FOX News | FOX and Family

 “Critics argue when you think about it, for the most part, all of the people who try to blow airliners out of the sky look alike,” Doocy said.

“False,” rejoined Council on Islamic-American Relations spokesman Ahmed Rehab. “False information. Not true. The last guy — I mean, we don’t have to go far. The last guy that tried to take down a plane was a young African. And in the past, prior to that incident, we were looking for Middle eastern-looking men. Next time it could be an Asian guy.

“So no,” Rehab added, “they don’t always look alike.”

“Right,” Doocy replied, backtracking. “And you could go back a number of years and it was Timothy McVeigh, a blond hair, blue eyed guy.”

“Or Richard Reid, who was half Jamaican, half British,” said Rehab.

FOX-Soccer | Bleacher Report

Egypt pulled off a historic football feat by beating Ghana 1-0 on Sunday in the final of the 2010 African Cup of Nations to win the continent’s top prize a record three times in a row, and a record seven times overall extending back to the first installment in 1957.

After winning the last two African Cup of Nations in 2006 in Egypt and again in 2008 in Ghana, Egypt entered this year’s competition facing plenty of skepticism. Many doubted that any team could pull off three championship wins in a row, particularly when missing their best players: Mido, Amr Zaki, Mohamed Barakat, and Mohamed Abou Treika.

And yet, thanks to the depth of talent at the disposal of team manager, Hassan Shehata, Egypt not only managed to emerge champions yet again, but also dominated this year’s competition in Angola from start to finish in every aspect of the game.

The Pharaohs had the best defensive and goalkeeping record conceding only two goals and the best offensive record scoring fifteen goals. They beat top African teams like Nigeria, Cameroon, and Algeria, all World Cup bound, by large scores (3-1, 3-1, and 4-0 respectively).

Egypt’s win in Angola comes as a consolation price for failing to make the 2010 World Cup late last year. Egypt had come back from the bottom of its qualifying group only to narrowly miss out on qualifying in a hotly contested tie-breaker game against arch rivals Algeria in neutral Sudan. Egypt lost 1-0, breaking 80 million Egyptian hearts and disappointing Egypt football fans around the world.

Still considered one of Africa’s top teams, whispers broke out that they were once great but are now an ailing team. They entered this year’s African competition looking to silence nay-sayers, and more importantly desperate to restore national pride. And that they did, breaking records along the way.

Besides the most number of African Cup of Nations won in a row and most number won overall, Egypt also extended the record for an unbeaten run in the African Cup of Nations with 19 games that extend back to 2004.

Egypt captain Ahmed Hassan also broke the record for the most capped player in the world when he celebrated 170 caps in Egypt’s quarterfinal game against Cameroon, taking the honor from former Egypt captain Hossam Hassan. Ahmed Hassan now sits comfortably as the world dean of players with 172 caps.

But restoring pride, and not breaking records, was Egypt’s main motivation. Egypt’s hefty defeat of Algeria in the semi-final game was therefore particularly sweet and caused fans back home to erupt in euphoric celebrations matched only by the win in the final match against Ghana.

“It’s poetic justice, it sets the record straight,” cooed Hatem Mekky, an Egypt football fan from Indiana, USA.

Egypt’s unquestionable dominance of African football for the past seven years now, coupled with the mesmerizing attacking team play put on display in Angola, leaves neutral football critics around the world wondering what could have been had Egypt not missed out on the first World Cup to be played on African soil.

After all, Egypt’s compelling form extends beyond Africa. In the 2009 Confederations Cup, Shehata’s men pushed the Brazilian Galacticos to the limits only to lose 4-3 in extra time. More impressively, they managed to upset current World Champions Italy 1-0 in the same competition.

Egypt’s absence from South Africa also means that some of Africa’s most exciting players will be denied a chance to perform at the highest level before wide international audiences. This includes the 2010 African Cup of Nations best player, Egypt captain Ahmed Hassan; the tournament’s best goalkeeper Essam El Hadary, and most of all Egypt’s newest revelation and the tournament’s lead scorer Mohamed Nagy (Geddo).

Geddo, Egypt’s assured hero in Angola, managed to score five goals in six games of the competition despite never starting a game. He bagged the best goal of the tournament against Mozambique in the group stages, and was the one who broke Ghana in the dying minutes of a deadlocked game with a scintillating strike that he not only delivered, but helped set up.

Other exciting players that will be missed in South Africa include playmakers Mohamed Zidan and Abou Treika, and strikers Amr Zaki and Mido.

Geddo’s consolation is that his stock is likely to be sky high with top European club offers sure to pour in.

As for the rest of Egypt, they will try to get over their World Cup woes by relishing their historic win in Angola, their vengeful thrashing of Algeria, and the accolade that they are yet again the uncontested kings of African football.

For this Egypt fan, that won’t be enough.

There is a new anti-smoking medicine out there. I first tried it during a business trip in Scotland. It works as follows: you gurgle with it before you smoke, it washes out and purifies your taste buds such that if you try to pop in a cigarette in the next 24 hours, you cannot help but cringe at the unbearably bitter taste of the toxins contained therein.

