PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A series of children’s textbooks on Islam contains misleading and inflammatory rhetoric about the religion, inaccurately portraying its followers as hostile and deserving of suspicion, according to a Muslim civil liberties group.

The Pennsylvania chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations is set to begin what it calls a public awareness campaign Wednesday against the “World of Islam” books by Mason Crest Publishing.

“The overall theme of the books is that Muslims are inherently violent, that Islam is a second-rate religion and that one should be wary of Muslims in any society,” Moein Khawaja, the chapter’s civil rights director, said Tuesday. “These books do not fulfill the mission of a school, which is to educate.”

It was not immediately clear where the series is being used, either in classrooms or libraries. But Khawaja said complaints from council chapters across the country lead him to believe it is on bookshelves in about two dozen states.

The publisher, based in the Philadelphia suburb of Broomall, did not return a request for comment.

Among dozens of examples cited by Khawaja, the book “Muslims in America” says that “some Muslims began immigrating to the United States in order to transform American society, sometimes through the use of terrorism.” Elsewhere, a picture of two smiling Muslim girls in head scarves appears on a page subtitled “Security Threats.”

Mason Crest partnered with the Philadelphia-based Foreign Policy Research Institute to produce the 10-book series, which is designed for ages 10 and older.

Institute president Harvey Sicherman said Tuesday that he is mystified by the reaction to the series, and that the two examples above are taken out of context.

The photo placement was inadvertent, he said, and the caption in no way implies the girls are security threats. The quote about Muslim immigration to America is accurate, Sicherman said.

“Well, yes, some people did come to the United States to commit terrorism, and I don’t know how one can quarrel with that sentence,” he said.

Khawaja said the problem goes beyond isolated sentences to what he described as the series’ overarching anti-Islamic tone and message.

“A book isn’t just a set of quotes – it’s a conclusion you walk away with,” Khawaja said.

He noted a chronology in the book “Islam in Europe” starts with 1988 and lists 10 events, seven of which involve extremist Muslims participating in bombings, hijackings or other violence.

“Muslims have been in Europe for thousands of years,” Khawaja said. “This is ridiculous.”

Sicherman said a representative from the institute will attend the Muslim group’s news conference Wednesday to learn more.

—

Terrorist CAIR

Mason Crest Publishing

Foreign Policy Research Institute

Stars and Stripes

By Dion Nissenbaum–McClatchy Newspapers

MARJAH, Afghanistan — Two weeks after the U.S.-led forces swiftly seized control of this long-standing insurgent stronghold, Taliban forces are posing a new threat by menacing, beating and even beheading local residents who cooperate with the emerging Afghan government, according to Afghan and American officials.

Unable to confront the U.S. military directly with any serious challenge, Taliban fighters are shifting tactics as they try to undermine the American-backed Afghan government before it can win the trust of these southern Afghanistan residents, who have lived under insurgent rule for years.

While the incidents so far appear to be isolated, American military leaders warned Sunday they must contain the threat before it gains any momentum.

“We are in a very critical situation right now,” said Matt, a U.S. military adviser to the Afghan security forces in Marjah who asked his last name not be used to protect his identity. The Taliban are reorganizing. The capability they lost two weeks ago is coming back. The population knows that. And everyone is watching to see if we have the capability to address that new threat.”

The evolving intimidation campaign is emerging as an early test for the U.S.-backed Afghan government that is struggling to establish credibility and convince skeptical residents that it will not allow the Taliban to return to power.

While U.S. military forces have steadily solidified their hold on much of this vast agricultural region filled with poppy fields used to finance the Taliban leadership, the new Afghan government is still trying to find its footing.

Haji Abdul Zahir, the newly appointed district governor of Marjah, has been working with a skeleton crew of Western advisers and one Afghan assistant. The U.S. military has been ferrying Zahir around in helicopters so he can assure locals he’s in charge. Zahir’s government compound has only rudimentary infrastructure.

On Sunday, Afghan and American military leaders prodded Zahir with requests to exert more control and persuade reluctant Marjah leaders pushed out by the Taliban that they needed to return.

