Islam In The United States

[Soldier4Christ]

Subway Hammer Attack Suspect Identified - Police Expect Arrest

Police said a surveillance video released Monday helped them identify on Tuesday the man who carried out the attack while accompanied by a small child.

Police said they know who their suspect is and they know his whereabouts. They hope to have a warrant for his arrest within the next few hours.

Investigators are still trying to figure out what lead up to the apparently unprovoked attack and why it took place in front of a 6-year-old child, who accompanied the attacker.
Police said 10 passengers saw the attack, did nothing to stop it and did not call 911.

“Who is this creep? Let’s get him off the street,” SEPTA’s Richard Maloney said during a news conference.

SEPTA officials pulled no punches as they reacted to the brutal beating of one of their subway passengers with a hammer last week on the Board Street Line.

The entire beating was caught on SEPTA’s newly-installed surveillance cameras.

“Someone’s going to identify this creep, and he’s going to get arrested,” Maloney said.

Police said Tuesday that several people did identify the suspect from the high-tech, digital video and authorities are close to an arrest.

“We believe we will submit a warrant to the DA’s office this afternoon,” said Capt. Sharon Seaborough, of the police department’s Central Detectives division.

Police said the attacker, accompanied by a little boy, boarded the train at city hall. So did the victim, 20-year-old DeWayne Taylor. After the attacker directed the child to sit down, he reached into a bag, pulled out a hammer and viciously beat Taylor.

“I was hit with a hammer in my head, neck and in my hand,” Taylor told Fox 29 News.
The beating spilled out onto the platform, where Taylor said the suspect tried to throw him onto the tracks.

“I got seven staples in my head, six stitches in the back of my neck and a broken finger,” he said.

“There were a lot of people there who stood around and did nothing,” Maloney said.

“Ain’t nobody stopping him,” one woman said. “He’s swinging the hammer, shouting something about Allah,” witness Pam Williams said.

At least 10 people saw the attack. No one called came to Taylor’s aid. He got back on the train, got off at the Allegheny station and walked to the Temple University Hospital.

[Soldier4Christ]

Muslim group tries mediation in lunch break spat

A Muslim advocacy group is trying to mediate a solution to a weeklong confrontation between Somali workers and a meatpacking plant over when they can break for prayer, a spokesman for the group said Thursday.

Religious tension between U.S. factories and Muslim workers is nothing new, but a spokesman for the D.C.-based Council on American-Islamic Relations said he's never seen a conflict escalate to the point it has at the JBS Swift & Co. meatpacking plant in Greeley, where several dozen workers were fired Wednesday.

"Usually in these cases we're able to come to an amicable solution," said Ibrahim Hooper, a CAIR spokesman.

Swift announced the terminations in an e-mail Wednesday. Swift spokeswoman Tamara Smid said 101 workers were fired, but United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 spokesman Manny Gonzales said the number was as high as 150, based on what workers told union officials.

Gonzales said the union plans to file grievances against the company on behalf of those workers. But some of the workers have already begun looking for jobs at the Cargill Meat Solutions plant in Fort Morgan, about 55 miles east of Greeley, according to the Colorado State Refugee Services Program.

The firings came on the same day St. Cloud, Minn.-based Gold'n Plump Poultry Inc. said it has agreed to let Muslim workers take short prayer breaks under a settlement mediated by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The conflict in Greeley began Friday, when about 220 workers, according to Swift estimates, walked out during the evening shift, blaming the company's refusal to allow their breaks to coincide with sunset so they could pray.

Hooper said the timing of the sunset prayer for Muslims is the only one of the five daily prayers that can't be changed.

"You can't really say, 'Well I'll delay it for an hour and do it then.' You have a very narrow window of opportunity," Hooper said.

During the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, workers can't eat or drink until that prayer, he said.

Hooper said CAIR attorneys in Chicago are now involved as mediators, and may pursue legal action if religious accommodations are denied. But they're hoping it doesn't get to that point.

"Really, you don't need attorneys in these cases," Hooper said. "You just need a spirit of good will and cooperation."

Smid said Swift had changed the timing of worker's lunch schedules by more than an hour to accommodate them. She said the assembly line usually breaks at 9 p.m., and that schedule was changed to 8 p.m.

She said workers who were suspended for walking out of work Friday were told that if they didn't return to work on Wednesday they would be fired.

One of the workers who was fired, Graen Isse, 27, said the 8 p.m. lunch "would be way too late." He said workers who still have jobs are banding together to help the people who were fired if they need money to pay rent.

The Greeley plant was where 270 Hispanic employees were detained after a raid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in 2006. Paul Stein, coordinator for the Colorado State Refugee Services Program, said the raid created a vacuum filled by Somali refugees. Stein said about 400 people from the war-torn country either live or work in Greeley, and 250 more are in Fort Morgan.

