CAIR recently launched the “Do Your Part” initiative in preparation for the 2008 elections. The initiative promotes active participation and public education of the American-Muslim community. “Each election cycle America’s Muslims become better organized and more savvy about asserting our voice into our nation’s electoral dialogue,” said CAIR National Legislative Director Corey Saylor. “This is a community that is excited about the contributions our strong family values and foreign policy insights can make to this nation.”
The initiative is centered on the belief that active participation, such as voting, goes hand in hand with public education. According to the initiative, voting allows the public to choose the direction of the country by choosing the leader who best shares the collective vision. “Making educated decisions about the direction of this country is essential to making a positive difference,” said CAIR-Chicago’s Governmental Relations Coordinator, Sadiya Ahmed. CAIR-Chicago’s Government Affairs Department continuously works to help community members understand and utilize the political system to make it work for them. Projects include voter registration drives, community workshops, “know your rights” educational campaigns, and training in mosques and Muslim centers on how to contact local and national politicians.
The newly launched website for the "Do Your Part" initiative, www.cair2008election.com, will provide information about the candidates and their positions on particular issues. The site will be updated with new developments and events regarding the political race. In addition, it will soon feature a blog and voter guides.
The Civic Participation Handbook featured in the
initiative and readily available on the website stresses the importance of communities uniting to make sure that their voices are heard by their elected representatives. Exercising the right to vote is one of the main tools identified by the handbook towards standing strong and being part of the solution. The section titled, “One vote counts,” stresses the impact of individual actions, especially as part of an entire community.
CAIR emphasizes civic participation and regularly puts out handbooks and guides that inform and educate the public about getting involved.
WASHINGTON (AFP) — A US court overturned Friday a ruling that ordered Muslim charities with alleged links to the Palestinian Hamas movement to compensate the family of a US teenager killed in the West Bank.
The groups had been ordered in a 2004 civil case to pay 156 million dollars to the family of 17-year-old David Boim, killed in 1996 in an attack. A federal appeals court ruled Friday that the groups' role was not fully established.
It ordered a new trial to examine more closely the links between the organizations and the boy's death.
"The Boims will have to demonstrate an adequate causal link between the death of David Boim and the actions" of the groups, the court ruling said.
"This will require evidence that the conduct of each defendant, be it direct involvement with or support of Hamas's terrorist activities or indirect support of Hamas or its affiliates, helped bring about the terrorist attack that ended David Boim's life."
The groups had been charged with taking part in terrorism by aiding or financing Hamas, a powerful Islamist movement in the Palestinian territories.
"The Boims' theory ... was that in promoting, raising money for, and otherwise working on behalf of Hamas, these defendants had helped to fund, train, and arm the terrorists who had killed their son," the ruling said.
The defendants included the American Muslim Society and the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, which was the biggest Muslim charity in the United States until it was outlawed after the attacks of September 11, 2001.
The foundation also faces separate criminal charges for alleged links with Hamas. It is charged with giving 36 million dollars to committees controlled by the movement from 1992 to 2001.
A leading US Muslim rights group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), welcomed the appeal court's decision Friday.
"This landmark ruling is a strong rejection of the recent disturbing trend of political lawsuits against American Muslims who have committed no crime other than providing humanitarian aid to Palestinians," it said in a statement.
"CAIR deplores the murder of David Boim and hopes that the actual wrong-doers are brought to justice."
By Joshua Hoyt
Executive Director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
One of the rituals of going after that elusive big-game target, the "Middle-America White Male Voter," is the hunting trip. The day after Christmas, Mike Huckabee tromped through the Iowa fields with a contingent of newspeople. Huckabee's hunting party bagged three pheasants.
Not to be outdone, Mitt Romney boasted, "I've been a hunter pretty much all of my life," before it was revealed that his experience actually consisted of two hunting trips, separated by 45 years.
In Iowa's GOP presidential caucuses, one of the vote-hunting strategies for that Middle-America White Male Voter was some good, old-fashioned immigrant bashing. So how well did that anti-immigrant dog hunt? Once again we learned that the tired, old dog is all bark and no bite.
It always seemed odd to some of us that much of the Republican field thought that illegal immigration would be the defining wedge issue in a state that is 95 percent white and where the number of undocumented immigrants totals a bit more than 2 percent of the population.
But the pundits all said that finally, this year, illegal immigration would move votes for tough-talking politicians. So Tom Tancredo, a backbench congressman who appears to live only to bully immigrants, ran a commercial that claimed, "Islamic terrorists now freely roam U.S. soil," and ended with a backpack exploding in a shopping mall. The Colorado Republican congressman's "Before-it's-too-late" campaign to terrorize us into electing him president was thankfully interrupted by his withdrawal from the race, but Tancredo endorsed Mitt Romney on the way out.
Romney was a worthy recipient of the Tancredo mantle because Romney ran commercials that aired more than 12,000 times, mostly in Iowa and New Hampshire, promising to be rough and tough when it comes to illegal immigration. Romney used the debates and his commercials to blast his challengers, John McCain, Rudy Giuliani and Huckabee, for being soft on illegal immigrants. (All the while, Romney suffered from that peculiar hypocritical blindness that this issue seems to engender. Romney, it turns out, once employed a landscaper who used undocumented workers to landscape Romney's stately Massachusetts home. Romney continued to use the landscaping firm after that was reported, but dismissed the company when it was caught a second time using undocumented gardeners.)
Giuliani and Huckabee quickly turned themselves into political pretzels, trying to be what they had never been in real life: tough, enforcement-first upholders of our broken immigration "rule of law." Only McCain tried to maintain his self-respect on the issue.
The results are in. In a state where voters had a clear choice to vote for Romney's tough stance on illegal immigration in the Republican caucuses, they instead turned out in historic numbers to vote Democratic. There they picked Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), who has unabashedly advocated an earned path to citizenship for the undocumented.
On the Republican side, Romney, despite his overwhelming funding advantage, came up short. University of Iowa polls showed that 57 percent of Iowa voters favored earned citizenship for the undocumented and only 23 percent favored deportation.
This is consistent with national polling. In 20 of 22 separate public opinion polls conducted between March and December, somewhere between 55 percent and 83 percent of the respondents favored some form of earned legal status. In the remaining two polls, the majority favored this option.
Immigrant bashing just does not move votes. The 2006 elections were a disaster for anti-immigrant demagoguery. Not only did the issue fail to stave off the Republican loss of the House and Senate, but leading Republican anti-immigrant campaigners such as Reps. J.D. Hayworth of Arizona and John Hostettler of Indiana and Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania all lost their races. And in a telling portent of the future, Latino support for the GOP dropped to 26 percent from 44 percent.
Last November, Republicans trotted out their anti-immigrant dog again, trying to gain ground in Virginia and take advantage of Gov. Eliot Spitzer's botched attempt to grant driver's licenses to the undocumented in New York. The results: Democrats took the House of Delegates in Virginia and the Republican assault in New York was negligible.
Is there a take-home lesson that Republican leaders and politicians should learn from Iowa? Yes. Voters are concerned about our broken immigration system, but they want sensible solutions, not just loud barks from a toothless hunting dog.
Building Coalitions for Community Values
CAIR-Chicago, ICIRR, and the Campaign for Community Values
By Sandy Abdallah
Civil rights and immigration reform remain as major issues at the forefront of community concerns as the national election campaigns near their first party caucuses. CAIR-Chicago is proud to join the Illinois Coalition of Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) along with the Campaign for Community Values in addressing these issues. ICIRR works to promote the rights of immigrants and refugees in order to achieve full and equal participation in the civic, cultural, social, and political life of the United States. CAIR-Chicago advocates for the civil rights and political empowerment of Muslims and communities facing similar grievances. Together, both organizations have strengthened the voices of the communities they advocate for.
CAIR-Chicago was chosen to represent the Chicago community as well as ICIRR at the Heartland Presidential Forum, Saturday, December 1, 2007. Sponsored by non-profit organizations, the forum created the rare opportunity for direct interaction between the presidential candidates, grassroots organizations, and community members. Passionate stories and questions regarding civil rights, immigration, healthcare, corporate America, the economy, and the environment were discussed between the people and the candidates.
“It’s an amazing thing,” said CAIR-Chicago executive director, Ahmed Rehab. “Regular people and community values often take a back seat during political functions, but this forum gave the people a chance to question the politicians, one-on-one, on what matters most to them.”
Based on the principle that local and national leaders have a civic responsibility, the coalition works to ensure that these leaders address the people they intend on serving. The coalition helps create and maintain paths of dialogue between the community and its leaders. CAIR-Chicago and ICIRR work to ensure that voices are heard and progress is made.
CAIR-Chicago has worked with ICIRR over three years now; CAIR-Chicago’s executive director, Ahmed Rehab, currently serves on the ICIRR executive board.
VOLUNTEER FOR CAIR-CHICAGO'S ANNUAL BANQUET!
CAIR-Chicago works tirelessly on behalf of the Chicagoland community for civil rights, political empowerment, community outreach, and to promote the better understanding of Islam and Muslims. The Annual Banquet is a time for CAIR-Chicago to share its achievements and is made possible with the dedicated help of our volunteers. This year, the Annual Banquet Event
will be held on Saturday, February 23, 2008, and CAIR-Chicago is once again looking for volunteers.
Come work for your community in a positive, fun environment!
Available opportunities include:
1. Marketing and Registration Committee
2. Phone Banking and Ushering Committee
3. Babysitting Committee
All volunteer activists will be fully trained to ensure the success of their specific roles.
Please contact the Outreach Department at CAIR-Chicago for more info and to sign up: e-mail outreach@cairchicago.org or call 312-212-1520. When contacting CAIR-Chicago, please specify your committee preference.
CAIR-Chicago, a chapter of America's largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy group, works tirelessly to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, and empower American Muslims.
CAIR Launches National Media Education Campaign
"Beyond Stereotypes" Initiative
November 26, 2007
By Sandy Abdallah
This fall, CAIR launched a national media campaign called "Beyond Stereotypes" to promote a more accurate portrayal of Islam and Muslims in the media. The campaign features a handbook titled “American Muslims: A
Journalist's Guide to Understanding Islam and
Muslims" that presents significant facts and clears up common
misconceptions about American Muslims.
As the main and sometimes only source of news and information on Muslims, the media has a significant impact in shaping public perception. According to a 2006 Washington Post-ABC News poll, negative attitudes about Islam are fueled in part by media reports. In an effort to balance the media’s portrayal, CAIR's handbook provides journalists’ with basic information intended to promote a
more accurate understanding of Islam and improve future media coverage.
Designed to offer insightful information without overwhelming the reader, the guide is organized into six sections: Understanding Islam, The
American Muslim Community, Islam in the Media,
Interacting with Muslims, Making Contacts with
Muslims, and Clearing Misconceptions. Each
section explains the beliefs of Muslims and the
application of these beliefs to everyday life.
Many common inquiries, such as what kind of
sentiments Muslims hold toward the West, are
answered and explained as well. Unlike other resources, “A
Journalist's Guide to Understanding Islam and
Muslims,” is a concise compilation of relevant
and current information about Islam and its
practitioners.
CAIR chapters work to ensure that more balanced perspectives on pressing issues and current events important to Muslims are represented in the mainstream media. With thirty-three chapters across the nation, CAIR works with many communities and local media to provide accurate information on American Muslims. It has become a respected and credible source for journalists and other media professionals seeking information on Muslims and Islam.
On Saturday, December 1, Ahmed Rehab representing the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Chicago) and the Illinois Coalition for Immigration and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) took part in the Heartland Presidential Forum in Des Moines, Iowa by asking a presidential candidate whether she or he would be ready to join the ongoing civil rights movement, if elected.
Candidates participating in the forum were Sen. Hillary Clinton, Sen. John Edwards, Sen. Christopher Dodd, Congressman Dennis Kucinich and Sen. Barack Obama.
The entire forum, which was sponsored by the Center for Community Change (CCC) and Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (CCI), aired live on C-SPAN and TV One.
Rehab asked Senator John Edwards about American Muslims and the Civil Rights movement.
The Heartland Presidential Forum, drew 5,000 attendees, and differed from other forums with its unique format. Top-tier candidates took turns onstage and were asked real questions by real people, rather than giving canned speeches. This design was meant to put power back in the hands of the people and hold candidates accountable to what we the people really value.
“This is a historic day in which the grassroots communities of America informed participating presidential candidates that we are interested in real change,” Rehab said. “Americans are tired of fear-mongering and exclusion; we want leadership that will fight for the community values of America that made us the greatest nation on earth. We will tell them that we are all in this together.”
The forum is an important part of the Campaign for Community Values, a multi-issue and multi-year effort to challenge the divisive message of the right and to promote Community Values. The Campaign for Community Values is a collective by more then 100 community-based organizations from all over the country to have an impact on public opinion and the 2008 elections.
TRANSCRIPT OF REHAB, EDWARDS Q & A:
KATHY HUGHES (President, TV One): Our first community leader is...
(CHEERS)
SENATOR JOHN EDWARDS: You’ve got some fans.
AHMED REHAB: Senator, my name is Ahmed Rehab from Chicago, Illinois. I'm
from the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Chicago and the
Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.
(CHEERS)
REHAB: As a full-time civil rights activist, I receive hundreds of
complaints from American Muslims regarding the sort of abuses, and
prejudices, and discriminations that they face on a regular basis
simply because of their name, physical appearance, or faith
affiliation, whether it's housing discrimination, or employment
discrimination, or having to wait two to five years over the average
time limit in order to obtain their citizenship.
Sadly, it seems that we're facing a culture of fear-mongering that is
replacing our collective constitutional vision for equal opportunity for all.
Senator, in the '60s, Malcolm and Martin gave up their lives fighting
for justice for all. The civil rights movement is not over. It's not
done yet. We're still fighting.
(APPLAUSE)
Senator, fighting the civil rights movement is what I do on a daily
basis, and we would like to know if you will fight with us, if
elected president.
Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
EDWARDS: … we've got to stop this racial profiling that's
going on in the United States of America.
(APPLAUSE)
And we've got to change the entire atmosphere. Here's what I'll do as
president: I will close Guantanamo, which I think is a national embarrassment.
(APPLAUSE)
We will have no more secret prisons, no more rendition, no more --
and I use this word intentional -- no more illegal spying on the
American people by the president of the United States of America.
(APPLAUSE)
And then, finally, finally, it is so heartbreaking that we have a
debate in America about what kind of torture is permissible. I have
an answer to that: No torture is permissible in the United States of
America. And those are all things that I would do as president.
Law Journal for Social Justice Launches
CAIR-Chicago Staff Published in Inaugural Edition
by Sandy Abdallah
SEE JOURNAL ARTICLE: "The Threat to Civil Liberties in America and its Effect on Muslims in America"
This month, the DePaul Journal for Social Justice was launched as the first law journal on social justice at DePaul University. In the inaugural edition, CAIR-Chicago’s Civil Rights Coordinator, Christina Abraham and staff attorney, Heena Musabji, address challenges to civil rights affecting American Muslims
According to the journal, public law and social justice are embedded in American society but inequalities between them must be brought to light. It examines such inequalities and presents possible solutions. The journal offers a voice to academics, practitioners, and students working to tackle tough societal issues and to support others also advocating for a more equal and just society.
In their article, "The Threat to Civil Liberties in America and its Effect on Muslims in America," Abraham and Musabji dissect the problems associated with various laws such as the PATRIOT Act, in which basic rights are essentially legally violated. The denial of due process and restriction of Muslims from the right to travel are two of several such violations of rights put into effect by the U.S. government. According to Abraham and Musabji, “…it becomes incumbent on all members of society to collectively fight for the rights to which all members of society are entitled. This is the only way that society can build a system of support whereby the rights of all are ultimately protected.”
“I am proud to see that the DePaul Journal for Social Justice has finally come to fruition,” said Abraham. “It definitely furthers the fight for social justice that our community must take an active part in.”
Amadou was shot and killed on the Hyde Park campus of the University of Chicago early Monday morning. This was just weeks after he had successfully defended his Ph.D thesis in Chemistry at the top-rated university.
Amadou started life with little advantage. He was raised in a modest home in Senegal, Africa, exacerbated all the more by his father's early death. But Amadou invested his hopes in the most precious gift God had afforded him, his mind. He won a scholarship worlds away to a U.S high school, went onto college and earned degrees in chemistry, physics and mathematics.
The Chicago Tribune reported that "At the U. of C., Cisse was known as much for his hard work as his passion for his religion, Islam" ("U. of C. reels from hour of violence," Page 1, Nov. 20).
During his lifetime and despite all odds, Cisse did his family proud, Africa proud and Islam proud - he was a direct product of all three.
He also did America proud - he was also a direct product of America.
Amadou was a minority three times over. He was black, Muslim and an immigrant. In a climate where each of those are often demonized, politicized, or rendered suspicious, he may have been prejudged by the ugly half of America.
But prejudice is not the world he saw in America. He saw only opportunity, just as the beautiful part of America had seen in him.
As we constantly hear the claptrap about the potential radicalization of Muslim youth, or witness the subtle vilification of Black youth or dark-skinned immigrants, we see in Amadou a more accurate representation of the real values a young Black Muslim immigrant might typically represent: intelligence, responsibility, aspiration -- and vulnerability. This is equally likely whether a PhD from the U. of C. or a cab driver.
His achievements were a reminder to all of us of the value of most who come to our shores: not a threat, but an asset.
Amadou's story is the best and worst of what we have to offer. In our top institutions, we afforded Amadou a ticket to the top. And in our unsafe inner-city streets, we afforded him his demise.
Fighting urban crime and cleaning up our streets is not just the police force's job; it is our collective responsibility. We cannot sit idly by as our top treasure, our youth, are taken down in senseless moments made possible by a lackadaisical community approach to urban safety.
In Amadou's honor, we call on Chicagoans to make a resolution for the year 2008 to do their part in changing that by volunteering for CAPS, the City of Chicago's valuable Community Policing program.
Let our great city remain a beacon of hope and a place of opportunity to people around the world, but let it also be a leading city in the fight against street crime.
Our hearts go out to Amadou's family, friends, and the University of Chicago community.
Ahmed M. Rehab Executive Director Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Chicago) Chicago, IL
Growing up in Chicago as a soccer-crazed teenager in the 1990s, I never gave the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development much thought. It was a respected Muslim-American charity known to me mostly for its heart-wrenching appeals sometimes accompanied by annoying music.
Fast-forward a decade: I'm on a stage in Dallas for a large rally in support of officials of the now-defunct foundation who were facing charges of providing material support to a terrorist organization. The nationally riveting case was about to go to trial, and I was joined by prominent American Muslims and civil rights activists hoping to educate the local Muslim community about the legal and public-relations battle ahead.
The past few years have brought a lot of changes, the sorts of changes that see a young Muslim consultant for a Fortune 500 company -- yours truly -- morph into a full-time civil rights activist, and that see a celebrated Muslim charity such as the Holy Land Foundation face trial as an enemy of the people. In that fateful way, and on that Dallas stage, our once divergent paths converged.
In my three years as the head of the Chicago branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the country's largest Muslim civil rights group, I have encountered a plethora of civil rights abuses leveled against American Muslims. But more than any other, the case against the foundation represented a decisive moment in this stormy episode of the Muslim immigrant community's young history.
There was too much of the Muslim community invested in this case. The foundation had been the largest Muslim-American charity during its time of operation. The prosecution's unindicted co-conspirator list of 306 groups and individuals read like a who's who of Muslim-American leadership: groups such as the council I work for; the Islamic Society of North America, the largest Muslim educational group; and the North American Islamic Trust, the largest Muslim holding company.
A guilty verdict threatened to engulf the Muslim-American establishment into a legal war of attrition spelling its slow demise. A not-guilty verdict held the promise of ending the nightmare that began six years ago and restoring the community's trust in the system.
This was not only about demanding justice as an outcome, but more importantly, justice as a process. American Muslims increasingly worry that the word "terrorism," even when uttered as an allegation, is sufficient to trump the "innocent until proven guilty" axiom that is a cornerstone of our justice system.
The case against the foundation was particularly worrisome because of its dubious legal arguments. While the government acknowledged that every penny the foundation raised went to peaceful charitable relief, it argued that by providing legitimate charity to needy Palestinians, the foundation was intentionally freeing up Hamas' charitable funds for terrorist activity. The government's evidence to substantiate this ludicrous argument ranged from mention of the word "Hamas" by the defendants to textbook guilt by association.
Not surprisingly, the jury did not return a single guilty verdict on any of the 197 counts, and the case ended in a mistrial on Monday.
Yet the question remains: Why does the Bush administration continue to prosecute such far-fetched cases? Why does it see threats where none exist?
Time and again, we watched as the Bush administration announced a major "terrorism" case to much fanfare, only for the case to end with a fizzle. The administration's most hyped-up terrorism cases -- those of Sami Al-Arian in Florida and Muhammad Salah here in Chicago -- both ended in full acquittals on all terrorism-related charges.
The government's numbers since Sept. 11 don't look good: A 29 percent conviction rate on cases alleging terrorism, compared with a 92 percent conviction rate for felonies. Georgetown law professor David Cole and University of Pittsburgh law professor Jules Lobel rightly note in The Nation that, "This is an astounding statistic, because presumably federal juries are not predisposed to sympathize with Arab or Muslim defendants accused of terrorism. But when one prosecutes prematurely, failure is often the result."
Since Sept. 11, and in the name of the war on terror, the administration has invested our resources in pursuing parties that have nothing to do with Al Qaeda and the threat of another Sept. 11. If, God forbid, another attack were to occur, this administration will have to answer for years of barking up the wrong trees, here and abroad.
Ahmed Rehab is the executive director of the Chicago Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Spring 2008 Internship & Externship Opportunities at CAIR-Chicago
Internships and externships at CAIR-Chicago, a chapter of the nation's largest Muslim civil rights organization, offer students and activists a great opportunity to learn, interact, and grow in a friendly and diverse environment.
CAIR-Chicago is currently offering 18 new internship opportunities. The organization's 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.
Departments and internships are listed below. Please visit the Intern Center for complete information and details on how to apply.
All Spring applications are due by December 16th. (Please note: Spring internships usually run from early January through early June). Students interested in receiving class credit, should indicate so in their cover letters.
Our Civil Rights Department handles cases that range from prejudiced gestures to full blown discrimination. Our clients are Muslims as well as non-Muslims who have had Islam imputed upon them.
Interns and Law Clerks may work on any of the following projects:
Citizenship Delay project - seeks to address the lengthy delays Muslims are facing in applying for citizenship
Police Misconduct project - addresses incidents where police officers have discriminated or used excessive force against Muslims
Prison project - secures the rights of Muslim inmates to practice their religion freely, and ensures that inmates are treated humanely
Airport Profiling project - helps Muslims who have been discriminated against at airports
Employment Discrimination project - helps Muslims discriminated against based on religion at the workplace.
COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT
Our Communications Department monitors the local media closely and flags coverage of issues relating to Islam and Muslims. The Department also holds Press Conferences and issues press releases, media advisories, and story pitches in order to ensure that Muslim perspectives on pressing issues and current events are represented in the mainstream media. Interns work on pieces that deconstruct sensational and biased coverage of issues pertinent to Muslims and Islam, highlight their inaccuracies, and offer thoughtful analyses to diffuse misconceptions using traditional and the latest in new media.
Intern work will be published in a variety of ways.
GOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS
DEPARTMENT
Our Government Affairs Department seeks to organize, mobilize, and empower Chicagoland's Muslim community with long-term civic participation. Its educational initiatives help community members understand the political system and utilize it to work for their issues. Projects include voter registration drives, community workshops, "know your rights" educational campaigns, and training sessions at mosques and community centers on how to contact and engage local and national politicians. The department also systematically works to educate local political representatives about their Muslim constituents while ultimately engaging these representatives with the Muslim community's unique issues and concerns.
OPERATIONS DEPARTMENT
The Operations Department manages a variety of tasks and processes in order to facilitate the maintenance and improvement of daily functions within the organization and its constituent departments. Internally, this includes HR related tasks, updating organizational records and files, corresponding with government offices and vendors, IT support, and directing incoming communication via email and phone to their respective departments.
The Operations Department also coordinates HTML and graphical composition for the creation of printed materials, website updates, and email campaigns. The Operations Department performs ongoing research and undertakes special projects designed to improve CAIR-Chicago's function and efficiency.
OUTREACH DEPARTMENT
The Outreach Department seeks to forge mutually beneficial partnerships with local and national institutions. It also works to foster an understanding between Chicago's Muslim and non-Muslim communities via educational collaborations. Lastly, it recruits and pairs the right talent (volunteers and interns) with the appropriate CAIR-Chicago projects.
CAIR-Chicago Ramadan Outreach 2007 Digest
During the blessed month of Ramadan, CAIR-Chicago's Ramadan Outreach effort ended successfully after having met with various mosques and Islamic centers in the Chicagoland area and beyond.
CAIR-Chicago embraces the special importance of the month of Ramadan, and as an institution that seeks to serve Muslims as a tool for community empowerment, we sought to connect with our former and future constituents by visiting various mosques to introduce our organization.
It is our goal to provide outreach and services to as many communities as possible during this month, and as Ramadan comes to a close, we take inventory of our recent visits to local communities:
We would like to thank each of our host masjids and centers for their participation, and hope to reach even more Muslims throughout the year and in the next Ramadan.
CAIR-Chicago attorney Bitta Mostofi and CAIR-Chicago client discuss how Muslims, immigrants and non-immigrants alike, are common targets of suspicion and unreasonable citizenship delays on PBS-Wttw 11 Chicago Tonight, Chicago Matters: Beyond Borders series
Four CAIR-Chicago Clients Gain Citizenship Following Delays
October 8, 2007
By Sandy Abdallah
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, the tempest-tost to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”
That message, engraved on the Statue of Liberty, once called out to immigrants with open arms. Today, immigrants are finding it tougher and tougher to get through the basic immigration process. CAIR-Chicago has been at the forefront of working on such cases and is pleased to announce that four clients have recently been sworn in as citizens of the U.S.
