Free Republic

MERIDEN - A new mosque is a welcome addition to the mix of religious institutions on East Main Street and represents the city's history of religious tolerance, said the Rev. James Olson, pastor of Center Congregational Church. "I think it's great there are Muslims in the community," Olson said Wednesday. "Part of Meriden's heritage has always been religious diversity. I think it's just a reflection of what Meriden is." The Islamic Association of Southern Connecticut Inc. received Zoning Board of Appeals approval Tuesday to occupy a former funeral home at 189 E. Main St. as a place of worship.

Hardware retail giant Lowe’s has pulled its commercials from all future episodes of TLC’s reality TV show “All-American Muslim,” the chain said this week. The conservative Florida Family Association has been leading a campaign to get retailers to pull their advertisements from the show. On Tuesday, it posted an email from a Lowe‘s representative who said Lowe’s will no longer be advertising during “All-American Muslim,” which chronicles the lives of several Muslim-American families living in Dearborn, Mich. “While we continue to advertise on various cable networks, including TLC, there are certain programs that do not meet Lowe’s advertising guidelines, including...

ATTENTION: BUTTERBALL TURKEYS ARE HALAL: November 14, 2011 Thanks for contacting Butterball. Our whole turkeys are certified halal. However, if you would like to know about any other Butterball products, please email us back as to which products you are interested in using and we can get that information for you. Again, thanks for your interest in Butterball. We hope you find this information helpful. Sincerely, Wendy Howze Consumer Response Representative http://mwtrainlayout.com/joesweblog/?p=4401

Ten years after the worst terrorist attack in American history, the Muslim terrorist is almost entirely absent from movies and television shows. He will show up on the evening news, when there’s no way around it, but when it comes to entertainment, the American TV viewer is fed a steady diet of movies and shows featuring positive depictions of Muslims. And that’s not just liberal bias at work. I have written about Unity Productions in the past and its pernicious PBS propaganda machine, and another UPF project is MOST (Muslims on Screen and Television) which partners with a number...

"Islam has always been part of our American family."

“O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” Matthew 12:34 The following quotes from Obama should let you know exactly how he feels. “To the millions of Muslim Americans across the United States and more — the more than one billion Muslims around the world, Ramadan is a time of reflection and a time of devotion. It’s an occasion to join with family and friends in celebration of a faith known for its diversity and a commitment to justice and the dignity of all human...

Is this a joke? Or has the mainstreaming of Sharia really advanced this far? If Shamci Rafani is real and not a hoax, is she a "moderate" because she is only calling for the killing of adulteresses, not actually carrying it out? Doesn't this article give the lie to the oft-repeated claim that no Muslims in America support the elements of Sharia that contradict American principles and laws? Can we get a statement repudiating the stoning of adulteresses and rebuking Shamci Rafani from the "moderate" Muslim establishment? Honest Ibe Hooper? Imam Rauf? Anyone? Anyone? And didn't anyone at the Visalia...

Obama and Janet Napolitano appointed Arif Alikhan, a devout Muslim, as Assistant Secretary for Policy Development. DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano swore-in Kareem Shora, a devout Muslim, who was born in Damascus, Syria, as ADC National Executive Director as a member of the Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC).

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) got some headlines for breaking down in tears during the Homeland Security Committee hearing on Thursday, but another witness, Abdirizak Bihi, Director of the Somali Education and Social Advocacy Center in Minneapolis, offered something more newsworthy—an indictment of Ellison himself. Although he didn’t identify Ellison by name, Bihi’s criticism of local leaders, religious and political, was seen as partly a reference to Ellison being an obstacle to finding out what happened to 20 Somali young people who had disappeared from Ellison’s congressional district and showed up in Somalia as terrorists.No wonder Ellison had called the hearing...

