Martin threw out the case, claiming that Elbayomy was justified in attacking Perce due to his culture and religion. Several other zombie religious figures marched in the parade but no one else was attacked.

Yahoo News reports:

Judge Martin threw the case out on the grounds that Elbayomy was obligated to attack Perce because of his culture and religion. Judge Martin stated that the First Amendment of the Constitution does not permit people to provoke other people. He also called Perce, the plaintiff in the case, a “doofus.” In effect, Perce was the perpetrator of the assault, in Judge Martin’s view, and Elbayomy the innocent. The Sharia law that the Muslim attacker followed trumped the First Amendment.

Read More At Yahoo News

SEE ALSO:

Breathing New Life Into Jazz

The Latest On Nelson Mandela’s Health

“We just cannot let our guard down again,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

Speaking on his weekly radio show on WOR-AM, Bloomberg declined to discuss details of the anti-terrorism programs, detailed in a series of stories by The Associated Press. But he said the intelligence-gathering was “legal,” “appropriate” and “constitutional.”

It was a more vigorous defense of the police department – and a more dire picture of the dangers faced by the city – than he offered just days ago, before the criticism intensified.

Bloomberg said the efforts were vital to protect the city, which took the brunt of the 9/11 attacks and also witnessed the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

“We are not going to repeat the mistakes that we made after the 1993 bombing,” he said. “We just cannot let our guard down again. We cannot slack in our vigilance. The threat was real. The threat is real. The threat is not going away.”

As he has previously, the mayor denied that the department’s monitoring of Muslims not suspected of any crime amounted to spying. Instead, he suggested that the department’s intelligence-gathering efforts – which involved photographing mosques, eavesdropping on conversations inside shops, and keeping files on Muslims who Americanized their names – amounted to looking around, “just to kind of get familiar with what’s going on.”

“We don’t target individuals based on race and religion,” he said.

His remarks came at the end of a week that started with the police department coming under harsh criticism from several college administrators, including the president of Yale University, after the AP revealed that police agents had monitored Muslim student groups around the Northeast and had sent an undercover agent on a whitewater rafting trip with one group of college students.

More criticism came from public officials in New Jersey after another AP report detailed a secret effort by the NYPD to photograph every mosque in Newark and catalog Muslim businesses.

Officials in three states have traded accusations over who knew what about such NYPD programs.

Critics have said it isn’t appropriate for the police to spy on law-abiding citizens without reason to believe they have committed a crime. Newark Mayor Cory Booker was among several New Jersey officials who said they were surprised and concerned to learn that the NYPD had broadly monitored Muslims and mosques in that state.

Bloomberg has been unapologetic about the police department’s efforts, and he said again Friday that the NYPD would continue to do “everything that the law permits us to do” to detect terrorists operating in the U.S. before they have a chance to act, even if those activities turn out to be unpopular.

“This is not a joke. This is not a political statement, a political football to play with,” he said.

SEE ALSO:Time Magazine Cover About Latino Voters Features Photo Of Non-Latino Man

http://main.aol.com/2012/02/24/time-magazine-cover-yo-decido-non-latino-man_n_1299728.html?ncid=txtlnkushpmg00000022

Jeremy Lin Rookie Card Fetches $21,850 In eBay Auction

http://main.aol.com/2012/02/24/jeremy-lin-rookie-card_n_1299763.html?ncid=txtlnkushpmg00000022

SEE ALSO: Obama Refocuses Military

The attacks by the sect known as Boko Haram come after it promised to kill Christians living in Nigeria’s largely Muslim north, exploiting long-standing religious and ethnic tensions in the multiethnic nation of more than 160 million people. The pledge by the leader of an umbrella organization called the Christian Association of Nigeria now raises the possibility of retaliatory violence.

In the last few days alone, Boko Haram has killed at least 44 people, despite the oil-rich nation’s president declaring a state of emergency in regions hit by the sect.

Speaking Saturday to journalists, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, president of the Christian Association of Nigeria, vowed the group’s members would adequately protect themselves from the sect. He declined to offer specifics, raising concerns about retaliation.

“We have decided to work out means to defend ourselves against these senseless killings,” Oritsejafor said.

In Yola, the capital of Adamawa state, gunmen covered their faces with black cloth when they attacked Apostolic Church on Friday night, local police commissioner Ade Shinaba said. Shinaba said at least eight worshippers died in that attack.

At a nearby beauty salon, at least three others were killed in a similar attack.

“Three gunmen with their faces covered with black cloth burst into my salon and started shooting at customers, chanting, ‘God is great, God is great,’” said Stephen Tizhe, 35.

Responding to the violence, Adamawa state Gov. Murtala Nyako ordered a 24-hour curfew through the rural state. The violence comes ahead of a planned gubernatorial election later this month.

In the town of Potiskum in Yobe state, gunmen set two banks ablaze with gasoline bombs, starting a gunfight with police that lasted three hours, local police commissioner Tanko Lawan said. At least two people were killed in the fight, he said.

On Saturday, sect gunmen also shot and killed two Christian students who attend the University of Maiduguri in nearby Borno state, local police commissioner Simeon Midenda said.

