HISPANIC WOMAN WHO CONVERTED TO ISLAM EXPERIENCES PREJUDICE -TOP
Michael J. Feeney, New York Daily News, 9/1/11

Julissa Fikri grew up in East Harlem - and never thought she'd hear hateful words in her own neighborhood about converting to Islam.

"As soon as I started wearing [the hijab] I got a lot of stares," said Fikri, 27, who was raised as a Christian in East Harlem's Thomas Jefferson Houses and became a Muslim seven years ago.

"Even my own Latino people feel like I betrayed them," she siad. "They see me veiled and they think 'she's under \[her husband's\] grasp' and that's not the case. "This is not a bad thing. I'm not oppressed. I'm very comfortable. I just want people to know that I'm the same person."

Now, Fikri, who is Puerto Rican and Dominican, is on a mission to educate those around her - including her own mother - becoming one of many Muslim women who have started to share her story on YouTube to educate the public.

"It's something very foreign to the Hispanic community," Fikri says of the hijab in one video. "They immediately associate the religion with the culture of being Arab, and that's something now that I want to educate people, especially in this community. It is two different things - culture and religion."

Fikri said she started exploring Islam in 2004 after a personal crisis made her start looking into religion for guidance and she read a Spanish language Quran.

She later met her Egyptian husband, who she married in 2010 and who is also a Muslim.

But it wasn't until earlier this year, in February, when Fikri started wearing the hijab - the traditional head scarf worn by Muslim women - that she noticed the resistance from some in her community. ...

Fikri's situation is not uncommon, said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman with the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

"That's not an unusual story by any means," he said, noting it's not just the Latino community where people view joining the Muslim religion as "race betrayal."

"The Muslim women's headscarf is still a red flag for those who harbor hostile views [toward the Muslim religion]" he said. (More)

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CAIR-NY: MUSLIMS CRITICIZE POLICE OVER FIGHT ABOUT HAJIBS (NY TIMES) -TOP
Dan Bilefsky, New York Times, 9/1/11

Muslim civil rights leaders on Wednesday accused the authorities of using excessive force after a Westchester County amusement park's restrictions on head coverings provoked a scuffle a day earlier that led to the arrest of 15 people.

About 3,000 visitors from a Muslim tour group were at Playland park in Rye on Tuesday afternoon celebrating the end of Ramadan when a dispute erupted after women wearing traditional hijabs, or head scarves, were told they could not wear them on certain rides, for safety reasons. ...

Park officials said Wednesday that the women were offered admission refunds, but that an altercation ensued when clutches of displeased visitors became agitated and began to argue among themselves and then with park officials, including two rangers who were hospitalized with injuries. ...

Cyrus McGoldrick, civil rights manager at the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Wednesday that the authorities had overreacted. He said 60 patrol cars and 100 police officers from nine departments had responded to the disturbance, which he said had involved 40 people at most. He said video taken during the episode showed the police pushing at least one Muslim woman to the ground.

"There seems to have been a disproportionate response in which police used excessive strength and force to subdue female protesters," Mr. McGoldrick said. "That had a snowball effect on the antagonism and aggression that ensued." (More)

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CAIR-MI: AS 9/11 ANNIVERSARY APPROACHES, MUSLIMS PREPARE FOR QUESTIONS- TOP
Sarah Cwiek, Michigan Radio, 9/1/11

Many American Muslims are concerned that the upcoming 10th anniversary of the September 11th attacks will prompt renewed attacks on their faith.

The Michigan chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) tried to counter that, with a workshop about "Presenting Islam to Fellow Americans."

Presenters suggested Muslims speak from personal experience, and emphasize commonalities between Islam and other religious traditions.

They also addressed how Muslims should react to concerns about Sharia law.

CAIR Michigan Executive Director Dawud Walid says some Americans are afraid that Muslims are working to impose Islamic laws over civil law--but that fear is unfounded.

"Our religion mandates us to abide by the laws of the land in which we live in," Walid said, adding, "And I hope all of you believe that." (More)

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MICHIGAN MUSLIMS HOPE FEAR-MONGERING WILL END 10 YEARS AFTER 9/11 -TOP
Ted Roelofs, The Grand Rapids Press, 9/1/11

For most Americans, that bright blue Tuesday morning marked a moment they will never forget.

