California governor signs law protecting Sikhs, Muslims, from workplace bias

Jerry Brown at Sikh rallyCalifornia employers face new restrictions against shunting Sikh and Muslim workers to backroom jobs out of public view based on their wearing of turbans, beards and hijabs, under a law signed Saturday by Gov. Jerry Brown.

“This bill, AB 1964, makes it very clear that wearing any type of religious clothing or hairstyle, particularly such as Sikhs do, that that is protected by law and nobody can discriminate against you because of that,” Brown told some 400 Sikhs and supporters at a rally of the North American Punjabi Assn. on the steps of the Capitol.

Continue reading

Anti-Islam ads on San Francisco buses put Muslims at risk

“Geller’s ads demonize Muslims at a time when they are under attack. As an educator, I fully support free speech and the open exchange of ideas. But hate speech like the bus ads has a destructive, cumulative impact on society. The term ‘savages’ has been used to demonize people of color and marginalize them throughout this country’s history.”

An excellent piece by Hatem Bazian condemning Pamela Geller’s racist anti-Palestinian advertising campaign on San Francisco buses and their role in aggravating a situation where the US Muslim community is the victim of hatred and physical assaults.

San Jose Mercury News, 8 September 2012

A planned mosque inches along, but critics remain

The New York Times reports on the fight to build a mosque at Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, in the face of continuing Islamophobic opposition.

Pamela Geller is not happy: “Look at this mosquestrosity; you don’t have to be rocket scientist to see that this Muslim Brotherhood beachhead should never have been built on this street. Where is the money coming from to pay for this fortress?”

Geller accuses Washington’s National Geographic Museum of promoting Islamization of the West

1001 Inventions

Anti-Muslim organizer Pamela Geller has joined forces with Justice Department attorney and author, J. Christian Adams, in a scathing critique of a National Geographic Museum exhibit on the contributions of Muslim scientists, the Washington City Paper reports.

The exhibit, called “1,001 Inventions: Discover the Golden Age of Muslim Civilization,” debuted at the Washington, D.C. museum in August and will stay through February. Featuring a video starring Academy-Award winning actor Ben Kingsley, as well as various interactive displays, “1,001 Inventions” aims to explore basic science principles in fields such as optics, time-keeping, hydraulics, navigation, architecture, and math, according to its website.

Geller recently posted an article on her popular blog, Atlas Shrugs, in which she called the exhibit “Islamist propaganda” and “fabricated.”

Continue reading

Protesters denounce Geller ads, call on New York transport authority to take action

White Plains MTA billboard protest

WHITE PLAINS — As supporters held up signs protesting Islamophobia, a coalition of community leaders and residents gathered downtown Thursday to denounce anti-Muslim advertisements posted at Metro-North stations throughout Westchester County.

The coalition revealed its plan to counter the anti-Islamic campaign, calling on Metro-North to distance itself from the advertisement and donate revenue earned from its publication to an organization that combats extremism.

Paid for by the American Freedom Defense Initiative – a group led by Pamela Geller – the ads associate the religion of Islam with 19,250 terrorist attacks carried out by extremists since Sept 11, 2001. Printed in large block lettering on a dark background, an asterisk denotes that number is rising, and a slogan below reads: “It’s not Islamophobia, it’s Islamorealism.”

“The bigotry and hate this ad directs at Muslims and Islam is totally unacceptable in Westchester or anywhere else,” said Priscilla Read, a community activist who helped organize the event. “Our purpose is to raise awareness about what this ad represents, and mobilize action in support of our Muslim neighbors.”

Continue reading

Redmond, Washington: Muslims’ rental car targeted with racist graffiti

A rental vehicle driven by a group of young Muslim men – at least two of whom live in Redmond – was the target of racist graffiti during a recent vacation near Lake Chelan.

According to a news release from the Council on American-Islam Relations (CAIR), the vehicle was scrawled with racist phrases including “Sand N**gers” and “Doon Coons.” The vandals also left several physical scratches on the car.

Continue reading

Keith Ellison: GOP ‘basically a bigoted party’

Keith Ellison (4)Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) blasted Republicans for including a plank in their convention platform targeting Shariah law in an interview with Mother Jones Wednesday, blasting the language as “an expression of bigotry.”

“There has never been any legislation offered to establish Shariah law – not at the federal level, not at the state level. There’s not been a municipal ordinance opposing this, there’s not been anything,” said Ellison, the nation’s first Muslim member of Congress.

Continue reading

Muslim superhero joining Green Lantern lineup

Simon Baz

When DC Comics decided to blow up its fabled universe and create a brave, diverse future, Geoff Johns drew from the past for a new character: his own background as an Arab-American.

The company’s chief creative officer and writer of the re-launched “Green Lantern” series dreamed up Simon Baz, DC’s most prominent Arab-American superhero and the first to wear a Green Lantern ring. The character and creator share Lebanese ancestry and hail from the Detroit area, which boasts one of the largest and oldest Arab communities in the United States.

Continue reading

Scottish Defence League flops in Dundee

SDL Dundee demo (2)

The humiliation of the English Defence League in Walthamstow has attracted most of the attention, but another flop for “counterjihad movement” took place in Dundee on Saturday, where the EDL’s sister organisation the Scottish Defence League staged a protest, primarily against a so-called “mega mosque” on the Al-Maktoum College of Higher Education campus, construction of which is due to start this month, providing 70 jobs for local people.

The SDL has a very low level of support in Scotland itself, and as Dundee trades council secretary Mike Arnott noted in a report for the Morning Star: “To enhance its minuscule numbers at demonstrations in Scotland the SDL also invites its unsavoury allies from the north of England along – the EDL and the North East and North West Infidels, whose reputations for thuggery are well known.”

Continue reading