Swift, which was purchased by Brazil's JBS SA in March, has had problems with Muslim workers in the past. At a Swift plant in Grand Island, Neb., dozens of workers from Somalia quit their jobs last year because they said they weren't allowed to pray at sunset. They eventually returned to work.

This month, officials at the Tyson Foods Plant in Shelbyville, Tenn., reached a compromise with union workers to observe Eid al-Fitr as a paid holiday. The day, which falls on Oct. 1 this year, marks the end of Ramadan.

"With any new ethnic or religious groups, there is an adjustment period as the group becomes part of the American social fabric," Hooper said.

[Soldier4Christ]

A complaint by Somali workers earlier this week that they weren’t getting early enough break times to accommodate religious fasting snowballed into worker protests at the JBS Swift & Co. plant Friday.

Employees from both early and late shifts converged in the afternoon in front of the human resources office at the north Greeley plant.

About 100 employees, some of whom were supposed to be working, protested company officials accommodating Muslims by moving their break time to accommodate those fasting for Ramadan, a Muslim holy month. The company allowed Muslim workers to take their breaks about an hour earlier than normal to break their fasts.

One worker had this to say:

“They have no respect for the Spanish or white people,” said Brianna Castillo, a Swift employee of four years. “Many times we are forced to pull extra count… I don’t feel that is right.”

Castillo, who is white, said every race was represented in the protest with the exception of Somalis. Castillo said employees are frustrated by what they feel is a double standard when it comes to other races and Somalis.

“Somalis are running our plant,” Castillo said. “They are telling us what to do.”

All of this is no surprise, except that finally some workers are saying they have had enough.

And this is very important!  There was violence by the Somalis before the peaceful protest by non-Muslim workers.  A reader at Jihad Watch had first hand knowledge of the incident and reported the following:

There’s much more to the story than what the Tribune printed. It was not all peaceful, as the Tribune has led us to believe. My neighbor, directly across the street from my home, is a Registered Nurse. She is currently employed at the Swift Meat Packing plant at Greeley in the medical department. She was an eyewitness to the building conflict and post-riot damage within the plant that happened at about 7:30 p.m. on Friday evening, 9-5-08.

The Greeley P.D. SWAT Team and many police officers had to come into the plant to stop the destruction by approximately 200 angry Muslims of tables, equipment, and helmets inside the cafeteria at about 7:30 pm last night. My neighbor said that the medical department rendered treatment to one non-Muslim female worker who was assaulted during the melee.

Threatening fliers were left on cafeteria tables for workers to find.   From the Greeley Tribune:

The weeklong dispute between the Muslim workers at JBS Swift flared Wednesday with about 100 workers receiving termination notices when they reported to the plant in mid-afternoon for the late shift. The dispute took another nasty turn on Thursday as someone left threatening pictures on the tables in the Swift cafeteria. The pictures appeared to be from a protest and feature people holding signs that say things like “Behead those who insult Islam.”

Tamara Smid, a JBS Swift spokeswoman, told Tribune media partner FOX 31 that inappropriate materials were found at the plant and Swift was investigating to see where they came from. The official would not say exactly what the inappropriate materials were.

[Shammu]

There was violence by the Somalis before the peaceful protest by non-Muslim workers.

Well that's no surprise!! Muslims will riot at, the drop of a hat!!

Threatening fliers were left on cafeteria tables for workers to find.

Of course the muslims operate that way. They will get what they want through violence.

The pictures appeared to be from a protest and feature people holding signs that say things like “Behead those who insult Islam.”

And that's their normal course, threaten to behead someone. Well I have one thing to say, islam is NOT a peaceful religion!! Islam is one of the MOST violent religions of the world!! What they can not get by peaceful means, they grow more violent, till they get what they want!!

And muslims say islam is a peaceful religion......... what a joke!!

[Soldier4Christ]

US Media Round Up: Ramadan in America

13/09/2008

By Mohamed Ali Saleh

Washington, Asharq Al-Awsat- For Ashley Mountasir, this is the first Ramadan that she will keep the fast. Converting from Catholicism, she embraced Islam just three months ago and at the same time celebrated her marriage to Taha Mountasir.

This is Ashley’s story as published by The Press Enterprise, which is issued in San Bernardino, California. Ashley and Taha met two years ago. She told the paper that she didn’t realize that Taha was a Muslim until she saw that he was fasting when she first met him. She explained that before Ramadan, she began to pray at the nearby Islamic Center in Temecula.

At the same center, on the second day of Ramadan, two American Christians met the Center’s Imam, Mohammed Harmoush, and told him that they wanted to convert to Islam. The Imam spoke to the two men for a while about Islam and then asked them to recite the Shahada, the Islamic creed. One of the men, Alex Ruval, 27 years old, served in the American forces in Iraq and said that hearing the call to prayer five times a day gave him a “warm feeling.”

