Muslim group asks inquiry on alleged threats against Minn. school

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - An Islamic advocacy group has asked police and the FBI to investigate reported threats against a Twin Cities charter school attended by many Muslims.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) made the request after the director of Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy in Inver Grove Heights, a Twin Cities suburb, told police that he and the school had received threatening and harassing phone messages and e-mails.

The school said the threats began after a newspaper columnist questioned whether the publicly funded K-8 school promotes Islam.

Chris Schumacher, a spokesman for the Minnesota chapter of CAIR, called it ``a sad reflection’’ of the level anti-Muslim feeling has reached in U.S. society that the column has apparently resulted in ``hatred directed at innocent students.’’

Identifying the threats as possible hate crimes makes it clear that prejudice could have prompted them, and ``we wanted to bring that to light in case that wasn’t already obvious to people,’’ he said.

Police said they are investigating. Special Agent Paul McCabe of the Minneapolis FBI office said agents will contact the school to get more details. He said identifying the messages as possible hate crimes would put them under the jurisdiction of federal investigators.

The Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas also condemned the alleged threats in a statement.

http://www.cair.com

Catholic archbishop bans canon lawyer from St. Louis archdiocese

ST. LOUIS (AP) - A prominent Roman Catholic priest and canon lawyer, who says he has been helping those ``harmed by the institutional Catholic Church’’ since 1985 and counseling an ethnic Polish church here, has been banned from working in the St. Louis archdiocese.

St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke issued a decree charging the Rev. Thomas Doyle with two ``canonical crimes’’ related to his defense of two excommunicated board members of St. Stanislaus Kostka Church.

The decree states Doyle, a Dominican priest and canon lawyer based in Virginia, did not receive prior approval from Burke to represent the board members or immediately respond to Burke’s summons to appear before him.

Burke wrote in an accompanying article in the St. Louis Review that Doyle failed to represent the board members ``properly or effectively.’’

``As the chief shepherd of the church in the Archdiocese of St. Louis, I have the duty and moral obligation to uphold the teachings and practices of the Catholic faith,’’ Burke wrote. ``Those teachings include the obligation of a bishop to safeguard the legal processes under which the church operates.’’

Doyle accused Burke of ``vindictively clubbing people with canon law.’’

``He’s making a mockery of the role of the bishop, a mockery of himself, and the role of leadership in the church when it comes to resolving disputes and problems,’’ he said.

St. Stanislaus, founded by Polish immigrants in the late 1800s, has been in a longtime struggle with the archdiocese over control of its assets. Burke has excommunicated St. Stanislaus’ board and the Polish priest it hired two years ago.

http://www.archstl.org

Prison worker claims persecution in Bible flap

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) _ The kitchen manager at the state’s Webb Correctional Facility alleges he is being persecuted for his Christian beliefs, claiming that his supervisor ordered him to remove a Bible from his desk and from the prison.

William Parker 45, who started working in the Department of Correction as a prison guard 21 years ago, said he has removed the Bible but says he will seek legal advice.

``There are Bibles all over the prison,’’ he said. ``We had a Bible rack put in the main hallway. It’s just an issue that I had one on my desk. I have Muslim co-workers who are allowed to get out their prayer rugs and pray during their shifts.’’

He said a Bible has sat on his desk for about two years, and he sometimes reads it for inspiration and encouragement.

Elizabeth Neal, the acting warden, said that while no worker has been disciplined for reading a Bible, she doesn’t want any employee reading anything while on duty.

Correction Commissioner Carl Danberg said the issue is not the content of the reading material but reading while on duty. He said Parker will be allowed to bring his Bible back to work, provided he does not read on the job.

``The state, when they do this, is violating the Civil Rights Act and the Constitution,’’ said John Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute, a conservative legal group.

http://www.rutherford.org

Tenn. county planners deny rezoning for Bible Park

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (AP) _ Rutherford County planners have denied rezoning to allow for the development of a Bible-themed park.

Planning commissioners at a meeting Monday voted 8-7 against rezoning that would support development of the 282-acre Bible Park USA in the Blackman community near Murfreesboro.

Developer Armon Bar-Tur said afterward he looked forward to taking the project to the County Commission, which has final say in a vote in May.

Critics of the project contend it would negatively impact traffic and the community’s infrastructure, and believe the county should not authorize tax breaks for the park.

Developers want the county to forgo about $27.9 million in property taxes to pay for bonds taken out to build the park.

http://www.bibleparkusa.com