May 15th, 2014

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Does our heritage promote hatred!

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America today: Lots of atheists, more Muslims, fewer Christians and Jews Islam is the largest non-Christian religion in the nation and Hinduism in Arizona

Feds are asked to Bring Hate Crime Charges in Oklahoma City

Almost Half of Calif.

Muslim Students Report Bullying

Almashreq/Editorial Staff/ News Agencies:

The U.S. Department of Justice was called by Muslim advocacy groups to bring hate crime charges against a Tulsa man arrested for hitting a woman and vandalizing her vehicle while repeatedly calling her a «f---ing Muslim b----.

Stuart D. Manning, 43, who has been charged at the state level with hate crime/malicious intimidation, assault and battery and malicious injury to property, allegedly hit the woman in the forehead and stuck a knife in a tire on her vehicle.

Continue on Page 6

Federal judge: NSA phone surveillance is legal Almashreq/Editorial Staff/ News Agencies:

The heated debate over the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of millions of Americans’ telephone records fell squarely into the courts when a federal judge in Manhattan upheld the legality of the program and cited its need in the fight against terrorism just days after another federal judge concluded it was likely not constitutional.

Almashreq/Editorial Staff/ News Agencies:

The ruling Friday by U.S. District Judge William H. Pauley III and an opposing view earlier this month by U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington D.C. sets the stage for federal appeals courts to confront the delicate balance developed when the need to protect national security clashes with civil rights established in the Constitution.

According to the “2010 U.S. Religion Census: Religious Congregations & Membership Study,” an every-decade research effort sponsored by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies, which gathers statistics for religious groups or scholars, that

Continue on Page 6

Almashreq/News Agencies/Editorial Team:

Christianity religions-sects, are still the most popular in the nation and that most Christians in the country belong to one of following subChristian religion: Catholics, Baptists, Evangelicals and then Mormonism.

Islam is the largest non-Christian religion in the nation, claiming 20

states. Buddhism is the largest nonChristian religion in 13 states. Judaism is the largest non-Christian religion in 15 states Hinduism reigns in two—Delaware and Arizona. And the Baha’i claim South Carolina.

The Study also shows that Atheism is the biggest minority in America.

A report conducted by CAIR-CA, documenting bias-based bullying of American Muslim students in that state’s schools, ,” reveals that nearly half of Muslim students say they have been subjected to some form of bias-based bullying. The findings are based on a statewide survey of almost 500 Muslim students, ages 11 to 18.Theywere asked questions about their relationships with peers and teachers, as well as their comfort levels participating in discussions about Islam and Muslims.

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Articles

May 15th, 2014

Does our heritage promote hatred!

I somewhat understand the Christian right-wing repeated claim that many Muslims are extremists and I don’t think that these claims are exaggerated. On the contrary, the core of the claim contains a genuine issue.

Truly, how can we explain that most of the heinous crimes committed since the beginning of this century were perpetrated

by Muslim fundamentalists!

At the beginning, and specifically right after the heinous crime of September 11th, some of us, tried to blame the wrongful U.S policies in the Islamic world and the U.S unconditional support to Israel for it! But the fundamentalist groups; whether the one claimed direct responsibility for the September 11th terrorist attack or others with actual or intellectual affiliation with it are also committing frightening crimes against innocent civilians in the entire Islamic world! But, surprisingly, these groups showed no interest in opening a front with Israel, which seems to be off the agenda in the

meanwhile at least!

So, the problem with these groups does not seem to be related to Israel or to the U.S policies in the Islamic world, but rather, it sounds like; these groups are ideologically based on an inherent culture of hatred!

In my opinion, we cannot successfully argue that the blame should be shifted to certain small Muslim fundamentalist and their erroneous understanding of Islam, thinking that by claiming so, we do our religion a favor. In fact, most of those who claim so, are just hypocrites, because,

Egypt between the End of History and clash of civilizations In 1989, Japanese-American academic Francis Fukuyama wrote an article entitled “The End of History” in which he argued that the age of oppression and totalitarianism irrevocably ended after the end of the Cold War and the dismantling of the Berlin Wall. Fukuyama continued that it was replaced by liberalism, democratic values and market economics.

man rights, such as bread, freedom and social justice, at the hands of the state’s security apparatus.

Fukuyama essentially wanted to counter the concept of the end of History in Karl Marx’s famous theory of Historical Materialism, which purports that human emancipation will be achieved once the class system is eliminated.

But the question is: Why are these liberals taking such positions? The answer lies with the voters, since liberals failed to present anything compatible with the preferences of the majority of voters, and also because one third of votes in all free elections went to Islamists. Thus, most leading liberal figures in Egypt today support a constitution that legalises a special status for the military, giving it the right to put civilians before military tribunals. They are also silent about decisions that strengthen tyranny, which not only target the Muslim Brotherhood, but also other segments in society, most notably, revolutionary activists whose leaders were recently arrested, such as Ahmed Douma, Alaa Abdel-Fattah and Ahmed Maher.

Fukuyama believes that human societies put an end to the evolution of ideological ideas with the spread of the values of liberal democracy. This theory is based on several factors, most importantly that only liberal democracy would put an end to the historic and recurring struggle between the ruling masters and the governed slaves.

Over the past three years, the Egyptian model has largely debunked both Fukuyama and Marx’s theories. Until today, a society that is able to end the coupling of masters and slaves has not been achieved because the Cairo elite — which claim to be liberals — continue to control the destiny of millions of Egyptians in the Delta and Upper Egypt. The chances of succeeding in building a society that equates between the rights of the rulers and the ruled, the poor and the rich, and creates a democratic political system that respects liberal values, social pluralism and real policies are close to naught.

As soon as the January 25 Revolution succeeded in deposing former president Hosni Mubarak, some believed this was the end of tyranny. However, there are signs in recent months that the state of tyranny is making a big comeback and figures in the liberal current have not stood up against this.

In fact, liberal ideologues are now justifying what the Egyptian masses revolted against over the past three years, namely violations of basic hu-

Egyptian liberal ideologues today defend efforts to create a new tyranny in a contemporary format by misusing axioms such as upholding the state’s prestige and the war on terror. Accordingly, the unelected interim government passed an egregious law on the right to demonstrate. Had parts of it been applied prior to the past three years, the name of today’s president would be Gamal Mubarak.

Since Islamist president Mohamed Morsi was deposed 3 July, those who still uphold the principles of true liberalism found themselves marginalised as the aspirations of the 2011 revolution evaporated, such as Mohamed ElBaradei and Amr Hamzawy.

The logic is obvious. I do not intend to launch onto a theological discussion. But I love studying the commandments that Allah SWT gives us because, interestingly, they contain a lot of principles about education.