Increased Citizenship Delays
Acquiring citizenship is becoming more challenging as citizenship delays reach an all-time high. By law, the average time between the final steps of the immigration process and naturalization is 120 days. However, even after successfully going through the standard process, an increasing number of cases are delayed for as much as three years without reason. The American government has provided the explanation that heightened security measures have led to a longer, more complex immigration and naturalization procedure.
New Citizens All Faced Years of Delays
One of CAIR-Chicago’s oldest clients applied for citizenship in December 2004. Although he was a U.S. resident for six years and successfully completed the naturalization interview and passed the exam, his application was delayed well beyond the 120-day mark by almost three years.
He turned to CAIR-Chicago in August 2005 after receiving no explanation for the prolonged state of ambiguity. His case was filed in federal court by July 2006, and the only stated reason for the continued delay was attributed to a “background check clearance.” By the end of May 2007, a hearing date was set for September 27. Two days prior to the scheduled hearing, he was suddenly given clearance for citizenship.
"It is sad that this client not only had to wait years for
adjudication, but he also had to be burdened with filing a lawsuit
only to find that there was nothing to justify the wait," said
CAIR-Chicago Attorney Bitta Mostofi.
In a similar case, about two years after successful completion of the
citizenship exam in early 2004, another client turned to
CAIR-Chicago. A case was filed on his behalf, followed by settlement
negotiations with opposing council. The case was resolved on
September 25, 2007.
Soon after, two more CAIR-Chicago clients were sworn in after similar delays ranging from two to three years.
CAIR-Chicago Files Class Action Suit
Faced with an increasing number of citizenship delay cases, CAIR-Chicago filed a class action suit in January 2007. Unreasonable citizenship delays remains an inefficient process since applicants are neither accepted nor rejected, but kept in a state of uncertainty for years. Many of these applicants have been residents of the U.S. for at least five years. In order to force a resolution, many applicants have been compelled to sue the government, allowing resolutions only on a costly case by case basis.
Today, the welcome message engraved at Ellis Island remains unfulfilled pending a lasting solution to the unreasonable citizenship delays by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS).
Standing in front of Muslim high school students, Ahmed Rehab asked the girls at Universal School in Bridgeview what non-Muslims might think when they see them at the shopping mall in their hijabs, or headscarves.
"Terrorists, crazy, oppressed," the students shouted.
"Where did they get those stereotypes?" he asked.
It's human nature to be afraid of what you don't understand, and that fear and misunderstanding can lead to stereotypes, he said.
"I know a ... stereotype," Rehab said. "(A woman who wears a hijab) is more likely to be a good student, likely to be in college and one of the most committed students. She's likely not to drink, use drugs or steal your credit card and use it.
"She's more likely to be good to her parents and siblings and neighbors. It's a positive one if only people knew. How are they going to know if you don't show yourself?"
Rehab and Yaser Tabbara, CAIR's national director of development, led a leadership training seminar Wednesday to help students define themselves as Muslim Americans and fight stereotypes. The two men developed the Muslim Youth Leadership Symposium, which they hope to launch nationwide.
As part of the workshop, students develop social service projects rooted in the values of Islam to help promote a positive image.
"Each and every one of them are inspired to serve the community and grow as individuals and leaders of tomorrow," Assistant Principal Hanan Abdallah said.
The projects ran the gamut: visiting hospitals and nursing homes, working with orphans, making documentaries about Muslim life, developing a pen pal program with students in other schools.
The students said they felt inspired and more informed after the workshop.
"It helps us to revolutionize what is going on," said Tasmiha Khan, 17, a senior from Bridgeview. "After (the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks), there were a lot of barriers. It has toned down a little, but this will help us to bridge the gap."
Her classmate Nadia Ahmed said a friend who wears a hijab was asked if she was a nun. Other hijab-wearing women have had their scarves pulled off, she said.
"We have to fix that, by making people aware of who we are," she said.
Amin Elsaeed, 17, a senior from Chicago Ridge, said he and his classmates have their work cut out for them.
"As youth, we have a huge role in defining how America works," he said. "If we want to be leaders, we have to push away the negative stereotypes."
Sophomore Zaid Zayad, of Hickory Hills, said education is the key to changing the image of Muslim Americans.
Rehab and Tabbara also told the students that as Muslims, they may have problems with American foreign policy in the Middle East, but as Americans, they have the freedom of speech to protest.
Zaineb Abdulla, a junior from Chicago's near West Side, said she has struggled with the idea of being a Muslim American as someone whose family comes from Iraq.
"I think about this issue all the time," the 15-year-old said. "They reminded me of something I'd forgotten: I don't have to support (President George Bush and his policies). "
This Ramadan: Reclaiming the common ground
Daily Illini
By Reem Rahman
This past weekend, 1.6 billion Muslims around the world welcomed the start of the holy month of Ramadan. Given the turmoil of current events and denials of common ground, people often want to know what Islam is; Ramadan provides part of an answer to this question. Understanding the month of Ramadan not only highlights the essence of Islamic practice but also reveals elements of a profound journey that is common across the spectrum of human experiences.
Ramadan is the ninth and holiest month of the 12 months of the Islamic calendar, and it shifts back about 12 days each year in accordance to the lunar calendar. It is a month intended for return, introspection, compassion and community, and is a foundation for the rest of the year. It is the month of the Qur'an - when the Angel Gabriel, as Muslims believe, began the 23-year period of revealing the chapters of divine instruction and guidance.
In Islam, Ramadan is described as the blessed month of God in which its days are the best of days, its nights the best of nights, and its hours the best of hours. It is a month of increased spiritual vigilance during which God is believed to be especially forgiving and generous. As the contemporary European scholar Tariq Ramadan describes "This month is a feast... not of noise, but silence; not of banquets but restraint; not of forgetfulness but remembrance. This month is a feast for the faith."
For those who are physically and mentally able to, every day is marked by fasting-restraining from food and drink from the sunrise until the sunset. This simple act of withholding sustenance resonates with significance. By being cut off from many of the worldly comforts, even for a short period of time, a fasting person seeks to realize and gain sympathy for the entrenched prevalence of hunger, sickness and poverty. Within the context of Generation Y's culture of instant gratification, the denial of basic food and drink is an exigent exercise in the unthinkable.
The separation of physical concerns from daily activities further serves to allow more attention to faith. A vital dimension of fasting is heightened consciousness of behavior and vigilance over action. Among others, behavior such as anger, backbiting, vulgarity and senseless argumentation are challenged and curbed to maintain the integrity of the fast, and to build good habits to be continued throughout the year. The Prophet Muhammad described that "fasting is a shield. On the day you fast, do not use obscenity, nor yell at others, nor act ignorantly towards them. However, if anyone abuses you verbally or attempts to draw you to fight with him, say 'I am fasting', 'I am fasting.'"
It is thus that the most profound dimension of fasting may be achieved: fasting of the heart in focus on the divine, God. It is then that Ramadan truly becomes a source of peace and solace.
The ultimate intent of Ramadan is for the total experience to reverberate beyond the individual and beyond the single month, incorporating faith and social responsibility as a central part of everyday life and community. It is a time intended for teaching and for the infusion of mechanic ritual with meaning. It is intended for charity to win over avarice, generosity over selfishness and love over hate.
These overarching elements are similarly found across the spectrum of religious traditions - from the abstinence of Lent, the fasting of Yom Kippur and the introspection of Rosh Hashanah, to the emphasis on establishing harmony amidst the impermanence of the body within Hinduism and Buddhism.
In large part this is a month directed at creating a common experience. During Ramadan, we find ourselves as a part of something larger; we join over a billion other people fasting and engaging in intense spiritual purification, but we also join billions more continually struggling to infuse greater meaning to life and to establish increased charity and social responsibility. It is a journey of struggle and discovery that echoes universally across the human experience.
“The Crucible” Chosen for “One Book, One Chicago”
Join CAIR-Chicago for City-Wide Book Club
September 26, 2007
By Sandy Abdallah
CAIR-Chicago’s executive director Ahmed Rehab is scheduled to participate in a timely discussion about the latest choice for the citywide book club, “One Book, One Chicago.” On October 15, he will join Jean Fujiu, executive director of the Japanese American Service Committee, other community leaders, and the performing arts Steppenwolf Ensemble at the Chicago Public Library’s Washington Harold Center to read and discuss Arthur Miller’s play, “The Crucible.” (SEE: Event Details)
Mayor Daley described the continued relevance of “The Crucible” by explaining to local newspapers how, “Many times after 9/11, unfortunately, a lot of people have looked at the Muslim community, the Arab community, in a much different way than other components of American society. Also, the immigrant community -- many people are looking at the immigrant community in a completely different way. ...We can learn from our lessons in history, and maybe we haven't, and I think this is important to discuss.”
Miller’s play remains well-read for its call to social conscious amidst an atmosphere of intense fear. By definition, a crucible is a bowl-shaped receptacle made to endure great heat in order to fuse metals. Metaphorically, it can refer to a severe test, or a situation where different forces interact to cause immense pressure and changes in a society.
The plot for “The Crucible” play is based on the 1692 witch trials in the small town Salem, Massachusetts and was initially inspired by its similarities to the hunt for communists that took place in the U.S. during the 1950s. During that period, known as McCarthyism, many Americans were accused of having ties to communism, were asked to sign loyalty oaths, and placed on blacklists by the U.S. House Un-American Activities Committee. In “The Crucible,” Miller uses the witch hunt trials to reveal the unjustifiable and groundless conduct of McCarthyism.
More than fifty years later, the U.S. once again finds itself in the grips of suspicion and baseless profiling, termed by some as “new McCarthyism.” As the hunt for communists has been replaced by the hunt for terrorists, Americans deal with the escalating infringement of their basic civil rights. Infringements such as racial profiling, the presumption of guilt until proven innocent, and the violation of due process are increasingly affecting Muslim-Americans. In 2006, CAIR joined the the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in filing a lawsuit against the National Security Agency (NSA) for launching a surveillance program that targeted American citizens without court authorization. CAIR Board Chairman Parvez Ahmed commented how “the First and Fourth Amendment protections of free speech and freedom from unreasonable searches and seizure are hallmarks of the Constitution that should not be tossed aside so casually by any branch of our government.”
Recent evidence demonstrates the extent to which hysteria and paranoia about terrorism have supplanted rationality and logic. An American Airlines flight was recently turned around because a woman became nervous upon hearing a conversation in the Arabic language. According to a 2006 Gallup poll of more than 1,000 Americans, thirty-nine percent were in favor of requiring Muslims in the United States, including American citizens, to carry special identification. Reminiscent of the red scare during McCarthyism, this “green scare” is just one adverse characteristic of new McCarthyism.
In its 12th year of the program, the subject matter of book selections have continued to challenge all community members to build stronger communities. Last fall’s selection, Jhumpa Lahiri’s “Interpreter of Maladies,” featured a series of short stories narrating the barriers created by cultural tensions. With this year’s selection, the “One Book, One Chicago” initiative continues to weave the people of Chicago together by encouraging thoughtful evaluation of issues facing our communities.
This Saturday September 8, CAIR-Chicago will be hosting its Muslim Youth Leadership Symposium to cultivate a positive and refreshing outlook on what it means to be a Muslim-American. It encourages youth to explore how Muslims, true to their own values, can become model citizens that help make America a better place for all Americans, regardless of race or creed.
The core mission of the Muslim Youth Leadership Symposium (MYLS) is threefold: to provide American Muslim youth with a proactive agenda for positive activism; empower them to guide their communities from the margin to the mainstream; and foster a healthy American Muslim identity that fits comfortably within pluralistic American society.
Whether at the level of the street, the neighborhood, or the municipality, Muslim-American youth will be encouraged to play an active role in making their community safer, smarter, and more prosperous in recognition of good citizenship beginning with service to local community.
MYLS sessions offer young Muslims concrete ways through which they can leverage their faith values and identities towards constructive citizenship that benefits community and country.
More information about the symposium and this year's program can be found at its home website: www.cairchicago.org/myls
It is a token of the farcical times in which we live when an agenda-driven “scholar” with a track-record of attacking his “subject matter” should feel entitled to be taken seriously.
Daniel Pipes is as much a scholar on Islam and Muslims as David Duke is a scholar on Judaism and Jews. He does not seem to know where scholarship ends and where political advocacy begins. He does not initiate his research by asking questions for which he seeks answers, but by providing answers for which he cherry-picks evidence.
Pipes is wedded to his personal political agenda to such a point that it dominates his worldview invalidating his ability to act as a neutral scholar on Muslim-related topics. Concerned with the interests of Israel above all else, he consistently defines Muslim-Americans exclusively as a function of their position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
For Pipes, a “bad” Muslim is a Muslim who challenges his views on Israel and a “good” Muslim is one who agrees with them; in his “scholarly” lingo, the code terms are “Islamist” and “moderate” respectively.
The fact that Pipes is taken seriously by anyone is an indication of how low the bar of discourse on Islam is today (see M.T. Akbar: “We are not done with racism – yet”). With fear and suspicion clouding reason and critical thinking, it is not difficult for a Harvard graduate with a grim face and a set of intriguing theories to wrestle some media attention.
The type of racism espoused by the likes of Pipes is not the usual banter. There is raw racism and then there is sophisticated racism, and Pipes is a sophisticated man.
Raw racism is where you, for instance, attribute miscreant behavior to blacks as a group. Sophisticated racism is where you come up with a new term like, say, “blackists” and then:
a). Readily state that you do not attribute negative behavior to blacks, but to “blackists”.
b). Turn around and define the great majority of blacks or grassroots black leaders as “blackists”.
So you are back to square one, and hopefully no one noticed.
That is precisely what we are seeing with the “Islam and Islamists” rhetoric. Pipes did not invent the term Islamist, but abusing it as per step (b) above is his trademark contribution to the discourse on Islam in the West. Today, there are many others who have jumped on the bandwagon; there is even a documentary film entitled - you guessed it - “Islam vs. the Islamists” that falsely portrays most Muslim-Americans as “Islamist.”
The film’s producer, Frank Gaffney, is a fellow contributor to that sham bastion of critical thinking and intellectual rigor that Daniel Pipes pontificates on regularly, David Horowitz’s notorious “Front Page Mag.”
But back to Pipes.
Pipes is quick to parrot that radical Islam is the problem and moderate Islam is the solution.
That is all very well - until you realize that his raison d’etre is to claim that every Muslim individual or group of mentionable influence is a conveyer of radical Islam - particularly if they are outspoken against the illegal Israeli occupation.
On the other hand, everyone upon whom he bestows the “moderate” badge is either a lone wolf with no credibility in the Muslim mainstream, an apologist for Pipes’ own radical views on the Middle East, or both. It is even plausible that Pipes would refer to a Muslim who leaves Islam altogether as a “moderate” Muslim, as he has in the case of Wafa Sultan.
Pipes constantly whines about influential Muslim groups like MPAC, CAIR and ISNA, mustering up the audacity to call them “Islamist” despite the fact that these groups do not advocate Shariah-rule in the US; they not only accept the US constitution, they are at the forefront of those advocating for the full application of all its codes. Hardly the ethical journalist, Pipes will shamelessly quote questionable sources like the virulently anti-Muslim Pipeline news website to prove his point. A megalomaniac, he is one stop short of quoting himself.
As more and more Americans have come to realize that Daniel Pipes is a one trick pony who never lets facts get in the way of fables, his attacks against CAIR and other critics have sounded more and more desperate.
My advice to Mr. Pipes: pack up and move your tired anti-Muslim conspiracy theories to paid late-night cable programming – there maybe a spot right before Minister Jack Van Impe’s apocalyptic hour.
Religious Profiling
Civil Rights Organizations Question New TSA Policy on Head Wear
August 27, 2007
Civil rights and community organizations are urging their constituents to take note of revised screening procedures at airports for all head coverings and to know their rights as travelers.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) released a statement today confirming reports of new head covering screening procedures as of August 4, 2007. The Sikh Coalition, the largest civil rights organization of American Sikhs, was the first to learn of the new policy and to seek its clarification. The Council on American-Islamic Relations has joined the Sikh Coalition as a signatory to a petition asking the current Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to address concerns about the new policy.
The new Standard Operating Procedure includes a guidance recommending that America's 43,000 airport screeners pull aside travelers for secondary screening if their head wear is suspected to conceal a “threat item,” regardless of whether they pass the metal detector. The secondary screening will include a pat-down search and possibly a request to remove the head wear.
The TSA has not made copies of the new screening procedure or guidelines on its implementation available to the public. According to the Sikh Coalition, the turban is the only form of religious garb specifically identified by the TSA as an example of head wear that could lead to secondary screening at security checkpoints. Failing to distinguish between religious head coverings and fashion wear, the TSA provides cowboy hats and berets as other notable examples of head wear.
The new procedure’s recommendation of physical pat-downs fails to acknowledge the religious sensitivities involved and does not include any guidance on how to perform these manual checks.
Earlier Standards Reversed
The new policy is a reversal of standard procedures created in November 2001 to address Americans' national security concerns while safeguarding religious freedom. The previous policy required TSA screeners to search head coverings such as the turban only if the metal detector was not cleared. Screeners were required to do as much as possible to avoid physically touching the head covering.
Religious Profiling
The specific singling of the turban and the apparent disregard for religious practice has sparked concern over religious profiling.
"The policy allows screeners to single out travelers on the basis of their religion,” said Amardeep Singh, Executive Director of the Sikh Coalition. "..That attitude challenges the spirit of religious pluralism on which our country was built."
The policy has led Sikhs to feel that one of their most precious articles of faith has become part of a government-mandated profile of a person who is a terrorist threat. According to Sikh Coalition officials, since September 11, 2001, hundreds of Sikhs have been harassed, beaten, and even killed because of the association of their turbans and beards with terrorism.
A number of civil rights organizations and community groups led by the Sikh Coalition seek to resolve concerns raised by the new policy with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, including charges that the practical implementation of the policy will lead to rampant religious profiling. They are urging the TSA to implement a policy that is both respectful of religious pluralism and meets America’s safety needs
Know Your Rights
The Council on American-Islamic Relations encourages Muslims to respond in the following manner:
1. Please remain calm and courteous during the process.
2. Request that the screener check the headdress with a wand rather than with a pat-down process, explaining that the hijab (head covering) is a religious article of great importance.
3. If the screener cannot oblige ask that the second screening take place in a private room with guards of the same gender. Travelers have the right to request such accommodation.
4. Report any incidences you believe may be ethnic, religious, or racial profiling to civilrights@cairchicago.org or call 312-212-1520.
The Sikh Coalition also provides a response guide and is encouraging Sikhs to report their turban screening experience.
There is a new racist dogma that is taking hold in this country that if allowed to fester any further will result in the greater marginalization of minority groups and increase the prevalent atmosphere of fear and mistrust. The most glaring manifestation of this phenomenon is the unbalanced and intellectually impoverished discourse about Islam and American Muslims.
America’s last accepted form of racism tolerates statements about Muslims that would be unacceptable if referring to other groups of people. In this paradigm multiculturalism is a threat to the foundations of democracy and any voices raised in protest are branded as opposed to freedom of speech. The great American melting pot is conspicuously thrown to the wayside.
This school of thought is brought to its logical and most radical end in such destructive and violent actions as occurred recently in Florida. On July 6th 2007, a Bosnian Muslim family who were on vacation had their home torched and the words “F*** Islam” spray painted over all their walls. This family moved to America for the express purpose of leaving their war torn nation for safer shores. When the wife was asked “If this reminded her of back home?” she replied, “Pretty much.” If the occupants of that home had been part of any other race or religion there is no doubt that the media coverage would have been much larger.
Pop culture personalities such as Don Imus, Glenn Beck, and Anne Coulter feed the hysterical atmosphere of racism and Islamophobia that lead to such tragedies as the one in Florida. These figures target all Muslims as a single group, advocating the same ideas of inferiority and systemized discrimination that define racism.
Don Imus is known as the radio host who for 36 years made his name known as a shock jock with a wide audience and influence. He was heavily courted by politicians for support and endorsements until recently when he "finally" stepped over the line by making racist and sexist comments about the female Maryland basketball team. While this comment rightly got him fired, it wasn’t the first time he had made outrageous racist statements.
Muslims, one of his most consistent targets have invariably been called “ragheads,” “goat humping weasels,” “filthy animals,” and he has even suggested that they “all be killed.” The question is: where was the outcry, the suspensions and the apologies when these racist and xenophobic statements were being made. Most glaringly, why are they tolerated when it comes to one group and not to another?
Syndicated talk show host Glenn Beck has made bashing Islam a major objective of his show. When the first Muslim elected to Congress, Keith Ellison, was interviewed on Beck’s show he was asked to “[p]rove to us you are not working for the enemy.” Aside from the condescending tone of this question, it reveals the extent to which suspicion is automatically magnified by a mainstream media personality onto anyone associated with Islam. It also raises a critical point about the psychology of difference that is deeply rooted in the thinking of individuals such as Beck. It is the height of absurdity to ask such a question to an individual whose family has been in America since the early 18th century as Ellison’s has.
Anne Coulter, a regular guest on the cable networks and lecture circuit has famously been quoted stating “we should invade their (i.e. Muslims) countries, kill all their leaders, and convert them to Christianity.” Yet she continues to be invited to appear on TV networks, at universities, and organizations in effect legitimizing Islamophobia as a part of the overall discourse on Islam and American Muslims.
In the midst of this growing phenomenon there are a few voices that are noticeably missing. The most deafening silence comes from liberals and conservatives who seek true understanding and espouse American values of human rights, freedom, and tolerance for multiculturalism. It may be that they are dismissive of these radical personalities or hope that by ignoring them they will just go away, but if that is the case it is not working.
Asking "Who is doing the talking?" is imperative. By remaining silent in the face of hate speech and demagoguery, well-intentioned liberals and conservatives allow their voices to be drowned out by radicals.
One of the most enduring qualities of America is its ability to bring together different cultures and allow them a space to settle into the fabric of this nation. It is the secret of our success as a nation, yet it is increasingly under attack from those who espouse a mono-cultural America. We need to take a shared responsibility and give voice to a consistent message, that hate speech and marginalization of any group must not be tolerated.
Yong Zhang woke up Wednesday to her last day as a Chinese citizen.
She joined 144 other immigrants for an oath ceremony at noon and surrendered her green card for a glossy certificate officially deeming her an American.
“I’m not nervous, just excited,” Zhang said. But she almost didn’t make it.
The CTA announced while she was on the red line to the federal courthouse in downtown Chicago that all passengers would have to disembark and go to the northbound platform to get on another train.
Lucky for Zhang, she has been taking English classes to help her navigate her new country.
“If she didn’t understand what they said, she would probably have stood and waited,” said Daisy Liu, Zhang’s English and citizenship teacher at the Chinese Mutual Aid Association. The organization provides free classes and assistance in the citizenship application process.
Zhang is one of nearly 700,000 citizens who are naturalized annually, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Record numbers of immigrants have applied for citizenship since the government announced that the application fees will more than double on July 30. More than 4,000 new citizens were sworn in July 4 alone.
One of this year's newest citizens, Sally Velasco, waited 16 years before applying for citizenship in December. She emigrated from the Philippines in 1990 and maintains dual citizenship, available for some countries.
“I was too lazy to apply,” said Velasco, whose husband was born an American citizen. “But when we travel, if you’re a resident, you have to fall in a different line at immigration. It’s more of a convenience than any other reason to be a citizen.”
Velasco’s application was processed in five months, considered a little longer than typical. But compared to what Tariq Saeed faced, hers was a walk in the park.
Saeed, who lives in Lombard, waited three years while the FBI conducted a name check, a process that typically takes a few days. He and his wife applied together in March 2004; she received her citizenship later that year.
“We thought it was OK and [that] the procedure took this long,” Saeed said. “But after a few months I learned that in Chicago at least five other husbands had not cleared their citizenship and were in the same situation.”
Saeed contacted the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which filed a class-action suit on behalf of the individuals. He became a citizen in March.
“We found that only 1 percent of individuals are caught up in this delay,” Bitta Mostofi, CAIR staff attorney, said. “But the numbers as to how many people were delayed used to be two [or so] a year. In the past two years, they have been in the hundreds of thousands.”
A government report said that as of May of this year “a staggering 329,160 FBI name check cases [were] pending, with approximately 64 percent of those cases pending more than 90 days.”
The report recognized the burden that delays can cause applicants -- including loss of employment, difficulty obtaining drivers’ licenses, difficulty obtaining credit and student loans, and disqualification from in-state tuition -- and recommended a more streamlined process.
The fee increases will help pay the cost of the streamlining.
But many community organizations, including Chinese Mutual Aid Association argue that the increased fees place a greater burden on the already-strapped budgets of working class immigrants.
“Maybe it’s not a lot of money for an individual to pay $675,” Liu said. “But for a family of four, $2,700 is really not a small amount.” A fee waiver is available, but only a small pool of poor applicants qualifies.
Liu said the current citizenship process is already difficult for limited English-speaking applicants or those who can’t afford lawyers.
“I moved to this country for a better and more peaceful life,” Saeed said. “I raised my kids in this country. I have been paying taxes the whole time. When I contribute to this country, I want all the rights and responsibilities as well. I believe it’s my civil obligation [to become a citizen].”
Zhang too cites wanting a better life for her 4-year-old daughter as an important reason for becoming American -- that, and sponsoring her parents and siblings for visas.
“I really miss them and want them here with me,” Zhang said. “They will have better opportunities in America, especially for their children.”
