Only a paltry three members of Westboro Baptist Church, a fringe group from Kansas that gains media headlines for holding up hate placards in the funerals of soldiers, showed up at Arlington Cemetery in Virginia on Memorial Day. But 80 others came to counter them, including a group claiming to be a branch of the KKK.

Among those that came to counter Westboro were 10 members of a group that claimed to be a branch from the Ku Klux Klan, called the Knights of the Southern Cross. They were separated from some 70 other counter protesters, CNN said.

The three Westboro members showed up just hours before President Barack Obama was scheduled to observe the nation’s Memorial Day at the Tomb of the Unknowns, according to CNN.

About Westboro

Westboro, known for holding ani-gay protests during private funerals of U.S. military soldiers, is led by Fred Phelps, and most of the members of the fringe group are from his family.

Among the signs that it has held at previous funeral rites of soldiers, among others, are placards that say, “You’re going to hell,” “God hates fags,” and “Thank God for Dead Soldiers.”

Some families of dead soldiers whose funerals were picketed by Westboro filed charges against them, but in a near-unanimous vote of 8 to 1, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the cult’s right to free speech surpasses that of the families’ rights to privacy.

KKK group

The KSC handed out American flags. They milled around a banner that said, “POW-MIA.” Dennis LaBonte, who identified himself as the group’s “Imperial Wizard,” told CNN that he started the group several years ago. LaBonte said they came to express their objections against the anti-troop message of Westboro.

LaBonte told CNN, “It’s the soldier that fought and died and gave them that right to free speech.” He also said that the white race is “slowly and most assuredly being denigrated.”

Phelps is fine with it

Abigail Phelps, the daughter of founder Fred Phelps told CNN, “That’s fine.” However, Phelps said to CNN that she and two others from Westboro came to protest the fact that Memorial Day tends to “idolize” the dead, and in particular, those who gave their lives for a cause that she said is “unrighteous.”

Other anti Westboro

Some 70 others who came to counter the cult held up signs that were pro-USA. They took turns drowning out the cries of the fringe group, which has no affiliation with the Baptist church despite its name, CNN said.

Malaika Elias, one of the counter protesters told CNN, “I think they’re twisted and confused, and we’re just here to show them there are people who think they’re completely wrong.”

Passersby

Many of those who came to the cemetery to peacefully honor the dead shouted out their thanks to the group of 70 counter protesters, CNN said.

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Two years ago a 15-year-old Christian Egyptian girl wrote a letter to President Barack Obama about the treatment of Christians in her country.

Dina Maher Ahmad Mo’otahssem, now 17, wrote in her letter to Obama that Muslims in the U.S. are given much better treatment than Coptic Christians are given in Egypt (see http://theundergroundsite.com/index.php/2010/05/egyptian-father-daughter-on-the-run-for-two-years-because-of-faith-12293#comments).

Things seemed bleak and hopeless for Dina then. She and her father, Maher Ahmad El-Mo’otahssem Bellah El-Gohary, 58, had been on the run since August 2008, switching from one safe house to the next every month, Catholic Online said.

A miracle

Today, father and daughter consider it a miracle that they are now in France seeking asylum. They are also applying for asylum in the U.S., which is where they really hope to stay. They fear that Muslim extremists may seek them out in France and kill them in response to Fatwas that have been called on them, Compass Direct News said.

They had been on the run for two and a half years in Egypt before the uprising against Mubarak enabled them to flee to Syria on Feb. 22, then France. The revolution that deposed Mubarak also undermined the Ministry of the Interior, which had long hounded El-Gohary, CDN reported.

The uprising set government offices into confusion and when El-Gohary had permission to leave, and they went to nearby Syria. They were still a religious minority and Syria’s unrest impelled them to seek refuge in France, where they moved to on Mar. 30, CDN said.

National ID

El Gohary’s troubles began when he filed a case for his religion on his national identification card to be changed from Muslim to Christian. He did this to spare Dina from undergoing persecution he experienced in his 20s, Catholic Online said.

Dina was set to receive identity papers when she turned 16. If El-Gohary’s ID said he was Muslim, that would automatically go on her ID, too. He wanted her to be free to practice her faith, Catholic Online said.

