CAIR: PRESIDENT'S 'ARAB SPRING' ADDRESS SETS THE RIGHT TONE - TOP
Reps of Syrian and Libyan-American communities participate in viewing and press conference

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 5/19/11) -- The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today said that President Obama's speech this afternoon on the "Arab Spring" freedom movements in the Middle East and North Africa sets the right tone but needs to be translated into policies and actions.

SEE: Text of Obama speech on the Mideast, North Africa
Obama presents Mideast peace vision to Arab world (Reuters)

Representatives of the Syrian and Libyan American communities joined other leaders and members of the D.C.-area Muslim community to watch the address live at CAIR's national office on Capitol Hill and share their reactions.

Those who watched or spoke following the president's speech included CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad, Naeem Baig of the Islamic Circle of North America, Mahdi Bray of the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, Dr. Mohammed Elsanousi of the Islamic Society of North America, Mouaz Moustafa of the Libyan Council of North America, and Dr. Louay Safi of the Syrian American Council.

In a statement, CAIR's Awad said:

"We appreciate President Obama setting the right tone by applauding the recent freedom movements across the Middle East and North Africa, but the true test of our nation's commitment to freedom and human dignity will be in translating this speech into actions and concrete policies.

"It is significant for the president of the United States to support the massive popular demonstrations for freedom and self-determination in the region, particularly since our country has supported some of the dictators who have been and are oppressing their people.

"The president made the important point that all people deserve human dignity and self-determination, and we support his intention to defend those universal rights."

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: CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, E-Mail: ihooper@cair.com; CAIR Communications Coordinator Amina Rubin, 202-341-4171, E-Mail: arubin@cair.com

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CAIR: REPORT SAYS MUSLIMS TARGETED IN U.S. TERRORISM CASES - TOP
Raja Abdulrahim, Los Angeles Times, 5/19/11

The government's use of surveillance, informants and invented plots fails to enhance public safety and instead prompts human rights concerns, an NYU report says. The FBI and the NYPD take issue with the findings.

U.S. government tactics in pursuing domestic terrorism cases target and entrap Muslim community members and fail to enhance public safety, according to a report released Wednesday by a human rights center at New York University's law school.

The government's use of surveillance, paid informants and invented terrorism plots prompts human rights concerns, according to the report by NYU's Center for Human Rights and Global Justice. The authors examined three high-profile cases in New York and New Jersey that they said raised questions about the role of the FBI and New York Police Department in creating the perception of a homegrown terrorism threat.

In the cases, each of which resulted in convictions and lengthy sentences, informants pretending to be Muslims pushed ideas about violent jihad and instigated plots that law enforcement later foiled, the report says.

The researchers urged the FBI and NYPD to revise guidelines that govern such investigations. (More)

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TARGETED AND ENTRAPPED: MANUFACTURING THE "HOMEGROWN THREAT" IN THE UNITED STATES - TOP
Center for Human Rights and Global Justice

The government played a significant role in instigating and devising the three plots featured in this Report -- plots the government then "foiled" and charged the defendants with. (More)

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ADL SUPPORTS CAIR'S SUIT AGAINST OKLA. ANTI-SHARIA LAW - TOP
ADL, 5/19/11

Dallas, Texas, May 19, 2011 ... The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has joined with other religious freedom advocates in submitting a friend-of-the-court brief to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals arguing that an Oklahoma constitutional amendment targeting Islamic (Sharia) Law is unconstitutional. (More)

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ACLU REPORT DEBUNKS MYTHICAL 'SHARIA THREAT' TO OUR SYSTEM - TOP
ACLU, 5/17/11

As the ACLU has documented elsewhere, there has been a wave of anti-Muslim sentiment and attacks on Muslim communities in the U.S. in the last few years. Most recently, multiple states have proposed legislation banning the consideration of Islamic or "Sharia" law by state courts. Anti-Muslim groups claim these measures are necessary because the courts are being "overtaken" by Sharia law. Specifically, Sharia-ban proponents have pointed to a number of court cases involving Islamic religious doctrine or Muslim parties that supposedly evince a "Sharia threat" to our judicial system.

