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Chronology of Islam in America (2009)
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
August 2009
Blackwater founder implicated in murder
August 3: A former Blackwater employee and an ex-U.S. Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company have made a series of explosive allegations in sworn statements filed today in federal court in Virginia. The two men claim that the company's owner, Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company. The former employee also alleges that Prince "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe," and that Prince's companies "encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life."
In their testimony, both men also allege that Blackwater was smuggling weapons into Iraq. One of the men alleges that Prince turned a profit by transporting "illegal" or "unlawful" weapons into the country on Prince's private planes. They also charge that Prince and other Blackwater executives destroyed incriminating videos, emails and other documents and have intentionally deceived the U.S. State Department and other federal agencies. The identities of the two individuals were sealed out of concerns for their safety.
These allegations, and a series of other charges, are contained in sworn affidavits, given under penalty of perjury, filed today in the Eastern District of Virginia as part of a seventy-page motion by lawyers for Iraqi civilians suing Blackwater for alleged war crimes and other misconduct. Susan Burke, a private attorney working in conjunction with the Center for Constitutional Rights, is suing Blackwater in five separate civil cases filed in the Washington, DC, area. They were recently consolidated before Judge T.S. Ellis III of the Eastern District of Virginia for pretrial motions. Burke filed today’s motion in response to Blackwater's motion to dismiss the case.
The two declarations are each five pages long and contain a series of devastating allegations concerning Erik Prince and his network of companies, which now operate under the banner of Xe Services LLC. Among those leveled by Doe #2 is that Prince "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe":
To that end, Mr. Prince intentionally deployed to Iraq certain men who shared his vision of Christian supremacy, knowing and wanting these men to take every available opportunity to murder Iraqis. Many of these men used call signs based on the Knights of the Templar, the warriors who fought the Crusades. Mr. Prince operated his companies in a manner that encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life. For example, Mr. Prince's executives would openly speak about going over to Iraq to "lay Hajiis out on cardboard." Going to Iraq to shoot and kill Iraqis was viewed as a sport or game. Mr. Prince's employees openly and consistently used racist and derogatory terms for Iraqis and other Arabs, such as "ragheads" or "hajiis." (The Nation)
Rally Marks Anniversary of FBI Terror Sting Arrests
August 4: The Muslim Solidarity Committee in Albany, NY, marked the fifth anniversary of the arrests of two Albany Muslims, Yassin Aref and Mohammed Hossain, with a rally and march in Albany. The Muslim Solidarity Committee which was founded in 2006 after the two were convicted. Yassin Aref and Mohammed Hossain were sentenced to 15 years in prison, resulting from an FBI sting operation involving money-laundering from the sale of a fake shoulder-fired missile. In the Albany case, it took an informant 5 months to talk Mohammed Hossain into accepting a loan, in the case of the Fort Dix 5, an electronics store clerk in South Jersey gave police a copy of a customer's videotape that showed the men firing rifles and shouting Islamic battle cries. FBI agents and two paid cooperators then spent eighteen months persuading the men to do something that would enable the agency to arrest them. Aref’s attorney, Steve Downs, said that the arrests and convictions were made with a tactic called preemptive prosecution which was a result of the country’s war on terror. “The fact that these prosecutions are directed exclusively at one religious community — Muslims — not only violates Constitutional protections, which forbid the prosecution of people who have no intention of committing a crime, but also discriminates against Muslims,” he said. (Media Reports)
FBI profiling of Muslims on the rise, says Law Caucus
August 5: Muslim Americans are being increasingly targeted for unwarranted house searches and questioning, said Veena Dubal, staff attorney of the Asian Law Caucus, during a brown-bag seminar at the organization’s headquarters in San Francisco today. Last October — in the waning days of the Bush administration — FBI director Robert Mueller signed new guidelines allowing broader FBI authority in pursuing potential threats to national security. The new guidelines allow agents to consider race or ethnicity in determining whether someone is a suspect. These guidelines – which became effective Dec. 1, 2008 — allow the FBI to launch a criminal investigation against someone without any factual predicate and without approval from FBI headquarters, said Dubal. “Under the current guidelines, FBI agents are allowed to racially profile an individual if it is determined to be in the nation’s national interests,” she said, adding that the guidelines may also be used ambiguously to “prevent conduct.”
