CAIR joins world condemnation of Israeli assault on civilian aid ships destined to help besieged citizens of Gaza

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CAIR: President Obama Must Condemn Gaza Flotilla ‘Massacre’

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 5/31/10) ­- The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today urged President Obama to condemn what the Muslim civil rights group called an Israeli “massacre” of civilians on a flotilla of ships in international waters seeking to bring humanitarian aid to the people of the Gaza Strip. Israeli commandos killed at least 10 civilians in a pre-dawn raid on the flotilla.

Israel’s attack on the flotilla has already been condemned by the international community.

SEE: Israeli Action Widely Condemned (LA Times)
http://tinyurl.com/39f9bgp
Turkey, Germany, France Lead Condemnation of Israeli Ship Raid
http://tinyurl.com/34r5ypn

A number of Americans, including former Ambassador Edward L. Peck, are among those taking part in the humanitarian aid effort. Other passengers include Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein and 1976 Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Corrigan Maguire of Northern Ireland. The nationalities of the dead are not yet known.

On Friday, CAIR’s San Francisco Bay Area chapter (CAIR-SFBA) expressed concern for the safety of three local residents aboard the flotilla.

SEE: Bay Area Residents Aboard Gaza-Bound "Freedom Flotilla"
http://tinyurl.com/3xyg79k

In a statement, United Nations officials said: "We wish to make clear that such tragedies are entirely avoidable if Israel heeds the repeated calls of the international community to end its counterproductive and unacceptable blockade of Gaza.”

“It is imperative that President Obama not only speak out strongly against this massacre of civilians but also demonstrate our nation’s outrage at Israel’s brutal actions by taking concrete steps to end the humanitarian siege imposed on Gaza with America’s support,” said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad. “Our nation must now work to end the inhumane and illegal siege on Gaza.”

Awad also urged the president to live up to his statement one year ago in Cairo in which he said that America will not turn its back on “the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity, opportunity and a state of their own.”

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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 or 202-488-8787, E-Mail: ihooper@cair.com; CAIR Communications Coordinator Amina Rubin, 202-488-8787, 202-341-4171, E-Mail: arubin@cair.com; CAIR-SFBA Programs and Outreach Director Zahra Billoo, 626-252-0885, E-Mail: zbilloo@cair.com

CAIR calls on racist Giuliani aide to resign

(WASHINGTON DC, 12/31/07) – The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today called upon Republican presidential candidate, Rudy Giuliani, to repudiate anti-Muslim remarks made by one of his campaign workers in New Hampshire.

John Deady, co-chair of that state's Veterans for Rudy, told Britain's Guardian newspaper that Americans need to chase Muslims "back to their caves." When Deady was later asked if he was referring to all Muslims, he said: "I don't subscribe to the principle that there are good Muslims and bad Muslims." He added that he "wasn't necessarily referring to genocide." Deady later resigned his post.

SEE: Giuliani co-chairman quits after Muslim remark
SEE ALSO: Rudy Surrogate: "I Don't Subscribe To The Principle That There Are Good Muslims And Bad Muslims"

“There is no need to point out why these chilling comments have absolutely no place in the public or political discourse of a serious presidential campaign – that’s obvious,” said Ahmed Rehab, a spokesman for CAIR. “The troubling reality is they were made by a representative of Giuliani’s campaign and he has yet to repudiate them. His silence sends a terrible message.”

American Muslims have expressed concerns about the anti-Muslim views of several advisors on the Rudy Giuliani campaign. In September, CAIR criticized Rep. Peter King (R-NY), who is on Giuliani's Homeland Security Advisory Board, for claiming "we have too many mosques in this country."
SEE: NY Congressman Says 'Too Many Mosques' in U.S.

CAIR had previously called on Giuliani to drop Daniel Pipes, whose controversial discourse on Muslims is widely criticized as being agenda-driven.
SEE: Giuliani Advisor Supports Terror Group

CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, has 33 offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada. 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.

