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…]
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…]
April 18, 2011
BY MARY NEVANS-PEDERSON TH STAFF WRITER Telegraph Herald On line Although Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the U.S., it and its adherents often are misunderstood by the majority culture, said a Muslim woman working to dispel misconceptions about her adopted faith. Lisa Zaynab Killinger, vice president of the Iowa chapter of the Council on… [Read more…]
March 11, 2011
Christian Science Monitor Editorial Board, 3/10. 2011 King hearings on Muslim Americans: When government hits on one group The House hearings chaired by Rep. King focused almost solely on Muslim Americans. Such religious stereotyping by any government body is dangerous. When government makes assumptions about a whole group of people, it’s not the same as… [Read more…]
January 11, 2011
Crescents Among the Crosses at Arlington Cemetery Source: ThinkProgress.org “As of 2006, some 212 Muslim-American soldiers had been awarded Combat Action Ribbons for their service in Iraq and Afghanistan, and seven had been killed,” the New York Times reported in 2009. On Memorial Day, 2008, the organization Muslim Military Members asked that the Muslim soldiers… [Read more…]
January 4, 2011
Karin Friedemann (LETTER FROM AMERICA) 1 January 2011 Khaleej Times Since 9/11 hundreds if not thousands of Muslims have faced “preemptive prosecution,” where Muslims who are deemed “dangerous” are prosecuted before they commit a crime. In these prosecutions, there are so many holes in the government’s theories that the case is nothing but a list… [Read more…]
January 3, 2011
Jerome Taylor and Sarah Morrison, www.independent.co.uk Tuesday, 4 January 2011 The number of Britons choosing to become Muslims has nearly doubled in the past decade, according to one of the most comprehensive attempts to estimate how many people have embraced Islam. Following the global spread of violent Islamism, British Muslims have faced more scrutiny, criticism… [Read more…]
January 2, 2011
Paul Moses, CNN. com Editor’s note: Paul Moses, professor of journalism at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, is the author of “The Saint and the Sultan: The Crusades, Islam and Francis of Assisi’s Mission of Peace” (Doubleday, 2009). New York (CNN) — Speaking hours after a terrorist attack killed 21 people… [Read more…]
January 1, 2011
NPR Please click here to listen to an interview of Moustafa Bayoumi, author of “How does feel to be a problem?” on NPR. He reviews 2010 with respect to American Muslims. Note from Rafik Beekun: My blog was hacked, and the above link to the interview was changed to refer to a link promoting a… [Read more…]
December 28, 2010
December 14, 2010
December 14, 2010 The federal government has sued a west suburban school district for denying a Muslim middle school teacher unpaid leave to make a pilgrimage to Mecca that is a central part of her religion. In a civil rights case, the department said the school district in Berkeley denied the request of Safoorah Khan… [Read more…]
December 9, 2010
Lesley Hazleton explores the Koran and finds much that is quite different from what is reported in commonly cited accounts. A psychologist by training and Middle East reporter by experience, British-born Lesley Hazleton has spent the last ten years exploring the vast and often terrifying arena in which politics and religion, past and present, intersect.… [Read more…]
December 6, 2010
(Herald Times) By Dann Denny 331-4350 | ddenny@heraldt.com It was a tiny gathering – 11 people huddled around a table in a small room at the Beth Shalom synagogue – eating cookies, sipping hot tea and talking. But the five Muslims who had come to express their support and solidarity Thursday afternoon to a Jewish community that’s been… [Read more…]
November 23, 2010
By Steve Connor, Science Editor, independent.co.uk Muslims face “massive discrimination” when applying for jobs, according to the first scientifically validated study of anti-Muslim bias among employers in France. Researchers now want to study whether there is a similar bias in Britain, where unemployment among Muslims is higher than in any other religious group. The French… [Read more…]
October 28, 2010
Daily Mail Reporter, October 28, 2010 Eve Ahmed Much of my childhood was spent trying to escape Islam. Born in London to an English mother and a Pakistani Muslim father, I was brought up to follow my father’s faith without question. But, privately, I hated it. The minute I left home for university at the… [Read more…]
October 27, 2010
Thank you, Juan Williams. Your Islamophobic attitude has now spread like wild fire!! Video 1 Video 2
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…]
October 18, 2010
By Paul Farhi Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, October 18, 201 Andy Warhol found artistic inspiration in a can of Campbell’s tomato soup. These days, some activists are finding sinister Muslim connections in the same can. Campbell Soup Co., the Camden, N.J., food giant, has been fighting a grass-roots boycott of its products after its… [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 23, 2010
