FROM FBI SNITCH TO SNITCHING ON FBI - TOP Craig Monteilh has gone from villain to ally in the Muslim community. Ever since it was first revealed the FBI directed Monteilh to spy on local Muslims, the story has been one of shifting alliances. At first, civil rights organizations condemned the work of a convict-turned-FBI-informant when details of his activity became known in 2009. Now the same group that found itself under FBI scrutiny is working alongside the same informant who once reported on their activities For more than a year and a half, Monteilh worked at the direction of the FBI to spy on local mosques and gain the trust of the people there. But now, after filing his own $10 million claim against the FBI, Monteilh has allied with the Council of American-Islamic Affairs and the American Civil Liberties Union. . . Hussam Ayloush, director of the Southern California CAIR chapter, said at the time he would be speaking with an attorney to discuss the possibility of libel suit. Monteilh claimed that Ayloush had ties to violent groups. More than a year later, Monteilh's assertions about local Muslim organizations have reversed. He's offered apologies to CAIR and Ayloush. "I admit there has been a shift in on my perspective on CAIR and the FBI," Monteilh said. "I believe the FBI lied to me." The attitude of civil rights advocates toward Monteilh has also become less confrontational. "In dealing with Craig Monteilh, our only interest is making sure the basic civil rights of our community are protected," Ayloush said. "If there is any contact, it's going to be about learning of any possible violations of the civil rights of American Muslims." Ayloush said he believes Monteilh made those statements under the direction of the FBI. He would not confirm any contact that CAIR has had with Monteilh or his attorney, Adam Krolikowski. (More) ----- PAT ROBERTSON CLAIMS MUSLIMS MAY BRIBE TENN. OFFICIALS - TOP Rutherford County Mayor Ernest Burgess and others scoffed at comments by nationally known televangelist Pat Robertson on his 700 Club program Thursday that Muslims could bribe local officials to expand their influence. "It's entirely possible," Robertson said during the broadcast following a report from his show about the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro's plans to build a 52,960-square-foot structure on Veals Road off Bradyville Pike southeast of the city. The 700 Club cable TV program included an interview with Burgess, who said afterward he was not impressed with what Robertson had to say. "The comments were so ridiculous they do not deserve a response," Burgess said. During his recorded interview, Burgess said the county is treating every religion the same way when it comes to development and noted the county has both Buddhist and Hindu temples. The mayor said he enforces the laws when it comes to religious rights and development. (More) ----- CAIR-OH: FOUR MOSQUE BATTLES BREW ACROSS US - TOP The bid to build a $100 million mosque and Islamic center two blocks from ground zero has ensnared a president and engrossed a nation. But New York isn't the only city debating a new mosque. Here are four of the most controversial battles nationwide. For more than 20 years, the Islamic Center of Northern Kentucky has rented space for a mosque in Florence, Ky., a suburb of Cincinnati. The congregation kept growing, so the center's leaders purchased 5.5 acres to build their own mosque and Islamic center. Work was supposed to begin next April. But this week, a website spouting the words, "Stop the Mosque" sprang up, and someone who dubbed himself "the vigilante" started handing out fliers to people who live in the neighborhood, urging them to try to stop the construction. "I don’t think it’s even a dispute, it’s a tempest in a teapot," says Karen Dabdoub, executive director of the Cincinnati chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. (More) SEE ALSO: CAIR-CA: MOSQUE DEBATE POLITICALLY VENOMOUS - TOP The proposed Islamic center in New York City has brought forth a national discussion, often heated and at times venomous, on religious freedom and the issue of sensitivity in America. Legitimate feelings of people from various religious and ethnic backgrounds who lost loved ones on Sept. 11, 2001, are being used partly as a cover by bigots to stop the construction of the cultural center that seeks to increase mutual understanding among all Americans. There also seems to be a troubling trend of opposition to the Cordoba House, signaling a larger effort across the nation to demonize Islam and Muslims. As we approach midterm elections, the debate has turned political, ignoring issues of religious freedom and the free exercise thereof. Let there be no doubt, major American Muslim organizations, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations, not only have condemned the tragic events of 