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Texas may be the face of opposition to President Barack Obama's executive actions to delay the deportation of some undocumented immigrants, but not all leaders in the state agree. Austin Mayor Steve Adler and Judge Sarah Eckhardt of Travis County, where Austin is located, want the lawsuit that Texas and other states filed against the program dropped, according to the Texas Tribune.

"I urge these state leaders to drop opposition to these federal programs because of the benefits they can provide to our local communities," Adler said Saturday while standing with undocumented immigrants at the nonprofit Workers Defense Project.

Adler said at the rally that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott should meet with immigrant families in the community. Such a meeting, he said, could help in understanding the harm brought on them by trying to block Obama's immigration reform efforts.

In 2014, Obama tried to implement the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents, also known as DAPA, but Texas and 25 other states blocked Obama's efforts soon after. Abbott filled the lawsuit while he was state attorney general, the Texas Tribune reported.

Those who have filed the lawsuit are playing politics with people's lives, Eckhardt said. Immigrants are integral to the economic success of the country, she added.

A federal judge in February blocked Obama's executive actions on immigration, saying his administration didn't allow for a longer notification and comment period as required, CNN reported. In May, a federal appeals court sided with Texas and the 25 other states challenging the order, saying that eligible undocumented immigrants can't apply for Obama's program while it is being appealed.

Protesters gathered outside Abbott's home in April, asking him to drop the lawsuit against DAPA and sit down to talk with families about immigration, according to KTRK-TV in Houston.

By: Adam Lidgett

Link: http://www.ibtimes.com/dapa-immigration-reform-2015-austin-city-leaders-want-deportation-undocumented-2139573

Demonstrators squared off outside a Phoenix mosque amid a heavy police presence on Saturday, during the highest-profile of a series of anti-Islam rallies that were planned to be staged nationwide.

Some Muslim leaders had approached the weekend with caution, but many of the so-called Global Rally for Humanity events that had been promoted on social media appeared not to materialise or to be attended by no more than a handful of protesters.

In Maryland, Zainab Chaudry, outreach manager for the Counsel on American-Islamic Relations, said about 30 people of various faiths showed up at 8am at Dar-Al-Taqwa Mosque in Howard County – to support the mosque.

Chaudry said mosque leaders in Murfreesboro, Tennessee reported some protesters, though they were outnumbered by counter-protesters. Imad Enchassi, imam of the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City, said no one had shown up by 4pm, the time the protest organizers had scheduled. A handful of protesters, he said, were outside the University of Central Oklahoma, where a conference about the life of the Prophet Mohammad and Islam was taking place.

The Phoenix protest, though, attracted more than 120 demonstrators – and more than 30 law enforcement officials.

It was held outside the Islamic Community Center of Phoenix – where two gunmen killed by police outside a "draw the prophet" contest near Dallas in May had spent time – and followed a far bigger rally earlier this year.

Anti-Islam protesters lined up along a street, faced by a smaller set of counter-protesters, with the sides separated by two sets of metal crowd control barriers. They frequently yelled at each other.

American flags were prominent among the anti-Islam crowd of approximately 80 people, about a third bearing arms ranging from revolvers to assault rifles. Several people on the other side of the street were also toting weapons. Open carry is legal in Arizona.

Greg Burleson, who said he was a militia member who usually spent his weekends at the border tracking cartel members, said the mosque was a breeding ground for terrorists.

"I want them the f*** out of my neighbourhood," he said. "They can practice Islam in their own country. I don't want it shoved down my throat in my own country."

A man who gave his name only as Richard and carried a placard with the slogan "Unite against Islamic terrorists now" said the event was "a wonderful opportunity for people to get out and express themselves".

He added: "We don't want Islam to take over the country and that's what they want to do. They want to take over the world."

Joanne Scott Woods, a counter-protester and community activist, said the anti-Islam protesters "have freedom of speech but they are bigoted. Just bigoted. We can't change that. I'm glad they're not shooting us."

Sumayyah Dawud said that in the current climate of Islamophobia, attitudes towards Muslims were increasingly polarised and "getting more hostile from some people, but other people are becoming more open-minded".

She said the rally was "based on ignorance and fear". As for the guns, Dawud said she was pro-second amendment but the protesters were "carrying guns with the intention of intimidation".

"They say they're standing for the second amendment but what they're really trying to do is intimidate peaceful worshippers," she said.

There was a flashpoint about 70 minutes into the rally, when two anti-Islam protesters crossed the barriers, leading to a brief moment of pushing and shoving that was swiftly quelled by the arrival of riot police.

Several demonstrators – one draped in the Confederate flag – were asked by police to leave. The event broke up after three hours, without further incident.

"We're just exercising our first-amendment [free speech] rights. We're all about peace and love," said the organiser of the rally, former US marine Jon Ritzheimer, a pistol on his hip.

He produced sheets of paper from his pocket which he said were passages from the Koran proving that Islam promotes violence.

"We're educating people," he said. He gestured at the mosque. "Take away their 501c [tax-exempt status]," he said. "Let Donald Trump build something beautiful."

The gates of the mosque were shut. There was no point trying to engage or reason with "bigots", said Usama Shami, the president of the Islamic Community Center.

"What am I going to talk to them about?" he said. "There is no common ground."

Shami said he was encouraged by the lower turnout compared with the May protest but worried about the longer-term consequences of a climate of intolerance and antagonism in a country filled with firearms.

"What these guys are doing is creating an atmosphere of hatred," he said. "We live in a time where we witness mass shootings every day. There are people who are less stable mentally and it could push them over the edge.

"When you plant these seeds in the minds of people – that Muslims are going to hurt you at some point – you could have incidents."

