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Prior to that, they spent an hour late in the afternoon touring a center for Islamic art and culture in Honolulu. The center is in Shangri La — the former mansion of the heiress Doris Duke that overlooks the Pacific Ocean near Diamond Head. The president’s brother-in-law, Konrad Ng, is the director of Shangri La. Ng is married to Obama’s sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, and the couple and their family live in Honolulu.

HONOLULU (AP) - The Latest on President Barack Obama family vacation in Hawaii (all times local): 8 p.m. The Obama family along with friends spent an hour late Wednesday afternoon touring a center for Islamic art and culture in Honolulu. The center is in Shangri La - the former mansion of the heiress Doris Duke that overlooks the Pacific Ocean near Diamond Head. The president's brother-in-law, Konrad Ng, is the director of Shangri La. Ng is married to Obama's sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, and the couple and their family live in Honolulu....

New York Senator Chuck Schumer harshly criticized the Obama Administration's attempts to exert pressure on Israel today, making him the highest-ranking Democrat to object to Obama's policies in such blunt terms. Schumer, along with a majority of members of the House and Senate, signed on to letters politely suggesting the U.S. keep its disagreements with Israel private, a tacit objection to the administration's very public rebuke of the Jewish State over construction in Jerusalem last month. But Schumer dramatically sharpened his tone on the politically conservative Jewish Nachum Segal Show today, calling the White House stance to date "counter-productive" and...

The American Civil Liberties Union hailed President Obama on Thursday for scrapping the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS), a Bush-era program used to screen and track certain individuals coming to the United States from mostly Middle Eastern countries where al Qaida was present. The program was launched on Sept. 11, 2002, a year after the 9/11 attacks, and although it was suspended in 2011 by the Obama administration, some groups have warned that incoming President Donald Trump could reactivate it as a “Muslim registry.” Under NSEERS, male foreign visitors over the age of 16, either arriving or staying in...

President Barack Obama doesn’t expect he’ll “suddenly just vanish” once Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20. He also doesn’t expect to keep quiet if his successor’s administration impedes on the “core values” of the United States. Remarking on Trump’s proposed ban on Muslims, Obama on Monday’s The Daily Show told Trevor Noah that he will “have to say something” if Trump follows through on his campaign promise, or insists on a registry of all Muslims currently living the United States. “If I thought a Muslim registry was being set up that violates the Constitution, violates who we are, and...

Infiltration of the federal government by members of the radical Muslim Brotherhood is worse than some have warned recently, says a former FBI special agent in Washington. The agent confirmed that at least three operatives of the Egypt-based Brotherhood – whose credo is “Jihad is our way and death in the cause of Allah is our dream” – have penetrated the Obama administration.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Attorney General Loretta Lynch is visiting a mosque in Virginia next week amid a sharp increase in hate crimes targeting Muslims. Lynch is scheduled to visit the All Dulles Area Muslim Society Center in Sterling on Monday morning.

The foreign ministers of China and Iran on Monday urged governments not to violate the deal that limits Iran’s nuclear activity in exchange for the lifting of sanctions, in remarks apparently directed at President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said during a visit to Beijing that the seven nations who agreed to the deal in July 2015 “have the obligation to fully implement” it. “Iran will not allow any country to take unilateral action to violate the agreement and Iran has the right to take action against that,” Zarif said at a news conference after...

President Obama said Thursday in Berlin that he would not encourage Americans marching in protest of President-elect Trump's victory to stop their demonstrations. "I wouldn't advise them to be silent," Obama said of "people who feel strongly or are concerned" about Trump's campaign rhetoric.

Outgoing US President Barack Obama called Chancellor Angela Merkel his “closest partner” during a press conference ahead of his last trip abroad, which includes a two-day stop in Berlin. Speaking at the White House, Obama said “in Germany, I’ll visit with Chancellor Merkel, who’s probably been my closest international partner these last eight years.” […] In a pre-trip news conference, Obama told reporters he would “signal our solidarity with our closest allies and express our support for a strong, integrated and united Europe.” …

ATHENS — President Obama warned Tuesday that Americans and people around the world “are going to have to guard against a rise in a crude sort of nationalism, or ethnic identity, or tribalism” taking root amid the populist movements that are gaining currency around the world. Speaking at a joint news conference with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras by his side, Obama refrained from criticizing President-elect Donald Trump directly as he discussed the impact of his electoral victory last week. But the president made it clear that he sees a dark side to the kind of populist movements Trump's campaign...

