FBI TACTICS AGAINST MUSLIMS QUESTIONED - TOP
By Salvador Hernandez, The Orange County Register, 10/7/10

Muslim leaders are calling on the Department of Justice to look into the FBI's handling of an investigation against a Tustin man who once faced immigration charges and accusations of being a terrorist sympathizer.

Charges against Ahmadullah Sais Niazi have been dismissed and now Muslim leaders want authorities to look into how FBI agents handled the three-year long investigation against the Afghan native...

Niazi's supporters say the case highlights abuses by federal and local authorities, who allegedly tried to prosecute the Tustin resident on immigration charges after he refused to become an informant.

"I honestly expected most charges to be dropped," said Hussam Ayloush, director of the Southern California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "From the beginning I knew the circumstances surrounding the case were a combination of entrapment and retaliation." (More)

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HOW HATE BLOGS MANUFACTURED THE 'GROUND ZERO MOSQUE' CONTROVERSY - TOP
By Steve Rendall and Alex Kane, FAIR, 10/7/10

How did a local story about a proposal to build an Islamic cultural center in Lower Manhattan turn into a national controversy about whether a "Ground Zero Mosque" would be a slap in the face to 9/11 victims?

It started with a small group of anti-Muslim activists who suggested the proposal was a scheme by anti-American Muslims to "conquer" the hallowed site of the September 11 attacks (Big Government, 5/18/10). Some even suggested that the Imam behind the proposal was an Al-Qaeda supporter (Fox News, 5/13/10). The project was named "Cordoba House," opponents argued, in honor of the Islamic conquest of Spain, where Muslim victors built a mosque on the ruins of a sacked church (Newt.org, 6/21/10). How could anyone miss the parallels?

Created on small anti-Muslim blogs, the "Ground Zero Mosque" framing was eventually adopted by bigger right-wing outlets before making extensive inroads into broader corporate media.

Every key point in the opponents' storyline was false. The location of the proposed 13-story community center and mosque, at 51 Park Place (known as Park51), is not part of Ground Zero, and isn't even visible from the former site of the World Trade Center. The three-block radius around the WTC site that would need to be drawn to make Park51 part of some "hallowed ground" includes strip clubs, porn shops and liquor stores (Daily News, 8/16/10). The key figure behind the proposal, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, is an American Muslim who works in fields of interfaith outreach and tolerance, with an emphasis on improved relations between the Arab/Muslim world and the West. Cordoba House is a project of Rauf's organization, the Cordoba Initiative, whose name honors the tolerance among Muslims, Christians and Jews that flourished in the Spanish city a thousand years ago (New York Times, 7/14/10).

But the facts didn't seem to matter. The people who ought to have been on the defensive for misrepresenting facts and fomenting religious bigotry continued to be on the offensive, driving the coverage with their dubious claims, while their progressive Muslim targets remained on the defensive, smeared and chided for "intolerantly" pushing forward with their proposal. (More)

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ILL. MAN INDICTED FOR MOSQUE BOMB ATTEMPT - TOP
BNO, 10/6/10

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Wednesday announced that a Fairview Heights, Illinois man was indicted on Tuesday for threatening to detonate an explosive device on a mosque.

Roman O. Conaway, 50, was charged on a two-count indictment with making a false threat to detonate an explosive device and with influencing a federal officer by threat.

According to the criminal complaint, on September 21, agents of the FBI and U.S. Secret Service went to the Fairview Heights residence of Conway. The agents were investigating allegations that he had threatened an individual associated with a mosque in the St. Louis area.

Conaway allegedly threatened the individual in a phone call that he will burn a copy of the Quran and videotape it for distribution to three television stations. He said he intended to start a war between Christians and Muslims and to kill President Obama and other government officials. (More)

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200-YEAR-OLD ECHOES IN MUSLIM CENTER UPROAR - TOP
Paul Vitello, New York Times, 10/7/10

Many New Yorkers were suspicious of the newcomers' plans to build a house of worship in Manhattan. Some feared the project was being underwritten by foreigners. Others said the strangers' beliefs were incompatible with democratic principles.

Concerned residents staged demonstrations, some of which turned bitter.

But cooler heads eventually prevailed; the project proceeded to completion. And this week, St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church in Lower Manhattan -- the locus of all that controversy two centuries ago and now the oldest Catholic church in New York State -- is celebrating the 225th anniversary of the laying of its cornerstone. (More)

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BASHING MUSLIMS INCURS NO REAL CONSEQUENCES - TOP
By Larry Derfner, The Jerusalem Post, 10/7/10

Four recent scandals involving public figures accused of running down minorities show that any offensive commentary on followers of Islam incurs no real consequences.

In America, you can't rag the Jews publicly and you can't rag the blacks publicly. It's taboo – you lose your job, you have to quit the campaign if you say bad things about Jews or blacks – even if what you say is, you know, true...

With one exception, political correctness protects every ethnic and religious minority in America from public bad-mouthing, and that one exception is Muslims. In America, you can say anything you want as publicly as you want against Muslims, against Islam, against the Koran, and the only thing mainstream America might do is elect you. You will have trouble in very narrow, left-liberal, Ivy League circles, but that's all. Everywhere else in the USA, Muslims are fair game. (All Arabs count as Muslims, of course, even if they're Christian)...

Whoever lost a job in America for slagging off Muslims?

