HADITH OF THE DAY: NO RACIAL SUPERIORITY - TOP

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said to a companion: "You are not better than people (of other races) unless you excel them in piety."

Al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 1361

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DC: CAIR TO HOST VIEWING OF PRESIDENT'S 'ARAB SPRING' SPEECH - TOP

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 5/18/11) -- On Thursday, May 19, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) will invite leaders and members of the Washington-area Muslim community to a live viewing of President Obama's State Department address on U.S. policy toward the "Arab Spring" freedom movements in the Middle East and North Africa.

SEE: Obama Aims to Reshape the Peace Debate
CAIR: Arab World Offers Obama Rhetorical Tightrope (NPR)

The viewing will be held at CAIR's Capitol Hill headquarters. Viewing participants will offer comments on the president's address.

WHAT: CAIR Viewing of President's 'Arab Spring' Address
WHEN: Thursday, May 19, 11:30 a.m. (The president's speech is scheduled for 11:40 a.m.)
WHERE: CAIR National Headquarters, 453 New Jersey Ave., S.E., Washington, D.C.
CONTACT: CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, E-Mail: ihooper@cair.com

"Despite disappointment with progress on a number of international issues, the president's address offers a golden opportunity to demonstrate to the Arab and Muslim world that our nation supports the universal quest for freedom and human dignity," said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad.

CAIR chapters around the nation will hold similar viewings. Contact the nearest CAIR chapter here.

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, 202-488-8787, E-Mail: arubin@cair.com

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CAIR: ARAB WORLD OFFERS OBAMA RHETORICAL TIGHTROPE (NPR) - TOP
Alan Greenblatt, NPR, 5/18/11

In his speech addressing the Muslim world on Thursday, President Obama will attempt partially to close the gap between U.S. ideals about democracy and its strategic interests in the Middle East and North Africa. It won't be easy.

Obama is using the occasion of the death of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden to recalibrate the United States' relationship with the Muslim world. It's a hopeful moment, both because of that triumph against terrorism and because of the push for democracy seen throughout the region this year. ...

"What people fail to realize is that all of these revolutions for freedom and human dignity completely take the wind out of the sails of extremists like al-Qaida," says Ibrahim Hooper, national communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). "The only reason a tiny minority of the population supported them is that when there was no political outlet, it drove people to extremism."

Support for democratic aspirations is what Middle Eastern and North African citizens want to hear in the wake of the so-called Arab Spring, says Adeed Dawisha, a political scientist at Miami University of Ohio. ...

Obama has the opportunity to reshape the American image in the Muslim world, not just because of bin Laden's death and the Arab Spring, but also because of the chance that the U.S. will wind down its presence in Afghanistan and Iraq. But Muslims will be looking to see progress not just in those wars but in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as well, says Hooper, the spokesman for CAIR.

"We welcome any time any politician speaks out positively in favor of better relations with the Muslim world and repeats the fact that we're not at war with Islam," Hooper says. "Having said that, it's important he tie any outreach to actual policies on the ground. Rhetoric is nice, but policies are even better." (More)

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CAIR: WILL AMERICAN MUSLIMS VOTE FOR OBAMA? - TOP
David A. Graham, The Daily Beast, 5/18/11

Two years ago after President Obama stepped to a podium in Cairo and delivered a landmark speech to the Muslim world, he's trying it again. But among American Muslims, this week's speech will be received with a great deal more skepticism.

"Just like the last time, we're quite happy if any president offers positive rhetoric toward the Muslim world or Islam, but it really needs to be backed up with concrete policy initiatives," says Ibrahim Hooper, communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a leading American Muslim group. "We're still in Afghanistan, we're still in Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian situation has gone south. We're not there -- we're just continuing with the previous policies."

It's not just foreign policy. Across the board, Muslims are expressing disappointment with Obama's progress on issues relevant to them in the domestic policy realm. What they express is not so much anger as disillusionment, a recognition that the president hasn't remade the political landscape for Muslims. (American Muslim opinions mirror international opinions. A Pew survey released Tuesday finds that citizens in majority Muslim countries remain skeptical of Obama.)

