Reacting to a controversial Islamic group's meeting in their back yard, protesters clad in red, white and blue decried Sunday's meeting by the group Hizb-ut Tahrir at Oak Lawn's Hilton hotel.

I guess when you don't have the guts to call someone a terrorist, anti-American grinch will do. Elizabeth Zahdan might as well have been burning the flag or an effigy of President Bush when she hung up Ramadan lights at an Oak Lawn elementary school a few days back, prompting outrage from other parents and subsequently forcing Ridgeland School District 122 to consider a ban on Christmas and Halloween parties.

CAIR-Chicago Executive Director Ahmed Rehab discusses the challenges surrounding the recent accommodation of Ramadan along with Christmas and Halloween in an Oak Lawn, Illinois public school and the continued need to patiently stand for truth, justice, and knowledge.

Residents and school officials in Oak Lawn said they want to unite their community after a tense three-week debate divided some Christians and Muslims.

CAIR-Chicago Executive Director Ahmed Rehab discusses the successful accommodation of Ramadan along with Christmas and Halloween in an Oak Lawn, Illinois public school and a recent Senate resolution acknowledging Ramadan and recognizing Islam as a major world religion.

AHMED REHAB, EXEC. DIR., CAIR-CHICAGO: It is not the pluralistic, inclusive, educated America that we try to teach our children to embrace. They’re trying to exclude Muslims from celebrating their festivities. No Muslim involved in this raucous at any point wanted to remove Christmas or Hanukkah or even Halloween from the school festivities. All they wanted to do was to bring in Ramadan.

CAIR-Chicago executive director, Ahmed Rehab, discusses the recent successful inclusion of Ramadan along with Christmas and Hanukkah celebrations after opposition from parents at a local public school. Dan Rea and Rehab also discuss how the reasonable accommodation of all cultures and religions is central to American pluralism.