By Ahmed Rehab
Word count: 830
[Ahmed Rehab is strategic communications director for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil liberties group. He may be contacted at arehab@cair.com]
You have to wonder about a film that could muster no better an endorsement to adorn its poster than that of CNN’s resident right-wing extremist Glenn Beck. "Obsession is without exaggeration one of the most important films of our time," says Beck. (Who would accuse Glenn Beck of exaggerating?)
The film Beck is lauding, “Obsession: Islam’s Radical War against the West,” is a 2005 work of anti-Muslim propaganda that has recently been widely distributed via an unprecedented campaign.
Saturday September 13th the News and Observer will be distributing a DVD to their 160,000 subscribers entitled "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West" If anyone hasn't heard about this movie you can view the trailer here.
I don't know about you but I do not remember any other time where a news paper has ever sent out a DVD let alone one that his very biased and portrays Islam as an extremist religion!!!!!!!
I find it quite appaling that this type of garbage would be sent out to further instill fear into the public. It again puts innocent Muslims on the defensive and makes them worry about backlash.
http://www.obsessionthemovie.com/trailer.php
Is Mrs. Sarah Palin's speech consider Manifest Destiny
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a--9ZEf42rE
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-77413
What is your Opinion?
After months of slamming Barack Obama for "inexperience," here's who John McCain has chosen to be one heartbeat away from the presidency: a right-wing religious conservative with no foreign policy experience, who until recently was mayor of a town of 9,000 people.
Huh?
Who is Sarah Palin? Here's some basic background:
She was elected Alaska's governor a little over a year and a half ago. Her previous office was mayor of Wasilla, a small town outside Anchorage. She has no foreign policy experience. (1)
Palin is strongly anti-choice, opposing abortion even in the case of rape or incest. (2)
She supported right-wing extremist Pat Buchanan for president in 2000. (3)
Palin thinks creationism should be taught in public schools. (4)
She's doesn't think humans are the cause of climate change. (5)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/06/AR2008080601081.html
By Perry Bacon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 6, 2008; 9:45 AM
Barack Obama's national Muslim outreach coordinator has resigned amid a controversy of over his connections to a man who the Justice Department named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the racketeering trial last year of several alleged Hamas fund-raisers.
Mazen Asbahi, a Chicago lawyer who had been appointed to help Obama reach out to Muslims, stepped down on Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported late last night.
The paper had inquired about his relationship with Jamal Said, who served on a board with Asbahi in 2000 that is a subsidiary of the North American Islamic Trust, which holds titles to mosques, Islamic centers, schools, and other real estate around the country. Said had been named in an investigation of alleged Hamas fund-raisers, which ended in a mistrial last year, the paper reported.
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/9456
Source: Foreign Policy
Author: Joshua Keating
Steve Clemons gives the Barack Obama campaign a good thrashing from the left today for the candidate's willingness to accept the resignation of his Muslim outreach coordinator, Mazen Asbahi. The Wall Street Journal reports that Asbahi, a Chicago lawyer, resigned because of questions about his ties to an Illinois-based Imam named Jamal Said who has been accused (though not indicted) of fundraising for Hamas. The two served together for a few weeks on the board of an Islamic investment fund back in 2000. Predictable smug outrage has followed on right-wing blogs.
According to the Journal, the tenuous connection between Asbahi and Said was first noted by the Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report, a subscription-only Web site that tracks the international activity of that Islamic party and its supporters. The WSJ says the Report is published by a "Washington think tank," but there doesn't seem to be any author or organizational affiliation mentioned on the site, and a Whois lookup yields no clues.
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 8/6/2008) – A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group said today that the resignation of a recently-appointed Muslim community liaison for Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign is symptomatic of a nationwide effort by Islamophobes who seek to deny Muslims access to the political process.
The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said it is “ironic” that Chicago attorney Mazen Asbahi resigned following Internet attacks on his ties to the mainstream Muslim community, an attribute that would seem to be a requirement for his position.
SEE: Obama Muslim Coordinator Resigns (Washington Post)
“Muslim-bashers play a ‘six degrees of separation’ game of guilt by association with any Muslim who dares to engage in positive social or political activism,” said Ahmed Rehab, executive director of CAIR’s Chicago chapter. “As Americans, we should not allow intolerant and agenda-driven extremists to succeed in their tactics of exclusion based on smears and mischaracterizations of leaders or institutions at the forefront of civic engagement.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20080720/pl_bloomberg/awwoetconzuu_1
Source: Bloomberg
Author: Caroline Alexander
A year ago, Palestinian medical student Wessam al-Ghoul in the U.K. thought Barack Obama would break new ground in bringing Middle East peace. Today, he says the Democratic presidential candidate is merely “the lesser of two evils.”
