FBI, TWIN CITIES SOMALIS HOPE TO REBUILD RELATIONSHIP - TOP Laura Yuen, Minnesota Public Radio The head of the Minneapolis FBI office is asking for the Somali community's trust as investigators continue to look into the disappearances of a number of young Twin Cities men who are believed to be fighting along with hard-line Islamists in Somalia's civil war. St. Paul, Minn. — Special Agent in Charge Ralph Boelter appeared Monday night on the weekly KFAI radio show "Somali Community Link." He acknowledged that the investigation has stirred up fears in the community, but said some of those fears are overblown. "We've heard in the community (that) people have advised all residents, 'Don't talk to law enforcement. Don't talk to the FBI about this case,'" he said. "That's not going to solve this problem. ... The FBI can't solve this problem alone. We need to solve it in concert, in cooperation, with the community." An attorney with the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations who also appeared on the show urged the FBI to examine its tactics. Young Somali-Americans say they have been randomly approached for questioning at malls and on college campuses… Boelter was joined on the radio show by Taneeza Islam, the civil rights director for the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Islam urged the Somali community to cooperate with investigators -- and also to know their rights to have a lawyer present during questioning. Islam also invited Boelter to begin a dialogue with her group. The national FBI severed its relationship with CAIR earlier this year after allegations that the Muslim civil-rights group had ties to supporting Hamas. Islam praised Boelter for reaching out to Somalis and other Muslims in Minnesota by granting interviews with a number of ethnic-media outlets over the past several weeks. But she also said that the FBI's approach to interrogations has created more anxiety in a community already distrustful of government. "It's a difficult time to start outreach now," Islam said. "I would like to have seen this relationship and trust built before a contentious issue arises. Without that trust, it's hard to work together when the times are hard, and that's kind of where we are right now." (More) ----- PROTOCOLS OF THE ELDERS OF ISLAM? - TOP Nick Schou, OC Weekly, 5/19/09 As its name suggests, the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance in LA is supposed to promote the kind of cultural dialog that brings people together rather than pushes them apart. So it's more than a little bit odd that the center showed a movie last weekend that has been compared to the gold-standard of anti-Semitic propaganda: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The latter tome was supposedly written by the Jews who secretly want to take over the world. Actually it's pure fiction, but the book nonetheless helped pave the way for Russian pogroms in the 19th Century and the Nazi-era holocaust. The film in question, "The Third Jihad," was screened at the Museum of Tolerance last Sunday. Like the book before it, the film claims to provide evidence of a global plot of subversion, in this case a plot to subvert America by blood-thirsty terrorists posing as regular-guy American Muslims. "The Third Jihad" begins with a disclaimer saying that most Muslims are okay folks, and that this movie only talks about the ones that want to kill all Americans. It was produced by a shadowy outfit called the Clarion fund, which according to an Institute for Policy Studies report has ties to right-wing supporters of Israel who oppose all talks with the Palestinians. 28 million copies were distributed to voters in 14 swing states just before last November's presidential election, perhaps to inflame fears that Barack HUSSEIN Obama might be part of this purported Muslim takeover plot… On May 15, Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations' Greater Los Angeles Area chapter, sent a letter asking the Simon Wiesenthal Center to call of its showing of the film. "As an institution that claims as its goal battling hatred and bigotry across the world, I am disappointed to see the Wiesenthal Center engage in promoting hatred and bigotry against another minority--American Muslims," Ayloush wrote… "Claiming that American Muslims are part of some world-wide conspiracy to take over America is nothing short of concerted hateful fear mongering that intends to build animosity and even eventual violence against Muslims," he argues. "The Holocaust in Europe and the genocides in Bosnia and Rwanda did not happen in a vacuum. They were preceded with such baseless hateful material that dehumanized the intended targeted community and were promoted by many enablers who falsely hid behind the claim of "generating discussion and sharing views." (More) SEE ALSO: BIGGER, BADDER JIHAD PLOT IN 'OBSESSION' REBOOTED - TOP Ali Gharib and Eli Clifton, IPS, 5/19/09 WASHINGTON, May 19 (IPS) - A new documentary from a shadowy non-profit, the Clarion Fund, has ties to groups widely accused of Islamophobia. "The Third Jihad" purports to educate U.S. citizens about the threat of a "cultural Jihad" by the country's own Muslim-American population. The film goes to great lengths to define itself as an expose of radical Muslim elements, not the faith at large. But a group called the International Free Press Society (IFPS), which attended the Washington premiere of the film and documented the screening on behalf of the production company on a social media website, has some dubious affiliations. Two months ago, IFPS heavily promoted Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders, a widely-known Islamophobe who has been tied to far-right European political parties. An IPS investigation linked both Wilders and some of his U.S. and international supporters, including members of IFPS, with the Vlaams Belang (VB), or Flemish Interest. Vlaams Belang is a nationalist Flemish party that has demanded amnesty for Nazi collaborators in Belgium. Wilders is known for campaigning to ban the Koran, Islamic attire and Islamic schools from the Netherlands, and for proclaiming that "moderate Islam does not exist". His views have even drawn fire from the strongly pro-Israel Anti-Defamation League, which described Wilders's rhetoric as "inflammatory, divisive and antithetical to American democratic