Having trouble viewing this email? Click here

CAIR Asks Kansas Sheriff's Office to Cancel Anti-Muslim Trainer's Program(Wichita Eagle) A major national Muslim organization said Wednesday it is asking the Sedgwick County Sheriff's Office to cancel a training program by a former FBI agent because it says his message would lead officers to have a biased and distorted view of Islam. "He's a notorious anti-Muslim conspiracy theorist, and if any law enforcement officer walks out of his training and encounters an ordinary Muslim in the course of their duty, they're going to have a completely biased viewpoint of that person," said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, in Washington, D.C. Hooper was referring to John Guandolo. He is scheduled to hold a two-day training program in Wichita next week hosted by the Sheriff's Office and expected to draw law enforcement officers from across the state, said the sheriff's spokesman, Lt. David Mattingly. Backgrounder on John Guandolo: Virginia Agency Pulls Accreditation for Anti-Muslim Training Guandolo ... bizarrely claims that the current CIA director is a secret Muslim and asserts that American Muslims "do not have a First Amendment right to do anything."  Video: CAIR Says Pamela Geller's Anti-Muslim Bus Ads Promote Hate (Al Jazeera) ADL Deplores Hitler Imagery, Anti-Muslim Rhetoric in Latest Bus Ads CAIR: Muslim and Anti-Muslim Groups Go to War in Bus, Print Ads (RNS) Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for CAIR, brushed off both Geller's ads and the IPT campaigns as the ongoing "Islamophobia industry that seeks to blame Islam for any violence or terrorism anywhere in the world." The goal of such ads, he said, is to "demonize Islam and marginalize American Muslims." Meanwhile, Hooper said, his group, which will mail anyone a copy of the Quran on request, has been quick to condemn outrages such as the Boko Haram kidnapping of schoolgirls in Nigeria and the death sentence issued in Sudan to a woman who converted to Christianity. Neither outrage, Hooper said, has anything to do with true Islam. "These are acts by extremists who misuse Islam for their own violent ends." Bigoted Tweets of 9/11 Museum Board Member Spark Calls for Ouster  The museum's outspoken board member Debra Burlingame shuts down her Twitter account after criticism mounts over her critical views of Muslims. 9/11 Museum Should Not Conflate Islam and Terrorism CAIR-LA: Egyptian Teen Scientist Plans to Seek Asylum in United States (Reuters) CAIR-LA: Egyptian Teen Inventor to Seek Asylum in US (VOA)

• CAIR-OK Questions School's Use of OKC Bombing Conspiracy Theory Film
  CAIR-Oklahoma today called on Jenks Public Schools to drop the use of a film promoting conspiracy theories linking Middle East groups to the 1995 Murrah Federal Building bombing in Oklahoma City.
  
• This Weekend: Attend the ICNA-MAS Annual Convention in Baltimore
  One of the major national Muslim events, the ICNA-MAS Annual Convention, is coming back to Baltimore on Memorial Day Weekend, May 24-26, 2014. Register now. This year, ICNA-MAS seeks to reflect on the meaning of faith. What does it mean to have faith in God, the Creator of all that exists? How does faith manifestitself in day-to-day life? Does faith enable us to become better human beings?
  
  • Be sure to visit CAIR's booth at the convention! We're #305 and 307 in the bazaar.
    
• Wichita Eagle: Sheriff Shouldn't Have Scheduled Anti-Muslim Trainer
  What was the Sedgwick County Sheriff's Office thinking when it scheduled John Guandolo to conduct a terrorism training session next week? Guandolo resigned from the FBI after it was revealed that he had a sexual relationship with a confidential source. Since then, he has been making a living peddling Muslim conspiracy theories. 
  