No arrests have been made in any of the attacks, authorities said.

The attacks came after gunmen claimed by Boko Haram attacked a town hall earlier that day in Mubi, Adamawa state, killing at least 20 people who had gathered for a meeting of the Christian Igbo ethnic group. On Thursday night, the sect also attacked a church in Gombe state, killing at least eight people.

In a statement Friday to The Daily Trust, the newspaper of record in Nigeria’s north, a Boko Haram spokesman using the nom de guerre Abul-Qaqa claimed responsibility for the attacks in Gombe and Mubi.

“We want to prove to the federal government of Nigeria that we can always change our tactics,” the spokesman said.

Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is sacrilege” in the local Hausa language, is responsible for at least 510 killings last year alone, according to an Associated Press count. It has targeted churches in the past in its campaign to implement strict Shariah law across Nigeria.

The group claimed responsibility for attacks that killed at least 42 people in a Christmas Day strikes that included the bombing of a Catholic church near Abuja. The group also claimed an August suicide car bombing that targeted the U.N. headquarters in the capital, killing 25 people and wounding more than 100.

Nigeria’s central government has been slow to respond to the sect. On Dec. 31, President Goodluck Jonathan declared regions of Borno, Niger, Plateau and Yobe states to be under a state of emergency, meaning authorities can make arrests without proof and conduct searches without warrants. He also ordered international borders near Borno and Yobe state to be closed.

However, the areas where the recent church and town hall attacks happened are not in the areas marked by the president.

Boko Haram promised to begin attacking Christians in Nigeria’s north several days before the recent violence. The new killings have sparked fears among Christians living in the north about the group and caused some to flee. There also has been at least one report of retaliatory violence against Muslims living in Nigeria’s mostly Christian south in recent days as well.

RELATED:

Did Romney Have 20 Incorrect Votes?

Why Republicans Keep Talking Race

SEE ALSO: Why New Year’s Resolutions Don’t Work

So what does this all mean? Where is all of this headed? Nida Khan wrote a powerful piece for the Huffington Post about how unrealistic many American Muslims have been about racism and xenophobia in the U.S.A.:

In post-9/11 America, many have sadly grown accustomed and tolerant to routine practices of racial profiling, bias and even attacks against Muslims and those perceived to be Muslim. But in addition to blatant violence, workplace discrimination and subliminal acts of racism, Muslims have also become aware of another nuance that other Americans may not even realize exists — hesitation to give to charity. Because of fear that any charitable Muslim organization or mosque could suddenly be called out for links to a lone extremist faction (whether it’s justified or not), many pulled their money and cut back on donations to the extent that long-established charities found it virtually impossible to survive. Usually without any valid reason, many stopped supporting Muslim aide groups for the simple notion that anyone, anywhere could at any moment single out that organization and in turn put all those who gave money out of goodwill at risk for associating with them. The victims in all this? The impoverished and destitute in many “third world” countries.

Later Khan speaks to the short term memory loss many Americans have when it comes to fear of “outsiders”:

Throughout modern history, we’ve had other instances of outrageous fear mongering, bias and injustice against those whose patriotism we questioned. Though it is rarely covered in classrooms, the internment of hundreds of thousands of Japanese and those of Japanese ancestry during WWII is a perfect example. Literally rounded up and “excluded” from living in the cities and towns they resided in, these “suspicious” individuals were interned in camps because their allegiance to the country “could not be determined.”

About six months after 9/11 I was harassed at Dulles Airport by TSA for having an African name. There was no other explanation. The guy was trying to make me miss my flight. Things got intense. I had to kindly remind him that Harvard Hip-Hop Archive bought my ticket. I told him that unless he thought Harvard was harboring Al-Qaida he needed to let me go. He did.

But that is just one of many things I have experienced since 9/11. Some of it was within the African American community. Some of it came from within my family (I’m a convert).  There are many other Muslims I know with stories far worse than mine. What many American non-Muslims don’t understand is that most Muslims came here for a better life. The came here because the oppressive Muslim regime they were under was failing their aspirations. Just like the Catholics, Jews, Protestants, Hindus, atheists and other faiths- they came here to be at peace. American converts used our freedom of religion to claim a new faith for themselves. They do to hate the country they were born in. The insane act of a minority should not define the rest of the Muslims here in America.

I don’t base my understandings of Christianity on the KKK. If I did, how far would that get me?

What can an American Muslim do today to prove they are not haters of America? What is proof of patriotism for any race or faith? How do we collectively come to accept the differences we have in the American melting pot?

Ultimately, being American means that we agree to let others who live differently- live peacefully. It means we respect the right of “the other” to be different. I used to live on a block where a Hindu family, a White Christian super patriotic rocker family and an Asian family of unknown faith lived peacefully (supportive and respectful of one another). That’s being truly American. We don’t have to pray the same way for me to give you respect. We may not agree, but I will always honor your right to live as you like. That is the American that I am. I’m at peace with myself, with my country and willing to let the next man or woman pray, or not pray as they please. The question is- what kind of American are you?

