NYPD SPIED ON 250-PLUS MOSQUES, MUSLIM GROUPS - TOP
MATT APUZZO and ADAM GOLDMAN, Associated Press, 9/6/2011
The New York Police Department collected intelligence on more than 250 mosques and Muslim student groups in and around New York, often using undercover officers and informants to canvass the Islamic population of America's largest city, according to officials and confidential, internal documents obtained by The Associated Press.
The documents, many marked "secret," highlight how the past decade's hunt for terrorists also put huge numbers of innocent people under scrutiny as they went about their daily lives in mosques, businesses and social groups. . .
The documents appear at times at odds with the White House's newly released policy on combatting violent extremism. That document discourages authorities from casting suspicion on communities or conflating strong religious views with violent extremism. The White House has declined to comment on the NYPD's clandestine programs but has applauded its counterterrorism efforts. (More)
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CAIR-NY REP SAYS INVESTIGATE CRIMES, NOT COMMUNITIES - TOP
Moustafa Bayoumi, The Nation, 9/6/11
The Associated Press has been doing some good investigative reporting lately. On August 24, the AP broke the news that the CIA and the NYPD are combining forces to spy on Muslims in New York City. Since the CIA is prohibited by law to collect intelligence on American citizens, this is more than newsworthy. It's probably unconstitutional, which explains why the NYPD has, according to the report, kept these activities secret.
This is no ordinary program, nor does it seem to be merely about sharing expertise.
According to the report, the NYPD dispatches "rakers," the NYPD term, into a "human mapping program" to monitor the daily lives of Muslim Americans in the places where ordinary living transpires, such as bookstores, cafés, bars, and nightclubs, without the hint of criminal wrongdoing. The police department also employs "mosque crawlers," who scrutinize imams and their sermons, and have gathered intelligence on cab drivers and food cart vendors, jobs commonly associated with Muslim workers. . .
A coalition of groups, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), has called for an investigation, and to her credit, Yvette Clarke, who represents much of Brooklyn, has spoken out about the program, stating that "Americans would be outraged if police infiltrated Baptist churches looking for evangelical Christian extremists." CAIR-NY Civil Rights Manager Cyrus McGoldrick summed it up this way, "Investigate crimes not communities." (More)
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TENN. MOSQUE RECEIVES BOMB THREAT - TOP
MURFREESBORO -- Murfreesboro Police and the Department of Homeland Security are investigating a bomb threat at the local Islamic Center of Murfreesboro. (More)
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JUSTICE DEPARTMENT RESOLVES LAWSUIT ALLEGING RELIGIOUS DISCRIMINATION AGAINST VA MUSLIM GROUP - TOP
WASHINGTON – The Justice Department today announced a settlement with Henrico County, Va., resolving allegations that the county violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA) when it denied the application of a Muslim organization to rezone property to construct a mosque. The settlement, which must still be approved by a federal district judge in Richmond, resolves a lawsuit between the United States and the county of Henrico.
"Religious freedom is one of our most cherished rights, and that right includes the ability to assemble and build places of worship without facing discrimination," said Thomas Perez, Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division. "We are pleased that the county of Henrico has agreed to take steps to ensure that all people exercising this basic American right will not encounter discrimination during the zoning and land use process."
"The law – not stereotypes or bias – should dictate whether a worship facility can be built in a community." said Neil H. MacBride, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. "No one should be discriminated against based on their religion, and this agreement will ensure that religious freedom is upheld in Henrico County." (More)
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CAIR: MUSLIM TRAVELERS SAY THEY'RE STILL SADDLED WITH 9/11 BAGGAGE - TOP
Kari Huus, MSNBC, 9/6/11
Imagine it is 5 a.m. and you've landed in New York after a 12-hour overseas flight.Standing in the line for U.S. citizens, you wait as a border agent asks passengers ahead a few cursory questions, then waves them through. Your family is instead ushered into a separate room for more than an hour of searching and questioning.
This was the welcome that Hassan Shibly, traveling with his wife and infant son, said they received in August 2010, when they returned to the United States from Jordan, after traveling to Mecca. . .
