• Join CAIR in Marking Torture Awareness Month at Two D.C. Events
• CAIR Calls Ammo Firm Selling Pork-Covered Bullets 'Publicity-Seeking Idiots'
• CAIR-LA: Government Domestic Spying Unsettling News for Campuses 
  "Definitely the events that unfolded on the East Coast reverberated here and it made everyone really wonder and question whether or not similar programs exist here at the federal or local law enforcement level," said CAIR-LA's Ameena Qazi.
  
  • More Muslim Spying Overreach by the N.Y.P.D. (NY Times)
    It is up to the courts to determine whether the Muslim surveillance program and the stop-and-frisk program are constitutional. What already seems clear is that these surveillance policies create suspicion and mistrust, which does not help the Police Department or anyone else.
• CAIR-SFBA: Interfaith Council Will Host Public Forum on Immigration 
• CAIR: Obama's FBI Nominee Raises Muslim Concerns
• CAIR-LA: Mosque-Building Rises as Muslim American Clout Grows (LA Times)
  The mosque construction attracted no local opposition -- unlike projects in Temecula, Lomita and Ontario. There, neighbors raised concerns about potential problems with noise, traffic and parking -- objections Muslims have successfully addressed, according to Ameena Mirza Qazi of CAIR-LA. Some of those debates were marked by anti-Islam comments and fears about terrorism expressed by some opponents.
  
  • CAIR-MN: Islamic School Gets OK from Blaine City Council (Pioneer Press)
    CAIR-MN welcomed Thursday's vote. "I was extremely impressed with how city council members not only used their vote to convey that religious freedom is something that is welcome in Blaine, but also to say to residents that this is not acceptable behavior," said Lori Saroya, the organization's executive director. 
  • Video: CAIR-MN Rep Speaks at Hearing to Approve Muslim School
• Ore. Judge Skeptical of US Argument on No-Fly List (AP)
• Video: UK Asked to Ban Hate Bloggers Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller (BBC)
• Video: CAIR Weekly News Update

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CAIR Thanks NY Jewish Community for Helping to Foil Anti-Muslim Terror Plot

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 6/24/13) -- The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today thanked the Albany, N.Y., Jewish community for helping to prevent a terror plot to kill Muslims, who the alleged plotters referred to as "medical waste."

Glendon Scott Crawford, a reputed member of the Ku Klux Klan, took undercover FBI agents along last week as he scouted out an Albany mosque and an Islamic center in Schenectady as "viable target" locations. Crawford, one of two alleged plotters who were arrested, then reportedly took the agents to a garage in which he assembled what he believed to be a lethal device capable of silently killing the intended victims with radiation.

Court documents show that Crawford approached an Albany-area synagogue and another Jewish organization in 2012 hoping to "speak with a person who might be willing to help him with a type of technology that could be used by Israel to defeat its enemies, specifically, by killing Israel's enemies while they slept." Instead, the groups called law enforcement authorities.

Feds: Mosque, Islamic Center 'Viable' Targets in Plot

In a statement, CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said:

"We thank the New York Jewish community and its leaders for helping to foil this potentially deadly terror plot targeting American Muslims. It is this type of cooperation with law enforcement authorities by religious communities that will ensure our nation’s safety and security."

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.

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CONTACT: CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, ihooper@cair.com; CAIR Communications Manager Amina Rubin, 202-488-8787, 202-341-4171, arubin@cair.com