ISLAM-INFONET: Al-Arian’s Family Asks for Hunger Strike to Stop / MN Muslims Reach Out wit

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 3/22/07

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HADITH OF THE DAY: WEALTH AND WISDOM - TOP

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "Envy is not permitted except in two cases: (Envy) of a person who God has given wealth and he spends it in the right way, and (envy of) a person who God has given wisdom and he gives his decisions accordingly and teaches it to others."

Sahih Al-Bukhari, Volume 2, Hadith 490

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NC: FAMILY OF FASTING INMATE ASKS FOR HUNGER STRIKE TO STOP - TOP
Samuel Spies, Associated Press, 3/20/07
http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/breaking_news/16941525.htm

A former University of South Florida professor is "very, very weak" and cold after spending two months on a hunger strike that his family believes threatens his life, his wife said Tuesday.

Sami al-Arian, 49, a Palestinian who taught computer science at the university, stopped eating Jan. 22 to protest a judge's decision to hold him indefinitely after he refused to testify before a Virginia grand jury.

Since then, al-Arian has lost 54 pounds, said his wife Nahla al-Arian, who has visited her husband at the Federal Medical Facility in Butner, most recently Monday.

"When I first saw him on Saturday I cried so hard because I couldn't believe he could look like this, no muscles, nothing," she said. "He's very weak, very very weak. He lost a lot of weight. He was cold all the time, shivering, because his body temperature is very low."

Authorities at the federal facility about 30 miles north of Raleigh have told Sami al-Arian they will force-feed him if his condition worsens, his lawyer said Tuesday, but his wife said that hasn't occurred.

When al-Arian began his water-only diet he weighed 203 pounds, and now weighs 149, she said.

Sami al-Arian's family fears for his life, said Nahla al-Arian, and is trying to convince him to stop the hunger strike. He has so far refused.

"We need him, we need his love, we need his presence in our lives. Even if he were in jail we still need him," Nahla al-Arian said.

During a six-month trial in 2005, prosecutors labeled al-Arian a leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which the United States calls a foreign terrorist organization. The trial ended in an acquittal on some counts and a hung jury on others.

But in a plea bargain last April, al-Arian admitted he conspired to aid individuals associated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad and was sentenced to nearly five years in prison, although al-Arian received credit for the time he had already served. Al-Arian and his lawyers contend the plea deal also exempts him from testifying before the Alexandria, Va. grand jury, which is investigating a cluster of Islamic charities in northern Virginia.

Federal prison authorities declined to discuss al-Arian's health condition.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in Richmond, Va. is expected to review the judge's decision to hold al-Arian in civil contempt this week, his wife said.

SEE ALSO:

ASK ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES TO FREE DR. AL-ARIAN - TOP

SEE: No Guilty Verdicts in Al-Arian Trial (Tampa Tribune)

SEE ALSO: U.S. Muslims Call Al-Arian Imprisonment 'Double Jeopardy' (AMT)

IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUESTED: (As always, be firm, but POLITE.)

1. CONTACT the following officials to request that Dr. Sami Al-Arian be released from detention and allowed to leave the country with his family. (Make sure to include your name, address and ZIP Code in the letter)

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
Department of Justice
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001

Fax: 202-307-6777
Tel: 202-353-1555
E-Mail: AskDOJ [at] usdoj.gov

The Honorable Judge Gerald Lee
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
401 Courthouse Square
Alexandria, VA 22314

President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20500

Comments: 202-456-1111
Fax: 202-456-2461
E-Mail: comments [at] whitehouse.gov

Sample Letter:

Dr. Sami Al-Arian is currently on a hunger strike in federal detention to protest his treatment by U.S. authorities. He began his hunger strike after being given a sentence of up to 18 months for refusing to testify before a grand jury in Virginia. His attorneys say an earlier plea agreement freed him from further cooperation and that the government's actions amount to a form of harassment. I therefore respectfully request that you support the immediate release of Dr. Al-Arian so that he and his family may resume their lives in another country.

