Category Archives: USA

Groundbreaking ceremony for Temecula mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Temecula mosque groundbreaking ceremony

The protests, marathon public hearings and years of meeting in homes and business parks were just memories Friday afternoon.

That’s when members of the Islamic Center of Temecula Valley gathered for a groundbreaking ceremony to celebrate the upcoming start of construction on its long-in-the-works mosque project.

The mosque, which will be built in two phases, will be the center’s first permanent home for its members, who have worshiped in members’ homes and commercial areas in both Temecula and Murrieta.

“This is a glorious day. A day to celebrate. Be proud to be in America, a Muslim in America,” said Emad Rasheed, the center’s chairman, addressing a cheering group of the center’s members.

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Fresh leads in California mosque hate crime

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Authorities say they are pursuing fresh leads in their investigation into an Aug. 7 incident in which two women hurled pieces of pig carcasses outside a San Bernardino County home where Muslims were praying inside.

The incident at the site of the proposed Al-Nur Islamic Center near Ontario is being investigated as a hate crime and vandalism of a place of worship, said Detective Joseph Parker of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. “We believe the pig parts were thrown out to intimidate members so they don’t build a mosque on the site,” he said.

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Posted in USA

Mona Eltahawy arrested for defacing Geller’s anti-Muslim poster

Posted on by Bob Pitt

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ABfcjn_npb8

Mona Eltahawy, the prominent Egyptian-American writer and activist, has been arrested in New York, after spraying paint over a controversial poster on the subway that has been condemned for equating Muslims with “savages”.

The posters which have been put up in the city by the anti-Muslim American Freedom Defense Initiative, led by Pam Geller, were approved by a US court, which ruled that they were “political” statements and protected by the first amendment, which guarantees free speech.

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Yougov poll finds even more hostility towards Islam in UK than in US

Posted on by Bob Pitt

An overwhelming majority of Republican voters in the United States regard the west and Islam as being embroiled in “a fundamental conflict which only one side can win”, according to new YouGov polling seen exclusively by the Guardian.

As the UN general assembly was convening in New York, with an agenda including the ongoing conflict in Syria, the Iranian nuclear question and the Arab uprisings, the pollsters asked both American and British voters about their attitudes to the Muslim world.

Opinion was reasonably evenly split on both sides of the Atlantic, and indeed somewhat more tolerant in the United States. Overall, Americans rejected the view of a fundamental clash of cultures that can only have one winner – only 39% adopted this view, against 47% who believe that “it is possible for the west and Muslims to coexist in peace”. In Britain, by contrast, the respective figures were 43% and 41%, suggesting that British opinion towards Islam is somewhat more hostile overall.

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Boston: response to anti-Islamic graffiti

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Charlestown graffiti

On Friday, Sept. 21, officers responded to the corner of Main Street and School Street for a report graffiti. The call that triggered the response originally reported the vandalism as anti-Semitic, but the officer found that it was instead anti-islamic. The graffiti read “Islam sucks! You rat pack Islamic rats. The Warlock. USA #1.” Police forwarded the report to the city’s public works department because it was written on city property.

Charlestown Patch, 24 September 2012

See also “Counter-vandal opposes anti-Islam message”,Charlestown Patch, 25 September 2012

Via Loonwatch