Walid speaks about FAQ in Flint

The following is a link to the video that was recorded at the Flint Islamic Center earlier this month regarding answering frequently asked questions about Islam and Muslims.

Cut & paste to view:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=448001883202265522&pr=goog-sl

Muslim - Jewish dialogue for understanding & peace

Cut & paste below to view video of Muslim - Jewish dialogue shown on Bridges TV:

http://www.bridgestv.com/videos.asp?bcpid=271525776&bclid=307734328&bctid=1258472892

Walid comments on holy month of Ramadan

http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-09-12-voa42.cfm

American Muslims Prepare for Holy Month of Ramadan
By Mohamed Elshinnawi
Washington
12 September 2007

Cut & paste to view:
http://www.voanews.com/mediaassets/english/2007_09/Video/wmv/RamadaninAmerica_bb.wmv

As the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins, Muslim Americans across the United States are gathering in mosques and homes just as Muslims do around the world. VOA's Mohamed Elshinnawi tells us how American Muslims are observing their holy month.


There are an estimated six to eight million Muslims in the United States, comprised mainly of immigrants from the Arab world, as well as converts to Islam. Regardless of their country of origin, American Muslims observe Ramadan with a set of traditional rituals. Families shop at Halal meat stores, prepare Iftar meals to break their fast with family and friends and pray together. Some Muslim Americans shop for special items such as dates and Ramadan sweets at specialty food stores.

Shala Haroun, an American Muslim from Kashmir, misses the big family gathering on Ramadan. "Ramadan back home is a lot more fun, there is a lot more family, a bigger Indian community and you get your whole family together, while here you are with just a couple of your family."

Islamic centers and mosques are thriving with Muslim American praying and reading the Koran. Imam Hassan Qazwini of the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, Michigan says the center has a special program for Ramadan. "Every night, after the nightly prayers, the Islamic Center will hold a special session that consists of recitation of the holy Koran, the interpretation of the Koran, as well as some other lectures."

He says as many as 1,000 people go to daily evening prayers at the Islamic Center of America during Ramadan, and there will be a special program for American-born Muslim Americans.

"The English-speaking part of our congregation, we will have a special program for them. We believe that these will be the ambassadors of Islam to non-Muslims. They will be the ones who will carry the banner of Islam, therefore there will be a very specialized program catered to the youth."

For Muslim American groups, Ramadan has served as a means to educate the American public about the holidays of Muslims and the Islamic faith. Dawud Walid is the executive director in Michigan of the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations. "[The] Council on American Islamic Relations sends out information relating to Ramadan to our non-Muslim constituency and friends as well as we organize programs in which we speak about Ramadan. We do this in conjunction with not only Islamic centers but even with groups and interfaith groups as well, so this has been a highly successful campaign."

Some events planned by Muslim Americans to educate other Americans about Islam during Ramadan include holding open houses at local mosques and Islamic centers, public lectures on Ramadan and interfaith Iftars. Muslim American organizations also place TV ads to remind all Americans that Muslims are an integral part of the American society.

Since the early 1990s, the president has issued happy Ramadan greetings to the more 1.2 billion Muslims worldwide, and he invites the ambassadors of Muslim countries and Muslim American leaders to the White House for Iftar.

Walid discusses racial profiling in Hamtramck

http://hamtramckstar.com/index.php/2007/08/18/p1010#more1010

CAIR-MI: RACIAL PROFILING ORDINANCE DISCUSSED AT CITY COUNCIL MEETING
Hamtramck Star, 8/18/07
http://hamtramckstar.com/index.php/2007/08/18/city_council_8_14_07

[D]awud Walid of CAIR said his organization feels that police should not ask questions about immigration status based on ethnic and religious attire. Immigrants are less likely to call the police. Visitors to Hamtramck are effected as well as residents. It is the responsibility of the federal government to enforce immigration law. Local police agencies should protect legal immigrants and encourage reporting.

Juan Escareno of MOSES is just learning about Hamtramck and has come to respect councilmembers he has met with and the mayor. Hamtramck is diverse and welcoming to immigrants, and the bias-based policing ordinance would reinforce what the city is already doing by ensuring repercussions for the violation of the constitutional rights of minorities. Hamtramck is on the verge of being the second to pass an ordinance of this type. Other ordinances are more narrow. Profiling effects all of us.

Bill Meyer, chairman of the Human Relations Commission, hoped the council researched the ordinance ahead. He urged the council to pursue the bias-based policing ordinance.