The complaint mirrors, in many ways, one liberals have voiced: Pie-in-the-sky hopes, some encouraged by Obama and others projected on him, are proving more difficult to achieve than had been hoped. But it's been especially hard for American Muslims, of whom -- according to a CAIR survey in November 2008 [PDF] -- a stunning 89 percent voted for Obama. And these disappointments are triggering an emotion that is surprising even the American Muslims feeling it: nostalgia for the George W. Bush administration. (More)

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TENN. LAWMAKER HANDS OUT ANTI-MOSQUE VIDEO - TOP
Chas Sisk, The Tennessean, 5/18/11

The state senator behind an anti-terrorism bill that Muslims say unfairly targets them distributed a video to lawmakers that accuses Vanderbilt University, Tennessee State University and a Nashville mosque of tolerating Islamic extremists.

Sen. Bill Ketron gave his 32 fellow senators a DVD that claims to show that Carlos Bledsoe, a Memphis man and convert to Islam accused of killing an Army recruiter, was radicalized in Nashville.

Ketron distributed the video as state lawmakers are considering his Material Support to Designated Entities Act, which give the governor and the state attorney general new powers to shut down organizations that they deem to promote terrorism. (More)

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TENNESSEE'S ANTI-MUSLIM BILL IS AN AMERICAN DISGRACE - TOP
Daniel Tutt, Huffington Post, 5/17/11

In a matter of days, Tennessee's state legislature is expected to pass a bill ostensibly designed to combat radical Islamic terrorism in Tennessee known as the "Material Support" bill or HB 1353. While the bill has removed direct references to Islam or Muslims at the pressure of civil rights groups such as the ACLU and others, if it is passed, it will seriously harm our security by alienating our biggest allies in combatting homegrown terrorism: our fellow American Muslims.

The impact of this bill on Muslims in Tennessee was on display in a recent training I conducted in Murfreesboro for educators and law enforcement officials. The training brought together local Muslim leaders and more than 80 civic leaders to look at ways to respond to a spike in bullying towards Muslim youth and rising reports of prejudice. Last summer, Murfreesboro was rocked by a series of protests against a mosque building project that resulted in two hate crimes directed toward the 1,000 person Muslim community, followed by a national media expose by CNN called, "Unwelcome: The Muslims Next Door."

Through my discussions with community leaders in Murfreesboro, the problem seems not so much one of a widespread level of fear or bigotry toward Islam and Muslims by average Tennessean citizens. On the contrary, they felt a sense of embarrassment about what they see as a new type of anti-Muslim sentiment. (More)

Daniel Tutt is the Outreach Director of Unity Productions Foundation, and a fellow at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, a non-partisan think tank. An activist, speaker and Ph.D. student in philosophy and communication, his work seeks to build greater understanding across religious and cultural lines, with a particular emphasis on Islam and Muslims.

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CAIR: OKLAHOMA'S ANTI-SHARIA LAW VIOLATES U.S. CONSTITUTION - TOP
Michael Flood McNulty, Opposing Views, 5/18/11

An Oklahoma constitutional amendment that purports to ban Islamic law in the state singles out Muslims for discrimination and should not be enforced, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and other groups have told a federal appeals court.

The so-called "Save Our State Amendment" barring enforcement of sharia passed with 70 percent of the vote in November, but Americans United and the other organizations assert that the provision is unconstitutional.

"The amendment singles out one faith tradition for government hostility," said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director. "That violates our fundamental constitutional requirement that government remain neutral on religion.

"Oklahoma doesn't need a special amendment to protect it from government-imposed Islamic law," he continued. "The First Amendment already does that.

"I think we all know that sharia has no chance of taking over Oklahoma," Lynn concluded. "This entire incident has been a sad example of politically motivated religious intolerance."

