Category Archives: USA

‘Mohammed Raghead’ – the name the FBI were giving to Muslim-American ‘Joe Bloggs’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Intercept Under Surveillance

The US government spied on thousands of law-abiding Muslim-Americans including top US lawyers and academics according to newly-published documents provided by NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden.

The monitoring was authorized under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a law intended to target individuals involved in international terrorism, espionage or sabotage.

The leaked documents published by The Intercept include a list of 7,485 email addresses monitored between 2002 and 2008. Five of the emails identified by journalists have been described as leading “highly public, outwardly exemplary lives”.

A document dating from 2006 from the same cache of files instructed intelligence agency staff how to properly record the identity of those under surveillance and used the fake name of “Mohammed Raghead” as an example.

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EEOC sues Shadescrest Healthcare for religious discrimination and retaliation

Posted on by Bob Pitt

ShadecrestA Jasper, Ala., nursing home violated federal law when it refused to allow a Muslim employee to wear a hijab (the traditional covering for the hair and neck that is worn by Muslim women) on the job, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a workplace discrimination lawsuit filed June 30. EEOC v. Shadescrest Health Care Center, ND Ala. Case 6:14-cv-01253-SLB (June 30, 2014). The agency also contends that Shadescrest fired the employee in retaliation for filing a complaint with the EEOC.

According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, in August 2012, Tracy Martin, a Muslim woman, was hired as a certified nursing assistant by Shadescrest Healthcare Center. On or about Aug. 9, 2012, Martin reported to work wearing a hijab, in accord with her sincerely held religious beliefs. According to the EEOC, Shadescrest refused Martin’s request to wear the hijab, despite its religious significance, and instead, told her to remove the head covering or be subject to termination. Subsequently, Martin filed a charge with the EEOC complaining that Shadescrest refused to accommodate her religious beliefs. Weeks after Shadescrest received notice of Martin’s charge of discrimination, Martin was summarily fired. According to the EEOC, Martin was fired in retaliation for her complaint to the EEOC and on account of her attempt to exercise her rights under Title VII’s religious accommodation provision.

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Ohio Muslim sues Islamophobes

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Muslim “multicultural relations officer” for Ohio’s Office of Homeland Security claims in court that Internet bloggers defamed him and cost him his job by posting that he was an “Islamist mole” who sympathized with terrorists.

Omar Alomari sued the City of Columbus, Todd Alan Sheets, Stephen Coughlin, John Guandolo, Patrick Poole and a John Doe known on the Internet as “Rusty Shackleford,” in Franklin County Court of Common Pleas.

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New York: Man shouting ‘Go back to your (expletive) country’ stabs Muslim food cart vendor

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-NY) today called on local law enforcement authorities to thoroughly investigate the Tuesday stabbing of a Muslim food cart vendor by a man reportedly shouting “Go back to your (expletive) country.”

The victim, an Egyptian native who manages a halal (Islamically-permissible) food cart on 28th street near Bellevue Hospital, was stabbed repeatedly in broad daylight on Tuesday afternoon. He told CAIR-NY that he saw a customer arguing with another food cart vendor over a sandwich. When he approached the men engaged in the argument in an effort to calm the situation, the customer faced him and allegedly said, “You don’t belong to this country. Go back to your (expletive) country (expletive),” and stabbed him a total of 15 times.

“We urge law enforcement authorities to investigate this incident thoroughly and to bring the alleged perpetrator to justice,” said CAIR-NY Director of Operations Sadyia Khalique. She added that religious and ethnic bias should be investigated as a factor leading to the attack.

CAIR New York press release, 27 June 2014

Update:  See “Food cart vendor speaking out after attack he calls ‘hate crime’, WABC-TV, 27 June 2014

9/11 Museum board member Debra Burlingame to be honored by anti-Islam hate group

Posted on by Bob Pitt

ACT! Debra Burlingame (2)

“Brigitte Gabriel’s” [a.k.a – Hanah Kahwagi Tudor] anti-Islam hate group ACT! for America has announced that it will honor September 11 Museum Board Member Debra Burlingame at its upcoming conference in Washington, D.C., to be held on September 11. In recent weeks, mainstream media have focused on Gabriel’s hateful tactics after her berating of a female Muslim attendee at a recent Heritage Foundation event.

Tudor, who goes by the pseudonym “Brigitte Gabriel,” has said Arabs have “no soul” and that Islam is the “real enemy.” The Southern Poverty Law Center lists her as one of the “Anti-Islam Inner Circle.” The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) says Gabriel’s beliefs are extreme, while the New York Times described her as an “Islamophobe.”

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US Muslims hail ‘no-fly’ list ruling

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A ruling by a federal judge that found US “no-fly list” violating the constitutional rights of American Muslims has been praised by the Muslim community and civil rights groups who have been arguing for years to scrap of the “unfair” code.

“We welcome Judge [Anna] Brown’s ruling as a strong affirmation of the constitutional principle that rights, such as the right to travel freely, cannot be curtailed without due process of law,” the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) National Executive Director Nihad Awad said in a statement obtained by OnIslam.net.

