Editorial, New York Times, March 11, 2012 Intolerance seems to be part of the message sent to student-athletes on the sporting fields of Texas. Only under legal pressure and public criticism did the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools, which organizes competitions for more than 200 schools, recently agree to accommodate an Orthodox Jewish… [Read more…]
January 31, 2012
Rashard Jedaar/Cape Town/South Africa Allah SWT enjoins in the Holy Qur’an: “Thus have We made of you an Ummah, Justly balanced, that you might be witnesses over the nations. “Quran (2: 143) A question most frequently asked when Muslims meet, is: Why are we so divided today?… [Read more…] Common sense tells us that the more… [Read more…]
November 12, 2011
Source: blogs.tennessean.com State Rep. Rick Womick, R-Rockvale, told a pair of liberal bloggers at today’s Shariah law conference that devout Muslims should be removed from the military. In a video posted Friday afternoon on ThinkProgress, Womick expressed doubt that any devout Muslim could be loyal to the U.S. military. “Personally, I don’t trust one Muslim in our military,” he… [Read more…]
September 12, 2011
Muslims at work are often drawn into a conversation around the water cooler where they have to defend Islam and Muslims against the “Islam is a terroristic religion” or “All Muslims are not terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims” arguments. The following slideshare presentation should give you enough counterarguments both from historical facts and from… [Read more…]
August 7, 2011
LittleGreenFootballs.com PATERSON—A lawyer who defended Muslims detained after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks was sworn in as a New Jersey Superior Court judge on Tuesday, as Gov. Chris Christie called those who criticized his nomination ignorant. The appointment of Sohail Mohammed, 47 years old, angered some conservatives, who said they were concerned about the influence… [Read more…]
May 27, 2011
Emma Silvers, Jweekly.com Last summer, as the debate over the Islamic community center near ground zero reached a fever pitch, longtime friends and former classmates Reza Aslan and Aaron Hahn Tapper were watching, fascinated. “There were some Jewish organizations coming down on the rights of Muslims to build that center, and then some other Jewish… [Read more…]
April 29, 2011
Eve Tahmincioglu, MSNBC… [Read more…] A poll released l[in September 2010] by the Pew Research Center that shows that the public’s view of Islam has deteriorated, with only 30 percent of Americans expressing a favorable opinion of Islam, compared with 41 percent in 2005. “One can easily conclude that since the general situation is so unfavorable… [Read more…]
April 18, 2011
United States Institute of Peace Summary There are approximately 6 to 7.5 million Muslims in the United States who identify themselves as Americans. The community consists of a combination of immigrants and second- and third-generation Arab, Latino, Asian, European, African, and African-American Muslims. The growth of the American Muslim community has fostered the development of… [Read more…]
December 28, 2010
By Jacopo della Quercia Dec 20, 2010 1,565,015 views A conservative commentator recently made headlines by claiming 10 percent of all of the world’s Muslims are terrorists. An amazing claim, considering that equals 150 million terrorists and if each were to pull off an attack killing just 40 people, they could exterminate all non-Muslim life… [Read more…]
October 25, 2010
Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com I’m still not quite over the most disgusting part of the Juan Williams spectacle yesterday: watching the very same people (on the Right and in the media) who remained silent about or vocally cheered on the viewpoint-based firings of Octavia Nasr, Helen Thomas, Rick Sanchez, Eason Jordan, Peter Arnett, Phil Donahue, Ashleigh Banfield, Bill Maher,… [Read more…]
October 24, 2010
Tennessean.com First of Two Parts Steven Emerson has 3,390,000 reasons to fear Muslims. That’s how many dollars Emerson’s for-profit company — Washington-based SAE Productions — collected in 2008 for researching alleged ties between American Muslims and overseas terrorism. The payment came from the Investigative Project on Terrorism Foundation, a nonprofit charity Emerson also founded, which… [Read more…]
September 27, 2010
By Tom Krattenmaker, USA Today A strong work ethic, devotion to God and family, conservative views on abortion and sexuality — on these scores and more, the newcomers would appear to be right in stride with the traditional-values folk in Anytown, USA. In view of the Christian gospel followed by most of the established residents,… [Read more…]
September 24, 2010
In spite of Islamophobia, most Americans treat our sisters in hijab with respect.
