Council on American-Islamic Relations

Are The Feds Unfairly Targeting Muslim Students Who Oppose Israel?

In Washington D.C. today, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) opened a probe of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), following reports that the IRS was unfairly targeting conservative non-profit groups affiliated with the Tea Party movement. Closer to home, the California chapter of the Counc ... More >>

Syrian Revolution's Second Anniversary is Commemorated in OC This Weekend

A weekend of events will be held in Orange County to commemorate the second anniversary of the Syrian Revolution.To kick things off, the Council on American-Islamic Relations Greater Los Angeles Area office in Anaheim (CAIR-LA) is joining the Syrian American Council LA chapter in presenting an edu ... More >>

Ameena Qazi: Sister Lawyer

See our full OC Weekly 2013 People Issue

The Plight of the Tortured (as Opposed to the Torturers for a Change) Gets Big Screen Due

Hollywood's awards season has plopped onto red carpets many stars and players from films and television shows (think Argo, Zero Dark Thirty, Homeland) that glorify CIA agents, with director Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker follow-up drawing the most controversy for its scenes of American-endorsed t ... More >>

OC Copts and Muslims Meet To Move Forward After Crazy Film

Leaders of Orange Couny's Coptic Christian and Muslim communities met yesterday evening at the Islamic Society of Orange County in Garden Grove to discuss the amateur (emphasis on the "amateur") video that is blamed for sparking violent protests across the Middle East, and how to move forward from i ... More >>

Copts and Muslims Will Meet Tonight at Islamic Society of Orange County To Show The World Neither Group is Crazy

In one word, it was disgusting. That's how Shakeel Syed, executive director of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, described the amateurish film that was blamed for instigating violent protests in Libya and Egypt, as well as others in Sudan, Indonesia, and Pakistan, last week. American ... More >>

[UPDATED, with Ruling] Lawsuit Demands FBI Expunge Secret Files on OC Muslims

See the update at the end of this post on the ruling issued in Fazaga v. FBI.ORIGINAL POST, AUG. 13, 2:55 P.M.: It's no secret that the government has used informants to spy on Muslim-American communities. Orange County Muslims know it well.You may have read about them here at the Weekly. Former-con ... More >>

OC Muslims Connect With Japanese-American Internment Struggle at Manzanar

John Asanuma was 11 years old when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, paving the path for mass imprisonment of Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor. The Los Angeles native, and his parents were sent to Manzanar in 1942--one of the largest camps housing more than 120,000 Ja ... More >>

[UPDATED with Judge's Ruling:] Justice Dept. Must Pay for Lying in Suit Against FBI by OC Muslims

​UPDATE, NOV. 18, 10:57 A.M.: "The Court must impose monetary sanctions to deter the Government from deceiving the Court again," Judge Cormac Carney of the U.S. District Court in Santa Ana writes in his Islamic Shura Council v. FBI ruling. He gave the council 14 days to come up with ... More >>

Aasif Mandvi, Daily Show Correspondent, Coming to Anaheim to Scoop up CAIR Award

​The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) of Greater Los Angeles, which is based in Anaheim, will bestow its 2011 Courage in Media Award to Indian-British actor and comedian Aasif Hakim Mandviwal.He's better known as Aasif Mandvi, the hilarious correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stew ... More >>

Futures of Syria and Bashar Assad Aired at Town Hall

​The focus of the international media may have switched from Syria to Israel-Palestine (for now), but that won't stop the Los Angeles chapter of the Syrian American Council from holding its third town hall meeting in Anaheim Saturday to examine the current situation and future outlook for members' ... More >>

[UPDATE: CAIR Demands Apology, Dumitru Tries to Cover His Illiterate Tracks] Jon Dumitru, Orange Councilmember, Posts Anti-Islam Facebook Status Update

Dumitru: Emphasis on the "Dum"​UPDATE, SEPT. 15, 10:45 P.M.: The Southern California chapter of the Council of American Islamic Relations is now asking that Dumitru apologize for his moronic remarks"Your hateful statement in which you falsely insinuate that the teachings of Islam and the Quran wo ... More >>

[UPDATED with Hate Crimes Down In OC, Or Are They?:]African-Americans Were Victims of One-Third of OC's 2010 Hate Crimes: Report