Read her full article in the Huffington Post.

SEE ALSO:

Breakups Of 2012

America’s Water Infrastructure Is Going Down The Tubes

SEE ALSO: Zuckerberg Has Grown-Up Plans For Facebook

Authorities say at least 25 people were killed by the explosion at the St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla, near the Nigerian capital, Abuja. Boko Haram, a radical Muslim sect waging a sectarian fight claimed the attack and another bombing near a church in the restive city of Jos.

The assaults come a year after a series of Christmas Eve bombings in Jos claimed by the militants left at least 32 dead and 74 wounded.

Benedict didn’t refer explicitly to the bombings in his Christmas Day survey of the world’s trouble spots, delivered from the sun-drenched loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica. But the Vatican issued a statement denouncing them as a sign of “cruelty and absurd, blind hatred” that shows no respect for human life.

Elsewhere, Christians braved lashing rains and wind to celebrate Christmas Mass in Jesus’ traditional birthplace on Bethlehem’s Manger Square. St. Catherine’s Church is attached to the smaller Church of the Nativity, which is built over a grotto where the faithful believe Jesus was born.

“We wanted to be part of the action,” said Don Moore, 41, a psychology professor from Berkeley, Calif., who came to Bethlehem with his family. “This is the place, this is where it all started. It doesn’t get any more special than that.”

The holy town of Bethlehem is no stranger to violence. Like the rest of the West Bank, it fell on hard times after the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation broke out in late 2000. Although civil affairs in the biblical town on Jerusalem’s southeastern outskirts are run by Palestinian authorities, security control remains in the hands of Israel, which built a barrier around three sides of the town to keep Palestinian attackers out.

Palestinians say the barrier has badly hurt the local economy, which depends heavily on tourism, by severely restricting movement in and out of the town.

But as the violence has subsided, tourists have returned in large numbers. On Saturday, turnout for Christmas Eve festivities in Bethlehem was at its highest since the uprising began driving tourists away. An estimated 100,000 visitors streamed into Manger Square on Christmas Eve, up from 70,000 the previous year, according to the Israeli military’s count.

The Holy Land and the entire Mideast were very much on Benedict’s mind as he delivered his traditional “Urbi et Orbi” speech (Latin for “to the city and to the world”).

Speaking just a few hours after celebrating a late-night Christmas Eve Mass, Benedict said he prayed that the birth of Jesus, which Christmas celebrates, would send a message to all who need to be saved from hardships.

He said he prayed that God would help the Israelis and the Palestinians resume peace talks and “bring an end to the violence in Syria, where so much blood has already been shed.”

He called for international assistance for refugees from the Horn of Africa and flood victims in Thailand, among others, and urged greater political dialogue in Myanmar, and stability in Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa’s Great Lakes region, which includes Congo, Uganda and Rwanda.

After his speech, Benedict delivered Christmas greetings in 65 different languages, from Mongolian to Maori, Aramaic to Albanian, Tamil to Thai. He finished the list with Guarani and Latin, as the bells tolled from St. Peter’s enormous bell towers.

In the piazza below, thousands of jubilant tourists and pilgrims, and hundreds of colorful Swiss Guards and Italian military bands mingled around the Vatican’s giant Christmas tree and larger-than-life sized nativity scene.

In the U.K., the leader of the world’s Anglicans, the Archbishop of Canterbury, said the summer riots in Britain and the financial crisis have broken bonds and abused trust in British society.

In his Christmas Day sermon, Rowan Williams appealed to those congregated at Canterbury Cathedral to learn lessons about “mutual obligation” from the events of the past year. He said Sunday that “the most pressing question” now facing Britain is “who and where we are as a society.”

“Bonds have been broken, trust abused and lost,” he said.

Britain’s royal family, meanwhile, celebrated Christmas with one notable absence. Queen Elizabeth II’s husband Prince Philip remained hospitalized after having a coronary stent put in after doctors determined the heart pains that sent him to the hospital on Friday were caused by a blocked artery.

And in the United States, members of the loose-knit hacking movement known as “Anonymous” claimed to have stolen 200 GB of e-mails and credit card data from U.S. security think tank Stratfor, promising a weeklong Christmas-inspired assault on targets including the U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force, Goldman Sachs and MF Global.

The group has previously claimed responsibility for attacks on companies such as Visa, MasterCard and PayPal, as well as others in the music industry and the Church of Scientology.

SEE ALSO:

Romney Says He Won’t Release His Tax Returns

Son Wakes From Coma Before Xmas

More than 3,000 Muslims came to Rye Playland to celebrate the end of Ramadan. 60 police were called after clashes between Playland staff and Muslim patrons.

The Harrison Patch reports:

The dispute broke out at about 2:30 p.m. near the park’s entrance between members of the Muslim American Society of New York, according to Peter Tartaglia, deputy commissioner of Westchester County Parks. Fighting began when they were told they would be denied access to certain rides if they wore religious garb, Tartaglia said.

Two seasonal officers were injured while joining Westchester County Police who were trying to break up the scuffle, he said.

