What If This Man was Arab or Muslim? Man Pulled Over For Speeding Had 48 Bombs In the Car

By Laura Arenschield
The Columbus Dispatch

January 09, 2014 "Information Clearing House - "The Columbus Dispatch" - An Indiana National Guardsman was arrested outside Columbus on New Year’s Day after a state trooper found nearly 50 bombs and the blueprints for a Navy SEAL training facility inside his car, the Madison County prosecutor said yesterday.

Andrew Scott Boguslawski

Andrew Scott Boguslawski, 43, also had a remote-control device to detonate the bombs, Madison County Prosecutor Stephen Pronai said. Boguslawski’s civilian job is as a groundskeeper at the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center in south-central Indiana. Prosecutors could not say definitively yesterday whether the blueprints in his car were for the facility where he worked.

Boguslawski also had a bulletproof vest in his car, Pronai said.

“He said something to the trooper about making a bomb vest,” Pronai said.

Lt. Col. Cathy Van Bree, a spokeswoman for the Indiana National Guard, said Boguslawski is a specialist in the guard who does intelligence analysis and has top-secret clearance.

Pronai said Boguslawski, who is from Moores Hill, Ind., appeared to be heading to Indiana when a state trooper clocked him going 85 mph in a 70 mph zone on I-70. When the trooper came back to the car to give Boguslawski a ticket, he saw the handle of a gun between his legs.

The trooper ordered Boguslawski out of the car and called for backup. Investigators found three more guns in the car — all loaded — and 48 bombs. They also found material to make more explosives.

Pronai said most of the bombs were small. He said investigators from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have searched Boguslawski’s house, and that local and federal investigators are trying to determine whether Boguslawski planned to attack the military facility. They are also combing through a computer, cameras and GPS found in his car.

Boguslawski is charged in Madison County with one count of manufacturing explosives, a second-degree felony. A preliminary court hearing is scheduled for Friday. He is being held at Tri-County Jail in Mechanicsburg in lieu of a $1 million bond.

larenschield@dispatch.com

© 2014 The Dispatch Printing Company

'Alpha Lambda Mu' - America's first Muslim fraternity

By HUGO GYE
DAILYMAIL
September 10, 2013 

Fraternities are often used as an excuse to hold wild parties, where the alcohol flows freely and no behavior is too outrageous.

But at America's first Muslim frat house, such debauchery is strictly forbidden - with the emphasis instead on charity work, self-improvement and mutual support.

Alif Laam Meem has been founded at the University of Texas, Dallas, as a way for Muslim students to socialize together and enjoy college life without the drinking culture which is integral to most frats.

Frat: Alif Laam Meem is the first Muslim fraternity in the U.S. after being set up at the University of Texas, Dallas

Protest: The group recently joined a demonstration standing up against domestic violence

Instead of partying, the frat brothers get together to discuss their faith, and drive around the local area handing out sandwiches to the homeless.

Their initiation ceremony does not involve drinking from a keg of beer, but handing over $100 to be donated to charity.

And rather than chugging drinks from red cups, they can be recognized by their bright red kufi caps.

The fraternity - whose name is Alpha Lambda Mu in the traditional Greek letters, or Alif Laam Meem in Arabic - was founded by Ali Mahmoud shortly after he arrived as an undergraduate at UT Dallas.

When a Muslim friend told him that he was considering joining a fraternity to share in its social life and alumni connections, he began to think about how Muslims were excluded from many traditional 'Greek' activities.

Community: The frat was founded as a way of helping Muslim students lead a full social life on campus

Prayer: The frat brothers gather for meetings where they discuss their faith and moral issues

'The idea of a Muslim fraternity seemed heretical,' he told the Independent - but he realised that he could bring pious young men together in a format which was already familiar on campus.

Some Muslim groups have criticized Mr Mahmoud for joining a tradition which is often associated with excessive drinking and sexual promiscuity, but he insists it is important show that frats do not have to be decadent environments.

'Muslims have been having a hard time recently trying to understand what their role in society is, so to embrace this very traditional American organisation is a symbolic move,' he told the New York Daily News.

However, the student has rejected any suggestion that the frat might be designed to help Muslims integrate with mainstream U.S. culture, pointing out that most members are in fact natural-born Americans.

'I personally grew up in Plano, Texas,' he said. 'I went to public school, I played Xbox Live all the time with my friends who weren't Muslim, and I regrettably ate too much fast food.
'I'm a proud American Muslim, and I see no contradiction of those two titles. Islam is my moral compass that guides every aspect of my life, but it also leaves room for our cultural experiences.'

