Deacon Spencer (left) and friendsIt was generally known that Robert Spencer, the rabid Islamophobe who runs the Jihad Watch website, has a background in the Melkite Catholic tradition.

However, all credit to the excellent Loonwatch for pulling the material together and exposing Spencer's role as an ordained deacon at Our Lady of the Cedars Catholic Church in Manchester, New Hampshire (see also Bartholomew's Notes on Religion).

In response to the Loonwatch exposé an online petition has now been posted, evidently by a fellow member of the Melkite Catholic Church, stating that it is unacceptable for a hatemonger like Spencer to hold the post of deacon and calling on the US Church leadership to remove him from that position.

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Plans for a controversial new mosque in Worcester Park have been met with fierce opposition.

Businesses and residents have joined forces to sign a petition to ensure the plans do not go ahead. Petitions have been seen in various shops along Central Road which claim the increased traffic would bring the area to a stand still.

Sutton Council has received a submission for a place of worship at numbers 2-4 Green Lane. Although the council are yet to confirm plans are for a mosque, the drawings which have been submitted include plans for a male and a female prayer room.

The petitions cite traffic as the main issue, but scratch a little under the surface, and a different picture becomes clear. One businessman said: "It's not just the traffic but I'm being diplomatic. This can not happen."

Your Local Guardian, 25 July 2012

There is also, predictably, a Facebook page titled "Ban the Worcester Park, Green Lane Mosque". Its wider objective is to "Ban the every growing building of Mosques in and around the surrounding area Epsom and Ewell".

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A progressive evangelical group has launched an online petition urging the U.S. Justice Department to investigate a July 4 fire at a Missouri mosque as a potential hate crime.

Sojourners, a Washington-based organization dedicated to social justice in a Christian context, sent out an e-mail announcing the campaign July 18. It follows an earlier plea by the Council on American-Islamic Relations for state and federal hate crime investigations of a suspicious fire at the Islamic Society of Joplin, Mo.

The blaze, which did not cause major damage, was the second fire in four years at the mosque in the southwestern Missouri city, best known for its show of unity following a destructive E-5 tornado that resulted in at least 161 deaths and more than 900 injuries in May 2011.

The FBI has offered a $15,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the case, and released surveillance video of a man walking up to the mosque and throwing something on fire onto the roof.

Sojourners says if Christians are to be taken seriously in their advocacy for global religious liberty, they must begin in their own backyard.

"By asking the Department of Justice to investigate this attack in Joplin as a potential hate crime, Christians can send a clear message that violent attacks targeting Muslims in the United States are unacceptable and must stop," says a statement on the Sojourners website.

The American Civil Liberties Union has tracked dozen of attacks on American mosques during the last five years, enough to display on an interactive map on the ACLU website.

"We've seen a wave of anti-Muslim sentiment and anti-mosque attacks," Heather Weaver, an ACLU staff attorney told the Joplin Globe. She said such attacks were especially prominent during the debate over the Park 51 Center in New York City, the so-called "ground zero mosque."

Weaver said it was particularly disturbing that the Joplin incident took place on Independence Day. "I think it's especially troubling," she said. "On Independence Day, we should be celebrating all of our freedoms, including freedom of religion."

The Sojourners petition calls on the federal government to investigate the Joplin incident as a possible hate crime, "devoting to this investigation the attention and resources warranted by the offensive nature of the attack."

Associated Baptist Press, 18 July 2012

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A federal judge ordered a Tennessee county on Wednesday to move ahead with opening a Muslim congregation's newly built mosque after a two-year fight from opponents.

The Islamic Center of Murfreesboro sued Rutherford County earlier in the day and asked District Judge Todd Campbell for an emergency order to let worshippers into the building before the holy month of Ramadan starts at sundown Thursday. Federal prosecutors also filed a similar lawsuit.

The future of the mosque had been in question since May, when a local judge overturned the county's approval of the mosque construction. This month he ordered the county not to issue an occupancy permit for the 12,000-square-foot building.

Campbell ordered the county to move ahead on approving the mosque for use, although it wasn't immediately clear if that could happen by Thursday. Final inspection of the building is required.

The contentious fight over the mosque stems from a 2010 lawsuit filed by a group of residents who made repeated claims that Islam was not a real religion and that local Muslims intended to overthrow the U.S. Constitution in favor of Islamic religious law.

Those claims were dismissed, but opponents won with a ruling that overturned the approval to build the mosque on the grounds that county didn't give adequate public notice of the meeting.

Although the county advertised that meeting in the same way it has advertised others, the judge said extra notice was needed because the mosque construction was "an issue of major importance to citizens."

In court on Wednesday, U.S. Attorney Jerry Martin said the chancery court judge, in essence, created a separate "mosque standard" applicable only to someone who wants to build a mosque.

Citing acts of vandalism, arson and a bomb threat against the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, Martin said, "The Muslim community in Rutherford County has been under siege for the last two years. Now, after doing everything right, they are told that they can't move in."

Martin asked the federal judge to fulfill a promise made by the congregation's religious leader, Imam Ossama Bahloul, to the children of the congregation that justice would be done and they would be allowed to worship in their new space.

The congregation is being represented by The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and local civil rights attorney George Barrett. The suit filed in federal court in Nashville alleges violations of federal law and the constitutional guarantees of freedom of religion and equal protection.

"If ICM were a Christian church, it would have been granted a certificate of occupancy and would be worshipping in its new facility today," a memorandum to the federal court reads, citing 20 instances of Christian churches that have been allowed to build since 2000. " ... The discriminatory treatment of the mosque also sends a powerful message to the Muslim community that they are second-class citizens, not worthy of the same rights or protection as Christian churches."

Attorneys for Rutherford County did not oppose the temporary restraining order. County attorneys have argued in chancery court hearings that treating the mosque differently from other applicants was discriminatory and a violation of their rights.

Associated Press, 18 July 2012

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A petition with more than 2000 signatures calling for a ban on the English Defence League's march next weekend, will be handed in to Bristol City Council tomorrow.

It includes names from trade unionists and faith groups across the city, asking to prevent the march taking place on the 14th of July .

Similar EDL marches in Telford and Luton have been banned. There will also be a lobby outside of the Council House, College Green at 5.30pm before the Cabinet meeting.

ITV West, 3 July 2012

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