The trick in this biz is never to be right too early. Kathy Shaidle writes: Remember during the gay ‘marriage’ debate, we were scolded: ‘Nobody’s talking about polygamy, you bigoted hicks’? Why, yes. Yes, I do. Steyn in The Western Standard, September 2004. Headline: It’s Closer Than They Think. The activists roll their eyes and go into "Oh, come off it, you can't be serious" mode. Like the chichi gay couple from New York who've built their dream home in rural Vermont, they don't want any other incomers muscling in. Gay marriage, they assure us, is the merest amendment to...

On behalf of the American Muslim community, ISNA said Tuesday that it is appealing to President Obama to take the lead as the United Nations deliberates “over the unfolding atrocities committed by Gaddafi and his regime.” “We ask President Obama to intervene immediately on behalf of the Libyan people,” said ISNA, or the Islamic Society of North America, in a statement. ISNA noted that “Gaddafi, who has already used air strikes to gun down defenseless protesters, has stated he has not even used massive force yet and has threatened to use it against the entire country if they do not...

The American Muslim population will more than double to 6.2 million over the next two decades, according to new estimates from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. Attributed largely to immigration and higher fertility rates, the increase will bump the percentage of American Muslims to 1.7 percent of the population by 2030, placing the group at about the same size as American Jews and Episcopalians. If trends continue, by 2030 the United States will have a higher Muslim population than any European country other than Russia and France.

.... According to Holder, in the last two years, 50 of the 126 people charged with terrorism were U.S. citizens. . . . . . . .the fact that Americans are being radicalized not only bodes ill for U.S. security; it also suggests that American efforts in the Muslim world are doomed to failure. Consider: if American Muslims, who enjoy Western benefits—including democracy, liberty, prosperity, and freedom of expression—are still being radicalized, why then do we insist that importing these same benefits to the Muslim world will eliminate its even more ingrained form of "radicalization"? After all, the mainstream position,...

THE RIGHT STUFF Now look who else is infiltrating CPAC Conservative leader raises questions about host of popular, annual event Suhail Khan WASHINGTON – Another headache has emerged for the largest annual gathering of conservatives slated for next month. With the Conservative Political Action Conference under fire for allowing participation by a homosexual activist group called GOProud and for a financial scandal in which some $400,000 was misappropriated under the watch of current leadership, Frank Gaffney, a leader of the conservative movement for the last 30 years, charges that CPAC has come under the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood, which...

But more than 70 percent of voters in Oklahoma still approved a state constitutional amendment to that effect, apparently persuaded by anti-Islamic activists, and a few cynical politicians, that Oklahoma was about to be brought under Islam’s heel. After Muslim groups challenged the constitutionality of the “Save Our State Amendment,” a federal district judge issued a temporary restraining order. Last Monday, the judge, Vicki Miles-LaGrange, held a hearing to determine whether to issue a preliminary injunction against the measure, and said she would make a decision by the end of November. A federal injunction is warranted to save Oklahoma from...

A nineteen-year old Somali Muslim named Mohamed Osman Mohamud was arrested Friday in Portland, Oregon, just as he was trying to blow up a van loaded with explosives at a Christmas tree lighting ceremony. The explosives were fakes that agents who were tracking Mohamud’s activities supplied to him; as they moved in to arrest him, he kicked at them and shouted, “Allahu akbar!” Although the explosives were fake, “the threat was very real,” according to Arthur Balizan, special agent in charge of the FBI in Oregon. “Our investigation,” said Balizan, “shows that Mohamud was absolutely committed to carrying out an...

<p>But on Sunday, two days after federal law enforcement officials arrested Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, and accused him of plotting to bomb the square during a Christmas tree-lighting ceremony, it was more subdued.</p> <p>Workers were preparing the brick-covered plaza for the 15th annual Holiday Ale Festival that starts on Wednesday. Private security officers patrolled the area. And visitors were still puzzled by the news of the plot.</p>

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma voters have approved a measure that would forbid judges from considering international law or Islamic law when deciding cases. Republican Rex Duncan, the sponsor of the measure, called it a "pre-emptive strike" designed to close the door on activist judges "legislating from the bench or using international law or Sharia law." Members of the Muslim community called the question an attack on Islam and some of them said they are prepared to file a lawsuit challenging the measure.

