‘Hate crime’: Taxi driver recounts brutal attack By KOMO Staff Published: Dec 8, 2014 at 1:12 PM PST Last Updated: Dec 8, 2014 at 11:21 PM PST SEATTLE – Officers arrested a 26-year-old man early Sunday after he called a […]

British Muslims Face Worst Job Discrimination of Any Minority Group Muslims are facing the worst job discrimination of any minority group in Britain, according to new research which found that they had the lowest chance of being in work or […]

Brigitte Gabriel: ‘No Chance’ Of Muslim Americans ‘Blending In’ To U.S. Anti-Muslim activist Brigitte Gabriel told Newsmax host Dennis Michael Lynch last week that there is “no chance” of American Muslims ever “blending in” with U.S. society. In an interview […]

ISIS says Islam justifies slavery – what does Islamic law say? Professor Bernard Freamon, CNN In the past few months, the world has witnessed horrific accounts of the enslavement of thousands of innocent Yazidis and other religious minorities by ISIS […]

Shots fired at mosque in Southern California COACHELLA, Calif., Nov. 4 (UPI) – No one was injured early Tuesday morning when shots were fired at a mosque in Southern California. Coachella police said the incident is being treated as a […]

Muslim Friday prayers to be offered at Washington National Cathedral [Washington National Cathedral] Washington National Cathedral and five Muslim groups have announced that the first celebration of Muslim Friday prayers (Jumaa) at the cathedral will be observed on Friday, Nov. […]

Daily Beast JODY HICE Republican Jody Hice romped home in a safe rural Georgia congressional district last night. The congressman-elect is on the record saying that Islam is not a religion that deserves the protection of the First Amendment. He […]

Minnesota Achieves a Unique Distinction in Christian Muslim Relations Posted by: Zafar Siddiqui “Say, ‘O people of the book’ [a term which particularly refers to Jews and Christians] ‘come to common terms as between us and you: that we worship […]

When Mahmoud Elkadri arrived at the mosque in Cold Lake, Alta., early Friday morning, he was met with a disturbing sight. The words “Go home” and “Canada” had been sprayed across the front face of the building sometime over the night. […]

LocalNews8 CHUBBUCK, Idaho – Local leaders in the Muslim community are urging two women to pursue charges against a man who verbally assaulted them at Wal Mart on Sunday. But, investigators are not considering this to be a hate crime, […]

TX Sheriff Warns Fox of ISIS Threat: ‘Quran Books’ Found Along Mexican Border Gary Painter, Sheriff from Midland County, Texas, warned Fox & Friends’ Elisabeth Hasselbeck that not only was ISIS poised to sneak into the U.S through the porous […]

Oklahoma GOP to Christians: Be ‘wary’ of Muslim Americans — they’ll ‘decapitate you’ The Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Oklahoma chapter is criticizing a state representative who posted on Facebook that his constituents should “be especially wary” of anyone who refers […]

Muslims across the world and particularly in the Middle East have been making lampooning ISIS in numerous ways. One way is to take the group’s Arabic acronym of “Da’ish” and replace it with the rhyming word “Ja’hish” which literally translates […]

US Muslims Urge Probe of Anti-Veil Attack A leading US Muslim advocacy group has called for investigating a possible hate-crime attack against a veiled Muslim woman who has been struck in an Indiana store a few weeks ago. “Without an […]

The Local Police confirmed that they received a report of the attack in the Favoriten area of Vienna, and are currently investigating. The perpetrator was a 30 to 35-year-old man who spoke and insulted the woman using a strong Viennese […]

Amash slams ‘disgusting’ rival By Cameron Joseph (The Hill) Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) wasn’t ready to let bygones be bygones after winning his primary Tuesday night, blasting his opponent for running what he called a “disgusting, despicable smear campaign.” Amash, […]

Cruel déjà vu for Sikhs in US: a racial slur, followed by an attempt to murder an innocent man wearing a turban Another Sikh man has been targeted by ignorant hate-mongers. By Sujeet Rajan NEW YORK: As efforts to stem […]

Muslim residents sue U.S. over citizenship denials By Daina Beth Solomon | Reuters, Los Angeles Friday, 1 August 2014 Five long-time U.S. residents who are Muslim or from Muslim-majority countries sued the federal government on Thursday, saying the Department of […]

Virginia GOP Official Questions The Contributions Of Muslim Americans Bob FitzSimmonds, treasurer of the Virginia Republican Party, is coming under fire from local officials for some eyebrow-raising comments he made about Muslims on his Facebook page. FitzSimmonds said the following […]

Muslim Groups To Release Video Of Reported Brooklyn Mosque Harassment NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Muslim groups will gather at a Brooklyn mosque where they claim worshipers are being harassed. Witnesses said that on Sunday morning several men in a car circled […]

Human Rights Watch: US Counterterrorism Prosecutions Often an Allusion (Washington, DC) –The US Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have targeted American Muslims in abusive counterterrorism “sting operations” based on religious and ethnic identity, Human Rights Watch […]

Democrat Eliot Engel appears at pro-Israel rally featuring anti-Muslim activist Pamela Geller By Alex Kane (MondoWeiss) Anti-Muslim activist Pamela Geller was a speaker (see the video above) at a pro-Israel rally in New York City Sunday that also featured Eliot […]

Jewish and Muslim communities to break fast for peace By Keldy Ortiz (New Haven Register) NEW HAVEN >> The violent actions on display between Israelis and Palestinians is a sight Rabbi Herbert Brockman doesn’t like viewing or listening to. But […]

Another White House Iftar, Another Ramadan Without My Brother By Mariam Abu-Ali As many Muslims sit down tonight to break their Ramadan fast at the annual White House iftar, a tradition started by President Bill Clinton, I am thinking about […]

Nursing home refused to allow Muslim worker to wear hijab, government lawsuit alleges An Alabama nursing home is being sued after it allegedly refused to allow a Muslim worker to wear a hijab on the job, according to a lawsuit […]

When Islam came to Australia (BBC News) Few Australians are aware that the country’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples had regular contact with foreign Muslims long before the arrival of Christian colonisers. And Islam continues to exercise an appeal […]

Georgia Cop Goes To Israel For “Counter-Terrorism” Training: Freaks Out When He Hears “Allahu Akbar” At Mosque Receiving counter-terrorism training in a country that illegally occupies, detains, tortures and collectively punishes Palestinians. Doubtful that during training he would learn any of […]

China bans Ramadan fasting in East Turkestan World Bulletin / News Desk Authorities in China’s East Turkestan (Xinjiang) province have officially banned students and teachers from engaging in the Islamic Ramadan fast, in yet another curb on religious freedoms against […]

A Muslim American journalist explains how she became the story at a Texas GOP event The frustration kept me awake the first time I read the comment. It is difficult to understand how, in a land that each year honors […]

Le Pen and Wilders fail to form anti-EU bloc France’s far-right National Front (FN) has failed to form an alliance with the Dutch Freedom Party (PVV) of Geert Wilders, reducing both parties’ influence in the European Parliament. Pan-European party blocs […]

Buddhist Monks Who Are Speaking Out Against the Extremist Bodu Bala Sena Are Being Beaten The same Buddhist leader whose interfaith meeting with Muslims was violently disrupted by the BBS in April of this year has been attacked, beaten, stripped naked and […]

(via. Loonwatch) For more on Usama Dakdok, see our previous articles that detail just how violent and hateful this man, a pal of Robert Spencer and Geller is: Meet Robert Spencer’s Fellow Christian Extremist: “Usama Dakdok” Rev. Deacon Robert Spencer’s Ally […]

Georgia GOP candidate Jody Hice: Muslims not protected by the First Amendment A Republican candidate seeking to represent Georgia’s 10th U.S. House district believes that the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious liberty does not apply to followers of Islam. “Although […]

Judge approves BZA mosque cemetery By: SAM STOCKARD, Post Contributor A Davidson County judge Thursday upheld a decision by the Rutherford County Board of Zoning Appeals allowing burials at the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro site. Senior Judge Paul Summers, who […]

“Triumph of the Will”: Narendra Modi, the RSS and the “Big Lie” propaganda technique Original guest article By Jai Singh Previous articles in this series: “Narendra Modi and the rise of India’s neo-fascist Far-Right”, and “Nazism and Narendra Modi: The […]

Hijab ban threatens basketball phenom MEMPHIS – A basketball phenomenon, Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir has always dreamed of a flourishing future as a professional basketball player who has reserved the title of the best player in the state during her high school […]

Heritage’s ugly Benghazi panel Representatives of prominent conservative groups converged on the Heritage Foundation on Monday afternoon for the umpteenth in a series of gatherings to draw attention to the Benghazi controversy. But this one took an unexpected turn. What […]

Heritage Hosts Birthers, Islamophobes For Benghazi “Accountability” Panel (Media Matters) A coalition of Islamophobes, birthers, and conspiracy theorists led by a prominent supporter of impeaching President Obama will assemble at the Heritage Foundation this afternoon to discuss the September 2012 […]

Why Does the Media Describe Dennis Ronald Marx As A “Shooter” And Not A “Homegrown Terrorist”? By Mooneye In the US, mass shootings and violence are just a part of our culture and accepted as our daily, living reality. Stories […]

Md. faith groups to protest anti-Muslim Metro bus ads ROCKVILLE, Md. (WJLA) – Members of Montgomery County faith groups plan to protest anti-Islamic Metro bus ads Monday in Rockville. The Montgomery County Faith Community Working Group (FCWG) – which includes […]

Police arrested a 47-year-old man early Tuesday morning who was caught trying to vandalizing a Rosemont Islamic community centre. It’s the fifth time since April that same mosque has been targeted.

by Nathan Lean, NathanLean.com

One week ago, the Internet was abuzz over reports that Saudi Arabia fined three Italian tourists $3500 for wearing bikinis in the presence of Muslims.

Johanna Neumann was nine years old when her family escaped from Nazi Germany to seek refuge in Albania. They spent six years there and survived the war thanks to a number of Muslim families who sheltered them along the way.

by Rick Green

Oklahoma will have to pay $303,333 in legal fees to plaintiffs’ attorneys who brought lawsuit against Sharia law ballot measure.

An important interview series at Jadaliyya with one of the leading scholars in Islamic studies, Wael Hallaq. Discussions on the inability or lack of interest of Western and Islamic scholars to confront one another in dialogue and the uncritical adoption of hegemonic Western liberalist discourse.

The United States has still not confronted the imperialist mass murder and mayhem she caused and inflicted on the once prosperous nation of Iraq.

In A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth writes with affection of a placid India‘s first general election in 1951, and the egalitarian spirit it momentarily bestowed on an electorate deeply riven by class and caste: “the great washed and unwashed public, sceptical and gullible”, but all “endowed with universal adult suffrage”.

MP Yasmin Qureshi has accused national newspapers of prejudice in the debate over the ethics of halal and kosher meat. The MP for Bolton South East spoke in parliament over the practice of slaughtering meat in line with Islamic law.

By Debra Cassens Weiss

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has refused a trademark for the phrase “Stop the Islamization of America” because it is disparaging to Muslims.

In 2012, anti-Islam blogger Pamela Geller’s American Freedom Defense Initiative funded ads throughout the Metro system with a quote from the Quran next to a photo of the burning Twin Towers. Ads that cost Metro $35,000 over a failed effort to block them.

Paris is about to lose its first Muslim mayor. Dr. Arjumand Hashmi, a prominent cardiologist selected by his Paris City Council peers to be mayor in 2011, confirmed Wednesday that he won’t seek the mayor’s post next Monday.

When she lived near Israel, in the predominantly Muslim country of Jordan, Katie Al-Akhras observed that much of the conflict between people of Islamic and Jewish faiths resulted from divisions “bred” into children of both faiths.

Heino Vockrodt, who is standing for the Dudden Hill seat on May 22, accused Muslims of grooming sex slaves, compared a Willesden road to war torn Helmand Province and claimed Islam was an ideology not a religion.

By JustStoppingBy

By comparing results from two survey questions, we can get a much more refined view of the prevalence of Islamophobia in different demographic groups.

Earlier this month Bolton Council’s planning committee unanimously approved plans by the Sughra Masjid to demolish their existing one-storey place of worship, which has occupied the site since 1987, and replace it with a three-storey building.

It’s happening again. It never really goes away, but, for different reasons, it tends to come in periodic bursts.

What am I talking about? Britain’s latest frenzy of Islamophobic incitement.

The problem with discussing Sharia law in the U.S is that very few people seem to know what they are talking about, as Dr. Sherman Jackson, one of the foremost experts on Islamic law in the U.S., points out. Myths about “creeping Sharia” and the take-over of Islamic law abound.

The Niqab, by Nesrine Malik, TheGuardian

Halal meat is on every menu; sharia law is taking over; the niqab is undermining the nation. Ever noticed how often the same old stories keep appearing about Muslims in Britain? Here’s the truth about these and other media myths

Helen Pidd, northern editor, and Declan Lloyd

Police in Bradford and Scotland have launched an investigation after a group of uniformed far-right activists visited mosques over the weekend.

Omar Baddar

As a liberal agnostic, I might better enjoy my time critiquing religion with fellow skeptics. But when skeptics single out a particular faith or group for unfair demonization, I do feel compelled to respond.

MARCY WHEELER

When “Arabic-sounding” names are automatically suspicious — but financial crimes are ignored — here’s the result

By Phil Mackie BBC News

But they have found “significant grievances” about governance and leadership, some on a large scale.Officials were secretly recorded at a meeting with governors and teachers on Wednesday and a copy sent to the BBC.

By Rabia Chaudry (TIME)

Hey there, Bill. You hate religion. You particularly hate Islam. We get it. Your liberal bigotry against Muslims and Islam is no secret.

A member of the Palestinian Legislative Council on Sunday denounced the desecration of a West Bank mosque by scores of Jewish settlers. “Tens of settlers broke into the Mosque of Prophet Yunus in the town of Halhul in the south of the occupied West Bank in the early hours of Sunday and defiled it,” Mariam Saleh told Anadolu Agency.

The Comité 15 Mars et Libertés reports that a mosque in Pont-de-Beauvois, in Isère in eastern France, has been targeted in a graffiti attack by fascists. Swastikas were sprayed on the wall, along with the slogans “Death to Algeria”, “Fuck the Arabs” and “Vive la France”.

The Collectif contre l’Islamophobie en France reports that the Islamic Cultural Centre at Meximieux in the Rhône-Alpes region of eastern France has been defaced by fascists. A swastika and a Celtic cross were sprayed on the front of the building.

Don’t expect to see this in an “Honor diaries” near you. May this woman and all victims of so-called “honor killings” rest in peace. If the father who crushed his daughter’s skull had been Muslim, you can be sure that this would all over US and Euro media outlets.

About 300 men and several dozen women prayed, listened to speeches and made religious chants in a show of defiance against what a community leader described as an “entirely inappropriate” raid by officials.

An Albuquerque Republican hoping to unseat a Democratic incumbent is unsettling many — but not all — potential voters with his anti-Islamic social media posts.

A certain Theodore Shoebat (Walid “fake ex-terrorist” Shoebat?), writing for “Jews News,” an Israeli website with over one million Facebook followers, has posted a false story that claims Muslim villagers in Dalga, Egypt tortured, lynched and mutilated a Christian man.

Stephen Lees, a long-term Conservative activist, has tweeted that all Muslims should be expelled from Britain, and all mosques demolished. His Tweet came a few minutes after he tweeted a link to a Telegraph article entitled “Head teachers raise ‘serious concerns’ over Islamic school take-over”.

Anti-Muslim hate speech on the Internet is commonplace and can motivate some people to commit acts of violence against Muslims, according to a report released Tuesday (May 6) by Muslim Advocates, a legal and advocacy group in San Francisco.

Tim Donnelly’s Facebook post highlights a story by an author who has been called “the anti-Muslim movement’s most paranoid propagandist” and claims Republican Neel Kashkari “supported the United States submitting to the Islamic, Shariah banking code…”

The kidnappings by the shadowy group known as Boko Haram of 300 school girls in Nigeria has sparked outrage worldwide. In the plethora of global horrors that we are confronted with daily this register’s particularly close to home.

“It is something I have got used to since 9/11. From being called Osama Bin Laden to Paki-terrorist I have heard it all,” Zab Mustefa, a British Muslim journalist, who specialises in women’s rights and culture, tells me.

Will Florida join Arizona, Kansas, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Dakota and Tennessee in banning the use of foreign law? Alan Hays has pushed various versions but finally the senate has approved his polished proposal (SB-386). When will it be up for debate in the House is still not clear.

It would appear that the UK Independence Party may be about to suspend Harry Perry, the party’s candidate for Stockport Council whose offensive tweets and support for the English Defence League were exposed last week.

by Qasim Rashid

In a recent piece, new atheist Ali Rizvi argues “The phobia of being called “Islamophobic” is on the rise — and it’s becoming much more rampant, powerful and dangerous than Islamophobia itself.”

On Sept. 21, 2001, Rais Bhuiyan, a Bangladeshi immigrant, was working in a gas station minimart in Dallas when a burly man with tattoo-covered arms walked up to the counter and pulled out a shotgun.

(Reuters) – India deployed troops in Assam on Saturday after 31 Muslims were gunned down in three days of what police said were attacks by tribal militants who resent the presence of immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh.

“We chose to ring the bells because we think it’s a threat to our open society when our streets play host to messages that do not respect every person’s value and dignity,” Swedish Church (Svenska Kyrkan) priest Fredrik Hollertz told The Local on Friday.

A Norwegian survey commissioned by the Ministry of Children, Equality and Social Inclusion, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Justice was undertaken by the Center for Studies of the Holocaust and Religious Minorities.

Speaking at the Pastor for Life Luncheon, which was sponsored by Pro-Life Mississippi, Chief Justice Roy Moore of the Alabama Supreme Court declared that the First Amendment only applies to Christians because “Buddha didn’t create us, Mohammed didn’t create us, it was the God of the Holy Scriptures” who created us.

New details have emerged about the FBI’s efforts to turn Muslim Americans living abroad into government informants. An exposé in Mother Jones magazine chronicles the story of an American named named Naji Mansour who was living in Kenya.

US President Barack Obama has acknowledged that even today a number of people from the South Asian origin — particularly those from Hindu, Muslim and Sikh communities — are becoming victims of hate crimes in America.

Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) all but accused President Barack Obama Wednesday of promoting Islam while “suppressing our Judeo-Christian values.” The senior senator from Oklahoma held forth on the Senate floor on the greatness of George Washington, marking the 225th anniversary of the first president’s inaugural address.

BY ALI SAWAFTA

(Reuters) – Israeli forces demolished several structures, including a mosque, in a Palestinian village on Tuesday, the day a deadline for a deal in now-frozen peace talks expired.

“You might wonder what Cox is doing in Israel. The answer is that she is a fervent proponent of Christian Zionism, and a member – along with Daniel Pipes – of the presidium of the Jerusalem Summit.”

Posted on April 27, 2014 by Bob Pitt

A UKIP candidate has defended tweets in which he said comedian Lenny Henry should emigrate to a “black country” and compared Islam to the Third Reich.

A security guard at the Central Mosque told a court he was left feeling “very bad” after finding bacon had been thrown into the building and placed on the main door handles. Usman Mahmood, 34, said it “hurt my feelings to have this meat in my sacred place” as he gave evidence at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.

TALLAHASSEE — The Florida House, essentially reacting to a months-old protest over the portrayal of Islam in Volusia County school textbooks, passed a bill Monday that would give local school boards, parents and protesters more power over classroom materials.