9/11 but also have started campaigns to challenge extremism. Such campaigns include a "Not in the Name of Islam" petition, a 68-page compilation of all the condemnations of terrorism issued by Islamic scholars after 9/11, and many public service announcements entitled "Not in the Name of Islam" that challenge fanatics' rhetoric. These statements and campaigns stem directly from Islamic teachings that prohibit acts of terror. (More) --- When the congregation of Grace Baptist Church held services in its new building last month, no protesters marched outside to mark the occasion. It's doubtful that protesters will gather later this month when the church throws an all-day party to dedicate the new brick building on the corner of Bradyville Pike and Veals Road. The words "Not Welcome" will probably not be spray-painted on the new church's sign. The same cannot be said for the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, which owns the neatly mown 15-acre field next to Grace Baptist and whose plans to build a mosque for its growing community has been caught in the net of anti-Islam sentiment in the U.S. Both of the signs the Center erected at the site of its future home were vandalized; the first had "not welcome" sprayed across it; the second was simply smashed in two. Since May when the Center gained building approval from Rutherford County, local Tea Party activists have aggressively fought to stop the mosque, staging protests, claiming that it was too big (inflating it from a modest 6,800 square feet to a whopping 53,000 square feet) and making it a campaign issue in recent elections. Republican Ron Ramsey, Tennessee's lieutenant governor and a gubernatorial candidate, gained national attention — and ridicule on The Colbert Report — after opining "you could even argue whether being a Muslim is actually a religion, or is it a nationality, a way of life or cult, whatever you want to call it?" While Republican congressional candidate Lou Ann Zelenik said the center is part of "a political movement designed to fracture the moral and political foundation of Middle Tennessee." Ramsey and Zelenik both lost their bids for Republican nominations. (More) --- THE POISON BEHIND THE GROUND ZERO MOSQUE FUROR - TOP Who would have thought that the most successful joke in the history of Comment is free could become a template for far right hate groups in the US? Yet Ariane Sherine's atheist bus ads now have a grim imitator in New York, where a group calling itself Stop Islamisation of America (SIOA) has put up bus ads with a picture of a plane flying into the twin towers on one side, and on the other, an image of the proposed Cordoba centre. The two people behind SIOA are Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller, who, between them, run two flourishing and hate-filled sites, Jihad Watch and Atlas Shrugs, which link into an undergrowth of far-right websites in Europe, including the skinheads of the English Defence League, but also to respectable rightwingers such as Douglas Murray of the Centre for Social Cohesion, and even the Catholic Herald. Spencer is a Roman Catholic of eastern Orthodox extraction who, for the last 10 years, has propagandised the view that Islam is a religion that commands its adherents to violence, and that Muslims all round the world obey. Jihad Watch, incorporating the earlier Dhimmi Watch, is a roiling cauldron of stories from all over the world to illustrate the treachery and violence of Muslims, the criminal weakness of liberals, and the twisted, hate-filled bigotry of anyone on the right who has ever quarrelled with him. Geller is a libertarian who once worked on Wall Street. For sanity and moderation, she makes Melanie Phillips look like Karen Armstrong. Geller and Spencer have just published a book together, The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America; her website currently contains 267 stories discussing whether the president is, in fact, a Muslim. (More) --- HARDHATS VOW NOT TO WORK ON CONTROVERSIAL CENTER NEAR GROUND ZERO - TOP A growing number of New York construction workers are vowing not to work on the mosque planned near Ground Zero. "It's a very touchy thing because they want to do this on sacred ground," said Dave Kaiser, 38, a blaster who is working to rebuild the World Trade Center site. "I wouldn't work there, especially after I found out about what the imam said about U.S. policy being responsible for 9/11," Kaiser said. The grass-roots movement is gaining momentum on the Internet. One construction worker created the "Hard Hat Pledge" on his blog and asked others to vow not to work on the project if it stays on Park Place. "Thousands of people are signing up from all over the country," said creator Andy Sullivan, a construction worker from Brooklyn. "People who sell glass, steel, lumber, insurance. They are all refusing to do work if they build