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, the local Tulsa World newspaper published a report on Ramadan entitled ‘11 Things You Need to Know About Ramadan,’ in which Sheryl Siddiqui, from the Islamic Society in Tulsa, explained the essence of the month of fasting.

On the first day of Ramadan, in Powell, Ohio, Andre Carson, a Muslim member of US Congress spoke at an Iftar gathering in Indianapolis, Indiana. He encouraged Muslims to take part in the elections. “This is a new day in America. This is a day to be proud as Americans and Muslims,” said Carson, who is the second Muslim to serve in US Congress after Keith Ellison.

Carson visited Ohio to attend the annual conference of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the headquarters of which are based in Plainfield, Indiana. The Indianapolis Star newspaper stated that those attending the conference had decided not to pledge their support for the Democratic presidential candidate, Barack Obama, “for fear it could do him harm,” especially that Obama is trying to convince Americans that he is not a Muslim as suspicions about his religious affiliation may hinder his chance of winning the presidential elections. Too late. The word is already out that Obama supports radical islamists and more than likely is even one of them.

The first day of Ramadan coincided with the release of Dr Sami al Arian, the Palestinian university professor who was detained for five years in Florida on numerous terrorism charges. However, al Arian will be kept under house arrest and monitored by the police as he awaits the trial that will decide his fate. The director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Nihad Awad, in Washington D.C stated, “After all these difficult years, al Arian’s family will be able to fast the month of Ramadan with him.”

With the beginning of Ramadan, in Euston, Texas, Islam Mossaad explained the significance of the fasting month and the other pillars of Islam for the readers of The Statesman as he stood in front of the city’s biggest mosque. He explained how he made the decision to give up a career in engineering, which he studied, to become an Imam. He described how he can be an Imam and support the Longhorns at the same time as some people believe that Islam and sports are incompatible.

Abdul Aziz Eddebbarh, a migrant from Morocco, and an expert in hydrology, spoke to Santa Fe New Mexican Newspaper and gave his explanation of the Islamic religion for Americans on the occasion of Ramadan as he stood in front of Taha Mosque in Santa Fe, New Mexico. “Islam is a way for human beings to elevate their spirituality and in the process they are required to be peaceful, good and caring citizens, good neighbors, good everything. This is Islam.”

In Abilene, Texas, Haywood Talib, the head of a small mosque told Abilene Reporter News, “Fasting is about having discipline to follow God’s guidance…and to fight off temptations.”

The Voice of America [VOA] television channel aired a report on fasting Muslims in America in which Dr Abdullah Khouj, the director of the Islamic Center in Washington D.C said, “The diversity of Muslims in the United States gives Ramadan in America a special flavor.” In reference to the flags of Islamic countries displayed outside the Islamic Center, Khouj added, “[These flags represent] people from all over the world sitting at one table on the floor, who join together to break the fast, to talk and to feel that they have accomplished something that day, which is fasting for God.”

Khouj told VOA that the White House sends greetings for Ramadan and for other religious festivals and this, according to Khouj, has helped Americans to understand Islam and that it is a religion of tolerance. NOT!

During Ramadan, Muslims, from different parts of the world, also gather at each others’ homes. The student newspaper of the University of Massachusetts pictured Abidat gotcha98 from Iran, Naz Ahmed from Pakistan, Elisaveta Losovaya from Russia, Abideh Mohammed from Iran, Parveeen Nurmand from Pakistan and Naveen Ibrahim from Egypt. The paper took a picture of these six strangers tied together by Islam as they gathered around the Iftar table, which comprised of different foods from their homelands, at Abidat gotcha98’s residence in Amherst.

[Soldier4Christ]

(CO) CAIR Stood Up to, Whines...

Meat-plant owner "uncooperative" in Muslim prayer fight

A civil-rights group holds little hope that a week-old dispute between Muslim workers and their bosses at a Greeley slaughterhouse will end quickly, based on the company's recent response in a similar standoff in Nebraska.

A mediation session between Brazilian-owned JBS Swift & Co. and the Council on American-Islamic Relations to discuss issues involving Muslim employees at its Grand Island, Neb., plant ended Wednesday without progress, CAIR officials said.

"They were completely uncooperative," said Christina Abraham, director of civil rights at CAIR's office in Chicago, which is handling both Swift disputes.

"Though we're hopeful, the issue in Greeley may follow the same route and it could take years," she said.

There was no date to resume the mediation.

It was the first hearing on 20 complaints that CAIR filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over problems Muslim workers say they had with Swift over prayer breaks at the plant last year.

