NY: Muslim Place of Refuge Planned (Times-Union)
Amin Abdullah spreads the inmates’ letters over his mosque’s green rug. The authors are imprisoned in Clinton. Fishkill. Marcy. Abdullah reads aloud from one who writes of “a problem with addiction.” “I will be homeless once I am released,” he says. “So I am begging and pleading for your help.” Help may be coming. A […]
TN: Arson at Mosque Stirs Compassion (Tennessean)
From the rubble of a firebombed mosque, relationships have emerged. After local men burned the Islamic Center of Columbia, Tenn., to the ground in February, Muslim families had no place to worship. Donations came in to help establish a new center, and the First Presbyterian Church in town allowed them to worship at its church. […]
CAIR: U.S. Muslims Quick to Congratulate Obama (Reuters)
WASHINGTON – The largest U.S. Islamic civil rights group was among the first to congratulate President-Elect Democrat Barack Obama, a man who some opponents tried to portray as a Muslim because of the childhood years he spent in Indonesia.“President-elect Obama’s victory sends the unmistakable message that America is a nation that offers equal opportunity to […]
Jewish Groups Criticize Aish HaTorah’s New ‘Obsession’ (Jewish Week)
Officials of Aish HaTorah, one of Orthodox Judaism’s most successful outreach programs, have launched a controversial media campaign depicting masses of Muslims worldwide — including mainstream American Muslims — as an extremist threat, while Aish itself denies involvement in the effort. In moves suggesting a new, more partisan direction for Aish activists, spin-offs of the […]
NC: Young Muslims Move Toward Careers in Law, Journalism (N&O)
Growing up in Cary, Taiyyaba Qureshi spent her summer vacations in research labs “filling petri dishes” for her immunologist father and microbiologist mother. Her parents, natives of Pakistan, expected her to become a scientist, just like them. But by the time she took an advanced placement physics class, Qureshi had other notions. Active in her […]
CAIR-LA Intern Feels Duty-Bound to Vote (CS Monitor)
Omar Kurdi grew up doing all the typical things of American boyhood: riding bicycles with neighborhood buddies, rollerblading, and getting swept up in game fads like pogs.His pathway to the ballot box, though, has been more unconventional. The Syrian-born college student had to become a United States citizen first.He cleared that hurdle early. At age […]
More U.S. Muslim Women Entering Politics (AP)
Many things have changed for Muslim Americans in the seven years since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks: Interrogations from FBI and immigration officials. Additional screenings from airport security. The feeling of being targeted by new anti-terrorism laws. And then there’s this: More Muslims, particularly women, are running for political office, spurred by the perceived erosions […]
Navajo & Muslim
One piece of cloth. “Before I was just some girl, you know,” Amber Tom says. “But then, after, it’s like, ‘Oh, it’s that girl. She’s the girl with the scarf.’ I think that’s what people around here call me. They don’t know my name.” Since we’re talking about labels, these are Amber Tom’s: 20-year- old. […]
CAIR: Group Swamps Swing States with Anti-Muslim DVDs (Wash Post)
A New York-based organization has sent copies of a movie about Islamist extremism to more than 28 million houses and religious institutions in presidential election battleground states over the past several weeks.The 60-minute documentary-style production, “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West,” includes images of terrorist attacks from around the world, historic footage of Nazi […]
The Extremists Behind ‘Obsession’ (The Atlantic)
I’ve only watched the 12-minute version of “Obsession,” the film sent to more than 28 million people in various swing states, apparently by associates and partisans of the Jewish movement known as Aish HaTorah, or “Fire of the Torah,” but it was enough for to understand that it is the work of hysterics. One of […]