It's a Start

20 Muslim imams issue "fatwa" against terrorists.

Update: Yeah, we might need a few more to come around.

The day they cancelled Christmas

And Halloween.

School district addresses concerns of Muslim parents.

For now, children in Ridgeland School District 122 will celebrate fall festival instead of Halloween and winter festival instead of Christmas.

Brenda Elvidge said, "It's not fair to our kids. This is America and that's an American tradition."

The decision affects the children at four elementary schools in Oak Lawn and one junior high school in Bridgeview.

The district has a 30 percent Arab-American population, many of whom practice Islam. The superintendent says the reason for the change in tradition comes after one parent wanted Ramadan decorations put up inside Columbus Manor Elementary. They were taken down.

Terrorists get another justification for suicide bombing

Salman Rushdie's recent knighting.

A Pakistani cabinet minister said today that the decision to knight Sir Salman Rushdie was a justification for suicide bombing, after the parliament in Islamabad condemned the honour as "blasphemous and insulting" to the world’s Muslims.

As MPs issued a demand for the award to be immediately withdrawn, the religious affairs minister, Mohammad Ejaz-ul-Haq, said: "The West always wonders about the root cause of terrorism. Such actions [giving Rushdie a knighhood] are the root cause of it.

"If someone commits suicide bombing to protect the honour of the Prophet Mohammad, his act is justified."

Moderate Muslims stick up for John Does

The American Islamic Forum for Democracy has offered to help pay legal fees incurred by six John Does who have been targeted in a lawsuit brought by six imams against US Airways.

"It's so important that America know there are Muslims who understand who the victims are in air travel," said Dr. Jasser. "But I hope it doesn't get to that point because the backlash will be even greater when Americans see Islamists trying to punish innocent passengers reporting fears."

The lawsuit specifically cites two passengers who stared at the men as they prayed, then made a cell phone call that the imams say went to U.S. Airways to complain about the prayer.

Gerry Nolting, whose Minnesota law firm Faegre & Benson LLP is offering to represent passengers for free, says the judicial system is being "used for intimidation purposes" and that it is "just flat wrong and needs to be strongly, strongly discouraged."

"As a matter of public policy, the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] presently tells traveling passengers to report suspicious behavior as part of its homeland security program," Mr. Nolting said. "This has nothing to do with race or ethnicity, but trying to intimidate and discourage reporting of suspicious behavior and [also discourage] the promotion of safe travel."

Tom Malone, another Minnesota lawyer offering his services pro bono, says the lawsuit is "a very overt attempt to intimidate people" and "coerce them into silence."

Appearing yesterday on Fox News, Dr. Jasser told Neil Cavuto, "Americans are going to be more afraid of Arabs and the Muslim community for fear of being sued. Why spend money on litigation when we should be spending it on fighting terrorism?"

Good show.

French magazine sued for printing Mohammed cartoons

Yes, those cartoons. Charlie Hebdo is being sued by two Muslim groups, Paris Mosque and the Union of Islamic Organisations of France, for insulting people on the basis of religion.

"If we no longer have the right to laugh at terrorists, what arms are citizens left with?" [Editor Philippe] Val asked.

"How is making fun of those who commit terrorist acts throwing oil on the fire?"

A lawyer for the magazine read a letter out from French presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy.

Mr Sarkozy noted he was often a target of the magazine but said he would prefer "too many caricatures to an absence of caricature".

But the Muslim groups said Charlie Hebdo's decision to publish the cartoons "was part of a considered plan of provocation aimed against the Islamic community in its most intimate faith".

The Jewish school with the Muslim students

The King David School in Birmingham (UK).

But half the 247 pupils at the 40-year-old local authority-supported school are Muslim, and apparently the Muslim parents go through all sorts of hoops, including moving into the school's catchment area, to get their children into King David to learn Hebrew, wave Israeli flags on independence day and hang out with the people some would have us believe that they hate more than anyone in the world.

The Muslim parents, mostly devout and many of the women wearing the hijab, say they love the ethos of the school, and even the kosher school lunches, which are suitable because halal and kosher dietary rules are virtually identical. The school is also respectful to Islam, setting aside a prayer room for the children and supplying Muslim teachers during Ramadan. At Eid, the Muslim children are wished Eid Mubarak in assembly, and all year round, if they wish, can wear a kufi (hat). Amazingly, dozens of the Muslim children choose instead to wear the Jewish kipah.

At the prize morning Carol Cooper, the RE teacher, says: "Boker tov," (Ivrit for "Good morning").

"Good morning Mrs Cooper," the children chant in reply. The entire school, Muslims, Jews, plus the handful of Christians and Sikhs then say the Shema, the holiest Jewish prayer, all together.

Via Norm.