America is largely a Christian nation with 77 percent of adults identifying themselves as Christian, according to a Gallup survey, while only 0.6 percent identified as Muslim.

"The United States remains a largely Christian nation; more than 9 in 10 Americans who have a religious identity are affiliated with a Christian religion," reported Gallup on Dec. 24. "There has been little change in this portrait of religious identity in the U.S. from last year."

Gallup interviewed more than 326,000 Americans between January and November 2012 and found that 77.3 percent identified with a Christian faith: 51.9 percent Protestant/Other Christian; 23.3 percent Catholic; and 2.1 percent Mormon.

Another 1.7 percent identified as Jewish; 0.6 percent identified as Muslim; and 2.6 percent as "Other/non-Christian."

The number of American adults who said they had no religious identity was up over last year, from 15.0 percent to 15.6 percent.

CNSNews.com, 26 December 2012

This is the same CNSNews.com that published a comment piece in 2010 titled "Is Obama a Muslim?" It concluded that while the president was not in fact a Muslim he might just as well have been, since "he does support the islamification of America that is taking place".

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A Muslim airline pilot sacked after he was linked to two suspected terrorists has lost his case against British Airways.

Samir Jamaluddin, a senior first officer who flew Boeing 747 jets, was arrested by counter terror police in 2007 before he was dropped by the airline three years later. He launched a claim for racial discrimination and unfair dismissal but this was rejected by an employment tribunal which found in favour of BA.

Mr Jamaluddin, who piloted long-haul flights from Heathrow airport, claimed an "air of suspicion" was created around him after he was held on allegations of money laundering, in connection with the Metropolitan Police terror investigation. Officers dropped the case against him in February 2008 owing to insufficient evidence.

Mr Jamaluddin initially remained with BA but the airline suspended his flight crew pass and he was sacked in October 2010, following a security review of his position. The British pilot, born to Indian parents, told a hearing in Havant, Hampshire, that he believed he was targeted because he was Asian and a Muslim.

It was agreed Mr Jamaluddin, who had been an award winning cadet, had an excellent flying record, an unblemished reputation and hoped to be promoted to captain by next year.

While police did not pursue the criminal case against him, BA conducted its own internal investigation, concluding there was a significant security risk if Mr Jamaluddin continued in his role. He was offered the opportunity to find a new position within the company which did not require him to have an airside pass. This proved unsuccessful and his employment was terminated.

The tribunal accepted BA's decision but expressed sympathy for the pilot's "plight". It said:

"The Tribunal had no doubt that for whatever reason, the claimant found himself in an invidious position; as did the respondents. There was no evidence of wrongdoing or misconduct by the claimant, however, his employer had a very proper duty to pursue the matters which ultimately led to his dismissal.

"The withdrawal of the pass and his subsequent dismissal has had a catastrophic effect on the claimant's flying career, certainly within the UK.

"The tribunal after consideration of all of the facts, whilst being sympathetic to the claimant's plight, are satisfied that the respondents did not discriminate or act unlawfully."

Independent, 4 July 2012

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The British National Party has found a new heroine in the battle to defend free speech. Her name is Margaret Walker, and she was up in front of Fareham magistrates last week following complaints about a homemade leaflet she had circulated based on the cases of missing Blackpool teenagers Charlene Downes and Paige Chivers (who the far right claim were murdered by Muslims). Walker was given an interim ASBO preventing her from distributing any further copies of her leaflet before she returns to court on 20 July.

Despite the fact that she is clearly a crank of questionable mental stability (as can be seen from her leaflet here and here), the BNP organised a demonstration in solidarity with Walker outside Fareham Magistrates Court on Friday. Evidently it wasn't very well attended. A BNP report carrying the rather plaintive headline "Were you in Fareham today?" stated that that Charlene's mother, BNP supporter Karen Downes, came all the way from Blackpool for the protest "but many locals couldn't be troubled". However, the case does shed some light on current developments in the BNP.

Walker's leaflet is in the main a typical far-right rant against "Muslim Foreign Perverts, raping and abusing our English children", which features Breivik-style claims that "the habitual liar Cameron is deliberately flooding England with these vile racist monsters" and that the Tories, Lib Dems and Labour are all pursuing a "monstrous scheme of cultural genocide and annihilation of the English indigenous people" through mass Muslim immigration.