Al-Ghoul changed his mind after Obama toughened his rhetoric against Iran and said on June 4 that ``Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided.'' Palestinians claim east Jerusalem as their future capital.
``He has become virtually indistinguishable from any U.S. politician running for office,'' said al-Ghoul, 24. He added that presumptive Republican nominee John McCain, 71, is worse only because he would continue the foreign policies of President George W. Bush, whose war in Iraq, now in its sixth year, has made him unpopular in the Arab world.
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20080719/FOREIGN/936574761/1014/ART&Profile=1014
Source: The National
Author: Sharmila Devi
“The Muslims have said they plan on destroying the US from the inside out. What better way to start than at the highest level – through the president of the United States, one of their own.”
So reads an email widely distributed in the US from unknown senders as part of a smear campaign, satirised with mixed results by The New Yorker magazine last week, against Barack Obama, the presumed Democratic nominee.
The liberal weekly might have been making a joke when it pictured Mr Obama as a Muslim terrorist, his wife, Michelle, as an armed radical, and the US flag burning in the fireplace in the Oval Office. But some Americans actually appear to believe it, according to opinion polls.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/21/kevin-bryant-south-caroli_n_114098.html?view=print
Source: Huffington Post
Author: Nico Pitney
South Carolina State Senator Kevin Bryant has removed a classy photo from his website showing Osama Bin Laden next to Barack Obama with text claiming the difference between them is "just a little B.S."
Update: Interview with Bryant added below.
The photo was highlighted by Wonkette and The Hill, among other sites, and when I tried to access the blog post in question at 3PM ET, it had been removed from Bryant's website.
Source: Huntington Beach Independent
Author: Michèle Marr
For nearly two years detractors have accused Barack Obama of being a Muslim. Ultra-conservative commentators have referred to him as B. Hussein Obama and deliberately likened his surname to bin Laden’s first name Osama.
He has defended himself while also condemning the prejudice toward Muslims these acts reflect. As a presidential candidate he has stumped relentlessly on unity, equality and justice.
So to hear of him snubbing two Muslim women at a Detroit political rally in June rang dissonant. In case you missed the incident, I’ll explain.
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 7/18/2008) – The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today called on presidential candidate John McCain to repudiate remarks seemingly made on his behalf by a GOP spokesman during a campaign call in Florida.
On a conference call with journalists arranged by the Republican Party of Florida, Bud Day reportedly said: “The Muslims have said either we kneel or they're going to kill us... I don't intend to kneel and I don't advocate to anybody that we kneel, and John doesn't advocate to anybody that we kneel.”
SEE: McCain Surrogate Makes Controversial Muslim Comment (CNN)
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/07/18/mccain-surrogate-makes-controversial-muslim-comment/
SEE: McCain POW Bud: Muslims 'Going to Kill Us' (Miami Herald)
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2008/07/mccain-pow-bud.html
http://religion.info/english/articles/article_385.shtml
Source: Religioscope
Author: Richard Cimino
While there have been allegations in the past of government investigation of mosques on issues relating to terrorism, the recent report, first featured in the San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper, is said to be the first confirmation that surveillance is taking place.
An article in the Los Angeles Times (May 29) reports that information about the alleged spying surfaced in a case about classified files concerning terrorism that were stolen from a secure office used by military and civilian law enforcement officials at Camp Pendleton. Some of these classified records referred to the surveillance of Muslim communities in Southern California, specifically, the Islamic Center of San Diego. The records alleged that the mosque had been monitored as part of a federal surveillance program targeting Muslim groups, according to the Union-Tribune article.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080705/POLITICS01/807050354
Source: Detroit News
Author: Gregg Krupa
Dr. Abdul Raheman Nakadar, a retired cardiologist and political activist, says he finds a particular aspect of the 2008 campaign for the U.S. presidency curious.
Why, Nakadar asks, are the campaigns of Senators Barack Obama and John McCain not reaching out to Muslim leaders in Metro Detroit, like campaigns in elections past, to arrange for public meetings and campaign appearances?
"Any candidate should address the issues of American society, not a particular religion," said Nakadar, the publisher of The Muslim Observer, who has worked to get local Muslim voters to polls in past elections. "But when you ask a certain group for support, then you must. I would have expected both of them to reach out."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/us/politics/24muslim.html?pagewanted=print
By ANDREA ELLIOTT
As Senator Barack Obama courted voters in Iowa last December, Representative Keith Ellison, the country’s first Muslim congressman, stepped forward eagerly to help.
Mr. Ellison believed that Mr. Obama’s message of unity resonated deeply with American Muslims. He volunteered to speak on Mr. Obama’s behalf at a mosque in Cedar Rapids, one of the nation’s oldest Muslim enclaves. But before the rally could take place, aides to Mr. Obama asked Mr. Ellison to cancel the trip because it might stir controversy. Another aide appeared at Mr. Ellison’s Washington office to explain.