A new report by the ACLU, Nothing to Fear: Debunking the Mythical "Sharia Threat" to Our Judicial System, examines, in detail, the cases repeatedly cited by anti-Muslim groups as evidence of the alleged "Sharia threat" to our judicial system. The report concludes that these cases do not stand for the principles that anti-Muslim groups claim. Rather, these court cases deal with routine matters, such as religious freedom claims and contractual disputes. Courts treat these lawsuits in the same way that they deal with similar claims brought by people of other faiths. So instead of the harbingers of doom that anti-Muslim groups make them out to be, these cases illustrate that our judicial system is alive and well, and operating as it should. (More)

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S.C. SHARIA BILL SPONSORS STILL KIND OF CLUELESS - TOP
Tim Murphy, Mother Jones, 5/19/11

The South Carolina legislature is debating a bill to halt the spread of Islamic Sharia law in state courts. Because there are no documented instances of Sharia law being forced on the good people of the Palmetto State, the bill has been criticized as superfluous, if not outright discriminatory. The bill's sponsor, GOP state Sen. Mike Fair sat down with Think Progress this week in an effort to set the record straight. Maybe that wasn't such a good idea. Here's Fair explaining the stakes if South Carolina doesn't act:

In Columbia, South Carolina, that beautiful state house right over there. ...you gotta walk through its gorgeous, but no horns sounding five times a day at times of prayer, which I'm told -- haven't been to Michigan in a long time -- been told that there are Islamic communities where there have [...] in Dearborn, that's exactly right, where with taxpayer dollars they're doing certain funded, doing certain things to accommodate Islam. (More)

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SMEAR TACTICS BEHIND TENN. ANTI-MUSLIM BILL - TOP
Video besmirches institutions, stokes fear of Muslims
The Tennessean, 5/19/11

State Sen. Bill Ketron, a Republican from Murfreesboro, gave fellow senators a DVD that claims to show that a Memphis man accused of killing an Army recruiter was radicalized in Nashville. Ketron is behind an anti-terrorism bill that Muslims say unfairly targets them. Critics say some points made in the video are misleading or inaccurate.

After co-sponsoring legislation that put a target on Muslim beliefs, then revising the bill to remove any reference to Islam, the Murfreesboro Republican now has handed out to fellow senators a video packed with lies and distortions that obviously is intended to galvanize support for his bill, the Material Support to Designated Entities Act.

And yes, the focus is back on Muslims in this diatribe, which accuses Vanderbilt University, Tennessee State University and the Islamic Center of Nashville of tolerating, even encouraging Islamic extremism.

The assertions in the video are easily debunked. Its claims that Carlos Bledsoe, a Memphian who converted to Islam and is accused of killing an Arkansas Army recruiter, was radicalized in Nashville, are specious. Local Muslims have said they barely remember the man, who studied at TSU and attended the Islamic Center. Court documents in Arkansas have shown that Bledsoe's first exposure to terrorists was in Yemen, where he moved to teach English after leaving Nashville. (More)

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FIGHTING MOSQUES IN THE NAME OF FREEDOM - TOP
Doyle McManus, Los Angeles Times, 5/19/11

Last year, a Muslim congregation in Murfreesboro, Tenn., a pleasant college town of about 110,000 people southeast of Nashville, decided that the time had come to build a proper mosque.

For 20 years or more, the town's roughly 250 Muslim families had met for prayers in makeshift quarters, and the congregation's prosperous leaders -- doctors, professors, auto dealers -- thought they could do better. They bought a 15-acre plot of land next to a Baptist church south of the city limits, and won approval from the Rutherford County Planning Commission for a 53,000-square-foot community center.

Then, as has happened in several places around the country lately, bedlam broke out.

Conservative activists protested that they didn't want a big, visible mosque in their quiet Southern town. A candidate for the Republican congressional nomination decried the construction. Vandals torched one of the (non-Muslim) contractor's bulldozers. And a group of residents filed suit, charging that the building permit had been issued improperly and that they would suffer "emotional distress" if they had to live near a mosque. (More)

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TENN. COURT DECIDES PLAINTIFFS NOT HARMED BY MOSQUE - TOP
Scott Broden, Daily News Journal, 5/19/11

MURFREESBORO -- Chancellor Robert Corlew III ruled that plaintiffs suing the county for approving construction of a mosque just outside the city limits have failed to prove they're being harmed.

"We must note that, under the law, the Plaintiffs have not demonstrated a loss different from that which is common to all citizens of Rutherford County," Corlew wrote in his ruling issued this week. "That Islam is a religion has been proven in this case. That the county ordinance allows construction of a church or place of meeting within a residential planning zone as a matter of right in this case is further undisputed." (More)