-
TN: Hate Crime Was Disgusting
(Leaf-Chronicle)
- FL: White Powder Foundd at Muslim School (Sun-Sent)
*
CAIR-MN Hosts First Annual Muslim Women's
Forum
- CAIR-CA Rep Joins Immiigration March
Commemoration
- CAIR-OH Hosts Town Halll Meeting on
Elections
- CAIR-MI Rep Meets withh European Commission
Rep
-
CAIR: Federal Bureaucracy Delays Green Cards
*
CT: Muslims Face Bias in State's Prisons (Courant)
*
DC: MAS Freedom Foundation Rally for Sami Al-Arian
*
DC: Scholar Compares Islam, Democracy (Wash
Post)
-
PA: Islamic Center Hit by
Fire
-
Actors Face Dilemma in Portraying Terrorists (WSJ)
*
Financial Institutions Expand Products for U.S.
Muslims
-----
HADITH OF THE DAY: JUSTICE
REWARDED BY GOD - TOP
The Prophet
Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "For every day on which the sun rises, there
is a (reward from God) for the one who establishes justice among
people."
Sahih Al-Bukhari, Volume 3, Hadith 870
-----
ACTION: HELP SUPPORT CAIR'S IMPORTANT WORK - TOP
Become a member: https://www.cair.com/asp/membership.asp
Donate: https://www.cair.com/asp/default.asp
Subscribe to CAIR-NET: http://cair.biglist.com/cair-net/
-----
MUSLIM GROUP CALLS FOR IMUS ADVERTISER, GUEST
BOYCOTT - TOP
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 4/11/07) - The Council
on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today called on advertisers and guests to
boycott Don Imus' radio program because of his long history of racist and
bigoted comments.
In the latest controversy, Imus made racist and
demeaning remarks about the Rutgers women's basketball team. He has since been
suspended for a two-week period.
SEE: Ads Pulled, Ousted
Demanded in Imus Aftermath (AP)
The Washington-based Islamic civil
rights and advocacy group says Imus has repeatedly made racist and bigoted
comments about African-Americans, Jews, Asians, and other minority
groups.
In 2004, CAIR received an apology from MSNBC for
anti-Arab/anti-Muslim remarks made on the "Imus in the Morning" program. In a
segment commenting on the alleged execution of a wounded Iraqi by a U.S. Marine,
a fictitious "Senior Military Affairs Advisor" to the program justified the
killing by referring to a "booby-trapped raghead cadaver." Another "Imus"
program referred to Palestinians as "stinking animals" and suggested that they
all be killed.
SEE: MSNBC Apologizes for 'Imus' Remarks
(CAIR)
As early as 1985, Imus was forced to apologize for referring to
Arabs as "goat-humping weasels." In a reference to the 2004 crash of an Iranian
airliner that killed 43 passengers, Imus said, "When I hear stories like that, I
think who cares." He then stated: "Too bad it wasn't full of Saudi
Arabians."
In a statement, CAIR said:
"No advertiser who seeks
customers, and no guest who wants to maintain his or her credibility, should
have anything to do with a host who has such a long history of bigoted and
racist comments. We all value the First Amendment right to free speech, but the
listening and viewing public has no obligation to reward, or support those who
reward the promotion of hatred and intolerance."
CAIR's statement is part
of the group's ongoing "Hate Hurts America" campaign designed to counter hate
speech on talk radio.
CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties
group, has 32 offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada. 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.
CONTACT: CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim
Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail: ihooper@cair.com; CAIR Communications
Coordinator Rabiah Ahmed, 202-488-8787 or 202-439-1441, E-Mail: rahmed@cair.com; CAIR Communications
Coordinator Amina Rubin, 202-488-8787, E-Mail: arubin@cair.com
-----
CAIR: CHIPPING AT FOUNDATIONS OF BELIEF
- TOP
Excavations
threaten mosque
Omar Ahmad, San Francisco Chronicle, 4/11/07
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2007/04/11/EDGTLOS7RS1.DTL
Imagine if Iran decided to build a museum on the site of a
1,000-year-old Jewish cemetery, or if the Egyptian government threatened to
destroy an ancient Jewish temple. Both scenarios would likely be met with
outrage. Members of Congress might make indignant speeches decrying
anti-Semitism. They might even threaten to tighten the spigot on aid to Egypt.