Go give bugs bunny Dawah! Oh yea, Sheikh Yasir Qadhi will be giving the khutbah at Magic Mountain Six Flags in New Jersey. http://www.chillyoislamyo.com/muslim-family-day-at-six-flags-great-adventure/ Includes "congregational prayers." Do they allow this for Christians??

As the early morning sun steamed through glass skylights, hundreds of Muslim men, women, and children gathered at a cavernous indoor track in New Haven, Connecticut, to celebrate the end of Ramadan. Outside the service, Rashad Abdul-Hakim says the swirling animosities confronting Muslims in recent weeks did little to dampen his Eid enthusiasm. “This is a blessed day,” Mr. Abdul-Hakim says. A convert to Islam since 1991, Abdul-Hakim, who is black, says he planned to proceed with low-key celebrations because the recent cultural flare-ups would soon pass. “I remember when my mom came home after there was some civil unrest,...

I am an Ahmadi Muslim American living in Bel Air and am currently a high school senior. I was born in America, but my parents are from Pakistan. I was 8 years old at the time of the 9/11 attacks, sitting in my 3rd grade class. From grade school on, I have personally encountered racism and extremism. I have endured snide comments, people calling me "terrorist," and people generally hating me for no reason but my race and religion. Nine years later, after all the ways people have treated me, I wonder, are the terrorists winning? What was the point...

Fifteen months ago, President Obama flew to Egypt in the heart of the Muslim world to pledge "a new beginning" in long-strained U.S.-Muslim relations. "This cycle of suspicion and discord must end," Obama said in a speech broadcast around the globe. On Thursday, after Obama went on ABC's Good Morning America and pressed the pastor of a Florida church not to run afoul of "our values as Americans" and burn Islamic holy books in protest, the pastor suspended his plan. Terry Jones' Quran-burning threat, though, had already sparked flag-burning protests in Afghanistan and raised new questions about the state of...

Ok, what’s more depressing? The fact that, in the year 2010, a group of Muslims (ie. practitioners of the second largest religion in the world) have to film a video where they seriously and without irony promise not to take over the country or the fact that the video succeeds in making them seem less like terrorists but accidentally makes them look like the aliens from the remake of V. Seriously, if any Fox News personalities start filing reports that Muslims like to hide in their space ships and eat gerbils, I’m going to lose my mind. > Yes, an...

President Obama is more popular among Muslims than any other religious group in the country, a survey released yesterday shows. Obama retains the support of 78 percent of Muslims, compared with 61 percent of Jews, 43 percent of Protestants, 50 percent of Catholics and 24 percent of Mormons, the Gallup poll found. Obama's support dropped among voters of all religions since he assumed the presidency 17 months ago -- but less so among Muslims. His backing from Muslims had been 86 percent a year ago.

Reigning Miss USA Rima Fakih has spoken out against the Ground Zero mosque. Fakih, 24, is the first Muslim winner of the Miss USA contest and is preparing for the Miss Universe Pageant, scheduled for August 23 in Las Vegas. "I totally agree with President Obama with the statement on Constitutional rights of freedom of religion," the New York Post quoted Fakih as telling Inside Edition during an interview. "I also agree that it shouldn't be so close to the World Trade Center. We should be more concerned with the tragedy than religion," she added.

FRESNO, Calif., Aug. 21 (UPI) -- An Islamic group in Fresno, Calif., cited anti-Muslim sentiment in canceling an annual carnival held the Saturday after Ramadan because it falls on Sept. 11. The Islamic Cultural Center of Fresno had scheduled the Eid al-Fitr carnival for Sept. 11 but decided this week to cancel the event, which features games and Middle Eastern food. The center's leaders said the date could be misinterpreted or viewed as insensitive, given the negative reaction to a mosque and Islamic community center proposed to be built a few blocks from Ground Zero, where Islamic terrorists destroyed the...

