(AP) A Muslim school board member from northern Virginia has filed a federal lawsuit alleging her civil rights were violated after she was pepper-sprayed during a traffic stop and then photographed without her hijab following her arrest. Abrar Omeish, who was elected […]
(Religion News) Mauree Turner, a 27-year-old member of Oklahoma City’s Muslim community, became Muslim after learning about the faith from her father, who converted while incarcerated. Black and nonbinary, Turner is also a community organizer who’s long been involved in criminal justice […]
(Free Lance-Star) The U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday that it has a lawsuit against Stafford County challenging “overly restrictive zoning regulations” that blocked the creation of a Muslim cemetery. The suit claims that the county is in violation of the Religious […]
(Free Lance-Star) The All Muslim Association of America filed a federal lawsuit Monday claiming Stafford County violated its religious rights by blocking its plans for a cemetery off Garrisonville Road. The lawsuit calls the county’s decision to revise its cemetery ordinance in […]
(Middle East Eye) A number of Muslim prisoners in Virginia have been denied the right to fast during the holy month of Ramadan because prison management received “too many” requests, three rights groups said. Muslim Advocates, the Islamic Circle of North America’s […]
(Prince William Times) Human rights lawyer and former Democratic candidate for Virginia state Senate Qasim Rashid announced Monday his bid to represent Virginia’s 1st District in the U.S. Congress. Rep. Rob Wittman, a Republican, has held the seat since 2007. Rashid, 37, […]
(IPT) For many members of Congress, weekends are spent returning to their home districts to keep in touch with constituents. For U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, the weekend of Nov. 8 was devoted to embracing some of the country’s most prominent and problematic […]
(IPT) The daughter of one of America’s most prominent Islamist leaders became the youngest woman and one of the first Muslim women elected to office in Virginia on Tuesday. Abrar Omeish, 24, won an at-large seat on the Fairfax County school board […]
(HuffPost) Democrats Ghazala Hashmi and Abrar Omeish made history in Virginia’s elections on Tuesday. In a surprise victory, Hashmi unseated incumbent Republican Glen Sturtevant in the state Senate, and Omeish clinched one of three vacant seats on the Fairfax County School Board. […]
(AP) A northern Virginia woman is suing a company that she says refused to hire her after she requested two five-minute breaks to pray during her work shift. Shahin Indorewala, 26, of Woodbridge says her job interview with Falls Church-based Fast Trak […]
(AP) A Virginia jail has ended a program which inmates dubbed the “God Pod” after a lawsuit alleged the program provided favorable treatment to Christians and discriminated against Muslims. Court documents show the Riverside Regional Jail south of Richmond ended the program […]
(WZTV) On the anniversary of the murder of Heather Heyer during a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville two years ago, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is calling for the removal of Confederate symbols in public spaces nationwide. CAIR is calling on […]
(Free Beacon) The Virginia lawmaker who interrupted President Trump’s speech in Jamestown has been identified as the individual who dumped water on Geraldo Rivera at the 2016 Democratic National Convention. A reporter for the Daily Beast filmed Rivera interviewing a group of […]
(Fox) The Virginia Democratic lawmaker who disrupted President Trump’s speech in Jamestown on Tuesday has a history of making anti-Israel remarks on social media. Ibraheem Samirah, a Virginia state delegate, interrupted Trump’s event commemorating the 400th anniversary of the first legislative assembly […]
(Hill) A Muslim Virginia state legislator on Tuesday interrupted President Trump and shouted “you can’t send us back” as the president delivered remarks at an event in Jamestown, Va., celebrating 400 years of representative democracy. “You can’t send us back, Virginia is […]
(Washington Post) A local Islamic schoolteacher who cultivated sexual video conversations with a 15-year-old student will go to prison for 10 years. Seitu Sulayman Kokayi, 30, was convicted at trial in Alexandria federal court earlier this year of sending pornographic images to […]
(AP) A judge is considering tossing out parts of a 10-count conviction against an Islamic scholar serving life in prison for persuading some of his followers to travel overseas after the Sept. 11 attacks and try to join the Taliban. The review […]
(AP) A former police officer who tried to help the Islamic State by purchasing $245 in gift cards will still serve 15 years in prison, even though some of his convictions were tossed out on appeal. Nicholas Young of Fairfax, Virginia, was […]
(IPT) American Muslim leaders with documented ties to the Muslim Brotherhood congratulated Fairfax County, Va., at-large school board candidate Abrar Omeish on winning the endorsement of the county’s Democratic Party, posts on her father Esam Omeish’s Facebook page show. She serves as […]