Read More At The Harrison-Patch

RELATED STORIES

Judge Jails Muslim Woman Over Headscarf

France’s Ban Of Full-Faced Veils Sparks Muslim Protests

Salon reports:

“It seems like a week doesn’t go by without Cain saying something incredibly offensive, so I can only guess that he’s doing it on purpose,” said Ellison. “He’s probably figured out that he can get headlines if he says something really ugly, so he doesn’t disappoint.”

This is ridiculous and has no foundation in American law. In fact, the U.S. Constitution says Congress shall make no law establishing a religion and shall not abridge the exercise thereof. He runs right into the First Amendment. But the larger question is, why is he trying distinguish himself as the religious bigot of the presidential race of 2011 and 2012

Read The Whole Story At Salon

RELATED STORIES

What?! Cain Says Proposed Mosque Will Sneak Shariah Law In U.S.

Bigot! Cain: Communities Have Right To Ban Mosques

Michael Heick (hyke) placed a sign reading “Bomb Making Next Driveway” on the front lawn of his property along a heavily traveled road in the town of Amherst. The next driveway on the same side of the road is the entrance to the Jaffarya (JAH’-free-yuh) Center.

Heick tells media outlets that he put up the sign last weekend because he was frustrated with how the mosque and town officials handled his complaints that the building was constructed too close to his property.

Mosque officials say the sign’s message is offensive. They want to meet with Heick but he hasn’t responded to their requests.

RELATED STORIES

Maine Mosque Vandalized: “Osama Today, Islam Tomorrow”

CNN’s “Unwelcome: Muslims Next Door” The Hate That Hate Produced

A Friendswood mom says she was offended by what her daughter says happened Monday in ninth grade algebra.

She said, “The teacher told the student that ‘I bet you’re grieving.’ And she basically looked at him and said what are you talking about? And he said I heard about your uncle’s death and she said wow, because she understood that he was referring about Osama bin Laden being killed and was racially profiling her.”

Read The Whole Story

RELATED STORIES

Black Muslim Man Recalls ‘Humiliating’ Post-9/11 Arrest

Slashed Muslim Cabbie To Visit NYC Mayor

The graffiti, which included comments like “Go Home” and Osama Today Islam tomorow(sic)” was found hours after Pres. Obama anounced that U.S. forces had killed Osama bin Laden.

Read The Whole Story

RELATED STORIES

CNN’s “Unwelcome: Muslims Next Door” The Hate That Hate Produced

Islamophobia And The African-American Muslim

“Based on [Callender's] history, I do believe she is capable of committing another crime,” said Judge Helene Sacco.

Callender has a pending case for allegedly robbing and assaulting a pizza delivery man.

Read The Whole Story

RELATED STORIES

Gay Man Brutally Beaten In NYC McDonald’s Hate Crime

Doll With Racial Slurs Hung On Black Church In D.C.

“There’s blood, there’s the severed foot. The message refers to Mohammed, and it says all babies in America would be named Mohammed,” the source said. “It also says, ‘Kiss my black Muslim ass.’”

Read The Whole Story

RELATED STORIES

Anti-Muslim Republican Supported Irish “Terrorist” Group

Muslim Congressman Accuses GOP’s Peter King Of Bigotry

Rep. Peter King To Hold Hearings On ‘Radicalization’ Of American Muslims

For More Information On “Mooz-Lum” Click Here

RELATED STORIES

Halle Berry On Playing Aretha: “I Can’t Do Her Justice”

New Movie “MOOZ-Lum” Explores Black Muslims And Prejudice

This undated file photo provided by Bridges TV shows Muzzammil Hassan and his wife Aasiya Zubair Hassan of Orchard Park, N.Y., at the the Muslim-oriented television the couple ran. Jury selection in the second-degree murder trial of Muzzammil Hassan, accused of beheading Aasiya Zubair Hassan in 2009 after she filed for a divorce, is set to begin Monday, Jan. 10, 2011 in Erie County Court in Buffalo, N.Y. (AP Photo/Bridges TV, File)

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — It has been nearly two years since Muzzammil Hassan directed police officers in this serene Buffalo suburb to the decapitated remains of his estranged wife inside the Muslim-oriented television station the couple ran.

With his second-degree murder trial set to start, the question for jurors may be less about whether Hassan killed Aasiya Zubair Hassan, 37, after she filed for divorce than about why.

While behind bars, Hassan, 45, has been laying the groundwork for a battered-spouse defense, reaching out to reporters and others to say he acted in self-defense after suffering years of physical and emotional trauma.

The claims would be part of the defense case, Hassan’s attorney, Jeremy Schwartz, said Friday. Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday.

Experts predicted the strategy would be a tough sell. Hassan’s wife was smaller than him and had alleged years of abuse by her husband in a divorce affidavit signed six days before she died.

“The nature of the homicide demonstrates such rage and anger toward his wife that it will be difficult to make him out to be a victim of domination and abuse,” said Casey Gwinn, president of the San Diego-based National Family Justice Center Alliance.

