in cooperation with the Manzanar Committee, the Japanese American Citizens League and Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress, led a group of some 100 Southern California Muslims on a day-long pilgrimage to a former internment camp known as the “Manzanar War Relocation Center.” Participants listened to former internees and their children share stories of internment at Manzanar during World War II, when the U.S. government ordered about 120,000 Japanese-Americans to be held at 10 military-style camps, without ever allowing them any due process of law. Not a single internee was ever charged or convicted.
SEE: At Manzanar, fishing was the great escape
CAIR-LA Executive Director Hussam Ayloush reminded that Americans visit Manzanar and other Japanese-American internment camps to learn about our country’s history.
“Innocent Japanese American men, women and children were incarcerated during WWII based solely on their ancestry -- a reminder of how wartime hysteria and prejudice can lead to grave injustices,” said Ayloush. “American Muslims pay tribute to the Japanese American community, which has stood in solidarity with American Muslims when their civil rights were being suspended after 9/11.”
Dr. Idris Traina, president of the Islamic Center of Hawthorne, said: “The annual Manzanar pilgrimage rekindles shameful memories of our history but brings more hope for America’s future, since we are reminded of the struggles of Japanese Americans who stood up to injustices and worked hard to gain respect and equal treatment for Americans.”
On Saturday, visitors, including Muslim community leaders and students, also participated in interfaith ceremonies held at the Manzanar monument. Imam Ali Siddiqi from the San Francisco Bay Area offered the Muslim prayer. Later in the evening, people visited the Manzanar Interpretive Center, which featured exhibits. Additionally, the Manzanar at Dusk program featured a screening of Ken Burns documentary “Manzanar Never Again” and group discussion with former internees, who encouraged participants to stand up for justice and civil liberties.
SEE: Manzanar Documentary
Earlier this year, 40 high school students from Southern California participated in a series of cultural exchange to learn about the Islamic and Japanese cultures, with topics ranging from ethnic identity to civil rights activism. The program is the first of its kind in Southern California and serves to connect youth from the Japanese-American and American Muslim communities.
CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil liberties group, 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-LA Communications Manager Munira Syeda, (714) 776-1847; E-Mail: info@losangeles.cair.com
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CAIR-CAN: MOSQUE PRESIDENT FORGIVES VANDALISM - TOPJan Ravensbergen, Montreal Gazette, 4/29/09A national lobby group called Tuesday for a swift police probe of a second spray-paint incident that defaced a wall at a Dorval mosque, after initial such vandalism last June.
But Mehmet Deger, president of the 1,500-member mosque, had a much different reaction.
Deger said he just wants to put the incident behind him and his congregation.
He won’t even file a police report on most recent defacing at the Turkish Muslim Association of Montreal mosque, he said. It took place on or about Jan. 26.
“The Koran says to forgive,” Deger explained.
“We don’t want to press charges,” he added: “I would just like to talk to this person or persons (responsible) we would like to have a friendly discussion.” (More)