Washington, U.S.A. — The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) called on presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney to clarify his decision to meet privately with a key figure in the Islamophobia movement, retired Lieutenant General William G. “Jerry” Boykin.

Boykin asserts that “[Islam] should not be protected under the First Amendment,” that there should be “no mosques in America” and that there can be no interfaith dialogue or cooperation between Muslims and Christians. In 2003, President Bush rebuked Boykin for his anti-Muslim stance.

Earlier this year, Boykin’s extreme viewpoints resulted in him withdrawing from a prayer breakfast at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. CAIR and VoteVets.org, a coalition of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, had both asked the academy to retract the invitation because of Boykin’s Islamophobic views.

“Romney would rightfully never meet with an anti-Semite or white supremacist, so why would he meet with an infamous Islamophobe?” said CAIR National Legislative Director Corey Saylor.

Saylor added that Boykin’s extremist views are well-documented and called on the Romney campaign to explain either why Boykin was not vetted or why a decision was made to have the candidate meet with a key figure in the domestic Islamophobia movement.

CAIR has been challenging Boykin’s un-American bigotry for a number of years.

CAIR and People For the American Way objected to a speech Boykin gave to a mayor’s prayer breakfast in Maryland. Hundreds of people contacted city officials to protest Boykin’s appearance.

CAIR last year asked Romney to drop Walid Phares, a newly-appointed advisor on Middle East affairs, because he is a “former official” of a group implicated in the 1982 massacre of civilian men, women and children at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon.

CAIR is America’s largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.

Image Courtesy of  Gage Skidmore

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Dallas, U.S.A. – The Supreme Court of the United States have declined to review an earlier appeals court decision clearing two Texas school principals of claims they restricted the free speech of students in the so-called “Candy Cane” case.

The Supreme Court’s decision not to hear the appeal in Doug Morgan, et al. v. Lynn Swanson, et al., No. 09-40373, follows an earlier ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that the principals should be shielded from the lawsuit based on qualified immunity.

In 2004, elementary students from the Plano Independent School District and their parents filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas against Plano ISD and some of its employees based on claims that elementary school administrators restricted their rights to free speech by prohibiting the students from distributing religious-themed gifts at their schools.

Attorney Tom Brandt of the Dallas law firm of Fanning Harper Matinson Brandt & Kutchin represented Lynn Swanson, principal of Thomas Elementary School, and Jackie Bomchill, principal of Rasor Elementary School. Mr. Brandt notes that while some court watchers have characterized this as one of the most important First Amendment cases of the past decade, the core legal dispute always has been about the qualified immunity of the principal parties.

“There have been a number of people and organizations who have characterized this as a seminal First Amendment decision,” says Mr. Brandt. “However, as the Court has shown us in today’s decision, the core legal question was not about freedom of expression, but about the necessary protections for two outstanding educators.”

“This type of case is exactly why the tenet of qualified immunity is a part of our legal system. Educators must be allowed to make decisions that are in the best interest of an entire school without fear of individual retribution when the law is unclear,” adds Mr. Brandt. “This ruling brings a tremendous sense of relief to Ms. Bomchill and Ms. Swanson, who have been forced to deal with the specter of this case for far too long.”

While the Supreme Court’s decision brings the Morgan v. Swanson appeal to a close, other parts of the case are still to be decided at the appellate and district court levels.

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The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has called on Mayor Richard Meehan of Ocean City, Md., to reconsider his speaking invitation to retired Lieutenant General William G. “Jerry” Boykin, who believes that “[Islam] should not be protected under the First Amendment” and that there should be “no mosques in America.” Boykin is scheduled to speak at the Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast on January 26.

In a letter he emailed to Mayor Meehan, CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper wrote in part:

“We question the appropriateness of this choice for an official event, given Boykin’s long, shameful history of extreme and bigoted views. . . It will be a discredit to your office and a disservice to the citizens of Ocean City if such a man is allowed to spread his divisive falsehoods and prejudiced ideas at a government-sponsored function.

