"This is not just an assault on me as an artist, this is an attack on multiple communities to which the work speaks for," Ali said in a statement from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

The exhibit by Muslim graduate student Anida Yoeu Ali is part of a larger series of work at the school titled ""1700% Project,"" which uses art as a form of response to hate crimes, the statement from the Council on American-Islamic Relations said. The school said in a statement: "We are saddened by this incident and we are empathetic to Anida's situation. …Vandalism is never an appropriate response to a work of art."

Ironically, the piece by Anida Yeou Ali is about hate crimes against Muslims. She took excerpts from FBI files on hate crimes against people perceived to be Arab or Muslim. ALI: There were three large caricature figures drawn on the wall which the installation occupies, and then there was a word bubble coming out of the caricature around where the text reads "kill all Arabs."

CAIR-Chicago Civil Rights Director Christina Abraham discusses recent Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling on Khatib v. County of Orange. Abraham argues that the court of appeals decision violates free exercise rights.

CAIR-Chicago Civil Rights Director Christina Abraham discusses recent Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling on Khatib v. County of Orange. Abraham argues that the court of appeals decision violates free exercise rights.

CAIR-Chicago's Ahmed Rehab and Yaser Tabbara talk to Worldview's Jerome McDonnell as part of NPR's week-long series "Islamic Reform: Towards a Global Reformation Movement" The two discuss what Islamic Reform means to them, and how CAIR draws on lessons learned from the Civil Rights Movement.

Listen HERE

CAIR-Chicago's Ahmed Rehab and Yaser Tabbara talk to Worldview's Jerome McDonnell as part of NPR's week-long series "Islamic Reform: Towards a Global Reformation Movement" The two discuss what Islamic Reform means to them, and how CAIR draws on lessons learned from the Civil Rights Movement.

Listen HERE

In light of the recent, renewed controversy surrounding cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed, the Chicago Tribune's Eric Zorn recalls his great 2006 debate on the subject with CAIR-Chicago's Ahmed Rehab.

"The bench should be representative of American society, and if you look at American society there are people of different religions, races, and genders," says Christina Abraham, CAIR-Chicago Civil Rights Director.

Ahmed Rehab discusses the recent Muhammad cartoon controversy, this time sparked by Comedy Central's "South Park", and provides some context to the various reactions it has garnered - context missing from most media coverage.

"My column on the Council on American-Islamic Relations drew the expected range of response," writes Neil Steinberg. "There was much castigating me as a "useful idiot" blind to the gathering Islamic peril (one reader recommended a book by Brigitte Gabriel that's actually called They Must Be Stopped, which sounds like the title of a 1950s B-movie about giant ants)."But there were a surprising number of thoughtful, warm, humane responses, and not just from Muslims grateful to seeing themselves depicted as human beings."

CAIR-Chicago Executive Director, Ahmed Rehab, talks to Fox News' John Gibson about the Pentagon's disinvitation of evangelist Franklin Graham from an army prayer service after pressure from various groups, including CAIR.

CAIR-Chicago Executive Director, Ahmed Rehab, talks to Fox News' John Gibson about the Pentagon's disinvitation of evangelist Franklin Graham from an army prayer service after pressure from various groups, including CAIR.

Dr. Tariq Ramadan, on the day of his keynote at CAIR-Chicago's Annual Banquet, sat down for a Q & A session with the Chicago Tribune. During the interview, Ramadan discusses his U.S. visit and asks American Muslims to be more involved in American society.

In this editorial piece, Christina Abraham, CAIR-Chicago's Civil Rights Director, discusses the fear-mongering and guilt-by-association tactics used by many Islamophobes to smear Muslim institutions. Abraham also explains the troublesome and meaningless "unindicted co-conspirator" label that is maligning hundreds of Muslim organizations and individuals.

"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.