CAIR - Michigan

CAIR - Michigan is a Michigan affiliate of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

CAIR Michigan 2010 Banquet

Nihad Awad, Wendell Anthony, Dawud Walid, John Conyers, Lena Masri, Jesse Jackson, Jr., Ron Scott, Raheem Hanifa, and Jukaku Tayeb

The 2010 Michigan CAIR gala, was held on March 31, with about "1,000 attendees including many powerful audience members from the business, media, and political community". Present at this year’s fundraiser was Nihad Awad, who founded CAIR and set it up as a not-for-profit franchise operation of sorts, with now branch offices across the country to advocate for Muslims.

But the real jewels in the crown of the 2010 CAIR Michigan fundraiser were the civil rights workers who for sixty years have been deeply involved at their own personal peril with the struggle for civil rights in the USA.

Jesse Jackson , the keynote speaker, was one of those. But there was also Rep. John Conyers (D-MI-14), whom Jackson described as “perhaps the only man who was ever endorsed by Martin Luther King.” There was Rep. John Dingell (D-MI-15). There were many others, including the strong gubernatorial candidate Virg Bernero (currently Lansing’s mayor).

Other attendees included Wendell Anthony, Imam and CAIR Michigan Executive Director Dawud Walid, CAIR Michigan Attorney Lena Masri, Ron Scott, Raheem Hanifa, and Jukaku Tayeb of CAIR Michigan.

CAIR panel

Representatives from the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR - Michigan) July 2010 gave oral testimony at a special town hall meeting on racial profiling with government officials and civil rights attorneys at the Wayne State University Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights in Detroit.

The town hall meeting, which was organized by the Rights Working Group and co-sponsored by CAIR-MI, had panelists taking testimony on racial and religious profiling from civil rights activists and community organizers. Panelists hearing testimony included U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan Barbara McQuade, Michigan State Representative Rashida Tlaib, Michigan Civil Rights Commissioner Nabih Ayad, and Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) Executive Director Vincent Warren.

CAIR - Michigan Executive Director Dawud Walid and CAIR-MI Staff Attorney Lena Masri testified about growing constituent concerns regarding surveillance and misuse of confidential informants in mosques and religious profiling during re-entry into the United States. Walid elaborated on the chilling effect on Michigan Muslims to freely exercise their First Amendment rights to Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Assembly in light of last year's fatal shooting of Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah in Dearborn by FBI agents based on a raid provoked by the use of confidential informants.

CAIR - Cleveland Executive Director Julia Shearson was also in attendance and monitored testimony offered.

Other organizations who participated in the town hall included the American Civil Liberties Union - Michigan (ACLU-MI), Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS), Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, and Mexican American Legal Defense Educational Fund (MALDEF).

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