Opinion Editorials, May 2014

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

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  
 
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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 manifest itself 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

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 upcoming Memorial 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. 

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CONTACT:

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

Council on American-Islamic Relations 453 New Jersey Ave, S.E., Washington, D.C., 20003

Opinions expressed in various sections are the sole responsibility of their authors and they may not represent Al-Jazeerah & ccun.org.

editor@aljazeerah.info & editor@ccun.org