The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "Charity puts out sins as water puts out fire."
Al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 467:
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CAIR: U.S. MUSLIMS TO MARK END OF HAJJ WITH PRAYERS - TOP
WHAT: On Sunday, November 6, American Muslims will mark the end of the yearly pilgrimage to Mecca, or Hajj, with communal prayers and celebrations at locations around the country.
The prayers and the holiday that follows are called Eid ul-Adha (EED-al-ODD-ha), or "festival of the sacrifice." Eid ul-Adha also commemorates the Prophet Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmael at God's command. The holiday is celebrated with the prayers, small gifts for children, distribution of meat to the needy, and social gatherings. During this holiday, Muslims exchange the greeting "Eid Mubarak" or "blessed Eid." Each year, some two million Muslims, including thousands of American Muslims, go on Hajj.
[NOTE: For actual pilgrims, the rites of Hajj continue for some time after the "Eid" prayers.]
WHEN: Sunday, November 6 - The prayers are held in the morning. Many communities also hold day-long Eid festivals for families.
WHERE: The Eid prayers and festivals are held either in local mosques or in public facilities designed to accommodate large gatherings. Call local CAIR chapters or other Muslim organizations for details about Eid celebrations. (More)
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CAIR: BURNED KANSAS MOSQUE RECEIVED ANTI-ISLAM LETTERS - TOP
By Fred Mann and Stan Finger, Wichita Eagle, 10/31/11
WICHITA - A Muslim mosque in west Wichita that was heavily damaged by fire early Monday had received anti-Islam letters in recent months.
Somebody also had begun turning on its outside water faucet overnight to hike its water bill, its leader said.
Abdelkarim Jibril, president of the Islamic Association of Mid Kansas at 3406 W. Taft, said the letters put down Islam, called the prophet Muhammad a pig, and enclosed drawings that mocked him.
The mosque received about eight of the letters starting four to six months ago, but they had stopped about a month ago, he said.
Jibril said the mosque hadn't turned the letters over to authorities before the fire.
The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives joined the fire investigation Monday. ...
Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American/Islamic Relations in Washington, D.C., said he will be monitoring the investigation to see whether it is deemed to be a hate crime. "This is the kind of thing that happens all too often," he said, "but it's hard to predict."
In the past year, arsonists have targeted mosques, or mosque construction sites, inOregon, Tennessee, Texas, and Michigan, he said.
In May of last year, a bomb exploded at a Florida mosque. (More)
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CAIR: FLA. GOP CANDIDATE SAYS ISLAM IS 'NOT A RELIGION' - TOP
Jodie Tillman, St. Petersburg Times, 11/1/11
TAMPA -- A Republican candidate for Hillsborough Clerk of Circuit Court on Monday fired off a letter saying Islam is "not a religion" but a theocracy that is "totalitarian and littered with human rights violations."
Scott D. Barrish, a 35-year-old private security officer who previously ran unsuccessfully for the Hillsborough School Board, sent the letter to the Council of American-Islamic Relations. He signed it as a member of the Hillsborough County Republican Party's executive committee. ...
But the Florida chapter of CAIR used Barrish's letter in a press statement Monday.
"It is imperative that Republican Party leaders at the state and national levels repudiate these bigoted comments and take concrete steps to challenge the growing perception that the GOP is not a big tent party that welcomes Muslims," said Tampa executive director Hassan Shibly. (More)
SEE ALSO:
CAIR-FL: SCOTT, RUBIO NOT ATTENDING TEA PARTY CONVENTION - TOP
Ashley Lopez, Florida Independent, 10/31/11
Representatives from the offices of Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Gov. Rick Scott report that neither will be attending the Florida Tea Party Convention scheduled for this weekend, despite their inclusion on the event's agenda.
Both are included as speakers on the current convention agenda, along with a slew of right-wing activists and speakers. ...
The event will feature speakers such as former Christian Coalition director Ralph Reed, anti-Islam blogger Pam Geller and G. Edward Griffin. Griffin is an anti-Federal Reserve, anti-United Nations and anti-communist conspiracy theorist who describes himself as a "life member" of the John Birch Society -- a historically infamous anti-communist group.
Geller is best known for her blog Atlas Shrugs, which has been described by The New York Times as a "site that attacks Islam with a rhetoric venomous enough that PayPal at one point branded it a hate site." The attendance of Geller, and other anti-Islam activists, caught the attention of the Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-FL).
The group sent out a press release last week thanking Rubio and Scott "for declining to speak at next week's Florida Tea Party convention." The group says the event "features a presentation by anti-Islam extremist Pamela Geller and another Islamophobe." (More)
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CAIR: TEXAS GUN INSTRUCTOR DRAWS HEAT FOR ANTI-MUSLIM AD - TOP
Paul J. Weber, Associated Press, 11/1/11
On a YouTube clip that has gone viral, brash Texas handgun instructor Crockett Keller defiantly tells Muslims and non-Christian Arabs he won't teach them how to handle a firearm.
State officials see the ad as possible discrimination, and may revoke Keller's instructor license. ...
The Texas Council on American-Islamic Relations called the ad ugly rhetoric undeserving of media attention. (More)
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WORKER SUING INTELLIGENCE AGENCY CLAIMS ANTI-MUSLIM BIAS (WASH. POST) -TOP
Ed O'Keefe, Washington Post, 11/1/11
A Northern Virginia man is suing one of the nation's most secretive intelligence agencies, claiming it revoked his security clearance because his wife attended an Islamic school and works for a Muslim nonprofit.
Eye Opener
Mahmoud M. Hegab, hired last year as a budget analyst for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, filed the discrimination lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Alexandria last month.
In court papers, Hegab, who lives in Alexandria, said he joined the agency in January 2010 and told officials during his orientation that he had gotten married to Bushra Nusairat between the time of his security clearance investigation and the date he reported to work.
The NGA supplies satellite imagery to the military and requires its 16,000 workers to obtain a top secret security clearance as a condition of employment. But the agency revoked Hegab's clearance in November 2010, citing concerns about Nusairat's background. Hegab was placed on unpaid leave in January.
Nusairat is a program associate with Islamic Relief USA, a global nonprofit that provides food aid and public health and educational programs in poor or disaster-prone regions and whose director advises the U.S. Agency for International Development at the State Department.
Hegab's attorney, Sheldon Cohen, argued in court papers that the decision to revoke his client's clearance "was based solely" on his wife's "religion, Islam, her constitutionally protected speech, and her association with, and employment by, an Islamic faith-based organization." (More)
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