Nation’s largest Muslim advocacy group calls for federal investigation into alleged hate crime against Jewish Michigan State student

DawudWalid 1 Comment

http://www.mlive.com/lansing-news/index.ssf/2012/08/nations_largest_muslim_advocac.html

Published: Tuesday, August 28, 2012, 5:17 PM

By Brandon Howell | brhowell@mlive.com 

The Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI) on Tuesday called for a federal probe into the assault of a Jewish Michigan State University student in an alleged hate crime early Sunday in East Lansing.
Zachary Tennen, of Franklin, said he was at a party about 1:30 a.m. Sunday in the 500 block of Spartan Avenue, about a half-mile north of MSU’scampus, when two college-aged men beat him unconscious then stapled his lips shut.
Tennen, a sophomore journalism major, said his attackers made Nazi gestures and said they were members of the Ku Klux Klan. When he regained consciousness, Tennen said he took a taxi cab to Sparrow Hospital as no one at the party helped him.
“We condemn this hate attack and call on federal law enforcement to intervene in the investigation of this case,” CAIR-MI Executive Director Dawud Walid said in a statement.
“There is absolutely no justification for anyone to be brutally assaulted especially when based upon ethnic and/or religious affiliation.”
The East Lansing Police Department’s preliminary investigation suggests the incident was not a hate crime. The department said it has identified one potential suspect by way of two witnesses. The potential suspect, a man, does not reside in the area.
East Lansing police say they are making “significant progress” in the case. No further information was immediately available.
Those with information on the incident are asked to contact East Lansing police Detective Dan Brown at             517-319-6811      .
CAIR is the  largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization in the United States.

DawudWalid

Dawud Walid is currently the Executive Director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI), which is a chapter of America's largest advocacy and civil liberties organization for American Muslims and is a member of the Michigan Muslim Community Council (MMCC) Imams Committee. Walid has been interviewed and quoted in approximately 150 media outlets ranging from the New York Times, Wall St Journal, National Public Radio, CNN, BBC, FOX News and Al-Jazeera. Furthermore, Walid was a political blogger for the Detroit News from January 2014 to January 2016, has had essays published in the 2012 book All-American: 45 American Men on Being Muslim, the 2014 book Qur'an in Conversation and was quoted as an expert in 13 additional books and academic dissertations. He was also a featured character in the 2013 HBO documentary "The Education of Mohammad Hussein." Walid has lectured at over 50 institutions of higher learning about Islam, interfaith dialogue and social justice including at Harvard University, DePaul University and the University of the Virgin Islands - St. Thomas and St. Croix campuses as well as spoken at the 2008 and 2011 Congressional Black Caucus Conventions alongside prominent speakers such as the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Congressman Keith Ellison. In 2008, Walid delivered the closing benediction at the historic 52nd Michigan Electoral College in the Michigan State Senate chambers and gave the Baccalaureate speech for graduates of the prestigious Cranbrook-Kingswood Academy located in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Walid was also a featured speaker at the 2009 and 2010 Malian Peace and Tolerance Conferences at the University of Bamako in Mali, West Africa. He has also given testimony at hearings and briefings in front of Michigan state legislators and U.S. congressional representatives, including speaking before members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in Washington, D.C. Walid has studied under qualified scholars the disciplines of Arabic grammar and morphology, foundations of Islamic jurisprudence, sciences of the exegesis of the Qur’an, and Islamic history during the era of Prophet Muhammad through the governments of the first 5 caliphs. He previously served as an imam at Masjid Wali Muhammad in Detroit and the Bosnian American Islamic Center in Hamtramck, Michigan, and continues to deliver sermons and lectures at Islamic centers across the United States and Canada. Walid was a 2011 - 2012 fellow of the University of Southern California (USC) American Muslim Civil Leadership Institute (AMCLI) and a 2014 - 2015 fellow of the Wayne State Law School Detroit Action Equity Lab (DEAL). Walid served in the United States Navy under honorable conditions earning two United States Navy & Marine Corp Achievement medals while deployed abroad. He has also received awards of recognition from the city councils of Detroit and Hamtramck and from the Mayor of Lansing as well as a number of other religious and community organizations.

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One Comment

  1. When I first read this article, I was not surprised at the principled stance taken by CAIR to speak out for the injustice meted upon the Jewish student. I thought about the many times where others, who claim to be human rights activists have attacked CAIR, claiming it is supposedly “an arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in America”. I thought about the times when I’ve read their blogs and noticed an absence of them being self-proclaimed “human rights activists” when those whose human rights have been and are being violated are Muslims.

    The silence from them was and remains deafening.

    We see that people can make many claims, but their actions and/or inactions show who and what they really are.

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