Muslim American News Briefs, October 26, 2007

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: “(The people of Paradise) will not have differences or hatred amongst themselves. Their hearts will be as if one heart and they will be glorifying God in the morning and in the evening."

(SANTA CLARA, CA, 10/26/07) - The San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-SFBA) today announced that the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District will issue a public apology in response to an incident earlier this summer in which a high school official demanded that a Muslim student remove her hijab, or Islamic head scarf.

The school district will also amend its "no hat" policy and announce a community awareness forum.

On June 19, 2007, a supervisor in the lunchroom of Seaside High School demanded that a 13-year-old Muslim student remove her headscarf, despite being told that it was worn for religious reasons.

The student, who was visiting the school to take part in a summer algebra program, says she broke down in tears after the supervisor allegedly shouted, "You have to take it off now," in front of more than 100 other students in the lunchroom. Despite the shouted and repeated demands of the school official, the girl refused to remove her scarf.

On October 29, 2007, during the district's school board meeting, a public apology will be issued to the student and her family. The apology will address the embarrassment and harm caused while acknowledging her right to wear a hijab at school.

At the meeting, officials will consider a proposal to amend the existing policy, which allows schools discretion to adopt blanket "no-headwear" policies, to include an exception for students wearing head covering for religious reasons.

Angela Chan, a staff attorney at the Asian Law Caucus (ALC) who has been representing the family in this matter, said, "It is our hope that the School Board will make the correct decision and adopt the policy recognizing a students' right to wear religious headwear. We also want to be sure that the new policy is worded in a manner that prevents such alarming incidents from reoccurring."

Further, district officials will announce a community forum hosted by the CAIR-SFBA, the ALC, and the student’s family scheduled for Thursday, November 15, 2007, from 6-8 p.m. at the Seaside High School's library.

The forum will include a presentation from CAIR-SFBA addressing the impact of prejudice and harassment, particularly highlighting hate crimes and other incidents that have been perpetrated against American Muslims. The ALC will provide a “know your rights” presentation outlining the state and federal laws protecting students from harassment and discrimination.

"We are grateful to the school district for its cooperation in addressing this matter and its attention to ensuring safety and equality for all students," said Safaa Ibrahim, executive director of CAIR-SFBA. "The public forum can turn this into an effective learning opportunity and help avoid future incidents of harassment. We encourage and welcome the entire community to attend."

CONTACT: CAIR-SFBA Civil Rights Coordinator Mahrukh Hasan at 408.986.9874, mhasan@cair.com; CAIR-SFBA Media & Outreach Coordinator Kourosh Safavi at 408.986.9874, ksafavi@cair.com

CAIR: 'ISLAMO-FASCISM' EVENT SPONSOR TO HOST BRITISH RACIST - TOP
YAF brings white-supremacist leader to Michigan State University

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 10/26/2007) - A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group today expressed concern about the decision of a student group that is involved in the so-called "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week" to host a Michigan lecture by a representative of a British racist political party.

The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) says the group, Young Americans for Freedom (YAF), is hosting a lecture tonight at Michigan State University by British National Party (BNP) Chairman Nick Griffin.

Griffin has been prosecuted in Britain for inciting racial hatred and has been quoted denying the Holocaust. He said: "It's well known that the chimneys from the gas chambers at Auschwitz are fake, built after the war ended."

According to the BNP Constitution: "The British National Party. . .is wholly opposed to any form of racial integration between British and non-European peoples. It is therefore committed to stemming and reversing the tide of non-white immigration and to restoring, by legal changes, negotiation and consent, the overwhelmingly white makeup of the British population that existed in Britain prior to 1948."

A BNP news release quotes Kyle Bristow, chairman of Michigan State University chapter of YAF, as saying: "It is an honor to host Nick Griffin at my university. Griffin is going to explain how multiculturalism, mass immigration, and Islam are destroying Western civilization." YAF says Griffin will speak about how "Islam is Taking Over Europe."

