Thanks to Weasel Zippers for pointing out this story. You can view video on this story HERE
You can bet if this was Christianity and not Islam the ACLU would be all over it.
SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. -- Some high school students in a Seminole County public school got a lesson in Islam. Outraged parents at Lake Brantley High School called Channel 9 after an Islamic group visited the classroom.
Parents say the discussion violated the separation of church and state, because, they said, the discussion touched on specific elements of Islam and the Koran. Students in one particular class at Lake Brantley High School didn't have a choice about whether they wanted to be involved.
It was just the second day of a new class at Lake Brantley High School called "Family Dynamics," but students said guest speakers were there to talk about something else.
"She said, 'Mom, three Muslim ladies came in and talked about Islam today in school,'" said parent Lisa Wagner.
Wagner's daughter was one of about 35 in the class who heard from the Academy for Learning Islam. The school district said it invited the group to talk about cultural diversity, but the conversation went beyond that.
"I just felt like it shouldn't have been available in the classroom at all. Religion should be separate from school," Wagner said.
"Would three nuns be allowed to come into a classroom and talk about Jesus and the Bible?" WFTV reporter Eric Rasmussen asked Regina Klaers with Seminole County Public Schools on Thursday.
"If those three nuns came in to talk about how their religion has affected history, yes," she said.
However, district officials admit the in-class discussion at Lake Brantley may have crossed the line. The leader of the Muslim group showed Eyewitness News the presentation students were supposed to see and said his volunteers knew they weren't supposed to talk about religion.
Apparently John Mccain didnt even watch the ad in North Carolina he is condemning! You can view the ad HERE Here is what the AP reported John Mccain said about the ad:
McCain said the ad was described to him: "I didn't see it, and I hope that I don't see it."
I wish I was surprised but Im not. Also not surprising is some "human rights" advocates even oppose the use of paint ball guns on people invading our country illegally.
TUCSON - Some surprising news came from the United States Border Patrol.
The Patrol has purchased 1,000 guns that fire non-lethal paintball or pepper pellets. The goal of a target practice session was to hit the white rag at the end of a hall with paintballs. Border Patrol agents may soon use paintballs to defend themselves against smugglers along the border due to an increase in violence.
Surveillance video from an incident last year in El Paso shows a Border Patrol agent retreating after people pelt him with rocks. Some could argue the same about being hit by a paintball without protective gear, where a projectile from a paintball gun leaves a small welt on the flesh.
Small welt or not, human rights activists say it is a bad idea, even for a line of defense.
The church now has signs forbidding cameras and all reporters are chaperoned and notepads are not allowed! What in the world is going on at this church? This from Detriot Free Press:
CHICAGO -- The pastor's chair sitting prominently by itself in the pulpit at Trinity United Church of Christ was draped in rust, white and black-colored mud cloth. Advertisement
But after preaching through at least two of the three services last Sunday from the pulpit, the pastor, the Rev. Otis Moss III, sat instead in a small pew to the left of it with other assistant ministers.
The pulpit was dedicated in March as sacred ground through June in honor of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's 36 years as pastor. The designation shows that Wright -- officially senior pastor since retiring in February -- looms large even when he's not physically in the church.
Visitors approaching church entrances are immediately greeted by signs on the glass doors directing members of the news media to sign in at the front desk. More signs warn: "NO CAMERA & NO RECORDING DEVICES."
It is the most obvious reference to the months-long imbroglio involving video clips of some of Wright's past sermons -- considered unpatriotic and racist by some critics -- that ensnared the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., who attends the church.
On the wall behind the front desk, a small plaque reads: "Unashamedly Black, Unapologetically Christian." The church's media staff -- comprised of a minister of communications, a media coordinator, and a media director for Wright and Moss and their staffs -- has grown more media savvy over the past year.
Trinity has its own channel on YouTube.com. Reporters, who have attended the church every Sunday for the past month, according to Media Coordinator/Deacon Donna Hammond-Miller, are chaperoned.
Notepads are not allowed in the 2,700-seat sanctuary. Interviews with members cannot be conducted on church property.
Charlotte ABC affiliate WSOC-TV channel 9, and Raleigh CBS affiliate WRAL-TV channel 5, have both refused to air the new ad from North Carolina's Republican Party which declares that two Democratic gubernatorial candidates “should know better” than to endorse Barack Obama since “he's just too extreme for North Carolina,” as evidenced by his long association with Reverend Jeremiah Wright. The ad includes a clip of Wright yelling “Not God Bless America, God [bleep] America!”
A Friday Charlotte Observer article, “2 stations in N.C. will not air GOP ad: Charlotte, Raleigh broadcasters decline controversial spot that quotes Obama's former pastor,” reported:
A Charlotte TV station says it will not air an advertisement from the N.C. Republican Party that uses a soundbite from Barack Obama's retiring minister.
