A New York man has been charged with actively supporting the Islamic terrorist group ISIS.
Mufid Elfgeeh, 30, is a Yemeni born man who had been living in New York City. Elfgeeh ran a halal food market in the city and used the profits to help fund terrorism activities for the group. He also was arranging for the purchase and shipment of weapons.
Reports say that Elfgeeh attempted to buy guns from undercover FBI agents and worked with another undercover agents to help them travel to Syria to take the weapons to ISIS. He even accompanied an undercover agent to Buffalo, New York to pick up a passport for the trip to Syria.
Most disturbing was plans to murder members of the U.S. military.
“Elfgeeh also plotted to shoot and kill members of the United States military who had returned from Iraq,” prosecutors state. “As part of the plan to kill soldiers, Elfgeeh purchased two handguns equipped with firearm silencers and ammunition from a confidential source.”
Attorney General Eric Holder said this is just one of many operations currently underway.
“We will remain aggressive in identifying and disrupting those who seek to provide support to ISIL and other terrorist groups that are bent on inflicting harm upon Americans,” stated Attorney General Eric Holder, according to USA Today. “We are focused on breaking up these activities on the front end, before supporters of ISIL can make good on plans to travel to the region or recruit sympathizers to this cause.”
Western intelligence agencies are scrambling after discovering that 11 commercial aircraft have disappeared from the airport in Tripoli airport.
Islamist militias took control of the airport last month as they continue to take over the country. There have been continual battles around the airport between the rival Islamist groups that have resulted in intelligence agencies not being able to confirm which groups may have flown the aircraft to other locations.
The fear is that many of the planes will be used to make attacks on September 11th, the 13th anniversary of the attacks on New York and the 2nd anniversary of the attack on the Benghazi embassy assault.
The airport still has seven aircraft in various states of damage sitting around the terminal. However, Libyan Airlines had 14 planes this summer and state-owned Afriqiyah Airways had 13 aircraft. All but 11 have been found since the airport was closed in mid-July.
Military forces all across North Africa have been placed on a heightened alert because of the missing planes.
NYPD has told reporters that the knockout game is back in the city.
A 34-year-old Brooklyn woman who is six months pregnant was struck in the back of the head while walking down a sidewalk with her sister. The pregnant woman was immediately rendered unconscious and fell to the ground. Fortunately, she was not seriously injured and her child was not hurt.
Willie Stephens, 33, has been arrested for the attack.
Police say that Jannatul Ferdous’ sister immediately called 911 after the attack and gave such a strong description that Stephens was quickly found three blocks away. Police say it’s strange that Stephens would make such an attack because he had no criminal record.
Stephens reportedly did not know his victim.
A federal appeals court has told a group of anti-Christianists that “the cross at Ground Zero” is not an unconstitutional endorsement of religion.
The group American Atheists had demanded the cross be removed because it violated the Establishment Clause of the Constitution.
“American Atheists contend that the Port Authority and the foundation impermissibly promote Christianity in violation of the Establishment Clause and deny atheists equal protection of the laws by displaying the cross at Ground Zero in the museum unaccompanied by some item acknowledging that atheists were among the victims and rescuers on September 11,” read the opinion.
“American Atheists acknowledge that there is no historic artifact that speaks particularly to the loss of atheists’ lives or to atheists’ rescue efforts … we conclude that American Atheists’ challenge fails on the merits. Accordingly, we hereby affirm the judgment in favor of appellees.”
The president of American Atheists says it’s not fair that a cross is in the 9/11 Museum and his group can’t put up some kind of tribute to atheists, even though the “cross” wasn’t given by any Christian group but rather discovered as part of the debris of the Twin Towers.
“They’re trying to Christianize 9/11 with this cross and it’s not American and it’s not fair,” said David Silverman.
The anti-Christianist group will likely appeal the decision.
A New York woman pushed her baby from a subway car onto a platform and then casually turned and got back on the train, leaving her child defenseless on the subway platform.
New York police arrested the woman about 12 hours later thanks to a tip from a person who passed the woman on the street and recognized her from security footage aired on local television news.
Police have not released the name of the woman and charges had not been flied as of Tuesday morning. Police sources say that the women attributed her abandoning of the child to not being able to handle the amount of care a child required.
The 6-month-old girl was taken to St. Luke’s hospital after she was found and determined to be in good health and condition. She’s currently in the care of the Administration for Children’s Services.
