CAIR-Chicago Executive Director, Yaser Tabbara, along with a number of Muslim community leaders, met Tuesday, September 13, 2005 with representatives from the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and local FBI and DHS officials.

CAIR-Chicago Director of Communicaitons, Ahmed Rehab, joined a group of Chicago community leaders for a closed meeting with the Editorial Board of the Chicago Tribune, Tuesday, to discuss the paper's coverage of Islam and Muslims.

CAIR-Chicago Executive Director Yaser Tabbara and Director of Communications Ahmed Rehab met with US Congressman Danny K. Davis to discuss issues relevant to his Muslim constituency. Dr. Danny Davis, representative for the 7th US congressional district, listened attentively as Tabbara & Rehab discussed the work of CAIR-Chicago.

CAIR-Chicago’s Civil Rights Coordinator met with the principal of a Chicago Public High School to discuss conducting sensitivity training sessions for faculty and educational seminars for students. The meeting was a result of an anti-Muslim website that was being used as a resource in a World Studies class taught at the local area high school.

Yaser Tabbara met with a number of faith-based leaders and members of the Chicago Police department including Chicago Police Superintendent Philip Cline, members of the local FBI office and the US and State Attorney offices. Among the Chicago faith-based community representatives, Imam Abdul Malik Mujahid, Chairman of the CIOGC, Imam Gha-Is Aski of Imam WD Mohammed Ministry, Rev. Paul H. Rutgers, Executive Director, Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago and Minister Shiva Singh Khalsa of the Sikh Dharma where all present.

Yaser Tabbara participated in a briefing by the ICIRR on the status of their on-going projects and future strategic plan. A number of Muslim and immigrant leaders of ICIRR member organizations were present.

CAIR-Chicago participated in both the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and The Mosque Cares Conventions over labor day weekend, Sep 2-5, 2005.

This weekend, September 2-5, ISNA will be holding its 42nd Annual Convention at The Donald E. Stephens Convention Center - 5555 N. River Road, Rosemont , Illinois 60018. The convention features lectures, workshops, seminars, a grand shopping bazaar, and lots of networking opportunities. 50,000 people are expected.

CAIR-Chicago met with the Arab American Action Network at the CAIR-Chicago office to develop strategies for the next phase of the Citizenship Delay Project. The next phase of the project will include a political/media campaign to raise awareness and garner public support, legal remedies for the dozens of cases that have been reported to both organizations on the issue, outreaching to the Muslim community to spread awareness on the issue, and a publication that will detail the course of the project and the findings of research and investigation on the issue.

CAIR-Chicago participated in a bus tour, organized by the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute from the School of Continuing Studies at Northwestern University. The tour explores Chicago’s Arab Muslim and Christian Communities.

CAIR-Chicago met with the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois (ACLU-Illinois), the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago (CIOGC), and the Muslim Bar Association (MBA) to discuss an ACLU class action law suit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for their inadequate policies concerning the reentry of Muslim U.S. citizens from abroad into the U.S., when those citizens have names similar to someone else on a government watch list.

(CHICAGO, IL, 7/29/05) – A number of leading Chicago Muslim organizations today publicly endorsed the fatwa (Islamic religious ruling) against terrorism and extremism during a news conference held this morning at the Downtown Islamic Center. The fatwa, recently issued by the Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA), is endorsed by more than 150 U.S. Muslim groups, leaders and institutions.

On July 28, 2005, CAIR-Chicago Governmental Relations Director Fadi Farhan took part in the Chicago Police Department’s (CPD) meeting of faith-based leaders called, “Strengthening Relations Between Police and Chicago’s Diverse Communities”. The meeting is a regular forum in which scores of prominent representatives and leaders of Chicago’s faith-based community come together to discuss problems that each community sees on its streets and the manner in which the CPD can help to solve those problems.

On July 26, 2005, CAIR-Chicago Governmental Relations Director Fadi Farhan and Civil Rights Coordinator Christina Abraham met with the Chicago Police Department (CPD) Deputy Superintendent Ellen Scrivner and Dr. Lorie Fridell to discuss issues of racial profiling in light of a new report issued by the CPD. CAIR-Chicago expressed the need for a separate category for Middle Easterners/North Africans/South Asians in order to more accurately determine the profiling of Muslims by police departments.

On Sunday, July 17, CAIR-Chicago and the other organizational members of the Civil Liberties Coalition of Illinois (CLCI) held a town hall meeting to discuss the issues involved in the expiring, or sunset, provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act. The town hall meeting occurred between 1 and 3 pm on the campus of Loyola University and had greater than 120 attendees in a packed house from a diverse cross-section of the Chicagoland community.

Dr. Shakeela Hassan, CAIR-Chicago Board member, and Fadi Farhan, Director of Governmental Relations, took part in a gathering of Palestinian and Israeli children aged 14 to 16 hosted by Islamic Foundation in Villa Park on Friday, July 15, 2005.

CAIR-Chicago participated in its first Cafe Finjan event on Thursday, July 14th, at Che Cafe - 1058 W. Taylor Street. Cafe Finjan is a series of interfaith arts exchanges, begun in 2004 by the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs as part of its Jewish-Muslim Community-Building Initiative.

As part of Muslims Care (www.muslimscare.org), a national campaign promoting community service, CAIR-Chicago organized a volunteer opportunity for enthusiastic Muslims in the Chicagoland area. 18 volunteers prepared and served meals to residents at Hilda's Place, an Evanston-based homeless shelter.

CAIR-Chicago’s Civil Rights Coordinator Christina Abraham met with the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office for Civil Rights representatives to discuss what the Office for Civil Rights (OJP/OCR) can do for victims of discrimination by agencies that receive federal financial assistance. The OJP/OCR enforces civil rights laws such as Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, among other laws.

Christina Abraham, CAIR-Chicago's Civil Rights Coordinator, and Fadi Farhan, Director of Governmental Relations, took part in a meeting on June 24 at the Chicago Police Department (CPD) Headquarters in which the topic of discussion was racial profiling during traffic stops in the city.