ROBERTSON: FIGHTING MUSLIMS IS JUST LIKE FIGHTING NAZIS - TOP
People for the American Way, 5/31/11

On the 700 Club today, Pat Robertson once again spoke out against American Muslims, singling out the construction of mosques and the purported threat of creeping Sharia law. Robertson likened critics of Muslims to opponents of Nazis and rejected claims that his opposition to rights for Muslims is bigotry, asking, "I wonder what were people who opposed the Nazis, were they bigots?"

"Why is it bigoted to resist Adolf Hitler and the Nazis and to say we don't want to live under Nazi Germany?" Robertson said. "But oh it's bigoted if we speak out against a force that slowly but surely is trying to exercise domination over the world."

Watch the video.

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HERMAN CAIN: 'I SAID I WOULD NOT BE COMFORTABLE' APPOINTING MUSLIMS -TOP
Scott Keyes, ThinkProgress, 5/31/11

Earlier this year, GOP presidential hopeful and former Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain caused a major stir when he told ThinkProgress in Iowa that he would not be comfortable appointing Muslims in his administration if he were elected president.

After our story was published, the Cain campaign began spinning the gaffe immediately. Cain spokeswoman Ellen Carmichael retracted the candidate's words in a statement to Salon's Justin Elliot: "Mr. Cain would consider any person for a position based on merit, as anybody else would, as is the law." Cain himself walked back his earlier refusal to appoint Muslims on Fox News. However, a week later, Cain hedged his retraction, telling the Orlando Sun Sentinel that he would only be willing to appoint a Muslim who disavowed Sharia law, but that "he's unaware of any Muslim who'd be willing to make such a disavowal."

Cain put a new spin on his disinclination to appoint Muslims as a guest on Glenn Beck's radio show last week. The presidential hopeful admitted to saying that he would not be comfortable appointing a Muslim in his cabinet or as a federal judge, but went on to tell Beck that "I did not say that I would not have them in my cabinet":

I immediately said -- without thinking -- "No, I would not be comfortable," I did not say that I would not have them in my cabinet. (More)

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CAIR: MUSLIMS, JEWS FIND COMMON CAUSE ON CALIF, CIRCUMCISION BAN - TOP
Sue Fishkoff, JTA, 5/30/11

SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) -- In November, San Franciscans will vote on a ballot measure that would outlaw circumcision on boys under the age of 18.

Although experts say it is highly unlikely the measure will pass -- very few state propositions pass, much less one this controversial -- the mere fact that it reached the ballot, and in such a major city, has caused much concern for Jews and their allies.

Opponents of the bill see it as a violation of the Constitution's protection of religious rights and an infringement on physicians' ability to practice medicine. More than that, however, the measure is being seen as a frontal attack on a central tenet of Judaism. ...

Locally, the San Francisco Jewish Community Relations Council organized a wide-ranging coalition of religious, medical, legal and political leaders to oppose the ballot measure. It was the first time that the Jewish community organized a formal counter effort because it was the first time that such a measure has made it to the ballot, according to Abby Porth, the JCRC's associate director and the force behind the Committee for Parental Choice and Religious Freedom.

The newly formed committee, which also includes Muslim and Christian leaders, is still organizing its legal strategy; Porth declined to provide details.

Muslims also practice ritual circumcision on boys, although it can take place at any time before puberty.

The fight against the San Francisco ballot measure has brought a number of Muslim organizations into the JCRC-led coalition, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Bay Area director Zahra Billoo notes that CAIR rarely finds itself on the same political side as groups such as the Orthodox Union.

It's the assault on religious freedoms that brings the two together, Billoo said.

"The civil rights of Jewish and Muslims are being impacted," she told JTA. "We don't agree on all things all the time, but we do find common cause in many areas. An attack on one religion is an attack on all religions." (More)

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DETROIT REPS. CALL ON FEDS TO COUNTER ANTI-MUSLIM SENTIMENT - TOP
Jonathan Oosting, MLive.com, 5/31/11

U.S. Reps. John Conyers and Hansen Clarke want the federal government to take an active role in countering anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States.

In a House resolution introduced last week, the Detroit Democrats urged federal investigators to avoid unconstitutional profiling and called for the government to target rhetorical attacks and violence against Muslim, Arab, Sikh and South Asian American communities.

"Communities should be protected from the threat of violence and suspicion that, for example, was at the heart of last January's thwarted attack against the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn," Conyers and Clarke said in a joint statement. "They should also be able to rely on law enforcement's fundamental integrity and respect for First Amendments protected rights. (More)

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VIDEO: MUSLIMS SAY THEY'VE BEEN HARASSED AT THE U.S.-CANADIAN BORDER (CAIR-MI) - TOP

Watch the video here.

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ARAB AND MUSLIM REGISTRY ENDS, BUT ITS EFFECTS REMAIN - TOP
Sam Dolnick, New York Times, 5/31/11

In the jittery months after the 9/11 attacks, the federal government created a program that required thousands of Arab and Muslim men to register with the authorities, in an effort to uncover terror links and immigration violations.

