CAIR in Chicago

The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) recently sent out mass emails to its members demanding that charges be dropped against a Muslim woman who was arrested in October in the northwest Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights. The mayor received phone calls and passed them on to the Cook County state's attorney's office. Tribune:

The protester, Rehana Khan of Chicago, was arrested Oct. 15 with four other people while demonstrating in Arlington Heights in support of immigrant rights and against the Minutemen, a group that opposes illegal immigration. Khan is to appear in court Tuesday.

Khan is charged with battery and resisting arrest. She is accused of hitting a female officer and trying to break free while being arrested, authorities said.

Khan alleges that police handcuffed her and then ripped off her headscarf, or hajib, which observant Muslim women believe Allah commanded them to wear, according to Christina Abraham of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Police allowed her to put on the headscarf during the ride to jail but then forced her to remove it again while she was being charged with resisting arrest, Abraham said.

"It's analogous to having a blouse ripped off," said council spokesman Ahmed Rehab. "It's a state of forced nudity."

Village prosecutor Ernest Blomquist III said the charges against Khan would not be dropped. He disputed the allegations of police misconduct.

"If it was a priest wearing a cross around his neck, we'd take that," Blomquist said. "The police followed standard Police 101: how to protect yourself and others. It makes no difference what religion she is. She was singled out because she struck an officer."

Assistant State's Atty. Rich Karwaczka said Khan's headscarf was "shifted" during the course of the arrest but was never pulled off. She was required to remove it during processing at the police station, which Karwaczka said is normal practice. "For safety reasons it always is [removed]," Karwaczka said.

I remember a case in Florida of a woman who wanted to remain veiled for her driver's license picture. The courts ruled against her.

In any event, adding immigration to its list of gripes seems a new development for CAIR, which, according the Tribune, has protested the Patriot Act and the appointment of respected scholar Daniel Pipes to the U.S. Institute of Peace. Here is an article by Prof. Pipes on CAIR. The Tribune describes Pipes simply as a "controversial academic". The son of my old Russian history professor at Harvard, Pipes is well known for the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) which translates Mid-East media. If that is controversial, it is in the content of the original text. Current translations here.

One of them is by a Yemeni woman reformer urging her sisters to exercise freedom of thought and take off the veil.