Illinois: Attorney General Fights CAIR in Court, Lauds it in Public

via IPT News Illinois AG Fights CAIR in Court, Lauds it in Public

As her assistants defend the state against a discrimination suit brought by a Chicago-area imam, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is among a slew of state officials saluting the group representing him in advance of its annual fundraising banquet.

And the imam, rejected by the Illinois State Police (ISP) due to his past work for a Hamas-support network, is being honored at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Chicago chapter banquet Saturday evening and will help with the fundraising.

CAIR represents Kifah Mustapha in litigation claiming the state discriminated against him and violated his free speech rights when the ISP rescinded a 2009 invitation making Mustapha the agency’s first volunteer Muslim chaplain.

The reversal followed a report by the Investigative Project on Terrorism showing Mustapha had been a fundraiser for the Holy Land Foundation, which was convicted in 2008 of being part of a multi-million dollar American-based Hamas-support network. Mustapha was an unindicted co-conspirator in the case and had been on the Holy Land payroll.

The Attorney General’s office is defending the state police. It has moved for summary judgment in the case, arguing that Mustapha lacks standing to bring the lawsuit since the position was unpaid, so that Mustapha was not deprived of pay or benefits, as required by the federal statute which covers workplace discrimination. The ISP revoked Mustapha’s invitation after decision makers saw a confidential FBI report on him and were told he would not have passed the FBI’s background check for chaplains.

Madigan’s office also cited this video from the 1990s, showing Mustapha as part of a performing troupe singing the praises of Hamas and jihad as a young boy dances with a rifle. “O Hamas, raise the banners of Jihad,” the singers say. “The victory of God comes through it or through martyrdom. O Hamas, teach us the rifle.”

“As a Muslim Chicagoland mobilizer,” CAIR’s promotion says, “Sheikh Kifah Mustapha has garnered the support of the Muslim and interfaith community around various causes while enlightening them through Islamic teachings and thought. Sheikh Kifah has mobilized each and every one of our past eight fundraisers.

Illinois attorneys say the video and other evidence paint a disturbingly different picture of the man. They were horrified by the video’s imagery and message, Madigan’s attorneys wrote. Keeping Mustapha as a volunteer chaplain “could lead the public to believe that ISP looked the other way when confronted with evidence that Plaintiff aided and abetted, or at least cheered for, terrorism.”

They urged the judge to watch the video, too, saying the state police “had to decide whether somebody cheering for violence while a child holds a gun is fit to be a state police chaplain. A reasonable person would decide the answer to that question is an emphatic ‘no.’”

Rejecting Mustapha, therefore, was not discrimination, Illinois attorneys argued in seeking summary judgment, “just a law enforcement agency denying a candidate who failed a background check due to his ties to terrorist organizations.”

Yet Madigan, who is expected to run for governor next year, praised CAIR in statements given in advance of the chapter’s annual fundraising banquet this weekend.

“We are fortunate to live in an exceptionally diverse nation,” Madigan says. “The diversity is a great strength of America, yet it also poses challenges. We are blessed that groups such as CAIR are devoted to building mutual understanding and trust among the many creeds, colors, religions, and backgrounds that make up our community and our country.”

Read it all at The Investigative Project on Terrorism.

Chicago: Fed judge reverses ruling that would have released Muslim terror suspect

Are we really posting about this a few weeks after Boston? via Judge reverses decision to free Chicago terror suspect

CHICAGO –  A federal judge Friday quashed another judge’s surprise order to release an Illinois teenager pending trial on charges he sought to join Al Qaeda-linked militants in Syria.

Abdella Ahmad Tounisi, 18, of Aurora, posed a potential threat not just to Illinois and the U.S. but to “the entire world community,” said U.S. District Judge Edmond Chang.

