Major Pro-Israel Giver Funds 'Jihad Watch' JTA, 9/5/10 WASHINGTON - A woman who with her husband has contributed large sums to pro-Israel and Jewish groups is the principal funder of the group that has taken the lead in opposing an Islamic center in lower Manhattan. Jihad Watch, the group that is organizing a rally against the planned Islamic center timed for the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 2001 attacks - the center is planned for within three blocks of the site of the attacks - is funded by Freedom Center, a conservative group based in Los Angeles. (More) ----- Drunk, Anti-Muslim Bigot Gets Butt Kicked John Grooms, Creative Loafing, 9/3/10 The New Haven Register reports that last Thursday, Kevin Morris, 31 and really drunk, came barreling into a West Haven, Conn. hookah lounge, which he apparently thought was a Muslim-run business rather than a hipster refuge, and began shouting profanities and racial and religious insults at customers, including black and Arabic people. Morris may have been confused about what a hookah lounge is, but, as TalkingPointsMemo writes, "One thing is clear: it ain't a mosque." (More) ----- NY: A Mosque Invisible to Many Is a Target Sharon Otterman, New York Times, 9/3/10 . . .this week, a car filled with local teenagers sideswiped the 29-year-old son of one of the mosque's founding members, said Joseph V. Cardone, the Orleans County district attorney. One teenager was charged with firing a shotgun into the air near the mosque a few days earlier, after driving by and shouting epithets. (More) ----- Feds Offer $20,000 Reward in Mosque Site Fire Mark Bell, Tennessean, 9/4/10 Federal investigators are offering a $20,000 reward to anyone who can help identify the person or persons responsible for setting fire to construction equipment at the site of a future mosque south of Murfreesboro. (More) ----- Vandalism at a Mosque in Madera, Calif., is Met with Anger Los Angeles Times, 9/4/10 This is a small mosque in a small town about as far as you can get - in more ways than one - from New York City. Its minaret rises between a car lot and a veterinary hospital on Road 26, a couple of miles north of town. There are nothing but wide-open fields across the street from the recently vandalized Madera Islamic Center. (More) ----- For US Muslims, a 9/11 Anniversary Like No Other Rachel Zoll, Associated Press, 9/4/10 NEW YORK - American Muslims are boosting security at mosques, seeking help from leaders of other faiths and airing ads underscoring their loyalty to the United States - all ahead of a 9/11 anniversary they fear could bring more trouble for their communities. . . "We're telling everyone to keep their eyes open and report anything suspicious to authorities and call us," said Ramzy Kilic of the Tampa, Fla., chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations. (More) ----- CAIR-OH: Thriving Dayton Mosques Welcome Visitors of All Faiths Meredith Moss, Dayton Daily News, 9/4/10 "I would encourage people not to blindly go along with some of this hysteria we're seeing nowadays, but to stop and question," says Karen Dabdoub, executive director of the Southern Ohio region for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). "If you don't know any Muslims, go and talk to them and find out for yourself." (More) ----- Oklahoma City-Area Muslim Group Announces Public Service Announcement Campaign Carla Hinton, Oklahoman, 9/4/10 Razi Hashmi, executive director of the Oklahoma CAIR chapter, said the campaign is designed to challenge anti-Muslim bigotry generated by opposition to the Islamic cultural center being proposed near ground zero. (More)

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.