CAIR: American Muslims Mourn ‘Visionary’ Hathout
American Muslims are mourning Dr. Hassan Hathout, a renowned leader who passed away this weekend after a long life in serving the Islamic faith.“We have lost today a luminary of Islam in North America,” Dr. Muzammil Siddiqi, Chairman of the Fiqh Council of North America, told IslamOnline.net.“He has been a voice of wisdom, clarity and […]
CA Muslim Leader Fostered Interfaith Relations (LA Times)
Dr. Hassan Hathout, a physician, medical ethicist and leader of the Southern California Islamic community who was at the forefront of efforts to demystify American Muslims and build interfaith bonds, has died. He was 84.Hathout died of natural causes Saturday at his Pasadena home, said a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles-based Muslim Public Affairs Council, […]
Muslims Are as American as Apple Pie (Newsweek)
Last month, as I was watching the news coverage of President Obama’s visit to Turkey, I thought back to an awkward experience I had as an undergraduate student applying for a job at my university. When I handed the receptionist at the student union my Social Security card, a required form of identification, she told […]
MPAC: Justice For All? Or Only Non-Muslims?
Lawyers are generally taught that deliberately using race, religion or ethnicity in prosecuting a defendant violates Equal Protection rights guaranteed by the 14th Amendment. In light of his repeated anti-Arab and anti-Muslim statements, it seems that Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Kromberg needs to be reminded of this fundamental principle.Gordon Kromberg, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the […]
CAIR Offers Condolences on Death of Dr. Hassan Hathout
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 4/27/09) – The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is offering its condolences to the family of Dr. Hassan Hathout, an Islamic scholar, activist and leader of the American Muslim community who died Saturday at his home in California.The Los Angeles Times noted today: “In 1998 Hathout delivered a sermon at the first White […]
NY: Imam, Rabbi to Remember Holocaust at Public Event
Queens is so diverse, there is nothing unusual about an imam giving a talk on “The Essence of Islam.” Unless it’s in a Synagogue, at a Holocaust memorial service, that is. Rabbi Michael Weisser of the Free Synagogue of Flushing likes making the unusual commonplace, so he has invited his “friend and partner in interfaith […]
Judge Says Integrity of DOJ at Issue in Al-Arian Case
On Friday, a U.S. Circuit Court judge in Virginia will either dismiss the criminal contempt case against former University of South Florida professor Sami Al-Arian or set a trial date. If the judge’s comments in court are any indication of how she’s leaning, Al-Arian’s business with the U.S. government is about to end and he […]
No Warm Welcome for Muslim American Travelers
A Muslim legal advocacy group Tuesday charged that federal agents routinely target Muslim American travelers – or simply those perceived to be Muslim – for “deeply intrusive, personal questions and searches about their politics, faith, finances, charitable giving and associations with lawful organisations, all without any evidence or even suspicion of wrongdoing.” In a new […]
CAIR: New FBI Guidelines Used to Target U.S. Muslims
[Julia A. Shearson is executive director of Council on American Islamic Relations – Cleveland (CAIR).]On March 17, 2009, the American Muslim Task Force (AMT) announced that it was considering suspending outreach ties with the FBI. The announcement came after continued civil rights abuses perpetrated by the bureau, abuses that have gone largely unchecked by Congress […]
Civil War Raging in Anti-Muslim Blogosphere
Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, jazz musician and Web designer Charles Johnson has devoted his blog, Little Green Footballs, to exposing Muslim extremism in and outside the United States. His targets have included the Council on American-Islamic Relations, filmmaker Michael Moore, Reuters, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Dan Rather, and the late pro-Palestinian […]