To honor the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, The Jewish Council on Urban Affairs cosponsored an Iftar at a Lakeview Synagogue for Chicago Muslims Sunday, October 23rd. The event held at the Anshe Sholom B'nai Israel Congregation (cosponsor) featured prayer, dinner, and plenty of socializing.

CAIR-Chicago Executive Director, Yaser Tabbara, and Director of Communications, Ahmed Rehab, addressed the "Mosque Cares" congregation after the Friday sermon and prayer in Homewood, IL, last Friday.

After a short presentation on the mission and vision of the Greater Chicago Food Depository, and on the existing poverty levels in the United States, volunteers were divided into several groups, each with a specific task. CAIR-Chicago volunteers were assigned the task of weighing and packaging cereal.

Muslims at a half-way house were not being allowed to congregate for prayer and iftar during Ramadan. CAIR-Chicago contacted the director of the halfway house.

(Milwaukee, WI - October 20, 2005) – CAIR-Chicago’s Director of Communications, Ahmed Rehab, and Civil Rights Coordinator, Christina Abraham, organized a press conference in collaboration with Officer Ayman Khatib’s legal counsel, Robert Mihelich to address a complaint filed by Officer Khatib for race, religious, and national origin discrimination against the City of Milwaukee Police Department.

The Chicago office of the Council of American-Islamic Relations, the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group, applauded today Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky's efforts to get Washington to send more helicopters and aid to the earthquake-afflicted areas of Pakistan.

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.