Hard teaching: Amid fear and division, what does it mean to love our Muslim neighbors?

by Josh Graves

Dr. Amir Arain is a good friend of mine. We’ve worked together on several projects during the four years I’ve lived in Nashville, Tenn.

Amir is a top neurologist at Vanderbilt Medical Center and a leading professor at Vanderbilt University. He also happens to be the spokesman on matters of faith and culture for the Nashville Islamic Center.

While Amir is from Pakistan, he became a U.S. citizen. He is dedicated to his adopted country and is as devout to his faith and family as I am to mine. The same is true of my immediate neighbors: Baha, Nima, Arin and Alan Hassan.

In Dearborn, Mich. — just 20 minutes from where I grew up — U.S. citizens make up the single largest concentration of Arabs in the world outside of the Middle East. These Muslim leaders are doctors, teachers, military servants and spiritual directors. They are part of the fabric of our nation.

I immediately thought of my Muslim neighbors — Amir, the Hassan family and the people of Dearborn — when the Islamic religious affiliation of the two brothers accused of bombing the Boston Marathon emerged.

We can’t make sense of the horrific and despicable actions allegedly carried out by brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev. But neither should we conclude that most Muslims are hateful, violent and vengeful people.

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE CHRISTIAN CHRONICLE 

Detroit conference for gay and lesbian Muslims aims for inclusion, empowerment

Gay and lesbian Muslims are holding a two-day conference in Detroit this weekend featuring a gay Muslim leader who grew up in Detroit.

Called the “Queer Muslim Gathering,” the event is hosted by Kick, an African-American gay and lesbian group based in Detroit, and Muslims for Progressive Values.

“We feel it is important for LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered) Muslims to be included as equals into the straight Muslim society,” said Imam Daayiee Abdullah of Washington, D.C., director of LGBT outreach with Muslims for Progressive Values, based in Los Angeles.

Abdullah, who grew up a Southern Baptist in Detroit and later converted to Islam, is the imam of Light of Reform Mosque in Washington, D.C., which has gay members.

He said he wants to empower gay Muslims, “to educate them on their Islamic rights, to debunk homophobic theories.”

The conference starts tonight with a meet-and-greet followed by an all-day workshop. Topics to be discussed at the conference are homosexuality and the Quran, Islam’s holy book; how to develop prayer spaces for gay Muslims; and debating what is halal, or legally permissible in Islam.

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE DETROIT FREE PRESS

A Letter to Lowes from a Young American Muslim

Dear Mr. Niblock,

We have never met.

Yet, you seem to have bought into the idea that I am a threat.

One fringe group screamed “Muslim,” and lo and behold, you caved.

And, in turn, you’ve made the drastic error of pulling your company’s spots from essentially an All-American show from an all-American TV network.

Clearly, you do not seem to know much about American Muslims or their contributions to the American fabric, so let me take this opportunity to enlighten you.

I come from a proud immigrant family that moved here 20 years ago from Pakistan. My parents taught my siblings and me to work hard and accomplish our dreams. Today, we are contributing members of our communities, with two of my siblings working as physician’s assistants and one as a firefighter. As for me, I turned to writing and advocacy during my days in college and have continued to pursue those causes with fervor.

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE HUFFINGTON POST 

Lowes Pulls Ads from Muslim Reality TV Show Under Pressure from Radical Christians

A decision by retail giant Lowe’s Home Improvement to pull ads from a reality show about American Muslims following protests from an evangelical Christian group has sparked criticism and calls for a boycott against the chain.

The retailer stopped advertising on TLC’s “All-American Muslim” after a conservative group known as the Florida Family Association complained, saying the program was “propaganda that riskily hides the Islamic agenda’s clear and present danger to American liberties and traditional values.”

The show premiered last month and chronicles the lives of five families from Dearborn, Mich., a Detroit suburb with a large Muslim and Arab-American population.

A state senator from Southern California said he was considering calling for a boycott.

Calling the Lowe’s decision “un-American” and “naked religious bigotry,” Sen. Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, told The Associated Press on Sunday that he would also consider legislative action if Lowe’s doesn’t apologize to Muslims and reinstate its ads. The senator sent a letter outlining his complaints to Lowe’s Chief Executive Officer Robert A. Niblock.

“The show is about what it’s like to be a Muslim in America, and it touches on the discrimination they sometimes face. And that kind of discrimination is exactly what’s happening here with Lowe’s,” Lieu said.