96th Street Mosque 1711 3rd Avenue, New York, NY‎ - (212) 722-5234‎ Islamic Society-Mid Manhattan‎- more info » 154 East 55th Street, New York, NY‎ - (212) 888-7838‎ Assata Islamic Center Inc‎- more info » 172 Allen Street, New York, NY‎ - (212) 253-1053‎ Muhammad's Mosque Number Seven‎- more info » 106 West 127th Street, New York, NY‎ - (212) 865-1200‎ Ar-Rehman Foundation Inc, Masjid Ar-Rehman‎- more info » 15 West 29th Street, New York, NY‎ - (212) 686-6525‎ MOSQUE of Islamic Brotherhood‎- more info » 55 Saint Nicholas Avenue, New York, NY‎ - (212) 662-4100‎ Masjid Manhattan‎- more info...

Neda Bolourchi is an Iranian-born Muslim whose family fled to the US following the overthrow of the Shah is 1979. She feels this mosque planned for Ground Zero should be built elsewhere. I was born in pre-revolutionary Iran. My family led a largely secular existence -- I did not attend a religious school, I never wore a headscarf -- but for us, as for anyone there, Islam was part of our heritage, our culture, our entire lives. Though I have nothing but contempt for the fanaticism that propelled the terrorists to carry out their murderous attacks on Sept. 11, I...

Supporters claim the addition of Muslim holidays to the New York City school system calendar would “send a positive message to the Muslim community that you are welcome here,” but the Big Apple’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg is no fan of the plan. Bloomberg claims the school children already take too much time off, and points to statistics that only four of 10 students in the system graduate on time. Muslim enrollment in the New York City schools has risen to 12 percent, or 100-thousand students, and religious leaders there are demanding five more days off over the next decade. Having...

If freedom of religion means anything in the United States, it means that Mus lim-Americans have a right to congre gate and worship wherever they please -- including places those with vivid memories of 9/11 may find distasteful. But that doesn't mean the people behind a planned mosque blocks away from Ground Zero are acting like good neighbors -- or good citizens. Exhibit A: Their secrecy about who'll actually be funding the project. Granted, the groups leading the mosque-building effort seem just fine. The Cordoba Initiative, led by Kuwaiti-born Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, says it's devoted to "interfaith tolerance," while...

So, it’s the middle of the summer, and your family and kids need something to do. You decide to take them to an amusement park. Best to avoid Six Flags . . . unless you’re Muslim. If you are, the red carpet is rolled out on the most interesting of dates, September 12th. I’m sure that this is the day after 9/11 is just coincidence, right?

It was primarily Christians who sought freedom of worship by coming to the New World, but since then America has flourished with just about every hybrid of religion you can imagine. And we manage to get along pretty well. Of course we must ‘endure’ overly nice people with tracts and flowers or those who woo you with green Jell-O. But bottom line, if we don’t like it, we ignore it, we shut the door, we abstain. It’s our right as Americans because we’re free to worship…or not. Lately, there’s been a new kid on the American block. Sharia, an interpretation...

Outraged protesters are planning a massive rally to try to block plans to build a giant mosque near New York's Ground Zero. Angry relatives claim the move is an ‘insult’ to the victims of the World Trade Centre atrocity. The mosque is part of a proposed 13-storey Muslim community centre, which will include a swimming pool, gym, theatre and sports facilities. 'Sacred' ground': The World Trade Centre attacks claimed 3,000 lives. Plans to build a mosque at Ground Zero site have been described as a 'slap in the face' Rebuilding: The Ground Zero site earlier this year, as reconstruction continues...

NEW YORK (AP) - In a 13-story building, damaged by debris from the Sept. 11 airliners that brought down the World Trade Center and soon to become a mosque, some see the bridging of a cultural divide and an opportunity to serve a burgeoning, peaceful religious population. Others see a painful reminder of the religious extremism that killed their loved ones. Two Muslim organizations have partnered to open the mosque and cultural center in lower Manhattan, saying the $100 million project will create a venue for mainstream Islam and a counterbalance to radicalism. It earned a key endorsement this week...