They would be right to protest such acts.
Yet both offenses against
another religion are being committed today -- by Israel. And the outrage is
conspicuously missing.
The Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center has
partnered with the Israeli government to build a new "Museum of Tolerance" in
Jerusalem. According to former Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Meron Benvenisti, the
museum site encompasses a Muslim cemetery seized by Israel in 1948 and
long-since paved over. What does a shrine to tolerance mean when it is
constructed -- literally -- over the dead bodies of a Palestinian population
that was expelled from its homeland.
In the heart of Jerusalem's Old
City, Israeli archaeological excavations threaten the foundation of the compound
that houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third holiest shrine, and the Dome of
the Rock, whose golden dome is the most striking feature of the Jerusalem
skyline. For Muslims worldwide, these mosques hold enormous religious
significance. Muslims, in fact, first faced Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque in
prayer, only later facing Mecca.
My own parents, born in a Palestinian
village a mere 12 miles from Jerusalem, spoke often of their trips to Jerusalem
to pray at Al-Aqsa. In 1948 when Israel was established, my family was expelled
and their village was destroyed. They fled to a refugee camp in Jordan where I
was born and raised. Less than an hour's drive from Jerusalem, I could only
dream of praying in Al-Aqsa. The religious freedom denied me in my own homeland
was granted to me as an American "tourist." I traveled to Jerusalem for the
first and only time as a young man in 1991. My prayers at the magnificent
Al-Aqsa Mosque are perhaps the most emotionally overwhelming and fulfilling
experiences of my life.
Since occupying Jerusalem in 1967, Israel has
striven to solidify Jewish dominance over this city that is sacred to three
faiths. Al-Aqsa stands as perhaps the most visible obstacle. In 1967, the
Israeli army's chief rabbi, Shlomo Goren, urged Israeli forces commander Uzi
Narkis, to use 100 kilograms of explosives to "get rid of" Al-Aqsa "once and for
all." Narkis, as quoted by Israeli historian Avi Shlaim in "The Iron Wall:
Israel and the Arab World," (W.W. Norton &Company, 2001) had the wisdom to
refuse the rabbi's request. (MORE)
Omar Ahmad is the founder and
chairman emeritus of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). He is
the CEO of a Silicon Valley technology company.
-----
VIDEO: TN: FBI INVESTIGATES DESECRATED KORAN DISCOVERED IN
CLARKSVILLE - TOP
WKRN, 4/11/07
http://wkrn.com/nashville/news/fbi-investigates-desecrated-koran-discovered-in-clarksville/88398.htm
The FBI has been contacted about a possible hate crime in the city of
Clarksville.
Islamic residents there told police they found a copy of the
Koran on their doorstep that had been desecrated. They said clearly, it was a
message of hate aimed at followers of Islam
Jerome Heath never expected
to see a message of hate when he showed up for his Friday prayers at the
Clarksville Islamic Center.
Unfortunately, that's what he
found.
He said, "We were upset, because the actual words of God, someone
had written profanities on that."
Inside the book, someone had left two
strips of raw bacon and wrote the words "F Islam".
Clarksville Police
took the book as evidence and have contacted the FBI.
The center, located
in this strip mall for the past year and a half, is where a couple dozen
followers of Islam meet every Friday for noon day prayers.
Until last
week, they had never felt unwelcome.
Even now, Heath said the solitary
act doesn't change that. (MORE)
SEE ALSO:
TN: HATE CRIME WAS DISGUSTING - TOP
Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle, 4/11/07
http://www.theleafchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070411/OPINION01/704110302
It was disheartening to hear that the local Islamic Center of
Clarksville was the center of what Clarksville Police have classified as a hate
crime.
A defaced Quran was left on the front steps of the Islamic Center.
An expletive was included with two strips of bacon. Muslims are forbidden from
eating pork.
