AIR REPUDIATES ANWAR AL-AWLAKI'S CALL FOR ATTACKS ON U.S. - TOP

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 3/18/10) -- The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today repudiated a new call by Anwar al-Awlaki for Muslims to attack the United States.

In the new audio message, the American-born former Virginia resident says he is calling for the attacks because he could not reconcile living in the U.S. and being a Muslim.

SEE: Purported al-Awlaki Message Calls for Jihad Against U.S. (CNN)

In a statement condemning al-Awlaki's remarks, CAIR said:

"There is no contradiction between being a Muslim and being an American. We repudiate Anwar al-Awlaki's call for attacks on our nation and urge anyone who may be swayed by his extremist views to instead seek out scholars and community leaders who can offer a mainstream perspective on the positive role Muslims are obligated to play in every society. American Muslims seek to promote justice and the general welfare through civic engagement and community service."

In November of last year, CAIR also repudiated hate-filled statements by al-Awlaki praising the killings at Fort Hood in Texas.

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 National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail: ihooper@cair.com; CAIR Communications Coordinator Amina Rubin, 202-488-8787 or 202-341-4171, E-Mail: arubin@cair.com

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CAIR TROUBLED BY RACIST ANNOUNCEMENT AT NJ WAL-MART - TOP
Unknown man said 'all black people leave the store now' over store PA

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 3/18/10) -- The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today voiced concern over a recent incident at a southern New Jersey Wal-Mart in which an unknown person made a racist announcement over the store's public-address system.

Wal-Mart officials are reviewing security tapes to determine who used the store's public-address system on Sunday to say: "Attention Wal-Mart customers: All black people leave the store now."

SEE: Wal-Mart Probing Racist Store Announcement (AP)

"We are deeply troubled by this example of the intolerance and overt racism that unfortunately still exists in our society," said CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad. "We understand Wal-Mart is conducting a full investigation of the incident. If it was an employee who made the announcement, we expect that person will be fired to make it clear that such bigotry is unacceptable in America."

Awad noted that CAIR has worked successfully with Wal-Mart in the past to resolve incidents of bias at some of its stores. In July 2009, after CAIR's mediation, a Wal-Mart store in Minnesota agreed to accommodate an employee's right to pray in the workplace on scheduled breaks.

In February 2008, a Wal-Mart regional manager apologized to a Muslim customer who had been mocked by a cashier because of her face veil.

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 National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, 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-FL: NEW CAIR DIRECTOR SPEAKS FOR YOUNG SOUTH FLORIDA MUSLIMS - TOP
By Lois K. Solomon, Sun Sentinel, 3/17/2010

PEMBROKE PINES -- Muhammed Malik said he is anxious to improve the public profile of Muslims and relations between South Florida's faiths.

A generation of 20- and 30-something Muslims who connect to their birthplace, the United States, more than the lands of their immigrant parents. A generation that immerses itself in the public debates of American society, with its many races, cultures and political viewpoints.

"Pretty soon young Muslims will be the majority of Muslims in the U.S.," said Malik, 27, who was born and raised in Miami-Dade County. "I want to address this generational transition."

In September, Malik became the director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations' South Florida chapter, the Muslim civil rights group that covers Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties, home to about 75,000 Muslims.

Already a veteran of South Florida protests related to Israel, Liberty City and the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Malik said he is anxious to improve the public profile of Muslims and relations between South Florida's faiths.

"He is so passionate," said Kyle Stevens, 29, a Miami business owner who has worked with Malik on social justice issues. "It takes a lot to discourage him. People trust him because he always tries to find the center, the common ground, a place where people can agree."

Malik's focus on youth corresponds with the national goals of CAIR, spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said.

"Young people are targeted by extremists on the Internet," Hooper said. "They need access to mainstream views. The best way is at the chapter level. This is one of our top priorities nationwide." (More)

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CAIR: GOP REP. MYRICK ENDORSES CONFERENCE OF NOTED ISLAMOPHOBE - TOP
Justin Elliott, Talking Points Memo, 3/17/10

Fresh off a tense town hall with Muslim constituents last month, Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC) has blasted out a letter enthusiastically endorsing the group ACT! For America, and its leader, Brigitte Gabriel, who has made a number of extreme comments against Muslims.

ACT! For America's national conference and legislative briefing is scheduled for June in Washington, D.C. The group describes itself as "a collective voice for the democratic values of Western Civilization, such as the celebration of life and liberty, as opposed to the authoritarian values of Islamofascism, such as the celebration of death, terror and tyranny."

But Gabriel, who emigrated to the United States from Lebanon in the 1980s, has painted the problem of Islamic terrorism as one having to do with all Muslims. She has said that "Every practicing Muslim is a radical Muslim." (More)

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CAIR: EULESS APARTMENTS DISCRIMINATE IN RENTING, EX-WORKER SAYS - TOP
Diane Smith, Star-Telegram, 3/18/10

EULESS -- A former leasing agent at a Euless apartment complex is asking state and federal officials to investigate whether the complex committed civil-rights violations by denying apartments to potential tenants with Middle Eastern or Asian backgrounds.

