Friday, January 27, 2012

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HADITH OF THE DAY: 'OBEDIENCE IS REQUIRED ONLY IN WHAT IS GOOD' - TOP

A military commander appointed by the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) once issued an improper order to his troops. When the soldiers asked the Prophet about how they should have reacted to the order, he said: "(There is) no obedience (required) for evil deeds. Obedience is required only in what is good."

Sahih Al-Bukhari, Volume 9, Hadith 363

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CAIR ASKS MD. MAYOR TO DISINVITE ISLAMOPHOBE (WASH. POST) - TOP
Greg Miller, Washington Post, 1/23/12

It's been nearly eight years since then-Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin was reprimanded after giving speeches that cast the war on terror as a crusade against Islam, even while serving as a senior official at the Defense Department.

Boykin has moved on from his long career in special operations and intelligence, but the controversial speeches continue, prompting new complaints from Islamic groups.

Boykin is scheduled to appear Thursday at the city of Ocean City's annual prayer breakfast meeting. A story in the Ocean City Dispatch noted Boykin's involvement in seminal special operations events from the failed attempt to rescue American hostages in Iran to the 1993 operation in Somalia that came to be known as Black Hawk Down.

The story also quotes the organizer of the mayoral event, Bruce Spangler, as saying that Boykin is not only a "soldier's soldier," but also "an expert on Islamic history."

That's not exactly how some Muslims see Boykin, to say the least.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations issued a statement urging Ocean City Mayor Richard Meehan to disinvite Boykin because of his "long, shameful history of extreme and bigoted views." (More)

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PFAW CALLS ON OCEAN CITY TO REJECT BIGOTRY - TOP
People For the American Way, 1/23/12

People for the American Way today called on the Mayor and City Council of Ocean City, Maryland to cancel the invitation to retired Lt. Gen. William "Jerry" Boykin to headline this week's Ocean City Mayor's Prayer Breakfast.

Michael Keegan, President of People For the American Way, issued the following statement:

"Lt. Gen. Boykin has made his name by being one of the most bigoted and offensive figures on the national stage. While a top official at the Pentagon, Boykin gave inflammatory speeches framing the war on terror as a holy war against Islam, which earned him public rebukes from many, including President Bush. Since his retirement, Boykin has devoted himself to spreading intolerance of Islam and promoting outlandish and harmful conspiracy theories about President Obama and others.

"By inviting Boykin to speak at a prominent community event, Ocean City officials have effectively endorsed Boykin's hate-filled rhetoric. I hope that the invitation to Boykin was an oversight by city officials. Now that they have Boykin's full record, they should reject bigotry and withdraw Boykin's invitation to speak."

The Council on American-Islamic Relations called on Friday for Ocean City officials to disinvite Boykin. ... (More)

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CAIR-MI: STOP THE RACIAL PANDERING AND STICK TO ISSUES - TOP
Detroit Free Press, 1/23/12

The national Republican establishment needs to address overt and subtle bigoted statements from GOP presidential candidates that are further polarizing our nation.

Though a number of boorish comments have been made during recent months of jockeying for the GOP presidential nomination, many comments made on and around our nation's marking of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day truly show the lack of sensitivity to our country's long history of racial and religious tension and how we need to move forward.

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich calling President Barack Obama the "food stamp president" takes us back three decades ago to when the GOP began using code words referring to African Americans as a means of galvanizing support from working-class whites, primarily Southerners.

Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum's black people on welfare comment (he claims to have said bleaugh people), despite the majority of American welfare recipients being white, is but another example of race-baiting to score cheap political points.

And as Santorum in recent months has openly called for Muslims to be profiled by law enforcement even though 94% of domestic terrorism attacks, thwarted or executed, within the last two decades have been committed by persons other than those of the Islamic faith, Gingrich also continues his Sharia fear-mongering discourse while Texas Gov. Rick Perry refers to the government of secular Turkey as "Islamic terrorists."

National Republican leadership should repudiate such racial and religious smearing and encourage presidential candidates to stick to the issues. Without it clearly and openly doing so, it will be seen as complicit in taking America back to a less tolerant time, which was not Dr. King's dream.

Dawud Walid
Executive director Council on American-Islamic Relations-Michigan (CAIR-MI) Southfield

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CAIR-MI: BOGUS 'EX-TERRORIST' TO SPEAK - TOP
Joe Stando, mlive.com, 1/23/12

ALLEGAN -- Allegan County political organization Constituting Michigan-Founding Principles will host a self-proclaimed former terrorist on Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Allegan High School Events Center.

Kamal Saleem claims to have been a former Islamic radical and terrorist before converting to Christianity. He has since published a book detailing his experiences and makes regular tours speaking about his life and views.

"He had entered the U.S. and gotten in an accident, and received medical care," said Carol Dannenberg, of Constituting Michigan-Founding Principles. "He thought, 'Wait a minute, I don't want to hurt these people.' He was raised to believe that there was no hope, that killing was a good thing." ...