Nadia El-Zein of ACCESS said immigrants have the right to feel safe and many do not report crimes...

SEE video: http://hamtramckstar.com/index.php/2007/08/15/city_council_8_14_07_video

Walid comments on BRIDGES TV discussing the raids on Goodwill Charities and Al-Mabarrat

Feds Raid Two Detroit Area Islamic Charities

July 25, 2007

Detroit- Federal agents raided two Shiite Muslim charities in Dearborn, Michigan on Tuesday, claiming one of them had ties to Iran-backed terrorist groups.

Agents hauled away documents and files from the Goodwill Charitable Organization, which is accused of soliciting money for Hezbollah.

The other charity, Al Mabarrat Charitable Organization frequently holds fundraisers in metro Detroit. The feds say its founder, Hussein Fadlallah, is the spiritual leader of Hezbollah and a terrorist.

Many in the Muslim community are concerned about what has been a sweep of Islamic charities. To address concerns the FBI held a meeting Tuesday night with communtiy leaders at the Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn Heights.

To find out more about these raids we spoke to Dawud Walid, CAIR Detroit Executive Director.

Cut & paste to see video:
http://www.bridgestv.com/videos.asp?bcpid=959035258&bclid=307734328&bctid=1125843720

C-SPAN video discussing cartoons and Islamophobia

The following video was shown on C-SPAN on 7/5/07. CAIR-MI staff was featured in the beginning of a presentation at the Association of American Cartoonists conference.

Cut & paste to view:
Assoc. of American Editorial Cartoonists Panel on "Caricaturing a Nation"
http://www.c-span.org/VideoArchives.asp?CatCodePairs=,&ArchiveDays=100&Page=12

UN says Darfur conflict triggered by environmental degradation, not ethnicity

http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=512&ArticleID=5621&l=en

Environmental Degradation Triggering Tensions and Conflict in Sudan

Investments in Management and Rehabilitation of Natural Resources Central to Conflict Resolution and Peace Building in Sudan Says UN Environment Programme

Geneva/Nairobi, 22 June 2007 - Sudan is unlikely to see a lasting peace unless widespread and rapidly accelerating environmental degradation is urgently addressed.

A new assessment of the country, including the troubled region of Darfur, indicates that among the root causes of decades of social strife and conflict are the rapidly eroding environmental services in several key parts of the country.

Investment in environmental management, financed by the international community and from the country's emerging boom in oil and gas exports, will be a vital part of the peace building effort, says the report.

The most serious concerns are land degradation, desertification and the spread of deserts southwards by an average of 100km over the past four decades.

These are linked with factors including overgrazing of fragile soils by a livestock population that has exploded from close to 27 million animals to around 135 million now.

Many sensitive areas are also experiencing a "deforestation crisis" which has led to a loss of almost 12 per cent of Sudan's forest cover in just 15 years. Indeed, some areas may undergo a total loss of forest cover within the next decade.

Meanwhile, there is mounting evidence of long-term regional climate change in several parts of the country. This is witnessed by a very irregular but marked decline in rainfall, for which the clearest indications are found in Kordofan and Darfur states.

In Northern Darfur for example precipitation has fallen by a third in the past 80 years says the report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and its Post-Conflict and Disaster Management Branch.

The scale of climate change as recorded in Northern Darfur is almost unprecedented, and its impacts are closely linked to conflict in the region, as desertification has added significantly to the stress on traditional agricultural and pastoral livelihoods.

In addition, "forecast climate change is expected to further reduce food production due to declining rainfall and increased variability, particularly in the Sahel belt. A drop in crop yields of up to 70 per cent is forecast for the most vulnerable areas," says the Sudan Post-Conflict Assessment.

Video in which oil was also mentioned as a source of conflict.
SEE: http://www.unep.org/sudan/VNR/SudanPost-ConflictReport.wmv

Few Iraqis find refuge in the U.S.

http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-06-19-voa42.cfm

By Brian Padden
Washington, D.C.
19 June 2007

http://www.voanews.com/english/figleaf/ramfilegenerate.cfm?filepath=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Evoanews%2Ecom%2Fmediaassets%2Fenglish%2F2007%5F06%2FVideo%2Frm%2FIraqRefugeesinUS%5Fbb%2Erm (Video link - Real player)

June 20th is International Refugee Day so we are turning our attention to the refugee situation in Iraq. The United Nations says nearly four million Iraqis have fled from their homes seeking refuge in either safer regions of their country or abroad. And every month at least 40,000 more people are displaced.

