MUSLIMS SAY THEY FACE MORE DISCRIMINATION AT WORK - TOP By Steven Greenhouse, New York Times, 9/23/10 At a time of growing tensions involving Muslims in the United States, a record number of Muslim workers are complaining of employment discrimination, from co-workers calling them "terrorist" or "Osama" to employers barring them from wearing head scarves or taking prayer breaks. Such complaints were increasing even before frictions erupted over the planned Islamic center in Lower Manhattan, with Muslim workers filing a record 803 such claims in the year ended Sept. 30, 2009. That was up 20 percent from the previous year and up nearly 60 percent from 2005, according to federal data. The number of complaints filed since then will not be announced until January, but Islamic groups say they have received a surge in complaints recently, suggesting that 2010’s figure will set another record. The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has found enough merit in some of the complaints that it has filed several prominent lawsuits on behalf of Muslim workers. (More) ----- FBI INVESTIGATES MOSQUE DEFACING IN SOUTH ST. LOUIS - TOP Kevin Killeen, KMOX, 9/23/10 The FBI is investigating an act of vandalism against a south St. Louis mosque, amid rising rhetoric against Muslims. Two FBI agents took photographs and interviewed members of the Masjid Qooba at 1925 Allen, after someone spray painted the side of the building with a pentagram and the words "worship Satan." Mosque member Tim Kaminski says it’s no accident. "We know it’s directed at us, "Kaminski said, "because they know we’re a house of worship, a house of prayer.". . . Meanwhile, an attorney for the local chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relationsbelieves the graffiti attack is part of a pattern of escalating rhetoric against Muslims. Jim Hacking cites this summer’s tension over the New York City Mosque, the Florida pastor threatening to burn the Koran, and this week’s Fairview Heights, Illinois standoff with the man accused of threatening Muslims. "Nationally on things like FOX News, you have people like Newt Gingrich comparing Muslims to Nazis," Hacking said, "Just really negative, stereotypical hatred that’s been spewing out, and it’s really at it’s worse level, even worse than after 911." (More) ----- MAN IN STANDOFF WANTED WAR WITH MUSLIMS, FBI SAYS - TOP ROBERT PATRICK, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 9/23/10 A man who held federal agents at bay with fake explosives wanted to start a war between Christians and Muslims and kill President Barack Obama, according to charges filed against him Wednesday. (More) ----- MUSLIM FAMILY SUES WILLOWS HIGH - TOP Federal suit alleges school offered no protection while siblings were being harassed TONI SCOTT, Chicoer, 9/23/10 SACRAMENTO — A Willows Muslim family that garnered national attention on the Dr. Phil Show has now filed a lawsuit against the Willows Unified School District, claiming district officials did nothing to stop the harassment inflicted on the four former Willows High School students. Chico lawyer Larry Baumbach filed a motion for a jury trial in federal Eastern District of California Court in Sacramento late last week, charging the school district failed to uphold the civil rights of Luz, Mohammad, Salam and Shawki Al-Rifai. The complaint alleges the 18-year-old quadruplets were subjected to years of "severe, pervasive, verbal and physical harassment" while attending Willows High School, with the actions "tacitly encouraged" by the district, Superintendent Steven Olmos and Willows High Assistant Principal Jerry Smith. (More) ----- CAIR-CINCINNATI HOLDS MEDIA RELATIONS WORKSHOP - TOP (CINCINNATI, 9/23/10) –- On Saturday, September 18, the Cincinnati chapter of Council on American-Islamic Relations-Ohio (CAIR-Cincinnati) presented a Media Training Workshop. The workshop, which was held at the Islamic Association of Cincinnati, was attended by a dozen members of the Cincinnati area Muslim community. The workshop covered the basics of media relations such how to write a letter to the editor and how do a media interview. "It is very important for community members to understand how to work with media professionals to offer accurate and balanced information about Islam and Muslims," said CAIR-Cincinnati Executive Director Karen Dabdoub, who presented the workshop. Groups and organizations in the Muslim community that want to host a workshop should contact the CAIR-Cincinnati office at 513-281-8200. 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: Karen Dabdoub, 513-281-8200, E-Mail: kdabdoub@cair.com; Roula Allouch, E-Mail: rallouch@cair.com ----- CAIR: TEXAS SBOE DEBATES 'PRO-ISLAMIC' BIAS IN TEXTBOOKS - TOP By Kari Huss, MSN, 9/23/10 It appeared that Texas had finished battling over textbooks - with social conservatives winning a clear victory in May - but the Texas State Board of Education is taking up another explosive curriculum question: Are Texan youth being fed a sugar-coated version of Islam while Christianity is unfairly taken to task for its sins? At a three-day meeting that started Wednesday, the board is scheduled to consider a resolution that would require it to reject textbooks that it determines are tainted with teaching "pro-Islamic, anti-Christian half-truths and selective disinformation," a bias that it argues is reflected in current schoolbooks... From Ahmed Rehab’s point of view, American culture — including textbooks — routinely vilifies Islam and focuses unduly on the militaristic aspects of the religion. "Islam has a wealthy history that goes beyond the battles, in the arts and cultures and sciences," said Rehab, spokesman for the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR). "There’s this strange attempt to portray anything Islamic as uniquely bad. "When someone comes along and then speaks the truth, or basically renders an accurate account of reality, then (readers) are shocked and confused because it goes against everything they have heard, therefore it must be a lie. It’s what I call willful ignorance."