By Jim Turner, News Service of Florida

TALLAHASSEE — Foreign laws would be banned in Florida courts for certain family-related cases, under a bill the Senate sent to the House on Monday.

The complaint alleges violations of California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act based on Boomers! unwillingness to permit park attendees wearing religious headgear from riding Go-Karts.

By Aysha Jamali, Press & Guide Newspapers

DEARBORN — Hijab, the religious head-covering worn by many Muslim women, is often seen as a strange, oppressive symbol by those unfamiliar with its significance.

Hamdani, born to Muslim parents from Pakistan, was initially the subject of leaks suggesting that he was a possible suspect in the attacks.

Submitted by Brian Tashman

Today on the 700 Club, Pat Robertson once again compared Islam to Nazism, telling a viewer that he shouldn’t “turn the other cheek” when it comes to the “rise of Islam.”

People arrived at the Plymouth Islamic Education Trust centre (Piety) on April 19 to discover “raw sewerage pouring into the street” after a fire damaged the building’s exterior wall and sewage pipes.

Vile cartoons of Muslims swilling alcopops and chasing pre-pubescent girls, as well as graphic depictions of Lee Rigby’s murderer, could be broadcast on the BBC and ITV this week, submitted as the BNP’s official party election broadcast.

The Electoral Commission has been forced to make an embarrassing apology after allowing an extremist party to use a slogan featuring murdered soldier Lee Rigby.

Tulsa County prosecutors have refiled a state hate-crime case that was dismissed two months ago pending a potential federal prosecution that hasn’t developed.

Further to the previous detailed Loonwatch article about Narendra Modi and the rise of India’s neo-fascist Far-Right, some more facts have surfaced. Readers may be particularly interested in the following.

By Gabe LaMonica

(CNN) – Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told a capacity crowd at a National Rifle Association rally how she would baptize terrorists if she was an elected official.

Back in 1984, UNESCO included Spain’s Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba on its World Heritage list. Thirty years later, the site that tourist guides describe as one of Andalusia’s architectural masterpieces — a symbol of the golden age of the Umayyad civilization and of the “concord” between religions — now represents conflict.

Two Pine Belt pastors joined worship services at the Islamic Center of Hattiesburg on Friday in an act of solidarity and to express condolences for a shooting that took place at the Center in March.

Authorities in western China’s restive, Muslim-majority Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region are offering rewards to locals who inform on their neighbors for “wearing beards,” government-controlled media reported this week. Islamic liturgy recommends that Muslim men wear beards.

For years, Cuba’s Muslims—estimated at just a few thousand—have been a bit, well, unorthodox. Most have favored a flexible version of Islam that’s adjusted to years of living in the pork-loving Communist state. Religious practices like avoiding booze, fasting on Ramadan and getting circumcised are often considered optional for Muslims on the island.

Past the towering tridents that survived the World Trade Center collapse, adjacent to a gallery with photographs of the 19 hijackers, a brief film at the soon-to-open National September 11 Memorial Museum will seek to explain to visitors the historical roots of the attacks.

Tony Blair’s speech this week at Bloomberg in London reveals a growing support for authoritarian regimes in the Middle East. A decade ago, Blair was justifying wars in the Middle East on the grounds that they would launch a democratic revolution and sweep away Arab despots.

In reply, the UK based journalist Sunny Hundal asked why Tarek Fatah was an “Islamophobia enabler.” A fair question for someone who may be unfamiliar with Fatah. I think however that support for the NYPD surveillance program, teaming up with Zuhdi Jasser and Rep. Peter Kingare evidence enough that Fatah supports Islamophobia.

Conservative talk show host Lisa Benson warned on Sunday that Somali refugees control the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport and insisted that she will not ride in taxis with Somali drivers out of fears for her safety.

by Furio Morroni) (ANSAmed) – ATHENS –

The saga of the Athens mosque, the realization of which has been delayed for years and seemed a settled issue last November, continues.

David J. Wasserstein, a professor of Jewish History at Vanderbilt University, will lecture on “How Islam Saved the Jews” at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 24, at the University of Alabama in Birmingham.

Submitted by Brian Tashman,

Ergun Caner has lost his lawsuit against a blogger who criticized the Religious Right figure as a fraud, with a federal judge ruling last week that Caner’s case had no merit.

The NYPD has decided to dump the “Demographic unit” which was responsible for mapping Muslim communities and spying on so-called “hot spots”; mosques and Muslim owned businesses such as restaurants and cafes.

by Sam Cohen (Fox40)

An unsolved double murder in Elk Grove three years ago is getting some media attention this week. Parts of Stockton Boulevard near Power Inn Road will be closed to allow a TV show crew to film.

t’s been over a week since students at Brandeis compelled their university to refuse Ayaan Hirsi Ali an honorary degree, and the blogosphere is still roiling with grievance. Kirsten Powers laments Islam’s preferential treatment in USA Today.

A Shari’a Law event that some say discriminates against Muslims has been moved from its prior location to a local church. “Act for America” planned to hold that town hall at Farragut High School, but that stirred up some controversy between a UT Muslim group and organizers of the event.

Zaheer Ali ’94, scholar and former vice president of the Harvard Islamic Society and the Black Students Association, spoke about the increasing influence of African American Muslims on American culture at a talk at the Barker Center Thursday evening.

Like many participants in the Boston Marathon on Monday, Leanne Scorzoni will be running to honor the victims of last year’s bombing. But Scorzoni will also be running in a hijab: she converted to Islam after the attack, and wants her participation to emphasize that Boston’s Muslim community was also hurt by the bombings.

(Times of India)

RAJKOT: wan’s (VHP) president Pravin Togadia sent temperatures soaring in Bhavnagar on Saturday evening with a hate speech that targeted Muslims for buying properties in Hindu areas.

By Associated Press, Published: April 19

NEW YORK — A man accused of pulling the beard of a Sikh professor before a group of young men who had called the professor “Osama” and a “terrorist” attacked him, has been arrested and charged with a hate crime, police said Saturday.

BODA Central African Republic (Reuters) – In normal times, the rickety wooden bridges at each end of the red-dirt main street in Boda were gateways to shops and a bustling market in the diamond-mining town in Central African Republic.

(The Local)

A mosque in the Paris suburbs said on Friday it had filed a complaint with police after slices of pork paté and a threatening letter were stuffed into its mailbox.

Former Republican Congressman Allen West (R-FL), who is currently employed as a Fox News contributor, on Thursday warned that Muslims were organizing to “destroy” the United States by exercising their legal right to vote.

Allegations that 25 schools in Birmingham are at risk of an “Islamic takeover plot” reached new levels of hysteria recently. An announcement was made that a counter-terrorism expert has been drafted in to conduct yet another investigation.

Police have arrested the man who allegedly called a 15-year-old Muslim girl “a terrorist” and threatened to kill her on an MTA bus going through Kew Gardens Hills, authorities said. Perry Germano, 50, allegedly blew a fuse when the teen’s bag brushed against him on board the crowded Q88 bus at about 9 a.m. April 7, cops said.

On Tuesday, the NYPD announced it would dismantle its Demographics Unit, the controversial squad of plainclothes officers tasked with monitoring and gathering intelligence in New York’s Muslim neighborhoods.

Lutfur Rahman, elected mayor of Tower Hamlets, east London, was accused by the BBC’s Panorama of more than doubling public funding to Bangladeshi and Somali groups from £1.5m to £3.6m in the face of recommendations from council officers. He denied the allegations, saying they had been motivated by racism and Islamophobia.

Has the Islamophobia industry used fear to lull our intellect to sleep and implant racist ideas about Muslims?

Christopher Nolan’s 2010 movie “Inception” engaged the world of dreams and the complexity around the sources and materials that produce feelings and experiences in the mind.

Q: What made you interested in Islamic-Christian relations?

A: Obviously, I have a strong Christian background. I realized that if we are going to talk about a Judeo-Christian tradition, then we should be talking about a Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition — that there is a connection.

by Dean Obeidallah

A state senator who says Muslims threaten America and gays deserve to die of AIDS wants to give more control to local school boards after a hate group asked students to tear out one book’s chapter on Islam.

The NYPD has disbanded a special unit that was at the center of the controversy surrounding surveillance of the Muslim community and has reassigned its officers, a police spokesman said Tuesday.

Google is getting philosophical with its latest ‘Doodle’, which today marks the 888th birthday of the Muslim thinker Averroes. The search giant regularly transforms its logo to celebrate famous people, historical events or notable dates, and on Monday chose a tribute to the philosopher Averroes, who was also known as Ibn Rushd.

Jocelyn Hendrickson, a history, classics and religious studies professor at the University of Alberta, said the history of the Spanish conquest of al-Andalus in the 15th century includes issues that are still very relevant to Muslims today.

Just last month the KKK (which has seen an increase in membership) was dropping off leaflets in Virginia on peoples lawns, claiming they aren’t hate-filled terrorists but peaceful Christians.

On Sunday, a man shot and killed a 14-year-old boy and his grandfather at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City and then drove to a nearby Jewish retirement community where he shot and killed a third person. Police arrested a suspect, Frazier Glenn Cross, who shouted “Heil Hitler” after he was taken into custody.

By Ashley Knight

The Islamic center on East Drive in Mobile is tattered and torn. Its president, Shafik Hammami has requested redevelopment, but was turned down last year by city council. And they aren’t the only ones with objections.

(SBS.com)

Operators of Australia’s biggest Islamic centre have appealed for better police protection, after an attack that has caused extensive damage.

by JustStoppingBy

One of the sources of Islamophobia and Judeophobia is the selective quoting of religious passages that, either taken out of their literal context or without the context of how they have been interpreted, suggest that the adherents of Islam and Judaism repeat and harbor seemingly harsh views.

(NASA)

I have always strived to live by three simple principles: Please God and you will please all. Education is the key to opportunity. Serve others with compassion and kindness.

By Garibaldi

For far too long Liberal and Neo-Con supporters of Ayaan Hirsi Ali have either ignored, evaded, denied or flat out refused to acknowledge the existence of her hateful beliefs and agenda.

In a symbolic and unprecedented move, Ayatollah Abdol-Hamid Masoumi-Tehrani, announced today that he has gifted to the Baha’is of the world an illuminated work of calligraphy of a paragraph from the writings of Baha’u’llah, the Prophet-founder of the Baha’i Faith.

(Today’s Zaman)

The report, published March 24, is based on the examinations of Nils Muiznieks, commissioner for human rights of the CoE, during his visit to Denmark in November of last year.

A man on board a New York City bus allegedly spat on a 15-year-old Muslim girl on Tuesday, pushed her, and called her a “terrorist.” DNAinfo reports police are investigating the incident as a hate crime.

What’s up with these violent old White males attacking Muslim female teenagers? Is this part of an effort to liberate them? A Hamilton man is charged with assault after he allegedly yelled racial slurs at a teenage Muslim girl and chased her out of her apartment building.

(W3lanka)

Sri Lanka police has summoned the general secretary of the Buddhist extremist Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) Galagodaaththe Gnanasara Thero to appear in Slave Island police on April 12th to question him on the incident that took place at Hotel Nippon.

(Dawn)

Accused with a friend of transporting bombs in 2005, he has maintained his innocence —and an official record shows his captors suspected the same.

By Rick Pfeiffer rick.pfeiffer@niagara-gazette.comNiagara Gazette

Niagara Gazette — Falls police are investigating a possible hate crime that may be tied to skateboarders.

Brandeis University on Tuesday canceled its plan to award Somali-born author Ayaan Hirsi Ali an honorary degree after campus criticism of the selection of an advocate for Muslim women who has made comments critical of Islam.

Montreal police are investigating a possible hate crime at an east-end Islamic community centre where an axe with an anti-Muslim message written on it was thrown through a window early Tuesday morning.

The Kingdom of Morocco which has a history of religious tolerance has approved the UN Human Rights Council’s draft resolution on religious freedom. According to the below Italian periodical this brings an end to trials of apostasy.

A North Carolina branch of the KKK came to the Valley on Sunday night, recruiting new members. Valley residents woke up Monday morning to see pamphlets covering their vehicles and lining their driveways, calling for people to “Save Our Land [and] Join The Klan.”

By Robin Yassin-Kassab (The Guardian)

Arun Kundnani’s book, vastly more intelligent than the usual “war on terror” verbiage, focuses on the war’s domestic edge in Britain and America.

MONTREAL — She campaigned on a promise to rid the public sector of employees wearing hijabs, but in the end it was Parti Québécois leader Pauline Marois who was shown the door by voters Monday — and with a slam.

We’ve learned what we all knew and suspected: that the use of torture by our government was far worse than previously revealed. If that is not enough, consider the BS we were expected to swallow by such CIA propagandized Hollywood films as, “Zero Dark Thirty,” that justified the use of torture as leading to “actionable intelligence.”

By Kurt Streeter

Several of Southern California’s most prominent religious leaders held a vigil for immigration reform in downtown Los Angeles on Friday, underscoring a growing interfaith effort to change the nation’s laws.

(Imagine 2050)

Dutch politician Geert Wilders has once again become the subject of controversy after he led supporters in an anti-Moroccan chant during a campaign rally last month.

By Richard Silverstein (Tikkun Olam)

It’s commencement time and universities are proudly announcing who they’ve snagged as honorary degree and commencement speakers.

Far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen said on Friday it would prevent schools from offering non-pork alternatives to Muslim pupils in the 11 towns it won in local elections, saying such arrangements were contrary to France’s secular values.

Tuesday night, Fox News smeared an important member of the Northern Virginia community. This year, I introduced a resolution to recognize the 30th Anniversary of Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, which has worked to expand opportunity and help their neighbors build a better future. Fox doesn’t like that the resolution passed.

Bill Maher, a self-proclaimed “9/11 Liberal” has a history of Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism, claiming falsely that Islam and Muslims are: uniquely more violent than practitioners of other faiths, the Bible is less violent than the Qur’an, there are “too many Mohammads…

by Roqayah Chamseddine

When reviewing films like Honor Diaries it is imperative we know the figures behind their creation and distribution — from producers and writers to the organizations which sponsored and helped in the shaping of the films.

by Joe Silver (arsTechnia)

A hearing in federal court Tuesday has apparently marked the conclusion of a drawn-out, costly, and, to use the judge’s own term, “Kafkaesque” legal battle over the government no-fly list.

India’s General Election starts in April, with the results in May. Narendra Modi, the man holding a machete in the picture at the top of this article, is currently predicted to become India’s next Prime Minister.

A Swedish woman wearing a Muslim headscarf claims security staff at a small northern airport tugged on her hijab in public rather than take up her offer to take it off away from prying eyes.

FBI agents in Texas have arrested a man who allegedly was plotting to use C-4 explosives and weapons to kill police officers, rob banks and armored cars, and blow up government buildings and mosques, authorities announced today.

When a Muslim, Daoud Abudiab, moved in near Victoria Jackson’s suburban neighborhood, she responded with a post on her website titled, “Civilization Jihad, Hits Home (my back yard, literally).”

by RICHARD SILVERSTEIN

The University of Michigan-Dearborn initially agreed to screen the Clarion Project‘s new faux-feminist film, Honor Diaries.

Heidi Hall, hhall@tennessean.com

There are lots of threats to America and ways to destroy the U.S., and it’s not just one particular kind of enemy who might do it, members of the Tennessee Republican Assembly were told Saturday.

BODA, Central African Republic — There is only one neighborhood in Boda where Muslims are safe from the bullets and machetes of Christian militia fighters. Many who ventured out were killed, their throats slit or their cars showered with gunfire.

YANGON, MYANMAR – Enumerators fanned out across Myanmar on Sunday for a census that has been widely criticized for stoking religious and ethnic tensions, after the government denied members of a long-persecuted Muslim minority the right to identify themselves as “Rohingya.”

I wonder why we haven’t heard more about this guy and isn’t it curious that he isn’t described as a terrorist? He believed that “stopping the regime with action by bloodshed,” was the “will of God.”

During a pretrial motion hearing March 25, El Cajon police detective Darren Forster made a startling admission. He testified that he doctored a photograph so it would appear that Kassim Alhimidi was nearby when his 32-year-old wife, Shaima Alawadi, was brutally murdered in their home on March 21 of 2012.

Better oversight of the sprawling American national security apparatus may finally be coming: President Obama and the House Intelligence Committee unveiled plans this week to reduce bulk collection of telephone records.

COLUMBUS (Rob E. Wells) — A group of billboards set throughout Central Ohio so offended one local minister that he says he’s taking his message to the streets this weekend. Dave Daubenmire, of Pass the Salt Ministries, says he plans to organize a rally.

by Rina Palta

Civil liberties advocates are renewing their complaints against the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s office for what they say are years of discriminating against inmates of Muslim faith.

A group purporting to be on a ‘Muslim anti-grooming campaign’ are entering mosques and handing out inflammatory literature. In the latest video posted on the Britain First website members of the group can be seen standing inside a mosque in Bolton.

By Steven Rose (TellMAMA)

The Telegraph’s alarmist reporting once again puts Sharia law in the spotlight. An utterance of this phrase guarantees a level of indignation in some corners. But in this context, is such indignation justified?

It is obvious that a wind of change has blown across the Arab world, for the good: the toppling of tyrants, the drafting of a new constitution in Tunisia, the emergence of civil society, not always powerful, but which cannot be ignored.

Helsinki District court has fined managers at a Helsinki clothing retailer for discriminating against an employee on the basis of religion. They received 20 day-fines for sacking a Muslim worker who was told she should not wear a headscarf.

You may remember from last year the laughable story about the Muslim Brotherhood using puppies as weapons by dousing them in petrol, setting them on fire and then throwing them at the Egyptian army. Both Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller reduced themselves to objects of ridicule by taking that nonsense seriously.

Hassan Alawsi’s assailant stalked him in the Home Depot parking lot for about eight minutes – cutting up and down aisles as he followed his victim to his car – before felling him with two gunshots in a racially motivated killing, according to Sacramento County sheriff’s detectives.

Terror suspect Ian Forman, 42, from Birkenhead, planned to explode home-made devices packed with nails and ball-bearings. He downloaded pictures of two mosques near his home and labelled them “targets” before making a string of YouTube posts threatening to “blow them up”.

The Collectif contre l’Islamophobie en France draws our attention to reports that Christophe Lavigne, a sergeant in the French airforce with far-right links, will not now be prosecuted.

A speech made by the leader of the Holland’s far-right Freedom Party has caused a rift among its members, according to Dutch media reports. Earlier in the week, Geert Wilders encouraged followers to chant racist slogans against Moroccans.

by Ilisha

Africa is rich with abundant, untapped natural resources. Yet decades after achieving formal independence from colonial rule, most African countries remain poor and unstable.

The Chicago Office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Chicago) is calling for an FBI hate crime investigation after the single shot was discharged through the dome of mosque around 6:05 a.m. Tuesday, according to a release on the website.

James L. Rosica (@jlrosicaTBO) in Tallahassee

It’s back. Lawmakers this year will again review a proposal to ban state judges from considering Shariah law and other foreign legal codes in their decisions. And again, there’s no evidence that judges are using foreign law against Floridians.

WHLT 22 Connecting the Pine Belt

The President. A Mississippi museum. A satirical article and more news coverage to bring them together.

The battle over a cemetery being planned at a Murfreesboro mosque didn’t end when Monday’s hearing did. Afterwards, a heated confrontation erupted in a courthouse hallway involving supporters and opponents.

The zingers started flying early. During introductory remarks, Patrick made a quick jab at how Dewhurst travels with a security detail and then introduced the crowd to what he called his own.