If someone considered this a joke, it was far from funny. If
someone considered this a threat against Muslims, it will be taken seriously by
law enforcement. There probably aren't any more than 40 Muslim families living
in this area. It should go without saying - but it looks as though it will have
to be spelled out - that they have exactly the same constitutional rights as
other Americans and those living in the United States. That includes the right
to worship in peace without hatemongers making disgusting and possibly
threatening gestures against them and the way in which they choose to
worship.
Nearly every faith in the world has a version of the Golden Rule
- treat others as you would like to be treeated, if you were they. If we all
followed that guiding moral principle, especially in regard to others'
religions, there would be far fewer problems for law enforcement to
resolve.
---
FL:
VANDALS EYED AS WHITE POWDER FOUND AT MUSLIM SCHOOL IN COOPER CITY - TOP
South Florida
Sun-Sentinel, 4/10/07
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-410whitepowder,0,2885159.story
White powder found at an Islamic school early Tuesday may have been the
work of vandals, a Broward Sheriff's Office spokeswoman said.
At about 8
a.m., callers reported a powdery white substance at Nur Ul Islam Academy, 10600
SW 59th St., BSO spokeswoman Veda Coleman-Wright said.
The callers told
authorities "they saw white powder everywhere," she said.
Sheriff's
Hazardous Materials units were at the school and quickly determined the powder
was non-hazardous.
The Nur Ul Islam campus contains the school, library,
mosque and other buildings, according to its Web site.
-----
CAIR-MINNESOTA HOSTS FIRST ANNUAL WOMEN'S FORUM - TOP
We invite all working Muslim
women to join us to voice your concerns, discuss issues in the media, and
improve and strengthen our community.
WHEN: Sunday, April 22, 2007, Noon
- 2 p.m.
WHERE: Abu-Bakar Islamic Centeer, 2824 13th Ave South, Minneapolis,
MN
Please RSVP to CAIR-MN, Tel: 651-645-7102; Efdal, Tel: 612-702-0598;
Humaira, Tel: 612-578-4878
Refreshments will be served.
CONTACT:
Tel: 651-645-7102
SEE ALSO:
CAIR-SAN DIEGO REP ATTENDS PRESS CONFERENCE
COMMEMORATING IMMIGRATION MARCH - TOP
(SAN DIEGO, CA, 4/11/07) - On Tuesday
April 10, a representative of the San Diego chapter of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-San Diego) joined other people of faith,
community residents and union workers to urge the President and Congress to pass
Real Humane Comprehensive Immigration reform.
The event was part of a
National Day of Action, during which 31 other cities across the country joined
the call for a stop to the political chess playing in Washington, D.C. and for
real solutions to a failed immigration system.
Last year more than
100,000 San Diegans marched from Balboa Park to downtown San Diego in
coordination with millions of others in cities across the country against the
criminalization of immigrants.
Edgar Hopida, Public Relations Director
for the San Diego chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-San
Diego), was among the faith-based organization leaders invited to participate.
Other organizations who endorsed this press conference included ACORN San Diego,
Justice Overcoming Boundaries in San Diego County (JOB), and the Latino Policy
Institute.
CONTACT: Edgar Hopida, CAIR-San Diego Public Relations
Director, Tel: 619-913-0719, Email: ehopida@cair.com
---
CAIR-OH HOSTS AMERICAN MUSLIM TASKFORCE TOWN-HALL
MEETING - TOP
(COLUMBUS,
OH, 4/11/07) - The Columbus chapter of the Council on American-Islamic
Relations, Ohio (CAIR-OH) recently hosted a town hall meeting with the American
Muslim Taskforce (AMT).
Representatives from the American Muslim Alliance
(AMA), Council on American-Islamic-Relations (CAIR), Islamic Circle of North
America (ICNA), Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), and Muslim Ummah of
North America (MUNA) met with central Ohio's Muslim community at Sunrise
Academy, central Ohio's full-time Islamic School.
The AMT was seeking
constituent input in order to prepare a political strategy for the Muslim
community in the United States leading up to the 2008 elections. Many issues
including situation analysis of the current Muslim community, collective goals
of the community, devising a strategy for the 2008 elections, and formulating an
action plan were debated.
