Eli Clifton, co-author of the Center for American Progress report Fear, Inc. The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America, is publishing a series of articles at Think Progress based on the report’s findings. So far, the series has covered Richard Scaife, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation and Steven Emerson.

Think Progress also has an article by another of the report’s authors, Faiz Shakir, responding to misrepresentation of Fear, Inc. on Fox News.

Believing that the upcoming 10th anniversary of Sept. 11 is best memorialized in crayon, Really Big Coloring Books, Inc. is publishing a new coloring book entitled “We Shall Never Forget 9/11: The Kids’ Book of Freedom“.

In offering kids the option of coloring the Twin Towers burning, mourning survivors, or the Navy SEALs shooting Osama Bin Laden, publisher Wayne Bell insists that “the doodles represent patriotism”, a “simplistic, honest tool” to “help educate children on events on 9/11”. But many Muslims describe it as, in a word, “disgusting”.

Pointing out that Muslims are already dealing with an environment of increasing Islamophobia, Michigan Council on American Islamic Relations representative Dawud Walid noted that “nearly all of the mentions of Muslims in the book are accompanied by the words ‘terrorist’ or ‘extremist’.” Indeed, the page depicting a Navy SEAL aiming at bin Laden cowering behind his veiled wife reads “Children, the truth is, these terrorist acts were done by freedom-hating Islamic Muslim extremists. These crazy people hate the American way of life because we are FREE and our society is FREE.” Bell’s response? “The truth is the truth“:

“Little kids who pick up this book can have their perceptions colored by those images … it instills bias in young minds,” said Walid. He says that some of the narrative and photos aren’t even correct, noting that Bin Laden wasn’t hiding behind a wife when he was shot.

Bell stood by the book as an “honest depiction”.

“The truth is the truth,” Bell said, adding, “It’s unfortunate that they were all Muslim and that’s the part people want to erase … I don’t know what else you can call them.”

Noting that one page depicts a woman mourning with a cross chain dangling from her neck, Walid says “Muslim mothers lost sons too”. He also noted that he’s not an advocate of showing children violent images – a sentiment that many military families share. Shariah Gibbs, a military spouse in Germany, said, “This should not be a coloring book.” Another said, “I would not buy a coloring book [about 9/11] … To me, coloring books should be fun … this is not!”

Think Progress, 30 August 2011

Meanwhile Insted has compiled a useful list for teachers and youth workers of 20 websites in the UK and the United States which contain materials, ideas and guidance for teaching and talking about 9/11.

A Rutherford County judge decided to uphold his earlier decision that the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro has a right, by law, to build a bigger place of worship.

“Those who are adherents to Islam are entitled to pursue their worship in the United States just as are those who are adherents to more universally established faiths (in our community),” ruled Chancellor Robert Corlew III.

Opponents of the mosque had asked Corlew to reconsider the decision he made in May, which was that the 17 plaintiffs suing Rutherford County government can only challenge whether an open meeting violation occurred over the mosque’s approval.

No trial has been scheduled on whether the county failed to provide sufficient public notice before its Regional Planning Commission met May 24, 2010, to vote on the Islamic center’s plans to construct a 52,960-square-foot community center with a mosque on Veals Road.

“We have a duty equally to treat those whose religious beliefs are similar to the majority beliefs and to those whose beliefs are very different from the majority,” Corlew wrote. “If the zoning laws are too favorable to those seeking to build places of worship, then citizens should prevail upon their elected representatives to change those ordinances, but until they do the Court must apply those laws equally to Protestant Christians, Roman Catholics, Muslims, Buddhists and others.”

The Tennessean, 31 August 2011

See also “Breaking bread (not signs) in Murfreesboro this Ramadan”, Daily News Journal, 31 August 2011

A small number of conservative foundations are propelling a handful of anti-Islamic activists who are fueling rising levels of Islamophobia, according to a report issued Friday (Aug. 26) by the left-leaning Center for American Progress.

The 130-page report identifies seven conservative funders who between 2001 and 2009 gave $42.6 million to eight anti-Islamic causes, most of them headed by individuals who critics say form an organized network.

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