The Senate immigration bill threatened to limit family-sponsored visas in favor of high-skilled worker visas. Although the bill was killed last month, any future legislation is likely to restrict the number of family-sponsored visas.
That riled Asian-American organizations. Many Asian immigrants -- including Zhang and Velasco -- come to the U.S. through family sponsorship. Some family members wait many years before being considered for visas.
The Chicago area ranks fifth nationally in the size of its immigrant population. In 2003, Roosevelt University's Institute for Metropolitan Affairs reported that 1.4 million immigrants live in metro Chicago, representing nearly 18 percent of the region's population.
“The remarkable thing is people wait for up to two decades to get into this country,” Liu said. “And two decades later, they still want to come.”
Amani Abbasi had worked at Ritz Camera Centers for more than ten years when she was fired, allegedly for timecard fraud. In early May of 2006, the district manager showed up at her store and told her that her position as store manager would be terminated, claiming it was against company policy to record work hours when she was outside the store. Ms. Abbasi refuted each
of his claims and was led to believe that she was fired due to anti-Muslim bias.
Ms. Abbasi began wearing hijab in 2005, but faced no hostility until the new district manager arrived in April of 2006. The new district manager was so hostile to Ms. Abbasi from the beginning of his transfer that she felt he was looking for any reason to fire her.
One month later, her worst fears were realized.
In response to the accusations of timecard fraud while outside of the store, Ms. Abbasi explained that all out-of-store hours on her timecard were for performing her managerial responsibilities. Other managers had also recorded the hours they worked outside the store when they attended out-of-store meetings. Ms. Abbasi was also required to check e-mails despite the fact that her workplace had no access to e-mail, and would do that portion of her work from home.
The district manager did not accept Ms. Abbasi’s explanation and he faulted her for working extra hours outside the store despite the fact that as a salaried employee, Ms. Abbasi would in no way profit from falsely reporting extra hours.
Ms. Abbasi went on to file a charge of discrimination with the Illinois Department of Human Rights (IDHR), alleging that the district manager discharged her because of her religion, not because she committed timecard fraud.
Discrimination Case Faces Setback
In February of 2007, the IDHR dismissed Ms. Abbasi’s claim, finding a lack of substantial evidence to support her claim of discrimination. The IDHR accepted Ritz Camera Center’s claim that it discharged Ms. Abbasi because of timecard fraud. Ritz claimed that Ms. Abbasi was not being singled out or treated differently since other employees had also been discharged for timecard fraud in the past.
CAIR-Chicago filed a Request for Review of the decision, arguing that Ritz had presented insufficient evidence to prove that Ms. Abbasi committed timecard fraud. CAIR-Chicago found that Ms. Abbasi’s actions did not meet Ritz’s own definition of what constitutes timecard fraud. Additionally, Ms. Abbasi was able to show that she was working on the days that Ritz accused her of reporting false timecard hours.
CAIR-Chicago also noted that other store managers routinely worked out-of-store hours and that Ritz was not able to prove that other employees discharged for timecard fraud were accused of violations similar to Ms. Abbasi’s alleged violations. Finally, it argued that Ritz was disingenuous in its claim that it did not know Ms. Abbasi was Muslim since she wore a hijab and the district manager admitted knowing that she wore it for religious reasons.
“She deserved better”
A loyal customer wrote a letter in Ms. Abbasi’s support, complimenting Ms. Abbasi on her management of the store and saying, “I was truly devastated to arrive at the store to find out that Amani was let go. . . . I work in the business, so I know quite a bit already, but she always knew more and what she didn’t know she found out. She treated every customer with respect and understanding. . . . She tirelessly kept her eye on every detail with pride and motivation for the job at hand. . . . She deserved better.”
Favorable Ruling: Case Moves Forward
On July 23, Ms. Abbasi received news of a favorable ruling from the IDHR. The Chief Legal Counsel ordered that the dismissal of Ms. Abbasi’s charge be vacated and ordered the Department to investigate the matter further. He explained, “It is unclear how [the] Complainant committed timecard fraud if she was a salaried store manager.” He ordered the IDHR to investigate 1) how she could have committed timecard fraud as a salaried employee, 2) whether she committed timecard fraud, and 3) whether the people who were actually discharged wore clothes that suggested they were not Muslim.
Ms. Abbasi is waiting for the Department to continue the investigation and reassess its previous findings. CAIR-Chicago will continue to pursue the case on behalf of Ms. Abbasi.
Since 2005, CAIR-Chicago has counseled and represented over 150 clients with cases of employment discrimination and currently has cases pending with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, United States District Court, the Illinois Department of Human Rights, and the Chicago Commission on Human Relations.
CAIR-Chicago volunteers helped at the Kenwood Food Pantry this Saturday, July 21st, 2007. Volunteers participated by preparing bags of groceries later collected by several low-income or homeless families and individuals in the area. Located at the Hyde Park Union Church, the food pantry is able to serve emergency food to about 500 in-need residents of Hyde Park-Kenwood and Bronzeville.
Each month CAIR-Chicago organizes several volunteer opportunities to serve the Greater Chicagoland area. This initiative is part of a national movement initiated by CAIR headquarters known as Muslims Care. It was started three years ago to promote volunteerism, and emphasize the role of community service as an integral part of the Islamic faith.
CAIR-Chicago’s Outreach department tries to work with various organizations of diverse faith and culture in the area. "Not only do volunteers have the opportunity to help their fellow citizens, but they also have the opportunity to learn first hand about the diverse communities around them", said CAIR-Chicago Outreach Coordinator Dina Rehab. "Working hand in hand with members of a local church, synagogue or a cultural center is a powerful learning experience for all involved."
Community Service Intern, Abeer Azam, worked closely with CAIR-Chicago’s Outreach Coordinator in organizing this month’s community service event. "The event, being both an interfaith and community service opportunity, was a rewarding experience for our volunteers", Abeer stated. “As volunteers of both Christian and Muslim faiths discussed issues in their community, we found surprising similarities.”
The communal spirit generated throughout the event was felt by many of the volunteers. “Even though the volunteers had just met and didn't really know each other, they were all so eager to help one another prepare groceries for the needy”, said Lutfi Siswanto, a first time CAIR-Chicago volunteer. Volunteers had already started to inquire about upcoming volunteer opportunities before the event was over.
Local church members and the pantry’s coordinator also shared the same enthusiasm. Janet Deckenbach, the pantry’s coordinator, stressed her appreciation of CAIR-Chicago’s volunteers by taking a moment to state that she was greatly satisfied with the enthusiasm of the volunteers. The Church’s volunteers repeatedly expressed their gratitude and were impressed by CAIR-Chicago’s desire to be diverse in their service of community.
Volunteering at the food pantry was the first community service experience in the United States for Kweon Kook Tak, a Community Service Intern at CAIR-Chicago and a graduate student from South Korea at DePaul University. "I was a little nervous because this was my first time volunteering, especially in the United States," Kweon said, "but I ended up having a lot of fun. All I can say is: do not delay it. Just try it!”
The Kenwood Food Pantry is available to serve the community every Saturday from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm. Stay tuned to CAIR-Chicago’s website for more Muslims Care events and information on how to get involved.
CAIR-Chicago’s Communications Coordinator Reem Rahman is scheduled to participate in the Drum Major Institute’s summer public policy intensive this August 1 to August 12 2007 alongside other young leaders from across the nation.
Founded by Harry Wachtel, lawyer and advisor to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, the institute has a rich legacy in the civil rights movement.
As a non-partisan, non-profit organization, the Drum Major Institute is dedicated to challenging the orthodoxies of the left and the right while promoting progressive public policy for social and economic fairness. It seeks to change policy by conducting research into overlooked but important social and economic issues, leveraging strategic relationships to engage policymakers and opinion leaders, and offering platforms to amplify the ideas of those who are working for social and economic fairness.
Recently, the Drum Major Institute, along with Rev. Dr. James Forbes and Dr. Cornel West, presented its Drum Major For Justice awards to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, for PlanNYC - his sweeping plan to make New York City a model for environmentally sustainable cities in the 21st century - and talk show host and author Tavis Smiley, for being an outstanding voice for social change in the news media and beyond.
All selected participants demonstrated a commitment to activism and a desire to learn how public policy can advance an agenda of fairness and equity. The rigorous training institute offers young activists the public policy lens, analytical and practical skills, resources and experiences to allow them to understand and navigate public policy.
A recent study reaffirms the need for the greater civic and political participation of Muslims. The Chicago Council on Foreign Affairs Task Force released a report in June of 2007 titled “Strengthening America: The Civic and Political Integration of Muslim Americans, 2007.” The main conclusion of the independent Task Force is that the greater Muslim American civic and political engagement is urgently needed to prevent alienation in a community that is vital to U.S. security and relations with the Muslim World.
CAIR-Chicago Gives Media Presentation
Daily Herald Review: A Muslim Reader’s Perspective
By Musab Siddiqui
July 17, 2007
This July, CAIR-Chicago presented a review of the Daily Herald’s reporting on Islam and issues pertaining to Muslims. The CAIR-Chicago report was commissioned by the Daily Herald and presented as part of a weeklong diversity forum at the Daily Herald to increase awareness in media coverage. [VIEW REPORT]
The presentation was welcomed by a room full of Daily Herald reporters and editors, forging greater awareness among journalists interested in reporting on Muslim American communities.
As a case study, CAIR-Chicago reviewed news sections of the Daily Herald from May 20, 2007 to June 3, 2007. In the selected two week span, the majority of stories involving Muslims covered the war in Iraq, the war on terrorism, violence in Lebanon and Palestine, and to a lesser extent, events in Iran and Afghanistan.
Muslims were primarily presented in contexts of foreign affairs, and predominantly in relation to terrorism and war.
CAIR-Chicago’s Communications Coordinator Reem Rahman and Executive Director Ahmed Rehab outlined the significant role the media’s choice of editorializing and reporting plays in shaping the public perception and understanding of Muslims. Most Americans are poorly informed about their Muslim neighbors and their role in society. For many, the media may be the only source of knowledge regarding Muslims.
Analysis of Iraq war coverage found that the majority of stories discussing the human toll focused on U.S. causalities, citing the number of U.S. loss and personalized stories of its effects locally. Few discussed the toll on Iraqis or personalized their loss. The few stories in which Iraqis were the focus were accompanied by photographs featuring U.S. troops. The choice of reporting and editorializing reveals an unequal presentation of the human cost of the war on U.S. lives versus Iraqi lives.
The review stressed the need for Muslims to be shown in contexts that reflect shared humanity and experiences. Vital opportunities were either missed or misplaced. The few images available of Muslims often featured Muslims in either anger or strife. Even when the story content spoke of grief and tragedy, images that may have humanized Muslims and reflected empathetic emotions were not shown.
In coverage of the Muslim population, the review highlighted problematic titles such as “Hanging Angers Sunnis” (Daily Herald 1/07). Titles such as these reduce the entire “Muslim World” to a single, often angry, monolithic entity. Such reductionism obscures accurate understanding of Islam and Muslims. The fact that Islam is the faith and that its practitioners are Muslim are often conflated. Consider the terms: ‘Islamic fundamentalism,’ ‘Islamic militants,’ Islamic fascism,’ etc. The use of “Islamic” as a qualifier inaccurately associates the whole of the religion of Islam with radicalism. It is necessary to distinguish the faith from its practitioners as a reminder that all faiths are subject to human myopia. It is much more accurate to use Muslim as the qualifier.
The need for greater understanding about the Muslim community grows more urgent. Since the 9/11 attacks, acts of discrimination and hate crimes have annually averaged double-digit growth rates.
The media plays a significant role in the understanding of Muslims and has significant impact based upon its choice of reporting and editorializing.
Chicago has among the most vibrant, diverse, and historically based Muslim Communities in the nation. Islamic centers, Mosques, and organizations are abundant throughout Chicagoland and are good starting points for reporting on the Muslim community.
Comedian and lecturer Azhar Usman followed CAIR’s findings with an intelligent routine intended to dispel stereotypes of Muslims. The presentations fostered a unique contribution to the framing of Muslims by the media.
When destructive acts happen around the globe in the name of Islam, the reputation of the religion itself, particularly in the post 9/11 era, is also tarnished. Chicago writer and activist Ahmed Rehab feels that while those outside the faith need to think before they generalize those inside the faith need to reassert its peaceful roots.
AHMED REHAB:
Every time I receive news of a terror attack carried out by someone professing to be Muslim, I brace myself for what is to come.
Sure enough, a few moments after the Glasgow airport car-ramming incident took place, the phone calls started trickling in. Reporters wanted to know how Muslims felt about it. So I cut short a day at Brookfield Zoo with my nephews in order to appear on camera and, once again, state the obvious: mainstream Muslims everywhere are just as outraged by this shocking incident as anyone else, criminal acts are personal choices that reflect on the perpetrators and no one else.
But it’s post 9/11 America, and reason is not the token of our time.
In a way though, I empathize with the general public. They get to see or hear little else about Islam outside of the evening news when cars - or flags - are burning. As such, I am quick to entertain any opportunity I can get to reclaim my faith and set the record straight.
Terrorism is not only un-Islamic, it is anti-Islamic. The murder of, or intent to murder, innocent civilians is blatantly rejected in Islam regardless of the legitimacy of any personal or political grievances one may claim to have.
Extremism, even if non-violent, is starkly antithetical to the spirit of Islam which is rooted in the notion of “compassion for the world.”
As a Muslim activist and leader, I have a duty to lead the fight against terrorism in the most decisive battlefield of all: the young impressionable mind. No government, terrorism expert, or talking head can do as much there. I believe I can best challenge deviant minority ideologies by enkindling the beauty latent in our faith.
Islam shuns self-victimization and cultivates self-accountability, restrains rage and releases the intellect, rejects self-righteous isolation and embraces humanity; it is tolerant in recognizing the diverse expressions of truth, yet unflinching in its condemnation of injustices, including those at the hands of Muslims.
This is Islam as taught by Muhammad and all the prophets before him, it is the one embraced by enlightened Muslims around the world. It is the one I aspire to personify when at the pulpits of Chicago's largest mosques or in private conversation with disaffected youth. It is every terrorist recruiter’s nightmare.
For me, challenging extremism, both within the Muslim community and against the Muslim community, is a passion. I am in to win - even if it means never having to see the baby Gorillas.
STEVE EDWARDS:
Ahmed Rehab is the Executive Director of the Chicago Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
This June, CAIR released its annual report on the status of Muslim civil rights in the United States. This year’s report, entitled “Presumption of Guilt,” finds a 25% increase in civil rights complaints nationwide. Since the first report in 1996, the number of reported incidents and experiences of anti-Muslim bias, discrimination, harassment, physical attacks, and hate crimes has risen every year. The last year alone saw a 25% increase in the number of such reports. The report analyzed the complaints according to the place of occurrence, alleged type of abuse, and factors triggering discrimination.
Illinois Top State for Complaints
The 2007 report shows the highest per-capita complaints, 13% of all complaints, as having occurred in Illinois. This number is second only to California in the number of reported complaints (29%). The District of Columbia reported the third most complaints, with 7%.
Most Complaints Deal With Immigration
The percentages in most categories of reported civil rights violations were relatively stable, but some showed changes from last year’s report. A major increase was seen in the category of government agency complaints, which rose more than 15% and was topped by citizenship delay complaints.
The workplace was the second most common place of occurence after government agencies.
Race/Ethnicity Most Frequent Trigger
Race/ethnicity was the most frequent trigger of civil rights abuse, identified as a trigger in 52% of all reported discrimination. A Muslim-sounding name was the next most common trigger, prompting 21% of the reported incidents. Other frequent factors include involvement in activism or organizational membership, and wearing the hijab or scarf.
The Report’s Recommendations
The report outlined five main recommendations:
1. Elected representatives, interfaith religious and community leaders must speak out more vocally against Islamophobia, particularly when there is a reported anti-Muslim incident in their local areas. Those people, who promote bigotry targeting any faith or minority group, should be repudiated by all Americans.
2. American Muslims should increase efforts to reach out to their fellow citizens to educate them about Islam and to create opportunities for interaction with ordinary American Muslims. CAIR’s research has found that prejudice decreases when people know more about Islam and when they personally interact with ordinary Muslims.
3. Congress should hold hearings on the rising level of Islamophobia in America and its negative impact on our society and on our nation’s image and policy interests worldwide.
4. Federal agencies should expedite the processing of citizenship/naturalization applications that have far exceeded the amount of time allowed by federal law.
5. Because much of the Islamophobia in our society is a byproduct of international events, our government should work in cooperation with the American Muslim community to implement domestic and foreign polices that reflect American traditions of justice and respect for the human dignity for all people.
Pamela Moss worships every Sunday at Messiah Baptist Church in Grand Rapids, Mich., where they preach the Bible straight up, sing the old hymns "and then let me get on with my day."
But her son, George, 24, is a fervent Evangelical, witnessing to strangers and praying "in a church that looks like a gym. To me, he's just out the gate," his mystified mom says.
Stephen Rochester, 32, grew up "Jewish lite" in St. Louis, says his father, Marty. "So I was stunned when Stephen went religious with a capital R," switching to his Hebrew name, Shaya, and adopting the black hat of Hasidic Jews.
Mari Beth Nolan, 22, grew up a "Christmas and Easter" Catholic. Now she plans to go to work at a missionary clinic in Ecuador, leaving her parents proud — but confused.
Small wonder parents are befuddled. Though Gallup polls dating to the '50s say young adults are less likely to attend services or say religion is very important in their lives, clergy of all stripes say they are seeing a small wave of young adults who are more pious than their parents. And they're getting an earful from boomer moms and dads who range from shocked to delighted.
Statistically, these devout young people are "floating below the radar," says Rabbi Zalman Shmotkin of Chabad.org, which encourages Jews to deepen religious practice.
Such stories are ancient: Abraham smashing his father's idols; young Jesus teaching his elders; Buddha leaving his father's home.
"Freaked-out parents are nothing new here," says the Rev. Jeremy Johnston, executive pastor of First Family Church, a Baptist megachurch in Overland Park, Kan..
"The parents are intimidated by their child's depth of feeling. They threaten college students to 'cut off tuition support if you're going to be such a fanatic.' They think the normal way to be a young adult is the way they were. But it's not.
"We tell young people when they are all wound up in new faith that the best thing you can do is show your parents the changes God is working in you. Parents can decide for themselves whether they want to follow."
Brooke Havarty, 21, says her parents struggled when she transferred from Arizona State to Liberty University in Virginia, founded by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell.
"I had a great childhood in a great family," she says. "We went to church on Sundays, but it was just what you did. I was never shown the value of the Bible, the role God had in my life. I saw the consistency and joy in the lives of faithful Christians, and I wanted that in my life."
Havarty, whose parents are divorced, adds that her dad "is an amazing father, but he doesn't want to give every area of his life to Christ the way I do. It's hard for him to understand why I'm so black and white about things."
Her father, Mike Havarty of Overland Park, says Brooke is "an incredible young lady, academically and in her faith." He says his daughter has "earned the right" to study where she pleased.
Parents will go along when they "realize their kids are becoming more spiritually attuned, not rejecting their parents or their past but growing from within, finding new and deeper ways to interact with God," Shmotkin says.
Catholic writer Scott Hahn, who teaches at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, says parents may be reluctant if "kids are casting their parents' lives into question. I hope when kids come home, naturally zealous but not always tempered by reality or maturity, they will appreciate their parents more."
'A little obnoxious'
Nolan says she felt a deep connection to Catholicism as a teen when her family had just moved cross-country for the second time. She insisted her parents, nominal Catholics, send her for religious studies and drive her to Mass.
"At first I was a little obnoxious. There were a few conversations like, 'You need to calm down,' " she recalls. And when she chose Franciscan, known for its traditionalist fervor, "I know my dad was leery."
Her father, Tom Nolan, 53, of Atlanta, says the demands of a divorce, a move and travel in his sales job have left him "disconnected from church." Yet he supported her, as he does now that she's going to do social work in the Andes instead of going straight to graduate school.
Mari Beth says her parents "have a knowledge of God, but they don't always like to follow the ways of the church. I absolutely wish they were more into it. It brings me so much joy, love and peace. It's hard not to be able to share that with the most important people in my life."
George Moss also feels that divide. He finds it "harder to sit down with your own mother and talk about Christ than it is to share the Gospel in the streets of Jamaica."
"My mom was always very churched," Moss says. "But it was a habit without heart behind it. I wanted real faith, not just church. I wanted my faith to play out in everything I do, all the time — raising my son, rapping Christian music, DJ at a Christian radio station."
But his faith, like his non-denominational church, is too "free-spirit" for his mother. "I dress up and give the Lord his respect," says Pamela Moss, 53. "But I even saw someone barefoot there. And the pastor was out walking around in a shirt and pants, not on the pulpit in a robe.
"I was brought up in the Word, and I will never depart. But George does take it to another level. He's out there rapping, and I can't catch the words. He's going on mission trips. He's always out there witnessing. Now, I don't have a problem with witnessing, but I'm sorry, I have a job, and when I get home, I'm tired. On Sunday, I go, hear the Word and leave."
The religiosity gap runs across faiths. Marty and Ruth Rochester rode an emotional roller coaster after Shaya, a philosophy major at Yale, deferred law school for intense Jewish studies at a yeshiva.
Ruth says that when Shaya called to tell her he'd bought his first Hasidic black hat, "I burst into tears."
"To me, it means he had gone off the deep end, setting himself apart from the family and Judaism as I knew it. But he's my son, I love him dearly, so I decided this is just something else to get through."
Shaya, now a lawyer at a Manhattan firm, believes "my father was more opposed than my mother. He was concerned I would drop law school and be this crazy religious guy who would waste my education and never be able to support myself."
Yet, his father says other things, small things, have been harder. He misses their father-son heart-to-heart evenings, talking over beer and burgers at a favorite hangout, O'Connell's. The end of evenings at the unkosher pub "symbolized a break in the normal rhythm of our family life. It upset me."
The swoops and dips have leveled out now with Shaya's more mature faith, his marriage and the arrival of grandchildren. Although Marty sees Shaya "gently noodge us to become more observant, it's never been in-your-face, never been pushy, always gentle. Shaya is flexible wherever he can be."
'They're so visibly Muslim'
Ruby and Inem Rahman of Naperville, Ill., are puzzled to find that their daughter, Reem, is more publicly religious and active in Islamic life in the Midwest than they were in their youth in Pakistan.
Reem, 21, founded student chapters of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and an interfaith youth action group at the University of Illinois-Urbana, and she inspired her younger brother to step up observance and activism, too.
Ruby, 50, praises her children's "good faith and strong characters. I know they are pure, that they are working for peace and liberty. But I'm concerned they'll be stereotyped by prejudiced people because they are so visibly Muslim."
Her own faith is strong, says Ruby, a substitute teacher, but beyond dressing modestly, she feels no need in the USA, "a cosmopolitan country, to proclaim it to the world by wearing a scarf."
Inem, 55, loves that everyone here can follow his or her own faith, "but it should be a personal path. All religions give you your ethics and moral values, but it's best to keep your passion private."
Reem, now working in the Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, says wearing the hijab allows her to be "in a state of God consciousness and readiness to pray to God at all times." Still, she agrees, it can attract unwelcome attention.
"People think you're oppressed if you're covered. People ask me all the time now where I'm from. I say Detroit. I have a degree in cognitive neuroscience. I can be a working woman, a scholar, a lawyer, a teacher, whatever I want. Do I sound oppressed to you?"
For all her devotion, however, Reem won't call herself more religious than her parents. It wouldn't be Islamic, she says, "to place myself as judging anyone. It's only for God to know who is practicing, who's more observant."
Kathleen Parker’s Article, “When Topic is Terror, Surveys Are Misleading” is in fact itself a very misleading interpretation of the recent Pew Research Center survey that found American Muslims to be largely moderate and mainstream.
Parker aims to undermine the positive responses that the study has garnered by highlighting, or rather manipulating, the negative findings of the study.
She laments that “sixty percent of the young (Muslims) consider themselves Muslim first, American second.” However, she fails to point out that only 47% of the overall Muslim population see themselves this way, which is comparable to the 41% of Christians and the 62% of White Evangelical Christians who also identify themselves in this manner.
This begs the question: Is it wrong to identify oneself primarily by religion?
Parker is selective about what she reports and deliberately excludes many essential facts from her analysis.
She writes, “In less than happy news…Among all young Muslims, 26 percent think suicide bombing is justified often, sometimes, or rarely.” Then, by assuming that the 5% who do not answer the question secretly support the act, she erroneously advocates that 1/3 of Muslim youth support “terrorism” and “9/11.”
A classic example of Parker’s routine selective reporting is demonstrated here as she fails to mention that only 13% of the overall Muslim-American population feels that “suicide bombings of civilian targets” can be justified (5% saying rarely, and 8% saying sometimes). Compare this to a recent study from the University of Maryland which reveals that a whopping 51% of the American general public feels that “bombing and other attacks intentionally aimed at civilians” can be justified. This contrast gives an impression of the Muslim community that is contrary from the one Parker attempts to forge.
She fails to put statistics into context and disregards the conditions under which those surveyed would support these acts. Instead she demeans the issue by ridiculing those who left questions unanswered, saying, “To kill civilians or not to kill civilians is not a tricky question.”
The results of this study deserve further investigation because the beliefs of the Muslims surveyed diverge from basic Islamic teachings. The killing of civilians is clearly condemned by the Prophet Mohammed and also in the Quran which says, "If anyone slew a person...it would be as if he slew all of mankind; and if anyone saved a life, it would be as if he saved all of mankind"(5: 32). Countless episodes during the life of Mohammed profess the value of innocent life and the grave sin of suicide. Mohammed said, "He who kills himself will be awarded the same torment on the Day of Judgment” (Sahih Muslim). These are widely accepted principles in Islam, so why would any Muslim support an act that should land them in hell? This fact suggests the necessity of placing the results of the recent study in a political rather than a religious context, as this study reveals nothing about the religion of Islam.