Each complaint is offered mediation before the EEOC investigates, and Wednesday's was the only session Swift agreed to attend so far, Abraham said.

The case revolved around one of several employees fired for walking off the job in July 2007 over the prayer dispute. CAIR said Swift officials denied firing the worker, Hassan Duwane, and insisted he had quit.

Swift officials have offered no public comment on the Grand Island dispute.

The complaints hinge on incidents where Muslim employees, most of them Somalis, said their religious needs to break for daily prayers were not accommodated. Islam requires practitioners to pray five times daily.

CAIR's efforts to negotiate a settlement met an impasse when the group tried to discuss daily prayer breaks for the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, Abraham said.

The fifth prayer of the day must be held at sunset during Ramadan, when Muslims fast from sunup to sundown. The fast is broken with the day's last prayer.

"We anticipated there could be problems with Ramadan, so we attempted to work that out ahead of time," Abraham said. "We were trying to look to the future and ensure any agreement was sustained."

That issue is precisely the sticking point in Greeley, where 103 employees were fired Tuesday, just days after Muslim workers walked off the job over break times for prayer during Ramadan.

The workers insisted they needed to pray at sunset and wanted the equivalent of a bathroom break. Workers are allowed breaks during the work shift, which runs from 3 p.m. to midnight, according to a contract between the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 union and Swift.

The contract calls for a 30-minute meal break, typically at 9:15 p.m., but management offered to move it to 8 p.m.

"The production lines are stopped whenever there is a meal break," Swift spokeswoman Tamara Smid said. "They are not stopped for a bathroom break."

With about 300 Muslim workers out of 1,300 working the shift in Greeley, an en-masse prayer break puts additional stress on the remaining workers, non-Muslim workers have said.

A lunch break earlier than 8 p.m. means employees would be required to work nearly four hours without a break, a dangerous situation on a production line where nearly 400 head of cattle are slaughtered each hour, company officials have said.

[Shammu]

It was the first hearing on 20 complaints that CAIR filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over problems Muslim workers say they had with Swift over prayer breaks at the plant last year.

Christians don't get prayer breaks, why should muslims!!

That issue is precisely the sticking point in Greeley, where 103 employees were fired Tuesday, just days after Muslim workers walked off the job over break times for prayer during Ramadan.

The muslims should be fired too. Walking off a job, is a fire-able offense to me. Now, I am speaking as a manager/owner, not a Christian.

[Soldier4Christ]

Muslim parents, Willmar schools reach agreement on prayer time

 A few Somali parents in Willmar complained that the public schools weren't allowing their Muslim children to step out of class for daily prayer. Some didn't send their children to school last week in protest.

Today, school officials said they won't change their policy, which allows students to pray during lunch time and between classes. For now, families have reluctantly agreed to send their children to school, but the issue may resurface later in the school year.

This is the first school year Somali parents have had an issue with Willmar public schools over when their children can pray. A few children informed their parents that they weren't allowed to step out of class to pray for five minutes.

Today, Willmar public school officials met with a Somali parent to listen to parents' concerns over prayer time. School officials say they're sticking to their original policy.

Mark Miley is the principal at Willmar Junior High School. He says at a meeting six years ago, Somali families agreed that their children could pray during lunch time and between periods.

"And it was everyone at the table, 'Thank you, this will work well for us.' Not just one year, not just two years, not just three years, not just four years, not just five years. We're going on six years here," said Miley.

Miley says everyone at that meeting, including parents, agreed that stepping out during class to pray would be disruptive. He says he doesn't understand why it's an issue this year.

"When they say to me, you don't allow our children to pray, that's not true. They're provided a spot during non-instructional time," said Miley.

Muslims observe prayer five times a day. They use both the moon and the sun as a guide for the Islamic calendar and on prayer times. This month, during Ramadan, the midday prayer falls during class, not lunch, time.

Willmar resident Abdulcadir Gaal is not happy a few individuals made an agreement with the schools six years ago on behalf of the entire Somali community in Willmar.

"Any leader or anybody cannot make an agreement upon a religious thing that has been going on for centuries, for a millenia," said Gaal.

Gaal says he doesn't remember the policy being that strict in past years. He believes his children have always been able to step out of class for five minutes to pray. The junior high school principal says it's possible some teachers may have allowed children to step out without his knowledge.

Gaal feels the school isn't making an effort to truly accommodate the needs of Muslim children.

"In the scriptures it says God loves the most he who keeps punctuality in prayer, loosely translated. If 1:30 is the time, you have to make a positive effort to go to pray," said Gaal.

The daily prayer schedule is calculated based on the number of daylight hours. Chris Schumacher is the Executive Director of the local chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR. The civil rights organization serves the Muslim community on issues dealing with religious discrimination.