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE, New York TImes At a time of growing tensions involving Muslims in the United States, a record number of Muslim workers are complaining of employment discrimination, from co-workers calling them “terrorist” or “Osama” to employers barring them from wearing head scarves or taking prayer breaks. Such complaints were increasing even before frictions… [Read more…]
September 14, 2010
KRNV.com Reno-area Christian church presents gift of flowers to Muslim center By Jeff DeLong • jdelong@rgj.com • September 10, 2010 It was a gesture of kindness and understanding during turbulent times. On Friday, members of the Summit Christian Church in Spanish Springs presented a gift of flowers to members of the Northern Nevada Muslim Cultural… [Read more…]
September 14, 2010
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 17, 2010
7:23 am August 17, 2010, by Cynthia Tucker What has happened to the leadership of the Republican Party? Are there no longer any statesmen/women in the GOP? Does the party have any leading figures who believe in the Bill of Rights? The GOP’s leadership has been taken over by a group of shrill demagogues who… [Read more…]
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 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…]
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…]
July 12, 2010
CAIR is suggesting that all U.S. Muslim Travelers (US citizens included) obtain the cell phone of an attorney before traveling overseas just in case they are placed on the No-Fly list and they are prevented from returning to the US. U.S. Muslim Travelers Prevented From Returning to the U.S. FBI Prevents Virginia Muslims From Returning… [Read more…]
May 14, 2010
By Tara Bahrampour Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, April 2, 2010; A06 Muslim advocacy groups say an increasing number of Muslim and Arab U.S. citizens and permanent residents who travel abroad are facing new complications in returning to the United States because of heightened security. An attempted Christmas day bombing on a Detroit-bound airplane caused… [Read more…]
April 23, 2010
Rafik Beekun Islam opposes all forms of discrimination, and in Islam the only thing that distinguishes one person from another is supposed to be his/her level of taqwa (piety). However, Iraqis of African ancestry seem to be bearing the brunt of discrimination in Iraq both in the workplace and other walks of life. Al Jazeera… [Read more…]
April 17, 2010
Once-Banned Muslim Scholar Tariq Ramadan on His First Visit to US in Six Years, President Obama and Why Muslims Should Make Their Voices Heard Democray Now speaks with leading Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan, who was banned from entering the United States for six years. In 2004, Ramadan had accepted a job to become a tenured… [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 30, 2010
By Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor, Telegraph.co.uk All staff involved in caring for patients should be ‘bare below the elbows’ to ensure sleeves do not become contaminated and hands can be washed thoroughly to prevent infections passed around the ward. However female Muslim staff had been concerned about the rule as exposure of their forearms is… [Read more…]
March 24, 2010
By William Wan Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, March 24, 2010; A08 At 2 o’clock on a Monday morning, the sound of angry pounding sent Army Spec. Zachari Klawonn bolting out of bed. THUD. THUD. THUD. Someone was mule-kicking the door of his barracks room, leaving marks that weeks later — long after Army investigators… [Read more…]
March 23, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CAIR Seeks Probe of Anti-Islam Bias in Military Training Training film features Islamophobes, Islam compared to Nazism, ‘Hajji’ used as pejorative (WASHINGTON, D.C., 3/23/2010) – A prominent national Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization today said it has asked the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) to investigate a report of anti-Islam bias… [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 13, 2010
Rafik Beekun I knew Sr. Aminah from 1979 until her death. She was very close to my family, helping me get married to my wife, Nadiah, and being a very close friend. Her whole life was dedicated to Islam and to representing it in the best possible way. Sr. Aminah brought many to Islam and… [Read more…]
February 24, 2010
Calif. Muslim employee fired for refusing to remove scarf in public (SANTA CLARA, CA, 2/24/10) – The San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-SFBA) is calling on Abercrombie & Fitch customers who value diversity and inclusion to contact the company to express their concerns about a Muslim employee who was… [Read more…]
March 12, 2012
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