Christian teachers now have fewer rights to express their faith after a ruling form a New York judge.
Joelle Silver, a teacher who had displayed Bible verses in her classroom on motivational posters, a painting that included three crosses on a hill and a prayer box on her desk placed by the school’s Bible Study Club, has been told all of those items must be removed from the classroom.
Judge Leslie G. Foschio ruled that she could not proceed in her lawsuit against the Cheektowaga Central School District that her rights were being violated. The judge did, however, leave open the possibility she could move forward in her suit on the basis of equal protection discrimination because only Christian items were forced to be removed.
The removal of her items came when the virulent anti-Christian group Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter to the school complaining about the Christian teacher.
Atheist activist Michael Newdow has lost another court case in his quest to eradicate all references to Christianity from society.
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York ruled to uphold lower court rulings that the phrase does not violate the Establishment Clause of the Constitution and does not mean the government is choosing a religion to force on citizens.
“As the Supreme Court has repeatedly indicated in dicta, the statutes at issue in this case have a secular purpose and neither advance nor inhibit religion. The Court has recognized in a number of its cases that the motto, and its inclusion in the design of U.S. currency, is a ‘reference to our religious heritage,’” the Court ruled. “We therefore hold, in line with the Supreme Court’s dicta, that [the motto appearing on currency does] not violate the Establishment Clause.”
The Court went on to say that they disagree the plaintiffs have had a substantial burden placed on them and their religious beliefs.
The Alliance Defending Freedom praised the ruling.
“Americans need not be forced to abandon their religious heritage simply to appease someone’s animosity toward anything that references God,” ADF’s Rory Gray said to the Christian Post. “The Second Circuit rightly reached the same conclusion because this suit was based on a deeply flawed understanding of the First Amendment.”
The planned Satanic ceremony at Harvard University was canceled after an outcry from students and alumni.
The Harvard Extension Cultural Studies Club announced on Monday it would not hold the event because negotiations between themselves and the bar where it was scheduled broke down without an agreement. The Club says they were unable to find another suitable location.
The Club said the New York group Satanic Temple would still hold a mass because they wanted to “reaffirm their respect for the Satanic faith.”
The ceremonies held by the Satanic Temple are parodies of the rites of the Catholic Church.
Almost 400 Harvard students and over 100 alumni had signed a petition opposing the event being held on the campus.
“This form of satanic worship not only ridicules the central practice of Catholicism, the Mass, but it also mocks and offends all who have faith in Christ,” the petition reads. “Far from being an event that promotes an understanding of “cultural practices,” it, in fact, promotes contempt for the Catholic faith and religion generally. We are Catholics, other Christians, and supporters of genuine tolerance and civility, and we are offended and outraged this event has been permitted to take place at Harvard.”
For an hour on April 24th, New York City’s Times Square proclaimed the name of Jesus.
Hillsong Church bought all the screens in the square and played a loop of a video that flashed “Jesus” and “No Other Name”. Hillsong is releasing a new album called “No Other Name” and is hosting conferences this year, but the video did not say anything about the church.
Hillsong members in the Square that night reported many passersby stopping to look at the display, openly wondering what business was behind the loop of Jesus and “No Other Name”.
“Times Square, one of the most iconic locations on Earth, is a place where so many names scream for fame,” Hillsong Art and Communications Director Jay Argaet said. “The most powerful brands, biggest shows and famous celebrities. Every name wants to be the greatest! Perhaps this would be the most powerful way to remind the world HIS name trumps them all.”
The “No Other Name” campaign is based on Acts 4:12, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”
New York health officials have reported that the antibiotic resistant superbug MRSA has been found in private homes.
The bacteria that cause 23,000 deaths a year has been most commonly found inside hospitals and nursing homes. The Centers for Disease Control says that outside of health care settings, the most common way for the bacteria to spread were close quarter living situations such as military barracks or athletic locker rooms.
HealthDay is reporting that 161 New York residents who became infected with the bacteria had contracted the disease in their homes.
“What our findings show is it’s also endemic in households,” said lead researcher Dr. Anne-Catrin Uhlemann, of Columbia University Medical Center.
Doctors say the discovery will now require not only treatment of the victims of the bacteria in the hospital but also a full search of the victim’s home and actively remove the sources of the bacteria.