Video: CAIR Director Nihad Awad's Remarks at Muslim Capitol Hill Event Video: CAIR-Chicago Banquet Celebrates Diversity of Muslim Community Islamophobia Watch: Fla. Republicans to Host Anti-Muslim Hate Group Leader If you believe that Islam is just another religion (and not a threat to America and the world). . .then you especially need to hear this presentation.  CAIR Islamophobia Backgrounder: ACT! for America and 'Brigitte Gabriel' CAIR Alert: Ask GOP Women's Group to Stop Promoting Anti-Islam Speakers FBI Alleged to Have Sought Mosque Spy (AP) An attorney for an American man who claims he was tortured in the United Arab Emirates at the behest of the U.S. government said Friday that his client is too afraid to try to travel back home. The contention came at a hearing involving a lawsuit filed by Yonas Fikre, alleging the FBI and State Department demanded that he spy on a Portland mosque in 2011, then had him abused in a UAE prison when he refused. Background: CAIR Seeks Probe of Torture of U.S. Muslim CAIR: New Organization Unites American Muslims in One Coalition (RNS) "This is the dream of every American Muslim, to unify the approach, agenda and vision of the Muslim community," said Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, at the National Press Club. Video: Major Muslim Groups Launch New Council at D.C. News Conference Virginia School Board Candidate Apologizes for 'Jihad' Remark (Times-Dispatch) Hours before attending Friday prayers at a mosque, Chesterfield County School Board candidate Bob Olsen said Muslims he met with previously were so excited about being involved in the campaign that "you'd have thought I was getting ready to start a jihad." CAIR: Hip Hop for Hope Brings Hobson Jobson to Illini Union (Daily Illini) The concert was hosted by the University chapters of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Arab Student Association. Both organizations seek to integrate Arab culture into the University as well as create a more politically active Muslim-American student body. Jersey City Muslims Who Lost Mosque to Fire Praying at Church (Jersey Journal) MN: Somali Students Adjust to Hibbing (Daily Tribune) From time to time in Hibbing, Najma Mumin, Safia Farah or Hamdi Omar are approached by a curious local with questions. The women are among the few Somalis in the area, and their hijabs — head scarfs worn by Muslim women — stand out among the sea of stocking caps in Northern Minnesota. CA: Anaheim's Little Arabia Pushing for a Higher Profile (LA Times) Ohio Middle Easterners Assert Their Own Unique Identity (Toledo Blade) FL: Muslim Student Association Wants To Know Who Bugged Prayer Room Number of Muslim Converts in US Increasing Day by Day After growing up in the Episcopal Church, Caldwell rediscovered his spirituality in Islam and decided to convert. Now, less than a hundred miles from where he was raised, onlookers see Caldwell's prayer as a potential threat. Why might this be?