CAIR VIDEO: 200 TURN OUT FOR CAIR INTERFAITH DIALOGUE IN VA. - TOP (WASHINGTON, D.C., 3/1/10) - Some 200 people turned out on Sunday at the Trinity Presbyterian Church in Arlington, Va., for an interfaith dialogue and a screening of a new film about global Muslim public opinion. [View Video Clips from the Interfaith Dialogue.] The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) hosted the event in partnership with20,000 Dialogues, a project of Unity Productions Foundation, the makers of "Inside Islam: What a Billion Muslims Really Think interfaith dialogue." 20,000 Dialogues is a nationwide initiative that uses discussions about films to build greater understanding of Muslims. Speakers included: (in order of appearance in video excerpts)
Imam Johari Abdul-Malik of Dar Al Hijra also spoke at the event. Co-sponsors of the event: Unity Production Foundation, Paulist Fathers, AMIN DC, Faith Act Fellows, Dar Al-Hijra, and Trinity Presbyterian Church. [Become a Fan of CAIR on Facebook.] 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 CAIR VIDEO: CALIF. MUSLIM FIRED OVER HIJAB APPEARS ON FOX - TOP Watch the video here. SEE ALSO: A Muslim woman, apparently fired from teen clothier Hollister Co. for wearing the hijab, a religious headscarf, filed a federal complaint this week charging that she was wrongfully fired due to religious discrimination. Hani Khan, a Bay Area college student, was let go from the clothing chain, which is owned by Abercrombie & Fitch, because her hijab violated the company's "look policy," according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which filed the complaint along with Ms. Khan. CAIR said the termination violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which requires employers to accommodate an employee's religious practices unless it creates "undue hardship." (More) --- A ban on headscarves for city council workers and in all institutions and clubs which get local authority money will be the most important point in the PVV´s negotiations to join governing coalitions in Almere and the Hague, says party leader Geert Wilders. Speaking to RTL news, Wilders said the ban would be central to talks to form new local authority executives in the only two cities where the party is contesting the March 3 local elections. The ban will apply to 'all council offices and all other institutions and clubs which get even one cent of council money,' he said. The PVV is tipped to emerge as the biggest party in Almere and second biggest in the Hague. Speech Wilders brought up the ban again in a speech to supporters in Almere, where he entered the room to the Rocky theme tune Eye of the Tiger. The ban will not apply to other religious items such as Christian crosses and Jewish skull caps because these are symbols of our own Dutch culture, Wilders said in his speech, receiving a standing ovation from the crowd. (More) ----- Young Muslims from across metro Detroit are to gather today in Dearborn for a youth leadership meeting. The Muslim Youth Leadership Symposium is an all-day event aimed at educating Muslims about political and social activism. It is to feature talks by Muslims Adam Shakoor, an attorney and former judge, and state Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit. It is sponsored by the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and student Muslim groups. ----- In the wake of pilot Joseph Stack's attack, onlookers expressed relief that it was not an incident of Islamist terrorism. If Stack's attack fits the four-pronged criteria of terrorism -- a criminal act against a civilian population with intent to cause fear, death, or injury, and as a means to influence government and/or politics -- but is dismissed empathetically as an act by one of our own, does this actually mean "being Muslim" is one of the understood, but unstated, criteria in the definition of terrorism? Will this characterization induce other Americans with personal grievances to lash out at the federal government? Will it continue to muddy the issue of terrorism as representative of the Islamic faith tradition, which obviously does not corner the market on politically motivated violence? Stack's attack will now undoubtedly serve as a litmus test for whether American media coverage and government verbiage will represent events through a politically and emotionally charged lens or via a precise and more objective account. Reem Elghonimi, board member, Council on American-Islamic Relations DFW, Garland ----- As the New York Police Department has initiated and expanded counterterrorism efforts in foreign countries over the last several years, it has also aggressively tried to recruit speakers of Arabic and other languages of countries where Islam holds sway. But a Moroccan immigrant who applied to become a police officer as a result of those efforts is suing the department, charging that he was not hired because he was a Muslim and was born outside the United States. Lawyers for the city filed a motion asking that his claim be dismissed, but on Jan. 29, Judge Richard J. Sullivan of United States District Court in Manhattan ruled that there was enough evidence for the suit to proceed. The immigrant, Said Hajem, took the police exam in February 2006 and said he scored 85.6, well above the passing grade. That June he received a letter of congratulations from Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly and began preparing to enter the Police Academy. Mr. Hajem said he had even decided to delay his wedding, hoping to get married as a police officer. "I started dreaming of becoming one of the Finest," Mr. Hajem, 39, said last month, as he sat in his lawyer's office on lower Broadway, "an important person who is going to save lives and stop terrorism." Now those hopes seem remote. It has been four years since Mr. Hajem passed the exam, but his application has been suspended in bureaucratic limbo. Mr. Hajem, who said he became an American citizen in early 2006, said the hiring process faltered for him in July 2006 when an officer reviewing his paperwork, Ricardo Ramkissoon, told him that he disapproved of people from "other countries" joining the department. Mr. Hajem added that Officer Ramkissoon had also rejected references he had provided from people with Middle Eastern names. "He told me, 'I need American names,' " Mr. Hajem said. "He said, 'You may be a terrorist.' " (More) ----- Rashad Hussain, President Obama's new special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, was an avid high school debater in Plano, Tex., where he grew up. His debate partner and best friend was a classmate named Josh Goldberg, meaning that at the end of many tournaments, the judge would announce "Goldberg-Hussain" as the cultural odd couple who had won the argument. "People got a kick out of it," Hussain said in a recent interview. "We joked that one day we would have the solution to the peace process." The two remain close friends. In his new position, Hussain, who is both a Koran scholar and an ardent North Carolina Tar Heels basketball fan, will be responsible for helping to bridge another cultural divide -- the one in U.S. relations with Muslims inside and outside the nation's borders. Since taking office, Obama has adopted an approach to broaden the ways in which the United States engages the Islamic world, moving from a policy focused mostly on counterterrorism to one that includes partnerships with Muslim countries and communities in education, health, science and commerce. (More) ----- Tissa Hami knows something about being hijacked. Her budding career fell victim to cratering public opinion toward people of Middle Eastern descent in the months after the Sept. 11 attacks. Hami is essentially American, having lived in the United States most of her life. But she was born in Iran to Iranian parents and lived there until she was 5. She grew up in predominantly white, suburban Boston and was on a scholarly path her father holds a Ph.D. in computer science and her mother is a dentist until all career options suddenly went sideways. After earning a master's degree in international affairs at Columbia University, she spent a stint in Paris. "I came back to the United States on Labor Day weekend 2001," Hami says. "A week-and-a-half later 9/11 happened. Two Ivy League degrees, and I could not get a job." She remained unemployed for more than a year. Hami came to realize her career would likely not pan out as she'd dreamt. "I thought maybe it's time to take a chance, a risk to do something I'd never do," she says. "I was really motivated to find a way to speak up and speak out after 9/11." Hami had never given comedy any serious thought, but her friends often told her she should try stand-up. So her platform would be the stage. "To me, that was outside the bounds of what a good little Iranian girl from a good little Iranian family would do," she says. "They expected me to have a serious profession, and I expected it, too." But Hami saw and heard the ugly stereotypes of her people swelling across the land, and she wanted to poke a hole in them. Comedy can be a sharp tack. (More) |
Monday, March 1, 2010
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