Free Republic

A crowd vandalized a Muslim prayer room in Corsica a day after an ambush injured two firefighters responding to an emergency in a housing project, the state prefect on the French island said Saturday. Prefect Christophe Mirmand said police reinforcements were being called into the Corsican capital of Ajaccio from mainland France, and prayer rooms and mosques were being guarded. Two separate investigations were opened, one into the attack on firefighters Thursday and the other into the damage to the prayer room Friday, he said on iTele TV station. ...

ORLANDO (CBS Tampa) — The Orlando International Airport will soon be opening a Muslim prayer room. WKMG-TV reports the airport will spend $250,000 to build the “Reflection Room” where Muslims can pray. The airport decided to build the room after Emirates Airlines announced it will make non-stop flights from Orlando to Dubai. “These rooms provide travelers an opportunity to pray in their own way and have peace before they take on a long flight,” Imam Muhammad Musri, president of the Islamic Society of Central Florida, told My News 13. Many Muslims currently pray in public, and even the bathrooms, at...

LONDON, ONT. - Mother Teresa Catholic secondary school is turning a second-floor office into an Islamic prayer room -- the first high school in the city, private or public, to do so. Carpet will soon cover the tile flooring, speakers will be installed and prayer mats purchased to provide the school's Muslim students, estimated at around two dozen, with a quiet and private place to pray. The idea has been in the works since the end of the last school year after a group of Muslim students lobbied administration to create the space. "They're members of our school community. We...

It turns out there was a Muslim prayer room on the 17th floor of the south tower of the World Trade Center, where Americans and other traveling Muslims prayed every day. On September 11th, 2001, when a handful of terrorists flew planes into the towers, some of the folks who used the room evacuated in time. Others probably didn't. In other words, there already was a "ground zero mosque"--used by Muslim Americans who were murdered just like everyone else.

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. – On the day Muslims around the world began to celebrate Eid al-Adha, Fatuma Mohamed was at the Mall of America (MOA), far away from where she would normally say her prayers. But she and other Muslims needed to take time from the activities of the mall and find a quiet area to pray as Muslims do during the festival that commemorates Ibrahim's willingness to sacrifice his only son for God. “I said my prayer right at that corner,” Mohamed said, pointing to the spot. Another Muslim, Amran Ali, did the same. “I had to say my prayer...

The planned construction of over 180 mosques in Germany is mobilizing right-wing xenophobes but also an increasing number of leftist critics. They fear the Muslim places of worship will facilitate the establishment of a completely parallel society. ... the media reported "turmoil" and an "enraged" audience in a school auditorium in Ehrenfeld, a district of the German city of Cologne. The mood was almost comparable to that of the protest gatherings once held against nuclear missiles or reactors. Instead the outrage was directed at a huge mosque planned for the area. Still, the words used by the project's opponents called...

In Minnesota, a community college's "meditation room" has been converted into a full scale Muslim prayer room ... all at the taxpayers expense. Yes, you guessed it, it's a government school. http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=28302_Muslim_Students_Take_Over_Meditation_Room_in_Minnesota&only The room used to be the only usable racquetball court until the administrators decided it would be better used as a meditation room. This "meditation room" is said to be open to all religions ... from the descriptions that is clearly not the case. The room is split into sex-segregated sections. The smaller section for women has literature like "Hijaab and Modesty," which instructs women on proper Islamic...

A Minnesota community college has "a Muslim place of worship" featuring "a schedule for Islam's five daily prayers," according to a local newspaper columnist who visited the campus. Tax-supported Normandale Community College in Bloomington, Minn., also has a "sign requesting that shoes be removed" and a barrier that divides men's and women's "prayer spaces," writes Katherine Kersten of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. College officials denied it was anything more than a "meditation" room available for "all faiths." The description of the facility, however, led one faculty member to tell Kersten the room is "unprecedented" and "goes beyond religious toleration." "For all...

Last week, I visited a Muslim place of worship. A schedule for Islam's five daily prayers was posted at the entrance, near a sign requesting that shoes be removed. Inside, a barrier divided men's and women's prayer space, an arrow informed worshippers of the direction of Mecca, and literature urged women to cover their faces. Sound like a mosque? The place I'm describing is the "meditation room" at Normandale Community College, a 9,200-student public institution in Bloomington. Until recently, the room was the school's only usable racquetball court. College administrators converted the court into a meditation room when construction forced...

Muslim prayer room found near holy site By Associated Press Sunday, February 18, 2007 - Updated: 07:52 AM EST JERUSALEM - The site of an Israeli archaeological dig that has sparked angry Muslim reaction worldwide contains what could be a Muslim prayer room, an Israeli archaeologist said Sunday. Muslim leaders and critics of the work said the announcement of the find, three years after it was discovered, confirmed their fears that Israel’s Antiquities Authority is intent on hiding Muslim attachment to the site. Israeli archaeologists began nearly two weeks ago a preparatory dig, prior to renovation work, on a ramp...