  • UPDATE: Kansas Sheriff's Trainer Repeats Claim that US Mosques Have No Right to Exist (CAIR)
• Video: CAIR Says Anti-Muslim Trainer John Guandolo Promotes Islamophobia
• Video: CAIR Calls on Kansas Sheriff to Drop Trainer Who Says CIA Director is 'Secret Muslim'
  
• OK: Appeals Court Rules Against Officer in Mosque Lawsuit
  An appeals court ruled Thursday that top Tulsa police officials did not violate the rights of a Tulsa police officer by punishing him for disobeying an order to attend an event at an Islamic mosque.
  
• CAIR: Egyptian, 17, Seeks Asylum After Traveling to Intel Science Fair (NY Times)
  Farida Chehata, a lawyer at the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said that she met with Mr. Assem last Friday, as the science fair was ending, and that he expressed fear about returning to Egypt ... He was jailed for about a week in Cairo and then in Asyut, where he lives. "During his initial detention, he was very badly mistreated," Ms. Chehata said. 
  
• CAIR Joins Muslim Leaders Condemning Boko Haram in Letter by Reps. Ellison, Carson

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CAIR Marks Memorial Day with Video Featuring Muslim Veterans

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 5/22/14) -- The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today marked the upcomingMemorial Day holiday with the release of a video featuring American Muslim veterans expressing pride in serving their nation through military service and sacrifice.

In the 44-second video, three CAIR representatives describe their service in the Army and Navy:

"My name is Dawud Walid. I'm executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, and I served honorably in the Navy.

"My name is Sakinah Mujahid. I'm on CAIR's Minnesota board of advisors and I served 13 years in the Army.

[In Spanish] "My name is Wilfredo Ruiz. I am an attorney with CAIR's Florida office and I am a former officer in the U.S. Navy.

"American Muslims serve our nation's military and have died for our freedoms."

The video ends with the tag line: "On this Memorial Day, CAIR honors all who served our country."

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.

- END -

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

---

Having trouble viewing this email? Click here

CAIR Good News Alert: Kansas Sheriff Drops Sponsorship of Anti-Muslim Training (Video) CAIR: Sheriff's Office Won't Partner On Training By John Guandolo (Wichita Eagle) The Sedgwick County Sheriff's Office said Friday that it has decided not to partner with a citizen group sponsoring an anti-terrorism training session planned for next week, saying it has become too controversial. . . Although Muslims appreciate efforts by the Sheriff's Office to educate deputies about Muslim culture, "bringing this person in would be like bringing a member of the KKK to teach about African-American culture or a neo-Nazi to teach about Jewish culture," said Moussa Elbayoumy, Lawrence-based chairman of CAIR-Kansas. CAIR is the national group requesting that the Sheriff's Office cancel the program. Featured Articles: 9/11 Museum Board Member: 'No such thing as an irrational fear of Islam' MEGYN KELLY, HOST: I'll give the audience a flavor of what they're objecting to. Here is one, "When are citizen going to rise up and demand the government acknowledge that Islam is a transnational treat [sic], that government denial is killing us." They think you are an Islamophobe. DEBRA BURLINGAME, SISTER OF CAPTAIN CHARLES BURLINGAME: I am hard pressed to deny it. I think that the term is not -- Islamophobe as used to silence people, frankly, I said that over and over and over, to made up term. There's no such thing as an irrational fear of Islam or Muslims when we know that virtually 80 percent of terror attacks in the world are committed by radical Muslims who are motivated by what they deem to be an imperative from their religious sacred text, the Koran or the Al-Hadi. Photo: CAIR Rep Speaks in Front of White House at Global Day of Action to Close Gitmo CAIR-LA: Path to an Asylum Request, From Egypt Jail to California Fair (NY Times) CAIR-LA: Egyptian Teen Attending Science Fair in U.S. Seeks Asylum (Wash. Post) CAIR-LA: Egyptian Teen Defects to U.S. After Science Fair in LA (LA Times) CAIR-OK: Muslims Concerned About Schools' Use of OKC Bombing Conspiracy Film(Tulsa World) Adam Soltani, executive director of the Oklahoma Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and several Muslim parents met Thursday with Jenks officials. "No student should be made to feel unwelcome in an Oklahoma classroom through the promotion of such conspiracy theories," Soltani said. Why an American Is Imprisoned and on Hunger Strike in Egypt (Al Jazeera America) CAIR-FL: Details About Todashev's Death Raise More Haunting Questions (Boston Magazine) CAIR-FL has also filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the digital recordings of the interview that night. "We're just beginning to unravel the level of negligence and mistakes on behalf of the FBI," says director Hassan Shibly. CAIR-FL: Muslim Group Asks for New Review of Ibragim Todashev Shooting(Orlando Sentinel) Video: CAIR Asks State to Reexamine FBI Killing of Florida Muslim Video: CAIR-FL Wants Case of FBI Shooting of Muslim Reopened NY Times Publishes Steve Emerson Full-Page Islamophobic Ads  Video: Steven Emerson Stereotyping Muslims