The guidelines are similar to COINTELPRO, an FBI program used in the 50s and 60s to spy on civil rights, environmental and labor groups, with the goal of unearthing Communist ties those organizations may have had. At Congressional hearings last May, Mueller — who continues to serve as FBI director in the Obama administration — said the guidelines simply formalized processes the FBI had begun to use, post-9/11. President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have not indicated whether they intend to scrap the new guidelines, said Dubal.
“We understand the reluctance of some communities to sit down at the table with us. Oftentimes, the communities from which we need the most help are those who trust us the least. But it is in these communities that we must re-double our efforts,” said Mueller in a Feb. 23 talk at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C. Mueller and former attorney general John Ashcroft had been sued by Pakistani national Javaid Iqbal, who alleged he had been tortured and kept in confinement by the U.S. for more than 18 months, based solely on his race and religion. Iqbal was eventually deported back to Pakistan, but was never found to have engaged in any terrorist activity. The Supreme Court dismissed Iqbal’s case May 18, saying he had failed to make a link between officials’ conduct and the abuse he allegedly suffered. Dubal said the Supreme Court decision essentially endorsed religious and ethnic profiling as a “wartime necessity.”
Equally problematic is the practice of recruiting informants from within the community, said Dubal. The FBI has set up a Citizens’ Academy, ostensibly to train community leaders into the field-gathering techniques of the agency. Business, civic and religious leaders, nominated by an FBI employee or previous academy graduate, are given training in several aspects of espionage, including firearms usage, evidence collection and fingerprinting. Dubal pointed to the recent case of an Irvine, Calif., man hired by the FBI for $130,000 to infiltrate area mosques and incite people to say things about the jihad and terrorist activities. “There’s a feeling of being under siege within the community,” she said, adding, “People start to wonder whether their friends or colleagues are spies. New people are always distrusted and never become part of the community.”
The caucus is organizing a series of town hall meetings at religious gathering places throughout the state — particularly in Stockton and Lodi, which have high concentrations of Muslim American residents — letting people know their rights while under investigation. You do not have to talk to the FBI, said Dubal, adding that people have a right to – and should – bring an attorney along. Federal Criminal Code 1001 makes it a crime to lie to an FBI agent, and that code is now being used to recklessly incarcerate people, said Dubal. “We tell people its better not to talk to an FBI agent, because if you do and you misrepresent yourself, you could be subject to criminal penalty.” A household search can be conducted by the FBI without a warrant, noted Dubal. (India West)
In Raleigh, NC, Muslims view FBI with fear, mistrust
August 5: Just two Saturdays ago, the Islamic Center of Raleigh (North Carolina) was a joyous place. A long-planned open house at its mosque and school in the Method neighborhood near N.C. State University drew such high-level guests as N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper and State Treasurer Janet Cowell. FBI and SBI officials also attended, marking an important step toward their hosts' goal of good relations between law enforcement and the Muslim community as memories of 9/11 recede. So Muslim leaders were shocked the following Monday, when the FBI and the U.S. attorney's office in Raleigh announced that seven local Muslim men had been arrested, charged with a terrorist plot to commit murder in foreign countries. An eighth suspect was being sought abroad. "It was like a bomb went off," said Jihad Shawwa, a member of the mosque and an officer of the Muslim American Public Affairs Council (MAPAC) in North Carolina.
