CAIR-Chicago announced today that local and national Syrian and Muslim American leaders, joined by affected Chicago families who have lost loved ones, will be holding a press conference to discuss steps to end the bloodshed in Syria.

Why must a Muslim person’s faith come up the moment that person breaks through the mainstream in any conceivable way - regardless of relevance or context? And why does it invariably end up linking that person through multiple degrees of separation to terrorism?

The fact that even a Miss USA could not be spared this exercise in futility puts away any remaining doubt that there is a segment of America that is suffering from a bizarre and unhealthy obsession with Islam.

"Muslim liaison for presidential campaign resigns after connections to Muslim community are found." No, that's not a fake headline from The Onion's parody team. It's the gist of a real story announcing the resignation of Mazen Asbahi from his position as the national coordinator for Muslim-American affairs for Barack Obama's campaign.

"Muslim liaison for presidential campaign resigns after connections to Muslim community are found." No, that's not a fake headline from The Onion, the popular newspaper parodying everyday political and cultural absurdities. And no, it's not the concept of a skit from "Saturday Night Live."

Sen. Barack Obama's director of Muslim outreach has resigned amid controversy, just a few weeks after joining Obama's presidential campaign.Attorney Mazen Asbahi started working as the campaign's outreach coordinator on July 26, and he resigned on Monday. In a letter, he said he was stepping down "to avoid distracting from Barack Obama's message of change," the Associated Press reported.

America's largest Islamic civil liberties group on Wednesday defended Sen. Barack Obama after the Democratic presidential candidate's Muslim-outreach coordinator resigned because of a brief association with a suspected Muslim extremist.

The Obama campaign finally tapped an Arab-American and Muslim-American coordinator July 26 -- Chicago lawyer Mazen Asbahi. Monday, he stepped down after questions were raised by the Wall Street Journal about his brief tenure on the board of an Islamic investment fund. The episode exposes the Obama team's struggle to woo Muslim voters while denying Obama ever embraced the faith and as he looks for Jewish support.

There are many words I can use to describe Mazen Asbahi’s fresh resignation from his position as the Obama campaign’s national liaison for Muslim American affairs, and the circumstances behind that decision. But I will suffice with one that I think says it best: “sad.”

A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group said today that the resignation of a recently-appointed Muslim community liaison for Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign is symptomatic of a nationwide effort by Islamophobes who seek to deny Muslims access to the political process.

The Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Chicago) today denounced the anti-Muslim smear campaign behind the resignation of Mazen Asbahi, the Obama campaign’s national Muslim liaison. The attacks against Asbahi ironically linked him to mainstream Muslim personalities and groups that were falsely described as “fundamentalist”.