CALIF. MUSLIM, JEWISH LEADERS DISCUSS SHARED VALUES - TOP
(LOS ANGELES, CA, 6/7/10) -- The Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA) announced today that Muslim leaders and activists met recently with the leadership of the Los Angeles-based Sinai Temple.
In that meeting, held at the synagogue, leaders focused on shared religious and moral values and strengthening bonds of cooperation among members of the Jewish and Muslim communities. The leaders also stressed the need to work together to fight all forms of bigotry, including anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, and to make Los Angeles a model city in promoting harmony and prosperity for all citizens.
Muslim leaders who participated in the visit included CAIR-LA Executive Director Hussam Ayloush and CAIR-LA Community Relations Manager Sherrel Johnson; Dr. Dafer Dakhil, director of Omar ibn Khattab Foundation; Jihad Turk, religious director of the Islamic Center of Southern California; and Tahara Akmal, interfaith chaplain resident at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.
Sinai Temple's leadership was represented by Rabbi David Wolpe and Rabbi Brian Schuldenfrei.
"Muslims and Jews not only share Abrahamic roots but also a legacy of collaboration and mutual respect," said Ayloush.
Rabbi Wolpe said, "Together, Muslims and Jews must continue to seek common ground to combat hatred and promote cooperation, understanding and peace."
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-LA Communications Manager Munira Syeda, (714) 776-1847, E-Mail at info@losangeles.cair.com; 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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KELLY: ON THIS GROUND, ZERO TOLERANCE - TOP
Mike Kelly, Bergen Record, 6/7/10
..."We must take a stand and we must say no," shouted rally organizer Pamela Geller as the crowd roared approval. Moments later, another keynote speaker, Robert Spencer, sparked more cheers when he asked, "Are you tired of being lied to?"
Spencer, however, did not explain precisely what lies he was referring to...
At one point, a portion of the crowd menacingly surrounded two Egyptian men who were speaking Arabic and were thought to be Muslims.
"Go home," several shouted from the crowd.
"Get out," others shouted.
In fact, the two men – Joseph Nassralla and Karam El Masry -- were not Muslims at all. They turned out to be Egyptian Coptic Christians who work for a California-based Christian satellite TV station called "The Way." Both said they had come to protest the mosque.
"I'm a Christian," Nassralla shouted to the crowd, his eyes bulging and beads of sweat rolling down his face.
But it was no use. The protesters had become so angry at what they thought were Muslims that New York City police officers had to rush in and pull Nassralla and El Masry to safety.
"I flew nine hours in an airplane to come here," a frustrated Nassralla said afterward.
The incident underscores how contentious -- and, perhaps, how irrational -- the debate over the mosque has become.
A mosque, for instance, has been located since 1983 on West Broadway, about 12 blocks from Ground Zero. After the 9/11 attacks, the mosque's imam, Feisal Abdul Rauf, began shaping plans to build an Islamic cultural center closer to Ground Zero as part of an attempt to build cultural ties between Islam and America.
Called Cordoba House, the center would rise 13 stories and would include a 500-seat auditorium, a swimming pool and a mosque.
Late last month, after New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and a variety of political leaders announced their support for the project, the lower Manhattan community board voted 29-1, with 10 abstentions, to approve Cordoba House. (More)
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BACKGROUNDER: WHO'S BEHIND NY'S ANTI-MOSQUE CAMPAIGN? - 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.
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CAIR DIRECTOR OFFERS WAYS TO CHALLENGE ISLAMOPHOBIA - TOP
Nihad Awad spoke at recent OIC conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 6/7/10) -- Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) recently took part in a conference hosted by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in Brazil, at which he discussed ways to reverse the rising level of Islamophobia in Western societies.
The 17th Session of the Committee for the Coordination of Joint Islamic Action, held last week in Sao Paulo, was convened by OIC Secretary General Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu and attended by representatives from some 40 nations. Brazilian government officials also took part in the conference.
In a panel discussion on Islamophobia and empowerment of Muslim communities in the West, Awad outlined the primary sources of Islamophobic rhetoric, described how Islamophobes seek to marginalize Muslims and demonize Islam, and focused on education and civic engagement as the most productive ways to challenge growing anti-Islam sentiment.
"Our research indicates that knowledge about Islam and Muslims is at a low level in the West, and that lower levels of knowledge correlate with increased anti-Islam prejudice," said Awad. "Education and engagement are key to challenging the growing phenomenon of Islamophobia."
The OIC is the second largest world inter-governmental organization after the United Nations and serves as the collective voice of the Muslim world. Its membership currently includes 57 Muslim-majority nations.
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.
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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.
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CAIR: MUSLIM-TURNED-PREACHER FACES UNIVERSITY INQUIRY - TOP
Tom Breen, Associated Press, 6/6/10
The future of a prominent Southern Baptist preacher who converted from Islam may depend on which version of his past is closer to the truth....
"We've known for some time that his past is not what he's portraying," said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington, D.C.-based Muslim civil rights and advocacy group. "But the whole 'former Muslim' gig is quite profitable these days. It plays well to certain audiences." (More)
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CAIR: POPE LAUNCHES MIDDLE EAST BISHOPS GROUP - TOP
CNN, 6/6/10
Pope Benedict XVI launched a "special assembly" of bishops focused on the Middle East on Sunday, during a visit to the divided island of Cyprus.
