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HEADLINES
Vatican rebuffs Muslim outreach: Quran cited as the main obstacle
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: Vatican has rebuffed a massive outreach effort by 138 Muslim religious leaders and scholars who sent a letter to Pope Benedict XVI in an attempt to improve Christian-Muslim relations. In a belated response to the Oct. 13 letter, Chief Vatican official, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, told the French Catholic daily La Croix, that a real theological debate with Muslims was difficult as they saw the Quran as the literal word of God. Read More
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Pope Benedict’s belated response to Muslim initiative
Pope willing to receive a delegation of the letter signers
A common word between Muslims & Christians
AMP Report: More than 130 Muslim Muslim religious leaders, scholars and intellectuals from all branches of Islam (Sunni and Shia, Salafi and Sufi, liberal and conservative) have written to Pope Benedict XVI and the major leaders of Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, Evangelical, Anglican, Orthodox churches and other Christian sects, urging greater understanding between the two faiths. Read More
Misgivings and reservations about the Muslim outreach
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali An open letter from 138 Muslim scholars and religious leaders to the Pope Benedict and other Christian leaders, calling for greater understanding between the two faiths, has received mixed response. The letter was welcomed by various leaders and institutions, including the Baptist World Alliance and the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, archbishop of Canterbury. But there was no immediate reaction from the Vatican. Read More
Bigotry in action: Islamophobia in US Presidential election campaign
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: In recent months we are witnessing an alarming increase in Islamophobia by Republican political leaders who wants to exploit this anti-Muslim atmosphere. This rhetoric clearly seeks to exploit the anti-Islam and anti-Muslim atmosphere prevailed in the post-9/11 America thanks to the government’s internal and external policies as well as some political and religious leaders and agenda-driven media. Read More
U.S. House passes historic Ramadan resolution
AMP Report: The U.S. House of Representative on Oct. 2, 2007, in a historic move, passed a resolution commemorating Ramadan. The resolution, that marks a milestone in the history of Muslims in America, was introduced on Sept. 5 by Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) and co-sponsored by 30 legislators, including Representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota. Ellison is the first Muslim to be elected to the U.S. Congress. The resolution was approved by a vote of 376-0. More details
Freedom’s Watch: A war mongering neocon outfit
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: “Big coffers and a rising voice lift a new conservative group.” This is how the New York Times reports establishment of a new group, the so-called Freedom’s Watch, envisaged by the Republican Jewish Coalition, dedicated to press the Bush administration to launch an attack on Iran. Founders of this group are the same people who supported the US invasion of Iraq. More details
McCain: No Muslim president, U.S. better with Christian one
AMP Report: Arab and Muslim organizations have expressed dismay at the comments from Presidential hopeful Senator John McCain who said that the United States is a Christian nation and that his Christian faith is of better spiritual guidance than Islam. More details
Islamophobes smear prominent Muslim leader
AMP Report: Dr. Esam Omeish, national leader of the Muslim American Society (MAS), was forced to resign from a Virginia immigration commission on September 27, 2007 after being subjected to a smear campaign by anti-Islam bloggers and Muslim-bashers like Steven Emerson who distorted past comments he made about Israel’s brutal treatment of the Palestinian people and about jihad. More details
Peter King’s racist and Islamophobic remarks denounced
AMP Report: American Muslim and Arab groups have strongly condemned the racist and Islamphobic remarks from Rep. Peter King (R-NY) who is the ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee. In an interview with The Politico, Rep. King claimed there were "too many mosques" in the United States. Read More
The oil connection in Iraq War: Greenspan straightens the record
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve Bank Chairman has blithely declared that the Iraq war was 'largely' about oil. Greenspan states the obvious. It is easy to explain the mechanics of the oil war in Iraq. Before the war, Iraq's oil production and reserves lay outside the direct control of the US/UK oil industry. The major international oil companies, headquartered in the United States and the United Kingdom, are keen to regain control over Iraq’s oil, lost with the nationalization in 1972. Read More
25th commemoration of Sabra and Shatila massacre
AMP Report: September 16, 2007 marks the 25th anniversary of one of the bloodiest and most brutal massacres in recent history, the 1982 massacre of Palestinian refugees in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon. Twenty five years ago, on this day, right wing Phalangist militia forces, under the watchful eyes of the Israeli military occupiers, slaughtered more than 3,000 Palestinian residents of two refugee camps. The overwhelming majority of those murdered were women, children and elderly men. Read More
American Muslims six years after 9/11
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: A Muslim bus passenger en route to Chicago is put off with his bags in Toledo after he told the driver he is from Iraq. Dearborn offices of two Muslim charities - Al-Mabarrat Charitable Organization and Goodwill Charitable Organization – are raided. A mosque in Rochester (New York) has been vandalized for the three times this year. These recent episodes symbolize the dilemma of American Muslims in the post-9/11 America. Read More
Prosecutors rely on FBI and Israeli testimony to make their case against Holy Land