"This forum empowered central Ohio's Muslim
community to discuss the issues that directly affect them," said CAIR-Columbus
Executive Director Adnan Mirza. "It allows us to determine our own political
identity and provides us the chance to show our elected officials that
American-Muslims are an effective and viable voting bloc and that our issues
need to be addressed."
CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil liberties
group, has 32 offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada. The CAIR-Ohio
Chapter has three offices - Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati. 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.
CONTACT: Adnan Mirza, Tel: 614-451-3232, Email:
amirza@cair.com; Ahmad Al-Akhras, Tel:
614-989-5916, Email: alakhras@cair.com
---
CAIR-MI DIRECTOR MEETS WITH REPRESENTATIVE OF
EUROPEAN COMMISSION ON AMERICAN-MUSLIM COMMUNITY - TOP
(SOUTHFIELD, MI, 4/11/07) - The Executive
Director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations
(CAIR-MI) Dawud Walid met today with Ms. Emine Kaya, Detached National Expert on
Citizenship and Fundamental Rights for the European Commission, and a fellow at
the Eisenhower Fellowship Organization.
Walid and Kaya discussed aspects
of the diverse demographics within the American-Muslim community, and some of
the social challenges American-Muslims face in post-9/11 America.
CAIR,
America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, has 32 offices and chapters
nationwide and in Canada. 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.
CONTACT:
CAIR-MI Executive Director Dawud Walid at dwalid@cair.com or
248-842-1418.
---
CAIR: WAITING
FOR THE G-MEN - TOP
Alia
Ahmadi should have had her green card four years ago, but a lagging federal
bureaucracy put her freedom on the back burner.
Becca MacLaren, East Bay
Express, 4/11/07
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/2007-04-11/news/waiting-for-the-g-men
Alia Ahmadi had every reason to believe she'd be granted United States
citizenship. The 73-year-old Afghan woman, who emigrated here to be with her
children in Fremont, passed her naturalization interview in 2003 and was told to
expect her oath notice within a month. Four years later, she is still waiting.
The reason? The FBI is running a name check.
"If I'm somebody to worry
about, why wait four years?" says Ahmadi, who struggles with anxiety and
depression as a result of her long wait. "I feel very heartbroken. I didn't want
to be a stranger here."
Ahmadi is not alone in feeling the burn of
stricter background checks enforced after the terror attacks of September 11,
2001. Three lawsuits are pending across the country over delays like hers,
including a class-action suit filed in San Francisco last month by the ACLU
Immigrants' Rights Project, the ACLU of Northern California, the Council on
American-Islamic Relations, and the Asian Law Caucus.
That lawsuit
calls for time limits on the citizenship process, as well as a resolution for
eight Bay Area residents, including Ahmadi. While each of the plaintiffs passed
their exams more than two years ago, Ahmadi's situation is particularly
striking. "She's basically a housebound grandmother," notes Cecilia D. Wang,
senior staff attorney with the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project. "There's no
conceivable reason for her case to be caught up in an FBI name
check."
Applications for naturalization - no matter whose - cannot be
processed without clearance from the FBI, according to US Citizenship and
Immigration Services. For its part, the FBI says the long delays have to do with
the number of name checks that have been required since the 2001 attacks. But
both agencies declined to comment on how a name check could possibly take up to
four years to complete.
This is a story Ahmadi has heard many times over.
"Every time we call, they say, 'You have to wait,'" says her son, 46-year-old
Basheer Ahmadi. Along with dozens of phone calls to the immigration agency, the
family has made three trips to its offices in San Francisco. "We never even got
a letter that said her case is in progress," Basheer says.
(MORE)
-----
CT: MUSLIMS FACE
BIAS IN STATE'S PRISONS - TOP
Susan Campbell, Hartford Courant,
4/11/07
http://www.courant.com/features/lifestyle/hc-susan0411.artapr11,0,4127916.column?coll=hc-utility-features-life
In February, somebody went into the locked office of Bilal Ansari at
Niantic's J.B. Gates Correctional Institution and defaced a picture of him by
whiting out his face and writing a racial epithet on it.
Ansari is an
African American and a Muslim chaplain.
In March, a co-worker reported to
prison authorities the presence of an audio file on Ansari's office computer
titled "Jihad or Terrorism." People who have listened to the file - including
non-Muslims - say it is a scholarly examination of the vast difference between
the two words, but Ansari's computer was confiscated and his office closed off
with yellow tape.
