TEXAS RADIO HOST URGES BOMBING OF NY MOSQUE - TOP
Muslim civil rights group files FCC complaint over incitement to violence

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 5/27/10) -- A prominent national Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization today filed a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) complaint against a radio talk show host in Texas who yesterday advocated bombing a proposed New York City mosque.

The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said Houston radio host Michael Berry (KTRH-AM 740) made that call to violence on his May 26 program.

In his response to a caller named "Tony" who supported the right to build the planned mosque in New York -- an effort that has come under rhetorical attack by anti-Islam extremists -- Berry said: "No, no, Tony, you can't build a mosque at the site of 9/11. No, you can't. No, you can't. And I'll tell you this -- if you do build a mosque, I hope somebody blows it up...I hope the mosque isn't built, and if it is, I hope it's blown up, and I mean that."

Hear Michael Berry's Call to Violence

[Berry has in the past been a guest host for nationally-syndicated broadcasters like Mark Levin, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly.]

"Calls for acts of violence against houses of worship must never be tolerated or excused," said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad. "We ask the FCC to demonstrate that incitement to violence is never acceptable on our nation's airwaves."

He said Berry's call to violence against an American mosque is of particular concern, coming as it does after a bombing at a mosque in Jacksonville, Fla., earlier this month.

SEE: Lt. Gov. Tours Mosque that was Bombed

Awad noted that the planned New York mosque is being opposed by a collection of anti-Islam hate-mongers, one of whom recently launched an Islamophobic bus advertisement campaign in that city.

SEE: NYC Woman's Ad Crusade - Say No to Islam (Video)

CAIR recently expressed concern about a "growing atmosphere of anti-Muslim sentiment" nationwide.

SEE: Tea Party Leader Says Muslims Worship 'Monkey-God'

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.

Become a Fan of CAIR on Facebook
Subscribe to CAIR's E-Mail List

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

Please help support CAIR's important work.

-----

VIDEO: NYC WOMAN'S AD CRUSADE - SAY NO TO ISLAM (CAIR-NY) - TOP

Watch the video here.

NEW YORK (CBS, 5/27/10) -- They're controversial bus ads some say are flagrantly anti-Muslim.

An activist Manhattan woman is paying for the campaign detractors believe is bent on encouraging Muslims to abandon their religion.

CBS 2 HD took a look at the woman behind the controversy and the backlash it's generating.

"It's about the violent ideology of Islam. Yes, yes!" Pamela Geller said...

"This is a combination of bigotry, hatred and an individual using the current climate we're in to advance their own cause," said Faiza Ali of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

And it isn't just Islamic groups who are worried about the ad campaign and the online anti-Muslim vitriol. The folks over at the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith also think they see a disturbing pattern.

"This kind of language, this kind of characterization has no place in our society. It muddies the waters rather than really allow us to move forward," said ADL regional director Ron Meier...

SEE ALSO:

CAIR-NY: NYC BUS ADS ASKING 'LEAVING ISLAM?' CAUSE A STIR - TOP
Deepti Hajela, Associated Press, 5/26/10

NEW YORK — The questions on the ads aren't subtle: Leaving Islam? Fatwa on your head? Is your family threatening you? ...

Faiza Ali, of the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the ads were based on a false premise that people face coercion to remain with Islam. She said Muslims believe faith that is forced is not true belief.

"Geller is free to say what she likes just as concerned community members are free to criticize her motives," Ali said. (More)

-----

BACKGROUNDER: WHO IS BEHIND NY'S ANTI-ISLAM BUS, MOSQUE CAMPAIGNS? -TOP

The anti-Islam New York bus ad campaign and the campaign to block construction of a mosque and Islamic community center in New York are both headed by an extremist Muslim-basher who claims that "Hitler and the Nazis were inspired by Islam."

Stop the Islamization of America (SIOA), the anti-Islam hate group behind both efforts, is led by Pamela Geller.

[NOTE: The United States Patent and Trademark Office recently refused to grant SOIA a trademark because: "The applied-for mark refers to Muslims in a disparaging manner because by definition it implies that conversion or conformity to Islam is something that needs to be stopped or caused to cease."]

Geller recently posted images on her blog purporting to depict Islam's Prophet Muhammad. Several of those images show the prophet as a pig. Another image, headlined "Piss Be Upon Him," shows one of the controversial Danish cartoons of the prophet covered in urine. ("Piss Be Upon Him" is designed to mock the traditional phrase "Peace Be Upon Him" that Muslims use when mentioning any prophet of God.)