“You know, over the last eight years, a lot of things have happened,” President Obama told a crowd in Kissimmee, Florida on Sunday. “But I can tell you unequivocally, without a doubt, with data to back it up, that this country’s a lot better off now than it was when I came into office. “I can prove it. The numbers don’t lie,” Obama said. “And so, I want you to understand that that would not have happened had it not been for the votes you made back in ’08. It wouldn’t have happened had in not been for the votes...

The Obama administration collected lists of Muslim candidates for jobs in the Obama administration, according to previously unseen emails sent to the chair of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign John Podesta and released by Wikileaks. Podesta was also a former chief of staff for President Bill Clinton. Dating from 2008, the email refers to a list of Muslim leaders vetted for top jobs within the administration (it does not provide the list).

During a discussion about radical Islam and how its followers seek to damage the United States, Lt. Gen. (ret.) William G. "Jerry" Boykin, former head of Special Operations Command, noted the jihadist document "Explanatory Memorandum," which was uncovered in 2004, and said the radical Islamists plan to "infiltrate every element of our society, including the church." "It's a five-phase plan to take over America," said Boykin at the Breaking the Silence conference in August in Colorado Springs. "It's unfolding right now. Now, there are more specific plans that they have for how they're going to take over. And as Kamal...

A hacked email published by WikiLeaks this week shows that Democratic strategists — including top political allies of Hillary Clinton — were gauging voter attitudes about the Muslim faith of Barack Obama’s father during Clinton's unsuccessful fight for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. If this had come out in the midst of the 2008 Democratic primaries it would no doubt prompt angry comments from Obama campaign staffers and condemnations of attempts to other-ize the senator. But Democrats, not surprisingly, were mum Friday. According to Tom Matzzie and Paul Begala, two Democratic consultants advising the 2008 polling effort by Progressive Media...

Muslim-American groups are applauding President Barack Obama's nomination of a Washington lawyer to serve in U.S. District Court — a move that could make him the first ever Muslim-American federal judge, according to advocates. If confirmed, Abid Riaz Qureshi would sit on the District of Columbia's federal bench, the White House announced Tuesday. Qureshi, who graduated Harvard Law School in 1997, is a partner in the D.C. office of Latham & Watkins LLP, specializing in healthcare fraud, securities violations, and cases involving the False Claims Act, according to a White House statement. "I am confident he will serve the American...

Disrupting terrorist sleeper cell networks in the United States is “something we have to focus on,” President Obama told a news conference on Thursday. “This is also why we work with the Muslim-American community — the values we affirm about their patriotism and their sacrifice, and our fellow feeling with them is so important. “One of the reasons that we don’t have networks cells that are as active here as they are in certain parts of Europe is because the Muslim-American community in this country is extraordinarily patriotic and largely successful, fights in our military, and serves as our doctors...

Whenever President Obama feels defensive, he likes to talk about how the world has become more safe under his watch (with the implication that it's due to his own wise leadership). We first heard him speak that way during the summer of 2014, when the world seemed to be unraveling and critics were blaming him for the sad state of affairs. Obama said, "The world is less violent than it has ever been. It is healthier than it has ever been. It is more tolerant than it has ever been. It is better fed then it’s ever been. It is...

Barack Obama's campaign team today accused Hillary Clinton's beleaguered staff of mounting a desperate dirty tricks operation by circulating a picture of him in African dress, feeding into false claims on US websites that he is a Muslim.

One year after they signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, popularly known as the Iran deal, the Iranians are secretly attempting to procure illicit nuclear technology and equipment. So says Germany’s domestic intelligence agency. It appears the mullahs are supremely confident that America and the West will do nothing to enforce the agreement. Looking back on the Iran nuclear deal and the singular role Iran’s American lobby, the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), played in the formulation and promotion of the agreement, it’s clear that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s past experience with President Obama has given him...