Category Archives: USA

Mona Eltahawy in court over defacing posters: ‘I’m proud of what I did’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Writer and activist Mona Eltahawy appeared in court on Thursday on charges of criminal mischief for spray-painting an anti-Muslim poster in a New York City subway station.

Eltahawy was offered a plea deal but chose to go to trial for charges of criminal mischief, making graffiti and possession of an instrument of graffiti.

“I actually look forward to standing trial, because I acted out of principle and I’m proud of what I did and I will spray-paint that ad again in a second,” Eltahawy told the Guardian.

Guardian, 29 November 2012

Feminist scholar’s book on hijab’s rise wins award

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Quiet RevolutionAt first, feminist religion scholar Leila Ahmed was alarmed by the growing visibility of young American Muslim women wearing headscarves. She feared that a politicized, male-dominated fundamentalism had migrated from her native Egypt to her adopted United States.

Instead, Ahmed reached what she admits was an “astonishing” conclusion: “Islamists and the children of Islamists … were now in the vanguard of those who were most fully and rapidly assimilating into the distinctively American tradition of activism in pursuit of justice,” Ahmed wrote in her book, A Quiet Revolution: The Veil’s Resurgence, from the Middle East to America.

Many women who wore the hijab, or headscarf, “now essentially made up the vanguard of those who are struggling for women’s rights in Islam,” Ahmed wrote.

For her 2011 book documenting a century of trends in the politically and socially loaded question of the hijab, Ahmed has received the 2013 Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion.

Courier-Journal, 30 November 2012

Study shows increase in negative messages about Muslims in the media

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Organizations using fear and anger to spread negative messages about Muslims have moved from the fringes of public discourse into the mainstream media since the Sept. 11 attacks, according to new research by a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill sociologist.

Titled, “The Fringe Effect: Civil Society Organizations and the Evolution of Media Discourse about Islam since the September 11th Attacks,” the study appears in the December issue of the American Sociological Review.

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Man threatened to shoot up San Antonio mosque, police say

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Islamic Center of San Antonio logoAuthorities said a man vowed to shoot up a San Antonio mosque and then turn the gun on himself, but law enforcement foiled the violent plot before it ever materialized.

Worshippers prayed Tuesday night at the Islamic Academy of San Antonio amid an atmosphere of concern. “Very bad news for us,” said Solomon Hamideh, president of the Islamic Academy of San Antonio.

According to an affidavit, Christopher Bane “had intentions of going to a mosque in the Medical Center area and was going to shoot as many people” as he could, and then shoot himself. A witness, who police are not identifying for safety concerns, said Bane told him he had a .45 caliber handgun and ammunition.

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US Army sticks ‘war on Islam’ teacher in bureaucratic depths

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Once, Army Lt. Col. Matthew Dooley’s superiors wrote that he was a “must-select” for command and promotion to full colonel. Then Dooley taught a class to senior U.S. officers musing about a “total war” on Islam, which the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Martin Dempsey, shut down. Now, Dooley has his next assignment – deep in the bowels of the Army bureaucracy, far from command.

Dooley’s Army career has been in jeopardy after he received an administrative reprimand for his elective course at the Joint Forces Staff College, which discussed using “Hiroshima”-style tactics against Islam’s holiest cities as part of a “total war.” But the Army didn’t fire Dooley. It sent him to bureaucratic limbo instead.

Danger Room, 26 November 2012

Posted in USA

‘Anti-sharia’ law supporters push for action on Michigan House bill targeting Islamic ideology

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Supporters of an “anti-sharia” bill that’s been sitting in Michigan’s State House Judiciary Committee for over a year are pushing state lawmakers to put the measure to a vote.

If adopted, the bill he introduced would “limit the application and enforcement by a court, arbitrator, or administrative body of foreign laws that would impair constitutional rights.”

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Muslim man returns to Oklahoma after being on U.S. ‘no-fly’ list

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A McAlester native returned from the Middle East to Oklahoma on Monday after being on the nation’s “no-fly” list.

Saadiq Long, a 43-year-old Muslim and U.S. Air Force veteran, arrived at Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City about 6:30 p.m. Monday where he was greeted by his sister and officials from the Council on American-Islamic Relations-Oklahoma chapter.

Long declined to talk to the media, citing exhaustion from the 36-hour trip. However, CAIR-Oklahoma representatives said he was overjoyed to be home.

NewsOK, 19 November 2012

Muslim man returns to Oklahoma after being on U.S. ‘no-fly’ list

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A McAlester native returned from the Middle East to Oklahoma on Monday after being on the nation’s “no-fly” list.

Saadiq Long, a 43-year-old Muslim and U.S. Air Force veteran, arrived at Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City about 6:30 p.m. Monday where he was greeted by his sister and officials from the Council on American-Islamic Relations-Oklahoma chapter.

Long declined to talk to the media, citing exhaustion from the 36-hour trip. However, CAIR-Oklahoma representatives said he was overjoyed to be home.

NewsOK, 19 November 2012