Mosque Foundation Department of Homeland Security’s Community Engagement Roundtable By Mohamad Chehade

The Mosque Foundation hosted the quarterly meeting on September 22, 2011 held in Chicago by leaders from several federal government entities, organized by Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL). The purpose of these meetings is to build partnership relationships between various law enforcement agencies of the US federal government and the community at large, especially the Muslim communities.

Kareem Shura, from Community Engagement Section emceed this event, which started with a presentation by Oussama Jammal, VP of Mosque Foundation and chairman of the Outreach & PR Committee. Mr. Jammal welcomed guests and delivered a comprehensive presentation about the foundation’s history, structure, and programs, summing up who we are and what we do.

Margo Schlanger, who heads the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL), which is a part of US Department of Homeland Security, spoke about the policy making and training regarding civil right issues.  Ms. Schlanger was appointed by President Obama to lead CRCL with the mission to preserve individual liberty, fairness and equality,

Ms. Schlanger opened the floor for any concerns community organizations have, and delegated questions to the appropriate government department representatives.

Robert Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge with the FBI addressed the roundtable focusing on the recent news report by Wired.com regarding an FBI counterterrorism training seminar held on January 11 in which self-identified expert on Islamic Law, Stephen Coughlin, proclaimed that ‘Islam is out to take over the world and there is no such thing as a loyal American Muslim.'  Mr. Grant apologized and explained that this is not the FBI's position. When authorities were informed of Stephen Coughlin's inflammatory comments they immediately stopped hosting any of his seminars, and the FBI headquarters issued a press release clarifying in clear language that Mr. Coughlin's views do not reflect the position of the FBI and that they continue to strive in strengthening their relationship with the Muslim community.  Mr. Grant also added that the initial issue was exploited by the media but never followed up with reports of their press release nor that Stephen Coughlin was prohibited from presenting any training to FBI.

At the end of the program, Dr Zaher Sahloul, Chairperson of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago, expressed his appreciation and thanks to all government representatives, especially Ms. Schlanger and Mr. Grant for building bridges of trust and healthy relationships with the Muslim Communities over the past 10 years since 9/11.

Representatives from Federal departments attended the meeting including FBI, Customs and Border Protection, US Citizenship and Immigration Services, Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the US Attorney’s Office, among others. Attending this event were representatives from many community organizations such as Refugee One, Muslim Bar Association, Victory Outreach Church, CIOGC, East African Community Center, Interfaith Youth Core, Mosque Foundation, Polish American Association, Islamic Foundation of Villa Park, Islamic Center of Naperville, Korean American Resource Center, Council on American-Islamic Relations, Assyrian Universal Alliance, Centro Sin Fronteras, Sikh American Community , Muslim Women’s Alliance, and others.