Let’s look at the two most obvious pillars that we all perform daily and annually: praying and fasting. What is the common denominator here? Self-control. No matter how sleepy in the morning, how busy in the day or how tired in the evening, one must interrupt whatever one is doing to put time and energy aside and perform that short ritual. Telling a child to stop watching a favorite program, stop playing a computer game, or stop romping around with friends, and go pray is indeed a great test of self-control. This is harder for us living in non-Muslim countries since the world and all its attractions do not grind to a stop when prayer

Spokesman for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), Chris Gunness, told AFP that “at least five Palestinian refugees in the besieged refugee camp of Yarmouk have died because of malnutrition, bringing the total number of reported cases to 15,” since Sep. 2013. Other estimates, especially those reported by local residents, say the number is significantly higher.

The camp, which is located south of Damascus, had once housed nearly 250,000 Palestinians that included 150,000 officially registered refugees. Three years of a brutal war later, Yarmouk is now nothing but ruins, and houses only around 18,000 residents who couldn’t escape to Lebanon, Jordan or elsewhere.

Reporting for the BBC from Damascus, Lyse Doucet quoted aid officials: “Aid officials in Damascus recently told me ‘the gates of Yarmouk were slammed shut in July’ and almost no aid has been allowed to enter since then.”

A minor Palestinian group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - the General Command, has tried to control Yarmouk on behalf of the Syrian government, an act that the refugees rejected. There has

Having said that, I must add, I genuinely believe that Islam is not an evil religion, but that some strange elements and principles were injected to Islam throughout the historical eras in the region, therefore, the solution is to have the needed courage to reread, reevaluate and scrutinize these religious sources and materials, then to reject and set aside all elements that contradicts with the pure and good essence of Islam

By, Mohamed Elmenshawy

Huntington was especially interested in the Muslim world as a civilisation that holds a strategic location in global relations. Some criticised the clash of civilisations theory because it promoted a negative and bleak image of the Arab and Muslim worlds in the West. It made Islam the main source of violence and terrorism in the world, and portrayed it at the forefront of confrontation and animosity with the West.

This theory was the reference of many right-wing fanatics in the neoconservative camp who mobilised their power to portray Muslims as a real threat, not only to the US but also to all of humanity.

What is truly shocking in Egypt today is the reckless stereotyping and demonisation of anything and everything Islamic by government and non-government media and culture machines, as if they were applying Huntington’s theory. These actions not only harm the current of political Islam, but also question Egypt’s Islamic identity and culture. The machine of terror has even caused several who describe themselves as intellectuals and decision makers to demand that Islamists should not be allowed to participate in any way, shape or form in political life, now and in the future. Some even question their patriotism and loyalties.

In 1993, Samuel Huntington wrote an article in Foreign Affairs magazine entitled “The Clash of Civilisations” which triggered global controversy because he touched a sensitive nerve for people from different cultures around the world. He looked at various concepts of cultural differences and the changing balance between cultures, and noted a sweeping trend of returning to origins and roots in non-Western societies.

A return to roots and reviving the religious value system is a world phenomenon, therefore turning to Islam as a source of identity is not a sin.

The sin is to discriminate in the name of Islam or against non-Muslims, or when not everyone has equal rights and duties, irrespective of their faith.

Huntington divided world civilisations into Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Islamic, Western, Orthodox, African and Latin American. According to him, the clash is the essence that rules relations between these civilisations, and they essentially clash over culture or identity.

In the name of Islam, a fair, plural and democratic modern society can be created. But also in the name of Islam, an unjust, misguided and tyrannical society can be created. What is certain is that excluding the foremost representatives of contemporary political Islam from the political process in Egypt will lead to anything but genuine democracy.

The politics of identity is a real issue in the world around us, and no one

Political Islam is one component of a broad revival of ideas and beliefs in Egypt and other countries with a Muslim majority.

time comes.

Still, most prayers have quite a long range of time in which they can be performed on time, and so the amount of will power needed is not so great as for fasting. When I was in Jordan during my teen years, I once was in the midst of a discussion among other teenage girls, who all had a problem maintaining their weight. To my great surprise, most of them had no problem at all following various diets, something which is always a matter of struggle among teenage girls in other countries. The reason? Muslim girls find it pretty easy to eat only certain foods and avoid others because during Ramadan, they have to abstain from all foods and all liquids despite hunger and thirst.

Now, we all know this already, so what is the connotation with education? This is where I find that we as parents and educators have missed the message that our Creator has sent us. If self-control is part of a command that every single adult must achieve, then why is it that we as parents do not teach it to our children to prepare them for adulthood?

What could be the starting point of such a “self-control” education program? We know that the Qur’an tells us not to even say “oof!” to our parents (mother in particular). This means that the first thing we need to control is our attitude. How many teenagers today say more than just “oof!” to their parents when disagreeing on something? How did they reach that stage?

been a semi-consensus among Palestinians that they should not be embroiled in Syria’s war. However, the warring parties – the Syrian government, the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) and other Islamic groups – desperately tried to use every card in their disposal to weaken the other parties. The result has been devastating and is taking place at the expense of innocent refugees.

Aside from the 1,500 reportedly killed Palestinians and thousands more wounded, the majority of the refugees are once again on the run, although in more perilous circumstances. According to a statement by UNRWA on Dec 17, “of the 540,000 Palestine refugees registered with UNRWA in Syria, about 270,000 are displaced in the country, and an estimated 80,000 have fled. 51,000 have reached Lebanon, 11,000 have identified themselves in Jordan, 5,000 are in Egypt, and smaller numbers have reached Gaza, Turkey and farther afield.”

Not that other Arab countries have proven kinder than Syria, for the UN agency reports that “those who have reached Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt face risky legal limbo compounded with living conditions so difficult that many decide to return to the dangers inside Syria.”

Yarmouk has been at the heart of that tragedy. The refugee camp was established in 1957 to shelter thousands of refugees who were expelled from Palestine at the hand of Zionist militias in 1947-48. Despite the fact that it was located in Syria, Yarmouk remained close to the pulse of the Palestinian tragedy, as hundreds of men were killed fighting against the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. Although Palestinians in Syria were generally treated well, if compared to

By, Dr. Fawzia Tung

Had they been taught not to frown, or sigh, or pout from early childhood onward, how could they become a teenager that retorts or shouts at his/her parents?

sleep on the couch. My son bawled and screamed for around 45 minutes. Finally he stopped out of sheer exhaustion.

Not surprisingly, if you train your young toddler that a disrespectful attitude and a total loss of self-control are bad things, they will later be well-behaved and easily disciplined. How early should you start? I don’t think it’s ever too early. As a mother, I found that if you miss the 2nd birthday window, well, you have a handful of work coming up. Here in the West, that period of time is known as the “terrible twos”. I did the “self-control boot camp” at around 18 months for all my 7 children.

If you take care of that at that time, you pretty much have a smooth sailing afterwards.

The lesson learned was: a) no one will respond to you if you do not behave yourself; and b) this is not an acceptable behavior. The next time it happened, it took about 10 minutes for him to stop crying. The third time, he stopped crying the minute he crossed into the sitting room. Thereafter, I only had to say: “Enough!

Stop it.” And he would. Eventually, I only had to glare at him, lift a finger and point slowly at him for him to stop howling.

