Mission Accomplished: Mystery Anti-Muslim Film Sows Violence Around World

If the intent of whoever was behind the mystery film was to disrupt US diplomatic missions around the world, mission accomplished.

The overdubbed video clips have taken on a life of their own and it's no longer about the video, but anger directed at the US for no reason other than it's the in-thing to do in places like Tunisia and Egypt. At a time when the economic conditions in those countries isn't improving after regime change, protesting against the US (and throw in the anti-Israel sentiments expressed in some) is a safe way to divert attention away from the inability to improve the economic conditions as fast as everyone wants.

Blaming the US is better than trying to create jobs in those countries. Claiming that the US engaged in blasphemy or somehow supports blasphemy is easier than trying to understand that free speech is a universal right and includes the right to say things that other groups might not like or want to hear or see, but it doesn't give anyone the right to blow stuff up or riot and destroy property. Free exercise of religion means not imposing your religious views on others, or other nations for that matter.

Those behind the film are agent provocateurs who sought to sow discord and create conflict. They achieved those goals, and now the US and those regimes in the Middle East and elsewhere these protests/riots are going on have to deal with the fallout.

One has to also wonder who benefits from the repercussions of these protests/riots/attacks. Iran definitely comes to mind, as do the regimes that replaced longstanding brutal regimes that did not tolerate dissent. This is something that has to be explored at greater depth.

Riots and protests are spreading to other countries, and the list now includes Tunisia, Lebanon (which happens to be where Pope Benedict is visiting on a diplomatic trip), Yemen, Bangladesh, and the German embassy in Khartoum Sudan has been torched. Jordan has also seen protests. Here's a map showing where those protests are underway.

But you know who hasn't seen the film or the clips - most of those protesting. It's a ginned up controversy and the film's creators/backers are still not fully known. And what's known about those involved thus far indicate that the producer was a convicted criminal and a shady character - a grifter being a most charitable term, while the director was incompetent and may not have known the plot/dialogue and the actors didn't know what they were doing or that the film was overdubbed afterwards to completely change the meaning and context of the scenes.

This situation smells, make that reeks, of the trajectory followed in the cartoon jihad that cost more than 100 lives across the world and resulted in embassies of several countries being attacked.

Once again, we have an obscure publication that gets picked up and within days is turned into a rallying cry for rioting and protests by Islamist leaders decrying the blasphemous acts and portrayals - urging death to those involved. Instead of the targets being embassies of the Danes, the nation of the Jyllands Posten, which published the cartoons originally, it's US diplomatic facilities are being targeted (and also Germany). In some instances, it appears that local governments are backing protests, while others - as in Libya - the government is actively trying to block the attacks/protests.

It may also be useful to try and distinguish between the terror attack that killed Ambassador Stevens and three other Americans in Libya and the protests/riots in Egypt and elsewhere. The attack in Libya appears to have been a preplanned attack to coincide with 9/11, while the protests elsewhere appear to be more closely related to the outrage over the mystery film. The film outrage may have spurred protests in Libya as well that were exploited by the attackers, but the scenario has blurred together into one mess that will take quite some time to sort out.

Protesters Overrun US Embassy In Egypt Over Mysterious Movie

No one can actually verify what film the protesters are supposedly upset about which makes the protests against the US Embassy in Cairo all the more odd and disturbing. Reuters and USA Today can't seem to track down the film, but regardless of the facts and circumstances, a group of protesters set out to overrun the US Embassy in Cairo. They succeeded in taking down the US flag for a time and scrawling graffiti referring to not disgracing the name of the prophet Mohammad.

From Reuters:

"This movie must be banned immediately and an apology should be made ... This is a disgrace," said 19-year-old, Ismail Mahmoud, a member of the so-called "ultras" soccer supporters who played a big role in the uprising that brought down Hosni Mubarak last year.

Many Muslims consider any depiction of the Prophet to be offensive.

Mahmoud called on President Mohamed Mursi, Egypt's first civilian president and an Islamist, to take action. Many others were supporters of Islamist groups.

About 20 people stood on top of the embassy wall in central Cairo, where about 2,000 protesters had gathered.

"There is no god but Allah, Mohammad is Allah's messenger. We will sacrifice ourselves for you, Allah's messenger," they chanted, with many waving religious flags.

A U.S. embassy official had no immediate comment on the protesters' actions but the embassy had put out a statement earlier on Tuesday condemning those who hurt the religious feelings of Muslims or followers of any other religions.

"We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others," the U.S. embassy said in its statement.

One slogan scrawled on the walls of the embassy, a fortress-like structure that is near Tahrir Square where Egyptians revolted against Mubarak, said: "If your freedom of speech has no limits, may you accept our freedom of action."

An Egyptian state website carried a statement by Egypt's Coptic Orthodox church condemning what it said were moves by some Copts living abroad "to finance the production of a film insulting Prophet Mohammad".

About a 10th of Egypt's 83 million people are Christians.

It was not immediately clear which film angered protesters.

However, according to the website www.standupamerianow.org, the Christian Pastor Terry Jones, who angered Muslims by burning a copy of the Koran, was due to take part in an event on Tuesday called "International Judge Mohammad Day" in Florida in which it would symbolically put the Prophet on trial and play it out live over the Internet.

"Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy," the U.S. embassy statement said, adding that it condemned the efforts by "misguided individuals" to hurt the feelings of Muslims.

What's interesting is that you've got hundreds of people protesting a film allegedly being made in the US but not a single person can actually cite the name of the film. Moreover, it appears that FARS (Iran) is pushing the claim that Egyptian Coptic Christians are behind the film and fanning sectarian violence that will inevitably result from such claims.

So, the only "film" that could even fit the profile is some Internet production by Terry Jones who's got quite the reputation for hating Islam and showing a tremendous amount of religious intolerance.

