Police in Los Angeles Step Up Efforts to Gain Muslims’ Trust

NYTimes

The question of whether American Muslims do, or do not, cooperate with law enforcement agents in preventing potential terrorist attacks is at the heart of Congressional hearings that begin Thursday in Washington. The hearings have been called by Representative Peter T. King, a Republican from Long Island, N.Y., and chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. He says that American Muslims do not cooperate, and that he will call witnesses who will prove it.

But in Los Angeles, home to one of the largest and most diverse Muslim populations in the country, the picture is far more encouraging, though there are still challenges. And it has one of the most assertive multidepartmental efforts in the country, along with New York, to overcome mistrust and engage Muslims as allies in preventing terrorism, according to law enforcement experts.

"We're not going to win the war against terrorism without Muslims," said Leroy D. Baca, the Los Angeles County sheriff, in an interview in his office. Mr. Baca will be called as a witness at the hearings on Thursday. [...]

David Schick: The Man With Two Faces; a Fraud Case Shocks

NYTimes 1996

Then came David Schick. A lawyer and father of 10 at age 36, his reputation as a doer of good deeds brought people to his home on Avenue I late at night seeking counsel on immigration law or trouble with a child. And Mr. Schick took the family's name far beyond Flatbush.

He was recently the honorary chairman of the annual meeting of the nation's largest Orthodox organization. He helped arrange for President Clinton to meet in March with donors to a large rabbinical college he supports. When Mr. Schick had early success as a real estate investor, word spread so fast through the Orthodox Jewish world that wealthy Jews around the globe were soon entrusting him with millions. To reassure the religious, his deals included a letter from a rabbinical court waiving the prohibition in Jewish law on Jews earning interest from each other.

"They were knocking his door down," said Robert Goldman, a lawyer representing investors in New York, California and Belgium.

Then on April 6, an investor called Mr. Schick to ask about his $1.7 million that was supposed to be parked securely in an escrow account. According to a complaint filed in Federal Court in Manhattan, Mr. Schick responded simply, "I took it." [...]

Chief Rabbi Amar's committee recommends ending Army conversion course

JPost

The rabbinic committee appointed by Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar recommended that he terminate the Nativ course held for potential IDF converts, since Reform and Conservative teachers are part of its staff, Israel Radio reported on Tuesday.

“In this [Nativ] course about 10 of the staff of 170 teachers are Reform or Conservative. We perceive this as a severe problem, that casts a heavy shadow on all of the military conversions, and every effort should be made to cancel this course and/or to not have it as a precondition to the IDF process,” the report quoted from a letter the three-man advisory committee wrote.[...]

Establishing Paternity by Means of Blood Type Testing

MedEthics by Prof.Dov Frimer

A. Introduction

Significant developments have occurred in the field of hemato- logy during the past generation, and research in the area continues to advance. Scientists are firmly of the opinion that proper use of ABO blood type testing enables one to establish in most cases the negative determination of a paternity, namely that X is not the father of Y.[1] At the same time, the medical community acknow- ledges that a satisfactory method for positive, definite determin- ation that X is the father of Y, on the basis of ABO blood types, has yet to be developed.[2] Despite all this, judges in Anglo-Saxon countries are quite reluctant fully to accept paternity blood testing with all its ramifications. It is their opinion that the law should proceed cautiously when dealing with the adoption of new tests and examinations in an area which is under going rapid change and development.[3]

In this article I shall analyze and compare the attitudes of Jewish law and of Israeli law towards the use of blood testing in determining questions of paternity. To achieve this aim, three questions must be investigated: [...]

Philadelphia Archdiocese Suspends 21 Priests

NYTimes

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced Tuesday that it had placed 21 priests on administrative leave from active ministry in connection with credible charges that they had sexually abused minors.

The mass suspension was one of the single most sweeping in the history of the sexual abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. It follows a damning grand jury report issued Feb. 10 that accused the archdiocese of a widespread cover-up of predatory priests stretching over decades and that said as many as 37 priests remained active in the ministry despite credible allegations of sexual abuse against them. [...]

Drawing U.S. Crowds With Anti-Islam Message

NYTimes

As a child growing up a Maronite Christian in war-torn southern Lebanon in the 1970s, Ms. Gabriel said, she had been left lying injured in rubble after Muslims mercilessly bombed her village. She found refuge in Israel and then moved to the United States, only to find that the Islamic radicals who had terrorized her in Lebanon, she said, were now bent on taking over America.

“America has been infiltrated on all levels by radicals who wish to harm America,” she said. “They have infiltrated us at the C.I.A., at the F.B.I., at the Pentagon, at the State Department. They are being radicalized in radical mosques in our cities and communities within the United States.”

Through her books, media appearances and speeches, and her organization, ACT! for America, Ms. Gabriel has become one of the most visible personalities on a circuit of self-appointed terrorism detectors who warn that Muslims pose an enormous danger within United States borders. [...]

Is it child pornography if no child is abused in edited video?

NYTimes

People in this economically pressed town near Lake Michigan are divided into two camps: Those who think Evan Emory should pay hard for what he did, and those who think he should be let off easy.

Mr. Emory, 21, an aspiring singer and songwriter, became a household name here last month when he edited a video to make it appear that elementary school children in a local classroom were listening to him sing a song with graphic sexual lyrics. He then showed the video in a nightclub and posted it on YouTube.

Tony Tague, the Muskegon County prosecutor, stands firmly in the first camp: He charged Mr. Emory with manufacturing and distributing child pornography, a crime that carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison and 25 years on the sex offender registry.

“It is a serious, a huge violation,” said Charles Willick, whose 6-year-old daughter was one of the students, all readily identifiable, in the video. “He crossed the line when he used children.”