there." "Hopefully, this will be a tool to get them to move it," he said. "I got a problem with this ostentatious building looming over Ground Zero." A planned 13-story community center and mosque two blocks from Ground Zero, Park51 has exploded into a national debate. (More) ----- CAIR: GINGRICH TO MISS ANTI-MOSQUE RALLY - TOP If your sole reason for attending the anti-mosque rally in lower Manhattan on Sept. 11 was to hear Newt Gingrich speak, don't bother. He won't be there. The rally to show opposition to the proposed mosque on Park Place, two and a half blocks from the northeast corner of Ground Zero, is being sponsored by two affiliated groups, the Freedom Defense Initiative and Stop the Islamization of America. On the FDI website, former U.S. Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich is listed as a confirmed speaker for the event, planned for the afternoon of the ninth anniversary of the terrorist attacks upon the World Trade Center, which killed 2,751 people. But Gingrich never planned on attending the event, according to a Gingrich spokesman. . . The Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, has criticized the rally as Islamophobia and Islam-bashing. Learning that Gingrich was slated as a speaker at the event, CAIR sent him a letter asking that he reconsider. "Anyone who aspires to become president of the United States should not be seen lending support to hate-mongers and Islamophobes," said Ibrahim Hooper of CAIR. "Muslim-bashing may score Mr. Gingrich some cheap political points in the current climate of anti-Islam hysteria, but if he occupied the White House, such associations would inevitably harm our nation's international image." (More) SEE ALSO: VIDEO: CAIR REP SAYS NY AD CAMPAIGN A COVER FOR ANTI-ISLAM HATE -TOP View the video. Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesperson for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, described the campaign against the mosque as a cover for anti-Muslim hatred fueled by a growing hate filled agenda. A new poll showed that 70% of people oppose the building of the mosque, showing a growth in Islamophobia. "I've never seen it like this. Even after 9/11 there was a reservoir of good will. There were people brining flowers to mosques that were vandalized. But really in the last few months it's really skyrocketed," said Hooper. Hooper argued that the controversy has been manufactured. There should be no problem or controversy, he said. It was created by groups of Islamophobes . The proposed location is already used as a mosque and prayer area. "We're now in a situation where it's a test case for American freedom," said Hooper. --- VIDEO: CAIR-SAN DIEGO DEBATES CALIF. MOSQUE CONTROVERSY - TOP View the video. Angry backlash in Temecula over a possible new Mosque. Today on Good Morning San Diego we talked to both sides of this cultural and religious divide. Rhonda Deniston - who opposes the Temecula Mosque and Edgar Hopida of CAIR-San Diego, who is pro the Temecula Mosque joined us for today's debate. ----- CAIR: SHOULD OBAMA SHOW HIS FAITH? - TOP A startling increase in the number of Americans who believe, incorrectly, that President Barack Obama is a Muslim is spurring fresh debate about whether he needs to - or should - do more to convince the public of his Christian faith. Two surveys released Thursday indicate that religious rumors that have dogged the first African American president since his 2008 presidential campaign are surprisingly widespread, and may have actually gained traction during his presidency. One of the polls, commissioned by Time magazine, contains a jaw-dropping finding: nearly half of Republicans - 46 percent - believe Obama is a Muslim. . . Some Muslims say the intensifying public doubts about Obama’s faith are a symptom of broader and worrying trend of public hostility to Islam. In the Time poll, 32 percent of Americans said Muslims should be ineligible to run for president, and 28 percent said no Muslim should be permitted to serve on the Supreme Court. "I think it goes hand-and-hand with the recent rise in anti-Muslim hysteria we’ve seen in our society," said Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "It’s symptomatic of the Muslim experience in our society in which being a Muslim is increasingly becoming a pejorative. ... It’s really crazy out there. In the run-up to the election it’s going to get worse, and I don’t even want to think about the run-up to 2012." (More) SEE ALSO: Are Muslims the new Jews? Or Irish Catholics? Perhaps Mormons? Or are they really the war on terror's Japanese? Religious experts and historians say: all of the above. The still-unfolding controversy over plans to build an Islamic center near ground zero is just the latest chapter in a long saga of religious and ethnic misunderstanding that experts say goes back to the nation's earliest days. Fear of