Was Ahmed Mohamed’s Arrest Really All About Religion and Race?

Many people are framing the arrest of student Ahmed Mohamed at MacArthur High School in Irving, Texas on Monday in terms of Mohamed’s race and religion. The argument goes that a white and non-Muslim student would not have been arrested as was Mohamed for bringing to school a home-assembled clock that school workers and police say looks like a bomb.

Even if convincing evidence does come to light indicating Mohamed’s race or religion was the determining factor leading to his arrest, which is not the case of yet, it is a mistake to think that other students are immune from such treatment because they are white or non-Muslim. Such thinking will also stand in the way of ending the systematic abuse of students that allowed Mohamed’s arrest to occur.

The race and religion framing of Mohamed’s abuse has been pushed much in the media since Mohamed was arrested, irrespective of whether there is any evidence supporting the characterization. For example, Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, in an MSNBC interview, asserted “the clear understanding that this would not have happened to somebody who wasn’t named ‘Ahmed Mohamed,’ who didn’t have brown skin, who wasn’t of Sudanese heritage.”

And what is the basis for this conclusion? A “gut level” understanding. Continues Hooper, “I mean, we just at a gut level understand that that would not have occurred the way it occurred if the circumstances or if his background had been different.”

Nihad Awad, CAIR’s executive director and co-founder, interviewed Thursday on the PBS Newshour, provided a prime example of the jump by many people to characterize Mohamed’s abuse with the label “Islamophobia.” In response to interviewer Hari Sreenivasen’s first question of “So tell me about your contact with the family,” Awad answers in part:

When this happened to the family, the family contacted our office in Dallas, and we recognized that this was another case of unfortunate Islamophobia and targeting of young people just because of their faith tradition, not because of their deeds or their behavior.

This characterization is in line with CAIR’s new 25-second promotional video that couples the popular hashtag #IStandWithAhmed and CAIR’s islamophobia.org website.

CAIR has significantly contributed to disseminating information and opinion regarding Mohamed’s abuse, even holding the Wednesday press conference featuring Mohamed, members of his family, and his lawyer on the front lawn of Mohamed’s Irving home.

Writing in The Intercept, Glenn Greenwald made an effort to present some actual reasoning, instead of just hurled assertions, to support the belief that Mohamed’s abuse, or at least some extent of his abuse, is due to some or all of his abusers’ perception of Mohamed’s religion. Greenwald presents the demonization of Muslims that has come with the United States government’s wars in Muslim-majority countries across the world, as well as negative attitudes toward Muslims held by some Americans and, he suggests, by the mayor and some city council members of Irving, to support the contention that Mohamed was targeted because of Mohamed’s religion.

Continue reading at the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.

New Hampshire Library Stands Up to US Government, Reinstates Tor Relay

The board of trustees overseeing the Kilton Public Library in West Lebanon, New Hampshire on Tuesday decided, despite pushback from the United States Department of Homeland Security, to reinstate a Tor relay the board had approved in an effort to enhance privacy on the Internet. The library board drew the attention of Homeland Security when the board decided in June to make the Kilton Public Library the first library in America to install a Tor relay. After Homeland Security promptly responded by telling state and local government officials that the Tor relay may aid criminals, the board had suspended the relay.

Vocal support in the community aided the library board in its decision to reinstate the Tor relay. Nora Doyle-Burr reports in the Concord Monitor that “a full room of about 50 residents and other interested members of the public expressed their support for Lebanon’s participation in the [Tor] system” at the board’s Tuesday meeting.

Continue reading at the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.

Assange, Manning, and Snowden (as Statues) Challenging War in Geneva

The whistleblowers and government secrets revealers Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning, and Edward Snowden are not free to travel. But, this week — in the form of a sculpture including their life-size bronze statues — they are standing in a Geneva, Switzerland plaza near the European headquarters of the United Nations. The sculpture’s message is antiwar, says its Italian sculptor Davide Dormino.

Continue reading at the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.

Ron Paul Discusses Evangelical Zionists’ Support for US Wars

Ron Paul, the former United States presidential candidate and Republican House of Representatives member from Texas, discussed in an August 8 radio interview evangelical Zionists who support the US government’s wars overseas. Paul examines the matter with Patriot’s Lament show host Joshua Bennett on KFAR radio of Fairbanks, Alaska.