YAF sponsored a recent "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week" lecture by Rick Santorum, a former U.S. senator. The Daily Collegian reported, "The Penn State chapter of Young Americans for Freedom was contacted by ("Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week" coordinator David) Horowitz and agreed to organize events on campus."

The Southern Poverty Law Center lists Young Americans for Freedom - Michigan State University as a "hate group."

"There appear to be growing links between anti-Muslim bigots in the United States and European racists and anti-Semites," said CAIR Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper. "Those who promote and exploit such links are doing a disservice to our nation and to its traditions of interfaith tolerance and understanding."

Hooper said other speakers on the "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week" lecture tour have been accused of racism and anti-Semitism, or have been linked to European racists.

One of those speakers, Robert Spencer, recently offered a keynote address at a European gathering that included representatives of racist or "neo-Nazi" political parties.

Another speaker, Ann Coulter, has referred to Muslims as "rag heads" and recommended that the United States invade Muslim countries, kill their leaders and convert everyone to Christianity. She recently caused outrage in the Jewish community for anti-Semitic comments.

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.

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 or 202-341-4171, E-Mail: arubin@cair.com

ATTACKING ISLAM UNDERMINES RELIGIOUS FREEDOM - TOP
Charles C. Haynes, First Amendment Center, 10/25/07

Halloween arrived early this year in the guise of “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week” held Oct. 22-26 on hundreds of college and university campuses across the nation. Scary speakers like Ann Coulter fanned out to warn students about the lies organizers say are being taught about the war on terrorism in institutions of higher learning.

The “protest week” is organized by the David Horowitz Freedom Center, an organization dedicated to promoting the ideas of, well, David Horowitz (a 1960s leftist who now describes himself as a conservative).

If the purpose were only to wake Americans up to the threat of extremists who commit terrorist acts in the name of Islam, then who could object? I suspect, however, that most of us are already fully awake to the terrorist threat including the many Muslim Americans now serving in our armed services, as well as the many Muslim soldiers fighting with them in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But the real target behind the “Islamo-Fascism” rhetoric appears to be Islam itself. Horowitz is convinced that the “academic left” censors the truth about the Islamic roots of terrorism and thereby creates “sympathy for the enemy.”

That’s why many of the week’s campus events don’t focus on terrorism, but rather on topics like the “oppression of women in Islam.” And that’s also why the featured speakers are not experts on terrorist groups. They are, instead, people like author Robert Spencer, who argues that Islam is “the world’s most intolerant religion,” and Coulter, who refers to Muslims as “rag heads” and describes the Quran as “tied to a Stone Age culture.”

To the extent that political correctness on college campuses chills debate about the true nature of the terrorist threat, I’m all for replacing empty clichés such as “Islam is a religion of peace” with an open and honest discussion about the history and teachings of Islam. As a student of world religions, I’m well aware (as are most Muslims) of the extremist voices within Islam today and in history. (Similar voices are heard in the history of every world faith.)

But my own study of Islam convinces me that a fair, scholarly assessment of Islamic theology, history and civilization would refute the canard that Islam is inherently violent and intolerant. And it would expose al-Qaida and other terrorist groups as preaching a perversion of Islamic teaching.

Beyond demonizing Islam, it’s hard to understand what Horowitz, Coulter, Spencer and company hope to accomplish with their campus protests. If they are genuinely interested in defeating Islamist terrorists, why don’t they reach out to the vast majority of Muslims who share their rejection of extremism instead of pushing them away with blanket condemnations of their religion? (MORE)

PA: EXPERT PRESENTS ISLAM AS TOLERANT - TOP
Adam Smeltz, Centre Daily Times, 10/26/07

The Western world may not hear this too often, but nothing in Islam justifies terrorism, a scholar on the Middle East said Thursday night.

“The root of terrorism — it doesn’t have anything to do with Islam,” Medhi Noorbaksh told a gathering of about 60 people in the Forest Resources Building. “ ... Terrorism in any shape is to be condemned.”