Here’s how to go about it. Identify a “time out” place in your home. This place should be safe, but the child should not be able to leave it on its own. The first one I used was my sitting-room, in our then small apartment. That room had a sliding door that was forever stuck, so one had to physically lift it up and put down the entire door panel with its frosted glass and all. A child cannot hurt himself on armchairs and carpet. My first son started getting tantrums around one year of age. Soon these started getting out of hand. So one day, my husband took the matter into his own hands.

He physically carried our son into the sitting-room, put him on the carpet, closed the door so the frayed mom (me) would not interfere, and proceeded to go to

Starving Refugees: How We Disowned Palestinians in Syria A worst case scenario is unfolding in Syria, and Palestinian refugees, particularly in the Yarmouk refugee camp, are paying a heavy price for Syria’s cruelest war. They are starving, although there can be no justification, nor logistical explanation for why they are dying from hunger.

they should have known that the religious literature in the Islamic heritage contains references that promotes hatred-motivated criminal acts against others!

can deny there are societies whose heritage and components are Christian, such as Europe and North and South America, and no one can deny religion greatly influences American and European politics. The same thing applies to Israel and its Jewish identity.

Self-control Some students, when asked why we should fast, answer that it is “so that we will feel what the poor feel.” This is indeed a most laudable reason. I then ask the students, “if this were the only reason, then, if one is poor and often hungry, then one would not need to fast, right? In other words, fasting is only for the rich.”

By, Dr. Mohammad Riyad

the very poor standards set by other Arab countries, thousands of men found themselves victims of occasional political purges of the Syrian government. An example of this followed the 1983 fallout between late Syrian President Hafez al-Assad and late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

But the latest disaster is the worst to strike the refugee camp. In Dec 2012, rebels of the FSA tried to gain control over the camp. Fierce fighting ensued, followed by aerial bombardment of Yarmouk by government airplanes on Dec 16. Dozens were reportedly killed, and thousands fled for their lives.

Despite the obvious signs of danger surrounding Palestinian presence in Syria, only then did the Palestinian leadership attempt to negotiate a special status for Yarmouk so that the stateless Palestinians were kept out of a conflict that was not of their making. Some Palestinian factions were used by other regional powers to declare political stances regarding the conflict in Syria. The refugees should have never been used as fodder for a dirty war and all attempts at sparing the refugees have failed.

The failure has been across the board. Typically, the so-called international community is at the forefront of this shameful episode. “There’s deep frustration in the aid community that a world which came together to deal with Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal cannot do the same when it comes to tackling a deepening humanitarian crisis,” reported Doucet, quoting an aid official: “I have never seen a humanitarian crisis on this scale which does not have a Security Council resolution.”

The same could be said of the Palestinian Authority in

It is very important to train the first-born well. Because he becomes the living example for all subsequent siblings. The “time out” place changed with the years, according to our circumstances. But as long as the basic principle is there, anything will work. For my first daughter, I used a large flower pot I had purchased for an indoor tree, but never planted the tree. It was so large that I could put her in there and only her head and shoulders would show. She would peer out over the edge holding onto the rim with her little hands.

I could continue doing my work and make sure she was safe while pointedly ignoring her cries until she quietened down. Today, family members joke about the “trash can”, but I must straighten the records and state formally that it never was a trash can. It was a ceramic flower pot.

By Ramzy Baroud Ramallah which is chasing after another ‘peace process’ mirage that is surely doomed to fail. Why hasn’t PA president Mahmoud Abbas put all of his frivolous talks and appointments on hold and lobby the international community to save Yarmouk?

The disgrace hardly ends here, for some in the Palestine solidarity movement had ceased to think of the Palestinian refugees’ right of return as an issue that is at the heart of the Palestinian struggle for freedom.

They only mobilize around the same issues which are located within the territorial and political parameters imposed by the Oslo accords. According to that logic, Palestinians in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and so on, are hardly a top priority for action and mobilization, even if they are killed by the hundreds or starve to death.

By paying greater attention to Palestinian refugees in Syria, one is hardly calling for ignoring the horrible reality under which the Syrian people continue to suffer. But Palestinian refugees have no legal status, no political representation, no serious international support, no leadership truly concerned by their plight, no place to go to nor place to return to. They have nothing, and now they are starving.

There can be no rationale to explain why the Syrian government and the rebels insist on embroiling the Palestinians into their war which is accumulating into an assortment of many war crimes that refuse to end.

The international community and Palestine solidarity groups everywhere must place Palestinian refugees on the top of their agenda. Food should never be a weapon in this dirty war, and Palestinians should never be starving to death, no matter the motive or the logic

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Sikh Professor Beaten, Called ‘Osama,’ ‘Terrorist’ Almashreq-Editorial Team/News Agencies:

Several media outlets reported that a Sikh professor was attacked at night in Manhattan while being called “Osama” and “terrorist” by his alleged assailants. That same day, a Muslim woman was allegedly assaulted in New York after being called a “terrorist.”

[NOTE: Sikh men who wear beards and turbans as part of their faith are often targeted by bigots who mistake them for Muslims.]

Media outlets said Dr. Prabhjot Singh, who is an assistant professor at Columbia University,

was knocked down and punched numerous times in the face by assailants shouting the anti-Muslim slurs.

Earlier that day it was reported an apparently bias-motivated assault on a New Jersey Muslim woman taking part in a pro-democracy rally in Times Square on Saturday.

The woman, who wears an Islamic headscarf (hijab), was called an “f**king terrorist” during the assault. The incident and the arrest of the alleged perpetrator were caught on video.

FL. Local GOP leader goes after history textbook as ‘propagating’ Islam Almashreq/News Agencies/Editorial Team:

A controversy brewing in other parts of Florida over a history textbook that critics maintain is too pro-Muslim has reached a boil in Marion County.

The School Board recently heard complaints from conservative activists, including the head of the Marion County Republican Party, that a state-approved textbook slights Christianity and Judaism while being favorably biased toward Islam.

A spokeswoman for the publisher counters that the book meets state standards in accordance with Florida’s adopted history curriculum, which directs that Christianity and Judaism be explored more fully in earlier grades.

The critics of “World History,” published by Pearson Prentice Hall, one of the biggest publishing houses in the world, demanded at the School Board’s meeting in late November that the book be pulled from area schools.

Or, in lieu of that, the board must somehow provide equal space to chronicling Christianity and Judaism, they argued.

Randy Osborne, chairman of the local Republican Party, told the board that the book’s 36 pages about Islam were actually a “propagation” of the world’s second biggest religious faith.

“It’s something we will not tolerate in Marion County,” Osborne said.

“We came from a Judeo-Christian country. This is the country that we live in, and for a textbook to be propagating an Islamic religion is not acceptable.”

The school district purchased “World History” in July 2012 for use in 10th-grade history classes.

Osborne said he came forward because School Board member Nancy Stacy had publicly taken exception to the use of the book back in the spring, and that her concerns had been ignored by the rest of the panel.

