ISLAM-INFONET: CAIR Takes On Its Critics / CAIR-MI Strives to Bridge Cultures / CAIR-CA Ho

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 3/25/07

* CAIR Takes On Its Critics (Chicago Tribune)
* CAIR-MI Strives to Bridge Cultures (Detroit Free Press)
- CAIR-MI: Islam Promotes Social Justice (Kalamazoo Gazette)
* CAIR-CT: School Project Promotes Tolerance (The Day)
- CAIR-CA Holds Citizenship Rights Forum (Sacramento Bee)
- CAIR-TX Joins Rally in Support of Immigrant Rights (DMN)
* Zbigniew Brzezinski: Terrorized by 'War on Terror' (Wash Post)
* NC: Vigil Held for Dr. Al-Arian (News & Observer)

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CAIR: MUSLIM ACTIVIST TAKES ON HIS GROUP'S CRITICS - TOP
Noreen Ahmed-Ullah, Chicago Tribune, 3/25/07
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0703250249mar25,1,457420.story

The nation's largest Muslim advocacy group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, has come under increasingly heated suspicion from critics trying to connect it to a radical Islamist political agenda and even link it to terrorist groups.

The group held a panel discussion in a U.S. Capitol meeting room March 13 over the objections of House Republicans.

Ahmed Rehab, 30, is executive director of the group's Chicago office. He joined CAIR in 2004 as spokesman for the Chicago office and was promoted last year. Following is an edited transcript of a recent e-mail conversation with him.

Q. Why have an advocacy group in the U.S. like CAIR?

A. To accurately inform the American public about Islam and Muslims where misconceptions are rampant; to advocate for the civil rights of Americans who suffer discrimination, hate crimes and other violations for no other reason than being Muslim or being perceived as such ... to encourage Muslims to be active civic participants where they are politically marginalized; and to build coalitions and partnerships with other community organizations.

Q. What are some recent projects launched by the group?

A. Nationally, CAIR projects include the Muslim Care campaign, which encourages Muslims to volunteer in their communities. Local projects include the Employment Discrimination Project, which advises victims on their rights as employees; the Youth Leadership Symposium, which promotes civic responsibility among Muslim students; and the CAIR-Chicago Voter Education Guide 2006. . .

Q. What is the source of the latest criticism/accusations being launched against CAIR at the national level?

A. Every one of the dozen or so urban legends about CAIR that are circulating out there can be traced back to a single and homogenous source of interlinked individuals and groups with such deceptively benign names as the Investigative Project, the Middle East Forum, Jihad Watch and Americans Against Hate. These groups typically flourish in the unmoderated, chaotic world of the blogosphere; they attempt to sell themselves to political and media circles as experts on Islam and terrorism and as patriots who are looking out for American interests. A second look exposes them as career Islamophobes who are deathly afraid of Muslim-American enfranchisement and its possible effects on the Israeli lobby's interests.

(CAIR put up a document directly addressing all these urban legends at: http://www.cair.com/urbanlegends.pdf.)

Q. Is CAIR linked with Hamas and Hezbollah?

A. No, CAIR is not associated with Hamas, Hezbollah or any other foreign group. CAIR unequivocally condemns all acts of violence against civilians by any individual, group or state.

Q. Does CAIR pursue an extremist Islamist political agenda?

A. You would have to be living under a rock to buy that. CAIR's contribution to the democratic process of this country is hard to miss. In dozens of American cities, we have helped guide Muslim Americans toward political enfranchisement: voter registration, education and mobilization.

We consistently urge our constituents to funnel political grievances to their elected representatives. Conspiracy theories will be just that, and right now, Muslims make for a convenient lightning rod.

Q. How much money has CAIR accepted from individuals or foundations associated with wealthy Arab governments such as Saudi Arabia? What has the money been used for? Why take such donations when many non-profit Islamic organizations have faced problems post-9/11 because of this?

A. All CAIR chapters, which are independent corporations, solicit contributions only from people residing in the states where they are incorporated. Neither CAIR chapters nor the national office solicits or accepts money from any foreign government.

The CAIR national office does on occasion receive donations from private citizens of foreign countries. Such donations are the exceptions, not the rule, and have to meet three conditions: They come with no strings attached, they go toward supporting existing CAIR projects ... and they come from people who have standing within their societies as upright citizens engaged in legitimate professional pursuits.

Much has been made about a $500,000 donation received by the national office from Alwaleed bin Talal. If CAIR is taken to task for this endowment (which went to buy books for U.S. public libraries), then so should Fox network, Citigroup, Four Seasons Hotels, AOL, Apple Computer, Amazon.com, Donna Karan International and Motorola. Bin Talal owns significant fiduciary interests in each of these American companies. (MORE)

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CAIR-MI: MUSLIM ACTIVIST STRIVES TO BRIDGE CULTURES - TOP
Niraj Warikoo, Detroit Free Press, 3/25/07
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070325/NEWS05/703250607/1007/NEWS05

When Dawud Walid opened the mail one day last June in his Lathrup Village office, he found a torn page of the Quran smeared with feces.

