TOP PROSECUTOR TO REVIEW FBI SHOOTING OF IMAM - TOP
By Niraj Warikoo, Detroit Free Press, 4/12/10
Attorney General Mike Cox has tapped a veteran prosecutor to investigate the FBI’s fatal shooting in Dearborn of a Muslim leader after Wayne County declined to get involved, his office said today.
Doug Baker, a former Wayne County prosecutor who has handled major cases, was chosen as a special assistant attorney general to review whether the FBI acted appropriately in the Oct. 28 shooting death of Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah. Abdullah was shot 20 times by federal agents seeking to arrest him and his followers on suspicion of dealing in stolen goods in a sting operation. (More)
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MUSLIMS FEEL TARGETED BY FBI - TOP
Question bureau contact on, off campus
Alex Ransom, UTD Mercury, 4/12/10
Muslim students approached by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents say they feel profiled for their religion and ethnicity.
Late last fall and in March, students said agents approached them on campus and at work to inquire about their beliefs and affiliations.
Political science senior Borna Danesh said he first encountered the bureau when representatives greeted him outside his class in November, around the time of the Nov. 5, 2009 Fort Hood shooting.
Danesh said FBI agents questioned him as they walked across campus, asking him to identify radical UTD students, radical preachers and asking him about his political views.
He said he was questioned again this spring, and still isn't sure what prompted the interest. (More)
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1500 TURN OUT FOR CAIR-CHICAGO 6TH ANNUAL BANQUET - TOP
(CHICAGO, IL, 4/12/10) -- A record 1500 people attended the sixth annual banquet and fundraising dinner of the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Chicago) on Saturday, April 10.
Speakers for the program included Professor Tariq Ramadan of Oxford University and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN).
"The size and diversity of the crowd at the sold-out event represented the breadth and depth of the Chicago Muslim community and neighboring states," said Ahmed Rehab, executive director of CAIR-Chicago. "The evening's uplifting theme focused on how we could be the subjects of our own history, rather than the victims."
CAIR-Chicago received more than 20 letters of support from elected officials, including letters from Chicago's mayor, Illinois' governor, members of the U.S. House and Senate, and local public officials, some of whom were in attendance.
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 understand.
CONTACT: Ahmed Rehab, Executive Director, (202) 870-0166, E-Mail: arehab@cair.com; Amina Sharif, Communications Coordinator, (312) 212-1520, E-Mail: asharif@cair.com
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CAIR-CHICAGO: ONCE BARRED FROM U.S., MUSLIM SCHOLAR SPEAKS IN CHICAGO AREA -TOP
In January, State Department reversed Bush-administration visa denial
Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah, Chicago Tribune, 4/11/10
Six years after being barred from coming to the U.S. to teach at the University of Notre Dame, the Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan spoke Saturday in suburban Oakbrook Terrace, attributing his presence to new "channels for dialogue" between the U.S. and Islamic scholars and telling American Muslims to treat the U.S. as their home.
The Swiss academic was denied a visa to the U.S. in 2004 by the Bush administration, which accused him of supporting terrorist causes. But in January the State Department reversed that decision, saying he did not pose a threat to the U.S.
"It is quite clear (Obama administration officials) don't want to follow in the footsteps of the Bush administration, especially when it comes to freedom of expression and scholars coming," Ramadan said. "They want to open new channels for dialogue."
Now a professor at Oxford University, Ramadan spoke to the Tribune on Saturday in Chicago before giving the keynote address in Oakbrook Terrace at an annual fundraising dinner for the Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. It was part of a six-day speaking tour in the U.S., his first since being allowed in.
Ramadan, who has written extensively about Western Muslims, told the largely Muslim audience at the CAIR-Chicago event to contribute to American society and uphold Americans' right to criticize their own government. He said American Muslims should change society through promoting ethics and justice — not by proselytizing and converting the masses, a controversial idea for some Muslims. (More)
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CAIR REP ON CBS SUNDAY MORNING: WHAT DOES A TERRORIST LOOK LIKE? - TOP
Experts in Profiling Say It's Behavior, Not Race, Ethnicity or Religion, That Reveals Security Threats
Martha Teichner, CBS News, 4/12/10
Watch the video here.
A smoking incident on a United Airlines flight to Denver this past week briefly triggered fears that a terrorist might be on board. The false alarm put the spotlight yet again on air travel security ... and the debate over the practice of profiling.
The attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the "Underwear Bomber," to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 to Detroit would have been preposterous, if he hadn't come so close to killing himself and nearly three hundred other people on Christmas Day.