2. CONTACT your own elected representatives through: http://capwiz.com/cair/dbq/officials/

3. SEND COPIES of all correspondence to CAIR at: info [at] cair.com or fax: 202-488-0833

4. COPY TO Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. E-Mail: john.conyers [at] mail.house.gov or fax: (202) 225-0072

- PLEASE ANNOUNCE, POST AND DISTRIBUTE -

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CAIR: REFORM IS ALREADY IN ISLAMIC TRADITION - TOP
Parvez Ahmed, Florida Times-Union, 3/22/07
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/032207/opl_8647594.shtml

A recent Wall Street Journal column ("Islam's Other Radicals") promotes the idea that only those who have left Islam have the moral and spiritual equilibrium to "reform" that faith.

This bizarre idea was also put forward at the controversial Secular Islam Summit.

An article by the St. Petersburg Times quotes Georgetown University Professor Yvonne Haddad as saying: "Legitimate scholars are horrified by the lineup [at the Secular Islam Summit]. The speakers are extreme in their views. Basically, it's everyone known for damning Islam."

One "reformer" and former Muslim Wafa Sultan who spoke at the summit told CNN: "Believe me, personally, I don't believe Islam really can be reformed ... I don't see any difference between radical Islam and regular Islam ... You cannot be American and Muslim at the same time."

Even ignoring the counterintuitive premise that Islam needs to be reformed by people who openly disdain Islam, the champions of "reform" offered precious few details if such a preposterous idea ever helped reform any other faith.

Effective change always comes from within. Martin Luther was successful with his reform agenda because he was a practicing Christian devoted to his faith. So, too, with Islam.

The declaration at the Secular Islam Summit ignores the fact that many of the ideas they tout as "reform" are already part of Islam. Reform, known as islah in Arabic, is intrinsic to Islam. For without such flexibility, Islam could not have flourished in so many different continents and cultures for over 14 centuries, achieving some of the brightest points of human achievement.

Two trends account for the promotion of this pernicious idea of reforming Islam by asking Muslims to abandon their faith.

The first is the unchallenged growth of Islamophobia. Four out of 10 Americans admit to being prejudiced against Muslims. Second, the development of a veritable cottage industry of neo-experts pontificating about the cause-effect relationship between Islam and terrorism, despite scholarly research debunking this as myth.

Both trends lead to discrimination against Muslims, guilt by association and even hate crimes. This undermines America's vital interests, which necessitates that people of all faiths have equal access, equal respect and equal dignity.

Parvez Ahmed, Ph.D., is board chairman of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group.

SEE ALSO:

STOP MALIGNING CAIR - TOP
Munira Syeda, Press-Enterprise, 3/21/07
http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/letters/stories/PE_OpEd_Opinion_H_op_21_letters.3a98a5a.html

I was pleased to see The Press-Enterprise run an article from the front page of The New York Times on a group of right-wing and pro-Israel extremists seeking to silence and marginalize American Muslim groups by exploiting the increasing anti-Muslim sentiments in our society ("Muslim advocacy group raises profile, suspicion," March 14).

I wanted to include some important excerpts from the Times piece that were left out of The Press-Enterprise article:

“Government officials in Washington said they were not aware of any criminal investigation of the group. More than one described the standards used by critics to link CAIR to terrorism as akin to McCarthyism, essentially guilt by association.”

“‘Of all the groups, there is probably more suspicion about CAIR, but when you ask people for cold hard facts, you get blank stares,' said Michael Rolince, a retired FBI official who directed counterterrorism in the Washington field office from 2002 to 2005.”

The mere fact that CAIR is being slammed by Islamophobes should not be a surprise to those working toward social activism. In their day, major grass-roots organizations were similarly attacked. Yet they, and now CAIR, remain committed to the American ideals of justice, pluralism, freedom of speech and freedom of religion.