Standing in court in orange jail garb and his legs shackled, Tounisi showed no emotion at the ruling, which snuffed out his chance at freedom as he awaits trial. But his mother, Seham Tounisi, was distraught, crying as she left the Chicago courtroom and leaning against her husband, Ahmad Tounisi. A woman with them said, “This is unfair!”

On Thursday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Daniel Martin ruled Tounisi could be released on home confinement. He stayed his own order to give the government 24 hours to appeal.

The American-born Tounisi was snared in an Internet sting after contacting a sham website set up by the FBI purporting to connect would-be fighters with terrorists, according to court filings. He was arrested at O’Hare International Airport last month as he allegedly prepared for the first leg of a trip to Syria to join Jabhat al-Nusrah.

Judge Chang cited emails in which Tounisi allegedly stated his intention to join the Al Qaeda-affiliated group fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime. That suggests “the defendant was knowingly attempting to join this group — a very dangerous group,” Chang said.

To drive home Tounisi’s apparent determination and resourcefulness, prosecutor William Ridgway said the cash-strapped teen even managed to divert financial aid to attend the College of DuPage in suburban Chicago to pay for his plane ticket.

Even after worried family members had told Tounisi he “will be killing (his) mother” by persisting in plans to travel abroad, he pushed ahead, the judge said.

The judge also cited Tounisi’s friend, Adel Daoud, who was arrested last year for allegedly trying to detonate a device he thought was a bomb outside a Chicago bar. Daoud has pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors say Tounisi helped brainstorm potential targets with Daoud, though Tounisi was never charged in that case.

Chang said an FBI interview with Tounisi about Daoud last year should have so frightened Tounisi as to make other alleged plots unthinkable to him.

“That should have been a life-altering event,” he said. “But it did not dissuade him.”

via Judge OKs home confinement for accused terrorist – News – Pekin Daily Times – Pekin, IL.

CHICAGO, Ill. — In a rare move for terror cases, a federal judge agreed Thursday to release on home confinement an Illinois teenager charged with seeking to travel abroad and join an al-Qaida-linked militant group in war-torn Syria.

Abdella Ahmad Tounisi, 18, of Aurora, was arrested at O’Hare International Airport last month as he allegedly prepared for the first leg of a trip to join Qaida-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusrah, which is fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime.

In arguing for continued detention, prosecutors also noted Thursday that Tounisi had allegedly spoken with a friend of his last year about bombing targets in Chicago. Tounisi is not charged in that case, though the friend, Adel Daoud, was and is in jail awaiting trial.

After announcing his surprise ruling, the otherwise soft-spoken U.S. magistrate judge leaned forward on his bench Thursday and raised his voice, telling the teenager he should take the allegations seriously.

“This is no game, Mr. Tounisi. OK?” Judge Daniel Martin told him.

Approving the release of anyone accused on terrorism charges is uncommon, said Phil Turner, a former federal prosecutor and now private attorney in Chicago.

“It’s incredibly extraordinary,” he said. “It’s usually a different realm with terrorist suspects. They’re not viewed as standard criminals but as enemies of the U.S.”

Update: Obstruction in a case that killed Americans, you’re free to go, Boston Marathon bomb suspect’s friend to be released on bail:

Under a joint motion by federal prosecutors and Phillipos’ attorney, U.S. Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler ordered Phillipos, 19, released from jail, where he’s been held since his May 1 arrest. He’ll be confined to his mother’s home and be required to wear an electronic monitoring device 24/7 while he awaits trial. He’ll also have to post a $100,000 bond.

Phillipos is accused of repeatedly denying he knew about the removal of a backpack from the room that night. According to an affidavit, he admitted the fourth time he was questioned that he had not been telling the truth.If convicted, he faces up to eight years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.

If Bowler sounds familiar, she ended the interrogation of the second Muslim bomber. Who Exactly is Judge Marianne Bowler ? Who Directed Her, and Why?

al Jazeera America plans bureaus in 12 U.S. cities

The silent invasion of jihad-supporting Islamists is coming to your state. Aided and abetted by elected officials. via The first 12 Al Jazeera America bureaus – POLITICO.com.