Israeli police have said that vandals have slashed car tyres and sprayed a bus with hate graffiti in a predominantly Arab neighbourhood in Jerusalem, the latest in a series of similar incidents.

by Rebecca Nicholson, theguardian.com, Monday 24 March 2014 10.33 EDT

Script, about an American girl kidnapped by her Saudi Arabian family, had been condemned by Council on American-Islamic Relations

The desecration took place in May 2013 in Alsace, Illzach, a town of 15,000 in the suburbs of Mulhouse. Racist tags and a swastika were found on one of the facades of the mosque construction.

One of the odder phenomena of the last decade is hearing national security elites, terrorism experts, and career diplomats discuss the finer points of “flow,” “bling,” and the “politics of cool.”

Written by, Haskel Burns, American Staff Writer

Hattiesburg police are investigating a Tuesday incident in which several shots were fired into the Islamic Center of Hattiesburg.

American Muslims have lost control of their narratives both online and in the media. While violent Islamic extremists have grown increasingly adept at using social media to craft their messages – as have anti-Muslim activists – more normative voices from Muslims have been drowned out.

Disconnected commentators tend to associate all the problems in the Arab world with Islam, whether in order to explain the lack of democracy, overall poor economic performance, or even the complex status of women’s rights, always promptly manipulated by Islamophobes.

An attorney for an American man who claims he was tortured in the United Arab Emirates at the behest of the U.S. government said Friday that his client is too afraid to try to travel back home.

Bodu Bala Sena General Secretary Galagoda Atte Gnananasara yesterday defended the actions of Nayana Thakshila Perera who earlier forced two Muslim students to remove their attire which was in accordance with Education Ministry Circulars and Supreme Court orders, and ordered them to worship her.

CAIRO – Italian officials have expressed solidarity with the Muslim community after a mosque in the Italian city of Rieti in the Lazio region was damaged by vandals who stormed the mosque, destroyed its properties and burnt the Noble Qur’an.

Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion reports that a recent luncheon in Houston, which was held to raise awareness of the Third Annual Holocaust March of Remembrance next month and drew over 200 Christian leaders, featured as its keynote speaker none other than Kamal Saleem

Moroccan organisations in the Netherlands said they will make a formal complaint against the public prosecution department if it does not take action over Geert Wilders’s latest anti-Moroccan statements.

An advocacy group is welcoming New London’s recognition of Muslim school holidays in its calendar for the next school year. The calendar lists certain Muslim and Jewish holidays as days when observing students can be excused for absences. It also asks teachers not to schedule tests on those dates.

Farhan Iqbal, Kalamazoo

Islam is the world’s second largest religion and has shown a significant increase over the last decade in many countries, including the United States.

Maajid Nawaz sparked heated exchanges with audience members at his first public appearance as Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Hampstead and Kilburn.

A German princess appeared in court yesterday accused of threatening to kill Muslims and calling police officers paedophiles at a posh Scots bash.

They also remind me of past incidents which has led to a ‘breakdown’ of relationship between the police and the Muslim community in Birmingham.

This time, Dawkins, who prior to becoming a jester of the Twittersphere was apparently a well respected author, used the opportunity of International Women’s Day to blast the “loathsome religion” of Islam.

The anti-fascist publication Expo has reported that Kamil Ryba, head of the EDL’s sister organisation the Swedish Defence League, has been sentenced to six months in prison for threatening the staff at GT, the Göteborg edition of the Swedish daily Expressen.

By Travis Gettys (RawStory)

Texas television station KCBD kicked up a cloud of anti-Muslim bigotry Tuesday night by sharing an alert from the National Weather Service on its Facebook page.

“These chetnicks are still hoping they can start a war with Bosnian Muslims. The fact that they will fight against Tatar Muslims in Ukraine if necessary is an indirect message to Bosnian Muslims. The western media is silent about this terrorist organization. What if Bosnian Muslims went to defend Tatar Muslims? They would be called terrorists.”

Jean Carriere, who was the PQ candidate for the Montreal riding of Lafontaine, created a social media storm on Wednesday when a Liberal party supporter digging through his Facebook page found a picture of a half-naked woman saying “Fuck Islam.”

(Ballandalus: Dum vita est spes est)

In honor of International Women’s Day, I thought it would be interesting to introduce people to several names of important Muslim women in history that they may not have encountered before.

On March 7, members of Northeastern University’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) were informed by the school’s Center for Student Involvement that their chapter had been suspended for at least a year.

More than three years ago the Arab world was plunged into turmoil by Mohamed Bouazizi’s self-immolation. The flames from Bouazizi’s act of despair set the region ablaze in revolt; a signal for Tunisians and Arabs in general to take to the streets and let their voices be heard.

The fact that it has been taken seriously in the news media is a worrying reflection of the extent to which anti-Muslim prejudice in the UK today has destroyed journalists’ capacity for critical thinking when it comes to evaluating spurious Islamophobic propaganda.

Speaking to nearly 500 people at the synagogue in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Dowd said he purposely wore his most ostentatious outfit to the multi-faith rally against the Parti Québécois government’s proposed secular charter.

by Andrew Horansky

BRAZORIA COUNTY, Texas — A small community in Brazoria County has been causing a big stir over rumors that it serves as an Islamic terrorist training camp.

It was February 9, 2013, and the five members of Florida International University’s Muslim Student Association had finished their evening prayers in the room they used daily at the Graham Center, the student union on the school’s Modesto Maidique Campus.

A 30-year-old man has been charged with arson and a “racially aggravated” offence after a fire at a mosque in Milton Keynes.Thames Valley Police said a fire was started at the back of the mosque on Manor Road, Bletchley, at about 01:00 GMT on Saturday.

Over the years, I have experienced a barrage of attacks from a virtual who’s who of pro-Israel activists and intellectuals. Yet none of my assailants have ever accepted an invitation to engage with me in a public conversation.

This is the Fox News show called “The Five,” known for its racism and hatemongering of various groups. Usually, only Islam and Muslims bring this kind of unified hatred out of the fake, token liberals and conservatives.

March 30 marks the birthday of Moses Maimonides. As such, it seemed to be a good time to discuss two of his quotes that have been used in discussions of Islam and Islamophobia in part due to the range of views that seem to be expressed in them by the same author.

A firework has been thrown at an Islamic centre in Tyneside. Around eight people were inside the Whitley Bay Islamic Cultural Centre, on Hillheads Road, and were praying at the time of the attack just before 2.30pm on Wednesday afternoon.

(Reuters) – Most Muslims have been driven out of the western half of conflict-torn Central African Republic, where thousands of civilians risk of being killed “right before our eyes,” the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said on Thursday.

In the video members of the Britain First group, can be seen driving through a predominantly Asian area of Blackburn in what it states is a “new direct action campaign against the scourge of Muslim paedophile grooming gangs”.

(The Comet)

Salman Lone, from the Stevenage Muslim Community Centre, spoke at a meeting with the police on Friday – three days after a flammable liquid was poured inside the mosque in Vardon Road and set alight.

By Garibaldi

Der Spiegel, a prominent weekly German news magazine has covered the boom in Islamophobia in Germany (h/t: Stürzenbergers “Freiheit” stoppen).

By Annie Martin, The Daytona Beach

DAYTONA BEACH — A professor known for his controversial views about Islam and terrorism will field questions at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University this week.

After an escalation of targeted anti-Muslim incidents at the Islamic Center of Bothell (ICOB), located on the second floor of a building on East Riverside Drive, the Bothell Police Department and the FBI have begun an investigation to determine if the events were bias-motivated.

Written by, Vicki Travis

FRANKLIN — Three groups of three Sikhs, three Muslims and three Christians met Sunday to share their faith and then, like any good gathering, share a meal.

Marine Le Pen, whose party is riding a wave of anti-immigration and anti-Muslim voter sentiment around Europe, says it will cut public funds to religious groups in towns where it wins municipal elections this month.

An anti-Islam party based on the hardline views of Dutch politician Geert Wilders plans to field candidates at the next federal election, raising fears among moderate Muslims of a rise in extremism.

by Zehra Abbas

In keeping with UH’s much-appreciated diversity, the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts is making an effort to gain a better understanding of Muslim culture.

By Katie Rucke

A Minneapolis-based bank has been closing the accounts of its customers in the Islamic community for years, but nobody can figure out why.

by Alex Kane, Mondoweiss

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) can’t quit pushing anti-Muslim bigotry. The latest instance emerged in a peculiar fashion: in opposition to an anti-gay bill in Arizona pushed by religious conservatives.

SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine — Ali Aliev was a 9-year-old when German troops occupied Crimea during World War II, and he still remembers the day he and others in his village in the southeastern Sudak region of the peninsula gathered in a schoolyard to wait for their liberators, the returning Soviets.

By Michael Allen, (Opposing Views)

Culpeper County, Va. deputies and staff members recently received a three-day “counterterrorism” training course from John Guandolo, a former FBI agent.

To his credit, London Mayor Boris Johnson prefaced his anti-Muslim diatribe with a qualifier in an article published by the Telegraph. Johnson said he was glad it was the last time the public would have to hear the perpetrators “pervert the religion of Islam.”

Stephen Harper governs not so much for Canada as for his Conservative party. He used to do it by stealth. Now he does it openly, like the Republicans in Washington who, in fact, are beginning to pull back from their partisan brinkmanship just as he is bulldozing ahead with greater arrogance.

The hysteria over “Muslim Family Fun Day” in the UK (h/t: Farhan) sounds very familiar, as a similar anxiety and hysteria was witnessed here in the USA last year when some Muslim groups organized a Muslim Family Day at Six Flags Great America…

The 2014 legislative year has already seen legislation proposed that would ban the application of Sharia law in state courts. There are currently nine states that have introduced some variation of a bill aiming to block Islamic law.

Yesterday, William Saletan of Slate.com published an article (The Muslim Taxi Driver) on how to kill legislation that favors Christian religion and it has to do with prejudice and paranoia against Muslims…

CBC

Two faith-based Richmond schools put cultural differences aside and came together for an annual display of goodwill.

RAKHINE – Shocking reports have surfaced about a 16-year-old Rohingya Muslim girl who was gang-raped after being arrested by police after a deadly crackdown on a remote village in Rakhine state which left dozens dead.

Walid Shoebat, one of the conservative media’s favorite anti-Muslim commentators, yesterday posted a six-part series arguing that Turkey will emerge during the End Times as an “Antichrist nation” and may soon invade Egypt.

To most Americans, Thursday was perfectly mundane. The Olympics were drawing to a close, people were still discussing House of Cards, and things were gearing up for the weekend. All of those were things I should have been mulling over, but none of them were.

Four months after Jacob Bender, a Jewish filmmaker from Manhattan, was appointed to a symbolically landmark position with an American Muslim organization, he says he is serving as an example of interfaith tolerance.

By Garibaldi

One often hears Islamophobes in the “counterjihad” movement claiming to be defenders of the “Judeo-Christian” West against the spread of Islam and the enfranchisement of Muslims in Western democracies.

An excellent article that discusses the media fascination with fake and often freaky Muslim/fatwa news stories with the recent example of the hoopla over the “Mars fatwa.” (h/t: Mustafa)

The Knesset on Monday approved a controversial law, whose ultimate aim, according to its sponsor, is to distinguish between Muslim and Christian Arab citizens and to heighten involvement of Christians in Israeli society.

BY IAN MILLHISER

On Saturday, the Roanoke Times reported that Sheriff Jenkins plans to move forward with the training regardless of concerns over Guandolo.

Sheep shagging and other assorted bestiality is legal in Denmark, a country that has recently been marred by controversy over its ban on Halal and Kosher meat slaughter, which is considered “inhumane” by opponents.

By Jess Remington

In a disturbing ruling Thursday, a federal judge said that it is constitutionally sound to treat Muslim mosques, businesses and student associations as terrorist organizations.

Albuquerque police have arrested a man accused of threatening to stab a couple of teenagers playing basketball, simply because he hated Muslims.

Nilsson Wood is accused of threatening a 15-year-old and his friend with a knife.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Halim Dhanidina shared his hardships and experiences in his journey to become the first Muslim-American judge in the state of California as part of a presentation hosted by Associated Students Inc. Lobby Corps Monday.

Hate groups in Sri Lanka have made the attire of Muslim women a key target in their onslaught against Muslims. They have used security and the need for uniformity as reasons to attack Muslim female attire such as the hijab, the punjabi attire and the niqab.

The incident occurred in the evening of Tuesday, February 18 around 18:15.The victim, a young mother with her toddler, was violently attacked while returning slowly towards his home after shopping.

The Zionist Clarion Project is funded by Aisha HaTorah, a pro-Occupation, pro-Settler colonization organization that seeks to foment anti-Muslim Islamophobic sentiment against Muslims in the West. They are known for such anti-Muslim screeds as Obsession, Third Jihadand Iranium. (h/t: JD)

Another casualty of the Syrian Civil War has been honest and accurate reporting. Much of what is relayed from the civil war torn nation is overt propaganda and evidently biased depending on which side the reporter or news agency is supporting.

Sochi’s more than 20,000 Muslims helped build the infrastructure and stages for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia, where Muslim athletes from a range of participating nations will compete within these multi-million-dollar stadia, slopes, and structures, vying for gold and the glory that comes with Olympic victory.

POCATELLO — A Pocatello hearing officer is expected to make a decision by Tuesday regarding the Islamic Society of Southeastern Idaho’s request for a conditional use permit to establish a mosque on South Fifth Avenue. Meanwhile, a public debate on the proposal has been going on for days.

“They tried to forget us, as if we never even lived there,” says Circassian architect Abdullah Makhmudovic Berisov. Now 67 years old, Berisov speaks about the pain he feels when thinking of the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, and how the opening ceremony failed to mention the history of the Circassian people who once called Sochi their capital.

Republican Congressman Jim Bridenstine of Oklahoma was at a Tea Party event with constituents a few weeks ago when a woman went off about how President Obama needed to be killed.

The Culpeper County Sheriff’s Office in Virginia is planning to host a three-day training by John Guandolo, a notorious Muslim-basher and conspiracy theorist who resigned from the FBI before he could be investigated for misconduct, according to promotional materials.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the US’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, repeated its request to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) to investigate one of its own members, this time for being funded by the same group that backs a notorious Islamophobe.

A halal shop owner in Quebec’s Eastern Townships is blaming the provincial government’s secularism charter for acts of vandalism and violence, including air-rifle shots fired at his window.

Hurling paving stones, rocks and fireworks, a large mob of protesters – many of them from football fan clubs – smashed windows of Plovdiv’s historic Dzhumaya Mosque in the centre of Bulgaria’s second city.

A privately-owned French company claims to have become the first in the country to ban the wearing of Muslim headscarves and other prominent religious symbols at work. But critics say the move, which had the backing of employees, is against the law.

Voters in Switzerland narrowly backed a proposal to limit immigration Sunday, in a blow for the government after it had warned that the measure could harm the Swiss economy and relations with the European Union. The decision follows a successful last-minute campaign by nationalist groups that stoked fears of overpopulation and rising numbers of Muslims in the Alpine nation.

While some media argue that (identifiable) Muslim women are more likely to suffer Islamophobic attacks than men, I also recognize that Muslim men and non-Muslim men are also recipients of racial and anti-Muslim violence.

Before the Arab Uprisings a narrative almost as well known as Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet was indoctrinated into the minds of many US and European citizens; the claim that Arabs and Muslims were inclined to tyranny and dictatorship.

Islamophobia . Sunna mosque in the city of Blois (41) was desecrated in the night from Tuesday 11 to Wednesday, February 12. An acronym for the mysterious hour, was tagged on the door of the mosque: “MLE France.”

After seven years of litigation, two trips to a federal appeals court and $3.8 million worth of lawyer time, the public has finally learned why a wheelchair-bound Stanford University scholar was cuffed, detained and denied a flight from San Francisco to Hawaii: FBI human error.

World Bulletin / News Desk

A doctor working for the Red Cross in the Austrian city of Linz has caused outrage by criticizing a blood donation campaign by an Islamic charity, claiming that Muslims who come from Muslim countries have bad blood.

By John Dodge

CHICAGO (CBS) — Leena Suleiman did something we all did this winter: she dressed in layers, including a knit hat and scarf.

Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., was the first Muslim elected to Congress and it’s not always been an easy ride. Monday, on book tour duty for his new tome, “My Country ‘Tis of Thee,” he spoke at the Center for American Progress about being a member of a religion that’s often treated as the “scapegoat du jour.”

A government minister in the Central African Republic, Gaston Makouzemba, has warned there is a risk of a genocide as communities fight each other on religious and ethnic lines. All communities have been affected by the violence and now many Muslims are fleeing the country, afraid for their lives.

Sikhs Against Sharia (SAS) are somewhat of an anomaly. They are an informal organisation that largely exists on Facebook, where most members are white nationalists and non-Sikh.

by Mehedi Islam

160 years ago, during the Great Famine in Ireland, the Ottoman Empire sent £1,000 sterling (about $1,052,000 today) and 3 shiploads of food to Drogheda, Ireland.

NEW YORK: The New York’s Mayor, Bill de Blasio, has announced plans to implement a policy allowing public schools to be closed for holidays on biggest Muslim festivals including Eid-ul-Adha and Eid-ul-Fitr.

The first Muslim member of Congress assumed office in January 2007. For his swearing-in ceremony, Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., chose to pledge on the Quran. The copy he used, specially loaned by the Library of Congress for the occasion, had once belonged to Thomas Jefferson.

The Associated Press article on the Ukrainian hijacker who tried to divert a plane to Sochi on Friday is interesting for the words it does not use. (I’m not picking on AP– all the other articles on this subject are like this one in this regard.)

When conflict first broke out in C.A.R. last March, many, especially Islamophobes characterized the Seleka rebels as motivated by religion, when in fact their grievances and motivations were political and economic.

The vaunted city of Venice has a rich history of interaction with Muslims and Islam, among its distinctions is the fact that it is home to the first ever printed Quran. Now that Venice wants to possibly build an “Islamic Museum,” the Far-Right Lega Norda is going ballistic, complaining that it is a way to “spread Islam.”

A Florida girl said she has been verbally and physically assaulted because she wears a hijab, or head scarf, to school. Zahrah Habibulla, 14, said she didn’t have problems at school with other children until she started wearing her hijab on Dec. 14. The Polk County teen said she wears the hijab for religious reasons.

I couldn’t pass up on this story. Good ole’ Victoria Jackson is continuing her life-long parody of all things right-wing by being uber-right and confusing all of us as to whether she actually believes in the wacky things she says.

The Winter Olympics city has 20,000 Muslim residents. Now they just need a place to worship.

Russian president Vladimir Putin calls Sochi, site of February’s Winter Olympics, “the biggest construction site on the planet,” and for good reason.

Eric Convey

A former Children’s Hospital Boston employee who said she was fired because her Islamic beliefs prohibited her from getting a mandatory flu shot sued the hospital today.

MANTECA-

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is asking the FBI to investigate a recent vandalism at a Manteca mosque as a hate crime.

(The Guardian)

A Ukip MEP believes that British Muslims should sign a special code of conduct and warns that it was a big mistake for Europe to allow “an explosion of mosques across their land”.

BY AUDREY WONG

Bay Area Muslims prayed for rain to relieve the drought affecting California on Saturday, at the Pleasanton Fairgrounds.

by ELIAS ISQUITH

Coca-Cola’s big Super Bowl ad this year featured a rendition of “America the Beautiful” sung in multiple languages, alongside sweeping images of America’s landscape and its people.

Restore Australia, which describes Islam on its website as a “aggressive totalitarian political ideology”, plans to letterbox people in Ballarat to “mobilise people to write to the council” to oppose the building of a mosque at 116 Elsworth Street East in Ballarat.