That might be what they're protesting, but as with most kinds of protests across the Arab world, all it takes is a rumor for things to take hold, and no amount of debunking will stop things.

What we do know is that Egypt has been hit by several waves of sectarian violence since the fall of Hosni Mubarak and Coptic Christians have been under assault from Islamists who are asserting themselves at the Coptic Christians' expense.

UPDATE:
According to twitter links to this website provided by NJDhockeyfan, the name of the film is Life of King of Islam but there's no reference in IMDB.com. It was supposedly done by Sam Basil (again no reference in imdb), but they refer to Terry Jones' actions. There's also a reference to Dutch involvement, but it's not clear what is being referenced.

UPDATE:
The Atlantic seems to have run down more details, though there's way too much speculation about who is behind the film, their intentions, and other salient details.

The movie is called Mohammed Nabi al-Muslimin, or Mohammed, Prophet of the Muslims. If you've never heard of it, that's because most of the few clips circulating online are dubbed in Arabic. The above clip, which is allegedly from the film (update: Kurt Werthmuller, a Coptic specialist at the Hudson Institute, says he's confirmed the clip's authenticity) is one of the only in English. That's also because it's allegedly produced by Florida Pastor Terry Jones (yes, the asshole who burnt the Koran despite Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates' pleas) and two Egyptians living in the U.S., according to Egyptian press accounts. The Egyptians are allegedly Coptic, the Christian minority that makes up about a tenth of Egypt.

Obviously, there's a lot to this story that's still unclear. What we do know is that some members of Egypt's sometimes-raucous, often rumor-heavy media have been playing highly offensive clips from the highly offensive film, stressing its U.S. and Coptic connections. In the clip below, controversial TV host Sheikh Khaled Abdallah (known for such statements as "Iran is more dangerous to us than the Jews" and that Tehran had engineered a deadly soccer riot in Port Said) hypes the film as an American-Coptic plot and introduces what he says is its opening scene.

UPDATE:
A second American embassy has been besieged, this time in Libya. Libyan security forces have been fighting against unknown militias in the vicinity of the American embassy.

The AP reports that Morris Sadek is promoting the video on his website and on some television stations.

Morris Sadek, an Egyptian-born Christian in the United States known for his strongly anti-Islam views, said in an interview from Washington that he was promoting the video on his Web site and on certain television stations, which he did not identify.

He said the video “explains the problems of the Copts who suffer from Muslims,” for which he blamed the Koran.

For several days, the Egyptian news media have been reporting on the movie, playing excerpts and blaming Mr. Sadek for it, with ultraconservative clerics going on the air to denounce it.

Medhat Klada, a representative of Coptic Christian organizations in Europe, said Mr. Sadek’s views did not represent those of expatriate Copts.

“He is an extremist,” he said in an interview from Switzerland. “We refuse any attacks on religions because of a moral position.”

This has the feel of the cartoon jihad in the making - where more than 100 people were killed around the world, several embassies were ransacked and torched, and all because of the publication of cartoons in a Danish publication, Jyllands Posten.

Egyptians Mark Anniversary of Uprising Against Mubarak With Demonstrations Against Current Military Regime

Egyptians threw off one totalitarian regime, and found that the military installed itself as the new power brokers. That's the basic change in the year that passed since protesters took to the streets demanding that Hosni Mubarak step down and cede power to the people.

The crowd in the square on Wednesday morning was overwhelmingly male, with very few women in sight.

Youth groups and other activists — including many of the leaders of the original uprising — were determined to make the day a huge demonstration calling for an immediate end to military rule, urging Egyptians to gather at mosques, churches and other strategic locations around the city for marches to the square that would arrive by midafternoon.

The plan resembled the convergence of marches that set off the Tahrir Square protests last January, but this time each was named for a “martyr” killed over the last year by the security forces of the military-led government trying to suppress challenges to its power. More than 80 people have been killed in clashes with security forces since October.

The military rulers have endorsed the calls for an anniversary celebration and have made the day a national holiday. Some activists accuse them of trying to co-opt the occasion.

There was no visible presence of soldiers or the police. But most Egyptians seemed to expect that Brotherhood members, known for their discipline and organization, would keep the peace.

After a year of protests and crackdowns, many note a pattern: the conflicts with security forces never begin on the days when crowds fill the streets but only days later when the authorities move in to clear out the stragglers.

One year after the tumultuous events that marked a watershed in the so-called Arab Spring, Egypt is still under martial law, with the ruling military council acting as the highest authority.

Mr. Mubarak’s ouster came on Feb. 11, after an 18-day-old revolt led largely by young people prevailed over an authoritarian crackdown. On that day, shouts of “God is great” erupted from Tahrir Square at twilight as Mr. Mubarak’s vice president and longtime intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, announced that Mr. Mubarak had passed all authority to a council of military leaders.

On the eve of Wednesday’s celebrations, the army officer acting as Egypt’s de facto head of state said Tuesday that the military government would limit its use of extrajudicial arrests and detentions to cases of what he called “thuggery.”

The officer, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, made the pledge to curb use of Egypt’s so-called “emergency law” in an apparent effort to mollify those who are discontent with the heavy-handed police tactics of the military-led government.

Considering that thuggery is very broadly defined and the military hasn't ceded power, abuse of their power is widespread and causing significant problems and upheaval at a time when Egyptians' energies should be focused on building a new political system and expanding economic opportunities.

Even among the political parties that are trying to build consensus, there's little hope for expanding and protecting basic human rights and civil rights, including free speech. In one instance, a pro-Israel Egyptian blogger, Maikel Nabil, was finally released from security custody after 10 months of incarceration after calling out the Egyptian military for its ongoing actions (the charges were “insulting the military” and “spreading false information.”, and sentenced to 3 years in prison).

