At least till some crazy nut among Muslims does a horrible act again and pushes all efforts back to square one!!  Changing the trend is a hard work, and controlling the nuts is even harder but more important.( F. Sheikh )

Both Bill de Blasio, Joe Lhota say schools should close on Muslim holidays

The mayoral candidates agree that schools should recognize Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, the holiest days of the Muslim year, just as they do Jewish and Christian days. De Blasio says that schools must ‘respect Muslim faiths,’ and Lhota says he has been calling to close schools on the two days throughout his campaign.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/election/de-blasio-lhota-close-schools-muslim-holidays-article-1.1488189#ixzz2i6v0LzGg

Governor Patrick Wishes You a Wonderful Eid al-Adha Holiday

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=3J07uyNk2n8

Jacob Bender Is First Jew To Lead Chapter of Muslim Advocacy Group CAIR

Philly Activist Faces Hostilty From Jewish Establishment
Read more: http://forward.com/articles/185718/jacob-bender-is-first-jew-to-lead-chapter-of-musli/?p=all#ixzz2i6wdsVgi

De Blasio Tells Muslims He’ll End Broad NYPD Spying If Elected

Democratic Front-Runner: Use Surveillance Only To Follow Up On Leads 

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/10/16/de-blasio-tells-muslims-hell-end-broad-nypd-spying-if-elected/

Wondering why girls chose bad boyfriends? May be evolution is playing a role. Interesting article By PIET van den BERG and TIM W. FAWCETT in NYT.

“Modern mathematical versions of this theory show how female mating preferences and male characteristics will evolve together. But when you try to apply the theory to humans, you hit a snag. In humans, there is an extra preference involved — that of the parents.”

At first sight, it might seem surprising that parents and their children should evolve to have any conflict at all. After all, they share many of the same genes, and both have an evolutionary interest in having those genes persist through the generations. Shouldn’t the preferences of parents and their children be perfectly aligned?

Well, no — not completely. Parents each pass on half of their genes to each of their children, so from a genetic point of view, all children are equally valuable to them. It is in parents’ evolutionary interests to distribute their resources — money, support, etc. — in such a way that leads to as many surviving grandchildren as possible, regardless of which of their children provide them.

Children, by contrast, have a stronger genetic interest in their own reproduction than in that of their siblings, so each child should try to secure more than his or her fair share of parental resources. It is this conflict over parental resources that can lead to a conflict over mate choice.

In our study, we built a computer model to simulate the evolutionary process. We generated a large virtual population of males and females, the males all differing genetically in their ability to invest resources in raising children. The females had a genetically determined preference for this male quality, which meant that females with a strong preference were more likely to end up with a male who invested more. Link for full article;http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/13/opinion/sunday/evolution-and-bad-boyfriends.html?hp

Posted by F. Sheikh

If a police officer pulls over a female driver wearing a veil covering all but her eyes, can he demand that she lift the veil so he can identify her?

Before a classroom of state police recruits, Mohammad Ali Chaudry, a Muslim scholar, explained that there’s no religious reason for her to refuse. She has to obey the laws of her country “for everybody’s security,” he said.

– See more at: http://www.northjersey.com/news/New_Jersey_State_Troopers_schooled_in_Muslim_culture.html?page=all#sthash.eyewY3Ed.dpuf

 By VICTOR GILINSKY and HENRY D. SOKOLSKI in NYT

After reaching agreement with Russia on Chemical Weapons in Geneva, Mr. Kerry directly flew to Tel Aviv to reassure Israelis. I think our government‘s main concern was Israel and not the moral outrage being displayed. Unfortunately people of Syria are the main losers in this whole saga; betrayed both by their own leaders and world powers who could not agree to stop the killing by conventional weapons-a major killer. Mr. Assad will have a free hand now. ( F. Sheikh).

Excerpts from article;

“President Bashar al-Assad of Syria insists that the purpose of his chemical arsenal was always to deter Israel’s nuclear weapons. If Syria actually disarms, what about Egypt and Israel? Egypt (about whose chemical weapons the United States has been strangely silent) points to Israel. And Israel of course has its own chemical weapons to deter Syria’s and Egypt’s, and it is not about to give them up. A headline in the Israeli daily Haaretz a few days ago stated: “Israel adamant it won’t ratify chemical arms treaty before hostile neighbors.”

“In April, the American assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation, Thomas M. Countryman, expressed hope that the conference would be held by this fall. And earlier this month, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, urged all parties to set a conference date “as quickly as possible.” He also argued that it should include Israel and Iran. Russia attempted to include the conference in last week’s agreement, but Secretary of State John Kerry resisted. It is not going to go away.

If Washington wants negotiations over weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East to work — or even just to avoid making America appear ridiculous — Mr. Obama should begin by being candid. He cannot expect the countries participating in a conference to take America seriously if the White House continues to pretend that we don’t know whether Israel has nuclear weapons, or for that matter whether Egypt and Israel have chemical or biological ones.

And if Israel’s policy on the subject is so frozen that it is unable to come clean, Mr. Obama must let the United States government be honest about Israel’s arsenal and act on those facts, for both America’s good and Israel’s.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/19/opinion/global/lets-be-honest-about-israels-nukes.html?ref=opinion