Saudi Arabia restored as defendant in suit by 9/11 families Almashreq/News Agencies/Editorial Team:

NEW YORK,-- A New York federal appeals court has restored Saudi Arabia as a defendant in a lawsuit brought by thousands of people affected by the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Former Florida Sen. Bob Graham, who co-chaired a joint congressional inquiry into the attacks, called the ruling a “very significant breakthrough,” Media outlets reported. Saudi Arabia was dismissed from the lawsuit in 2005 on grounds of sovereign immunity, although

there are exceptions for acts of terrorism. Saudi officials had called allegations in the suit “categorically false.” In reinstating Saudi Arabia to the suit, the U.S. Second Circuit of Appeals said its own conflicting rulings had led to an “error of law” by U.S. District Judge George B. Daniels. The case now goes back to Daniels for more action. Michael K. Kellogg, a Washington, D.C., attorney representing Saudi Arabia, said the decision was “contrary to settled law” and that he would appeal the ruling.

New poll shows growing

partisan gap on evolution Almashreq/News Agencies/Editorial Team:

Sixty percent of Americans say they believe that “humans and other living things have evolved over time,” while one-third reject evolution, according to poll results released on Monday by the Pew Research Center’s Religion and Public Life Project. While the overall percentages for both views remained roughly similar to the results of a Pew survey in 2009, the latest poll suggests that Republican respondents have grown more skeptical about evolution. This year, 43 percent of Republicans and 67 percent of Democrats said humans have evolved, compared with 54 percent and 64 percent respectively four years ago – meaning that the gap between Republicans and Democrats has jumped to 24 percentage points from 10 in less than five years.

Among independents in the most recent survey, 65 percent said humans and other living things evolved over time, down 2 percentage points since 2009. “The gap is coming from the Republicans, where fewer are now saying that humans have evolved over time,” Cary Funk, a Pew senior researcher who conducted the analysis, told Reuters. Among religious groups, white evangelical Protestants topped the list of those rejecting evolution, with 64 percent of those polled saying they believe humans have existed in their present form since the beginning of time. “This has been a staple of evangelical Protestantism for nearly 100 years,” said Alan Lichtman, an American University history professor and author of “White Protestant

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May 15th, 2014

Nation: The Rise of the American Conservative Movement.” Half of black Protestants, or 50 percent, also said that “humans and other living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time,” according to the survey results.

However, the survey also indicated that only 15 percent of white mainline Protestants — which include denominations such as the United Methodist Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and Presbyterian Church USA — share that opinion. But there was also more nuance in the poll results. About a quarter of those surveyed, or 24 percent, told Pew that “a supreme being guided the evolution of living things for the purpose of creating humans and other life in the form it exists today.” For instance, while 78 percent of white mainline Protestants said humans and other living things had evolved over time, they are divided – 36 percent each – on whether that evolution occurred through natural processes or whether the process was “guided by a supreme being.” The remainder said they did not know. There was also a similar split, on what guided evolution, among white non-Hispanic Roman Catholics who said they believed in evolution. Seventy-six percent of people who were religiously unaffiliated said that humans and other living things had evolved due to natural processes, while 13 percent from that group said it was guided by a supreme being. The survey of 1,983 adults in all 50 states was conducted from March 21 to April 8, with a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

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Lots of atheists, more Muslims, fewer Christians and Jews

America today:

Islam is the largest non-Christian religion in the nation and Hinduism in Arizona Atheists make “Twenty per cent of America and are the biggest non-Christian minority in the nation Practicing Jews declined by half since the late 1950s The percentage of Americans who identify themselves as Jewish has declined by about half as a percentage of the US population since the late 1950s However, the percentage of those who identify as Jewish solely by culture or ancestry rather than religion has jumped from 7 percent to 22 percent since 2000.

Suit over U.S. stop for Arabic flashcards tossed by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Almashreq/News Agencies/Editorial Team:

A former college student who was detained for several hours at an airport after he was found carrying Arabic language flashcards that included the words “bomb” and “terrorist” had his bid to sue federal agents rejected by a U.S. appeals court.

Nicholas George sought to sue three Transportation Security Administration agents and two FBI agents over the Aug. 2009 stop at Philadelphia International Airport, saying they violated his free speech rights and conducted an improper search and arrest based on the flashcards and a book critical of American policy in the Middle East.

A district judge rejected the agents’ assertion of immunity, but the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that ruling in a decision issued Tuesday.

George was returning from his home in a Philadelphia suburb to Pomona College in California, where he was studying Arabic, when TSA agents saw the words “bomb” and “terrorist” among his flashcards and called police. George was detained for nearly five hours, two of them in handcuffs in a city police station at the airport.

Chief Judge Theodore McKee, writing for the three-judge panel, said George clearly had the right to possess and use such flashcards and the book and called

the detention by the TSA officials “at the outer boundary” of constitutional protections against unreasonable search and seizure. But he said the agents were justified in detaining George briefly to investigate.

“It is simply not reasonable to require TSA officials to turn a blind eye to someone trying to board an airplane carrying Arabic-English flashcards with words such as “bomb,” ‘‘to kill,” etc.,” he wrote.

“Rather, basic common sense would allow those officials to take reasonable and

minimally intrusive steps to inquire into the potential passenger’s motivations.”

In arguments in federal court in Oct. 2012, the American Civil Liberties Union, representing George, said the search should have ended when it was clear George wasn’t carrying any weapons or explosives. The appeals court acknowledged that “much of the concern dissipated” after George was found to be unarmed but that didn’t mean further inquiry was unwarranted.

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CAIR-CA Survey: Almost Half of Calif.

Muslim Students Report Bullying The California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CA) released a first-of-its-kind report documenting bias-based bullying of American Muslim students in that state’s schools.

The new report, “Growing in Faith: California Muslim Youth Experiences with Bullying, Harassment and Religious Accommodation in Schools,” reveals that nearly half of Muslim students say they have been subjected to some form of bias-based bullying. The findings are based on a statewide survey of almost 500 Muslim students, ages 11 to 18.Theywere asked questions about their relationships with peers and teachers, as well as their comfort levels participating in discussions about Islam and Muslims.

The report found that approximately one in five young women reported being bullied because they wore an Islamic headscarf (hijab) to school. Additionally, one in five youth reported they were unsure of participating in classroom discussions in which Islam or Muslims are discussed and were unsure of whether teachers respected their religion. More than onethird of bullying victims surveyed indicated that reporting harassment incidents to school administrators was not helpful.

“Being called ‘terrorist’ or ‘Bin laden’ is still a reality for many American Muslim students,” said CAIR-LA Civil Rights

Manager Fatima Dadabhoy. “Throughout the course of this study, we were alarmed to find that many Muslim students didn’t even deem this as a form of bullying.

Through this report, we hope to show that a decision to dismiss mistreatment as a natural consequence of being Muslim in America, or simply part of growing up, is unacceptable and normalizes a toxic school environment.”

ganization’s offices and includes information about recent changes to the law because of high-profile cases of extreme school bullying.

“Too often we find that parents and teachers don’t know how to adequately address bias-based bullying of American Muslim students,” said Rachel Roberts, civil rights coordinator for CAIR’s Northern California offices. “We hope this report will shed light on the resources available to parents, teachers, and students in order to effectively and proactively address school bullying.”

