The New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations has condemned an alleged bias attack on a Jewish man in a Brooklyn subway station.

According to news reports, the suspect was charged with aggravated harassment as a hate crime after he allegedly snatched a yarmulke from the head of an assistant rabbi on Tuesday.

Uria Ohana, 25, chased Ali Hussein after the 18-year-old allegedly snatched the traditional Jewish skull cap, according to United Press International.

As Ohana was giving chase, police said, Hussein and other youths were shouting “Allah-hu Akbar,” which is Arabic for “God is great.” The pursuit ended when Hussein ran into the street and was hit by a truck. The others in the group fled.

CAIR, in a statement issued today, said: “We call on law enforcement authorities to investigate this troubling incident as a possible hate crime and to prosecute the alleged perpetrators to the full extent of the law. There can be no excuse for targeting individuals based on their national origin, race, ethnicity, or religion.”

Much attention is paid to Barack Obama’s speech in Philadelphia yesterday that touched on the issue of unresolved racial tension in America.

Obama, who is currently the leading contender for the Democratic party’s presidential nomination, has largely been hailed for the speech in which he explains his relationship with his pastor, the controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

According to an analysis from U.S. News & World Report, Obama’s speech was “overwhelmingly positive, with several sources calling the speech an historic discussion of racial issues by a presidential candidate—and comparing it to John F. Kennedy’s 1960 speech on religion.”

Commentators thought, though, that Obama’s focus on race was risky, given that it could serve to alienate working class white voters.

Wright, formerly of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, suggested in one sermon that the United States brought the Sept. 11 attacks on itself and in another said blacks should damn America for continuing to mistreat them, according to the Associated Press.

Video of Wright’s comments has been circulating on the internet in recent weeks, leading pundits to numerous discussions about Obama’s long relationship with Wright and the possible implications of the pastor’s inflammatory comments on the Illinois senator’s racial outlook and presidential aspirations.

The Obama speech comes about a week after Geraldine Ferraro, a former presidential candidate who held an honorary post in the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, stepped down from the post after being criticized for saying that Obama owed his campaign success to his being black.

See the video and text of Obama’s speech here.

Comments on the Eliot Spitzer debacle by Laura Schlessinger, the popular conservative radio talk show host known as “Dr. Laura,” ignited a firestorm of controversy today.

Her remarks this morning on TODAY on NBC have been widely interpreted as ascribing blame to Silda Wall Spitzer for her husband’s patronage of a high-priced prostitution ring.

But, on her blog, Schlessinger categorically denies the accusations, saying she was not at any moment speaking specifically about Mrs. Spitzer.

On the show, Schlessinger said that women share the blame if their men cheat.

“You’re saying the women should feel guilty that they somehow drove the man to cheat?” Meredith Viera, the show’s co-host, asked.

Schlessinger replied: “The cheating was his decision to repair what’s damaged and to feed himself where he’s starving. But, yes, I hold women responsible for tossing out perfectly good men by not treating them with the love and kindness and respect and attention they need.

The network reported being flooded within minutes with e-mail critical of Schlessinger’s comments.

Schlessinger said her comments were misinterpreted and that she never was referring directly to Silda Wall Spitzer. She said on her blog that her only direct comment about the governor was “that powerful men sometimes feel an unwarranted sense of entitlement.”

The Spitzer case has dominated the news since Monday. The controversial New York governor stepped down from office today after 14 tumultuous months in power.

The number of hate crimes is on the rise and is increasingly being fueled by anti-immigrant— particularly anti-Latino — sentiment, according to a new report from the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The number of hate groups operating in America rose to 888 last year, up from 844 in 2006, and 602 in 2006, the Southern Poverty Law Center said in “The Year in Hate,” an intelligence report released today.

At the same time, new FBI statistics suggest a 35 percent rise in hate crimes against Latinos between 2003 and 2006, and experts believe that such crimes are typically carried out by people who think they are attacking immigrants, the release said.

According to the Associated Press, the most prominent of the organizations newly added to the list, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, or FAIR, vehemently rejected the “hate group” label, and questioned the law center’s motives. FAIR said the center was using smear tactics to boost donations and stifle legitimate debate on immigration.

According to the SPLC’s report, there were 26 hate groups counted in New York State in 2007, including neo-Nazi groups such as the Aryan Nations; the anti-immigrant group, Save Our State; the Jewish Defense League, identified as a general hate group; black separatist groups such as the Nation of Islam; radical traditionalist Catholic group called The Fatima Crusader/International Fatima Rosary Crusade, and Castle Hill Publishers, identified as Holocaust deniers.

“Hate groups continue to successfully exploit the immigration debate to their advantage, even though the immigration issue has largely disappeared from the presidential debate,” said Mark Potok, editor of the SPLC’s Intelligence Report, an investigative journal that monitors the radical right, stated in the press release. “The fact is that they’ve been aided and abetted by mainstream pundits and politicians who give these haters a platform for their propaganda.”

The greatest growth in hate groups came in California, Arizona and Texas, the report said.

For those of you who love trivia, here’s a question. Do you know how Women’s History Month started? (Don’t worry. The answer will follow at the end, but first, here’s some information about what’s happening locally.)

Rockland Community College has announced its slate of Women’s History Month events, and the programs include discussions about female genital mutilation, women in Shakespeare’s plays and women in music and pornography.

The events are at RCC, 145 College Road in Ramapo. They are open to the public and are free of charge.