“How many of us are from Marjah?” U.S. Marine Col. Randy Newman asked the two-dozen men taking part in the meeting. “None. The Taliban are from Marjah. They have earned some amount of trust of the people. The people trusted the Taliban justice. If we continue in this manner, we will not earn their trust.”

Although they have been pushed out of power in Marjah, Taliban insurgents have slowly been trying to reassert some measure of control.

Marjah residents have told U.S. Marines that Taliban insurgents are coming around at night to threaten and beat Afghans who cooperate with the Americans.

In at least one confirmed case, said U.S. military officials, the Taliban beheaded a local resident suspected of working with U.S. forces. The U.S. Marines are checking out at reports of at least two other beheadings in Marjah.

While the reports are difficult to verify, U.S. military officials said even one beheading creates enough fear to dissuade some Afghans from coming forward to help.

“They know what it means to have your head cut off, it’s a very visceral thing and very easy to understand,” Newman said. “Our trust, our security, their government are all unknowns to them and so we have to eventually make sure they understand that as well as the visceral reaction to a beheading.”

How Zahir and the U.S. military respond to the latest Taliban challenge will have a big impact on how much confidence local leaders have in the new Afghan government.

American forces have to constantly reassure Marjah residents they aren’t going to hand over control to a weak or corrupt Afghan government that can’t prevent the Taliban from returning to power, not just this year, but in the years to come.

“They don’t want to piss off the wrong Afghans,” said Lt. Col. Cal Worth of St. Louis, the head of the 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, which played a central role in the military offensive that wrested Marjah from Taliban control. “They don’t see the world in our 10-to-15 microwave minutes, rather they see it in 10-to-15 years.”

Zahir spent most of the three-hour meeting listening to the concerns, posing questions and asking the U.S. Marines to pump more money into Marjah to get projects off the ground.

While the U.S. military has already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair schools, clean canals, and compensate Afghan families who lost relatives killed during the recent fighting, Zahir asked the U.S. military to do more.

During Sunday’s meeting, the U.S. Army adviser working with Afghan forces told Zahir that the security forces were being constrained because there was no judicial system in place to jail suspected Taliban insurgents turned in by local residents.

We need to sit down and have a very strong discussion about how we’re going to deal with Afghan justice for these men we know are hurting people,” said Matt, who’s advising Afghan police in one section of Marjah. They look at me and smile because they know they’re going to be released within 24 to 48 hours.

“The people of southern Marjah are not going to be confident in our ability to bring security until we can permanently take those men off the battlefield,” he said. “That’s where we earn the population’s trust.”

Her father donated the statue of Jesus that is placed on the left side of the sanctuary during Easter season.

She and her late husband contributed $1,000 to build the social hall.

But she doesn’t feel part of the church anymore.

As she tries to cope with the changing demographics, Cartwright said she feels out of place in a church where Spanish is now as common as English.

“My church isn’t my church anymore,” said Cartwright, a 72-year-old Fontana resident who attends Blessed John XXIII Parish.

 Hürriyet Daily News

With more Turkish parents wanting their child to be born in the US, tourism companies are starting to offer ‘birth tourism’ packages to US cities. Many women say giving birth in the US has benefits including cheaper education and fewer visa worries. Some Americans, however, want to restrict the practice, citing fears of illegal migration

If Bruce Springsteen’s 1982 hit “Born in the USA” were to become popular again, the title might now refer to thousands of Turkish children whose parents are increasingly traveling to the United States to give birth.

According to tourism expert Gürkan Boztepe and media sources, 12,000 Turkish children have been born in the U.S. since 2003.The numbers are significant enough to draw the attention of tourism companies and inspire them to pursue “birth tourism.”

“We found a company on the Internet and decided to go to Austin for our child’s birth,” said Selin Burcuoğlu who gave birth to a daughter last year. “It was incredibly professional. They organized everything for me. I had no problem adjusting and I had an excellent birth,” she told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review.

Burcuoğlu said she and her partner chose to have the birth in the U.S. to make their child’s life more comfortable. “I don’t want her to deal with visa issues – American citizenship has so many advantages.”

