GOP Lawmaker Wonders Why Arab Passenger Not Patted Down

Herman Cain's Muslim Problem (Mother Jones)

Video: Anti-Muslim Note Left on Woman's Car (CAIR-WA)

Video: 'We Don't (Want) Muslims in America' (CAIR-WA)

CAIR: Napolitano Asked to Probe ‘Islamophobic’ Trainers

Fla. Officials Condemn Planned Quran-Shredding Event

Hate Groups to Protest Islam in Michigan

Video: The Muslim Experience in Minnesota

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GOP LAWMAKER: I SAW TSA PAT DOWN 'LITTLE OLD LADY,' CHILD, BUT NOT ARAB MAN - TOP Keith Laing, The Hill, 5/25/11

The Transportation Security Administration is too worried about "political correctness," according to a Republican lawmaker.

Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.), a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said TSA is too politically correct when it chooses which passengers to search at airport security checkpoints.

During a recent trip, Broun said he saw TSA pat down an elderly person and a child, but not a man he himself deemed suspicious.

"I walked through. . .right behind me there was a grandmother — little old lady, and she was patted down," Broun said on C-SPAN's "Washington Journal."

"Right behind her was a little kid who was patted down. And then right behind him was a guy in Arabian dress who just walked right through. Why are we patting down grandma and kids?"

Broun did not specify any other reasons the man looked suspicious other than his dress. (More)

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HERMAN CAIN'S MUSLIM PROBLEM - TOP Tim Murphy, Mother Jones, 5/25/11

On Tuesday, GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain dropped by Glenn Beck's radio program to argue that his previous promise to not appoint any Muslims to his Cabinet had been "misconstrued." As he put it: "I did not say that I would not have them in my cabinet. If you look at my career, I have hired good people regardless of race, religion, sex gender, orientation, and this kind of thing." Cain's position now is that only radical Muslims would be prohibited from serving in his administration. That sounds reasonable. Except he told Laura Ingraham in April that he's never met a Muslim who didn't fit his definition of a radical -- and in the same interview, alleged that Rep. Keith Ellison (D–Minn.), who's Muslim, has pledged his loyalty to Allah, not the Constitution. But even if Cain's original statement, and subsequent defenses of it, were misconstrued, he still hasn't adequately explained the rest of what he told Think Progress back in April. (More)

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VIDEO: ANTI-MUSLIM NOTE LEFT ON WOMAN'S CAR (CAIR-WA) - TOP

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"Muslims leave." Those words were on a note someone left on a woman's car in Redmond.

It happened just outside a Starbucks location. The woman, who did not wish to be identified, said she and her third-grade daughter had just gone into the coffee shop for a few minutes.

And when they came out, they found a note on her car window saying, "We don't Muslims in America." And another message, strangely in Arabic, told the pair to leave.

"I was surprised, because we live in diverse neighborhood. Surprised to see it here," said the woman.

What's worse, her 9-year-old daughter has a knee injury and is in a wheelchair. The mother feared the author of the note could be following them.

"But I can't believe that someone could hate me because of my religious beliefs," the woman said.

Neither can other residents of the area who are shocked by the incident.

"It's so sad, so sad to have that happen to anyone for any reason," said resident Karen Mackie.

"I don't know if we can ever educate those people," said Hiromi Roe, another resident.

In fact, the Washington state chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations says it is seeing a growing pattern of hate crimes in the Northwest, with 10 cases investigated since last October.

"So we have seen a spike of hate crimes in the Northwest, and this area certainly didn't use to be this way," said Arsalan Bukhari, executive director of CAIR Washington. (More)

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VIDEO: 'WE DON'T (WANT) MUSLIMS IN AMERICA' (CAIR-WA) - TOP KIRO-TV, 5/24/11

REDMOND, Wash. -- A hate message was left on the car of a Muslim family while they were inside a business in Redmond, the Washington state chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-WA) said Tuesday.

CAIR-WA said a Muslim mother reported that she found the message, which said, “We don’t [want] Muslims in America” in English and “We don’t want Muslims in our country, go away,” in Arabic, stuck to the family’s vehicle when she returned to it Monday afternoon after visiting a Redmond Starbucks.

"I can't believe someone could hate me because of my religious beliefs," the victim told KIRO 7. She asked us not to use her name or show her face.

The Muslim mother, who was with her 9-year-old daughter at the time of the incident, wears an Islamic head scarf.

Earlier this month, CAIR’s Michigan chapter called on state and national law enforcement authorities to investigate an incident in which a vehicle was vandalized and defaced with a racially-derogatory phrase and profanity. (More)

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CAIR: ISLAMIC GROUP ASKS NAPOLITANO TO INVESTIGATE ‘ISLAMOPHOBIC’ TRAINERS - TOP

(CNS News, 5/25/11) – An Islamic civil rights group is asking the Secretary of Homeland Security to investigate whether the people in charge of training national security personnel are “Islamophobic.” In a letter to Janet Napolitano, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, called for an agency-wide probe to determine if the trainers “offer hostile, stereotypical and grossly inaccurate information about Muslims and Islam” as part of their training procedures. (More)

----- BOCA RATON QURAN-SHREDDING EVENT MAY OCCUR, BUT OFFICIALS CONDEMN IT - TOP Rebekah Monson, Sun Sentinel, 5/25/11

Boca Raton officials have condemned a man's plan to shred a Quran in a downtown park on Memorial Day, but say they cannot stop the event.

"On behalf of the Mayor and City Council and the city administration, we find the prospect of the deliberate desecration of a sacred text to be abhorrently offensive. We request that you not proceed with this act," Deputy City Manager George Brown wrote Wednesday in a letter to Mark Rowley, who requested a permit to hold the event in Sanborn Square.

City officials determined that the event does not require a permit because it is a free-speech action, Brown wrote. Rowley's initial request, to burn a Quran in the park, was denied because the city prohibits fires in parks.

Rowley, 52, has a history of forced hospitalizations and pleaded guilty in 2006 to misdemeanor charges for spray painting "666" on a mosque, three churches and a synagogue, according to court records. He is undergoing court-ordered medical treatment for schizoaffective disorder, according to court records.

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ANOTHER PROTEST OF 'RADICAL ISLAM' PLANNED SATURDAY IN DEARBORN - TOP Oralandar Brand-Williams, Detroit News, 5/25/11 Dearborn —Another protest over what organizers call "radical strains" of Islam is planned on Saturday in front of Dearborn City Hall.

The Order of Dragon, a pro-Israeli group, is planning the 10 a.m. demonstration to call attention to the "implementation of Sharia" or Islamic law in some court rulings, said Frank Fiorello, the head of the group's Michigan chapter.

"We have a lot of people worried about Sharia creeping into family court," said Fiorello, a Marlette resident. "There are 23 different jurisdictions where Sharia is being implemented in family court."

Fiorello did not provide specifics, but said there are recent cases in Ann Arbor District Court.

Other groups participating in the rally include the American Defense League, ACT! For America and David Horowitz's Freedom Centers Palestinian Wall of Lies, Fiorello said. (More)

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VIDEO: THE MUSLIM EXPERIENCE IN MINNESOTA - TOP

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This video, presented by the Islamic Resource Group and Minnesota Historical Society, details the history and experiences of Minnesotan Muslims via oral narrations from various members of the community.