​UPDATED, AUGUST 18, 4:48 P.M.: Update by Marisa Gerber.Statistics show that hate crimes are down in OC, but nobody's overly convinced. There was a buzzword at this morning's event, where last year' hate crime report was released. What was the word? Underreporting. The report, which was ... More >>

Whole Foods Scrambles To Do Damage-Control After One Region Buckles Under Islamophobic Pressure

Whole Foods​Whole Foods wants to get one thing straight: Addressing a report from our sister paper Houston Press--Whole Foods: "We Should Not Highlight Ramadan"--which set off a maelstrom of attacks on the haute-hippie market, the corporate-run @WholeFoods has spent the day doing damage cont ... More >>

Attorney General Eric Holder Chastised for Move to Quash Suit Against FBI for Spying on Muslims in OC

Monteilh​Attorneys for Muslims who have been spied on by the government through paid informants like Irvine's Craig Monteilh asked a federal court to reject U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's move to dismiss their lawsuit against the FBI on grounds the case exposes state secrets."It is shocking t ... More >>

[UPDATED with "Victim" Speaking:] Muslim Worker Told to Remove Hijab Sues Abercrombie & Fitch

​UPDATE, JUNE 27, 11:52 A.M.: The Muslim woman at the center of a lawsuit against Abercrombie & Fitch over being forced to remove her hijab while working in the stockroom of a Hollister Co. store in San Mateo spoke at this morning's press conference."When I was asked to remove my scarf after ... More >>

[UPDATED with Sentence for Deborah Pauly Threats:] Video Captures Protesters, Politicians Berating Muslims at Yorba Linda Charity Function

Paul Dean Andrews​UPDATE, MAY 25, 3:46 P.M.: A San Pedro man was sentenced today to 97 days in jail, three years probation and an order to stay away from Deborah Pauly for threatening violence against the Villa Park city councilwoman via a Facebook message. Paul Dean Andrews, 28, was slapped with ... More >>

Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA) in Anaheim Welcomes "Elimination" of Bin Laden

Hussam Ayloush, CAIR-LA executive director​The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Greater Los Angeles area office in Anaheim issued a statement today welcoming the news that Osama bin Laden, "a threat to America and the world," has been "eliminated." The statement came on the heels of ... More >>

[UPDATED: Feds' Records Stay Secret, Judge Rules] More Mosque Mole Fallout: ACLU and CAIR Sue FBI

Craig Monteilh​[UPDATED April 28, 12:12 pm] The Associated Press is reporting today that Judge Cormac Carney has ruled that CAIR and the ACLU may not obtain FBI records pertaining to surveillance of Muslims in Southern California because of unspecified U.S. National Security concerns. Carney made ... More >>

[UPDATED with New Anti-Muslim Rally Plans:] Video Captures Protesters, Politicians Berating Muslims at Yorba Linda Charity Function

Muzammil Siddiqi​Here we go again.Organizers of February's controversial and much-blasted anti-Muslim rally in Yorba Linda have issued an ultimatum to the Orange County Human Relations Commission: rescind the Community Leader award it is presenting to Islamic Society of Orange County Imam Muzammil ... More >>

[UPDATED With CAIR Backing Off Allegations Against Lounge Owner] Muslim Cab Driver's Beating in Newport Beach Spurs Call for Hate-Crime Probe

MySpaceEdgar Uria​UPDATE, MARCH 31, 12:59 P.M.: The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) is backing off claims that the owner of a cigar lounge was involved in the beating of a Muslim cab driver in Newport Beach.On CAIR-LA's Facebook page, the Anaheim office of the Muslim American rights o ... More >>

[UPDATE: OC Democrats Blast Pauly] Video Captures Protesters, Politicians Berating Muslims at Yorba Linda Charity Function

​UPDATE, MARCH 25, 4:40 P.M.: The Democratic Party of Orange County has weighed in on Villa Park City Councilwoman's Deborah Pauly's harsh remarks at an anti-Muslim rally in Yorba Linda last month. (Welcome to the party, folks!)As you might expect from a party philosophically opposite of a teabagg ... More >>

Why Are People Surprised Orange County has Anti-Muslim Loons?