A lawsuit against the amendment was filed by Muneer Awad, executive director of the Oklahoma Council for American-Islamic Relations. In November, U.S. District Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange issued a preliminary injunction in Awad v. Ziriax, to stop the Oklahoma State Election Board from certifying the election results. (More)

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CAIR: ATTACKS ON U.S. MOSQUES RISE FOLLOWING BIN LADEN'S DEATH - TOP
Marie Diamond, Think Progress, 5/17/11

The Houston Fire Department is investigating an attempt to burn down one of the city's mosques after masked men used gasoline to try to ignite the building over the weekend. Prayer rugs at the back of the mosque were doused with gasoline, but thankfully the building did not catch fire, and the damage was confined to one room.

The Texas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is asking the FBI to investigate the arson as a possible hate crime. The incident is just the latest in a string of attacks on American mosques since the death of Osama bin Laden.

Many conservatives responded to the terrorist leader's death by stoking broader fears about Muslims and sharia law, but the most extreme reaction came from far-right blogger and commentator Debbie Schlussel, who wrote, "One down, 1.8 billion to go...many of 'em inside U.S. borders." Such outrageous comments are not unusual for Schlussel, but unfortunately this time her statement reflected a more widespread outburst of anti-Muslim sentiment. (More)

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CAIR: FBI, ATF MONITORING MOSQUE FIRE INVESTIGATION - TOP
John Perera, 5/18/11

HOUSTON - The FBI and the Bureau for Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms are monitoring an investigation into southwest Houston mosque fire.

The Council for American-Islamic Relations is calling the fire at Madrasah Islamiah in the 6600 block of Bintliff Drive a possible hate crime, according to a CAIR statement. (More)

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FLA. PROTESTER CALLS FOR MOSQUE'S DESTRUCTION - TOP
CBS4, 5/17/11

MIAMI (CBS4) – The South Florida Imams accused of terrorism were arrested right in front of their mosques, disrupting the neighborhoods around them. Monday night, one of those neighborhoods saw more commotion.

Mosque protester Mark Dubynsky says standing outside the Flagler Mosque in West Miami-Dade with a sign demanding the mosque be razed to the ground was about self-expression. (More)

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FLA. PAPER SHOULD NOT HAVE PUBLISHED ANTI-MUSLIM LETTER - TOP
Ron Walker, Gainesville Times, 5/18/11

I am astonished and appalled that you chose to publish Jim Scharnagel's reprehensible letter arguing for the exclusion of, and presumably expulsion of, Muslims from the United States based on the premise that they constitute a danger to non-Muslims.

Would you have published a letter urging the deportation of all young black men due to their documented higher rate of conviction for crimes? Or perhaps a letter urging the deportation of all legal Catholic Hispanics because their higher birth rate burdens the schools and the medical systems?

Not only did the letter urge an abolition of freedom of religious practice and display an egregious lack of common sense (since if Muslims were banned, surely Muslim extremists would make themselves look and act just like everyone else), it also slandered an entire religious population based on the actions of a few. This is no different from holding all Christians accountable for the ethnic cleansing slaughters practiced by alleged "Christians" in Rwanda or in Mali or holding all Jews accountable for the death of Christ.

Mr. Scharnagel is entitled to his opinions and can say what he likes, a right guaranteed in the same Bill of Rights he wishes to abrogate. You, however, have a standard to serve the public welfare, which this did not. You should be ashamed of yourselves, as I am ashamed for you.

Ron Walker
Gainesville

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AIRLINES STILL MUM ON WHY MUSLIM CLERGY COULDN'T FLY - TOP
Michael Tomsic, WFAE, 5/17/11

When two airlines denied three Muslim clergymen access to flights to Charlotte two weekends ago, they refused to comment on why those decisions were made. Well, nothing's changed.

An American Airlines spokesman wouldn't talk on tape. He would only say the airline is still investigating why American refused to let an imam named Al-Amin Latif onto a plane in New York.

The other incident occurred in Memphis. There, an Atlantic Southeast Airlines pilot refused to take off with two imams on board even though they had cleared all security checkpoints. They had to catch another flight six hours later. (More)

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