Jessica Mokdad "loved Islam" according to her parents.

The decrepit vileness that is Pamela Geller knows no bounds. She is going ahead with her planned anti-”Human Rights Conference.”

Please see our previous coverage of Geller’s egregious attempt to use the suffering of Jessica Mokdad and her family for her own personal anti-Muslim and material advantage:

Family upset “human rights” conference has deceased daughter’s name on it

(Arab American News)

DEARBORN – A local Arab American family is angry over an upcoming ”human rights” conference that features the name of their deceased daughter, believing that its true goal is to push an anti-Islam agenda.

The Jessica Mokdad Human Rights Conference is scheduled to take place at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Dearborn on April 29 at 5 p.m., and marks the one year anniversary of Mokdad’s death.

Mokdad was only 20-years-old when her step-father Rahim Alfetlawi shot her to death in Warren.

Following the fatal incident mixed reports about Alfetlawi’s motive for killing Mokdad were disputed. Family members of Mokdad and a prosecutor on the case say Alfetlawi was controlling, and obsessed with Mokdad.

The family says Alfetlawi wanted to have a romantic relationship with Mokdad. Others say it was a honor killing and religiously motivated, because Mokdad wasn’t following traditional Islamic customs and becoming “Westernized.”

“It wasn’t a honor killing at all,” a close friend of the family said. Speaking to The Arab American News by phone Macomb County Assistant Prosecutor, Bill Cataldo says there’s sufficient proof that religion was not a factor that triggered the crime.

He says days leading up to the incident Mokdad came forward to police with information about Alfetlawi, and also shared that information with a friend. The information is not being disclosed, because those who knew Mokdad well may be sensitive about it.

When Alfetlawi learned Mokdad had shared the information with police and a friend he became angry  according to Cataldo. She was found dead afterwards.

Conservative blogger Pamela Geller is hosting the conference. Geller is also the executive director of the American Freedom Defense Initiative, and Stop Islamization of America. In a television interview Geller said she’s just trying to save other women from being the next Mokdad.

In a local televised interview, Cassandra Mokdad, the victim’s step-mother said that Geller is, “using Jessica as her poster child for anti-Islam.” Cassandra declined to speak, but has said she might make an appearance at the conference to let Geller know how she feels.

Geller refuses to remove Mokdad’s name from the conference despite requests from the family. Conference speakers include television host and author Michael Coren, human rights activist Nonie Darwish; Sudanese ex-slave Simon Deng; David Wood, one of the former Christian missionaries who was charged with preaching the peace at the Arab American International Festival in Dearborn; James Lafferty of the Virginia Anti-Shariah Taskforce, co-cost of the conference. Wood is from the group Acts 17 Apologetics.

The conference is dedicated to exposing what the group says is the plight of women under “Islamic Law in Dearborn.” Organizers say they chose the Hyatt in Dearborn to stand in solidarity with other women in the area who may be in danger or oppressed under Islam. In the past the city’s mayor and officials have took drastic measures to prove the fact that Islamic Law does not exist in Dearborn. There are also misconceptions that women in Dearborn are oppressed, another claim the mayor has rejected.

The Mokdad family friend has lived in Dearborn for 25 years, and says such claims about Dearborn and its women are not true. The Arab American Women’s Business Council is based in the city, and includes well educated Arab American professionals. “Dearborn is home to the 2010 Miss U.S.A.,” she said. “We have a very good community.”

The Zaban family at a soccer game.

Muslim Reality Show, All-American Muslim, To Premiere On TLC 

What’s life like as a Muslim-American?

A new eight-part series on TLC that premieres November 13 will try to answer that question by following the lives of five very different Muslim-American families. The show, “All-American Muslim”, was filmed in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit that’s known for it’s large Arab-American population. It promises to go “inside the rarely seen world of American Muslims to uncover a unique community struggling to balance faith and nationality in a post 9/11 world,” according to a press release.

Producers picked a diverse crowd to profile, from sisters who are polar opposites (one wears a headscarf and prays daily, the other has tattoos –generally frowned upon in Islam – and is married an Irish Catholic) to a high school football coach to newlyweds, in order to show people who “share the same religion, but lead very distinct lives that often times challenge the Muslim stereotype.” The series will also address issues such as the post-9/11 life for Muslims and gender roles in Islam.

