A mentally ill man who thought he was meeting someone linked to the Taliban was arrested Friday morning after federal agents say he tried to detonate some sort of car-bomb at a Bank of America branch near Oakland’s airport.
But the explosive was a fake, prosecutors said, adding that the FBI had been eyeing Matthew Aaron Llaneza, 28, of San Jose for a while during an undercover investigation monitored by the FBI’s South Bay Joint Terrorism Task Force.
Alabama Democrats aren’t shedding any tears over state Rep. Richard Laird’s decision to leave the party this week.
Laird, of Roanoke in east Alabama, announced Monday that he was becoming an independent. On Friday, Democratic leaders rebuked Laird for sending an offensive email to legislators and constituents prior to his party switch.
On Jan. 23, Laird sent an email to a group of recipients that included House Speaker Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn, state Rep. Duwayne Bridges, R-Valley, and state Rep. Mike Ball, R-Madison. Also copied on the email was Mellie Parrish of Lineville, a member of the Randolph County Democratic Party Executive Committee.
The message contained a picture of President Obama kissing Democratic U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi on the cheek, with a caption that read “the only time you’ll see a Muslim kiss a pig.”
Have you figured out yet what “anti-jihad” blogger Pamela Geller thinks of Islam? If the “savages” ads and the World Trade Center ads didn’t make the picture clear, you’re in luck: Geller and her group are returning to the Metro, this time with a campaign modeled on a pro-Muslim campaign currently in the system.
Secret, unaccountable no-fly lists are one of many weapons the US government uses to extra-judicially punish American Muslims, argues Glenn Greenwald.
The notice in the Fairfax Station Patch on Tuesday was brief, but to Laurie Jaghlit it felt like a punch in the gut.
At the next meeting of Republican Women of Clifton, a guest speaker would discuss “the treatment of women in Islamic society and how she believes the Hijab is a catalyst for Islamic terrorism.” The Feb. 20 meeting would take place at Fairview Elementary School, five miles from Jaghlit’s house.
Jaghlit, a 52-year-old grandmother who raised nine children in Fairfax Station and Herndon, wears the hijab, or Islamic head covering. She had heard about talks like this in other parts of the country but had never confronted the issue so close to home. “If that’s not hateful and inciteful speech, I don’t know what is,” she said. “This is a diverse area. You’d think that hopefully we’d be beyond this.”
On Thursday, the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations contacted Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Jack D. Dale and asked him to rescind approval for the group to use the school. In an e-mail that CAIR shared with The Washington Post, Dale denied the request, saying, “After school hours, anyone may rent the public facilty.”
A second photo of a St. Paul police officer dressed in a Muslim hijab surfaced late this week, packing an extra wallop: The officer appears to be wearing blackface makeup.
The two pictures, apparently taken at parties in 2010 and 2012, have set off a storm of criticism from some Somali and Muslim community members who feel mocked and belittled by the images. St. Paul City Council Member Melvin Carter III called out the second image for the officer’s apparent use of blackface makeup. The first image did not include blackface makeup.
“The actions of the officers depicted in these photos are offensive and embarrassing,” Carter said in a written statement. “Mocking culture, skin color and religion for a laugh may seem trivial, but any behavior that violates the sacred, essential trust between our officers and residents is reckless and inexcusable.”
A Muslim civil rights group said Thursday that a Royal Oak gun shop will stop selling a target that depicts a skeleton clothed in traditional Muslim garb.
Dawud Walid, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations-Michigan, said he received a complaint last week about the image and met Thursday with the owner of Target Sports in Royal Oak, Ray Jihad, about it.
He said Jihad agreed to stop selling the target, which depicts a skeleton with a long beard wearing a robe and turban and carrying an AK-47.
Montclair State University is investigating a bias incident in which someone drew a picture of planes hitting the World Trade Center on the door of a Muslim student group’s headquarters, campus officials said today.
The graffiti was found Monday outside the Office of the Muslim Student Association in the student center, said Suzanne Bronski, a campus spokeswoman.
“The university police immediately launched a full investigation, which is continuing, and the university’s Bias Response Team was appropriately alerted and has been involved,” university officials said in a statement.
Update: See “CAIR-NJ seeks hate crime probe of graffiti at Muslim student group’s office”, CAIR press release, 9 February 2013
A local councillor has been suspended for posting a comment on Facebook comparing Muslim children wearing burkas to bin bags.
Chris Joannides also messaged friends during meetings with his constituents asking for updates on football scores and complaining about missing his favourite television programmes.
The Conservative councillor for Enfield, in north London, has denied being Islamophobic and defended his comments as “blokeish banter”.
Deacon Spencer (left) and friends
It was generally known that Robert Spencer, the rabid Islamophobe who runs the Jihad Watch website, has a background in the Melkite Catholic tradition.
However, all credit to the excellent Loonwatch for pulling the material together and exposing Spencer’s role as an ordained deacon at Our Lady of the Cedars Catholic Church in Manchester, New Hampshire (see also Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion).
In response to the Loonwatch exposé an online petition has now been posted, evidently by a fellow member of the Melkite Catholic Church, stating that it is unacceptable for a hatemonger like Spencer to hold the post of deacon and calling on the US Church leadership to remove him from that position.