That includes West Michigan residents like Ghazala Munir, a Muslim and native of Pakistan.

She remembers the nightmarish images of Sept. 11, 2001, smoke pouring from the World Trade Center's twin towers, their collapse, the unimaginable death toll.

"I was at a doctor's office and I thought they were playing some sort of horror movie," she recalled. "It was horrifying."

But as talk turned to the terrorists, she wondered how those of her faith would fare.

Then the interfaith activist got a call from a local rabbi, offering these words: "He said, 'Anyone in the Muslim community, if you feel threatened or harassed, we are here to help you.'

"That was so heartening." (More)

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NY MUSLIM SCHOOL MARKS TENTH ANNIVERSARY WITH MEMORIES OF BIAS - TOP
John-Carlos Estrada, The Brooklyn Ink, 9/1/11

Jasmine Eldomyati, who was seven-years-old at the time, the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, started like any other day. Along with her two sisters, she boarded a yellow school bus to Al-Noor, a private Islamic school in the Sunset Park section of Brooklyn. When she arrived at Al-Noor, Eldomyati's third-grade class began the daily routine starting with a morning prayer.

At around 9 a.m., the class was interrupted and Eldomyati's teacher was pulled out of class. Moments later, Eldomyati remembers, her homeroom teacher came back into the room with tears rolling down her cheeks but the young girl did not understand why. She remained in her class -- only to be picked up by her startled mother a few minutes later. Back home in Park Slope, the girl saw debris in the form of paper and other items scattered across streets and sidewalks.

In that moment, and at her young age, Eldomyati had no way of knowing that the terrorist attacks in downtown Manhattan would transform not only her Muslim identity, but those of her classmates and thousands of young Muslim-Americans, in a country still struggling to understand their faith. In a climate of suspicion and discrimination, Muslim-American students like her would have to insistently prove their patriotism. (More)

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MAN HELD SINCE 9/11 FOR ILLEGAL ENTRY - TOP
Brett Kelman, Pacific Daily News, 9/1/11

For almost a decade now, Ali Partovi sits behind bars, a lone holdout of an era when terror fears drove American authorities to arrest suspects without much evidence. (More)

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CAIR-CA: THE $43 MILLION ISLAMOPHOBIA MACHINE - TOP
Julianne Hing, Color Lines, 9/1/11

Nevertheless, in the last decade, Muslims, Arabs, Middle Easterners, South Asians and those who've been confused for any of the above, have been the targets of a marked rise in job-related discrimination, hate crimes and biased-based bullying.

"Fear is a two-way street," said Zahra Billoo, the executive director of the Bay Area chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations, a national Muslim civil rights and advocacy group. "It's created fear within the community too."

Billoo said that since September 11, it's not uncommon for American Muslims to be confronted by anti-Muslim incidents in their daily life, the the utter frequency of which have begun to normalize Islamophobic rhetoric in even her community members' eyes.

"Some sort of hate is manifested but it doesn't rise to the level of a hate crime," Billoo explained, "where someone calls me a terrorist, or someone looks at me funny, or someone yells something from their car at me."

"It's happened for so long that many people have taken it in as their reality and stopped complaining when it's not okay, whether it's happening to them or anyone else." (More)

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MEET AN ISLAMOPHOBIA NETWORK 'EXPERT': STEVEN EMERSON - TOP
Eli Clifton, ThinkProgress, 8/31/11

Steven Emerson directs the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT), a group dedicated to exposing the dangers of Islamist infiltration in America through investigative journalism. But his career, as discussed in CAP's new report "Fear, Inc.," is marked by shoddy reporting and suspicious financial arrangements between private companies, in some cases listing him as the sole employee, and the nonprofit foundations which collect tax-exempt contributions to support his work.

Emerson got his start as an investigator with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1976 to 1982 and, after serving as an executive assistant to Sen. Frank Church (D-ID), left public service in 1986 to join U.S. News & World Report. In 1990, he joined CNN as an investigative correspondent where he reported on terrorism. In 1995, Emerson left journalism and founded the Investigative Project on Terrorism, which claims to be "one of the world's largest storehouses of archival data and intelligence on Islamic and Middle Eastern terrorist groups."