The purpose of the study was to better understand the Muslim members of American society. This necessitates accurate interpretation of the research, rather than flippant and outright fallacious interpretations that are made by Islamophobic fear mongers such as Kathleen Parker.
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Amina Butt-Sharif is a communications intern at the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Holding Fast to the Principles of Liberty
By Reem Rahman
July 4, 2007
On the "Spirit of Liberty" in 1944, Justice Learned Hand wrote "liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it. . . while it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it." Celebrating this Independence Day, we recall the founding values of liberty, justice, and equality for all and pause to consider the state of liberty in the hearts of the American people.
Since September 11th, 2001 non-citizens have been targets of government sanctioned discriminatory measures of frightening breadth. We have seen special registration of male visitors from twenty Muslim and Middle Eastern countries, mass arrests by the INS, and an attack on lawyer-client privilege by the unconstitutional monitoring of communications. “Project Lookout” brought unregulated "watch lists" that trickled into the screening of job applicants and "Operation Green Quest" brought personal monies under scrutiny. Under the context of increasing executive branch secrecy, the hunt for an unknown enemy from within has resulted in broad sweeps, domestic spying and vigilantism. 1
The constant discrimination and surveillance has extended to citizens as well. The recent annual report release by CAIR on the Status of Muslim Civil Rights in the United States finds an alarming increase of civil rights abuse of citizens and non-citizens alike. Since the first report in 1996, the number of reported incidents and experiences of anti-Muslim bias, discrimination, harassment, physical attacks, and hate crimes has risen every year. The last year alone saw a 25% increase in the number of such reports. The land of liberty remains conspicuously elusive for those entangled in the presumption of guilt in the name of the “War on Terror.” 2
In the name of preserving the American way of life, hundreds of thousands of civilians and thousands of troops lie dead in Iraq with no end in sight to the devastation.3 The protection of liberty must coincide with upholding the sanctity of all human life—not just those of American citizens.
This far from exhaustive list finds us mired under the shadow of our flag. Liberty is obstructed when checks on freedom allow only few to be free from civil and human rights abuses. Liberty must stand firm in our hearts such that it does not allow our most basic constitutional principles to be trampled upon.
Well over two hundred years ago, our founding father, Benjamin Franklin, conveyed with moral clarity what we must not realize in hindsight: those who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security accomplish none, and deserve neither.
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Reem Rahman is Communications Coordinator at the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
1 Murray, Nancy. "Profiled: Arabs, Muslims, and the Post-9/11 Hunt for the 'Enemy Within.'" Civil Rights In Peril: The Targeting of Arabs and Muslims. London: Pluto Press, 2004.
WASHINGTON--History has shown on more than one occasion that what might be clear to most of us may not seem so obvious to the Bush administration.
Was it not obvious to everyone but this administration that Saddam Hussein did not have links to either the Sept. 11 attacks or bin Laden?
And is it not increasingly obvious to everyone but this administration and its supporters that our intransigent Mideast foreign policy--not "our freedom"--is what alienates Muslims in the region, bolstering the credibility of extremists and enhancing their ability to promote anti-American attitudes?
The Bush administration eventually caught on that Saddam had no links to Sept. 11 and that he did not possess weapons of mass destruction, but not before hundreds of thousands of innocent lives and hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars had been lost.
Now it remains to be seen how long before the administration finally figures out "why they hate us," and what the cost there will be.
Neoconservatives scoff at the thought that our own actions could have any impact on how others feel about us. Their explanation for "why they hate us" is that "they" are inherently evil and "we" are inherently good.
When someone dares suggest that our political and economic transgressions in certain regions of the world contribute to anti-American sentiments, the response is one of anger and demonization. He or she is dismissed as unpatriotic, anti-American, or even an "apologist for terror."
While we should not discount the role extremist religious beliefs have in indoctrinating young terrorists, it would be foolish to pretend that exploitative U.S. policies do not facilitate recruitment.
The administration's rhetoric is problematic because it is borrowed from the WWII and Cold War eras, when America fought a conventional war or faced a conventional threat.
Today, the fight against global terrorism is so unconventional and so unlike any threat that has ever been fought that the term "war" hardly fits.
Semantics aside, every American wants to see our nation's enemies vanquished. And while some believe that anything less than beating the drums of conventional war is complacency, our best bet is to fight smart.
How can we defeat an ideology--a metaphysical threat--through the sheer use of physical force?
The ideological threats we face today, of which al-Qaida is only one example, require us to do a few things we have not done in a long time: understand our world, engage people of other nations, and win hearts and minds by basing our action on American values of justice and equality, not brute force.
Given the fact that the overwhelming majority of human beings, including Muslims, oppose the extremists within their ranks, the "unconventional war" against global terrorism is ours to lose.
Ahmed Rehab is executive director of the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Copyright 2007 The Free Lance-Star Publishing Company
Feature # 162
The Islamophobic Industrial Complex:
What are the Quasi Muslims Really Selling?
Media Monitors Network
June 23, 2007
Every day newspapers, TV shows, radio programs, new books and lectures revolve around the topic of the ‘threat’ of Islam and its relation to the West. Islam has become a commodity, a business to be exploited. The list of super stars and ‘experts’ that are part of this Hollywood-esque movement of cashing in on Islam has become quite long; at the head of the list are Quasi Muslims such as Brigitte Gabriel, Walid Shoebat, Nonie Darwish, and Ibn Warraq.
Quasi Muslims may not necessarily be born Muslims. Most haven’t lived in the Islamic world for decades and are far removed from the societies to which they once belonged. Most have left Islam long ago and hold positions in or are funded by special interest groups that seek “reformation” of Islam from the outside, unconditional support for Israel and a militant secularization of Islamic societies.
All of these personalities are united in the common claim to exclusive and special authority on Islam with intimate ‘insider’ knowledge of the “[h]earts and minds of Arabs…” and Muslims. Peddling their wares to an uncritical public, the expectation is that since Quasi Muslims are some combination of Arabs, ex-Muslims, and former “terrorists” their words are impenetrable and all those who criticize them either lack legitimacy or are engaged in a campaign of censorship. Attempts to hold debates or dialogue in a neutral platform are almost always rejected. In some cases, such as the case of Ibn Warraq, the very identity of these Quasi Muslims is unknown using the excuse that they would be killed if they didn’t hide their identity.
Quasi Muslims are not only united in a deep distrust of Islam and Muslims but also in a program of vile hatemongering thinly disguised as intellectual criticism and absolute truth. In a lecture at the University of Memphis, Brigitte Gabriel called Arabs "Barbaric." Walid Shoebat and Ibn Warraq have consistently claimed that Islam is the new totalitarian threat to the world, the new "fascism," the new "Nazism" even though these concepts are uniquely Western products. In any other circumstance or in reference to any other religion this rhetoric would be dismissed for what it is: hate speech. The apparent strategy is to repeat these lies enough times for a long enough time until they become gospel truth.
Though the motivations behind this movement vary in the end what they all have in common is the drive to reform Islam and--as stated on the ACT (American Congress for Truth) website that many are sponsored by--to “fearlessly speak out in defense of America, Israel and Western civilization.” Shoebat, a Christian Zionist, believes in a dispensationalist theology in which the return of Jesus is predicated on the existence and unconditional support of Israel and its policies. Nonie Darwish is a member of an Evangelical Church and the creator of the website “Arabs for Israel” which claims to be an organization of Arabs and Muslims who “support Israel” and seek to “reform Islam.” One has to question the legitimacy of a movement which aligns itself so closely to the interests of another nation. These Quasi Muslims have no real or practical ability to affect any kind of true change in the Islamic world or on the Muslim mind. Their distance from the reality on the ground and their deep association and support for particular ideologies and states leaves their criticism hollow and falling on deaf ears.
So what are the Quasi Muslims really after? A brief look at some of the sensational titles of their literature reveals much: “Why We Want to Kill You,” “Now They Call Me Infidel: Why I Renounced Jihad for America, Israel, and the War on Terror,” “Infidel,” “Leaving Islam,” “Why I am not a Muslim.” All of the titles point at some sort of uncovering. Personal testimonials claiming to reveal the truth behind some secret, hidden agenda become instant bestsellers. Books bashing Islam have become conspicuously lucrative
A grave consequence of legitimizing these hate mongering and obscurantist personalities is that it takes away from the true scholars, academics, and knowledgeable lay people that are engaged in real reform and criticism. Voices such as those of Tariq Ramadan, Khaled Abu Fadl, Heba Ezzat, Suhaib Webb and others are voices that have a finger on the pulse of the Muslim community and are much more deserving of a hearing from the wider public.
M.T. Akbar is a communications intern at the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Advertisements' Role in Portraying Muslim-Americans
By Whitney Nickels
May 5, 2007
JWT, the Nation's largest advertising agency recently conducted a study with an aim to gain an understanding of Muslim-American perspectives about general advertising. The results, considered surprising by some, reveal that Muslim-Americans hold the same values and goals as the American mainstream population.
Maria Salzman, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of JWT Worldwide says that "One of the most crucial things to emerge from the study is that American Muslims want to feel less singled out and to be simply acknowledged and accepted.
The research conducted revealed that "over two-thirds (69 percent) of American Muslims say they are often judged by events outside of their control." Merely having an Arabic name or Islamic clothing is often all that is required to acquire unwelcome attention.
Also, fifty-seven percent of American-Muslims feel that they are unjustly represented by a biased anti-Muslim media. However, the largest complaint JWT has identified among American-Muslims is that advertisements do not recognize their existence. Seventy-one percent of Muslims surveyed felt that "Advertisers rarely show anybody of my faith/ethnicity in their advertising."
The issue of cultural representation in advertisement is not new and has been encountered by many American minorities. The absence of certain groups in our advertisements creates an unconscious reinforcement of that group as a minority. Minorities are often not perceived as a part of the culture, but rather as a group outside of it. Inevitably, this point of view labels minorities as "others" and leads to an apathetic position regarding any desires minorities may have, such as inclusion into the culture.
The results of the JWT study of Muslim-American attitudes should not be considered surprising. America is a pluralistic society with open goals to incorporate individuals of all ethnicities and belief structures. If any individual or group feels isolated, or defined as the "other," then America has not fulfilled its ideological purpose.
Muslim-Americans are indeed part of the American population and should be acknowledged as such. In being left out of advertising, while at the same time being demonized by the media, Muslim-Americans are pushed out of the American social fabric and associated with fringe extremes for which they have nothing to do with.
The JWT study has helped to identify injustice perceived by Muslim-Americans in general advertising. While leaving a specific group out of advertisements may seem to be insignificant to some, it arguably contributes to the perception that Muslim-Americans are seeking to isolate themselves. In reality, Muslim-Americans are not being recognized as part of our culture, and the most dominant aspect of our culture at that: the free market.
The study of Muslim-American attitudes is certainly a great step in helping our American neighbors' voices be heard. By including Muslim-American voices in mainstream culture, the extremist ideology that has become associated with the faith of Islam will fade as we begin recognizing Muslim-American men and women for who they actually are - human citizens.
Americans on Hold: Profiling, Citizenship, and the "War on Terror"
May 17, 2007
Excerpt from April 25, 2007 CHRGJ Press Release:
The U.S. government is illegally delaying the naturalization applications of thousands of immigrants by profiling individuals it perceives to be Muslim and subjecting them to indefinite security checks, charged the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) in a new report released today.
The 63-page report, titled Americans on Hold: Profiling, Citizenship, and the "War on Terror," documents the impact of expanded security checks on the lives of those experiencing citizenship delays, often for years on end. The report analyzes these delays and their impact within an international human rights framework, and offers specific policy recommendations to help end discrimination in access to citizenship and other human rights violations.
Apparently, Parker believes that people do not have the right to be offended by offensive material. Although I am no advocate of Donohue or the Catholic League, I do firmly believe that all sane and civilized people - be they Muslim, Christian, Jewish, atheist, or otherwise - should be respectful of the beliefs and values cherished by others.
People who ridicule the religious and/or cultural beliefs of others should not be surprised when those who hold such beliefs express offense. This doesn't mean that such people don't believe in the freedom of expression for those who seek to ridicule their beliefs - far from it. But they also believe in the right to freely express their dismay at such attacks, and appeal to those who ridicule them to exercise restraint.
That said, couldn't Parker have done without the anti-Muslim bigotry in order to buttress her point? Only someone who is truly biased can refer to death threats as just something "outraged Muslims do." I am certainly not going to defend the excessive reactions of some Muslims to the Danish Cartoons. But to refer to the cartoons as merely an "act of protest" is just plain silly.
Even if the drawings were published following the vicious murder (by no more than a single Muslim extremist) of Van Gogh, it was a bigoted attack on the faith of 1.3 billion people, and should be acknowledged as such. Two wrongs don't make a right.
Then there's the quip that we should distinguish between Catholics and Muslims in this regard. Whereas, according to Parker, the death threats issued by some Catholics were merely "random threats from random people," Muslims who do so are "anarchists" who act with the blessings of the amorphous "state."
At first, I was confused. If the death threats made by some reactionary Muslims were not "random threats from random people," then what were they? Parker isn't insinuating that Muslims in the United States or anywhere else in the world are all radicals is she? No one can be that bigoted in these times, can they? Based on the following statement she just may have indicted herself as just that:
"Let's face it, no one seriously fears that U.S. Catholics are going to take down the Sears Tower with passenger planes."
Heena Musabji, CAIR-Chicago staff attorney, appeared in 'Muslims in America,' one of an eleven part PBS documentary film series, titled 'America at the Crossroads.'
Musabji voiced concern for Muslim Americans subjected to a politicized climate of suspicion. She states, "It’s almost like a community living in fear within America despite the fact that they are American and American citizens they constantly feel suspect and shouldn't have to."
"Why haven’t Muslims in America been radicalized like some European Muslims? What is different in the United States? Muslims have a long history in the United States, dating back to the founding of the republic. Some of the first Muslims in America arrived as slaves, while others came from the Ottoman Empire to work as farmhands and peddlers. The oldest existing mosque in America, built in 1934, sits improbably on a quiet residential street in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Today, the United States is home to one of the most diverse Muslim communities in the world, with a total population estimated between three and six million people."- PBS
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. Tell me a bit about you.
A. I am an American Muslim of Egyptian background and a proud Chicagoan. Before joining CAIR more than two years ago, I worked as a software engineer for a major consultancy firm and was active in global interfaith. During a trip to Kenya as part of an American religious delegation exploring the plight of the world's refugees, I felt a social awakening that brought out the activist in me. Upon my return, I found a compelling cause in a post-9/11 climate where Islam and Muslims were increasingly viewed with suspicion.
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.
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.
Q. What do you believe is the key dilemma faced by Muslims in the U.S. today?
A. Like all Americans, we have to worry about the security of our country, our communities and our children in the face of potential terror attacks. At the same time, we have to worry about being cast as scapegoats by some of our very own compatriots whose predicament we share.
Muslim Americans; Always have been, Always will be
By Elizabeth Basa
April 5, 2007
Do you know what is really strange? How little Americans - myself included- know so little about America, and our history. The recent popularity of the TV show, “Do You Know More than a 5th Grader?” is authority enough to back my claim. When polls are taken about Muslims in America, most people respond with fear, unrest and down right dislike. The fact is Muslims have been living in America from the start of the European colonization.
Remember Keith Ellison’s recent use of Jefferson’s Quran? Did you stop to think about that? Thomas Jefferson had a Quran, read it and even encouraged Arabic to be taught at the university level. Hmmm…guess it can’t be all bad then can it? The presence of Islam in America has roots as deep as the Quakers, yet has somehow existed below the surface of the average American experience.
Since 9/11 and Bush’s War of Terror the sensationalist media has chosen, by in large, to embrace a mantra on covering Muslims that reeks of unprofessionalism, and down right un-American bias. Islam, a way of life centuries older than our young country, and its followers around the globe are seen by most Americans in a negative manner. How is that logical to anyone with a very basic understanding of the world?
Come on people, when are we as Americans going to get past this ugly habit of demonizing entire groups of people based on the actions of a few? When are we going to heed Yoda’s warning that fear only leads to hate, which leads to anger, which leads to suffering?
Yes, I understand, it’s hard to ignore the sensational stories gracing magazine covers, enthusiastic radio-talk show hosts and news features about children being strapped with bombs, or crowds of angry screaming Arab men burning American flags, but the time is ripe for the hot air to drift away, and let reality get a shot on the front page. Here is an interesting fact to help put things into perspective- only 18% of Muslims are Arabs),
What is that reality? That Muslims are just another colorful patch on America’s quilt, and no, they aren’t here to blow everyone up. On the contrary, thousands of full-blooded Americans, (not children of immigrants) are choosing Islam as a way of life, (myself included), because it is nothing more, and nothing less than the last in a trio of Abrahamic faiths, embracing the same God, morals and goodness as its older cousins.
For those that doubt, ask yourself this simple question, “Do I fear a quarter of the population of Earth because of something I saw on the news, heard on some radio show, read on a blog, possibly driven by people with their own agendas, or because I know my Muslim neighbors, co-workers, relatives and have come to the conclusion that they are all violent fanatics?”
When you hear some person going on about how dangerous Muslims are, ask them point blank which Muslims they personally met that fit that description. Ask if it is Christian, (or whatever your moral framework might be) to generalize negatively about 1.4 billion people you have never met? WWJD?
There is a culture of Muslim-bashers that feed off the lack of knowledge the basic American citizen has about Muslims. Why are they doing that—to protect America? I don’t think so, for how can a country confront adversity divided?
We must not forget that many a Muslim died in the 9/11 attacks too. We must not forget thousands of Muslims serve in the American Military. We must not forget that to be a Muslim is an association with one thing and one thing only—a religion. To say I am a Muslim no more means support of Osama bin Laden as a Christian to see himself in support of Hitler, Stalin or Slobodan Milosevic.
Civil Rights Coordinator appears on WISE TV (WYCC-PBS)
March 20, 2007
CAIR-Chicago’s Civil Rights Coordinator, Christina Abraham, recently appeared on WISE TV (WYCC-PBS) where she discussed the state of American Muslims Civil Rights on the Northwestern News Networks program, Medill Reports, with host Tanja Babich.
The following are excerpts from the interview as well as the video:
Click here to watch the video:
Transcript Excerpts:
Tanja Babich: Christina Abraham is the Civil Rights Coordinator for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Chicago. She says last year more than 400 Muslim Americans reported civil rights violations.
Chiristina Abraham: They say, ‘I don’t understand why this is happening to me because I came here and lived here for so many years and all I want is to be a part of this society. I just don’t understand why I’m not being accepted.’
A Palos Heights man appeared Thursday in federal court in Chicago after he and four other men were indicted on charges of financial crimes involving an Islamic charity they once operated.
Abdel Azim El-Siddiq, 50, of the 12200 block of South 69th Avenue, appeared before Magistrate Judge Nan Nolan facing three counts of money laundering, one count of forfeiture and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering for the Islamic American Relief Agency--the IARA.
Charged along with El-Siddiq are Mubarak Hamed, 50, of Columbia, Mo., IARA's former executive director and a naturalized U.S. citizen from Sudan; Ali Mohamed Bagegni, 53, of Iowa City, Iowa, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Libya and former member of the agency's board of directors; Ahmad Mustafa, 54, of Columbia, Mo., an Iraqi citizen and former fundraiser for IARA; and Khalid Al-Sudanee, 55, a Jordanian who served as regional director for the agency's office in Jordan.
All were arrested Wednesday except Al-Sudanee, who was being sought in Jordan, said Don Ledford, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Missouri, which will prosecute the case.
IARA was an offshoot of an agency by the same name based in Khartoum, Sudan, officials said. The U.S. agency, formed in 1985, was shuttered in October 2004 after the Treasury Department deemed it a global terrorist organization.
Prosecutors allege that from March 1991 to May 2003 the defendants, through the IARA, funneled more that $1.4 million in charitable contributions to Iraq, in violation of U.S. economic sanctions against the country. The indictment does not detail how the funds were spent.
Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Council for American-Islamic Relations in Chicago, said Thursday: "Since 9/11, we have witnessed a McCarthyesque witch hunt against Muslims in this country generally, and Islamic charities specifically. In this case, no accusations of supporting terrorism have even been made.
"With hundreds of thousands of lives and billions of taxpayer dollars lost on a misguided war in Iraq, the timing and positioning of this superfluous campaign raises plenty of questions. If prosecuting charity-givers is our government's idea of homeland security, time and again, then we are all in trouble."
The indictment also accused the defendants of bilking the U.S. Agency for International Development--USAID--out of nearly $85,000 that was to be spent on humanitarian projects in Mali, Africa. Instead, they allegedly laundered approximately $50,000 in USAID funds to lobby the federal government to remove the agency from a list of organizations suspected of terrorist involvement. A number of defendants also face charges of obstructing or impeding the Internal Revenue Service.
In addition, the indictment alleges the IARA lied when it denied ever employing the now-deceased agent for al-Qaeda, Ziyad Khaleel, who helped procure satellite phones that Osama bin Laden used to direct the terrorist attacks against U.S. embassies in East Africa.
In court Thursday, Assistant U.S. Atty. Joe Alesia said El-Siddiq faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted and a fine of $500,000.
Prosecutors told Nolan they believe El-Siddiq poses a flight risk, and a detention hearing was scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Monday. He was being held in federal custody pending the hearing.
At El-Siddiq's home Thursday afternoon, a teenage girl who identified herself as his daughter declined to comment on the charges.
CAIR-Chicago's 3rd Annual Event, held last Sunday evening, was a stunning success both in the numbers and diversity displayed.
A full house of 943 people included members of Chicago land's Muslim community, mosque leaders, public officials, the FBI, law enforcement, members of the media, and friends from other faith communities.
The diversity was hard to miss with an equal mix of South Asian and Arab, and a significant constituency from Chicago's notable African-American Muslim community led by Imam WD Muhammad. There was a strong showing from Shia Muslims, as well as from Egyptian Copts.
Over 60 institutions were represented including every major mosque in metropolitan Chicago, Christian and Jewish not-for-profits, and organizations like ICIRR, Human Rights Watch and the Human Development Foundation.
"Because of its commitment to the common good, CAIR-Chicago is impressive in its ability to bring together such a diverse crowd of people," said Azam Nizamuddin, a prominent Chicago lawyer attending the dinner.
Speakers included CAIR-Chicago's Executive Director, Ahmed Rehab; CAIR National's Chairman, Dr. Parvez Ahmed; Guest Speaker Congressman Danny Davis, and Keynote Speaker, Professor David Cole.
The emcee for the evening was IFYC's Dr. Eboo Patel.
CAIR-Chicago's Chairman, Safaa Zarzour and Civil Rights Coordinator Christina Abraham presented awards to ABC 7's Leah Hope (media award), and community members Faisal Khan (courage award) and Azam Azeem (community service award). Member organizations of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) officially thanked Congressman Davis for his immigration reform efforts. Sheikh Kifah Mustapha of the Mosque Foundation led the fundraising efforts.
A David Cole book signing and sale at the reception sold out.
The event entitled "Rising to the Challenge" sought to promote constructive citizenship and community empowerment via healthy civic engagement and youth leadership development.
At the conclusion of the event, more than 75 youth activists comprising CAIR-Chicago's staff, interns, and volunteers gathered on the stage for a standing ovation.
CAIR-Chicago's board wishes to thank the community for its wonderful display of support, we look forward to serving you in another great year filled with new and exciting acheivements, God willing.
CHICAGO TRIBUNE REDEYE: POP GOES RELIGION
by Kyra Kyles
February 2, 2007
TV, music and movies push faith into the spotlight
Ari Gold, wearing a traditional yarmulke, attends his daughter's bat mitzvah on an episode of HBO's "Entourage."
Fictional football players on NBC's "Friday Night Lights" pray solemnly before games.
And a character on NBC's "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" is a devout Christian.
Religion is popping up in pop culture on TV and movies—and pop culture is making its way into religion in the form of magazine-style Bibles and modernized sermons—showing Americans' increasing willingness to integrate faith into all aspects of their lives, experts say.
But some traditionalists worry that the blending of the sacred and the secular can go too far.
"There's always a danger of cheapening the Gospel by slick marketing and products," said Scot McKnight, a professor at North Park University, a local Christian college. McKnight cited the "Christianizing" of products from Trivial Pursuit editions to ska music.
"It really depends on the content and the impact," McKnight said. "Does it draw people to the Christian message or is it simply clever and fun?"
Andersonville resident Sarah Follmer, who said she sometimes showcases her Jewish faith with a "Ko'sher Fo'sher" T-shirt, is mindful that such casual expressions of faith could be misunderstood.
"I don't wear it in front of people from my grandparents' and parents' generations because they still remember a time when anti-Semitism was very strong," Follmer, 24, said. "They may see[the T-shirt] as inappropriate. You want to be proud of your faith, but it is important to be respectful."
Even some who embrace blending religion and pop culture questions whether religious references—in music, TV and even video games—cater toward Christianity at the expense of other religions.
"To some extent this is financial," McKnight said. "'Passion of the Christ' shocked Hollywood because not only did they out market Hollywood, they showed that there are dollars to be made developing programming to attract those in conservative Christian culture. That's why we're seeing more subjects of Christianity and Christ on television."
Follmer said she sees many more references to Christianity than Judaism in pop culture. And if there are Jewish symbols of worship on TV and film, they are less complex.
"When you see Jewish faith, there are more rituals being shown," Follmer said, citing bar mitzvah and candle-lighting Shabbat ceremonies on popular TV shows including "Friends" and "Entourage." "I do wish we could see more aspects of Judaism to spark people's curiosity about what the religion is really about."