Officially, the Muslim community reacted cautiously to the arrests, professing their trust in the federal justice system while also warning, in the words of Khalilah Sabra, executive director of the Triangle chapter of the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation (MAS-Freedom), against "a rush to judgment" by the press and public. But within the community, many received the news with mistrust or fear. To one another, they questioned why the FBI pounced so soon after the open house, asking if the arrests weren't a deliberate effort to ruin the goodwill the event created. Some who read the 14-page indictment called it flimsy, full of vague accusations that the defendants were plotting "violent jihad" and their own suicides, but with no details about where or against whom they planned to strike. Was the indictment backed up by evidence of crimes, they wondered, or merely the result of loose talk by the suspects combined with the authorities' ethnic stereotyping? And if the latter, would it serve to alienate newly arrived Muslims, many of them refugees, as they try to adapt to a new and foreign culture in America? (Independent Weekly)
Muslims press public schools on Islamic holidays
August 12: The Coalition for Muslim School Holidays, a group of more than 80 religious and ethnic organizations lobbying to have the two Eid holidays designated as days off in New York City schools, in which 10 percent of the 1.1 million students are Muslim, according to a study published last year by the Teachers College at Columbia University. The city's school calendar already recognizes Christmas and the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Religious holiday controversies, of course, are not unique to Muslims, or to New York City. The issue can loom as large as church-state donnybrooks or as quotidian as concerns from students aiming for perfect school attendance while also wanting to observe their faith.
The New York effort took-off after state education officials scheduled the Regents exam on Eid al-Adha in 2006. In 2007, the New York State Legislature passed a law prohibiting standardized tests being held on religious holidays, and is considering a bill that would require New York City schools to close on Eid holidays. The New York City Council recently passed a non-binding resolution in favor of closing school for the two Eid days. But Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has the final say, opposes the idea, arguing that it would cut into the 180 days of school required by state law and open the door to more religions asking for their holidays off.
Others agree that shortening the school year would be a mistake, but say city officials can simply shorten summer vacation instead. "Giving days off for the Eids does not mean fewer days in school,"said Faiza Ali, a spokeswoman for the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic relations. When Eid days happened during school in past years, Akter celebrated at home if she had no tests scheduled, but went to school if she did, dampening spirits and raising questions about her commitment to the faith.
New York City officials say they already accommodate students by excusing them from school for religious holidays without being penalized or having the absence appear on their record. "Students are allowed to take an excused day whenever they want," said Margie Feinberg, a spokeswoman for the city's Department of Education. "It's not as if a student who wants to take those days off will be impacted." Not true, said Akter, explaining that when she missed school last year for Eid al-Fitr, the absence was on her record. "If we're absent, we're absent. It shows that I was absent that day," she said. (By Omar Sacirbey - Religion News Service)
Bollywood’ Muslim super star, Shah Rukh Khan, held at Newark Airport
August 14: Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, who plays a Muslim mistaken for a terrorist in his latest film, says he was racially profiled at Newark Airport and detained for two hours today.
The 43-year-old "Tom Cruise of India" - cited last year by Newsweek as one of the world's 50 most influential men - was released only after Indian diplomats intervened. "I was really being hassled, perhaps because of my name being Khan," the international box office sensation charged Saturday in a text message to reporters. Khan, who has appeared in more than 70 films, said he was waiting for his luggage when his name popped up on a computer alert list. Security then pulled him aside. "Absolutely uncalled for, I think," Khan said. "I felt angry and humiliated."
Khan said he endured two hours of interrogation before he was allowed to call the Indian embassy in Washington. An official there vouched for the star, who was then released.
New Dehli-based U.S. Ambassador Timothy Roemer said officials were trying to "ascertain the facts of the case." "Shah Rukh Khan, the actor and global icon, is a very welcome guest in the United States," Roemer said Saturday. "Many Americans love his films." (New York Daily News)
Judge rules against freeze on Muslim charity’s assets
