Campaigns

NOVANEWS   by crescentandcross   Radical U.S. pastor Terry Jones has decided to protest against Islamic principles in the United States following a recent Qur’an burning in the country. Terry Jones will return to Dearborn, Michigan, this Friday and is to invite supporters to join him in a protest at “the presence of Radical Muslims and their promotion of Sharia (or Islamic) Law within the United States.” WXYZ HIGHLIGHTS The Quran-burning pastor from Florida was briefly handcuffed and jailed by Dearborn police Friday after a trial stemming from an unusual complaint filed by Wayne County prosecutors. “It was a total violation of our constitutional rights,” Jones told the Free Press on Saturday in an interview from Detroit Metro Airport, where he waited for a flight back to Florid...

NOVANEWS   by crescentandcross A controversial Qur’an-burning pastor accidentally discharged his firearm in the parking lot of a TV station after appearing on a talk show with a Muslim cleric. Terry Jones had appeared on Fox 2′s Let it Rip program along with Hassan al-Qazwini Thursday night, the leader of Dearborn’s Islamic Center of America, prior to the incident. “After the show wrapped, the imam was chatting in the rear of the building while Terry Jones and [assistant pastor] Wayne Sapp walked with police officers out the front door to their car,” MyFoxDetroit.com reported. “As the pastor gets into the car to leave for the night, suddenly there’s a loud ‘boom”’. “Officers heard a gunshot, approached the vehicle, asked Mr. Jones if he was OK,” Southfield Police Lt. Nic...

NOVANEWS   by Eileen Fleming Dear Helen Thomas, I am the founder of one of 100 organizations who have endorsed Move Over AIPAC, but I didn’t commit to attend until I learned you were going to be speaking and I began to dream of 15 minutes with you. However, my dream died when I learned that Ms. Thomas has now declined to take part in the Move Over AIPAC conference fearing she was becoming the focus and said “I am delighted that people are coming together for this gathering and I want to make sure that the focus stays on AIPAC and U.S. policy, not me.” OK, I understand but I am disappointed because I wanted to tell you that when I was a child in the sixties, my DREAM was to grow up and be Brenda Starr, the red headed, ace investigative journalist and star reporter for the metropolita...

NOVANEWS by crescentandcross   A mosque in Brussels, Belgium A pig’s head buried under a Christian cross along with several offensive inscriptions have been found at the future site of a mosque in southern Belgium. The inscription “Muhammad lies here” was among the Islamophobia-fueling slogans found at the French-speaking Charleroi city, AFP reported. According to a statement released by Xavier Godefroid from the mayor’s office on Tuesday, the opponents of the construction of the mosque have left many “unacceptable, intolerable and disrespectful” messages at the site. Godefroid added that the city’s police have begun an investigation into the case. The rise in anti-Islamic and racist behavior in European nations such as France has attracted worldwide attention. In ...

NOVANEWS     Norman J. Pattiz, American radio mogul and chairman of the U.S. government’s Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) Middle East Committee, founded Radio Sawa, which successfully “used music as a tool to attract a younger audience” — it’s listened to by over 42% of youth in a number of Arab countries, including Egypt. But how many of the 75% of Radio Sawa listeners who consider its news “reliable and credible” know this about its “founding father”? Pattiz is also on the national board of the Israel Policy Forum, which is “committed to a strong and enduring U.S.-Israel relationship and to advancing the shared interests of the United States and the State of Israel.” Its Israeli Advisory Council is comprised of prominent figures from Israel’s military and intellige...

NOVANEWS Brendan O’Neill   http://www.spiked-online.com   Unfortunately, both France and some of its critics seem driven by a desire to police people’s thoughts. On the day that France’s ban on the burqa comes into force, spiked republishes a speech given by editor Brendan O’Neill at the House of Literature in Oslo in October last year. There is no question, in my mind, that tolerance is under threat today. This Enlightenment ideal – one of the most important, radical Enlightenment ideals – is being assaulted and undermined around Europe. However, it is being undermined not only by governments and thinkers who want to ban the burqa, but also by some of those who defend women’s right to wear the burqa. Tolerance is being denigrated first by those who refuse to tolerate the b...

NOVANEWS Letters should be limited to 200 words or fewer. Please click this link and fill in the requested information in order to send your letter: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/submissions/ Cecilie Surasky San Francisco Chronicle April 20, 2011 04:00 AM Copyright San Francisco Chronicle. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Thursday, April 21, 2011 The Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee and the Bay Area's Jewish Community Relations Council interfered in an academic conference last week called "Litigating Palestine: Can Courts Secure Palestinian Rights?" at the UC Hastings College of the Law. They pressured the Hastings Board of Directors into an emergency meeting in which the board decided to "take al...

NOVANEWS     realchangenews.org   Nearly 10 years after 9/11, the Council on American-Islamic Relations finds fear of Islam continues to grow “Muhammad was a pervert! Muhammad was a pervert!” the protesters cry as bewildered Muslim Americans walk stoically past into a Southern California fundraiser for women’s shelters held by a Muslim aid group. A video of this protest can be seen on YouTube. When set against the background of Rep. Peter King’s (R-NY) congressional hearings investigating Muslim radicalization, the video serves to highlight the fear of Islam among some non-Muslims, which has come to be known as “Islamophobia.” Working to combat Islamophobia, protect the civil rights of Muslims and increase understanding of Islam is the Council on American-Islamic Relat...

NOVANEWS by crescentandcross   French President Nicolas Sarkozy The French public starts to feel betrayed by the government as its debate on laïcité turns out to be focused on Islam and that it is the Muslim community Paris cannot stand. One of the 16 points in the proposed secularism package by the ruling Union for a Political Movement (UMP) is that no religious community has the right to request a privilege. UMP Secretary General Jean-François Copé noted that asking for cancellation of exams by educational institutions on the occasion of certain religious holidays as a case in point. However, it soon came into light that some engineering schools have been pressured by the Elysée to postpone exams coinciding with the Jewish holiday of Passover so that Jewish stude...

NOVANEWS   Dear All, On Monday, it was revealed that the government might scrap vital laws which protect wildlife and the countryside and help stop climate change. Hardliners have branded the rules ‘red tape’ and say they could be scrapped within months. [1]  We need to work together to make sure our wildlife, our countryside and our planet are protected. In the past, David Cameron has made headlines promising to run "the greenest government ever". [2] We need to convince him that scrapping these laws would be a disaster for his reputation. A huge petition will prove to Cameron that he can't afford to break his green promises. Please take 30 seconds to speak up for legal protection for wildlife and the environment: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/dont-scrap-environment-laws Among th...