"I believe he's a complete fraud, and his claims are bogus," said Dawud Walid, executive director of CAIR-Michigan, an American-Islamic relations council. "He says he's been reformed by the Holy Ghost. If he were an actual former terrorist who snuck into the U.S., the FBI or immigration services would've detained and deported him by now." (More)

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CAIR: LAWYERS FOR MUSLIM STUDENT HAIL SUPREME COURT RULING ON TRACKING DEVICES - TOP
KTVU.com, 1/23/12

Lawyers for an Arab-American college student from the South Bay hailed Monday's U.S. Supreme Court decision requiring authorities to obtain a search warrant before placing a secret tracking device on a car.

The student, Yasir Afifi, 21, of San Jose, is a U.S. citizen of Middle Eastern descent who was majoring in business marketing at Mission College in Santa Clara at the time of the judge's decision.

On Oct. 3, 2010, he discovered a global positioning system tracking device on the underside of his car after he stopped at a mechanic's shop for an oil change.

Fearing that the black rectangular object might be a bomb, he posted a picture of it on the Internet and learned it was a tracking device.

Two days later, FBI agents appeared at his doorstop to interrogate him and demand that he return the device, according a civil rights lawsuit Afifi filed against the FBI last year in federal court in Washington, D.C.

That lawsuit has been put on hold until the Supreme Court issued Monday's decision in a separate case concerning Washington DC resident Antoine Jones, who was convicted of cocaine conspiracy and sentenced to life in prison after authorities hid a GPS tracking device on his car for 28 days.

The high court said the use of the device amounted to a search and that conducting that search without a warrant from a judge violated the constitutional Fourth Amendment right to be free of unreasonable searches.

Afifi's lawyers, who are from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the ruling resolves a conflict among lower courts and appears to support their arguments. (More)

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CAIR: VIRGINIA ANTI-SHARIA LAW UNCONSTITUTIONAL - TOP
Press TV, 1/23/12

Watch the video here.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) says a new law that has been proposed in the State of Virginia is anti-Muslim and unconstitutional.

Titled Morris' HB631, the new bill was introduced by Virginia General Assembly Delegate Rick L. Morris (R-House District 64) on January 11.

"Unfortunately, a state delegate in Virginia, has introduced a piece of legislation that is copied from an extreme anti-Muslim (and) racist who has made a template for such laws nationwide and they have been introduced in more than 20 states and now Virginia and Pennsylvania being the latest," CAIR's National Communications Director, Ibrahim Hooper, has told Press TV's U.S. Desk. (More)

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GINGRICH-BACKER J.C. WATTS: 'WE'VE NOT ENCOUNTERED SHARIA LAW' IN OKLAHOMA - TOP
Scott Keyes and Travis Waldron, ThinkProgress, 1/23/12

CHARLESTON, South Carolina -- Former Oklahoma congressman and Newt Gingrich-endorser J.C. Watts conceded late last week that despite his state's push to ban Sharia law, it has never actually existed in the Sooner State.

Gingrich has a long history of Islamophobic statements, from calling supporters of a mosque in New York City "hostile to our civilization" to saying that he would only support Muslim presidential candidates if "they would commit in public to give up Sharia." This last statement earned approval from notable anti-Muslim pseudoexpert Frank Gaffney, who declared on his radio show that "Newt Gingrich has, in my judgment, rendered a real public service." (You can read more about Gaffney and other Islamophobes behind the Sharia hysteria in the Center for American Progress' recent report: Fear, Inc.: The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America.)

Yet for all the furor over the "creep of Sharia law" into the American legal system, it's incredibly difficult to find people who have actually encountered it. (More)

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VIDEO: CAIR-ST. LOUIS PROTESTS LOWES' DECISION TO DROP ADS FROM MUSLIM PROGRAM - TOP

Members of Occupy St. Louis and the Council on American-Islamic Relations joined forces Sunday afternoon to protest outside the Kirkwood Walmart and Lowe's over advertising dispute.

Organizers say they are protesting Lowe's decision to pull its advertising funds from TLC's television series "All-American Muslim". Protesters are accusing Lowe's of pulling the ads after pressure from the Florida Family Association.

Watch the video here.

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MORE THAN 200 TURN OUT FOR CAIR-ST. LOUIS BANQUET - TOP

(ST. LOUIS, MO, 1/23/12) -- More than 200 people turned out on Saturday for the first annual CAIR-St. Louis Banquet, with the theme "Making Democracy Work."

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-St. Louis Executive Director Faizan Syed, 636-207-8882, 314-330-2946, E-Mail: info@cair-stlouis.com; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, or 202-488-8787, E-Mail: ihooper@cair.com; CAIR Communications Coordinator Amina Rubin, 202-488-8787, 202-341-4171, E-Mail: arubin@cair.com



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