• Islamophobia Watch: Texas Candidate Decries Muslim's Donation to Opponent(Dallas Morning News)
  
  A candidate for a House seat in Ellis County is raising questions about one of his opponent's donors because the donor is a Muslim. . ."Here we have a espoused believer of Islam that's not just backing a little bit of money, but lots of money to these politicians," Fabby said. "It's something that people need to be made aware of.". . . Sharaf "can say that he's a peaceful Muslim all that he wants to, but the fact is he's declared war right here with the money he's given to people," he said.
  
• Video: Kansas Sheriff Cancels Anti-Muslim Training Following Request by CAIR
  • CAIR: Kansas Sheriff Cancels Sponsorship of Anti-Muslim Trainer John Guandolo (Video)
  • Backgrounder on John Guandolo: Virginia Agency Pulls Accreditation for Anti-Muslim Training
    
• CAIR-FL: Muslim Group Asks Prosecutor to Re-Examine FBI Shooting Ibragim Todashev (Boston Globe)
  
  "We are extremely disappointed that your office failed to investigate the background of the FBI agent and the other officers involved," Hassan Shibly, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Florida, wrote to prosecutor Jeffrey Ashton in a letter on May 22, the anniversary of the death of Ibragim Todashev. "The fact that you failed to do so makes it absolutely clear your report is neither complete nor reliable," the letter said.

CAIR Video News Update, May 23, 2014

Topics Include:

• CAIR Asks Kansas Sheriff to Drop Anti-Muslim Trainer
• CAIR Challenges Pamela Geller's Anti-Muslim Hate Ads
• CAIR-OK Defends Muslim Limo Driver Assaulted in Bias Attack
• CAIR-NY Calls for DOJ Probe of NYPD Coercion of Muslim Detainees to Become Informants
• CAIR-FL Questions Troubling History of FBI Agent Who Shot Muslim
• CAIR Joins Muslim Leaders in Condemning Boko Haram
• CAIR Director Calls for Release of Amir Hekmati
• CAIR Joines Rally for Net Neutrality
• CAIR Releases Memorial Day Video Featuring Muslim Veterans

---

Verse of the Day: Isra and Miraj 
"Limitless in His glory is He who transported His servant (Prophet Muhammad) by night from the inviolable mosque (in Mecca) to the farthest house of worship (in Jerusalem) - the environs of which We had blessed' - so that We might show him some of Our symbols: for, verily, He alone is all-hearing, all-seeing." (The Holy Quran, 17:1) 

NOTE: Muslims worldwide are marking "Isra and Miraj," the Prophet Muhammad's night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem, and from the rock now located in the Dome of the Rock, to heaven.

• CAIR-OK: Muslim Youth Leadership Symposium 2014
• Video: California Muslim Community Mourns Loss of Security Guard after Hate Crime
  On March 16th, Hassan was gunned down in the Home Depot parking lot on Florin Road in South Sacramento. Police say the gunman pulled the trigger because Hassan was Muslim.
  
  • Backgrounder: CAIR-SV Calls for Rejection of Islamophobia After Calif. Muslim Shot Dead in Hate Attack
    
• NYT Editorial: Muslims and the N.Y.P.D.
  The Police Department is right to develop informants that would help them foil terrorist plots. But it would be counterproductive to do so in ways that violate the Constitution or make more people fear the police.
  
