A lawyer for New York City on Monday denied that the NYPD has a surveillance program to spy on Muslims.
Responding to an ACLU lawsuit claiming religious discrimination that seeks to force police to turn over surveillance records, city lawyer Peter Farrell claimed “there is no Muslim surveillance program. … I 100 percent disagree that there was ever a Muslim surveillance program.”
A federal judge has awarded back pay and other costs to a Muslim man who said he was fired from his security-guard job two years ago for refusing to shave his close-cropped beard.
Abdulkadir Omar, 23, who worked for American Patriot Security in 2009 and 2010, was awarded over $66,000 in back wages, attorney fees and court costs. U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik ordered a default judgment against American Patriot on Sept. 27 after the company declined to mount a defense.
Stephen Lennon and Kevin Carroll’s surprise announcement that they have left the English Defence League has been enthusiastically welcomed by Pamela Geller.
Geller writes that she and Robert Spencer – recently banned from the UK because of their record of inciting hatred against Muslims – both “strongly endorse” Lennon and Carroll’s decision. It has become “clear to all of us that the best way to proceed is to leave the EDL behind and move forward in new directions”, says Geller, and she and Spencer “look forward to working with Robinson and Carroll in the future as we continue this great struggle for freedom”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=V-bHEF6goF4
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.
On October 5, the co-hosts of Fox & Friends Saturday discussed the closure of the World War II Memorial, which resulted from the Republican-led shutdown. During the discussion, co-host Anna Kooiman claimed that while the memorial is closed, “President Obama has offered to pay out of his own pocket for the museum of Muslim culture.”
OLMSTED FALLS, Ohio — Faced with the threat of a federal lawsuit, the Olmsted Falls schools have pulled a video about Muslims in America from its seventh-grade social studies curriculum.
School Superintendent Jim Lloyd said the district agreed to remove the 2005 documentary TV show, “30 Days: Muslims and America,” rather than spend money defending the right to show it.
A Muslim woman is accusing the popular TGI Friday’s casual dining chain of tricking her into eating a food that her religion forbids: pork.
The chain, which has nearly 1,000 locations worldwide and which recently undertook a brand face-lift with a menu upgrade and restaurant renovation, says in a Facebook post that it is investigating her claim, noting, “we don’t tolerate discrimination in any form.”
A federal judge ruled against enforcing a zoning change brought upon by a central New Jersey township this week, which restricted a mosque from extending its boundaries into a residential territory.
Al Falah Center had fought for years to gain approval for a new mosque in the Jersey township of Bridgewater. On Monday, the township could not validate reasoning as to why the mosque could not be built, leading a judge to grant permission for the expansion of the mosque.
DAPHNE, Alabama — Daphne High School is offering Arabic language classes instead of French classes this fall, taught by Sanaa El-Khattabi, a former University of South Alabama professor.
The school had a staff position open after its French teacher retired, said Meredith Foster, Daphne High’s principal. “We had to make a decision to replace that foreign language unit,” she said.
School officials believe the class will help prepare students to succeed in a global economy. But some Daphne residents are upset that the Baldwin County school system is permitting its students to learn what they call “a culture of hate.”
“When you teach Arabic, you have to teach the culture along with it,” said Chuck Pyritz, whose two sons, Isaiah, 17, and Isaac, 14, attend Daphne High. “The culture is intertwined with Islam.”
A federal appeals court has dismissed claims by an Oklahoma woman who says she was not hired by retailer Abercrombie & Fitch because her headscarf conflicted with the company’s dress code, which has since been changed.
A federal judge in 2011 sided with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of Samantha Elauf. The EEOC alleged that Elauf wasn’t hired in 2008 at an Abercrombie store in Tulsa’s Woodland Hills Mall because her hijab violated the retailer’s “Look Policy.”
A federal judge on Tuesday revisited a decades-old court settlement restricting how the New York Police Department conducts surveillance after civil rights lawyers accused the department of breaking those rules by monitoring Muslims.
The dispute centers on the restrictions set by the Handschu decree, which was put in place in response to surveillance used against war protesters in the 1960s and ’70s. The decree was relaxed following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks to allow police to more freely monitor political activity in public places.