Munira Syeda
Communications Coordinator
Council on American-Islamic Relations, Southern California
Pomona

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CAIR: ANTI-MUSLIM BIAS ON CAPITOL HILL - TOP
Herald News, 3/21/07

Bigotry shows its ugly face, not only on Main Street, but now in the halls of Congress. A recent target is Eighth District Congressman Bill Pascrell, Jr., D-Paterson, who represents a district where an increasingly large number of assertive Muslims and Arabs live. Indeed, this is the place often described by the congressman as "the most ethnically and religiously diverse area in the United States."

Pascrell is now being criticized for facilitating a conference room for CAIR, the Council on American Islamic Relations. The room is located in the Capitol basement. The aim of the panel discussion was to discuss relations between Muslims and the West, a most timely topic.

This courtesy is routinely extended to groups of various political affiliations and issues.

Like other political organizations, CAIR has done or said things others may find objectionable. But consistently, it has acted as a moderating venue for disseminating timely and accurate information to and about the American-Muslim community. In fact, the FBI and other federal agencies have often worked with CAIR to build bridges with the Muslim community.

Members of Congress routinely give groups, ranging from environmental coalitions to pro- or anti-abortion groups, access to Capitol rooms.

CAIR reports that it held similar meetings in Congress in the past. The latest one ­ a 90-minute briefing on March 13 by Professor Steven Kull, director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, concerned a newly completed study of "Global Attitudes on Islam-West Relations."

Pascrell said of the incident that the building is "open to all Americans and should be available to encourage dialogue on the most relevant domestic and international issues of the day."

For some Republicans to attempt to stifle open discussion of vital national issues belies good judgment and common sense. We salute the congressman for extending the courtesy and opportunity to CAIR to hold a meeting on exactly the kind of issues members of Congress need to be educated about.

We see the Republicans' baseless attack on the congressman and CAIR as bordering on disgraceful bigotry and moral bankruptcy.

Unfettered but organized access to Congress should be open to all American citizens wishing to advance their reasonable causes.

Aref Assaf, American Arab Forum

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CAIR-MI: DETROIT GROUPS SUPPORT BILL GIVING VISAS TO UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS - TOP
Niraj Warikoo, Detroit Free Press, 3/22/07
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070322/NEWS01/70322024/1003/NEWS01

A coalition of religious, business, and community groups called for immigration reform at a news conference today inside Central United Methodist Church in Detroit.

Members of the Detroit-based Metropolitan Organizing Strategy Enabling Strength (MOSES) declared their support for an immigration bill introduced this morning in the U.S. House of Representatives that would give visas to hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants per year and toughen border security.

U.S. Reps. Luis V. Gutierrez, D-Illinois, and Jeff Flake, R-Arizona, introduced the bill, called the STRIVE Act -- Security Through Regularized Immigration and a Vibrant Economy.

It would allow about 400,000 undocumented immigrants per year to become U.S. citizens, provided they go through certain requirements, such as paying back taxes, a fine, and going through a criminal background check.

With millions of undocumented immigrants in the U.S., supporters of the bill say a solution is needed.

"We have a broken immigration system," said Noel Saleh, president of the board at the Dearborn-based Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services.

"The reason we have 12 million undocumented aliens in the U.S. is because our economy is basically sending out an invitation to them to come here and keep our economy moving...," he said. "We wouldn't have orange juice on the table if it wasn't for our undocumented workers in the fields."

Father Tom Sepulveda, pastor of Saint Anne de Detroit Catholic Church, where the majority of worshippers are immigrants, said that immigration reform is needed to help many in metro Detroit and the economy.

"It will help strengthen the city...by keeping a labor force that has done an awful lot of work to keep the city going," Sepulveda said.