Noorbaksh, an associate professor of international affairs at Harrisburg University, appeared here as part of the “Peace, not Prejudice” seminar series. Put together by the Penn State Muslim Student Association, the series is a reaction to “Islamo- Fascism Awareness Week.”

That national theme week of events, inspired by conservative activist David Horowitz, brought former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum to campus on Tuesday.

Santorum issued warnings against radicalized Islam, saying that most Americans don’t fully understand the threat. He also drew distinctions between Judeo- Christian culture and Islam in general, and painted the latter as a religion built more on control and dominance.

Noorbaksh, an expert in Middle Eastern politics and its intersection with Islam, offered a dramatically different presentation.

He underscored the religion’s past in education, capitalism, consensus-building and equity.

In fact, the faith promotes respect for diversity, including religious diversity, he said, quoting from Muslim texts.

“Muslims are obliged. ... You have to respect people of other faith,” Noorbaksh said.

Radical elements in Muslim countries — such as those that promote female genital mutilation or ban women from driving — do not stem from the religion itself, Noorbaksh said. (MORE)

In a show of solidarity with the Muslim community, representatives of the Tulsa Jewish Federation and several interfaith organizations held a press conference Friday condemning Oklahoma lawmakers who turned down a copy of the Quran.

Rep. Rex Duncan, R-Sand Springs, refused a gift of Islam's holy book earlier this week, saying, "Most Oklahomans do not endorse the idea of killing innocent women and children in the name of ideology." Other lawmakers joined him in refusing the gift, offered by the Governor's Ethnic American Advisory Council as part of the state's centennial celebration.

"Today, I'm an American Muslim, speaking for our brothers," said David Bernstein, executive director of the Jewish Federation.

Also represented at the press conference, held at the Al-Salaam Mosque, were the Oklahoma Conference for Community and Justice, Tulsa Metropolitan Ministry, the Tulsa Interfaith Alliance, the Islamic Society of Tulsa, the Say No to Hate Coalition and the Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Ir this were 10 or 15 years ago and a Muslim sought to gift legislators with a copy of the Quran, our guess is most would have accepted and that would have been that. But 9/11 changed everything, as we've seen demonstrated vividly in Oklahoma this week.

State Rep. Rex Duncan, a Republican from Sand Springs, made it clear he didn't want a complimentary copy of a Quran when they're distributed to lawmakers next month. The books are being given by the Governor's Ethnic American Advisory Council as part of the state's centennial. They were paid for by the Muslim community in Oklahoma, which numbers 30,000 to 50,000.

Duncan said he realizes that "not all Muslims are terrorists, but I don't know of another religion or ideology that employs terrorism and the threat of terrorism.” He said that instead of distributing the Quran, the council should encourage peaceful Muslims to "speak out against terrorism in the name of their religion.”

The chairwoman of the governor's council, Marjan Seirafi-Pour, has handled things with class as the number of lawmakers saying "no thanks” has grown. Seirafi-Pour, a Muslim, sent e-mails explaining the project to lawmakers and telling them to let her know if they didn't wish to receive one. "We are not trying to force anything on anyone,” she told the Tulsa World.

All but one of those who have rejected the offer are Republicans. The GOP leaders in the House and Senate plan to accept their copies of the book. Another Republican, Rep. Dan Sullivan of Tulsa, will do the same and even has offered to find a home for one Quran. As for the governor, his spokesman said the book "was offered in a spirit of friendship and respect, and Governor Henry received it in that spirit.”

A NEW PAGE TURNS IN CENTENNIAL QURAN FLAP - TOP
Jennifer Mock, Oklahoman, 10/26/07

Gov. Brad Henry and leaders in both the House and Senate said Wednesday they intend to accept a copy of the centennial Quran following a number of refusals by other lawmakers this week.

House Speaker Lance Cargill said Wednesday he would keep his copy but also said he would give a centennial Bible to the council distributing the Muslim religious books.

How did it all begin?
This week, at least 24 lawmakers have asked not to receive a copy of the Quran distributed in honor of the state's centennial next month. The Quran distribution — which is being done by the Governor's Ethnic American Advisory Council with privately raised funds — is similar to distribution of centennial Bibles given to lawmakers this spring.