Meanwhile, Israel is strengthening its fencing and security presence along the border with Sinai because of a breakdown in security in Egypt. That includes repeated bombing of a pipeline between Egypt and Israel and a terrorist attack near Eilat.

BREAKING: Judge Backs City Ban on Occupy Wall Street

In what could be a crippling blow to the OWS crowd, Justice Michael Stallman, has ruled against the protesters.

Hours after baton-wielding cops cleared Occupy Wall Street protesters and their tents from Zuccotti Park on Tuesday, a judge backed the clean sweep.

The ruling by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Michael Stallman says that city can stop protesters from bringing tents, tarps and other camping equipment into the park.

The decision is likely to be appealed, so it was unclear if the city would immediately reopen the park to people without tents.

Some Occupy Wall Street protesters had already moved to another public space, owned by Trinity Church, at Canal St. and Sixth Ave., where they used bolt cutters to open a fenced-in area.

Police swooped in and made numerous arrests. Daily News reporter Matt Lysiak was among several reporters covering the confrontation who were arrested.

Other demonstrators were massed around Zuccotti, where the overnight raid netted the arrest of 200 people, including Manhattan Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez

An interesting note, the case was originally commenced by Order to Show Cause. An Order to Show Cause, in over-simplified terms, is a way to bring a motion before the court on an expedited basis. This requires a Justice's signature to shorten the notice period and to grant any temporary restraining orders that are requested. For this, the OWS lawyers turned to a friendly face:

When the cops raided Zuccotti Park, lawyers for Occupy Wall Street woke up a judge with a civil liberties background and asked for help.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Lucy Billings signed an early-morning order temporarily barring cops from keeping protesters and tents out of Zuccotti Park.

But within hours, she was off the case as court administrators chose a new judge — and excluded Billings’ name from the list of candidates.

Billings’ biography notes that before she became a judge in 1997, she spent three years as a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union and also worked work community legal services.

“I have devoted my career to public service, especially the disadvantaged in desperate circumstances,” she wrote in a 2007 pre-election statement.

Lawyers for Occupy Wall Street phoned Billings after cops moved into Zuccotti Park early Tuesday, evicted the protesters and got rid of their tents and other camp equipment.

Asked why they called her first, protest lawyer Daniel Alterman wouldn’t say, remarking that he’s not a “gossip guy.”

The lawyers also called an emergency hotline set up to assign judges to after-hours cases. A staffer told them that since Billings had already been contacted, she should handle the Zuccotti matter.

The OWS lawyers tried to forum shop, but the system worked. Don't get me wrong, I have first hand knowledge that Justice Billings is a fine Justice. And, waking up a friendly judge for an order to show cause is a well known practice, especially in criminal law for search warrants. I am also very familiar with Justice Stallman, another fine Justice. Either way, I am sure the First Department will have -- or probably already has -- a set of papers seeking an appeal of the decision. I would not be surprised if the change of Justices is raised as one of the appeal grounds.

NYPD Clears Zuccotti Park of Protesters In Dead of Night

The New York Police Department moved in overnight and cleared out Zuccotti Park, home to the Occupy Wall Street protests since September 17.



At least 70 people were arrested for resisting NYPD officers who cleared Zuccotti Park near Wall Street and the World Trade Center site in New York City. The NYPD moved in on the park in the dead of night, taking protesters off-guard. Most of the protesters offered no resistance, but some refused to clear from the park, tying themselves to trees or each other.

The protesters, about 200 of whom have been staying in the park overnight, initially resisted with chants of “Whose park? Our park!”

The massive operation in and around Zuccotti Park was intended to empty the birthplace of a protest movement that has inspired hundreds of tent cities from coast to coast. On Monday in Oakland, Calif., hundreds of police officers raided the main encampment there, arresting 33 people. Protesters returned later in the day. But the Oakland police said no one would be allowed to sleep there anymore, and promised to clear a second camp nearby.

The police action was quickly challenged as lawyers for the protesters obtained a temporary restraining order barring the city and the park’s private landlord from evicting protesters or removing their belongings. It was not immediately clear how the city would respond. The judge, Justice Lucy Billings of State Supreme Court Judge in Manhattan, scheduled a hearing for later Tuesday.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who scheduled a news conference for Tuesday morning, had issued a statement explaining the reasoning behind the sweep. “The law that created Zuccotti Park required that it be open for the public to enjoy for passive recreation 24 hours a day,” the mayor said in the statement. “Every since the occupation began, that law has not been complied with” because the protesters had taken over the park, “making it unavailable to anyone else.”

“I have become increasingly concerned – as had the park’s owner, Brookfield Properties – that the occupation was coming to pose a health and fire safety hazard to the protestors and to the surrounding community,” Mr. Bloomberg said. He added that on Monday, Brookfield asked the city to assist in enforcing “the no sleeping and camping rules.

“But make no mistake,” the mayor said, “the final decision to act was mine.”Some of the displaced protesters regrouped a few blocks away at Foley Square, with the row of courthouses on Centre Street as a backdrop and police officers looking on. The protesters swapped stories of their confrontations with the police and talked about what to do next.

One protester at Foley Square, Nate Barchus, 23, said the eviction was likely to galvanize supporters, particularly because a series of gatherings had already been planned for Thursday, the protest’s two-month anniversary.

“This,” he said, referring to the early-morning sweep, “reminds everyone who was occupying exactly why they were occupying.”

At the park they had occupied since mid-September, workers using power washers blasted water over the stone that covers the ground. Soon the park caught the attention of people passing by on their way to work who had become accustomed to seeing the protesters’ tents and tarps.

The protests have accomplished little in the way of tangible progress although they have managed to highlight income inequality.

The park will be reopened to the public, but no one will be allowed to remain overnight.