One local Muslim said it's an even more dismal picture for those of Islamic faith.
"When you see Islam in pop culture, you get a steady diet of weirdos," said Ahmed Rehab, an Oak Park resident and executive director of the local Council of American-Islamic Relations. "You are either seeing a character who is a terrorist or, on occasion, a ‘good Muslim' helping authorities catch a terrorist."
Members of the Council of American-Islamic Relations protested a recent episode of "24" that depicted Islamic terrorists detonating a nuclear bomb in an L.A. suburb, The Associated Press reported. Rehab, 30, said religions like Judaism and Christianity are normalized by pop culture, the source of information for a society that relies more on sitcoms than newspapers for information.
"It would be great just to see a Muslim character leavinga mosque, just the same way you can see a character leaving a church," said Rehab, who watches a lot of TV and movies. "I wouldn't want Islam to be made a big issue on a show or in a movie, just shown as part of someone's life."
And if Christianity has managed to infiltrate pop culture, pop culture has certainly returned the favor.
Last January, Dr. Richard Hunter introduced the "Gray's Anatomy" sermon series, spelling the show's title incorrectly to demonstrate what he called the moral ambiguity of its fictional medical interns. The sermons, which center on the ambition of character Cristina Yang or the insecurity of George O'Malley, are a hit with Snellville United Methodist Church members, Hunter said.
"Literally, people have come out of the walls," said Hunter, senior pastor of the church. "So many are attending worship now that would have never set foot in a church."
Hunter added that at least one-third of his 1,600 members are between the ages of 18 and 34. "[The Christian] mission has always been to convert the hearts and minds, but now they are using technology and pop culture elements to get the message out in a compelling way, particularly with the youth," said Jeremy Biles, a religion instructor at the University of Chicago.
Those pop culture elements include a Bible that resembles an issue of TeenPeople.
BibleZines, launched in 2003 by Thomas Nelson Inc., are a line of glossy, photo-heavy publications with names like Revolve, Becoming and Refuel. The similarities to popular magazines doesn't end at the covers, as these New Testament Bibles also feature quizzes, relationship advice and colorful calendars with suggestions ranging from "pray that God will show you something wonderful through your bible reading today" to "clean your room without being asked."
BibleZines are so popular, a Thomas Nelson spokeswoman said, that the company launched tween-focused versions called Blossom for girls and Explore for boys.
"It enables them to get involved with the Word in the form of a magazine," said Brenda Smotherman, a spokeswoman for the company's Bible group. "We also include culturally relevant articles involved in scripture[which] helps them apply it to life."
University of Chicago's Biles predicts even more blurring of religion and pop culture.
"It's obvious that these pop culture approaches to religion are very effective," Biles said. "When you're talking about preaching about ‘Grey's Anatomy' to a congregation that likely spends a lot of time outside of church watching TV, you are catering to your audience." Biles said.
The Muhammad Salah Bottomline
By Ahmed Rehab
February 1, 2007
(WASHINGTON D.C., 2/1/07) -
For many years now, Mr. Muhammad Salah lived life in the infamy of being labeled as the only designated US terrorist. He suffered the repercussions of this judgment, long before he could face an open and fair trial in a US Court of law. His assets were frozen, and his life shattered. His family carried the burden of this label to their schools, workplaces, and to the local supermarket.
Today at the completion of an emotionally tolling trial on Mr. Salah and his family, the final verdict is out.
Though, he was found guilty of obstructing justice, he was found not guilty of racketeering – the major charge. The third charge of providing material support to a terrorist organization had been dropped mid-trial.
And so, here's the final word: Mr. Muhammad Salah is neither a terrorist nor a criminal for having supplied charitable aid to the most vulnerable factions of his occupied and war-ravaged country of origin, Palestine; a jury of his peers understand that to be true.
Our justice system has affirmed what many in his family have long claimed, that Muhammad Salah, a conscientious and upright family man and community member was only guilty of being a bold Palestinian activist. His fate is one that befalls many of his kind. It is to my personal relief, that our justice system is where the buck stops on the political persecution of the embattled Palestinian people.
My sense of pride in our court system, however, comes with reservation. Justice as we know it in America involves more than just an endpoint, it invovles the process of how to get there. And while the verdict vindicates Salah and his name, the process, the trial, raises questions for those of us who are concerned about the rule of law, and the sanctity of our constitutional rights.
As a civil rights organization, our aspiration is to see every American granted his or her full rights under any and all circumstances.
Muhammad Salah's right to a fair trial was forgone when the court decided to accept statements he made under torture. It is a cause for concern to the American people when a U.S. court endorses foreign interrogation methods and detention practices that would be considered illegal under U.S. law.
Mr. Salah was systematically tortured by the Israeli Secret Service and interrogated for 80 days. In some countries, such brutality is typically used to break down the psychological condition of a suspect. Because the manner in which the confession was extracted would be inadmissible in the United States, it is repugnant to the public policy of American courts.
Muhammad Salah's 6th Amendment right to a public trial was also violated when the court ruled that portions of the suppression hearings and trial would be closed to the public.
Also, Muhammad Salah's due process rights were violated when his assets were frozen before he could have the opportunity to defend himself in a public trial.
We hope that the suffering of the Salah family is over. We also hope that the "terrorism" label be reserved in the future for those found guilty of that charge in an open and fair trail administered in a respected court of law.
CONTACT: Ahmed Rehab, Executive Director (847) 971-3963 or
(312) 212-1520 director@cairchicago.org
OPEN MOSQUE SERIES:
The Downtown Islamic Center (DIC)
By Dina Rehab
January 25, 2007
The Downtown Islamic Center (DIC) is located in downtown Chicago. The five storey building, close to the intersection of Jackson and State, includes three prayer halls and a main room used for diverse activities.
The mosque facility also rents out its ground level to a retail store and its 3rd floor is home to the CIOGC office. The DIC serves the downtown Chicagoland area, with more than 700 attendees at both Jummuah prayers every Friday.
"It is a much needed service in prime location," said Shaik Maqsood Quadri, DIC Board Member for eight years.
Mosque congregants are predominantly of South Asian descent, but “you can find almost every nationality here," said Quadri. “Female attendance is roughly 10% of total attendees," he added.
History
The birth of DIC came with the need to pray Jummuah (Friday prayer). In the late 60s, a few congregants, approximately ten to twenty, gathered to pray at a vacant office in Sargent & Lundy at the intersection of Adams and Michigan.
In the early 80s, congregants rented a floor on Adams to accommodate the increasing numbers, now reaching more than 200 congregants each week.
The building was later purchased by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; however, and the congregants had to find another location to fulfill their weekly prayers.
In 1998, the mosque board rented a floor at 218 S. Wabash but the need for a larger and more permanent location prompted board members to concentrate their efforts on raising enough funds to make this goal a reality.
In 2004, with the generous contributions of members of the Greater Chicagoland area, DIC's board purchased the current construction at 231 S. State Street.
Although the DIC was created to address the prayer needs of community members in the Downtown Chicagoland area, the mosque's mission also extended to creating a place that would serve as a community center and a platform for dialogue.
Outreaching to members of different faiths in an effort to understand and be understood, started as early as the late 70s. Congregants met with members of neighboring churches where members of each religious faith learned about the other.
Programs & Services
The DIC is home to a variety of services which include two Friday sermons and prayers (with approximately 700 attendees each week), interfaith activities, and Chicago public school and university visits where students come to watch how Muslims pray and learn more about the Islamic faith. The mosque also has a small library.
Other programs and services include: adult Arabic language classes - once a week; weekly Qur'an and Tafsir classes; pantry collections, hot meal drives, homeless dinners in Ramadan, clothing drives, blood drives and charity distribution.
The Board
The board currently has 20 members (4 female/16 male). Board members are nominated by mosque congregants and the existing board then follows-up on the nomination. Each board member receives a four year term; however, newly elected members are given an initial 2 year term that is extended to a total of 4 years based on performance. Membership terms are staggered to ensure continuity.
Current board members include: Syed Khan, Dr. Mohammed Kaiseruddin, Dr. Yakub Patel, Abdullah Mitchell, Salman Azam, Fazal Mehmood, Farooq Rehman, Maqsood Quadri, Faiz Ahmed, Naheed Adhami, Amanatullah Ansari, Mohammad Rafati, Bashir Julien, Kamran Hussain, Mohammad Hosain, Shama Ahmed, Nizam Arain, Inam ul-Haque, Shehla Syed and M. Wajahat Ali Khan.
Goals
The Downtown Islamic Center is looking to expand its library. Board members are accepting donations for books and computers. Board members are also accepting book donations; all books must be in good condition.
The board is also extending their outreach services to the community and is appointing a board member for that sole purpose. Quadri expressed his desire to outreach further to Muslims in the downtown Chicagoland area: "There are more Muslims in downtown Chicago than the existing 700 Muslim congregants that attend. We need to understand what is stopping them from coming".
Those who wish to contribute to the Downtown Islamic Center's future goals can do so by contacting the DIC board at bod@dic-chicago.org
Dina Rehab is CAIR-Chicago's Outreach Coordinator; contact her at outreach@cairchicago.org for more information on the Open Mosque series.
THE MALICIOUS PROSECUTION OF MUSLIMS
by Christina Abraham
January 23, 2007
Muslims in America worry every day about being singled out because of their religion. They fear that their religious ties will make them targets of law enforcement, employers. colleagues, or hate-filled criminals. For many Muslims, this fear has been actualized.
One phenomenon recently observed by CAIR-Chicago is the malicious prosecution of Muslims. It begins when federal law enforcement investigates a Muslim for purported ties to terrorism. Then, when nothing can be found against them, other unrelated charges are brought. Many times, the charges are tenuous. Often, the charges are eventually dropped or the individuals are cleared through a trial, but not without an emotional and financial toll.
Such is the case with a Muslim doctor in Macomb, Illinois. Federal authorities began investigating him because of a tip that was received soon after he had fired an employee for stealing medications. Federal authorities seized much of his charts and other documents, visited patients at their homes and informed them that their doctor was being investigated for links to terrorism. They were unable to find any evidence to incriminate him. Despite this, the States Attorney has brought forth fraud charges against the doctor for a $2100 discrepancy in his books that took place during a week when the doctor was out of the country.
Although the Muslim doctor has been uplifted by the outpouring of support from the Macomb community, including rallies and letters written on his behalf, the charges against him have negatively affected his professional and personal life. When all is said and done, the doctor will very likely be acquitted for the weak charges against him. However, his freedom will not come without a price. The price will have been paid over three years of intense scrutiny under the eye of the government, the loss of prestige, and the emotional toll of a long court battle that was unnecessary from the beginning.
Sometimes the law is used as a tool for discrimination, as in the case of the Macomb doctor. As the civil rights community monitors the laws and policies that fly in the face of the rights guaranteed by the Constitution, we must also look vigilantly at the other ways that individuals in this country may be discriminated against. These other forms of discrimination are no less taxing, and no less of a threat to the civil liberties of us all.
Christina Abraham is CAIR-Chicago's Civil Rights Coordinator and can be contacted at civilrights@cairchicago.org
SEEKING TIMEOUT FOR PRAYER
by Manya A. Brachear
January 19, 2007
Muslim students weary of huddling under bleachers to pray during sporting events want Northwestern to come up with an alternative
As the Ohio State Buckeyes pummeled the Northwestern Wildcats on Ryan Field last November, senior Amir Siddiqui and his friends slipped below the bleachers, removed their shoes and knelt on pieces of poster board to pray.
As the sea of purple cheered and jeered above, Siddiqui tuned out the world around him to perform salaat, the Islamic ritual prayer that faithful Muslims recite five times daily.
Siddiqui will do the same in Welsh-Ryan Arena next week when the Buckeyes basketball team goes up against the Wildcats. But rather than pray amid raucous crowds, some Muslim students are pressing Northwestern's athletic department to set aside a secluded space for the ritual, or grant them permission to come and go from the arena before the buzzer.
"If we attend the game in its entirety, we would miss one of our five daily prayers," said Siddiqui, president of the Muslim cultural Student Association. "I can leave the game early, come later, or pray somewhere in the stadium on dirty floors with lots of noise and lots of people around, which isn't a huge problem. But we'd love to have a small area."
In a statement, associate athletic director John Mack said the athletic department was not yet ready to make such an exception for Muslim fans. He has agreed to meet with Muslim student leaders next week.
"There were some logistical issues involved, particularly in regards to people leaving the arena or Ryan Field while a game is in progress and then seeking re-entry, which is normally not allowed," Mack wrote. "But we understand that Northwestern is an institution that values diversity, so we're continuing to take a look at it to see if there is a way we can accommodate the needs of our Muslim students."
Space is set aside
Northwestern has set aside two sacred spaces within secular buildings where Muslims can pray. The multicultural center on campus includes a prayer space for students of all faiths. And classrooms are reserved weekly at the Technical Institute, which houses the school of engineering, a popular major among Northwestern's approximately 200 Muslim students.
Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Council for American-Islamic Relations in Chicago, said the beauty of salaat is that it can be performed just about anywhere. Prayer space is often set aside in airports and hospitals, he said.
"If you don't have that option, you just close your eyes and concentrate," he said.
Rehab understands the discomfort about praying among crowds, however. He recalled that a group of Muslim fans were detained at a New York Giants game in September 2005 after they left the stands to pray. Space was set aside at the stadium after the incident.
Rehab said the quest for prayer space could be an opportunity to close the knowledge gap about Islam and teach more Americans about the central role of prayer in the Muslim faith.
Some students oppose request
The campus newspaper has published at least one letter to the editor in opposition to the Muslim students' endeavor to set aside space.
"Any spectator attending a sporting event recognizes that certain sacrifices must be made to attend a live event," wrote 2005 graduate Scott Barnett. "If attending a game interferes with one's religious rituals, I suggest they watch it at home or simply postpone the rituals until after the game."
But Ruediger Seesemann, an associate professor of Islamic studies at Northwestern, said academic institutions have a responsibility to encourage spiritual formation.
"These Muslim students want to integrate their Muslim identity with their identity as college students," he said. "Why not let them bring their prayer rugs, let them pray and let them enjoy the basketball game?"
"I personally think it can be settled in a very easy and uncomplicated way," Seesemann added. "The fact that it becomes a matter of debate is significant and points to the sensitivity of the issue."
That sensitivity, he said, stems from fear and a lack of knowledge about the Islamic faith--nothing a dialogue can't fix. A student senator representing the Muslim constituency on campus, sophomore Hibah Yousuf, hopes to launch that dialogue with administrators next week.
While she often prayed either before or after the fall football games, the matter took on greater significance after she performed hajj during the winter break. The pilgrimage to Mecca is required of all Muslims at least once in their lifetime. For Yousuf, the spiritual sojourn reinforced the importance of a sacred place to pray.
"Before I was going through the motions," Yousuf said.
Now she reads translated verses of the Koran beforehand and seeks a clean, quiet space for her communion with Allah.
THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
FORTY-THREE YEARS LATER: ARE WE STILL PROTECTED?
by Sadiya Ahmed
January 15, 2007
From the Montgomery Bus Boycott to the marches in Washington, with the leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., activists protested and fought against the discriminations that lay at the very foundation of America.
They questioned the notion of "separate but equal" institutions, which were always separate but never equal. Everyday heroes emerged and demanded what they felt was owed to them: equality.
Rosa Parks, an African American woman, refused to give up her seat on the bus to a Caucasian man. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his "I have a dream" speech while Thurgood Marshall argued the Brown v. Board of Education case before the Supreme Court.
The struggle for civil rights is a deeply-rooted one in American history, reaching its climax with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Forty-three years later, Americans enjoy the right to be free from discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, and sexual orientation.
The existence of such protections is not the result of everyday legislation; it is an end product of the civil rights movement which we observe each year, on the third Monday of every January.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day has become a day that celebrates the struggle which has brought Americans closer to equality.
The civil rights movement redefined the meaning of "being American." For the first time being American was not contingent upon one's skin color. The inclusion of minorities as Americans meant that, for the first time, they were citizens, without strings attached; individuals, regardless of their race were able to call themselves American citizens and expected, and were entitled, to be treated equally.
Today, an alarmingly high number of individuals of Middle Eastern decent face delays getting their citizenship. They are denied their American identity, similar to the way African Americans were prior to 1964. They are denied the right to vote, participate in their government, or be active constituents, regardless of what their actual rights are. They are discriminated against because of their ethnicity and religion, something that was outlawed decades ago.
The early civil libertarians came together with one vision: all people must be ensured the same protections and liberties. However recently, civil rights violations have become so frequent that they have become a part of our lives.
The universal protections promised forty-three years ago do not stop discrimination against people who seem different. Reports of discrimination against individuals at the workplace, retaliation, and hate crimes flood the media yet often go ignored.
We have taken several steps backwards and resorted to legislation such as the Patriot Act, stripping people of the protections that were granted a mere four decades ago.
We are facing an erosion of civil rights which has sent us several steps backward. Legislation such as the Patriot Act permits secret and warrantless searches. In addition, the current provisions of the controversial legislation permit the indefinite detention of individuals, a problem that has become more widespread.
Our civil rights, which prominent figures like Martin Luther King Jr., Thurgood Marshall, Rosa Parks, and Malcolm X dedicated their entire lives to, are being trampled upon and we all continue to remain silent.
Sacrifices made by everyday people a mere four decades ago seem to have been forgotten, and we are left with a reminder that there was a time when our nation fought for the rights of individuals.
We celebrate Martin Luther King Day each year without asking ourselves if those rights are still secure. We seem to have forgotten about the dangers of a tiered citizenship system, where a person is considered first or second class, based upon his race.
It is high time that we not only recognize the grave danger we face of having all of our fundamental rights stripped away, but we must also actively strive to protect them, especially on a day that honors the notion of civil rights. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day should not become the token day for civil rights, where we congratulate ourselves for having come so far while ignoring the fundamental problems we face today. Rather, it should be an active part of what was once the civil rights movement.
RACE HEATS UP IN CHICAGO'S MAYORAL ELECTIONS
by Erin Hartnett
The midterm Congressional elections are over but politics in Chicago are just starting to heat up. Round two of the elections in Chicago is scheduled to be held on Tuesday, February 27. In this year's municipal elections, the Mayor is up for reelection, along with selected members of the Chicago City Council and various local offices.
Following Representative Jackson and Representative Gutierrez's decisions to remain in Washington for another term, this year's mayoral campaign places five-term Mayor Richard M. Daley against Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown and William "Dock" Walls, III.
THE CANDIDATES
Mayor Richard M. Daley
If he is elected to and serves his entire sixth term, Mayor Richard M. Daley would be in office for 22 years, besting his father's record by one year. However, for the first time since his 1989 campaign, Daley seems to be facing a credible challenger.
The Mayor has heralded the various accomplishments of his past five terms, including the building of Millennium Park, an increase in tourism to the Chicago area, updates to the Chicago Transit Authority, a potential 2016 Olympic hosting bid, and continued North Side development. However, his administration has been plagued with the "Hired Truck Program" scandal, discontent over the destruction of Meigs field, and allegations of patronage.
Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown
An attorney and a Certified Public Accountant, Dorothy Brown has been the Cook County Circuit Court Clerk since 2000 and has received the 2002 Hillary Rodham Clinton Leadership Award from the Illinois Democratic Women, the 2003 Marks of Excellence Award from the National Forum for Black Public Administrators, the 2003 Women of Achievement Award from the Anti-Defamation League, and the 2004 NAACP Proviso/Leyden Medal of Freedom.
She has spoken out against Mayor Daley's management of the Chicago Public Schools, proposing her own "Ten Point Plan" for educational reform which has been attacked as "cosmetic" by Walls. Where Brown wants educational funding to derive from state sales and income taxes, Walls endorses using state income and property taxes. Brown also wants an end to what she deems "educational apartheid." This term, which has been seen by many as inappropriate, is used by Brown to reference the vast disparity between elite and low-income public schools.
William "Dock" Walls
William "Dock" Walls, III was an assistant to former Chicago Mayor Harold Washington from 1983 to 1986. A graduate of the Chicago-Kent College of Law, he served as National Political Director for the Reverend Jesse L. Jackson's Rainbow PUSH organization and was the Illinois Primary surrogate for John Kerry's primary campaign. He garnered nearly 40,000 nominating signatures, and was the first challenger in six years to submit more signatures than Daley. Currently, Walls is director of the Committee for a Better Chicago. He has yet to release an education plan in response to Brown's, though he claims his is more structural and will be released sometime in January.
POINTS OF CONTENTION
One of the predominant issues arising in the race involves the 12,500-signature petitions required to place candidates on the ballot. William "Dock" Walls, III has challenged the validity of the Mayor's over 24,100 nominating petition signatures, claiming that at least 17,000 of them are either forgeries or from non-registered voters. In order to remove Daley from the ballot, Walls needs to nullify over 11,600 of the signatures—a daunting task.
In a Chicago Board of Elections hearing on the issue, Walls' and Daley's campaigns were each allowed to choose 500 signatures to be reviewed along with 6 additional pages of signatures. The Daley campaign has stood behind their signatures, going so far as to allow the Election Board to select the 500 names. In addition, Walls and Brown have agreed not to challenge each other's petitions.
Another area where the Daley, Brown, and Walls campaigns have come into disagreement is the scheduling of debates. The Mayor has announced that he will not participate in any of the debates, citing that he has continually answered questions from the press on issue positions multiple times a week throughout his time in office, and debates are only an opportunity for his opponents to gain free publicity.
Brown has characterized Daley's failure to participate as a fear of "answering tough questions," and an attempt to "hide from people." Walls has taken his objection a step further—threatening to follow the Mayor to public appearances, stating "Mayor, debate me or they'll be no surcease. I'll follow you everywhere."
For the first time since his election in 1989, Mayor Daley appears to be facing serious challengers for control of Chicago. It remains to be seen whether the various allegations plaguing his administration will be strong enough to overpower his strong base of support in the city.
If, on February 27, none of the candidates receive more than fifty percent of the vote, a runoff election will be held in April between the two highest finishers. The presence of two viable contenders increases the likelihood of a runoff election, so for the first time in nearly twenty years the citizens of Chicago may witness a hotly contested mayoral race.
However, both challengers will need to run more than "Anti-Daley" smear campaigns if they want to unseat the political powerhouse. Brown and Walls must put aside petty mudslinging and juvenile character attacks in order to introduce real policy alternatives and establish credibility. If not, Mayor Daley can look forward to a record-breaking 22 years in office.
CIVIL RIGHTS COORDINATOR DISCUSSES MUSLIM CIVIL RIGHTS CASE ON RADIO ISLAM
CAIR-Chicago Civil Rights Coordinator, Christina Abraham, spoke on Radio Islam regarding the trial of Muhammad Salah. The interview aired on Friday, December 29th and was hosted by Ayesha Mustafaa.
Radio Islam Interview:
Abraham discussed the constitutional issues surrounding the case and
the case’s impact upon civil liberties, explaining, "this is of concern to all
Americans, because there are a lot of issues about this case that deal
specifically with the rights that we have that are guaranteed to us by
the Bill of Rights and the Constitution."
For months the civil rights community in the Chicago area has held
its breath awaiting the outcome of a trial with such far-reaching implications. The trial of
Mohammad Salah and his co-defendants, now in
its final week, is more than just a trial about alleged
money-laundering;
it is about how far a government can go in sacrificing the civil
liberties
and due process guaranteed by the Constitution.
"The Government was responsible for taking away [Mr. Salah's] property
and his liberty without the due process of the law... he didn't get to
face his accusers, he just had his liberties taken away from him
without
any kind of way to address it" stated Abraham.
Radio Islam is on WCEV 1450 AM Monday through Sunday from 6pm to
7pm. Under the umbrella of Sound Vision Foundation, RadioIslam.com
launched its first show December 14, 1999 with the goal of providing
informative and creative Internet and broadcast radio programming.
KEITH ELLISON'S USE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON'S QURAN
by Sadiya Ahmed
January 4, 2007
Newly-elected members of Congress, as well as returning members, were sworn in on January 4, 2007. They promised to protect and uphold the Constitution and its principles. Later, in their private chambers, they then had a chance to "swear in" on a text of their choice. Whereas most use the Bible, for the first time in American history a congressman took his oath with a copy of the Quran.
Keith Ellison, the newly-elected Democrat from Minnesota, used the Quran for the second part of his ceremony. As an American-Muslim, he has made history by being the first Muslim elected to the House of Representatives. Spurring a media buzz, many have not been receptive to Ellison's choice.
After weeks of debate about the preservation of "American culture" and "Judeo-Christian values," Mr. Ellison announced another unique twist: The Quran he used during the ceremony was lent to him by the Library of Congress' rare and special collections division, as it belonged to one of America's founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson.
What, exactly, does his choice of text mean?
A little known fact is that Thomas Jefferson, during the course of his legal education, studied the Quran as a book of law. He not only studied, but he began to learn Arabic, the original language of the Quran. He later pushed to include Arabic in the language curriculum at the College of William & Mary.
Further, Jefferson believed in an individual's right to be able to practice his/her religion freely, a key component of the Bill of Rights. He feared that the United States would face similar problems to those in England, which persecuted anyone who did not adhere to the state-sponsored religion. Jefferson's vision (as well as that of some other founders of the Constitution) was of a society that prohibited religious discrimination. The following statement, made by a group of American pioneers can be found in one of the United States' most sacred texts, the American Constitution:
"The Senators and Representatives...and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."
Ellison's use of Jefferson's copy demonstrates the framers' endorsement of religious tolerance and practice of openness. Jefferson's interest in the Quran during a time when people wanted to exclude "the Mohammedans" from holding office suggests his willingness to support people of different faith backgrounds as members of the American society. Additionally, Jefferson's use of the Quran as a book of law implies that perhaps being Muslim and American are not mutually exclusive, an idea that is still hotly contested today.
