A second Fox News interview this week. I disagree with the decision to call the segment "When Sensitivity Trumps Security." I feel it is reasonable to accommodate a person's sincerely held religious beliefs in this situation.
Friday, January 8, 2010
Fox News CAIR Warns Against Profiling
I recently appeared on Fox News to discuss the racial profiling as a technique to enhance security:
CAIR Warns Against Profiling
CAIR Warns Against Profiling
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Response to ADL in Boston Globe
ADL casts stones of accusation
January 6, 2010
IN HIS Dec. 24 letter “In league with anti-Semites,’’ Derrek Shulman, New England regional director for the Anti-Defamation League, casts accusatory stones at the Council on American-Islamic Relations, an organization that has consistently condemned all forms of bigotry, including anti-Semitism, and has a long record of defending the civil and religious rights of all Americans, regardless of faith.
For example, CAIR condemned an Iranian cartoon contest mocking the Holocaust. The council also called on an Arab-American publication that printed excerpts of the anti-Semitic Protocols of the Elders of Zion to apologize, and condemned bias attacks on a rabbinical assistant in Brooklyn and on a Jewish student on the campus of Temple University.
CAIR disagrees with Israeli occupation policies, the likely genesis of the ADL’s smears. But converting legitimate disagreement with the policies of a foreign government to hatred of Jews is a logic-defying stretch.
Usually, the driving motivation behind letters such as the one published by Shulman is the Israel-Palestine conflict. CAIR is on record condemning both terror attacks on Israeli civilians and Israeli state terror attacks on Palestinians. Unfortunately, organizations such as the ADL lack a similar track record when it comes to condemning the killing of Palestinian civilians.
The ball’s in Shulman’s court. Will we keep casting stones at each other or, God willing, seek a way to actualize a word both our faiths love: shalom, salaam, peace?
Corey Saylor
National legislative director
Council on American-Islamic Relations
Washington
January 6, 2010
IN HIS Dec. 24 letter “In league with anti-Semites,’’ Derrek Shulman, New England regional director for the Anti-Defamation League, casts accusatory stones at the Council on American-Islamic Relations, an organization that has consistently condemned all forms of bigotry, including anti-Semitism, and has a long record of defending the civil and religious rights of all Americans, regardless of faith.
For example, CAIR condemned an Iranian cartoon contest mocking the Holocaust. The council also called on an Arab-American publication that printed excerpts of the anti-Semitic Protocols of the Elders of Zion to apologize, and condemned bias attacks on a rabbinical assistant in Brooklyn and on a Jewish student on the campus of Temple University.
CAIR disagrees with Israeli occupation policies, the likely genesis of the ADL’s smears. But converting legitimate disagreement with the policies of a foreign government to hatred of Jews is a logic-defying stretch.
Usually, the driving motivation behind letters such as the one published by Shulman is the Israel-Palestine conflict. CAIR is on record condemning both terror attacks on Israeli civilians and Israeli state terror attacks on Palestinians. Unfortunately, organizations such as the ADL lack a similar track record when it comes to condemning the killing of Palestinian civilians.
The ball’s in Shulman’s court. Will we keep casting stones at each other or, God willing, seek a way to actualize a word both our faiths love: shalom, salaam, peace?
Corey Saylor
National legislative director
Council on American-Islamic Relations
Washington
Monday, January 4, 2010
Friday, April 10, 2009
U.S. Muslim Organization Calls on Iran to Release Journalist
CAIR seeks 'gesture of reconciliation' from Iranian government
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 4/9/09) - A prominent national Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization today called on the government of Iran to release American journalist Roxana Saberi.
The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) delivered a letter calling for Saberi's release to the Iranian Interests Section, located in the Embassy of Pakistan in Washington, D.C. Saberi was detained in January and has reportedly been charged with espionage.
SEE: Clinton Calls for Iran to Release American Reporter Charged With Spying (NY Times)
In the letter, CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad wrote in part:
“In the spirit of shared faith and international peace and stability, and with the desire to increase constructive interactions between our two nations, we respectfully request that Iran release Roxana Saberi and allow her to return to her family in the United States.
“America and Iran now have an opportunity to re-engage in a non-confrontational manner. This new approach is much more likely to achieve the desired result of dialogue based on mutual interests and mutual respect than past policies of hostility and mistrust.
“We recognize the serious nature of the issues that seem to hinder an improved relationship between our two nations. We ask Iran to take this opportunity to make a gesture of reconciliation that will help create an atmosphere in which those issues may be addressed in a positive manner.
“The American Muslim community again offers its support for any initiatives that may help build bridges of understanding and decrease the potential for international conflict or instability.”
CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties and advocacy organization, has 35 offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
