Category Archives: USA

Muslim student sues Connecticut university

Posted on by Bob Pitt

University of BridgeportA Muslim woman is suing the University of Bridgeport, alleging that the school failed to investigate her claims that a fellow student sexually harassed her and instead retaliated by reporting her to the FBI based on a false claim that she was a terrorist.

Balayla Ahmad filed the federal lawsuit Tuesday saying that she was sexually harassed by a male student for months in 2009 and that university officials showed “deliberate indifference” to her repeated complaints. She said college officials recklessly disseminated false accusations by the harasser that they had good reason to believe were unreliable and threatened her with arrest by the FBI.

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Darwin immigration detention centre worker suspended over anti-Muslim comments on Facebook

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A refugee advocacy group says it is unrepentant after it played a role in getting a worker at a Darwin immigration detention centre suspended for spiteful comments he wrote about Muslims on Facebook.

Victoria Martin-Iverson, from the Refugee Rights Advocacy Network, says she takes no joy in the staff member suspended, but is glad it was brought to public attention.

“I was surprised that someone could have so internalised those viewpoints as to see absolutely nothing wrong, that could have any consequences, in publishing those comments with his own name using links that go back to his own Facebook page,” Ms Martin-Iverson said.

“I assure you I take no joy in someone being stupid enough to put their employment at risk, but I am completely unrepentant for bringing this to public attention,” she added.

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Florida Family Association protests Muslim speaker’s visits to school

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Florida Family Association banner

TAMPA — A history teacher who sought to broaden her students’ horizons got more than she bargained for when she invited a Muslim leader to Steinbrenner High School. Kelly Miliziano now finds herself in the crosshairs of David Caton’s Florida Family Association.

Caton, a well-known conservative leader, is calling on the Hillsborough County School Board to end visits by Hassan Shibly of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or allow time for speakers who could counter Shibly’s message. Stephen Hegarty, a spokesman for the school district, said he cannot imagine inviting one speaker to argue against another’s religion.

Candy Olson, chairwoman of the School Board, said, “Our kids need to understand a lot of different perspectives. They’re going to have to deal with everybody in the world, and they can’t just be afraid of them because they don’t know them.”

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Oklahoma’s Sharia ban unconstitutional, court rules

Posted on by Bob Pitt

DENVER, CO — A federal appeals court today unanimously upheld a ruling that blocked implementation of a discriminatory and unnecessary Oklahoma state constitutional amendment that would have prohibited state courts from considering what is broadly described as Islamic “Sharia law” and “international law.”

The court concluded that by singling out Islam for unfavorable treatment in state courts, the law likely violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The court rejected the state’s argument that the constitutional amendment was necessary to protect against improper application of Sharia law, explaining:

“Appellants do not identify any actual problem the challenged amendment seeks to solve. Indeed, they admitted … that they did not know of even a single instance where an Oklahoma court had applied Sharia law or used the legal precepts of other nations or cultures, let alone that such applications or uses had resulted in concrete problems in Oklahoma.”

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California: man get five years for vandalising mosque and firebombing clinic

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Madera man who pleaded guilty to federal charges of arson at a Planned Parenthood clinic and vandalism of a mosque was sentenced in U.S. District Court today to five years in prison. Donny Eugene Mower, 38, also was ordered to pay more than $26,000 in restitution.

Mower pleaded guilty in October to placing signs in front of Masjid Madera – one said “Wake up America, the enemy is here” – and throwing a brick at the mosque, over three days in August 2010.

Mower also pleaded guilty to throwing a Molotov cocktail through a window at the Madera Planned Parenthood Clinic on Sept. 2, 2010. A fire caused $26,000 damage to the clinic, which closed for two days.

Fresno Bee, 9 January 2012

Religious groups oppose NYPD surveillance

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Christian ministers and Muslim leaders said Thursday they’re joining to oppose police surveillance of ethnic groups in New York City.

The Faith and Freedom Alliance includes Protestant pastors from mostly black congregations in New York, some of them veteran activists who were put under police surveillance during the civil rights protests of the 1960s. The group had its first meeting on Thursday at a church in Harlem.

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Alleged Queens firebomber wanted to massacre Muslims in mosque, prosecutors say

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Imam Al-Khoei Islamic CenterThe unhinged Queens pyromaniac who unleashed a scary New Year’s Day firebombing spree had planned to take out “as many Muslims and Arabs as possible” by lobbing Molotov cocktails at worshipers inside a mosque, prosecutors said.

Ray Lazier Lengend, 40, allegedly told cops he had planned to inflict “as much damage as possible” by hurling all five of his firebombs from the balcony of Imam Al-Khoei Islamic Center onto the crowd below. The hateful bomb-hurler, who is under psychiatric observation at Bellevue Hospital center, flat-out told detectives he did not like Muslims or Arabs, prosecutors said.

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Florida: Muslim shopper attacked with stun gun

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The woman was walking through the housewares aisle at the Walmart store on Bruce B. Downs Boulevard in New Tampa shortly before 9 p.m. New Year’s Day. She was dressed in ashalwaar kameez, a tunic traditional in her native Pakistan.

As she reached over to pick up an item, she saw a woman holding what looked like a portable device used to scan items. The next thing she knew, according to her daughter, the woman in the tunic felt a sharp pain in her back. She let out a scream and had to hold on to a rack to keep from collapsing.

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New York: Molotov cocktails thrown at Islamic centre ‘being investigated as possible hate crime’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Al Khoei centreCops are investigating a rash of Molotov cocktail attacks in Queens late Sunday, including one on an Islamic mosque and another that set off a major house fire. Police are handling the four bottle-bombings as possible hate crimes, officials said.

The homemade explosives were hurled at a bodega, the Imam Al-Khoei Islamic Center in Jamaica and two homes between 8 p.m. and 10:15 p.m., cops said. All of the targets were in Jamaica, within two miles of each other, police said. “They definitely appear to be quite similar,” a police source said, “We’re looking into them as bias crimes.”

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