The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has released an online toolkit designed to help Muslim communities organize proactive local educational and outreach initiatives tied to events such as a “National Day of Unity and Healing” on the upcoming anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks.

SEE: ‘Teachable Moment Community Response Guide’ Toolkit

The toolkit, called a “Teachable Moment Community Response Guide,” offers guidance, tools and resources to help Muslim communities respond to specific current events such as the end of Ramadan Eid al-Fitr holiday occurring near September 11, the upcoming “Burn a Koran Day” by a church in Florida, the anti-Muslim bigotry generated by the smear campaign against a planned Islamic community center in Manhattan, and the ongoing tension and misunderstanding surrounding the building or expansion of mosques nationwide.

SEE: Fearful Muslims Downplay Holiday Set to Fall on Sept. 11
Fla. Faith Leaders: Book-Burning Has No Place Here
CAIR: NY Attack On Muslim Cabbie Spurs Calls To Cool Rhetoric (NPR)
CAIR: Drunk Shouts ‘Terrorists,’ Urinates on Mosque Rugs
CAIR-NY: 9/11 Families, Others Rally in Favor of NYC Mosque
Beyond New York, Mosques Draw Protests

“We hope this toolkit will help local community leaders as they plan the many spontaneous outreach and educational initiatives that are being scheduled in response to the new challenges faced by American Muslims,” said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad. “Each community should utilize the contents of the toolkit to respond in a proactive way to the unprecedented wave of hate-mongering targeting Islam and American Muslims.”

Awad said the toolkit also includes verses from the Quran about how Muslims should respond to harassment and abuse, recommendations for hosting open houses at mosques, tips on working with media professionals, and statements of support from national religious and civic groups and leaders.

It cites chapter 41, verse 34 of the Quran, which states:

“(Since) good and evil cannot be equal, repel (the evil deed) with one that is better. Then you will see that he with whom you had enmity, will become your close friend.”

CAIR is America’s largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. 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.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations has launched a national public service announcement (PSA) campaign featuring Muslim 9/11 first responders and designed to challenge the growing anti-Muslim bigotry in American society.

[SATELLITE FEED FOR PUBLIC SERVICE AND NEWS DIRECTORS: Feed Date: Thursday, September 2nd, 2010. Feed Time: 1:00-1:30 p.m. ET (Fed in Rotation) Coordinates: Galaxy 19/C07 Slot B, FEC: 3/4/ Symbol Rate: 6.1113 / Data Rate: 8.448 / Downlink Freq: 3835.500V, Synaptic Digital Satellite Operations Trouble Line: 212-812-7134]

CAIR’s PSA campaign is also designed to offer an implicit challenge to the Florida church that plans to burn copies of the Quran, Islam’s revealed text, on September 11.

CAIR ’9/11 Happened to Us All’ PSA, Firefighter (30-Second)
CAIR ’9/11 Happened to Us All’ PSA, Firefighter (60-Second)
CAIR ’9/11 Happened to Us All’ PSA, Medical Responder (30-Second)
CAIR ‘We Have More in Common than We Think’ PSA, Interfaith (30-Second)

The PSAs are also available at: thenewsmarket.com/CAIR (Registration is required.)

Two of the three PSAs, which will be distributed by satellite to television stations nationwide and online through social media sites, feature Muslim first responders to the 9/11 terror attacks, with the theme “9/11 happened to us all.” Copies of the PSAs will also be mailed to selected television stations, with a focus on stations in New York and Florida. (Please contact CAIR-PA via e-mail or phone to receive a copy)

The third PSA features Muslim, Jewish and Christian leaders describing the “golden rule” as expressed by their respective faiths — and ends with the phrase, “We have more in common than we think.” That PSA is designed to show the commonalities between faiths and to challenge those who — like the members of a Florida church who plan to burn Qurans on September 11 — would divide America along religious lines.

A 2005 CAIR public service announcement (PSA) rejecting terrorism and religious extremism and was seen by some 10 million television viewers nationwide. That PSA, called “Not in the Name of Islam,” featured ordinary American Muslims stating “that those who commit acts of terror in the name of Islam are betraying the teachings of the Quran and the Prophet Muhammad.”

SEE: CAIR 2005 ‘Not in the Name of Islam’ PSA

Other national American Muslim organizations took part in the news conference outlined each group’s individual and joint initiatives designed to promote religious freedom, challenge growing anti-Muslim bigotry in American society and to mark the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks.

The other Muslim organizations that took part in the news conference included: (in alphabetical order)

• Coordinating Council of Muslim Organizations in the Washington Area (CCMO)
• Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA)
• MAS Freedom

Earlier this month, CAIR released an online toolkit designed to help Muslim communities organize proactive local educational and outreach initiatives tied to events such as a “National Day of Unity and Healing” on the upcoming anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks.