Birth tourism

Burcuoğlu is not the only Turkish parent who wants her child to have U.S. citizenship. Many Turkish parents-to-be are now seeking tourism companies to “guarantee” their child’s life.

“We have been involved in medical tourism since 2002,” said Levent Baş, general manager of Gurib Tourism. “But we were also receiving so many demands about this issue that we decided to sell birth packages,” he told the Daily News.

“We first started our research in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago and Orlando and we only contacted Turkish doctors,” Baş said. “But we are preparing a package that covers everything from the flight and city tours to accommodation for several months and hospital expenses.”

In terms of cost, Baş said the minimum expense is $25,000, which rises to $40,000 if the destination is New York.

Birth tourism organizations are located throughout Turkey, including one run by Gürkan Boztepe in the Aegean province of İzmir. “Before, only celebrities gave birth in the U.S. We are now aiming, however, to make this service accessible to everyone. And surprisingly, our customers are not just from İzmir and Istanbul, there are also many people from smaller provinces, such as [southeastern] Gaziantep.”

Many families, however, do not want to talk openly about the process, according to the birth tourism operators. “Many people say they are doing it because they want their kids to get a cheaper education and not deal with visa issues when they grow up,” said Baş.

“But they don’t want to make it public. Even celebrities who have done this are trying to ignore the issue by saying they had to give birth in the U.S. because their doctors were there,” he said.

Arzu Geiger is an entrepreneur who lives in Gilbert, Arizona, and offers customers the option to stay in her home.

“We got the idea when a friend of ours wished to give birth in the U.S.,” she told the Daily News. “We realized that many women abroad may also wish to give birth in the U.S., but may have many concerns regarding arrangements or safety. Some women may choose to stay alone with us for the first few months, then move to separate living arrangements when family members arrive for the birth.”

While the small-scale companies have started investing in the birth market, bigger firms are also entering the market with alternative packages. The Turkish-owned Marmara Hotel group recently announced a birth tourism package that includes accommodation at their Manhattan branch.

“We hosted 15 families last year,” said Nur Ercan Mağden, head manager of The Marmara Manhattan, adding that the cost was $45,000 each.

Law Amendment

According to the U.S.’s 14th Amendment, the country grants citizenship to anyone born on its soil. At the same time, however, many have demanded the elimination of the “ius soli” law.

“They come to this country and have babies. The children are citizens. The children are eligible to go to school. They receive food stamps and social programs. The American taxpayers are paying for it,” said Republican Congressman Gary Miller last month, who is co-sponsoring a bill that seeks to abolish birthright citizenship for children born in the country to illegal immigrant parents.

According to Emre Özgü, a partner at law firm Barst Mukamal & Kleiner LLP in New York, people in favor of tightening immigration laws have been attempting to end “ius soli” citizenship for years.

“Those trying to restrict immigration argue these babies, who are occasionally called ‘anchor babies,’ serve as a key link in the ‘chain immigration’ process that they would like to see eliminated. However, there is no current pending legislation before Congress that would limit the claim to U.S. citizenship of a child born in the U.S.,” Özgü told the Daily News.

When asked whether birthright citizenship could be considered a loophole in the law, Özgü said he would not classify the “ius soli” citizenship as such because it is explicitly included within the U.S. Constitution.

“While it can be controversial, birth tourism is legal in the U.S.,” said Geiger. “Some of the major concerns expressed with birth tourism are that the mother and baby can access free health and social benefits at the expense of U.S. taxpayers. We do not accept customers in this manner – they are responsible for the payment of their own medical expenses.”

Baş, however, thinks U.S. authorities are ultimately unconcerned by the practice. “I think the United States is aware of such a law, otherwise they would prevent it. I think it is part of an integration policy. They want people to become American citizens.”

Other examples

Birth tourism to the U.S. is not just popular in Turkey but also in Asian countries such as South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan. According to a Los Angeles Times report, many South Korean parents-to-be have chosen to give birth in the U.S. for many reasons, ranging from a desire to enroll their children in American schools to enabling them to avoid South Korean military service.

The birthright citizenship formerly applied to other countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia but both countries modified their law in the mid-1980s.

