The Mosque bulldozing, Muslim deporting, and Mosque closing country Italy continues to lead the way in the fight versus Islam.
August 6, 2008
Muslims "not welcome" at interfaith prayer centre in Genoa
Right-wing politicians want to ban Muslims from a proposed multi-faith prayer centre based in a palace founded by Crusaders Richard Owen in Rome.
A proposal to turn a medieval palace in Genoa founded by Crusader knights into a multi faith prayer centre for Muslims, Jews and Christians has run into opposition from local politicians who say Muslims are "not welcome".
Members of the anti immigrant Northern League - which is part of the centre Right government led by Silvio Berlusconi - said the Genoa council's plan to use the Commenda di Pre for multi faith prayer was unacceptable.
Francesco Bruzzone, a regional councillor for the Northern League, said Muslims had "no business coming" to the hospital and hostel where crusaders and pilgrims had gathered and said mass before leaving for the Holy Land."This shows a lack of respect for history" Mr Bruzzone said. He said he had been due to go on holiday but instead had decided to stay in Genoa to protest.
Marta Vincenzi, the centre Left mayor of Genoa, said the council wanted to open an inter-religious centre "where members of the three monotheistic religions - Christians, Jews and Muslims - can all go to pray". Catholics would use the prayer centre on Sunday, Jews on Saturday and Muslims on Friday. Salah Hussein, the imam in Genoa, welcomed the idea, which he said would reinforce "civil co-existence".
However Corriere della Sera said there was already a Catholic chapel dedicated to St John adjoining the palazzo, while Jews had a synagogue in the centre of Genoa. The "real sticking point" was the Islamic community, which had asked to be allowed to build a mosque in Genoa but had encountered local resistance.
Ms Vincenzi said that as a compromise she had proposed that Muslims in Genoa be allowed to build a mosque near the port, where there was a mosque in medieval times, "but without a minaret". However the imam said that "for us a minaret is indispensable. It's like asking Christians to build a church without a bell tower. A minaret has a very important function precisely because it is visible. It would show Muslims who come to Genoa but do not know the city where they can go to pray".
There was no question however of a muezzin call to prayer, the imam said, since Genoa was "not a Muslim city". Ms Vincenzi said a petition for a referendum being circulated by the centre Right in Genoa was "illegitimate - you cannot have a referendum on a constitutional right such as freedom of worship".
The Commenda di Pre, with three storeys of open galleries, was built in the eleventh century, and is still decorated with frescoes depicting the knights' battle insignia and coats of arms.
Link to Article
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Saudis to Christians: Get out!
Less then one month after Saudi Arabia's so called religious "tolerance" conference in Madrid, they once again show the world their true colors.
FAITH UNDER FIRE
Saudis to Christians: Get out!
Those accused of worshipping in homes ordered deported.
Posted: August 04, 2008
10:13 pm Eastern
© 2008 WorldNetDaily
More than a dozen Christians in Saudi Arabia who were accused by government officials of worshipping in their homes have been ordered deported.
According to a report from International Christian Concern, the Christians will be expelled tomorrow for their part in a home worship service in Taif in April.
The deportation conflicts with the message stated just weeks earlier by Saudi King Abdullah, who called for interfaith dialogue and held a summit in Spain with a representatives from several major religions.
"Deporting Christians for worshipping in their private homes shows that King Abdullah's speech is mere rhetoric and his country is deceiving the international community about their desire for change and reconciliation," said Jeff King, the president of ICC.
The report from the Washington-based human rights group said 15 Christians will be deported. Sixteen had been arrested April 25 when a dozen Saudi Arabian police officers raided a home during a prayer meeting.
"The first officer to enter the house after breaking down the main gate pointed a pistol at the Christians and ordered them to hand over their resident permits and mobile phones," the report said. "The other 11 police followed quickly and started searching the entire house. The confiscated an electronic drum set, an offering box with 500 Saudi Riyal in it ($130), 20 Bibles, and a few Christian books."
The worshippers initially faced accusations of preaching and singing. "They later changed the charge to holding a 'dance party' and collecting money to support terrorism," the ICC said.
"During the raid, the police mocked, questioned and harassed the Christians for four hours," ICC said.. "Then they took them to a police station where the head of the station interrogated them. The head of the police then wrote down their 'statements' in Arabic and forced the Christians, who are immigrants and not able to read or write Arabic, to sign the statements."
They were released three days later, and one Christian immediately left the country. The others returned to their work but soon got letters ordered their departures tomorrow, ICC said.
