text: Back to Top 
   
   Watch Live: Rejecting Islamophobia: A Community Stand Against Hate 
   
   Community town hall will be held in Dearborn, Michigan 
   
   Today, April 29th at 1PM 
   
   Rejecting Islamophobia: A Community Stand Against Hate 
   
   It’s not news to anyone in our community that anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bias remains a problem. Arab Americans have mobilized to combat this trend both because it is wrong and because it undermines core American values, including religious freedom. We work against it in Washington when it takes the form of bad policies, and we responded to it when policymakers joined in the media circus around the manufactured crisis of Park 51 in lower Manhattan. Since then, we have seen the threat of Quran burnings, mosque protests, and anti-Sharia bills in multiple states across the country. 
   
   The Arab American community in Michigan is perhaps more familiar with these challenges than anyone else. From the politicizing of a fun, family-oriented Arab community festival to Terry Jones' visits to Dearborn, the community has faced these challenges with dignity and courage. With Terry Jones in particular, Dearborn’s Arab Americans did the right thing by keeping him marginalized and organizing an interfaith response that affirmed our values. 
   
   This week, we’re faced with the latest challenge when Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer bring their so-called “Jessica Mokdad Human Rights Conference” to Dearborn on Sunday. By presumptuously donning Ms. Mokdad's name on their conference, they are exploiting the tragedy of a young Arab American girl to promote a bigoted agenda. It is shameful. Unlike the irrelevant Jones, Geller and Spencer have thousands of followers, and are given airtime to spew their hate on major American news networks, as if they are respected analysts with just another viewpoint. This group, we cannot ignore. This is the time for our community to take a stand, along with all those who value America’s commitment to diversity and freedom of religion, against the politics of division and bigotry promoted by the Islamophobes. 
   
   Along with a tremendous group of local organizations, AAI has organized a community town hall on Islamophobia on the same day as their conference this Sunday, April 29 at 1pm at the Doubletree Hotel in Dearborn (5801 Southfield Road). AAI President Jim Zogby and Executive Director Maya Berry will be there, along with Eli Clifton, the co-author of a groundbreaking report on Geller and friends called Fear Inc., and prominent journalist and blogger Sarah Posner. The town hall will also feature community, interfaith, and religious leaders as well as Michigan public officials. We will directly challenge the narrative that will be presented by their conference and, more importantly, we will have a community conversation about how to respond to these continued attacks. This community will not leave bigotry and Islamophobia unchallenged. 
   
   Tagged as Issues, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, Islamophobia, Profiling, Park 51, State Specific, Michigan 
   
   Disqus ||||| Notice 
   
   You must log in to continue. ||||| Anti-Islam activists from across the U.S. are in Dearborn today for a conference they say is needed to rescue Muslim women. Called the Jessica Mokdad Human Rights Conference on Honor Killings, it's named after a 20-year-old Muslim woman killed in Warren last year. 
   
   But Muslim women in metro Detroit are rejecting the conference's message, saying it promotes hatred of Islam and Arab Americans. And Mokdad's family also strongly objects to the conference, saying they don't want her name being used to promote hate. 
   
   On Friday, Macomb County Assistant Prosecutor Bill Cataldo, who is chief of ... ||||| Best Places For Ice Fishing In The USAs much a skill as it is a sport, ice fishing isn't for the faint of heart. Face the chilly challenge prepared with all the essential clothing, equipment, and gear and go to the right places to be rewarded with plenty of fish. 
   
   Best Backcountry Skiing In North AmericaFive featured North American ski resorts with optional backcountry skiing. 
   
   America's Best Sledding HillsTubing is one thing and old fashioned sledding is another. If sliding on a plastic saucer is your idea of downhill fun, the best sledding hills in America have plenty of snowy slopes to navigate with the aid of gravity. 
   
   America's Best Christkindl MarketsGet a preview of five of America's best Christkindl Markets from around the country.
target: – A Michigan conference called to discuss a possible "honor killing" and women in Islam has triggered an uproar from local Muslims and civil rights groups who say it's an excuse to bash Islam. The "Jessica Mokdad Human Rights Conference on Honor Killings" in Dearborn—home to a thriving American Muslim community—was immediately countered with a "Rejecting Islamophobia: A Community Stand Against Hate" town hall meeting in Detroit, notes MSNBC. Both meetings took place yesterday. Mokdad, 20, was killed last year by her Muslim stepdad, according to police. Though initially reported as a suspected honor killing, investigators now believe Mokdad was killed because she was about to tell police her stepfather was sexually abusing her, according to the Detroit Free Press. "The evidence shows the motive really was not a cultural issue," said a lead investigator. "It's about power, control, and rape." The honor killing conference immediately raised suspicions because it was organized by Pam Geller, critic of Islam and nationally known foe of the proposed Ground Zero Mosque. Geller insists Mokdad's death was an honor killing, and one more example of "stealth enforcement" of Islamic shariah law. Geller's group Stop the Islamization of America has been classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Organizers of the rival meeting said in a statement it's time for "our community to take a stand, along with those who value America's commitment to diversity and freedom of religion." Said a female speaker at the town hall meeting: "As a Muslim woman, I stand with pride in my faith."