Feb 9, 2017 - COURTHOUSE NEWS SERVICE - Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday voted to draft an ordinance barring city employees from cooperating with the federal government if President Donald Trump creates a Muslim database. Councilman Paul Krekorian proposed the draft ordinance and the council passed the motion at a morning meeting in City Hall. The council also asked Los Angeles Police Department and the city attorney to report on hate crimes against immigrant communities in the city in the wake of Trump’s election.
Project Category: <span>In the News</span>
L.A.’s melting pot is defying Trump’s specialty: to provoke and divide
Feb 4, 2017 - LOS ANGELES TIMES - I'd never been to the Islamic Center of Southern California, on Vermont Avenue in Koreatown, so call me naive. But I didn’t expect to hear a conversation in Spanish, or see so many Latinos, African Americans and Caucasians at the mosque and cultural center. “When you come on our main day, Friday service, it’s filled with people, and you don’t see two people from the same country in any row,” said Asim Buyuksoy, religious director and Turkish immigrant.
Muslim Solidarity Rally
Feb. 3, 2017 - KCET - Dozens of people gathered outside the Islamic Center of Southern California Friday as one in a series of nationwide rallies in solidarity with immigrants and the Muslim community in response to President Donald Trump's recent order temporarily banning visitors from seven predominantly Muslim countries. Waving signs and chanting slogans, participants in the afternoon rally said they wanted to send a message of togetherness, and also to combat notions that Muslims should be feared.
L.A. Mayor and Other City Leaders Denounce President Donald Trump’s Travel Ban
Feb 1, 2017 - KCET - Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and other city leaders appeared at the Islamic Center of Southern California in Koreatown today to denounce President Donald Trump's travel ban on seven Muslim-majority nations and offer their support for travelers affected by it. "We must always protect our country and our people from harm, and should take every necessary measure to secure the homeland," Garcetti said.
Islamic Center in Koreatown opens its doors for a holiday giveaway
Dec 19, 2016 - LOS ANGELES TIMES - After the November terrorist attacks in Paris, Andrew Boyle felt a need to expand his understanding. He sent an email to the Islamic Center of Southern California. The query led him on an unexpected path of discovery that found him Saturday morning standing next to a stack of cabbages in the dining hall of the mosque on Vermont Avenue between 4th and 5th streets.
Letters calling for genocide of Muslims sent to mosques across the country
Nov. 29, 2016 - WASHINGTON POST - Letters praising President-elect Donald Trump and advocating for the genocide of Muslims in the United States have been sent to numerous mosques in five states. At least 10 Islamic centers have received letters that are believed to have been written by the same person. The letters referred to Muslims as “children of Satan” and called Trump the “new sheriff in town.”
Threatening letters sent to mosques aren’t hate crimes, authorities say
Nov. 28, 2016 - LOS ANGELES TIMES - series of letters sent to mosques throughout California that threaten genocide against Muslims does not rise to the level of a hate crime, but police are still searching for the author or authors of the racist screeds, officials said Monday. Flanked by faith leaders and police commanders at the Islamic Center of Southern California in Los Angeles, law enforcement leaders said they are still doggedly pursuing the letter-writer or writers to ensure they don’t pose a larger threat.
Man accused of threatening Islamic center
Oct 25, 2016 - LOS ANGELES TIMES - LAPD officers discuss the arrest of an Agoura Hills man who is accused of threatening the Islamic Center of Southern California. (Video by Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)