CAIR-Philadelphia wishes all of our Christian friends a joyous Christmas and a New Year of peace and justice -- from Pakistan, to Palestine, to Pennsylvania.
Lo! The angels said "O Mary! Behold, God sends thee the glad tiding, through a word from Him, [of a son] who will become known as the Christ Jesus, son of Mary..."
Holy Qur'an, 3:45
The Philadelphia Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Philadelphia) today criticized CNN for its decision to fire Dr. Marc Lamont Hill, a professor, activist, and political commentator, after a speech Dr. Hill made at the United Nations supporting Palestinian independence.
It has been one of the foundational principles of democratic nations that the law exists as a guarantor of liberty. From the Magna Carta to the American Declaration of Independence, from the French Declaration of Rights of Man to the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the march of history can be seen as the expansion of freedom to ever greater numbers of the Earth’s inhabitants.
I spent Monday glued to the BBC, Reuters, Aljazeera, and Haaretz broadcasts from Gaza. By Tuesday morning we knew that 58 Palestinian demonstrators had been killed by Israeli troops, while a staggering 2,700 had been wounded, including one infant who died from tear gas inhalation.
The Philadelphia Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Philadelphia) today condemned the Israeli massacre of dozens of Palestinian civilians protesting both the unilateral move of the US embassy to Jerusalem and the 70th anniversary of “The Nakba,” the expulsion by Israel of hundreds of thousands of Arabs out of Palestine during the 1948-49 Arab-Israeli war.
Jews around the world, and my family and I, are now celebrating the eight day-long holiday of Passover (peysakhin Hebrew), commonly known as “The Festival of Freedom.” Passover celebrates four themes or moments of redemption: the liberation of the earth from the harshness of winter; the liberation of the Hebrew slaves from their enslavement in Egypt; the freeing of humankind from idolatry and ignorance; and the personal and spiritual liberation of every human being from darkness and pain.
The recent announcement that the Vatican has officially recognized Palestine should be welcome news to those who support peace and justice for all in the Middle East. The Holy See's recognition of the rights of the Palestinian people follows the historic meeting last summer when Pope Francis brought Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas together at the Vatican for a "Prayer Summit for Peace."
As the Executive Director of the Philadelphia chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, I believe your readers should be aware that many Muslim organizations, including ours, have condemned the recent brutal murders in the Jerusalem synagogue. CAIR's national statement reads in-part, "We condemn this and any other attack on a house of worship and urge all parties in that holy city to refrain from actions that further inflame religious tensions."
