Source: NY Times

Clerics & Preachers

Albania is planning a new Muslim state inside its capital Prime Minister Edi Rama says he wants to give members of the Bektashi, a Shiite Sufi order, their own Vatican-style enclave as a way of promoting religious tolerance.

September 21, 2024   

(NY Times) The Muslim cleric preparing to lead what, if everything goes as planned, will become the world’s smallest state, has laid-back plans for the tiny new country. His hoped-for Muslim state in Tirana, Albania’s capital, will be a Vatican-style sovereign enclave […]

Discrimination & “Islamophobia”

Float planned for N.Y.C. India Day Parade is condemned as anti-Muslim The float, slated for inclusion in Sunday’s parade, depicts a Hindu temple in India that was built on the site of a mosque torn down by religious extremists.

August 15, 2024 and   

(NY Times) A float slated to appear in New York City’s India Day Parade this weekend is causing an uproar, with community groups calling it a symbol of anti-Muslim hate, parade organizers defending its inclusion and elected officials scrambling to respond. The […]

Citizenship

Former Syrian official in charge of notorious prison is arrested in Los Angeles Samir Ousman al-Sheikh, who was seeking U.S. citizenship, is accused of falsely describing whether he persecuted anyone for their political beliefs or had been involved in any killings.

July 16, 2024 and   

(NY Times) A former Syrian military official who ran one of the country’s most notorious prisons and is accused of torturing and killing political dissidents has been arrested in Los Angeles, according to a court filing. Federal law enforcement agents detained the […]

Government & Politics

Inside Biden’s broken relationship with Muslim and Arab American leaders Even as the president piles new pressure on Israel to end the war in Gaza, those who have called most passionately for him to change course say it is too little, too late.

May 10, 2024 and   

(NY Times) Seven months into Israel’s war in Gaza, Muslim and Arab American leaders say their channels of communication with President Biden’s White House have largely broken down, leaving the administration without a politically valuable chorus of support for his significant shift […]

Discrimination & “Islamophobia”

In Britain, shockwaves from Israel-Hamas war are jolting domestic politics The United States and several European nations have been caught up in toxic debates that have altered election campaigns and led to eruptions of inflammatory language over the conflict.

February 29, 2024   

(NY Times) Inside Britain’s Parliament, lawmakers jeered, booed, and stormed out of the House of Commons to protest the speaker’s handling of a vote calling for a cease-fire in Gaza. Outside, a crowd of pro-Palestinian demonstrators projected the slogan, “From the river […]

Government & Politics

In private remarks to Arab Americans, Biden aide expresses regrets on Gaza In a closed-door meeting, the aide offered some of the administration’s clearest notes of contrition for its response to the Gaza war, a sign of rising Democratic pressure on President Biden.

February 9, 2024 and   

(NY Times) In a closed-door meeting with Arab American leaders in Michigan this week, one of President Biden’s top foreign policy aides acknowledged mistakes in the administration’s response to the war in Gaza, saying he did not have “any confidence” that Israel’s […]

Law Enforcement

Judge rebukes F.B.I. and orders release of man in ‘Newburgh Four’ case The judge said James Cromitie, like his co-defendants, should be freed because he had been duped into an 'F.B.I.-orchestrated conspiracy' by an 'unsavory' informant.

January 19, 2024   

(NY Times) A federal judge on Friday ordered that a New York man be freed from prison because a “most unsavory” government informant had duped him into an “F.B.I.-orchestrated conspiracy” focused on attacking an upstate Air Force base and Jewish sites in […]

Crime

Man is arrested after firing gun near Albany synagogue After firing the shots, the suspect said, 'Free Palestine,' the police said. No one was hurt during the shooting, which occurred hours before the beginning of Hanukkah.

December 7, 2023 and   

(NY Times) A man fired a shotgun into the air outside an Albany, N.Y., synagogue on Thursday afternoon and later said, “Free Palestine,” according to the police, sending the building into lockdown and prompting local and federal investigations hours before the beginning […]

Law Enforcement

Man found guilty of complicity in 2016 terrorist murder of French couple The killing of a police captain and his partner was part of a string of deadly Islamist terrorist attacks in 2015 and 2016 that scarred France.

October 11, 2023   

(NY Times) A French-Moroccan man was convicted on Wednesday on charges of complicity in the 2016 murders of an off-duty police officer and his partner at their home near Paris, part of a wave of deadly Islamist terrorist attacks that deeply shocked […]

Law Enforcement

Man accused of leading 9/11 plot was denied a lawyer, then confessed The confession at issue in the case came after the accused mastermind asked about a lawyer. He would not get to see one for 15 more months.

