Category Archives: USA

California students pass anti-Islamophobia resolution

Posted on by Bob Pitt

After approximately five hours of discussion, the ASUCD Senate passed Senate Resolution 21 on April 25 with a 7-4-1 vote. The resolution condemns Islamophobic speech at the University of California. The resolution defined Islamaphobia as “the irrational fear of Islam, Muslims or anything related to the Islamic or Arab cultures and traditions.” Authors stated that it was written due to the concerns for students’ well-being, safety on campus and the administration’s failure to address issues.

During public discussion, some members of the Muslim Student Association (MSA) and other students spoke in support of the resolution. Members of the Ayn Rand Society (ARS), the group that held the April 11 “Islamists Rising” event on campus, spoke in opposition of the resolution. The event held by the ARS, which featured panelists such as author Daniel Pipes, sparked a conversation about freedom of speech on campus and with the administration.

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Muslim cabdriver alleges assault by passenger who cited Boston Marathon bombing

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Mohamed SalimAn Army reservist and Iraq veteran who works as a cabdriver says a passenger he picked up early Friday at a Northern Virginia country club accused him of being a terrorist because he is Muslim, then fractured his jaw in an attack being described by Islamic activists as a hate crime.

Mohamed A. Salim says the passenger compared him to the men accused of carrying out the Boston Marathon bombing 11 days earlier and threatened to kill him. “Because I’m a Muslim, he treated me like a piece of trash,” Salim said. “I love this country. I didn’t deserve this.”

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US panel slams Europe’s ‘aggressive secularism’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

USCIRF Annual Report 2013A US panel criticized Western European countries Tuesday for “aggressive secularism” as it released a report on religious freedom that took aim at laws banning full-face veils in public.

For the first time, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom — whose members are appointed by the government — included a chapter on the region in its annual review of tolerance of other faiths around the world.

Because Western Europe generally has a very good record, “it’s easy to overlook the fact that there are some questions and problematic issues emerging there” related to religious dress and customs, commission chair Katrina Lantos Swett told reporters. “In some countries a very aggressive secularism is putting people of religious faith in uncomfortable and difficult positions.”

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Middle TN commissioner’s threatening Facebook post

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Barry West Facebook imageA Coffee County commissioner’s Facebook post suggesting Muslims are best greeted from behind a rifle barrel is prompting demands for an apology.

Commissioner Barry West’s post follows a string of anti-Muslim acts throughout Middle Tennessee in recent years, including at least four incidents of mosque vandalism. Opposition to a new mosque in Rutherford County was so strong it took federal Justice Department intervention to open it last year.

West played no active role in any of those incidents. He just put an image on his Facebook page, which shows a man aiming a shotgun under the phrase “How to wink at a Muslim.” But even that put a chill through Muslims in Middle Tennessee.

Muslim groups tweeted a screen grab of his post and it went viral. West, who lives in Manchester, removed it about an hour later. He did not apologize, instead questioning how his tweet had become the focus of attention. West responded with this email: “No I did not Twitter this … no I did not create this picture … yes I shared it … so why am I being singled out?”

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Female converts to Islam face negative stereotyping

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Converts to Islam are as diverse as the rest of America, racially and ethnically, as well as in their interpretations of the faith. Some female converts wear a headscarf, some don’t. What they share is the perception from others that they are incapable of making their own choice in a decision that involved substantial spiritual wrestling.”

Omar Sacirbey reports.

Religion News Service, 29 April 2013

US Attorney General warns against Boston bombing backlash

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Attorney General Eric Holder declared Monday that the Justice Department is on the lookout for acts of violence or discrimination that signal a backlash to the Boston Marathon bombings earlier this month in which three people were killed and scores wounded.

“Our investigation into this matter remains ongoing – and I want to assure you that my colleagues and I are determined to hold accountable, to the fullest extent of the law, all of those who were responsible for this attack,” Holder said, according to the prepared text of a speech delivered Monday to the Anti-Defamation League. “But I also want to make clear that – just as we will pursue relentlessly anyone who would target our people or attempt to terrorize our cities – the Justice Department is firmly committed to protecting innocent people against misguided acts of retaliation.”

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Behind the use of drones is a complacent belief that murdering Muslims is always justifiable

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown denounces drone attacks against the populations of Muslim-majority countries as “state-sponsored, state-activated, state-engineered terrorism”. She writes: “Western leaders are blindingly proud of their democracies and human rights but how much better are they today than the Muslim terrorists they are trying to defeat? In fact, in terms of numbers of innocent dead, they are a good deal worse.”

Independent, 28 April 2013

Rhode Island: backpack with ‘USA Bomb’ on it left outside Muslim home

Posted on by Bob Pitt

WOONSOCKET, R.I. — A suspicious backpack left at a Muslim home should be treated as a hate crime, part of a possible backlash against the Boston Marathon bombings, the Council on American-Islamic Relations said Sunday.

“We will be asking the FBI and state law enforcement authorities to investigate it,” said the group’s spokesman, Ibrahim Hooper.

On Saturday, state bomb investigators responded to a report of a suspicious backpack left at a residence on Cass Avenue near Woonsocket High School.

Nimer Ead, a 55-year-year-old design engineer, lives on the bottom floor of the three-family house with his wife and a stepson. He said a neighbor spotted the tan-and-black backpack in Ead’s back yard and called police. The backpack said “USA Bomb” on it, Ead said.

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Posted in USA

Oklahoma mosque vandalised for second time

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Oklahoma Muslim centre graffitiVandals have struck again at a mosque in northwest Oklahoma City. Now leaders in the local Muslim community are asking if this attack could be due to a rise in anti-Islamic sentiment after the Boston Marathon bombings.

Hassan Ahmed [pictured, cleaning off some of the graffiti], the director of the American Muslim Association Mosque, in the 3200 block of NW 48th, spotted graffiti on the building early Saturday morning. “It is very sad that you see some people are actually putting some graphic symbols, the f-word, n-word, on the mosque or even a church or a synagogue, its very sad,” Ahmed said.

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Posted in USA

Republican congressman says Islam will ‘motivate people to murder children’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Dana Rohrabacher 2Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) during a hearing on Friday said that he believes that Islam as a whole is a threat to the United States, labeling it as a religion that will “motivate people to murder children.”

During a hearing he chaired on “Islamist Extremism in Chechnya: A Threat to the U.S. Homeland?” Rohrabacher continually referred to the 2004 Beslan hostage situation – in which Chechen extremists took control of a school in Russia resulting in the death of more than 180 children – as an example of the threat that Islam poses.

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