The Islamic Center of Murfreesboro was granted a temporary 30-day certificate of occupancy Tuesday morning by officials with the Tennessee State Fire Marshal’s Office.
Islamic Center leaders said they plan to apply for a local occupancy certificate Tuesday afternoon at the Rutherford County Building Codes Department. “We plan to submit the paperwork to (Rutherford) County this afternoon,” said Essam Fathy, chairman of the board for the Islamic Center.
The parents of a 17-year-old girl, jailed for attacking her because she was going out with a black man, have been called “disgraceful” by a judge.
David Champion, 50, from Swansea, and his wife Frances, hit daughter Jane for “bringing shame” on the family. The father also abused her boyfriend Alfonce Ncube with racist language before grabbing and kicking him.
Champion was jailed for 12 months at Swansea Crown Court, and his wife to nine months. Both admitted assault.
The father also admitted a charge of racially aggravated assault against Mr Ncube. Frances Champion admitted using threatening, abusive or offensive words or behaviour to cause racially aggravated fear or provocation of violence towards Mr Ncube.
A reminder that “honour-based violence” is not a phenomenon restricted to communities of recent migrant origin. The Daily Mail has covered this story – but, oddly enough, doesn’t regard the religious beliefs of the convicted parents as at all relevant to the case. Another of those “what if they were Muslim?” moments.
Initial reactions to the appalling violence at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin prominently featured the suggestion that Sikhs had been confused with Muslims by the killer and had suffered “collateral damage” from 9/11. On the face of it, that appeared to be a plausible explanation, as Sikhs in the United States have certainly been attacked by ignorant racists who can’t tell one predominantly non-white faith community from another.
The obvious conclusion is that Sikhs and Muslims should join together to oppose Islamophobia. The right-wing response, however, is to try and set the two communities against each other by suggesting that whereas hostility towards Islam is legitimate and a significant number of Muslims are indeed violent extremists, Sikhs are unfairly tarred with the same brush.
A mosque in southwest Missouri burned to the ground early Monday in the second fire to hit the Islamic center in little more than a month, officials said.
The fire at the Islamic Society of Joplin was reported about 3:30 a.m. Monday, the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office said. The sheriff’s department said the building was a total loss. No injuries were reported and no charges have been filed.
The English Defence League protesting in Keighley on Saturday
Five people were arrested during a demonstration by the far-right English Defence League (EDL) against alleged sexual grooming, police said today.
A West Yorkshire Police spokesman said the arrests were all for “public order offences” and came either during or after the extremist group held its protest in Church Green, Keighley, on Saturday. Those arrested have now been released on bail pending further inquiries.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=D4ZQ9O3JvOQ
Press TV reports from a demonstration in Gennevilliers against the sacking (since withdrawn) of four Muslims workers at a summer camp run by the local authority. They were dismissed on the grounds that their fasting for Ramadan supposedly made them unfit to carry out their duties and they represented a threat to the safety of the young people they were supervising.
Gennevilliers has a Communist mayor, Jacques Bourgoin, who initially supported the sackings, and his position was strongly supported by the far-right Front National who stated: “Those who oppose this wise decision are making a mockery of the principles of safety and secularism.”
Islamic Center of Murfreesboro members will pass a field lined with 13 white crosses in front of Grace Baptist Church on Bradyville Pike on the way to their new mosque once it opens.
“It was more or less to make a statement to the Muslims about how we felt about our religion, our Christianity,” said Mack Richards, a Middle Tennessee Baptist Church member who built the crosses at the request of Grace Baptist member and friend Bobby Francis. “We wanted them to see the crosses and know how we felt about things.”
Standing for ‘freedom and truth’ in Stockholm – one British thug and two American nutters
A Stockholm rally by European and U.S. far-right groups seeking to create a global “counter-jihad” movement attracted fewer than 200 people on Saturday who were outnumbered by anti-racist protesters. Police said the rival demonstration was kept apart from the far-right rally and drew a few hundred people, a small number of whom were detained.
“Can religion really lead a mother and father to kill their own child? It is clear that in the Ahmeds’ case, this was so: Alesha, the victim’s surviving sister, testified in court that her parents openly acknowledged that they must do away with the rebellious teenager. She had adopted ‘western ways’, and brought shame on their family.”
Cristina Odone exploits the tragic death of Shafilea Ahmed in order to demonstrate that she’s an ignorant bigot.
Protesters gathered in Keighley for a demonstration by far-right campaign group the English Defence League (EDL) this afternoon. About 100 members of the organisation arrived at Church Green off North Street and were shouting and chanting.
Dozens of police officers were at the scene. Mounted police were positioned at one side of the green and officers positioned at other points in the town centre.
Members of the EDL were trying to surge through police barriers, and someone let off a firework. Demonstrators jostled officers, and more police, including mounted officers, attended the site to keep the action contained within Church Green.