Nihad Awad urged stand against IslamophobiaAfter a week dealing with the devastation that a fire caused at the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo, members and friends of Toledo's Muslim community were able to gather for prayer. Congregants did so under a tent Sunday because on Sept. 30 an arsonist burned the mosque's prayer room.

The suspect in the case, Randy Linn, is now in custody and has been charged with two felonies.

Fire, heat, smoke, and water affected every room of the Islamic Center and damage totaled $1 million to $1.5 million, said Dr. Mahjabeen Islam, the Islamic Center's president. Although repairs to the building could take six months, Dr. Islam said, she announced that Friday prayers this week will be held in the mosque's social hall and the weekend school will be in session there.

The Juma service – traditional Friday prayers – on Oct. 5 was a special gathering of the area's combined Islamic communities, and Sunday a multifaith prayer service was held that included addresses from leaders of many religions in the Toledo area and words from officials important to the Islamic Center, including U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Toledo), who volunteered to put on jeans and be there herself to work hard in rebuilding; assistant U.S. attorney Ava Rotell Dustin; Nihad Awad, the executive director of the national Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington, and Angela Zimmann, the Democratic candidate for the 5th Congressional District, who was there in her role as a Lutheran pastor.

Public officials including Toledo City Council members D. Michael Collins and George Sarantou attended without being part of the program.

Several Christian ministers wore their clerical collars. And, as Judy Wilcox of Maumee United Methodist Church said when presenting a prayer quilt to the Islamic Center, "I'm just a regular kind of person, but I figured there'd be others like me here." The applause confirmed she figured correctly.

Dr. Islam, who was master of ceremonies for the prayer service, opened with remarks that revealed the depth of her pain from the attack on the mosque, associating that feeling with losses in her family through which, she said, "I learned to make my God my world."

In this world, among other actions, Dr. Islam said, "We will galvanize with our brothers and sisters of all faiths to call out Islamophobia when we see it," and that the Islamic Center "will work with our legislators to make Islamophobia a crime under federal law."

Rabbi Moshe Saks of B'Nai Temple Israel issued a charge to the congregation: "When you see your friends," he said, "tell them you were here and ask them why they were not here. Don't be obnoxious about it, don't be smug," he continued, "get them to talk about what this meant here." He made the point that through conversation, differences that cause hate and create the perception of an "other" can be eliminated.

Prayers were offered by, among others, Judy Trautman of the MultiFaith Council of Northwest Ohio, Ajit Jaggi of the Hindu Temple of Toledo in Sylvania, and Imam Farooq AboElzahab, the religious leader of the Islamic Center.

Mr. Awad of the national council said that one person – an arsonist – came to the Islamic Center on a Sunday a week ago, but "600 people came on another Sunday" for the multifaith prayer service.

"I urge of you to be visible and not to be silent," Mr. Awad said. "This is the take-home message: 'Don't be silent.' If you see Islamophobia, stand up. Push back. You don't have to be the imam. You don't even have to be a Muslim. Push back. When you see some bad and negative and biased coverage, which is a lot, speak up and challenge stereotypes. Because when people hear you, when they see you, you are really lighting a candle in front of darkness."

Toledo Blade, 8 October 2012

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Anti-Islam advocates from across the U.S. gathered Sunday in Dearborn for a conference to bring attention to what they say is a problem of Muslim honor killings.

About 150 gathered at the Hyatt in Dearborn for the Jessica Mokdad Human Rights Conference, named after a 20-year-old Arab-American Muslim woman who was killed by her stepfather last year in Warren.

But at another conference in Detroit, about 100 people gathered earlier in the day to oppose the anti-Islam conference, saying it was the latest attack on metro Detroit's Arab-American and Muslim communities. Dearborn has the highest concentration of Arab-Americans in the U.S., many of them Muslim.

"We stand for America," said Osama Siblani, publisher of the Dearborn-based Arab-American News, at a panel at the DoubleTree hotel in Detroit. "And they (anti-Muslim activists) stand against America and against the American way of life."

Later, at the Hyatt, the message was the opposite. People gathered there said they are the ones who are standing up for the U.S. Constitution, freedom and justice. Islamic law "asserts authority over non-Muslims," said Pamela Geller, a blogger from New York City who often writes about Islamic extremism.

Robert Spencer, an author who also speaks out against Islamic extremism, said he and others have been unfairly labeled as bigots. "There is nothing hateful about saying we want everybody to be subjected to the same law," he said. Spencer said that Islam teaches Muslims to rule over non-Muslims and subject them to second-class status.

Geller said Mokdad's death was a honor killing based on Islam, but Macomb County Assistant Prosecutor Bill Cataldo told the Free Press on Friday it was not. The family of Mokdad is opposed to the anti-Islam conference and didn't want Mokdad's name on it, Cataldo said.

Imam Hassan Qazwini of the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn said at the Arab-American conference in Detroit: "Honor killing has no religious roots in Islam."

Speakers also included U.S. Reps. John Conyers and Hansen Clarke, both Detroit Democrats, as well as Daniel Kirchbaum, executive director of the Michigan Department of Civil Rights. It was organized by the Arab American Institute, based in Washington, D.C.

Imad Hamad, regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said the anti-Muslim activists are "against our true American values."

Detroit Free Press, 30 April 2012

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