"Immigration reform is extremely important," to metro Detroit, given its large Latino and Muslim immigration communities, said Dawud Walid, head of the Michigan branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

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CAIR-CAN: VEILED MUSLIM WOMEN WILL BE PERMITTED TO VOTE - TOP
940 Montreal News, 3/22/07
http://www.940news.com/local.php?news=5711

Muslim women wearing the niqab or burka - veils that hide the face entirely - will be allowed to vote in the Quebec elections, without showing their face. That's the directive from the Director general of elections, despite the fact it goes against the electoral law. Typically a voter is to present photo-I.D. But women wearing a full-face veil will have to either swear that they are who they say they are - or have an adult with them verifying their identity.

But Sarah Elgazar, from the Canadian Council on American Islamic Relations, says it's an interesting directive, but not necessary. She says very few women wear niqabs or burkas in Quebec, adding they're used to having to reveal their faces at banks, for example, provided it's in front of a woman.

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NEW U.S. MUSLIM WEBSITE PROMOTES ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP - TOP
http://unitedmuslims.org/

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MN: ROCHESTERS MUSLIMS REACH OUT - TOP
Sea Stachura, Minnesota Public Radio, 3/22/07
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2007/03/21/muslimoutreach/

At a time with rising tensions between Muslims and non-Muslims over thing like taxi service, Rochester's mosque has taken on a public education campaign.

It's holding monthly open houses for non-Muslims to take the unknown out of Islam. All questions are welcome. However all sides admit it's a daunting task.

It's a dreary Saturday morning and a group of 10 visitors have gathered at the back of the mosque. Marie Wynne Miller is one of them. She's listening to a very detailed history of Islam. The facilitator is explaining Allah's deep sense of justice, another man, and then the Imam, in Arabic, chime in.

The meeting has already lasted over an hour. Finally, Miller takes a break in the chatter to ask a question about culture and practice. Do they influence one another?

For example, a Muslim exchange student who lived with her always washed her hands before prayer in the morning.

"And to my knowledge she did not dry her hands. Okay, that's one little habit. Maybe that just fit into her aspect of Muslim religion. And she certainly didn't speak Arabic either," Miller explains.

"Just the washing of the hands or the whole thing?" a community member asks.

"Oh, no, the other part seems reasonable to me," Miller responds.

A few people try to answer Miller, but they only talk about the hand washing. She wants more.

The call to prayer comes and the sessions breaks up.

Miller puts on her jacket. She says news about the war in Iraq and the war on terror has filled her with questions about violence and practice. She says none of that was addressed. "There are so many sects, s-e-c-t-s, of the religion when I read about it. And they didn't speak of these. And I really would like to ask about the different sects," Miller says.

Differences aren't the focus of these meetings, according to Rashed Ferdous: it's the similarities. Ferdous runs the open houses. Ferdous says Rochester is a welcoming city, but people have justified questions about Islam.

"If I put myself in the shoes of a non-Muslim who is living in here, what I hear from the media and newspaper and all these things. I mean, I'm going to have the worst opinion about Muslims," Ferdous explains. "Knowing that, I can't say he's prejudice. He's just ignorant. If someone say, hey why are you guys terrorists? That's an ignorant question. It's not a bad question."

Ferdous says he's battling ignorance, not prejudice. He believes the best way to do that is to build relationships. (MORE)

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NY: RESIDENTS OF DIFFERENT FAITHS OPEN DIALOGUE - TOP
Stephen Witt, Courier-Life, 3/22/07
http://www.baynewsbrooklyn.com/site/tab1.cfm?newsid=18114189&BRD=2384&PAG=461&dept_id=552847&rfi=6

They came to find common points of humanity, not to debate politics, war or religion.

Such was the purpose recently for the event ‘Speaking Across Differences,’ where about 150 Muslim, Christian and Jewish residents of Downtown Brooklyn and Carroll Gardens/Cobble Hill gathered in the cafeteria at the High School for International Studies, 284 Baltic Street.

“The reality is that change doesn’t happen with big, grand, global statements but happens in small increments on a human level,” said Marcia Kannry, founder and president of the non-profit Dialogue Project, Inc., which put the event together.

