BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

While approval from the 50-member board is  not needed to build the center, the vote may indicate how residents of lower Manhattan feel about the idea. "The community board is a good barometer of the sentiment of the people in that neighborhood," said Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer. "Many of the people on the Community Board are people who stayed in the neighborhood after 9/11, who had to rebuild this area," he said. "These are good people with good instincts." The board's 12-member Financial District committee unanimously voted in favor of the project earlier this month. "From my perspective, there's not a lot to dislike about the project," said Ro Scheffe, 59, a member of the committee who runs a communications firm and lives three blocks from Wall St. Foes - including some members of the board - argue an Islamic community center so close to Ground Zero is insensitive to the families of people who died on 9/11. T...

UPDATE: This scumbag excuse for a Father? His daughter died of her injuries. Can Arizona put this POS out in the SONORAN DESERT, naked, covered in snake bait please? Or impale him on a Saguaro? Or a needle in the arm would do just fine. ~~~~~~~~~~~~ My question - WHY DO THESE PEOPLE MOVE TO THE U.S. IF THEY DON'T LIKE IT? from the awesome Uppity Woman: Arizona police are looking for an Iraqi man who they allege ran down his daughter and her friend because he believed his daughter had become “too Westernized.” Peoria, Arizona, police said Wednesday that Faleh Hassan Almaleki, 48, struck his 20-year-old daughter, Noor Faleh Almaleki, and her friend Amal Edan Khalaf with a vehicle he was driving in a parking lot Tuesday afternoon Faleh Hassan Almaleki was angry with his daughter “as she had become too ‘Westernized’ and was not living according to [the family's] traditional Iraq[i] values,” Peoria police said in a statement released Wednesday. Noor Faleh Almaleki is hospital...

by Tawfik Hamid Muslims can start with better Quranic scholarship. The film "Fitna" by Dutch parliament member Geert Wilders has created an uproar around the world because it links violence committed by Islamists to Islam. Many commentators and politicians — including the British government, which denied him entry to the country last month — — reflexively accused Mr. Wilders of inciting hatred. The question, however, is whether the blame is with Mr. Wilders, who simply exposed Islamic radicalism, or with those who promote and engage in this religious extremism. In other words, shall we fault Mr. Wilders for raising issues like the stoning of women, or shall we fault those who actually promote and practice this crime? Many Muslims seem to believe that it is acceptable to teach hatred and violence in the name of their religion — while at the same time expecting the world to respect Islam as a religion of peace, love and harmony. Scholars in the most prestigious Islamic institut...