Al Jazeera executives have been touring the country and rolling out announcements of new bureaus ahead of Al Jazeera America’s launch later this year. First it was a bureau in Chicago, today it is a bureau in Detroit. These will join Al Jazeera’s U.S. headquarters in New York and previously announced bureaus in Washington, Miami and Los Angeles, among others.

The network is planning 12 bureaus in all, with plans to add more after the launch. The network has yet to disclose the full list of bureaus — “We don’t comment on rumors. No leases have been signed anywhere,” Stan Collender, an Al Jazeera spokesperson told POLITICO — but a source at the network was kind enough to share it with POLITICO, on background.

The full list (from East to West):

New York

Washington

Miami

Nashville

Chicago

New Orleans

Detroit

Dallas

Denver

Los Angeles

San Francisco

Seattle

Related: Al Jazeera Likely Violating Multiple U.S. Laws

Kincaid and Kenney have documented Al Jazeera’s anti-American propaganda and its many terrorist connections. A few highlights:

• The Emir of Qatar, who owns Aljazeera, recently donated 400 million dollars to Hamas, a State Department designated terrorist group.
• Film footage of captured terrorists in Iraq shows they came to kill Americans because of Al Jazeera.
• NBC News reporter Lisa Myers said: “Why do they go [to fight in Iraq]? Saudis captured in Iraq say it’s because of pictures on Arab television network Al-Jazeera.
• CNN reports that a document found in bin Laden’s compound after his death referred to a meeting with the Al-Jazeera bureau chief in Pakistan.
• The new film, “Zero Dark Thirty,” mentions that the courier who eventually led the CIA to bin Laden was located in Pakistan near an Al Jazeera office in order to get the terrorist leader’s videotapes to the channel for worldwide distribution.
• 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed… was protected by the government of Qatar, which funds Al Jazeera.
• Father of journalist Daniel Pearl, the journalist beheaded by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, says, “Al Jazeera is the main propaganda machine of the Muslim Brotherhood.”
• French media openly report that Qatar is supporting the Mali terrorists
• An Al Jazeera story, “Mali: The ‘gentle’ face of al-Qaeda,” reported that the terrorists “are playing the role of humanitarians” by providing food to local people.
• Al Jazeera supports the radical Muslim and far-left campaign to free “Lady al Qaeda” Aafia Siddiqui, currently serving a life sentence for attempted murder and wife of 9/11 planner Ammar al-Baluchi,.
• In the U.S., the movement to free Siddiqui includes Ramsey Clark, the Workers World Party (WWP) and the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
• Al Jazeera reporter Tayseer Allouni, was convicted as an agent of al Qaeda.

Are we going to stand for this without a *#+*&@!ing fight? More:

Please call the House Homeland Security Committee and ask that the new chairman, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), open hearings into Al-Jazeera. Call their office at 202-226-8417 and ask Chairman McCaul to investigate Al-Jazeera’s ties to terrorist groups.

http://mccaul.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=133

Chicago: Muslim doctor opening surgery center he says will follow sharia law

Back in 2008, we asked Muslim hospitals in the U.S.?  We know it’s being plotted, they tell us so.

h/t to USDL who asks,

“One must wonder if the Islamic practice of female genital mutilation will be performed at this location and if it will subject to the rules and regulations which everyone else in the United States will have to adhere to under Obamacare.”

via Mixing Islam with medicine – Islamic surgery center proposed for Orland Park – In Other News – Crain’s Chicago Business.

A Chicago doctor who owns a lavish Middle Eastern eatery on West Randolph Street wants to open the first outpatient surgery center in Illinois that he says will follow Islamic law.

Dr. Naser Rustom, who opened Alhambra Palace in 2007, has in mind a venture with a much more religious flavor. He proposes to establish a $5.5 million medical facility in southwest suburban Orland Park that would cater to Muslims, including space for prayer and ritual washing and partitions for enhanced patient privacy.