CAIR also offers a booklet, called “An Educator’s Guide to Islamic Religious Practices,” designed to help school officials provide a positive learning environment for Muslim students.

The report also shares anecdotes from CAIR-CA’s case files to highlight the problems reported to the civil rights or-

Additionally, the report provides information for parents about how to request religious accommodation for their child and a list of resources that parents can use to learn more about the issues children face at school.

CAIR-CA is a chapter of CAIR, America’s largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.

Lawsuit filed against the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) in N.Y after a then 10-year-old Muslim boy was called a “terrorist” by a bus driver and kicked off the vehicle last year.

Almashreq/News Agencies/Editorial Team:

The case originated from CAIR-NY and is currently being handled by Hyder A. Naqvi, Esq, partner at Ahmad Naqvi Rodriguez, LLP. The Muslim boy, who was two days short of his 11th birthday, was boarding an MTA last October in Brooklyn on his way from school. Having misplaced his MetroCard, he recited the common prayer “Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim” (“In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful”) while searching for it.

When he heard the boy’s prayer, the bus

driver shouted the word “terrorist” and kicked the boy off the bus. The boy’s family reported the incident to CAIR-NY, and was referred to Ahmad Naqvi Rodriguez, LLP. “He was only 10 years old when this happened, but he was old enough to know what discrimination is, and unfortunately, now he knows what it feels like,” said Hyder Naqvi, the attorney handling the case.

The boy and his family cooperated with the MTA in their investigation of the incident but were never provided any information about the results of that investigation. The lawsuit was filed October 25 in federal

court (Eastern District of New York).

In a statement, CAIR-NY Director of Operations Sadyia Khalique said: “It’s very disappointing to see how young children have become the targets of discrimination because of their religion. CAIR-NY applauds the filing of the lawsuit and we hope the MTA can take disciplinary action against the employee. We urge the MTA to provide diversity trainings to its employees to reflect cultural and religious competency in their attitudes, policies and services to ensure that no New Yorker becomes a victim of hate speech by MTA officials.”

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Feds are asked to Bring Hate Crime Charges After Attack Victim Called ‘Muslim B----’ in Oklahoma City

Almashreq-Editorial Team/News Agencies:

Police describe the alleged victim as being from Lebanon and having “a thick Middle Eastern accent.” The Police report also states: “At the time of the assault she was wearing a head wrap. She has the appearance of someone that typically is of the Islamic faith.”

“Just as the Justice Depart-

ment rightfully brought hate crime charges following a racist ‘knockout’ attack in Texas, we hope similar charges will be considered in this troubling case,” said CAIR-OK Development Coordinator Thomaira Babbit.

CAIR’s Houston chapter recently hosted an event with community activists who gathered to condemn the “knockout” attack in Texas.

2014 elections could be most

expensive midterm in history Almashreq-Editorial Team/News Agencies:

It’s still 10 months away from Election Day, but the amount of money raised to fund this year’s congressional races already numbers in the hundreds of millions. Early indicators suggest that 2014 could see the most expensive midterm election in U.S. history. Candidates have officially collected $446 million through their campaign committees, according to data collected by the Center for Responsive Politics. Most worrisome for many concerned about the avalanche of money in the political system is the cash originating from a few wealthy donors and corporations, then funneled through outside groups, like trade associations, nonprofits af-

filiated with political causes, and committees, or “super PACs,” closely allied with candidates.

These so-called “independent expenditures” have already topped $25.5 million for 2014 and the 2013 special elections.

That figure outpaces the $21.2 million spent at this point in the 2012 cycle and dwarfs the $8.5 million spent by this time in 2010. Much more is expected to flow in as candidates vie in competitive primaries and the general election season gets into full swing.

In 2010 and 2012, campaign spending in congressional elections hovered near an eye-popping $3.6 billion, including $1 billion in independent expenditures.

Franklin McCain, pioneer of the civil rights sit-in movement, dies at 73 Almashreq-Editorial Team/News Agencies:

One of the ‘Greensboro Four,’ a group of college freshmen who launched a sit-in movement across the South Franklin McCain, an icon of the civil rights movement and a member of the “Greensboro Four,” a group of college freshmen who sparked the nonviolent sit-in movement of the 1960s throughout the South, died Friday at the age of 73.

McCain and three friends — Joseph McNeil, David Richmond and Ezell Blair (now known as Jibreel Khazan) — were freshmen at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University when they drew national attention by launching sit-in protests at a “whites only” F.W. Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C., on Feb. 1, 1960.

The four spent that entire day at the lunch counter, refusing to get up and staying until it closed. They returned each day, with more students joining them in protest. Students were taunted, spit on and had food and drinks thrown on them; some were arrested. By the fifth day, more than 1,000 people had joined in. Over the next few weeks, sit-ins began taking place in more than 50 cities across nine states, as students at other black colleges and supporters of the civil rights movement participated in the cause.

After six months of pressure from protesters and intense media coverage, the Woolworth

lunch counter in Greensboro desegregated. Prior to the desegregation, blacks had to pick up their food from a door in the rear of the building. The movement led to the creation in Raleigh, N.C., of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which later became the primary organization behind student protests and actions in the civil rights movement.

The sit-in protests of 1960 and subsequent protests across the South through 1965 helped to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. During an interview on the 50th anniversary of the sit-ins, McCain told The Associated Press that “sitting on that dumb stool” was the “best feeling of my life.”

McCain graduated from A&T in 1964, moving to Charlotte and going on to become a research chemist and sales executive. He was a member of the 17-campus University of North Carolina system’s board of governors and also served as chair of the board of trustees at his alma mater. Over the years he received numerous awards for his role in public service and the civil rights movement.

The McCain family released a statement Friday confirming his death. “To the world, he was a civil rights pioneer who, along with his three classmates, dared to make a difference by starting the sit-in movement,” the statement read. “To us, he was ‘Daddy’ — a man who deeply loved his family and cherished his friends.”

High youth unemployment costs US billions a year: Study Almashreq-Editorial Team/News Agencies:

In the study, Young Invincibles, a youth advocacy group, examined the real and hidden costs of young adult unemployment on America’s taxpayers and its devastating impact on the economy.

“When you have an entire generation of young people that are out of work, it’s going to create tremendous costs for taxpayers both now and in the future.” said Rory O’Sullivan, the policy and research director of the Young Invincibles. “Now we have the economic evidence showing that everyone suffers through reduced economic output and lower tax revenues,” O’Sullivan said. According to the report, the cost of youth unemployment and lower workforce participation rates among young adults since the recession began in

November 2007 is greater than $25 billion annually or $171 per taxpayer. On average, a single 18- to -24-year-old without a job will cost the government over $4,100 a year in uncollected taxes and extra safety net benefits. That amount climbs to $9,900 annually among unemployed 25- to 34-year-olds.

If those costs were billed directly to taxpayers, each one would have to shell out an additional $53 a year. The unemployment rate for Americans aged 18 to 34 years old has been over 10 percent for nearly six years.

Those between16 to 24 suffer from 15 percent unemployment.

That does not include young people who are not working because they are in school, who are no longer looking for work or who were too discouraged to begin a job search.

