Muslim American News Briefs, August 23, 2007

muslim_families_finally_evacuated_from_gaza

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 8/23/2007) - The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said today that two Muslim families, one from Tennessee and the other from Arizona, have finally been evacuated from the Gaza Strip with the assistance of the U.S. Department of State.

The families joined two busloads of Americans who had been blocked by Israeli authorities from leaving Gaza since the escalation of hostilities there in June.

One six-year-old child of the Tennessee family was hospitalized soon after the evacuation. His illness had been one of the reasons CAIR earlier this month called on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to expedite the evacuation of all Americans stranded in Gaza.

SEE: CAIR Asks Sec. Rice to Help Tenn. Family Trapped in Gaza

"We thank the Department of State for assisting these American citizens and permanent residents who were trapped under such difficult conditions," said CAIR Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper.

Hooper said CAIR had been working with the Tennessee and Arizona families to secure their exit from Gaza.

CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, has 33 offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.

CONTACT: CAIR-AZ Civil Rights Director Mohammed Abuhannoud, 602-460-9987; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail: ihooper@cair.com; CAIR Communications Coordinator Rabiah Ahmed, 202-488-8787 or 202-439-1441, E-Mail: rahmed@cair.com; CAIR Communications Coordinator Amina Rubin, 202-488-8787, E-Mail: arubin@cair.com

SEE ALSO:

ISRAEL TOLD TO EASE PALESTINIAN MOVEMENT (AP) - TOP
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/

22/AR2007082202139.html

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CAIR-FL: PRISONS' SUSPEND SPECIAL MEALS FOR JEWS, MUSLIMS - TOP
MATT SEDENSKY, Associated Press Writer
http://www.miamiherald.com/775/story/212910.html

MIAMI -- Jewish inmates who follow strict religious diets at state prisons are no longer provided meals in line with their beliefs. Muslims must now eat vegan food to satisfy their religious requirements.

The Corrections Department has ended the Jewish Dietary Accommodation Program, which provided kosher meals to not only Jews, but to Muslims as well, because the state prison system does not offer halal food. Cost - and fairness - were cited as factors.

"We have 100 faiths represented by DOC inmates, so it would be impossible to satisfy everyone's preferences and unfair to do it for one group and not another," agency spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said. "We just have to look at what our mission is and what's best for our overall department and the overall population of inmates in our system instead of a smaller group."

The department has suspended use of pork products in an attempt to appease religious adherents and will continue to serve vegetarian and vegan meals. It said many Jews and Muslims could choose the vegan option, which is free of any animal products, to adhere to their faiths.

But for the strict followers of kosher and halal diets, it is far from ideal.

Rabbi Jack Romberg of Temple Israel in Tallahassee, who was a member of a group that reviewed religious dietary accommodations in prisons, noted that unless the vegan food is prepared separately from other meals, it would not satisfy kosher law. Ahmed Bedier of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Tampa said vegan food would meet the religious requirements of those who follow a halal diet, but would cause undue hardship.

"Either you have a choice of violating your own religion beliefs or you're coerced to only eat vegan," Bedier said. "That's probably not a reasonable accommodation." (MORE)

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ATTITUDES TOWARD MUSLIMS MIXED IN EUROPE AND THE U.S. - TOP
Business Wire, 8/23/07
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId

=news_view&newsId=20070823005184&newsLang=en

A new Financial Times/Harris Poll of cross sections of adults in the five largest European countries and the United States looks at attitudes toward Muslims and finds differing opinions on Muslims as a threat to national security, prejudice towards Muslims and whether parents would object to a child marrying a Muslim.

When it comes to Muslims as a threat to national security, the British are the most wary as 38 percent say the presence of Muslims in their country is a threat, followed by 30 percent of Italians and 28 percent of Germans who believe the same. Approximately one in five French (20%), American (21%) and Spanish (23%) adults also say the presence of Muslims in their respective countries is a threat to national security. With the exception of Spain and Great Britain, where large pluralities say the presence of Muslims does not present a threat to national security, majorities of adults in the other four countries say they do not present a threat.