Jefferson's interest in protecting people from religious persecution is one that seems to have been recently forgotten. Though we, as Americans, pride ourselves on our democratic practices of free elections, term limits, and holding our representatives accountable, we seem to have forgotten the very first part of the Bill of Rights. We attack anything that we are not familiar with, and currently that attack is heavily focused upon American-Muslims. Currently on the front-lines of that attack is an American-Muslim who has been democratically-elected, and his right to use the book of his choice in his swearing-in ceremony.
Mr. Ellison's decision to use the Quran during the private part of his ceremony not only allows him to practice his religion freely but it demonstrates the intent of our country's founders. They not only believed in the right to practice one's religion freely, some of them practiced it by learning about the beliefs of others. So then the question is no longer why Mr. Ellison chose to use Thomas Jefferson's copy of the Quran, but rather, why wouldn't he?
Sadiya Ahmed is CAIR-Chicago's Governmental Relations Coordinator and can be reached at gov.relations@cairchicago.org.
MEDIATING EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION DISPUTES
by Maaria Mozaffar
January 2, 2007
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, is an institution that allows individuals to file complaints of discrimination, and offers mediation for employment disputes. The specific purpose of EEOC mediations is to allow an injured employee to resolve any employment issues with his/her employer without pursuing litigation. However, the overall benefits that mediation gives go well beyond the formal scope of a mediation session. It allows an individual to face his/her employer and have an opportunity to defend their personal dignity. This ambitious result is due to two key factors.
Firstly, the mere structural components of a mediation session facilitate the opportunity for injured employees to be heard fairly and clearly.
To start, an EEOC mediation allows the injured party to introduce, in his/her own words, the basis of their claims of discrimination. Prior to this stage, the injured party has already attempted to contact the employer through correspondence, internal grievance procedures, or simple verbal communication. Unfortunately none of these attempts at communication have resulted in any substantive change for the employee that has faced the discrimination.
The introduction or opening statement part of the mediation allows the injured employee for the first time to look his/her employer dead in the eye and air out their version of the story. In addition, mediations are usually attended by not only the employee's direct supervisor but also high level corporate officers of the employer.
Most recently, CAIR-Chicago represented a client in a mediation session in which an elderly Muslim gentleman who had been employed for more than 15 years at his company was allowed to finally stand up and air grievances against his immediate manager. The immediate manager had a history of being disrespectful and discriminatory towards the client. The client confronted his manager in front of the employer's CEO. We watched the dignity our client portrayed as he spoke about his loyalty to the company, but his disappointment in how he was being treated. The client's calm demeanor and firm class was inspiring.
After the introduction of opening statements, the employer is required to verbally respond to the injured employee. Prior to this, the employer would have been able to evade the employee by not responding to requests for meetings with the injured employee, delaying correspondence, or playing the excuse card of over-packed schedules. During this particular mediation, the CEO of the employer apologized sincerely and profusely for the manager's actions; indicating to the client that his immediate manager's behavior was not reflective of the company's overall approach towards conflict resolution. In addition, the client's immediate manager was silent and offered no explanations for his poor behavior and instances of evading managerial responsibility. One could see the sense of victory in the eyes of our client.
The second part of the mediation allows each party to ask questions and openly discuss possible alternatives to satisfy both parties at the table. At this point, the injured employee displays the most control over his/her options in resolution. This gives the client the indication that he/she has a right to a positive resolution of their case. These moments, from discussion to negotiation to actually signing a settlement, displays to the injured party a sharp contrast from his/her experiences of humiliation and personal degradation. Whereas before, the injured party was made to feel inferior, they now face their discriminators on equal footing. CAIR-Chicago's most recent client took the opportunity to negotiate a resolution to every single issue that was facing him; resulting in a detailed comprehensive seven point settlement agreement. The agreement provided substantive changes for our client, but more importantly it gave him the sense of control over his circumstances, his response to his employer's actions and his personal dignity.
The second and more significant attribute of EEOC mediations that give injured employees a feeling of victory is its legally binding authority. Our clients all know that they have not taken a back seat of asserting their rights by not litigating; instead they managed to find a faster, more efficient method in resolving their issues without paying legal fees. This allows injured employees to go back to their place of employment with their held head high. All settlement agreements, if violated, are enforceable in a court of law. All injured employees know full well why their employer agrees to mediation. Specifically, employers come to mediation when they know that indeed a court of law may find them guilty of civil rights violations.
Mediation gives employees an opportunity to be heard, to be seen, and to be protected. However, the most important attribute of mediation is that it allows the employer to hear, to watch and understand the purpose of legal protections. The moment the ink hits the paper the employer begins to learn of its responsibilities and is also reminded of the strength and dignity of its employee.
Maaria Mozaffar is CAIR-Chicago's Legal Advisor and can be reached at legal@cairchicago.org.
I am disappointed that the Chicago-Tribune chose to print Victor Hanson's "Why the Rise of Radical Islam?" Hanson's commentary is characterized by selective slicing of history and simplistic suggestions for solutions to the problem of a global rise in extremism.
Hanson offers a gross reduction of current events in order to support his views of "the rise of radical Islam." He selectively cites events of violence, genocide, terror, and oppression as acts united by the factor of "radical Islam." Such complex global crises are real and serious. Issues of such import should not be so expediently categorized or diagnosed.
To use the word Islam to qualify the problem of radicalism is highly problematic. Such reductive terminology asserts that anti-civilization radicals are inspired by Islam; standing in flagrant opposition to the vast majority of peaceful Muslims who reject that Islam informs such activity.
Hanson's argument gives credibility to marginalized groups hijacking Islam and empowers their intended projection as a legitimate and growing force.
Terrorists by definition are marginalized elements of society—sub national, clandestine and difficult to locate or identify. Terrorists are not united, and certainly not by any credible ideology.
Islam-i-cist, radical Islam, Islam-o-facism—or whatever the popularized quantifier of the moment may be—is not the problem.
"The data show that, [what] nearly all suicide terrorist attacks have in common is a specific secular and strategic goal: to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from territory that the terrorists consider to be their homeland," and have little to do with "Islamic fundamentalism or any one of the world's religions," states terrorism expert, Robert A. Pape, Associate Professor at the University of Chicago.
The terror tactics of radicals are to Islam what adultery is to marriage: antithetical to its moral foundations; reprehensible.
PRESERVING AMERICAN VALUES: WHOSE FREEDOMS ARE BEING THREATENED?
by Sadiya Ahmed
December 25, 2006
There has been a lot of talk lately about America being stripped of its traditional values. Newly-elected Congressman Keith Ellison has not even started his job yet and he is already facing criticism from the conservative right for wanting to take his oath on the Qur'an. What started off as Mr. Ellison's right to practice his religion freely (a fundamental principle of the Constitution), has turned into a hodge-podge of Islamophobic and anti-immigrant remarks.
The most recent entry into the debate has been Representative Virgil Goode (R-VA). In a letter sent to his constituents, Representative Goode warns of the so-called negative effect that Mr. Ellison's election, as an American-Muslim could have on traditional American values. He wrote of his fear of more Muslims getting elected into office in the future, if we "let" Mr. Ellison take his oath on the Qur'an.
In fact, he went so far as to say, "I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America and to prevent our resources from being swamped."
Is a strict, limited immigration policy the panacea to preserving "American values?"
Mr. Ellison happens to be an American who can trace his genealogy in the United States as far back as 1742. So where does the "Goode" approach to immigration come in again?
Even if the immigration argument was somehow relevant to the issue at hand, let us go through a very quick history lesson.
The Pilgrims immigrated (yes, contrary to popular assumption, they were not the first people in the Americas) to the present-day United States to escape religious persecution in England; that's why one of the most fundamental tenets of the Constitution is the right to practice one's religion freely. So to attack Mr. Ellison, or any individual for that matter, for practicing his faith and prevent him from doing so is a constitutional violation.
The Constitution strictly bars the use of religion to screen members of Congress, therefore no religious texts are used during the swearing-in ceremony. Religious texts are used during private, ceremonial sessions.
So, the issue really isn't about preserving "traditional American values" as Representative Goode puts it. Preserving American values means one ought to protect the rights of an individual to practice his religion freely, without fear of persecution, as the framers of the Constitution intended. Preserving American values means continuing to incorporate and welcome people, regardless of race, creed, religion, or ethnicity into our American society.
The fear is not of losing American values—it is a fear of the unknown. Selective, negative publicity that demonizes immigrants and categorizes them as national security threats creates an ‘us versus them' dichotomy which marks immigrants as burdens on American society and makes the idea of being American while being an immigrant a mutually exclusive concept.
If we really believe in preserving American values, then we must strive to protect our very basic rights, the ideas that the Constitution was founded upon. We must also strive to respect, not merely tolerate, cultural and religious differences between us. After all, isn't that why America is referred to as "The Melting Pot?"
SPRING 2007 INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITIES AT CAIR-CHICAGO
CAIR-Chicago, the local chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), is currently offering 18 new internship opportunities. CAIR is the nation's largest Muslim civil rights organization. The organization's 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.
All internships are unpaid. Internships last one semester and include a 12-hour/week commitment. Applicants should email a resume and cover letter to Dina Rehab, Outreach Coordinator, at: internships@cairchicago.org.
APPLICATION GUIDELINES:
clearly indicate which internship opportunity you are applying for in your cover letter. If you are applying for more than one position, please list in order of preference. All spring applications are due by December 31st (please note: spring internships usually run from January through May). Applications that do not list the above information will not be processed. If you have any questions, please email all inquiries to
internships@cairchicago.org. Students interested in receiving class credit, should indicate so in their cover letters. Credit will be arranged during the first week of the academic semester.
Our Civil Rights Department handles cases that range from prejudiced gestures to full blown discrimination. Our clients are Muslims as well as non-Muslims who have had Islam imputed upon them.
Interns and Law Clerks may work on any of the following projects:
Citizenship Delay project - seeks to address the lengthy delays Muslims are facing in applying for citizenship
Police Misconduct project - addresses incidents where police officers have discriminated or used excessive force against Muslims
Prison project - secures the rights of Muslim inmates to practice their religion freely, and ensures that inmates are treated humanely
Airport Profiling project - helps Muslims who have been discriminated against at airports
Employment Discrimination project - helps Muslims discriminated against based on religion at the workplace.
CIVIL RIGHTS INTERN
Intern will work closely with the Civil Rights Coordinator and staff attorney on resolving cases of discrimination reported to CAIR-Chicago.
Essential duties and responsibilities include the following (other duties may be assigned):
Assist in documenting incidents of religious discrimination by counseling and interviewing complainants regarding their incidents
Research laws and policies on employment, student conduct, and immigration procedures, as well as criminal offenses and other areas as seen fit
Assist in maintaining the Civil Rights Online Center
Updating databases containing information about abuses reported to CAIR-Chicago
Qualifications:
Organized and demonstrate the ability to follow through the various on-going and newly assigned tasks
Excellent written communication skills and a commitment to serving the community
Our Communications Department monitors the local media closely and flags coverage of issues relating to Islam and Muslims. The Department also holds Press Conferences and issues press releases, media advisories, and story pitches in order to ensure that Muslim perspectives on pressing issues and current events are represented in the mainstream media.
COMMUNICATIONS INTERN
Intern will work closely with the Communications Coordinator on projects and/or daily tasks per CAIR-Chicago's organizational needs.
Essential duties and responsibilities include the following (other duties may be assigned):
Work on pieces that deconstruct sensational and biased coverage of issues pertinent to Muslims and Islam. The purpose is to flag such pieces, to highlight their inaccuracies, and to offer thoughtful analyses that diffuse misconceptions.
Students work will be published and featured in a variety of ways:
a. Published as letters to the editor and as perspective pieces in Chicago's main newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune, Sun Times, Daily Herald, and Daily Southtown, as well as community papers, Final Call and Muslim Journal
b. Submitted to fourteen community newspapers published by the Southwest News Messenger
c. Published on the CAIR-Chicago website as well as other well-traversed websites such as Media Monitors (archived by Google)
d. Featured in the upcoming Chicago Media Review Blog (to be launched)
The targeted audience of these pieces is the general American public readers of the main Chicagoland newspapers and web surfers. Journalism students preferred.
Interns will work on long term research projects assisting with the development of qualitative and quantitative reports, such as the Chicago-Tribune Review, analysis of the Chicago-Tribune's coverage of Islam and Muslims over the year and the Barnes and Nobles Shelf Study, analysis of the proportion of books available on Islam and Muslims.
Interns will participate in BLOG Watch, where major BLOGs are monitored and responded to, so as to address inaccuracies and misconceptions about Islam and Muslims.
Qualifications:
Excellent written and oral communication skills
Proficient with Windows XP, Microsoft Word, Excel, Access, Explorer
Proficient with internet research
Experience with general administrative support a plus
CHURCH PROJECT INTERN
Intern will work closely with the Communications Coordinator on this new initiative which seeks to build bridges of dialogue and understanding between the Muslim community and other Chicago religious communities.
Essential duties and responsibilities include the following (other duties may be assigned):
Assist in public speaking engagements at different religious centers in Chicago
Research Chicago religious communities and current religious and political issues on the international, national, and local levels
Speech writing
Community relations
Qualifications:
Knowledgeable about international, national, and local religious and political issues, and comparative religion
Experience and comfort with public speaking, engaging with diverse faith perspectives, and articulating a Muslim faith perspective.
FAITH CORE ONLINE MAGAZINE INTERN
Intern will work closely with the Communications Coordinator on Faith Core, a new biweekly journal, which seeks to provide an open forum for thinkers of diverse backgrounds to share faith-based reflections on a common theme.
Essential duties and responsibilities include the following (other duties may be assigned):
Editing and soliciting articles to be published in Faith Core
Community relations
Qualifications:
Excellent written communication skills
Knowledgeable about comparative religion and contemporary religious issues
PHOTO JOURNALIST INTERN
Intern will work with CAIR-Chicago's Executive Director, coordinators, and team members to create visual messaging for web display, campaigns, and presentations
Essential duties and responsibilities include the following (other duties may be assigned):
Provide photo coverage to document CAIR-Chicago's activities and events
Coordinate schedule to ensure that events are covered from start to finish
Capture proceedings, activities, and event highlights to convey event theme
Upload pictures for organization and archiving purposes
Take general photographs to portray routine, relevant organizational processes
Identify key figure and themes to assist with captioning and photo layout
Qualifications:
must have a flexible schedule to accommodate weekends and evenings
access to appropriate equipment preferred
a portfolio illustrating previous experience and work desired
Our Governmental Relations Department seeks to organize, mobilize, and empower Chicagoland's Muslim community with long-term civic participation. Its educational initiatives help community members understand the political system and utilize it to work for their issues. Projects include voter registration drives, community workshops, "know your rights" educational campaigns, and training sessions at mosques and community centers on how to contact and engage local and national politicians. The department also systematically works to educate local political representatives about their Muslim constituents while ultimately engaging these representatives with the Muslim community's unique issues and concerns.
GOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS INTERN
Intern will work closely with the Governmental Relations Coordinator with projects and/or daily tasks within the scope of CAIR-Chicago's organizational needs.
Essential duties and responsibilities include the following (other duties may be assigned):
Updating and maintaining departmental files
Contributing written pieces to “The Mobilizer” (the Governmental Relations Blogs)
Running errands outside of the office as needed
Update voter files
Occasionally assisting in legislative and/or electoral research
Qualifications:
Working knowledge of Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, and Power Point)
VOTER EDUCATION PROJECT INTERN
Intern(s) will work with the Governmental Relations Coordinator to develop creative educational material for the Muslim community.
Essential duties and responsibilities include the following (other duties may be assigned):
Develop voter education materials to distribute to the Muslim community
Research new civic education materials to be distributed to the community
Assist in planning civic duty 101 classes for mosques and local area community centers
Assist in establishing communication with elected officials' personnel to obtain information as needed
Qualifications:
Self starter and ability to multitask
Proficient in Microsoft Office applications
Outgoing and able to communicate with offices of elected officials
POLICY RESEARCH INTERN
Intern will work with the Governmental Relations Coordinator to develop CAIR-Chicago's position on all relevant legislation and policies.
Essential duties and responsibilities include the following (other duties may be assigned):
Research new legislation relevant to CAIR-Chicago
Assist the Governmental Relations Coordinator in analyzing current and proposed legislations
Developing detailed analysis for internal use
Occasionally working with other intern(s) to develop educational materials for the Muslim community
The Operations Department manages a variety of tasks and processes in order to facilitate the maintenance and improvement of daily functions within the organization and its constituent departments. Internally, this includes HR related tasks, updating organizational records and files, corresponding with government offices and vendors, IT support, and directing incoming communication via email and phone to their respective departments.
The Operations Department also coordinates HTML and graphical composition for the creation of printed materials, website updates, and email campaigns. The Operations Department performs ongoing research and undertakes special projects designed to improve CAIR-Chicago's function and efficiency.
INFORMATION DESK
Intern will work with the Operations Coordinator to assist clients and facilitate requests from external partners, agencies, and organizations.
Essential duties and responsibilities include the following (other duties may be assigned):
Understand scope and implementation of functions within CAIR-Chicago
Serve as the first point of contact for all internal departments
Document incoming requests for demographic analysis
Coordinate efforts between departments to resolve incoming requests
Direct and assist media, legal professionals, clients, and general public with relevant information
Assist with general administrative work as needed
Qualifications:
Candidate must be detail oriented, possess a high level of awareness and initiative
Must display an accommodating, professional image and demeanor
Excellent written and verbal communication skills
Must display a high level of reliability and resourcefulness
Familiarity with Microsoft Office products, e.g. Word, Excel
OPERATIONS INTERN
Intern will assist the Operations Coordinator with projects and/or daily tasks within the scope of CAIR-Chicago's organizational needs.
Duties are dependent upon candidate's skill sets and may include the following responsibilities (other duties may be assigned):
Provide orientation and support for office staff and interns regarding office protocol and procedures.
Audit existing records, files, databases, and web material
Research applicable equipment grants, offers, and reimbursement programs.
Provide assistance with a variety of daily and periodical tasks, including donation processing, file organization, and compiling information.
Create procedure logs to document CAIR-Chicago's profile, current procedures and new protocols.
Qualifications:
Business and accounting majors are encouraged to apply.
Ideal candidates will possess strong problem solving skills and the ability to handle a variety of challenges.
Strong oral & written and interpersonal skills required.
Proficiency with MS Word, Excel, and the ability to learn internet applications to document, organize, and perform work assignments.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INTERN
Intern will work closely with the Operations Coordinator to support the office LAN and assigned application based data projects.
Duties are dependent upon candidate's skill sets and may include the following responsibilities (other duties may be assigned):
MS Access Database development
Network Management and Troubleshooting
Maintaining office computers running Windows XP
Providing helpdesk support for CAIR-Chicago Staff, interns, and volunteers
Independently researching solutions for developing network and application needs
Intern/Volunteer will be expected to help train staff, interns, and volunteers with basic Desktop Support to help build their skills
Document solutions for future reference and training
Preferred Qualifications:
Familiarity with MS Office applications, Windows XP
Ability to research and implement solutions to new problems
Hardware maintenance skills
Knowledge of freeware resources
Ability to work independently and without supervision, to complete assignments, and communicate solutions to problems effectively with team members.
The Outreach Department seeks to forge mutually beneficial partnerships with local and national institutions. It also works to foster an understanding between Chicago's Muslim and non-Muslim communities via educational collaborations. Lastly, it recruits and pairs the right talent (volunteers and interns) with the appropriate CAIR-Chicago projects.
PUBLIC RELATIONS INTERN
Intern will work closely with the Outreach Coordinator on establishing or maintaining relations with Chicago-based organizations on issues that are of CAIR-Chicago's scope.
Essential duties and responsibilities include the following (other duties may be assigned):
Research organizations that overlap with CAIR-Chicago in scope
Meet with representatives of various organizations in the Chicagoland area
Conduct Intro to CAIR-Chicago presentations
Maintain appropriate files and databases
Maintain Online Partners Page
Design promotional materials for different events and different audiences
Publicize CAIR-Chicago events
Post events to appropriate websites and list serves
Manage the CAIR-Chicago Publicity Committee
Qualifications:
Friendly, outgoing and self-motivated
Strong organizational and multi-tasking skills
Excellent critical thinking and visual skills
Demonstrate the ability to follow through the various on-going and newly assigned tasks
PUBLIC EDUCATION INTERN
Intern will work closely with the Outreach Coordinator or Cultural Sensitivity Trainer on developing educational material on Islam and Muslims, as well as coordinating and/or conducting presentations on topics relating to Islam.
Essential duties and responsibilities include the following (other duties may be assigned):
Create educational material on Islam and Muslims
Create a speaker's bureau database on topics relating to Islam
Conduct presentations on topics relating to Islam (training provided)
Coordinate workshops relating to Islam, as needed
Qualifications:
Organized, multi-tasked and demonstrate the ability to follow through the various on-going and newly assigned tasks
Strong problem-solving skills
Possess excellent oral and written communications skills as well as the ability to do extensive research
Familiar with Excel, Access and Microsoft PowerPoint
Ability to integrate graphical software within Power Point presentations
Education, Middle Eastern Studies, and Religious Studies majors preferred
HUMAN RESOURCES INTERN
Intern will work closely with the Outreach Coordinator on maintaining both the internship and volunteerism programs of CAIR-Chicago.
Essential duties and responsibilities include the following (other duties may be assigned):
Assist in setting up for-credit internships for undergraduate and graduate university students by completing the appropriate paperwork and maintaining the necessary databases
Conduct presentations on the importance of volunteerism and discuss existing volunteer opportunities at CAIR-Chicago within the Greater Chicagoland area
Direct volunteers and liaisons as needed
Plan and coordinate social outings for volunteers
Assist in developing CAIR-Chicago volunteer gear
Follow-up on new volunteer applications using SmartFTP (training will be provided)
Maintain Online Volunteer Center Blackboard (training will be provided)
Qualifications:
Friendly, outgoing, and demonstrate strong leadership skills
Self-motivated
Excellent oral and written communications skills
Detail-oriented and excellent organizational skills
MUSLIMS CARE PROJECT INTERN
Intern will work closely with the Outreach Coordinator on managing the Muslims Care project: a national initiative which promotes volunteerism.
Essential duties and responsibilities include the following (other duties may be assigned):
Plan and coordinate 1-2 community service events per month
Work in conjunction with other Chicagoland organizations on monthly community service events
Publicize events to CAIR-Chicago constituents
Attend events and report back to the Outreach Department
Qualifications:
Friendly, outgoing, and demonstrate strong leadership skills
Self-motivated
Excellent oral and written communications skills
Detail-oriented and excellent organizational skills
It is hard to understand why there is a growing editorial tendency toward willful ignorance and Islamophobic extremism. It is growing at the expense of intellectual honesty and moral reason.
Not that a columnist should not have an opinion, but when opinion morphs into overt hatemongering and dualist propaganda, then editors have the responsibility to prevent the incitement spewed by fringe agitators.
Simply put: hate breeds hate.
In a world where there is no "multi-culti" threat of political correctness and the word "racist" has been banned, because "no word has suffered more abuse," Kathleen Parker and Dennis Prager are whistling Dixiecract with Trent Lott.
Kathleen Parker, in her column, 'U.S. will survive one hand on Koran" (Commentary, Dec. 13) – opted to endorse Prager, who has widely been identified from "all sides" as, "intolerant" and a "bigot."
Although Parker's column was also published under the more polemically charged alias, 'the wolf who cried racist," by the Jewish World Review, it lost none of its invectiveness in its Chicago-Tribune debut.
The Prager fiasco began with a recent column he penned, "America, Not Keith Ellison, decides what book a congressman takes his oath on." Ellison is the first Muslim Congressman and America's first elected African-American to Minnesota Congress.
In his column, Prager effectively trivialized the atrocities of the Holocaust in an indignant analogy where he compared Congressman-elect Keith Ellison's choice to take his congressional oath using the Holy book of his faith- the Koran - to a racist Nazi taking his on a copy of Hitler's Mien Kampf.
Parker concedes that Prager was "technically wrong" in his disregard for Constitutional freedoms that express separation of church and state, yet remains a cheerleader for his gross misrepresentation of America's civil status quo.
Prager's harangue was repudiated in a statement issued by the prominent Jewish advocacy group, the ADL (Anti-Defamation League), which described Prager's diatribe as "ugly…intolerant, misinformed and downright un-American."
Prager's extremism galvanized the ADL, Mayor Ed Koch, the American Family Association, and CAIR (the Council on American Islamic Relations) to respond in united condemnation of his views.
Still Parker joined Prager's monomania and found room to characterize the backlash to his dogma as a recent case where "Muslim and Jew have slugged it out." Contrary to this mischaracterization and as she Parker herself acknowledges throughout the article, this is not a debate that polarizes sides across religious lines. In fact, this is very much a case where "Jew and Jew have slugged it out." The debate has nothing to do with Jews versus Muslims, it has everything to do with Prager versus the majority of Americans (Muslim, Jewish, Christian and otherwise) who took offense to his intolerant and anti-constitutional rant.
And yet, Parker depicts him as "a thoroughly decent fellow," with merely an "unpopular opinion." In her endorsement, she reasserts a number of religiously intolerant and historically revisionist attitudes voiced by Prager with alarmist sensationalism. She describes America as a "Bible-swearing nation" undermining, as Prager has, our secular democratic values that recognize our nation's pluralism.
She refers to a monolithic "radical Muslim world, with the expressed goal of which is to convert us," whereas the reality is that few Muslims in the world ascribe to that agenda. The great majority of Muslims, especially those who happen to be American, simply wish to practice their faith without ridicule or harassment. Their efforts embodied in their representative organizations including CAIR have been pooled toward encouraging pluralistic coexistence and tolerance for all.