The proposal reflects how more businesses are looking to tap into the growing population of Arab-Americans and Muslims, offering products ranging from home mortgages to meat that satisfy religious standards. This comes at a time of passionate national debate over the religious rights of business owners, sparked by scores of lawsuits filed against the Obama administration over a regulation that requires employer health care plans to cover contraceptives.

Some interpretations of Shariah, or Islamic law, require strict segregation of the sexes, a practice that Dr. Rustom doesn’t intend to follow because, in his view, it likely would violate federal and state laws.

His plan for the Orland Park surgical center is a sign of how the Chicago area’s Muslim population is booming. Fueled in part by immigration from the Middle East and South Asia, the number of local adherents to Islam more than doubled, topping 300,000, between 2000 and 2010, and is expected to continue to climb.

Mass importation from terror states by government agencies, open borders and amnesty for 30 million illegals will easily double that number again in another ten years or less.

The center would lease space in a vacant Plunkett Furniture Co. store near the Orland Square Shopping Center. More Arab-Americans live in the southwest suburbs than anywhere else in the Chicago area, according to Dr. Rustom’s application with the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board, citing demographic data.

Services would include gastroenterology, general surgery and treatment for pain management, the application says. The facilities board must approve the project.

Patients of all religious and cultural backgrounds will be treated at the center, which will not be different from other surgery centers except “to the trained eye,” the application says.

Proselytizing and dawah centers where poor non-Muslims will be converted?

Shariah is based on the Quran and other Islamic texts, but some aspects are open to interpretation, experts say.

In the Middle East, many health care facilities segregate waiting rooms by sex, says Rina Spence, a health care management consultant in Boston who worked in the Middle East for more than a decade.

Dr. Rustom doesn’t plan to adhere to that practice, says Robyn Fina, an employee of Dr. Rustom’s who is managing the project.

“We recognize that a health care facility that is fully compliant with Shariah law would likely violate a number of state and federal laws,” Ms. Fina says in an email. Dr. Rustom declines to be interviewed. Interaction between the sexes will be kept “at a modest level,” she adds.

Some Muslims, particularly recent immigrants and women, delay seeking medical care because of perceived conflicts between their beliefs and the U.S. health care system, says Dr. Aasim Padela, an emergency medicine physician and director of the Initiative on Islam and Medicine at the University of Chicago.

In other words, they came to the U.S., but they want to live under male-dictated, Islamic sharia.

For example, female Muslims in Chicago who say they had experienced discrimination at a health care facility are five times less likely to receive regular mammograms than Muslims who did not feel bias, according to a study by Dr. Padela.

See some basic stats on Chicago’s growing Muslim and Arab population

By focusing on Muslims, Dr. Rustom is following a path used by businesses in other industries.

Devon Bank started offering Shariah-compliant mortgages and commercial loans a decade ago, says David Loundy, CEO of the bank, which is located near Devon and Western avenues on the North Side, in an area bustling with Muslim businesses.

The deals use alternative structures, such as rent-to-own, because Islam forbids the payment of interest.

Best Chicago Meat Co., based on the Northwest Side, began selling halal meat, which is butchered in accordance with Islamic precepts, about five years ago, President David Van Kampen says. Halal meat accounts for 8 to 10 percent of annual revenue of more than $23 million.

At Indie Burger, a trendy eatery in Lakeview, customers can request sandwiches made with organic, grass-fed halal beef, says co-owner Cyrus Rab, who is Muslim. What they can’t get is alcohol, which is proscribed by Shariah.

A liquor license came with the location, but Mr. Rab opted to make the restaurant BYOB, even though he’s not exceptionally devout. “I still respect my faith,” he says.

Related: Hospitals in U.S. becoming more sharia compliant.

