Imperial Security Inc. has agreed to pay $50,000 to settle a federal religious discrimination lawsuit involving a Muslim employee’s religious head covering, the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Monday.
Category Archives: USA
Obama orders government to clean up terror training
Spencer Ackerman, who broke the story that the FBI, military and Justice Department had held training sessions which had featured Islamophobic propaganda, reports that the White House has ordered a widespread review of government counterterrorism training materials.
CAIR asks FBI to probe threats posted on Bare Naked Islam website
A Muslim civil rights group on Friday asked the FBI to investigate a series of threatening posts on an anti-Islam website. The threats posted by visitors to the Bare Naked Islam website include a post from one person who urges Christians to “kill every Muslim twice” and mentions that he routinely drives by a specific northern Virginia mosque. Another recommends blowing up mosques.
In making the request, Council for American-Islamic Relations spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said the Internet is replete with hateful commentary about Muslims. But he said these comments differ because they routinely contain explicit calls for violence. “The Internet is a cesspool of bigoted speech, but this is something else entirely,” Hooper said.
CAIR condemns Rick Santorum for promoting religious profiling
A national Muslim group is calling out Rick Santorum for supporting religious profiling against Muslims, and appealed Wednesday to the Republican Party to rebuke Santorum for his views.
In a national security debate Tuesday, the former Pennsylvania senator and GOP presidential candidate said he would support profiling Muslims at airport checkpoints as a tactic to protect against terrorist attacks.
“Obviously Muslims would be someone you’d look at, absolutely,” Santorum said. “The radical Muslims are the people who are committing these crimes, by and large, as well as younger males – not exclusively, but these are things that you profile to find your best, most likely candidates.”
US rethinks its dealings with political Islam
The uprisings in the Arab world have altered the political landscape in North Africa and the Middle East. Islamist parties, often suppressed under autocratic leaders, have gained ground in Tunisia and are poised to do well in Egypt and Libya as well. This trend has forced the U.S. to rethink its dealings with political Islam. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the U.S. will see what those parties do and engage those who play by democratic rules.
Opponents of Sheepshead Bay mosque lose appeal
Protestors against Sheepshead Bay mosque – no mention of traffic or parking problems
A group of Sheepshead Bay residents who claim that a planned mosque is using a zoning loophole to skirt parking requirements lost their latest attempt to halt the controversial project, after the Board of Standards and Appeals unanimously rejected their claims today.
Though it hasn’t attracted as much attention as Park 51, the Islamic community center in Lower Manhattan, the mosque planned for 2812 Voorhies Avenue, on a residential block between East 28th and East 29th streets, has inspired protests, a lawsuit and challenges before the Department of Buildings.
Columbia, Maryland: community group to counter backlash against women-only swimming sessions
Concerned about backlash against a women-only swim program initiated by members of the Muslim community, People Acting Together in Howard members plan to take a stand at tonight’s Columbia Association meeting. “We’ll have some people there, so if there are negative comments, we’ll be there to present the other side,” Wendel Thompson, a member of Bethany United Methodist Church, said Monday.
In reading letters to the editor that have appeared in the Baltimore Sun, as well as comments made online at Columbia Patch and the Huffington Post, Thompson said he is concerned that much of the opposition is rooted in anti-Muslim sentiment.
Pamela Geller discovers Muslim Thanksgiving turkey plot
Sheila Musaji has the details. See also Adam Serwer at Mother Jones.
Update: See “Is your Thanksgiving turkey an Islamofascist?”, Gawker, 21 November 2011
Spying on Muslims: Who, us?
New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has “categorically denied” that the NYPD was spying on Muslims. Len Levitt is not convinced.
Tennessee Republicans refuse to criticise Womick
Republican politicans and local officials aren’t rebuking or criticising Rick Womick for saying Muslims shouldn’t be allowed in the U.S. military, but Democrats have strong words for his controversial remarks, the Daily News Journal reports.