Free Republic

Last year, Gaby Gonzalez wore black nail polish and black eye shadow. She had a messy room, standoffs with mom and occasional drinks.  Today, the Honduran-born 20-year-old is known as Sister Gaby.   She proudly wears her jade-green hijab, which forms a nearly perfect frame around her delicate features and large brown eyes. She prays several times a day and does not wear makeup, eat pork or even utter the phrase "happy hour" – that is all haram, she said, or prohibited in Arabic."In my past, I focused on myself. I didn't think about other people, about my parents, just myself...

Some students at William Paterson University Thursday said they could see a correlation between the behavior of some students on campus and what a visiting professor called "post-traumatic slave syndrome." Joy DeGruy Leary, an assistant professor of social work at Portland State University, presented more than a decade of research to a crowd of some 100 people at and concluded that generations of black families have been traumatized by the lingering effects of slavery. Her talk was the first in a series of Black History Month programs at the school. Leary said she often hears blacks say that "good hair,"...

WAYNE, N.J.— A Muslim student employee at William Paterson University (WPU) in New Jersey has finally been cleared of baseless sexual harassment charges. With the help of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), Jihad Daniel forced the public university to officially revoke the punishment it inflicted on him after he expressed his religious opinion of homosexuality in a private e-mail to a professor. “This is a great day for religious and expressive freedom on campus,” said FIRE President David French. “WPU has finally come to its senses and recognized that the First Amendment’s protection for expressing religious views...

Worker's censure ignites debate Thursday, July 21, 2005 WAYNE - A William Paterson University employee censured for calling a film on lesbian relationships a "perversion" has sparked a debate over where free speech ends and discrimination begins.Jihad Daniel, 68, of Hackensack said he was simply expressing his Muslim religious beliefs in the e-mail to a WPU educator advertising the film. But university administrators contend he violated the university's anti-discrimination policy. And the e-mail's recipient said she felt the e-mail qualifies as harassment, not free speech.The dispute began in March when Professor Arlene Holpp Scala of the women's studies department sent...