Zero interest and faith are not words one commonly associates with credit cards. They do have a place in discussions about the iFreedom Plus MasterCard, tailored to meet the religious requirements of Canada’s Islamic community and recently launched by Toronto company UM Financial. “There are clients in the market looking for structured products that are compliant,” from credit cards to mortgages, said Omar Kalair, president and chief executive officer. UM Financial plans to market the card to all Canadians.

http://www.investigativeproject.org/pics/289_large.jpg SNIPPET: "A government agency sponsors a community outreach program, but limits media access solely to representatives of the community involved. In doing so, the most powerful press representative present was a publisher who has repeatedly endorsed two groups the United States has designated as terrorists. That's what happened last October when the Commerce Department co-sponsored a "Muslim-American Business Outreach Meeting" with the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in Dearborn, Michigan. Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) revealed that 75 people attended the invitation-only event. Most were touted as local Muslim and Arab-American business and community leaders. Invitations indicate...

Somali refugees have resettled in America to escape the chaos of their homeland. But the transition isn't going smoothly in one town.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIYYd476H1k&feature=player_embedded

The Senate health care bill just signed contains some exemptions to the "pay-or-play" mandate requiring purchase of Obamacare-approved health insurance or payment of a penalty fine. As Fox News has pointed out, for instance, the Amish are excused from the mandate: So while most Americans would be required to sign up with insurance companies or government insurance plans, the church would serve as something of an informal insurance plan for the Amish. Law experts say that kind of exemption withstands scrutiny. "Here the statute is going to say that people who are conscientiously opposed to paying for health insurance don't...

EMAIL FRIEND | PRINT ARTICLE | 45 COMMENTS | SHARE March 24, 2010 Amish, Muslims to be excused from Obamacare mandate? WordWayze The Senate health care bill just signed contains some exemptions to the "pay-or-play" mandate requiring purchase of Obamacare-approved health insurance or payment of a penalty fine. As Fox News has pointed out, for instance, the Amish are excused from the mandate: So while most Americans would be required to sign up with insurance companies or government insurance plans, the church would serve as something of an informal insurance plan for the Amish. Law experts say that kind of...

At 2 o'clock on a Monday morning, the sound of angry pounding sent Army Spec. Zachari Klawonn bolting out of bed. THUD. THUD. THUD. Someone was mule-kicking the door of his barracks room, leaving marks that weeks later -- long after Army investigators had come and gone -- would still be visible. By the time Klawonn reached the door, the pounding had stopped. All that was left was a note, twice folded and wedged into the doorframe.

Virginia Anti-Shariah Task Force Fairfax, Virginia (703) 931-2324 Contact: James Lafferty (703)931-2324 Virginia Group Urges Lawmakers to Boycott March 11 Session of General Assembly Radical Imam from “9/11” Mosque Will Open Session Richmond, Virginia – The chairman of the Virginia Anti-Shariah Task Force (VAST) sent a letter today to every delegate in the Virginia General Assembly urging them to boycott the March 11 session where a radical imam from Northern Virginia is scheduled to open the legislative day in prayer. VAST Chairman James Lafferty said it was “a grave mistake” for the invitation to imam Johari Abdul-Malik. “In his public...

LAS VEGAS — The nation's largest Muslim advocacy organization has filed a complaint with police in a Las Vegas suburb, saying seven Muslim men from southern California were detained and told they were acting suspiciously while praying in a shopping center parking lot. The Council on American-Islamic Relations said Friday it filed the complaint this week against the Henderson Police Department because it did not understand what was suspicious about the men. "Our main concern is the police department looking at praying and the way they looked as probable cause for investigating those men," said CAIR spokeswoman Munira Syeda. "They...