By: Tom Dart, The Guardian

Link: http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/protesters-decry-islam-outside-phoenix-mosque-they-want-to-take-over/ar-AAfl7T5

Mohammed: Pedophile, Rapist, Murderer, Holy man?
Muslim Logic

Zunera Ishaq, the Ontario woman whose fight to wear a niqab during her citizenship ceremony became one of the primary issues of the 2015 federal election campaign, has just become a Canadian citizen.

Ishaq, clad in a niqab, took the citizenship oath Friday while clutching a miniature Canadian flag.

Although the Conservative government banned the wearing of niqabs at citizenship ceremonies in 2011, Ishaq was able to successfully obtain a court ruling overturning the policy.

By: Tristin Hopper, National Post

Link: http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/zunera-ishaq-the-woman-who-made-the-right-to-wear-a-niqab-during-citizenship-ceremonies-a-primary-campaign-issue-is-now-a-canadian-citizen

[especially when it comes to Muslims]

Tom Mulcair says he is willing to work with Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau to form a government – and has even written that pledge into his platform – but he could never support Stephen Harper, and says his "No. 1 job" is to oust the Conservatives from office.

The NDP Leader has never been a fan of Mr. Harper's brand of politics. But their divergence on matters of reasonable accommodation – especially when it comes to Muslims – has sent the New Democrats plummeting from first to third in what had been a tight three-way race.

Mr. Mulcair is angry that religious and racial diversity has become an election issue, and he blames Mr. Harper. "The country that I love is in really serious danger if we give this guy another four years," he told The Globe and Mail on Friday.

As the election campaign enters its final stretch, polls suggest Canadians will elect a minority government. That will require one party to seek the co-operation of at least one other to obtain a mandate to govern.

"There is one guy I won't work with and that is Stephen Harper," Mr. Mulcair said after his party released its full 72-page campaign platform. "Economically and environmentally and socially, that's always been clear. Now, with his gruesome behaviour on race in this election campaign, I want nothing to do with his ilk."

The New Democrats are so eager to stress their co-operative nature, they say in their platform document that they would "work with other federalist parties through informal or appropriate stable arrangements to end Stephen Harper's lost decade."

That means working with Mr. Trudeau, whose party is currently topping the polls and who said in April he would be more open to forming a coalition with New Democrats if Mr. Mulcair was not running the party.

Mr. Trudeau "grabbed the door and he slammed the door" on co-operation, Mr. Mulcair said. But, he said, he is willing to get beyond the personality issues with the Liberal Leader because "I know that my No. 1 job is to get rid of Stephen Harper. And I will work with other like-minded people who know that we can build a better Canada."

The NDP campaign was essentially knee-capped by a niqab. Mr. Mulcair's defence of an Ontario woman who successfully challenged the government's refusal to allow her to wear the Muslim face covering as she swore her oath of Canadian citizenship caused his support to plummet in the NDP stronghold of Quebec.

Now, the New Democrats have a big mountain to climb in nine short days if they are to get back into the race before voting day.

Mr. Mulcair's strategy over the past week has been to suggest that Mr. Trudeau and Mr. Harper are cut from the same cloth – that the Liberal Leader's policies are merely those of the Conservatives being uttered by someone with more charisma and less political experience.

The New Democrats want to raise corporates taxes – the Liberals don't, Mr. Mulcair has said at campaign stops.

Mr. Trudeau and his party reluctantly voted in favour of Bill C-51, the Conservatives' controversial anti-terrorism bill, which Mr. Mulcair says jeopardizes basic rights and freedoms.

Now, the two parties differ on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the international trade deal signed last weekend by the Conservative government. Mr. Trudeau says he would consult with Parliament and the provinces before ratifying the agreement. Mr. Mulcair has rejected it outright, saying it would cost tens of thousands of jobs, make pharmaceuticals more expensive and put Canadians' privacy at risk.

NDP officials say the trade deal is the wedge issue they have been looking for to bring the voters they lost over the niqab, and others, back into their fold.

"It really is a question of communicating to Canadians that there is one team and one leader that's going to be standing up for them, standing up for their jobs, standing up for their community, standing up for the environment. And we're that team," Mr. Mulcair said.

There are many sectors of the economy that have approved of the deal – the beef producers, the canola producers and the cranberry producers, to name a few. Even the dairy farmers, whose livelihoods Mr. Mulcair had sought to defend with his opposition, say they can live with it. But auto industry jobs are at risk.

So, standing against the deal did not require a complicated analysis, he said. "It was just a good, honest, personal reflex. My dad lost his job when I was 18. I was still a teenager, I was heading to law school, and there were eight other brothers and sisters at home. I had one other sister who was working as a nurse. She used to lend me money to buy my books. That's who I am."

The most recent example of the Conservatives' divisive policy, Mr. Mulcair said, was the revelation, first reported in The Globe and Mail, that the Prime Minister's Office directed Canadian immigration officials to stop processing one of the most vulnerable classes of Syrian refugees in the spring and declared that all UN-referred refugees would require approval from the PMO.

Mr. Mulcair said his own family arrived in Quebec from Ireland at the height of the potato famine.

"Quebeckers, in a time of need, threw open their doors and let people in, the neediest on Earth. About 10 per cent of the entire population of Quebec City died from the ship-borne diseases," he said. "And yet, people kept going down to the docks because these were the poorest and hungriest and neediest on Earth. That's the Canada I want to get back to."

Link: http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/federalelection2015/mulcair-seems-to-extend-an-olive-branch-to-trudeau/ar-AAfimVo?li=AAacUQk

By: Gloria Galloway, The Globe and Mail