The United States faces increasing criticism for not doing more to solve the refugee crisis there or allowing more Iraqi refugees into the U.S. In 2006 the United States allowed only 202 Iraqi refugees into the country. VOA's Brian Padden found one of the few -- in Dearborn, Michigan.


The large Iraqi community in Dearborn, Michigan, makes up a significant part of the 500,000 Arab-Americans who live in Detroit.
There is a large Iraqi community in Dearborn, Michigan. It makes up a significant part of the 500,000 Arab-Americans who live in or around the Midwest city of Detroit.

Most of the men at the Karbala Islamic Center, like the vast majority of Iraqis here, came in the early 1990s after the first Gulf War. But Ahmed Kareem arrived just a year ago. Before he left Iraq, Kareem says he was working as a journalist in Baghdad for an American-supported Iraqi newspaper. He says he fled after he was targeted for assassination for helping Americans.


The Karbala Islamic Center
"The last time in Iraq a couple of guys shot at me and that's why I had to leave Iraq because of this. And my family was threatened too, and one of my brothers was assassinated," Kareem told us.

Kareem now lives in one small rented room. He wants to bring other family members here. They are now living in Egypt. Kareem is one of the few Iraqi refugees who have been allowed into the United States. In 2006 only 202 Iraqis were resettled in the U.S. This is a controversial issue even in the Arab community here.

Dawud Walid is executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Michigan. He says the government is discriminating against Arabs and Muslims. "We believe it is partly due to the demonization of Arabs in the post-9/11 era."(MORE)

CAIR - 13 years of service

SEE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1huMYeqJfQ

Dearborn mosque vandalized again

At front window next to the main entrance Rear entrance back door

The grafitti appears to have been sprayed with the help of a stencil. Spray paint from a can cannot make letters of such size in the top picture plus there was spray on the sides reflecting border. Especially in regards to the front picture, a person, who does know one word of Arabic or knows how to write Arabic letters could have sprayed this.

SEE: http://www.wxyz.com/news/story.aspx?content_id=58e0c2d9-3248-445c-a8e2-426b6065a398

Misconceptions Corrected

http://compass.lssu.edu/content/view/13/28/

“MISCONCEPTIONS CORRECTED”

By: Aaron Kopitz
Staff Reporter

Last Monday Lake State’s Honor’s Program hosted the speaker, Dawud Walid, who is the executive director of CAIR Michigan (Council on American Islamic Relations). He came to Lake State to speak on the common misconceptions that Muslims and Islam face.


Admission was free and all were welcomed to attend. This event took place in the Arts Center’s auditorium, which can hold 674 people. 72 people attended; among those were some recognized faces like President Youngblood, Vice President Harger, Dr. Swedene and Dr. Pichot. This event had fierce competition with other events going on campus like the Student Government’s Presidential debate, the illusionist/mentalist Wayne Hoffman, and dinner. The presentation and discussion took place without intrusion or interruption except for the few students who left during the presentation. Overall the event was considered to be a success.


Mr. Walid presented the six misconceptions Muslims and Islam face. These misconceptions are: Islam is incompatible with Judeo-Christian values and democracy, Muslims do not believe in Jesus Christ, Arab and Muslim are synonymous, Jihad means holy war, top Muslim scholars have not denounced terrorism and the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and lastly the Palestinian-Israeli conflict being a war between Islam and the Jewish religion.


Disillusioning these misconceptions was the goal for Monday evening and following Mr. Walid’s presentation were questions and answers. Few questions were asked; although those that were asked were either based on intrinsic goals, moral standpoints or questions based on hearsay that could finally be answered.


If a student or staff member was interested in viewing or hearing Monday’s speech they can request the video cassette in the Library which is held on reserve for anyone to view, or go to http://www.dawudwalid.blogspot.com/

Video of the event can be viewed at the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/IslamicVideos22

Addressing Manji & baseless ijtihad

Last month, self annoited Muslim reformer Ms. Irshad Manji was on a panel relating to a new PBS documentary that is about to premier, which focuses on the problems within the Muslim world and Muslim thought processes.

Ms. Manji was questioned pertaining to her concept of free and open ijtihad (critical thinking) for all Muslims to reinterpret Islam as they see fit, even if they have zero training in Islam and the development of law.

Saeed Khan, who teaches Islamic history at Wayne State University gives an excellent answer in response to Ms. Manji's answer to this question, which basically states that Ms. Manji is on fringes about as much as Osama bin Laden is, just on a different side of the curve.