By Peggy Fletcher Stack| The Salt Lake Tribune

Despite the fact that Utah is home to a dozen or so mosques and more than 30,000 Muslims, residents of the Beehive State often know little more about Islam than what they see in Hollywood films.

MONTREAL — As a young Muslim woman, Nadia Naqvi wears a traditional head scarf every day. “I made the decision to put this on after the Christmas break when I turned 15,” Naqvi said. “I’m 32 now and I have been wearing a hijab more than half of my life.”

by Hatem Bazian, AlJazeera

Islam’s calling is an ethical and moral one – not a search for codifying permanent power for Muslims. In the Arab Spring’s aftermath, and the catastrophic divisions and violence in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia…

Nobody familiar with Carroll’s record will be surprised at this.

A federal judge has ordered New York City to begin a process to hand over investigative documents from the New York Police Department’s surveillance of Muslims as part of a long-running lawsuit.

By Nathan Lean, Detroit Free Press guest writer

It has been said that ignorance and prejudice go hand in hand. If anyone can prove that statement true, it’s Michigan Republican National Committeeman Dave Agema.

Most insults aimed at Muslims are far from subtle.

It is easy to recognize the affront, for example, when someone says she is tired of people saying Islam is a religion of peace, or sponsors ads in subway stations implying Muslims are “savages.”

A Christian, a Muslim and a Hindu walk into a university together. And what happens next, according to community leaders, is no joke – walking together can build a more harmonious, more creative, more inspiring place to live.

With “Tommy” now safely locked up, beginning an 18-month prison sentence for his part in a £162,000 mortgage fraud, it is perhaps time to turn our attention to Carroll – who, just like Lennon, was presented by Quilliam as a man that had renounced his far-right, anti-Muslim past.

Halet Çambel, who has died aged 97, was an Olympic fencer and the first Muslim woman to compete in the Games; while she failed to take home a medal from the Berlin Olympics in 1936 she won international acclaim by refusing to meet Hitler. Post-war, she became a renowned archaeologist.

There’s no doubt former Navy Seal Ben Smith is a loon, his new line of work as a spokesman for the Right-wing propaganda machine, (pays very well) has him traveling the US ranting to Tea Party members with the well-worn shtick: the US is under attack by Communists, Islam, Muslim Brotherhood and AlQaeda.

By Michael Allen (Opposing Views)

Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.) recently expressed his “deep” concern about a proposed cemetery for Muslims in Murfreesboro, Tenn.

A group of Moscow muftis is demanding city authorities officially retract a warning about potential suicide bombers’ unusual behavior in mosques and the description of prayer sites as terrorist meeting places.

On January 22, the Department of Defense released new instructions on accommodations for religious expression — instructions which they believe will reduce discrimination ”toward those whose religious expressions are less familiar to the command.”

Divide and rule has always been a successful strategy, and from the perspective of those who wish to destroy Islam and weaken Muslim-majority states, what could be better than a full-blown sectarian war between Muslims?

ALLEGAN, Mich. — A federal judge has dismissed a conservative Christian advocacy group’s lawsuit against a Muslim rights organization over the cancellation of a speech by an anti-Muslim speaker at a southwestern Michigan school.

The United Nations has confirmed that at least 48 Muslims appear to have been killed when Buddhist mobs attacked a village in an isolated corner of western Burma, a massacre that has been the vehemently denied by the government since it was first reported by The Associated Press just over a week ago.

The English Defence League’s founder and former leader, Tommy Robinson, has been convicted and sentenced to 18 months in prison for mortgage fraud, reports the BBC.

Loonwatchers are encouraged to send copies of or links to this letter, or to compose a polite but informative message of their own, when they hear of Geller planning to speak at a synagogue or Jewish organization.

Federal prosecutors moved forward with a terrorism case against a purported Klansman who had been soliciting money from Jewish businessmen to build a bizarre — but technologically feasible — X-ray cannon intended to secretly kill Muslims.

Among the alliance of far-right groups who organised an anti-mosque protest in Lincoln last Saturday, during which protestors marched through the city chanting “burn the poppy we will burn the mosque”, was the English Volunteer Force.

Daily Mail

Shocking photographs have emerged of a cannibal by the name of Mad Dog eating the flesh of a lynched Muslim man for the second time in as many weeks.

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — The Alabama State Board of Education dismissed last week allegations from conservative groups that 11 textbooks on the state’s new list for social studies material are pro-Islamic and diminish Christianity.

It’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day across the nation, and here in North Texas, Americans from all walks of life have taken advantage of the holiday to display their interpretation of the American civil religion, the one of a kind. It is a day of service as well as of commemoration of America’s history in the struggle for establishing justice and human rights.

Danville, VA – The possible creation of an Islamic cemetery in Danville is creating a lot of controversy. The Danville Masjid and Islamic Center wants to form a cemetery at the end of Kingoff Drive, next to the Danville Expressway. But some folks are not happy.

Immigrant rights groups are trying to convince Washington state Senators to make undocumented students eligible for financial aid.The so-called DREAM Act failed last year in Olympia. Monday, more than 500 members of Washington’s Muslim American community marched at the capitol. It was the fifth annual Muslim Lobby Day.

MONTREAL – Genevieve Caron does not believe that the Quebec government is going far enough with its proposed charter of values. She and her husband, Claude Pinault, testified in a personal capacity at the province’s public hearings into the charter on Thursday.

BANGUI, Central African Republic — Attackers armed with machetes and clubs ambushed a convoy of Muslims fleeing sectarian violence in Central African Republic, killing 22 people, an aid group said Sunday as the country in a state of bloody anarchy awaits a new interim president.

A few days ago, Richard Dawkins wrote to the Times to complain that they had referred to “Muslim babies”. Because, in his view, a baby isn’t a fully developed human being so it can’t possibly be conscious of being a Muslim.

Sharon will go down as one of history’s villains, akin to the likes of Slobadan Milosevic. It was nauseating watching and reading Western mainstream media and political leaders whitewashing former Israeli Prime Minister/war criminal Ariel Sharon’s legacy.

(Al-Bawaba)

Moscow police said they are investigating a YouTube video showing football fans burning a Quran and forcing a beaten man to renounce Allah.

Vandals set fire to a mosque early Wednesday morning in the Palestinian village Deir Istiya in the northern West Bank, in a suspected hate crime by Jewish vandals. Light damage was caused to the door of the mosque as the fire did not spread.

The last time we met Aryeh King he was running for Jerusalem city council under the banner ofJudaizing Jerusalem and blatant racism. He is trying to follow up on his promises by telling Muslims to leave Israel.

Love your neighbor as yourself, and your country more than yourself,” wrote Thomas Jefferson the year before his death. Who did he include among his neighbors in the blueprint for the nation he loved so much?

Political correctness is keeping Hollywood from properly stigmatizing Muslims—so said Mississippi Republican Senate candidate Chris McDaniel. He issued this complaint during a 2006 episode of Right Side Radio, a syndicated show McDaniel hosted for three years before being elected to the state Senate in 2007.

By Erin Ryan, Correspondent

While most of the world focuses on the differences between Islam and Judaism, some people in Charlotte are discussing how the religions are alike.

CEDAR RAPIDS, IA (CBS2/FOX28) – While world events play out around the globe, it can be hard to fully grasp the role that religion plays. One local church is helping people better understand the world around them, but not exclusively through Christianity.

A Montreal-based group is calling on all Canadians to join them on January 12th and 13th to protest against the Quebec government’s proposed Charter of Values for the province, urging Canadians to join them by wearing a hijab, turban, kippa or crucifix for a day.

International media’s attention has largely been on Myanmar‘s extremist Buddhist movement but Sri Lanka has an equally chauvinistic and extremist movement (Bodu Bela Sena) which has escalated activities over the past several years.

New America Media, News Report, Semany Gashaw, Posted: Jan 10, 2014

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Pearl Abdo, a mother of seven children in San Jose, lived one of her worst fears: the bullying of her children in school for being Muslim.

Aitazaz Hasan Bangash shouldn’t have had to lay down his life for his fellow students as he went to school but he did not flinch when the fateful moment arrived. His courage and strength which would have been of great benefit to his people and nation preserved the lives and limbs of hundreds.

by Bob Pitt

A racist who admitted posting a video online showing someone in a Ku Klux Klan costume hanging a life-size golliwog doll was this afternoon jailed for one year.

“There’s so much more of a focus in the news at the moment about immigrants… it’s a real discussion topic and children aren’t immune to the conversations that happen around them,” Sue Minto, head of ChildLine, told The Independent on Wednesday, December 8.

A top Sweden Democrat defending a racism-accused colleague has claimed the Koran states that “rape is a Muslim form of punishment”. The prime minister quickly joined a choir of critics and said it illustrated the minority party’s us-versus-them rhetoric.

“They’re not really Arab, let’s turn them into our allies.”

This should go down well with our Christian readers: Coalition Whip MK Yariv Levin (Likud) is initiating a series of bills, as well as political maneuvering, to favor Israeli Christian citizens over Muslims.

My question for Steven Emerson: “Are you going to publically renounce Berko’s Islamophobia, anti-Arab prejudice, and blatant inaccuracies?”

Like his other controversial statements, this is nothing new for Robertson, who explained to an Arkansas congregation, in 2008, what would “do in the Muslims,” as well as “the Chinese,” and that Muslims are “famous for murder.

By Rick Couri (News Talk Radio KRMG.com)

The woman was headed to a sandwich shop when the incident began. She pulled in next to Stuart Manning but he became upset when he thought she parked too close to his car.

African Americans in the heart of Michigan’s auto industry built the mosque I attended as a child. In the tide and tumult of the civil rights movement, Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad inspired them first to join the Nation of Islam, and later Sunni Islam.

World Bulletin / News Desk

An investigation has begun after Nazi Swastika symbols were spray painted on to the entrance of a mosque in Sweden’s capital Stockholm on Thursday.

An angry mob on Friday destroyed a third mosque near Bangui, the violence-wracked capital of the Central African Republic (CAR). The destroyed mosque had served a modest Muslim community of about 100 members in Bassekotto, located 7km from Bangui.

by Ilisha

As we’ve noted before, Robert Spencer seems to have an unhealthy obsession with Reza Aslan. Sadly for Spencer, his interest is not reciprocated.

Speaking on BBC Radio 2 on Monday, the Ukip leader appeared to amend his earlier position on allowing in refugees by suggesting it should not apply to Muslims.

Mounties evacuated gatherers at a North Vancouver mosque Monday evening after police received a call there was a bomb in the building.Officers and a police dog searched the building in the 300-block of Lynn Avenue into the night but have not yet found any trace of explosives, said North Vancouver RCMP Spokesman Cpl. Richard De Jong.

By Daniel Howden, (The Guardian)

When violence erupted two weeks ago in the world’s youngest country, one of the first voices to speak out, before the US president or the head of the United Nations, was that of the Hollywood actor George Clooney.

Des Dômes Et Des Minarets reports that on Sunday night a number of Muslim-owned buildings in the town of Vendôme, in the Loir-et-Cher department in central France, suffered graffiti attacks.

Yusef Lateef, a Grammy Award-winning multi-instrumentalist, composer and educator who brought the sounds of world music to jazz and became one of the first jazz musicians to convert to the teachings of Islam, has died. He was 93.

About 1,000 Jewish volunteers from several congregations are expected to join local Muslims Wednesday for Mitzvah Day, the largest single day of volunteering by the local Jewish community. The Michigan Muslim Community Council is coordinating volunteers from its communities.

by Peter Stanners

Dansk Folkeparti (DF) will vote against the bi-annual citizenship law that will grant Danish citizenship to around 1,600 individuals later this week because the list contains the names of too many Muslim immigrants.

By Matt Coker

Nearly half of California’s Muslim students say they have been subjected to some form of bias-based bullying, according to a first-ever report released Thursday.

Rising Islamophobia is not merely a spontaneous outgrowth of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. An astonishing assortment of billionaires have channeled their resources into spreading fear and hatred of Islam and Muslims. It’s no coincidence that many of the key players are also fanatical Zionists.

Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) appeared at a David Horowitz Freedom Center function last month where he agreed with a co-panelist who said Obama may be a secret Muslim, or is at least acting like one.

By Jai Singh

“STUDENT RIGHTS” AND THE NEOCONSERVATIVE “HENRY JACKSON SOCIETY”

The supremacist anti-Muslim ideologue, Geert Wilders, was recently in the news for creating a sticker that mocks the Saudi Arabian flag with the words, “Islam is a lie. Mohammed is a criminal. The Koran is poison.” The fact that Wilders would create this sticker is not exactly news and his target is as usual, European Muslims.

The roof of the Grade II-listed Moorish building was leaking; there was serious damage to the eastern wall, where the ark held the Torah scrolls; and there was no way the modest subscriptions paid annually by the temple’s 45 members could cover the cost.

Al-Aqsa Mosque Director Sheikh Najeh Bakirat has denounced the burning of the holy Quran and insults to Islam’s Prophet Muhammad by Israeli football fans in the northern Israeli city of Sakhnin on Wednesday.

A local Islamic center has been targeted by vandals. Explicit language, derogatory symbols, and lines have been spray-painted on two exterior walls and the entrance sign of the center, located in Green Valley near U.S. Route 460.

Islamophobic groups, motivated by a hatred for Islam and a sort of twisted “Judeo-Christian” supremacist belief are targeting social studies programs and the historical approach to studying Islam as a world religion in public schools.

Police are investigating claims a minority of away Boro fans ripped up copies of the Qu’ran – the holy text of Islam – during the team’s 2-2 draw at St Andrew’s last week.

As Channel 4 reported last week the sudden furore over gender segregation in universities, which eventually saw the Prime Minister call for segregation to be banned even when it is voluntary, was sparked by a report produced by an organisation called ‘Student Rights’.

Omar Sacirbey, a journalist for the Religion News Service has a blog post summarizing Islamophobia and Muslim news over the past week in which he gives us a very nice commendation.

by Roberta Gutwein and Zubaida Ibrahim

Shortly before Christmas 2010, a small group of Jewish and Muslim families made plans to work together to help the needy on Christmas Day.

Alabama’s state board of education delayed an approval vote on 12 middle school history textbooks last week after the anti-Muslim groups Eagle Forum of Alabama and ACT! For America claimed that the books promoted Islam over Christianity.

While some groups are giving Ray Kelly this kind of reception at his lectures, the “Muslim Advisory Council” thought it was a good idea to reward the former NYPD chief spy. Many Muslims are appalled by the group’s action with CAIR-NY describing it as a “cheap political stunt.”

The dramatic events in the Central African Republic no doubt seem distant and complex for a North American audience. CAR is geographically as large as France, but with a population of only 4.5 million (similar to Lebanon or Costa Rica). It consists roughly of 25% Muslim, 25% Protestant Christian, 25% Catholic Christian, and 25% adherents of African faiths.

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) To the surprise of Christian residents in Zamboanga city in Santa Catalina district, their Muslim neighbors have been championing efforts to rebuild a catholic church, carrying carpenters tools, sawing lumber and driving in nails to rebuild the chapel.

Several readers recently asked us to check a claim that’s been spreading widely through chain emails and on social media — that the Obama administration is pursuing a “nationwide Muslim outreach program for children” in grades K through 12.

By NewsWeekPakistan

Some 700 members and supporters of Greek neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn protested in Athens on Saturday against the construction of the capital’s first official mosque.

Saudi Arabia’s grand mufti branded suicide bombers as “criminals” who will go to “hell,” Al-Hayat daily reported Thursday. Suicide bombings are “great crimes” and bombers are “criminals who rush themselves to hell by their actions,” Sheikh said during a lecture in Riyadh a few days ago, according to Al-Hayat.

The last time we ran into Orit Arfa, she and her pal Jessica Felber, were giving an award to anti-Muslim Islamophobic duo Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer.

By Zaid Ali and Laura King (LA Times)

SANA, Yemen — Anger over the American drone campaign against militants in Yemen swelled Friday with word that most of those killed in a strike a day earlier were civilians in a wedding party.

by Ilisha

An Islamic society wants to host a university event where–gasp!–men and women are seated separately. Suddenly this minor event is major news in the UK.

Robert Irwin is a widely-published author of both fiction and non-fiction works on the Arab world. He taught Medieval History at the University of St. Andrews and also lectured on Arabic and Middle Eastern History at the universities of London, Cambridge and Oxford.

LOS ANGELES, December 9, 2013—Hanukkah 2013 is now in the history books as America shifted its focus to Pearl Harbor Day, the Winter Solstice, Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Before leaving Hanukkah behind, it is worth commemorating a very special occurrence that made this Hanukkah like no other.

By Josh Saul

A man acquitted of attempted murder after shooting four members of a Borough Park community-watch group in self-defense says his attackers were yelling, “Kill him, he’s a f–king Muslim!”

By Stephanie Dubois

Edmonton police have approved a design for a hijab headscarf for female officers of Muslim faith. The hijab design covers the head and neck, but not the face, according to a press release issued Friday.

Details of the assault on Imam Hafiz Salih, 60, have only just emerged. His son Ateeq Salih said his father was driving home last Saturday evening from his daughter’s house next to the Hull Mosque and Islamic Centre when two men and a woman tried to stop his car.

Dutch anti-Muslim racist Geert Wilders has published an open letter to the Pope…Wilders urges, Pope Francis should “defend the West’s Judeo-Christian and humanistic civilization” and “speak the truth about Islam – the largest threat to mankind in this present age”.

Pamela Geller is telling her fellow anti-Muslim activists to convince Congress to reject a resolution “urging the Government of Burma to end the persecution of the Rohingya people and respect internationally recognized human rights for all ethnic and religious minority groups within Burma.”

The image above was posted on the right-wing website, FreePatriot.org, in an article titled “Muslim Mob Justice–15 year old girl thrown from Third Floor window.”

by Mark Adomanis (Forbes)

Earlier this week Daniel Pipes had a piece in the Washington Times about Russia’s rapid transformation into a Muslim-dominated society. The piece makes a number of arguments, but its central thesis is the following.

The British government tried to cover its tracks. But a new cache of documents Robert Spencer and I have received in our battle to overturn our being banned from Britain reveal that a chief reason why we were banned from the country was because we strongly support Israel…

A YMCA in St. Paul, Minnesota recently teamed up with the St. Paul Police Department to offer a swim class for Somali-American girls. The class respects the girls’ religious beliefs, and Minneapolis Star Tribune recently reported on the need for the program and its success.

Richard Eaton is the Wikipedia, the Google and, many would argue, the last word on medieval and Islamic history in India. His bibliography is too vast to list, but the vast repertoire includes Islamic History As Global History, The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204 -1760 and Social History of the Deccan, 1300 -1761: Eight Indian Lives.

TEENAGE thugs bashed a young Muslim girl wearing a hijab in what has been described as a racial attack in Wantirna South. The high school student was walking home from Westfield Knox along Stud Rd when she was set upon by a group of teenagers, according to Knox councillor Joe Cossari, who said it was a racial attack.

Last November, we posted what turned out to be a very popular article about Abdul Hadi Palazzi’s apparent conversion to Hinduism. For years he enjoyed notoriety for his novel stance on Zionism. Palazzi claimed to be a Muslim and an Islamic scholar.

Notice the messages seem to assume Muslims are not native to Ireland, suggesting they should “go back” to where they came from. Although it is true many Muslims are immigrants, this attitude seems to trace back to the notion Islam is alien–and frightening.