ideals". Wilders has been brought up on charges in the Netherlands and banned from Britain on the grounds that he incites hate. That view doesn’t jibe with the slickly produced "Third Jihad" film… Sharia, or Islamic law, has come into the spotlight as one of the principal goals of radical Islamists. "Sharia is no different than Jewish law or Christian law," said CAIR communications director Ibrahim Hooper. "When he prays, Jasser is following Sharia; when he doesn't drink alcohol, he's following Sharia." (More) --- SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTER TO SCREEN ISLAMOPHOBIC FILM "THE THIRD JIHAD" - TOP Beliefnet.com, 5/19/09 I've argued in the past that Muslims and Jews in the West should make common cause in fighting against prejudice and tolerance - and in doing so, lead by example in terms of demonstrating the value of tolerance and respect based on our shared Abrahamic heritage. One ideal joint project would be for the ADL and CAIR to join forces and compile a national database of anti-semitic and Islamophobic incidents and hate crimes, for example, and perhaps start a group blog project discussing various issues. Unfortunately, despite many previous examples of common cause that move such a vision forward, sometimes the innate prejudices of both groups moves the process backwards. Case in point - the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles will screen the grotesquely Islamophobic film The Third Jihad. As CAIR's Los Angeles chapter explains in a letter to the SWC, The Third Jihad is the equivalent of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion as far as its intention in portraying muslims in the United States and Islam as a whole as a fifth column, a Dolchstoßlegende for the modern era. (More) --- LAW PROFESSOR DRAWS PARALLELS BETWEEN SHARI'AH, CONSTITUTION - TOP Katie Glueck, Daily Northwestern, 5/20/09 A Harvard law professor who provides analysis on CNN has a lot in common with a scholar of Islamic law, said the Muslim-cultural Student Association's spring speaker Asifa Quraishi on Tuesday night. The University of Wisconsin law professor spoke to an audience of about 55 in Fisk Hall, drawing parallels between the U.S. Constitution and Islamic law. "These two legal worlds are usually described as completely alien to each other, but as an American Muslim, I'm completely comfortable looking at similarities," Quraishi said. "We're at a place in the world's lifetime that it might help looking at similarities." Azam Siddiqui, the co-president of McSA, said he hopes Quraishi could make Islamic law seem less foreign to Northwestern students. "We're trying to clear up misconceptions about Shariah," the Weinberg junior said. "It's not what the media portrays, or how certain extremists have altered its meanings overseas. It was written 500-600 years ago, but it's relevant to our Constitution." (More) ----- KY: COUNTY JUDGE ROBERTS FAVORS CHRISTIANS FOR OFFICE - TOP Emily Hagedorn, Courier-Journal, 5/20/09 At a recent National Day of Prayer event, Bullitt County's judge-executive said Christians need to be put in office. "We need to start putting Christians -- not Buddhists, not Muslims, not whatever -- in elected office," said Judge-Executive Melanie Roberts at the May 7 Shepherdsville event. "And I will preach that until the day I die." When asked to elaborate after the event, Roberts said she prefers Christians to be in elected offices because "Jesus preaches to love one another, and that love is the answer to all of our social ills." Also, "America was founded on Christian principles, and Christianity provides us our freedom." She said she realizes that other people might not agree with her opinion. Peter Anik, community-relations director for the Jewish Community Association of Louisville, called her comments "somewhat offensive" and objected to Roberts using religion as a "litmus test" for political office. "I think it's understandable that people want to elect other people who reflect their own social values," said Anik, who was not at the event. "But I would hope that the American public would be tolerant enough to accept the fact that people approach the understanding of God in a variety of ways. "Religious minorities have something positive to add," Anik said. "To suggest that they don't -- it seems to be at least contrary to the principles of the Constitution." (More) ----- HOUSE PASSES FORT WORTH MEMBER’S BILL ALLOWING LAWSUIT AGAINST DENTON STATE SCHOOL - TOP Anna M. Tinsley, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 5/20/09 Nearly seven years ago, Haseeb Chishty checked into the Denton State School -- a mentally disabled man hoping to work on his behavioral skills. One month later, Chishty, a 27-year-old Muslim American, was found lying in a pool of his own blood and urine, a victim of what his family believes was a hate attack. Farhat Chishty, Haseeb’s mother, said her son was beaten so badly that he was left paralyzed and unable to eat on his own. A caregiver there, who admitted to hitting and kicking Chishty more than 20 times, was indicted by a Denton County jury, legislative records show. "The culprit is doing prison time, but the family .?.?. they need their day in court," Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, told the House of Representatives on Tuesday. "I’m asking that you allow this." The House did, voting 139-0 to give the Chishty family permission to sue the Denton State School, the Department of Aging and Disability Services, and the state. Many members applauded after the vote. (More) ----- HAWAII PASSES ISLAM DAY RESOLUTION, HATERS CALL FOR BOYCOTT - TOP Pam Mandel, World Hum, 5/19/09 High on the list of reasons I lost my heart so completely to Hawaii? The diversity. You’ve got your Pinoys, your Japanese, your mainland surfers, your Native Hawaiians, your Portuguese and Spaniards, the descendants of European shippers and missionaries, a whole mess of “hapa” types who are half one thing, half something else, be it Scottish, Korean, Hawaiian, Jewish ... If you’re looking for a slice of world culture, you’re as likely to find it in Hawaii as anywhere. All those cultures make for a lively and appealing place. But a few spoilsports are calling for a boycott of travel to the islands because the Hawaii state Legislature recently passed a resolution recognizing “Islam Day.” (More)