Tag: Muslim

The Takeaway

NYPD Speaks About Use of Anti-Muslim Video

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

An 80-minute movie called "The Third Jihad," produced by the Clarion Fund, asserts that a vast number of radical Islamic forces exist in the U.S. and are preparing a violent jihad against America. Last January, the NYPD revealed that this direct-to-DVD movie had been shown once during anti-terrorism officer training. But this week, following a freedom of information request, the Brennan Center for Justice revealed that the video may have been viewed by nearly 1,500 officers during training breaks as well.

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The Takeaway

Anti-Muslim Rhetoric in the 2012 Primary

Monday, January 23, 2012

While political mud-slinging is de riguer in primary races, 2012 has brought several not-so-thinly-veiled anti-Muslim soundbytes from its frontrunning candidates. Last week, Newt Gingrich said that he would not support a Muslim president unless they would "commit in public to giv[ing] up Sharia." Rick Santorum also expressed his thoughts on Islam, saying that the concept of equality "doesn’t come from Islam" or "Eastern Religions." Instead, he said, "it comes from the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."

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The Takeaway

'All-American Muslim' Cast Members On the Show's Impact

Monday, January 09, 2012

Sunday night marked the season finale of TLC's "All-American Muslim." The show followed five Muslim-American families in Dearborn, Michigan, and drew a lot of attention when retail chain Lowe’s decided to pull commercials from the program. Both the boycott and the show itself prompted a larger conversation about the portrayal of Muslims in the media, as well as many Americans' private prejudices.

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The Takeaway

Muslim-American 9/11 First Responder Overlooked by Memorial

Wednesday, January 04, 2012

For his bravery on 9/11, first-responder Mohammad Salman Hamdani was cited in the Patriot Act as an example of Muslim-American valor. After the body of the 23-year-old police cadet was found in the wreckage of the north tower, the New York City Police Department declared him a hero and buried him with full honors. But visitors to the September 11th Memorial in lower Manhattan will not find his name among the list of first-responders. Instead, Hamdani's name appears in a section of the memorial for people who only had a lose connection to the tragic events of that day.

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The Takeaway

Lowe's Pulls Ads From Reality Show 'All-American Muslim'

Monday, December 12, 2011

Last month The Takeaway discussed "All-American Muslim," TLC's latest reality show. In the month that the show has been on air, the Florida Family Association mounted a campaign against the program. Last week, one of the show's advertisers, Lowe's, announced that they would no longer run their ads on "All-American Muslim." "Lowe's has received a significant amount of communication on this program, from every perspective possible," the company's statement said. "Individuals and groups have strong political and societal views on this topic, and this program became a lightning rod for many of those views."

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The Takeaway

A Closer Look at the Term 'Islamist'

Friday, December 02, 2011

In response to the coverage of Egypt's elections, the Takeaway has heard a lot from listeners about our use of the term "Islamist" to describe the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood and other parties in Egypt. One Takeaway listener wrote on our Web site, "Is there Christianists and Jewists? It is about time that sensitivity was built in the media discourse."

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The Takeaway

'All-American Muslim' Depicts Muslim-American Family Life

Friday, November 11, 2011

"All-American Muslim," a new reality TV show premiering on TLC this Sunday, takes a close-up view at what it is like to be Muslim in America through the lives of five ordinary Muslim families in Dearborn, Michigan — a city known informally as "America's Muslim Capital." Newlyweds Nader and Nawal Aoude are one of the couples featured on the show, and discuss what it was like to let cameras into their lives.

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The Takeaway

Hajj Pilgrimage in the Midst of the Arab Spring

Friday, November 04, 2011

This weekend some 2.5 million people are expected to take part in this year's Hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. But this year's pilgrimage takes place against the backdrop of the Arab Spring. The Saudi government has mobilized 100,000 defense personnel to prepare for the world's largest human assembly. The Saudis say the build-up is to avoid the deadly stampedes that have broken out in previous pilgrimages. But one can't help but wonder if the democracy movements in neighboring countries is a lingering factor as well. 

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The Takeaway

Muslim Artist Conducts Surveillance on Himself

Tuesday, November 01, 2011

Hasan Elahi is an American citizen with a Muslim name. He's a digital artist and a professor at the University of Maryland. In 2002, when he was returning from an art exhibition in Senegal, U.S. immigration agents detained him as a terrorist suspect. Elahi was turned over to the FBI, and battery of interrogations followed. Elahi struggled to prove his innocence, though nine polygraph tests proved he did not speak Arabic and had no knowledge of how to manufacture explosives. Ultimately, his incredibly detailed accounting of his whereabouts, which he compulsively tracked with his PDA, helped Elahi walk away with his freedom. To this day, his name has yet to be fully cleared.

