REP. ELLISON, CAIR-NY TO JOIN 9/10 VIGIL IN SUPPORT OF AMERICAN VALUES - TOP
Broad-based New York coalition will welcome Park51 proposal on eve of 9/11 anniversary

(NEW YORK, NY, 9/7/10) -- On September 10, CAIR–NY will join New York Neighbors for American Values, a coalition of more than 80 civic, interfaith and civil rights groups, at a candlelight vigil on the eve of the anniversary of the 9/11 in support of religious freedom, diversity, equality, and the rights of American Muslims to build a community center at 51 Park Place.

The program will include music and words of wisdom from faith leaders and elected officials. [NOTE: Please wear white in solidarity, bring candles and American flags, but no signs.]

WHAT: New York Neighbors for American Values Candlelight Vigil
WHEN Friday, September 10, 2010, 7:15 pm (Sundown) – 10:00 pm
WHERE: Intersection of Church Street and Park Place, New York, NY
WHO:

• Congressman Keith Ellison
  
• Councilwoman Gale Brewer
  
• Imam Khalid Latif
  
• Rev. Katherine Henderson
  
• Rabbi Michael Feinberg
  
• Hansdeep Singh

CAIR is America's largest Muslim civil liberties group. 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-NY Community Affairs Director Faiza N. Ali, 212-870-2002, 718-724-3041, E-Mail: fali@cair.com; CAIR-NY Civil Rights Director Aliya Latif, 212-870-2002, 732-429-4268, E-Mail: alatif@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

SEE ALSO:

SIGNS OF HATE AS MOSQUE SUPPORTS GIVE AWAY SCHOOL SUPPLIES - TOP
By Alex Rush, The Brooklyn Paper, 9/7/10

Supporters of a proposed mosque in Sheepshead Bay gave away backpacks and other school supplies at the site of the proposed Islamic center — but neighborhood opponents used the giveaway as another chance to decry the project’s supporters as terror-linked extremists.

Opponents have long said that their objection to the Muslim American Society-backed mosque is limited to the traffic and commotion it will supposedly cause, but protest signs plastered all over Voorhies Avenue between E. 28th and E. 29th streets suggest another motivation.

"Stop propaganda," read one sign. "School supplies giveaway to cover your support of Hamas."

Another sign added, "the Muslim American Society is not welcome."

And as the kids lined up for their school supplies, one man chanted, "Go back to your country!" -- though he did not specify the country. (More)

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CAIR-PA Video: Protesters Confront Muslim Worshippers at Philly Mosque - TOP

Watch the video here.

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CAIR: MUSLIMS TONING DOWN EID FESTIVITIES IN HONOR OF SEPT. 11 - TOP
By Tara Bahrampour, Washington Post, 9/7/10

Each year on Eid al-Fitr, the end of the Ramadan month of fasting, 8,000 to 10,000 Muslims stream into the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring in shifts for special Eid services, followed by food, singing, dancing and henna decorating to celebrate one of Islam's most festive holidays.

The religious services are on for this year. But not the rest

"No celebrations, no festivities," said Rashid Makhdoom, who is on the center's board of directors. By uncomfortable coincidence, the holiday falls this year around Sept. 11 - for the first time since the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Eid, like other Muslim events, is calculated on a lunar calendar and occurs slightly earlier each year. This week, depending on when in August one started fasting, it is either on the 9th, 10th, or 11th. . .

In light of this, Muslim leaders say they fear that Eid celebrations could be misconstrued, mistakenly or deliberately.

"There are those who are promoting the idea that Muslims will be celebrating on 9/11 because that fits their hate-filled agenda," said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations. "If we hold a community bazaar or a family fun day, it'll be seized on by these people."

To forestall misunderstandings, the Council of Muslim Organizations in greater Washington has called on its 147 member groups to avoid holding Eid celebrations on Sept. 11, and Muslim leaders are encouraging congregants to explain to non-Muslim friends and neighbors that the convergence this year is mere coincidence. A few groups are also beefing up security for this year's event. (More)

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CNN SEGMENT HIGHLIGHTS CAIR PSAS CHALLENGING ISLAMOPHOBIA - TOP
CNN, 9/4/10

View the video.

CNN interviews CAIR Legislative Director Corey Saylor about recently-released public service announcements (PSAs) featuring Muslim 9/11 first responders and designed to challenge the growing anti-Muslim bigotry in American society.

