Muslims

Gallup Report: Muslim Americans See Hope In Their Economic Future

Kyle Leighton | August 2, 2011, 10:25AM

According to a new study by Gallup, there is one religious group of Americans who are more likely to believe that they will get closer to the best possible life for themselves in the next five years. This same group is also second most likely to consider themselves "thriving," while second least likely to consider themselves "struggling," and far and away more apt say that their standard of living is increasing. It's also the same group of which nearly one in two report experiencing either racial or religious discrimination.

It is an improving time to be a Muslim American, according to the numbers.

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Osama Bin Laden

Oregon Muslims Cancel Bin Laden Death Rally After Maine Vandalism

Evan McMorris-Santoro | May 3, 2011, 3:55PM

A group of men gather in prayer during the first day of Ramadan at the Masjid An-Noor Mosque.

In Portland, Oregon, Muslims planned to hold a downtown rally Monday to celebrate the death of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and "call for unity and peace." But they called it off after concerns over reprisals.

It's at least the second small incident since bin Laden was killed that suggests not everyone is ready to move on now that the villain behind the attacks of 9/11 is finally no longer with us. Yesterday, police in Portland, Maine opened up a hate crime investigation after a mosque there was spray-painted with the phrase "Osama today, Islam tomorow [sic]."

In Oregon, there wasn't a direct threat like there was in Maine. But organizers of the unity rally were fearful enough that something bad might go down at the rally that they canceled it.

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Mosques

Poll: Nearly 70% Say They'd Be 'Okay' With Mosque In Their Neighborhood

Jon Terbush | March 24, 2011, 3:29PM

A group of men gather in prayer during the first day of Ramadan at the Masjid An-Noor Mosque.

Almost seven in ten American adults say they'd be fine with a mosque in their community, according to a CNN poll.

That finding comes just weeks after another poll found that barely half of Americans believed Muslims in the U.S. supported America, and after Rep. Peter King (R-NY) held controversial hearings into the radicalization of American Muslims. Meanwhile, several states, including Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia have considered bills to ban Sharia Law.

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'Ground Zero Mosque'

Anti-Mosque Movement Draws Support From Controversial European Politician

Brian Beutler | August 20, 2010, 6:00PM

A mosque in Detroit (protesters decrying a planned Islamic community center and mosque near ground zero in New York inset).

Pamela Geller, the woman who arguably touched off the weeks-long fight over the Cordoba House, is organizing a September 11 protest to stop the project, and she's invited some of America's most high-profile conservatives to attend. But she's also enlisting the help of one of the most controversial anti-Muslim politicians in Europe.

Joining Geller and Andrew Breitbart, among others, will be Dutch politician Geert Wilders, the controversial anti-Muslim leader of the right wing Freedom Party in the Netherlands.

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'Ground Zero Mosque'

Influential Mosque Opponent Promotes Religious Freedom Abroad For U.S. Government

Brian Beutler | August 18, 2010, 5:07PM

A protest against the 'Ground Zero Mosque' and Dr. Richard Land, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, inset.

As president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, Dr. Richard Land is an influential opponent of the Cordoba House project in New York. But when he's not speaking on behalf of one of the most powerful religious bodies in the country, Land has a second -- some would say ironic -- ecumenical role: member of the federally created United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.

In his role as a commissioner, Land's job is to press for a U.S. foreign policy that advances religious freedoms around the world. Reached by phone today, Land maintained that there is no contradiction between his service on the Commission and his efforts to see the Cordoba House Islamic cultural center project moved farther north in Manhattan.

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Harry Reid

Reid's Opposition To The 'Ground Zero Mosque' Surprises Dems -- And Leaves Them Vulnerable

Brian Beutler | August 16, 2010, 8:29PM

Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV)

Just before noon today, Sharron Angle pressed Harry Reid to pick a side: "As the Majority Leader, Harry Reid is usually President Obama's mouthpiece in the U.S. Senate, and yet he remains silent on this issue," read a statement from her communications director, Jarrod Agen. "Reid has a responsibility to stand up and say no to the mosque at Ground Zero or once again side with President Obama."

