Month: January 2012

Behind the Bars of Supermax, Contemplating Aristotle and Islamic Extremism – Document – NYTimes.com. Randall Todd Royer, 38, a Missouri-born Muslim convert known as Ismail, is nearly eight years into a 20-year prison sentence for helping friends go to an extremist training camp in Pakistan. In the highest-security prison in the United States, known as the federal Supermax, he wrote about prison life and his views about Islamic extremism in a year-long written correspondence with a New York Times reporter.

How a couple in Alaska became the terrorists next door – latimes.com. To Rockwood, the plot involving targeted assassinations and bombs was a "pure fantasy" created by a government agent he thought was his friend, a common refrain in the nation's burgeoning number of "home-grown" terrorism plots prosecuted since the Sept. 11 attacks.

My friend, Wajahat Ali, hits some good notes in this interview. Exposing Hate, Resisting Victimization: Islamophobia & the Path Forward | Straight Talk Podcast with Dr. Hathout. What are we doing as a nation to our own? In this conversation taped at the MPAC convention with speaker, author and playwright Wajahat Ali (co-author of “Fear Inc.: The Roots of the Islamophobia Network” study), Dr. Maher Hathout examines the small but powerful network fueling hate and its dangerous impact on politics, media and public opinion at home and abroad. As their hateful messages become more and more mainstream, how can we…

The destruction of knowledge is a sign of desperation and despotism. It’s no accident that it coincides with the militarization of our police forces. OWS Library Update < Killing the Buddha. Back in November of 2011, an epic act of state occurred in New York City—the seizure and destruction of the OWS library. More seizures ensued. The library reappeared on the Brooklyn Bridge. Readers and writers all over the world spoke out against the so-called Bloomberg Bibliocide. What’s been happening with our favorite library? KtB recently caught up with People’s Librarian Betsy Fagin via email.

I love The Dream. I love the fact that he got this appointment. However, I don’t think engaging young people should be the primary selling point about a guy who was getting to retire when I was a kid.  News from The Associated Press. In a move to engage young people worldwide, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has named Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as a global cultural ambassador.