"Three weeks ago, Saudi Arabia hosted an interfaith conference in Madrid, Spain. During the conference that took place from July 16-19, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia called for reconciliation among various religions," ICC said.
According to an International Herald Tribune report, King Abdullah's meeting drew about 200 representatives of Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Taoism and other religions.
The reporter noted that the meetings had to be held outside of Saudi Arabia, because "the mere fact that rabbis would be openly invited to the kingdom, a country where in principle Jews are not permitted to visit, would have constituted a turning point."
Link to Article
Monday, August 4, 2008
580 Christian Students Displaced by Muslim Mob Violence
The persecution of Christians in Indonesia continues, despite that Muslims continually tell us that Islam is a tolerant religion. Could they be lying?
INDONESIA: STUDENTS DEMAND SAFE RETURN TO COLLEGE
Demonstrations turn violent at theological school; at least 17 injured.
Attacked Student Marthen Lalo
JAKARTA, July 31 (Compass Direct News) – For a second consecutive night some 580 students from the Arastamar Evangelical School of Theology (SETIA) in East Jakarta slept in the lobby of Indonesia’s parliament yesterday following demonstrations against the school that left at least 17 students injured.
Urged on by announcements from a mosque loudspeaker to “drive out the unwanted neighbor,” hundreds of protestors shouting “Allahu-Akbar [God is greater]” and brandishing machetes, sharpened bamboo and acid continued to attack 1,400 students and school staff members even as they were evacuated over the weekend (July 26-27).
Besides the students in the parliamentary building, hundreds of others were evacuated to area denominational and medical facilities. The violence took place in spite of the efforts of 400 police officers summoned after tensions erupted on Friday (July 25).
Students and school staff taking refuge in the parliament building lobby asked government officials to return them to the college and guarantee their safety there. They talked with members of parliament, particularly from the Prosperous Peace Party (PDS), a Christian party led by Karol Daniel Kadang.
The parliamentary members promised the students, staff members and their lawyers that they would contact the head of the National Police Department to file a complaint about officers who failed to protect them during the July 25-27 violence that caused 85 million rupiahs (US$9,325) in damages.
Lawyers for the students and staff members also demanded capture of those responsible for the violence, as well as the firing of the mayor of East Jakarta, known as Murdani, for blaming the Christian students whom he referred to as a minority group that “should behave.”
A seemingly harmless incident touched off the protests. Local sources said that at 10:30 p.m. on Friday (July 25), two SETIA students, Julius Koli and Jonny Gontoh, returned to their dormitory to find a large rat, and one of them threw his sandal at it. The sandal fell onto a neighbor’s property, and when the two went there to retrieve the sandal, area residents shouted “Thieves!”
By midnight mobs had formed and were attacking two male dormitories. At 2:30 a.m., mobs had reached the third floor of one of the dormitories and were trying to burn it down. Local sources said that when they set the building on fire, gasoline spilled onto the leg of one of the attackers, and they ran away.
Another mob attacked the main building of SETIA with stones. Male students threw the stones back at them, and by 5:30 a.m. Saturday morning (July 26) local policemen arrived.
That night, area residents and Muslim extremist groups made their way past police checkpoints and some of them armed with metal clubs and machetes broke into a women’s dormitory, where male students had been transferred after female students were relocated. While the attackers ransacked the dormitory, those outside threw tear gas and home-made “Molotov cocktail” bombs at the structure.
Evacuations of students began that night. On Sunday evening (July 27), as police were further evacuating students and staff members, the attackers slashed some male students with swords. At least 17 students received treatment for injuries at the Christian University Indonesia Hospital Cawang, East Jakarta.
Among them were Gabriel Dessa, 21, and 22-year-old Yopiter M. Bessa, who both suffered stomach and hand wounds. Local sources said police officers did not arrest the assailants even though the assaults took place in front of them.
Motives for Attack
Key among motives for the attack, according to a member of the village assembly, was that area Muslims felt “disturbed” by the presence of the Christian college. They want it to be moved to another area.
SETIA officials explained to parliamentarians that the school, founded 21 years ago, has full legal permission and registration to operate. While now sitting in the middle of a populated area, when originally established the college was surrounded only by cornfields and banana plantations.
School public relations official Bayu Kusuma told the parliamentarians that the college has permission from the Religious Department, a special construction permit for a school/seminary building and registration with the official gazette (Berita Negara), along with documentation from the Republic of Indonesia.
