Va. Teen Detained in Kuwait Returns to U.S.

Gulet Mohamed, a 19-year-old U.S. citizen from Alexandria, entered the arrivals terminal nearly two hours after his United Airlines flight landed. His attorneys said he had been kept after the flight by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents.

As he emerged from the gate around 8:40 a.m., his brother Abdi Mohamed, 28, sprinted over and hugged him, shouting "Gulet!" repeatedly.

A sea of media then engulfed the teenager, even before he had a chance to embrace his mother. Mohamed - dressed in a worn hooded sweat shirt and sweat pants, his baby face framed by a fuzzy beard - smiled and pulled his hood over his face.

"My voice has been heard," he said moments later. But "there's other Muslims and non-Muslims that are still being tortured."

Read on: Washington Post

My Interview on Keith Olbermann's 'Countdown' w/Guest Host Chris Hayes

Aspirational vs. Operational

Although many argue that this was simply entrapment, evidence does indicate that Mohamud became increasingly radicalised and voluntarily continued with the FBI's fake terror plot. Regardless, CAIR attorney Zahra Billo told me, "The FBI seek out troubled people – nobody is arguing that some of these individuals aren't deeply troubled – and then enable and facilitate their aspirations. It is the FBI's job to stop operational terrorists. It is not the FBI's job to enable aspirational terrorists."

Read On: Guardian Online

Local Muslim Leaders See Portland Terror Plot Arrest As Possible Entrapment

San Jose: Local Muslim leaders said Monday they were concerned the Portland terror plot arrest over the holiday weekend could be possible entrapment by the FBI.

Watch Video: Here

My Interview w/Laura Ingraham of the O'Reilly Factor

TSA Receives Backlash for Body Pat-Downs

Is the FBI Using GPS Devises to Spy on Muslims?

Does "Islam Inspire Nazism"?

Awesome. Pamela Gellar is finally being called out on her blatant bigotry.

ACLU Mounts First Legal Challenge to No-Fly List

The American Civil Liberties Union plans to sue the U.S. government Wednesday on behalf of 10 citizens or legal permanent residents who have been placed on a no-fly list and, in some cases, stranded abroad.

In the suit, the ACLU accuses the government of violating the plaintiffs' constitutional rights.

The number of names placed on the list has increased significantly since the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound aircraft on Christmas Day, U.S. officials said. Some Americans have been barred from flying home from overseas because their names were listed.

The ACLU says Americans are being deprived of their rights as citizens and of due process.

"It really is abominable that they would treat U.S. citizens this way," said Ben Wizner, a staff lawyer at the ACLU's National Security Project. "There is simply no legal basis for placing a U.S. citizen into involuntary exile. And to use a secret government list without any process to accomplish that goal is so un-American and so unconstitutional."

Full Story: Washington Post

Sikh and Muslim women seek freedom to wear head coverings

Their head wear displayed a full palette of colors and patterns, and symbolized different faiths. But the two dozen Sikh and Muslim women who gathered Saturday at a Fremont community center knew their turbans and scarves had a singular effect on many others in a country where their beliefs are in the minority.

They make the women stand out as different, and to some, threatening.

"Around Sept. 11 this year, I had someone call me a terrorist," said Jasdeep Kaur, a middle-school counselor and volunteer with the Sikh Coalition in Fremont that organized Saturday's unusual joint forum with the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Santa Clara to address discrimination that women of both faiths face because of traditional religious head wear like her black dastaar turban. "We are visually standing out compared to everyone else."

More at: San Jose Mercury News

My Favorite Dawah Campaign PLUS Hate Incidents on the Rise

The full story is online at KTVU2.

Local Hijab "Victory"

SAN FRANCISCO - A Muslim teenager who was ordered by a school monitor to take off a headscarf she wore for religious reasons returned to classes after school officials apologized to the family.

Issra Omer, 13, told her parents she was too embarrassed to show up for summer school classes at Seaside High School on Wednesday, the day after a monitor demanded she remove her hijab, the Muslim scarf covering the head and neck, to conform to the district's no-hat policy. Issra, whose family is originally from Sudan, explained that her scarf is worn for religious reasons, but the school employee still yelled at her, said her father, Yousif Omer. The teenager, who will be starting 9th grade in the fall, felt humiliated by being singled out in front of her peers, and started crying, he said. The school's principal, Syd Renwick, explained the employee didn't intend any harm.

Read on at: The Californian

Famous

I'm famous! I'm famous!

CAIR Watch Front Page

CAIR Watch Hall of Fame

Check out the links folks; it's fabulous! I wonder if my parents ever speculated I'd be such a super star?

So yes for the 2nd time now in six months, an Islamophobic website has decided to make a feature presentation out of me!

• It's crazy because of all of my years of activism, I'd have to say that at least in these past 10 months I've been less of an activist than ever before. In fact, a large amount of my activism has become confined to my blogs - are the Islamophobes really that concerned about my minimal contributions to the marketplace of ideas?
• It's sad because I don't deserve such an honor. Subhan'Allah a lot of the folks in that Hall of Fame are true superstars. We're talking about the likes of Dr. Sami Al-Arian who has suffered ridiculous injustices, along with so many others who have made innumerable contributions to the cause of social justice. I'm not fit to clean the shoes of so many of those people.
• On the upside, I'd like to thank the CAIR Watch folks for picking a somewhat decent picture of me. When the Militant Islam Monitor/Pipes drama went down, they first put up a video of somebody who was not me and when they finally put up a picture of me it wasn't such a great one. However, I'd have to say that relatively speaking I actually like the one up on CAIR Watch. Alhamdulillah.