Muslims are angry over headscarf ruling. Muslim rights activists are outraged at an Atlanta judge who ordered a 40-year-old Muslim woman to serve 10 days in jail for refusing to remove her headscarf before attending a hearing in his courtroom. Although she was released before serving a full day, critics want the Justice Department to look into what sparked the incident in the Atlanta suburb of Douglasville, Ga., a community of about 20,000 people.  We can deal with whether people knew about policies or whether they handled things correctly, but the bottom line is, can a Muslim woman walk into this courtroom wearing religious attire?” said Council on American-Islamic Relations spokesman Ibrahim. City court workers will now be required to undergo sensitivity training and post courtroom dress code signs.

N.Y. Pastor celebrates his 106^th birthday. The Rev. Charles Leonard, pastor of Mount Zion Church of Christ, celebrated his 106^th birthday on Christmas Day. He said that his friends, family and God has been the source of his longevity. “My generation coming up, young people, they were brought up in church,” said Leonard, who was born in Philadelphia in 1902. “This is the way it was with me. The secret is God. He keeps me alert. He keeps me active.” Leonard’s grandmother lived to be 108. He was reared in segregated North Carolina and Georgia. In 1933, he moved to New York, where he landed a job as a high-steam engineer for the Washington Heights Laundry Co. Leonard began preaching more than 50 years ago. “He travels by himself, he goes out on his own, he’s totally independent,” said his 48-year-old great-niece, Brenda Greene. “If he doesn’t hear from us, he calls and checks on us. Sometimes he’s more alert than we are.”

Rev. Jackson makes Christmas jail visit. On Christmas Day, the Rev. Jesse Jackson did what he has done for the past two decades – visited inmates in Chicago’s Cook County Jail. During his visit, he described U.S. corrections facilities as “Jail hotels” and said that people must stop thinking of prison as “free meals, medicine, heat and recreational activities.” It’s time to vote and get tested for HIV, he told the 500 inmates who gathered to hear him speak. Jackson, whose Rainbow PUSH Coalition turned 43 on Christmas, urged his audience to “make better choices.”

TAGS: 106, Arrested, atlanta, Birthday, Christmas, headscarf, hijab, Justice Department, muslim, prison visit, Rev. Charles Leonard, Rev. Jesse Jackson

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