“I will never forget the quote,” Mr. Ellison said, leaning forward in his chair as he recalled the aide’s words. “He said, ‘We have a very tightly wrapped message.’ ”
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/07/10/muslim_profiling/index.html
Source: Salon
Author: Juan Cole
The U.S. Justice Department is considering a change in the grounds on which the FBI can investigate citizens and legal residents of the United States. Till now, DOJ guidelines have required the FBI to have some evidence of wrongdoing before it opens an investigation. The impending new rules, which would be implemented later this summer, allow bureau agents to establish a terrorist profile or pattern of behavior and attributes and, on the basis of that profile, start investigating an individual or group. Agents would be permitted to ask "open-ended questions" concerning the activities of Muslim Americans and Arab-Americans. A person's travel and occupation, as well as race or ethnicity, could be grounds for opening a national security investigation.
The rumored changes have provoked protests from Muslim American and Arab-American groups. The Council on American Islamic Relations, among the more effective lobbies for Muslim Americans' civil liberties, immediately denounced the plan, as did James Zogby, the president of the Arab-American Institute. Said Zogby, "There are millions of Americans who, under the reported new parameters, could become subject to arbitrary and subjective ethnic and religious profiling." Zogby, who noted that the Bush administration's history with profiling is not reassuring, warned that all Americans would suffer from a weakening of civil liberties.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=12985
Source: Catholic News Agency
In an attempt to silence rumors that he is secretly a Muslim, two Barack Obama campaign volunteers prevented two women wearing headscarves from appearing in a picture with him at a Monday campaign rally. Reacting to the news, the Council on American-Islamic Relations told CNA that they are asking for Obama to invite the women to another rally.
According to news reports, Aref Koussan and Shimaa Abdelfadeel were prohibited from sitting behind Barack Obama’s podium so that they wouldn’t appear in photographs or on television in their hijabs (Islamic headscarves) with the presidential candidate.
http://www.nysun.com/national/obama-campaign-apologizes-for-snub-of-muslim-women/80282/
Source: New York Sun
Senator Obama's campaign is apologizing after campaign volunteers reportedly kept two Muslim women from appearing behind the senator at a Detroit rally on Monday because they were wearing headscarves.
One witness, Ali Koussan, told the Politico that one volunteer cited "the political climate," "what's going on in the world," and "what's going on with Muslim Americans" before stating that it wouldn't be helpful for one of the hijab-wearing women to appear in television pictures with Mr. Obama.
"I was like, 'You've got to be kidding me? Are you serious?" Mr. Koussan said.
"This is of course not the policy of the campaign. It is offensive and counter to Obama's commitment to bring Americans together and simply not the kind of campaign we run," a spokesman for the campaign, William Burton, told the political news outlet. "We sincerely apologize for the behavior of these volunteers."
The Council on American-Islamic Relations called on Mr. Obama to invite the two women who were snubbed to appear with him at a future event.
http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080619/NEWS15/80619066&GID=rXlakoBVcc8WumLcjE0kGJ6K56ieqk8CejNNX5IUZw0%3D
By NIRAJ WARIKOO • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • June 19, 2008
Barack Obama personally called to apologize Thursday to the two Muslim women from Michigan barred from sitting next to him during a campaign rally Monday because they wore Islamic head scarves.
Advertisement
One of the women, Shimaa Abdelfadeel, told the Free Press that Obama called her "to personally convey his deepest apologies and acknowledge that this was inexcusable."
Obama also left a voice mail for the other woman, Hebba Aref, 25, of Bloomfield Hills, according to Abdelfadeel.
Obama volunteers didn't allow the two women to sit behind Obama at a Detroit rally on Monday out of fear their Muslim headscarves, known as hijab, would create a negative impression.
"We both immensely appreciate the Senator's phone call and his commitment to remedy this issue," Abdelfadeel said. "We commend him for displaying qualities befitting an effective President."
Speaking about the incident, Abdelfadeel said that on Monday, “two volunteers denied us seating behind the stage the Senator would soon take.”
http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/06/stick-a-pin-in-it.html
Posted 6/18/2008 4:11:00 PM
Source: Dallas Morning News
Author: Christy Hoppe
While a number of speakers -- such as Railroad Commission chairman Michael Williams and Mike Huckabee -- have praised the advance of Barack Obama and what it means towards a colorblind society, at least one vendor hasn't gotten the message.
At the Republican state convention, a booth hosted by Republicanmarket was selling a pin Saturday that says: If Obama is President will we still call it the White House.
There were other pins that weren't necessarily conveying the positive, inclusive, united front that has been portrayed during the convention. One said, "Press 1 for English. Press 2 for Deportation" and another, "I will hold my nose when I vote for McCain"