A recent Pew Research Center poll revealed that 84 percent of Egyptian Muslims consider leaving the Islamic faith as a crime that should be punished with death, CDN reported. This explains why the lawsuit caused pandemonium. Egypt, then under President Hosni Mubarak, was a secular government but not tolerant of apostasy.

A national ID is required in Egypt to rent a dwelling, receive medical treatment, and open a bank account, CDN said. Abdul Aziz Zakareya, a Muslim cleric told Catholic Online that El-Gohary “should be killed by authorities.”

Zakareya told Catholic Online, “Public conversions can lead to very dangerous consequences. The spreading of a phenomenon like this in a Muslim society can cause many unwanted results and tensions between Muslims and non-Muslims.”

Dina and El-Gohary were subject to Fatwas by Islamic clerics who wanted their blood to be spilled. People said that they were insane and demon possessed, according to Catholic Online.

Father and daughter, for fear of their safety, went to different churches all the time to receive Holy Communion, Catholic Online reported. They were scorned for their faith. Someone threw acid that landed on Dina’s denim jacket (El-Gohary immediately tore the jacket off his daughter). El-Gohary has been attacked by a man with a knife.

El-Gohary told Catholic Online, “Islam is the only thing Egyptians are 150% sure of. If you reject Islam, you shake their belief and you are an apostate, an infidel…I can see in the eyes of Muslims how much my conversion has really hurt them.”

At the same time, El-Gohary refuses to let go of his faith. He told Catholic Online, “In Islam, if you steal your hands are cut off, but in Christianity you can be forgiven. This compassion is what attracted me.”

Dina said, “I’ve always felt Christian, but my mom has taken me to sheiks to convince me of Islam. She made me wear the hijab and go to the mosque against my will. A man with a beard once grabbed me and told me that ‘if you and your dad don’t stop, I’ll kill you both,’” Catholic Online reported.

El-Gohary is seeking asylum in the U.S. as well as in France. Until France resolves his application, he is permitted an automatic three-month extension on his visa, CDN said.

Chris Mitchell of CBN News wrote, “Perhaps it’s fitting that this story of an escape from Egypt came out during the week of Passover. Thousands of years ago, the Israelites fled Egypt to escape Pharoah’s bondage on their way to the Promised Land.

“Thousands of years later, Maher Ahmad El-Gohary, 58, who converted to Christianity from Islam, and his 17-year-old daughter, Dina, escaped from Egypt. It’s a reminder — especially this Easter weekend — of the persecution Christians are subjected to in Egypt and throughout the Middle East — especially Muslims who convert to Christianity.”

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Christians have good things and bad things to say about the position that President Barack Obama is taking in Libya.

Richard Land, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention said Obama made the correct decision, and lauded the president’s highlighting of American ideals, Baptist Press said.

Land said, “[M]any Americans and most Southern Baptists appreciated President Obama’s reaffirmation of our values and beliefs, and that it would violate our values and beliefs to allow human beings to be massacred by their own government, when we had the ability to stop such a slaughter of human beings with a relatively small exercise of American military power,” Baptist Press reported.

Land said Obama’s action “[I]s the opposite and correct decision to the wrong decision by President Clinton not to intervene in Rwanda in 1994, which resulted in as many as one million people being hacked to death in about three months’ time,” according to Baptist Press.

Land added, “At least in the end we’re doing the right thing. I just hope and pray that it is not too late because Gaddafi murdering his fellow citizens, butchering them – it’s what the world looks like without U.S. leadership,” The Christian Post reported.

Land also said, “Mr. Gaddafi needs to be tried and found guilty of crimes against humanity including the Lockerbie bombing, and then he needs to be hung as the war criminal that he is,” according to Christianity Today.

Just-war tradition

Another evangelist who approves is Chuck Colson, founder of Breakpoint. On his webpage Colson said that intervention by coalition forces must follow “the Christian just-war tradition.”

Colson wrote on his blog, “In order to be just, a military action must be for a just cause and done for the right reason. It must be waged by a legitimate authority as a last resort. I can’t imagine a more just and proportional response to the massacre of innocent people than to establish a no-fly zone. So, I was mystified and chagrined by our nation’s inaction.

“Again, America can’t run around the globe solving every conflict. But there are times when we have the ability and the moral obligation to stop a grave injustice … and to help innocent people who seek only freedom. This was one of those times,” Colson wrote in his website.

