Anti-Sharia Bill Dropped In Minnesota: West Sacramento Islamic Center Vandalized Again :: EsinIslam The Muslim World Portal For Islamic News And Opinions

Anti-Sharia Bill Dropped In Minnesota: West Sacramento Islamic Center Vandalized Again

21 March 2012

By Juan Cole

The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN) on Mar 5 announced that a lawmaker in that state's legislature will drop a proposed "anti-Sharia" bill written using a template provided by an anti-Islam extremist.That announcement came following a news conference CAIR-MN held on Mar 5 with interfaith leaders to challenge the threat to religious freedom posed by the bill. In announcing his decision to drop the bill, Republican State Senator Dave Thompson said: "It was never my intent to introduce legislation that was being targeted to any one group."

"We thank Senator Thompson for dropping this discriminatory bill and hope his responsible decision sends a message to all those elected officials in other states who are supporting similarly unconstitutional legislation," saidCAIR-MN Civil Rights Coordinator MunazzaHumayun.

According to media reports, Thompson's anti-Islam bill (S2281) was a "boilerplate copy-pasted verbatim from a far right policy group." Last week, CAIR's national office released a community toolkit designed to assist those seeking to preserve America's ideal of religious pluralism in the face of similar unconstitutional anti-Sharia bills that have been introduced in more than 20 states nationwide.CAIR's toolkit includes background on David Yerushalmi, the anti-Islam extremist who authored the template for the anti-Sharia bills.

West Sacramento Islamic Center Vandalized Again

The West Sacramento Islamic Center was vandalized overnight and leaders there are calling it a hate crime.

The center is under construction, being rebuilt, but leaders fear it won't ever get done if someone doesn't stop damaging their sacred place.

Abdul Karim Yusufzai on Saturday showed CBS13 the damage done by vandals, vandals he's convinced are filled with hate.

"It is hate," he said. "They know this is a community center, a religious building."

Abdul is the president of the center. A window was shattered sometime on Friday. This follows six security camers being ripped from the building two weeks ago.

"I'm very sad," he said. "I'm disappointed."

Before going dark, those cameras captured two men, one seen clearly reaching for the camera.

And it doesn't stop there. Three years ago, vandals broke into the previous Islamic center, tearing pictures off the wall and damaging their Quran. No arrests were made in that case.

"We have our the right to be here and our religion is a peaceful religion," Abdul said. "We are not attacking people so in this neighborhood always we are under attack."

Abdul is now asking for help, hoping soon they can pray in peace.

"Some of the community members have a bad feeling of their presence here," he said.

Burned Wichita mosque to be rebuilt

Wichita mosque near Taft and Knight that burned down in November will soon be in service again.

"Everybody knew that they wanted to rebuild and that we do need a center on the west side for the people that use it. How that was going to get done, there were some logistics that needed to be worked out," explains Donna Sibaai, Islamic Association member.

Investigators have never determined a cause in last fall's fire, but gave the mosque persmission to start rebuilding last month. On Monday, supplies for the building's roof were delivered.

Sibaai adds, "It's like the first piece of the puzzle, so it's going to be a great day for our community."

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