Author: Kevin Duewel

“Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad of the Minaret of Freedom Institute points out that other Western democracies have laws b4323 Rosedale Ave.anning hate speech, but that freedom of speech in the United States is unique”: Quran Burning Offensive But Not Illegal in US (VoA) FL pastor claims deal was reached with Imam Rauf of the planned NYC Muslim…

Is Terry Jones giving aid and comfort to the enemy? “Only God knows if there will be another such an opportunity to defend our religion and Koran,” says an insurgent pamphlet … Exclusive: Afghan Insurgents Use Planned Koran Burning to Turn Villagers Against U.S. (abc News) … and as Evangelical leaders seek to dissuade Jones…

“It is regrettable that a pastor … with a church of no more than 50 people can make this outrageous and distrustful, disgraceful plan and get the world’s attention…. It is … not who we are.” — Sec. of State Hilary Clinton: Clinton: Planned Qur’an Burning Not the American Way (AP / Washington Post) Koran-Burning…

Rabbi Arthur Waskow reminds us that “Those who begin by burning books will end by burning people”: 5 Steps to Burning Books (Shalom Center) “On one hand, 9/11 is a very difficult day for us, and on then other hand, Eid is like our Christmas, it’s a day for celebration,” says Zeba Iqbal, Executive Director…

“As anti-Muslim hysteria in the US reaches a peak, its intellectual accomplices should start to reconsider their actions”: When Will Those Brave Critics of Islam Decry This Mob Hate? (Guardian) Are we talking about Abercrombie and Fitch or Hooters? Confronted by the EEOC, company lawyers said allowing the employee to cover her hair “‘would have…

Paranoia and ignorance leads to the detainment of members of a Pakistani delegation by the Transport Security Administration en route to Washington, all because another passenger “did not feel safe”: Military Officers Cancel Trip After Humiliation At US Airport (Dawn) As an IDF officer was acquitted on the charges of killing a 13-year-old Palestinian girl; the military court ruled…

You catch more flies with “non-coercive intelligence interviewing” than you can with waterboarding: Guide Tells How Terrorism Suspect Became Informant (Washington Post) Sharing the archaic view that marriage conflicts with education, lawmakers move to address the problem by taking the right to marry away from young women 15-17, adults under Islamic law but not under…

“The last few weeks have seen an intense push by the Israeli right and their neocon enablers in the US to essentially ‘jam’ Obama into either attacking Iran or letting Israel do so;” Jeffrey Goldberg’s  Atlantic cover is Exhibit A: Iran Bomb ‘Not Imminent’ (Al-Jazeera) The “level of rhetoric has become so poisonous that we could end…

Even as NYC Mayor Bloomberg offers to meet with the cabbie stabbed yesterday, and urges Americans not compromise “our faith in the freedoms that have sustained our great country for more that 200 years” … American Muslims Praise Mayor Bloomberg Over ‘No Compromise’ Speech (Examiner) … in yet another disturbing instance of flared tensions, a  drunkard, cursing, …

The eponymous Christian militia “Right Wing Extreme” providing private security to the incongruously-named Dove World Outreach Center on “International Burn a Quran Day” fits the Islamophobe stereotype well (almost too well): Pastor Says Armed Militia to Protect Church During Quran-Burning Event (CNN) One Palestinian women says, “Go ahead and make your political point, but for…