Pauly: Pendeja​Color me jaded, cynical, or wayyyyy too in to be able to see from the outside, but I'm shocked that the anti-Muslim* rally that happened last week in Yorba Linda has made the national news. Write-ups in Salon, Good, and other national publications? Really? Sure, part of it is that t ... More >>

Mooz-lum Depicts Being Young, Muslim and Confused in America, Special Screening Sunday at the Block

​Your mosque is being spied on by the FBI. Your cousin may be looking at jail time for disrupting an Israeli speaker at UC Irvine last year. Due to the actions of fundamentalist lunkheads 7,000 miles away, you could get your butt kicked by skinheads on Main Street Huntington Beach.Face it: It ain' ... More >>

[UPDATED] 24 Civic and Faith Leaders Urge DA Tony Rackauckas to Drop Criminal Probe of Irvine 11

​UPDATE, FEB. 3, 10 A.M.: The Los Angeles Times this morning jumped on the "Free the Irvine 11" bandwagon by publishing an editorial under that headline. Criminal charges against the students "are not appropriate" and "would be overkill" and could result in "a punishment out of proportion to the ... More >>

Oops: Feds Drop Charges Against Supposed OC Terrorist

​Remember Craig Monteilh? The convicted con artist and OC Weekly cover story subject who claims he helped the FBI foil an OC terrorist cell operating inside local mosques only to be abandoned by the agency after they stopped believing his stories? The guy who claimed he was a hero for helping the ... More >>

[UPDATED:] Disney Lets Muslim Worker Wear Her Hijab

Imane Boudlal​UPDATE: Disney releases a statement (see end of post) . . . Disneyland is allowing a Muslim worker to wear her religious headscarf in a position where she interacts with the public.However, the woman in question is not Imane Boudlal, the hostess at Storyteller's Cafe in Disney's Gran ... More >>

Florida Church Koran Burning is Off, Irvine Church Koran Blessing is On, 5 Great Quotes

​The blessing of Islamic Korans during Sunday's regular worship services at Irvine United Congregational Church will go on despite a Florida pastor announcing he has canceled plans to burn copies of the Muslim holy book on Saturday, the anniversary of the 9-11.

Disneyland Prohibits Muslim Worker from Wearing Hijab on the Job, Suit Claims

Art piece courtesy of the Nadia Afghani Collection...​EDIT, 5:30 P.M.: New updates and info emerge from the afternoon's press conference. Please see this post for more details. EDIT, 1:30 P.M.: We're live Tweeting from the press conference! Follow us at @OCWeekly for all the latest developments.Di ... More >>

Muslim Woman and Her Support Team Allege Disneycrimination in Hijab Flap, Suggest Top Brass Ride "It's a Small World"

All photos by Keith May/OC Weekly​As we reported earlier, a Muslim woman who works as a hostess in the Grand Californian Hotel at the Disneyland Resort was not allowed to come to work today because she was wearing her hijab, a traditional Islamic headscarf.This was the fourth time that the woman, ... More >>

[UPDATED:] Local Muslims Begin New Year With Hate Crimes Against Them

CAIR-LAAnti-Muslim vandalization, Mission Viejo-style​UPDATE: See bottom for details of town hall tonight addressing hate crimes directed at local Muslims.This is no way to start the new year fresh: local Muslims are dealing with two incidents of anti-Islam hate targeting their community.

Anti-Muslim Hate Crimes Down in California, Report Finds

Yesterday, the California Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) released its annual hate crime report, "The Status of Muslim Civil Rights, California 2009." Despite the name, the report actually deals with incidents from the previous year, which are as follows:​*A total of 48 ... More >>

Dave Eggers to be Honored in Anaheim for Sensitivity to Muslims

By David Shankbone/Wikipedia CommonsDave Eggers at the 2007 Brooklyn Book Festival.​A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius author Dave Eggers will be presented the 2009 "Courage in Media" award at the Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations' 13th annual banq ... More >>

Controversial Danish Cartoons Are Better Read, Heard, Not Seen

​On The Politics of Culture from 2:30 to 3 p.m. today on KCRW (89.9 FM), host Jonathan Kirsch talks with religious scholars and others about "The Cartoons That Shook the World--Without the Cartoons." It involves Yale University publishing a book in November about the controversial cartoons that ap ... More >>