By about 3 p.m., he made his decision: he would publicly break from Obama -- a move that would come as a surprise to many in his party.

"The First Amendment protects freedom of religion," spokesman Jim Manley said in a statement. "Sen. Reid respects that but thinks that the mosque should be built some place else."

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Muslims

How New York's 'Ground Zero Mosque' Fell Into Florida's Political Spotlight

Evan McMorris-Santoro | August 16, 2010, 4:29PM

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)

According to Google, the proposed Islamic community center in lower Manhattan is 1,275 miles away from downtown Miami, Florida. But that doesn't mean the proposed Cordoba House that's likely to be constructed blocks away from the former site of the Twin Towers hasn't become a big issue in Florida politics.

Republican Senate candidate Marco Rubio -- already an ardent supporter of all things conservative (if you don't count his against-it-before-I-was-kind-of-for-it stance on Arizona's immigration law) -- is taking a firm stand with the rest of his party by vocally opposing the Cordoba House project.

"It is divisive and disrespectful to build a mosque next to the site where 3,000 innocent people were murdered at the hands of Islamic extremism," Rubio said in a statement Saturday.

Both men running for the GOP's gubernatorial nomination say basically the same thing. Attorney General Bill McCollum says he'd be OK with a Muslim construction project "farther away" from the Ground Zero site and former hospital exec Rick Scott is already running a TV ad attacking "Obama's Mosque."

So that's that. Anti-mosque Republicans can stand by their men in the Sunshine State.

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Ground Zero Mosque

How Republicans Might Drag The 'Ground Zero Mosque' Fight Into The Fall

Brian Beutler | August 16, 2010, 2:52PM

Sen. Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and President Barack Obama

From Terri Schiavo to "death panels," Congressional recesses have long bred political controversies. But while some (like Schiavo) fizzle, others, (like "death panels") have a lasting impact on policy and politics. An open question for now is whether the row over the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque" will be with us past August.

Republicans and conservative activists have made no secret of the fact that they want the issue to have legs, but that gets trickier when politicians return to Washington to actually govern. One option Republicans will have to pressure Democrats on the issue will be to force Democrats to vote on the question of whether they support the cultural center and mosque.

"There are no plans to do that at this point," says a top Republican House aide. "It's a month away, and I'd guess any chances we get to message...will be focused on jobs."

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Ground Zero Mosque

Is The Term 'Ground Zero Mosque' This Year's 'Death Panel'?

Brian Beutler | August 16, 2010, 1:51PM

Arguably, the recent partisan griping over the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque" really went from a simmer to a boil in mid-July, when former half-term Alaska Governor Sarah Palin went on a Twitter rampage, calling on New York Muslims to "refudiate" the Cordoba initiative.

If that were truly the case, it would be a fitting tribute to the role Palin played last August when she popularized the conservative obsession with euthanasia by claiming the Democrats' health care bill contained "death panels."

But in reality, the loaded and inaccurate term "Ground Zero Mosque" had a much more organic rise to prominence beginning this past spring, when Palin and the GOP were instead politicking on the oil spill, the New Black Panthers and other right wing causes célèbre.

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New York City

Muslim Rights Advocate: Why Aren't NY Dems Speaking Up For Us?

Evan McMorris-Santoro | August 5, 2010, 4:55PM

A Muslim civil rights advocate says it's "concerning" that more prominent New York Democrats aren't speaking up in the debate over new mosque projects in New York City. Ibrahim Ramey, civil rights director for the Muslim American Society in Washington, told me today that it surprises him how few Democratic politicians have spoken up as angry right-wing protesters have taken on mosque projects in Staten Island, Brooklyn and, of course, lower Manhattan.

"It's been very, very disappointing really," Ramey said. "To the extent that we're not hearing from prominent Democrats, it really is a concerning thing. Concerning for Muslims and for the nation as a whole."

Check out TPM's roundup on what New York Dems have said -- and haven't said -- about the issue here.

Ramey said for him, it's not about the politics. He just expects more politicians to offer the no-holds-barred statements in support of Muslim rights that he said New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg did in his recent speech endorsing the so-called Ground Zero mosque project.

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