Last year, the Muslim extremist Islamic Defenders’ Front demonstrated in front of the college, accusing it of having misapplied its permit.
Since 2007, protestors have held six demonstrations. On March 7, 2007, more than 200 Muslims set fire to construction workers’ quarters in an effort to keep SETIA from adding a fifth dormitory.
Three days later, some 300 people gathered to protest the construction, demanding that the school close. They claimed it was disturbing area residents when students sang during their classes and that students were evangelizing people in the area.
Government officials have brokered talks between the conflicting parties, without success.
Link to Article
Attackers in Western China Kill 16 Border Officers
I am not sure what the response will be while the Olympics are there, but I would have to say that when the games are over, the Chinese authorities will be playing their own games..........war games, with in the Muslim community of Xinjiang.
By CHARLES HUTZLER, Associated Press Writer
Mon Aug 4, 9:43 AM ET
BEIJING - Two men rammed a truck into a group of jogging policemen and tossed explosives, killing 16 officers Monday in an attack in a restive province of western China just days before the Beijing Olympics, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.
Though it happened on the far side of the country — near the Afghan-Pakistan border — the attack came as security forces were on alert for the Games, which open Friday. It was among the deadliest and most brazen attacks in years in Xinjiang province, site of a sporadically violent rebellion by local Muslims against Chinese rule.
About 20 people upset at having been evicted from their homes staged a brief demonstration near Tiananmen Square, Beijing's heavily guarded political center. Uniformed police quickly surrounded the group until members of a neighborhood committee came and pulled the protesters away, scuffling with some.
In the Xinjiang attack, the two men drove a dump truck into the group of border patrol police officers as they passed the Yiquan Hotel during a routine 8 a.m. jog in the city of Kashgar, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
After the truck hit an electrical pole, the pair jumped out, ignited homemade explosives and "also hacked the policemen with knives," Xinhua said.
Fourteen died on the spot and two others en route to a hospital, and at least 16 officers were wounded, Xinhua said.
Police arrested the two attackers, one of whom was injured in the leg, the report said.
Authorities closed off streets, sealed the Nationalities Hospital down the street from the explosion, and ordered people to stay inside, said a man answering phones at the hospital duty office.
Local government officials declined comment Monday. An officer in the district police department said an investigation was launched.
Kashgar, or Kashi in Chinese, is a tourist city that was once an oasis trading center on the Silk Road caravan routes and lies 80 miles from the border with Pakistan, Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan. Its mountainous, remote environs have allegedly provided cover for terrorist training camps, one of which Chinese police raided early last year.
Chinese security forces have been on edge for months, citing a number of foiled plots by Muslim separatists and a series of bombings around China in the run-up to the Olympics. Last week, a senior military commander said radical Muslims who are fighting for what they call an independent East Turkistan in Xinjiang posed the single greatest threat to the games.
A spokesman for Beijing's Olympic organizing committee said he did not have enough information to comment on the bombings. But he said security arrangements were being increased around the Olympic venues.
"We've made preparations for all possible threats," the spokesman, Sun Weide, told reporters. "We believe, with the support of the government, with the help of the international community, we have the confidence and the ability to host a safe and secure Olympic Games."
A Chinese counterterrorism expert, Li Wei of the China Institute for Contemporary International Relations in Beijing, said the attack was likely the work of local sympathizers, rather than trained terrorists who sneaked across the border into China.
Xinhua said that Xinjiang's police department earlier received intelligence reports about possible terrorist attacks between Aug. 1 and 8 by the East Turkistan Islamic Movement. The movement is the name of a group that China and the U.S. say is a terrorist organization, but Chinese authorities often use the label for a broad number of violent separatist groups.
In Xinjiang, a local Turkic Muslim people, the Uighurs (WEE'-gurs), have chafed under Chinese rule, fully imposed after the communists took power nearly 60 years ago. Occasionally violent attacks in the 1990s brought an intense response from Beijing, which has stationed crack paramilitary units in the area and clamped down on unregistered mosques and religious schools that officials said were inciting militant action.
Uighurs have complained that the suppression has aggravated tensions in Xinjiang, making Uighurs feel even more threatened by an influx of Chinese and driving some to flee to Pakistan and other areas where they then have readier access to extremist ideologies.
One militant group, the Turkistan Islamic Party, pledged in a video that surfaced on the Internet last month to "target the most critical points related to the Olympics." The group is believed to be based across the border in Pakistan, with some of its core members having received training from al-Qaida and the Pakistani Taliban, according to terrorism experts.