Awad’s praise followed a Tuesday’s decision by Anna Brown, an Oregon district judge, that 13 American Muslims who were placed on no-fly list were denied their constitutional right to due process. The landmark ruling ordered the government to redraft the procedures “that allow people on the no-fly list to challenge that designation”, considering the current code “wholly ineffective”.

The 65-page opinion handed a victory to a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of 13 Americans, mostly Muslims, who have been banned from boarding flights since 2010 over alleged terrorism links.

“Without proper notice and an opportunity to be heard, an individual could be doomed to indefinite placement on the No-Fly List,” US District Judge Brown said in Tuesday’s ruling that was cited by ACLU. “The absence of any meaningful procedures to afford Plaintiffs the opportunity to contest their placement on the No-Fly List violates Plaintiffs’ rights to procedural due process.”

Established in 2003 and administrated by the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center, the “no-fly” list includes some 20,000 people deemed by the agency as known to have, or reasonably suspected of having, ties to terrorism. About 500 of them are US citizens, according to an agency spokesman.

Last January, a Muslims Malaysian professor was removed from the no-fly list, marking the first victory against the much criticized American list. A 2006 law suit alleged that the government violated Dr. Rahinah Ibrahim’s due process rights when it placed her on the “no-fly” list.

The Muslim plaintiffs cheered the long-awaited decision by the federal court on Tuesday.

“Finally I will be able to challenge whatever incorrect information the government has been using to stigmatize me and keep me from flying,” Sheikh Mohamed Abdirahman Kariye, who is the imam of Portland’s largest Mosque, one of the plaintiffs in the case, said.

“I have been prevented by the government from traveling to visit my family members and fulfill religious obligations for years, and it has had a devastating impact on all of us. After all this time, I look forward to a fair process that allows me to clear my name in court,” the imam added.

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Obama’s Supreme Court nominee wants to introduce Sharia law into the US – and the Washington Times has the photo to prove it

Posted on by Bob Pitt

From Media Matters:

The Washington Times printed a doctored photo of Elena Kagan wearing a turban to accompany a column by Frank Gaffney making the absurd charge that Elena Kagan is “enabling efforts to insinuate” Shariah law in the United States. The Washington Times‘ print edition gave no indication that the photo had been doctored (while online, the photo bore a caption stating “Illustration: Kagan and Shariah.”)

Kagan turban

Police called to hate event at Minnesota school after ‘mob’ harasses Muslim woman

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Usama DakdokThe Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN) today called on the Bagley Independent School District #162 to rescind approval of tonight’s speech by Islamophobe Usama Dakdok following harassment of a Muslim woman by a “mob” at his earlier speaking event at the same school on Sunday.

CAIR-MN also called on local and state law enforcement authorities to consider bias charges against the harassers based on that state’s “assaults motivated by bias” statute.

Dakdok, who claims that American Muslims “will kill your children” and that “we are in war with Islam,” was invited to speak at Bagley High School by local Islamophobe Tammy Godwin. On June 22, during the second part of his three-day hate series, audience members said Dakdok incited the audience and endangered a Muslim woman attendee’s safety and security.

The audience members said the Muslim woman, who wears a religious headscarf, was part of a peaceful protest outside the hate event. She, along with others, entered the auditorium after the silent protest finished to listen to the speech. Their “Love Thy Neighbor” signs were lowered and not facing anyone inside. As the Muslim woman was quietly walking down the aisle looking for a seat, Dakdok stopped his presentation and singled her out. He asked her to leave, allegedly yelling, “Sister, I will give you one last chance to leave or I will throw you out myself!”

One attendee described an angry mob of Dakdok supporters who then began harassing the Muslim woman: “People were yelling at the Muslim woman, ‘Get out’ and ‘You weren’t invited.’ Men were getting to their feet and moving towards her to lay hands on her.”

The audience member announced he was calling the police out of concern for the Muslim woman’s safety. Godwin allegedly tried to interfere with the police call by attempting to intimidate the Good Samaritan by telling him, “Don’t you dare [call the police]. This will be on your soul.”

Three officers responded to the call, including the Bagley police chief, a Bagley police officer and a Sheriff’s Deputy. The Muslim woman was allowed to stay and an officer stayed at the event until it ended. One member of the angry mob, seemingly upset with Muslim presence, later approached the officer and asked: “Can I borrow your gun?”

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Georgia congressional candidate says Islam ‘does not deserve First Amendment protection’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Jody Hice (2)Jody Hice, a Baptist minister and talk-radio host, is running for Congress in Georgia’s 10th Congressional District as a stern defender of the First Amendment and religious freedom. But that freedom does not apply to those of the Muslim faith.

“Although Islam has a religious component, it is much more than a simple religious ideology,” Hice wrote in his 2012 book. “It is a complete geo-political structure and, as such, does not deserve First Amendment protection.”

Hice believes that the Muslim Brotherhood is infiltrating the United States, with the intent to impose Sharia law on all of us.

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