One of those lawmakers, Rep. Rex Duncan, R-Sand Springs, said he did not want a copy of the Quran because he claims it encourages Muslims to kill nonbelievers.

The U.S. Constitution protects the right for people to show their faith in ways including the distribution of religious materials, said Cargill, R-Harrah. (MORE)

State Rep. Dan Sullivan of Tulsa contacted his fellow Republican House members Wednesday saying he would be happy to find a home for a copy of a Quran that a member might be discarding.

Sullivan said in an e-mail. “If someone receives one and doesn’t want to keep it, please have it sent to my office, and I will make sure it finds a new home.”

Sullivan said “a friend of a friend” is a Muslim who would like to have a centennial copy of the Quran being distributed by the Governor’s Ethnic American Advisory Council, made up of Americans who are Muslims from the Middle East.

Rep. Rex Duncan, R-Sand Springs, refused a copy of the Quran earlier this week, saying, “Most Oklahomans do not endorse the idea of killing innocent women and children in the name of ideology.”

All together, 24 of the state’s 149 lawmakers have declined copies, as of late Wednesday afternoon.

Sullivan said although he is a Christian, there is no reason to not accept a copy. “I’m not endorsing the Islamic faith, but I certainly feel like I can accept a gift that was given as a goodwill gesture,” he said.

Rep. Randy Terrill, R-Moore, who joined other lawmakers Wednesday saying he did not want his copy, said he has informed Sullivan that he can have Terrill’s copy.

Terrill told the council, “Thanks for the offer. However, I am a Christian. And, as such, I would not use it.”

Meanwhile, Gov. Brad Henry’s spokesman issued a statement Wednesday saying the governor welcomed getting a copy of the Quran. (MORE)

CAIR: PROSECUTORS SHOULD STOP WASTING MONEY ON WITCH HUNTS - TOP
Getting Justice in the HLF Case
Ahmad Al-Akras, Counter Punch, 10/26/07

After years of investigations and wiretaps, after three months of court arguments and a record 19 straight days of jury deliberations, the jury could not return a single guilty verdict on the nearly 200 charges in a case against the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation (HLF) an American-Muslim charity.

This jury's decision is a victory for the American people and a stunning defeat for the prosecution. At the end people chose facts over fear despite attempts by the prosecution to play into people's justifiable fear of terrorism. The jurors sent a clear message that helping the orphans must not be criminalized.

The American Muslim community, along with others in this country, will continue to fight for justice and for the right to help those who are in need, whether in this nation or overseas. Hard working Americans, when presented with the facts will objectively resist the pressure to convict based on guilt by association. In this case, and similar ones before this, the prosecution unsuccessfully tried to cloud the jurors' judgment by presenting irrelevant evidence and playing on their emotions.

Many observers in this country and abroad viewed these charges as an attempt to block humanitarian aid to Palestinians suffering under a brutal Israeli occupation. They were also seen as a means to chill the First Amendment rights and charitable giving of American Muslims and other people opposed to our nation's one-sided policies in the Middle East. In essence, this was an Israeli trial tried on American soil in which guilt by association was used as a substitute for actual evidence.

The use of surveillance gathered by illegal means and by spying on citizens, guilt by association, and anonymous foreign witnesses and evidence threatens the foundation of our rule of law.

Edward Abington, the U.S. Consult General to Jerusalem, former ambassador and the second ranking intelligence officer for the U.S. State Department during the mid-1990s said that the evidence presented by the prosecutions in this case was a "propaganda exercise by the Israelis." Describing the thousands of pages presented in this trial, he testified that "you don't know where they came from, how they are related to each other. If you are an American analyst, you can't rely on those documents as showing a true picture."