Now, whether you can actually taste them or not, these toxins are always there when you smoke, doing their number on your lungs, blood, skin, teeth, hair, etc. Smokers may think they are better of not tasting the toxins; but then again, if they could always taste them, they would realize the reality of what they are getting into, the reality of feeding on poison. Who would continue to smoke if the act of smoking itself was an unbearable experience and not a seemingly pleasant and rewarding one? Who would smoke if the act of smoking actually felt as repulsive as its effect? Continue Reading>>

WYCC | Beyond the Beltway

“I think the real question is not whether we should use the term “war” or not, but who is this war against. And that is what Obama and others have been struggling to articulate…. In the past we’ve heard that we are at war with “Radical Islam”, but “Radical Islam” is a concept, and you cannot go to war with a concept. You can go to war against a people or an entity and that is where Al-Qaeda comes in. So President Obama was correct in stating that we are at war with Al Qaeda, and I would add other imitation groups like Al Qaeda,” said Ahmed Rehab, CAIR-Chicago’s Executive Director.

WATCH

This show aired on 01/10/2010

CBS News

Islamic rights advocates say there’s been a rise in the number of threats directed at local Muslims. And some of these threats are being delivered right to their doors. CBS 2’s Mike Puccinelli reports.

When Ahmed Rehab walks up to his suburban home these days it’s with a new sense of awareness. That’s because of what he found waiting for him in his mailbox just a few days ago, a postmarked typewritten hate-filled letter complete with a death threat.

“At the end of the letter it stated, ‘the only good Arab is a DEAD Arab,’” said Rehab.

Rehab is the Executive Director of the Chicago chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations, or CAIR.

As leader of the city’s largest Islamic rights organization, Rehab is no stranger to threats, but never before at his home.

“It was very creepy to see something like that at your place of residence,” Rehab said.

And he’s not the only Muslim disturbed by a recent piece of hate mail. Continue Reading>>

FOX News Radio | John Gibson Show

“I’m concerned about national security here, not civil liberties per se, and that’s why I oppose racial profiling. Because from a national security prospective it will not work neither logically nor scientifically. There is a study from the University of Texas that shows mathematically that racially profiling causes us to miss more opportunities than catch them,” says Ahmed Rehab.

By Ahmed Rehab | Huffington Post

By now, I am sure most people are privy to the raging public debate on racial profiling, reignited courtesy of a young Nigerian Muslim male’s attempt to detonate an incendiary device aboard a Detroit-bound Northwest flight last Christmas.

After Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab slipped by airport security only to be stopped thanks to the vigilance of fellow passengers, a debate on the effectiveness of airport security and counter-terrorism intelligence is no doubt in order.

But trying to fix a problem without actually fixing the problem is misguided. Trying to fix it by introducing a new problem is dumb.

This guy seemed to have left every clue short of raise his hand and proclaim, “arrest me, I am a terrorist!”

Can someone explain to me how he managed to purchase a one way ticket, pay for it in cash, board the plane with no luggage, have his own father report him as a radicalized threat to a CIA base in Nigeria, be denied a visa to the UK where he previously lived and worked, and on top of that be on an active US terror watch list for two years, yet still not be flagged by the system as a security threat?

And can someone explain to me how after those six glaring red flags were missed - not to mention the explosive material in his underwear - the debate today is not about why and how they were missed, but about whether he could have been flagged for being of a certain skin color, hair texture, place of birth, faith, or namesake?

The racial profiling argument is lazy and unimaginative; most of all it is irresponsible because it evades the real problem starring us in the face: a fatal breakdown in communication between our intelligence units. Ironically, this is a problem so troubling that an entire new department, the National Homeland Security Department, was created with the sole mission to address it. Continue Reading>>

Radio Islam

“The core of the problem is that Muslims are seen as a Monolith by the media and so when one Muslim commits and act of terror or error, all Muslims are brought to bear for that Act.  And that kinda of mentality does not exist for other communities because of the nuanced understanding of other communities,” said Ahmed Rehab.

WBAL | The Shari Elliker Show

Ahmed Rehab talks to Shari Elliker about the failures of racial profiling and the outspokenness of American Muslims in condemning acts of terror. In the face of stereotypes, Rehab asserts that he as a good upright citizen who does well by his God, family, community, and country has nothing to apologize for to anyone just because he is a Muslim. Rehab also addresses questions posed by callers to the show.

Part 1: Part 2: Part 3:

FOX-News Radio | John Gibson Show

“There is no evidence to suggest that there is a link between religious Muslim behavior on a plane and terrorism. It is quite the opposite. All terrorists that we have come to know of, who have performed or attempted acts of terrorism on a plane, have actually not been engaged in outward Islamic behavior. And in every case where someone was involved in outwardly Islamic behavior, and were then seen as suspicious, were clearly absolved of being potential terrorists, including the 6 imams who won their case in court,” said Ahmed Rehab.