“We respectfully ask whether any taxpayer funds are being spent on this year’s Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast, and how your office plans to address the appearance of an official endorsement of Boykin’s extremist views. We ask that you reconsider inviting him, given that the biased ideas he espouses — though protected by the First Amendment — should be repudiated, not given a legitimizing platform.”

Boykin’s views came under scrutiny in 2003 when media reports revealed that in a public discussion of his efforts to capture a Muslim Somali warlord, Boykin said: “I knew my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol.” Speaking in uniform, the general said America’s “spiritual enemy. . .will only be defeated if we come against them in the name of Jesus.”

Since then, Boykin has continued to openly attack Islam and portray Muslims as a “threat,” even stating that there can be no interfaith dialogue or cooperation between Muslims and Christians. In September 2011, Boykin declared on the radio show Focal Point that there should be “no mosques in America.”

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Twitter is causing controversy among athletes with every passing day. In a time where two major American sporting leagues are in Lockouts, the teams really have no authority over the players and what they can say on the web.

In fact, thanks to the first amendment to the United States Constitution, they really have no right to monitor what players want to say at all and yet we see hefty fines given all the time. Are these penalties fair? Should teams have control over what their players can and can not say on their own time? We may see a change in how these situations are approached in the near future.

Twitter is a great way for athletes to connect with their fans on a personal basis, which is something many generations of sports lovers were unable to achieve until now.

Unfortunately, these sports stars are not held to the same social standards as the everyday tweeter. It seems to be the price to pay that if you want to be famous, you also have to accept the fact that you will be scrutinized in every public aspect of your life. The keyword there is public.

Some athletes don’t seem to understand where to draw the line between public and private thoughts, and thus some of their more infamous tweets have landed them in hot water.

Let’s take it back to the beginning. Charlie Villanueva was one of the first NBA stars to join twitter. It soon spiraled into an obsession. During halftime of a Milwaukee Bucks vs. Boston Celtics game, the famous “@CV31” tweeted, “In da locker room, snuck to post my twitt. We’re playing the Celtics, tie ball game at da half. Coach wants more toughness. I gotta step up.”

Players tweeting during games is going way too far. Unfortunately, as I said, this was only the beginning.

Later that year, Denver Nuggets guard J.R. Smith was questioned for having association with the famous Bloods street gang for using some controversial language in his tweets.

In May, while much of the world was debating over the death of Osama Bin Laden, some athletes decided it would be wise for them to chime in. Not the best idea.

Without throwing these guys under the bus (although their twitter names are easy enough to find) guys like Rashard Mendenhall and Chris Douglas-Roberts decided to speak out on the matter, leading to a ton of flac from the sports community.

Mendenhall lost a multi-million dollar endorsement deal with Champion thanks to his brutal honesty.

I do respect the fact that everybody has their own opinion. I also respect the fact that everyone should have the same right to speak in a public forum such as the internet. If this were not true, it would violate everything the United States stands for. I almost feel bad for these athletes that take so much heat for saying how they feel.

Now that I got my disclaimer out of the way, I have to be completely honest. People, athletes specifically, but people in general, should probable realize when certain words will get them into trouble. Maybe every popular athlete in this day and age needs a publicist. Maybe they just shouldn’t be on twitter at all, but it’s a bit late for that. In all honesty, if they would just read over every tweet before they send it out and ask themselves “what is everybody going to think about this?” they probably wouldn’t be feeling such repercussions.

Lately, rumors have been that teams will soon put some kind of general rules into place regarding social media. This would probably be a wise idea if not for the fact that the leagues will be walking a fine line between saving their organization from embarrassment, and taking away the constitutional rights of their players.

In the end, I just have a few sentences to say to the troubled tweeters.

Dear athletes,

I understand that you want to connect with us. You want to be able to show who you really are as opposed to those twenty second media clips we see after games. You want to be able to reach out to the people that come out and watch you play and cheer you on. I get that, and I couldn’t support you more.

I just please ask you to do one thing and one thing only before you reach out to us:

PROOFREAD.

Sincerely,

The fans, the media, journalists, kids, parents, your endorsers, your team officials…well you get the point.

Annette Shaff / Shutterstock.com

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