Oprah Grants $1 million Denver School of Science & Technology

The tradition to give back to community, like what Oprah Winfrey does, should inspire anyone of us who are blessed with wealth beyond our need.

Oprah gives $1 million to Denver School of Science & Technology
via Denver Post

Denver School of Science & Technology has received a $1 million grant from Oprah Winfrey’s Angel Network to help the charter school expand.

Winfrey on her show handed Bill Kurtz, chief executive officer of DSST, a $1 million check. Five other charter school networks got money, too.

“These school leaders are doing whatever it takes,” she said on the program that was aired on Monday. “We want to give you something to go back to your schools to make life better.”

The other schools that received Angel Network grants include Aspire Public Schools in California, LEARN Charter Schools in Chicago, YES Prep Public Schools in Houston, Mastery Charter Schools in Philadelphia, and New Orleans Charter Science and Math Academy.

Majority of Americans is Anti Islam

According to recent poll, Narrow majority (52 percent) unfavorable toward Islam.
Via Seattle Post

A narrow majority of Americans hold a generally unfavorable opinion of Islam, and 45 per cent feel Islam is a religion that encourages violence, according to a new national Angus Reid Poll.

The poll found that just 24 percent of Americans agree that Islam “is a peaceful religion” with 30 percent unsure.

By contrast, only one American in 10 believes that either Christianity or Judaism “encourages violence”: 80 percent agree that Christianity “is a peaceful religion” with 59 percent holding the same view of Judaism.

Americans have been hit by a barrage of anti-Islamic commentary on the airwaves of late.

Radio talk show hosts and the right-wing Fox News Channel have tirelessly used a planned Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero in New York as a vehicle to gin up public anger. Almost forgotten have been President Bush’s post-9/11 characterizations of Islam as a religion of peace.

Masjid Manhattan is Ground Zero Mosque

Jason Linkins of Huffington Post highlight about the media hype on community center mistakenly called ground zero mosque which blocks away from the ground zero; and that a mosque closer to ground zero than the planned center is already there. It’s called Masjid Manhattan. That makes the controversies of whether or not the planned community center should be built is irrelevant and ridiculous.

The news didn’t sit well with many people in New York, most notably people who didn’t live in Manhattan. This is because they were told by a gaggle of dumb Islamophobes that what was planned was a “Ground Zero mosque.” Of course, the planned community center was not, strictly speaking, a “mosque.” And it was most definitely not “at Ground Zero.” “Ground Zero” is the site of an interminable municipal construction project. There are no plans to build a mosque there. “Ground Zero” is also not the name of a recognized New York City neighborhood, like DUMBO or Murray Hill. But, here’s the thing: even if it was, the battle to stop the “Ground Zero mosque” was already lost, because there already is a mosque in that neighborhood. Full story.

Terry Jones: We will never burn Quran

So, Quran’s burning is never taking place in front of Terry Jones’ church as planned and attracted so many global media attention. Terry Jones’ mission accomplished: to create national and international attention to himself.

From AP:
Police sent reinforcements on Saturday to separate angry activists gathered outside the US church where Korans were to be burned, even though the church’s controversial pastor called off the event.

Signs in red letters stating that “Islam is of the Devil” are still posted outside the Dove World Outreach evangelical church, but a large sign announcing that some 200 Korans would be set ablaze on the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks was taken down.

Jones, who was in New York, told NBC television. “Not today, not ever.”