SARGODHA, Pakistan – Prosecutors seeking to indict five Americans on terrorist charges submitted their case to a Pakistani judge Tuesday, accusing the men of waging war against Pakistan and plotting to attack the country. All young Muslims from the Washington, D.C., area, the five were arrested in December in Punjab province not long after reaching Pakistan. They were reported missing by their families in November ... A senior police officer said soon after the men's arrest that authorities were likely to deport them, but it now looks increasingly like they will face trial in Pakistan on charges that carry a...

12/10/2009 - Five young Muslim American men were arrested in Pakistan yesterday after police raided a house with alleged ties to Islamic militants, according to various media reports. Their discovery in Pakistan yesterday is one more piece of evidence that radicalized American Muslims are traveling overseas for training in their desire to wage jihad. The men, ranging in age from their late teens to their mid 20s, vanished from their Northern Virginia suburbs in late November. When they arrived in Pakistan, according to The New York Times, the five men went searching for extremist contacts in an effort to reach...

WASHINGTON: Some Muslim-American groups are supporting a fatwa issued by a body of Islamic scholars forbidding Muslims from going through full body scanners at airports, a media report said. The Fiqh Council of North America issued the religious ruling this week that says going through the airport scanners would violate Islamic rules on modesty, Free Press reported. "It is a violation of clear Islamic teachings that men or women be seen naked by other men and women," reads the fatwa issued Tuesday. "Islam highly emphasises haya (modesty) and considers it part of faith. The Quran has commanded the believers, both...

WASHINGTON: Some Muslim-American groups are supporting a fatwa issued by a body of Islamic scholars forbidding Muslims from going through full body scanners at airports, a media report said. The Fiqh Council of North America issued the religious ruling this week that says going through the airport scanners would violate Islamic rules on modesty, Free Press reported. "It is a violation of clear Islamic teachings that men or women be seen naked by other men and women," reads the fatwa issued Tuesday. "Islam highly emphasises haya (modesty) and considers it part of faith. The Quran has commanded the believers, both...

In the Friday, February 5 Cincinnati Enquirer, Momitul Talukdar, a Walnut Hills High School student, wrote “Muslim-Americans suffering in silence,” which was published along with a large photo of her on the editorial page. There’s silence and then there’s silence. What is she silently suffering about in 27 column inches, including her smiling photo? An American citizen born in Bangladesh, she is upset about troops being sent to Afghanistan. Instead, “America should offer assistance.” All those fundamentalists holding up the Koran on TV do not represent Islam, no matter what they do and no matter what all their imams say....

Five American Muslims in custody in Sargodha threw a handwritten note to reporters from a police vehicle while on their way to a court hearing...Tuesday, stating: “Since our arrest, the U.S.A., F.B.I., and Pakistani police have tortured us,” according to their representative, Khalid Khawaja. A Pakistani relative of one of the men also claimed that the police had threatened to give them electric shocks. A spokesman for the American Embassy in Islamabad, Richard W. Snelsire, said that the United States “categorically rejects those allegations.” Mr. Khawaja, whose organization provided the young men’s lawyer, said a bail hearing would be held...

What is America's most prominent Muslim advocacy group hiding? The Council on American-Islamic Relations is delinquent in filing its tax returns by nearly two years, the IRS has confirmed, raising new suspicions the embattled nonprofit group is concealing from the American public details about its already shadowy financial activities. Washington-based CAIR, which receives revenue from Saudi Arabia and other Arab states, is required by federal law to file its tax returns annually with the IRS to maintain its tax-exempt status. However, it still has not filed its 2007 returns, according to the IRS. Its 2008 tax filing is also late....

Responding to customers' complaints, Publix has stopped distributing a free 2010 calendar that marked Dec. 7 as the start of the Islamic New Year but excluded the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Joyce Kaufman, whose radio talk show on WFTL-AM 850 is broadcast from Miami-Dade to Palm Beach counties, criticized the supermarket chain on her show Wednesday, saying the company failed to include Pearl Harbor in a calendar that it had widely provided at supermarkets in recent weeks. Kaufman, a Coconut Creek resident, said omitting the Pearl Harbor anniversary would disappoint World War II veterans. She told the...