This trial has been a waste of taxpayers dollars. In some estimates, over $20 million have been spent on this case so far. It behooves the government to be responsible and drop the case. A retrial will only waste the legal system's time and American people's money on what is a fundamentally unjust charges. According to the AP, William Neal, a juror on the case, eloquently said, "I thought they were not guilty across the board." The case "was strung together with macaroni noodles. There was so little evidence." He called on the government not retry the case. (MORE)

Ahmad Al-Akhras is the Vice Chair of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Over the years, he observed the concerted efforts to marginalize the Muslim community and criminalize their basic rights. The outcome of this case affirmed his faith in his fellow Americans' fairness. Dr. Al-Akhras resides in Columbus, Ohio and can be reached at ahmad@alakhras.org

TX: AN UNHOLY CASE, FLAWED FROM THE BEGINNING - TOP
Bob Ray Sanders, Star-Telegram, 10/24/07

Thanks to some jurors in a Dallas courtroom who refused to bow to religious bigotry and political pressure, a miscarriage of justice was prevented from running its full, destructive course this week.

After years of investigations, weeks of testimony on 197 charges and 19 days of deliberations, the men and women who heard the case against the Holy Land Foundation and five of its leaders proved what many of us had thought from the very beginning: The government's case relied purely on innuendo, guilt by association and widespread prejudice.

A mistrial was declared Monday after jurors found some defendants not guilty on most of the charges and were unable to agree on most of the others.

And then, in one of the most confusing moments ever witnessed during the announcement of a verdict, a couple of jurors changed their minds after a four-day delay in having the verdict read in open court. I'll get back to that in a minute.

Considering that President Bush himself had accused the Richardson-based charitable organization of funding terrorism, this was supposed to be a slam-dunk case for the Justice Department.

In December 2001, in announcing that the Treasury Department was seizing the funds of the Holy Land Foundation, the president said that money raised by the group "is used by Hamas to support schools and indoctrinate children to grow up into suicide bombers."

The attorney general and the secretary of the treasury added their weight to the accusations, and then the full force of the U.S. criminal justice system came down on the foundation and five defendants: Elashi Ghassan, chairman; Mohammed El-Mezain, former chairman; Mufid Abdulqader, fundraiser; Shukri Abu Baker, chief executive; and Abdulrahman Odeh, a New Jersey representative of the organization.

That should have been more than enough to crush these men. Although they saw the disruption of their families and much of their lives, they refused to give in to overreaching prosecution -- and of all things, they continued to have faith in the American system of justice.

Because of the mistrial, the five have not been vindicated in the eyes of the law, but in the eyes of many others, this case clearly was a defeat for a government that spent millions of dollars trying to paint the defendants as sponsors of international terrorism. (MORE)

CAIR-NV DIRECTOR DISCUSSES DISCRIMINATION CASES IN NEVADA - TOP
Nevada Public Radio, 10/25/07

To listen, click here.

CAIR-Chicago attorney Bitta Mostofi and CAIR-Chicago client discuss how Muslims, immigrants and non-immigrants alike, are common targets of suspicion and unreasonable citizenship delays on PBS-WTTW 11 Chicago Tonight, Chicago Matters: Beyond Borders series.

CAIR-MI REP PARTICIPATES IN ‘MISREPRESENTATIONS OF MUSLIMS AND MINORITIES’ PROGRAM - TOP

(SOUTHFIELD, MI, 10/26/07) A representative of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI) yesterday participated in a program entitled “Misrepresentations of Muslims and Minorities” at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

The program, which was sponsored by the Muslim Students Association (MSA) focused upon showing parallels between historical misrepresentations of African-Americans and European Jews by media outlets, politicians, and religious/community leaders with current misrepresentations cast upon American Muslims.

CAIR-MI Executive Director Dawud Walid was the keynote speaker of the event, which was attended by some 150 persons.

“We welcome such opportunities to promote diversity and civil discourse during a time when bigots are promoting Islamophobia on university campuses,” said CAIR-MI Executive Director Dawud Walid.