While many college students cannot imagine the frat experience without drinking and partying, Mr Mahmoud is adamant that he and his friends are not missing out on anything.
'Most of us have grown up in families where that atmosphere of partying and drinking is not the norm,' he said. 'And we think that behavior of womanizing and excessive drinking is un-gentleman-like.'

Activities carried out by Alif Laam Meem so far include protesting against domestic violence, and raising money for the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings.
As the new academic year began, the fraternity began a recruitment drive - and despite its religious foundation, non-Muslims are welcome to apply.

The use of gratitude in our daily lives

“Gratitude may be in the heart, in submission and humility; on the tongue, in praise and acknowledgement; and in the physical faculties, by means of obedience and submission.”

— Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah
[Madaarij al-Saalikeen (2/246)] 

source & credit: http://sazlishah.tumblr.com/

Brutal hate crime in California, gets drowned in the media news by black teen shooting in Florida

Mother, 32, dies after brutal racist attack in her own home by killer who left note saying 'go back to your country'
DAILY MAIL
PUBLISHED: 01:04 EST, 25 March 2012 | UPDATED: 01:05 EST, 25 March 2012

  
Attack: Shaima Alawadi, (left), was found close to death by her 17-year-old daughter Fatima Al Himidi, (right)

A 32-year-old woman from Iraq who was found severely beaten next to a threatening note saying 'go back to your country' died yesterday.

Shaima Alawadi was taken off life support three days after being attacked with a tire iron, according to Hanif Mohebi, director of the San Diego chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

'The family is in shock at the moment. They're still trying to deal with what happened,' Mr Mohebi said.

Ms Alawadi, a mother of five, had been hospitalised since her 17-year-old daughter found her unconscious on Wednesday in the family's house in El Cajon, California. The daughter, Fatima Al Himidi, told KUSI-TV her mother had been beaten on the head repeatedly with a tire iron, and that the note said 'go back to your country, you terrorist.'

Addressing the camera, the tearful daughter asked: 'You took my mother away from me. You took my best friend away from me. Why? Why did you do it?'

She also said: 'We're not the terrorists, you are - whoever did it.' Police said the family had found a similar note earlier this month but did not report it to authorities.

Miss Al Himidi told KGTV-TV her mother dismissed the first note, found outside the home, as a child's prank. A family friend, Sura Alzaidy, told UT San Diego that the attack apparently occurred after the father took the younger children to school. Ms Alzaidy told the newspaper the family is from Iraq, and that Alawadi is a 'respectful modest muhajiba,' meaning she wears the traditional hijab, a head scarf.

Investigators said they believe the assault is an isolated incident.

'A hate crime is one of the possibilities, and we will be looking at that,' Lt. Mark Coit said. 'We don't want to focus on only one issue and miss something else.'

The family had lived in the house in San Diego County for only a few weeks, after moving from Michigan. Ms Alzaidy told the newspaper her father and Ms Alawadi's husband had previously worked together in San Diego as private contractors for the U.S. Army, serving as cultural advisers to train soldiers who were going to be deployed to the Middle East.

Mr Mohebi said the family had been in the United States since the mid-1990s. He said it was unfortunate that the family didn't report the initial threatening note.

'Our community does face a lot of discriminatory, hate incidents and don't always report them,' Mr Mohebi said. 'They should take these threats seriously and definitely call local law enforcement.'

El Cajon, northeast of downtown San Diego, is home to some 40,000 Iraqi immigrants, the second largest such community in the U.S. after Detroit. 


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Liam Neeson says he may convert to Islam

Liam Neeson: I may become a Muslim
Catholic movie star is thinking about changing faith
By Pete Samson 
The Sun
25 Jan 2012

WIREIMAGE

HOLLYWOOD star Liam Neeson is considering giving up his Catholic belief and becoming a Muslim.

The actor, 59, admitted Islamic prayer "got into his spirit" while filming in Turkish city Istanbul.

He said: "The Call to Prayer happens five times a day and for the first week it drives you crazy, and then it just gets into your spirit and it's the most beautiful, beautiful thing.

"There are 4,000 mosques in the city. Some are just stunning and it really makes me think about becoming a Muslim."

Liam was raised in Northern Ireland as a devout Catholic and altar boy and was named after the local priest.

But the star — whose wife Natasha Richardson died aged 45 in a skiing accident in 2009 — has spoken about challenges to his faith.

He said: "I was reared a Catholic but I think every day we ask ourselves, not consciously, what are we doing on this planet? What's it all about?

"I'm constantly reading books on God or the absence of God and atheism."

His latest film The Grey, about an oil drilling team who crash in freezing Alaska, is released in the UK on Friday.

To read more, go the The Sun