JAMAICA, New York (April 15, 2013) – The Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) expresses its outrage at the bomb attacks today on the Boston Marathon. The senseless attack left at least three people dead and many more injured including several who have lost their limbs.

ICNA joins Americans in prayer for the victims and their families during this horrific incident. ICNA also appeals all Americans to help the Law Enforcement to bring the perpetrators of this crime to speedy justice.

ICNA President Naeem Baig said “all Americans including American Muslims condemn this heinous attack on civilians and pray for the quick recovery of the injured.”

The Islamic Circle of North America is a leading American Muslim organization dedicated to the betterment of society through the application of Islamic values. Since 1968, ICNA has worked to build relations between communities by devoting itself to education, outreach, social services and relief efforts.

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Islamic Circle of North America
E-mail:
Office: (718) 658-1199

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Christians in west Oxfordshire have signed a letter expressing "shock and outrage" at discrimination against Muslims in Chipping Norton.

A planned mosque in the town fell through last month after landlord Georg Wissinter received a threat that it would be burnt to the ground. Applicant Tahirul Hasan, a town councillor, had received planning permission to convert the former shop in Hitchmans Mews into a mosque. The town's 34-strong Muslim community had planned to open from sunrise until one hour after sunset for 10-minute prayers five times a day.

The letter says: "As Christians we know that Jesus called us to love God and our neighbour as we love ourselves. It is for us to welcome the stranger and to be hospitable to all. We affirm that all people have the right to be treated as human beings with the freedom to practice their faith without fear of persecution."

The letter is signed by 38 Christians, including Witney Congregational Church minister the Rev Jason Boyd, High Street Methodist Church minister the Rev Richard Donoghue, and Chipping Norton team vicar David Salter.

Witney Gazette, 12 March 2013

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Several Muslim families pulled their daughters out of schools in Russia's south after the girls were told they were not allowed to wear their hijabs, a top Muslim said on Monday.

The Mufti of the southern Stavropol region Muhammad-Haji Rakhimov said he had received complaints from several parents whose daughters were for the first time not being allowed into their schools wearing their hijabs. The situation resembles a "stalemate" because both the Muslim parents and school authorities refuse to budge, and several girls including second-graders have not been to school for two weeks now, he said.

"The parents of these girls are not letting them go to school, which can lead to the child welfare services taking them away," Rakhimov said. He could not explain the authorities' sudden change in school policies. "There have not been any problems before this month."

He added that there were now "many girls" in the Stavropol region who were being kept out of school for this reason, and their parents were too poor to send them to private schools.

One such institution is a rural public school in the village of Kara-Tyube, close to the overwhelmingly Muslim region of Dagestan. The school's list of rules posted on its website says that students' appearance should be in line with the "business style used in a secular society, excluding provocative elements".

News24, 15 October 2012

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A mosque will be built on the site of a transport depot after controversial plans were approved last night. Police were on hand to ensure the planning meeting at the 
civic centre went ahead peacefully, amid fears of protests as tensions ran high over the Millfield proposals.

Since they were announced last year, the plans to convert the transport depot in St Mark's Road into an Islamic place of worship have attracted 671 letters of objection and a 1,462-signature-strong petition about potential parking and noise problems.

However, applicant Coneil Bashir moved to ease concerns about feared 4am minaret prayer calls and a sudden influx of worshippers to the Sunderland site.

Speaking publicly for the first time about the development, he told councillors and objectors at the meeting: "There will be no public call to prayer. It will be one person and it will be done internally, not outside. The site will serve only those in the Sunderland and Millfield areas and it will not host weddings."

Members of the Development Control (South Sunderland) sub-committee met to discuss the plans, which involve the demolition of single-storey offices, the erection of parapet walls and two brick-faced columns.

After an almost-two-hour debate, councillors gave the proposals the go-ahead to cries of outrage from more than 20 objectors in the public gallery.

However, council leader Paul Watson said: "We need to 
decide on the facts that are presented to us, not about what may or may not happen or the fears people have."

Some neighbours, who also spoke at the meeting, objected because they believed the development would result in an increase in noise and traffic.

The application, which was submitted by the Pakistan Islamic Centre, attracted hundreds of complaints on the council's website. But while many were from people who live in Millfield, there were also objections from residents in Seaburn, Southwick and South Hylton.

Speaking after the meeting, resident Phil Pike, 39, branded the decision as "scandalous". "I feel like I've just wasted the last two hours of my life at that meeting," said the dad-of-three.

Sunderland Echo, 1 August 2012

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The Islamophobic blogosphere continues to set new standards in craziness. This poses some problems for those of us dedicated to combating it. The traditional reference to Melanie Phillips as "Mad Mel" now seems outdated since, compared with Pamela Geller, Phillips appears almost balanced and rational. And Geller, in turn, is outbid in the competition for sheer lunacy by Bonni Benstock-Intall of Bare Naked Islam. As quick scroll through her blog will confirm, "Bonkers Bonni" doesn't even begin to cover it.

A couple of weeks back the Maniac Muslim website posted a spoof article titled "IKEA Sponsors Masjid". Anyone with half a brain could spot that it was satirical. But that obviously excludes Bonni Benstock-Intall. In a post at The American Muslim ("The Maniac Muslim, Masjid IKEA, and Bare Naked Islamophobia") Sheila Musaji draws our attention to a truly demented post at Bare Naked Islam in which Benstock-Intall swallowed whole the story about the IKEA-sponsored masjid. ("Well, IKEA IS Swedish and we know how happy the Swedes are about the dramatic spike in rapes of Swedish women by Muslim men.")

"At this point", Shelia Musaji wrote yesterday, "her article has 33 comments from her devoted readers – all of them fitting this profile – I'll never shop at IKEA again, Florida Family Association should set up a boycott, corporations like this are 'betraying' America and are 'vile freedom-HATERS who are joining other corporations to DESTROY our freedom and human rights'."

Benstock-Intall did subsequently add a warning to her readers that "as I have not been able to verify this story, it may be a satire" (well, duh, yes – just possibly) followed by an announcement that comments were closed. The entire post has now been deleted. However, it can still be found over at a site rejoicing in the name of the Infidel News Network and screenshots of the original post at Bare Naked Islam, along with the comments it provoked, can be viewed here.

As Sheila Musaji points out, it is revealing that "even something as ludicrous as this stirs up the Islamophobic base to a hysterical pitch". These people really have taken leave of their senses.

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