"If you add up hate mail, hateful phone calls and e-mails, racial slurs being yelled at people and verbal or physical altercations, it's dozens of incidents," said Amina Sharif. "Hate is a self-addressed envelope and so the person who bears this hate is the victim of his own hatred before I am. And I can only pray for that person to find peace and to rid himself of that hatred," said Ahmed Rehab.

"the fight's not over, and they will try to appeal the decision," Amina Sharif, the nonprofit's communications coordinator, said. "We are concerned that anti-Muslim sentiments expressed during the meeting may have wrongly influenced the decision," she said. "That is something that concerns us, and that we may challenge."

"We fear that the board may have acted on improper factors in rejecting the Irshad Learning Center's permit, and we will continue to pursue this matter in hopes of achieving a just resolution," said Kevin Vodak, attorney with the Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which will be representing Irshad as it considers appealing the county's ruling.

"I'm concerned about national security here, not civil liberties per se, and that's why I oppose racial profiling. Because from a national security perspective it will not work neither logically nor scientifically. There is a study from the University of Texas that shows mathematically that racially profiling causes us to miss more opportunities than catch them," says Ahmed Rehab.

After Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab slipped by airport security only to be stopped thanks to the vigilance of fellow passengers, a debate on the effectiveness of airport security and counter-terrorism intelligence is no doubt in order. But trying to fix a problem without actually fixing the problem is misguided. Trying to fix it by introducing a new problem is dumb. This guy seemed to have left every clue short of raise his hand and proclaim, "Arrest me, I am a terrorist!"

CAIR-Chicago Civil Rights Director Christina Abraham, who attended the hearing with Amal Abusumayyah, said afterward, "We are hopeful that this sent a message to the public that sort of behavior will not be tolerated by a fair and just society."

CAIR-Chicago announced today that it is pleased with the plea agreement reached yesterday between state prosecutors and Valerie Kenney, a suburban woman who faced hate crime charges after attacking a Muslim woman at a Tinley Park grocery store 2 days after the Fort Hood shooting.

Amal Abusumayah says Valerie Kenney, 54, complained loudly in a Tinley Park grocery aisle about a November shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas. Police say Kenney also pulled on Abusumayah’s headscarf.

A southwest suburban woman who was charged with a hate crime against another woman pled guilty Tuesday and was sentenced to probation and mandatory anger management and diversity understanding classes, according to the office of Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez.

"It gives her an opportunity to learn from her mistake," said Christina Abraham of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "And we think this does send a message to the greater community that hate crimes are not going to be tolerated and that this sort of behavior is wrong."

"The core of the problem is that Muslims are seen as a Monolith by the media and so when one Muslim commits and act of terror or error, all Muslims are brought to bear for that Act. And that kinda of mentality does not exist for other communities because of the nuanced understanding of other communities," said Ahmed Rehab.

An official with the Chicago-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, which became involved in the case, said the backlash against Muslim-Americans had spiked somewhat in the days immediately following the Fort Hood shooting but has subsided. "We try to rally community support for (victims and their families) and to make sure the state's attorney is pursuing the case with the utmost importance," said spokeswoman Christina Abraham.

CAIR-Chicago Executive Director Ahmed Rehab talks to Shari Elliker about the failures of racial profiling and the outspokenness of American Muslims in condemning acts of terror. Rehab also addresses questions posed by callers to the show.

"There is no evidence to suggest that there is a link between religious Muslim behavior on a plane and terrorism. It is quite the opposite. All terrorists that we have come to know of, who have performed or attempted acts of terrorism on a plane, have actually not been engaged in outward Islamic behavior. And in every case where someone was involved in outwardly Islamic behavior, and were then seen as suspicious, were clearly absolved of being potential terrorists, including the 6 imams who won their case in court," said Ahmed Rehab. ALSO LISTEN HERE

"Racial profiling doesn't work," exaplains Ahmed Rehab. "Richard Reid (the 'Shoe Bomber') didn't have a Middle Eastern sounding name. Al-Qaeda is perfectly capable of recruiting individuals that pass through our racial profiling criteria."

"To me, the lesson learned from the potential Christmas Day bombing is that we missed clear red flags and we can't ignore that and start talking about new measures while the existing measures could have work had we actually implemented them," said Ahmed Rehab, Executive Director of CAIR-Chicago.

CAIR-Chicago Board Member Yaser Tabbara and Executive Director Ahmed Rehab talk to Fox News about why racial and religious profiling is not an affective method to prevent terrorist attacks and should not be done.

CAIR-Chicago is proud to announce that Ian Bushner has joined its team as a Public Interest Law Initiative (PILI) Fellow. Ian graduated with honors from the University of Chicago Law School and following his Fellowship will work as an associate with the law firm Jenner & Block LLP. To read more about Ian click here

Sharif discussed CAIR-Chicago’s work to combat religious discrimination and promote religious tolerance, and explained how media plays a critical role in that effort. She also described how CAIR-Chicago serves as a resource to journalists and news producers by offering them support and expert analysis as they develop their news reports.

Thank you, Neil, for you intelligent, informed article "Fear and loathing in the cat food aisle" (Dec. 13). I am appalled by the attitude of the letter writer who said she wanted to physically assault three Muslim women praying in a Costco, and your response that "hating other people is like taking poison and expecting someone else to die" is right on target.