"I just don't think it's appropriate to be on our air," said Joe Pomilla, general manager for WSOC-TV. "I think it's offensive, and I'm not real comfortable with the implications around race."...
Maybe some citizens of the state are not so “comfortable” with a local TV executive deciding the First Amendment doesn't apply in North Carolina.
NEWARK (AP) -- When he faces an immigration judge in two weeks, a popular Muslim cleric fighting deportation may have to counter claims that he confessed to being a member of a terrorist group. Advertisement
According to Israeli military authorities, Imam Mohammad Qatanani admitted being a member of the militant Hamas organization during interrogation in 1993 in Israel.
"Imam Mohammed Katanani was convicted based on his own admission on charges of belonging to an unauthorized association and providing services to an unauthorized association, for being a member of Hamas and acting on its behalf," the Israeli army said in a statement faxed to The Associated Press.
The U.S. State Department includes Hamas on its list of "designated foreign terrorist organizations." Anyone identified as a member or a supporter of an organization on the list can be refused entry to the U.S., according to Lucille Cirillo, spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. According to the army statement, an Israeli military court sentenced Qatanani to three months in prison and a 12-month suspended sentence, and also fined him.
Qatanani, who heads the Islamic Center of Passaic County in Paterson, faces possible deportation for not disclosing the conviction when he applied for citizenship in 1999. He is scheduled to appear before immigration Judge Alberto J. Riefkohl in Newark on May 8.
Qatanani has said he was not notified of the conviction until last year when he appealed a 2006 ruling denying his citizenship application. He also has denied being a member of Hamas.
Qatanani referred questions about the alleged confession to his attorney, Claudia Slovinsky, who said her client was the victim of physical abuse by Israeli authorities while in detention.
Just another sign of what a wonderful friend we have in Mexico. Here is video from Yahoo on this.
Mexican President Felipe Calderón defended immigrant workers and their contribution to the U.S. economy Tuesday in Dallas, but also said Mexico needs to produce jobs that will keep its people home and end the painful separation of families.
{...}
Mr. Calderón, who has said he has relatives working in the U.S. illegally, drew heavy laughter when he suggested that only after the U.S. overhauls its immigration laws would he reveal their whereabouts. Mr. Calderón is from the central Mexican state of Michoacán, where many families have both legal and illegal relatives in the U.S.
"We admire you ... we thank you ... we miss you," he told the group to rousing applause.
LANCASTER, Calif. - Hundreds of illegal immigrants awaiting deportation rioted at a county-run detention center and had to be subdued with tear gas, authorities said Wednesday.
The riot Tuesday started as a fight between detainees from rival gangs and spread to the detention center's outdoor yard, said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Nearby sheriff's stations sent additional deputies to separate the detainees. The brawl was diffused "within minutes" after tear gas was used, said sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore.
Fights among incarcerated gang members periodically break out at state jails, prisons and immigrant detention facilities, sometimes sparking riots.
The federal Department of Homeland Security contracts with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department to staff and manage the Mira Loma Detention Center in Lancaster, which holds about 900 detainees who are in the process of being deported or awaiting resolution of their cases in immigration courts.
Ten detainees were treated for injuries, including two who suffered serious head injuries.
Sheriff's officials will evaluate how Mira Loma guards separate detainees based on gang affiliation, Whitmore said. About 45 detainees involved in the riot have been identified as suspected gang members and moved to other federal facilities.
Whether he was up to no good or simply desperate to play BrickBreaker, a Mexican press attaché was caught on camera by Secret Service pocketing several White House BlackBerries during a recent meeting in New Orleans, FOX News has learned.
Sources with knowledge of the incident said the official, Rafael Quintero Curiel, served as the lead press advance person for the Mexican Delegation and was responsible for handling logistics and guiding the Mexican media around at the conference. He took six or seven of the handheld devices from a table outside a special room in the hotel where the Mexican delegation was meeting with President Bush earlier this week.
Everyone entering the room was required to leave his or her cell phone, BlackBerry and other such devices on the table, a common practice when high-level meetings are held. American officials discovered their missing belongings when they were leaving the session.
It didn't take long before Secret Service officials reviewed videotape taken by a surveillance camera and found footage showing Quintero Curiel absconding with the BlackBerries.
Sources said Quintero Curiel made it all the way to the airport before Secret Service officers caught up with him. He initially denied taking the devices, but after agents showed him the DVD, Quintero Curiel said it was purely accidental, gave them back, claimed diplomatic immunity and left New Orleans with the Mexican delegation.
It is unclear what disciplinary measures, if any, await him in Mexico. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino refused to discuss the incident, telling FOX News, "We are aware of the situation, but as it's under investigation by law enforcement officials, we will decline to comment."