September 1, 2010
Arsalan Iftikar, CNN Editor’s note: Arsalan Iftikhar is an international human rights lawyer, founder of TheMuslimGuy.com and legal fellow for the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding in Washington. (CNN) — Almost everybody has heard about the protests against the mosque and Islamic center planned to be built about two blocks from ground zero in… [Read more…]
September 1, 2010
September 1, 2010
September 1, 2010
August 25, 2010
By Richard Cohen, Washington Post Tuesday, August 24, 2010; A15 When it comes to the mosque that’s neither too close to Ground Zero for its proponents nor far enough away for its opponents, the disturbing word “compromise” is now being tossed around. It has been suggested by New York Gov. David Paterson, Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan and,… [Read more…]
August 20, 2010
August 16, 2010
Justin Elliott, Salon.com A group of progressive Muslim-Americans plans to build an Islamic community center two and a half blocks from ground zero in lower Manhattan. They have had a mosque in the same neighborhood for many years. There’s another mosque two blocks away from the site. City officials support the project. Muslims have been… [Read more…]
August 14, 2010
Note from Rafik Beekun: Thank you New York TImes. You got it right in this editorial about the Muslim Community Center in Lower Manhattan. It has been disturbing to hear and read the vitriol and outright bigotry surrounding the building of a mosque two blocks from the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.… [Read more…]
August 14, 2010
Sally Steenland, Huffington Post Protesters have recently been rallying against a proposed Islamic educational center containing a mosque near Ground Zero, claiming that the proximity of anything Muslim to Ground Zero would contaminate a hallowed place. Protesters claim they aren’t anti-Muslim; they merely want the center and mosque to be built someplace else. But it… [Read more…]
August 13, 2010
Republicans in the USA are using Islamophobia to galvanize their political base for the upcoming elections.
August 12, 2010
Al Jazeera
August 10, 2010
Pew Research Center Support for terrorism remains low among the Muslim publics surveyed. Many fewer Muslims in 2010 than in the middle of the past decade say that suicide bombing and other forms of violence against civilians are justified to defend Islam from its enemies. However, the new poll does show a modest increase over… [Read more…]
August 4, 2010
Pamela Geller v/s Ron Reagan
August 3, 2010
Commentary from Rafik Beekun: Mayor Bloomberg, who is of the Jewish faith, stands up for the Community Center near Ground Zero–one more reason why Muslims should draw a clear distinction between Judaism and Zionism. As for myself, I have friends from many faith-based communities and we respect each other’s faith and try to dialogue as… [Read more…]
August 2, 2010
Share Today at 12:52pm (WASHINGTON, D.C., 8/2/10) — CAIR today called on American Muslims and other people of conscience to contact New York’s Landmarks Preservation Commission to ask that its members defend religious freedom and reject efforts by Islamophobes to block construction of an Islamic community center in that city. The commission will vote Tuesday… [Read more…]
August 1, 2010
Commentary from Rafik: Strategic myopia and one gigantic step backward: UAE acts to muzzle Blackberry. While the remainder of the world moves forward, Middle Eastern Arab countries are especially good at find unimaginable ways at shackling their own people and slowing any kind of progress. Here we go again. In the past, they would have… [Read more…]
July 15, 2010
Note from Rafik Beekun: The ad below is one of the most Islamophobic ads I have ever seen. It has been launched by the National Republican Trust Pac, and plays on the worst fears of my fellow countrymen in the US. As the former President of the Northern Nevada Republican Men’s club, I deplore this… [Read more…]
June 23, 2010
BBC Radio U.S.A. India Pakistan United Kingdom This part 1 of 8. Please go to Youtube.com to view the remaining parts. Canada Middle East
May 21, 2010
CAIR Action Alert #609 (Washington, D.C., 5/21/10) — The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said today that its offices nationwide are receiving an increasing number of reports of FBI agents, along with other law enforcement officers, visiting and interviewing American Muslims, particularly members of the Pakistani-American community. These visits often include both FBI agents and… [Read more…]
May 12, 2010
May 4, 2010
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 5/4/10) — A prominent national Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization today welcomed the arrest of a suspect in connection with last weekend’s failed car bomb attack on Times Square. The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), along with several other national and regional Muslim groups,* said the alleged actions of the Pakistani-American… [Read more…]
April 2, 2010
By Betsy Hammond, The Oregonian April 01, 2010, 1:08PM With supporters of religious freedom looking on, Gov. Ted Kulongoski signed a bill this morning that will end Oregon’s ban on teachers wearing head scarves and other religious attire. The ban won’t lift until after the 2010-11 school year. The rationale for the delay is to… [Read more…]