Many of the protesters who left Zuccotti Park made their way to Foley Square, which is where state and federal courthouses are located. I doubt that they'll remain there for long and either take the show over to Union Square or Washington Square Parks. Some may try to make their way back to Zuccotti Park, but I don't expect to see another encampment there although a judge signed an order not only allowing the protesters to return to the park, but that they can take their tents with them.

Click to enlarge: Read the full court order

I think the judge is misreading the law and has taken an overly expansive view of free speech that infringes on the rights of the property owners (Brookfield Properties) whose rights are being trampled by not being able to maintain their own property because the protesters have squatted on them.

Businesses in the immediate area may breath a sigh of relief as the Zuccotti Park protesters have made a mess of sidewalks as barricades have limited access and some restaurants have lost significant business. Yet, the protests were largely confined to the park; it was when the protests marched off to other locations that mayhem (mostly arrests for disorderly conduct) ensued. In some respects, it would be easier to leave the protesters in place and deal with the security situation there rather than let the protesters disperse and find their way in to other locations, such as Wall Street itself.

Some protesters have vowed to shut down Wall Street Thursday, which sets up another potential confrontation with the NYPD. The clearing of Zuccotti Park may have been done in anticipation of those expected marches/protests at the NYSE on Thursday, but may not have the intended effect.

Still, it's interesting to note that for all of the press coverage of the OWS protests, we're talking about all of a couple hundred people at most engaging in protests at any one time in Zuccotti Park. From that perspective, the ability to garner press to the degree it has is quite remarkable even if the message has been more than muddled about what the protests sought to accomplish.

It's also important to note that there are distinctions between the OWS movement in Zuccotti Park and those in other cities or overseas, where there have been more violent confrontations than here in New York City. Part of that can be attributed to how Zuccotti Park's protesters have "organized" but part of that has to do with the nature of who has been attracted to the protests.

UPDATE:
The number arrested is now closer to 200.

Geller's Anti-Islam Brigade Seeks Placement of Anti-Islam Ads On MTA Property

Anti-Muslim blogger Pamela Geller is at it again. When she's not busy battling the Park51 project near Ground Zero, she's busy trying to stop what she calls the Islamization of America (she enables a group by that name - SIOA).

Her latest bid is to demand that the MTA post an offensive advertisement that calls Muslims savages. Not some small segment of Muslims who engage in terrorism, but all Muslims. There's no fine line she's skirting here.

She's labeling the entire religion as savages, and it's little wonder that the MTA is not amenable to posting these offensive ads on their buses and subways.

Geller claims that the ads are truthful and speak to the craven actions of Islamic terrorists who have had a nonstop assault on Israel since it was founded and on Western targets for decades.

But she's again tarring the entire religion, and sees this as a clash of civilizations, rather than a small subset of the religion that seeks jihad. She also thinks that this is a free speech issue.

It is a free speech issue, but one that runs headlong into hate speech, and that's precisely the nature of this particular ad. It's hate speech at its most banal.

It also violates the MTA advertising guidelines, but as Benjamin Kabab points out, Geller has managed to get the MTA to pick up prior ads directed at Park51 - and the MTA benefits from the advertising fees ($10,000).

At the same time, the MTA doesn't need to deal with fending off a lawsuit at a time when its budget can ill afford to deal with this kind of craziness. But then again, one has to feel that the whole purpose of putting out this hateful advertisement and the MTA's refusal to post it has been newsworthy enough that Geller and her cohorts have gotten their money's worth from free publicity and news and blog accounts to make their point without having to get the MTA carry the advertising at all.

Oh, and for what it's worth, the Park51 project, a Muslim interfaith center with activities for the Lower Manhattan community opened up with no fanfare and no comment from the local community, although a Muslim prayer space has been operating for about two years. Funny how that worked out for Geller. With all their vitriol, the Park51 project, which was to convert the former Burlington Coat Factory building on Park Place into a major community center, was completely unsuccessful in stopping the project - but was completely successful in exposing the hateful ways of Geller and her cohorts.

The Park51 project intends to demolish the existing structures and replace it with a new center, but that portion is on hold pending financing.

Ex-Boyfriend Shows Why He's An Ex After Posting Odious Abortion Billboard

There was a time when the personal stayed personal and if a boyfriend had a disagreement with his girlfriend over whether to have children, this stayed private. It didn't go up on a billboard for all the world to see.

A New Mexico man's decision to lash out with a billboard ad saying his ex-girlfriend had an abortion against his wishes has touched off a legal debate over free speech and privacy rights.

The sign on Alamogordo's main thoroughfare shows 35-year-old Greg Fultz holding the outline of an infant. The text reads, "This Would Have Been A Picture Of My 2-Month Old Baby If The Mother Had Decided To Not KILL Our Child!"

Fultz's ex-girlfriend has taken him to court for harassment and violation of privacy. A domestic court official has recommended the billboard be removed.

But Fultz's attorney argues the order violates his client's free speech rights.

"As distasteful and offensive as the sign may be to some, for over 200 years in this country the First Amendment protects distasteful and offensive speech," Todd Holmes said.

The woman's friends say she had a miscarriage, not an abortion, according to a report in the Albuquerque Journal.

Holmes disputes that, saying his case is based on the accuracy of his client's statement.

"My argument is: What Fultz said is the truth," Holmes said.

The woman's attorney is focusing on the privacy rights and Fultz claims that this is a free speech right.

Fultz has also turned this into an abortion issue, but it's not clear that an abortion even took place. The woman's friends claim that no abortion took place; this was a miscarriage, which is something that a significant percentage of all women who get pregnant will endure. It's an extremely disappointing and emotional situation and sometimes requires a medical procedure to remove the failed fetus.

What this shows is that Fultz is a piece of work and the woman was justified to turn him into an ex-boyfriend. A judge has already ruled that the billboard should come down. Fultz's lawyer claims that Fultz has a free speech right to post the billboard, and cites to the recent Westboro decision at the US Sup. Ct., but that's a gross misreading seeing that the Supreme Court limited that decision to only the Westboro situation at issue.