September 27, 2023   

(NY Times) Prosecutors called a retired F.B.I. agent this week to testify that the man who is accused of orchestrating the Sept. 11 attacks freely discussed the deadly hijacking plot during four days of questioning in January 2007. In doing so, the […]

Health & Medicine

9/11 defendant not fit for death-penalty trial, judge rules A military mental health panel said that Ramzi bin al-Shibh had PTSD, psychosis and delusions, which his lawyer blamed on his torture by the C.I.A.

September 21, 2023   

(NY Times) A military judge ruled on Thursday that a defendant in the Sept. 11 case who was tortured by the C.I.A. was ineligible for a death-penalty trial, adopting a finding that the prisoner was too psychologically damaged to help defend himself. […]

Children & Teens

U.S. seeks to repatriate family of 10 Americans from camps in Syria A Kurdish-led militia that is battling the Islamic State has been holding a mother and nine of her children for several years.

September 12, 2023   

(NY Times) The State Department is working to repatriate a family of 10 American citizens stranded in Syria, where they are among the tens of thousands of people effectively imprisoned in desert camps and detention centers from the war against the Islamic […]

Government & Politics

Biden rejects proposed conditions for plea deals in Sept. 11 case Five Guantánamo detainees accused of aiding the attacks wanted a promise of care for torture-related trauma and to avoid solitary confinement.

September 6, 2023 and   

(NY Times) President Biden has rejected a list of proposed conditions sought by the five men who are accused of conspiring in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in exchange for pleading guilty and receiving a maximum punishment of life in prison, […]

Health & Medicine

Man accused in 9/11 plot is not fit to face trial, board says The question of Ramzi bin al-Shibh’s sanity has shadowed the case since he first appeared at the Guantánamo court in 2008. A new medical panel report says he has a mental illness making him incompetent for trial.

August 25, 2023   

(NY Times) A military medical board has concluded that Ramzi bin al-Shibh, who is accused of conspiring in the Sept. 11 attacks, has a mental illness that makes him incompetent to either face trial or plead guilty in the death penalty case, […]

Legal

Ex-New York resident sentenced to life in prison for helping ISIS Mirsad Kandic, a Kosovo native who had lived in New York before traveling to ISIS territory, was found guilty last year of conspiracy and of providing material support to the group.

July 14, 2023   

(NY Times) In 2013, Mirsad Kandic began working with the Islamic State, helping to advance its campaign of global jihad. Over the next four years, he fought in at least one battle and operated from safe houses in Syria, Turkey and Bosnia, […]

Books

Salman Rushdie makes surprise appearance at PEN America gala The novelist, who was stabbed and gravely wounded at a literary event last year, received an award from the freedom of expression organization.

May 18, 2023   

(NY Times) Salman Rushdie walked onstage at PEN America’s annual gala on Thursday night, his first public appearance since he was stabbed and gravely wounded in an attack last August at a literary event in Western New York. His appearance at the […]

Clerics & Preachers

Cleric is convicted in New York of supporting ISIS while in Jamaica Abdullah el-Faisal, a Jamaican who was an outspoken supporter of the Islamic State, was the first person to face trial under New York State terror laws passed after Sept. 11.

January 26, 2023   

(NY Times) For years, Abdullah el-Faisal, a Jamaican-born cleric, promoted an extreme form of Islam that advocated killing nonbelievers. In Britain, his incitements sent him to prison in 2003. He was kicked out of Kenya in 2010. At home in Jamaica, he […]

Legal

Suspect in bike path killing faces first death penalty trial under Biden Though President Biden campaigned against capital punishment, Attorney General Merrick Garland is charting his own course in pursuing the death penalty in the trial of Sayfullo Saipov.

January 7, 2023   

(NY Times) On Halloween 2017, Sayfullo Saipov plowed a rented pickup truck down Manhattan’s crowded West Side bicycle path, smashing into pedestrians and cyclists, killing eight people and injuring more than a dozen, the authorities said. Soon after Mr. Saipov was charged, […]

Crime

Woman admits to unwittingly funding effort to kidnap Iranian dissident Niloufar Bahadorifar was the conduit for money used to hire a private detective who shadowed the Iranian American journalist Masih Alinejad.