Schumacher says in Minnesota prayer schedules can vary widely, because the daylight hours during winter are so few compared to summer.

If you think about, if the amount of daylight changes by a minute or a few minutes each day, consequently the prayer time would change a minute or a few minutes each day. It does change gradually. And over a month, you will see during certain times of year a big change," said Schumacher.

For example, in September, the evening prayer at sun down changes from 7:50 p.m. at the beginning of the month to 6:56 p.m. at the end of the month.

"That's almost an hour change over the course of the month," explained Schumacher.

For example, Schumacher says today the midday prayer can take place any time between 1:15 and 4:00 p.m. But he says that may not always work for the individual, since in Islam it's better to pray at the beginning of that time frame.

Schumacher says one student, who asked CAIR to negotiate prayer time with his college, wasn't willing to push back that time, so he dropped his class and took it another semester.

"Some Muslims are willing to give up more to make that prayer early than others who are more flexible. And that's just, I guess, personal preference," said Schumacher.

And that's the personal preference of parents like Abdulcadir Gaal.

For now Gaal says children will continue to go to school and pray as soon as they get home. Then in early November, midday prayer time changes and falls during lunch break. Midday prayer time will fall during class time again next year beginning in March, when this issue may arise again.

[Soldier4Christ]

Another company folds to islamic pressure.

Union: Muslim Workers Reach Deal for Prayer Break

A meatpacking plant has agreed to accommodate Muslim workers' request for prayer time during Ramadan, union officials said Wednesday.

Earlier this week 300 Muslim JBS Swift & Co. workers, most of Somali background, walked off the job in protest of the prayer dispute. No one was fired after the protest.

Dan Hoppes, president of the local United Food and Commercial Workers Union, said management at the plant has agreed to temporarily change the timing of the second-shift lunch break to accommodate workers wanting time to pray during the Muslim observance of Ramadan.

Workers previously took the 30-minute break in shifts. The change will force the entire line to break at once. The arrangement will be in effect the next nine working days, which will cover the remainder of Ramadan, Hoppes said.

A phone message left with company officials was not immediately returned Wednesday.

The plant employs about 2,500 people, not including management, Hoppes said. He estimates about 500 of the plant's workforce is Muslim.

More than 100 workers at a Greeley, Colorado, Swift plant were fired last week because the company said they walked away from work before their shifts ended. The workers blamed the company's refusal to allow their breaks to coincide with sunset so they could pray.

[Soldier4Christ]

Special Demands Cause Havoc for US Meat-Packing Company...

A compromise reached to accommodate prayer for about 500 Somalian meatpacking plant workers in Grand Island led to a counter protest of even more workers at the JBS Swift & Co. plant Wednesday.

Workers including Caucasians, Hispanics, Vietnamese, and African-Americans walked out after clocking in on the B shift shortly after 3 p.m. [A commenter to this news story says that the Sudanese were not with the Somalis, but with this group of counter-demonstrators]

The objection — a change in the break schedule that leaves B shift workers shorted of hours Monday through Friday and forces them to work Saturday to earn at least 40 hours of pay.

“The Somalians say they can only work three hours after sunset, so we’re supposed to work 7.3 hours a day Monday through Friday,” said Naomi Jakubowski. “We’re supposed to come in and make up the time on Saturday or be shorted at just 36 hours.”

“I don’t want to sacrifice my Saturdays with my kids — and I can’t raise ‘em on 36 hours of pay,” she said. “I’ve got rent, food and diapers to buy.”

This article from the Grand Island Independent then describes the shift schedule changes and quotes Dan Hoppes, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local No. 22, as saying:

“This will give them time to pray and satisfy their faith.”

The Grand Island plant employs 2500 workers, according to this news story, and 500 are Muslim.

The multicultural protesting workers, including these women standing up for Hispanics, didn’t mince words.

Bernadino Orellana said the Hispanic workers have staffed the Swift plant for 20 to 30 years. The Somalian workers have come in the last year and changed everything — Swift management has given in to the minority, she said.

“Nobody should have special privileges,” shouted B shift protester Tina Ramirez. “Treat everybody fairly.”

Counterprotesters raised objections Wednesday to a pay raise they say the Somalians were given and were bragging about Tuesday and Wednesday.

Ramirez went on:

Ramirez said Wednesday that the Somalians come late, leave early and take frequent breaks and “drop all the time” in prayer right in front of people, so people are literally tripping over their bodies.

“They don’t do the work and we have to work double,” she said. “It’s not fair.”

[.....]

“Everyone has rights. Be equal. Be fair,” a protester sign stated in the Swift parking lot Wednesday night.

