Some 15,000 Muslims are expected at this weekend’s 37th annual convention of the Islamic Circle of North America in Hartford, where the theme of “Defending Religious Freedom: Understanding Shariah” reflects the worry that anti-Muslim activists are fanning fear of Islamic law to marginalize U.S. Muslims.

The May 26-28 gathering, which is also sponsored by the Muslim American Society, is the second-largest Muslim convention in the U.S., behind only the annual convention of the Islamic Society of North America, which draws between 30,000 and 40,000 people.

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A Chesapeake man says the Department of Motor Vehicles is violating his right to free speech.

The DMV asked Army veteran Sean Bujno to return his vanity license plate, which displays the message “ICUHAJI.” Many read the message as “I see you, Haji.”

The dictionary defines “haji” as “one who has made a pilgrimage to Mecca.” But the word can also be used as slang, often to describe people of Arab descent in a derogatory way. The popular website Urban Dictionary suggests “haji” is “offensive slang; disparaging term for Arabs, especially those of Islamic faith.”

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“The way in which the most prominent American Muslim civil rights organization has been marginalized and demonized should be cause for alarm not only for Muslims, but for civil rights advocates, and even for those in the law enforcement community who rely on strong local relationships. Lending official legitimacy to allegations that have never seen a day in court is abhorrent to the American value of justice….”

Rabia Chaudry condemns the right-wing witch-hunt of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the response of the FBI in particular.

altmuslim, 18 May 2012

Over objections of some residents who sought to table the project, the Common Council unanimously approved a mosque on Pheasant Drive intended to serve a growing Waukesha County Muslim community.

Brookfield aldermen unanimously approved plans for a nearly 13,000-square-foot mosque, to the joy of Waukesha County Muslims and chagrin of opponents who sought to table the project Tuesday.

The Common Council voted 14-0 Tuesday to grant a conditional use permit, with aldermen assuring residents the city had “thoroughly vetted” traffic and other site issues before green-lighting construction.

“We’re elated,” said Mushir Hassan, a Brookfield resident, physician and project leader for the mosque. “We live in a very sophisticated, educated community that understands that they’ve worked with, lived with, and dealt with Muslims and people of all different faiths and cultures on a regular basis,” Hassan said after the meeting.

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Slide from a presentation titled ‘Sharia and the Constitution’

A class taught by the military to officers at the Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia, came under fire when a report on Wired’s Danger Room blog last week exposed it for teaching soldiers to engage in a “total war” on Islam and taking a war on Islam “to the civilian population wherever necessary.”

The full set of course materials, hundreds of documents and slide shows obtained by ThinkProgress, reveal just how deep Islamophobia ran through the military instruction. The material contained dozens of citations to the work of some of America’s best known anti-Muslim bigots.

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