Tagged: muslims

A Muslim civil rights group says federal agents are wrongly detaining and questioning Muslim-Americans coming into the U-S.

The Michigan Council on American-Islamic Relations lays out those accusations in a federal lawsuit filed this week.

They’re suing on behalf of four Muslim U-S citizens. All say they were subject to “invasive religious questioning” when they tried to re-enter the country from Canada.

Shareef Akeel is a lawyer for the plaintiffs. He says Muslims are clearly being singled out for this type of "persecution," and that’s illegal.

DETROIT (AP) - A Muslim rights advocacy group says it's filing suit against the FBI and U.S. Customs and Border Protection for what it says is the mistreatment of Muslims at the U.S.-Canada border.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations announced plans for the lawsuit Thursday, saying it will release details at a news conference Friday in Detroit.

The council says the suit is based on "the repeated detention and questioning of Muslims" on religious matters at and near the border.

In a statement, the group says the suit is by four U.S. citizens who say that Customs and FBI agents "detained and handcuffed them without evidence of wrongdoing and questioned them about their
religious beliefs and worship habits."

The Associated Press has asked the U.S. Justice Department for comment.

The groundbreaking reality show "All-American Muslim" has been canceled.

The show, which followed five Muslims families in Dearborn, will not be picked up for a second season, a TLC executive confirmed.

"I’m certainly sad to hear the show wasn’t being renewed," says Suehalia Amen, one of the women featured on the reality show.

She says "All-American Muslim" sought to humanize Muslims in a way mainstream media hadn’t done before…and it made viewers look at Muslims and Arab-Americans in a new light:

"It’s been an eye-opening experience," explains Amen. "To have people tell you 'I hated Muslims, and after your show I’m able to understand your community and have a new-found respect.'"

The show’s creator, Mike Mosallam, agrees. He says the show's ratings dropped throughout the season, but he says that doesn’t mean the show didn’t succeed on a cultural level in terms of "what it taught people and what it dispelled in terms of people’s perceptions. I mean those are things that no ratings will ever be able to show."

One national civil rights group says it’s seen an uptick in discrimination complaints from Muslims—especially in the past month.

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee says it’s received triple the number of complaints this December, compared with the same month last year.

Michigan Representative John Conyers (D-Dearborn) says Lowe's Companies, Inc. should "unequivocally apologize" after the company pulled its ads from the reality show "All-American Muslim." Lowe's pulled the ads after it received pressure from the Florida Family Association.

TLC's reality show examines life as a Muslim American.

It follows the life of five Muslim-American families in Dearborn and "the misconceptions and conflicts these families face outside and within their own community." The show's website depicts the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn.

In a letter trying to get companies to pull their ads for the show, the Florida Family Association said the show is propaganda and is "attempting to manipulate Americans into ignoring the threat of jihad."

A Judge has reversed a Dearborn jury’s ruling that found a Christian pastor intended to breach the peace at a demonstration he planned outside the country’s biggest mosque.

Terry Jones is the controversial Florida Pastor who once burned the Quran, and believes Muslim Sharia law is a major threat to the U.S.

He wanted to protest outside Dearborn’s Islamic Center of America in April, but never got the chance. He was hauled to court, found guilty of intent to breach the peace, and ordered to stay away from the Islamic Center of America for three years.

Jones appealed his prosecution, saying it violated his right to free speech. A Wayne county Circuit Court Judge ruled it actually did not. But he still reversed the jury’s decision on a due process technicality.

Jones said he plans to return to the mosque to protest “jihad and sharia.”

“That was why we chose that particular location," Jones told reporters after the ruling. "That particular location had a definite purpose. Because we were targeting [those] two aspects of radical Islam.”

The Judge also overturned a three-year injunction keeping Jones away from the mosque.

Wayne County Prosecutors say they’ll appeal to the Michigan Court of Appeals.