President Bush and many other Republicans have blabbed about this like it was a wonderful plan. Most of us knew all along this was a joke. Here is video from Lou Dobbs on this:
Lest I be accused of playing the conservative version of “name that party,” let’s acknowledge again up front that this tool is indeed running as a Republican, although of course not as the Republican Party nominee. (He’s also, god help us, an Annapolis grad.) There’s nothing here that you wouldn’t already have gleaned from yesterday’s post but watch a minute or two anyway for the hallucinogenic experience of a candidate for the U.S. Congress standing before a giant portrait of Adolf Hitler, blackshirts on either side, droning on in apparent obliviousness to his surroundings. It plays like sketch comedy gone horribly wrong — a politician following his instinct to pander to whatever audience is placed in front of him, no matter how loathsome that audience might be.
Why do I say “apparent obliviousness,” incidentally? Skip ahead to around 4:50 and watch for 60 seconds. He claimed he didn’t realize who it was he was addressing. Didn’t he?
Apparently she has made this quote several times. Thanks to Gateway Pundit for this.
In her April 22 Earth Day news release, Pelosi said, "The Bible tells us in the Old Testament, 'To minister to the needs of God's creation is an act of worship. To ignore those needs is to dishonor the God who made us.' On this Earth Day, and every day, let us pledge to our children, and our children's children, that they will have clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, and the opportunity to experience the wonders of nature."
In the 20 years that you've been his pastor, have you ever heard him repeat any of your controversial statements as his opinion?
REVEREND WRIGHT:
No. No. No. Absolutely not.
I don't talk to him about politics. And so he had a political event, he goes out as a politician and says what he has to say as a politician. I continue to be a pastor who speaks to the people of God about the things of God.
In other words the Wright is saying "Obama agrees with what I am saying but says something different as a politician." How else do you interpret what he said?
Italy's outgoing interior minister, Giuliano Amato, and representatives of Muslim communities in Italy have unveiled plans to establish an Italian-Islamic Federation with legal recognition in Italy, while discouraging the spread of radical Islam. Sabina Castelfranco reports for VOA from Rome.
Representatives of several Muslim communities in Italy announced plans to establish a Federation of Italian Islam that will be granted legal status. The announcement was made one year after the approval of Italy's Charter of Values, Citizenship and Immigration, a code aimed at minorities, but especially Muslims.
The charter says, among other things, that polygamy is contrary to the rights of women and that immigrants seeking Italian citizenship should speak Italian and know about Italy's history.
The federation is intended to promote mosques devoted to moderation and to weaken those professing radical Islam.
AP Italian Interior Minister Giuliano Amato in Rome eng 190 14apr08 Italian Interior Minister Giuliano Amato Outgoing Italian Interior Minister Giuliano Amato talked told reporters the federation will bring together Muslim communities that pledge allegiance to the Italian constitution and the values charter.
Amato said the federation will be able to speak to Italian institutions to promote inter-religious dialogue and respect for religious freedom. It will also be able to manage mosques and the training of imams.
Los Angeles is becoming a "Third World city" with immigrants making up half its workforce, says a new study.
A third of immigrants have not graduated from high school and 60 per cent do not speak English fluently, the Migration Policy Institute found.
It said this left immigrants ill-equipped to fill California's fastest-growing occupations, such as computer software engineering and nursing. The organisation added that as the so-called baby boomers reach retirement age, a similar pattern will spread across the US.
Ernesto Cortes Jr, of the Industrial Areas Foundation, a think-tank that specialises on social change, claimed Los Angeles was at a crossroads.
"The question is are we going to be a 21st century city with shared prosperity, or a Third World city with an elite group on top and most on near poverty wages?" he said.
Talk about political correctness gone crazy! This from Jihad Watch
A reliable source has informed me that Condoleeza Rice has approved a new lexicon for State Department usage, absolutely forbidding the use of the terms "jihad" and "jihadist" by any State Department official.
The argument, of course, is the old Streusand/Guirard claim that by using the word jihad, we're validating the jihadist claim to be waging jihad. Of course, it's ridiculous to think that the U.S. State Department carries any validating authority within the Islamic world to determine what is Islam and what isn't. This would be the first time that unbelievers have set the meaning of Islamic theology for Muslims.
Also, the claim is that by using the word "jihad," we are insulting the peaceful Muslims who are waging the daily jihad of the struggle against sin, the struggle against the dirty dishes, etc. And that's great, if that's what any Muslim actually believes is the sum and substance of jihad, but it is an understanding of jihad that is at odds with the Qur'an, the Sunnah, and all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence. Will Muslims be insulted by a reference to other Muslims using the traditional primary meaning of jihad? Answer: probably. But that doesn't negate the traditional status of that meaning, or the influence of that traditional view in the Islamic world.
I will publish more information on this when possible.