December 15, 2022   

(NY Times) Four Iranians who plotted to kidnap a prominent Iranian American journalist in Brooklyn paid a private investigator to watch their target, using a woman in California as a go-between, the authorities said. That woman, Niloufar Bahadorifar, pleaded guilty in Manhattan […]

Clerics & Preachers

Preacher accused of being ISIS marriage broker faces trial in New York Prosecutors say that Abdullah el-Faisal, who served time in Britain for inciting racial hatred, tried to find recruits for the Middle East extremist group.

November 28, 2022   

(NY Times) In late 2016, Abdullah el-Faisal, a Jamaican preacher who was an outspoken supporter of the Islamic State, began communicating on WhatsApp with a woman in New York who claimed to be an aspiring jihadist with medical training. He offered to […]

Interfaith

F.B.I. director calls Texas synagogue attack an act of antisemitism Christopher A. Wray said the hostage taker targeted the Jewish community, contrary to the agency’s initial statement.

January 20, 2022   

(NY Times) The F.B.I. is treating the attack on a suburban Fort Worth synagogue on Saturday as “an act of terrorism targeting the Jewish community,” Christopher A. Wray, the bureau’s director, said on Thursday. “This was not some random occurrence,” Mr. Wray […]

Children & Teens

Pressuring France to bring them home, women who joined ISIS stage hunger strike Frenchwomen who joined the Islamic State and are now held in squalid detention camps in Syria have gone on a hunger strike to protest France’s refusal to bring them back.

February 21, 2021   

(NY Times) In a desperate appeal to France’s government, some 10 Frenchwomen who joined the Islamic State and are now being held in detention camps in Syria began a hunger strike on Saturday, protesting the government’s refusal to bring them home for […]

Government & Politics

Barred from U.S. under Trump, Muslims exult in Biden’s open door Few foreigners welcomed President Biden’s election victory as enthusiastically as the tens of thousands of Muslims who have been locked out of the United States for the past four years.

January 23, 2021   

(NY Times) As the results of the American presidential election rolled in on Nov. 4, a young Sudanese couple sat up through the night in their small town south of Khartoum, eyes glued to the television as state tallies were declared, watching […]

Discrimination & “Islamophobia”

Congress pays $850,000 to Muslim aides targeted in inquiry stoked by Trump The House resolved wrongful termination claims by five Pakistani-American technology workers whose case was twisted into a right-wing conspiracy theory pushed by President Trump.

November 25, 2020 and   

(NY Times) The House of Representatives quietly paid $850,000 this year to settle wrongful termination claims by five Pakistani-American technology specialists, after a set of routine workplace allegations against them morphed into fodder for right-wing conspiracy theories amplified by President Trump. Together, […]

Government & Politics

U.S. repatriates last of Islamic State suspects believed captured in Syria The suspects had been held by Syrian forces along with prisoners from other countries whose governments have been reluctant to take back the men.

September 30, 2020   

(NY Times) The United States has repatriated and charged the last Americans believed to be detained in Syria and accused of supporting the Islamic State, the Justice Department said on Wednesday. The move could give the Trump administration a stronger hand in […]

Military

Six Saudis said to be questioned after Pensacola Navy base shooting Authorities were trying to determine whether the shooting that killed three and injured eight others was an act of terrorism.

December 6, 2019 , , and   

(NY Times) A member of the Saudi Air Force armed with a handgun fatally shot three people and injured eight others on Friday morning during a bloody rampage in a classroom building at the prestigious Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Fla., where […]

Law Enforcement

France strips 7 police officers of guns after Paris attack A fatal attack by an employee at headquarters in Paris has prompted increased internal vigilance, but experts warned about religious stereotyping.

October 31, 2019   

(NY Times) Seven French police officers have been ordered to hand over their weapons and at least one employee has been suspended after security forces were encouraged to report signs of radicalization in their ranks following the fatal knife attack this month […]

News: North America

A fund to support the Muslim American community, inside and out The founders of the Pillars Fund seek to strengthen a network of Muslim support groups while countering negative perceptions and stereotypes.

May 24, 2019   

(NY Times) After attaining professional success and wealth, Anas Osman, a technology entrepreneur and executive, turned to philanthropy. He wanted to help other Muslim Americans embrace the opportunities in the United States. So he and some friends from Chicago, who had also […]

Law Enforcement

Muslims form community patrol. Some neighbors say no, thanks The self-funded group sees itself as a neighborhood watch. But there was alarm after its cars were spotted in Brooklyn without warning, or explanation.

February 3, 2019   

(NY Times) Maeen Ali remembers the worry he felt when he first spotted the “Punish a Muslim Day” screed online. The letter, mailed last spring throughout England, encouraged violence that ranged from pulling off a woman’s head scarf to bombing mosques. Each […]