These are some of the results of aFinancial Times/Harris Pollconducted online by Harris Interactive® among a total of 6,398 adults aged 16 to 64 within France; Germany, Great Britain, Spain, the United States, and adults aged 18 to 64 in Italy, between August 1 and 13, 2007.

Prejudice Toward Muslims

Half of French adults (51%) as well as just under half of Italians (49%) and Americans (47%) believe that Muslims in their country have become the subject of unjustified criticism and prejudice. In the other three countries surveyed, adults are more likely to believe Muslims are not the subject of unfair prejudice. Just under half of Spanish (47%), British (44%) and German (43%) adults all believe Muslims in their country have not become the subject of unfair criticism and prejudice. It is interesting to note that two of these countries, Spain and Great Britain, are where the two most recent Al Quada attacks in Europe have occurred. (MORE)

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CAIR-WA: FBI'S RELEASE OF FERRY PASSENGER PHOTOS RESENTED - TOP
Lornet Turnbull, Janet Tu and Mike Carter, Seattle Times, 8/23/07
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003849315_ferries23m.html

For Arabs and Muslims across the Puget Sound area, a rise in the nation's threat level or a bombing halfway around the world often can mark a period of unease.

In the years since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, leaders in that community say incidents of profiling and harassment have ebbed and flowed - increasing when Muslims are linked to news of the day.

Now the FBI's release of photographs of two men of unknown origin, who the agency says were observed acting suspiciously aboard as many as six different Washington ferry routes in recent weeks, is creating new worries in the community.

Muslim- and Arab-American leaders are upset that the FBI didn't consult them - as it has done in other instances - before releasing the photos on the Internet and to news organizations. They worry that the action may fracture the relationship the agency and the community have carefully built.

The FBI has stressed that the release of the photos is a rare move, taken only after it had exhausted other efforts to identify the men. The agency also has said the men's actions could be innocuous, but it needs to question them.

The photos were snapped by a ferry captain last month after crew members alerted him to suspicious activity. The men seemed inordinately interested in the operation of the vessel, took photographs of the interiors of the boats and went into areas tourists and commuters don't normally go, the FBI has said. The agency has received many tips but has not yet found the men.

Dozens of Muslims and Arabs have complained to community leaders about the photographs. The fallout has led to a meeting planned today between Muslim- and Arab-American community leaders and law-enforcement officials. . .

Both Zawaideh and S. Arsalan Bukhari, president of the Seattle chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), say their organizations have been receiving more reports lately involving allegations of discrimination.

Bukhari said he's heard of delays at the border, as well as cases of people being asked questions at the airport and searched so thoroughly they missed their flights. (MORE)

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CAIR-MI: CHARITY RAIDED BY FEDS SEEKS FILES - TOP
Muslim agency under probe says U.S. attorney is charging up to $115K for return of its records.
Paul Egan, Detroit News, 8/23/07
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070823/METRO/708230362/1003

When FBI agents raided the Muslim charity Life for Relief and Development last September, they carted away computers and records but charged nobody and allowed the agency to continue operating.

Nearly one year later, the charity is today asking U.S. District Judge Nancy G. Edmunds to order the return of nearly 200 boxes of paperwork it says are critical to its operations, including tasks such as filing its federal tax return.

The U.S. Attorney's Office is willing to provide the records, but only if Life for Relief pays copying charges of between $21,000 and $115,000, the charity said in a recent federal court filing. Those charges are higher than normal because the government insists copies be made inside FBI offices by a company with a U.S. security clearance.

"It strikes me that after this period of time, they ought to be in a position of either moving forward or being able to return the records," Life for Relief attorney Thomas Cranmer said Wednesday.

Today's hearing is three weeks before the start of Ramadan, a month of fasting and charitable giving for Muslims. Islamic leaders have complained that raids on Life for Relief and other Muslim charities in the United States have chilled donors.

The government, which has copied and returned computerized files but continues to hold reams of paper records, has filed sealed documents, which only the judge can look at, putting forth its reasons why Life for Relief, and not the government, should pay the copying charges. . .