“You need a place to share stories. When you have an experience with someone [from another culture], and the next time someone else tries to generalize about a certain group, you feel a little funny about it,” she added. . .

Hanan Allam, who emigrated from Egypt and sends her six children to a private Islamic School and attends the Dawood Mosque in Downtown Brooklyn on Atlantic Avenue, agreed with Burns.

It is good living in a multi-cultural society where everyone is free to do whatever they want and practice their own religion, she said.

While some may have come away from the meeting with the thinking the event was some kind of ‘touchy-feely’ affairs, Rev. Peter Cullen, the clergy leader at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on Clinton and Carroll Streets, dispelled the notion.

“In our neighborhood and increasingly in our world we can’t live in isolation, or in a peace that exists because we don’t bump into people. There are healthy and unhealthy ways of bumping into people,” said Cullen.

Cullen said the organizers of ‘Speaking Across Differences’ believe that there are ways to have healthier encounters to bump into each other.

“Part of the methodology of ‘Speaking Across Differences’ involves a disciplined decision to listen to what somebody else has to say. It is a belief that when we hear others speak that we will recognize the fact that we share more in common with the others than we think we do,” he added.

For more information on the organization, log onto http://www.thedialogueproject.org or call 768-2175.

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HI: SIX HATE CRIMES REPORTED IN HAWAII DURING 2006 - TOP
Associated Press, 3/22/07

Six hate crimes were reported throughout the state in 2006, according a report by the state attorney general.

The tally is the highest in the five years the state has been preparing the report. In 2002, two hate crimes were reported and just one crime followed each year thereafter.

But the report says only two of last year's cases qualify as classic hate crimes in which the offenders "deliberately and without provocation targeted their victims based solely on their biases."

Those incidents included a group of young men who shouted anti-white epithets at another group in Waikiki. One member of the first group, a 21-year-old Hawaiian, tried to kick and punch one of the victims.

The offender was charged with harassment, but the case was later dismissed.

In the other case, two servicemen assaulted three men leaving a downtown bar after shouting anti-Arab and anti-Muslim epithets. The victims suffered facial cuts, cracked teeth and bruises. One offender, a 20-year-old white male, was charged with two counts of third-degree assault. He received a deferred acceptance of no contest and was ordered to pay restitution and take alcohol abuse and anger management assessments. Charges were still pending for a second offender at the end of the year.

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SOROS AND MEDIA HEAVYWEIGHTS ATTACK PRO-ISRAEL LOBBY'S INFLUENCE ON U.S. POLICY - TOP
Forward, 3/23/07

The simmering debate over American policy toward Israel and the role of the Jewish community in shaping it exploded with near-nuclear force this week. Several of the nation's best-known international affairs commentators fired salvos at pro-Israel lobbyists and defenders of Israel fired back with unprecedented fury.

In the space of three days, major critiques of Jewish lobbying were published by controversial billionaire George Soros, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Nicholas Kristof, the respected British newsmagazine The Economist and the popular Web site Salon.

The replies were furious. The New York Sun accused Kristof and Soros of spreading a new blood libel. The American Jewish Committee's executive director, David Harris, wrote in a Jerusalem Post opinion article that Kristof had a blind spot and had sanctimoniously lectured Israel.

The editor of The New Republic, Martin Peretz, renewed an attack on Soros that he began a month ago when he called the Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor a cog in the Hitlerite wheel.

The outburst over Middle East policymaking was triggered in part by the annual Washington conference last week of the pro-Israel lobbying powerhouse, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a highly publicized event that put the issue of pro-Israel influence in the media spotlight. A parade of politicians and presidential candidates came to the conference to declare their unwavering support for Israel, while the lobby itself reaffirmed a hard-line agenda that included cutting all American ties with the new Palestinian government.