Illinois: Muslim arrested, wanted to join group U.S. just named terror group

via FBI: Aurora man wanted to join al-Qaida in Syria – chicagotribune.com.

An 18-year-old Aurora man with ties to a foiled attempt last year to bomb a downtown Chicago bar was arrested as he was about to travel to the Middle East to join the al-Qaida terrorist network, federal officials said Saturday.

Abdella Ahmad Tounisi, a U.S. citizen, was held without bail Saturday after being arrested the night before at O’Hare International Airport, where he was about to board an airplane to Istanbul, Turkey, FBI officials said in a press release.

The arrest had nothing to do with the Boston Marathon bombing, officials said.

Tounisi had hoped to eventually join a jihadist militant group operating inside Syria called Jabhat al-Nusrah, according to a federal complaint unsealed Saturday and filed in U.S. District Court. The organization is an alias for al-Qaida in Iraq, the complaint said.

Tounisi allegedly expressed “a willingness to die for the cause” by joining the terrorist group that since November 2011 has claimed nearly 600 terrorist attacks in major city centers in Syria – ranging from more than 40 suicide attacks to small arms and improvised explosive device operations, according to the complaint.

“Concerning my fighting skills, to be honest I do not have any,” Tounisi allegedly wrote to an undercover federal agent who was posing as a recruiter for the terrorist group. “I’m very small (5 feet 6 inches, 120 pounds) physically but I pray to Allah that he makes me successful,” he said, according to the complaint.

Chicago: Muslim law clerk threatens to influence judge against “dumb lawyer” for looking at her

According to her blog, her jihad is her hijab, and apparently she’s waging jihad against lawyers she doesn’t like.

Don't give a bad look to the Muslim girl who walked by you bc she could be the clerk for the judge ur trying to get on ur side. Dumb lawyer.—
Kinza (@KinzaK89) April 17, 2013

Clearly this Muslim law clerk is suggesting that she is willing to jeopardize a fair trial by influencing the judge she is clerking for over what she – the  Muslim woman – perceived to be a look she didn’t approve of. Unethical? Illegal? Should any lawyer feel confident that the judge would not be influenced? What else is she willing to do to influence the judge? How would she clerk a case against Islamic terror suspects who killed Americans but whom she perceived were not jihadists but were framed? How many more Kinza Khan’s are out there?

There just happens to be a CAIR intern named Kinza Khan in Chicago.

Twitter profile:

Of course, this could all be a misunderstanding and there is another KinzaK who didn’t intern at Hamas-linked CAIR and isn’t waging a jihad and doesn’t put Islam ahead of her ethical and fiduciary duties. It could all be a coincidence. Right?

Thanks for the tip.

Chicago company hosting terrorist blind sheik’s website

His kinda town. via Blind sheik’s social media empire grows from behind bars | Washington Guardian.

The blind sheik, convicted of orchestrating the deadly World Trade Center bombing 20 years ago, has benefited from a sophisticated social media messaging machine despite serving life in prison in a solitary confinement cell in North Carolina.

And federal authorities can’t do anything to stop Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman because his family is running the show on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and a website hosted in the United States – and there’s nothing illegal in the content of the sites’ messages.

…

Abdel-Rahman’s main website is hosted at SingleHop, in Chicago, Ill., according to dawhois.com, a website that registers servers and domains. Numerous phone calls made to SingleHop for comment were not returned.

Find them at @SingleHop

Much more at The Online Presence Of Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman – The Blind Sheikh: Official Website Hosted in Chicago, Active On YouTube, Twitter, And Facebook By: Steven Stalinsky*

Sheikh Dr. Omar Abdel-Rahman, aka ‘the Blind Sheikh,’ was arrested on July 1, 1993 in Brooklyn, New York and on October 1, 1995 was convicted of seditious conspiracy and solicitation to attack a military installation on Staten Island, and conspiracies to bomb New York landmarks. On January 17, 1996, he was sentenced to life in prison.

