Category: Politics

Interfaith Voices on NYPD Surveillance & Accountability Issues « MACLC’s Weblog. Recalling that March 13 marks the 10th anniversary of NYPD Operations Order 11 explicitly forbidding racial profiling, representatives called on the NYPD to add religion to the list of characteristics such as color, race, and ethnicity, that it would not use to profile New Yorkers, and to put into practice what Commissioner Kelly promulgated 10 years ago.

On going to war with Iran. How It Happens | Talking Points Memo. But when it comes to matters of war and peace, laziness is easily as dangerous as intent.

It is the responsibility of conservatives to police the right in its excesses, just as the liberals unfailingly fail to police the excesses in their own side. And it was depressing, because what it indicates is that the Republican leaders are afraid of Rush Limbaugh.

ACTION ALERT- Follow Our Lead on Friday And Say #Thank You @Twitter. Muslims and non-Muslims in New York City and across the country have been upset by the news about the NYPD’s surveillance of Muslims. The news is disturbing and deeply concerning to say the least. However, we are heartened by and very appreciative of the number of people and organizations that have come forth to support us, to speak out with us and for us – and to defend civil rights for all.

Go play this game. Grand Ayatollah or Grand Old Party? – By Reza Aslan | Foreign Policy. One is a religious fanatic railing against secularism, the role of women in the workplace, and the evils of higher education, as he seeks to impose his draconian moral values upon the state. The other is the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

I’m quoted over on Patheos’ piece on the topic. American Muslims and the NYPD Trust Deficit. Do you feel comfortable living your life as a Muslim in America?   I do. I am firm enough in my faith and happy enough to be an American that I know what the NYPD is doing is wrong. They will not take my faith in either God or country. The NYPD may not believe in the constitution, the bill of rights, or civil liberties, but that doesn’t mean they are right.

Wow. Unbelievable. Seriously reconsidering where and how I shop. h/t Savage Minds. I Was a Warehouse Wage Slave | Mother Jones. “DON’T TAKE ANYTHING that happens to you there personally,” the woman at the local chamber of commerce says when I tell her that tomorrow I start working at Amalgamated Product Giant Shipping Worldwide Inc. She winks at me. I stare at her for a second.  “What?” I ask. “Why, is somebody going to be mean to me or something?”   She smiles. “Oh, yeah.”

Article | First Things. Though popular with secularists and religious conservatives, anti-Sharia legislation does not defend against theocracy but calls into question our society’s fundamental commitments to meaningful religious liberty and meaningful access to the courts. These commitments have been relied on by generations of Protestants, Catholics, Mormons, and Jews, and to try to remove them for Muslims both is unjust to Muslims and sets a dangerous precedent for other religious groups.

The Boy Who Cried Lone Wolf – By J.M. Berger | Foreign Policy. The Moroccan-American man arrested Friday for attempting to blow up the U.S. Capitol building, Amine El Khalifi, was also far from alone. He was in contact with men he thought were part of al Qaeda, and those men handed him a complete (but inert) suicide vest and an automatic weapon to carry out his attack. The fact that those men were FBI undercover agents is beside the point: If someone claiming to work for al Qaeda hands you a fully assembled bomb for your attack, you are…

Joshua Stanton: The NYPD Should Build, Not Disrupt Faith. The very logic behind this NYPD initiative raises my hackles. Is a religious community really free to assemble when it does not feel safe doing so? Is the NYPD truly fulfilling its mandate by alienating one of America’s religious communities? My mind is as full of worry when contemplating these questions as the hearts of so many Muslim students, concerned about the safety of their campus communities.