Muslims: So Hot Right Now

Eight years to the day after the 9/11 attacks, things have not gotten much better for our Muslim friends and neighbors. Earlier this week, the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life and the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press released a new report with som ... More >>

CAIR, Speaker, Student Say Muslim Screenwriting Seminar "a Success"

​Despite Clockwork's attempt to jest while previewing the Council on American-Islamic Relations' "Writing for Hollywood" seminar and pat its own back for getting inserted into the New York Times' coverage of the event for aspiring Muslim screenwriters (as well as some unkind reader comments to our ... More >>

McKinney Follows UC Irvine Speech With Israeli Detention [UPDATED, THE SEQUEL]

UPDATE: MCKINNEY IS ON HER WAY HOME, REPORTS ATLANTA-JOURNAL CONSTITUTION ...Former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (D-Georgia) is shown speaking at UC Irvine May 13 as part of the Muslim Student Union's controversial, three-week "Israel: The Politics of Genocide" teach-in. Here she makes the c ... More >>

Top 5 Hate Crime Reports in June--and a [Non-]Bogus Bonus [THE RE-WRITE]

Kevin O'Grady, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League's Orange County/Long Beach office, was kind enough to email over five hate-crime reports his office received this past June, in reverse chronological order. While that format may be helpful to give readers a sense of ... More >>

Protocols of the Elders of Islam?

As its name suggests, the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance in LA is supposed to promote the kind of cultural dialog that brings people together rather than pushes them apart. So it's more than a little bit odd that the center showed a movie last weekend that has been compared to the gol ... More >>

More Join Chapman U's Debate on John Yoo Torture Memos

Clockwork informed you yesterday about controversial law professor John Yoo being at the center of two upcoming Chapman University School of Law debates, one he is participating in and another that he is not participating in. When it comes to Saturday's "Forum on National Security, Rule of Law & ... More >>

More Groups Sign Statement Damning FBI for Spying on Mosques

FBI Director Robert MuellerThe National Lawyers Guild--last seen in Clockwork four hours ago in relation to a debate it is hosting at Chapman University concerning visiting professor John Yoo signing off on torture while advising the Bush White House--is doing some signing off of its own. It's joine ... More >>

Some Muslims Support FBI's Stand Against CAIR

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which has an office in Anaheim, has been in the news (and on this blog) a lot lately following official confirmation that the FBI has been spying on the Islamic Society of Irvine mosque. CAIR and the Islamic Educational Center of Oran ... More >>

Gaza's Dead Are Mourned at Interfaith Service

Participants in "Tears for Gaza -- an Interfaith Memorial Service" -- which begins at 7 p.m. Wednesday at St. Anselm of Canterbury Episcopal Church, 13091 Galway St., Garden Grove -- are asked to "dress in black as a sign of mourning over the reckless loss of human lives." A reception and fe ... More >>

Irvine Candidate Forum, Part 2

The mayoral candidates are covered in the previous post. Here are the council candidates: Eric Johnson: Run the city like a business. Build Great Park like a business, incrementally, so it pays for itself. More transparency and open meetings. While saying Gallinger's right to practice the Muslim fa ... More >>

God Squad Blasts Congressman Royce

No one ever criticizes Congressman Ed Royce (R-Fullerton) for the things he says because no one has ever heard him speak. But he apparently sends out emails that have caught the attention of a cross-denominational group of clergy folk who today sent Royce a letter asking him to stop using the phras ... More >>

Praying for Rain

If you're among the praying, the Council on American-Islamic Relations invites ye of any faith to join in a special prayer at the Islamic Society of Orange County in Irvine tonight at 6:30. The prayer of Salatul Istisqa is a call for rain usually offered in times of drought. "Americans of all fait ... More >>

Of Hummus and Hezbollah

Good food trumps ugly Americanism at Meejana

CAIR blasts GOP fear mongering

The Southern California office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations has accused two politicos of smear campaigning and fear mongering in separate Orange County races. Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the CAIR office based in Anaheim, cited the remarks by former California Republican Pa ... More >>

The Asian Persuasion

Great Asian restaurants, and the Asians (and Chuck Devore) who love them

Diary of a Mad County