She has in the past referred to President Obama as a "ball s**ker" and posted a photoshopped image of him urinating on an American flag.

On her personal blog, Geller has written of President Obama: "[O]ne thing is for sure: Hussein is a muhammadan [sic]." Geller also wrote: "[I]t is well known that Obama allegedly was involved with a crack whore in his youth."

Geller has been vocal in her criticism of the black population in South Africa and seemingly supportive of the slain South African apartheid leader Eugene Terre'blanche. Following Terre'blanche's recent murder, Geller wrote: "All I see in South Africa is Black supremacism. Terreblanche [sic] may have been a white supremacist, but he's the dead one."

Her blog has in the past featured categories such as "Advancing Islamic Lies" and "Islam 2008: Religion of Barbarism." She was recently involved in a Florida conference that invited extremist anti-Islam Dutch politician Geert Wilders to speak.

In one 2009 blog post, Geller wrote in reference to Islam's Prophet Muhammad: "And frankly I find the whole new 'Abrahamic' narrative really galling. 1,400 years ago some maniaic [sic] decided to spin the origin of a 5,767 year old religion to advance their own evil end and said it was Ishmael that Abraham was to kill and now it's taken as.....gospel? Puhleeeze."

She also claims Muslim groups "control information and how it is processed at senior levels of the CIA, the FBI, the Pentagon, and the various branches of the military."

Geller once called for the destruction of Islam's Dome of Rock in Jerusalem. She wrote: "The dome has got to go. It is sitting atop the great Jewish temple. The dome has got to go."

Recently, Geller and the deputy head of SOIA, anti-Islam blogger Robert Spencer, offered support for a call to wipe the nation of Pakistan off the map using India's nuclear weapons. They both used their blogs to promote a video urging the mass killing of all Pakistanis.

Geller wrote of the girl featured in that video making the call to genocide: "Perhaps with an online Colb. (collaboration) we can run her for president in '16. She gets it."

Spencer wrote: "The girl is right: do not fear. Fight back against the jihad. Fear hands the jihadis a weapon."

SEE: Pamela Geller: The Looniest Blogger Ever

Geller has even been criticized by other Islamophobes for her extremism and for supporting far-right fascist groups in Europe. In fact, SIOA is an outgrowth of a similar group in Europe that seeks to block the construction of mosques on that continent. That group, Stop the Islamization of Europe, also "considers Islamophobia to be the height of common sense" and, like Geller, claims that Islam "considers lying to be not only acceptable, but obligatory."

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: NATIONWIDE MUSLIM ADVOCACY GROUP URGES FBI TO INVESTIGATE ATTEMPTED ARSON IN TIGARD - TOP
By Rebecca Woolington, The Oregonian, 5/27/10

The Council on American-Islamic Relations is asking the FBI to aid local law enforcement efforts in their investigation into an attempted arson incident, where a man discovered a mysterious timed device near liquid accelerant in his parent's Tigard-area home Sunday. The Washington County Sheriff's Office said the residents of the home are natives of Afghanistan and Muslim.

CAIR, a nationwide Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization that strives to elevate understanding and knowledge of Islam and empower American Muslims, cited other possible biased crimes across the country in its encouraging federal investigators to get involved.

"Given recent events and the rise in anti-Islam rhetoric nationwide, we urge the FBI to add its resources to those of local and state authorities to investigate a possible bias motive for this troubling incident," CAIR Legislative Director Corey Saylor said in a statement released Tuesday.

Beth Anne Steele, spokeswoman for the FBI in Portland, said the bureau is currently assessing whether federal civil rights were violated during the incident. If the assessment determines there was a civil rights violation, the FBI will investigate the incident, Steele said.

"It's certainly something we take very seriously," she said.

Steele said she could not provide any additional details about the assessment, but did say that FBI officials have been working very closely with the sheriff's office since the incident occurred. She also said that the FBI is communicating with members of the Muslim community and is doing everything it can to address their concerns. (More)

-----

CAIR-SFL, AMNESTY INTL HOST INTERFAITH FORUM ON TORTURE - TOP

WHEN: Friday, May. 28, 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
WHERE: The Freedom Tower at Miami Dade College, 600 Biscayne Blvd., Downtown Miami
COST: Free admission and FREE parking at garage behind Freedom Tower (NE 5th St. & 2nd Ave)

For more information, visit: http://www.miamitorture.com

Miami Dade College, Council on American-Islamic Relations and Amnesty International are hosting a powerful forum with leaders from the Muslim, Jewish and Christian community to discuss the history of torture from moral and human rights perspectives, citing actual cases of torture by governments in Latin America, Middle East, U.S., Asia, and elsewhere. Following the panel, attendees will ask questions and the panel members will invite the audience to get involved in the global fight against torture.