- END - CONTACT: CAIR Media Relations Director Ahmed Rehab, 202-870-0166, E-Mail: arehab@cair.com; CAIR Communications Coordinator Amina Rubin, 202-488-8787, E-Mail: arubin@cair.com

CAIR publishes free guide on media coverage of Islam and Muslims

Help Improve Coverage of Islam in the U.S. Media
Sponsor 'A Journalist's Guide to Understanding Islam and Muslims'

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 11/13/2007) - CAIR today called on Muslims to support a major new initiative to help improve coverage of Islam in the American news media.

At a press conference in the nation's capital, CAIR said the centerpiece of its "Beyond Stereotypes" campaign will be distribution of the newly-published "American Muslims: A Journalist's Guide to Understanding Islam and Muslims" to some 40,000 media professionals nationwide.

Muslims are being asked to sponsor copies of the guide for $20 or to order hard copies for distribution to local media outlets.

SEE: Beyond Stereotypes: A CAIR Initiative to Enhance Understanding of Islam in the Media

CAIR's new guide offers journalists the tools needed to gain a better understanding of Islam and to write accurate and balanced stories about Muslims. The guide also offers background information on issues related to Islam and Muslims, best practices for reporting on the American Muslim community and definitions of terminology often used in news stories or editorials.

In challenging common misconceptions about Islam and Muslims, the guide provides an Islamic perspective on hot-button issues such as Islam and democracy, freedom of religion, women's rights, and interfaith relations.

Media professionals may request a free copy of CAIR's journalist guide through the "Beyond Stereotypes" website. (Sample pages of the guide can be viewed on the website.)

Along with distribution of the guide to editors, reporters, producers, and other journalists, CAIR is offering media relations training to Muslim communities nationwide. The "Beyond Stereotypes" website also offers tips on pro-active educational activities such as hosting media events and meeting with newspaper editorial boards.

"Because we work with media professionals on a daily basis, we know the vast majority of journalists are doing the best job they can with the information resources they have available," said CAIR Communications Coordinator Rabiah Ahmed. "It is our duty, and that of the Muslim community, to make sure every journalist who writes about Islam or Muslims has access to accurate information."

In a statement released at today's news conference, CAIR said: "We recognize that much of the negative perception of Islam and Muslims is the result of negative actions by a tiny minority of Muslims. That minority should not be allowed to overshadow the vast majority of Muslims in this country and worldwide who reject terrorism and religious extremism."

IMMEDIATE ACTIONS REQUESTED:

1. SPONSOR A JOURNALIST'S GUIDE. For only $20, you can help improve coverage of Islam and Muslims in the U.S. media. Click here to sponsor a journalist's guide.

2. ORDER HARD COPIES OF THE JOURNALIST'S GUIDE for distribution to local media outlets. Click here to order a guide.

3. REQUEST MEDIA RELATIONS TRAINING for your community. Either contact a local CAIR chapter, or click here to request training or learn about other actions you can take.


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CAIR on IslamoFacism Week of Hatred

‘ISLAMO-FASCISM’ WEEK SPEAKER MEETS WITH EUROPEAN 'NEO-NAZIS' - TOP
Robert Spencer is main speaker for upcoming Islamophobic campus tour

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 10/21/2007) - The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) revealed today that the main speaker for an upcoming series of "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week" lectures at university campuses nationwide recently offered a keynote address at a European gathering that included representatives of racist or "neo-Nazi" political parties.

Author Robert Spencer, who is scheduled to appear beginning next week at universities such as Brown, DePaul and Dartmouth, is regarded by American Muslims as one of the nation's worst Islamophobes. His virulently anti-Islam website promotes the idea that life for Muslims in the West should be made so difficult that they will leave.

Spencer recently spoke at a so-called "Counterjihad Brussels 2007" conference in Belgium attended by those with links to far-right parties such as Filip Dewinter of Vlaams Belang (Belgium) and Ted Ekeroth of Sverigedemokraterna (Sweden). Both parties have been accused of either having a racist platform, a neo-Nazi past or having links to neo-Nazis and other racists.

Vlaams Belang is the successor to the Vlaams Blok party, which was banned in 2004 for being an illegal racist political faction. (Vlaams Belang's founders were Nazi collaborators in World War II.)