A federal jury convicted Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman of planning to wage a “war of urban terrorism” against the United States, including blowing up the United Nations building, the Holland and Lincoln tunnels, the main federal office building in Manhattan, and the George Washington Bridge.[1]

 

After feds shake down city, Hamas-linked CAIR seeks cash for mosque

Muslims wage a relentless legal jihad. via Islamic group seeking compensation from DuPage – DailyHerald.com.

DuPage County could be forced to pay unspecified monetary damages now that a federal judge has overturned the county board’s rejection of a planned Islamic education facility near Naperville.

The Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which filed suit against DuPage on behalf of administrators from the Irshad Learning Center, is praising U.S. District Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer for reversing the DuPage County Board’s January 2010 decision.

Unless circumstances change, Pallmeyer wrote, the county board is expected to order the issuance of the conditional-use permit so the education center can open in what used to be a house.

But the legal battle won’t end there.

Vodak says the Irshad Learning Center is seeking “appropriate compensation” from DuPage to pay for the group’s legal fees and expenses related to the property dating back to at least 2010.

“Irshad has had to maintain it,” Vodak said. “They’ve had to pay the property taxes on it because they were denied the permit.”

The group also has been paying to rent space in a Woodridge church.

Vodak said he didn’t have an estimate for how much the group wants DuPage to pay. The compensation issue could be resolved through a settlement or it could require a jury trial, Vodak said.

Meanwhile, representatives for the county board and state’s attorney’s office declined to comment. The county could appeal Pallmeyer’s ruling.

When they denied the permit in 2010, most county board members said they were concerned about the operation of the facility in a residential neighborhood.

A mosque in a single-family house in a residential neighborhood.

Judge Pallmeyer, however, found no evidence that the center would impact public safety or traffic congestion, while its potential impact on property values would be “merely speculative,” she said.

Vodak said the center’s primary activities will happen on Thursday evenings and during the day on Saturdays. Most of the residents who will use the facility live in Naperville and surrounding towns.

Muslim immigration continues to rapidly destroy America.

Ill: Feds, CAIR team up to force another mosque on another neighborhood (updated)

via Judge reverses ruling on Islamic center near Naperville – Chicago Tribune.

A federal judge on Friday reversed a DuPage County board decision that kept an Islamic worship center from opening just outside Naperville.

The Irshad Learning Center sought to open in a single-family home at 25W030 75th St. that had been previously used as a private school. In 2010, the county board voted 10-7 to deny its application for a conditional use permit after some neighbors complained their property values would go down.

Irshad, which has about 75 members, filed a lawsuit challenging the decision on grounds ranging from religious discrimination to the county’s alleged violations of its own zoning laws. U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer found in a 70-page ruling there was no “direct evidence of deliberate discrimination” by the county or its workers, though she noted that a zoning board of appeals member had asked the group’s attorney if animal sacrifices would be held.

But she did find that DuPage County’s “repeated errors, speculation, and refusal to impose conditions” under which the project could be approved led her to conclude that the county had wrongly imposed a “substantial burden” on the group’s application and that its denial was “arbitrary and capricious.”

Mahmood Ghassemi, an Irshad board member, said he was “delighted to hear” of the judge’s ruling and said the group had been renting space in a Woodridge church. The organization began searching for a permanent home in 2003.

“Hopefully this is the end of our struggle in terms of having our own permanent place,” he said.

Attorneys from the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Chicago chapter represented the group but could not be reached Friday afternoon. A spokesman for the DuPage County state’s attorney’s office, which represented the county, said lawyers were reviewing the ruling and had no immediate comment.

The judge found that the record showed some citizens groups had made public remarks to county board members that appeared discriminatory, but board members had testified they did not take the comments into account when voting.

She also ruled that there was no evidence that Irshad, which planned weekly Thursday night services along with special events for weddings or religious holidays, would mar traffic, cause flooding or reduce property values.

Clueless or paid off?