“We all have religion,” Ramirez said.   [But, some are more equal then others]

Apparently Somalis claimed, as they had in Greeley, CO, that supervisors physically abused Somali workers and that one male tried to follow a Muslim female to the bathroom.  In Greeley, the Somalis charged that men went into the locker room and fondled Somali women’s breasts while trying to remove them from the floor.   The Somalis know that these allegations involving their women will inflame their supporters around the world.  As a matter of fact, in some parts of the world, the allegation alone would get someone beheaded.

Hoppes said the union is continuing to investigate allegations that some praying workers were kicked by a supervisor and that a male supervisor followed a female worker into a bathroom as she attempted to pray. He said witnesses to those events have not surfaced and Swift is denying either incident happened.

Don’t forget to read the comments to this story, they are pretty hard hitting. One commenter, Thompson, said:

The people at Swift who made this decision are nothing more than COWARDS!!!!

Regular working Americans get this, the seriousness of accommodating and bending over backward to Islamic religious demands.  It’s only our elitists running the US government and the media elites who want to dismiss the growing storm by telling us we are a bunch of racist , bigoted, xenophobes.   Notice the counter-demonstrators come from all sorts of cultural backgrounds and are of various and assorted colors.

And finally commenter AlwaysaHusker said:

If this is part of the global unity, I don’t want any part of it. You better hold on to your hats, because America is going down.

Just a reminder, the US State Department has resettled over 83,000 Somalis over the last 25 years and dispersed them throughout America.

[Soldier4Christ]

Boston Mosque to Broadcast Amplified Call to Prayer Against Previous Assurances

The Islamic Society of Boston has revealed that they intend to broadcast an amplified call to prayer throughout the neighborhood now that the Boston mosque is complete...but that's contrary to what two previous spokespeople assured the public when the mosque was still under construction.

The Boston Globe has done a pleasant puff-piece on the Islamic Society of Boston/Muslim American Society Boston Mosque: Making peace, and prayers. Sub-head: 'Mosque opens its doors as controversy fades'. Controversy fades? Only in the pages of the Boston Globe. Quoted in the piece are representatives of the Muslim American Society (MAS) and Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR), without mentioning both groups' ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, the many controversies that stir around both groups, the mosques' ties to Saudi extremists and funding, the fractures within the local Muslim Community itself, and the many other still-living issues surrounding the mosque project and its leadership. As Michael Graham writes today:

...Speaking of taxpayer screwjobs, the Boston Globe-Democrat has a story today about the opening of Menino's Mosque. Interestingly, this long and detailed article leaves out the two key facts about the Islamic Society of Boston's project:

The taxpayers of Boston subsidized the building of this mosque by "donating" a $2 million parcel of land to the ISB for less than $200,000- -- a deal arranged when a member of the Boston Redevelopment Board also just happened to be a fundraiser for the ISB.

The ISB is notorious for its support of terror advocates like Mullah Al-Qawadari, who was the first prominent mullah to urge women to become suicide bombers, too. The ISB has actually distributed the teachings of this sicko. And now, thanks to Mayor Menino, they've got a publicly-funded mosque to continue their work.

A revealing comment appears in religion reporter Michael Paulson's related blog entry: A view from the minaret. Paulson makes a stab at climbing the minaret. He writes:

I made it high enough to report that there's a nice view to be had of the crescent-topped mosque dome silhouetted against the distant skyline, but not high enough to tell you what it would be like if you were the muezzin who had to go up there five times a day to chant the call to prayer. Of course, the muezzin can't tell you either -- he's no fool -- they're going to broadcast the prayer summons (which will only happen during the day out of respect for the neighbors) by loudspeaker.

Of course, this is the 21st century, there is no need for an amplified call to prayer. People have watches, cell phones and pagers now. This is proselytizing. To show you how things creep, let me remind you of a comment left by Miss Kelly on that post about the capping:

...I saw Salma Kazmi, former ISB spokesman, interviewed on Emily Rooney's show a few years ago, and she was asked about if the ISB was going to broadcast the call to prayer. She said "We have no plans to do that, at this time." Wiggle words!...

Wiggle words indeed.

Ron Newman, in the same thread, states"

At yesterday's Workmen's Circle event, I asked Jessica Maase about the timing and volume of calls to prayer from the minaret.

She said that there would be no public calls to prayer audible outside the mosque at all, and that they had to get a special 'entertainment permit' from the city for the topping-off ceremony.

Another commenter followed up:

When Jessica Maase [Masse] states that "no public calls to prayer audible outside the mosque at all" she is being disingenuous at best. This tactic of starting prayers at a low volume than slowly raising the volume until the sound of the Muslim prayers are even able to penetrate solid concrete has been used around the world since the late 1970's...

So despite the fact that two previous spokespeople assured the public that there would be no calls broadcast outside the mosque, now that the structure is built plans have changed -- now that we'll have a battle of freedom of religion versus simple noise ordinances (Looks like a similar situation to that faced in Hamtramck, Michigan, where the City Council waved the noise ordinances in deference to the mosque there). This is how it happens...one step at a time. It is commonly called "The Silent Jihad."