Terrorism analysts and Chinese authorities, however, have said that with more than 100,000 soldiers and police guarding Beijing and other Olympic co-host cities, terrorists were more likely to attack less-protected areas.
Link to Article
By CHARLES HUTZLER, Associated Press Writer
Mon Aug 4, 9:43 AM ET
BEIJING - Two men rammed a truck into a group of jogging policemen and tossed explosives, killing 16 officers Monday in an attack in a restive province of western China just days before the Beijing Olympics, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.
Though it happened on the far side of the country — near the Afghan-Pakistan border — the attack came as security forces were on alert for the Games, which open Friday. It was among the deadliest and most brazen attacks in years in Xinjiang province, site of a sporadically violent rebellion by local Muslims against Chinese rule.
About 20 people upset at having been evicted from their homes staged a brief demonstration near Tiananmen Square, Beijing's heavily guarded political center. Uniformed police quickly surrounded the group until members of a neighborhood committee came and pulled the protesters away, scuffling with some.
In the Xinjiang attack, the two men drove a dump truck into the group of border patrol police officers as they passed the Yiquan Hotel during a routine 8 a.m. jog in the city of Kashgar, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
After the truck hit an electrical pole, the pair jumped out, ignited homemade explosives and "also hacked the policemen with knives," Xinhua said.
Fourteen died on the spot and two others en route to a hospital, and at least 16 officers were wounded, Xinhua said.
Police arrested the two attackers, one of whom was injured in the leg, the report said.
Authorities closed off streets, sealed the Nationalities Hospital down the street from the explosion, and ordered people to stay inside, said a man answering phones at the hospital duty office.
Local government officials declined comment Monday. An officer in the district police department said an investigation was launched.
Kashgar, or Kashi in Chinese, is a tourist city that was once an oasis trading center on the Silk Road caravan routes and lies 80 miles from the border with Pakistan, Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan. Its mountainous, remote environs have allegedly provided cover for terrorist training camps, one of which Chinese police raided early last year.
Chinese security forces have been on edge for months, citing a number of foiled plots by Muslim separatists and a series of bombings around China in the run-up to the Olympics. Last week, a senior military commander said radical Muslims who are fighting for what they call an independent East Turkistan in Xinjiang posed the single greatest threat to the games.
A spokesman for Beijing's Olympic organizing committee said he did not have enough information to comment on the bombings. But he said security arrangements were being increased around the Olympic venues.
"We've made preparations for all possible threats," the spokesman, Sun Weide, told reporters. "We believe, with the support of the government, with the help of the international community, we have the confidence and the ability to host a safe and secure Olympic Games."
A Chinese counterterrorism expert, Li Wei of the China Institute for Contemporary International Relations in Beijing, said the attack was likely the work of local sympathizers, rather than trained terrorists who sneaked across the border into China.
Xinhua said that Xinjiang's police department earlier received intelligence reports about possible terrorist attacks between Aug. 1 and 8 by the East Turkistan Islamic Movement. The movement is the name of a group that China and the U.S. say is a terrorist organization, but Chinese authorities often use the label for a broad number of violent separatist groups.
In Xinjiang, a local Turkic Muslim people, the Uighurs (WEE'-gurs), have chafed under Chinese rule, fully imposed after the communists took power nearly 60 years ago. Occasionally violent attacks in the 1990s brought an intense response from Beijing, which has stationed crack paramilitary units in the area and clamped down on unregistered mosques and religious schools that officials said were inciting militant action.
Uighurs have complained that the suppression has aggravated tensions in Xinjiang, making Uighurs feel even more threatened by an influx of Chinese and driving some to flee to Pakistan and other areas where they then have readier access to extremist ideologies.
One militant group, the Turkistan Islamic Party, pledged in a video that surfaced on the Internet last month to "target the most critical points related to the Olympics." The group is believed to be based across the border in Pakistan, with some of its core members having received training from al-Qaida and the Pakistani Taliban, according to terrorism experts.
Terrorism analysts and Chinese authorities, however, have said that with more than 100,000 soldiers and police guarding Beijing and other Olympic co-host cities, terrorists were more likely to attack less-protected areas.