CONTACT: CAIR-MI Executive Director Dawud Walid, Tel: 248-842-1418, E-mail: dwalid@cair.com

NY: PATRIOT ACT FAULTED IN DENIAL OF VISA FOR MUSLIM SCHOLAR - TOP
John Eligon, New York Times, 10/26/07

A lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union asked a federal judge yesterday to declare unconstitutional a part of the Patriot Act that he says allowed a prominent Muslim scholar to be denied a visa.

The lawyer, Jameel Jaffer, told Judge Paul A. Crotty of Federal District Court in Manhattan that the provision, allowing the federal government to deny visas to people who “endorse or espouse terrorist activity,” was a primary reason that the scholar, Tariq Ramadan, was denied a work visa to enter the United States in 2004.

“What concerns us about this provision is it could be used to exclude people who have done nothing more than disagree with U.S. foreign policy,” Mr. Jaffer said outside court.

Mr. Ramadan was trying to enter the United States from his home in Switzerland after being hired to teach Islamic ethics at the University of Notre Dame.

The government has said that Mr. Ramadan was not denied a visa because of the provision in the Patriot Act, but because of contributions he had made to charities considered by the United States to have connections to terrorism.

The A.C.L.U. and Mr. Jaffer are acting on behalf of Mr. Ramadan and the American Academy of Religion, the American Association of University Professors and the PEN American Center. The groups say their First Amendment rights have been violated because they cannot meet with Mr. Ramadan.

According to Mr. Jaffer, the State Department said during a news conference in August 2004 that the refusal to allow Mr. Ramadan to enter the country was on the basis of the “endorse or espouse” provision.

Mr. Ramadan had visited the United States 24 times before he was denied the visa. He lectured at Dartmouth, Harvard and Princeton — and the State Department. (MORE)

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EMPLOYERS TAKING STEPS TO ATTRACT MUSLIM WORK FORCE - TOP
Louise Fenner, USINFO, 10/26/07

Washington -- Many U.S. companies are trying to accommodate the religious beliefs of Muslim employees by setting aside rooms for prayer and meditation, supporting the wearing of traditional head coverings, adjusting work hours and honoring leave requests for major Islamic holidays.

These companies see a link between a culture of inclusion and business success, say diversity experts. Respecting religious differences is one way to attract and retain talented employees and appeal to a larger customer base.

“You see more and more Muslims entering the work force, bringing valuable skills and talents,” says diversity consultant Myrna Marofsky, “and those employees want to bring their entire self to the workplace. Part of that is their religion, traditions and beliefs.”

Marofsky, a former co-owner and president of ProGroup, a Minneapolis-based diversity training and consulting firm, said that “as companies move to be more global and more multicultural -- because they see that as a business advantage -- they are going to have a diverse work force.”

DiversityInc, a monthly business magazine, says that among the Top 50 Companies for Diversity -- a list it issues annually -- 70 percent allow employees to take holiday leave in accordance with their religious beliefs “and 16 percent make special religious accommodations, such as prayer rooms.” The Top 50 “set the trends as national diversity leaders,” according a DiversityInc article.

In a separate article, DiversityInc said that Ramadan, the Muslim holy month that ended in 2007 on October 13, “used to pass unacknowledged by most U.S. employers. But the $580 million Muslim market and increasing religious diversity in the workplace have convinced progressive companies to pay attention.”

Some managers refrain from scheduling “working lunches” that would interfere with the Ramadan fast, and it is becoming more common for businesses to host iftar dinners to celebrate the breaking of the fast. Ford Motor Company, for instance, has hosted iftars for the past seven years.

In a 2006 article titled “Honoring Your Muslim Colleagues,” Marofsky gave advice to clients “asking if they should do something special for Ramadan.” She said it was “the first year in 20 years of diversity consulting that I have seen this level of interest.” (MORE)

VA: EXAMINE SAUDI-BACKED SCHOOL CURRICULUM BEFORE CONDEMNING IT - TOP
Washington Post, 10/26/07

Here’s an idea for those members of a federal panel worried about what's being taught at a Saudi-supported school in Fairfax County. Give the academy a call and ask to take a look at the disputed works.

