Muslim outreach in high gear (American Muslims launch PR-style campaigns to defend Islam)

MSNBC ^ | Nov. 6 2002 | Ursula Owre Masterson

[Michael2001]

As Ramadan gets underway, the war on terror heats up and military action against Iraq looms, Muslim communities across America are on a PR mission to explain what their religion is all about. From political fundraisers and food drives to open houses at Mosques, grass roots Muslim groups are working hard to shake off the bad image Islam earned in many Americans’ eyes after the Sept. 11 attacks — an image they fear may get more tarnished with the prospect of another war in the Arab

WITH A QUARTER of Americans now admitting to having unfavorable feelings toward Muslim-Americans, according to a recent polls, and nearly 2,000 U.S. Muslims reporting acts of discrimination to civil rights groups since last year, many Muslims have decided it’s time to act.

“Over the past year, we realized that the media was essentially painting the entire population of 1.2 billion Muslims with one stroke as bad,” explained Anwar Hasan, founder and president of the Maryland-based Howard County Muslim Council. “That’s why we’re trying to reach out to the community now, to remove the fear and ultimately make America a better place.”

Excerpt. Rest of article here:

http://msnbc.com/news/830635.asp?0si=-

[Michael2001]

I don't know what news outlets Hasan is watching. I've heard nothing but "Islam is peace" from the media even before the second plane hit. Seems the message of 9/11 was that Islam means peace.

I don't buy that message and I have no sympathy for these folks. It seems that even now they are more concerned with the backlash against them then actually stopping their own hateful rhetoric and another terrorist attack.

The Muslims in this article attack Falwell, Robertson, and Graham. But they refuse to attack the tens of thousands of Muslim Imams who have condemned Christianity and Judaism.

People are finally starting to awaken to what Islam really is. And I say it's about time.

[ppaul]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/134570149_ramadan06m0.html

Wednesday, November 06, 2002, 12:00 a.m. Pacific

Permission to reprint or copy this article/photo must be obtained from The Seattle Times. Call 206-464-3113 or e-mail resale@seattletimes.com with your request.

Muslims to reach out to other faiths with Ramadan

By Janet I. Tu
Seattle Times staff reporter

Aziz Junejo remembers when Ramadan activities among the Seattle Muslim community some three decades ago consisted of a potluck dinner at a community center with seven students and four families.

This year, he already has helped organize a pre-Ramadan gathering that drew at least 400 people from several local Muslim communities. Now he and others are planning to bring their sundown breaking-of-the-fast meals to different local churches and synagogues.

Local Muslims are seeing the holy month of Ramadan — which was expected to begin last night with the sighting of the new moon — as an opportune time to organize their growing and diverse community and to reach out to the broader public.

In the year since Sept. 11, Muslims here as well as nationwide have come under intense scrutiny. Locally, the attention flared again with the Oct. 24 arrests of John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, suspects in the recent East Coast sniper shootings. The two used to live in Western Washington. Muhammad is a member of Nation of Islam, a group that is considered outside the mainstream of the Muslim world.

Educating the public about Islam, and issues such as the difference between mainstream Islam and the Nation of Islam, is why it's so important for local Muslims to get together and reach out, Junejo said.

"Ramadan is a time when, spiritually, we dedicate ourselves more to the religion," said Junejo, a Seattle resident who hosts the cable-television program "Focus on Islam." "That means we are going to be in the places of worship for more hours a day, so we're going to be socializing a lot more. It's a time to reconnect."

Ramadan, Junejo said, is also "so close to the Judeo-Christian holidays that this is an opportunity to make the spiritual connection with other faiths."

During Ramadan, Muslims abstain from food, drink (including water) and other sensual pleasures from dawn to sunset to focus on their relationship with God and how it feels to be poor, hungry or sick. Muslims also are expected to be on their best, most moral behavior. These practices are intended to teach compassion, patience and self-discipline.

Ramadan commemorates the month in about 620 when Muslims believe God's messenger-angel Gabriel revealed the first verses of the Koran to Mohammed. Observing Ramadan fast is one of the five pillars of the faith, which all Muslims are obliged to practice.

Locally, Ramadan celebrations have grown by the year.

Last year, about 10,000 people attended the Eid al-Fitr celebration, which ends the month of Ramadan, at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, Junejo said.

This past Sunday, Junejo helped organize what he hopes will be an annual pre-Ramadan social gathering of all Muslim groups in Seattle. Hundreds of local Muslims from the Somali, Pakistani, Arab, European, North African and Cham (from Southeast Asia) communities showed up at the gathering at Crossroads Community Center, he said.