Link to Article
Friday, August 1, 2008
Turkey: Islamic Party to Stay in Power
I am sorry to say that there is more bad news coming from the Islamic world today. Turkey had their vote on whether they should ban the Islamic based ruling party the AKP. The Party won and is staying in power. The only good that can come out of this is that, they will get so strict that they will never be accepted in the EU. We do not need 70 million Muslims running around Europe, with those open borders. The party has recently started arresting women for the way they dress, and has been constantly raising taxes on alcohol, to discourage drinking. This is the 3rd strike of the day. First, the Mosque spokesperson I exposed that wants us to pay extortion, Tyson Chicken dropping Labour Day in favor of a Muslim holiday and now this. I am out.....if this keeps up we will all be out.
Turkish court refuses to ban ruling party
ISTANBUL (AP) -- Turkey's top court on Wednesday narrowly decided against banning the ruling party over accusations that it was steering the country toward Islamic rule, preserving a government locked in a power struggle with the secular elite.
The Constitutional Court, however, delivered a strong -- though unspecified -- warning to the ruling Justice and Development Party and said it would be deprived of half of its funding from the state treasury.
“The decision that came out was a warning to this party. It is a serious warning,” said the court chairman Hasim Kilic. “I hope that this outcome will be assessed and that the necessary measures will be taken.”
He said six of the 11 judges wanted to ban the party of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. However, a total of seven votes were needed to ban it under court regulations.
The decision represented a reprieve for Erdogan and his allies in an overwhelmingly Muslim country with a secular system that seeks to join the European Union. A decision to ban the party would have triggered a sharp escalation in political turmoil in the NATO member, where a bomb attack on Sunday killed 17 people in a mostly residential area of Istanbul.
A ban would have severely damaged Turkey's image as a democracy because the ruling party won a strong majority in elections last year; EU leaders have said the ruling party's viability should be decided in elections, not courtrooms.
The court case was the latest battleground between the pious Muslims who run the government but embrace aspects of Western political and economic systems, and the secular establishment that draws support from the military and judiciary. The rift has evolved over the last century since national founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk jettisoned Islam as a guiding force in society and politics, instead imposing a strictly secular system amid the ruins of the Ottoman Empire.
In March, Turkey's chief prosecutor asked the Constitutional Court to disband Erdogan's party and bar him and 70 other party members from joining a political party for five years.
President Abdullah Gul was also on the prosecutor's list.
Prominent party leaders have backgrounds in political Islam, and the party itself is a successor to parties that were banned in the past. But those leaders now say they are not following an Islamic agenda, citing EU-backed reforms as proof.
“This party is definitely advocating a more moderate streak of thought than its predecessors,” said Ilter Turan, a political science professor at Istanbul's Bilgi University. Earlier, Turan said: “No matter what the decision is, this case shows that Turkey needs a restructuring of its laws and a constitutional reform.”
The judges began hearing the case Monday, a day after two bomb explosions at a packed Istanbul square. It was the deadliest attack in Turkey in almost five years. Turkish officials blamed Kurdish rebels, who denied responsibility.
The timing of the attack on the eve of the Constitutional Court's deliberations raised speculation over a link. Prosecutors are also preparing a case against alleged coup-plotters, including retired army officers, who stand accused of trying to bring down the Islamic-oriented government by fomenting chaos in Turkey.
The conflict between the government and secular opponents escalated last year during Gul's candidacy for the presidency, and the military issued a warning to the government that recalled past coups by the armed forces. But the Justice and Development Party triumphed by winning 47 percent of the votes in general elections, and 341 seats in the 550-seat Parliament.
This year, the party attempted to lift a decades-old ban on the wearing of head scarves at universities, but the top court overturned that bill, saying it was anti-secularist. Chief prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya cited the head scarf bill as proof the government is trying to scrap secularist principles enshrined in the Constitution.
The court has banned two dozen political parties since it was established in 1963. But none had such strong electoral support as the current ruling party.
Link to Article
Plant Drops Labor Day For Muslim Holiday
We are slowly losing our country to the demands of Muslims. This is exactly how it started in the U.K. and of course Muslims once again show that the have no concern for anyone else but themselves. They have just forced one of their holy days on hundreds of non-Muslims.
Hat tip to americanophile over at www.FreeRepublic.com for this one.
POSTED: 12:18 pm CDT August 1, 2008
SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. -- Some workers at a local plant will no longer to be able to take their Labor Day holiday because of religious reasons.
Workers at the Tyson Foods poultry processing plant in Shelbyville will no longer have a paid day off on Labor Day but will instead be granted the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr.
According to a news release from the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, a new five-year contract at the plant included the change to accommodate Muslim workers at the plant.