Haters Protesting Haters

The Westboro Baptists didn't take the Memorial Day weekend off. Instead, they were out protesting at Arlington National Cemetery, but they were greeted by none other than the Ku Klux Klan, which organized a counter protest.

Hours before President Barack Obama led the nation's Memorial Day observances at the Tomb of the Unknowns, three members of the Westboro Baptist Church were challenged by others who disagreed with them -- including members claiming to be from the Ku Klux Klan.

The Kansas-based church has attracted nationwide attention for its angry, anti-gay protests at the funerals of U.S. military members.

Among those counter-protesting at the cemetery's main entrance: About 10 members of a group that claims to be a branch of the Ku Klux Klan from Virginia called the Knights of the Southern Cross. They were cordoned off separately in a nearby area, but drew little attention as they gave out small American flags behind a banner that read "POW-MIA."

They said they were there to object to the Westboro Baptist Church's anti-troop message.

Anti-gay preacher once fought for civil rights

"It's the soldier that fought and died and gave them that right to free speech," said Dennis LaBonte, the self-described "Imperial Wizard" of the KKK group that he said he formed several years ago.

"That's fine," said Abigail Phelps, the daughter of Westboro Baptist Church founder Fred Phelps. "They have no moral authority on anything.

"People like them say it's white power ... white supremacy," Phelps said. "The Bible doesn't say anywhere that it's an abomination to be born of a certain gender or race."

LaBonte insisted he is not a racist nor a "hate-monger," but said he believes the white race is "slowly and most assuredly being denigrated."

NJ Transit Worker Gets Job Back After Burning Koran During Protest

As I noted last November, I thought that Derek Fenton had a great chance of winning back his job because he was exercising his First Amendment rights for free speech to protest against the construction of the Cordoba House/Park 51 community center and mosque near Ground Zero. New Jersey Transit fired Fenton and the New Jersey chapter of the ACLU took up his cause. Gov. Chris Christie had supported the firing because of the intolerance that Fenton showed in his actions.

Today, a settlement between Fenton and NJ Transit means that Fenton will be reassigned to his $86,110-a-year job as a conductor and as an assistant train-consist coordinator. He will also get $25,000 for pain and suffering, as well as back pay equal to $331.20 for every day since his firing.

Note that Fenton was fired for actions carried out while he was off-duty and not in uniform. The outcome of the case would have been quite different had he been on duty when he burned the koran or had been wearing a NJ Transit uniform when burning the koran.

The First Amendment protects political speech no matter how distasteful and hateful. Fenton's speech was protected, and NJ Transit had overstepped its bounds and authority in firing Fenton for speech undertaken outside his employment.

Federal Judge Sides With the Boobies (Bracelets)

A federal judge has sided with student groups that sell bracelets indicating that they love boobies as part of fundraising for cancer research in a lawsuit against school districts that had banned the bracelets.

“I Heart Boobies” bracelets are sold across the nation and have been banned in many U.S schools, including Oceanside High School, Valley Middle School in Carlsbad and Mountain Empire High School in East County.

U.S. District Judge Mary McLaughlin sided with students Tuesday in a free-speech test case filed in Pennsylvania by the American Civil Liberties Union. She issued a temporary injunction that bars the Easton Area School District from enforcing its ban.

School officials argue the slogan suggests a sexual double meaning and leads to in-school distractions.

Some schools had banned the bracelets claiming that they were distracting and full of sexual innuendos. The judge got this one right.

US Supreme Court Rules In Favor of Westboro Baptists In Free Speech Case

The US Supreme Court ruled, 7-1 (Alito dissenting) that the Westboro Baptist Church was protected under the First Amendment to picket outside military funerals (HT: Simply Sarah). The group, whose odious messages are hurtful to families burying servicemembers who died in the service of their country, is protected by the First Amendment.

The Court found that the group picketed and engaged in free speech in compliance with local rules and that its choice of picketing didn't disrupt the funerals themselves, but more importantly - that the US has chosen to protect hurtful speech on public issues to ensure that public debate is not stifled.

The Westboro picketers carried signs that were largely the same at all three locations.They stated, for instance: “God Hates the USA/Thank God for 9/11,” “America is Doomed,” “Don’t Pray for the USA,” “Thank God for IEDs,” “Thank God for Dead Soldiers,” “Pope in Hell,” “Priests Rape Boys,” “God Hates Fags,”“You’re Going to Hell,” and “God Hates You.”

The church had notified the authorities in advance of its intent to picket at the time of the funeral, and the picket-ers complied with police instructions in staging their demonstration. The picketing took place within a 10- by25-foot plot of public land adjacent to a public street,behind a temporary fence. App. to Brief for Appellantsin No. 08–1026 (CA4), pp. 2282–2285 (hereinafter App.).That plot was approximately 1,000 feet from the church where the funeral was held. Several buildings separated the picket site from the church.

The First Amendment isn't about protecting favorable speech, but protecting political speech that isn't liked, so while courts have held that even protected speech is not equally permissible in all places at all times (Cornelius v. NAACP Legal Defense Fund), the group was conforming to local rules on where and how to picket. The group's members had the right to be where they were and the right to engage in speech as they did.

The Court ruled that the outcome is limited to the particular facts before the Court, so the precedent set here is limited.

Protests and Deaths Rock Libya and Bahrain

Libya's Mumar Khadafi and the Bahraini regimes are both using deadly force to quell the protests that have sprung up in the wake of the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt.

Reports of deaths in Libya mount.

There were reports of 16 deaths, but they could not be independently confirmed.

A text message sent out earlier on mobile phones had threatened Libyans planning to take to the streets, activists and bloggers said.