India maintained such birthright law until 2004, but ended the right to prevent continued illegal immigration from neighbors Pakistan and Bangladesh.

——————————————————–

Heads_Up FR

Everyone knows that the Mexican military are really cartel members in uniform. So, these armed violent Mexicans are freely flying over U.S. neighborhoods looking for some Mexican they apparently want to blow away or grab. You better hope their aim is good if you happen live next door to a Mexican. It’s official folks, the U.S. has turned into a lawless Mexican shithole.  Lock ‘N Load.

——————————————————-

Judicial Watch

Highlighting the U.S. government’s perpetual failure to secure the southern border, a Mexican military helicopter was photographed by a Texas sheriff this week flying over a residential neighborhood at least a mile into the American side of the Rio Grande. 

These sorts of invasions by Mexico’s corrupt military, long on the drug cartel payroll, have been going on for years but the timing of this incursion is especially alarming since it occurred on the same week that Homeland Security officials revealed Mexican drug cartels are rapidly infiltrating federal law enforcement agencies along the southwest border.

Testifying before a U.S. Senate panel, Homeland Security officials said that more than 400 public corruption cases involving federal, state and local enforcement personnel in the crime-infested Mexican border region have been solved in the last two years alone. Additionally, 576 corruption cases were opened in 2009 involving Border Patrol agents.

This makes the repeated Mexican military incursions all the more abominable, especially since U.S. officials know they’re occurring. Last year Judicial Watch obtained Homeland Security records documenting 226 incursions by Mexican government personnel into the United States between 1996 and 2005. Obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, the annual intelligence summaries of “Mexican Government Incidents” were designated as “limited official use” by the Department of Homeland Security requiring “special protection against unauthorized or inadvertent disclosure.”

Simply put, the government doesn’t want the public to know about these foreign invasions or that Homeland Security officials are aware that they’re occurring. This week’s incident was revealed in a San Antonio newspaper that quotes the Zapata County Sheriff who spotted the military chopper hovering over homes in the Rio Grande Plain region south of Laredo.

Armed personnel occupied the helicopter, which flew over a residential area known as Falcon Heights, just south of the Starr-Zapata county line, the sheriff said. He took pictures of the aircraft, which had the insignia of the Mexican Navy, and claims that U.S. military officials were informed of the incursion. This is an area where the U.S.-Mexico boundary is very clear because a major river and a large dam separate the countries, the sheriff points out.

————————————————–

CBS11

Customs officials are telling Congress that Mexican drug cartels are infiltrating federal law enforcement agencies along the southwest border. And those charged with weeding them out say they don’t have the money to catch all the corrupt agents.

James Tomsheck, assistant commissioner with U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Internal Affairs, told a Senate panel Thursday that only about one in 10 of the new hires for agency jobs are given polygraph tests. And of those who take them, 60 percent are deemed unsuitable for employment.

The Associated Press reported last year that four applicants for border protection jobs were were not hired when polygraph tests and background checks confirmed they were infiltrators from drug trafficking operations.

U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Arkansas, who chaired the hearing of the Homeland Security subcommittee, said Tomsheck’s figures were alarming.

————————————————

How many times do I have to say it: This is what happens when you hire Mexicans to work on the U.S. side of the border. The majority of our Customs Border Patrol/ Border Patrol agents on the southern border are Mexican nationals. Many of the police/sheriff’s departments on the U.S. side of the border are exclusively made up of Mexicans. It is a fact that Mexicans are notoriously corrupt. And we’re sitting around scratching our noggins asking why our southern border is completely open especially to Mexicans? This isn’t rocket science. We can easily close our southern border by simply replacing the Mexicans with U.S. Nationalists. There is no reason why we should have Mexicans guarding our gates; unless of course we purposely want to leave our gates open to Mexicans and their unending corruption.

Sky News

Suspected Islamist militants have attacked the office of a British aid agency in Pakistan killing up to five people, say reports.

The militants stormed the World Vision agency in the Mansehra district, about 40 miles north of Islamabad, then opened fire.

“They opened fire and also exploded hand grenades,” a senior police officer said.