One complaint filed by the nonprofit Council on American Islamic Relations with Homeland Security and the Justice Department said its Michigan branch alone has received "dozens of reports (from Muslim travelers) ... that CBP agents pointed firearms at them, detained and handcuffed them without predication of crimes or charges, and questioned them about their worship habits." (More)
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POLL: MANY AMERICANS UNCOMFORTABLE WITH MUSLIMS - TOP
Eric Marrapodi, CNN, 9/6/2011
Ten years after 9/11, Americans are wrestling with their opinions of Muslims, a new survey found, and where Americans get their TV news is playing a role in those opinions.
Nearly half of Americans would be uncomfortable with a woman wearing a burqa, a mosque being built in their neighborhood or Muslim men praying at an airport. Forty-one percent would be uncomfortable if a teacher at the elementary school in their community were Muslim.
Forty-seven percent of survey respondents said the values of Islam are at odds with American values. (More)
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CAIR: OBAMA'S OUTREACH TOWARD MUSLIMS IS LIMITED AT HOME - TOP
Scott Wilson, Washington Post, 9/6/11
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a leading Muslim civil rights organization, occupies one floor of a red-brick office building on Capitol Hill. Visitors must use an elevator pass code to reach the suite, the only one in a building of tenants that is secured against attack.
On the wall of its conference room hangs a framed front page of a newspaper showing a U.S. president, standing shoeless in a mosque and reaching out in dramatic fashion to Muslim Americans. (More)
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CAIR-ST. LOUIS: MUSLIMS RELATE HOW 9/11 HAS ALTERED THEIR LIVES - TOP
Doug Moore, STL Today, 9/6/11
At the pleading of his mother, Syed Hammad Alam keeps his beard neatly trimmed.
The beard that he had proudly started growing a few years ago to ultimately have a fistful of hair was Alam's symbolic entry into manhood and a statement of his deep Islamic faith.
"A full-grown fist beard is obligatory. This is what every Muslim man should have," said Alam, 19, of Ballwin.
But because his family, especially his mother, was worried about his safety, Alam agreed to keep his facial hair short.
"You know how politics are. I just don't want you to get hurt," Alam quoted his mother as saying.
"Until things clear up," Alam said, he will abide by his mother's wishes regarding his appearance. That also means he limits where he wears his traditional Pakistani clothes, a sherwani suit and kupi (cap), to the mosque and around the house. . .
Ultimately, it led to his current position as executive director of the St. Louis chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a position he has held for just five months.
Syed says being a young leader for CAIR is advantageous because his life is a dissection of a world before the terrorist attacks and the sweeping changes and attitudes that came afterward. Young people should not wait around in hopes that perceptions change, he said. While 9/11 will always be a part of this country's history, it should not be used to define Muslims, Syed said.
"It's not enough for us to just live here," Syed said. "If we don't do something, there will be more hatred and a growing misconception." (More)
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CAIR-AZ: PHOENIX AREA MUSLIMS BUILDING BRIDGES - TOP
Daniel Gonzalez, The Arizona Republic, 9/6/11
As Friday prayers began, three men wearing long linen robes hurried through the parking lot and headed for the front door of the Islamic Community Center of Phoenix, a former Baptist church converted into a mosque.
The 1 p.m. call to prayer in Arabic was already under way by the time they entered and removed their shoes.
For the next half hour, more men, some in robes, some in street clothes, streamed in. They found spots to sit on the floor in diagonal rows, shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip, until there was no space left. Soon, a second room in back and a third room for women downstairs also were completely full. Finally, with no space left inside, latecomers filled a patio outside, reciting their midday prayers in unison under the scorching summer sun. . .
Anas Hlayhel, a Chandler engineer who chairs the Arizona board of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, an advocacy group, said Muslims have worked hard to reach out to non-Muslims in the wake of the attacks.
"The most positive change (since 9/11) is that you see that Muslims are now much more connected to non-Muslim friends and neighbors," he said. "(Before 9/11), many Muslims lived in a bubble." But afterward, "they felt they were misunderstood, and that meant going out and telling people who they are." (More)
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VIDEO: CAIR-CA INTERNS REFLECT ON 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11 - TOP
View the video.
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CAIR-LA: FIGHTING THE MUSLIM BACKLASH - TOP
NBC, 9/5/11
In the decade since 9/11, local Muslim leaders said they've been forced to come out of their religious bubble, forced to educate and to communicate.
Their words are in response to the backlash of hate crimes in the initial days of 2001.
"(The) Muslim community has realized that it is very important for people to know us more," said Muzammil Siddiqi, religious director of Orange County's Islamic Society.