Pallmeyer wrote that she anticipates the county board will order a conditional use permit for the property “absent a material change in the circumstances.”

Why are federal judges listening to a federally designated unindicted co-conspirator to the largest Islamic terror financing conviction in U.S. history? CAIR has also been banned by the FBI and is facing a massive fraud lawsuit not to mention many of its leaders have been jailed on terrorism charges? Furthermore, why are the feds even involved in a local zoning matter?

And how will 75 people fit in a single-family home and where will they park? And what happens when that 75 mushrooms to 125, 150?  The surrounding home and pre-schools will have their hands full.

Update:  Judge Rules in Favor of Iran-Linked Mosque in IL

Clarion Project has learned that the ILC has received funding from the Alavi Foundation, which has been accused of being an Iranian government front.

In 2009, federal prosecutors accused the Iranian government of using the Alavi Foundation to channel funds to its Bank Melli, an institution subject to international sanctions because of its links to Iran’s nuclear program.  Its president, Farshid Jahedi, was indicted for destroying evidence needed by a grand jury. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office investigations chief, Adam Kaufmann, said, “We found evidence that the government of Iran really controlled everything about the foundation.”

The Alavi Foundation’s website lists the ILC as a recipient of its financial aid program.

Click the “zoning jihad” link below for many more examples of the feds forcing mosques on American towns.

Chicago Public Schools Ban Book on Iranian Revolution

The answer to the “What’s Next?” question above: sharia. via Lane Tech Students Protest CPS Stance on ‘Persepolis’ – DNAinfo.com Chicago.

ROSCOE VILLAGE — Nearly 100 Lane Tech students and teachers stood outside in the rain Friday afternoon to protest the CPS decision to remove copies of the graphic novel “Persepolis” from the district’s seventh-grade classrooms, and to reassess whether the book can be taught to upper grades.

Cars, trucks and buses honked as they passed the crowd gathered at the corner of Western Avenue and Addison Street, signaling solidarity with signs reading “Free Persepolis” and “Homework for CPS: Read the First Amendment.”

Lane teachers were still smarting from the CPS directive, issued Wednesday from central office, to confiscate copies of the book, and the initial confusion over whether the ban extended to libraries.

“We still don’t know who made the decision or why it was made. English teachers weren’t asked their professional opinion. Nobody was included. That is not how democracy works,” said Steve Parsons, Lane Tech teacher and Chicago Teachers Union delegate.

Sounds very…Islamic.

“If we had received a message that said, ‘After much reflection….’ There was nothing. They came in the middle of a school week, in the middle of the day. It was so arbitrary.”

In a letter to principals released on Friday, CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett said that the notice to remove the book from the district’s seventh-grade curriculum came after “It was brought to our attention that it contains graphic language and images that are not appropriate for general use” for that age group.

While saying, “We are not banning this book from our schools,” Byrd-Bennett instructed principals: “If your seventh-grade teachers have not yet taught this book, please ask them not to do so and to remove any copies of the book from their classrooms.”

“I think it’s back pedaling. I think they’re being spin doctors,” said a Lane Tech teacher who asked not to be identified.

In a statement to media, the Chicago Teachers Union noted: “CPS is now claiming ‘Persepolis’ is banned only from the 7th grade classroom but will be available in school libraries. Unfortunately 160 elementary schools don’t have libraries. We support our educators who are fighting to ensure their students have access to ideas about democracy, freedom of speech and self-image.”

“Persepolis” is an autobiographical graphic novel written by Marjane Satrapi and originally published in France. It describes the author’s childhood in Iran in the 1970s and ’80s as she lived through the Islamic Revolution and the war with Iraq.

The book has been taught at Lane Tech for at least the past five years, said another Lane teacher, who also preferred to remain anonymous.

“I think it’s an important book” in the way it examines Islam, Iran, culture and history, said the teacher.