“We don’t know the exact number of casualties but initial reports suggest four to five people were killed.”

A World Vision official said up to five agency workers had been killed, most of them believed to be Pakistani.

Mansehra town has been the centre for relief efforts following an earthquake that killed 73,000 people in October 2005.

The area has been generally peaceful although there have been occasional violent incidents.

In 2008, gunmen attacked an office of the Plan International aid agency in Mansehra town, killing four members of staff.

Mansehra lies to the east of the Swat Valley, where the army has launched an offensive to clear the Pakistani Taliban from the area.

The offensive has raised fears that the militants might be pushed into Mansehra.

World Vision describes itself as “a Christian relief, development and advocacy organisation dedicated to working with children, families and communities to overcome poverty and injustice”.

Although “inspired” by Christian values, the aid group says it works with people of all faiths.

Rationed rice eating little red people with King Crazy Fuck wearing the shades

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea’s army said Monday it is ready to “blow up” South Korea and the U.S., hours after the allies kicked off annual military drills that Pyongyang has slammed as a rehearsal for attack.

South Korea and the U.S. — which normally dismiss such threats as rhetoric — began 11 days of drills across South Korea on Monday morning to rehearse how the U.S. would deploy in time of emergency on the Korean peninsula.

The U.S. and South Korea argue the drills — which include live firing by U.S. Marines, aerial attack drills and urban warfare training — are purely defensive. North Korea claims they amount to attack preparations and has demanded they be canceled.

The North’s People’s Army issued a statement Monday, warning the drills created a tense situation and that its troops are “fully ready” to “blow up” the allies once the order is issued.

The North also put all its soldiers and reservists on high alert to “mercilessly crush the aggressors” should they encroach upon the North’s territory even slightly, said the statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

The communist country has issued similar rhetoric in the days leading up the drills. On Sunday, it said it would bolster its nuclear capability and break off dialogue with the U.S. in response to the drills.

South Korea’s military has been closely monitoring Pyongyang’s maneuvers but hasn’t seen any signs of suspicious activities by North Korean troops, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said earlier Monday.

“We see it as (North Korea’s) stereotype denouncement,” Defense Ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae told reporters.

About 20 anti-U.S. activists held a peaceful protest near a joint drill command center south of Seoul on Monday, chanting slogans such as “Stop war rehearsal.”

About 18,000 American soldiers and an undisclosed number of South Korean troops are taking part in the drills, dubbed Key Resolve and Foal Eagle, according to U.S. and South Korean militaries.

The training comes as the U.S. and other regional powers are pushing for the North to rejoin international disarmament talks on ending its atomic weapons program in return for aid. The North quit the six-nation weapons talks and conducted its second nuclear test last year, drawing tighter U.N. sanctions.

The North has demanded a lifting of the sanctions and peace talks with the U.S. on formally ending the Korean War before it returns to the negotiations. The U.S. and South Korea have responded that the North must first return to the disarmament talks and make progress on denuclearization.

The U.S. stations about 28,500 troops in South Korea.

Source

——————————————-

Yeah Yeah Yeah. Hey North Korea! Go eat your bowl of rationed rice and Shut The Fuck Up!

Lagos, Nigeria (CNN) – The death toll from weekend violence in central Nigeria climbed to more than 200 Monday after members of a machete-wielding Muslim group attacked mostly Christian villages, officials said.

More than 200 were dead and 32 injured, according to Choji Gyang, a religious affairs adviser to the head of Plateau state, who said bodies were still being recovered. Sani Shehu, president of the non-governmental agency Civil Rights Congress, put the number of dead at about 485 people.

Twenty-six arrests had been made in connection with the violence, Gyang said.

Nigerian Vice President Goodluck Jonathan put security on high alert Sunday and began operations to capture the “roving bands of killers” who attacked the town of Dogo Nahauwa, just south of Jos.

The townsfolk are predominantly Berom, an ethnic group that mostly practices Christianity, said Manase Pampe, Red Cross spokesman for its Plateau state office. Reports of the attack described the assailants as members of the Muslim Hausa-Fulani ethnic group, Pampe and government spokesman Gregory Yenlong said.

