Islamic Group to Protest Hartford City Council

The decision to invite a local Islamic imam to say a prayer at Monday's Hartford City Council meeting, and the decision to revoke that offer continues to haunt the Council.

Last week, the City Council announced it had asked Islamic leaders to begin its September meetings with Muslim prayers as an "act of solidarity with our Muslim brothers and sisters."

But after a public outcry, City Council president rJo Winch said the Council reconsidered its plan, and would now hold an interfaith moment of silence.

Now the Connecticut Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) says it will protest Monday's Council meeting at Hartford City Hall.

"Elected officials should never bow to those who promote hatred and bigotry, but instead stand on the principles of religious pluralism that made our nation the envy of the world," CAIR-CT Executive Director Mongi Dhaouadi said.

The City Council received hundreds of emails considered hateful and racist, according to Winch.

Imam Kashif Abdul-Karim, who was supposed to say the prayer at the Council meeting Monday, will now say a prayer at the protest outside City Hall.

CAIR says it will now ask the Council to allow Abdul-Karim to offer a prayer at it's next meeting on Sept. 27.

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