May 15th, 2014

NYPD police recruits getting multicultural immersion training Almashreq-Editorial Team/News Agencies:

Some 1,200 NYPD police recruits received four days of «multi-cultural immersion» training to help them better understand and respect the communities they serve.

The training was instituted in 2007, according to the NYPD›s website, and in 2009 included presentations by the Civilian Complaint Review Board, commanding officers and prominent community members to help them understand multiple ethnic and religious communities, sexual orientations and youth perspectives.

Bishop Lester Williams, senior pastor for the Community Church of Christ in Jamaica, Queens, sat on a similar panel at the Apollo Theater observed by the recruits.

«I told them how I hate it when you just stop me and say, ‹license and registration,› without telling me why I›m being stopped and without even knowing who I am, «Williams said. «It›s the attitude,» some officers display that can be perceived as insulting and even threatening, he said. The training is important, said Williams, because it is not in response to tragedies, such as the Sean Bell shooting, but «before the fact» and helps diverse recruits understand diverse communities. But, he said, «I›d really like to see them go into these communities and listen. Dialogue is very important.»

Ryan Mahoney, the board president for CAIR-NY (Council on American-Islamic Relations), said that while he welcomed the training, his organization had not been contacted to participate or identify experts to

participate. «Credible training must avoid stereotyping and include expert Muslim representatives. It was not long ago that the NYPD screened a hateful anti-Muslim propaganda film to over 1,500 officers,» Mahoney complained. He also called upon the NYPD «to end their vast unconstitutional spying program.»

The NYPD has two training blocks in the Immersion Course Schedule dedicated to the Muslim community and Commissioner Ray Kelly has been presented with a plaque from the Muslim Advisory Council for the Department›s efforts to engage the community, said a police spokesman. The spokes-

man also forwarded materials indicating that the movie, «The Third Jihad,» which was shown in 2012, had been replaced in the curriculum after complaints.

Amardeep Singh, program director and co-founder of The Sikh Coalition, said his group has been participating in the training for two years. «We share with officers that the turban is an article of faith and not a hat that can be taken on or off at will,» and that when entering Sikh houses of worship in non-emergencies, officers should remove their shoes, Singh said. Information about Sikh beliefs is also shared to increase understanding and awareness, he said.

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Federal judge: NSA phone surveillance is legal The heated debate over the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of millions of Americans’ telephone records fell squarely into the courts when a federal judge in Manhattan upheld the legality of the program and cited its need in the fight against terrorism just days after another federal judge concluded it was likely not constitutional.

conflicting opinions or if the current use of the program is declared illegal.

overseas because it lacked the kind of information it can now collect.

Pauley said the mass collection of phone data “significantly increases the NSA’s capability to detect the faintest patterns left behind by individuals affiliated with foreign terrorist organizations. Armed with

Still, Pauley said such a program, if unchecked, “imperils the civil liberties of every citizen” and he noted the lively debate about the subject across the nation, in Congress and at the White House.

“The question for this court is whether the government’s bulk telephony metadata program is lawful. This court finds it is.

But the question of whether that program should be conducted is for the other two coordinate branches of government to decide,” he said.

The ruling Friday by U.S. District Judge William H. Pauley III and an opposing view earlier this month by U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington D.C. sets the stage for federal appeals courts to confront the delicate balance developed when the need to protect national security clashes with civil rights established in the Constitution.

Pauley concluded the program was a necessary extension of steps taken after the September 11 terrorist attacks. He said the program lets the government connect fragmented and fleeting communications and “represents the government’s counterpunch” to the al-Qaida’s terror network’s use of technology to operate decentralized and plot international terrorist attacks remotely.

“This blunt tool only works because it collects everything,” Pauley said. “The collection is broad, but the scope of counter terrorism investigations is unprecedented.”

Pauley’s decision contrasts with Leon’s grant of a preliminary injunction against the collecting of phone records of two men who had challenged the program. The Washington, D.C. jurist said the program likely violates the U.S. Constitution’s ban on unreasonable search. The judge has since stayed the effect of his ruling, pending a government appeal.

Both cases now move to appeals courts for a conflict that some believe will eventually be settled by the Supreme Court. The chances that the nation’s top court will address it increase if the appeals courts reach

A week ago, President Barack Obama said there may be ways of changing the program so that is has sufficient oversight and transparency.

In ruling, Pauley cited the emergency of the program after 20 hijackers took over four planes in the 2001 attacks, flying two into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon and a fourth into a Pennsylvania field as passengers tried to take back the aircraft. all the metadata, NSA can draw connections it might otherwise never be able to find.”

He added: “As the September 11 attacks demonstrate, the cost of missing such a threat can be horrific.”

Pauley said the attacks “revealed, in the starkest terms, just how dangerous and interconnected the world is. While Americans depended on technology for the conveniences of modernity, al-Qaida plotted in a seventh-century milieu to use that technology against us. It was a bold jujitsu. And it succeeded because conventional intelligence gathering could not detect diffuse filaments connecting al-Qaida.”

The judge said the NSA intercepted seven calls made by one of the September 11 hijackers in San Diego prior to the attacks, but mistakenly concluded that he was

“The government learned from its mistake and adapted to confront a new enemy: a terror network capable of orchestrating attacks across the world. It launched a number of counter-measures, including a bulk telephony metadata collection program - a wide net that could find and isolate gossamer contacts among suspected terrorists in an ocean of seemingly disconnected data,” he said.

Pauley dismissed a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, which promised to appeal to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan.

“We’re obviously very disappointed,” said Brett Max Kaufman, an attorney with the ACLU’s National Security Project. “This mass call tracking program constitutes a serious threat to Americans’ privacy and we think Judge Pauley is wrong in concluding otherwise.”

Appeal likely in Saudi man’s Colorado assault case Almashreq-Editorial Team/News Agencies:

A Saudi man convicted in Colorado of sexually abusing his Indonesian housekeeper and keeping her as a virtual slave will probably appeal after a judge denied his request to be released and sent home, a defense lawyer said Friday.

Another lawyer said he is considering a new legal challenge on separate grounds. Denver attorney Hal Haddon said he has not been allowed to speak to Homaidan al-Turki since a state judge ruled he had no authority to grant his release, but Haddon said he expects his client will want to appeal. The judge didn’t rule that it was inappropriate for al-Turki to be released on probation, only that the judge did not have the power to do so, Haddon said.

He said the ruling was devastating for al-Turki’s wife and children in Saudi Arabia. alTurki, a linguist who was living and working in Colorado, was convicted in 2006 of unlawful sexual contact by use

of force, false imprisonment and other counts. He was sentenced to eight years to life in prison. He denied the allegations, saying he was a victim of anti-Muslim sentiment.

