"The overlying mantra is that we belong here, this is our country, too," said Ahmed Rehab, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations "That's something you do not through assertive statement, but assertive action."

[CAIR-Chicago Staff Attorney Kevin Vodak] said the group followed proper procedures over the 17 months of meetings and hearings that preceded his office being retained. "Throughout the process, they were attempting to provide (concessions) in the hope of appeasing the neighbors," Vodak said. "They expended a lot of effort and funds trying to get that done."

Zafra Lerman said Columbia violated its own policies and her rights as a tenured professor by firing her last year. Her federal suit, filed against four top administrators, said they began a retaliatory campaign against her after she criticized the firing of Suriya Smiley, a professor of Palestinian descent who was accused of making an anti-Semitic remark.

Ramadan spoke during the sixth annual banquet, organized by CAIR in Chicago. At this year's event gathered more than fifteen hundred people. Ramadan called on Muslims to adopt a new understanding of themselves, to learn the concept of "new us" - we, as citizens of America, we, as Muslims, who are part of the collective American "we."

Why do Westerners succumb to anti-Muslim fear? It's a natural reflex -- certainly what terrorists expect when they claim their acts are in the name of Islam. They want to drive a wedge between the cultures, lest a harmonious blending undercut their extremism and deprive them of the enemy they crave. It's a partnership, the terrorists and the fear-mongers, working in harmony and tacit agreement.

The controversy surrounding Tariq Ramadan is based on hype spurned by the usual detractors for whom every significant Muslim voice is a foreign fifth column, feigning moderation, and secretly plotting to destroy Western civilization.For anyone who has actually read any of his books or heard his speeches, Ramadan’s thoughts and positions are unmistakably pro-peace.

But Larry was not a familiar face at Madison-area mosques and was not espousing views consistent with Islam, according to Muslim officials in Madison and Chicago. Larry and Thompson were married at a Madison mosque but the person who married them had not met them before the ceremony and never saw them again, according to Amina Sharif, spokeswoman for the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Six years after being barred from coming to the U.S. to teach at the University of Notre Dame, the Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan spoke Saturday in suburban Oakbrook Terrace, attributing his presence to new "channels for dialogue" between the U.S. and Islamic scholars and telling American Muslims to treat the U.S. as their home.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations filed the suit in federal court in Chicago on behalf of the Irshad Learning Center, which had been proposed for a 2.91-acre site on 75th Street between Wehrli Road and Naper Boulevard in an unincorporated area near Naperville.

A federal lawsuit was filed against DuPage County Thursday claiming an Islamic group's Constitutional rights were violated when a proposal to build an educational center near Naperville was rejected in January.

CAIR-Chicago Staff Attorney Kevin Vodak maintains that Irshad was treated differently than not only other religious institutions, but many secular institutions as well. "DuPage County needs to be held accountable for this violation of state and federal law," Vodak said.

Vodak indicated that comments made by ZBA members and protesters at County Board meetings left no doubt in his mind that religious bigotry played a part in denying Irshad the conditional permit it sought.

Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss-born professor at Oxford University, is "one of the most important and relevant voices for Western Muslims," said Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Chicago. Ramadan is the keynote speaker for CAIR-Chicago's annual banquet. About 1,500 people are expected to attend the event at the Drury Lane Banquet Hall. This year's theme is "Unapologetic Activism: Our Legacy, Our Promise."

Ahmed Rehab talks to Fox's John Gibson about how the term "Islamic Radical" is a misnomer, and why he agrees with President Obama.

A prominent Muslim scholar who was once denied a U.S. visa is scheduled to give one of his first major speeches since the 2004 ban this weekend in suburban Chicago. Tariq Ramadan is scheduled to speak Saturday in Oakbrook Terrace, Ill., at an event sponsored by the Council of American-Islamic Relations.

“We are all about reconciling Islam and the West,” Rehab said. “We challenge those who attempt to drive a wedge between Muslim and being American. That’s really the life cause of Tariq Ramadan as an academic and philosopher and media personality. He often says that he’s culturally Western, nationally Swiss, ethnically Egyptian and religiously Muslim. For him and for us as well, there is no inherent schism between being Muslim and being American."

Six years after the U.S. government barred Tariq Ramadan from entering the U.S., the controversial Muslim scholar will speak in Chicago on Saturday -- one of his first American appearances since U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promised he would no longer be denied a visa for having alleged ties to terrorism. His opponents warn of danger ahead.

CBS 2's Roseanne Tellez says Arab Americans are told to check white for race. But for many of the estimated four million Arab-Americans – that doesn't seem to be telling the whole story.Reema Ahmad is with the Council on American Islamic Relations. She says the most important thing, is civic duty. Especially since some Arab pockets of the city had low participation for the last census.

Amina Sharif, spokeswoman for the American-Islamic council, said she was unsure why this most recent fatwa, or religious ruling, has received so much attention. While she thinks it is important for community members to be outspoken in their disapproval of violence, she said it is only half the battle. “We can condemn terrorism every day in our mosques,” Sharif said. “But if no one’s communicating that to the public it’s not happening.”