foreigners dates to the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, which were aimed at French immigrants suspected of disloyalty, said American University historian Allan Lichtman. "Then it was the Irish, the Germans, and the Catholics, and the Jews," he said. "These waves of xenophobia are as American as apple pie unfortunately." Despite the appeal of blaming the overheated rhetoric over the dispute in lower Manhattan on the still raw emotions left over from the Sept. 11 attacks, antipathy toward Muslims predates the furor around the proposed Park51 Islamic center. (More) ----- Maleeha Haq was born in Pakistan, lived there until she was 10 years old, and still has a wide circle of relatives there. She is thankful that none of her family has been directly affected by the ravaging floods and subsequent outbreak of cholera. Still, Haq, 28, wanted to do her part to help. An immigration attorney who lives in Fremont, Haq is one of the estimated 10,000 Pakistani immigrants living in the Bay Area, according to the most recent U.S. Census data. In Pakistan, an estimated 8 million people need food, water and shelter and roughly 14 million people need health care. Earlier this month, Haq sent an e-mail blast to a group of close friends. Within four days, about 10 people had stepped up with enough donations of diapers, canned food, clothing, blankets and medicine to pack a mid-size car. . . The Muslim Community Association in Santa Clara held a fundraiser Monday evening,? between prayers, and raised more than $100,000, said Zahra Billoo, director of programs and outreach for the Bay Area chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Islamic Relief USA, a major American Muslim charity, has local staff collecting funds and has acrisis page on Google. Additionally, the Pakistan Association of the San Francisco Bay Area raised a couple thousand dollars during a fundraiser earlier this month and plans a 7:30 p.m. dinner Aug. 29 at Mehran, a restaurant in Newark. For more information, go to http://pasfbayarea.org. The organization's president, Mohamed Akhtar Shah, said he has contacts in Pakistan and will head there himself next month to make sure money is distributed correctly. "We are trying to not go through the government because the government is slow and then some money goes to administrative costs," he said. "We are sending money and making sure it's distributed to the needy on the spot." (More) ----- CAIR-PA SPONSORS 4TH ANNUAL PHILADELPHIA DAY OF DIGNITY IN RAMADAN - TOP (PHILADELPHIA, PA, 8/20/10) –The Philadelphia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations Pennsylvania (CAIR-PA) and Islamic Relief USA are collaborating with local churches, and Jewish and Muslim organizations in sponsoring this year’s Day of Dignity on Sunday, August 22nd. People of all faith traditions will gather in center city to distribute hot lunches, brand new clothing and winter supplies to those in need. Many volunteers will be observing the fast of Ramadan. The Islamic month of Ramadan is a time for increased self-reflection, service and spirituality. SEE: Day of Dignity 2010 Expands to Help More People in More Cities The Ramadan fast is performed to learn discipline, self-restraint and generosity, while obeying God’s commandments. Fasting (along with the declaration of faith, daily prayers, charity, and pilgrimage to Mecca) is one of the "five pillars" of Islam. Philadelphia is one of the 22 cities around the country in which this day is observed. Islamic Relief began this initiative eight years ago in order to promote local volunteerism. WHAT: Philadelphia Day of Dignity 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. SEE ALSO: While the country debates the location of mosques near Ground Zero and at Florence, local Muslims have gone about their daily life, donating enough school supplies to help Hays-Porter School students learn all year. Members of the local Muslim community donated $2,500 worth of supplies that included pens, pencils, markers, crayons, folders, paper, Kleenex, hand sanitizer and electric pencil sharpeners for teachers. Representatives of Cincinnati's office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations-Ohio (CAIR), the Islamic Association of Cincinnati, the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati and the Islamic Center of Northern Kentucky delivered the supplies to the West End school Thursday, The donation is being made during Ramadan, the holiest time of year for Muslims. The month-long observance began Aug. 11. "Ramadan, for us, is a time of extra blessing and it's a time to be more aware of our neighbors who might be in need. For us to be able to help out this way and to do it during Ramadan is extra special for us," said Karen Dabdoub, executive director of CAIR's Cincinnati chapter. (More)
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