Simply dismissing people’s fears and concerns as bigotry is not going to solve the problem. Suppressing expression of these concerns only drives them deeper, and in some cases, fuels anger, hatred, and even violence. Muslims who are on the receiving end of growing resentment also have legitimate concerns.

She will take up the post next year but has already been the target of abuse by users on xenophobic online forums and Twitter who have slammed Jackelén for her beliefs and even her hairstyle.

Daniel Streich was a member of then Swiss People’s Party (SVP) in Switzerland. A well-known politician, Streich led the calls for a ban on minarets across Switzerland. He was active in building anti-Muslim sentiments throughout Switzerland. This sustained campaign led to him being given a high ranking position in the Swiss Army.

Five years ago, A Common Word between Us and You began as an interfaith initiative to strengthen ties between Muslims and Christians. Since that time, more than a hundred scholars and faith leaders have signed the initial letter.

MOSCOW — No more mosques will be built in Moscow, despite the huge crowds that swamp the city’s four public mosques on Muslim holidays, because they are mainly used by temporary workers, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin has decided.

Speaking in Parliament Thursday, Golden Dawn MP Ilias Panayiotaros said that plans to build a place of worship for Greece’s Muslim community were a “provocation” for Greeks, saying that the project should be put to a national referendum.

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Wednesday

On today’s 700 Club, Pat Robertson defended a viewer who told him that she asked a neighbor who was staying with her to leave her house after finding out he was a Muslim.

By Eric W. Dolan

Anti-Islam activist and blogger Pamela Geller lashed out at Pope Francis on Tuesday, claiming he condoned violence against Christians.

By Hesham Hassaballa, Patheos

The infamous Islamophobe David Gaubatz, in announcing his retirement via email to his supporters, admitted what most have suspected: That the majority of anti-Islam groups simply exist to make money.

BY NEHA SAHGAL, PEW Research Center

A new study by Carnegie Mellon University found that in the most Republican states in the country, employers may be less likely to interview job candidates whose social networking profiles indicate that the applicants are Muslim.

Two of the city’s Bravest, Anthony Harper and Rolando Romero, say they were subjected to harsh treatment that included exclusion, slurs and physical assault. They both have filed notices of claim informing the city of their intent to sue for at least $5 million each.

In a previous article I noted that the so-called “counterjihad” is really a confederacy of covetous and ideologically opposed individuals and groups with inflated egos loosely united by hate for, and an irrational fear of, Islam and Muslims.

The graffiti also includes a line that reads, ‘Stop driving taxis!’ The vandalized ad was originally found and captured by New York photographer Robert Gerhardt on the downtown platform of the Buhre Avenue 6 train stop in the Pelham Bay section of the Bronx.

Glenn Greenwald, the civil rights attorney and journalist who helped reveal evidence that the U.S. was spying on its citizens and allies, said it’s crucial to safeguard the civil liberties of American Muslims to ensure the rights of all Americans.

Israeli occupation forces have been busy lately in the West Bank city of Nablus. Last week, they demolished a water reservoir serving the Kherbit al-Taweel, southeast of Nablus. Demolition orders have also been issued for a several structures in a park in the village of Burqa.

“Despite the shocking nature of the crimes committed, the EMB enjoins Muslims not to respond to the provocation, unless by peaceful and legal means, in accordance with what Islam advocates,” Semsettin Ugurlu, the chairman of the Muslim Executive of Belgium (EMB), said in a statement cited by Saphir News.

A federal judge ruled on Friday that targets of the NYPD’s surveillance of Muslims can probe the department’s files. Brooklyn U.S. District Judge Pamela Chen’s order comes at an early phase of a lawsuit against the NYPD, one of three such ongoing legal efforts.

An anonymous donor in Utah’s Islamic community will match donations up to $100,000 for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ typhoon relief efforts in the Philippines.

Spencer’s usual claim is that he is opposed to Islam and those it inspires to violence, not to Muslims as such, and on occasion he will even say that he welcomes attempts by Muslim reformers to reframe their faith in non-violent terms.

The Christian American Patriots Militia is openly calling for the assassination of President Barack Obama on their Facebook page. The Christian militia calls Obama a “dictator,” and claims the “authority to kill Obama comes from the 2nd Amendment of our Constitution.”

“The process of legalization of Islam has not been approved by the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, their mosques would be closed until further notice,” Rosa Cruz e Silva, the Angolan Minister of Culture, was quoted by Agence Ecofin on Friday, November 22.

A deal at last. An interim deal that still has to be finalized, but nevertheless, this is another setback for warmongers in both Israel and Saudi Arabia, as well as hawks who have long occupied Western capitals. The anticipated easing of sanctions which have strangled Iran for far too long is another huge dividend of this agreement.

Pop Francis is winning high praise from many Muslims these days: Muslim leader says Pope Francis ‘resonates with the Muslim world’. The president of the Islamic Affairs Council of Maryland offered high praise for Pope Francis, saying the Catholic leader “resonates with the Muslim world,” much like the saint from whom he takes his name.

Even those who are most eager to see the Assad regime deposed are highly skeptical of Western intervention. As we’ve seen many times before, so-called “humanitarian intervention” may very well ensnare Syria in yet another sinister plot cooked up by the imperial powers.

srael’s blockade of Gaza has long been known for it’s cruel results in strangling the population. But two recent happenings – namely Egypt’s destruction of Gaza’s smuggling tunnels and Israel’s decision ratchet up the blockade by blocking construction materials – have made Gaza virtually “uninhabitable,” according to the UN.

The resolution called for the government to provide equal access to citizenship, to free political prisoners, and to crackdown on Buddhist violence against the Rohingya and other Muslims in the southeast Asian country.

Warning: some viewers may find the video quite disturbing. Shocking video footage has emerged of a suspected racist or Islamophobic shooting on the Moscow metro as two men armed with handguns attacked another passenger.

Two men who set fire to a Gloucester mosque were former members of the EDL, a court heard. Clive Michael Ceronne, 37, from Gloucester, and Ashley Henry Juggins, 21, from Cheltenham, had both been on the controversial group’s marches prior to starting the blaze at the Masjid-E-Noor in the city’s Ryecroft Street.

When I pointed out the prevalence of anti-Semitism and homophobia within British Muslim communities earlier this year, I was accused by some of my co-religionists of “selling out”, of “fuelling Islamophobia”.

Delhi–The Hindu Hriday Samrat (“Emperor of Hindu Hearts”) of the Shiva Sena has surely perishedbut the divisive politics of regional and religious chauvinism which he bred and propounded for decades will undoubtedly be carried forth by the Shiv Sainiks for years to come.

L’Alsace reports that on Sunday morning graffiti attacking Muslims and French president François Hollande was discovered on the wall of a disused service station on the road between Hirtzbach and Carspach in Haut-Rhin, having been sprayed on the previous night.

We have already covered the backlash against a plan to establish Tahiti’s first mosque, resulting in its closure shortly after opening and death threats directed against its imam, Hishan el-Barkani. Des Dômes Et Des Minarets draws our attention to a 400-strong anti-mosque demonstration that took place last weekend in Papeete, the capital of French Polynesia.

Israeli sources reported Sunday [November 17, 2013] that a number of extremist Israeli youths invaded an Islamic graveyard in occupied Jerusalem, broke tombstones and wrote racist graffiti on tombstones and buildings adjacent to the graveyard.

The scholar recounts his brief detention and interrogation at JFK airport. On the evening of November 13, I flew back from Gwangju, South Korea – where I was invited to participate in Gwangju Biennale – to JFK airport in New York.

by Rabbi Marc Schneier and Russell Simmons for Huffpo

There is a widely accepted belief that Muslims and Jews are enemies and will always remain so. However, nothing could be further from the truth.

In a historic advancement for the LGBT rights movement, the Senate on Thursday approved ENDA, a bill that protects against workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

The only “liberals who have lost touch with what the ideas they positively stand for” as Alan Johnson put it are the so-called “9/11 liberals,” including individuals he cited, such as Paul Berman.

It is worth noting that Yaxley-Lennon himself is already on record as giving an interview to the Norwegian media in which he publicly praised Anders Breivik, promoted Breivik’s manifesto, and claimed Breivik’s mass-murdering terrorist attack would have been “easier to justify” if the people killed had been Muslims.

The discrimination and in some cases persecution of any religious group is no doubt an affront to Islam but many Christian websites and Islamophobic groups are guilty of ratcheting up hostility and fears of Islam and Muslims with dubious stats that not only don’t tell the whole story but skew reality.

“Because of its specific association with Sufism and its ensuing identification with Islam, dervishhood is an order comprised almost exclusively of Muslim practitioners. The two Jewish dervishes pictured here in this rare photograph are among the very few who had successfully been integrated into the order without converting to Islam.

by Elizabeth Lee

LOS ANGELES — For decades, Arab actors have been successful in Hollywood. Among the most successful are Omar Sharif, Tony Shalhoub, and F. Murray Abraham; the latter won an Academy Award for his role in Mozart.

Dave Gaubatz, author of the book Muslim Mafia, reportedly sent an email to his supporters on Saturday announcing his retirement from his fight “to expose Pure Islam” and explaining his reasons for quitting.

Iraqi War vet, Sean Bujno, who is suing to use the license plates “ICUHAJI,” had his case dismissed for a second time by a circuit court judge. The license plate is deemed offensive and racist towards certain groups, such as Arabs and Muslims. Bujno’s attorney say it a First Amendment issue.

The total is now up to 24 the number of complaints filed by Muslim employees against DHL Global Mail allegedly for praying at work. Mohamed Maow, fired from DHL Global Mail in Hebron, Kentucky, is the latest person to file a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

by Jacob Hausner

The US military’s “Islam problem” captured news headlines even before Wired.com ‘s 2012 breaking story about a military course teaching soldiers that the USA was at “war with Islam.”

SOFIA – In an effort to protect the religious minority, Bulgaria’s police forces have stepped up security in streets nearby Sofia’s Banya Bashi mosque, after a young Muslim was brutally attacked near the landmark mosque. The decision came after anonymous men attacked a 28-year-old man of Turkish origin, beating him up in Sofia on Saturday.

By Matthieu Aikins (Rolling Stone)

The video was floating around on Afghan social media pages, but has since apparently been removed. The Americans are visible around the one-minute mark.

The above photo was taken in Sarajevo in 1941, showing a Muslim woman walking with her Jewish neighbor and covering her yellow star with her veil. “The Jewish family was actually staying with the Muslim family after their home was destroyed.

The leader of France’s nationalist Front National is meeting Geert Wilders, leader of the Dutch anti-Islam party PVV, on Tuesday and the two will hold a joint press conference about their plans for the European elections.

Has it come to this? Municipal employees in upscale Hampstead, in Montreal, have never been known to wear their religious beliefs on their sleeves. But Mayor William Steinberg tells the Montreal Gazette that some want to start sporting banned religious symbols if Bill 60, Quebec’s odious charter of “state secularism,” becomes law.

In the summer of 2011, Rebecca Watson found herself alone in an elevator with a man at an atheist convention. The man propositioned her, and the encounter made her uncomfortable. She decided to use the incident as an example of how not to behave at a public event, where she believed women were entitled to feel safe and comfortable.

We devote a great deal of our resources to countering the shrill voices of the looniverse. It’s been more than a decade since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the opportunists who seized upon the horrors of that day in 2001 have arguably reached their zenith and begun their inevitable decline.

Today is Muhammad Iqbal’s 136th birthday, which was celebrated with much revelry and reverence. We are swimming in a very different historical moment. We live in a time when, sadly, “Muslim thinker” will strike many as an oxymoron. Yet Muhammad Iqbal was arguably one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th century.

Via CNN

Arsalan Iftikhar (senior editor for The Islamic Monthly) speaks with CNN anchor Carol Costello about why LAX airport shooter Paul Anthony Ciancia should be considered a “terrorist”.

The Front National has been enjoying a surge in popularity with a poll suggesting 24% of the French populace backs the fascist party. That may change however after the leader of the FN, Marine Le Pen, remarked that a group of freed French hostages have “astonishing beards” and could have “Stockholm syndrome,” i.e. they may be secret Muslims.

With most superheroes, when you take away the colorful costume, mask and cape, what you find underneath is a white man. But not always. In February, as part of a continuing effort to diversify its offerings, Marvel Comics will begin a series whose lead character, Kamala Khan, is a teenage Muslim girl living in Jersey City.

By Chris Joseph

Parents upset about a history textbook that they say emphasizes Islam more than other religions protested outside Volusia County school district headquarters.

A mosque in Cairns in far north Queensland has been targeted by vandals. The front of the Cairns North mosque was sprayed with large red letters early yesterday, calling for the worshippers to “integrate” or return to their “homelands”.

The protest took place on Unity Day, a national holiday established in 2005 to replace commemorations of the Bolshevik Revolution. Many demonstrators carried Russian imperial flags. One group displayed a banner reading “Young People Against Tolerance.”

“Homeland” has, or more precisely, has had, a lot to recommend it. The show’s depiction of Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis) and his conflicted feelings about America and its role in the world — and the actions he took against America in the show’s early going — were among the most realistic depictions of the contemporary state of villainy available on TV.

By ASHLEY JOST

The Islamic Center of Central Missouri celebrated its 30-year anniversary by challenging members and others in the community to help prepackage 30,000 meals to send to children in need overseas.

In a new report that makes contextualizes the torturous force-feeding of Gitmo hunger strikers, it has been revealed that under CIA and DoD orders, doctors tortured terror suspects to gain intel after 9/11.

By Matt Chorley, Mailonline Political Editor

Boris Johnson has boasted of being the first Mayor of London of ‘Muslim extraction’ as he sought to attract billions of pounds of Arab money for the capital.

Regular readers will be aware that the United Kingdom’s Home Secretary has banned the American anti-Muslim propagandists Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller from entering the UK. Spencer and Geller had intended to speak at the English Defence League’s demonstration in London on 29 June 2013.

Dion says she does so because “foreigners” (all Muslims are by default “foreigners“) need to adapt to “our country” (If you’re a Muslim born in Canada you still aren’t Canadian) that has been so “hospitable” to them.

The un-elected regime in Saudi Arabia has no authority over the global Muslim community. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean that the global Muslim community isn’t widely judged by the behavior of the Saudi regime. In fact, the misdeeds of the regime are often trotted out as an indictment of Muslims and Islam as a whole.

A new lawsuit filed Friday in Brooklyn Federal Court charges that a 10-year-old Brooklyn boy was called a “terrorist” and banned from boarding a bus when he recited a Muslim prayer in Arabic after losing his MetroCard.

While I appreciate this article from Imagine2050 exposing Geller and her ilk, my one slight critique would be that they seem to unintentionally buy into the whole narrative of “moderate Muslim” (i.e. good Muslims) vs. bad Muslims.

Four AK Party deputies, Sevde Bayazıt Kaçar, Gönül Bekin Şahkulubey, Nurcan Dalbudak and Gülay Samancı, announced that they had decided to cover their heads in line with their religious beliefs after performing hajj in Mecca in October.

Critical to the success of ISIS’s efforts and the endless self-promotion of its president, David Albright, are the dutiful stenographers in the media who eagerly promote to large audiences their claims as unchallenged fact, without even a shred of skepticism or hint of journalistic integrity.

Prof. Asad Q. Ahmed follows his debate with an article in which he further explains his historical analysis and thesis regarding the origin of the “decline narrative” and the reasons for the present state of rational sciences in Muslim majority countries.

Following Génération Identitaire’s anti-Muslim stunt in the Lorraine capital of Metz, two other Islamophobic groups held an anti-mosque protest in the city last Saturday. Thankfully, as you can see from the photo, it didn’t attract much of a turnout.

by Bob Pitt

Footage of a man wanted in connection with an attempted arson attack at a mosque has been released by the police.

Des Dômes Et Des Minarets reports on the latest anti-Muslim initiative from the French far-right group Génération Identitaire, who were responsible for a widely publicised occupation of a mosquein Poitiers last year (and presumably also for the anti-Islam banner hung from the same building earlier this month).

Last March, we cross posted the story from Wajahat Ali’s blog: Goat Milk: Death by tweet? How Hamza Kashgari’s fate will shape the face of Islam today. Arrested in February of last year, he spent 20 months in jail facing charges of apostasy and a possible death sentence for an “offensive” Tweet.

By BAYLY WINDER

Several weeks ago, my political science professor asked the class, “What is the biggest problem the U.S. government has with Indonesia?” One student replied, “The Muslim majority.”

WASHINGTON — He thought little of the U.S. drone buzzing over his family’s house one day last year, its incessant sound just one more addition to the rhythm of daily life in northwest Pakistan.

Barely a century after the life of Muhammad, a gold coin was minted in Anglo-Saxon England, bearing the inscription ‘there is no God but Allah alone’. This series tells the rich, under-told and often surprising story of Islam in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, beginning with King Offa of Mercia and this enigmatic gold coin.

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM)

A decision by Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez to allow Muslim inmates in the Dallas County Jail to receive special meals during Ramadan has sparked controversy.

(Delaware Online)

Hours after vandalism was discovered at the Islamic Center of Delaware, the afternoon prayers by religious leaders there carried a message of peace.

BBC News

Two undercover white reporters, one a Muslim in traditional dress, traveled across the city to inquire about 40 jobs being advertised in shop windows.

We have already noted the Times‘ misleading report of the assault on US student Francesco Hounye, which tried to link the attack to earlier incidents involving the so-called Muslim patrol, in the absence of any evidence whatsoever to indicate such a connection.

When Keith Ellison ran for Congress he was incessantly attacked by the Islamophobia industry. For years he was assaulted by hostile Conservative organizations and lobbyists as a “stealth Jihadist.”His victories were viewed as a sign of “creeping Islamization.”

The Collectif contre l’Islamophobie en France points out that it was just the latest in a series of shock covers about Islam, and not only inl’Express. It shows a shop window with mannequins with headscarves, accompanied by the headline “Islam, the danger of communalism”, which as the CCIF points out suggests that the mere act of wearing the hijab represents a threat to social cohesion.

TIME

The biggest donor to Republican Party political groups said Tuesday that the United States should drop a nuclear bomb on Iran to spur the country to end its own nuclear program.

A Dutch politician who once helped produce a film depicting Islam as evil and extreme has performed the Hajj after declaring his conversion to the religion earlier this year.

When Jedediah Stout, 29, was charged Friday with two arson attempts at the Joplin, Missouri, clinic on October 3 and 4, authorities made no mention of his suspected involvement in an August 6, 2012, blaze that gutted the Islamic Society of Joplin mosque.

By Garibaldi

We have noted the unstable nature of the “counter-jihad” fascist movement since the day Loonwatch began. Cracks and fissures between various groups and websites were apparent from the start.

Two influential human rights groups say they have freshly documented dozens of civilian deaths in U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen, contradicting assertions by the Obama administration that such casualties are rare.

However despite the group’s grand relaunching of its anti-Halal agitation, the campaign is unlikely to make waves until CHOGM is concluded in Colombo in mid November, sources told Colombo Telegraph.

BBC

Mohammed Saleem was stabbed by Pavlo Lapshyn in Small Heath on 29 April, less than a week after Lapshyn had arrived in the UK.

BY ZACHARY REID Richmond Times-Dispatch

Nameera Perwez picked up on her lesson fast, and she was eager to put it in action.

RNS () — The Council on American-Islamic Relations has hired a Jewish filmmaker and interfaith activist as executive director of the advocacy group’s Philadelphia office. Jacob Bender is the highest ranking non-Muslim in the Washington-based organization, and the first to lead one of its chapters.