It was an unpleasant reminder of the challenges that face the Michigan branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which Walid heads.

"We have a lot of work to do," Walid said he thought after opening the letter.

Those efforts are drawing a growing number of supporters in metro Detroit, as evidenced by a sold-out fund-raising dinner in Dearborn today that's expected to attract about 1,100 guests -- compared to 600 two years ago.

"Islam isn't often portrayed correctly," said Nayeem Amin, 18, of Bloomfield Hills, a CAIR supporter. "They're educating the public on what Islam is about."

Walid, a Sunni Muslim, does that by speaking often at universities and churches and to media outlets. Since becoming executive director of the council's Michigan branch in July 2005, Walid has frequently been the public face of Islam in metro Detroit.

His first week on the job, after terrorists struck the London subway on July 7, 2005, Walid quickly organized a group of imams to condemn the attacks at a news conference at the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn.

And after a significant Shi'ite mosque was attacked in Iraq in February 2006, Walid spoke in Shi'ite mosques in Dearborn to help defuse tensions between Sunnis and Shi'ites. Walid did the same after a number of Shi'ite mosques and businesses in Detroit and Dearborn were targeted in January.

Founded in 1994 by Sunni Palestinian immigrants, CAIR was initially perceived as more of a Sunni group. But in recent years, the Michigan branch has made increased efforts to reach out to Shi'ites and others. Today, CAIR has 32 chapters in the United States and Canada, and is considered the leading civil rights group in the United States for Muslims. (MORE)

SEE ALSO:

CAIR-MI: OPPRESSION INGRAINED IN SOME YOUTH - TOP
John Liberty, Kalamazoo Gazette, 3/24/07
http://www.mlive.com/news/kzgazette/index.ssf?/base/news-22/1174710013206590.xml&coll=7

Dawud Walid quoted a passage from the Quran to deliver his speech's point on social justice: Oppression is worse than murder.

Walid, who is the Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Michigan, was the keynote speaker Friday at the eighth semi-annual event called "Social Justice in Islam," organized by the Western Michigan University student organization the Muslim Students Association and held in the Bernhard Center.

Walid, who lives in Detroit, addressed the more than 400 Muslims and non-Muslims in attendance by frequently reciting from the Quran in Arabic and then translating the meaning of the passages into English. He stressed Islam's teaching about oppression and gave examples of how it harms the psyche of people for generations. (MORE)

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CAIR-CT: SCHOOL PROJECT PROMOTES TOLERANCE, UNDERSTANDING - TOP
Tracy Gordon Fox, The Day, 3/25/07
http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=f3f37fac-4d08-4fb3-b0cd-513cde78b2b7

Colchester - Caitlin Dean was raised not to discriminate against others because of their race or religion. But as a white suburban teen of Italian and Irish descent, she often wondered what it would be like to be the target of such abuse.

She found out "behind the burqa."

The 15-year-old freshman volunteered with a few other students to wear traditional Muslim clothing to school for an entire day in February after a Middle Eastern Studies teacher at Bacon Academy announced that she was looking for students to promote her class by wearing the garb. Caitlin covered her slender frame and short brown hair with a periwinkle burqa, which concealed her face.

The hateful and abusive comments she endured that day horrified teachers, the teen and many of her classmates. The remarks underscored a persistent animosity toward American Muslims that is driven largely by the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But they also opened up an important dialogue that could help teenagers in Colchester and across the state view the Muslim culture differently.

"Hey, we rape your women!" one upperclassman said as he passed Caitlin in the hallway.

"I hope all of your people die," another sniped.

"You're probably going to kill us all" and "Why do they let people like this in the country?" were other remarks she heard on Feb. 1.

Caitlin's observations that day did not surprise those who work for the Connecticut chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which arrived in the state about three years ago in response to hate crimes and prejudice against Muslims.

Caitlin wrote down 50 comments and names she was called. She did not respond because "I am a freshman. I like to avoid making waves."

But when she saw a friend and a teacher who knew that Caitlin was the person under the burqa, she broke down in a classroom.

"I started crying," Caitlin said. "There is way too much prejudice."

The lack of understanding of Islam and of the many of the cultures that contribute to a worldwide population of more than 1 billion Muslims is something Rabia Chaudry, a spokeswoman for CAIR, planned to raise with the state Department of Education when she meets with officials in a few weeks.

Now she plans to use Colchester as a positive example in terms of discussing prejudice and raising awareness of the Muslim culture.

"I think what this teacher has done is exactly what schools should be doing," Chaudry said. (MORE)

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CAIR-CA: MEETINGS SET ON CIVIL RIGHTS, LEGAL AID - TOP
Sacramento Bee, 3/24/07
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/143458.html

A free legal clinic and a citizenship "know your rights" forum is scheduled today.

Community Legal Day is sponsored by the Sacramento Valley chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

"A lot of people have been asking for help, especially on immigration matters," said Basim Elkarra, executive director of CAIR-Sacramento Valley.

