Christian group sues Allegan, Muslims

DETROIT (AP) — A Christian legal advocacy group has claimed in a federal lawsuit that officials in a western Michigan city violated the rights of a self-proclaimed former terrorist by interrupting him during an event on free speech at a local high school.

The civil suit was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids by the Thomas More Law Center. Besides Allegan officials, the defendants include leaders of a Muslim civil rights organization that asked the city to cancel the event.

According to the suit, a speech given Jan. 28 by Kamal Saleem at Allegan High School was stopped by police acting on a letter opposing Saleem’s visit. The letter was sent several days earlier by Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

The suit also said that police were told of possible — and unconfirmed — threats against Saleem, said Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel for the Ann Arbor-based Thomas More center. Thompson said shutting down the meeting violated Saleem’s right to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.

Part of the “Constituting Michigan — Founding Principles Act” event’s purpose was to show “the internal threat to America posed by radical Muslims” and Shariah, the Islamic religious law, according to the lawsuit.

FULL ARTICLE FROM MLIVE

Singling Out Islam: Newt Gingrich’s Pandering Attacks

It’s interesting to observe what qualifies as beyond the pale in American politics. For bigoted newsletters written two decades ago, Ron Paul is deemed by many to be disqualified from the presidency. I don’t fault anyone for criticizing those newsletters. I’ve done so myself. They’re terrible. So is the way he’s handled the controversy. But isn’t it interesting that Paul has been more discredited by years-old, ghostwritten remarks than has Newt Gingrich for bigotry that he’s uttered himself, on camera, during the present campaign? It’s gone largely ignored both in the mainstream press and the movement-conservative organs that were most vocal condemning Paul.

That’s because Muslims are the target. And despite the fact that George W. Bush was admirably careful to avoid demonizing a whole religious faith for the actions of a small minority of its adherents — despite the fact that Barack Obama too has been beyond reproach in this respect — anti-Muslim bigotry in America is treated differently than every other kind, often by the very same people who allege without irony that there is a war in this country against Christians.

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE ATLANTIC 

 

Anti-Muslim General Withdraws from West Point Speech

Plans for a talk at West Point by a retired general known for his harshly anti-Muslim remarks were abruptly canceled on Monday after a growing list of liberal veterans’ groups, civil liberties advocates and Muslim organizations called on the Military Academy to rescind the invitation.

Lt. Gen William G. Boykin “has decided to withdraw speaking at West Point’s National Prayer Breakfast” on Feb. 8, said a statement issued Monday by the academy’s office of public affairs. “In fulfilling its commitment to the community, the United States Military Academy will feature another speaker for the event.”

General Boykin, a longtime commander of Special Operations forces, first caused controversy after the Sept. 11 attacks when, as a senior Pentagon official, he described the fight against terrorism as a Christian battle against Satan. His remarks, made in numerous speeches to church groups, were publicly repudiated by President George W. Bush, who argued that America’s war was not with Islam but with violent fanatics.

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES 

A Letter to Lowes from a Young American Muslim

Dear Mr. Niblock,

We have never met.

Yet, you seem to have bought into the idea that I am a threat.

One fringe group screamed “Muslim,” and lo and behold, you caved.

And, in turn, you’ve made the drastic error of pulling your company’s spots from essentially an All-American show from an all-American TV network.

Clearly, you do not seem to know much about American Muslims or their contributions to the American fabric, so let me take this opportunity to enlighten you.

I come from a proud immigrant family that moved here 20 years ago from Pakistan. My parents taught my siblings and me to work hard and accomplish our dreams. Today, we are contributing members of our communities, with two of my siblings working as physician’s assistants and one as a firefighter. As for me, I turned to writing and advocacy during my days in college and have continued to pursue those causes with fervor.

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE HUFFINGTON POST 

Sharp rise in anti-Muslim hate crimes: FBI

NEW YORK – Anti-Muslim hate crimes rose by 50 per cent last year, skyrocketing over 2009 levels in a year marked by some vicious rhetoric of Islam-bashing politicians and activists, especially over the plan to build a mosque near the site of 9/11 attacks in New York, according to FBI statistics.

Although the national statistics compiled by the FBI each year are known to dramatically understate the real level of reported and unreported hate crimes, they do offer telling indications of some trends.

 The latest statistics, showing a jump from 107 anti-Muslim hate crimes in 2009 to 160 in 2010, seem to reflect a clear rise in anti-Muslim rhetoric from groups like Stop Islamisation of America. Much of that rhetoric was aimed at stopping the mosque in lower Manhattan.

 At the same time, the new FBI statistics showed a rise of almost 11 per cent in hate crimes against immigrants from Latin America. The increase may be related to anti-immigrant rhetoric deployed as Arizona passed a harsh law targeting immigrants in 2010. Since then, even more anti-immigrant rhetoric has been heard around the country, suggesting that when the FBI’s 2011 statistics come out, they will show a further rise in anti-Latino hate crime.