"From Libya's youth to anyone who dares to cross any of the four red lines come and face us in any street on the ground of our beloved country," the Short Message System dispatch said, referring to a speech by Saif el-Islam Gadhafi, Moammar Gadhafi's son, in which he described the lines as Islamic law, the Quran, Libyan security and his father.

They apparently did little to deter demonstrators. Protests in the isolated North African nation broke out this week, part of a larger anti-government movement sweeping the region.

Libya's regime has limited foreign journalists access to the country, which limits its coverage other than from reports and tweets from those inside the country trying to spread the word about the protests.

Bahrain is also racked by protests, and a US journalist was among those injured in melees between protesters and Bahraini security.

A US reporter for ABC News was beaten by thugs armed with clubs early Thursday while covering the unrest in Bahrain, the US network reported.

Correspondent Miguel Marquez was caught in the crowd and attacked while covering protests in Manama, ABC said.

Marquez, who said he was not badly injured, was clubbed while he was on the phone with his headquarters in New York describing the scene as riot police stormed through a Manama square in the dark in a harsh crackdown on anti-regime protesters.

"No! No! No! Hey! I'm a journalist here!" he yelled while still on the phone. "I'm going! I'm going! I'm going! I'm going! ... I'm hit."

He said that the thugs pulled his camera out of his hands.

"I just got beat rather badly by a gang of thugs," Marquez said in a later call to ABC headquarters. "I'm now in a marketplace near our hotel where people are cowering in buildings."

Bahraini security launched a brutal assault on the protesters using lethal force in the process:



The military moved forcefully to clear the main square where protests hoped to converge following the scene of protests in Tahrir Square. The military now occupies the square, leaving the protesters to find alternative locations and regroup for further demonstrations.

With the death toll rising, the demonstrations and protests are likely to be connected with the funerals of those killed by security forces. That's likely to be a rallying point against the Bahraini regime that has moved too slowly on political and economic reforms.

UPDATE:
The brutality with which the Bahraini regime is putting down the demonstrations is heartbreaking to Nicholas Kristof, who writes:

The pro-democracy movement has bubbled for decades in Bahrain, but it found new strength after the overthrow of the dictatorships in Tunisia and Egypt. Then the Bahrain government attacked the protesters early this week with stunning brutality, firing tear gas, rubber bullets and shotgun pellets at small groups of peaceful, unarmed demonstrators. Two demonstrators were killed (one while walking in a funeral procession), and widespread public outrage gave a huge boost to the democracy movement.

King Hamad initially pulled the police back, but early on Thursday morning he sent in the riot police, who went in with guns blazing. Bahrain television has claimed that the protesters were armed with swords and threatening security – that’s preposterous. I was on the roundabout earlier that night and saw many thousands of people, including large numbers of women and children, even babies. Many were asleep.

I was not at the roundabout at the time of the attack, but afterward at the main hospital (one of at least three to receive casualties) I saw the effects. More than 600 people were treated with injuries, overwhelmingly men but including small numbers of women and children.

One nurse told me that she was on the roundabout and saw a young man of about 24, handcuffed and then beaten by a group of police. She said she then watched as they executed him at point-blank range with a gun. The nurse told me her name, but I will not use full names of some people in this column to avoid putting them at greater risk.

Dr. Ahmed Jamal, the president of the Bahrain Medical Society, said that one doctor, Sadiq Ekri, a surgeon, had been badly beaten by riot police while attempting to treat the injured. Dr. Ekri has a suspected fracture at the base of his skull, according to Dr. Jamal.

Kristof also reports anecdotes that the Saudi military was involved in the military suppression of the protests and the bloody and violent nature of the suppression.

Bringing in foreign troops would also explain why things got so violent so quickly. The Saudis would have no connection to the protesters (as the Egyptian troops felt kinship with the protesters), and so wouldn't be aligned in interests. If this is confirmed, the Bahraini king brought in foreign troops to do his dirty work to stay in power.

UPDATE:
Tanks seen in this video M-60s, which are older American-designed tanks. Both the Bahraini and Saudi military has significant numbers of this older tank.

There is supposedly video of Saudi tanks rolling across the causeway into Bahrain, but I can't locate that at the moment. Photos claiming Saudi tanks are rolling into Bahrain are also M-60 tank variants. I can't make out any identifying markings to say which army operates those tanks.

Yet, there are reports that the Saudis sent 150 tanks and personnel carriers into Bahrain via Qatar. Stay tuned.

UPDATE:
Via Memri, there is additional confirmation that the Saudis are assisting the Bahraini regime crack down against the protesters - and it may be part of a strategy to keep the Saudi regime in place by thwarting protests in neighboring countries.

Algerian Security Putting Down Protests

Algerian protesters were met with riot police and a very strong police presence:

The demonstrators gathered in May 1 Square, chanting “Bouteflika out!” in reference to President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who has ruled Algeria since 1999. Organizers said thousands had taken part, but news agencies gave vastly differing figures, from a few dozen to thousands.

The protesters were hemmed in by thousands of riot police and blocked from embarking on a planned march through the capital. Many were arrested, although there were also conflicting numbers for those detained.

By Saturday afternoon, the square was lined by riot police and armored vehicles and a police helicopter circled overhead. Principal roads into the center of town also remained blocked and far fewer people were on the streets than would be typical on a Saturday.

The Interior Ministry posted a statement on its Web site saying that 250 people had taken part in the protests and that 14 people had been detained and later released, according to Reuters.

Human rights groups however said the number of arrests had been far higher.

The media spokesman for the coordinating committee seeking democratic change in Algeria said that 70 people had been arrested and that about 30 remained in detention. Those detained included the group’s main organizers, as well as human rights activists, union organizers, members of women’s associations and groups formed to track the missing and killed during the civil war in the 1990s.