Dawud Walid, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said charging Life for Relief for photocopying is akin to making the agency pay the FBI for the cost of its investigation.

"These kinds of charges would be putting an exceedingly high burden on a nonprofit organization that seeks to use these funds to help people who are facing starvation," Walid said. (MORE)

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CANADA: 3RD ATTACK ON MISSISSAUGA MOSQUE ALARMS MUSLIMS - TOP
Ashifa Kassam, Toronto Star, 8/23/07
http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/249041

Minutes before prayers were set to begin on Sunday, a foot-wide slab of concrete came crashing through a window of a Mississauga mosque.

It was the second time in less than a month that the mosque has been targeted by vandals, and Muslim groups are asking police to treat the incident as a hate crime.

There were 100 people inside the mosque when the window shattered. No one was hurt and many were unaware that anything had even happened. Those who saw the act of vandalism reported that two male teens rode up on bicycles and hurled what appears to be a chunk of patio stone through the window of the facility's control room.

"It was a scary-looking thing," says M.D. Khalid, director of the Islamic Society of North America centre. "How much more daring can you be?"

He estimated the cost of the damage to be about $1,000. The building houses a mosque as well as a Muslim secondary school, where students are due to return from summer holidays in two weeks.

Earlier this month, a rock was tossed through the windshield of a van belonging to the mosque. Reports again identified two males on bicycles as responsible.

"When it's twice in the same location, it leaves the impression that some people are prejudiced," says Khalid. "These incidents are not random."

The mosque was also firebombed after Sept. 11, 2001 and Khalid is constantly increasing security at the mosque. "It's not a good feeling." (MORE)

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AUSTRALIA: MUSLIM IMMIGRATION LIKENED TO BIRD FLU - TOP
Nick Ralston, Herald Sun, 8/23/07
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22294676-5005961,00.html

A NSW Senate candidate has compared the immigration of Muslims to Australia to the bird flu and says it should stop.

Christian Democratic Party (CDP) Senate candidate Paul Green called today for a moratorium on Muslim immigration while a study on its social impacts was carried out.

He said it would be easier to carry out such a study with the country's Muslim population at 300,000, rather than three million at a later date.

A study would also give the Australian people a chance to have a say on the immigration program, Mr Green said.

He said that in the last 12 months, a number of local Muslim senior clerics had made statements that were not of "the Australian nature".

"If there was bird flu coming from a people's group across the nation would we not halt, assess the risk management of what it means to Australia and then assess the factors and then say, is it not safe to continue that or withhold it until it is dealt with," he said. (MORE)

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DC: INTERFAITH DIALOGUE HELPS PROMOTE TOLERANCE, UNDERSTANDING - TOP
Muslims, Christians, Jews, others strive to improve interfaith relations
Lauren Monsen, USINFO, 8/22/07

People from different religious backgrounds can achieve a better understanding of one another's beliefs and cultural traditions through interfaith dialogue, says U.S. State Department official Kareema Daoud.

"Talking to other faiths makes us stronger in our convictions and helps us to understand our neighbors better," Daoud said during an August 4 USINFO Webchat. "It is a dialogue and not a compromise. I have a position, you have a position."

Daoud began the webchat, which was sponsored by the State Department, by introducing herself as an American Muslim who sees no contradiction between her religious affiliation and her full participation in U.S. society. "I, for one, believe it is possible to successfully integrate my Muslim identity with my American identity, and I am part of a majority [of U.S. Muslims] who believe so," she said.

A recent public opinion poll of Muslims in the United States indicates that most believe that the principles of Islam and the obligations of U.S. citizenship are entirely compatible, she added.

Daoud noted that there is no prohibition in the United States against wearing the hijab -- the head scarf favored by many, though not all, Muslim women. "I thank God that we have the freedom to practice our religion freely in the United States," said Daoud. "Some of my closest friends … wear the hijab. No one has the right to tell you not to wear your hijab in the U.S.A.," because U.S. law protects the wearing of religious garb, "and the hijab is not an exception." (See related article.) (MORE)

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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: info@cair.com
URL: http://www.cair.com

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