Probation would have allowed him to serve the rest of his sentence in Saudi Arabia. Saudi officials promised to enforce whatever terms Colorado imposed. Colorado prosecutors said there was no way to ensure Saudi Arabia would carry out the sentence. They also said al-Turki was not eligible for release because he refused to participate in a required prison program for sex offenders. Al-Turki’s lawyers said his religion prevented him from participating in the program because it would require him to look at photos of women in bathing suits or undergarments. They also said he would have to confess to the crimes, which they say he cannot do because he is challenging his conviction. Another attorney for al-Turki, John Portman of

Denver, said he is considering another challenge based on court rules that allow people whose appeals have been denied to contest convictions on several grounds, including newly discovered evidence.

Portman declined to say what grounds were being considered and when a challenge might be filed. Last year, state prison officials denied al-Turki’s request to be transferred to Saudi custody under an international treaty. The prisons director at the time, Tom Clements, was ready to approve

the transfer but denied it after an FBI agent contacted prison officials, according to testimony during court hearings last year. The officials haven’t said why Clements changed his mind or what the FBI agent said. About a week after the treaty transfer was denied, Clements was shot and killed.

Prison officials said they investigated but found nothing linking al-Turki to the crime.

Still, prosecutors said in November that al-Turki remained a person of interest in the Clements investigation. www.almashreqonline.com

French court overturns ban on comic Almashreq/editorial staff/ agencies

A French court threw out efforts by authorities to ban a show on by a comedian whom the government accuses of insulting the memory of Holocaust victims.

Interior Minister Manuel Valls, who has been leading the effort to stop a national tour by comedian Dieudonne M’bala M’bala, said he would appeal the ruling.

Local authorities in Nantes had barred the opening date of Dieudonne’s tour, following the lead of other cities that also banned his shows on the grounds of risk to public order.

His lawyer Jacques Verdier said the court had suspended the ban, describing the ruling as a “total

and complete victory” for his client, who has argued his right to freedom of expression was being breached.

The decision of the court is not only a setback for President Francois Hollande, who argued for regional prefects to remain “on alert and inflexible” in determining whether to ban the shows, but for Valls, who polls show is France’s most popular politician for his tough law-and-order stance.

Critics say the comic’s trademark straight-arm gesture is a Nazi salute in reverse. Dieudonne, 46, says it is anti-Zionist and anti-establishment, but not anti-Semitic.

Dieudonne has been repeatedly fined for hate speech.

Brother forces 10-year-old Afghan girl to wear suicide vest Almashreq/editorial staff/ agencies

A 10-year-old Afghan girl was forced by her brother to wear a vest packed with explosives and blow herself up at a police building, but the attempted suicide attack failed when the girl ended up in police custody, Al Arabiya correspondent reported on Tuesday. “Police stopped a 10-yearold girl from executing a suicide attack instigated by her brother, a leader in the Taliban movement, against a police headquarters in the Khanashin district in the province of Helmand,” Afghanistan’s Bakhtar News Agency quoted the commander of Helmand’s security department as saying. An Afghani police source said security forces stopped the girl and dismantled her explosive vest before she detonated herself.

But during a press conference, aired by India’s NDTV channel, the girl said she surrendered herself to the police hours after she refused to detonate herself. “My

brother and his friend forced me to wear the vest, but when I saw the water and the coldness I shouted, and said ‘it is cold and I can’t cross the water.’ They took me back home and took the vest off my body, my father beat me, I had to run away from home in the middle of the night and early morning I surrendered myself to the police force,” said the girl, named Spoghmai. Her statement, which contradicted the information provided by the police, was backed by another official statement released by the Afghani Ministry of Interior.

“The child surrendered herself voluntarily to security forces in the checkpoint where she was meant to carry out the attack in Helmand province,” Al Arabiya correspondent quoted the ministry’s statement. The Afghan authorities have previously accused Taliban of using children as suicide bombers against official security forces in the country.

Sudan and South Sudan agree to protect oil fields from fighting Almashreq/editorial staff/ agencies

Sudan and South Sudan have agreed to consider setting up a joint force to protect vital oilfields during the ongoing crisis in the South, Sudan’s foreign minister has said.

The discussion was broached on Monday during a visit by Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to the South Sudanese capital of Juba, where South Sudan requested talks on deploying a joint force to secure at-risk oil fields. “Sudan and South Sudan are in consultations about the deployment of a mixed force to protect the oilfields in the South,” Sudanese foreign minister Ali Ahmed Karti said, adding that Juba had come up with the proposal. Karti spoke at

the airport in Khartoum after visiting Juba, where Bashir met Salva Kiir, president of South Sudan, in a diplomatic effort to halt fighting in South Sudan. Sudan fears the three-week-old conflict in its southern neighbor could disrupt oil flows and damage its own struggling economy. Bashir’s visit came as negotiators in Ethiopia began a process of direct ceasefire talks on Monday to end weeks of fighting. “We come so that we can bring peace to South Sudan, to our brothers and sisters in South Sudan. Our relationship is very important,” Bashir told reporters.

Local media said on Sunday that Bashir would meet President Kiir in Juba for talks on the conflict in the world’s youngest country.

Militants in Syria seize ISIL’s Aleppo headquarters Almashreq/editorial staff/ agencies

Foreign-backed militants have seized the headquarters of al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo as infighting intensifies among the militants in the Arab country. According to opposition sources, members from several militant groups took control of a children’s hospital in Qadi Askar district that is the headquarters of the so-called ISIL

in Aleppo. Meanwhile, other reports from Syria say a car bomb attack near the northern city of Dakoush killed at least 20 militants. The attack was reportedly carried out by militants from the ISIL. The recent tension among militant groups fighting against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been the deadliest since the conflict began in the Middle Eastern country nearly three years ago.

Lebanon files complaint with UN over Israel spying

Almashreq/editorial staff/ agencies

The Lebanese interim government has filed an official complaint with the United Nations over Israel’s ongoing spying activities. Interim Lebanese Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour sent a letter of complaint to UN Secretary-General Ban Kimoon on Wednesday. He also subwww.almashreqonline.com

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International & Business

May 15th, 2014

mitted a CD containing information on bugging devices planted by the Israeli regime in southern Lebanon. The Lebanese official described the Israeli spying activities as a “flagrant violation of the international law and a continuous aggression against the Lebanese territory, the people and the security and military forces.”

US woman who plotted to kill Swedish cartoonist who offended Muslims sentenced to 10 years Almashreq/editorial staff/ agencies

A U.S. woman involved in a plot to kill a Swedish artist who had offended Muslims has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after telling a judge she was once obsessed with extremist ideology.

Fifty-year-old Colleen LaRose had called herself “Jihad Jane” online and agreed to kill artist Lars Vilks over his series of drawings depicting the prophet Muhammad as a dog.

She faced a potential life term.

But the judge accepted a government request to reduce the sentence because of her extensive cooperation with investigators.

Prosecutors still asked for decades in prison, saying she remains dangerous.

Both sides agree that LaRose was isolated and endured harsh abuse throughout her life.

Larose told the judge she became obsessed with religious extemism, saying she was “in a trance” and thought about it from morning to night.

“I don’t want to be into jihad no more,” she said.

She could be out of prison in a little over four years, given the more than four years she has already served and the potential for time off for good behavior.

U.S. investigators say she participated in a 2009 conspiracy to target Vilks over his drawings. A group of Iraqi Muslims had offered a $100,000 reward for anyone who killed Vilks, who was never attacked.

