NY: 3 U.S. Muslim Leaders Barred From Flights

CAIR: Delta Pilot Orders Muslim Clerics to Get Off Plane

CAIR: Muslim Leaders Removed From Plane by Pilot (AP

Video: CAIR Rep on CNN to Discuss Imams Removed From Flight

CAIR: Memphis Incident a 'Juan Williams Thing'

Video: Group Calls for FBI to Investigate Hate Crime (CAIR-MN)

CAIR-MN Asks FBI to Investigate 'KKK' and Swastika Graffiti

CAIR-MN: Graffiti Found on Somali-American Family's Home

CAIR-OH: A Worrisome Anti-Muslim Drift: Editorial

CAIR-MI: U.S. Probe to Look at Border Concerns of Muslims

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NY: 3 MUSLIM CLERICS BARRED FROM US FLIGHTS - TOP
Agence France-Presse, 5/8/11

WASHINGTON, USA - Three imams including a US-born Muslim bound for a conference on Islamophobia were kicked off US domestic flights out of security fears, clerics and an airline said Saturday.

Two imams boarded a flight from Memphis, Tennessee to Charlotte, North Carolina on Friday only to have it return to the terminal so they could be put through "additional screening," said a spokesman for Atlantic South Airlines (ASA), the Delta Connection airline operating the flight. ...

US-born imam Al-Amin Abdul-Latif of Long Island was barred from boarding an American Airlines flight from New York to Charlotte late Friday and told to return to LaGuardia airport for a morning flight Saturday, only to be refused boarding again, without explanation, his son said.

"This morning we get to the airline, and the ticket agent told my father that the airline does not want him to fly. Those were her exact words," Abu Bakr Abdul-Latif told AFP.

"There was nothing he could do," said the son, who traveled on to the Charlotte conference without his father. (More)

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CAIR: DELTA PILOT ORDERS MUSLIM CLERICS OFF PLANE - TOP
Wayne Risher, Memphis Commercial Appeal, 5/6/11

Two Muslim clerics traveling to a religious conference were kicked off a Delta Air Lines flight Friday morning at Memphis International Airport, on orders from a pilot.

Imam Mohamed Zaghloul of the Masjid An-Noor Mosque and Imam Masoud Rahman, a previous imam of the Muslim Society of Memphis, were subjected to extra security screening at the gate, then barred from the flight, Rahman said.

The men cleared security at a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint and boarded their plane. "They were screened and cleared to fly," said TSA spokesman Jon Allen. "The decision to deny boarding was made by the airline, not TSA," Allen said. ...

Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American Islamic Relations, said the men called the council after the incident. Hooper said his group would review the incident to see if further action is warranted.

Calling it a "Juan Williams thing," a reference to the fired PBS correspondent who said he was leery of flying with people in Muslim garb, Hooper added, "I think it's possible the whole bin Laden situation factored into this with heightened sensitivity all around." (More)

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CAIR: MUSLIM LEADERS REMOVED FROM PLANE BY PILOT (AP) - TOP
Randall Dickerson, Associated Press, 5/6/11

The men contacted the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a civil-rights and advocacy group in Washington, D.C. (More)

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VIDEO: CAIR REP ON CNN TO DISCUSS IMAMS REMOVED FROM FLIGHT - TOP

Watch the video here.

Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the civil rights group Council on American-Islamic Relations, told CNN the two men contacted his office and said they were told that passengers were uncomfortable with them on the flight.

"They went through security, even went through secondary security, and got on the plane, were taxiing out," he said.

But then, they were taxied back, Hooper said. (More)

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CAIR: 2 MUSLIM CLERGY TOLD TO EXIT CHARLOTTE-BOUND PLANE CHARLOTTE - TOP
Observer, 5/7/11

Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the men called the council after the incident. Hooper said his group would review the incident to see if further action is warranted.

Calling it a "Juan Williams thing," a reference to the fired PBS correspondent who said he was leery of flying with people in Muslim garb, Hooper added, "I think it's possible the whole bin Laden situation factored into this with heightened sensitivity all around." (More)

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VIDEO: GROUP CALLS FOR FBI TO INVESTIGATE HATE CRIME (CAIR-MN) - TOP

(ABC NEWS 6, 5/6/11) -- Neighbors scrubbed away messages of hate on a Rochester home saying their community will not accept racism.