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The Takeaway

Study Finds Muslim-Americans Are More Satisfied With the U.S.

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Coming up, we talk to two Muslim Americans about a recent poll that says Muslim Americans are happier with this country than the rest of the population.

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The Takeaway

Robin Wright on 'Rock the Casbah'

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Historically speaking, when we think of revolutions we think of youth. And in the case of the Arab spring, this is certainly true — one half of the Islamic world is people under thirty, and they are at the forefront of sweeping change. How are their values and religious beliefs similar to (and different from) their elders? And what do they want the future to look like?

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The Takeaway

A Ramadan Roadtrip Around The US

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Two men are spending Ramadan in 30 different mosques in 30 different states for all 30 days of the month of fasting. They're traveling 13,000 miles, from Alaska to New York City, and are speaking with us today from South Carolina, where they're a little more than halfway through their trip. What they've found is that generations of American Muslims have lived in small pockets of the U.S. since the 1800s.

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The Takeaway

Understanding Muslim-American Identity 10 Years After 9/11

Wednesday, August 03, 2011

As the tenth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks approaches, a new Gallup poll raises the issue of how Muslim-Americans view our democracy and their place in it. The poll surveyed Muslim-Americans and other faith groups, asking whether Muslims have been discriminated against recently, if Muslim-Americans have been sympathetic to al-Qaida, and how loyal they are to the democratic system. In contrast to Americans of other faiths, 78 percent of Muslim-Americans said military attacks on civilians are never justified.

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The Takeaway

'The 99': Superheroes and Comics in the Islamic World

Monday, August 01, 2011

When times are tough, Americans often turn to comic books. The so-called Golden Age of Comics in the U.S. began with the Great Depression, when out-of-work Americans were desperate for superheroes and role models. Our appetite for Superman and the Green Lantern only grew as Hitler marched across Europe. And Americans aren’t the only ones who need superheroes in difficult times. Our guest for this segment is the author of "The 99," a comic book series published in Kuwait and translated into nine languages. "The 99" follows Islam-inspired superheroes as they fight evil dictators and extremists.

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The Takeaway

Did Anti-Muslim Extremists in the US Influence Anders Breivik?

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian charged with carrying out a mass killing last week in his home country, told his lawyer he was saving Norway from Muslim domination. Breivik is an anti-Muslim extremist, and it has become clear that he was heavily influenced by American bloggers, who share his fears about the threat of Muslim immigrants on Western culture.

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The Takeaway

Do US Counter-Terrorism Efforts Focus Too Much On Muslims?

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

When the bombing and shooting first broke out in Norway last Friday, no one knew the source of the attacks, but a small group of anti-Islamic bloggers in the U.S. were quick to blame Muslim extremists. In the end, a manifesto that Anders Behring Breivik — the man accused of carrying out the killing spree — posted online confirmed that he was not Muslim, but the opposite: an anti-Muslim extremist.

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The Takeaway

9/11 Hate-Crime Victim Fights Execution of His Attacker

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Ten days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Rais Bhuiyan, a Muslim from Bangladesh, was working behind the counter at a gas station convenience store in Texas when a man with a gun entered. The gunman, Mark Stroman, shot Bhuiyan in the face, seeking what he later called revenge for the 9/11 attacks. Bhuiyan survived, but two others that Stroman also targeted because they appeared to be Muslim, did not.

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The Takeaway

Google Ideas Gathers Former Extremists to Target Radicalization

Monday, June 27, 2011

Google's eight-month-old think tank, Google Ideas, is paying for 80 former Muslim extremists, neo-Nazis, U.S. gang members, and other former radicals to gather in Dublin today, to discuss what draws people to violent extremism and how technology can carry out de-radicalization efforts. Google is calling the group "formers," and they'll be participating in the talks with 120 activists and business leaders. 

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The Takeaway

Maryam Jameela: An Unlikely Jihadist

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

When we think of Jihadists, we tend to think of people like Faisal Shahzad, who attempted to bomb Times Square last spring. But it so happens that one of the most famous Jihadist thinkers is a 76-year-old white woman from Westchester, New York named Maryam Jameela. Born to a non-observant Jewish family, she converted to Islam in her twenties, emigrated to Pakistan, and became a prominent female voice for conservative Islam, writing over thirty books on the subject. 

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The Takeaway

Sectarian Tensions Flare in Egypt

Monday, May 09, 2011

12 people died and hundreds were injured in sectarian clashes yesterday in Cairo. The violence was the result of longstanding tensions between Muslims and Coptic Christians in Egypt. Those tensions were softened in the immediate aftermath of the ouster of Hosni Mubarak in February. David Kirkpatrick, Foreign Correspondent for The New York Times, says the violence has slowly crept back into the lives of residents in Cairo.

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