[Soldier4Christ]

Saudis infiltrate
U.S. education
Petrodollars buy entrance,
influence in public institutions

Sarah Stern, who heads EMET, the Washington, D.C.-based Endowment for Middle East Truth think-tank, says the Saudi Arabians are using their petrodollars to make major inroads into the American educational system, from elementary school and up.

Speaking with Eve Harow on Israel National Radio, Stern said the Saudis are making use of a clause in the little-known Higher Education Law called Title VI to train teachers from kindergarten through 12th grade with an anti-American, anti-Israel bent.

Stern explained that Title VI was legislated in 1958, "in the midst of the Cold War, when it was felt that American youngsters did not know enough to deal with the Communist threat or to be succesful in the global market. So they set aside a pot of money, which has now grown to something like $120 million of taxpayers' money, to fund college campus programs for regional studies, such as African studies, Asian studies, Middle Eastern studies, etc. That was fine, but in 1978, Edward Said of Columbia University wrote his simplistic and lies-filled book Orientialism, which stated that only people from a given region can talk or write about that region. And that became the prevailing dominant trend of thought in academic circles. So that if you go into a Middle Eastern studies program as a Jew or Zionist, it is almost impossible to go through it without being constantly pounded with anti-Israel rhetoric."

The problem was succinctly summed up by Martin Kramer, a colleague of Stern, who wrote, "Title VI 'outreach' allows biased academics to bring in off-campus activists, and pay them lecture fees to propagandize teachers and the general public. All at the taxpayers' expense."

But there's even more, Stern says: "The law says you have to have teacher training seminars on campuses, and these have a radical anti-American bent. There is a place in New Mexico called Dar el Islam, a giant 1,300-acre complex that has a mosque, a medrassah [Islamic theological school], a summer camp, a teacher training workshop, and a publishing house that publishes some of the most virulent translations of the Quran, as well as the materials for their teacher-training that are used all over the country - and all stamped with the fancy blue-green-white star emblem of ARAMCO, the state-owned national oil company of Saudi Arabia. They are very very stealth - I call this the 'soft jihad' against America."

"So we are raising generations of Americans who feel that Israel is a liability to US," Stern said, "though it's not only anti-Israel, but also anti-American... The first question on their teacher-training guide is, Why was America attacked on 9/11? And the answer is because of American support for Israel. So the Saudis, with their millions and millions of dollars, have been penetrating into think tanks, and into the penal system where very Wahabi imams come in and teach and get them to convert to extreme-Wahabi Islam. And they are hiding behind the American constitutional rights to be able to do this in America."

Asked what is being done and what can be done to stop this, Stern said, "I see my primary mission as informing and educating. Although, we were successful in making some small changes in Title VI - myself together with Martin Kramer, who wrote the seminal book on this called Ivory Towers on Sand about the failure of Middle Eastern Studies in America, and with Stanley Kurtz - we were able to make some small incremental changes, such as having the universities answer how many of the participants went on to serve in positions of national security interests as a result of these programs, which was the original purpose of the Title VI."

First the Saturday People, Then the Sunday People
Stern says her EMET think-tank is "the first one that is unabashedly pro-Israel. There are others that are allegedly pro-Israel, but they basically follow the State Department line of land-for-peace, even though this has been proven to be a colossal failure. We talk about Israel's security as the key to US security. We're saying that patriotic Americans should support Israel, for America's sake; after all, we're fighting the same war. The radical Islamists say clearly, first the Saturday people and then the Sunday people."

[Soldier4Christ]

Swift reverses decision for Muslim prayer time

A decision that fired up hundreds of workers has now been reversed by a Grand Island meat packing plant. After another day of protest JBS Swift and Company has decided to go back to its original break schedule. The company changed timing of employee breaks earlier this week to give Muslim workers more time for prayer. The Muslims had protested to get the change.

The decision angered hundreds of other employees who walked off the job Wednesday and Thursday saying the change takes away hours and money from their pay checks.

At 5:30 am the A–Shift at JBS Swift began to clock in. The B–Shift, who successfully protested Wednesday, was encouraging them to do the same. It seemed to be working.

"From what I hear, nobody is going to work. Everyone is just sitting in the cafeteria," said employee Brian Peterson.

Workers protesting were forced to wait and then forced outside the gates. Workers inside were being told not to join them... or else.

"And if we do not go back to work, everybody that comes out is fired," said employee Veronica Vebra.

More than 200 employees still decided to stop working. They said they were too focused on protesting to be concerned.