In an era of narcissistic self-obsession, there’s something to be said for the value of self-awareness. This week, atheist philosopher Sam Harris leapt forward to claim Malala Yousafzai as another trophy in his one-man jihad against Muslims and the weak-kneed “Muslim-apologists” he perceives on the left.

After a new mayor takes office in New York City next year, schoolchildren could very well have an additional two days off in observance of Muslim holidays. Both mayoral candidates, Democrat Bill de Blasio and Republican Joe Lhota, say they support the idea.

(Denver Westword Blog)

Christopher Lucki’s moniker definitely doesn’t apply to his current problems with the law.

MOSCOW — Moscow is now home to 2 million Muslims – more than any other city in Europe. So when the faithful gathered Tuesday for the start of the Eid al-Adha holiday, tens of thousands of men unrolled their prayer mats on the asphalt of Moscow’s streets. Last year, they prayed outside in rain and snow.

Representatives of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatars and the Crimean Muftiate (the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Crimea) are shocked by recent attacks on mosques in Crimea and are demanding that the law enforcement agencies take decisive measures to uncover these crimes.

The Muslim community in Poland decided to refrain from the Eid Al-Adha tradition this year due to a new law that Muslim and Jewish groups are describing as a violation of their Constitutional rights.

by Assed Baig, Huffpo UK

When Malala Yusufzai was shot in the head by Taliban gunmen simply because she wanted to gain an education it sent shockwaves around the world.

Days before the 12th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks, 40 members of the San Angelo, Texas Tea Party gathered to discuss the purported threat of Muslims in America.

A round of applause for “Fox & Friends” host Anna Kooiman. Two weekends ago, she committed the inexcusable error of taking seriously a “story” on the Web site of the National Reporter saying that President Obama had dug into his own pocket to fund the International Museum of Muslim Cultures.

(Americans United)

One Alabama high school decided this year to offer an Arabic language class in place of a French course, and that has a number of local residents crying: “Sacre bleu!”

On other holidays, the choice has been difficult: Education or faith? But this year, with the Muslim holy day of Eid al-Adha on Tuesday, the Shraim family decided against school. Their teenagers might fall behind in their classes. They might feel torn. But they will stay home to celebrate.

Angered by the closure of national landmarks due to the partial government shutdown, a crowd of conservatives removed barricades Sunday at the World War II Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial as they rallied against President Barack Obama and Democrats for their role in the ongoing stalemate.

Arabic and Hebrew Love Poems in al-Andalus investigates a largely overlooked subset of Muslim and Jewish love poetry in medieval Spain: hetero- and home-erotic love poems written by Muslim and Jewish religious scholars, in which the lover and his sensual experience of the beloved are compared to scriptural characters and storylines.

President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama met in the Oval Office Friday with Malala Yousafzai, the Pakastani girl who was shot in the head on her school bus by Taliban gunmen for criticizing their rule, including banning education for girls.

by JILL MAHONEY

Police have arrested three men and are searching for a fourth after several Muslim students in Kingston, Ont., were attacked in what investigators are calling a hate crime.

In a recent reform package that aims at greater democratization in Turkey the headscarf has been legalized for public officials and civil servants. This was a long battle of over 20 years that has seen the extreme secularists lose to the mainstream of Turkish society; hopefully France can become more democratic and follow Turkey’s example.

A crazed English Defence League supporter from Rowley Regis has been jailed for brandishing an air rifle as he shouted racial abuse at a Muslim family’s home. Neighbours of the Muslim family were terrified after seeing Shaun Havelin, aged 28, screaming and shouting racial taunts with the gun whilst wearing an EDL sweater.

Bachmann let her inner-Dominionist go all out in an interview with the extremist radio show Understanding the Times: Obama is an enemy of the USA who supports Al Qaeda. We are in the End Times. Not to worry though…Jesus is coming back because the “fig leaf is on the tree.”

Sex sells. And al-Qaida is eager to grab attention. But the combination of the two — sex jihad — is simply irresistible. Scores of young women are reportedly offering themselves to jihadists, according to one of the latest horror news stories coming out of Syria.

How ironic to witness Richard Dawkins pseudo-scientifically prattle on about Muslims and Nobel prizes: “All the world’s Muslims have fewer Nobel Prizes than Trinity College, Cambridge” he said, undoubtedly with his nose turned up high in the air and a snobbish English accent.

She’s not a tourist visiting a foreign country, but Melona Clark carries her papers with her at all times — to prove she has permission to wear a hijab.

Hand in hand as many as 200-300 people formed a human chain outside the St Anthony’s Church adjacent to the District Police Lines at the Empress Road, in a show of solidarity with the victims of the Peshawar church attack two weeks back, which resulted in over a 100 deaths.

Fox & Friends Saturday criticized President Obama for offering to personally pay for a “museum of Muslim culture” during the government shutdown, a claim that originated from a satire website.

[He] sais “neither Pagan nor Mahamedan [Muslim] nor Jew ought to be excluded from the civil rights of the Commonwealth because of his religion.”
 — Thomas Jefferson, quoting John Locke, 1776


Bruce Horovitz, USA TODAY

The popular TGI Friday’s restaurant chain has been accused by a Muslim woman of intentionally putting pieces of bacon in her tea.

(Voice)

A WOMAN has been ordered to pay a total of £355 after being found guilty of punching and racially abusing a Somali woman wearing a burka.

by John Geddes

In the early evening of Sept. 17, before dark, a 17-year-old girl strolled from the Al-Noor Mosque in St. Catharines, Ont., to the plaza across the street.

A man was captured on surveillance video stealing a pair of shoes outside a South Florida mosque. The footage shows the man riding his bicycle and practically going shopping for a pair of shoes during Tuesday night’s prayer service at the Pembroke Pines Islamic Center.

MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WMBF) – A worship center in the Grand Strand filed a trespassing complaint after a man drove into their parking lot and made several insulting statements.

Women’s groups are reporting a spike in verbal and physical assaults against veiled Muslim women in Quebec since the introduction of the province’s Charter of Values, evidence that the Parti Québécois’s bid to curb religious symbols in some workplaces is inflaming social tensions.

BARTLETT, TN -(WMC-TV) – A booth at a festival for family fun is sparking outrage in Bartlett. Action News 5 received calls about a booth covered with anti-Muslim displays. One caller was too afraid to go on camera, but stated she found the display inappropriate and offensive.

Smashed windows, arson attacks and anti-Muslim threats have left town centre businessmen claiming Weston has a “very big racist problem” and that they are being targeted because of their nationality.

BY KHIN MAUNG WIN

THANDWE, Myanmar (AP) — Terrified Muslim families hid in forests in western Myanmar on Wednesday, one day after fleeing a new round of deadly sectarian violence that erupted even as the president toured the divided region.

Austria’s far-right Freedom Party gained over one-fifth of the votes in Sunday’s general election, while the ruling two-party centrist coalition got its worst-ever result. The swing comes amid a Europe-wide surge in support for the far right.

BY NATASHA LENNARD

Along with the development of the NYPD’s “mini-CIA” after 9/11 came the shift towards constitution-defying preemptive policing.

A row has broken out over four MPs of Geert Wilders’s Freedom Party who wore badges in the Dutch parliament this week featuring a well-known neo-Nazi insignia which has links to the country’s infamous national socialist party of the 1930s.

It was around 04 o’clock Friday night that a passersby found the pig head outside Central Jamaat-E Ahl-E Sunnat mosque in Oslo. When TV 2 came to the place in the night saw the pig head lying in a trashcan at the mosque, but traces of blood were evident on the stairs at ingangsdøren.

By BART JONES bart.jones@newsday.com

In classrooms where Catholic girls once studied the Bible and prayed the Our Father, young Muslims now study the Quran and pray in Arabic.

Encouraging supporters across the country to “educate” their fellow Americans by entertaining conspiracies about the supposed threat Muslims in America pose to freedom of speech, tomorrow’s events are likely to appeal to extremists of many stripes.

(Telegraph)

Faced with a long afternoon trapped in the house with her five children last Saturday, Katherine Walton decided on a quick excursion – a trip to Nairobi’s popular Westgate Mall.

ST. CATHARINES, Ont. — A teenage girl roughed up by a trio of girls while walking from the mosque said she always felt safe in the community until now. The 17-year-old received a bump on her head, scrapes and minor injuries to her hands and nose during the confrontation.

John McCain and Lindsey Graham have finally found something they disagree about. Two weeks ago, McCain insisted to Fox & Friends derp-machine Brian Kilmeade that, no, “Allahu Akbar” is not something only terrorists say.

By now you have probably already heard of the harem of Tunisian sex-warrior slaves heading to Syria in order to give up their young bodies to the appetites of deprived rebels to fulfill ‘jihad al-Nikkah’ — “Sexual Jihad” — and are coming back to the country with bellies full of Jihadi babies.

HuffingtonPost

Bob Beckel made more anti-Muslim comments on Tuesday’s “The Five” in the wake of the deadly attack on a mall in Kenya.

Throughout his book The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades), professional Islamophobe Robert Spencer misleads the reader by selectively comparing Muhammad to Jesus.

The Islamophobia that is alive in this country – from the anti-Muslim legislation to the illegal spying by the NYPD – casts a wide net on Muslims, citizens and non-citizens, similarly to the way it is casted on immigrants.

Yangon ( AsiaNews / Agencies) – The Dalai Lama has appealed to Burmese Buddhist Monks asking them to act according to the principles of the Buddha, avoiding violence or targeted attacks against the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar.

According to a New York Police Department source, Dr. Prabhjot Singh, who is Sikh and wears a turban and a beard, was attacked at 8:15 p.m. while walking along 110th Street near Lennox Avenue in upper Manhattan.

The menace that is Anders Breivik has not ended with his imprisonment in an IKEA furnished Norwegian jail. The ideology that he embraced, “Counter-Jihad,” continues to inspire misfits, including John Roddy and Tobias Ruth who fancied themselves “Knights Templar” Crusaders.

Outgoing Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg has challenged Siv Jensen, leader of the anti-immigration Progress Party, to publicly apologise for using the term “sneak-islamization”.

(Via CAIR National)

CAIR’s report “Legislating Fear: Islamophobia and its Impact in the United States” is now available. The report’s key findings are the following…

The lawsuit filed Monday against Des Plaines and five of its aldermen is the latest to take on a “knee-jerk reaction to something Islamic or Muslim,” said Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations-Chicago.

By Travis Gettys, Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Judicial Watch founder Larry Klayman has again called for an Egyptian-style coup to remove President Barack Obama from office.

Religious tension in Quebec seems to have boiled over in this video captured on a Montreal city bus.The exclusive clip, obtained by Huffington Post Quebec, was taken Aug. 28. In it, a male passenger angrily tells a woman in a hijab to go back to her own country.

When the criminal is non-Muslim, in this case Alexis was a practicing Buddhist (you know they never commit violence), there is never an assumption or discussion on whether he or she is a “terrorist,” such explanations are reserved for Muslims. Alexis killed as many people as Nidal Hassan.

by Wells Fargo

Anyone who was watching Twitter as they watched the Miss America 2014 pageant saw a pretty ugly sight as the winner was announced.

Woman alleges she and family were verbally assaulted and spit on while shopping. A Muslim woman says she and her family were verbally assaulted, her son was spit on and they were told to “change your religion” while on a recent trip at a Quebec City shopping centre.

Paranoid anti-Muslim savior of western civilization Pam Geller must go through a lot of undies, considering her ability to soil them at the slightest hint of MUSLIM JIHAD TERROR.

The rabbi of Nashville’s largest and longest-practicing synagogue used the most holy night of the Jewish year to invite his congregation on an unusual trip.Going to the beleaguered mosque in Murfreesboro, he told them Friday, is part of Yom Kippur’s call to introspection.

Jon Stewart has seen some crazy political stunts, but Michele Bachmann, Steve King, and Louis Gohmert holding a joint press conference in Egypt was just too much for him. Stewart sighed, facepalmed, and begged to the comedy gods, “Please be a Jimmy Kimmel prank…”

By Tesla Rodriquez l tesla.rodriquez@winonadailynews.com

Winona Islamic Center founder Ahmed El-Afandi sat at a table Friday at Central Lutheran Church in Winona, exhausted but not without his voice, which he used to pass praise as far and wide as he could.

TORONTO – A Canadian Muslim organization is calling on Ottawa to spell out how it decides whether to allow controversial foreign speakers into the country ahead of a planned appearance by two conservative American bloggers.

I’m always surprised at hypocritical Islamophobes who will not fail to report on whether a Muslim picks his nose but have no time for injustices carried out in the name of their own faith.

(WMNF.org) The executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Tampa, Hassan Shibly, told WMNF he found burnt pages from the Quran outside the CAIR Tampa office Thursday morning. He later posted a photo of the charred remains on […]

One of the more ridiculous outcomes of Watters’ jaunt into Muslimville, USA was the conversation O’Reilly and Watters had afterwards in which they claimed that all terrorists (or most) today are Muslims and Christians never commit acts of terror.

By Alf Gunvald Nilsen (The Guardian)

The results from today’s Norwegian elections are more or less clear: with some 26.8% of the vote, the Conservative party (Høyre) is poised to head Norway’s next coalition government.

VENICE – What was billed as a 9/11 memorial service took on elements of an anti-Islamic rally Wednesday, including a lengthy speech by the leader of what has been labeled an anti-Muslim hate group.

The anti-Muslim violence that erupted in Uttar Pradesh the past few days was instigated by Hindutva activists who forwarded a video they claimed showed Muslims lynching two Hindu men, in fact the video was from Pakistan and had nothing to do with Hindus. T

Youth sports, As part of its widespread surveillance of Muslims and Arabs, the New York Police Department has classified entire mosques as terror cells to monitor them, paid informants to “bait” Muslims into crimes, and spied on Muslim student associations at area universities.

I settled on a rock in Central Park, the New York skyline behind me. A glassy new skyscraper neared completion in its stretch toward the skies. I was striking a few poses in my superhero costume when a young boy perched higher on a rock chimed in.

Opinion by Nathan Lean, special to CNN

(CNN) – The attacks of September 11, 2001, were unthinkable, and are rightfully memorialized with the somber reflection that marks other tragedies of our nation’s past.

According to figures from the Australian Electoral Commission, the party received 38,856 first preference votes, representing 0.37% of the electorate. Of course, the real point of such parties is to gain publicity and to nudge the mainstream parties in a particular direction rather than to win lots of votes…

In a study due to be released in full at the end of the year, economists at the University of Linz in Austria examined whether wearing a headscarf affected women when applying for jobs at German companies.

Shaker Aamer left the comfort of England to do charity work in Afghanistan. He went there to help build schools for girls, which should be applauded by Western governments, especially given their incessant harping on the lack of educational opportunities for women and girls in the region.

By Ellie Bogue of The News-Sentinel

There is a new mosque going up on the south side of Fort Wayne. It’s the first time since the mid-1970s, either inside or outside of Burma that a new Burmese Muslim mosque is being built.

by Sheila Musaji

Just when you think that the Islamophobia echo chamber must have run out of possible nonsensical Muslim jihad plots to discover, they come up with something else.

Hani Khan, a former stockroom worker for Abercrombie & Fitch Co. who was fired for refusing to remove her Muslim headscarf, listens to a question during a news conference in San Francisco, Monday, June 27, 2011.

A microphone reverberated with the deep and sonorous Muslim call to prayer shortly before 2 p.m. Sunday. “Allaaaaaah — uh — Akbar!” An entire congregation bowed its head in prayer — a Jewish synagogue filled with Muslims, Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Sikhs, Hare Krishnas, Mormons, Pentecostals, Greek Orthodox, Baha’i and others.

The screenshot of Wal-Mart employees Facebook post. Photo courtesy of Council on American-Islamic Relations. After a photo was posted with anti-Muslim comments, an employee of the Wal-Mart Supercenter located on Southwestern Boulevard, Hamburg was terminated from his position as assistant manager.

Posted by Kaitlin Glanzer

A group of Muslims from West Hartford and the Farmington Valley will take over use of an empty Episcopal Church building in Avon, according to the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut.

On July 1st, two days before the coup that deposed President Mohamed Morsi, Juan Cole wrote an article titled, How Egypt’s Michele Bachmann Became President and Plunged the Country Into Chaos. The article detailed the major errors that Morsi made in his one year in office and also drew parallels between his movement and the Tea Party…

by Ethan Rothstein

Rock Spring Congregational United Church of Christ and the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center of Falls Church will co-host a “Day for World Peace” service this Sunday.

The Afghan Taliban forced women to wear burqas, and the Tory Taliban wants to force them not to. It seems peculiar to take away women’s freedom to choose their own clothing in the name of granting women greater freedom.

Recently, Aminata Toure became Senegal’s second female Prime Minister, it is unfortunately news that is bound not to make a ripple in the broader media. She is a widely popular figure in Senegal who is best known for her successful anti-corruption campaigns and efficiency.

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — John Catsimatidis says the anti-Muslim rants that reportedly appear on the Facebook page of a retired Port Authority cop featured in one of his TV commercials are wrong, but the Republican mayoral candidate is standing behind the ad’s message.

The controversial Rise Up Australia Party, known for headline-making, anti-Islam and anti-multiculturalism policies, has endorsed Dale Edwards as their candidate for Leichhardt.

In light of the impending strike on Syria, a blast from the not-so-distant past.

Does anyone remember when the USA lied about using Mark 77 incendiary bombs on Iraq, successors to the napalm used in Vietnam?

As the author of the Muslim-conspiracy “Eurabia” thesis, Littman has served as a major source of ideological inspiration to the “counterjihad” movement, not least to the Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik.

The Zubaida Foundation will host the grand opening of its food pantry Saturday in Lower Makefield, organizers said. “The pantry aims to serve the working poor and others who may be homeless,” said Lee Phillips, a spokeswoman for the mosque. “This is part of the mission of Zubaida Foundation to create opportunities for its membership to do hasanaat (good deeds) for the community.”

by TOM KLUDT, TPM

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) pushed back hard Tuesday against a Fox News host who raised concerns over a Syrian rebel’s use of a ubiquitous Islamic phrase.

The Canadian Press

CHICOUTIMI, Que. – Police in Quebec’s Saguenay region have been called in after a local mosque was vandalized over the weekend — splattered with what could be pig blood.

Two comedians are tackling the sensitive topic of Islamophobia in the way they know best: laughter. Negin Farsad and Dean Obeidallah are the co-directors of “The Muslims Are Coming!” which tracks a group of Muslim-American stand-ups as they perform across the country and tackle people’s stereotypes.

by Sheila Musaji

In 2009, Dean Obeidallah wrote The Muslims Are Coming! in which he talked about an early Muslims Are Coming efforts:

by Linda Sarsour

I learned a few days ago that the New York Police Department’s Intelligence Division labeled my non-profit organization a “Terrorism Enterprise.”

Under the headline “Stephen Fry hits back at accusations of Islamophobia”, the Independent on Sunday reported yesterday on the controversy over Stephen Fry’sendorsement of Nick Cohen’s “superb” defence of their fellow atheist Richard Dawkins and his position on Islam.

At a conservative conference this weekend that drew several GOP presidential hopefuls, one of the speakers told the crowd that Republicans have been too nervous to criticize Obama “because the color of his skin is black.”

by Uzma Kolsy (The Guardian)

I was watching President Obama employ his devilish charisma, in routine fashion, on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in early August.

The Daily News reports that the two Muslim teenage sisters say the NYPD ripped off their hijabs and shoved them to the ground after they were ordered to leave a Bronx park Monday night, at the Lester Patterson Houses in Mott Haven.

Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke successfully created a buzz and a backlash by invading our conscience with their bizarre and racialized twerkin’ sketch at the VMA’s. Hoping to once and for all bury her Disney fashioned Hannah Montana persona, Cyrus thought this was a good idea.

Subscribers to various cable TV packages may have noticed a new channel recently, but a New York State assemblyman wants it removed — and is threatening to boycott the provider.

Burlington residents driving down Lexington Street this morning were faced with an upsetting and unsettling sight. It appears someone vandalized the Islamic Center of Burlington’s sign (that is placed at the mosque’s entrance) overnight with white spray paint.

(France 24)

A 16-year-old girl, who filed charges against a pair of skinheads for what she said was an Islamophobic attack on August 12, attempted to commit suicide on Monday by jumping from a window in her apartment block.

BY DAVID SIROTA

“The Muslims are coming!” That is the tongue-in-cheek name of a new documentary by Muslim comedians. But it is also the deadly serious shriek echoing through the American right in response to the launch of Al Jazeera America.

North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory [official website] on Sunday allowed a bill that prohibits North Carolina judges from considering Islamic law in their decisions to become law.

NEW YORK — The New York Police Department has secretly labeled entire mosques as terrorist organizations, a designation that allows police to use informants to record sermons and spy on imams, often without specific evidence of criminal wrongdoing.

Fresh sectarian violence struck north-western Burma yesterday when a 1,000-strong Buddhist mob burned down dozens of Muslim homes and shops following rumours that a young woman had been sexually assaulted by a Muslim man, the police said.

NPR Boston

The Bible has inspired countless works of art: paintings, sculptures and murals that transform the text of Christianity into images.

A man launched a smoke grenade into a mosque and threatened to kill Muslims after he “snapped” following his brother’s death. Geoffrey Ryan, 44, approached the Al-Falah Braintree Islamic Centre, in Silks Way, Braintree, armed with two knives on the evening of May 22.

In Enemies Within, the new book from Pulitzer Prize-winning Associated Press reporters Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman on the NYPD’s indiscriminate and probably illegal spying program, reference is briefly made to a “real yellow cab, complete with an authentic taxi medallion registered under a fake name” used by the department’s intelligence division to conduct surveillance operations.

By DOMINIC GOVER

Terror police are investigating a DVD featuring Nazi propaganda and hardcore pornography which was sent to mosques and Muslim centres in London and around the UK.

Last week, federal Judge Vicki Miles LaGrange issued a permanent order striking down an anti-Islamic amendment to the Oklahoma constitution. Moreover, this order followed asimilar decision by a bipartisan panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit upholding a temporary block on the same amendment.

Ipswich Muslims have defended their faith in the wake of Rise Up Australia Party candidate Anthony Mackin’s calls to eradicate mosques and ban the burka. Mr Mackin, a bible teacher, is the Blair candidate for a party that has banning the burka as one of its key policies.

A government program to screen immigrants for national security concerns has blacklisted some Muslims and put their U.S. citizenship applications on hold for years, civil liberties advocates said Wednesday.

Amina Sboui, a Tunisian activist who was detained for nearly three months, said on Tuesday she had left the radical women’s protest group Femen, accusing it of Islamophobia. “I do not want my name to be associated with an Islamophobic organisation,” she told the Maghreb edition of the Huffington Post.

BY IMRAN AWAN

As has been reported, Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald’s partner, David Miranda, was detained at Heathrow airport this weekend, in London under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

A state law-enforcement board and Lombard officials canceled plans for anti-terrorism trainer Sam Kharoba to teach a class Monday after a Muslim advocacy group labeled him a “Muslim bigot” and claimed he would be “promoting hate.”

STOCKHOLM — Scores of Swedish women from various faiths have posted pictures of themselves online wearing hijabs, or traditional Muslim headscarves, to show solidarity with a Muslim woman who was attacked in a Stockholm suburb for wearing one.

“Since the 1980’s, a shadow has darkened India’s polity and threatened the fundamentals of its social and political existence. This is the Hindutva movement, organized, led and driven by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and its front organizations – the Sangh Parivar.”

In discussions on Egypt, Rios and Gaffney proudly supported the massacre against Cairo anti-Coup sit-ins (predominantly Muslim Brotherhood) in terms that are downright bloody-thirsty, gleeful and exuberant.

ISLAM and immigration have slipped out of Denmark’s political discourse since the centre-left government led by Helle Thorning-Schmidt came to power two years ago and dismantled the ministry for refugees and immigrants. Now they are back in the news, because the country’s first big purpose-built mosque is soon to open its doors.

OKLAHOMA CITY — An Oklahoma constitutional amendment that would bar the state’s courts from considering or using Sharia law was ruled unconstitutional Thursday by a federal judge in Oklahoma City.

A CANDIDATE for the Prime Minister’s seat of Griffith has put outlawing the Islamic faith front and centre of her election campaign, branding it a “religion from hell” and claiming that building mosques in Australia is “high treason”.

Aissetou

This shocking piece was written by a 16 year old girl who lives in the western Parisian suburb of Trappes. It first appeared on HuffPost France. Warning, strong language

Former Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) claimed individuals tied to the Muslim Brotherhood have “infiltrated” President Barack Obama’s administration. “[W]e do have Muslim Brotherhood affiliated groups and individuals infiltrated into this current Obama administration,” West wrote on his Facebook page. “This is serious.”

The appeal of non-violence as a means of social transformation is almost universal. Few deny its awesome power when unleashed with discipline. However, in the face of an impeding danger, especially one known to be as brutal as they come, it takes a lot of courage to remain nonviolent.

By Sabrina Siddiqui

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) coined a new term to describe the push for climate change action: “environmental jihad.”

Anti-Obama ugliness resurges as birther-in-chief Donald Trump joins top Republicans in Iowa. Coincidence? It’s been quite a week for anti-Obama racism. At the Missouri State Fair Sunday, rodeo fans cheered to see a “clown” in an Obama mask get run down by a bull.

Buddhists and Muslims clashed after the attack, and police imposed a curfew in the area.

Last month, a group of Buddhist monks had protested near the mosque, demanding it be relocated.

Richard Dawkins recently ignited a minor furor by pointing out that “All the world’s Muslims have fewer Nobel Prizes than Trinity College, Cambridge”. His defenders rushed to point out that his statement was merely a fact and as such there was nothing bigoted about it whatsoever.

The Missouri State Fair has permanently banned a rodeo clown whose imitation of US President Barack Obama has been widely criticised as disrespectful. In a statement on Monday, fair officials said that the rodeo clown has been barred from ever performing at the fair again.

Muneera and Nour went to the Urban Muslim Woman Show, an annual networking event that took place earlier this summer, in order to meet new contacts who might guide them in their careers. Like many Muslim women, they fear their professional identity may be distorted by the hijab and the presumptions people have about it.

Fox News guest Jonathan Hoenig suggested today that Keith Ellison’s ‘Wall Street transactions tax’ idea could be seen as ‘Sharia creep’ given that Ellison is a practicing Muslim and that, as Hoenig says, Sharia law prohibits trading of derivatives and speculation of any kind.

Placards that read, “No Muslim parking in the Westview Shopping Center” were recently posted outside of a local mall. In addition to issuing the faith-based crack-down, the text also pledged to tow anyone who violates the stated rule. The mysterious messages have since been removed.

One Brevard School Board member believes a textbook used in many ninth-grade classrooms has a pro-Islamic bias, but the board chair said the book was properly vetted before Brevard Schools adopted it. A third board member wants more information.

Momentum is growing in France for a ban on wearing religious symbols in the country’s universities. A new report recommends prohibiting students from wearing religious symbols, such as Christian crucifixes, Jewish Kippah skullcaps and Muslim headscarves.

Mike Huckabee tore into Islam earlier this week, using a recent terror threat that put United States embassies on high alert to suggest that the Muslims were “uncorked animals,” encouraged to be violent by the religion itself.

File this away under “What if this were a Muslim…?” Shimon Gapso, mayor of the Israeli city of Upper Nazareth, has recently published an article for Ha’aretz in which he lays bare his racist and extremist religious ideology. Gapso implicitly endorses a policy of ethnic cleansing, and defends his statements calling for the “Judaization” of his city.

The Italian-American singer/conceptual fashion embryo has been trying to make “burqa swag” happen for a while by traipsing around in burqa-like garments; now, a track that’s allegedly leaked from her forthcoming album ARTPOP indicates that she’s planning on unleashing her cultural appropriation on the innocent ears of America.

Stephanie Banister, a 27-year-old mother of two, is facing criminal charges after allegedly placing anti-Muslim stickers, like “Halal food funds terrorism”, on Nestle products in a supermarket. Never mind that though. Ms Banister has bigger problems.

A raucous crowd of supporters and protesters from both ends of the political spectrum showed up outside President Barack Obama’s appearance in Phoenix, Ariz. on Tuesday, with some of his detractors turning to racially charged attacks to express their opposition.

A Muslim family from Khirbat Al Mukhayyat near Madaba has been the guardians of the Church of Sts Lot and Procopius for over 80 years after an ancient mosaic was found under their kitchen floor, eldest son Abdullah told The Jordan Times.

It’s hard to imagine now, but there was a time when the president of Pakistan was warmly greeted by the US president, the first lady, and throngs of ordinary Americans, lined up in the streets to catch a glimpse and celebrate his arrival. It’s hard to imagine the Pakistani president being greeted with ticker tape parades in New York City, and standing ovations in Congress.

Guilt after time working at Camp X-Ray prompted ex-soldier to reach out to former inmates. Brandon Neely, 29, was a guard at Camp X-Ray when hundreds of detainees were held in grueling conditions in the open-air cages when the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay naval base opened.

ROUBAIX, France — Wearing head scarves and long skirts, the women glide along the faded back streets of this poor French town as they make their way to the mosque to hear the last prayer of the evening.

A new cartoon series in Pakistan is turning stereotypes on their head. It’s centered around a woman who doesn’t wear a burqa in the daytime but puts one on to transform into the “Burka Avenger” – and what’s more, she’s fighting for female education.

The so-called ‘scandal of the marriage of Aisha to the Prophet Muhammad’ is a favorite topic for Islamophobes and anti-Islam polemicists alike. It is a distorted topic that they luridly present, attempting to create the narrative that Islam allows men to have sex with prepubescent girls and that the Prophet Muhammad was a “pedophile.”

Erstwhile television host and right-wing shock jock Michael Savage — whose real name is Michael Weiner — expressed skepticism on Saturday about the weekend’s Middle East terrorism alert, which has closed U.S. embassies throughout the region.

Lauren Green’s interview of Reza Aslan backfired on Fox News. Green’s obvious bias generated sympathy for Aslan. Many Americans were horrified at her blatant display of Islamophobia.

The Skokie Plan Commission on Aug. 1 unanimously recommended a special use permit to the Kaleemiah Foundation, which would use the building at 4255 Main St. as a mosque – a Muslim place of worship – and not as a community center.

The note, written in capitalized block letters read, “Headwear may not be worn during the examination without prior written approval. We have no record of you being given prior written approval. Please remove your headwear and place it under your seat for the afternoon session.”

In a demonstration of what the Vatican spokesman called Pope Francis’ “particular attention to relations with the Muslim world,” the pope on Friday personally signed the Holy See message for Muslims at the end of Ramadan, calling for “mutual respect through education” between Christianity and Islam.

In the early hours of Monday morning, as a 55-year-old woman returned home after Suhur (closing fast) at a friends, she was brutally attacked in London’s exclusive Mayfair area in the UK. A man grabbed her from behind and repeatedly punched her in the back of the head.

For years, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was a key propaganda asset for warmongers pushing for the US to invade Iran. Ahmadinejad could be counted on to make incendiary remarks that sparked widespread outrage in the West, and when what he actually said wasn’t radical or ridiculous enough, it could always be embellished, distorted, and amplified…

Regular readers will be aware that the United Kingdom’s Home Secretary recently banned the American anti-Muslim propagandists Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller from the UK (details here,here, here, here, and here).

Today his article in the Gawker inspired comments that ranged from thoughtful to outright hateful, with some clearly suggesting that Islam discourages education for women–a misconception that has been widely reinforced by the media blitz surrounding the shooting of Malala Yousafzai in Pakistan.

The hateful emails that circulate about Muslims should be renamed ‘I’m frightened. Can we talk?’ since they stem from the universal pain and anxiety that arises from fear and uncertainty.

Last week, I was among several dozen Muslims who attended an iftar at the White House with President Obama. This has now become an annual tradition where the President extends greetings to the Muslim community and occasionally chooses to speak to other relevant issues.

MURFREESBORO — An Islamic Center of Murfreesboro leader Tuesday questioned why plaintiffs opposed to government approval of mosque construction continue to appeal their case.

An increasing number of individuals have lent their support to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) movement, including icons such as the physicist Stephen Hawking. The growing strength of the BDS campaign highlights the controversial nature of visiting Israel as it continues to brutally violate human rights through its occupation of Palestine.

Fox News and its right-wing supporters were cast into shame after Fox News’s interview with Reza Aslan went viral on the internet. Embarrassed and reeling from this intellectual beat-down by Reza Aslan, the right-wing responded by questioning Aslan’s credentials.

A police check of a Muslim woman wearing the full-face veil recently sparked riots in a Paris suburb, and has reignited a debate about the controversial ban of full-face veils in public spaces from 2011.

The book focuses on refuting the fundamental premise of Islamophobia–that Islam is somehow the most violent religion on earth. Sadly, more white Americans than not believe this to be true, which is why it’s extremely important that a book of this type is written.

Colombo Telegraph

As crimes continue with impunity, attacks against mosques around the country have become more obscene and portentously fatal.

A Fox News panel on Friday managed to expose the real story that the rest of the media has managed to miss in the New York City mayoral race: the deep Muslim Brotherhood ties that Huma Abedin supposedly possesses.

Anti-Shariah activists have a new target in their sights: Crayola. Late last week the Pickens County (Ga.) Republican party posted a call to action on its website about a new promotion from the world’s leading crayon manufacturer, which had begun offering free Islamic-themed coloring pages in honor of Ramadan. Zut alors!

Reza Aslan is one of my favorite authors and religion scholars. There aren’t many who are as capable as Aslan of igniting religious debate and dialogue within our broader culture today. Aslan’s most recent book, Zealot, is a look at Jesus in light of the historical context in which he lived.

Grinning brazenly as he lifts up his shirt to reveal an inflammatory image of a mosque being blown up, this man was pictured openly with his offending tattoo at a far-right rally.

Paula Doneman, Yahoo!7

FIRST ON 7: An alleged food contamination scare involving one of Australia’s favourite foods has exposed a One Nation candidate’s anti-Muslim campaign.

It is said, in Los Angeles, that Abdulwahab Benyoucef’s call to prayer is so lovely and so clarion that Muslims come to the mosque just to hear him. About three times a week, the Algerian actor — who has shortened his name to Ben Youcef — comes here in his traditional tunic to stand before the men kneeling toward Mecca.

A U.K. poll found that Muslims in that nation donate more on average to charity than other religious groups, NBC News reports. Adherents of Islam gave an average of $567 to charity in 2012, according to the survey of 4,036 U.K. residents by ICM Research. Jews gave $412, Protestants $308, Roman Catholics $272, and atheists $177.

BY ALEX PAREENE

A paragraph-by-paragraph rebuttal to NYPD Commissioner and would-be Homeland Security Chief Ray Kelly’s WSJ op-ed.

By Garibaldi

It is with great sadness that we learned about the passing of Helen Thomas, who is being remembered in various media outlets for her amazing coverage of the White House as a trailblazing reporter who asked the tough questions.

Army veteran Wade Michael Page killed six people and then himself one Sunday morning at a Sikh temple near Milwaukee, Wis., as number of people gathered there for services last August. The attack is being treated as a hate crime and is considered by the FBI to be domestic terrorism.

By Bob Pitt (Islamophobia-Watch)

For those who question the links between the English Defence League and fascism, or indeed the clear parallels between Islamophobia and antisemitism, this is a cartoon recently posted on the EDL London Division’s Facebook page.

Aimed at offering the community a chance to understand the month of daily fasting that breaks at sundown each day, the open house at Islamic Center in Jacksonville hit the limit early, said Fawad Mansoori, a member of the board of directors.

By Annalise Frank — afrank@newsobserver.com

RALEIGH — The state Senate on Friday passed a bill that would keep courts from recognizing Sharia law.While proponents of the legislation said it would keep people safe from foreign laws, critics derided the bill as sending a message of intolerance and bigotry to followers of Islam.

They said the party needs a candidate with a strong background in national security — a credential that two of the GOP’s potential 2016 candidates, Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Rand Paul of Kentucky, do not have. King has chaired the House Committee on Homeland Security.

If it was reported that police believed Muslims were behind such a campaign of terrorism and bomb attacks you can be assured that this would be front page news across media outlets on both sides of the Atlantic. However when it is reported as an ‘anti-Muslim terror campaign’ there is considerably less attention.

It happened. A heckler. At my first solo book reading.

I was promoting my debut novel, Painted Hands, at Cambridge’s Porter Square Books. Though I was an attorney in a past life, I was ridiculously nervous.

By Richard Bartholomew (Barth’s Notes)

Richard Bartholomew notes Rev. Deacon Spencer’s associations with radical extremist organizations some of whom have the ear of Conservative politicos in the Republican establishment.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The University of California’s governing board plans to vote Wednesday on a new student member who would be the first practicing Muslim to hold the post and whose nomination is being vigorously opposed by some Jewish groups.

(NBC San Diego)

San Diego police arrested a man after he entered a mosque during early-morning prayer, yelled “terrorist rats” and made death threats.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has found the Crestwood School District in Dearborn Heights violated the federal Civil Rights Act by failing to hire Arab-American and minority teachers, discriminating against Arab Americans in its hiring and recruiting practices…

A Norwegian musician with links to mass killer Anders Behring Breivik has been arrested in France on “suspicion he was preparing a major terrorist act”.

The French interior ministry said Kristian “Varg” Vikernes constituted “a potential threat to society”.

A reader has informed us that one of the most discredited and increasingly obscure Islamophobes on the internet today, Debbie Schlussel, has smeared a prominent Arab Muslim environmentalist, Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Ali Nuaimi.

The prosecutor told AFP that a preliminary investigation had been opened after a veiled young woman was assaulted on Friday while crossing a park in the centre of Reims by a man who was “probably drunk”.

It’s perfectly understandable that we don’t having a precise image of who lives here and the extent of key social issues – but the scale of our collective error is startling, as highlighted in a new survey by Ipsos MORI for the Royal Statistical Society and King’s College London.

The dumped animals were found at the Rockingham Regional Memorial Park by cemetery staff on Monday morning. A spokesman for the Metropolitan Cemeteries Board said the carcasses were removed as “a matter of urgency” and the local council and WA Police were notified.

The Department of Defense celebrated its 15th Iftar meal, July 12, at the Pentagon. Attending the event were senior defense leaders, White House and congressional staffers, foreign dignitaries, defense attachés, imams, Gold Star families, and Muslims who work in the defense community.

I am not generally a fan of David Aaronovitch and I couldn’t disagree more with him that Douglas Murray combines “intellectual and street-fighting skills” but other than that his following article, originally published in the Jewish Chronicle, is spot-on and hits a number of points we have made in the past as well.

by Sheila Musaji

Pamela Geller has posted Muslim “Youth” looting the dead at French Rail Crash.

Austin Community Newspapers Staff

Spectators who lined the July 4 route through downtown were treated to a wide variety of sights and sounds, among the approximately 110 entrants in Round Rock Sertoma Club’s annual Independence Day parade.