Of Sverigedemokraterna, the International Herald Tribune wrote: “Sverigedemokraterna, or the Sweden Democrats, have been part of this country's political landscape for almost 20 years, but they were considered too close to the Nazi-inspired far-right to contend for large numbers of votes.” (7/7/06)

SEE: European Organizations Gather in Brussels to Organize Resistance to Islamization and Shariah


SEE: Court Rules Vlaams Blok is Racist


Robert Spencer's Jihad Watch Board Vice President "Hugh Fitzgerald" wrote on that hate site: "Only one group, only one belief-system, distinguishes itself by appearing incapable of fitting in. And that is Muslims, and Islam ... if one really knew what Islam contained ... then how could any decent person remain a Muslim?"

He also recommended that western nations be "Islam-proofed the way a house is child-proofed," compared Muslims to Nazis and urged that they be boycotted: "[I]t should not be hard to find ways to limit the spread or practice of Islam. And if in addition to whatever local, state and federal government officials do, private parties simply conduct their own boycott of goods and services offered by Muslims, in the same way that they would have refused to buy, in 1938, a German Voigtlander camera..."

Other speakers on the "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week" tour include Ann Coulter, who refers to Muslims as "rag heads," and Daniel Pipes, a supporter of the internment of Japanese-Americans in World War II and of the views of French racist Jean-Marie Le Pen.

“All those who value religious tolerance and diversity should be concerned about the growing links between European racists and American Islamophobes,” said CAIR Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper.

Publicity for the tour got off to a bad start when it was revealed that the poster promoting the campus events used a photograph that purportedly showed a Muslim woman being stoned to death, but which was in fact an image from a fictional movie.

CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, has 33 offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada. 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.

CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail: ihooper@cair.com; CAIR Communications Coordinator Rabiah Ahmed, 202-488-8787 or 202-439-1441, E-Mail: rahmed@cair.com; CAIR Communications Coordinator Amina Rubin, 202-488-8787 or 202-341-4171, E-Mail: arubin@cair.com

SEE ALSO:

WA: MUSLIMS UPSET BY CAMPUS EVENT - TOP
Janet I. Tu, Seattle Times, 10/20/07


A controversial week of events, billed as Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, launches at the University of Washington and some 100 other colleges next week — drawing condemnations from Muslim groups here and across the country.

The UW College Republicans, organizer of the local events, say the week is intended to foster awareness of the terrorist threat posed by a small number of extremists within Islam.

But some local Muslims say the week fosters Islamophobia and racism and attempts to paint all Muslims as terrorists.

Beginning Monday, the group plans to hand out information sheets describing what the week's activities are all about.

And it's hosting two events open to the public: a showing of "Suicide Killers," a documentary about suicide bombers, at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Smith Hall, and a talk by conservative author and talk-show host Michael Medved at 7 p.m. Thursday in Kane Hall.

Amin Odeh, a board member with the local Arab American Community Coalition, said he agrees that "radical anything is dangerous — radical Muslims, radical Christians, radical Jews. Education is needed."

But Odeh says Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week makes too general a link between extremism and Islam, and that the term "Islamo-fascism" links fascism with an entire religion.

"Unfortunately, when people hear the term they don't think of only a small group of extremists, but of Islam in general," he said.

Hala Dillsi, a member of the UW Muslim Student Association, believes Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week promotes fear and intolerance. She is distributing green armbands and encouraging people to wear T-shirts that are green — traditionally the color associated with Islam — on Wednesday in solidarity with local Arabs and Muslims.

The student group also is organizing a forum Oct. 29 in which professors and local Muslims discuss and answer questions about Islam.

Members of the Muslim Student Association, along with other organizations, also plan to hold protests outside Wednesday and Thursday evening's Awareness Week events.

Assistant Chief Ray Wittmier with the UW Police Department said his department is meeting with student organizers on all sides "to make sure everybody stays safe."

CAIR Commentary: Smearing U.S. Muslim Groups is 'Un-American'

ISLAM-OPED is a national syndication service of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) designed to offer an American Muslim perspective on current political, social and religious issues.

ISLAM-OPED commentaries are offered free-of-charge to one media outlet in each market area.