Daniesha Davis, 29, filed a discrimination complaint with the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department in January. The complaint says her employers at Stonebridge at Bear Creek told her to place Middle Eastern and Asian tenants in two buildings at the complex.

When those blocks of apartments were full, Davis said, she was told to turn away Middle Easterners and Asians inquiring about apartments -- even if units in other parts of the complex were vacant.

Potential tenants with Middle Eastern- or Asian-sounding names or accents were told "no vacancies" when they called the complex at 2250 Fuller-Wiser Road, Davis said.

"I was told that no one else wanted to live by these people. That they were dirty and they cooked with curry," she told the Star-Telegram. ...

But the recent discrimination claims have drawn concern from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a national Muslim civil-rights group. The group urged HUD to take a closer look.

The council is concerned that, if Middle Eastern and Asian people are being singled out, practicing Muslims are among those being discriminated against, said Mustafaa Carroll, president of its Dallas-Fort Worth board.

He said misconceptions about the Muslim community and Islam have lingered since 9-11. He said Middle Easterners and Asians who practice Islam have seen increased discrimination in employment and housing. (More)

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CAIR-NY: BACK TO SCHOOL, AND RIGHT BACK ON VACATION - TOP
By Jennifer Medina, New York Times, 3/16/2010

Earlier this year, the City Council passed a resolution to dismiss school for the two major Muslim holidays. At the time, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg indicated he was adamantly opposed to the idea, saying, "If you close the schools for every single holiday, there won't be any school."

But since then, the mayor's staff has indicated that his stance has softened, said Faiza Ali, the community affairs director of the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

"Incorporating the holidays will have a minimal impact on the public school system because the two Muslim holidays follow a lunar calendar," Ms. Ali said. "For example, this year, Id al-Fitr will fall on Rosh Hashana, an already recognized holiday within the system." (More)

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CAIR-PA: GROUP DECRIES TEXTBOOKS ON ISLAM AS INFLAMMATORY - TOP
Kathy Matheson, Associated Press, 3/17/10

PHILADELPHIA – A series of children's textbooks on Islam contains misleading and inflammatory rhetoric about the religion, inaccurately portraying its followers as inherently violent and deserving of suspicion, according to a Muslim civil liberties group. (More)

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CAIR-PA: MUSLIM GROUP CALLS TEXTBOOKS DISCRIMINATORY - TOP
Jon Hurdle, Reuters, 3/17/2010

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Muslim activists launched a campaign on Wednesday against a series of educational books that they say promote anti-Islamic sentiment among U.S. school children.

"The World of Islam," a 10-book series, encourages young readers to believe Muslims are terrorists and seek to undermine U.S. society, said the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation's largest Muslim advocacy organization.

One book contains the passage: "For the first time, Muslims began immigrating to the U.S. in order to transform American society, sometimes through the use of terrorism."

Moein Khawaja, civil rights director for CAIR in Pennsylvania, said the group has gotten dozens of complaints about the books from Muslim parents around the country. (More)

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CAIR-PA: PA. MUSLIM GROUP CONDEMNS BOOK SERIES - TOP
By Michael Matza, Inquirer, 3/18/10

The Pennsylvania chapter of a Muslim-rights group accused a Philadelphia think tank and its Broomall publisher yesterday of "fearmongering," inaccuracy, and bias in a 10-volume series of textbooks titled World of Islam.

The 64-page volumes, produced and edited by the Foreign Policy Research Institute and Mason Crest Publishers, are aimed at middle and high school students.

At a news conference at its Center City office, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-PA) cited passages it deemed inflammatory. Among them: "Muslims began immigrating to the United States in order to transform American society, sometimes through the use of terrorism."

The group contended that such language obscured the reality that most people, Muslims included, come to America simply for better lives.

"When you finish reading these books you walk away with the impression that Muslims are inherently violent, that Islam is a second-rate religion, and that one should be wary of Muslims in any society," said Moein Khawaja, civil rights director of CAIR-PA. (More)

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CAIR-MI: MUSLIM GROUP PLANS PROBE OF IMAM'S DEATH - TOP
Religious leader was shot 21 times Oct. 28 by FBI agents in raid at Dearborn warehouse
Oralandar Brand-Williams, Detroit News, 3/17/2010

Detroit -- The local office of a national Muslim civil rights organization said it plans to launch an independent forensic investigation into the shooting death of a Detroit Muslim cleric in October during an FBI raid.

Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah, head of Masjid Al-Haqq mosque, was shot to death Oct. 28 during a raid on a Dearborn warehouse by FBI agents. They say they shot the imam because he fired first at an FBI dog. Agents said they were investigating Abdullah and several other men in connection with a stolen goods operation.