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE NATION 

How Muslim Bashing Loses Elections

By Stephan Salisbury

During the 2010 mid-term election campaign, virtually every hard-charging candidate on the far right took a moment to trash a Muslim, a mosque, or Islamic pieties. In the wake of those elections, with 85 new Republican House members and a surging Tea Party movement, the political virtues of anti-Muslim rhetoric as a means of rousing voters and alarming the general electorate have gone largely unchallenged.

It has become an article of faith that a successful 2010 candidate on the right should treat Islam with revulsion, drawing a line between America the Beautiful and the destructive impurities of Islamic cultists and radicals.

“Americans are learning what Europeans have known for years: Islam-bashing wins votes,” wrote journalist Michael Scott Moore in the wake of the 2010 election. His assumption was shared by many then and is still widely accepted today. 

FULL ARTICLE FROM ASIA TIMES 

Texas Inmate Set to Die for Hate Crimes: Muslim Victim Pleads for His Life

Washington (CNN) – “I cannot tell you that I am an innocent man. I am not asking you to feel sorry for me, and I won’t hide the truth,” Mark Anthony Stroman said from Texas death row at the Polunsky Correctional Unit in Livingston. “I am a human being and made a terrible mistake out of love, grief and anger, and believe me, I am paying for it every single minute of the day.”

The 41-year-old prisoner is scheduled to be executed Wednesday for a murder he once said was fueled by “patriotism,” but which the state argued was motivated by pure hatred.

The admitted white supremacist was convicted in the deadly shooting of an Indian man, part of a killing spree that began just after the September 11 terror attacks. His target: those he believed were of Middle Eastern background, in revenge and retaliation for the worst domestic terror incident in U.S. history. . . .

One of Stroman’s biggest supporters is the man who survived his ordeal and testified against the defendant. Rais Bhuiyan is a devout Muslim who came to the United States to pursue his education. A decade ago, he was about to be married and was working an extra job. . .

Bhuiyan believes that his attacker does not deserve to die and has created a website, worldwithouthate.org, to urge Texas to spare Stroman’s life.

“In order to live in a better and peaceful world, we need to break the cycle of hate and violence. I believe forgiveness is the best policy, which helps to break this cycle,” he said, calling himself a victim of a hate crime. “I forgave Mark Stroman many years ago. I believe he was ignorant and not capable of distinguishing between right and wrong. Otherwise he wouldn’t have done what he did.”

FULL ARTICLE FROM CNN

Darkness Descends on the Muslims of Murfreesboro, Tennessee

So, it turns out Islam is a religion. Imagine that.

Granted, this would be considered self-evident by most of us, but it has been a matter of great controversy in the Tennessee town of Murfreesboro, where 17 people went to court last year to prevent a group of Muslims from building a mosque. On their own land.

The need to defend this fundamental right was only one of the ordeals visited upon the Muslims of Murfreesboro, who have also faced threats, vandalism and arson. As recently, vividly illustrated in “Unwelcome: The Muslims Next Door,” a troubling CNN documentary, the antagonists here are a clownish band of bigots scared witless by the prospect that a new mosque will be built in their community by a congregation that has already worshipped in said community for 30 years.

Seriously. You can’t make this stuff up.

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE SEATTLE TIMES

Egyptian Christians Occupy Cairo Square to Protest Religious Violence

Thousands of Coptic Christians protesting Egypt’s latest round of deadly sectarian violence are calling for the removal of the country’s top military ruler, and are vowing not to leave a sit-in outside the state television building in Cairo.

By late Sunday, demonstrators were demanding that Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi step down and that the arsonists who burned two Coptic churches be brought to justice. Protesters also want to make it a crime to instigate religious violence. Earlier in the day, fighting broke out when Muslim youths attacked the protesters.

State media have reported that 12 people were killed and more than 220 wounded during two days of sectarian clashes that began late Saturday in the poverty-stricken Cairo slum of Imbaba. Medical sources said 65 of the injured were shot.

FULL ARTICLE FROM VOA NEWS

Prosecutors Fear Riot at Good Friday Mosque Protest

Detroit —Wayne County prosecutors are arguing a Good Friday mosque protest by a controversial Florida pastor could incite a riot and are moving to require him to post a bond before his demonstration.

Judge Mark W. Somers of Dearborn’s 19th District Court on Friday ordered Terry Jones to appear Thursday to answer prosecutors’ claims that his planned protest of the Islamic Center of America on the Dearborn/Detroit border could spark violence. The hearing is set for 3 p.m.

Prosecutors want a “peace bond” from Jones to pay for additional police officers during his demonstration outside the mosque. The complaint doesn’t specify an amount, but Jones has said Dearborn police want him to pay $100,000 in overtime costs.

“The greatest threat is the likelihood of a riot ensuing, complete with the discharge of firearms, unless this proposed bond is granted,” according to the prosecutors’ complaint.

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE DETROIT NEWS