• Photo: Sikh Community Honors CAIR 
  
  • CAIR-MI Rep Keynotes Interfaith Event at Ford Headquarters 
    CAIR-MI Executive Director Dawud Walid focused on the history of Ford Motor Company being a pioneer in instituting equal pay for African-Americans and Arab-Americans in the early 20th century and how Islam calls for cooperation in goodness with all people, irrespective of ethnicity or national origin.
• CAIR: Broad Coalition Calls for DOJ Investigation of NYPD Spying
  CAIR and 124 other national, state and local organizations today sent a letter to the Department of Justice requesting a prompt investigation into the New York City Police Department's discriminatory surveillance of American Muslim communities.
  
  • Pol: NYPD Muslim Surveillance is 'Un-American'
  • CAIR: Actor John Cusack Says 'Democracy Itself Is Dead' with NSA Surveillance
• Interview with Jacob Bender: A Jewish Leader of CAIR-Philadelphia
  We meet filmmaker and activist Jacob Bender. He recently became the Executive Director of the Philadelphia Chapter of CAIR, the Council on American Islamic Relations. Jacob Bender, who is Jewish, is the highest ranking non-Muslim in the Washington-based organization, and the first to lead one of its chapters.
• Republican Candidate for Virginia Lieutenant Governor Asked "Is Islam a false religion?"
• Video: CAIR Rep Discusses US-Muslim Relations, Islamophobia (Arabic)

CAIR Good News Alert:

Minnesota School Drops Anti-Muslim Speaker 
Islamophobe claims U.S. Muslims 'will kill your children,' says 'we are in war with Islam'

(MINNEAPOLIS, MN, 10/24/13) – Following intervention by the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN), a high school in that state has rescinded approval for an event featuring anti-Muslim speaker Usama Dakdok, who claims that American Muslims "will kill your children" and that "we are in war with Islam."

In an October 23 letter to the school's principal and the school district's superintendent, CAIR-MN wrote in part: "Although Dakdok has the First Amendment right to free speech, this right is not absolute and has been limited when it is considered to be harassment, intimidating or encouraging violence against a particular group of people."

CAIR-MN's letter noted that Dakdok's appearance in an educational facility would violate the district's harassment and violence policy and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin by recipients of federal financial assistance.

"By spewing his hate-filled views in a school auditorium, Mr. Dakdok would have created the perception that his bigotry has the endorsement of educational authorities," saidCAIR-MN Executive Director Lori Saroya. "We thank school district officials for sending a strong message to all students that religious intolerance is not acceptable."

Saroya noted that during a similar event at an Ohio school in 2012, Dakdok called Islam a "wicked cult" and made hate-filled claims such as: (NOTE: Speaker's linguistic errors retained.)

Video: Tea Party Anti-Muslim Hate Comes to Ohio School

• "The day will come and Muslim in America will have the upper hand, and they will kill your children for not eating what is liked. For not eating the lawful foods."
  
• "What happened to the women and the children? They were raped. By who? By Muhammad and his followers. And they got pregnant, and they had babies, and the baby was born by the name Fatima, and Khadija, and Obama, and Hussein, and Barack, and all those wonderful Muslim names."
  
• "[W]ithout Allah they will die and for sure they would spend eternity in hell with Muhammad and with all previous Muslims, and Baptist, and Presbyterian, and Catholic, and everyone who's think by going to some church will make it to heaven."
  
• "Killing you is a small matter [for Muslims]."
  
• "We were not in war with Bin Ladin, we are in war with Islam."
  
• "[T]hen you have a revival in America among the Muslim, and that's when they start beheading your children and your grandchildren."
  
• "So they say this month two and a half percent of the profit [American banks] made will go to Egypt. To help to get rid of illiteracy. What do they mean by illiteracy? They meant Christian. We are gonna kill some Christian. Or this month we are gonna get rid of some AIDS. What is AIDS? That is the Jews."

CAIR-MN recently called on state and national Republican leaders to repudiate comments by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), who falsely claimed in a recent radio interview that American mosques are seeking to "advance the goals" of foreign nations and organizations.

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-MN Executive Director Lori Saroya, 612-327-6700, lsaroya@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, ihooper@cair.com

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