According to Parker, expressing your faith, if you are Muslim, is "probable cause to infer" that you are out to make one statement or another. This, of course, is a most disingenuous argument. For Muslims no less than for anyone else, expressing your faith should be taken as no more than – well – expressing your faith. Her selectiveness and aggressive hyperbole, framed in folksy phrases like "traditional values" and "American solidarity," barely conceals her ideological hostility.
The noise of divided opinion, spun by Islamophobic pundits, truly has amplified to a pitch reflective of a nation terrorized by its own uncertainty- caught between the fringes of Dixiecrat McCarthyism and the atrocities of terrorist extremism.
Encouragingly, moderation seems to have found plenty of spokespersons who have courageously raised their voices against Prager's scapegoating of Congressmen-elect Ellison. Parker, on the other hand, seems deafened by "one hand on the Koran."
SALAH AND ITS
IMPLICATIONS
ON CIVIL LIBERTIES IN THE U.S.
By Christina Abraham
December 14, 2006
CAIR-Chicago's Civil Rights Coordinator argues that much of the interest in the Salah case is not about outcome,
but rather about process.
For months now, the civil rights community in the Chicago area has held its breath awaiting the outcome of a trial whose implications are far reaching. The trial of Mohammad Salah and his co-defendants is more than just a trial about alleged money-laundering; it is about how far a government can go in sacrificing the civil liberties and due process guaranteed by the constitution.
Of the issues surrounding the trial is the issue of admitting information obtained through torture as evidence against a defendant. Mohammad Salah is a U.S. citizen who was arrested at a Gaza checkpoint while trying to deliver monetary aid to Palestinian families torn apart due to Israeli military activity. Salah was subsequently tortured and interrogated for 74 days and eventually signed a confession in Hebrew – a language he does not understand. He was tried before an Israeli Military Court and sentenced to five years in prison. After serving his sentence, Salah returned to his family in Chicago where he was placed on the government’s Specially Designated Terrorist list. Salah’s family assets were frozen and he had to obtain permission from the government for integral activities such as applying for a job, retaining an attorney, opening a bank account, or obtaining medical care.
After September 11, 2001, the government – who had for seven years not filed any charges against Salah, but instead placed him and his family under their watchful eye – re-opened a grand jury investigation into him. In 2004, Salah was charged with providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, Hamas. This charge was recently dropped and the current charges against him involve allegations of money-laundering for Hamas. The only substantial evidence against Salah is the confession he signed under torture in 1993. Hamas was not designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. until 1995.
What has become painfully clear in this trial is that the government is all-too-willing to accept as evidence information obtained from a foreign state using methods that they themselves are prohibited from using. It is perplexing to understand the reasoning behind a court’s decision to accept into evidence a confession that, had it occurred in the U.S., would have been thrown out in a heartbeat. If a person is detained in the U.S., and is interrogated and subjected to inhumane conditions for weeks before being allowed to even speak with an attorney, any statements they would have made to law enforcement would never be accepted at trial.
Such is the case with Mohammad Salah; the only difference is that those actions were conducted in Israel by Israeli officers. How is it that our government can allow it in our courts simply because it occurred on foreign soil? This is not the way we do things in this country. It has long been established in this country’s legal tradition that information obtained through the use of torture is not only unconstitutional, but also unreliable. A person subjected to inhumane conditions and torture tactics for 74 days is likely to say anything to make the torture stop. Moreover, the confession was written in a language foreign to Salah.
Further, Salah’s placement on the government’s Specially Designated Terrorist list is unconstitutional as there is no provision by which Salah could challenge the designation, yet it had real, material impact on his freedom to engage in some of society’s most basic functions. Such deprivation of the liberties of a U.S. citizen clearly goes against the heart of the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment, which states, “No person shall… be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.”
Our nation’s courts should apply a simple test in trying cases such as these in the future: the “Pretend It Happened in the U.S.” test. If the case comes before a U.S. court, and the charges pertain to the alleged breach of U.S. law by a U.S. citizen, then that citizen should be afforded every protection of his/her civil rights guaranteed by the constitution of this country. This nation has a traditionally high standard in regard to the treatment of individuals detained by law enforcement, and that standard was not attained without a price. Countless people made substantial sacrifices to ensure that standard would apply to members of this society. If a foreign nation does not share those values with us, then we cannot rely on information they obtain using methods of torture in prosecuting our citizens.
THE ROAD TO 2008: WHAT IS THE AMERICAN MUSLIM COMMUNITY'S ROLE?
By Sadiya Ahmed
December 11, 2006
The Democrats in Congress have renewed hope, after taking control over the House and the Senate during the November election.
They have vowed to fight excessive spending, build a more ethical congress and to pass comprehensive immigration reform, which was the subject of many political campaigns during this election year. The Republicans too have announced plans to reform their party.
A shift in power in both the House and the Senate now means a fairly low key end to the current session, with the more controversial issues to be handled after congress reconvenes with a Democrat majority in January.
Issues such as comprehensive immigration reform and certain spending bills have been put on hold until there is more time to decide on them. Some of those issues, Democrats promised, will be handled within the first 100 days of the new session, commonly referred to as the "honeymoon".
With a president that supports comprehensive immigration reform, a divided GOP on the issue, and a Democratic congress by only a narrow margin, there is potential for gridlock where not much legislation will get passed.
Given such a scenario, the American public has begun looking ahead to the 2008 election as one that will bring about a more dramatic change in politics, with a ‘sneak preview' in 2006.
Immigrant communities and advocacy groups rallied around immigrants' rights and had record numbers on Election Day. The American-Muslim community is certainly not exempt from these statistics.
In fact, during the course of the 2006 election, CAIR-Chicago, in partnership with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR), was able to increase voter registrations by 80 percent and voter turnout by 50 percent in the southwestern suburb of Bridgeview.
So, what does this all mean for American-Muslims in 2008?
As a community that has more politically aware and active in the last few years, American-Muslims can play a potentially large role in the upcoming election. With more immigrants becoming citizens and potential voters, the community has become one that has finally begun taking stances on issues that affects its members directly and indirectly.
The activism of one of the newer communities in the United States has been credited to the post 9/11 era, in light of the increase in civil rights abuses that the Muslim community has begun to face.
Regardless of the cause for a more politically conscious Muslim community, there are more politically active Muslims engaging in proactive discourse and professional activism than there were ten years ago.
With the first ever American-Muslim elected to the elected to Congress, Keith Ellison is seen as a pioneer. Regardless of what policies he may push once he becomes an active member of the House, Ellison has become an individual providing American Muslims with hope that we will be able to create an agenda that is specific to the needs of our community.
However, for this vision and hope to become reality, the Muslim community must push itself to its limits the way many other immigrant communities have done to excel politically.
Over the next two years, the American-Muslim community must engage itself in constructive and proactive dialogue about the role the Muslims in the political arena, not only with itself, but with mainstream Americans.
If it is to lay a solid foundation in politics, it must educate itself so that each member of the community is aware of the functions of its government and the responsibilities of both elected officials and their constituents.
But, actions speak louder than words.
Not only must dialogue play a central role, participating in meetings with elected officials, conducting voter education projects, and mobilizing people toward activities that identify the American-Muslim community as positive agent of political change.
The next two years will determine who will win the presidency in 2008. The new resident of the White House in 2008 will be determined by the newly activated communities. The role of the American-Muslim community in this election can potentially steer politics in a different direction but only if it makes the commitment to do so. Not simply by talking about it, but rather being about it.
Of all the shameless, intolerant, and divisive rants I have come across on the far-right blogosphere this year – and I have come across plenty – Dennis Prager's recent Bible-thumping, Ellison-Bashing diatribe takes the cake.
Prager, in his now infamous townhall.com column, argues that Keith Ellison, America's first-ever Muslim congressman, "should not be allowed" to take an oath on the "bible of Islam" and instead should be forced to take his oath on the "Bible" of Christianity.
Why, you may ask?
Because by taking his oath on the Qur'an, Ellison "undermines American civilization," Prager warns us.
But that's not all.
Prager contends that if Ellison does so, "he will be doing more damage to the unity of America and to the value system that has formed this country than the terrorists of 9-11."
There are so many things wrong with Prager's preposterous argumentation.
For one, it is irresponsible, at the very least, to compare the relatively uneventful effect of one congressman's ceremonial oath to the tragic effects of a monstrous attack that took 3,000 innocent lives and scarred our nation forever.
Likewise, it is insane to compare a democratically-elected and committed leader of this country to its most deadly assailants. The only reason why Prager thought up such a farcical and far-fetched allusion in the first place is that Ellison is Muslim. It is inconceivable that he would have invoked the 9-11 terrorist attack had Ellison ascribed to any faith other than Islam.
Secondly, what is with the Bible litmus test?
Since when does America stipulate that its elected officials must show loyalty to a specific theology before they can be loyal citizens and trustworthy public officers? How can a self-describing American patriot further a proposition that so grossly undermines the very principles of America?
Morbid Irony
Indeed, one needs dig no deeper than the very title of Prager's column to excavate the morbid irony in his two-faced treatise: "America, Not Keith Ellison, decides what book a congressman takes his oath on."
OK, so what does the U.S. Constitution – a.k.a. America - decide for Ellison?
The third paragraph of Article VI of the U.S. Constitution reads:
"The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."
By suggesting that members be compelled to take their oath to defend and uphold the Constitution on the Bible, Prager is advocating that they breach the very oath they are taking, as they are taking it.
It is not Ellison who threatens to "undermine American civilization." It is in fact Prager who is uneasy with our secular democratic politics and our religiously pluralistic society and is demanding that we revert to the standards of some medieval vessel of Christendom. "America is interested in only one book, the Bible," Prager preaches in one of many bizarre lines that seem to dominate his column.
Prager's Breed
If Prager's extremism scares you, here's the scarier part: Prager is not alone out there. He's just one manifestation of a larger phenomenon that is finding plenty of fertile soil in the post 9-11 hysteria that has gripped our ailing nation.
They come out as self-proclaimed defenders of America, but soon enough, end up spewing vitriolic rhetoric that undermines many of the core values that America stands for.
They bear no compelling or outstanding qualifications. No one ever elected them as official spokespersons for America. Yet on a daily basis, they purport to tell us what America is and what it is not, what our traditions and values should be and what they should not be.
They issue decrees on the rest of us, heaping praise on the "good" (whosoever agrees with them), and character-smearing the "bad" (whosoever disagrees).
They call themselves "politically conservative", but they conserve for America little more than the remnants of the racism and intolerance that once went virtually unchallenged in this country.
They have an aversion to debate, and a dependence on fear-mongering. They tolerate hate and hate tolerance. They cultivate suspicion, feed into stereotypes, and incite xenophobia.
They draw hordes of loyal fans, who are either simple-minded or apologists for hate, like the Pied Piper draws mice.
They inhabit the slums of AM Radio, News Cable talk shows, and the internet blogosphere where they typically come with an abundance of American flags and American Bald Eagles.
Can you say "overcompensation?"
Welcome to the logic-light, fact-free, ratings-driven world of hate media. A world where the Pragers, Becks, Savages, and Coulters, FOX News and Clear Channel win – but America loses.
Message to Prager
Despite my annoyance with the hypocrisy that oozes from the likes of Prager, I think it is worth taking a shot at levelling with the man.
I have immense respect for Christianity as I am an observant Muslim myself. I suspect Keith Ellison feels no differently. Yet, I must inform you that our secular democracy is not governed by an allegiance to the faith of whoever is in the demographic majority or whoever landed on our shores first, but is governed by what many of us affectionately call "our Constitution."
Not only is the United States of America a secular democracy, but on top of that, it neither professes a "state religion" nor a "state bible." If you wish to practice Christianity or any other faith without harassment or persecution, then America is the place for you. But if you crave life under a Bible-ruled government, America is constitutionally prohibited from being that.
The Founding Fathers insisted on the separation of Church and State precisely so that America would never be drawn into the type of inconsequential divisiveness and petty discrimination that had plagued European societies for centuries, the type that you now are so desperately trying to provoke with your anti-American, half-baked sermons. Hate will make you do wonders – and argue blunders.
In naked terms, your antiquated argument is calling for the first-ever, state-sanctioned, faith-based class hierarchy among American citizens in which believers in the New Testament would be first-class citizens and believers in the Qur'an or the Torah, second-class citizens – or in other words, tagalong citizens.
In order to justify such a ludicrous prospect, you resort to an equally ludicrous analogy, stating that we would surely not allow a racist to swear his oath on "Mein Kampf," the Nazis' bible. This severely misguided comparison only exposes your scorching irreverence for Islam, an operable faith practiced by 8 million Americans and 1.4 billion human beings worldwide.
For what it's worth, let me correct you, sir. The Qur'an is not a piece of Nazi-era propaganda; rather, it is "the bible of one of the World's mainstream faiths". It is not suitably compared - however arbitrarily - to Hitler's autobiography. It is more reasonably classified with the Christian Bible, also "the bible of one of the World's mainstream faiths."
When your contempt for Muslims beats stronger than your love for America—denying logic, rewriting history, and undermining our constitution in the process—you not only become a liability to Muslims, but to all Americans, serving only to relegate yourself to the infamous sections of our history books.
ROOSEVELT UNIVERSITY SETTLES IN ADJUNCT PROFESSOR'S ACADEMIC FREEDOM COMPLAINT
By Christina Abraham
December 4, 2006
Roosevelt University and the Roosevelt Adjunct Faculty Organization (RAFO) recently agreed to settle a dispute between them that was scheduled for arbitration. Douglas Giles, the adjunct professor at the center of the issue who was terminated earlier this year for teaching about Zionism in a World Religions course, cannot disclose details of the settlement but says he is very happy with it.
CAIR-Chicago considers the settlement a symbolic victory for Giles, RAFO and for academic freedom.
Giles was terminated after his department chair learned that the text book he was using to teach his World Religions class, one used widely by universities, had a section on Zionism in its chapter on Judaism. Although Zionism was not listed as a topic for discussion in Giles' syllabus, he did entertain questions and discussion by students in class about Zionism.
Giles states that the department chair later criticized him for allowing the discussion, claiming any discussion of Zionism opened Judaism up for criticism. The department chair also allegedly criticized Giles for allowing Muslim students to speak, and referred to Palestinians as "animals."
Upon learning of the incident, CAIR-Chicago began organizing on Giles' behalf. Attorney Rima Kapitan also represented Giles on matters related to his dispute with Roosevelt, working closely with union attorneys.
CAIR-Chicago will continue to advocate on behalf of students and professors whose academic freedom rights are compromised, and is reaching out to other organizations and individuals to help accomplish that goal.
Recently, CAIR-Chicago's Executive Director, Ahmed Rehab, was on a "transatlantic dialogue" tour of the UK where he was a guest on the BBC World's flagship program, HARDtalk.
HARDtalk, hosted by the BBC's veteran foreign correspondent, Stephen Sackur, is a fast-paced and confrontational current affairs program that reaches hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide. It is recorded live in the BBC studios in London.
The following are excerpts from the interview as well as the video and the full program transcript. Stay tuned for Rehab's UK report coming soon!
"…We don't want to have special rights as Muslims living in America, but equal rights to everybody else! And that is the foundation of our civil rights work... "
"..the whole idea is for us to focus on the goal, and the goal is to respect the rule of law. As a civil rights activist - Muslim or not - my goal is to hold my government accountable where it makes mistakes to tell it: "the rule of law should reign supreme..."
"…Other communities have been challenged. But every time, the challenge has an opportunity within it. I want to take advantage of that opportunity. Each cloud has a silver lining; I focus on the silver lining – you know, the glass half full as opposed to half empty - to try to make something positive out of the situation…"
"…I think the bigger problem, both for the government and for the mainstream American society, is that they fail to differentiate between the domain of Islam and the domain of terrorism. They may intersect at certain areas, but they're definitely not concentric and the problem is when we deal with them as if they were one and the same."
"…the first thing if you want to empower your community is: to talk about shedding the victim mentality. We cannot look at the world through the lens that we are victims who have been mistreated here and there. Although that may be true, we may have suffered certain racist acts, or come from countries that suffer post-colonial economic crisis, so on and so forth, that isn't our focus. We're aware of it, but our focus is to the future... "
"I cannot look at the American flag and think only of these strategic errors in terms of foreign policy and forget that we are the leader in terms of scientific advancement, medicine, space exploration, so on and so forth - great things that we have given to humanity. I see America as a whole, and as such I can say that I am proud to be an American while reminding myself that I can challenge the problems in our foreign policy through the legal channels of America..."
National debate sparked concerning religious and racial profiling of American Muslims following the detainment of 6 Imams and the subsequent refusal of US Airways to allow the men to rebook flights to their destination, despite having cleared FBI security screenings on Monday November 20th.
Imam Omar Shaheen, spokesperson for the 6 Imams, and the national spokesperson for US Airways, Andrea Rader, were interviewed by Amir Haq and CAIR-Chicago Communications Coordinator, Sultan Muhammad, for Radio Islam.
The show aired in Chicago on Saturday November 25th, with Andrea Rader's interview pre-recorded due to scheduling conflicts. During the interview Imam Omar Shaheen commented on Rader's statements and voiced resolve concerning the profiling and discrimination toward Muslims in America, stating "enough is enough."
Saturday night's interview proved to be highly revealing. Andrea Rader, US Airway's national spokesperson, tells Radio Islam, we "messed up," the incidents were "unfortunate," and we are "very sorry that these gentlemen felt that they had been treated in an undignified or unfair way."
Radio Islam is on WCEV 1450 AM Monday through Sunday from 6pm to 7pm. Under the umbrella of Sound Vision Foundation, RadioIslam.com launched its first show December 14, 1999 with the goal of providing informative and creative Internet and broadcast radio programming.
All of the detained Imams, several of whom are from Arizona, were in
Minnesota to attend a conference of the North American Imams
Federation (NAIF). A representative of the FBI was invited to attend
the conference. SEE:
OPEN MOSQUE SERIES:
The American Islamic Association (AIA)
By Dina Rehab
November 23, 2006
The American Islamic Association (AIA) is located in Frankfort, Illinois. The construction, built on 14 acres of land, includes a prayer hall, classrooms, a banquet hall, and a fully equipped kitchen. The AIA serves approximately 150-200 families from several suburbs, including: Frankfort, Tinley Park, Olympia Fields, Flossmore, and Orland Park.
"You can gauge attendance on days like Eid," stated Dr. Afzal Ahmad, Chairman and founding member of the AIA. "Approximately 900 people pray at the AIA on Eid. Sunday school is another way to measure attendance, which doubled from 55 students to 110 in October 2005."
Mosque congregants are predominantly of south Asian descent; with roughly 60-70% from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. 20% are of Middle Eastern descent; from Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. The remaining 10% are African American.
History
The birth of the AIA came with the need to educate the community's youth, and to provide them with a permanent place to socialize in a communal spirit. In the 1970s, 10-15 Muslim families gathered regularly at the Frankfort school gymnasium. After being denied access to the facility, the families moved their gatherings to the Tinley Park facilities. Identifying the need to locate a permanent facility, the AIA was incorporated in 1979. In 1983, the 14 acre land in Frankfort was purchased.
The first home to the AIA was a house, currently located on the 14 acre property. The house was used as the AIA's main facility from 1983-1988, when it became too small for the growing population. From 1988 to 2005, the mosque congregants convened in the hangar (a shed used for the housing or repairing of an airplane), also located on the 14 acre property. After the new building was opened in 2005, the hangar was later converted into classrooms.
The entire AIA facility cost 2.2 million, of which 1.7 million were in-house donations. The remaining balance is a no interest loan which the AIA continues to pay off.
Programs & Services
The AIA is home to a variety of services which include a Friday sermon and prayer (with approximately 150-200 attendees each week), a Sunday Islamic school (grades are per the child's level of knowledge; ages 6-17), and a monthly evening guest lecture series (with approximately 50-150 attendees).
Other programs and services include: adult Arabic language classes - once a week; adult tajweed classes (Quran recitation classes) - five times a week; Hadith (a collection of prophetic sayings and actions) and Quran classes - five times a week; food pantry collections in collaboration with IMAN, charity distribution, performance of Nikah (religious wedding ceremony) and funeral services; and an annual Mawlad Al-Nabawi (birth of the prophet) celebration.
As an institution that primarily concerns itself with the development of its youth, the AIA is holding an intensive winter retreat for high school and college students. The weekend retreat will include a variety of lectures and discussion sessions.
It's part of the AIA tradition to serve refreshments every Friday after Friday prayers. This seems to enhance the communal spirit, already present, as congregants socialize over donuts and coffee.
"It's a very pleasant experience and something I look forward to every Friday," Naila Jeddy stated while sipping her coffee. As a congregant who has been attending Friday prayers at the AIA since the building opened its doors in 2005, Naila continued: "Khutbah [the sermon] is always really good, and after Namaz [Friday prayer], they have religious classes about different issues".
"For me, it's great!" said Mohammed Sayeed who has been frequenting the AIA on and off since its early beginnings. "I get to see my family members and meet new people".
The Board
The board currently has 17 members of which 8 are life-time trustees and 9 are rotating members. Rotating members are selected every 3 years by the existing board members. The term of rotating members are staggered so that every year 3 members drop out and 3 members come in.
Current board members include: Dr. Afzal Ahmad (Chairman), Tahir Abbassi, Khalid Baig, Imtiaz Hamid, Babar Hussain, Tariq Khan, M.K.H. Mohajir, Saif Nazir, Mohammad S. Baig, Khaja Basheeruddin, Amy (Kawther) Chabaan, M. Qasim Choudry, Sakhawat Hussain, Ahmad Kamal, Khalid Mozaffar, Yakub Patel, and Ala Shalabi.
When asked about why there is only one female board member out of seventeen, Dr. Ahmad responded: "We had two female board members last year, and plan to add two more next year. It has unfortunately been our experience that the women are timid and don't come forward. Also, contribution and attendance have not been equitable in the past."
Dr. Ahmad further added that this was not true of sister Chabaan, whom he described as an active board member.
Goals
As an institution that was originally built with the children and youth in mind, AIA's short-term goals is in line with that same original spirit. "Our focus is to get our children and our youth more and more involved", said Dr. Ahmad. "We are trying to start different activities for them, such as social projects", he added.
The AIA plans on starting a day care as well as a regular elementary school where children can also memorize the Quran. A more long term goal involves building a Muslim convention center on the remainder of the 14 acres; "It's a dream", Dr. Ahmad added. (But isn't that how all realities begin?)
A passionate activist, Dr. Ahmad believes that a resourceful community, such as the Muslim community, can contribute to their own enhancement in many ways. He explained that donations, although needed, are not the only means to show support. He encouraged members of the Muslim community to contribute intellectually and to take charge of their own hopes and desires.
Although recognizing the many strengths of the Muslim community, Dr. Ahmad shared some feelings of frustration, "The community feels comfortable; with no desire to do more or to further their own agendas…very timid, very docile".
Dr. Ahmad encouraged members of the Muslim community to utilize their resources to its full potential; to inspire and be inspired; and to take action.
Those who wish to contribute to the AIA's short-term or long term plans can do so by contacting Dr. Afzal Ahmad, or by attending the AIA's upcoming fundraising dinner on Sunday, Dec. 10, 2006.
The event will take place at the AIA's banquet hall, 6:30-9:30 p.m. Guest speaker is Imam Siraj Wahhaj. For more information, please call Br. Tariq Khan at 708-903-0875.
Dina Rehab is CAIR-Chicago's Outreach Coordinator; contact her at outreach@cairchicago.org for more information on the Open Mosque series.
CHICAGO PARENT: "DECIDING THE FATE OF FAITH"
By Jill S. Browning
November 21, 2006
For many parents, the decision isn't easy
Michelle Olson isn't aware of it yet, but she's headed for a double dose of Sunday school.
The 4-month-old's mother, Susan Olson of Downers Grove, is a member of the Catholic Church and her father, Eric Olson, is a member of the First Church of Christ, Scientist. As a married couple, Susan and Eric have attended services together in both churches each and every Sunday. So far, they aren't planning to change their routine just because of the birth of their first child.
Michelle was baptized in the Catholic Church, but the couple plans to expose her to both faiths, hoping to blissfully blend the Catholic CCD (Confraternity of Christian Doctrine) classes with Christian Science Sunday school. "We're going to teach her both and let her decide for herself what she wants," says Susan. "I don't want to force my religion on anybody."
While the Olson family has a plan in place (at least for now), the question of faith presents a common conundrum for many families. Action plans conceived at the wedding altar sometimes shift once kids become a reality, often leading parents back to their religious roots-or to a new faith entirely. No matter what kind of spirituality a family has, nurturing it can give kids a sense of community, an expanded support system and a sense of purpose outside of their own family.
Baby, bring me back
Religious leaders report that it's common for kids fresh out of high school to wander away from their faith in an attempt to explore and define their own core beliefs. Throughout college and early adulthood, many young adults aren't affiliated with any organized religion. (Saturday night fraternity parties and Sunday morning services are often mutually exclusive events.)
"But when they have kids, they discover that they want their children to be raised in a community of faith, too," says Christine Chakoian, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Lake Forest.
Rabbi Peter Knobel, of Beth Emet The Free Synagogue in Evanston, agrees. "When people have children they begin to think very differently about their own lives," he says. "The first thing they want to do is they want some kind of ritual to identify the child with their tradition and their faith." He says that having children often leads parents to think about how they will create and define a meaningful faith environment for their family.
Facing interfaith
What makes this quest for a commitment a special challenge, of course, is when you don't share the same faith as your partner-and you must decide between baptism or bris. While many manage to meet, marry and reproduce with someone who shares their same faith, love doesn't cooperate as neatly for everyone.