Asked by Bennett why so many religious people in America are pro-war, Paul responds that, while the reasons vary from one person to the next, evangelical Zionism, which is taught by preachers at some churches, “has a lot to do with it.” Paul continues that the use of Christianity to support preventative or preemptive wars is “a gross distortion” of what Paul believes “the Christian faith is all about.” Paul explains in the interview that he sees Jesus as “the Prince of Peace.”

Continue reading at the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.

Ron Paul: The More US Intervention, the More Chaos in the Middle East

Speaking Wednesday with host Charles Payne on Fox Business, Ron Paul Institute Chairman and Founder Ron Paul said “interventionism of Republicans and Democrats” to “remake the Middle East” is to blame for the “utter mess” from which many Middle Easterners are fleeing. In short, concludes Paul, “the more we’re involved, the more chaos there is.”

Continue reading at the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.

States Can Build Up the Border Police State Too

The border-industrial complex has not been content to just count the money and gloat after receiving millions upon millions in “border security” dollars from the United States government. There is more easy money to be had if states can be convinced to take a bigger role aiding the US in building a police state along American borders.

Indeed, it appears that the border-industrial complex has hit the jackpot with the Texas state government.

Continue reading at the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson: Using Al-Qaeda to Fight ISIS is Crazy and Dangerous

College of William & Mary Professor and Ron Paul Institute Academic Board Member Lawrence Wilkerson frankly assesses that former United States General and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director David Petraeus’ proposal that the US support al-Qaeda to fight the Islamic State (ISIS) is a “crazy idea” that creates a blowback danger for Americans. Wilkerson declared this assessment in an interview Thursday with RT host Thom Hartman.

Continue reading at the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.

Buy the Rights-Abusing Cops Lunch Says Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick

Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick issued a statement Wednesday that says that, to counter “America’s negative attitude toward our law enforcement officers,” people should all-but grovel at the feet of any police they come across. Patrick even suggests that “financially able” individuals (who presumably are already paying cops’ salaries via taxes) pay for the lunches of any cops they may see in a restaurant.

Here is Patrick’s complete list of groveling suggestions:

Join me in changing this negative attitude toward those that protect us, by practicing the following:

Start calling our officers sir and ma’am all of the time. It’s a show of respect they deserve.

Every time you see an officer anywhere, let them know you appreciate their service to our community and you stand with them.

If you are financially able, when you see them in a restaurant on duty pick up their lunch check, send over a dessert, or simply stop by their table briefly and say thank you for their service.

Put their charities on your giving list.

If your local law enforcement has volunteer-citizen job opportunities, sign up.

Interestingly, Patrick never mentions in his statement that a major contributor to the negative attitude many people in Texas and across America have toward cops is the many times cops act in manners bereft of respect for the rights, property, health, and lives of the individuals they encounter.

How about the cops who abused Sandra Bland or Angel and Ashley Dobbs in Patrick’s home state? “Thank you sir. Thank you ma’am. Please, let me pay for that sandwich!”

Continue reading at the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.

Families Choose Homeschooling to Escape Draconian California Vaccination Mandates

There is an “out” for Californian parents and children dreading the July 2016 implementation of the state’s recently adopted Senate Bill 277 — draconian legislation eliminating exemptions to child vaccination mandates. That out is homeschooling, and many Californian parents are spending this year exploring homeschooling and preparing for a homeschooling future.

While children attending government and private schools, as well as other entities including daycares, in the state will be mandated starting next summer to submit to a state-set vaccination schedule with virtually all exemption means eliminated, the new law does not apply to children in homeschool.

Continue reading at the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.

Sexual Assault by the TSA is OK, Except in the Airport Bathroom

Here is some welcome news for travelers. There seems to be a limit to where Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees can sexually assault travelers — at least at the New York City LaGuardia Airport. WABC-TV reports that a TSA agent was arrested Thursday for sexually assaulting an individual in a LaGuardia Airport bathroom.

At checkpoints in airports across America, TSA employees regularly subject travelers to friskings (termed “pat-downs” by the TSA) that would justify arrest and prosecution if done by someone without government-granted legal immunity. The United States government admitted as much when it threatened in 2011 to close down all airports in Texas when the state government was on the verge of passing legislation that would subject TSA employees to fines and jail time for offensive friskings.

Continue reading at the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.