CAIR-Chicago is seeking to outreach to the Muslim community by launching it’s new TSA Watch List Project, coordinated by civil rights intern Afia Yunus. This project seeks to look into complaints of Muslims being detained upon re-entry to the country when traveling due to their names being put on a "watch list" by the Transportation and Security Administration (TSA).

CAIR-Chicago’s Civil Rights Department has launched its Police Misconduct Project to address complaints of Muslims being mistreated by the police. This project is currently being coordinated under Civil Rights intern, Hasan Ali.

As we delve further into the blessed month of Ramadan, CAIR-Chicago has been in full-swing with its outreach efforts to the community. As part of this endeavor, CAIR-Chicago has coordinated short informational updates of its progress during the taraweh (night prayer) gatherings around several Chicagoland mosques.

CAIR-Chicago Executive Director Yaser Tabbara and Civil Rights Coordinator Christina Abraham met with the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Dorothy Brown, to discuss a case involving racist and derogatory comments made by courthouse employees about Arabs, and retaliation against an employee for coming forward to investigators about the incident.

After contacting CAIR-Chicago, several Muslim medical students who had been harassed repeatedly by a colleague finally have the resolution they have been seeking. The colleague would take every opportunity in class and outside to make vulgar and offensive comments about Islam, the Prophet Muhammed, and Muslims.

CAIR-Chicago aided a woman to confront her university’s photo ID policy after she was asked to remove her headscarf (hijab) in order to take a photograph for her student ID. University employees told the woman that she could not wear her headscarf because she was not wearing the headscarf in her driver’s license photograph.

CAIR-Chicago received a complaint in August regarding a Muslim woman who was terminated from her job after a new supervisor openly stated that she didn’t want “Arabians working here.”

CAIR-Chicago's Executive Director, Yaser Tabbara, spoke today at the Muslim Educational and Cultural Center's (MECCA) third annual interfaith Iftar (breaking of the fast) marking the first day of Ramadan.

Supporters of anti-torture legislation gathered together Sunday at St. Paul’s United Church of Christ for a call to formally investigate and end the use of torture in war.

Christina Abraham, CAIR-Chicago Civil Rights Coordinator, represented a Muslim man in a mediation session with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The Arab American Action Network (AAAN) also played an invaluable role in the mediation session by having intern Menna Khalil serve as an interpreter for the Muslim man being represented.

After CAIR-Chicago contacted the head of the company of a Muslim woman who experienced retaliation in the work place after having informed her supervisor of a need for certain accommodations related to a medical condition and her practice of wearing the headscarf (hijab), the head of the company terminated the woman’s supervisor and granted the Muslim woman’s request to work from home.

CAIR-Chicago Civil Rights Department assisted in creating better conditions for a nearby county jail. An individual working closely with the chaplain of a prison facility contacted CAIR-Chicago with what was observed to be unequal treatment of Muslim inmates and unequal representation of Islam.

CAIR-Chicago's Executive Director and Director of Communications met today, along with a number of the Arab community leadership in the Northwest side of Chicago (Muslim Community Center (MCC) area), with Mr. Vance Henry, Director of the Chicago's CAPS program. The meeting took place at the Islamic and Arab Community Service Office directed by Mr. Yousif Marei.

Dina Rehab, Outreach Coordinator at CAIR-Chicago, met with both the principals of Islamic Foundation School and the College Preparatory School of America on September 29th, 2005. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the possibility of providing students the opportunity to intern at CAIR-Chicago, while receiving school credit.

CAIR-Chicago Civil Rights Coordinator, Christina Abraham, accompanied a Muslim man to an interview with the EEOC. The man filed a charge with the EEOC for discrimination based on national origin, religion and retaliation.

For many years now, the Presbyterian Women of the Westminster Presbyterian Church of Joliet have kept a hearty tradition they call the “Bread & Soup Supper.” In each of these gatherings, which are part of their uniform circle meetings, a different member is delegated the task of making the soup and baking the bread. This time it was Marlene Jones.

CAIR-Chicago sponsored an informational session on “The Right to Travel After 9/11” on Saturday evening, September 22, 2005 at the Mosque Foundation in Bridgeview, IL. Speakers presented on the different experiences and issues that have arisen for Muslim travelers after 9/11, and the rights of passengers when traveling.

It is no secret that your civil rights are facing certain unsavory erosions in a post 9/11 Islamophobic climate, but how you react to that is the only challenge you need worry about. Don’t give in to bigotry and scapegoating, don’t cower silently into a dark corner, and don’t let hatred breed hatred.

CAIR-Chicago Civil Rights Coordinator, Christina Abraham, spoke at a vigil held to honor the memory of Hassiba Belbachir, the 27 year-old Algerian woman mysteriously found dead in an immigration detention facility in Illinois in March of this year.