An autopsy report released Feb. 2 found Abdullah died from 21 bullet wounds

Lena Masri, a staff attorney for the Council on American-Islamic Relations Michigan chapter, said Tuesday she has seen more than 75 autopsy photos and other photos of the dead imam.

She said in the photos he is lying face down and is handcuffed. She also said she was told by Wayne County Medical Examiner Carl Schmidt that Abdullah's body was moved from the warehouse after he died and taken to a nearby trailer. "Why was the body moved from the location?" Masri asked. "We're concerned why the crime scene was contaminated." (More)

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CAIR-OK: BANQUET FEATURES HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST ANNA BALTZER, DOCUMENTARY - TOP
Event is Saturday at National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum
Oklahoman, 3/18/10

"A New Era of Hope: Our Role, Our Future" is the title of the fourth annual banquet for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

The banquet is at 7 p.m. Saturday at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63.

Seating is limited. Tickets are $50 per person; $90 per couple; and $25 for students. Baby-sitting is available for $15 for children age 6 months to 12 years. To register, go to www.cairoklahoma.com or call 415-6851.

The keynote speaker is human rights activist Anna Baltzer.

The program also includes a documentary on CAIR-Oklahoma's work in 2009 and award presentations for community service, media and journalism and social justice.

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CAIR: AMERICANS HELD IN PAKISTAN SENT LETTERS TO PARENTS - TOP
Associated Press, 3/18/10

WASHINGTON (AP) - Five young Americans charged with planning terror attacks in Pakistan sent letters to their parents detailing alleged torture at the hands of people who identified themselves as police, an official with an American-Islamic relations group said Wednesday. (More)

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CAIR: PAKISTAN CHARGES 5 NORTHERN VIRGINIA MEN IN ALLEGED TERRORISM PLOT -TOP
By Jerry Markon, Karin Brulliard and Mohammed Rizwan, Washington Post, 3/18/10

Authorities in Pakistan filed terrorism charges Wednesday against five Northern Virginia men and, for the first time, outlined an extensive plot that included plans to fight U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan and possibly an attack in the United States.

The men, who lived and grew up in the Alexandria area, were arrested in Pakistan in December. They were each charged with five counts in a special anti-terror court, three of which carry a possible life prison term. Prosecutors say they were in the planning stages of attacks against a Pakistani nuclear plant and an air base and other targets in Afghanistan and "territories of the United States." Defense lawyers said that referred to attacks inside the United States, though the government presented no evidence of such a plot.

Ever since the men were arrested at a time of growing concern about homegrown terrorists, there have been questions about whether they are hardened jihadists, as described by Pakistani police, or humanitarians who left the United States to help other Muslims, as they say.

The torture allegations became specific Wednesday, as defense lawyers sought an investigation of Pakistani police and intelligence agencies over the men's treatment, and a prominent Muslim group in the United States released a letter it said Zamzam wrote to his mother in Northern Virginia from prison.

The letter said the men were beaten, deprived of sleep, food and water, and threatened with electrocution. "The police here does not care -- they beat the hell out of me and the rest of us until we said what they wanted us to say," Zamzam wrote in the letter, released by the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

The story of the five men became public when the council got their families in touch with the FBI after they left the United States shortly after Thanksgiving without telling their parents. That triggered an international missing persons case. The men were arrested Dec. 8 at the home of Chaudhry's father, Khalid Farooq Chaudhry, and the terror allegations began immediately. (More)

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CAIR-MI: AMERICA NOT DEFINED BY ONE GROUP - TOP
Battle Creek Enquirer, 3/17/2010

James J. Smith's editorial called "Have you seen my America?" printed on March 14 typifies a growing trend of un-American, xenophobic sentiments that have swelled since the inauguration of President Obama.

In America's striving to become a "more perfect union," Americans are increasingly becoming more diverse. American-ness, however, is not based upon conforming to one set of customs or traditions defined by one group of people or the status quo. Being American is primarily based in one's citizenship and allegiance to the spirit of the United States Constitution.

In Smith's mischaracterization of Islam and link with an America that he does not recognize, he actually displays how little he knows about the influence of Islam in the formation of our union.

Smith must be unaware that a large percentage of African slaves who helped build our nation were Muslims. Smith must also be unaware that Founding Father Thomas Jefferson studied the Qur'an (holy text of Muslims), that a statue of him at Monticello holding a sheet with various names of the Divine also has the Arabic name of God (Allah) on it and that the chamber of the U.S. Supreme Court has a depiction of Prophet Muhammad as one of the lawgivers that shaped American jurisprudence.

America is an extension of the children of the world, including people from Mexico and the Middle East. It is unfortunate that too many people these days, like Smith, believe that they are being good Americans by casting suspicion upon law-abiding Muslims and American Muslim organizations and by questioning the American-ness of Mexican and Middle Eastern Americans who freely choose to practice some of their cultural practices in our great nation.

Dawud Walid
Executive director
Council on American-Islamic Relations-Michigan (CAIR-MI)
Southfield