For more details on the events and their respective locations on the campus, visit sunyrockland.edu.

Also, Origin bookstore will host a display of art by Patricia Goodman 5 to 7 p.m. March 22. There’ll also be a Women’s book club 6 to 8:30 p.m. March 25. Origin is located inside the Nanuet Mall on Route 59. For information, visit www.originbooksartandcoffee.com.

And now for the answer (thanks to those of you who’ve read this far): According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the roots of National Women’s History Month go back to March 8, 1857, when women from New York City factories staged a protest over working conditions.

International Women’s Day was first observed in 1909, but it wasn’t until 1981 that Congress established National Women’s History Week to be commemorated the second week of March.

Then, in 1987, Congress expanded the week
to a month.

Here are some other interesting facts released by the Census Bureau:

• The median annual earnings of women 16 or older who worked year-round, full-time, in 2006, was $32,649. Women earned 77 cents for every $1 earned by men.


• Thirty-two percent of women 25 to 29 had attained a bachelor’s degree or higher in 2006, which exceeded that of men in this age range (25 percent). Eighty-eight percent of women and 84 percent of men in this same age range had completed high school.


• The projected number of bachelor’s degrees that will be awarded to women in the 2007-08 school year is 894,000, with women also projected to earn 380,000 master’s degrees during the same period. Women would, therefore, earn 59 percent of the bachelor’s and 61 percent of the master’s degrees awarded during this school year. In addition, women would earn a majority (52 percent) of first-professional degrees (including law and medicine.)

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Just so you’re aware, in the coming days, we will be moving this and other LoHud blogs to a dedicated server that will provide more stability and better troubleshooting capabilities than we currently have. Please bear with us during this transition. Some features may not be available during this time. We will reincorporate them as soon as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience you might encounter and thank you for your continued patronage.

I wrote a story about efforts that immigrants in Suffern are undertaking to oppose a proposed enforcement partnership between village police and federal immigration agents. The story appeared on Sunday, and as of today, 100 readers have posted comments, most of which are negative, on the story page on lohud.com.

For those who haven’t read the story, it talks about Hispanic immigrants’ fears that they may be profiled under the plan that would deputize Suffern police as federal immigration agents. The story also talks about efforts the Hispanic immigrant community is taking to rally others to their cause, and also provides a response from village officials.

A few readers have accused me of playing favorites. Let me explain how it works: it is my job to fairly and accurately report what is happening in the community so residents and readers like you can know what is going on around you.

If people who support the village’s intentions were to similarly organize in support of the plan, I would write an article about that too.

I’ve attempted to respond to e-mails on the subject, but here again I’ll reiterate: If anyone plans to publicly lobby for the plan, please let me know.

As always, I welcome your comments.

President George Bush wrapped up his five-nation tour of Africa today.

At stops in Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana and Liberia, the president was showered with adulation, according to an Associated Press report.

He got a day named in his honor in Benin and a highway named for him in Ghana, and huge crowds of cheering, flag waving Liberians lined Bush’s drive to his meeting with Liberia’s president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the AP said.

In Liberia today, Bush delighted spectators by showing his dancing skills.

Watch the video here.

A Senate bill on Indian health care that is expected to pass by the end of this month could contain a formal apology from the U.S. government for mistreatment of American Indians.

The bill was initially introduced by Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback in 2004.

“For too much of our history, federal-tribal relations have been marked by broken treaties, mistreatment and dishonorable dealings,� Brownback, a Republican, said in an article by the Associated Press. “We can acknowledge our past failures, express sincere regrets and establish a brighter future for all Americans.�

The 2004 annual report of the National Congress of American Indians said tribal leaders welcomed the resolution. However, leaders were concerned about the approach to “such a monumental task as addressing the nation’s past wrongs to native people.�

Dwaine Perry, chief of the Ramapough Lenape Indian Nation, a tribe that lives primarily in Hillburn, and in Ringwood and Mahwah, N.J., says the proposed apology is a beginning, but more “systemic action� was needed.

“It’s certainly long overdue and I’m wondering what motivated this move,� Perry said today. “I’m not at all ungrateful. I think any light on the situation is positive, but I think one needs to be cynical after 500 plus years.�

Earlier this month, Aborigines in Australia welcomed what was viewed as a long-overdue formal apology from the government. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologized for assimilation policies that degraded indigenous people. Aborigines felt that Rudd’s apology helped ease the sorrow of “the stolen generations,� referring to the children who were forcibly removed from their families under decades-long government assimilation policies.

Aborigines, the original inhabitants of Australia, believe the apology sets the tone for moving forward to repair the harm done to them.

Incidentally, Australian media reports indicate Indian Rudd’s approval ratings have soared since the historic apology.

The Ramapo Town Board will celebrate African heritage 8 p.m. Feb. 27 in an event that will promote harmony, the town said.

African heritage night will feature music by Ekklipse Steel band, a cultural show including music, poetry and a photo show of Ghana, and colors will be presented by students from the Ramapo High School ROTC.

Free refreshment will include southern, African and Caribbean food.

Lantei Lamptey, president of the town’s African Heritage Twinning Committee, will play his African drum.

“The town board is very proud of its 120,000 residents,� Ramapo Town Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence said in a release. “One of its goals is to promote ethnic harmony.�

The event will be at Town Hall, 237 Route 59. It is open to the public. If you’d like information, call Christian Sampson, the town clerk, at 845-357-5100, ext. 263.