August 18: The federal government must have probable cause to seize an organization's assets even when it involves national security, a federal judge ruled in a case involving an Ohio-based charity accused of having ties to the militant group Hamas. U.S. District Judge James Carr said today the government has an obligation to tell an organization why it is freezing its assets and to give it a chance to respond. Attorneys for KindHearts for Charitable Humanitarian Development sued the government after it refused to say why the charity was essentially shut down three years ago. The U.S. Treasury Department in 2006 ordered U.S. banks to freeze the Toledo charity's assets, saying it was funneling money to a terrorist organization. KindHearts officials have denied being connected to any terrorist group. The judge said the treasury department wrongly froze KindHearts' assets because it failed to first get a probable cause warrant. ''The ruling provides a much-needed judicial check on executive power,'' Hina Shamsi, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, said Wednesday. The ACLU is representing KindHearts in the case. (Associated Press)
President Obama sends video greetings for Ramadan
August 21: President Barack Obama wished a blessed Ramadan to Muslims in and outside of the United States in a web video today. "On behalf of the American people, including Muslim communities in all 50 states, I want to extend best wishes to Muslims in American and around the world. Ramadan Kareem," he said. The video message was accompanied by a blog post from Rashad Hussain, deputy associate White House counsel which in part said: The President's message is part of an on-going dialogue with Muslim communities that began on inauguration day and has continued with his statement on Nowruz, during trips to Ankara and Cairo, and with interviews with media outlets such as Al Arabiya and Dawn TV. As this dialogue continues and leads to concrete actions, the President extends his greetings on behalf of the American people. Ramadan Kareem. Earlier this year President Obama offered a similar message of friendship in a Web video to mark Nowruz, the Iranian new year. (Media Reports)
Tom Ridge: Terror warnings were political
August 21: Former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge, the first director of the Department of Homeland Security, says that he was pressured by other agency heads to raise the terrorism threat level on the eve of the 2004 presidential election. The disclosure comes in promotional materials for Ridge's new book, due out Sept. 1, in which he writes that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Attorney General John D. Ashcroft tried to pressure him to raise the threat level. "After that episode, I knew I had to follow through with my plans to leave the federal government for the private sector," Ridge writes in the book, "The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege . . . and How We Can Be Safe Again," according to publisher Thomas Dunne Books. He submitted his resignation within the month. Threat-level warnings became a subject of controversy in 2004 after one rise was declared just days after the Democratic National Convention that summer. The move was seen by some at the time as redirecting public attention toward an issue where Bush was stronger (terrorism) and away from questions about the war in Iraq being raised by Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), his reelection challenger. (Washington Post)
Govt agrees to release of Megahed after judge rules it couldn't prove terrorism case
August 21: Youssef Megahed returned to his family today after an immigration judge in Tampa, Flordica, refused to deport him, ruling the Department of Homeland Security had failed to prove terrorism charges. Megahed, 23, spent the last four months in immigration custody. His sudden release came after Homeland Security attorneys abandoned plans to ask that he be held while they consider appealing Immigration Judge Kenneth S. Hurewitz's decision to dismiss the case.
Authorities detained Megahed for deportation three days after his acquittal in Tampa federal court in April on charges of illegal transportation of explosive materials and possession of a destructive device.
The FBI accused Megahed, Ahmed Mohamed and two other men of conspiring to form a terrorist cell. Mohamed pleaded guilty to a terrorist charge and is serving a 15-year sentence. Karim Moussaoui, a USF graduate, was convicted of violating his student visa by posing for a picture with a rifle while visiting a gun range with Megahed. He received six months in prison and has been deported. Ahmad Ishtay, the fourth person in the alleged conspiracy, was never charged and fled the country.
For the last two years, Megahed has maintained his innocence. He and Mohamed were arrested Aug. 4, 2007, in Goose Creek, S.C., after a deputy stopped them for speeding and found PVC pipes filled with a potassium nitrate mixture in the trunk. Mohamed said they were homemade sugar rockets. The traffic stop led to a federal investigation that revealed Mohamed posted a YouTube video demonstrating how to turn a child's remote control toy into a detonator, which was the basis for his terrorism charge.