In a jailhouse interview with WGRZ-TV last fall, Hassan described “this huge feeling of relief” after his wife’s death in February 2009.

“When everything was over, I felt I had escaped from a terrorist camp,” he said.

Those who knew Aasiya Hassan have described her as a gentle and sweet woman who was working toward an MBA while serving as general manager of their station, Bridges TV. She also cared for the couple’s young son and daughter and Hassan’s two older children from one of two previous marriages.

Researchers say about 10 to 15 percent of domestic abuse cases involve male victims. But rarely is anyone as insistent about being a victim as Hassan is, experts say.

“Typically, when someone is a victim of domestic violence, they don’t recognize themselves as such. That’s what makes these cases so very difficult to prosecute,” said Suzanne Tomkins, a clinical law professor at the University at Buffalo.

“They’ve been told countless times that they’re deserving (of abuse), they’ve created this, and they don’t see themselves as a victim,” she said. “So, oftentimes, victims are very reluctant to assist in the prosecution of a case.”

Hassan, on the other hand, has written to The Associated Press and other news outlets and agencies, supplying them with research showing women can be abusers and including claims that his wife abused him.

“Domestic violence is not about gender, it’s about control,” Hassan wrote in one of three letters to the AP. “Who is the master, who is the slave? Who (is) the terrorist, who is the hostage? Who is the dictator, who is the prisoner? Who is the captor, who is the POW?”

Two of the letters, postmarked in Buffalo, were signed with his mother’s name. Hassan’s mother, who lives in Dallas, denied writing them. The neat and distinctive handwriting matches a later letter signed by Hassan at the Erie County Holding Center in Buffalo.

Aasiya Hassan was frequently abused shortly after marrying Hassan in October 2000 in Pakistan, she said in her divorce affidavit, which was obtained by The Buffalo News and posted on its website.

In the 21-page affidavit, she tells of black eyes, bloodied noses and swollen lips and instances of her husband ransacking their house. She wrote he would use his 6-foot-plus size to his advantage, sometimes sitting on her, even while she was pregnant. She said she suffered a miscarriage after one such incident in 2006.

She described being kept up all night as Hassan poured water on her, shook her and removed pillows from their bed to prevent her from sleeping while he lectured her about her “character flaws.” He called her a bad mother and a bad Muslim, she said.

“The defendant’s desire to help me fix my ‘personality flaws’ has been a recurring theme throughout our marriage,” she wrote. “On many occasions, the defendant and I have spent hours and even full days in our bedroom while he lectures me about my character flaws and attempts to revamp my personality.”

Orchard Park police were called to the house on several occasions, Chief Andrew Benz said.

The Hassans founded Bridges TV, an American Muslim network, in 2004 with the goal of building cultural understanding and countering negative images of Muslims after Sept. 11. Muzzammil Hassan, who’d previously worked for Kodak and M&T Bank, was president and chief executive of the station.

Erie County District Attorney Frank Sedita and prosecutor Colleen Curtin Gable declined to discuss the trial but have said the case would be built in part on Hassan’s alleged admissions and strong motive evidence.

Hassan’s latest letter from jail, sent to the AP in November, was written in poem form, with 16 three-line verses railing against a Buffalo News reporter who has covered the case and a family violence expert for “always blaming the man as the abuser.”

“In the religion of patriarchy, all abusers are monster men, all victims are pure and innocent sweet little women,” he wrote.

Islamist leader Sheik Hasan Dahir Aweys, left, shakes hand with the spokesman of the Al-Qaida inspired Al-Shabab group Sheik Ali Mohamoud Rage. (AP Photo Farah Abdi Warsameh)

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Somalis say Islamist insurgents have banned unrelated men and women from shaking hands, speaking or walking together.

Residents of the southern Somali town of Jowhar said Saturday that the al-Shabab insurgents threatened to whip, imprison or execute anyone found breaking the recent edicts.

Resident Hussein Ali says he will no longer greet women he knows for fear of punishment.

Student Hamdi Osman says gunmen are searching buses for improperly dressed women or women traveling alone. She says she was once beaten for wearing Somali traditional dress instead of the long, shapeless black robes favored by the fighters.

The insurgents have already banned women from working in public, leaving many families completely destitute.

RELATED:

Islamophobia And The African-American Muslim?

Why Does America Hate Islam?

RELATED STORIES

Beck Claims 10% Of Muslims Are Terrorists; Fareed Zakaria Calls It “Fuzzy Math”

Why Does America Hate Islam?

Share this post on Facebook! CLICK HERE:

Obama talked about his beliefs when he was asked, “Why are you a Christian.” The question was posed by a woman at a backyard conversation here, part of a series of meetings Obama is holding to talk informally with Americans.

Read more at HuffPo

Share this post on Facebook! CLICK HERE:

Delonte West denies having sex with Lebron’s mom [from HelloBeautiful.com]

Trey Songz denies dating Lauren London and introducing her to his mom [from Hellobeautiful.com]

Is Melyssa Ford right about Essence [from Theurbandaily.com]

Kat Stacks allegedly infected with Hepatitis C [from Theurbandaily.com]

LL Cool J nominated again for Rock and Roll Hall of Fame [from Theurbandaily.com]

RELATED:

1 in 5 Americans incorrectly call Obama Muslim

I’d never thought I’d see the day when Black people weren’t the most hated group in America. Even during World War II, the Nazis prisoners were given better treatment than Black soldiers. Sure America hated communists a lot, but they called Black leaders like MLK communists, to hate Black people all the more.

