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Militant Islam Monitor > Articles > Dhabah Almontaser Teams Up with CAIR alleging "Islamophobia" will speak at NYU Islamic Center run by KGIA advisor Latif

Dhabah Almontaser Teams Up with CAIR alleging "Islamophobia" will speak at NYU Islamic Center run by KGIA advisor Latif

October 15, 2007

Dhabah Almontaser Teams Up With CAIR, Alleging "Islamophobia"

By Beila Rabinowitz and William Mayer

October 15, 2007 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Dhabah Almontaser, forced out as principal at Brooklyn's embattled publicly funded madrassah, the Khalil Gibran International Academy, will appear next Sunday at NYU's Islamic Center, speaking as part of what is described as a "panel discussion about Islamophobia, its root & causes, and the effects on individuals and organizations."

Also on the bill are Parvez Ahmed, Chairman of the Council on American Islamic Relations and Lawrence Davidson a controversial professor at West Chester University.

The event is part of a CAIR media blitz, using baseless charges of racism in an attempt to obscure the fact that the organization was recently named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation federal terror prosecution. http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=almontaser10.15.07%2Ehtm

Link to original event poster. The two altered posters are below.

http://www.pipelinenews.org/images/almontasercair.pdf

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MIM: Note that Almonstaser is listed as "The founding principal of KGIA"

Event Flye

File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
Join CAIR-NY for a panel discussion about ... Lawrence Davidson. Professor of Middle East History at West Chester University. •. Debbie Almontaser ...
www.hahmed.com/pics/FINALFlyer.pdf - Similar pages

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MIM:The Islamic Center of NYU is headed by Khalid Latif, an advisory board member of the

Khalil Gibran International Academy.

http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/2910

Khalil Gibran School Advisor Khalid Latif Threatened NYU with Jihad Over Danish Cartoons

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Biography

Brother Khalid Latif grew up in Edison, NJ, as the youngest of three children. A first generation Muslim, Brother Khalid currently serves as the Muslim Chaplain for both New York University (NYU) and Princeton University, the first individual to hold the position at both institutions.

At a time where many feel out of place in the Muslim community, not knowing exactly where to fit in, Brother Khalid seeks to emphasize the need to be inclusive rather than exclusive, understanding of others without compromise. Outside of his defined roles as chaplain for NYU and Princeton, Brother Khalid has served as an educator for Abrahams' Vision, a group focused on Jewish-Muslim relations and conflict resolution, Independent Viewpoints, a group focused on Sunni-Shi'a relations, and is a member of MCN, the Muslim Consultative Network, an organization made up of numerous Muslim leaders from New York City.

Invited frequently to lecture, conduct workshops,and lead discussions at various institutions on a national level, Brother Khalid is able to relate to a both a younger and older generation of Muslims in America. Having himself completed a Bachelors with Honors at NYU in Political Science and Middle Eastern Studies, Brother Khalid is aware of many of the social anxieties and pressures that Muslims can face while growing up in the United States.

By drawing on his personal experiences with various Muslim institutions and communities, as well as the experiences of those whom he has had the opportunity to interact with and learn from, Brother Khalid hopes to serve as a resource for all peoples, regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, ideology or creed. He is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Islamic Studies with a concentration on Muslim-Christian Relations and a Certification in Islamic Chaplaincy from Hartford Seminary under the advisement of Dr. Ingrid Mattson, Professor of Islamic Law and President of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).

http://www.icnyu.org/chaplain/biography.html

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MIM: CAIR's press release in support of Almontaser

(NEW YORK, NY, 10/17/07) – The New York chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR-NY) yesterday participated in a press conference at City Hall in support of Khalil Gibran International Academy's (KGIA) founding principal Debbie Almontaser.

"The defamatory attacks on Debbie Almontaser and the academy are part of a larger effort to marginalize the American Muslim and Arab-American communities," said CAIR-NY Community Affairs Director Faiza N. Ali. "We call on Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein to support religious and ethnic diversity."

The press conference, which coincided with the deadline to apply for principal of KGIA, was Almontaser's first public appearance since her resignation.

Almontaser, joined by her attorney Alan Levine, addressed her original vision of the school, the smear campaign that lead to her resignation, and her reasons for reapplying as KGIA's principal.

"In early August of this year, under pressure from The New York Post, The New York Sun, and right-wing bloggers, representatives of the Mayor, the Chancellor, and New Visions demanded that I resign as KGIA's principal," said Almontaser in a prepared statement to the press and public. "They threatened to close down KGIA if I refused. The next day, I submitted my letter of resignation."

SEE: Principal of Arabic School Says She Was Forced Out

"The DOE had available to it a simple response," stated Levine in a letter dated October 9 to Chancellor Klein. "One which would have preserved Ms. Almontaser's dignity and reputation and would have quieted the islamophobes who were seeking her ouster. Ms. Almontaser has been a consistent and public advocate of nonviolence. She has, at great personal risk and with notable courage, sought to build bridges between the Muslim and Jewish communities. To imply that she would support violence against Jews is repudiated by everything she has said and done in her career. The charges are preposterous...The DOE did not say that."

"KGIA was Ms. Almontaser's vision and she was unarguably the right person to lead it," said Rabbi Michael Feinberg, quoting a statement from Jewish leaders to Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein. "That she is not principal today is solely the result of attacks upon her by marginal, right- wing groups, who charged her and KGIA with hostility to Israel and Jews. We state emphatically that those groups do not represent the views of the mainstream Jewish community in New York City."

"As leaders seeking to promote just and respectful relationships with members of diverse communities in New York City, we are concerned that some City Officials are permitting these small but well amplified negative forces to influence civil discourse in an inappropriate way. The trend is most troubling to us and to the diverse communities we represent," read a statement dated October 16 from NYC Muslim American community members and leaders to Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein. "Islamophobic and nativist groups such as Stop the Madrassa Coalition should not be allowed to divide the city through fear and intimidation tactics."

CAIR-NY is member of the Communities in Support of KGIA, a diverse of group of New Yorkers and community based organizations committed to quality education for all communities.

SEE: Communities in Support of KGIA

CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, has 33 offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.

CONTACT: CAIR-NY Civil Rights Director Aliya Latif, 212-870-2002, 732-429-4268, [email protected]; CAIR-NY Community Affairs Director Faiza N. Ali 212-870-2002, [email protected]

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http://www.pipelinenews.org/images/almontasercair.pdf

Link to original event flyer with Almontaser listed as a speaker. The first poster below was altered and Almontaser's name was removed and replaced by the picture. The poster beneath that was also posted on the internet. The pdf with Almontaser's name was linked to as the "final" flyer.

MIM: Almontaser's name was removed from the top flyer and the poster picture was added in it's place.

http://www.hahmed.com/pics/ISLAMOPHOBIA_EVENT_FLYER.jpg

http://www.cair-ny.org/pages/splash.aspx

MIM: The flyer on the CAIR website does not include Almontaser and appears to have been changed from the one above.

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