Omar Shahin

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Sheikh Omar Shahin is a Jordanian native. He was Imam at the Islamic Center of Tucson in Arizona^[1] until 2003, when he joined the board of directors and executive committee of the North American Imams Federation. He is currently president of the executive committee of this organization^[2]. In addition to being an Imam, Shahin is also a lawyer. He is a lecturer at the American Open University.^[2]. He is also a professor in Islamic law at the Graduate Theological Foundation.^[3]

1 Religious leadership
2 Involvement in racial profiling cases
3 Fundraising activities
4 Views
5 Also see
6 External links
7 References

[edit] Religious leadership

Shahin's former Mosque, the Islamic Center of Tucson, was established in Tucson in 1966 by students at the University of Arizona. Members prayed in private houses or rented halls until 1976, when the organization opened its first headquarters. In 1980 membership increased due to an influx of foreign students and the organization built 1 million dollar new headquarters. The Mosque is affililated with the Islamic Society of North America.

[edit] Involvement in racial profiling cases

Shahin represented al-Qudhaieen and al-Shalawi when they filed racial profiling suits against America West, now part of US Airways.

In November 2006, he became a spokesperson in the Flying Imams controversy, in which he was personally involved; he and five other imams were taken off a plane when travelling to Arizona from a meeting of the North American imams Federation in Minnesota. Critics have questioned whether the event was manufactured to create publicity around planned congressional legislation against profiling^[4] in public transportation and law enforcement introduced by Rep. John Conyers of Detroit who is likely to chair the House Judiciary Committee in the next Congress^[5] coordinated with groups such as the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation and CAIR.

The day following the incident Shahin spoke to the press who had gathered when he returned to a US Airways ticket counter to buy new tickets for the group. He told media that the incident was, "humiliating, the worst moment of my life," and asked if, "To practice your faith and pray is a crime in America?" When US Airways would not issue him and the other Imams new tickets he called for a boycott of the airline and said, "I'm not going to stay silent...I came to this country to enjoy justice and freedom^[6]." He has said it is incorrect that any of the men had one way tickets, because he purchased all of the tickets himself and can prove this, and that he had alerted the FBI to the conference in order to prevent this kind of incident from occurring^[7].

[edit] Fundraising activities

Shahin was a representative of the KindHearts charity, accused by the US Government of fundrasing for Hamas^[8]^[9] and now defunct.

[edit] Views

He has expressed doubt that any sincere Muslims had responsibility for the 9-11 hijackings, since, according to him, many Muslims died in the World Trade Center attack, the implication being that true Muslims would not kill innocent people if they were also Muslims; moreover, as several of the hijackers attended a strip club, their actions were not in accordance with Islamic morality.^[10]