"We've grown exponentially in the last few years," Junejo said.

For Jeff Siddiqui, a Lynnwood resident and member of the informal, grass-roots group American Muslims of Puget Sound, Ramadan is the perfect opportunity to repay the kindness local churches and synagogues extended last year after Sept. 11. Then, church, temple and synagogue members stood watch at mosques and invited Muslims to speak at their houses of worship.

"A lot of people think Ramadan duty is done as long as you don't eat or drink between sunrise and sunset," said Siddiqui, who is trying to bring the fast-breaking celebrations to churches and synagogues. "But that is only the very start. For those 30 days, you cannot harbor any anger, any hostility, any grudges against anybody. The idea is that if you can maintain this kind of discipline for four weeks, then it becomes a habit, a part of your being."

Bringing their Ramadan fast-breaking meals to others "dispels any notion of animosity or hatred," Siddiqui said. "It shows them that we consider them our brethren."

Janet I. Tu: 206-464-2272 or jtu@seattletimes.com.

[Thorondir]

Here, let me give teh followers of MURDERhammed a hand by fixing this article up a bit:

As KillEveryoneElseAdan gets underway, the Islamic war on civilization heats up and military action for America's survival looms, Muslim communities across America are on a PR mission to lie about what their satanic death cult is all about. From political fundraisers and food drives to open houses at I-hate-humanity-clubs, grass roots Muslim groups are working hard to shake off the accurate image Islam earned after the sneaky murderous Sept. 11 attacks — an image they fear may get more tarnished with the prospect of another war in the turd-world dump of Islamic Arabia.

WITH A QUARTER of Americans now admitting to having unfavorable feelings toward Muslim-anti-Americans, according to a recent polls, and nearly 2,000 U.S. Muslims false whining about acts of discrimination to civil rights groups since last year, many Muslims have decided it’s time to act (ewww boy!).

“Over the past year, we realized that the media was essentially painting the entire population of 1.2 billion Muslims with one accurate stroke as bad,” explained Anwar "bomb-all-the-infidels-to-hell!" Hasan, founder and president of the Maryland-based Howard County Muurder, Oppress and Enslave Council. “That’s why we’re trying to lie to the community now, to remove any due caution and ultimately make America an Islamic hell hole where we can kill Christians and sexually mutilate little girls.”

[GOPcapitalist]

"Who renders testimony to Mahomet? Himself." - Blaise Pascal

[backhoe]

A day late...
...and a dollar short...

[Joe Boucher]

You muslims can take your outreach and stick it where the sun doesn't shine. Instead of a P.R. scheme, how about seriously and forcefully denouncing radical muslim crap. How about standing up and emphatically denouncing the 9-11 attacks and how about going after some of your murderers?
Until and unless some of this type stuff is done you all and your religion can go to hell.
Quit supporting Arafat and Bin Laden and other real poop heads.

[Lilly]

LOL nicely put!

Truthfully, they are true satanists, and will all suffer the same fate as Osama, Hitler, x-rapist-impeached...

There's no excuse for any of them who live here in the States. They've been exposed to the Word, they know better.

[Dajjal]

Local Muslims are seeing the holy month of Ramadan — which was expected to begin last night with the sighting of the new moon — as an opportune time to organize their growing and diverse community and to reach out to the broader public.

HAPPY RAMADAN!!!

[fporretto]

If a quarter of Americans surveyed say they have unfavorable feelings toward Islam, you can bet your last dollar that the actual percentage who feel unfavorable toward Islam is considerably larger.

The question is: Are they right?

I believe they are. I believe they're responding to facts, not forming prejudices. I believe the Old Media's attempt to whitewash Islam, the only major religion they've ever accorded any respect (why?), has failed. It might even be engendering a hostile reaction; people don't like to feel they've been hoodwinked.

For further thoughts, please see:

Present Enemies, Future Wars

And:

Mythos And Ethos

Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Visit The Palace Of Reason: http://palaceofreason.com

[E Rocc]

You muslims can take your outreach and stick it where the sun doesn't shine. Instead of a P.R. scheme, how about seriously and forcefully denouncing radical muslim crap. How about standing up and emphatically denouncing the 9-11 attacks and how about going after some of your murderers?

Once again.....

CAIR statments on the events of September 11

We condemn in the strongest terms possible what are apparently vicious and cowardly acts of terrorism against innocent civilians. We join with all Americans in calling for the swift apprehension and punishment of the perpetrators. No cause could ever be assisted by such immoral acts.