Any Muslim who can't prove that he's a registered Republican who's joined the Tea Party is an "Islamist," an alien subversive. Newt Gingrich, who's compared the Muslims who want to build the Ground Zero mosque to Nazis, is running for president on this theme. "America is experiencing an Islamist cultural-political offensive designed to undermine and destroy our civilization," he says, and he has a very good shot at getting elected. (More)

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CAIR MOST MUSLIM COUNTRIES ALLOW CHURCHES, SYNAGOGUES - TOP
By Robert Farley, St. Petersburg Times, 10/7/10

The statement: In most Muslim countries, "We can't have a church. We're not able to build synagogues. It's forbidden." - Franklin Graham, Sunday, on ABC's This Week

The ruling...

Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic relations, said Graham was incorrect. "There are lots of Christian churches and synagogues in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Jordan, Indonesia, Qatar, Kuwait. ... If you go to any number of so-called Muslim countries you will see thriving Christian and Jewish populations." One member of the Iranian Parliament is Jewish, Hooper noted. "The only one where you don't see it, where you can't have a Christian church or synagogue is Saudi Arabia," Hooper said.

The cities of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia are the two holiest cities in Islam, said Akbar S. Ahmed, chair of Islamic Studies at American University. So no churches or synagogues are allowed there. He compared them to the Vatican. (More)

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CAIR-MI: GROUP FILES FOI SUIT IN IMAM'S FATAL SHOOTING - TOP
Detroit Free Press, 10/7/10

The Council on American Islamic Relations has filed a Freedom of Information lawsuit against the Wayne County Sheriff's Office in the October 2009 fatal shooting of Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah by FBI agents during a sting operation in Dearborn.

"We believe in the transparency of government especially when a life has been taken," said Detroit attorney William Goodman, who is representing the council. Similar suits have been filed against Dearborn and Detroit police and the state's attorney general.

Last week, Attorney General Mike Cox released a report clearing the FBI agents of any criminal wrongdoing in the shooting. (More)

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ISLAMIC HEAD SCARVES TAKE FASHION CUES - TOP
By Raja Abdulrahim, Los Angeles Times, 10/7/10

Younger, Westernized Muslim women are seeking out trendy styles, with one Orange County student selling designs inspired by Vogue and Elle. But some critics wonder whether the stylish creations defeat the purpose of modesty.

On one of the holiest nights of Ramadan, Marwa Atik chose a crowded Southern California mosque to debut her latest creation.

It was just after midnight when the 20-year-old walked into the Islamic Center of Irvine, dressed in a long, flowing burgundy robe, her head wrapped in a charcoal-colored chiffon hijab, trimmed with decorative gold zippers.

After the group prayers, sermon and Koran recitation, a woman approached Atik, gesturing at the scarf. "OK, I want one," she said excitedly. "How can I get it?"

Atik has taken the Muslim head scarf, often known as hijab, and turned it into a canvas for her fashion sensibilities, with ideas inspired by designs from Forever 21 and H&M as well as haute couture runways and the pages of Vogue and Elle. Showing her latest design at a mosque was her way of gauging sentiment on scarves that go beyond the limited fashion realm they have thus far inhabited, such as floral and geometric prints or lace and beaded embellishments.

"I knew that I wanted to do a zipper scarf, because I knew that zippers were in style," Atik said, her head covered this day with a sea-foam hijab, echoing the color of her light green eyes.

The hijab has long been a palette of sorts for changing styles and designs, and shops across the Middle East are replete with colors and shapes that can vary from region to region. Some women in the Persian Gulf region wear their hair up in a bouffant with the scarf wrapped around it like a crown. Syrians are known for cotton pull-on scarves, the hijab equivalent of a T-shirt. And in Egypt veiled brides visit hijab stylists who create intricate designs and bouquets of color atop the bride's head.

But Atik's experiments with the hijab, which is meant as a symbol of modesty, are created with an eye toward being more adventuresome and risky.

To some, the trend heralds the emergence of Westernized Muslim women, who embrace both their religion and a bit of rebellion.

But to others in the Muslim community, what Atik is doing flies in the face of the head scarf's purpose. When the scarf is as on-trend as a couture gown, some wonder whether it has lost its sense of the demure. (More)

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NORTH CAROLINA MUSLIMS FOSTER INTERFAITH HARMONY WITH EID FESTIVAL - TOP

In the last three years, NC Eid Festival, Inc., a Cary, North Carolina based non-profit organization, has celebrated "Cary Eid Festival" to commemorate Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha as American holiday events. Endorsed and sponsored by the Town of Cary, this festival draws rich diversity of cultural performances from around the world. U.S. Congressman and chair of the House Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on Homeland Security, Rep. David Price, was a keynote in the 2009 Cary Eid Festival, where he praised the contributions of the Muslim-American community. This festival has received warm reception from the media and community members in North Carolina. In these times of rising distrust against Muslims, Cary Eid Festival has played an important role in breaking the negative stereotypes of Muslims.

This year's Cary Eid Festival will take place on October 9, 2010, at Koka Booth Amphitheatre in Cary, N.C. This "Festival Without Borders" will include music and performances from East Asia, South Asia, Middle East, North Africa, Europe and the Americas. Congressman David Price and Duke University's Muslim Chaplain, Abdullah Antepli, will be the key-note speakers at this festival.

You could learn more at: www.NCEidFestival.org

Watch a short video of Cary Eid Festival

Cary Eid Festival 2009 covered by North Carolina affiliate of NBC TV

Cary Eid Festival report by North Carolina affiliate of PBS TV

Cary Eid Festival 2010 publicized by the Town of Cary

Cary Eid Festival publicized by Cary Arts Council

For more information, contact: 919-412-7008