"This is a very close case, but I don't believe the government has met its burden in this case," Hurewitz ruled Friday in Megahed's deportation proceedings. The judge said he accepted the evidence against Megahed as fact. But it wasn't enough to convince him the Egyptian national has or is likely to engage in terrorist activity. (Tampa Bay Times)
Teaching hate to school children
August 24: A 10-year-old girl was sent home on her first day back to school in Gainesville, Florida, for wearing a shirt with the words 'Islam Is Of The Devil' printed on it. Who was this teen age girl. She was Faith Sapp, daughter of Wayne Sapp, pastor of the controversial church, the Dove World Outreach Center, in northwest Gainesville. This church drew protests last month when it displayed a series of hand-painted signs that read "Islam is of the devil." Next day, more children from the Dove World Outreach Center arrived at area public schools with shirts bearing the anti-Islam message. One Gainesville High student, Emily Sapp, 15, another daughter of Wayne Sapps, and two Eastside High students were sent home and a student at Westwood Middle had to change clothes because of the shirt. On their front, the T-shirts had a verse from the Gospel of John: "Jesus answered I am the way and the truth and the life; no one goes to the Father except through me," and this statement, "I stand in trust with Dove Outreach Center." The message "Islam is of the Devil" is on the back of the shirt. Interestingly, Dove Senior Pastor Terry Jones says no local company "had the guts" to print the shirts. Dove member Wayne Sapp then ordered the shirts over the Internet from a company that allows individuals to design their own shirts. The Dove World Outreach Center’s anti-Islam T-shirts episode came a month after the church displayed a series of hand-painted signs that read in red "Islam is of the devil." The church’s website says that the signs are aimed at exposing Islam for what it is. “It is a violent and oppressive religion that is trying to mascarade itself as a religion of peace, seeking to deceive our society.” Tellingly the Dove World Outreach Center’s anti-Islam gimmicks came at a time when the church is facing serious accusations of financial irregularities and it is offered for sale. The church accepts donations and is exempt from taxes, while the senior pastors Terry and his wife, Sylvia Jones, own a for-profit enterprise. Now the 80-member Gainesville church’s 20 acre property is up for sale with an asking price of $4 million. This raises a question. Why the church suddenly began anti-Islam rhetoric? Is this a sales pitch? (AMP Report)
CAIR-Chicago files bias complaint for Muslim employee
August 25: The Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Chicago) has filed a complaint in federal court on behalf of a Palestinian Muslim man who claims to have suffered discrimination and wrongful termination by his employer, U.S. Foodservice Inc. The man, who worked as a Territory Manager, was formerly employed at the company's Memphis branch where he was allegedly subjected to derogatory remarks based on his Palestinian origin. To escape these hardships, he transferred to the Chicago office, where he instead faced discriminatory work conditions. In Chicago, the Muslim man was supposed to receive commission-based bonuses in addition to his base salary. Despite opening new accounts and reviving others, the plaintiff received no bonuses. Even more problematic, he was given substantially less and lower-producing accounts compared to co-workers, setting him up for failure. In one incident the man allegedly overheard his co-worker and manager discussing how he should not be introduced to a potential client - a Jewish nursing home- claiming that “a white person” should be taken instead. In December, 2008, the plaintiff was fired, purportedly for not increasing sales numbers. The man claims this is a fictitious reason, when he was not given a fair opportunity to perform well enough in the position. (CAIR Chicago)
FBI investigates vandalism at mosque ‘Death to Muslims’ scratched into sidewalk
August 26: The FBI is investigating a case of vandalism at a mosque in Taylors, North Carolina.The vandalism was found at the Islamic Center and Masjid, located at 96 Meridian Ave. According to an incident report, a member of the mosque discovered the phrase “death to Muslims” scratched into a sidewalk near a side entrance to the building. (The same mosque was burned in 1995 in an arson attack and a suspect was charged in this connection.) (Fox)
Obama formalizes laptop seizure rules
August 27: The Obama administration disclosed today that it will carry on Bush administration policies that allowed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to seize and search international travelers' laptop computers, cellular phones, cameras, and other electronic devices, even in the absence of suspicion of criminal activity. Two DHS directives made public today formalized operational practices established by the Bush administration to carry out searches of the personal digital instruments of travelers, US citizens or not, passing across US borders. By proclaiming that agents can confiscate any digital device that may contain "information," even without suspicion of criminal activity, the directives amount to an open repudiation of the Fourth Amendment's prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures. According to the directives, border police "may detain electronic devices, or copies of information contained therein, for a brief, reasonable period of time to perform a thorough border search. The search may take place on-site or at an off-site location, and is to be completed as expeditiously as possible." If DHS turns up nothing incriminating, to regain the confiscated item the traveler must return to the border crossing where the item was seized, or else pay for its shipment. DHS issued a new policy on laptop searches at the border came a day after the ACLU filed a lawsuit over the matter. An ACLU statement said: The new policy imposes some limits on the claimed authority of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency but leaves intact its unconstitutional policy allowing agents to conduct suspicion-less searches of travelers' laptops. (Media Reports)
Islandia, NY, man tried to run down Muslim mom, daughter
August 27: An Islandia man was charged today with threatening to kill a Muslim woman and her 20-year-old daughter and trying to run them down with his car at a Smithtown gas station, a misdemeanor charge that Muslim groups condemned as too light. Joseph Ballance, 23, pleaded not guilty at an arraignment in First District Court in Central Islip, where he was charged with second-degree aggravated harassment.