FULL ARTICLE FROM NPR

Group that Counts Islam as One of Nation’s Ills to Gather in Detroit, Home of Largest Muslim American Community

By Associated Press, Updated: Friday, November 11, 7:10 PM

DETROIT — A group that counts Islam among the ills facing the nation began a 24-hour prayer rally Friday evening in an area with one of the largest Muslim communities in the United States.

The gathering at Ford Field, the stadium where the Detroit Lions play, is designed to tackle issues such as the economy, racial strife, same-sex relationships and abortion. But the decade-old organization known as TheCall has said Detroit is a “microcosm of our national crisis” in all areas, including “the rising tide of the Islamic movement.”5

Leaders of TheCall believe a satanic spirit is shaping all parts of U.S. society, and it must be challenged through intensive Christian prayer and fasting. Such a demonic spirit has taken hold of specific areas, Detroit among them, organizers say. In the months ahead of their rallies, teams of local organizers often travel their communities performing a ritual called “divorcing Baal,” the name of a demon spirit, to drive out the devil from each location.

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE WASHINGTON POST

TLC Announces Islam Reality Show: The Muslims of Dearborn

For a while now, people have batted around the idea of whether and when TV would give us a Muslim Cosby Show: that is, a TV series that would take a mass audience inside the family life of this cultural group for the first time, the way that the Huxtables were the first black family that millions of white viewers tuned to on a regular basis. TLC’s All-American Muslim, debuting in November, is not a sitcom, but it’s something: a reality show about the lives of five Muslim families in Dearborn, Michigan. (The city, just outside Detroit, has one of the highest concentrations of Muslim citizens in the U.S.)

As with any reality project, this will all be about the execution; it could be done very well or very poorly, but I wouldn’t assume one or the other just because it’s a TLC reality show. But the premise is encouraging for a simple reason. If there a particular cultural group that has been the focus of intense discussion and sometimes hysteria—from 9/11 to the Ground Zero controversy to Herman Cain’s campaign—it should get to be a subject as well as an object. This can’t be as bad as Toddlers and Tiaras, can it?

FULL ARTICLE FROM TIME MAGAZINE BLOG 

Controversial Florida Pastor Denied Protest at Michigan Mosque

A U.S. jury  has banned Pastor Terry Jones from staging a protest in front of the largest mosque in North America in the U. S. state of Michigan.  The jury in Dearborn, home  to one of the country’s largest Muslim communities, said such a protest would disturb the peace. Jones, pastor of a small evangelical church in the southern state of Florida, made international headlines last year when he threatened to burn the Quran, the Islamic holy book. Jones eventually did burn the Quran March 20 and posted video on his church’s website.  The move caused widespread violence in Afghanistan, and scores of people were killed including U.N. personnel.  The controversy that surrounds Terry Jones followed him into a courtroom Friday, when concerns about public safety intersected with Jones’s desire to stage the protest.  The jury’s decision puts an end, for now, to Jones’s plans.

FULL ARTICLE FROM VOA NEWS

Prosecutors Fear Riot at Good Friday Mosque Protest

Detroit —Wayne County prosecutors are arguing a Good Friday mosque protest by a controversial Florida pastor could incite a riot and are moving to require him to post a bond before his demonstration.

Judge Mark W. Somers of Dearborn’s 19th District Court on Friday ordered Terry Jones to appear Thursday to answer prosecutors’ claims that his planned protest of the Islamic Center of America on the Dearborn/Detroit border could spark violence. The hearing is set for 3 p.m.

Prosecutors want a “peace bond” from Jones to pay for additional police officers during his demonstration outside the mosque. The complaint doesn’t specify an amount, but Jones has said Dearborn police want him to pay $100,000 in overtime costs.

“The greatest threat is the likelihood of a riot ensuing, complete with the discharge of firearms, unless this proposed bond is granted,” according to the prosecutors’ complaint.

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE DETROIT NEWS

California Man Jailed in Attempt to Blow up Mosque in Dearborn

A California man is in jail on a terrorism charge after he was arrested in Dearborn for allegedly trying to blow up the biggest mosque in metro Detroit, Dearborn officials said today.

The suspect was arrested in the parking lot of the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn on Monday, while hundreds were inside the mosque that sits along Ford Road, police said. He came to the city because of its large Arab-American and Muslim population, police said.

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE DETROIT FREE PRESS