ACLU To Sue NJ Transit For Firing Off-Duty Employee Who Burned Koran

The New Jersey chapter of the ACLU will be suing NJ Transit on behalf of Derek Fenton who they believe was improperly fired from the transit agency. Fenton had burned a Koran on the 9th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in the course of demonstrations against the proposed Cordoba House/Park51 project and was thereafter fired by NJ Transit.

Now the American Civil Liberties Union says Fenton should get his job back. The group will file a lawsuit Friday in U.S. District Court saying Fenton was unconstitutionally fired for exercising his free speech rights.

"If you allow governments to censor one kind of speech, you open the door to censorship of all kinds of speech," said Deborah Jacobs, executive director of the ACLU in New Jersey. "Our individual right to free speech depends on everybody having it."

A spokeswoman for NJ Transit declined to comment today. When Fenton was fired, the agency released a statement saying it had "concluded that Mr. Fenton violated his trust as a state employee and therefore was dismissed."

Two months ago Fenton waded into a roiling international debate over free speech, religious freedom and Islam’s place in America. Terry Jones, a fringe pastor from Florida, had already announced plans to burn the Koran on Sept. 11. Fueled by round-the-clock media coverage, it quickly became one of the world’s most inflammatory topics. Gen. David Petraeus, the top American commander in Afghanistan, said the action could endanger U.S. soldiers, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates called Jones personally to ask him to cancel his plans.

Jones eventually decided not to burn the Koran.

Fenton did what Jones was persuaded not to do. And as I wrote when the incident broke, NJ Transit violated Fenton's free speech rights. Fenton's speech may have been hateful and disrespectful, but that is within his rights under the First Amendment.

Fenton had every right to voice his opinion in that setting. This isn't an instance of an employee carrying out such conduct while in his capacity as an employee or public official. He was off-duty at the time, and NJ Transit determined that dismissal was the preferred option, rather than probation or other disciplinary measures or undertaking sensitivity training or other such programs. I would say that the ACLU has a very good chance of winning this suit on Fenton's behalf.

Free the "Boobies" Bracelets From Overzealous School Administrators

Schools across the country have decided that a plastic bracelet sold to help raise funds for breast cancer research was inapporpriate for a school setting.

So, they've banned them.

A $4 rubber bracelet meant to raise breast cancer awareness has done that and more: Students nationwide are wearing the "I (heart) boobies" wristbands, and running afoul of school administrators.

Schools from California to Florida have banned the bracelets because they believe the "boobies" language is inappropriate.

The bracelets are marketed by a California-based nonprofit created to raise breast cancer awareness among youth. The Keep A Breast Foundation has sold 2 million of the bracelets so far, with the money going to breast cancer research and education programs.

The group believes a bracelet with a catchy, envelope-pushing slogan such as "I (heart) boobies" is a better way to teach kids about breast cancer than more traditional methods like pink ribbons.

Kollin West, a 14-year-old student at Laramie Junior High School, is one student who got in trouble over the bracelets.

Schools have demanded that students turn the rubber bracelets inside out so that the slogans aren't visible.

I think that the school administrators have more important things to do than patrol for bracelets that send a positive and uplifting message to breast cancer survivors. Inadvertently, these overzealous school administrators are highlighting the boobies campaign but their continued crackdowns send the wrong messages to students who are trying to do something positive.

The ACLU is considering getting involved over free speech implications, and I think that they'd be right to do so.

NJ Transit Went Too Far In Firing Employee Who Burned Koran

It's an emotionally charged issue, but emotion has nothing to do with the clear boundaries of the law. A person has the right to free speech and the conduct of burning a Koran falls within the protections of the First Amendment.

It may be hateful speech and stupid speech, but it is protected speech nonetheless.

That's why NJ Transit's decision to fire an employee who attended a demonstration against the Cordoba House proposal in Lower Manhattan and burned a copy of the Koran on his own time is likely to get the agency in trouble.

Derek Fenton's 11-year career at the agency came to an abrupt halt Monday after photographs of him ripping pages from the Muslim holy book and setting them ablaze appeared in newspapers.

Fenton, 39, of Bloomingdale, N.J., burned the book during a protest on the ninth anniversary of Sept. 11 outside Park51, the controversial mosque slated to be built near Ground Zero.

He was apparently inspired by Pastor Terry Jones, the Florida clergyman who threatened to burn the Koran that day but later changed his mind.

NJ Transit said Fenton was fired but wouldn't give specifics.

"Mr. Fenton's public actions violated New Jersey Transit's code of ethics," an agency statement said.

"NJ Transit concluded that Mr. Fenton violated his trust as a state employee and therefore [he] was dismissed."

Fenton was ushered from the protests by police on Saturday and questioned, but he was released without charges.

The employee, Derek Fenton, has every right to voice his opinion in that setting. This isn't an instance of an employee carrying out such conduct while in his capacity as an employee or public official.

It looks like NJ Transit stepped over the line in pursuing actions against Fenton for speech Fenton undertook while not on duty. Moreover, it appears that the agency determined that dismissal was the option, rather than probation or other disciplinary measures or undertaking sensitivity training or other such programs.

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 110

While much of the focus is on the Cordoba House project two blocks north (despite the fact that two other mosques are within walking distance of Ground Zero), progress continues on the Freedom Tower. And yes, the whole mess with the Cordoba House has gotten to the point where President Obama not only had to chime in, but then had to play it both ways. What a way to take a principled stand, where the US Constitution protects the proponent's right to build, just as surely as it protects the rights of everyone else to complain about it being built. That's one of the foundations of this great nation.



But as to why so many people are opposed to the project, maybe it has to do with the fact that so many people have gotten their information from a media that continues to botch the facts. That goes for Charles Krauthammer too, who ought to know better.

