Frankfort Township Assessor Paul Ruff has been asked to apologize to the local Muslim community after he circulated an e-mail with anti-Islamic sentiments, officials said.

The American Islamic Association of Frankfort is holding an interfaith meeting and press conference at 6 p.m. Tuesday to respond to a SouthtownStar article about a personal e-mail sent by Frankfort Township Assessor Paul Ruff containing anti-Muslim comments. Members of churches and synagogues as well as Ruff have been invited to attend and express their views.

"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.

The Associated Press article "Soap opera shakes customs of Arab married life" (July 28) was a nice change from the usual stories that only show Muslims in the context of political oppression and warfare. Unfortunately, the article is still guilty of conveying gross generalizations of Arab and Muslim people. It suggests that Islam doesn't condone equal rights for husbands and wives.

South Florida's Muslims have decided it's time to raise their profile.For the first time, Muslim leaders from Broward, Palm Beach and other southern Florida counties will gather for a summit that will allow them to socialize, share safety concerns and find ways to make their voices heard in local civic life. Muslims from Miami, Homestead, Key West, Fort Myers and Naples are expected to be among those who attend.

"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.”

From Republican contender John McCain's Jul. 25 meeting with the Dalai Lama in Aspen, Colorado to Democratic candidate Barack Obama's visit to Jerusalem's Western Wall the same day, the intersection of religion, politics and the "war on terror" has been a recurrent theme in the 2008 U.S. presidential election.

CAIRO — Coming from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds, a group of American Muslim women are forming the country's first only-women law firm to dispel stereotypes about Muslim women. "They are defeating stereotypes on multiple levels," Ahmed Rehab, executive director of theChicago office of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), told the Chicago Tribune on Friday, August 1.

In what may be the nation's only law firm composed solely of Muslim women, the attorneys represent the ethnic and religious diversity within the Islamic faith: Some cover their hair, some don't. Some are Sunni; others are Shiite, and at least one is happy to be secular.

A federal judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit by conservative radio talk show host Michael Savage against a Muslim rights group that reprinted his attacks against Islam and called for an advertising boycott.

Chicago - Barack Obama should be able to count on heavy support from US Muslims in the November election, if polls are correct, but he risks offending some members of that faith by having to explain he is not one himself.

A federal judge in San Francisco on Friday dismissed a lawsuit filed by conservative radio talk show host Michael Savage against a Muslim civil rights group. Savage claimed the Washington, D.C.-based Council on American-Islamic Relations violated his copyright when it posted on its Web site a four-minute excerpt of anti-Islamic comments by Savage. The council accompanied the excerpt with a critique of Savage's words.

An e-mail sent by Frankfort Township assessor Paul Ruff to many in the Frankfort/Mokena area is filled with anti-Muslim sentiments.The e-mail, circulated in June, said America should follow the lead of Australia's former prime minister John Howard, who said Muslims who want to live under Islamic Sharia law should get out of Australia.

Should a man be forced to shave his beard for work if it violates his religious beliefs?Abal Zaidi, who is Muslim, refused to shave and now alleges that's why he lost his job as a Kane County correctional officer in Geneva. Last week, he sued the Kane County Sheriff's Department, where he worked from July to December 2006.