Tyson's director of media relations Gary Mickelson said the contract includes eight paid holidays -- the same number as the old contract.
Eid al-Fitr -- which falls on Oct. 1 this year -- marks the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting.
Union leaders said implementing the holiday was important for the nearly 700 Muslims, many of them Somalis, who work at the plant that employs a total of 1,200 people.
Nineteen-year plant veteran William Pentecost doesn’t agree with the decision.
"I don’t think it's right. I really don't think it's right," he said.
Tyson company spokeswoman Libby Lawson said by phone that, "This isn't a religious accommodation, this is a contractual agreement. The majority asked for it."
The change didn’t bother some workers.
"I think it's fine. I don’t have any problem with it. There's a whole bunch of them here, so they've got to do something for them," said worker John Smith.
"It shouldn't happen. I mean, I think, we're in America, you're in America, I think that they should go with our holidays," Pentecost said.
Channel 4's Cynthia Williams could not reach any of the plant’s Muslim workers, because Channel 4 News' crew was not permitted on the property.
Former employee and Shelbyville resident Anthony Proctor said he thinks what's happening is wrong.
He said he helped build a special Muslim prayer room that's located inside the plant and that no other Tyson facility has been that accommodating for any other religion.
"If we want to go pray, we don’t have one for Christians," he said.
Tyson is headquartered in Arkansas.
Lawson said they consider religious accommodations on a case-by-case basis. She said that so far, no one has asked for any other type of religious prayer room.
No one at the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union’s regional office answered phone calls placed by Williams on Friday.
A representative in New York said that no one there knew specifics about the new contract with the workers, but a person in research told Williams that holidays aren't usually replaced and are more likely to be added on.
The decision will only apply to workers at the plant who are union members. All other employees at the plant will still have their normal Labor Day holiday.
Link to Article
Tell their Media Relations chief what you think:
Gary Mickelson, Media Relations
gary.mickelson@tyson.com
(479) 290-6111 (206) 220-6871
Hat tip to americanophile over at www.FreeRepublic.com for this one.
POSTED: 12:18 pm CDT August 1, 2008
SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. -- Some workers at a local plant will no longer to be able to take their Labor Day holiday because of religious reasons.
Workers at the Tyson Foods poultry processing plant in Shelbyville will no longer have a paid day off on Labor Day but will instead be granted the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr.
According to a news release from the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, a new five-year contract at the plant included the change to accommodate Muslim workers at the plant.
Tyson's director of media relations Gary Mickelson said the contract includes eight paid holidays -- the same number as the old contract.
Eid al-Fitr -- which falls on Oct. 1 this year -- marks the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting.
Union leaders said implementing the holiday was important for the nearly 700 Muslims, many of them Somalis, who work at the plant that employs a total of 1,200 people.
Nineteen-year plant veteran William Pentecost doesn’t agree with the decision.
"I don’t think it's right. I really don't think it's right," he said.
Tyson company spokeswoman Libby Lawson said by phone that, "This isn't a religious accommodation, this is a contractual agreement. The majority asked for it."
The change didn’t bother some workers.
"I think it's fine. I don’t have any problem with it. There's a whole bunch of them here, so they've got to do something for them," said worker John Smith.
"It shouldn't happen. I mean, I think, we're in America, you're in America, I think that they should go with our holidays," Pentecost said.
Channel 4's Cynthia Williams could not reach any of the plant’s Muslim workers, because Channel 4 News' crew was not permitted on the property.
Former employee and Shelbyville resident Anthony Proctor said he thinks what's happening is wrong.
He said he helped build a special Muslim prayer room that's located inside the plant and that no other Tyson facility has been that accommodating for any other religion.
"If we want to go pray, we don’t have one for Christians," he said.
Tyson is headquartered in Arkansas.
Lawson said they consider religious accommodations on a case-by-case basis. She said that so far, no one has asked for any other type of religious prayer room.
No one at the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union’s regional office answered phone calls placed by Williams on Friday.
A representative in New York said that no one there knew specifics about the new contract with the workers, but a person in research told Williams that holidays aren't usually replaced and are more likely to be added on.
The decision will only apply to workers at the plant who are union members. All other employees at the plant will still have their normal Labor Day holiday.
Link to Article
Tell their Media Relations chief what you think:
Gary Mickelson, Media Relations
gary.mickelson@tyson.com
(479) 290-6111 (206) 220-6871
Exclusive:Islam in Action Exposes New N.C. Mosque!!