"There was a loud 'pop,' and a bit of smoke and some flames," recalled one passenger.
Nihad Awad, of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, thought, Not again ... and knew what was coming.
"That's exactly what I said - 'There you go again, oh God help us, I hope it was not a Muslim,'" said Awad.
But the 23-year-old Nigerian who got through security and onto Flight 253 was indeed a Muslim, trained by al Qaeda in Yemen.
Immediately, pundits and politicians started saying what a lot of Americans might have been thinking:
"I know it's not politically correct to say, I believe in racial and ethnic profiling," said Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla.
"First of all, it is un-American," asked Awad. "Second, have we learned any lesson from targeting minorities in America? Targeting people because of who they are is wrong, counterproductive. And we look always back in shame on our history." (More)
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DC: NEWSEUM EVENT TO FOCUS ON MORAL RESPONSE TO TORTURE - TOP
Culture Project Presents: "BLUEPRINT FOR ACCOUNTABILITY" featuring Matt Dillon, Mariska Hargitay, John Leguizamo, Valerie Plame Wilson, Bobby Kennedy, Ron Suskind, and more.
An evening fusing theater, film, journalism and debate to craft a moral response against torture.
APRIL 22, 2010 @ 7:30PM at the NEWSEUM in WASHINGTON, D.C.
Culture Project is offering a 20% discount to CAIR subscribers, with the code cairdc422! (code valid online and by phone)
BUY TICKETS ONLINE NOW or by phone at 866.811.4111
$15 student tickets available with valid ID.
The Culture Project has assembled some of the most important and influential voices of our time to help us understand the unprecedented events, policies, and circumventions of the past administration. The "Blueprint for Accountability" series fuses theater, film, debate, and discussion to call attention to these crimes, urging policy makers, elected officials, and world citizens to craft a decisive moral response, capable of restoring both America's dignity and standing throughout the international community.
Closely connected to the 'FREE FAHAD' campaign, the event intends to bring focus to the Fahad Hashmi trial, scheduled to begin just 6 days later in NYC, by debuting never-before-seen footage of Culture Project's recent interview with Hashmi's family members. With a complete section of the program dedicated to the human cost; poems and letters from Guantanamo detainees and torture victims ("To My Father, by Abdullah Thani Faris al Anazi", Sister Dianna Ortiz' letter to President Obama, etc.) will allow their voices to be heard. Watch a clip from last year's "Blueprint For Accountability" launch at The Times Center.
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CHICAGO REJECTS SHIA SCHOOL, MUSLIM GROUP SUES - TOP
Ahlul Bayt News Agency, 4/12/10
Chicago, IL, United States - An Islamic group sued on Thursday the officials of the DuPage County for rejecting its proposal to build a school for Shia Muslim families near Naperville.
According to Ahlul Bayt News Agency (ABNA.ir), the Council on American-Islamic Relations' Chicago office filed the federal lawsuit on behalf of the Irshad Learning Center (ILC). (More)
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A TALE OF MUSLIM COURTSHIP - TOP
Jennifer Guerra, Michigan Radio, 4/12/10
ANN ARBOR, MI (Michigan Radio) - Most people are familiar with American dating rituals. You like someone, you ask them out, maybe go to a movie, have dinner. But for University of Michigan students Sarah Jukaku and Abdul El-Sayed, their dating story is a little different.
As part of weeklong series, Muslims in Michigan, Michigan Radio's Jennifer Guerra met up with the couple at a cafe on campus to hear how their courtship unfolded.
"In a writing class my senior year, they asked us to describe one of the happiest moments of my life," says Abdulrahman (Abdul) El-Sayed, and "for me that was the first time I got to hold my wife's hand. And people just couldn't get that. They're like, what are you talking about? Do you even remember that? I'm like yeah, see, at the end of the day all of our courting didn't involve any touching at all, and so in my interpretation of Islamic law, I wasn't allowed to touch her until after we were married." (More)
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ISLAM IN NEW HAVEN PART V: THE BIRTH OF A CHILD, GROCERY SHOPPING, A WEDDING AND MORE - TOP
Jim Shelton, New Haven Register, 4/11/10
Editor's note: This is the final part of a five-part series on the Muslim community in the New Haven area.
Spring is in the air, which means Fay Latif and the Muslimah Scouts will be out exploring any minute now.
The scouts, a group of Muslim girls from Greater New Haven, do everything from day hikes to short canoe trips. Latif, a Hamden mother of two daughters, accompanied the scouts on a paddle last year near East Rock Park in New Haven. (More)
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