Since 9/11, Black people have moved to number 2 on America’s most hated list, with Mexicans coming in a close 3rd. We even have a a President who calls himself an African-American. That is not to say African-Americans don’t have to deal with prejudice, economic oppression and substandard education but that Muslims have moved to the number one enemy of our country in the minds of good Christian American people from the heartland, who watch Fox News and vote Republican.

While Americans rushed to aid the poor, Black country of Haiti after the earthquake and gave to disaster relief agencies, after the disastrous flooding in Pakistan, there was little attention to from the media and even less donations coming from Americans to help their fellow country in need. Could it be that Americans see poor Haitians as fellow human beings in need of compassion, but not dark skinned Arabs who practice Islam?

The issue of the Ground Zero Mosque, is another issue that shows a great deal of hatred and ignorance towards American people of the Muslim faith. What is more troubling is the way the right wing media has distorted and used the situation to make American people angry at Muslims.

The people who planned and executed the September 11th attacks were of no more representative of Islam than the Christian dictators such as Mobutu and Charles Taylor, both men who were supported by right wing Christian icon, Pat Robertson, are of Christianity.

It seems as if the Tea Party patriots choose to ignore the fact that their precious founding fathers chose to give us freedom of religion and separate church and state.

The right wing has done a good job of fear mongering against Muslims since 9/11, but the problem didn’t start there. For years Muslims and Arabs have been victims of gross stereotypes in movies cartoons and TV shows.

After 9/11, the right wing used Islamophobia to launch their wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That is like using Pearl Harbor to attack china and Korea or invading England because of Hitler.

Making Osama Bin Laden the face of Islam is like making David Koresh the face of Christianity. The right wing has used Islamaphobia to push their unnecessary wars and keep people in fear and now is using Islamaphobia to earn political points among prejudice voters.

While people in Islamic cultures may have issues with treatment of homosexuals, women and people who don’t follow Islam, this is not due to Islam itself. For years, Chistians have oppressed Christians and women and homosexuals. Those who call Islam a religion of war, must’ve missed the crusades the Spanish inquisition and colonialism done in the name of Christianity. Islamic countries like other developing countries need to time to develop before they reach our standards of Democracy and equality. Bombing Islamic countries will not help them develop but just put them further away from western values and styles of government.

The roots of Islamaphobia in this county and be directly traced to the christian-right, Fox News and the GOP. Rather than quell peoples’ prejudices and increasing tolerance of religions the right wing have chosen to play on peoples prejudices and fears to drum up a hatred of Islam. Islam didn’t blow up the world trade center, religious fanaticism did. The Republicans played on that same religious fanaticism to start wars that killed a hundred times more civilians than were killed on 9/11.

So why does America hate Islam? The don’t. America has been given a bad name just a bunch of rich right wingers trying to manipulate the ignorant masses into hatred and fear of people they don’t know. The same tactics they used on African-Americans and communists.

RELATED STORIES

Got-No-Sensitive: What “Sensitivity” Really Means

Eric Holder Calls Pastor’s Koran Burning Day “Idiotic And Dangerous”

Start Gallery

President Obama exhorted a Florida minister Thursday to “listen to those better angels” and call off his plan to engage in a Koran-burning protest this weekend.

Obama told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that he hoped the Rev. Terry Jones of Florida listens to the pleas of people who have asked him to cancel the event.

“If he’s listening, I hope he understands that what he’s proposing to do is completely contrary to our values as Americans,” Obama said. “That this country has been built on the notion of freedom and religious tolerance.

“And as a very practical matter, I just want him to understand that this stunt that he is talking about pulling could greatly endanger our young men and women who are in uniform.

“Look, this is a recruitment bonanza for Al Qaeda. You could have serious violence in places like Pakistan and Afghanistan.”

Read more at LATimes

Click here to view photos:

Start Gallery

RELATED:

Eric Holder calls “Burn A Koran Day” idiotic and dangerous.

Planned Quran burning could endanger troops, says Petraeus

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The leader of a small Florida church that espouses anti-Islam philosophy said Wednesday he was determined to go through with his plan to burn copies of the Quran on Sept. 11, despite pressure from the White House, religious leaders and others to call it off.

“We are still determined to it, yes,” the Rev. Terry Jones told the CBS Early Show.

Jones’ plans drew criticism from Attorney General Eric Holder, who, according to a Justice Department official, called the bonfire idiotic and dangerous during a private with religious leaders Tuesday.

Holder’s words were echoed Wednesday by presidential adviser David Axelrod, who told NBC’s Today show that the pastor’s plan is “wrong in so many dimensions,” offends U.S. values and is a threat to U.S. security.