I was just reading an article on line at www.StarNewsOnline.com, a publication from North Carolina. The article was speaking about a new Mosque that has opened called the The Islamic Learning Center, located at 2117 Wrightsville Ave N.C., (910) 343-1919. The spokesperson for the Mosque, a Ms. Susan Ellenberg said in the article that in the Middle East there are Mosques on every corner. I then preceded to call her and speak to her about this matter. I asked her if that was her intention, to get a Mosque on every corner and asked if she was a convert, she answered "no" to the Mosque part and "yes" to being a convert. I responded with "so you are ok being part of a religion that calls for my extortion and the extortion of all non-Muslims as stated in Surah 9 29"? Otherwise called jizya. She paused and said "yes". I thought to myself, let me make sure I got this straight and asked "so you think Muslims are superior and non-Muslims should pay you". She again said "yes". I told her "thanks for exposing who you are and to move the Middle East, where you belong", then I hung up. This is what we are dealing with guys, our enemy is in our backyard, all because our government does not have the guts to deal with it.
Here are three translations of Sura 9 29. The meaning is very clear.
009.029
YUSUFALI: Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.
PICKTHAL: Fight against such of those who have been given the Scripture as believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, and forbid not that which Allah hath forbidden by His messenger, and follow not the Religion of Truth, until they pay the tribute readily, being brought low.
SHAKIR: Fight those who do not believe in Allah, nor in the latter day, nor do they prohibit what Allah and His Messenger have prohibited, nor follow the religion of truth, out of those who have been given the Book, until they pay the tax in acknowledgment of superiority and they are in a state of subjection.
The original aritcle.
New mosque offers convenient location as center for faith
By Amanda Greene
Staff Writer
Published: Friday, August 1, 2008 at 9:30 a.m.
On a recent Friday, a man sang a call to prayers in Arabic over an intercom system in a two-story white house off Wrightsville Avenue. In an upstairs room, a group of five women stood facing Mecca, their heads wrapped in chiffon scarves.
About 15 men prayed in a room downstairs near the elder brother, a Muslim male who led the service.
It was the Friday lunchtime holy service of the new mosque in town, The Islamic Learning Center, located at 2117 Wrightsville Ave. The mosque is nestled in a small business district that includes a doggy day care, a gallery and automotive shops. Wilmington has two other mosques, Tauheed Islamic Center on Castle Street and The Islamic Center of Wilmington in Myrtle Grove.
"Foot-to-foot; shoulder-to-shoulder. Fill in the gaps," one woman coached.
The mosque formed about six months ago and now has about 75 members. Though prayers are in both Arabic and English, the sermons are in English. The mosque is still searching for an imam or spiritual leader.
"We wanted to have a more central location because it was hard for the men who work to get all the way to Myrtle Grove on Fridays to come to prayers on their lunch breaks," said Susan Ellenberg, a spokeswoman for the mosque who moved here from Michigan.
With a growing library of materials on Islam, she said the mosque's main purpose is to educate the public and fellow Muslims about Islam.
"When you go to the Middle East, there's a mosque on every corner. Our mosques in America need to be more of a civic center where Muslims can practice and incorporate their family life here," Ellenberg added. "We want people to call and ask us to come speak at their organization about Islam."
In September, the Islamic Learning Center will add to its educational focus with a new Islamic school. The school will teach the Koran, Arabic and basic Islamic studies like prayer, Islamic history, manners, and arts and crafts several days a week.
"We have a large teen population, and they need leadership and guidance, making it religious, fun, and so they can bond with other Muslims," she added. "Because there are not a lot of Muslims in the school system, they feel like the minority, so we wanted them to have a place where they could be together."
During the sermon, the women sat against the wall on the carpeted floor. Some stayed downstairs during part of the sermon, making lunch for the mosque members. Lunch is served each Friday after services.
The service leader, Khalil Moya, spoke about the importance of seeking knowledge in Islam.
"Islam is a blessing and a mercy from Allah. We are chosen to be Muslims," Moya said. "We can't be bare minimum Muslims. ... For those who believe, Allah will never make your good deeds go lost."
Then at the end of the service, Moya announced a very special event for that Friday - a man had decided to convert to Islam.
Upstairs, the women covered their mouths, tears coming to their eyes.
"Praise, Allah. Oh, praise him," said Ismalia Abdul Ghani, a sister and one of the center's founders. "The ladies are really excited about this because we're all converts."