Former mayor of Reykjavík claims a mosque will threaten Iceland’s culture and safety. Ólafur F. Magnússon, who was mayor for little less than 7 months in 2008, is highly pessimistic about plans of a mosque being built in the open space of in the eastern part of Reykjavík, Eyjan reports.

Football player Oday Aboushi, recently drafted to the New York Jets NFL team, is the target of an escalating media smear campaign to associate him with terrorism and extremism, apparently for no other reason than his Palestinian ancestry.

A number of roads around Binfield Street in Tipton have been cordoned off after residents reported hearing a loud bang before finding nails and debris.

There are no reports of any injuries, West Midlands Police said, but streets were evacuated as a precautionary measure.

(FifeToday)

EXTRA police patrols are being sent out around a Muslim family centre in Kirkcaldy after it was targeted in a sickening hate crime.

via. AlJazeera English

Tens of thousands have gathered in Bosnia for the funeral of 409 newly identified victims of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide on the 18th anniversary of the atrocity in which about 8,000 Muslims were slaughtered.

By JoAnne Viviano, The Columbus Dispatch

Muslims in central Ohio are inviting their non-Muslim neighbors to learn more about the Islamic holy month of Ramadan by partaking in one of the evening fast-breaking meals that mark the observance.

By TODD PITMAN Associated Press

MEIKHTILA, Myanmar — Their bones are scattered in blackened patches of earth across a hillside overlooking the wrecked Islamic boarding school they once called home.

Ever since Bob Beckel has gotten a pay check from Fox News he’s jumped on the bandwagon of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim animus.

(AlJazeera English)

The belief that so-called “honour killings” are justified continues to be common among Jordanian teenagers, a new Cambridge University study says.

Lawyers for four inmates have also filed petitions with the US government to stop this procedure during the religious festival. Islamic community leaders are asking Barack Obama to stop the practice of force-feeding Muslim detainees at Guantanamo Bay who are on hunger strike during Ramadan.

ROCKAWAY — Morris County Crime Stoppers is offering a cash reward up to $1,000 for information leading to the arrest of whoever sprayed a swastika on the Islamic Center of Morris County. The symbol was sprayed on a glass door outside the building sometime between June 21 and 23, said Dr. Aref Assef, one of the center’s directors.

The Catholic Diocese of Sacramento acted wisely in canceling Robert Spencer’s speaking engagement on church property. Kolbe Academy Home School should now consider canceling his speech entirely at their conference in Sacramento later this month.

The Transportation Security Administration is advising travelers that the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins Tuesday, and that devout Muslims may be seen washing in airport bathrooms, praying aboard planes and constantly whispering prayers to themselves.

Pamela Geller is once again attempting to defend herself against those who find her efforts to be bigoted, anti-Muslim hate speech. This time she is upset about an article in The Times of LondonDon’t Bar the Demagogue.

The overwhelming and predictably jaundiced view from Western media has often resorted to a cartoonish black and white commentary on the competing political power centers in Egypt with some commentators even devolving into Eugenicist analysis, describing Egyptians as incapable of democracy because they lack the basic “mental ingredients.”

When it comes to the threat of terrorism versus the NYPD’s pervasive spying on Muslims, the At-Taqwa mosque in Brooklyn is where the rubber meets the road. The mosque is one of six plaintiffs, charging in a lawsuit filed last month by the American and New York and Civil Liberties Unions, that the NYPD has unlawfully and unconstitutionally engaged in “religious profiling and suspicionless surveillance of Muslim New Yorkers.”

Inspired by the overthrow of Egypt’s democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, Brooks put his racist, colonial mentality on full display, suggesting Egyptians are too stupid, and “Islamists” (Muslims?) too inept, to govern themselves.

(Reuters) – Anti-Muslim attacks and insults have risen steadily in France in recent years as some politicians and media increasingly present Islam as a problem for French society, a Muslim rights group said on Wednesday.

By Katie McDonough, Salon.com

The antiabortion additions to the measure were announced unexpectedly during a committee meeting late Tuesday.

by Ilisha

Mohammad Assaf received a hero’s welcome upon his recent return to Gaza, after winning the Arab Idol talent show in Beirut, Lebanon. His victory was celebrated throughout Palestine with chants, fireworks, and tears of joy.

“Observing the adhan on Channel 4 will act as a nationwide tannoy system, a deliberate ‘provocation’ to all our viewers in the very real sense of the word.” Lee said that the “vast majority of people in Britain” would not be aware of the “mass act of personal sacrifice and worship” about to commence.

We recently reported the bizarre story of two extremists arrested in New York City for plotting to smite the “enemies of Israel” with a homemade death ray gun. Muslims, referred to by the plotters as “medical waste,” were their primary targets.

How did this happen? How did the wheels fall off Ray Kelly’s NYPD?

How did Kelly’s policies manage to alienate the City Council, groups of Muslim-Americans and African-Americans, the New York Times, the FBI and even the Obama administration?

Lawyers for four hunger-striking Guantanamo prisoners filed a motion Sunday in federal court in Washington, DC, asking a judge to intervene and stop prison officials from force-feeding the men and administering medications associated with the procedure without their consent.

A FAMILY has condemned the suspected racists who left pig heads in their garden in Bradford. Members of the Ditta family were sickened to discover the pig heads on their front and back doorstop at their home in the Bolton area of the city.

A local newspaper in Georgia recently published a column ostensibly about U.S. Middle East policy but took a hard right turn into birtherism and racism, highlighting the Islamophobia problem at the local-level.

MUSLIM graves at a Newport cemetery have been desecrated with racist graffiti.The vandals used white paint to write “Lee Rigby murder”, “white power” and drew swastikas on four gravestones at Christchurch Cemetery.

A Forest Hills man was charged with using anti-Muslim slurs while repeatedly stabbing a man who was unlocking a Kew Gardens Hills mosque for morning prayers last year, the Queens district attorney’s office said Friday.

Now Reuters has filed a special report detailing the “official blessing” bestowed on anti-Muslim monks by state authorities. It is a must read and I am afraid that the tide of religious chauvinism and hatred is not far from reaching a crescendo that will witness a horrific genocide.

During the last weekend in July, The Kolbe Academy, a Catholic homeschool program located in Napa, California will host a conference in Sacramento where educators and home school instructors will gather to discuss how they can “engage the culture in a year of faith.”

Around half of mosques and Muslim centres in Britain have been subjected to Islamophobic attacks since 9/11, academics have warned as the far-right English Defence League prepares to march to the south-London scene of Drummer Lee Rigby’s murder.

(Seattle Times)

After a wave of criticism from politicians, advocacy groups and the public, 46 bus ads featuring photos of wanted terrorists will be taken down within the next few weeks, officials said Tuesday.

The revelation in 2011 that the New York City Police Department was spying on law-abiding Muslims rightly attracted scrutiny from the Justice Department, which announced last year that it intended to review the program.

Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer have been prevented by Home Secretary Theresa May from entering the UK to speak at rally of the English Defence League in Woolwich, close to where a British soldier was killed by alleged Muslim militants in May.

by Charlotte Silver, The Electronic Intifada

Khaled Gareb, a Muslim American living in San Francisco, did not need to read a sociological study to learn that his community has suffered from increasing hostility since11 September 2001.

Sam Harris posted a recent blog about my views on Jihadis that is unbecoming of serious intellectual debate, if not ugly. He claims that I told him following a “preening and delusional lecture” that “no one [connected with suicide bombing] believes in paradise.”

by Bob Pitt, Islamophobia-Watch.com

The Islamophobic myth that Muslims are engaged in the gradual but inexorable conquest of the West takes different forms, depending on where you live.

By Dan Amira, NYmag.com

We know. You’re already lost. Why would a KKK member want to help Israel? What is a Death Ray? These are fair questions.

A suspicious package found near a mosque in Walsall was a small home-made explosive device, West Midlands Police said tonight.

Almost 40 homes close to the mosque in Rutter Street, Walsall, were evacuated after bomb disposal experts were called to the scene

by Bob Pitt

Over at Exposing the English Defence League, Julie Blackadder draws our attention to a recent post at Pamela Geller’s Atlas Shrugs blog, headlined “UK teen brutally beaten by 15 Muslims”.

It’s quite a wonder to behold, how ‘Tommy Robinson’ is fast becoming the Hugh Grant of far right nationalism. While poor old Nick Griffin, a fading light, does everything he can to capture our attention, his younger rival is racing rapidly up the Hate Hit Parade.

Deep seated Israeli paranoia and Islamophobia has backfired. A Jewish man who said “Allahu Akbar” was assumed to be Muslim by a security guard (who has obviously watched way too much “Homeland”) and killed because the obvious conclusion was that he must be a “terrorist.”

Having seen the type of headlines about Islam and Muslims that have proliferated over the decades I recoil at the association of a religion, Buddhism, with “terror” and violence. This kind of sensationalist treatment is unnecessary and when it becomes a cultural meme can have near irreversible consequences.

Bernard McGuirk, the executive producer of the radio program Imus in the Morning, on Thursday used the movement known as Christian Domestic Discipline to launch an attack on Muslims.

by Emperor

I know one place that needs a #MyJihad campaign: Florida. Some Southern Florida citizens went into freakout mode when they saw the word ‘Jihad’ tagged on the side of I-95 North near Delray Beach, not too far from Miami.

(NBC Philadelphia)

First it was a synagogue, then a church and now the property at 7401 Limekiln Pike will be transformed into a mosque.

Homes Secretary Theresa May was today urged to ban two US “anti-Islam” campaigners from entering Britain to speak at an English Defence League rally. Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer are due to join the march next Saturday in ­Woolwich, where Drummer Lee Rigby was killed.

By Lauren Carasik (AlJazeera English)

Yet Mohammed Abdullah Taha Mattan has been caught up in a vortex of politics beyond his control. June 19 marks the somber 11th anniversary of Mattan’s detention in the inhumane confines of Guantanamo Bay.

By David Edwards (The Raw Story)

A Florida professor who teaches a class on terrorism is facing a formal complaint after he claimed that Muslims are taught to hate “from the cradle.”

ALBANY, N.Y. — An industrial mechanic with General Electric Co., who is also allegedly a member of the Ku Klux Klan, designed a deadly mobile radiation device that he intended to sell to Jewish groups or a southern branch of the Ku Klux Klan, according to a federal complaint unsealed Wednesday in Albany.

Gloucestershire Police said lit petrol was poured around the door of the Masjid-E-Noor mosque on Ryecroft Street about 01:00 BST. A spokesman said a man left the scene at speed at about 01:00 BST in a dark-coloured car being driven by an accomplice.

Abercrombie & Fitch is having a hard time proving in court that the Muslim headscarf worn by an employee who was fired in 2010 hurt the clothing company’s sales, Law360 reports.

Civil rights lawyers will urge a federal judge to declare the New York Police Department’s widespread spying programs directed at Muslims to be unconstitutional, order police to stop their surveillance and destroy any records in police files.

by Sheila Musaji (The American Muslim)

A man who might be a Somali, and who was not known to any of the regular worshipers in attendance at the mosque in Britain, came into the mosque, became agitated and and attacked worshipers with a knife.

A pregnant Muslim woman who was allegedly attacked in the suburbs of Paris by two ‘skinheads’ for wearing an Islamic face veil has suffered a miscarriage, it was reported on Tuesday.

Pamela Geller puts on her hate goggles and makes the connections between NSA spying and the SEKRIT MOSLEM CONSPIRACY: OBAMA ADMIN IS LISTENING IN ON YOUR PHONECALLS “SIMPLY BASED ON AN ANALYST DECIDING THAT” – Atlas Shrugs

by Sheila Musaji

Now we are asked to believe that Jihawg Ammo is only meant as a deterrent to “radical Muslims”, or as Sheik Yer’Mami called it, a culturally-sensitive solution to dealing with sudden jihad syndrome…”.

Two groups are seeking answers to what they say is a growing practice of Muslim and Arab-American groups having their bank accounts closed without cause or explanation.

by Pat Cunningham, rrstar.com

Sarah Palin, political guru to the brainless, said this the other day in arguing against American military intervention in Syria: “Let Allah sort it out.”

WASHINGTON — Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin criticized the Obama administration’s decision to supply weapons to the rebels in the civil war in Syria today, arguing that the U.S. should “Let Allah sort it out” until there is a stronger leader in the White House.

From the “most moral army in the world”: Mr. Pundak believes it wasn’t “unnecessarily cruel” to raze Palestinian villages but he drew the line with Ariel Sharon on “killing enemy fighters” in exchange for “a glass of champagne.”

It’s not exactly breaking news that China has serious issues with freedom of religion and as an officially Atheist state is often very repressive against those observing religious rites. China has once again leveled restrictions on the persecuted Uighurs when it comes to practicing Ramadan.

27 year old Taylor-trash Chapman essentially ruined her life by posting a hate filled rant against two Dunkin’ Donuts employees, bizarrely threatening them with “nuking from Mars” and hurling the word “sandnigger” at one of them.

NEW YORK (AP) – A film student has pleaded guilty to hate-crime charges in what authorities called an anti-Muslim attack on a New York City cab driver in 2010. Michael Enright entered the plea Tuesday in state court in Manhattan. He is expected to be sentenced to 9 ½ years in prison.

A Republican congressman claimed on the House floor on Tuesday that members of Muslim communities in the United States have not condemned acts of Islamic extremist terrorism against the U.S. and therefore are complicit in those and any future attacks.

Fox News host Brian Kilmeade told the leader of a violent nationalist hate group that targets British Muslims, “We got your back” and “it’s great what you’re doing.”

Former Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) boiled down the entire religion of Islam to “honor killings, beheadings [and] suicide bombings” in a message tweeted Monday night in response to a column by comedian Bill Cosby.

(Reuters) – Myanmar’s Immigration Minister has expressed support for a controversial two-child limit on a Muslim minority group that opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the United Nations call discriminatory and a violation of human rights.

Watford’s MP has written to the Home office after anti-Muslim graffiti appeared outside a West Watford infant school.

The words “Quran is rubbish” have been scrawled on the pavement near Chater School, in Harwoods Road.

This past weekend, Cosby penned an op-ed for The New York Post in which he detailed some of the flaws in modern society. He also suggested we should take a page out of the Koran if we want to have healthier families, less crime and more productive people.

Mr. Snowden, a native of North Carolina, told The Guardian that he signed up in 2003 for an Army Special Forces training program because he wanted to fight in Iraq. “I felt like I had an obligation as a human being to help free people from oppression,” he said.

Middle Tennessee got socked by outside instigators who “hijacked” a public meeting last week, turning what was meant to be a step toward harmony into something more akin to a KKK rally, according to a member of the Muslim panel that sponsored the event.

Via Salon.com

Support of any kind for a group on the State Department’s list is now grounds for a trial on charges of terrorism

An Islamic boarding school was set alight by ‘intruders’ in a suspected arson attack, just days after an Islamic centre was burnt to the ground in London. About 130 children and staff were evacuated from Darul Uloom, a Muslim madrassa or religious school, in Chislehurst, Kent, just before midnight on Saturday.

It is redundant to point out that Fox News has essentially adopted Islamophobia as a cornerstone theme that it seeks to widely disseminate into mainstream American culture. What is different is that the propagandizing of Islamophobia has only accelerated since the Boston Bombings and has reached levels that are reminiscent to the worst of post-9/11 coverage on Islam.

By Helen Hunt, Liverpool Echo

Shopkeeper was verbally abused and is now in hospital after trying to put the fire out himself

I’ve noted before that Pamela Geller Does Not Understand Freedom of Speech when she found fault with American Muslims and others for denouncing her hate ads. This she called an attempt to “impose blasphemy restrictions on free speech”.

(Via antiwar.com)

The governor of Afghanistan’s Kunar Province has reported a US drone strike against the Manogi District has killed at least three civilians, all children, and wounding seven others.

By Richard Engel, Chief Foreign Correspondent, NBC News

A former Air Force drone operator who says he participated in missions that killed more than 1,600 people remembers watching one of the first victims bleed to death.

Days after bombs went off at the Boston Marathon finish line, the New York Post splashed a photograph of 16-year-old Salaheddin Barhoum and 24-year old Yassine Zaimi across its cover under the headline “BAG MEN: Feds seek these two pictured at Boston Marathon.”

Rumsfeld was invited to speak at an event hosted by the David Horowitz Freedom Center. David Horowitz of course is the kooky, conspiracy theorist, racist, anti-Muslim bigot who uses money from wealthy donors to perpetuate the Islamophobia network.

(The Local)

Some 20 graves were found vandalized on Sunday morning in the Muslim part of a cemetery at Vitry-sur-Seine, 7.5km southeast of the French capital.

In late May, a threatening letter laced with the deadly chemical ricin was sent from Shreveport, Louisiana, to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg as a response to the mayor’s outspoken support for stricter gun control laws.

MANCHESTER, Tenn. — U.S. Attorney Bill Killian was greeted with shouts of “traitor,” “serpent,” and calls to “resign” or “go home” Tuesday night at an event aimed at improving relations between local residents and their Muslim neighbors.

Aside from the faulty attempt to imply that the fall of dictatorships in Arab countries was a result of “Islamists,” describing the protests in Turkey as a “Turkish spring” is nothing more than an exercise in useless rhetoric.

By Eric Nicholson

It may have been just a random prank: two dozen paintballs fired behind the Sonic in a McKinney strip center in the middle of Saturday night.

“Our nation’s leaders must be held accountable if they use foreign proxies to violate the constitutional rights of American citizens,” Gadeir Abbas, Staff Attorney at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), who is co-counsel in the lawsuit, said in a statement obtained by OnIslam.net.

Abass Darab closes his eyes, unwraps the prayer beads from around his wrist and clutches them in his lap. A half-minute or so later, he opens his eyes. He is ready, he says, “to help people know what my school stands for.” Often, that means explaining what Zaytuna College, a liberal arts college founded by American Muslims, does not stand for.

(Via Loonwatch.com)

Cathie Adams of the Texas Eagle Forum fearmongers about the stealthy Mooslim Grover Norquist.

In the eastern state of Shan a Buddhist mob went on a rampage after allegations that a Muslim attempted to set fire to a Shan Buddhist after the two had an altercation at a petrol station.

The FBI’s track record with the Muslim American community has been less than stellar to say the least. They have used former criminals such as Craig Monteilh as spies to infiltrate US mosques as “undercover/fake (one might say ‘stealth’) Muslims” who are tasked with finding, at times, even inducing incriminating “intelligence.”

Racist graffiti has been daubed at Muslim cemetery section.

Pictures of the racist graffiti was sent in by a reader. It shows anti-Islamic and racist grafitti written on the Muslim building used for funeral at Pleasington cemetery, Blackburn.

Vandals sprayed the words “London Justice” and some other similar phrases on the building. Police are investigating if the damage is in response to the Islamic radical attack on a British soldier last week in London.

by Glenn Greenwald

Two men yesterday engaged in a horrific act of violence on the streets of London by using what appeared to be a meat cleaver to hack to death a British soldier.

A York mosque dealt with a potentially volatile situation after reports that it was going to be the focus of a demonstration organised by a far-right street protest movement – by inviting those taking part in the protest in for tea and biscuits.

The local authorities in the western state of Rakhine in Myanmar have imposed a two-child limit for Muslim Rohingya families, a policy that does not apply to Buddhists in the area and comes amid accusations of ethnic cleansing during earlier sectarian violence.

By Ben Brumfield, CNN

Fears were growing in Britain on Monday of a surge in Islamophobia in the wake of the knifing death of a British soldier last week that his suspected attackers claimed was revenge for the deaths of Muslims worldwide.