SEE: ‘Teachable Moment Community Response Guide’ Toolkit

The toolkit, called a “Teachable Moment Community Response Guide,” offers guidance, tools and resources to help Muslim communities respond to specific current events such as the end of Ramadan Eid al-Fitr holiday occurring near September 11, the upcoming “Burn a Koran Day” by a church in Florida, the anti-Muslim bigotry generated by the smear campaign against a planned Islamic community center in Manhattan, and the ongoing tension and misunderstanding surrounding the building or expansion of mosques nationwide.

CAIR is America’s largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. 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.

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by Valerie Russ
Philadelphia Daily News, August 28, 2010

NABIH ASID stood in the sweltering kitchen of his Queen Village Pizza shop, chopping a large block of cheese into tiny shreds. Perspiration began to bead lightly on his forehead.

The kitchen was stifling last week, with heat blasting from the pizza oven inside while a steamy August afternoon blazed outside.

But Asid couldn’t slake his thirst with a sip of water, or draw strength from any of his tempting treats because he’s among the thousands of area Muslims – and hundreds of millions worldwide – fasting for the holy month of Ramadan.

“For me, it is not hard,” said Asid, 52, originally from Egypt.

He’s been fasting each Ramadan since he was 9, abstaining from all food and drink between sunrise and sunset – the majority of his shop’s hours of operation. But to Asid, the monthlong fast is simply a part of his life and his faith.

“It’s all about your belief,” Asid said. “If you believe, you will be strong. You will get help from God.”

Non-Muslims may think it especially difficult for Muslims to keep the fast when they cook and serve food for others all day. But several vendors, restaurant workers and others said they are not tempted to eat.

Some admit, however, that on especially hot days, they do feel thirsty.

Aftab Khan, who runs a hot-dog cart on Broad Street near Callowhill, said it had gotten so hot inside his metal cart a couple of days earlier this month that he began to feel dizzy.

“It’s too hot,” said Khan, 30, from Pakistan. “The sun is coming down through the window [above his head] and the stove gets really hot.”

On days he feels light-headed, Khan said, he closes up shop an hour or two early, then goes home to take a cool shower and rest until it’s time to break his fast.

“Still, I want to make it clear that I love Ramadan,” Khan said with a big smile. “I love it!”

Several local Muslims said fasting reminds them of the suffering of the poor and teaches them about humility, patience and spirituality. It’s also a time to ask forgiveness for sins.

“To me, it’s that spiritual element, where you look at the fact that there are poor people in Philadelphia and around the world, and you start to feel what they feel,” said Rugiatu Conteh, a spokeswoman for the Philadelphia chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations.

But because Ramadan came in August this year, the days are longer than in years when Ramadan comes in winter. Muslims use a lunar calendar, with shorter months than the standard calendar, and the first day of Ramadan comes about 11 days earlier each year.

At Hanan’s House of Pita, a vending cart at 38th and Walnut streets in West Philadelphia, Hanan Hasan was busy filling lunch orders last week for students and others at her cart located near the University of Pennsylvania.

“Today was very nice,” Hasan said on a blessedly cloudy day. But the two days before were extremely hot “and I can’t drink, I can’t eat.”

Still, she doesn’t think of eating. Hasan grew up in Jordan and said, like many Muslims, she started fasting as a child.

“I have fasted all my life,” she said. “Everyone around you is fasting. My niece in Chicago, she’s only eight years old, and she is fasting this year.”

A young American-born Muslim, who is in culinary school, said that even though he fasts while cooking with classmates all day, fasting is not a problem because he’s been doing it since he converted to Islam 16 years ago.

The young man, 35, who asked that his name not be used, said outside his Germantown mosque that his classmates needlessly apologize when they sit down to eat what they’ve cooked.

“They always say, ‘Excuse me for eating in front of you,’ ” he said. “I tell them, ‘It’s OK. It’s not hard for me.’ ”

At the Almadenah Meat Market and Asalam Restaurant, two adjacent stores in a shopping center at Germantown and Wister avenues, owner Abdul Haj said that business in the market actually increases during Ramadan.

At the restaurant, which serves pizza, sandwiches and other food, the business he loses while Muslims are fasting during the day just moves later and things pick up at night. “People come to break the fast here,” said Haj, a Palestinian.

“Business always gets better during Ramadan,” said his nephew Osama Haj, who works in the meat market. “When you’re hungry [all day], people buy more food.”

Asid, the pizza shop owner, has owned his restaurant at 4th and Queen streets for 20 years.

Asid’s wife, who didn’t want her name published, said she hasn’t wanted to eat, but she has felt thirsty.

“For me, it is hard,” she said. “It is so hot and I cannot drink.”

But Asid said that even though he works around food all day, “I don’t think twice about eating.

“The food is nothing,” he said. “It is about spirituality. It is about having a clean mind and a clean body. Ramadan is a gift. If you’re honest and truly fasting for the right reasons, after the month is over, you will be a better person.”

by Eric Mayes
The Philadelphia Tribune, August 21, 2010

American Muslims are divided over the proposed mosque near ground zero — for some, the plans have provided a teachable moment, for others, it has needlessly provoked a torrent of anti-Muslim rhetoric. Read more…