The show, which is rare for its focus on Muslims, has generated much buzz in the Muslim-American community as well as non-Muslims. Dawud Walid, the executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said he is looking forward to watching the series.

“It’ll give us a taste of the lives of Muslim-Americans in both their aspirations and concerns. I think the show will be good and humanizing for the Muslim community of Dearborn,” said Walid, who is friends with one of the cast members. Walid cautioned that, in terms of ethnic background, Muslims are “much more diverse than what Dearborn may show. Dearborn is an anomaly in the American Muslim landscape for its large Arab-American population and concentrated Muslim population.”

The first episode of “All-American Muslim” airs at 10 p.m. Eastern time on TLC.

Here is a run-down of the show’s characters, courtesy of TLC.

Suehaila and Shadia: Suehaila wears a traditional headscarf and follows daily prayer rituals – while Shadia, her outspoken sister, is decorated with piercings and tattoos and recently married Jeff, an Irish Catholic who is converting to Islam.

Nader and Nawal: Newlyweds expecting their first baby, Nader and Nawal are working to strike the right balance between their traditional Muslim roots and American culture.

Fouad: As head coach of the Fordson High School football team, Fouad has pioneered a shift in his team’s summer practice schedule by flipping to night workouts from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. since a majority of his team are Muslim and are fasting for Ramadan.

Mike and Angela: Mike, a deputy chief sheriff, and his wife Angela, a consultant to a major auto manufacturer, are juggling their busy careers with raising their four children in a modern Muslim family.

Nina: A strong, independent Muslim businesswoman, Nina’s family runs the premier wedding and banquet hall in Dearborn — but against their advice, she is trying to venture off on her own to open a nightclub.

Samira and Ali: Samira and her husband of seven years, Ali, struggle with fertility issues and are pursuing numerous options including conventional fertility techniques, dietary alternatives and Muslim supplication prayers. After years of unsuccessful attempts, Samira considers putting on the Hijab in order to be closer to God and hopefully be blessed with a child.

Check out a slideshow of some of the cast members below.

CLARIFICATION:An earlier version of this story stated that tattoos are illegal in Islam. This has been clarified to reflect that most Islamic scholars consider tattoos illegal and that the legality is debated among a minority of scholars.

Someone should tell pastor Terry Jones that all Arabs are not Muslims and all Muslims are not Arabs.

Florida pastor Terry Jones returning to Michigan to protest Islam

Terry Jones, the Quran-burning pastor from Florida, is to lead a three-hour rally against Islam today at Dearborn City Hall followed by a 2-mile walk to the Arab International Festival, where he will further speak out. The three-day festival is the largest outdoor gathering of Arab Americans in the U.S. and is held in Dearborn, known for its sizable Muslim population.

Jones, who led a rally at City Hall in April, gained worldwide attention for his threats to burn the Quran last year on the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He didn’t go through with it, but he led a Quran-burning in Florida in March. He tried to protest outside the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn in April, but a jury ruled he would likely breach the peace, thwarting his plans. Jones has appealed that decision, which was criticized by the ACLU and some constitutional law experts as an infringement of his free-speech rights.

Jones said the decision was an example of sharia, or Islamic law, coming to America, which he said is a growing threat. Today, Jones plans to speak out against sharia again as part of a five-point plan he said will help fight Islam. One point calls for the “monitoring of all mosques to assure that they are places of worship and not of Islamic propaganda.”

Dearborn Mayor Jack O’Reilly Jr. has said repeatedly that the city has never implemented sharia.

In a letter sent this week to residents, O’Reilly said Jones and his supporters “are coming here to promote the concept that Islam is a false faith and that Muslims by teaching and nature are violent. We know that there is no substance to their message — their goal is to promote fear and hatred in others.”

Referring to Jones supporters, O’Reilly said he is urging the public to “ignore them and their empty words. Their goal is to bait and anger us so that they can then misrepresent who we are in order to serve their personal agenda.

“Debating them and confronting them at this event or in our city can produce no positive result for us.”

Contact Niraj Warikoo: 313-223-4792 or nwarikoo@freepress.com