The group aims to "help to focus the attention of the international community on the plight of those Christians in the Middle East who suffer for their beliefs," he said in announcing the group, a part of the Catholic Church's Synod of Bishops.
A Vatican statement outlining the church's position on Christians in the Middle East, introduced by the Pope on Sunday and On the Vatican website, says the interfaith strife arises from Muslim theocracies.
A leading U.S.-based Muslim advocate said, "This kind of rhetoric isn't helpful in building relations between Christian and Muslim communities worldwide."
Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said there appear to be some misconceptions.
"Islamic law has had great respect for Christians and that has been demonstrated throughout history," he said. "The Prophet (Mohammad) himself had good relations with Christians." (More)
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CAIR: ONE YEAR AFTER HIS CAIRO SPEECH OBAMA'S OUTREACH IS 'LACKING', SAY MUSLIMS - TOP
Steven Stanek, The National, 6/6/10
WASHINGTON // On the one-year anniversary of Barack Obama's Cairo speech, several prominent Muslim-American groups offered their "mixed reviews" of the president's outreach to the Muslim world.
Coming together for a joint press conference in Washington, representatives from the groups applauded the president for setting a new "tone" in government's relationship with Muslims, marking a vast improvement, they said, over the antagonism many perceived during the Bush years. They also praised other positive gestures, such as April's summit for Muslim entrepreneurs and Mr Obama's decision to appoint two Muslims to serve in his administration.
But they took issue with the White House for not doing enough to engage the American-Muslim community and reverse Bush-era counterterrorism laws that have alienated many Muslims here.
Nihad Awad, the national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said at the press conference while Mr Obama has taken several positive "first steps", his outreach to Muslims "is lacking on serious issues".
The White House, he said, must clarify laws that empower the Treasury Department to shut down charities suspected of ties to terrorist groups. The laws have had a disproportionate effect on Muslim charities and continue to fuel government distrust in American-Muslim communities. (More)
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CAIR: CAIR URGES US TO HELP END GAZA BLOCKADE - TOP
Arab News, 6/5/10
WASHINGTON: The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) on Friday offered what it called a "mixed" review of President Obama's outreach to the Muslim world one year after his historic speech in Cairo.
At a news conference in Washington, CAIR issued a statement analyzing the Obama administration's actions in the past year and how those actions matched statements made at the Cairo address.
In summarizing that analysis, CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said: "The president has done a solid job in setting a new tone in relations with the Muslim world, standing by Muslim appointees who were subjected to political smears and undertaking positive initiatives such as the Muslim entrepreneurship summit.
"However, we remain concerned about issues such as the ability of American Muslims to fulfill their religious obligation of zakah, or charitable giving. We are also concerned that national security issues are being used as a cover for the erosion of American Muslim civil liberties.
"Overseas, our nation appears on target in meeting its timetable for leaving Iraq. But violence is escalating in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and given the disturbing news out of the Middle East this week, we believe it is time for our government to demand an end to Israel's illegal blockade of Gaza." (More)
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CAIR: LOBBYING GROUPS PRESSURE LAWMAKERS, OBAMA ON GAZA FLOTILLA - TOP
Kevin Bogardus, The Hill, 6/05/10
Israel's commando raid of a Gaza aid flotilla has sparked a surge of lobbying here in Washington.
Despite the congressional recess, groups from across the spectrum on the Middle East peace process went into action once news broke last Monday that nine activists died in a skirmish with the Israeli military. Advocates have been talking to lawmakers and the White House as well as garnering public backing by initiating letter-writing campaigns and phone calls to district offices of members of Congress during the break....
Others seeking an end to the blockade are calling on lawmakers to come out against it.
"Unfortunately, the bastion of support for this humanitarian siege is in the Congress. Unless that changes, there will be no movement towards a peaceful and just resolution of the conflict," said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. (More)
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US MEDICAL STAFF EXPERIMENTED ON TERROR SUSPECTS: REPORT - TOP
AFP, 6/7/10
WASHINGTON -- Medical personnel apparently experimented on terror detainees during CIA-led torture after the September 11 attacks, aiming to improve interrogation techniques, a human rights group said Monday.
Physicians for Human Rights said it obtained public records showing health professionals worked under the supervision of the Central Intelligence Agency during interrogations of "war on terror" detainees after the 2001 attacks.
The doctors and medical staff witnessed waterboarding, forced nudity, sleep deprivation, temperature extremes and prolonged isolation among other techniques.
The experimentation and research "appear to have been performed to provide legal cover for torture," the group said. (More)
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IMAGES OF MISSILE AND CLUSTER MUNITIONS POINT TO US ROLE IN FATAL ATTACK IN YEMEN - TOP
Amnesty International
Amnesty International has released images of a US-manufactured cruise missile that carried cluster munitions, apparently taken following an attack on an alleged al-Qa'ida training camp in Yemen that killed 41 local residents, including 14 women and 21 children.
The 17 December 2009 attack on the community of al-Ma'jalah in the Abyan area in the south of Yemen killed 55 people including 14 alleged members of al-Qa'ida. (More)
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