Ahmed Rehab, Executive Director of CAIR-Chicago and ICIRR board member, spoke on a panel at the Illinois Coalition for Immigrants and Refugee Rights titled, “Framing the debate: Preaching beyond the choir.”

Amina Sharif is the communications coordinator for the Council on American-Islamic Relations Chicago Chapter. She speaks with Vocalo’s Shantell Jamison about the recent Lowe’s decision to pull ad space from TLC’s “All American Muslim” program and what this says about the American sentiment of Islam.

CAIR-Chicago Executive Director Ahmed Rehab talks to WGN Radio’s Jonathon Brandmeier about how the home improvement chain, Lowe’s, gave in to anti-Muslim bigotry when it decided to pull its ads off the show ‘All-American Muslim’.

“It’s a stupid decision morally and a stupid decision economically,” said Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Council on Islamic-American Relations Chicago. “They need to acknowledge their error and that they got duped by right-wing bigots, apologize and resume their ads.”

Ahmed Rehab discusses the ridiculous decision by the chain store Lowe’s to pull it advertisements from the show ‘All-American Muslim.’ “Imagine if a major American advertiser were to pull its ads off of ‘Jersey Shore’ because they received objections that the show, while portraying a group of Italian-Americans, made the glaring error of excluding Mafiosi,” writes Rehab.

“We were really disappointed and stunned that Lowe’s, a major corporation, would take such a stupid decision to side with bigotry,” said Ahmed Rehab, executive director of CAIR-Chicago. Rehab called the group’s action a step in the wrong direction and an insult to the Muslim community.

Chicago activist, Ahmed Rehab, said a conference call was planned with Muslim groups and other groups to craft a response. He said it is not too late, however, for Lowe’s to fix things. “There will be room for reconciliation,” he said. “We would call on Lowe’s to do the right thing and apologize for their really insane action and to reverse the decision to pull out.”

“What we’re being told here essentially is that it is too controversial to have a show with Muslim characters that are not portrayed as terrorists,” remarked CAIR-Chicago Executive Director Ahmed Rehab.

“The TSA works hard everyday to keep Americans safe,” Amina Sharif, TSA communications coordinator said in the release. “When such egregious behavior is flagged on the part of one of their agents, it breeds confidence in us as passengers that it is dealt with as swiftly and as seriously as it was in the case of Roy Egan.”

A veteran officer with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in Chicago is being disciplined after posting hundreds of racist and derogatory comments on Facebook. Not only were Officer Roy Egan’s racial and religious rants open for anyone to see, for years he openly identified himself by name on Facebook and listed his employer as U.S. Homeland Security-TSA, the Transportation Security Administration.