"If they say I am fired, you know, there is more opportunities. As long as I know that I am here, standing up for what I believe in. This is everybody, we have the same rights. I am not going to go in there and work, I am not going to feel comfortable because our people are out here," said Vebra.

According to police, these protests were much less violent than those involving the Muslim workers.

Still, after more than an hour of protest, Swift management prevented workers from leaving or entering the building.

"We are not here to start a riot, we are not here to start problems. We just want everyone to stay the same way we are," Vebra said.

Protesting workers are also upset with their union. After muslim protestors received union support just days ago these workers are getting none.

"They are supposed to be helping us, not go against us," said employee George Garcia.

Workers hoped these protests would show that they are serious about this issue.

"That just means that we are united, whether the union is helping us or not," Peterson said.

It seems that until a new agreement is reached between Swift and these protesting workers each side will be trying to figure out if the other is just blowing smoke.

Union Officials said the Muslim workers reacted well after hearing break times would go back to how they were.

Repeated calls to JBS Swift were not returned.

[Soldier4Christ]

College campuses hold
Ramadan fast-a-thons
Businesses donate for each non-Muslim who participates

In a banquet room above the student union's bopping pingpong balls and blaring arcade games, the groan of empty stomachs met the hum of Arabic prayer.

 Tables of 20-somethings at the University of Texas at Dallas drooled over plates of hummus as their Muslim counterparts concluded their pre-dinner supplications for Ramadan. Then everyone ate for the first time since dawn. "Why do they put that in front of us to stare at?" whined 19-year-old Sara Arnold before she got permission to rip a hunk of pita bread and dunk it into the chickpea dip.

The Muslim Students Association's fast-a-thon – a riff on religious doctrine – draws hundreds of non-Muslim students who choose to fast for one day with their Muslim peers and attend the daily iftar banquet in the evening to break it.

They now share in the age-old custom of spiritual and physical cleansing tied to the holiday, which runs through September this year.

Participation numbers have more than doubled in the last several years, a factor religious scholars and students attribute to an outreach by the Muslim community, solidarity on the part of those who have become fascinated by the Islamic faith, and a curiosity about the spiritual act of fasting itself.

"A lot of people know what Ramadan is now," said Ayaham Nahhas, the president of the Muslim Students Association at UTD, who says the fast-a-thon – which drew about 120 people – is the biggest activity his organization holds. "Islam has been getting more attention in the media, and people just want to know what we are all about."

More than 240 Muslim Students Associations host fast-a-thons – groups at Southern Methodist University and Texas Christian University are among them – and have raised more than $50,000 for charity. Local businesses donate at least a dollar for each non-Muslim who participates.

The fast-a-thon notion started in North Texas several years ago, although it took root at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville just after 9/11. The event was intended to create a dialogue about Islam while participants engage in the charitable acts advocated during Ramadan as part of the holiday's spiritual and physical cleansing.

All area groups are reporting increased attendance and are donating money to an orphan drive organized by the nonprofit Islamic Relief.

No one's quite sure why attendance has increased so dramatically recently, seven years after 9/11.

"Maybe it's a political empathy post-9/11, a wanting to stand alongside and experience something like this for the first time," said Edina Lekovic of the Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.-based Muslim Public Affairs Counsel.

She said she's noticed more non-Muslims across the country fasting in solidarity with their Muslim friends this year than ever before. "Whatever it is, it's all the rage."

Part of the heightened awareness comes from Muslim outreach efforts, especially fast-breaking celebrations hosted by area mosques that incorporate lessons about Ramadan.

But these interfaith actions are most obvious among college students, said Mustafaa Carroll, the executive director of the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

"The fear is still there, but people are looking for answers, especially the youth," he said. "There is a genuine interest to understand, and they don't see the world the same way as the older generation. They're not as uptight."

UTD senior Molly Wurzer's global experiences brought her to Monday's fast-a-thon. The Houston native spent the summer in the predominantly Muslim country of Tunisia.

"I fasted to have more cultural understanding with my Muslim friends here and back in Tunisia," said the 21-year-old political science major.

But others believe that fast-a-thon attendance stems more from a curiosity about fasting than inquisitiveness about Islam or a strengthened sense of brotherhood.

"What is fascinating to many Christians about Islam is that fasting is not associated with repentance," said Robert Hunt, the director of global theological education at SMU's Perkins School of Theology. "It's an act of pure obedience and it's a factor of doing it to be better in touch with fellow human beings."

For a majority of students at Monday's fast-a-thon, it was about charity and empathy, unattached to any religious denomination.

"I did this to feed orphans," said Ms. Arnold, a sophomore from Austin. "I also thought it would be really interesting to get through a day without eating and do it for a good purpose," she added, biting into a date and sighing.

[Soldier4Christ]

More of islam indoctrination invading our schools all the while Christianity is being pushed out.