Permission for publication will be granted on a first-come-first-served basis.

CONTACT: ihooper@cair.com
TEL: Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726 (c)

Please consider the following commentary for publication. ---

Smearing U.S. Muslim Groups is 'Un-American'

By Parvez Ahmed
WORD COUNT: 765
[Parvez Ahmed is board chairman of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group. He is also an associate professor at the University of North Florida. His e-mail address is pahmed@cair.com.]

In December 2001, the Department of the Treasury named the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation (HLF), at that time the nation's largest Muslim charity, as a terrorist organization. The government seized HLF's assets and shut down the organization, thus freezing millions of dollars in religiously-obligated donations offered by American Muslims and others to feed and clothe orphans and the needy.

After three years of investigation, the government "revised" its allegations against HLF and a federal grand jury issued a 42-count indictment against seven individuals associated with the charity. The indictment alleged that those individuals were part of a "conspiracy" to provide material support to organizations linked to Hamas, a group designated as a terrorist organization by the State Department.

Almost six years later, the HLF officials are finally getting their day in court, as a trial is underway in Dallas. The government's trial brief argues that HLF gave donations to 12 Israeli-licensed Palestinian charities that were allegedly "associated" with Hamas.

This argument is made despite the fact that the U.S. government has not identified the Palestinian charities as supporting terrorism or banned them from receiving American donations. In fact, one of the charities has received aid from the U.S. government.

In an unusual, and some would say un-American, move prosecutors publicly named 306 individuals and organizations as "unindicted co-conspirators" (UCC) relating to the HLF case.

Among those listed are three major American Muslim organizations - the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the North American Islamic Trust and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Collectively, these groups represent the interests and viewpoints of the mainstream American Muslim community.

Listing a person or group as a UCC is not a legal designation of wrongdoing on the part of those named. The UCC designation merely allows for an exception to the hearsay rule, making "co-conspirator" statements admissible during trial.

A recent article in Newsweek stated: "According to one senior law-enforcement official. . .the listing of ISNA, CAIR and other groups as 'unindicted co-conspirators' was largely a tactical move by the government. By listing the groups, the official said, it makes it easier for prosecutors to introduce documents, tapes and other evidence mentioning them. . ."

This dubious practice, which offers the named parties no legal recourse, is quite controversial.

Professor Ira P. Robbins of American University recently wrote in the Federal Courts Law Review: "[The] practice of naming individuals as unindicted co-conspirators. . .appears to be an anomaly in United States law, in that it violates the Fifth Amendment guarantee that no person shall. . .be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law."

Three federal prosecutors asked by the Los Angeles Times about the practice of publicly naming unindicted co-conspirators called it "improper" and "unfair." This McCarthyite political move violates the Justice Department's own guidelines, which indicate that such lists are to remain sealed to prevent the unfair and un-American labeling of those who are not facing any criminal charges.

The Justice Department's manual for prosecutors says, "In all public filings and proceedings, federal prosecutors should remain sensitive to the privacy and reputation interests of uncharged third-parties."

The guidelines further state that when co-conspirator lists have to be filed in court, prosecutors should seek to file them under seal. In a recent Washington Post article, Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski opined that the "war on terror" has caused America more harm than anything that the terrorists ever imagined. It has created a culture of fear in the U.S.

"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."

Given the growing fear of Islam and Muslims among the American public (one-in-four admit to being prejudiced against Muslims), it has become easy to smear Islamic organizations. Without legal recourse to challenge such smears, the constitutional rights of American Muslims suffer through guilt by association and guilt by mere accusation. This chills the First Amendment rights of American Muslims.

It is our duty as Americans to demand that the due process rights of all citizens be preserved and protected. At a time when most experts are recommending the strengthening of American Muslim institutions to serve as bridges of understanding between America and the Muslim world, smearing these same institutions undermines the very cause that ought to unite us as Americans. Liberty and justice for all cannot be a mere slogan. I

n order to reclaim our global leadership, America needs to work with its Muslim citizens to prevent the downward spiral of misunderstanding and hostility that threatens to engulf our world.
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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@cair.com URL: http://www.cair.com/
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