The attackers stormed the town at 3 a.m. Sunday (9 p.m. Saturday ET) and remained there for 2.5 hours, Pampe said. Buildings were set afire and people were attacked with machetes, Yenlong said.

The violence resembled previous outbreaks of ethno-religious clashes in the west African nation.

The Plateau state attack prompted Jonathan to place the area and neighboring states on “red alert,” his office said in a news release. He directed security forces to “undertake strategic initiatives to confront and defeat these roving bands of killers,” the release said.

Jonathan, who was installed as acting head of state in February while President Umaru Yar’Adua recovers from illness, called for calm.

“He calls on all Nigerians to remain peaceful and law abiding, since violence only begets further violence,” the release said. “He also sympathizes with those who have lost relatives and friends in these attacks, asking the Almighty to grant them the fortitude to bear the loss.”

Hundreds fled the town as the violence raged Sunday. The Red Cross was caring for about 600 people at its camp in Boto in Bauchi state, said Alhaji Abubakar, the group’s spokesman in the state. Bauchi is just north of Plateau state.

Forty-eight people were treated at hospitals, national Red Cross spokesman Umar Maigari said. Red Cross officials had counted 30 bodies in one community, but were unable to continue their investigation, he said. Residents wanted to direct the attention to burying the dead, he said.

The most populous country in Africa, with a population of more than 150 million, Nigeria is almost evenly divided between Muslims and Christians.

With more than 78 million Muslims, it has the sixth-largest Islamic population in the world, according to a study last year by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

While some outbursts of violence are between Christians and Muslims, some disputes are also ethnic-based. The country is home to 250 to 400 ethnic groups, making it one of the most diverse African nations, according to the International Displacement Monitoring Centre.

Thousands were displaced in January when violence flared up in Jos, Shehu said in January. A local activist said 69 people had been killed and about 600 injured.

Also in January, at least 150 Muslims were killed during an attack on the town of Kuru Karama, south of Jos, Human Rights Watch reported. Community leaders from Jos and journalists told Human Rights Watch that they saw dozens of bodies lodged in wells or sewage pits. Most of the town’s homes were burned, the group said.

In November 2008, at least 700 Nigerians died in Christian-Muslim riots that followed a disputed local election, Human Rights Watch reported.

News AU

NEARLY 80 people were killed in bloody clashes between rival Islamist groups in northern Afghanistan.

The fighting between Taliban rebels and militants loyal to the Hezb-i-Islami insurgent group erupted early Saturday in Baghlan province where both factions are active, said provincial police chief Mohammad Kabir Andarabi.

Citing local sources in the region, the police chief said the battles took place in the Jangal Bagh area. The interior ministry confirmed the clashes but was not able to give casualty figures.

“We have intelligence reports that 60 fighters, 40 Hezb-i-Islami and 20 Taliban have died so far,” Mr Andarabi said.

“Our reports indicate that up to 19 civilians were also killed.”

The Taliban is the main militant group behind an increasingly deadly insurgency to topple the Western-backed Government of President Karzai and force out about 121,000 US and NATO troops stationed in Afghanistan.

Smaller militant outfits were also battling the government and foreign troops, either joining forces with the Taliban or waging their own insurgency.

Hezb-i-Islami, an Islamist faction loyal to former Afghan prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, is the second-biggest militant group.

Mr Andarabi said four Hezb-i-Islami commanders surrendered to the government following the clashes and more could follow.

Murad Ali Murad, an army general, said Afghan security forces sent reinforcements to the area and said his initial reports suggested 50 militants were killed in the fighting.

Qazi Burhaan, who calls himself a Hezb-i-Islami commander, said that fighting erupted after Taliban militants snatched some of his men. He said they lost one fighter and killed 15 Taliban.

Afghanistan is gripped in an insurgency launched after a US-led invasion toppled the Taliban in late 2001.

The Taliban and Hezb-i-Islami differed in the past over their policies, with Hekmatyar saying he was open to peace talks with the Afghan Government and the US as long as foreign troops left the country.

The Taliban leadership, however, ruled out any talks with either the US or Mr Karzai’s Government.