At the same time, the latest attacks and counterattacks were also a continuation and an escalation of an ongoing debate in Washington over the purported role of the pro-Israel lobby in shaping American policy in the Middle East and stifling debate. Those attacks reached a peak of venom last year with the publication of a contentious document by two senior political scientists, Stephen Walt of Harvard and John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago, who charged that a sprawling, powerful Israel Lobby had pushed the United States into war with Iraq.

Among the latest group of critics, Soros, the billionaire philanthropist and currency trader, was the harshest. In an article in The New York Review of Books, published Monday, he argued that the United States is doing Israel a disservice by allowing it to boycott the Hamas-Fatah Palestinian unity government and to turn down the Saudi peace initiative. But, he wrote, there is no meaningful debate of such policies.

While other problem areas of the Middle East are freely discussed, criticism of our policies toward Israel is very muted indeed, Soros wrote. He added that pro-Israel activists have been remarkably successful in suppressing criticism.

Soros singled out Aipac as a key source of the problem, accusing the lobby of pushing a hawkish agenda on Israeli-Palestinian issues.

Aipac under its current leadership has clearly exceeded its mission, and far from guaranteeing Israel's existence, has endangered it, he wrote. Soros's article was noteworthy in part because it broke his longstanding practice of avoiding public identification with Jewish causes. While he has given hundreds of millions of dollars in the past decade to democratization in the former communist bloc, he has given almost nothing to Jewish causes.

In this week's article, however, he stated apparently for the first time that he has a great deal of sympathy for my fellow Jews and a deep concern for the survival of Israel. He said that while he has disagreed with Israeli policies in the past, he has kept quiet because he did not want to provide fodder to the enemies of Israel. However, he said, the mishandling of recent events by Washington and now demanded greater public debate, which he said was stifled by groups like Aipac. (MORE)

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BOLTON ADMITS LEBANON TRUCE BLOCK - TOP
BBC News, 3/22/07
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6479377.stm

A former top American diplomat says the US deliberately resisted calls for a immediate ceasefire during the conflict in Lebanon in the summer of 2006.

Former ambassador to the UN John Bolton told the BBC that before any ceasefire Washington wanted Israel to eliminate Hezbollah's military capability.

Mr Bolton said an early ceasefire would have been "dangerous and misguided".

He said the US decided to join efforts to end the conflict only when it was clear Israel's campaign wasn't working.

The former envoy, who stepped down in December 2006, was interviewed for a BBC radio documentary, The Summer War in Lebanon, to be broadcast in April.

Mr Bolton said the US was deeply disappointed at Israel's failure to remove the threat from Hezbollah and the subsequent lack of any attempt to disarm its forces.

Britain joined the US in refusing to call for an immediate ceasefire.

'Damn proud'

The war began when Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers, but it quickly escalated into a full-scale conflict.

BBC diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall says the US-UK refusal to join calls for a ceasefire was one of the most controversial aspects of the diplomacy.

At the time US officials argued a ceasefire was insufficient and agreement was needed to address the underlying tensions and balance of power in the region.

Mr Bolton now describes it as "perfectly legitimate... and good politics" for the Israelis to seek to defeat their enemy militarily, especially as Hezbollah had attacked Israel first and it was acting "in its own self-defence".

Mr Bolton, a controversial and blunt-speaking figure, said he was "damned proud of what we did" to prevent an early ceasefire.

Also in the BBC programme, several key players claim that, privately, there were Arab leaders who also wanted Israel to destroy Hezbollah.

"There were many not - how should I put it - resistant to the thought that the Israelis should thoroughly defeat Hezbollah, who... increasingly by Arab states were seen as an Iranian proxy," said UN special envoy Terje Roed Larsen.

More than 1,000 Lebanese civilians and an unknown number of Hezbollah fighters were killed in the conflict.

Israel lost 116 soldiers in the fighting, while 43 of its civilians were killed in Hezbollah rocket attacks.

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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: info [at] cair.com
URL: http://www.cair.com