“Saudi prince backs moving planned New York City mosque and cultural center - Syracuse Post-Standard” plus 2 more

Saudi prince backs moving planned New York City mosque and cultural center - Syracuse Post-Standard
Cultural substance’ possession leads to probation for Saleh - Daily Reporter
NM's Jemez Pueblo bans trick or treat for safety, cultural reasons - WTVR-TV

Saudi prince backs moving planned New York City mosque and cultural center - Syracuse Post-Standard

Posted: 28 Oct 2010 03:53 PM PDT

Published: Thursday, October 28, 2010, 6:51 PM Updated: Thursday, October 28, 2010, 6:51 PM

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A Saudi prince who has aided the imam spearheading a proposed Islamic center near New York's ground zero is appealing for another site not associated with the "wound" of the Sept. 11 attacks, a report said Thursday.

In interview excerpts published by the Dubai-based Arabian Business magazine, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal was quoted as saying that moving the planned mosque, health club and cultural center would respect the memory of those killed in the 2001 attacks and allow American Muslims to choose a more suitable location.

The comments are reportedly the prince's first public views on the dispute, which has stirred street protests and fiery debates between religious and political leaders over America's freedom of worship versus the lingering anger over the 9/11 attacks.

Prince Alwaleed's Kingdom Foundation has contributed to the group run by New York's Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, but said he has given no funds to the planned center. Prince Alwaleed urged the backers of the proposed Islamic center not to "agitate the wound by saying, 'We need to put the mosque next to the 9/11 site.' "

"Those people behind the mosque have to respect, have to appreciate and have to defer to the people of New York," the prince was quoted as saying by the magazine, which said the full interview will be published Sunday. "The wound is still there. Just because the wound is healing you can't say, 'Let's just go back to where we were pre-9/11.'"

Prince Alwaleed, who chairs a Saudi investment company that has major stakes in international giants News Corp. and Citigroup, also said Muslims in New York should consider a more "dignified" location than the proposed site in lower Manhattan.

"It can't be next to a bar or a strip club, or in a neighborhood that is not really refined and good. The impression I have is that this mosque is just being inserted and squeezed over there," he said.

The Manhattan real estate deveper who controls the site of the planned center and is leading the effort to build it declined to comment. Rauf didn't immediately respond to an interview request, either.

As envisioned, the center would indeed sit next to a tavern, about 2 1/2 blocks from the reconstructed World Trade Center. Other landmarks within a few blocks include City Hall, the Brooklyn Bridge and the Woolworth Building, once the nation's tallest.

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Cultural substance’ possession leads to probation for Saleh - Daily Reporter

Posted: 29 Oct 2010 04:25 AM PDT

Coldwater, Mich. —

Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Chris Anderson agreed possession of the drug Khat "is a cultural substance for" defendant Ahmed Saleh.

The Melvindale man was arrested in February on Interstate 69 after a stop for a defective light when the plant material, identified as Khat, and grown in east Africa or the Arabian peninsula, was found in the car.

Saleh, 32, said a friend put it in the car. Khat is an amphetamine-like stimulant, which is said to cause excitement, loss of appetite and euphoria.

The complete story appears in the Friday, Oct. 29, 2010 edition and is available at coldwaterdailyreporter.mi.newsmemory.com.

NM's Jemez Pueblo bans trick or treat for safety, cultural reasons - WTVR-TV

Posted: 28 Oct 2010 04:08 PM PDT

JEMEZ PUEBLO, N.M. (AP) — Kids who have been eagerly awaiting a fun-filled night of trick-or-treating in this small Native American community will need to find a new way to spend Halloween.

Leaders of Jemez Pueblo have banned trick-or-treating on Halloween, saying it's a safety concern for children walking near unlit roads at night and a holiday that's not part of pueblo culture.

Pueblo leaders say anyone trick-or-treating on tribal land will be sent home, and suggest parents who want their children to participate take them elsewhere.

"You have kids, groups of kids, walking by the side of the road. One of my major concerns is what if kids get hit by an individual who is not being cautious?" Jemez Pueblo Gov. Joshua Madalena said.

The ban also comes as the community has realized in recent weeks that it needs to stay in touch with its youth following a vicious killing last month.

Investigators say a local resident was stabbed with a kitchen knife and box-cutters, beaten with a shovel and mutilated. The killer is then accused of pulling out the victim's entrails and wrapping them around his neck while throwing some on his mutilated body.

The notion of children racing from house to house in the dark has caused fears among local leaders because of the lack of street lights in the pueblo.

There's no lighting along the two-lane asphalt highway that snakes through the pueblo, with the speed limit dropping to 30 mph around homes and tribal offices. There's also no lights on the narrow, twisty dirt roads in the village's heart.

The community of about 2,500 lies in an area of mesas and red rocks an hour's drive northwest of Albuquerque, New Mexico's largest city. The tribe still deeply embraces its traditions, including preserving the Towa language that's unique to Jemez and is spoken by more than 90 percent of its members, Madalena said.

Houses are traditional flat-roof adobes interspersed with stucco homes and some mobile homes. Many have traditional hornos, adobe beehive-shaped outdoor ovens, for baking bread in the yards.

The pueblo's children have trick-or-treated for only a few decades, after the holiday was brought in by a family who had lived off Jemez land for many years, Madalena said.

Jemez members contacted by The Associated Press about the ban did not want to talk. Madalena said the ban is supported by the Tribal Council and pueblo religious leaders.

"Their words of wisdom is what we need to continue to promote our traditional ways and values to our children, to educate them on our ways and customs, our dances and our songs," Madalena said.

There are some signs of Halloween on the pueblo two days before the holiday. A house on the outskirts displays two jack-o'-lanterns on the porch; paper cutouts of pumpkins grin from the windows of a building near Dave's hamburger, taco and fry bread shop.

Far more common in the village are ristras — strings of drying red chile — and handmade signs urging people to vote Nov. 2.

Pueblo leaders had been inching toward banning trick-or-treating for a couple of years, and some pueblo members suggested it, Madalena said.

The leaders instead want to stress All Souls Day Nov. 2, which pays respect to loved ones who have died.

"We pay tribute to our ancestors, we pay tribute to our family members that have passed on to the other world, and we ask blessings from them," Madalena said.

Cultural

Friday, October 29, 2010