Attorneys will also answer questions about job discrimination or other civil rights cases, said Elkarra. (MORE)

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CAIR-TX: MORE IMMIGRATION RALLIES PLANNED - TOP
DIANNE SOLÍS, Dallas Morning News, 3/24/07
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/DN-rally_24met.ART0.North.Edition1.447ac76.html

A rally for immigration reform will be at noon Saturday at Dallas City Hall.

The rally, which will also call for a halt to immigration raids, will kick off a wave of protests in the coming weeks.

Last year, in the biggest protest ever in Dallas, tens of thousands of people poured into the streets to protest federal legislation designed to crack down on illegal immigrants. A proposed bill contained language that declared that illegal immigrants would become felons; many immigration offenses are now administrative matters. . .

On Wednesday, a candlelight vigil is planned at 6 p.m. at The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. That vigil is meant to draw attention to the detention of families in Texas by federal immigration authorities. Protests over such detentions are growing because of increasing waves of immigration raids across the state and the nation.

On April 1, another rally is planned in front of Dallas City Hall. Among the organizers are the Dallas Peace Center, the League of United Latin American Citizens, the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the American Civil Liberties Union. The rally from 2 to 5 p.m. will feature workshops on immigration rights, U.S. citizenship and voter registration. This year's rallies will not include street marches. (MORE)

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ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI: TERRORIZED BY 'WAR ON TERROR' - TOP
How a Three-Word Mantra Has Undermined America
Zbigniew Brzezinski, Washington Post, 3/25/07
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/23/AR2007032301613.html

The "war on terror" has created a culture of fear in America. The Bush administration's elevation of these three words into a national mantra since the horrific events of 9/11 has had a pernicious impact on American democracy, on America's psyche and on U.S. standing in the world. Using this phrase has actually undermined our ability to effectively confront the real challenges we face from fanatics who may use terrorism against us.

The damage these three words have done -- a classic self-inflicted wound -- is infinitely greater than any wild dreams entertained by the fanatical perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks when they were plotting against us in distant Afghan caves. The phrase itself is meaningless. It defines neither a geographic context nor our presumed enemies. Terrorism is not an enemy but a technique of warfare -- political intimidation through the killing of unarmed non-combatants.

But the little secret here may be that the vagueness of the phrase was deliberately (or instinctively) calculated by its sponsors. Constant reference to a "war on terror" did accomplish one major objective: It stimulated the emergence of a culture of fear. Fear obscures reason, intensifies emotions and makes it easier for demagogic politicians to mobilize the public on behalf of the policies they want to pursue. The war of choice in Iraq could never have gained the congressional support it got without the psychological linkage between the shock of 9/11 and the postulated existence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. Support for President Bush in the 2004 elections was also mobilized in part by the notion that "a nation at war" does not change its commander in chief in midstream. The sense of a pervasive but otherwise imprecise danger was thus channeled in a politically expedient direction by the mobilizing appeal of being "at war.". . .

The atmosphere generated by the "war on terror" has encouraged legal and political harassment of Arab Americans (generally loyal Americans) for conduct that has not been unique to them. A case in point is the reported harassment of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) for its attempts to emulate, not very successfully, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Some House Republicans recently described CAIR members as "terrorist apologists" who should not be allowed to use a Capitol meeting room for a panel discussion.

Social discrimination, for example toward Muslim air travelers, has also been its unintended byproduct. Not surprisingly, animus toward the United States even among Muslims otherwise not particularly concerned with the Middle East has intensified, while America's reputation as a leader in fostering constructive interracial and interreligious relations has suffered egregiously.

The record is even more troubling in the general area of civil rights. The culture of fear has bred intolerance, suspicion of foreigners and the adoption of legal procedures that undermine fundamental notions of justice. Innocent until proven guilty has been diluted if not undone, with some -- even U.S. citizens -- incarcerated for lengthy periods of time without effective and prompt access to due process. There is no known, hard evidence that such excess has prevented significant acts of terrorism, and convictions for would-be terrorists of any kind have been few and far between. Someday Americans will be as ashamed of this record as they now have become of the earlier instances in U.S. history of panic by the many prompting intolerance against the few. (MORE)

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NC: VIGIL STAGED FOR PALESTINIAN SCHOLAR - TOP
Jim Wise, News & Observer, 3/25/07
http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/557334.html

BUTNER - About 60 people held a two-hour vigil beside Interstate 85 on Saturday for an imprisoned former college professor accused of conspiring with Palestinian terrorists.

Sami al-Arian is being held at the Federal Medical Facility near Butner for refusing to testify in a terrorism-related case before a Virginia grand jury. On Jan. 22, he began a hunger strike to protest his incarceration beyond the duration of his sentence.

After he collapsed Feb. 13, the Federal Bureau of Prisons transferred al-Arian to Butner from a prison in Virginia.

Al-Arian's wife, Nahla al-Arian, said her diabetic husband ended the hunger strike Friday, at his family's urging, and tried taking liquid nutrients. In his weakened condition, he was having difficulty digesting them, she said.

"The most important thing is [that] his psychological state is healthy and fine," she said.

Khalila Sabra, director of the N.C. Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, said, "He's experiencing a living death. ... Until he's free, none of us are really free." (MORE)

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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