March 31, 2010
By Edward Cody, washington post foreign service Thursday, April 1, 2010 LYON, FRANCE — The clean-cut young Frenchman seemed to have everything going for him. Graduate of an elite French engineering school, he had interned at the upper-crust Rothschild bank in Paris, handled wealth management for a while on Wall Street and was accepted for… [Read more…]
March 15, 2010
March 12, 2010 By ANDREA ELLIOTT, New York Times A federal commission has determined that New York City’s Department of Education discriminated against the founding principal of an Arabic-language public school by forcing her to resign in 2007 following a storm of controversy driven by opponents of the school. Acting on a complaint filed last… [Read more…]
March 3, 2010
Note from Rafik Beekun: London, England (CNN) — A Muslim [Sufi] scholar has issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, that says suicide bombers are destined for hell. Tahir ul-Qadri condemned terrorism and criticized Islamic extremists who cite their religion to justify violence. Ul-Qadri’s 600-page fatwa is “arguably the most comprehensive theological refutation of Islamist terrorism… [Read more…]
January 22, 2010
43% of Americans admit to feeling some prejudice toward followers of Islam Analysis by the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies WASHINGTON, D.C. — More than 4 in 10 Americans (43%) admit to feeling at least “a little” prejudice toward Muslims — more than twice the number who say the same about Christians (18%), Jews (15%)… [Read more…]
January 20, 2010
PRESS RELEASE London, January 20 2010 After more than five years of waiting, the American State Department has decided, in a document signed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to lift the ban that prohibited me (as well as Professor Adam Habib from South Africa) from entering the United States. The American Civil Liberties Union… [Read more…]
January 10, 2010
Rafik Beekun Islam is strictly against torture. Here is what a Royal Family member, Sheikh Issa Bin Zayed, did to an Afghan man because he suspected him of having overcharged him in a grain deal for about $5,000. Video 1 Video 2 Video 3–if you understand arabic For more information, please go to this site:… [Read more…]
January 9, 2010
CAIR Nadia Hassan says she was the victim of profiling during a full body search at an airport. CNN’s Alina Cho reports. (CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad quoted on profiling incidents.) Muslim Fears Over Profiling Heightened Debate over Racial Profiling
January 8, 2010
Rafik Beekun Amazing words from Mayor Koch who suddenly sounds like right wing extremists, Steve Emerson and Ann Coulter, labels “hundreds of millions” of Muslims as terrorists, and voices his support for profiling every Muslim who is flying. Should we profile every person of Jewish faith because of the past actions of the Jewish Defense… [Read more…]
January 6, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2010 CONTACT: Karen Kemp (Duke) (919) 613-7394 karen.kemp@duke.edu or Dee Reid (UNC) (919) 843-6339 deereid@unc.edu REPORT RECOMMENDS WAYS TO DISCOURAGE MUSLIM-AMERICAN RADICALIZATION Note to editors: A copy of the report is online at http://www.sanford.duke.edu/news/Schanzer_Kurzman_Moosa_Anti-Terror_Lessons.pdf. (Note from Rafik Beekun: It can also be downloaded from my blog if the Duke… [Read more…]
January 4, 2010
CAIR (WASHINGTON, D.C., 1/4/2010) – A prominent national Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization today said new security measures announced by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) amount to profiling of Muslims. The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said the new guidelines, under which anyone traveling from or through 13 Muslim-majority nations will be required… [Read more…]
December 30, 2009
By Muqtedar Khan Director of Islamic Studies at the University of Delaware Muslims and Christians together constitute over 50 percent of the world. If they lived in peace, we would be half way to world peace. One small step we can take towards fostering Muslim-Christian harmony is to tell and retell positive stories and abstain… [Read more…]
December 30, 2009
Ibrahim Hooper on the O’Reilly Show CAIR-LA Comments on Airport Profiling Questions Raised on Airport Profiling The director of the Bay Area Chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations, Zahra Billoo, tells ABC7 when airport screeners focus on anyone who looks Middle Eastern or Muslim, the screeners may miss more important indicators. “If someone… [Read more…]
December 28, 2009
Dr. Rafik Beekun Here we go again. Al the right wingers are out of the closet again. Source: Think Progress The right wing’s predictable policy prescription in the aftermath of any terror incident is to impose greater ethnic profiling of Muslims. For instance, following the Ft. Hood shooting, Sarah Palin said, “profile away.” After six… [Read more…]
December 16, 2009
Rafik Beekun While some may discriminate against Muslims, many day-to-day Americans are just and decent folks, and will also stand up for and defend Muslims’ rights to practice their faith. This sense of balance and fairness among my American countrymen is what makes America such a great and welcoming country.
March 12, 2012
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