Axelrod told CNN Wednesday morning: “The reverend may have the right to do what he’s doing but it’s not right. It’s not consistent with our values … I hope that his conscience and his good sense will take hold.”

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has also voiced her disapproval. At a Tuesday dinner in observance of Iftar, the breaking of the daily fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Clinton said, “I am heartened by the clear, unequivocal condemnation of this disrespectful, disgraceful act that has come from American religious leaders of all faiths.”

Gen. David Petraeus took the rare step of a military leader taking a position on a domestic matter when he warned in an e-mail to The Associated Press that “images of the burning of a Quran would undoubtedly be used by extremists in Afghanistan — and around the world — to inflame public opinion and incite violence.”

RELATED STORIES

Planned “Burn A Quran Day” Could Endanger Troops, Petraeus Warns

Gainesville Church Planning “Burn A Koran Day” On 9/11

Start Gallery

During an interview with the BBC congressman, Keith Ellison who is of the Islamic faith harshly criticized the many critics of the proposed Islamic community center near ground zero, claiming that they were religious bigots who used Fox News as a a mouthpiece.

“The fact is that the real driver of this thing is not 9/11 families, The real driver of it are people who openly proclaim that Barack Obama is not a citizen. The real organizers of this thing are people who are just proponents of religious bigotry. Nothing more, nothing less”

“Around the country, this thing is emblematic of a larger issue, There have been anti-mosque efforts in Kentucky, one gentleman who wants to burn a Qur’an in Florida, there have been efforts in Wisconsin and in the Chicago area and others.”

RELATED STORIES

Farrakhan Supports Islamic Community Center Near Ground Zero

Close To 70 Percent Of New Yorkers Want Mosque Moved From Ground Zero

The U.S. commander in Afghanistan on Monday criticized a Florida church’s plan to burn copies of the Quran on September 11, warning the demonstration “could cause significant problems” for American troops overseas.

“It could endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort in Afghanistan,” Gen. David Petraeus said in a statement issued Monday.

The Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, plans to mark the anniversary of al Qaeda’s September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington by burning copies of the Muslim holy book. The church insists the event is “neither an act of love nor of hate,” but a warning against what it calls the threats posed by Islam.

The event has drawn criticism from Muslims in the United States and overseas, with thousands of Indonesians gathering outside the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Sunday to protest the planned Quran burning.

Read more at CNN

Click here to view photos:

Start Gallery

RELATED:

Gainesville Fire Department Denies Permit For Burn A Koran Day

WASHINGTON — Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan said Thursday an Islamic community center and mosque planned near ground zero should be built because Muslims were among those of many faiths who died in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“Why then should a mosque, a cultural center, not be constructed a few blocks away?” Farrakhan asked at a news conference in Washington, where he was joined by a coalition of African-American Muslims.

Farrakhan and other Muslim leaders said the controversy over the building points to a rise in racism toward minorities and an anti-Islamic atmosphere.

The proposed $100 million project has been denounced by many critics as insensitive to the families of people killed at the World Trade Center. They say it is disrespectful to build an Islamic institution so close to the spot where nearly 2,800 people died at the hands of Muslim extremists.

“When that building was destroyed, the whole world felt it,” Farrakhan said, adding that many Muslims had offered their condolences to the country in the wake of the attacks. He said the area is also hallowed ground to blacks who are Muslims.

“Muslims are here. We are not terrorists,” Farrakhan said. “We will not allow anyone on our watch to do some silly act to deprive an innocent human being of their life. And if we see it, we’ll stop it.”

Early plans for the Islamic center in lower Manhattan call for a swimming pool, a Sept. 11 memorial open to the public and a prayer space.

Farrakhan also commented on the rumors that President Barack Obama is a Muslim.

Obama is a Christian.

“Respect his choice,” Farrakhan said. “He chose to be a Christian, but he has deep respect for Islam. Take him as he is.”

Obama has said Muslims have the right to practice their religion and build the Islamic center in lower Manhattan. He later said he wasn’t commenting on the wisdom of building it there.

In a poll released last month by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, 18 percent of people said they believe Obama is Muslim. That was up from 11 percent who said so in March 2009.

RELATED STORIES

Farrakhan Warns Wyclef Not To Run For President Of Haiti

Farrakhan Says NBA Is Big Plantation And LeBron Is Sharecropper

Start Gallery

In 1993, my Muslim community purchased an old school building in Bloomfield Township in the hopes of making it a home for the spiritual and social lives of the growing number of Muslim families in the area. It would be a mosque. We’d call it the Unity Center, and as part of its mission we would aim to foster unity within metro Detroit’s vastly diverse Muslim community.

Thirty-three percent of Detroit’s 33 mosques are largely attended by South Asians, 30% by Arabs, and 18% by African Americans, according to the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding’s 2003 mosque study. By making unity a core value, we also wanted to demonstrate our commitment to strengthening relationships with the greater community we lived in, a neighborhood dotted with churches and synagogues.