More via chicagoist.com

Publishers Weekly spoke with CPS office of teaching and learning chief Annette Gurley who confirmed that, while Byrd-Bennett rescinded the order to have the book pulled from libraries, it would not be returning to classrooms in grades 7-10 for now.

“We want to make sure that the message about inhumanity [is what] kids walk away with, not the images of someone with exposed body parts urinating on someone’s back or someone’s being tortured,” Gurley said, “We are not protesting the value of this book as a work of art. We just want to make sure that when we put this book into the hands of students, they have the background, the maturity to appreciate the book.”“That book will not be back in place as required reading for grades 7-10 until the support is put in place. We want to put the support in place so that the content of this book can be accessed. I don’t think that happens by putting a book on a list and letting people discover it. There needs to be preparation for that,” she added.

Translated: Teachers will be trained by Muslims on the correct way to portray Islam to students so as not to offend Islam and obfuscate the author’s points.

In a letter to principals this morning, Byrd-Bennett wrote:

“It was brought to our attention that it contains graphic language and images that are not appropriate for general use in the seventh grade curriculum. If your seventh grade teachers have not yet taught this book, please ask them not to do so and to remove any copies of the book from their classrooms.”

A Lane Tech student emailed Satrapi of the situation and a protest was scheduled for this afternoon outside the high school. Satrapi told the Tribune the directive by Byrd-Bennett was “shameful” and not what she normally envisioned of Chicago.

Persepolis received universal praise when it was released in 2003, but it has been banned in Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Lebanon for being blasphemous to Islam.

Add Chicago to the list. The animated flick is available on Youtube for those who haven’t seen it and those Lane Tech students who have been banned from reading it.

Meanwhile, State Department Ducks Hearing on American Pastor Imprisoned in Iran.

 

Indiana: Three Muslims arrested in $4.8M foodstamp fraud

via Chicago siblings, Cicero man face fed fraud counts – Chicago Sun-Times.

Two Gary, Ind., food marts let people use their food stamps like a normal debit card, giving them cash back and cigarettes in exchange.

In return, they illegally redeemed those food stamps to the federal government for more than $500,000, according to two federal indictments filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court in Hammond.

Now Ola Mohammad, 31, and her brother Abdkdar Mohammad, 29, both of Chicago, face one count of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government and three counts of wire fraud.

Kaled Mohammad, 27, of Cicero, Ill., faces two counts of wire fraud in a separate but similar case. It was unclear Friday if he is related to Ola and Abdkdar Mohammad.

Court records say Ola Mohammad used her store, Moses Foods, at 1330 Broadway, to allow customers to purchase cigarettes and receive money back through their food stamps.

For instance, on Nov. 22, one customer bought a bag of Cheetos, a 2-liter bottle soda and a pack of cigarettes, and received $40 back in cash, all paid for from a food stamps card. The siblings redeemed the food stamps from the federal government for $4,735,850 through the illegal scheme, according to the indictment.

The money was sent to a bank account that both Ola Mohammad and her father could access, then was wired outside the country.

Although Ola Mohammad is the sole owner of the business, her brother assisted her and works there as a cashier. The indictment claims the scheme lasted from February 2010 to June.

Abdkdar was arrested Thursday and ordered held without bond pending a detention hearing and arraignment set for Monday afternoon. Court records did not show if Ola Mohammad has been arrested.

In a separate case, an indictment claims Kaled Mohammad conducted a similar but smaller scheme at his store, Kay Mart, at 4845 Broadway.

As with Moses Mart, Kaled Mohammad allowed customers to use their food stamp card to purchase cigarettes and receive cash back. The indictment claims he redeemed those food stamps from the federal government for about $60,000.

Kaled Mohammad was also arrested Monday and ordered held without bond pending a detention hearing and arraignment set for Monday afternoon.

h/t to Refugee Resettlement Watch who watches refugee food stamp fraud too and is finally on Twitter @RefugeeWatcher.

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