WHAT'S GOING ON IN THE MEDIA TODAY?
(CNN) The Medal of Freedom ceremony brought big names to the White House on Tuesday. Honorees included Diana Ross, Michael Jordan and Robert De Niro. The award is the highest civilian honor given by the White House.
But any event Ellen DeGeneres shows up for can't be all pomp and circumstance, right? The movie "Space Jam" was a big winner at the ceremony. President Barack Obama mentioned it twice! Star Michael Jordan -- who I kid you not is billed after Bugs Bunny on the 1996 movie's poster -- was an honoree. Apparently, he is also a shoe designer and athlete...
(UPWORTHY) The Samel family immigrated to the U.S. from Sudan in 2010. They became naturalized citizens in May 2015 and moved into a new house in Iowa City, Iowa, that December. The house had actually been built for them with help from Habitat for Humanity and as part of the city's National Day of Service and Remembrance in honor of 9/11. The Muslim family — Amar Samel and his wife, Muna Abdalla, along with their four children — were happily settling into their new American lives, including jobs and schooling...
(TIME) Radical Islamists were also indicted more frequently than non-Muslim extremists and served longer sentences. Since 9/11, white right-wing terrorists have killed almost twice as many Americans in homegrown attacks than radical Islamists have, according to research by the New America Foundation. In their June study, the foundation decided to examine groups “engaged in violent extremist activity” and found that white extremists were by far the most dangerous. They pointed to the recent Emanuel AME Church shooting in Charleston, S.C., and the 2012 attack on a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, as well as many lesser-known attacks on Jewish institutions and on police...
(CNN)- For Abdelrahman al-Azy the task was brutal but the justifications were simple. As a member of ISIS, he must follow the instructions of his local emir or commander. The order: to help kill a man in cold blood. As directed, al-Azy drove a fellow ISIS militant to the home of a SWAT member, an elite unit of the Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service.The 23-year-old sat in the car as his co-conspirator stepped out of the vehicle, then shot and killed their victim. At the time, al-Azy says he felt proud of the murder, but now sitting in handcuffs, he told CNN he regrets his actions and believes they were wrong...
(Mother Jones)- Last week, the FBI announced there were 5,850 hate crimes in 2015—a 7 percent increase over the year before. But that total, which is based on voluntary reports of hate crimes from local and state police departments, is likely far lower than the real number. The Bureau of Justice Statistics estimated about 260,000 hate crimes annually in a 2013 report looking at hate crimes between 2007 and 2011. The BJS's estimate was based on anonymous responses to the National Crime Victimization Survey, which the bureau conducts every year...
(Identitites.Mic)- Even non-Muslim women who cover their hair are being attacked.
The police department in East Bay Regional Park is investigating an apparent hate crime and auto burglary in Fremont, California, after a woman who wore a headscarf returned to her car to find a note containing anti-Muslim rhetoric. The car windows were smashed, and her checkbook and purse were stolen. "Hijab wearing bitch," the note read. "This is our nation now, get the fuck out." Nicki Pancholy, who is not Muslim, wraps her hair with a bandana because she has lupus, an autoimmune disease that can affect the skin, joints and organs inside the body...