Oddly, no one thought to break out the yellow tape when
the earlier hate crime - the defacing of Ansari's photo - was reported, though
the department is investigating the incident, and they've referred it to the
state police, as well.
Ansari, who has filed a complaint with the state
Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities, says such incidents are only a
sampling of what happens to Muslims in the prison system. Other Muslim chaplains
- who won't go on the record for fear of tthe retaliation that appears to have
dogged Ansari - say they have been intimidated, stretched too thin to handle
important Jumu'ah prayers on Fridays, and forced to worship under circumstances
that don't respect the needs of their faith. They say the department needs
female Muslim chaplains - there are none - and that Muslim employees and inmates
have been verbally harassed.
Ansari says he has been written up for
incidents that were blown out of proportion. Recently, he received a performance
review of unsatisfactory, which he disputes.
"This is still America,"
said his attorney, Cynthia R. Jennings of New Haven. "We still have First
Amendment rights. The question becomes: When is it going to stop?"
While
state Department of Correction officials won't comment on a pending case, Brian
Garnett, the department's external affairs director, called the photo defacement
"vile" and "bigoted" and said the department, one of the state's most racially
diverse, would dismiss anyone found guilty of discrimination.
(MORE)
-----
MAS FREEDOM
FOUNDATION RALLY FOR SAMI AL-ARIAN - TOP
Washington Daybook
The Muslim
American Society (MAS) Freedom Foundation holds a news conference and rally in
support of Dr. Sami Al-Arian, who is "being held indefinitely beyond the date
agreed upon in his plea agreement for refusing to testify before a grand
jury."
TIME: April 13, 2007, 12:30 p.m.
LOCATION: Outside of the
Justice Department, Ninth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington,
D.C.
CONTACT: 703-998-6525
-----
DC: SCHOLAR COMPARES ISLAM, DEMOCRACY - TOP
Doctrines Share Ideal of
Equality, Georgetown Students Told
Pamela Constable, Washington Post,
4/11/07
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/10/AR2007041001509.html?hpid=sec-religion?hpid=sec-religion
Tariq Ramadan has a huge following in Europe but a controversial profile
in the United States. The Islamic scholar has been barred from entering the
country since 2004, when he was denied a visa he needed to accept a
professorship at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.
Yesterday,
however, students at Georgetown University heard and questioned the influential
Egyptian-born writer as he gave the first of three public lectures to be
delivered on the campus by satellite video hookup from London. For 90 minutes,
he appeared on a large screen in Gaston Hall, seated and wearing a sports jacket
and open shirt, with Big Ben in the background.
"Why Tariq Ramadan cannot
be with us physically today, we are still not sure. But if we are serious about
dialogue between Islam and the West, we need to listen to Islam's most important
voices," said Thomas Banchoff, director of Georgetown's Berkley Center for
Religion, Peace and World Affairs, which is sponsoring the
lectures.
Ramadan, a Swiss citizen, is an outspoken but contradictory
figure in Islamic scholarship. His grandfather founded the Muslim Brotherhood,
one of the most influential Islamic groups of the past century. He is popular in
Europe but has been banned from entering France and accused of supporting the
militant Palestinian group Hamas.
In 2004, the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security revoked his work visa under the Patriot Act, saying he had
"used a position of prominence . . . to endorse or espouse terrorist
activity."
Ramadan's central message yesterday was that Islam and
democracy are not incompatible in their tenets of equality and freedom for all
and that tensions between them have arisen because of historic problems -- such
as European colonialism, political manipulation by Middle Eastern autocrats and
the influence of minority Islamic groups he described as
"literalists."
"There is no contradiction between Islamic teachings and
democratic principles. The problem is not the concept; it's the terminology,"
said Ramadan, 42, a fellow at St. Antony's College at Oxford University. The
issue is not the relationship between church and state, he said, but "the
relationship between dogma and rationality."