  • Activists Seek Audit of New York Police Surveillance (NY Times)
    
• Letters Slam Pamela Geller's Anti-Muslim Hate Ads (Washington Post)
  Hate generates hate. Our nation's capital must not tolerate this kind of fear-mongering nonsense. Let us come together to have this shameful message and image removed immediately.
  
• How I Made Sure a Texas Tea Party Candidate Accepted 'Dirty' Muslim MoneyIn a GOP runoff today, candidate T.J. Fabby has attacked his foe for accepting Muslim money. But now Fabby has too. I know. I sent it.
  
  
  • Fear and Anti-Muslim Bigotry Are Big Business in America
    
• Canada: Muslim Group Takes Next Step in Libel Suit Against Stephen Harper
  
  
  • NCCM Commences Defamation Lawsuit Against PMO
    
• Letter: I Feel Badly that I Didn't Intervene When Muslim Women Were Being Bullied
  Sunday, my partner and I were leaving the Renaissance store in Verdun when we overheard a man loudly berating two timid-looking Muslim women waiting in line behind him. 
  
• WI: Museum Exhibit Explores Muslim Women's Clothing, Identity
  
• CAIR: Your Heart is Full Of Evil, US Islamic Clerics Write Boko Haram Leader Shekau
  This was contained in a letter written to Shekau and made available to Sunday Tribune. It was signed by the Supreme Council of Muslim Organisations Zaytuna College Washington, DC Berkeley; Imam Sheikh Jamal Said; Imam Sheikh Kifah Mustapha; The Mosque Foundation, Bridgeview, IL Bridgeview; Dr. Hatem Bazian; American Muslims for Palestine; Council on American-Islamic Relations; Islamic Circle of North America; Khalil Meek W. Deen Mohammed II; Muslim Legal Fund of America The Mosque Cares, Dallas, TX Chicago, IL; Mahtabuddin Ahmed Hussein Ata, among others.
  
• Video: Not in God's Name (Religion News Service)

• Hadith of the Day: Remembering God Softens the Heart 
  The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "(Too) much talk without mention of God produces hardness of heart, and the person farthest from God is someone who has a hard heart." Al-Tirmidhi
  
• CAIR: Latino Muslims Feel Spied-On by NYPD 
  Wilfredo Amr Ruiz, legal counsel for the CAIR-Florida says there is still much to be done to stop the illegal monitoring of Muslims. Ruiz, of Puerto Rican descent and a Muslim chaplain, knows that the FBI continues to recruit informants, one of the most criticized practices of the unit. "We receive complaints from Muslims who have been offered money and/or threatened by the FBI to become informants." [The article is in Spanish]
  
• CAIR-Chicago: Des Plaines Library Stuck In Anti-Islam TiffThe fliers drew the attention of the Islamic Community Center of Des Plaines and the CAIR-Chicago. Both groups have asked the library to stop the event ... Ahmed Rehab, executive director of CAIR-Chicago, agreed the library was not the right place for ACT! to meet. "It's a safe haven for knowledge, education, and enlightenment," he said. "That place is now being tarnished."
  
  • CAIR Islamophobia Backgrounder: ACT! for America and 'Brigitte Gabriel'
    
• CAIR Urges Muslims to Ignore Terry Jones' Visit to Michigan
  Dawud Walid, executive director of CAIR-Michigan, said community leaders will be encouraging the same this year. "We're advising people in Dearborn and our constituents to stay away from that June rally of Terry Jones. We're not planning anything special for him," he said. Walid said Jones doesn't deserve the attention.
  
• CA: Local Muslim Families Push for Halal Food On School Lunch Menus
  Hundreds of local Muslim children are going home hungry from school every day and their parents say it's because they're not allowed to eat what's on the cafeteria menu.