"All members of the Muslim community are asked to offer whatever help they can to the victims and their families. Muslim medical professionals should go to the scenes of the attacks to offer aid and comfort to the victims.

- September 11 statement by the CAIR

----------

"We at the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), along with the entire American Muslim community are deeply saddened by the massive loss of life resulting from the tragic events of September 11. American Muslims utterly condemn the vicious and cowardly acts of terrorism against innocent civilians. We join with all American in calling for the swift apprehension and punishment of the perpetrators. No political cause could ever be assisted by such immoral acts."

CAIR full page add, Washington Post, September 16.

----------

"American Muslims, who unequivocally condemned today terrorist attacks on our nation, call on you to alert fellow citizens to the fact that now is a time for all of us to stand together in the face of this heinous crime."

September 11 letter to Presdient Bush, signed by the leaders of the American Muslim Alliance, the American Muslim Council, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Muslim Public Affairs Council, the Muslim American Society, the Islamic Society of North America, the Islamic Circle of North America, the Muslim Alliance in North America, and American Muslims for Jerusalem. These groups represent most of the seven million Muslims in the United States.

----------

We are no less American than we were on Sept. 10. I was born in the United States. I took my first steps on this soil. I have been a ball boy for the Chicago Bulls. I have been to four U2 concerts. I am a second-year law student specializing in international human rights. I and my 7 million Muslim brothers and sisters are contributing members of American society.

Two members of President Bush's Cabinet are of Arab descent. It was a Muslim who was the architect for the Sears Tower. Islam is the fastest growing religion in America and in the world. We are doctors, lawyers, engineers, mechanics, teachers, and store owners.

We are your neighbors.

Arsalan Tariq Iftikhar, Midwest Communications Director, Council on American-Islamic Relations, St. Louis, Mo.

-Eric

[astounded]

IMHO the Muslims also see that hunting season has now opened. The world has become a free-fire zone on muslim terrorists and their supporters.

[joesnuffy]

Muslim out retch in high gear.......
Like pouring perfume ona pig

[Kewlhand`tek]

no amount of PR will make me belive islam is peace. now does that mean i wana kill all muslims in america........no but i am weary of them. I do really realize that many of the prison reformed muslims are the bad one. you get half a chance from a foreign born muslim to be a decent person.

[MarineDad]

Muslim communities across America are on a PR mission to explain what their religion is all about

The bastards can save themselves the bother; every single day, newspaper headlines somewhere provide horrific "explanation," usually involving the slaughtering of innocents. As far as I'm concerned, should the western world ever run out of Scott's tissue, it can always wipe with Islam - that would probably constitute this murder cult's greatest societal contribution.

[joesnuffy]

Hey ball boy for the bulls and second year law student....
St Paul (Muslim) Resident Tries To Sell Missles To al-Qaeda
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/784335/posts

[agrace]

Reformist Scholar Sentenced to Death in Iran

So much for this guy trying to speak out in support of a kinder, gentler Islam.

[GeekDejure]

We are no less American than we were on Sept. 10. I was born in the United States. I took my first steps on this soil. I have been a ball boy for the Chicago Bulls. I have been to four U2 concerts. I am a second-year law student specializing in international human rights. I and my 7 million Muslim brothers and sisters are contributing members of American society.

Two members of President Bush's Cabinet are of Arab descent. It was a Muslim who was the architect for the Sears Tower. Islam is the fastest growing religion in America and in the world. We are doctors, lawyers, engineers, mechanics, teachers, and store owners.

We are your neighbors.

(But we are NOT your friends . . . because that would violate Koran 5:51 (and others), and we will NOT violate our Holy Koran, whether you like it or not! )

Arsalan Tariq Iftikhar, Midwest Communications Director, Council on American-Islamic Relations, St. Louis, Mo.

-Eric

"O you who believe! do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people." - Koran 5:51

"So when the sacred months have passed away, then slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captives and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush, then if they repent and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate, leave their way free to them; surely Allah is Forgiving, Merciful." - Koran 9.5

"Garments of fire have been prepared for the unbelievers. Scalding water shall be poured upon their heads, melting their skins and that which is in their bellies. They shall be lashed rods of iron. Whenever, in their anguish, they try to escape from Hell, back they shall be dragged, and will be told: 'Taste the torment of the Conflagration!'" - Koran 22:19,22,23

[Thorondir]

Truth BUMP! Keep up the good work, my friend. iSLAM is the mortal enemy of human civilization.

[Republic of Texas]

I saw all the "Muslim Outreach" I needed to see Sept. 11, 2000.