War of words over Islam in San Diego

SAN DIEGO, Aug. 11 (UPI) -- The Council for American-Islamic Relations has asked the San Diego Public Library to stop publicizing a lecture by a group CAIR says is anti-Islamic.

Edgar Hopida, an official with the San Diego chapter of CAIR, said the group is not asking the library to cancel the lecture by a member of ACT! for America, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported Tuesday. He said, however, the library should not use its letterhead stationery to publicize the talk.

In a letter to Deborah Barrow, the library director, the San Diego chapter said that would ensure "local taxpayers are not made unwittingly complicit in the promotion of hatred and bigotry."

Michael Hayutin, the local director of ACT, said his talk is a response to a July 11 lecture by Hopida, "Islamophobia: Its Components, Root Causes and Remedies." Hopida attacked ACT and described books by its founder, Brigitte Gabriel, a Lebanese Christian, as biased, the newspaper said.

The library said it is simply publicizing Hayutin's lecture as it would any public event.