CAIR's PSA campaign is also designed to offer an implicit challenge to the Florida church that plans to burn copies of the Quran, Islam's revealed text, on September 11.

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SEE ALSO:
CAIR VIDEO: ANTI-ISLAM RHETORIC HEATS UP AHEAD OF 9/11 - TOP
ABC NEWS, 9/7/10

View the video.

"We are asking people to take into account security concerns... given the almost hysterical atmosphere we're in right now," said Ibrahim Hooper, national communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

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CAIR: AMERICAN MUSLIMS ASK, WILL WE EVER BELONG? - TOP
By Laurie Goodstein, New York Times, 9/5/10

For nine years after the attacks of Sept. 11, many American Muslims made concerted efforts to build relationships with non-Muslims, to make it clear they abhor terrorism, to educate people about Islam and to participate in interfaith service projects. They took satisfaction in the observations by many scholars that Muslims in America were more successful and assimilated than Muslims in Europe. . .

The great mosque debate seems to have unleashed a flurry of vandalism and harassment directed at mosques: construction equipment set afire at a mosque site in Murfreesboro, Tenn; a plastic pig with graffiti thrown into a mosque in Madera, Calif.; teenagers shooting outside a mosque in upstate New York during Ramadan prayers. It is too soon to tell whether hate crimes against Muslims are rising or are on pace with previous years, experts said. But it is possible that other episodes are going unreported right now.

"Victims are reluctant to go public with these kinds of hate incidents because they fear further harassment or attack," said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "They’re hoping all this will just blow over."

Some Muslims said their situation felt more precarious now — under a president who is perceived as not only friendly to Muslims but is wrongly believed by many Americans to be Muslim himself — than it was under President George W. Bush. (More)

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CAIR-WA: EVANGELICALS EXTEND A HAND TO MUSLIMS - TOP
By Janet I. Tum, Seattle Times, 9/6/10

Even in these days of increased vitriol toward Muslims, and heated rhetoric over whether a mosque should be built near Ground Zero, it's not surprising to find people in the metropolitan Seattle area reaching out to Muslims.

This is the place, after all, where members of various churches stood guard outside a Northgate-area mosque in the days after Sept. 11, watching for any suspicious anti-Muslim activities.

It's the area where, for years, Muslims, Jews and Christians on the Eastside have been building houses for low-income residents through Habitat for Humanity. . .

Ly, 29, is a pastor at Soma — Renton, a nondenominational church formerly called Harambee Church. An accountant by day, his aim to build better understanding between evangelical Christians and Muslims is purely a grass-roots effort. . .

At a recent iftar at Redmond's Muslim Association of Puget Sound (MAPS), Ly's manner is open and friendly, talking easily with MAPS members about everything from sports to what Ramadan means to them.

Ly's next big project is to work with the director of the local Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) to organize a dinner this fall, inviting 20 imams and other Muslim leaders, and 20 pastors and other Christian leaders mainly from conservative evangelical churches. He's planning to send invitations to individuals at Mars Hill Church, Overlake Christian Church and Westminster Chapel, among others; and to mosques including those in Kent, Redmond and Olympia. (More)

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CAIR: FLA. CHURCH REBUFFS MILITARY CONCERNS ON KORAN BURNING - TOP
Associated Press, 9/7/10

"Whenever there's a perception that America is somehow anti-Muslim, that harms our image and interests around the Islamic world," said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American Islamic Relations, a Washington-based Muslim civil rights group that has worked to discredit Jones and counter his message. (More)

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CAIR: OHIO LAWYER SUES PAM GELLER FOR DEFAMATION - TOP
By Andrew Welsh-Huggins, Associated Press, 9/7/10

In his lawsuit, Tarazi said blogger Pamela Oshry wrongly linked him to Hamas, considered a terrorist group by the U.S. government. He said she also falsely said he was appointed to represent Bary's parents by the Council on American-Islamic Relations. (More)

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CAIR-MI LETTER: PROFILING PROBLEMS
Detroit Free Press, 9/7/10

Events in which Dutch law enforcement detained, then released, two Yemeni men on suspicion of terrorism are an example of how ethnic and religious profiling does not work, wastes resources and humiliates people.

American Muslims have the right to travel to Yemen or any other Muslim country where travel is legal without being viewed as potential terrorists. Raising suspicions about the normal travels of any ethnic or religious group back to their ancestral land is not only counterproductive but a waste of taxpayer dollars.

Dawud Walid
Executive director
Council on American-Islamic Relations -- Michigan (CAIR-MI)
Southfield