The police report says, on Aug. 20 at 3:50 p.m. at the Hess gas station on Smithtown Bypass, Ballance threatened the victim with extreme violence. The victim, 49, and her daughter, both of Smithtown, were dressed in an abaya, a traditional Muslim garment that completely covered their bodies and face, except for their eyes. The report said Ballance then started driving toward the mother. Det. Sgt. Robert Reecks, who heads the Suffolk County Police Department's Hate Crimes unit, said the man drove the car in reverse but didn't get close enough to the older woman to be charged with attempted assault.
In the mother's statement, she said a white male came up behind them yelling, "Take that stuff off. What do you think it is, Halloween?" The man followed them into the store, continuing to yell.The woman said the man then drove his car so close to hers that she couldn't open the gas cap and he "kept striking a match on a matchbook like if I was to start pumping the gas he would throw the match at me," according to the statement. In a statement signed by Ballance, he said that while he was at the station, "two people dressed for Halloween looking like the wicked witch," pulled in. "They shouldn't be allowed to wear that around here," the statement said. "I did nothing to them," he said in the statement. "There is nothing wrong with their car. I never touched them. "This is not Iraq. They should not be dressing like that here. Send them back to Iraq." (Newsday)
EEOC says Nebraska Muslim workers faced ‘unlawful harassment’
August 28: The Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Chicago) today announced that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has determined that Somali Muslim employees at a meatpacking plant in Nebraska faced “unlawful harassment” because of their religion.Last fall, Muslim workers at the Swift Co. plant in Grand Island, Neb., began facing harassment, and in some cases termination, after requesting that their break schedules be adjusted to allow them to perform their daily prayers. After a year-long investigation into the complaints, the EEOC this week said in a letter to CAIR-Chicago that “such accommodation would not have posed an undue hardship to [Swift]” and that the evidence further establishes that Swift’s supervisors “subjected Somali Muslim Employees to unlawful harassment, disparate treatment, and discrimination in terms and conditions of employment based on their religion, national origin, race, and color.” The letter also confirms that some employees were unlawfully terminated in retaliation for their requests for religious accommodation. (CAIR)
FL student who accused Muslim in pledge flap lied
August 31: The JROTC member at Springstead High School (Florida) who said she confronted a Muslim student last week because the girl did not stand for the Pledge of Allegiance fabricated that part of the story, school officials said today. Heather Lawrence, a 16-year-old junior at the school, has said she was walking by another homeroom (last week) when she saw a girl with the traditional Muslim head scarf sitting during the pledge. Later, Lawrence said she confronted the girl, told her she should stand during the pledge and, according to her own account and a school report, said, "Take that thing off your head and act like you're proud to be an American."
A teacher witnessed the confrontation and Lawrence was suspended for five days for violating the district's policy against bullying and harassment. The suspension has since been reduced to three days. But Lawrence could not have seen what she said she saw, Springstead principal Susan Duval said today. "This girl lied," Duval said. "I have confirmed with the homeroom teacher the young lady stood for the pledge." The girl and her parents also insist she was standing, Duval said. "She's compounded the story as an explanation as to why she felt it was OK to make a very disparaging comment to this young lady," Duval said.
After the incident, Lawrence was asked by a teacher why she confronted the girl. "She began to rant that she was enlisting and was going to Iraq and that basically because the girl looks Middle Eastern, that makes her an enemy because all Iraqis are Middle Eastern," according to the referral signed by assistant principal Stephen Crognale. The story, reported by the Times and other local media, went viral, prompting conservative bloggers to praise Lawrence for speaking her mind and bashing school officials for quelling her free speech rights. Duval said the school has received calls from angry people who have "abused" her staff. School officials would not release the identity of the Muslim student or any other facts about her. (Tampa Bay Times)
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