The Justice Department said Ali Charaf Damache, who was living in Ireland, recruited LaRose and another U.S. woman via extremist websites.

Damache married the oth-

er woman, Jamie PaulinRamirez, on the day she arrived in Ireland.

LaRose left the terror cell in Ireland after about six weeks because she “grew frustrated because her co-conspirators were not ready for action,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams said Monday.

LaRose returned to the U.S. in 2009 to surrender, becoming one of the few women in the country ever charged with terrorist activities. Her arrest was

kept secret and the indictment was unsealed only after Paulin-Ramirez and the six others were rounded up in Ireland months later.

Paulin-Ramirez and another co-defendant, teen Mohammad Hassan Khalid, are scheduled to be sentenced this week.

Public defender Mark Wilson said LaRose has come to understand the true, peaceful tenets of Islam and said, “there’s virtually no chance that she would ever be involved in violent jihad ever again.”

Morocco set to repeal controversial rape section in penal code

A law allowing rapists who marry their victims to go free could be abrogated in a week, lawmakers say Almashreq/editorial staff/ agencies

Morocco aims to toss part of its penal code allowing rapists who marry their victims to go free, lawmakers told Al Jazeera Wednesday.

Article 475 of the Moroccan penal code is a controversial holdover from the North African kingdom’s colonial era that has in recent years resulted in some rape victims committing suicide.

The Commission of Justice, Legislation and Human Rights, part of the Moroccan parliament’s lower house met Wednesday and voted unanimously to repeal the provision of Article 475 that allows a man who rapes a minor to go free if the victim marries the assailant.

“It won’t take much time” before the law’s cancellation, said Nouzha Skalli, one of

the commission members who voted to change the law Wednesday. Parliament’s upper house voted on it recently, and it goes before the lower house for a final vote, where it is not expected to face any opposition, according to Skalli, who was the Minister of Solidarity, Women, Family and Social Development from 2007 to 2012.

The law was based on a French archetype, overturned in 1994. Morocco was protectorate of France until the North African kingdom achieved independence in 1956.

“It took lots of time and unfortunately lots of drama for lawmakers to review this law seriously,” said Khadija Riyadi, president of advocacy group, the Moroccan Association of Human Rights (AMDH).

Riyadi said that Moroccan civil society has aimed to cancel the controversial law

for decades. It was only the death of Amina Filali, a 16-year-old who killed herself by drinking rat poison, that forced lawmakers to address the issue, after a public outcry drove Moroccans into the streets.

Skalli said that the law Morocco aims to address “is the article that allowed the rapist of Amina Filali to escape justice.”

Riyadi also said opposition parties, hoping to use repeal efforts to smear the majority Islamist Justice and Development Party, inspired enough momentum to edit the law.

“There were many parties advocating for this who didn’t respond to calls from human rights groups in the past. And they used this as a political platform, profiting from it opportunistically,” she said. “The essential thing is that (the politicking) yielded results.”

UN abandons death count in Syria, citing inability to verify toll Almashreq/editorial staff/ agencies

The United Nations has stopped updating the death toll from Syria’s near-three-year civil war due to its waning ability to verify sources and produce credible estimates, a spokesman for the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights confirmed Tuesday. Prior to July, when the U.N. last published a death toll estimate of just over 100,000 people, the team of statisticians was able to crosscheck estimates from six different sources – from various NGOs to the Syrian government itself. That number has since dwindled. “Effectively nothing is added by four of those groups so you’re really down to just two, and we don’t think that’s strong enough to warrant any kind of report,” said Rupert Colville, spokesman for the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva. “It risks misleading through effectively weaker sourcing, which is not to discourage either of the two groups still functioning, but the strength of pulling all these sources together has really

dissipated.” Colville said that financial constraints were not a factor behind the decision, and there is certainly no lack of demand for a reliable death count. “The media wants it, the governments want it, we all want to know how bad things are,” he said. “When the conflict is over, when you’re looking at rebuilding and development, you need to know who’s alive and who isn’t. And the more accurate data you have the better.” Estimates from other groups documenting casualties, including the U.K.based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, puts the number killed upwards of 130,000.

But given the inability of any third-party observer to directly verify information in warravaged Syria, no estimate can be truly reliable. “You never know for sure, however well these groups are functioning and however honest they are in their work,” added Colville.

“You can’t be sure if there are bodies lying unseen in a shallow grave somewhere, or if people who have disappeared are actually dead.” As the U.N. drops out of the arduous – and

highly politicized – death toll business, the media and policy experts will have to rely on organizations like the Observatory, which has an extensive network of about 200 sources scattered around Syria but is considered sympathetic to the opposition. Numbers – of those tortured, missing, and killed on both sides of the conflict – will be under the microscope with peace talks in Geneva, slated for Jan. 22, right around the corner. The Observatory’s estimate has consistently been higher than the U.N.’s, and some critics point out that overestimating the casualties in Syria bolsters

the case against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, who rebels accuse of a brutal crackdown on not only armed fighters but civilians, too. The Syrian government, for its part, has totally abandoned its death count, in contrast to the persistence of activist groups whose sights are set on a postAssad Syria where war criminals would be prosecuted. But accurate death counts are important for reasons apart from politics. Journalists and government officials not qualified to assess the criteria involved in an estimate are liable to spread the largest number they hear.

Hundreds of Turkish police reassigned Almashreq/editorial staff/ agencies

A corruption scandal that has rocked Turkey’s government appeared to have expanded to a new front as police detained some 25 people in the city of Izmir for questioning over a new bribery and fraud investigation. The government responded by reassigning highranking police from their posts in the city. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was forced to dismiss three ministers from his cabinet last month after their sons were implicated in a massive corruption scandal linked to alleged illicit money transfers to Iran and bribery for construction projects. But Erdogan has nonetheless denounced the police investigation into the scandal as a conspiracy to hurt his government ahead of local elections in March, and he has vowed to hit back. The government has pointed fingers at the followers of an Islamic movement led by the influen-

tial U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Erdogan has accused Gulen’s followers of infiltrating Turkey’s police and judiciary and of attacking the government with corruption probes. Hundreds of police officers have been reassigned or demoted since the initial police probe began Dec. 17. Analysts have said the government is purging officers linked to the Gulen movement. The wave of dismissals was criticized by the European Union, which on Wednesday indicated that the issue would become

a problem for Turkey in its bid to join the 28-member group. “The removal of a large number of police officers from their posts ... is a matter of concern,” said EU spokesman Peter Stano. “We urge Turkey ... to take all the necessary measures to ensure that allegations of wrongdoing are addressed without discrimination or preference in a transparent and impartial manner.” The police chief of Izmir was among 16 senior police officials reassigned to new posts on Wednesday, a day after police in the city launched raids detaining 25 people as part of an investigation into alleged fraud and bribery linked to the city’s port operators. The deputy police chief in charge of Izmir’s harbor was transferred to another job after the police operation, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported. The Dogan news agency said as many as three deputy chiefs in Izmir were dismissed.

8

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