By Associated Press
Tuesday, 28 December 2010
NEW YORK — The Anti-Defamation League says columnist and TV host Fareed Zakaria has returned a First Amendment award to the group in protest of the organization’s opposition to a proposed mosque near ground zero.
The ADL said in a statement Friday that it was “saddened” and “stunned” by Zakaria’s decision.
The group says Zakaria said in a letter that he couldn’t “in good conscience” keep the league’s Hubert H. Humphrey First Amendment Freedoms Prize that he was awarded in 2005.
Zakaria, a Newsweek and Washington Post columnist and CNN host, didn’t immediately return messages seeking comment.
The ADL is the leading Jewish civil rights group in the U.S. It has said the location of the planned mosque is “counterproductive to the healing process” but says it rejects any opposition to the center based on bigotry.
Professor Arthur Alison is the head of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering in the University of London. For several years he had been the president of the British Society for Psychological and Spiritual Studies. In the course of his study of religions, he got acquainted with Islam. When he compared Islam with the religions and creeds he had studied, he found it suited his inborn nature and satisfied his requirements.
By Maria Ebrahimji and Michael Martinez, CNNDecember 24, 2010
(CNN) — The imam behind the controversial Islamic community center and mosque planned near the site of the September 11 attacks in New York will begin a nationwide speaking tour next month to promote the project and encourage interfaith dialogue, a spokeswoman said Friday.
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 12/24/10) — A prominent national Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization today called on state and federal law enforcement authorities to bring hate crime charges against an Idaho man who allegedly threatened a Muslim woman while she was shopping Wednesday at a Walmart in that state.
The Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma and two other Muslim organizations are teaming up to provide a free Christmas meal for the homeless.
FROM STAFF REPORTS Oklahoman, December 24, 2010
A free Christmas meal for the homeless will be served from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City’s mosque, 3815 N St. Clair Ave.
Published: Dec 24, 2010 00:28 Updated: Dec 24, 2010 00:28
ROME: Package bombs exploded at the Swiss and Chilean embassies in Rome on Thursday, wounding the two people who opened them, in attacks that bore similarities to bombings by anarchists in Greece last month.
Chip Berlet, Researcher and author covering civil rights and civil liberties
Posted: December 22, 2010
Three security and training companies need special scrutiny from the U.S. Justice Department for their role in spreading bigotry within the ranks of law enforcement and counterterrorism agents. Their seminars are so biased and ideologically-driven that not a single dime of tax dollars should be allowed to fund their seminars.
By Tara Bahrampour
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 23, 2010
As Erum Ikramullah prepared to head to Reagan National Airport on Thursday for a flight, she mulled over two distasteful choices: the body scanner or the pat-down?
For Immediate Release
Call Jack Lieberman – 305-582-4846
jollyjack@jollyjack.org
An Open Letter to the Anti-Defamation League
Mr. Rosenkranz,
I am writing to you on behalf of JADA, the Jewish Arab Dialog Association of South Florida, to express our outrage over your recent public attack on our co-chairman Sofian Abdelaziz Zakkout and AMANA, The American Muslim Association of North America.
As you should be aware JADA has been one of few organizations in South Florida that has promoted an ongoing political dialog between Jews, Arabs, Christians Muslims and Americans in our community in order to promote peace between Israel and the Palestinians. From the beginning of our existence in 2003 we have taken a clear stand in support of a “two state solution” to the conflict. All of the Jews in our organization are Zionists and the Palestinians in our organization, including Mr. Zakkout, have taken a clear stand in support of Israel’s right to exist. Indeed, Mr. Zakkout has come under criticism in his community for taking such a strong vocal stand in support of peace with Israel.
Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
San Francisco Chronicle December 22, 2010
A federal judge ordered the government Tuesday to pay $40,800 in damages and $2.5 million in legal fees for wiretapping an Islamic organization without a warrant as part of President George W. Bush’s secret surveillance program.
Republican Rep. Peter King of New York says he wants to hold investigations into the “radicalization” of American Muslims in his new position as chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security, but Rep. Keith Ellison said on Monday that targeting one community would hamper homeland security efforts.
Home, more than the mosque, is where the Malik children learn the religion of Islam – from Skyping to Pakistan for Quranic lessons to copying Mom’s prayers.
By Dana L. Priest and William Arkin
Monday, December 20, 2010
Nine years after the terrorist attacks of 2001, the United States is assembling a vast domestic intelligence apparatus to collect information about Americans, using the FBI, local police, state homeland security offices and military criminal investigators.
