Category Archives: USA

Oklahoma Republicans launch ‘counterterrorism caucus’ to fight Islamist plot to overthrow constitution

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Citing concerns about an attempt by a Muslim organization to replace the U.S. Constitution with Islamic law, several Republican Oklahoma legislators have announced the creation of a counterterrorism caucus.

Republican state Rep. John Bennett of Sallisaw spearheaded a news conference on Thursday announcing the formation of the caucus.

Although Bennett described the group as bipartisan, no Democrats attended the news conference. The one Democratic representative Bennett cited as a member, Rep. Eric Proctor of Tulsa, said he was unsure of the purpose of the caucus.

A U.S. Marine Corps veteran who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, Bennett says he’s primarily concerned with the possibility of the Muslim Brotherhood operating in Oklahoma. He also criticized the Council on American-Islamic Affairs, an advocacy group with an Oklahoma chapter.

Associated Press, 14 February 2013

Kentucky: plan for Muslim cemetery rejected

Posted on by Bob Pitt

After residents voiced strong opposition to a proposed Islamic cemetery in a rural part of unincorporated Bullitt County Thursday night, the county’s Board of Adjustments voted 4-1 to deny the request to loud applause from the crowd of more than 110.

The Louisville Islamic Center had requested a conditional-use zoning change to buy 10 acres of land near Mount Washington and build a cemetery. The land is currently zoned agricultural.

Some residents cited traffic concerns on narrow Hubbard Lane and expressed no malice to the Islamic faith.

Others expressed concern about environmental issues associated with Islamic burial traditions, which typically involve no caskets or vaults. Some feared vandalism from those opposed to Islam.

Several told the board the board the United States was built on Christian principles and that the Islamic Center should go where it is more welcome.

Courier-Journal, 15 February 2013

Posted in USA

US right runs with ‘John Brennan-is-a-Muslim’ theory

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Salon reported earlier this week that disgraced former FBI agent and anti-Islam activist John Guandolo had claimed that John Brennan, President Obama’s nominee for CIA director, is “unfit for duty” because he is a secret Muslim.

Guandolo stated that “Brennan did convert to Islam when he served in an official capacity on behalf of the United States when he served in Saudi Arabia” and it “was the culmination of a counterintelligence operation against him to recruit him” by foreign operatives.

You might have thought that Guandolo’s accusation was so off-the-wall that even his fellow Islamophobes would distance themselves from this paranoid nonsense. But no. In a follow-up article Salon reports that Guandolo’s theory has been enthusiastically adopted by sections of the US right.

OC settles with ACLU to allow head scarves for Muslim defendants

Posted on by Bob Pitt

After six years of litigation, Orange County settled a religious discrimination lawsuit filed on behalf of a Muslim woman who was forced to remove her traditional head scarf while she was in a courthouse holding cell, the ACLU announced today.

Orange County officials will no longer require Muslim women in custody to remove their head scarf, known as a hijab, said attorney Mark Rosenbaum of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

Said plaintiff Souhair Khatib of Anaheim: “I praise Allah and thank Him that I live in a country where I can practice my religion freely. While not everyone understands Islam or what it requires of me, I’m grateful that the U.S. government protects my right to fulfill my duty to Allah, whether at work, on a public street or, yes, even in a sheriff’s holding facility.”

Law enforcement officers will be trained about ordering Muslim women to remove hijabs, and the county will pay $85,000 in damages, fees and court costs.

Los Alamitos Patch, 13 February 2013

CAIR seeks probe of FBI ‘retaliation’ in Minnesota

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today called on Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate an apparent act of retaliation against a local community leader by FBI agents at the Minnesota field office.

CAIR says the alleged retaliation, in the form of an FBI visit to the home of the director of the civil rights group’s Minnesota chapter Lori Saroya , followed just two business days after public disclosure by that chapter of an FBI investigation into alleged intimidation tactics used on a local Somali Muslim by two agents.

CAIR press release, 13 February 2013

Pat Robertson claims Islam is ‘demonic’ and ‘not a religion’ but an economic and political system

Posted on by Bob Pitt

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyXQjevYw1Y

Controversial conservative Christian Pat Robertson doubled down Tuesday on claims that Islam is not a religion.

According to Right Wing Watch, Robertson, an elder statesman of the evangelical movement, made the inflammatory claim during an episode of his TV program, “The 700 Club.”

“Every time you look up – these are angry people, it’s almost like it’s demonic that is driving them to kill and to maim and to destroy and to blow themselves up,” Robertson said of Islam. “It’s a religion of chaos.”

He went on to say, “I hardly think to call it a religion, it’s more of – well, it’s an economic and political system with a religious veneer.”

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Oklahoma considers sharia law ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Oklahoma lawmakers are considering banning judges in the state from basing any rulings on foreign laws, including Islamic Sharia law.

A Senate panel on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved the bill, which has broad support in the Republican-controlled Legislature. The bill would specifically make void and unenforceable any court, arbitration or administrative agency decision that doesn’t grant the parties affected by the ruling “the same fundamental liberties, rights and privileges granted under the U.S. and Oklahoma constitutions.”

“This is a way to protect American citizens … where somebody may try to use any kind of foreign law or religious law to affect the outcome of a trial,” said Sen. Ralph Shortey, R-Oklahoma City, who sponsored the bill. Shortey described it as “American Law for American Courts.”

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Michigan: mosque expansion plans face resistance

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Hamtramck — Two proposals to build mosques are raising tensions here as Muslims seek to raise their political influence in this culturally diverse community.

One group, the Al-Islah Islamic Center, now headquartered in a 3,000-square-foot space on Caniff, wants to relocate to a remodeled two-story, 20,000-square-foot building in the city’s central business district at Jos. Campau and Caniff.

Already approved for a zoning permit, the group has run into resistance from the city’s zoning board over its proposed remodeling of the building.

A second group, the Abu Bakr Al-Siddique Islamic Center, is expected to face the city’s planning commission on Wednesday to seek approval to convert a building in the city’s industrial zone on the northeast corner of St. Aubin and Faber into a mosque.

Supporters of the Al-Islah project packed a recent zoning board meeting to urge approval of the relocation plan. Some said they suspected the city’s resistance springs from anti-Muslim sentiment. “This is more than glass and parking spaces, this is Islamaphobia,” activist and resident Bill Meyer said.

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Posted in USA