But Emerson's supposed expertise in researching terrorist networks have frequently been questioned due to his propensity for making false accusations against Muslims and his sloppy approach to investigative reporting. Most notably, in 1995, Emerson claimed that the Oklahoma City bombing showed "a Middle East trait" because it "was done with the intent to inflict as many casualties as possible." And in 1998, Emerson was tied to a false report that Pakistan was planning a nuclear first strike on India.

Emerson's weak credibility hasn't stopped him from building a mini-empire from his offices at the well-funded IPT. But his penchant for secrecy -- his office location is secret, employees refer to it as "the bat cave," and journalists who visit it have been blindfolded en route -- has raised serious questions about management of IPT's finances. (More)

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VIDEO: CAIR REP SAYS U.S. MUSLIMS CONCERNED ABOUT CIVIL RIGHTS - TOP

Watch the video.

Whether it's being singled out by airport security, or targeted by police, more Muslim Americans report they believe they're viewed with suspicion, according to a Pew Research poll.

Forty-three percent of American Muslims surveyed say they've personally experienced harassment in the past year, up from 40 percent in 2007. And more than half of Muslim Americans polled say government anti-terrorism policies single them out for increased surveillance and monitoring.

Since 9/11 the Council on American-Islamic Relations has received calls from Muslims daily with concerns in particular of law enforcement authorities. During the nearly 10 years since the terrorist attack on US soil, there's been a growing concern over homegrown Islamic terrorism and the building of mosques. (More)

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DC INFLUENCER: IBRAHIM HOOPER, COUNCIL ON AMERICAN-ISLAMIC RELATIONS -TOP
Bernadette Casey, PR Weekly, 9/1/11

Ibrahim Hooper, national communication director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, talks to Bernadette Casey about improving the perception of Islam.

Have you been able to move the needle forward in terms of educating people in the US about Islam?

We believe education and community outreach are key to stemming the rising tide of anti-Muslim sentiment in American society. That is why we have asked mosques nationwide to take part in CAIR's annual "Sharing Ramadan" outreach effort designed to ... (More)

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VIDEO: ALLEN WEST AND HIS ALLIES STEP UP WAR OF WORDS WITH MUSLIMS (CAIR-FL) - TOP
Bob Norman, Post Newsweek Local10, 9/1/11

He's not in the video, but Rev. O'Neal Dozier was also named in the CAIR letter as an anti-Islam extremist tied to Congressman Allen West. His words were unambiguous.

"I believe Islam, period, is a danger to this country," said Dozier, a former George W. Bush advisor who leads a large church in Pompano Beach where Allen West has spoken. "The only true Muslim is an extremist ... true Muslims are terrorists."

Many in the audience were listening, and vocally agreeing with him.

Watch the video here.

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POST-9/11, SIKHS SAY THEY ARE MISTAKEN TARGETS (AP) - TOP
Tamara Lush, Associated Press, 8/31/11

ELK GROVE, Calif. (AP) -- Kamaljit Atwal's neighborhood seems like an unlikely place for a hate crime. His street in this Sacramento suburb seems a model of diversity.

Atwal and his family are one of two Sikh families on the block from India. On Atwal's street alone, there's a Vietnamese family, a Mexican family, a black woman and a white man.

But in March, Atwal's 78-year-old father Gurmej Atwal and his 67-year-old friend Surinder Singh were shot and killed while taking an afternoon stroll in the neighborhood. (More)

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CAIR-CINCINNATI PARTICIPATES IN 'PASSPORT TO WORLD RELIGIONS' EVENT - TOP

(CINCINNATI, OH, 9/1/2011) -- CAIR-Cincinnati participated recently in the "Passport to World Religions" event sponsored by the Cincinnati Metro Diversity Council at the company's Queensgate facility.

The event was part of a three-day program that brought together religious leaders and educators from various religions to share information regarding the various religions that are practiced around the world and embraced by many Metro employees and customers. (More)