Free Republic

“There really is no justification for taking off a person’s religious headgear,” said Powell’s attorney, Marwa Rifahie of the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations.

A Saudi Arabian woman faced calls for her beheading after she was pictured in public without a hijab. The young woman, Malak Al Shehri, received a fury of posts on social media demanding her execution after she was seen in public in the Saudi capital Riyadh without an abaya (a full body cloak or a veil). Some said that she should be “thrown to the dogs” or “beheaded” for violating the country’s rules for women. But others, numbering in the hundreds, came to her defense and even praised her “bravery” for going out in public uncovered and for sharing the...

A US student fabricated a story that she was attacked and her hijab was ripped off, US authorities have said. The woman, who studies at the University of Louisiana in Lafayette, admitted to police that she made up the story following Donald Trump’s election victory. Mr Trump – who has called for an outright ban on Muslims entering the US – swept to victory in the Presidential election on Wednesday. The Lafayette case was one of several reports of hate crimes against Muslim women across the US following Mr Trump’s electoral win. In a statement the Lafayette Police Department said...

ATLANTA – A Muslim woman arrested for refusing to take off her head scarf at a courthouse security checkpoint said Wednesday that she felt her human and civil rights were violated. A judge ordered Lisa Valentine, 40, to serve 10 days in jail for contempt of court, said police in Douglasville, a city of about 20,000 people on Atlanta's west suburban outskirts.

An airport worker who wrote poems about beheadings is the first woman to be found guilty under new terror laws. Samina Malik, who liked to call herself a "lyrical terrorist", called for attacks on the West and described "poisoned bullets" capable of killing an entire street in her poetry. The 23-year-old Muslim wrote of her desire to become a martyr and listed her favourite videos as the "beheading ones". Described as a "committed Islamic extremist", Malik, a shop assistant at Heathrow, hoarded an extensive collection of terrorism manuals, the Old Bailey heard. She was a member of an extremist group...

GARDEN GROVE, Calif. (AP) - The Islamic Society of Orange County and two of its officials must pay more than $1.7 million to lawyers for a woman who successfully sued the organization for discrimination, a judge has ruled. Zakiyyah Muhammad, a 60-year-old black woman who converted to Islam, served for five years as principal of the Orange Crescent School in Garden Grove before she was fired in 2003. The school is operated by the Islamic Society. An Orange County Superior Court jury awarded her $788,000 in damages last September after she claimed she was dismissed for challenging her male bosses...

London: Sania Mirza may have suffered a heartbreaking end to her Wimbledon dream but she believes her battling Centre Court appearance can strike a blow for the sporting aspirations of other Muslim women in India. The 18-year-old is a devout Muslim and she stands against those who question her commitment to her religion on the basis of her participation in a sport which relies so heavily on femininity and sex appeal. "Some people have some problems with the dress code. Maybe I wear short skirts but I pray five times a day and do the things that other Muslims do,"...

Under its strict sharia law, Saudi Arabia has beheaded a Sri Lankan maid for complicity in the murder of her employer during a robbery. The Saudi Interior Ministry says the maid was the driving force behind the murder. It said she conspired with a Sri Lankan man to steal her employer's jewelry, and that during the robbery, the accomplice murdered the employer. One report quotes the ministry as saying the accomplice is in custody, awaiting trial.