Moreover, the same people who claim that the mosque doesn't belong near Ground Zero (that is when they aren't conflating matters by claiming the mosque will be in Ground Zero) don't care that there's a strip club about the same distance from Ground Zero or that millions of square feet of office space are set to rise from Ground Zero - the space where nearly 3,000 people were murdered.

Despite all the focus elsewhere, the Freedom Tower is growing about three stories every week.

Right now, it's 34 stories tall, and the tower cranes are starting to peek over the Battery Park City buildings, which means that it wont be long before the tower itself is visible from across the Hudson River.

The Port Authority's photo stream is here. This photo shows the WTC Memorials and the footprints coming to fruition. If you're at street level, you can't see what's going on around the site because of the updated blue wraps that deter people from looking into the site. That includes the Santiago Calatrava designed transit hub for PATH.

Most of the work around Ground Zero is still below ground level, but 1WTC (Freedom Tower) and 4WTC (diagonally across the site) are rising with new steel added daily.

Jury Deadlocked In Hal Turner Case

The jury is deadlocked after just a couple hours of deliberation of the charges against Hal Turner. He's accused of threatening three federal judges through his radio program and online presence:

U.S. District Court Judge Donald Walter ordered the jury to return Monday morning to resume deliberations on whether Turner, 47, broke the law against threatening judges when he wrote on his blog last June that three federal appeals court judges “deserved to be killed” for ruling in favor of a gun control ordinance.

If convicted, Turner, who built an audience in recent years of neo-Nazis and white supremacists with his extreme right-wing radio and blog tirades, could be sentenced to 10 years in prison.

The central issue in the case is whether Turner’s words alone constitute an illegal threat.

Prosecutors contend that Turner’s words were aimed to “impede,” “intimidate” and “retaliate” against the federal judges – all elements of a threat, they say. But Turner’s defense lawyers say Turner’s statement on his blog was merely his opinion as a shock jock and therefore protected as free speech under the First Amendment.

Afghan Court Upholds Sentence In Koran Translation Case

The publication of a Koran that doesn't include the original Arabic will result in a lengthy prison sentence for two men in Afghanistan. This is just wrong, but this is how Islamic law rolls:

The controversial text is a translation of Islam's holy book into an Afghan language without the original Arabic verses alongside. Muslims regard the Arabic Quran as words given directly by God. A translation is not considered a Quran itself, and it is believed a mistranslation could warp God's word.

A host of Muslim clerics in this conservative Islamic state have condemned the translation - which was published in 2007 and handed out for free - as blasphemous and accused its publishers of setting themselves up as false prophets.

Critics have said the trial illustrates the undue influence of hard-line clerics in Afghanistan's fledgling legal system.

The appeals court found the men guilty of modifying the Quran - a crime punishable by death. However, the three-judge panel reiterated a lower court ruling giving the men 20 years each.

The prosecutor had asked for the death penalty for the two men - Ahmad Ghaws Zalmai, a former spokesman for the attorney general, and Mushtaq Ahmad, a Muslim cleric who signed a letter endorsing the translation.

Chief judge Abdul Salam Qazizada invoked Islamic Shariah law when reading out the sentence, saying death would not have been an extreme punishment.

The death sentence was considered an appropriate treatment for the crime since both men were accused of apostasy and leading other Muslims to consider apostasy.

Here's the thing.

Despite making the Koran more approachable and understandable for the people reading it - those that can read it in a country that has an incredibly high illiteracy rate - it is deemed a crime because the original Arabic was not included (even when most people don't know how to read it or understand it either).

The freedom of speech runs headlong into Islamic law and Islamic law wins again.

These two men are lucky that they didn't get a death sentence.

German Police Take Down Lawfully Displayed Israeli Flag Because Hamas Supporters Might Riot

10,000 people were demonstrating their support for Hamas, the Islamic terrorist group in Duisburg, Germany. Two pro-Israeli apartment dwellers near the demonstrations hung an Israeli flag in their window. Police then entered that apartment to take the Israeli flag down.

Here's the video and photographic evidence, courtesy of Jewish Odysseus (HT: Ace):

The statement of the police was to de-escalate the situation, because many youth demonstrators were on the brink of breaking into our apartment house.

Instead of doing what it could to stop protesters from breaking the law, it chose to break the law and infringe on the rights of individuals to support Israel by flying a flag in their own home.

Keep in mind that Germany has anti-Nazi laws and more stringent speech codes than here in the US. Yet, the police chose to break into an apartment to take down a flag while ignoring people dressed up in full Hamas garb and waving Hizbullah and Hamas flags, despite the fact that both groups are terrorist groups that seek nothing less than the genocide of Israel.

It's absolutely dispicable that the German police would take down the flag, all while ignoring the calls for genocide and the destruction of Israel which are part and parcel of the anti-Israel demonstrations around the world that have cropped up as a result of Israel defending itself from the incessant terror attacks by Hamas, the Islamic terrorist group whose raison d'etre is the destruction of Israel.

From the Hamas Charter:

The day that enemies usurp part of Muslim land, Jihad becomes the individual duty of every Muslim. In face of the Jews' usurpation of Palestine, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised. To do this requires the diffusion of Islamic consciousness among the masses, both on the regional, Arab and Islamic levels. It is necessary to instill the spirit of Jihad in the heart of the nation so that they would confront the enemies and join the ranks of the fighters.

This isn't the spiritual jihad or enlightenment, but a call to arms to destroy Israel by brute force and any means necessary. Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, whose goals are to establish an Islamic regime around the world, starting in areas that were previously under Islamic control - a region that spans from India and South Asia to Portugal and into Southern and Eastern Europe.

Israel is the focal point of the jihad, but it isn't alone. We repeatedly hear references to Andalusia (Spain) in al Qaeda's video and audio propaganda tapes, and Islamists the world over are taught to carry out jihad to spread the word of Islam by any means necessary, including the usurpation of existing laws to further their own goals.