Headlines:

• US: Florida Parents Protest Textbook Chapter on Islam
• Muslim Workers in America Fired for Praying
• Kerry Makes Highest-Level American Visit to Egypt Since Morsi Ouster
• Former Pakistani Ambassador to US Haqqani Reveals America's Secret Letter

Details:

US: Florida Parents Protest Textbook Chapter on Islam

A school board meeting was postponed Tuesday after upset Volusia County parents said a world history textbook in schools statewide teaches children more about Islam than other religions. Parents in Volusia County said the book has an entire chapter on Islam but doesn't give the same attention to other religions. They protested outside school district headquarters, calling for equal education. Demonstrators on both sides had a heated discussion. "The people behind this movement are reflecting a national trend of hate groups that are promoting hatred of their Muslim neighbours. I think that's un-American and it's frankly just promoting intolerance, and right now what I think our community needs is to learn from each other," said Hassan Shibly, CAIR Florida executive director. The Volusia County School Board said it postponed its Tuesday meeting "in the interest of public safety." The district said it was contacted by the US. Department of Justice before the meeting was supposed to start and said "the nature of this information raised substantial safety concerns." The district said with the information it received, it decided to put more security measures in place to make sure everyone at the meeting would be safe.[Source: ActionNewsJax.com]

Muslim Workers in America Fired for Praying

For more than three years, Mohamed Maow worked at DHL Global Mail in Hebron, Ky. He said he earned $11.57 an hour to sort mail and was paid time-and-a-half for over-time. Maow, 27, a refugee from Somalia who came to the U.S. in 2007, said he never received any negative comments about his performance. Yet on Oct. 9, after he said DHL supervisors reversed a policy of flexible break times that allowed Maow and fellow Somalis time to pray, he was among two dozen Muslims fired for stopping to say five-minute evening prayers required by their religious beliefs. Maow's is one of 11 complaints filed with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that allege DHL Global Mail fired a group of Somali Muslims for exercising their legally protected religious rights. Fired workers, three of them full-time employees of DHL and the other 21 part-time who help through two temporary service agencies, said they had been allowed to pray by previous supervisors. DHL officials at corporate headquarters in Weston, Fla., and at the Hebron location did not respond to requests from The Cincinnati Enquirer for comment. Reached Wednesday at her Columbus office, in-house DHL counsel Christa Johnson said, "I have no comment at this time." She had responded in writing to CAIR, which would not provide a copy of the letter to The Enquirer. [Source: The Cincinnati Enquirer]

Kerry Makes Highest-Level American Visit to Egypt Since Morsi Ouster

US Secretary of State John Kerry made a brief stop Sunday in Cairo, where he said that America was a friend of the Egyptian people and committed to contributing to Egypt's success. At a press conference, Kerry said that the relationship between the U.S. and Egypt is "very important" and added that whatever happens with the North African country's current political instability is "profoundly important" to the Middle East and the interest of the United States. Kerry's visit was his first since the Egyptian military's removal of Mohammed Morsi in July, which was followed by a harsh crackdown on his protesting supporters that led the US. to suspend hundreds of millions of dollars in aid. The State Department apparently expected a frosty reception for Kerry, especially with tensions running high on the eve of Monday's scheduled start of Morsi's trial on charges of inciting murder. The department refused to confirm Kerry's visit until he landed in Cairo, even though Egypt's official news agency reported the impending trip three days earlier. The secrecy was unprecedented for a secretary of state's travel to Egypt, for decades one of the closest US. allies in the Arab world, and highlighted the deep rifts today between Washington and Cairo. Egypt's foreign minister, Nabil Fahmy, said last month that US.-Egyptian relations were in "turmoil" and warned that the strain could affect the entire Middle East. With U.S. influence ebbing, Kerry's message about the importance of economic and constitutional reforms was expected to be met with suspicion, if not outright hostility, by Egyptian leaders and a population deeply mistrustful of Washington's motives. Many Egyptians accuse the Obama administration of taking sides in their domestic political turmoil; American officials adamantly deny it. [Source: Fox News]

Former Pakistani Ambassador to US Haqqani Reveals America's Secret Letter

US President Barack Obama secretly offered Pakistan in 2009 that he would nudge India towards negotiations on Kashmir in lieu of it ending support to terrorist groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Taliban, but much to his disappointment Islamabad rejected the offer. "Since the 1950s Pakistan had wanted an American role in South Asia. Now it was being offered one. In the end Pakistan would have to negotiate the Kashmir issue directly with India. But at least now the American president was saying that he would nudge the Indians toward those negotiations," Pakistan's former ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani writes in his book 'Magnificent Delusions,' which hit the stores on Tuesday. This is Haqqani's interpretation of the secret letter written by President Obama to the then President Asif Ali Zardari, which was personally hand delivered by his then National Security Adviser Gen (rtd) James Jones. The letter's content is for the first time being disclosed by Haqqani, the then Pakistan's envoy to the US. In his 300-page book, Haqqani writes that in November 2009, Jones had travelled to Islamabad to hand deliver a letter written by Obama to Zardari.Dated November 11, 2009, through the letter Obama offered Pakistan to become America's "long-term strategic" partner. The letter "even hinted at addressing Pakistan's oft-stated desire for a settlement of the Kashmir dispute," he writes. "Obama wrote that the United States would tell countries of the region that 'the old ways of doing business are no longer acceptable'. He acknowledged that some countries - a reference to India - had used 'unresolved disputes to leave open bilateral wounds for years or decades. They must find ways to come together'," Haqqani writes. [Source: The Times of India]