AMP Report: The defense in the Holy Land Foundation charity trial has begun presenting its evidence as the Justice Department decided not to call additional witnesses in its prosecution of the charity for alleged ties to the Palestinian organization Hamas that has been declared a terrorist group by the United States. The Justice Department move suggests that prosecution is resting its case on the strength of contested documents and the testimony of FBI agents and Israeli intelligence officials More details
The Khalil Gibran Academy opens in New York
AMP Report : Khalil Gibran International Academy (KGIA) opened in New York on September 4 as 55-students arrived for class amid increased security after heated controversy over the school. Since the school was first announced in February this year, the right wing New York media have been running a smear campaign with ignorant, bigoted, and hateful commentaries against it. The anti-Arabic campaign was spearheaded by Islamophobists Daniel Pipes and Alicia Colon in the New York Sun and the New York Post. Read More
NYPD report on radicalization casts suspicion on all U.S. Muslims
AMP Report: American Muslim community is alarmed by the New York Police Department (NYPD) report on "radicalization" may result in all U.S. Muslims being viewed with suspicion. The report - entitled, "Radicalization in the West and the Homegrown Threat" - warns of "radicalization" among otherwise unremarkable young Muslim men in the United States who grow disillusioned with life and sign on with jihdists. Read More
CAIR files amicus brief in Texas Muslim charity trial
Listing of 300 Muslim individuals, institutions called ‘unconstitutional’
AMP Report: The Council on American-Islamic Relations CAIR), a prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group, has announced the filing of an amicus brief relating to the ongoing trial of the Holy Land Foundation Muslim charity in Texas. The CAIR brief asks the court to remove the group’s name, and that of several hundred other Muslim individuals and institutions, from a list of so-called “unindicted co-conspirators.” Read More
Smearing U.S. Muslim Groups is 'Un-American'
By Dr. Parvez Ahmed: Given the growing fear of Islam and Muslims among the American public (one-in-four admit to being prejudiced against Muslims), it has become easy to smear Islamic organizations. Without legal recourse to challenge such smears, the constitutional rights of American Muslims suffer through guilt by association and guilt by mere accusation. This chills the First Amendment rights of American Muslims. Read More
Muslims welcome GOP rejection of threat to attack Mecca
August 6, 2007 - The Council on American-Islamic Relations today welcomed remarks by several Republican presidential candidates repudiating threats made by fellow White House hopeful Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) to attack Islamic holy sites. The group also called on Tancredo to retract and apologize for remarks he made last week advocating threats to bomb the holy cities of Mecca and Medina as part of his proposed anti-terror policy. Read More
Trial of the Holy Land Foundation begins
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: The Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development went on trial on July 24, 2007 in Dallas, Texas as the federal agents were raiding two other Muslim charities in Dearborn, Michigan. The Holy Land was being tried on suspicion of aiding terrorism by helping the Palestinian militant group Hamas while the two Michigan charities - the Goodwill Charitable Organization and Al-Mabarrat Charitable Organization were suspected of having ties to extremist groups in Lebanon. Just like the Holy Land, assets of the two Michigan charities have been frozen. More details
U.S. can ill afford the perception that we are at war with Islam
By Parwez Ahmed: As a nation, we can ill afford the perception that we are at war with a faith practiced by more than a billion people accounting for more than a fifth of humanity today. Read More
SANE: An Islamophobic group seeks to banish Islam from the U.S.
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: Stepping into the foot prints of Islamophobist founders of anti-Islam and anti-Muslim forums such as Middle East Forum, Campus Watch, Dhimmi Watch and Jihad Watch, another pro-Israeli Islamophobist, David Yerushalmi, has established an anti-Islam group known with the acronym SANE: the Society of Americans for National Existence. The sole objective of the group is banishing Islam from the US by making "adherence to Islam" punishable by 20 years in prison. More details
CAIR Report on Muslim civil rights in the US: 25% rise in anti-Muslim bias cases
Citizenship delays top issue for American Muslims
AMP Report: A report released on June 14, 2007 by the Council on American-Islamic Relations' (CAIR), a prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group, indicates a 25 percent increase in the total number of complaints of anti-Muslim bias from 2005 to 2006, that caused long delays in the process of citizenship applications. More details
Washington Times’ smearing campaign against CAIR
A fresh sinister move to defame American Muslim organizations
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: In a fresh move to discredit and defame leading American Muslim organizations, the Washington Times has published a long tirade against the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the most visible public American Muslim group that has a distinguished record of social and political activism since its establishment in 1994. The Washington Times story is titled “CAIR membership falls 90% since 9/11” but the punch of the story is that CAIR cannot claim to be the voice of American Muslims since its membership has been reduced sharply. More details
Hidden agenda of PEW Center’s million dollar survey of American Muslims
AMP Comment: The most striking finding of the PEW Research Center’s one million dollar survey of American Muslims is that the population of the American Muslim community is no more than 2.35 million. More details
The estimate of Muslim Americans
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