They listened intently to the speaker as he asked the man questions of his devotion to Allah. He whispered yes to all. Then the men surrounded him, asking him to pray for them, "because he's really close to God right now," Ellenberg said.
"He's starting a whole new life like a newborn child because he's worshipping one God," she added. "People don't realize that Islam is not a closed religion. It's a way of life."
Link to Article
Please help Islam in Action start a brochure campaign, aimed at getting the word out to local Church groups. It is time to wake up the Christians!! Any size donation would be appreciated. Donations can be made on the upper left hand side of site.
Thank you.
Here are three translations of Sura 9 29. The meaning is very clear.
009.029
YUSUFALI: Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.
PICKTHAL: Fight against such of those who have been given the Scripture as believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, and forbid not that which Allah hath forbidden by His messenger, and follow not the Religion of Truth, until they pay the tribute readily, being brought low.
SHAKIR: Fight those who do not believe in Allah, nor in the latter day, nor do they prohibit what Allah and His Messenger have prohibited, nor follow the religion of truth, out of those who have been given the Book, until they pay the tax in acknowledgment of superiority and they are in a state of subjection.
The original aritcle.
New mosque offers convenient location as center for faith
By Amanda Greene
Staff Writer
Published: Friday, August 1, 2008 at 9:30 a.m.
On a recent Friday, a man sang a call to prayers in Arabic over an intercom system in a two-story white house off Wrightsville Avenue. In an upstairs room, a group of five women stood facing Mecca, their heads wrapped in chiffon scarves.
About 15 men prayed in a room downstairs near the elder brother, a Muslim male who led the service.
It was the Friday lunchtime holy service of the new mosque in town, The Islamic Learning Center, located at 2117 Wrightsville Ave. The mosque is nestled in a small business district that includes a doggy day care, a gallery and automotive shops. Wilmington has two other mosques, Tauheed Islamic Center on Castle Street and The Islamic Center of Wilmington in Myrtle Grove.
"Foot-to-foot; shoulder-to-shoulder. Fill in the gaps," one woman coached.
The mosque formed about six months ago and now has about 75 members. Though prayers are in both Arabic and English, the sermons are in English. The mosque is still searching for an imam or spiritual leader.
"We wanted to have a more central location because it was hard for the men who work to get all the way to Myrtle Grove on Fridays to come to prayers on their lunch breaks," said Susan Ellenberg, a spokeswoman for the mosque who moved here from Michigan.
With a growing library of materials on Islam, she said the mosque's main purpose is to educate the public and fellow Muslims about Islam.
"When you go to the Middle East, there's a mosque on every corner. Our mosques in America need to be more of a civic center where Muslims can practice and incorporate their family life here," Ellenberg added. "We want people to call and ask us to come speak at their organization about Islam."
In September, the Islamic Learning Center will add to its educational focus with a new Islamic school. The school will teach the Koran, Arabic and basic Islamic studies like prayer, Islamic history, manners, and arts and crafts several days a week.
"We have a large teen population, and they need leadership and guidance, making it religious, fun, and so they can bond with other Muslims," she added. "Because there are not a lot of Muslims in the school system, they feel like the minority, so we wanted them to have a place where they could be together."
During the sermon, the women sat against the wall on the carpeted floor. Some stayed downstairs during part of the sermon, making lunch for the mosque members. Lunch is served each Friday after services.
The service leader, Khalil Moya, spoke about the importance of seeking knowledge in Islam.
"Islam is a blessing and a mercy from Allah. We are chosen to be Muslims," Moya said. "We can't be bare minimum Muslims. ... For those who believe, Allah will never make your good deeds go lost."
Then at the end of the service, Moya announced a very special event for that Friday - a man had decided to convert to Islam.
Upstairs, the women covered their mouths, tears coming to their eyes.
"Praise, Allah. Oh, praise him," said Ismalia Abdul Ghani, a sister and one of the center's founders. "The ladies are really excited about this because we're all converts."
They listened intently to the speaker as he asked the man questions of his devotion to Allah. He whispered yes to all. Then the men surrounded him, asking him to pray for them, "because he's really close to God right now," Ellenberg said.
"He's starting a whole new life like a newborn child because he's worshipping one God," she added. "People don't realize that Islam is not a closed religion. It's a way of life."
Link to Article
Please help Islam in Action start a brochure campaign, aimed at getting the word out to local Church groups. It is time to wake up the Christians!! Any size donation would be appreciated. Donations can be made on the upper left hand side of site.
Thank you.
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