Category: Politics

CHRGJ at NYU Law: Racial Profiling and Counter-Terrorism. CHRGJ announced the release of our latest report Targeted and Entrapped: Manufacturing the “Homegrown Threat” in the United States. The U.S. government must stop its discriminatory targeting of Muslim communities in counter-terrorism investigations said the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) at NYU School of Law today, as it released a report on the issue. The government’s use of intrusive surveillance, untrained paid informants, and manufactured terrorism plots raise serious human rights concerns that must immediately be addressed, said the group.

Nothing to Fear: Debunking the Mythical “Sharia Threat” to Our Judicial System | American Civil Liberties Union. There is no evidence that Islamic law is encroaching on our courts. On the contrary, the court cases cited by anti-Muslim groups as purportedly illustrative of this problem actually show the opposite: Courts treat lawsuits that are brought by Muslims or that address the Islamic faith in the same way that they deal with similar claims brought by people of other faiths or that involve no religion at all. These cases also show that sufficient protections already exist in our legal system to…

Tenn. bill criticized for targeting Muslims splits Tea Party – USATODAY.com. The Kingsport man is a conservative Christian who wants the government to keep its hands off his wallet and his personal life. And that’s why, he said, a bill in the Tennessee Legislature that originally targeted supporters of Islamic law is a bad idea for Tennessee. State officials could have used the bill to punish unpopular groups, he said.  Today, that’s Muslims, he said. Tomorrow, that could be the Tea Party. He pointed to a 2009 report by the Missouri Information Analysis Center, funded in part by the Department…

This is What Democracy Looks Like?Making Sense of the Pew Poll on Egypt « The Revealer. The latest Pew Research Center poll results on Egypt are in, as Egyptians continue to debate what form the country’s nascent democracy should take in the wake of the January 25th Revolution. I was one of the millions of Egyptians participating in the 18-day uprising that toppled the Mubarak regime last February. I’m also a graduate student conducting research in Egypt.  So for multiple reasons, I hoped the poll would provide concrete answers on what Egyptians think at this critical juncture of our country’s…

Bin Laden’s theology a radical break with traditional Islam – CNN Belief Blog – CNN.com Blogs. Osama bin Laden wore the mantle of a religious leader. He looked the part and talked a good game, but his theology was a radical departure from traditional orthodox Islam.  The pitch to join al Qaeda did not start with an invitation to put on a suicide vest but, like other religious splinter groups and cults, took advantage of disenfranchisement and poverty.  Bin Laden had no official religious training but developed his own theology of Islam.

Ohio’s Muslim, Arab neighbors: Steven M. Dettelbach | cleveland.com. Our enemies seek not only to kill our citizens and destroy our cities, they also want to attack the most fundamental American principle of all — our free, open and diverse society. We cannot and will not let them succeed.

As always, Andrew Sullivan makes sure we are thinking of torture and our complicity. God bless him. All I know at this point is: seven years of torturing = no Osama. Two years without torture = Osama. [From How Will Limbaugh Spin This?] torture

Wajahat Ali: Understanding Sharia Law. The “sharia threat” argument is based on an extreme type of scripturalism where one pulls out verses from a sacred text and argues that believers will behave according to that text. But this argument ignores how believers themselves understand and interpret that text over time.  The equivalent would be saying that Jews stone disobedient sons to death (Deut. 21:18- 21) or that Christians slay all non-Christians (Luke 19:27). In a more secular context it is similar to arguing that the use of printed money in America is unconstitutional — ignoring the interpretative process of the…

This we were told by the war criminals in the Bush administration were “the worst of the worst.” Some were. Most were nothing of the kind. As with the debt, the war, and the economy, we are still trying to emerge from the Bush-Cheney wreckage. The damage they did to their own country and the world will live on for the rest of our lives. [From The Stain Of Gitmo] torture