Lombard residents Becky and Matt Kirsh were raised in different faiths: Catholicism and Judaism, respectively. A priest and a rabbi joined forces to bless their wedding in a Catholic church, but after the glass was broken the couple wandered away from any religious affiliation until a life-changing event happened: They had a baby.
Matt's a divorce lawyer who's witnessed his fair share of broken homes, and the couple decided they needed to have religious consistency as a bond for their own kids. "A friend of ours who's a priest … said to us one night ... 'I don't care what you raise your kids but pick-pick something. You've got to give them something,' " Becky recalls.
They took his advice and, since Becky was deemed more committed to her faith, the first three kids were baptized Catholic. After a few years and for a variety of reasons, the family eventually switched to the United Church of Christ. Becky's pleased that Matt eventually became a member, and today serves as one of the leaders in the church.
Deciding on a single faith for the family can be a brave, bold move. "Good parenting really requires adults to make some important decisions, and those decisions I understand to be very difficult, but I think parents need to set the parameters for the children," Knobel says.
Says Chakoian: "Children who are raised in a religious tradition have a much easier time later in life discerning their own faith. Adults who have had no religious background have a hard time connecting with any religion or deciding what they believe."
Community counts
The Kirsh family feels more connected to one another and part of a community as a result of joining their new church. For instance, they're active participants in mission projects the church sponsors, including supporting the homeless. They also are looking forward to having their kids participate in youth groups as they start to hit the teen years.
The family has formed friendships with fellow congregants, which they feel directly benefits the kids by exposing them to people with moral compasses similar to their own. "We've found some intergenerational older senior friends there that are filling an amazing void for us and our kids," since the kids' grandparents aren't often available, Becky Kirsh says. "It's congealed our philosophy in life with our church life to have these friends that we've made all the way from 80 years old down … You don't find that anywhere else, and our kids are part of that."
Worldly vantage
Beyond the fellowship and friends, becoming more spiritual or choosing a faith can help give the kids a global perspective and appreciation in our ever-changing world.
"It helps children to know that they belong to something much bigger than themselves and their immediate family," says Chakoian. "Every faith tradition provides a sacred story in which we live, a set of practices by which we form meaning, some cherished values under which we live."
Communications coordinator at the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Chicago, Sultan Muhammad is the father of two sons, ages 4 and 2 [and 2 daughters]. He and his wife, Naadhera Rodriguez Muhammad, are Muslim (she converted after being raised Catholic). When his boys see him and his wife pray five times a day, it makes quite an impression on them. "It tends to be an equalizer, in that there's something that is beyond the authority of Mom and Dad," says Muhammad. He explains how the hierarchy of authority within his family and faith teaches his sons how to deal with the broader human community. "Issues of respect, issues of tolerance and forgiveness are very key to building the character in children at an early age," he says.
Preach? Prepare to practice
For the Muhammad family, the five-times-a-day prayer requirement of Islam is a concrete way of showing their kids their beliefs. For others, it might be reading from the Bible or praying before meals or bedtime.
While these rituals are important symbols of faith, they're not the end-all, be-all. "What I encourage parents to do is to look at how they're living their spirituality. It's not the ritual and the ceremony so much as the day-to-day part of it," says Don Camp, administrator of Family and Children's Services at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago. Camp is a minister and former chaplain. "In some ways, it's easier to take a child to a service than to think that they're observing your spirituality day in and day out," he says.
Strengthening ties
One parent who "walks the walk" and demonstrates her commitment to faith to her three sons is mom Lynne Shapiro of Deerfield. Shapiro says that growing up, her family was Jewish culturally and celebrated all of the holidays and attended services, but she had little formal Jewish education. "All of my Jewish friends where I grew up did go to Hebrew school and Sunday school and had bar or bat mitzvahs," Shapiro says. "When I was young, I felt lucky that my parents didn't send me, but as I got older, I felt that I was missing something."
Today as an adult, she's studying with a rabbi and is trying to learn Hebrew-which as an adult, she claims, isn't easy. Even so, she says she feels like she's learning more about her own spirituality through the process.
So that her sons don't feel as if they'd missed out like she did, Shapiro sends her boys to Hebrew school and Sunday school. Her 10-year-old son, Wiley, says he has learned a lot by attending both schools and feels proud to be learning a language that's been around for thousands of years. (Although he admits that it seems like it's taking thousands of years to learn it, since he's spends more than six hours a week in class.)
The cycle of faith
Parents can make decisions about their family's faith fate, set an example for the kids and live out those beliefs (sometimes by dressing-and then dragging-their kids to service), but they never know what the future holds.
"As adults, children will choose to do what they choose to do," Knobel says. "The child grows up-the child will make his own decision no matter what we do."
Shopping for spirituality?
Even if you have your faith all figured out, it can be tricky to find the right place to practice. Rabbi Andrea London of Beth Emet The Free Synagogue in Evanston suggests making a list and prioritizing what's most important to you. When choosing a place to call your faith home, consider:
Worship times and schedules. Do you want a choice between three services on Sunday-and maybe even a Saturday evening option? Or is it acceptable if a smaller congregation offers just one service, giving you a chance to meet more members?
Proximity to home or school. Is the commute to the church/temple/mosque doable? Do you plan on making trips during the week? If so, is being closer a necessity?
Congregation demographics. Do your fellow congregants need to be family and established friends, or are you comfortable praying with strangers? Do you want your kids to worship with schoolmates or neighborhood friends?
Clergy philosophy and personality. Are you inspired by contemporary thinkers or comforted by a more traditional approach? Are the leaders welcoming?
Children's programming. How do the programs for kids of all ages-from nursery time for infants to youth groups for teens-stack up? Will the educational opportunities meet your expectations?
Outreach projects. How does the congregation give back to the community? Do mission programs and social action projects match your own beliefs?
Immerse yourself in a prospective faith home by attending worship services and classes, checking out their Web site and joining in on a mission project. Ask to be put on a mailing list to receive the church newsletter, which will help you better understand the people-and if it will be a good fit for your family.
CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: PROTECTING THE RELIGIOUS RIGHTS OF INMATES
By Ausaf Farooqi
November 17, 2006
The practice of Islam is the most essential activity of our lives. Yet, many of our Muslim brothers can only practice Islam at the whim and will of prison officials.
They have federally protected rights but those rights are selectively enforced. They are shrouded in stigma and discrimination and locked away behind granite walls and steel bars.
Who can these Muslims, our brothers, turn to for help?
The channels given to an inmate who faces obstacles to his rights are both limited and ironic. They can turn to the prison administration or they can turn to the courts.
His first choice is to complain to the same prison officials who have created the obstacles. However, as is human nature, it is rare that the oppressing party will remedy the situation on their own will and whim. If the party was inclined to such goodness, the situation would never have occurred.
A complaint can be appealed up the chain of command to higher ranking and more removed prison officials, where one can argue that the more removed prison officials will remedy imperfections within their own prison system.
Yet, if prison guards or administrators were regularly held accountable by higher ranking officials, they would think twice before denying a Muslim his federally protected rights.
The evidence of repeated occurrences of oppression clearly indicates a lack of such accountability.
If an inmate fails to find a solution internally, he has one external source. He can file suit in court to protect his federal rights.
Of course, the one thing many Muslim inmates are sure to lack is the resources to file a suit in the courts. Furthermore, even if the inmate can file suit in court, whether through an attorney or pro se, there is a great deal of deference giving to the prison administrators.
Due process standards are substantially lower. Islamic practices can be subverted by a simple demonstration of "penological interests" which can range anywhere from security, costs, or time.
After expending all his resources, an inmate finds his legitimate claim shot down by a cursory reply from prison official and a cursory review by the courts.
It is important to note that not all prison guards and officials fail to meet the needs of prison inmates. Although there are many instances of oppression, there are also many instances where guards have been held accountable and changes have been made for Muslims.
There are many altruistic and strong individuals working in the prison system who believe in securing the facility while ensuring the rights of the inmates. Also, some courts have ruled in favor of prisoner rights, especially when the cases were egregious.
A Muslim inmate's greatest resource, the Muslim community, remains untapped. We, as members of the community, have rights and responsibilities to protect each other.
Many of these inmates just need other Muslims for support.
Perhaps they need a boost in their Islamic education. Perhaps they need an ear to listen to their hopes and dreams. Perhaps they just need to know they are in the prayers of their fellow Muslims.
We may not be able to free our Muslim brothers from arbitrary oppression, but we can volunteer our time in prisons and meet with these inmates.
We can volunteer our time to teach inmates Islam. We can raise awareness, both socially and politically, and carry the voices of the inmates beyond the granite and steel and into the hearts and minds of America.
Just standing by an inmate's side will make prison administration think twice about denying a Muslim his rights. Lastly, we can make prayer for these inmates.
As Muslims, we believe that prayer can be more effective than any grievance and any court filing. Our emotional support and physical presence will keep our brothers strong as they face tribulation daily.
This is a small step towards fulfilling our duties towards our community for the sake of Allah.
We must also realize that this is not just a Muslim/non-Muslim problem. This is not a problem divided by lines of religion and creed.
While from an Islamic perspective Muslims have a duty to help and protect their brothers, we as an American people have a duty to uphold the freedoms and rights which create the foundation of this nation.
Whether it is a Muslim who is denied his Friday prayers, a Jew who is denied kosher foods, or a Christian who is denied a Bible, the freedom to practice a religion should never be inhibited simply because one is incarcerated.
If anything, this is a time where religion and support is most essential.
Inmates, regardless of religion, have limited channels to voice their concerns. The problem is deeper for Muslim inmates who are often housed in remote prisons where the education and understanding of Islam among the prison administration is severely lacking.
Whether we are Muslim or not, we can help support these individuals. Whether your motivation spiritually oriented or for the sake of protecting American freedoms, your cause is just. In either case, we cannot turn a deaf ear to inmates' pleas.
CAIR-CHICAGO FILES IDHR COMPLAINT AGAINST ROCK N' ROLL MCDONALD'S
November 14, 2006
CAIR-Chicago filed a charge of Discrimination with the Illinois Department of Human Rights (IDHR) after receiving a complaint from three Middle Eastern men who were forcibly removed by security guards at the Rock n' Roll McDonalds in Downtown Chicago.
The men entered the McDonalds restaurant speaking Assyrian, a Middle Eastern language, and were waiting in line to order when security guards belligerently approached the men and began to yell.
The men were called "camel jockeys" and "terrorists" by the guards, and were forcibly removed from the restaurant. When one of the men protested by saying that they were law-abiding individuals, the officers stated that it did not matter because they were still "terrorists" and should "go back to [their] own country." The officers also commented that the three men had no right to speak to American girls.
The men also called 9-1-1, and police officers arrived on the scene to investigate the incident but refused to file a report. The men were told by police that the incident was just a misunderstanding and that the three men should disregard it.
CAIR-Chicago's Attorney Rima Kapitan filed a complaint with the IDHR concerning a violation of Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Illinois state law on public accommodations, which states that "it is unlawful to discriminate in the full and equal enjoyment of facilities and services by any place of public accommodation, such as a business, recreation, lodging, entertainment, or transportation facility that is open to the public."
CAIR-Chicago will continue its representation of the men in the matter.
This year's election had some of the hottest races, with campaigns spending money in record amounts and state wide campaigns to mobilize constituents to the polls. Voters and the general public alike fail to see the smaller incidents on Election Day. CAIR-Chicago, in conjunction with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) ran an intense political mobilization campaign, where volunteers and staff members were able to get an 'insider's perspective' and offer their reflections.
Before I could urge Muslims to go to the polls on Election Day, I needed to vote, myself. Having gotten up early that morning, I went downstairs to my polling place, which happened to be in the same building I live in. As a voter, I know that the Voting Rights Act entitles me to certain things, among which is the right to present my Voter Registration Card as my identification (or have the option to show a non-picture ID), a place to vote without excessive distractions, and election judges that treat me with respect. When I walked downstairs to fulfill my civic duty, I did not get some of those rights.
There is still as much discrimination at the polls now, as there was when voter discrimination was first outlawed. Even with all the protections we have, a few minutes in some of Cook County's neighborhoods will make one think that we are back in the era of poll taxes. I went to the polling location and not only was it noisy and unprofessional, but people were being asked for multiple forms of identification, even after they presented their Voter Registration Card. In my mind, as the minds of many others, that is blatant discrimination and is a serious offense, but sadly, such is the case for many polling locations. While there were not many cases of major discrimination on Election Day that were reported, there were little problems, like being asked for identification when normally voters should not be asked. A little known fact is that certain election judges were intimidating voters of certain ethnicities and turning them away from the polls.
Though such was not the case in Bridgeview or most of the suburbs, it was a problem in the Chicago precincts. Perhaps city residents, especially in the lower income neighborhoods or with certain ethnic backgrounds are given a harder time because the chances of them not fighting back are higher. Perhaps it is that voters from the suburbs tend to vote a certain way so they cannot be bothered as it is 'the right way'. Regardless of the cause, it is important to note that the electoral process needs a desperate makeover and it needs to start with enforcing the Voting Rights Act.
I spent Election Day as a poll watcher at a local public school, in the small town of Libertyville, Illinois. After signing in at 5:45 am (as a poll watcher you must be credentialed, sign in when you enter the polling place and out when you leave), the first step was to ask the election judges to clarify the "100-foot line." By law, all electioneering (candidate signs, campaign propaganda, etc.) is not allowed within 100 feet of the entrance to the polling place. Once the distance is measured, a cone or marker is put up so that candidates and voters know where the limit is.
Around 6:30 am, I started to notice the signs for the Democratic candidate disappearing from the area, and realized that one of the security guards was pulling them out of the ground. He explained that three women came by and told him he had to remove the signs—that they were there illegally. These three women were not election judges or officials of any kind; they were members of the opposing party who did not want the signs in view and saw an opportunity to remove them. Following procedure, I first reported the problem to the election judges, who granted me permission to put them back, verifying that they were in fact 100 feet from the entrance.
Unfortunately, this was not the only problem I observed during my 13 hours in Libertyville. At around 8:15 am, the polling place was visited by officials from the State's Attorney's office. They had received complaints from voters that the Democrats had placed their signs too close to the door, and came to investigate. After measuring twice, the signs were approved, and the voting continued. Around 3:30 pm, I again witnessed someone pulling the signs out of the lawn. However, this time it was one of the election judges. I was told that the Superintendent had decided not to allow any campaign propaganda on school property. However, because it was a public school, he did not have the authority to make that decision. In the State of Illinois, the only way a polling place can ban all campaign propaganda from its property, is if the building is a church/religious institution or a private school. Knowing this, I reported the problem to the State's Attorney, who again ruled in my favor. This same situation happened to two colleagues of mine, at two nearby public schools.
Why argue over petty lawn signs? Isn't a sign that is 99 feet from the entrance just as effective as one that is 101 feet away? Is it worth the time and energy spent to investigate something so trivial? The reason such small infractions must be reported is that they are a tiny part of a much larger goal: ensuring a free and fair election. If something minor is ignored, what happens when it is something major? Poll watchers are there to be sure that those chosen to monitor our elections are following the law and treating each voter and candidate equally, so every citizen can exercise our most important civic duty—voting.
On Election Day I was scheduled to assist with mobilization efforts in the Bridgeview area, but had agreed with organizer Haady Taslim that I would come only after voting myself when the polls opened at 6 a.m.
My poll location was only a block from my house, inside a private condominium complex that took me a few moments to locate. Once inside, I showed my voter registration card, and was promptly given my ballot and an area to make my voting selections.
My voting experience was nothing if not pleasant, the enthusiasm from poll watchers and early morning voters created an almost festive atmosphere. After voting, my ballot was entered into a reader, which signaled that my vote had been successfully processed.
I arrived at the Mosque Foundation soon after, where I met with Haady Taslim and Ahlam Jbara, who assigned me four Universal high school students to drive to local precincts. We were given street maps, walk sheets with names and addresses, door hang tags, voter guides, and polling place information for each precinct to help mobilize voters. At every house on our list we either met with voters or left door hang tags with polling information, while documenting results on our walk sheets.
My group had several successful meetings where we informed Muslim voters that we were counting on them to vote and make our collective voice heard, but we also met some obstacles. Many voters weren't home during the day, or had incorrectly listed addresses, and at least one registered voter felt too disenfranchised to vote this year.
My high school group responded with some pessimism, voicing that they weren't sure their efforts were very effective or useful, and canvassing the large area was tedious work.
But as we spoke, we realized that our efforts, replicated by the 200 other volunteers who came to the Mosque Foundation, must be reaching not only a large number of people, but also generating a "buzz" amongst Muslim voters due to our combined efforts. We reasoned that if our single team of 4 could reach even 25-30 Muslim households, then the entire group of door to door teams and phone bankers could easily be reaching thousands of Muslim voters that day.
Overall, I was very encouraged by the efforts and organization of the voter drive. I was impressed with the Muslim community of Bridgeview for generating such a large number of volunteers and helping with multiple accommodations, facilitating a great community effort to generate a Muslim voice this election.
I also felt that the drive was well planned by the community organizers, whose stated goal to get every registered Muslim to vote this year was supported by a multi-tiered approach of reaching out, educating, and assisting voters to reach that end.
Their efforts created a model for future voter drives, which I hope to see replicated next election in Bridgeview and in the many other districts of Illinois.
My poll watching experience was very positive unlike other volunteers. While I was in Bridgeview, Illinois, I spent the day traveling from polling place to another and monitoring the activities of election judges as well as registered voters who came to the polls. I first began my day at the Mosque Foundation in Bridgeview. Many volunteers arrived at the Mosque early in the morning. Everybody was very energetic and ready to help ensure that voters turned out in high numbers.
My duties included documenting the voter turnout of Muslim and Arab constituents in the southwest suburban area, along with Bridgeview. I enjoyed seeing the large number of voters that came up to support their candidates. Overall, I was happy to report that no disruptions occurred and the election judges were very respectful.
However I did learn of some problems occurred throughout the city. I feel that more emphasis should be put on protecting inner-city constituents in the future as a result of those complications. We should all embrace our right to vote and mutually honor that right irrespective of political ideology.
As a first time Election Day poll watcher, I was surprised at how smoothly the election judges managed the precincts and election process. When I arrived at the Mosque Foundation at 7:00 a.m., I saw 20 gallons of Dunkin Donuts coffee lined against the wall, suggesting we pool-watchers had a long day ahead of us. Twelve hours of open polls hardly seems like enough time for a group of volunteers to monitor each precinct. But the superb individual efforts from each volunteer proved successful.
Of the five locations I monitored in Bridgeview, I did not witness one major problem. When voters made mistakes on their ballots, the election-officials eagerly helped them correct the errors, or offered them a new ballot altogether. For over eight hours, I did not see one voter turned down at the polls. In fact, the longest one single voter had to wait in line to cast his or her vote was only 10 minutes. Martha, one election judge, even took the time thoroughly explain how the voting machine worked to one voter who seemed perplexed about the 240 year old process. While I can’t speak for the entire state, it was clear that some of the polls in Bridgeview were run successfully, and the people were able to exercise their right to vote without any difficulty. Thanks Uncle Sam.
The entire night before Election Day, I was up trying to tame the monster. The monster was the Get-Out-the-Muslim-vote machine we had created: it sprawled four townships, twelve different towns, 42 precincts, and would target over 1300 households and almost 2,000 Muslim voters. The monster was manned by over 200 volunteers, who would drive to 35 different precincts, knock on 1300 doors and call 2,000 Muslim voters on our 15 phone lines. The monster was fed on 12 dozen donuts, 10 gallons of coffee, 12 cases of water, 8 cases of soda, 30 pounds of pasta, 70 bag lunches and 22 thin-crust pizzas.
The sheer size and complexity of this operation frightened me – how could it possibly be tamed?
After a frantic evening puzzling over precinct maps and trying to schedule the day, I waited for the first wave of volunteers to show up. A mass of high school students casually walked into the basement of the Bridgeview mosque, laughing, socializing, eyeing the donuts, but looking around skeptically. I waited impatiently for the adult chaperones to show up so they could drive these students to their neighborhoods and put them to work.
We waited restlessly for the chaperones to show up as the minutes ticked by. Finally, at 9:30 the adults started trickling in. We grabbed up the adults as soon as they walked through the door and divided them up with teams of students. By 10 am, we had almost 15 teams out in the field knocking on doors. As the last team of students embarked on the field, an ominous hush came over the basement of the Bridgeview mosque.
Back at headquarters, 15 students were hunched before extensive phone lists calling all of the Muslim voters we could identify in our district. I caught my breath and witnessed our monster at work.
- Haady Taslim
New Americans Democracy Project Fellow and
former Governmental Relations Intern
RECORD NUMBERS MOBILIZE TO THE POLLS IN THE SOUTHWEST SUBURBS ON ELECTION DAY
By Sadiya Ahmed
November 9, 2006
On Tuesday, November 7, 2006, two hundred volunteers poured into the Mosque Foundation's basement where New Americans Democracy Project Fellow Haady Taslim (a project lead by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and co-hosted by CAIR-Chicago) waited anxiously to start the day. It was Election Day and there was a buzz in the Bridgeview community, as well as other surrounding communities.
The goal was simple: to bring Muslims in the southwest suburbs in record numbers to the polls.
As a CAIR-Chicago pilot project to empower American Muslims and encourage political engagement, the NADP was a major success with a record number of Muslims not only registering to vote but turning out to the polls on Election Day.
A 50% increase in voter turnout in the Mosque Foundation's Area (Palos 44) was the highest the area has seen and was well above the expected turnout. Voter registrations in the area also rose by 80%.
In neighboring areas, voter turnout with registered Muslim voters increased significantly as well, with record turnouts in most precincts. As a non-partisan campaign, volunteers and leaders ran into some difficulties when it came to communicating with community members who insisted on being told who to vote for.
Voters were given the CAIR-Chicago Voter Education Guide, which provided them with detailed information on the candidates as well as the voting records of incumbents.
As a pilot project for CAIR-Chicago, the NADP highlighted the strengths and weakness of the Muslim community that is developing. "As a relatively young community, we have a long way to go. Though we ran into a lot of problems earlier in the campaign and had a rough start, we went above and beyond the expected numbers," remarked Sadiya Ahmed, CAIR-Chicago Governmental Relations Coordinator. "The success of this project is only the beginning. We have a long way to go."
The NADP was initially started in July when Community Organizer, and NAPD Fellow, Haady Taslim and a team of volunteers worked on registering eligible American Muslims to vote. The numbers climbed over the months to a final count of 1055 by the registration deadline in October, a number that has never been achieved in such a short amount of time. The project then switched gears to a Get Out the Vote Campaign (GOTV), where thousands of registered voters were contacted throughout the month, through mass mailings, door-to-door canvassing, and phone calls. The message was simple: "Go out and vote on Election Day!"
Though the project's results are only the start of a long term goal, it set the groundwork for the future, for the American Muslim community to become active in their communities, and encourage each other to become active constituents. With the 2006 election finished and the 2008 election is next on the list.
For more information on the CAIR-Chicago's political mobilization efforts, contact Sadiya Ahmed at gov.relations@cairchicago.org
OPEN MOSQUE SERIES:
The Midwest Islamic Center (Masjid al-Huda)
By Dina Rehab
November 2, 2006
The Midwest Islamic Center, commonly known as Masjid Al-Huda, is the only Islamic Center in Schaumburg, Illinois. The center, comprised of a mosque and a weekend Islamic school, serves several neighboring suburbs located within an 8 mile radius of the center; suburbs include: Schaumburg, Hoffman Estates, Roselle, Hanover Park, Streamwood, Bartlett and Elk Grove.
"The center serves approximately 10,000 families within an 8 mile radius," explained Rezwanul
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If he is elected to and serves his entire sixth term, Mayor Richard M. Daley would be in office for 22 years, besting his father's record by one year. However, for the first time since his 1989 campaign, Daley seems to be facing a credible challenger.
An attorney and a Certified Public Accountant, Dorothy Brown has been the Cook County Circuit Court Clerk since 2000 and has received the 2002 Hillary Rodham Clinton Leadership Award from the Illinois Democratic Women, the 2003 Marks of Excellence Award from the National Forum for Black Public Administrators, the 2003 Women of Achievement Award from the Anti-Defamation League, and the 2004 NAACP Proviso/Leyden Medal of Freedom.
William "Dock" Walls, III was an assistant to former Chicago Mayor Harold Washington from 1983 to 1986. A graduate of the Chicago-Kent College of Law, he served as National Political Director for the Reverend Jesse L. Jackson's Rainbow PUSH organization and was the Illinois Primary surrogate for John Kerry's primary campaign. He garnered nearly 40,000 nominating signatures, and was the first challenger in six years to submit more signatures than Daley. Currently, Walls is director of the Committee for a Better Chicago. He has yet to release an education plan in response to Brown's, though he claims his is more structural and will be released sometime in January.
Likewise, it is insane to compare a democratically-elected and committed leader of this country to its most deadly assailants. The only reason why Prager thought up such a farcical and far-fetched allusion in the first place is that Ellison is Muslim. It is inconceivable that he would have invoked the 9-11 terrorist attack had Ellison ascribed to any faith other than Islam.
Communications coordinator at the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Chicago, Sultan Muhammad is the father of two sons, ages 4 and 2 [and 2 daughters]. He and his wife, Naadhera Rodriguez Muhammad, are Muslim (she converted after being raised Catholic). When his boys see him and his wife pray five times a day, it makes quite an impression on them. "It tends to be an equalizer, in that there's something that is beyond the authority of Mom and Dad," says Muhammad. He explains how the hierarchy of authority within his family and faith teaches his sons how to deal with the broader human community. "Issues of respect, issues of tolerance and forgiveness are very key to building the character in children at an early age," he says.