As the project took root and renovation plans were drawn up, neighbors who lived around the proposed mosque began to voice objections. They cited traffic, environmental impact on nearby lakes and noise pollution, but the underlying foundation for their apprehension was poorly cloaked. They were afraid of this group they knew little about — Muslims — and they worried about what problems the unfamiliar group might bring to their peaceful lives. As one resident said, “It’s not a standard of worship like we know it to be.” These objections came eight years before 9/11.

Read more at Detroit Free Press

Click here to view photos:

Start Gallery

RELATED:

Rallies Over Mosque Near Ground Zero Get Heated

NY Mayor: Stopping Mosques Compromise Terror Fight

Public opposition to the proposed mosque and community center near Ground Zero is growing dramatically, a new Quinnipiac University poll of New York voters found.
Now more than two-thirds of local voters want developers to move the project, up significantly from the narrow majority who wanted to the mosque relocated last month.

The same number of voters – 71% – want Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to probe the funding of the project.

Read more at NYDailyNews

Click here to view photos:

Start Gallery

RELATED:

NY Mayor: Stopping Mosque Compromises Terror Fight

Rallies Over Mosque Near Ground Zero Heated

A majority of Republicans believe that President Barack Obama “sympathizes with the goals of Islamic fundamentalists who want to impose Islamic law around the world,” according to a survey released on Monday.

That figure, buried at the very end of a newly released Newsweek public opinion poll, reflects the extent to which a shocking bit of smear and misinformation has managed to become nearly commonplace within the GOP tent.

A full 14 percent of Republicans said that it was “definitely true” that Obama sympathized with the fundamentalists and wanted to impose Islamic law across the globe. An additional 38 percent said that it was probably true — bringing the total percentage of believers to 52 percent. Only 33 percent of Republicans said that the “allegation” (as Newsweek put it) was “probably not true.” Seven percent said it was “definitely not true.” The rest (eight percent) either didn’t know the answer or didn’t read the question.

Read more at HuffingtonPost

Click here to view photos:

Start Gallery

RELATED:

1 In 5 Americans Incorrectly Call Obama Muslim

RNC Rep Kim Lehman Claims Obama Told Muslims He Was Muslim

“We have to be able to decode what’s happening and realize that this is religious intolerance on one hand, and it’s [also] good ol’ red-blooded American racial and ethnic bias on the other hand,” said Imam Al-Hajj Talib Abdur-Rashid, sitting in his office at the Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood Inc. in Harlem.

A controversial nationwide conversation has sparked following the proposal of a Muslim-themed community center two blocks away from Ground Zero. Those in opposition harbor the national pain of the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 nine years ago and feel it is insulting and insensitive to the memory of the near 3,000 people who lost their lives. On the other hand, religious freedom is decreed in the Constitution, therefore, developers of the center at Park 51 have a legal status to build wherever they please.

This conversation has brought protestors from both sides to the street to express their views. It has brought about political lobbying and campaign strategies in order to stir the emotions of those both in opposition and in favor.

Meanwhile, a Time magazine poll published August 19 shows that 25 percent of people in the United States believe that President Barack Obama is a Muslim and only 26 percent of people are in support of the construction of this Muslim community center.

Read more at Black Voice News

Click here to view photos of famous Black Muslims:

Famous Black Muslims

Start Gallery

RELATED:

Feds Kill Black Muslim Leader In Michigan

Has Muslim Become The M-Word?

Reverend Franklin Graham, son of renowned Christian evangelist Billy Graham, said Thursday that the reason a growing number of peoplebelieve President Obama to be a Muslim is because he was, in fact, born into that religion due to the “seed of Islam” that was passed to him through his father, Barack Hussein Obama, Sr.

“I think the president’s problem is that he was born a Muslim, his father was a Muslim. The seed of Islam is passed through the father like the seed of Judaism is passed through the mother. He was born a Muslim, his father gave him an Islamic name,” Graham told CNN’s John King.

“Now it’s obvious that the president has renounced the prophet Mohammed and he has renounced Islam and he has accepted Jesus Christ,” Graham went on to clarify. “That’s what he says he has done, I cannot say that he hasn’t. So I just have to believe that the president is what he has said.”

Read more at CNN

Click here to view photos:

Start Gallery

RELATED:

One In Five Americans Think Obama Is Muslim

Obama Refines Comments On Ground Zero Mosque

Gainesville’s fire department yesterday denied a permit for a public Quran burning being organized by the city’s Dove World Outreach Center, a self-described “New Testament, Charismatic, Non-Denominational Church,” according to the Gainesville Sun (via theOrlando Sentinel).

The event had drawn the ire of city residents and leaders, and both the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the National Association of Evangelicals havecondemned the event. NAE Director of Government Affairs Galen Cary told The Florida Independent that Dove World’s actions were “not in keeping with Christian values.”

According to the Sun, Dove World plans to go ahead with the event, permit or not, and could face a fine for doing so. Gainesville Mayor Craig Lowe called the church “an embarrassment to our community” in his comments to the paper.

Read more at Florida Independent

Click here to view photos:

Obama Haters

Start Gallery

The Nation Of Islam’s New Shoes

Major Hidal Nissan Does Not Speak For All Of Islam