SEE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaCgaX9AvX8

Muslims say they'll shun Northwest

The following is video from FOX 2 news regarding Northwest:
http://www.myfoxdet


http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070117/NEWS05/701170340

Group wants compensation after 40 are kept off flight
January 17, 2007
BY NIRAJ WARIKOO
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

A group of metro Detroiters is threatening to lead a boycott of Northwest Airlines over what they say is a pattern of profiling against Muslim passengers.

"I know that many Muslims call Northwest 'Northworst'... for its treatment to the Muslim community," Imam Hassan Al-Qazwini, head of the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, said Tuesday.

Al-Qazwini was in a group of about 40 pilgrims who were prevented from boarding a connecting flight in Germany to Detroit on Jan. 7 while returning from a trip to holy cities in Saudi Arabia. The Muslim group, most of whom are Lebanese-American Shi'ites, held a news conference Tuesday at the Dearborn mosque to describe what they say happened to them. They called for Northwest to apologize, compensate them, and discipline the employees they said profiled them.

"Otherwise," Al-Qazwini said, "if Northwest will not do that, then probably we have to call all Muslim organizations to encourage Muslims from not flying on Northwest."

With tens of thousands of Muslim customers, Northwest could be hurt financially by such a boycott, Al-Qazwini suggested, adding that "I hope Northwest will be wiser."

But Northwest officials defended their actions Tuesday, repeating that the 40 or so pilgrims were unable to board because they weren't at the gate in time.

"They showed up at the gate late," said Dean Breest, a spokesman for Northwest Airlines. "All customers need to be on time."

Northwest Airlines requires passengers to check in for international flights at least 60 minutes prior to departure and to be on board the aircraft at least 30 minutes prior to the scheduled departure time, according to a statement it issued.

Al-Qazwini and other pilgrims said Tuesday that they were at the gate at least an hour and a half before departure time.

"We were treated really, really, really badly," said Jennifer Zreik, 29, of Dearborn, one of the travelers.

According to Zreik and others, some of the Muslims with the group were allowed on the plane. But about 40 were not.

Some of the travelers said they had to spend the night at the airport; others had to pay $77 in penalty fees and more in hotel costs -- without reimbursement.

Breest said, "I'm very sorry to hear that happened," but added this case has nothing to do with profiling.

Most of the pilgrims in the group are from Michigan, said Dawud Walid, head of the Michigan branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a group that has been fighting profiling of Muslims at airports. The council organized the news conference.

Al-Qazwini said he was recently prevented from praying on a Northwest Airlines flight.
But Breest said Northwest does not discriminate. He pointed out the high-profile case of Muslim imams who were escorted off a US Airways jet in November at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport after they made Islamic prayers. The imams were eventually flown home by Northwest Airlines, he said.

Walid addresses Sunni & Shi`ah cooperation after Imams' meeting in Dearborn Heights, MI

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070111/LIFESTYLE04/701110356/1003/METRO

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/01/10/america/NA-GEN-US-Shiite-Vandalism.php


The link below is video:
http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=2024009&version=2&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=3.2.1

Mary, Mother of Jesus

With the new movie recently coming out called "The Nativity" based upon the life of the Mother of Jesus, Mary, many view the life of Mary as a purely Christian story. However to Muslims, Mary is an important figure in Islam.

From an Islamic perspective, Mary is important for the following reasons:

1) She was the mother of the only person called The Messiah, Jesus, in the Qur'an.

2) She is the only female mentioned in the Qur'an by name.

3) She is the only female that has a chapter of the Qur'an named after her.

4) She had dialogue with the Arch-angel of G'd, Gabriel.

5) She gave birth with a man touching her.

To view a short movie clip of the immaculate conception from an Islamic perspective, click here:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2517437370230946342&q=virgin+mary+in+the+koran

Muslims donate money to rebuild churches damaged by anti-Pope vandals

Please watch video of CAIR donating money to rebuild damaged churches in the West Bank:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvX3IqnvWzk

Walid links misreporting by media and the rise of Islamophobia

The following link is of a press conference held yesterday, which discusses how misreporting helps perpetuate Islamophobia, the irrational fear of anything that deals with Islam or Muslims.

Cut and paste the following to watch the video:
http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/9904825/detail.html

Interview of President Ahmadinejad with Mike Wallace

On August 8, 2006, 60 Minutes featured an interview with the current President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14547.htm

Mike Wallace was very disrespectful to a head of state.