Members of a Fremont mosque were shaken after a man entered the building Wednesday then threatened everyone inside.

Police said a man walked into the Ibrahim Khalillullah Islamic Center on Osgood Road Wednesday during afternoon prayer and said he had a gun and threatened to kill everyone inside. The people inside asked him to leave and he left peacefully, but he remains on the run.

The center's leaders told KTVU they've never had anything like that happen before. "We are a little worried because of the situation that happened in Oregon," said Fareed Wardak, a board of director's member. "We don't want the same thing to happen."

KTVU, 13 December 2012

See also NBC Bay Area, 13 December 2012

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The search for those behind the provocative, anti-Muslim film implicated in violent protests in Egypt and Libya led Wednesday to a California Coptic Christian convicted of financial crimes who acknowledged his role in managing and providing logistics for the production.

Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, told The Associated Press in an interview outside Los Angeles that he helped with logistics for the filming of "Innocence of Muslims," which mocked Muslims and the prophet Muhammad and may have caused inflamed mobs that attacked U.S. missions in Egypt and Libya. He provided the first details about a shadowy production group behind the film.

Nakoula denied he directed the film and said he knew the self-described filmmaker, Sam Bacile. But the cell phone number that AP contacted Tuesday to reach the filmmaker who identified himself as Sam Bacile traced to the same address near Los Angeles where AP found Nakoula. Federal court papers said Nakoula's aliases included Nicola Bacily, Erwin Salameh and others.

Nakoula told the AP that he was a Coptic Christian and said the film's director supported the concerns of Christian Copts about their treatment by Muslims.

Nakoula denied he had posed as Bacile. During a conversation outside his home, he offered his driver's license to show his identity but kept his thumb over his middle name, Basseley. Records checks by the AP subsequently found it and other connections to the Bacile persona.

Associated Press, 13 September 2012

See also "'It makes me sick': actress in Muhammed movie says she was deceived, had no idea it was about Islam", Gawker, 12 September 2012

And "We were misled, says man who claims to have worked on anti-Islam movie", Los Angeles Times, 12 September 2012

Also "Meet the right-wing extremist behind anti-Muslim film that sparked deadly riots", Max Blumenthal, 12 August 2012

Update:  See "Media researches Innocence of Muslims originators and promoters", Bartholomew's Notes on Religion, 13 September 2012

Update 2:  See Max Blumenthal, "Inside the strange Hollywood scam that spread chaos across the Middle East", Guardian, 13 September 2012

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California employers face new restrictions against shunting Sikh and Muslim workers to backroom jobs out of public view based on their wearing of turbans, beards and hijabs, under a law signed Saturday by Gov. Jerry Brown.

"This bill, AB 1964, makes it very clear that wearing any type of religious clothing or hairstyle, particularly such as Sikhs do, that that is protected by law and nobody can discriminate against you because of that," Brown told some 400 Sikhs and supporters at a rally of the North American Punjabi Assn. on the steps of the Capitol.

Brown also signed SB 1540, which requires the state Board of Education to consider a new history framework for schools that the governor said will include "the role and contributions of the Sikh community in California."

A series of court cases have muddied the water on what employers must do to accommodate the religious practices of workers, and the new state law clarifies the requirements, said Rajdeep Singh, director of law and policy for the Sikh Coalition. The new law does not guarantee a positive outcome for workers but requires employers to meet a higher standard of objectively showing how religious accommodation would be a significant hardship, Singh said.

"It's needed because Sikhs and other religious minorities continue to experience job discrimination on account of their religion," Singh said.

The new law restricts employers from segregating an employee from customers and the public as a means of accommodating the employee's religious beliefs. It clarifies that employers must accommodate a worker's religious practices unless it creates "significant difficulty or expense" for the employer. It also specifies that religious dress and grooming qualify as protected religious observances, according to Assemblywoman Mariko Yamada (D-Davis), who wrote the bill.

"This to me is like the Rosa Parks issue of the 21st century," Yamada added. "An employee should not have to work in the back of the store in order to observe his or her faith."

Los Angeles Times, 8 September 2012

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A civil rights advocacy group has urged the federal Justice Department to investigate who is responsible for leaving pig feet at the site of a planned mosque in Ontario.

In a letter sent to the U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday, the Greater Los Angeles Area chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations urged the government to probe the incident as a hate crime.

Three pig legs were left at the future site of the Al-Nur Islamic Center.

Worshippers told CAIR-LA that the pig feet were thrown on the site’s driveways just before 10 p.m. Tuesday by two women who then drove off in a white pick-up truck. A security guard witnessed the incident and a report has been filed with the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department.

"We urge the DOJ to investigate possible federal charges for the perpetrators of this disturbing incident,” CAIR-LA Executive Director Hussam Ayloush said in a statement. "Only firm action by local, state and federal law enforcement authorities will send the message that bias-motivated attacks on Muslims, or Americans of any faith, will not be tolerated."

Press-Enterprise, 10 August 2012

See "CAIR asks DOJ to probe pig legs left at proposed Calif. mosque site", CAIR press release, 10 August 2012

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HAYWARD — Four teenagers who police say threw lemons at a local mosque and struck at least one person inside have been arrested on suspicion of vandalism that interferes with civil rights.

It was the fourth time vandals targeted the Hayward mosque during the last eight months, police said.

At about 10 a.m. Friday about 40 congregants had gathered inside the American Muslim Association, at 26320 Gading Road when four male teenagers threw lemons at the building and then ran, said Hayward Police Lt. Roger Keener. At least one person was hit in the arm.

Officers determined four Hayward males, ages 13 to 16 were responsible for the attack, Keener said. The teens were arrested on suspicion of defacing property "interfering with the civil rights of those attending the mosque."

"We've had an ongoing issue of local juveniles harassing some of the mosque's attendees during prayer time," Keener said.

Gading Road is known as Hayward's "church row" because it is home to many places of worship, but the mosque was the only one targeted Friday.

Mercury News, 9 August 2012

See also "4 teens arrested for hate crimes against mosque", ABC, 9 August 2012

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A bill that would protect the rights of workers who wear religious-oriented clothing at work was overwhelmingly passed by the California Assembly on Tuesday, May 28. AB 1964 now goes to the State Senate, where its proponents hope it will pass before the Legislature adjourns at the end of August. Then it would go to Gov. Jerry Brown for his signature.

The bill, dubbed the Workplace Religious Freedom Act of 2012, essentially would not break new ground but would clarify the federal Fair Employment and Housing Act, said Rachel Linn, spokeswoman for Assemblywoman Mariko Yamada, D-Davis, author of the measure.

The bill, which moved through several assembly committees with little opposition, was supported by a broad collation of religious affiliations, including Muslim, Sikh, Catholic and Jewish organizations as well as the American Civil Liberties Union.

Only three members of the Assembly voted against the measure Tuesday, including Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, R-Twin Peaks. Donnelly said in an email that he opposed AB 1964 because it places another burden on employers and could lead to unneeded lawsuits.

Adel Syed, the government relations coordinator for the Southern California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said he regularly reviews cases in which women who keep their heads covered in observance of Muslim law are treated differently in the workplace and may not have the same opportunities as their coworkers.

The same thing happens to Sikh men and orthodox Jewish men who wear yarmulkes, Syed said. Some employers are skittish about having these workers front and center, where they would interact with customers and the public.

"Some employers might say they are making a reasonable accommodation," by permitting the traditional garb, Syed said. "But then they decide to put that person in the back, in the stockroom."

Press-Enterprise, 29 May 2012

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