COMMUNITY ADVISORY

CAIR-MN to Launch Free Monthly Legal Clinics

(MINNEAPOLIS, MN, 5/28/14) -- On Saturday, May 31, the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN) will launch a new legal advocacy project called the Free Brief Advice Legal Clinic. The monthly clinics will provide free legal advice in areas such as civil rights, housing, family law, immigration, and employment.

WHAT: Free Brief Advice Legal Clinic
WHEN: Saturday, May 31st from 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. and Wednesday, June 25, from 1 - 4 p.m. Future dates to be announced.
WHERE: Rondo Community Outreach Library, 461 N. Dale Street, St. Paul, MN

"It's important to give individuals access to attorneys so they can better understand and navigate through their legal issues," said CAIR-MN Civil Rights Attorney Ellen Longfellow. "We thank our Foundation partners for helping us better serve the community."

This clinic is made possible by the F.R. Bigelow Foundation, the Minnesota State Bar Foundation and the Hennepin County Bar Foundation.

Attorneys and law students interested in volunteering can contact CAIR-MN at info@mn.cair.com or 612-206-3360.

CAIR is America's largest Muslim civil liberties 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.

- END -

CONTACT: CAIR-MN Civil Rights Attorney Ellen Longfellow, 612-206-3360, elongfellow@cair.com; Executive Director Lori Saroya, 612-327-6700, lsaroya@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, ihooper@cair.com

---

• Action Alert: CAIR-NY Calls for Changes to 9/11 Museum Film 
  CAIR-New York today called on the National September 11 Memorial Museum to remove stereotypical and stigmatizing terminology from its "The Rise of Al Qaeda" film, which is scheduled to premiere when the museum opens on May 21.
  
• CAIR-MN Board Chair Kausar Hussain Receives Leadership Award
  CAIR-Minnesota today announced that Board Chair Kausar Hussain has received the Outstanding Contribution Award from the Council on Asian-Pacific Minnesotans (CAPM). CAPM is a state agency created by the Minnesota Legislature to advise the governor on issues pertaining to Asian Pacific Minnesotans.
  
• CAIR-FL: Gov. Rick Scott Could Sign Stupid 'Anti-Sharia Law' Bill
  What hit the legislature this year -- proposed by Sen. Alan Hays and Rep. Larry Metz -- was a watered-down version of what was originally proposed. Regardless, the fact that the legislation was a knee-jerk jingoist move prompted a strong response. Both the Anti-Defamation League and the Council on American-Islamic Relations fought the bill.
  
  
  • CAIR-FL: Claim that Democrats Voted to Impose Sharia Law is Wrong
    
• CAIR-Chicago Supports Appeal of Jewish School Denied Zoning Relief 
  
• Video: CAIR Seeks DOJ Probe of NYPD's Coercion of Muslims to Become Spies
  
  
  • CAIR Calls for DOJ Investigation into NYPD Recruitment of Muslims (Yahoo)
    "The Department of Justice must investigate the potential illegality of the coercive recruitment of Muslims to spy on their own faith community," Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in a statement in response to Sunday's New York Times report of an ongoing NYPD program in which detectives comb city jails for Muslims and persuade them to spy on mosques and Muslim businesses.
    
  • CAIR: The NYPD's Mistreatment of Muslims, Part II (The Atlantic)
    "Unlike longstanding informant programs in which those recruited are asked to provide information about crimes or criminals they know about, the NYPD team sought to recruit Muslims regardless of what they knew and apparently based solely on their faith and ethnicity," the Council on American-Islamic Relations complained in a press release issued Sunday. "Seeking information about crimes and criminals is appropriate. Coercing people who have no knowledge of criminal activity to spy on law-abiding members of their faith is not."
    
• CAIR-NY: Street Named After Muslim First Responder Killed in 9/11 Attacks(Video/Al Jazeera Arabic)
  
• Video: Tenn. Muslim Activist on CNN's 'Morgan Spurlock: Inside Man'
  
• Video: CAIR Rep Interviewed on CNN Espanol About Boko Haram Kidnappings