
COUNCIL ON AMERICAN-ISLAMIC RELATIONS - CHICAGO | DEFENDING CIVIL RIGHTS. FIGHTING BIGOTRY. PROMOTING TOLERANCE
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.
Ahmed Rehab, CAIR-Chicago Executive Director, talks to Worldview’s Jerome McDonnell about the protests in Egypt against the country’s military leaders.
Just back from Egypt, Ahmed Rehab talks to Worldview’s Jerome McDonnell about the state of military rule and sectarian violence as Egypt inches closer to next year’s historic presidential election.
Today in Cairo, frustrated activists plan to stage another mass protest to accelerate the pace of government reform. In a recent visit to Cairo, Ahmed Rehab, director of the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and frequent Worldview contributor, met with high-ranking officials and activists to discuss the way forward. He tells Jerome what he thinks the Egyptian people should demand now.
Ahmed Rehab is the Executive Director of CAIR Chicago: the Council on American-Islamic Relations. He said the President sugar-coats the US demands on Israel. “Would you please do this, pretty please do that? That’s not the message the United States should have. We need to be a lot more courageous and bold and demanding of the right thing.”
Worldview frequently checked in with Chicagoan Ahmed Rehab who was in Cairo during the mass protest movement that eventually brought down President Hosni Mubarak. Ahmed, also the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations-Chicago, left Egypt this week. He joins us in studio to reflect on his experiences
Worldview’s Jerome McDonnell talks to Ahmed Rehab from Cairo. Rehab flew to Cairo to participate in the protests and has been blogging about his experiences on his blog, Mindful of Dreams. LISTEN HERE
Christina Abraham discusses the lawsuit CAIR-Chicago filed for businessman Ala Alsherbini, against the village of Worth.
CAIR-Chicago filed a discrimination complaint in federal court this week against the Illinois State Police (ISP) on behalf of Kifah Mustapha, a leading Muslim religious leader (Imam) based in Chicago. The ISP revoked his chaplaincy position citing a dubious Internet report attacking him. The report was written by Steven Emerson, an anti-Muslim blogger notorious for fighting against American Muslim civic participation. See media coverage of the lawsuit
HERE.
Ahmed Rehab says the position was revoked because of a false anti-Muslim blog attacking Kifah.
“There was nothing that would prevent him from fulfilling this role. Except for the fact that somebody out there wished to smear him and the ISP was either too lazy or incompetent to actually sift through the smears and figure out that they were smears. And instead decided to drop him to avoid any controversy. That’s unacceptable,” said Rehab.