Murfreesboro church’s crosses offer message to Muslims

Grace Baptist Church Murfreesboro

Islamic Center of Murfreesboro members will pass a field lined with 13 white crosses in front of Grace Baptist Church on Bradyville Pike on the way to their new mosque once it opens.

“It was more or less to make a statement to the Muslims about how we felt about our religion, our Christianity,” said Mack Richards, a Middle Tennessee Baptist Church member who built the crosses at the request of Grace Baptist member and friend Bobby Francis. “We wanted them to see the crosses and know how we felt about things.”

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Sweden ‘counter-jihad’ rally outnumbered by anti-racists

Lennon, Spencer and Geller in Stockholm
Standing for ‘freedom and truth’ in Stockholm – one British thug and two American nutters

A Stockholm rally by European and U.S. far-right groups seeking to create a global “counter-jihad” movement attracted fewer than 200 people on Saturday who were outnumbered by anti-racist protesters. Police said the rival demonstration was kept apart from the far-right rally and drew a few hundred people, a small number of whom were detained.

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‘When Muslim parents kill a beautiful 17-year-old out of religious conviction, I feel intolerant’ says Odone

Cristina Odone“Can religion really lead a mother and father to kill their own child? It is clear that in the Ahmeds’ case, this was so: Alesha, the victim’s surviving sister, testified in court that her parents openly acknowledged that they must do away with the rebellious teenager. She had adopted ‘western ways’, and brought shame on their family.”

Cristina Odone exploits the tragic death of Shafilea Ahmed in order to demonstrate that she’s an ignorant bigot.

Daily Telegraph, 3 August 2012

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English Defence League protesters confront police in Keighley

EDL in Keighley

Protesters gathered in Keighley for a demonstration by far-right campaign group the English Defence League (EDL) this afternoon. About 100 members of the organisation arrived at Church Green off North Street and were shouting and chanting.

Dozens of police officers were at the scene. Mounted police were positioned at one side of the green and officers positioned at other points in the town centre.

Members of the EDL were trying to surge through police barriers, and someone let off a firework. Demonstrators jostled officers, and more police, including mounted officers, attended the site to keep the action contained within Church Green.

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Rabid Islamophobes unite: Michele Bachmann joins advisory board of Thomas More Law Center

Thomas More Law Center banner

U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., was named Thursday to the citizens advisory board of an Ann Arbor-based legal center that fights for conservative Christian causes.

The appointment of Bachmann, who dropped out of the presidential primary in January, brings another high-profile conservative to the Thomas More Law Center, which increasingly has focused on Islam in recent years. In May, the center named U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., whose views also have sparked controversy, to the advisory board.

“I am pleased to join forces with the Thomas More Law Center,” Bachmann said Thursday. “They are in the courts aggressively fighting the internal threat to America posed by radical Islam.”

Richard Thompson, the center’s president and chief counsel, said that Bachmann “puts country before politics.”

“She understands the threat of radical Islam,” Thompson said. “We share her concerns regarding the stealth jihad that’s being perpetrated against the United States.”

Dawud Walid, director of the Michigan branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said that Bachmann is a “perfect fit” for the board. “Since Michigan has been a target of nationwide of anti-Islam campaigns, it makes sense that Bachmann would join a Michigan-based group … openly hostile to the Islamic faith.”

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French Jewish leaders ‘outraged’ by mosque desecration near Toulouse

French Jewish leaders are calling the tossing of two pig heads into a mosque not far from Toulouse “an odious desecration.”

Worshippers at the Salam mosque in Montauban in southern France discovered two pig heads at the entrance to the building yesterday.

The CRIF, the umbrella organization of French Jewish communities, called the incident “an odious desecration” and said it “identifies with the outrage of the Muslim community, which was deeply offended by the act perpetrated during Ramadan.”

The Jewish communities of France convey their “sincerest sentiments of friendship” to the Muslim community, the statement said.

France’s Union of Jewish Students also said in a statement that it was appalled by an incident that had occurred in a “worrying climate of hatred.”

JTA, 3 August 2012

Anti-Islam challenge to Tennessee lawmaker fails

Lou Ann Zelenik defeated
‘There, there Lou Ann’ – supporter commiserates with Zelenik over her humiliating defeat

A Tennessee Republican congresswoman survived a spirited primary election challenge on Thursday from an opponent whose campaign was based on opposition to Islam and to a new mosque built near Nashville.

U.S. Representative Diane Black won the primary election by a comfortable margin over Lou Ann Zelenik, noted for her fierce opposition to the Islamic Center built in Murfreesboro, about 30 miles south of Nashville, although it was outside the congressional district she sought to represent.

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Who is behind the Islamophobic graffiti in Limoges?

Limoges restaurant graffiti
Kebab restaurant graffiti in Palais-sur-Vienne

La Montagne reports that following the desecration of a mosque on Saturday night, other places in the Limoges area in west-central France were also subjected to “explicitly Islamophobic graffiti”.

The same Odal runes that were sprayed on the doors of the mosque also appeared on the Boulevard Schuman bridge. But here they were accompanied by Celtic crosses, the word “Oi” and the initials “NRF”.

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Opponents of new mosque try to shout down Muslim project manager at planning meeting

Sal Akhter addresses planning committee meeting
Sal Akhter addresses the meeting

Nearly 200 South Santa Clara County residents attended a planning advisory meeting Tuesday night to voice an impassioned mix of concerns, opposition, support and questions regarding the proposed Cordoba Center mosque project which will be considered by the county’s planning commission Thursday.

County staff began the meeting at the Grange Hall in Morgan Hill by announcing they decided since last week to recommend the planning commission postpone the project due to the high volume of concerns submitted by the public. While last week the staff recommended the commission approve the project when it takes up the issue Thursday, on Tuesday they said they will recommend the body continue the decision in order to allow further studies of the soil permeability and groundwater depth on the 15-acre San Martin site where the South Valley Islamic Center plans to build the Cordoba Center.

But when the meeting turned to the public comment period, in which nearly 30 audience members used their allotted three minutes to voice their objections, support or suggestions for the project, the meeting quickly grew boisterous and, at times, nearly out of control. Attendees shouted in argument from the audience against speakers whom they disagreed with, and applauded loudly with those they supported.

While Sal Akhter, SVIC member and Cordoba Center project manager, spoke as the last public commenter, the audience emitted a loud sustain of disapproval as he demonstrated the existing local presence of Muslim residents and activity in San Martin. Akhter was visibly and vocally upset at the reaction and many of the comments that preceded his, and directed his opinion to the audience rather than the committee.

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