Fifteen Muslims on Tuesday won conditional dismissals of charges stemming from an amusement park disturbance that started when women were told they couldn’t wear religious headscarves on some rides.
A Rye Town Court judge told the defendants their cases would be dropped if they stayed out of trouble for two months. Most had been charged only with disorderly conduct, but the charges ranged up to second-degree assault.
All the female defendants wore headscarves.
NEW YORK — Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Tuesday that New York police used “terrible judgment” in showing officers undergoing counterterrorism training a graphic, hard-hitting film that says Muslim extremists are bent on establishing a worldwide Islamic regime.
Bloomberg said police have stopped showing “The Third Jihad,” a 72-minute documentary-style movie that has been branded inflammatory by some Muslim groups and was bankrolled, according to The New York Times, by a conservative group called the Clarion Fund.
“Somebody exercised some terrible judgment,” Bloomberg said in Albany. “As soon as they found out about it, they stopped it.”
The Asian News interviews Aina Khan, head of the new Sharia law division at Manchester-based legal firm Russell Jones & Walker.
The right-wing evangelical Christian Institute has a piece (“Sharia is good for women, claims Muslim lawyer”) attacking Aina Khan, head of the sharia law division at Manchester-based legal firm Russell Jones & Walker. The idea of the CI, which has campaigned vigorously for restrictions on abortion rights, as some sort of feminist pressure group is of course laughable.
The CI quotes Tehmina Kazi of British Muslims for Secular Democracy in support of their position on sharia. Not that this will bother Kazi and BMSD. They happily formed an alliance with right-wing Christian fundamentalist Alan Craig to campaign against the proposed Tablighi Jamaat mosque in Newham.
KYTX reports on resistance to the Islamic Centre of Longview’s plan to build the town’s first mosque, a relatively small structure which will be attended by no more than 40-50 people at a time. Needless to say, the objectors say they have nothing against Muslims, it’s just the noise and the traffic they’re worried about.
In response to the mosque proposal, some have erected “Jesus” signs outside their properties. However, this has nothing to do with hostility to Islam, but simply expresses their love of Christianity. As one mosque opponent explains: “The neighbourhood joined together and we put up the Jesus signs to support Jesus Christ in our church and our community.”
Police want to restrict the sale of alcohol during the English Defence League’s proposed march next month. Senior officers are exploring ways of ensuring people travelling to the EDL’s planned demonstration on Saturday, February 4, will not be able to buy alcohol in shops and pubs before, during and after their protest.
An internal investigation by Tarrant County College concluded that a former professor created a hostile classroom environment for Muslim students who questioned his source material and complained that his teachings were biased during a November lecture.
Paul Derengowski’s Great Religions of the World class at TCC Southeast Campus grabbed headlines when a Nov. 8 lecture ended with two Muslim students abruptly leaving his class after questioning the professor about his lesson and other students reporting that they felt threatened by what happened. One of the Muslim students, Randa Bedair, e-mailed classmates and accused Derengowski of being biased.
A Muslim airline pilot who was sacked after links were discovered to two suspected terrorists told an employment tribunal today that an “air of suspicion” had been created around him because of his race and religion.
The British man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was suspended by the major airline after he was arrested by the Metropolitan Police in October 2007 who were investigating two suspects. The pilot was linked to the pair through his brother who was a business partner with one of them.
The arrest led to the airline suspending his flight crewpass in order to carry out a full security review of his position which led ultimately to his dismissal in October 2010.
Fascist graffiti on the wall of Montigny-en-Ostrevent mosque
Saphir News reports on two Islamophobic attacks in France (see here and here). Fascist graffiti were painted on the wall of a mosque that is under construction in Montigny-en-Ostrevent, and two pig’s heads were left at the site where another mosque is being built in Nanterre.
See also “Islam en France : profanation de la mosquée de Montigny-en-Ostrevent”, AJIB, 19 January 2012
And “2 têtes de cochon à Nanterre”, CCIF, 22 January 2012
A Muslim group is urging Canada’s immigration minister to extend his recent burka ban beyond the citizenship courts.
The Muslim Canadian Congress honoured Jason Kenney at a hotel in Toronto’s west end Sunday for his decision to ban burkas during swearing-in ceremonies. But then the group asked the minister to go a step further and introduce legislation requiring any face coverings be removed to work in the public sector or do business with government officials.