Siddiqi found himself sitting next to President Bush just a few days after the attacks. He had been asked to speak at an interfaith service in Washington D.C.
Today the religious leader says the message he shares is the same as ten years ago. . .
"Islam does not condone violence. Islam is a religion of peace. Islam is a religion of co-existence and of people working together."
Organizers of the Council on American Islamic Relations said they work every day to prove their patriotism. Officials within the civil rights group contend the struggle that exists for them is similar to that of other minorities.
"Today more Muslims feel welcome and accepted," said C.A.I.R Executive Director Hussam Ayloush. "But it didn't come easily." (More)
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CAIR-CA: BAY AREA MUSLIM ACTIVISM COUNTERS STEREOTYPES AFTER 9/11 - TOP
Mercury News, 9/5/11
When the planes struck the twin towers, Junaid Shaikh knew that his faith, and the lives of every fellow Muslim in America, would be tarnished like never before.
Already, before Sept. 11, 2001, he would often see the image of a crazed terrorist as a distorted view of Islam in the media. Suddenly, the attacks would only reinforce that story in so many of his neighbors' minds.
Instead of hiding their identity, Shaikh and others seized the chance to flip that stereotype around. The result: an unprecedented flurry of arts and activism from Bay Area Muslims intent on showing their neighbors that they are honest, hardworking Americans just like you. . .
Groups such as American Muslim Voice, founded by Samina Sundas of Palo Alto, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations urged Muslims to make friends with their neighbors, volunteer and join civic life. Several Bay Area Muslims took heed, including Omar Ahmad, who was elected in 2007 to the San Carlos City Council and later became the Bay Area's first Muslim mayor before he suffered a fatal heart attack in May. (More)
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MUSLIM EMPLOYEES STILL FACE UNIQUE CHALLENGES A DECADE AFTER 9/11 - TOP
BNA, 9/6/11
Ten years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a growing number of employees and job applicants still face employment discrimination based in part on their actual or perceived Muslim heritage, legal and workplace experts told BNA Aug. 16-24.
While the attacks in 2001 are not solely responsible for the increase in this type of employment discrimination, they said, the loss of almost 3,000 lives that day in New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia remains a contributing factor. More recent factors include employment concerns caused by the economic downturn, sources said, as well as a growing trend of employees being more overt about their faith-based beliefs. (More)
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VIDEO: CAIR REP DISCUSSES BIASED 9/11 COLORING BOOK ON AL-JAZEERA - TOP
View the video.
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CAIR-MI: IS SHARIA LAW A PROBLEM IN MICHIGAN? - TOP
Ed Golder, The Grand Rapids Press, 9/6/2011
State Rep. David Agema has introduced legislation that would ban "foreign laws" in Michigan. In this week's installment of the Michigan Politics Minute, Press Editorial Page Editor Ed Golder and politics reporter Jim Harger discuss the controversial bill and what it might mean for the state.
The legislation mirrors efforts in 25 other states to stop Muslim-based "sharia law." Sharia law is the interpretation of the Muslim holy book the Quran as well as the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad that governs personal conduct in many Islamic countries. The laws can vary from country to country, depending on individual jurists' interpretations. (More)
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CAMPAIGN AGAINST SHARIA LAW A THREAT TO NATIVE-AMERICANS - TOP
Gale Courey Toensing 9/6/2011
The growing movement in the United States to ban the use of international law and Islam's Sharia law in state courts sets a dangerous precedent for Indian country, spiritual leaders and legal authorities say.
In the past year, anti-Sharia laws have been passed or introduced in more than a dozen states—Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arizona and Tennessee are among the states that have passed bills restricting judges from consulting Sharia in their rulings, and Michigan is the most recent to introduce a similar bill. (More)
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CAIR: ANTI-MUSLIM SLURS 'TRULY UNACCEPTABLE' SAY RELIGIOUS LEADERS - TOP
R. Leigh Coleman, Christian Post Reporter, 9/5/2011
Stories being told on a new website reveal tales of ten years of discrimination and bigotry against religious minorities in the post-9/11 era in America.
The project, titled "Unheard Voices of 9/11," officially launched online Friday and calls for people to share their experiences about being discriminated, targeted and demoralized because of their spiritual and cultural beliefs.
Religious leaders are in favor of the website saying it highlights the growing number of hate crimes, physical threats, and profiling of ethnic groups in America. (More)
