“Some Muslim leaders warned against jumping to conclusions.

“‘If it’s a case of just cell phones and antacid, well, that’s really not good enough,’ said Ahmad Rehab, executive director of the Chicago Office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.”

Mosque debates are taking place across the county, from New York City to Chicago to the surrounding suburbs. They are not all about zoning, but for the most part they are very heated.

Ahmed Rehab says “islamophobia” is sweeping America. The leader of the Council on American-Islamic Relations describes the status of America’s Relationship with its Muslim citizens.

“Organizations that are not only Islamophobic but that insight violence, whether directly or indirectly, are a reality,” said Ahmed Rehab.

“In the public sphere, leaders of the opposition groups to the Not-At-Ground-Zero-Muslim-Center can’t seem to decide on an argument. They have thrown everything and the kitchen sink at us in the way of fabricated reasons,” writes Ahmed Rehab.

Ahmed Rehab, CAIR-Chicago Executive Director, discusses the stabbing of a Muslim cab driver in NYC whose attacker first asked “are you Muslim?”. Rehab also talks about the danger of anti-Muslim propaganda driven by Islamophobes opposed to Park 51, the proposed Muslim community center near Ground Zero.

Yellow Cab Chicago requested Tuesday that a fleet of taxis remove controversial anti-Islam ads. The ads, sponsored by the group Stop Islamization of America, appeared on 25 Chicago cabs this summer. Michael Levine, CEO of Yellow Cab Chicago, said the signs were offensive to the city’s taxi drivers, an estimated half of whom are Muslim.

Yellow Cab Chicago requested Tuesday that a fleet of taxis remove controversial anti-Islam ads. The ads, sponsored by the group Stop Islamization of America, appeared on 25 Chicago cabs this summer. Michael Levine, CEO of Yellow Cab Chicago, said the signs were offensive to the city’s taxi drivers, an estimated half of whom are Muslim.

CAIR-Chicago representatives and local Muslim leaders, at a press conference on Friday, discussed their disappointment in IL Gov. Pat Quinn’s comments regarding the New York mosque controversy. They also shared examples of other mosques around the country that are facing opposition, including one in Naperville which CAIR-Chicago is currently litigating on behalf of.

See Media Coverage HERE

The Council on American Islamic Relations is considering legal action regarding the ads. Ahmed Rehab, executive director of CAIR-Chicago, said organizations such as Geller’s are not qualified to lead domestic violence initiatives.

But Rehab suspects that’s not their primary goal. Instead, he said, they are intentionally creating an uncomfortable work environment for Chicago’s cabdrivers.

The whole brouhaha about the “Mosque at Ground Zero” is frankly bogus. It has little to do with sacred ground, or sensitive hearts. It does however have everything to do with the exploitation of the sacred and the sensitive for the furtherance of the sacrilegious and the insensitive: the phenomenon of Muslim-bashing that is ravaging our nation today.