After complaints that the practice, known as special registration, amounted to racial profiling, the Homeland Security Department scaled back the program in 2003, and ended it late last month, saying it "no longer provides a unique security value."

But for Mohammed G. Azam, a 26-year-old Bangladeshi native who came to the United States when he was 9, its legacy lives on. When he registered in Manhattan in 2003, officials began deportation proceedings, and now, eight years and numerous hearings later, his case has outlasted the program.

Mr. Azam is one of hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of people still caught in the program's net, immigration experts say. (More)

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CAIR-MI REP A MODEL OF 'LOYALTY TO THE CITY' - TOP
Jeff Gerritt, Detroit Free Press editorial, 5/15/11

Detroit is hemorrhaging people at a clip of 15,000, maybe 20,000, a year as its population heads south of 800,000.

And it's the city's working- and middle-class people who are leaving, folks who are the backbone of any city's economy. Left behind are residents who are increasingly poor and unable to provide the tax base for such basic services as transportation and public schools.

Still, there are tens of thousands of Detroiters who could easily bounce but have committed to staying. They endure the high insurance rates, crime, substandard public schools, inadequate transit and a lack of amenities like nearby banks and parks, and quality and convenient retail and grocery shopping.

Their loyalty and love for Detroit should become a fulcrum for city leaders struggling to rebuild the city.

Dawud Walid: Set a positive example

Detroit native Dawud Walid didn't think twice about where to live when he returned to southeast Michigan in 1998, following a four-year stint in the Navy.

He settled in Detroit, wanting to be around other African Americans while making the city better -- not only with his property and income taxes but also by providing a positive example, especially to other young black men, many of whom drop out and feed the school-to-prison pipeline.

"When they see me wearing a suit and carrying myself in a dignified matter, it opens up possibilities for them," said Walid, a Wayne State University graduate and executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "It's important that they see that. You can't aspire to what you've never seen." (More)

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THREAT OF SHARIAH LAW IN U.S. COURTS UNFOUNDED - TOP
Justine Fanarof & Karen Gross, Austin American Statesman, 5/29/11

Texas is among numerous states whose legislatures have given consideration to bills founded in bigotry and ignorance that seek to protect America's judicial system from the infiltration of Shariah (Islamic) law by barring courts, administrative agencies or arbitrators from applying, considering or enforcing Shariah or other religious law.

Directly targeting Shariah law or disguised in terms of protecting against the "application of foreign law," these offensive and completely unwarranted measures target a phantom threat. Such bills do not merely attack Islam, but rather they are an assault on all persons of faith because they hurt the free exercise rights of all Americans.

Anti-Shariah bills already have passed in Louisiana and Tennessee, and legislators from at least 11 other states have considered or are considering such legislation. A Texas version of the proposed anti-Shariah law was amended into House Bill 274, a tort reform bill. Fortunately, the Senate had the good sense to remove the amended language from the bill, and the House has thoughtfully concurred with that decision.

However, it is still prudent for all Texans to understand the xenophobic origins of this type of legislation. The ungrounded threat of the incursion of Shariah law into our courts has become an issue of much discussion on certain activists' agendas. ...

Anti-Shariah measures are nothing more than another example of politicians playing to bigotry and fear to score political points. Polarization, vitriol and fear must be replaced by reasoned and civil debate. An excellent place to start is proving to be right here in Texas, where legislators of good faith are rejecting this offensive and harmful anti-Shariah legislation. (More)

Fanarof is the Southwest civil rights coordinator and Gross is the Austin community director for the Anti-Defamation League.

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FOX NEWS HEAD PARANOID ABOUT MUSLIMS - TOP
Tim Dickinson, Rolling Stone, 5/25/11

Once, after observing a dark-skinned man in what Ailes perceived to be Muslim garb, he put Fox News on lockdown. "What the hell!" Ailes shouted. "This guy could be bombing me!" The suspected terrorist turned out to be a janitor. "Roger tore up the whole floor," recalls a source close to Ailes. "He has a personal paranoia about people who are Muslim -- which is consistent with the ideology of his network." (More)

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PAM GELLER, PARK51 OPPONENT, DOWNPLAYS SERBIAN WAR CRIMES - TOP
Sean Easter, Media Matters, 5/27/11

As if her back catalog of tasteless Nazi references and smears of Muslims weren't enough, Pam Geller has further distanced herself from reality: She has written a blog post minimizing the severity of Serbian war crimes.

In a post on her blog, Geller wrote of the recent capture of Ratko Mladic, the Serbian general accused of presiding over the slaughter of thousands of Muslims at Srebrenica:

Instead of admitting their terrible mistake, the dhimmi Western powers are digging in their heels and further prosecuting the Serbs in their sisyphean and thankless efforts to stop Islamic imperialism.

Look, there are no heroes in the Bosnian conflict, but the Muslim atrocities were far worse. The Serbs dared to fight. That's what this is all about. As Gorin so succinctly put it, "They are guilty of ... .. daring to answer war with war." The question is, why would the Western powers send in troops and pave the way for a militant Islamic state in the heart of Europe? The catastrophic consequences have not yet manifested themselves, but they will impact the geopolitical landscape in what promises to be a bloody 21st century. (More)