Ramadan listed five
"indisputable" principles of Islam that are also fundamentals of democracy: the
rule of law, equal rights for all citizens, universal suffrage, accountability
of government and separation of powers. (MORE)
SEE ALSO:
PA: ISLAMIC CENTER HIT BY FIRE - TOP
Ryan Leckey, 16 WNEP,
4/11/07
http://www.wnep.com/Global/story.asp?S=6353313&nav=5ka4
Flames
ripped through an Islamic center in Schuylkill County Wednesday morning and now
members of that place of worship plan to come together to see how they can
repair the damage.
Flames sparked at the Islamic Society of Schuylkill
County in Mechanicsville around 12:30 a.m. Wednesday. It's located just outside
of Pottsville.
From the outside, there is not much damage visible, but
inside the damage on the walls tells the tale of what happened here.
"The
cafeteria has all been burned, lots of damage in that area. The entire building
has smoke damage and water damage," said Islamic society priest Shiraz
Mansoor.
The Islamic society has been in the borough of Mechanicsville
for around 20 years.
Firefighters managed to save the second floor from
flames where worship takes place, however it still has heavy smoke and water
damage.
"We'll just have to get over it and work together in getting the
place good again," added Shiraz Monsoor.
The cause of the fire at the
Islamic Society of Schuylkill County remains under
investigation.
---
WANT TO PLAY A
TERRORIST? - TOP
Actors Face a
Dilemma
Nick Timiraos, Wall Street Journal, 4/11/07
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB117625749726665830-7BuCJSljy6rc_S9fszoEyZDwtg8_20070510.html
Jamie Harding, a British Muslim, feared his first Hollywood feature film
would be his last. He played Ahmed al-Nami, one of four Sept. 11 hijackers in
"United 93," a 2006 docudrama about the passenger revolt aboard the doomed
airliner.
"A lot of people were saying, 'Why would you ever want to play
one of the four most hated people in the world?', and to some extent, you wonder
if that's going to be a career breaker," says the 27-year-old, whose mother is
Sudanese and father is British. Until "United 93," he had acted mainly in
theater and some small television parts.
But his risk succeeded, and soon
he will be on U.S. screens again, when the European film "O Jerusalem," comes to
American theaters next month. This time he plays the brother of the Arab
protagonist in a story about the friendship between two men, one Jewish and the
other Arab, as the state of Israel is being created.
Roles for Middle
Easterners in movies and TV shows have multiplied since the Sept. 11, 2001,
attacks, bringing a jump in demand for actors who can play them. The catch: They
are most often the bad guys. That is a dilemma for actors worried about being
stereotyped or perpetuating a negative image of Middle Easterners. At the same
time, it appears an initial wave of "us-versus-them" narratives is gradually
being joined by more nuanced themes. (MORE)
-----
FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS EXPAND PRODUCTS THAT
TARGET U.S. MUSLIMS - TOP
Some Muslims object to interest payments
on religious grounds
Elizabeth Kelleher, USINFO, 4/9/07
http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2007&m=April&x=20070409175213berehellek0.657406
In the coming year, a bank subsidiary in Michigan will expand its reach
by offering products targeted to Muslims in three metropolitan areas outside of
that state.
The University Islamic Financial Corporation, a subsidiary of
University Bank, a community bank in Ann Arbor, Michigan, will reach Muslims in
the Washington metropolitan area via a suburban office in Herndon, Virginia. It
plans to open in two more locations, as yet undisclosed, shortly
thereafter.
The bank subsidiary's president, Stephen Lange Ranzini,
estimates that Michigan is home to approximately 400,000 Muslims, "the largest
community of Arab Muslims outside of the Middle East."
Locations of these
new branches have been chosen for their proximity to large Muslim populations.
The bank subsidiary seeks to serve a customer niche that does not want to buy a
home using traditional home loans, which involve paying interest, popular in the
United States. Such customers interpret Islamic law, or Shariah, as forbidding
the paying or charging of interest.
Since the end of 2005, the Michigan
bank subsidiary has offered its alternative home-financing products only to
Michigan residents. But Ranzini said it has built products that will be
compliant with the laws of other states.
(MORE)
-----
CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453
New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787,
202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: info@cair.com
URL: http://www.cair.com
-----
To reach the list moderator,
send a message to: info@cair.com
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