It's a clear message echoed all the way to the mayors office.

And Friday night we know there's a push to get the FBI and more law enforcement involved with the investigation.

It's a push many hope will send a message to the people behind the messages of hate.

A group called the Council on American-Islamic Relations put that call out for more action.

But it's one that is echoed throughout the community.

"If we let it go, this one, what's going to happen next?" asked Mohamed Nur.

Nur calls the swastika and the KKK ridiculous.

He can't believe the signs of hate were painted on a local Somali family's home.

"It is racism, it's discrimination, clear discrimination," Nur said.

This Somali man hopes police find the person who did it.

The Minnesota Chaper of The Council on American-Islamic Relations or CAIR is pushing for the same thing.

"We are asking the FBI and local law enforcement to investigate this incident and to treat it as a hate crime. This is the third time that this family has been targeted," said CAIR President Lori Saroya. (More)

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CAIR-MN ASKS FBI TO INVESTIGATE 'KKK' AND SWASTIKA GRAFFITI - TOP
Matt Russell, The Post-Bulletin, 5/5/11

The Minnesota Council on American-Islamic Relations is asking the FBI to investigate "KKK" and swastika graffiti on the home of Somali family in Rochester as a possible hate crime.

"We urge the FBI and state law enforcement authorities to treat this incident as a civil rights violation and to send a strong message that incidents of hate will not be tolerated in our community," said Lori Saroya, CAIR's Minnesota president.

The graffiti was written on the side of a home in northwest Rochester with black spray paint on Wednesday night. (More)

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CAIR-MN: GRAFFITI FOUND ON SOMALI-AMERICAN FAMILY'S HOME - TOP
Laura Yuen, Minnesota Public Radio, 5/5/11

St. Paul, Minn. -- Muslim civil-rights advocates are asking the FBI to investigate graffiti spray-painted onto the home of a Somali-American family in Rochester. The word "KKK" and a swastika were sprayed on the side of the house in black paint.

Ayan Hilowle's parents and siblings live there. Vandals have targeted her family's house twice before, said Hilowle, 24. Over the past few years, someone destroyed the family's mailbox and shot at the house with a paint gun.

But this time, Hilowle said there's no doubt in her mind that the vandals struck because her family is Somali and Muslim. (More)

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CAIR-OH: A WORRISOME ANTI-MUSLIM DRIFT: EDITORIAL - TOP
The Plain Dealer Editorial Board, 5/7/11

Even though Osama bin Laden is resting on the ocean floor, life can be tough in America if you look Middle Eastern or have a Muslim name.

That's why members of the Cleveland chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations, who hold their ninth annual banquet this evening, are right to be worried about what they see as a trend of recent hate crimes against Muslims -- in Ohio and nationwide.

Islam didn't perpetrate 9/11. A small cadre of terrorists answerable to bin Laden's al-Qaida network did so. America weakens its core strength as a multireligious, tolerant society by falling prey to such stereotyping.

That's why Ohio should avoid the path followed in some states, such as Oklahoma, in trying to ban Islamic religious laws used in civil practices such as burials, marriage, divorce and charitable giving.

The Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish advocacy group, is rightly up in arms over this trend, pointing out that "singling out Islam for disparate treatment in the Oklahoma Constitution is unconstitutional." (More)

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CAIR-MI: U.S. PROBE TO LOOK AT BORDER CONCERNS OF MUSLIMS - TOP
Niraj Warikoo, Detroit Free Press, 5/7/11

The U.S. government has launched an investigation into allegations that federal agents at several U.S.-Canada border crossings in Michigan repeatedly harassed, jailed and body searched Muslims because of their background or appearance.

In a letter sent this week to a local Muslim group, Margo Schlanger, the head of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties in the Department of Homeland Security, said her office has received accounts of "repeated handcuffing, brandishing of weapons, prolonged detentions, invasive and humiliating body searches at the border, and inappropriate questioning that pertains to religion and religious practices."

The complaints include incidents at the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit and the Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron.

The investigation comes in response to complaints filed in March by the Council on American-Islamic Relations with the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security.

The council said it was concerned that agents were even asking people about their prayer schedules. (More)