(Patch) Islamic Relief USA (IRUSA) hosted the 3rd Annual City of Alexandria Interfaith Ramadan Dinner at its Wheeler Avenue headquarters on Wednesday, May 29. Mayor Justin Wilson, along with virtually all of the City Council members, were in attendance. They were joined […]
(HuffPost) President Donald Trump’s decision to vilify Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) has had real, harmful effects not just on the first-year congresswoman, but on Muslim candidates running for public office at the state and local levels as well. In March, Omar faced […]
(Free Beacon) A member of the Virginia legislature and former volunteer for Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.) is connected to multiple anti-Semitic organizations and is the son of a Hamas fundraiser. Del. Ibraheem Samirah (D.) — who received sympathetic national coverage this […]
(CNN) Federal prosecutors charged a former FBI translator with lying about contacts with the subject of a terror investigation, the Justice Department announced Monday. Abdirizak Haji Raghe Wehelie, 66, of St. Burk, Virginia, was arrested on Saturday, authorities said, and appeared before […]
(Loudoun Times-Mirror) Democrat Ibraheem Samirah will succeed Sen. Jennifer Boysko (D) in the Virginia House of Delegates 86th District seat in the closing days of the 2019 General Assembly session. Samirah defeated Republican challenger Gregg Nelson and independent challenger Connie Haines Hutchinson […]
(IPT) A Virginia General Assembly candidate has apologized for past social media posts excoriating Jews and Israel. But Ibraheem Samirah continues to shade his involvement with groups which would like to see Israel eliminated, a sentiment that was prominent in his life. […]
(Falls Church News-Press) Islamic Relief USA, a nonprofit humanitarian and advocacy organization, recently awarded a $15,000 grant to Dar-al-Hijrah mosque (3159 Row St., Falls Church) to help provide food to families who weren’t receiving compensation due to the partial shutdown of the […]
(JTA) A Democratic candidate for the Virginia House of Delegates who describes himself as a “second-generation Palestinian refugee” has apologized for anti-Semitic and anti-Israel social media posts. “This slander campaign is using five-year-old Facebook posts from my impassioned college days, posts that […]
(WRC) A Muslim family went to a hospital in Northern Virginia to celebrate a joyous occasion: the birth of a newborn baby. But they say hospital staff humiliated them by telling them they looked “scary,” and threatened to kick them out. Visiting […]
(BuzzFeed) A Muslim cleric who was ousted from at least two mosques amid claims of sexual misconduct with young women he’d mentored now works at a Texas mosque that’s standing by him despite a former employer’s warning and a civil lawsuit. The […]
(Free Beacon) Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.), who was initially scheduled to speak at the same conference as controversial Women’s March organizer and liberal activist Linda Sarsour, is no longer speaking at the conference due to a scheduling conflict. Warren had been […]
(Free Beacon) Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) will attend an immigration conference next month with Women’s March organizer and liberal activist Linda Sarsour, who has come under increased scrutiny for her ties to radical Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan. Both Warren […]
(AP) A Muslim civil rights group filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against a regional jail in Virginia, alleging that the jail has set up a Christians-only unit dubbed the “God Pod.” The Council on American-Islamic Relations says officials at the Riverside Regional […]
(USA Today) How did a former undercover CIA operative who spent more than eight years fighting terrorism get branded as a teacher at “Terror High”? The strange ordeal for Abigail Spanberger, a Democratic House candidate, began when U.S. Postal Service employees wrongly delivered her confidential personnel […]
(Washington Post) The battle for Republican Dave Brat’s suburban Richmond congressional seat has spawned a flurry of TV ads on a subject few saw coming as the midterms kicked off: Democrat Abigail Spanberger’s substitute-teaching job at a Saudi-funded Islamic school in Northern […]
(Washington Times) GOP Rep. Dave Brat on Tuesday said voters in Virginia’s 7th congressional district deserve to know more about Democratic opponent Abigail Spanberger’s work at the Islamic Saudi Academy in Northern Virginia. “I do think it is an issue,” Mr. Brat […]
(Washington Post) It was the day before one of the biggest Muslim holidays of the year, and the Rababeh family was in a panic. The family had ordered hundreds of sheep, goats and cows to slaughter for customers in observance of Eid […]
(IPT) Two Washington, D.C.-area mosques hosted programs last weekend calling for the release of celebrity Islamist Tariq Ramadan, who has been in a French jail since February on rape charges. He is the grandson of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna. Rallies at […]
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