The forum will be moderated by Muhammed Malik, Director of South Florida's Council on American-Islamic Relations, and features speakers such as Rabbi Solomon Schiff, Director of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation's Community Chaplaincy Service; Father Paul Kane of the Archdiocese of Miami; Jennifer Cohen, interfaith and social justice advocate; and Foad Farahi, Muslim community interfaith leader and social justice advocate.

The interfaith forum is part of a series of informative discussions planned throughout the summer to coincide with the powerful Instruments of Torture through the Ages exhibition currently on display at MDC's Freedom Tower until August 29, 2010. The exhibition features nearly a hundred instruments designed for torturing and executing and is on loan from the Museo Toscana in Italy. Organizers hope the exhibition draws attention to contemporary human rights issues around the world.

CONTACT: CAIR-South Florida Executive Director Muhammed Malik, 305-761-6843, 954-272-0490, E-Mail: mmalik@cair.com

SEE ALSO:

VIDEO: CAIR-MI CALLS FOR 'TOTAL TRANSPARENCY' IN SHOOTING OF FBI DOG -TOP

"Right now, we can not say definitively if the imam even shot this dog or if this dog was shot by friendly fire. Obviously, this would change the dynamics of this case tremendously if this dog was shot by friendly fire," said Dawud Walid, executive director of C.A.I.R.

Watch the video here.

---

CAIR-MN: CAIR CASE COULD TAKE 6 MONTHS - TOP
By Dave Aeikens, St. Cloud Times, 5/27/10

The federal investigation into discrimination claims at St. Cloud's two public high schools could take six months or longer unless they reach an agreement called early complaint resolution.

The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights said this week it plans to investigate allegations of racial and ethnic discrimination against Somali students in St. Cloud and Owatonna. The complaint comes from the Minnesota Chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations, which wrote the Office of Civil Rights in March saying the district had failed to adequately respond to harassment, taunting and name-calling at Apollo and Technical high schools.

CAIR Minnesota's President Lori Saroya said her group would be open to the mediated settlement discussions that the Office of Civil Rights offers.

"Our concern has always been the students. We just want to see the change in environment. In the end, it affects not only their academics, it affects them emotionally," she said. "We are seeing it in students not doing well in school. We need to create an environment where they do well." (More)

---

EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS - IN RECOGNITION OF THE COUNCIL ON AMERICAN-ISLAMIC RELATIONS EIGHTH ANNUAL CIVIL RIGHTS BANQUET - TOP
25 May 2010
Congressional Record
111th Congress - Second Session

HON. DENNIS J. KUCINICH of Ohio in the house of representatives

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Mr. KUCINICH. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Ohio Chapter on the occasion of their Eighth Annual Civil Rights Banquet entitled "A New Era of Hope."

CAIR is a nationwide, nonprofit organization whose 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." For the past eight years, CAIR Ohio has played an instrumental role in helping to bridge the divides between Greater Cleveland's diverse communities. CAIR Ohio's Eighth Annual Banquet will provide a platform for vibrant discourse led by this year's distinguished speakers: Shahid Buttar, Esq. of the Bill of Rights Committee; Imam Mahdi Bray of the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation; and Nihad Awad, National Executive Director of CAIR. I commend these speakers for their efforts to promote civil liberties and social justice.

Madam Speaker and colleagues, please join me in recognizing the Council on American-Islamic Relations Ohio Chapter for their eight years of outstanding achievement. May their efforts to promote dialogue and create a more inclusive world continue to endure.

-----

CAIR: US TREASURY DEFENDS CHARITY LAW IN WAKE OF CRITICISM - TOP
Steven Stanek, 5/26/10

WASHINGTON // A US treasury department official yesterday defended counterterrorism laws instituted after September 11 that give the government broad powers to shut down charitable organisations suspected of having ties to terrorist groups.

Daniel Glaser, the treasury department's deputy assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes, told a House panel that the Bush-era laws are essential to combating terrorism and have allowed authorities to disrupt the flow of money to al Qa'eda and other groups through international charities, many of which have offices in the United States...

Treasury department officials, he added, have met frequently with US Muslim groups to improve relations and clarify guidelines.

Still, Muslim leaders here said that many people in their communities complain about the laws being unclear. "Every Ramadan, Muslims want to be able to give to charity and many people become afraid to do so," said Corey Saylor, the legislative director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

"People don't know how to donate and charities don't really know how to operate because everything is so murky." (More)