The Mount Soledad war memorial cross in San Diego has been previously ruled as unconstitutional, violating the Establishment Clause. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals recently refused to rehear the case or grant an en banc review. Notably, however, 5 of the 11 judges dissented in the denial of an en banc rehearing. The premise of their dissent was that the court had inappropriatelly analyzed the memorial: Read more
Arid Uka, accused in the murder of two members of the US Air Force at the Frankfurt airport in Germany, now says he does not believe Islam permits violence beyond self-defense.
While Arid Uka still prays and considers himself a Muslim, he said Wednesday he was duped by extremist propaganda and no longer believes his religion permits violence, except in self-defense. He added that shooting the airmen was not permitted by his religion.
This change of heart is somewhat unique, as some other recent Read more
As noted previously, the US military has four Jewish Chaplains in Afghanistan to help US servicemembers celebrate the Jewish High Holy days; in fact, three of the chaplains are in country temporarily solely for that reason.
Four rabbis – roughly 15 percent of the military’s Jewish chaplaincy – are visiting Afghanistan, including several remote military installations, to help troops and civilian employees mark the High Holidays through Oct. 21.
The four are Army Chaplains (LtCol) Laurence Bazer, (Col) Jacob Goldstein, (LtCol) Avi Weiss, and (Navy Lt) Josh Sherwin. Chaplain Bazer noted the significance of the Jewish presence in the predominantly Islamic country: Read more
The Jewish Daily Forward notes that Jewish American military members are able to celebrate their religious holidays even while deployed to a combat zone — in a country with an official Islamic constitution, no less.
Rabbi Jacob Goldstein will lead Yom Kippur services this year dressed not in the black fedora of his Lubavitch Hasidic sect, but in full battle gear at a Combat Operating Base in eastern Afghanistan. Read more
Rezwan Ferdaus was arrested Wednesday in Massachusetts after he acquired the weapons and means to conduct a terrorist attack against the Pentagon. The materials were purchased from/delivered by undercover US government agents.
A Massachusetts man was arrested Wednesday and accused of plotting to destroy the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol by attacking the buildings with large, remote-controlled aircraft armed with lethal amounts of explosives.
Interestingly, mainstream articles on Ferdaus fail to mention his religion — even though Ferdaus himself claimed to be motivated by it. In fact, one article even went so far as to publicize the DA’s warning that Read more
A variety of previous articles have covered the celebration and recognition of Ramadan by the US military in Afghanistan. A recent article noted the same, with an interesting comment from one of the participating Afghans.
“I am very happy to have shared tonight with [American soldiers],” said Haji Tor Jan, local leader and organizer of villages surrounding [US Camp Nathan Smith.] “I know it is not your celebration but we are grateful to share it with you…”
“We have a bond together and if it’s your Christmas we will do the same celebration for you guys; we will bring you food, music and everything,” Tor Jan said.
Now that would be kind of interesting.
According to an international paper called, interestingly enough, The Hindu, Dawat-e-Islami has attracted the attention of the Pakistani military after a policeman apparently from that group was accused of assassinating a governor. As a result, the military has
decided to curtail the activities of a proselytising organisation in their ranks after intelligence reports warned that its growing influence in the armed forces would have serious implications.
Dawat-e-Islami, which literally means “invitation to Islam,” claims Read more
In a case that has been going on for a couple of years, the Thomas More Law Center has been advocating for Poway teacher Brad Johnson’s right to display banners that quote founding documents with the word “God” in them.
The district court ruled in his favor in 2010, saying the school district displayed unConstitutional viewpoint discrimination when it required him to drop his banners, but did not do the same for other religious viewpoints that Read more