That's what a Fairfax supervisor did, and school officials, without hesitation, opened their doors and the books. Maybe the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is right to have qualms about the school, but its half-hearted efforts to review the disputed works and its irresponsible suggestion that the school be shut don't inspire confidence.

The Islamic Saudi Academy was singled out by the commission in a report criticizing Saudi Arabia for promoting religious intolerance in schools it operates around the world. The commission, complaining that it couldn't obtain textbooks and other curricular materials, urged the State Department to close the school unless it shows it doesn't teach dangerous extremism. The school's status is unique; as an arm of the Saudi government, it is subject to the Foreign Missions Act and broad discretion by the State Department.

Demanding that the school prove a negative is questionable, particularly since the panel's efforts to review the material were, at best, perfunctory. It wrote to Saudi Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir, chairman of the academy's board of directors, but got no answer. No other options were pursued. Consider, by contrast, the experience of Fairfax Supervisor Gerald W. Hyland (D), whose Mount Vernon district includes the school's main campus.

The day the report was released, Mr. Hyland, alarmed by what he read, called the school and was immediately permitted to meet with staff members and look over materials. Mr. Hyland was reassured by what he saw in the English materials, and he told us the school is agreeable to his returning with someone able to read Arabic.

The school denies teaching radical Islam, and the Saudi Embassy claims it has made materials available to the State Department as part of an ongoing effort to bring about promised reforms in textbooks. (MORE)

MA: PROFS PROTEST TENURE INTERFERENCE - TOP
Lingbo Li, Harvard Crimson, 10/26/07

A committee of five academics—including the director of Harvard’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies—issued a petition earlier this week to limit “outside interference” in university tenure decisions and maintain “academic freedom” at institutions of higher education.

The petition, which currently lists 231 signatures including six Harvard affiliates, highlights pro-Israel groups as the main sources of tenure interference.

“These groups have targeted scholars who have expressed perspectives on Israeli policies and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with which they disagree,” the petition said.

The committee’s petition also quotes a paper by Harvard sociology professor Neil Gross as saying that “a greater percentage of social scientists today feels their academic freedom has been threatened than was the case during the McCarthy era.”

The professors on the committee said advocacy groups’ influencing tenure decisions is inimical to the values of the academy.

“Outside pressure does not belong in the consideration of the credentials of the university faculty,” said committee member Joan W. Scott of Princeton.

One of the cases cited by the committee was Frankfurter Professor of Law Alan M. Dershowitz’s lobbying DePaul University not to grant tenure to political scientist Norman G. Finkelstein.

At one point during the long spat between the professors, Dershowitz sent letters to DePaul faculty and administrators attacking Finkelstein’s scholarship and urging the university to deny him tenure. (MORE)

SEE ALSO:

MA: PRO-ISRAEL RALLY TO DEMONSTRATE AGAINST WEEKEND SABEEL EVENT - TOP
Lorne Bell, Jewish Advocate, 10/25/07

Scores of local organizations are planning to rally outside the Old South Church in Boston this Friday in response to a weekend conference sponsored by Sabeel, the controversial Christian Palestinian human rights group.

The conference, “The Apartheid Paradigm in Palestine-Israel: Issues of Justice and Equality,” will feature Sabeel leaders and the Reverend Desmond Tutu, who, along with Sabeel, has been criticized for his portrayal of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. More than 50 organizations plan to join in Friday’s demonstration.

“We respect the right of the Old South Church to have the conference because we believe in freedom of speech, but we absolutely denounce the message,” said Nancy K. Kaufman, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston. “The public needs to understand that [Sabeel] is anti-Israel and against Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.”

The JCRC has teamed up with religious and human rights groups, including the Anti-Defamation League and the United Assembly of God of Framingham, to demonstrate against this weekend’s event.

“They have a right to demonstrate,” said Nancy S. Taylor, senior minister at Old South Church. “The people rallying outside the event have legitimate concerns, and the people speaking inside have legitimate concerns. There is more than one truth.” (MORE)

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