But Walker's denunciations of "Jew Jack Straw" and "the foreign criminal Tory Zionist Establishment" (shades of ZOG) hark back to the rhetoric of the old Tyndall-led BNP. Part of the "modernisation" strategy adopted by Nick Griffin when he deposed John Tyndall in 1999 was to ditch the open promotion of antisemitism on the grounds that this was an obstacle to attracting wider political support. Only three years ago Griffin told the Tel Aviv newspaper Ma'ariv that he "had no time for anti-semites". He even tried to present the BNP as an ally of the Jewish community on the basis of a supposed common antagonism towards Muslims. In 2006 a BNP spokesperson wrote a letter to the Jewish Chronicle that concluded with the following appeal: "We hope that our future behaviour may in time bring you to understand that our repudiation of antisemitism is genuine. We are the only party in Britain that is truly serious about fighting the Islamofascist threat."

So until recently Griffin would have steered well clear of defending a BNP member who publicly expressed the sort of antisemitic views contained in Walker's leaflet. This development reinforces the argument that Griffin – who has a long history of executing sharp political reversals – has concluded that there is no realistic prospect of the BNP making any electoral gains in the near future and consequently has now junked his old tactic of hiding the party's core ideology in order to win popular support. Instead he has turned towards building a narrower organisation that will attract recruits by presenting a more overtly fascist profile.

From that standpoint, the main source of new members for the BNP is to be found among existing far-right sympathisers. Griffin has therefore adopted an approach of working with the sort of extremist groupings he would have avoided in the days when he was trying to cultivate what he termed an "image of moderate reasonableness". The BNP recently campaigned outside Liverpool Crown Court over the Rochdale "grooming" case together with the National Front, North West Infidels, Combined Ex Forces and English Defence League, and Griffin was happy to pose for a photograph alongside two neo-Nazis clutching a flag featuring the Odin's Cross. Friday's Fareham demo involved NF and EDL as well as BNP members, and the BNP report appealed for a "united front" of the far right in order to exploit the Charlene Downes case.

A further corollary of the thesis that the electoral road is blocked to the BNP for the time being is that a turn to direct action is the way to build the party. Speaking at the BNP annual conference 18 months ago Griffin promised a policy of "increased militancy" against Islam. Admittedly, little has been seen of this policy so far, but that is because a collapse in party membership has meant the BNP lacks the forces on the ground to implement it. If Griffin succeeds in winning a significant number of new recruits from the fascist diaspora, however, a rise in attacks on Muslims – and also on the labour movement and the left – can be anticipated.

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One of the slides from a presentation that was merely intended to 'stimulate discussion'Poor judgment and poor oversight led to the teaching of anti-Islamic material at a military school for officers, the Pentagon said Wednesday

Though an Army lieutenant colonel who taught the class has been relieved of his teaching duties, investigators recommended reviewing the actions of two civilian officials at the school to see if they also should face discipline, the Defense Department said in a statement. A second military officer will receive counseling.

Materials in a course for military officers at Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Va., portrayed the U.S. as at war with Islam. That's an idea counter to repeated assertions by U.S. officials that the war being fought by America is one against terrorists.

Some of the material suggested the U.S. ultimately might have to obliterate the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia without regard for civilian deaths, following World War II precedents of the nuclear attack on Hiroshima, Japan, or the allied firebombing of Dresden, Germany.

The teacher, Lt. Col. Matthew Dooley, also suggested that the Geneva Convention, which guides behavior toward prisoners, was "no longer relevant" and that Muslims "hate everything you stand for."

The Pentagon suspended the course in late April when a student objected to the material. The FBI also changed some agent training last year after discovering that its curriculum, too, was critical of Islam.

The new findings come from a report sought by chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, Gen. Martin Dempsey. He had ordered all service branches to review their training to ensure that other courses don't use anti-Islamic material and that procedures are in place to screen course content. The report itself has not been released, but the conclusions were described by Dempsey's spokesman, Marine Col. Dave Lapan, in a written statement to the media and later in a conversation with Pentagon reporters.

Lapan said the intent of the inflammatory material was to be provocative – "to be something to stimulate discussion and challenge people's beliefs and generate academic discussion," he said. But briefing slides used in the class, for instance, did not explain that. "The flaw was that it didn't clearly define that it was meant to be provocative," Lapan said.

Associated Press, 20 June 2012

See also "Military instructor suspended over Islam course", Reuters, 20 June 2012

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