Colson concluded in his blog, “America is great so long as it is a moral beacon. When we behave immorally, when we look the other way in the face of grave evil, we lose our greatness. And we Christians — the moral conscience of society — have to be the ones to say so.”

Illegal use of military

Land said that while he lauds Obama’s action, the president was wrong to do it without congressional approval. “For the president to authorize the use of American military force in combat without seeking the prior or the subsequent approval of Congress is — to put it bluntly – illegal,” Baptist Press reported.

The 1973 War Powers Act allows a U.S. president to send forces into battle for 60 days, with an additional 30 day extension–without congressional approval. Land said Obama should, within those 90 days, get congress to approve, Baptist Press said.

Land stressed, “Otherwise, it sets a dangerous precedent of the overreach of executive branch power and does damage to the balance of powers designed by our forefathers,” Baptist Press reported.

Evangelicals in the U.K. said international interference in Libya should be contained and not escalate. Steve Clifford, general director of the U.K.’s Evangelical Alliance said, “We ask that the current UN campaign does not go beyond its mandate and that civilian lives are protected in every possible way,” The Christian Post reported.

American interests and values

In a televised speech at the National Defense University, Washington D.C., Obama said, “There will be times…when our safety is not directly threatened, but our interests and our values are,” according to the Baptist Press.

The goal of the U.S. action is only to protect the Libyan people and to ground the Libyan air force by enforcing a no-fly zone with the support of the United Nations Security Council, according to the Baptist Press.

The overthrow of Gaddafi will be done non-militarily, otherwise, “Broadening our military mission to include regime change would be a mistake,” Obama said, and would lead to U.S. troops on the ground, increased cost, and may destroy the coalition, Baptist Press said.

“To be blunt, we went down that road in Iraq, [which] took eight years, [and cost] thousands of American and Iraqi lives and nearly a trillion dollars. That is not something we can afford to repeat in Libya,” the Baptist Press reported.

Obama said the international coalition intervention in Libya seeks to strengthen democracy and prevent possible obstructions to transitions taking place in Tunisia and Egypt, according to the Baptist Press.

Obama said, “The democratic impulses that are dawning across the region would be eclipsed by the darkest form of dictatorship, as repressive leaders concluded that violence is the best strategy to cling to power,” the Baptist Press reported.

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President Barack Obama and his family attended church last Sunday at a US Marines Corps base in Hawaii where the first family is spending the Christmas and New Year holidays.

This is the eighth public church attendance Obama has made since the start of his presidency in 2009, Fox News said. Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, and daughters Sasha and Malia went to St. Michael church at 11:00 a.m. and sat at the front row pew, AFP reported.

Some 100 parishioners were at the church when the Obamas arrived, The New York Times said. The Christmas song, Joy to the World was being sung and churchgoers clapped when the first family walked in.

The chaplain expressed thanks for the presence of the Obamas, and delivered a Christmas sermon based on the biblical passages in Matthew 10:29-31, Fox News reported. Afterwards, the first family received communion.

The last time Obama attended church publicly was on September 19, when he went to Sunday service at St. John’s Episcopal Church near the White House. He is said to shy away from public church attendance due to heavy security precautions and so as not to inconvenience other worshippers, the AFP reported.

Instead, his spiritual regimen usually consists of praying with pastors over the phone and reading daily devotionals on his blackberry. He has also gone to private services in Camp David, Fox News said.

A poll this year indicated that some 18 percent of Americans believe Obama is Muslim, which Fox News said is up from preceding surveys. Obama has oftentimes clarified that he is Christian.

While in Hawaii the president has been golfing, going to the beach, and is receiving regular intelligence and economic briefings. On Christmas Day the first family had dinner with the troops, The New York Times said.

Before attending church Obama worked out at the Marine base gym. After service he played golf, The New York Times said. The AFP reported that Obama also spent Christmas at the base in 2008 and 2009.

Obama was born in Hawaii and went to school in the island state when he was young, the AFP said.

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A survey taken among Protestant pastors indicated that they believe George W. Bush is a Christian, and Oprah Winfrey is not.

The survey was conducted by LifeWay Research through some 1,000 telephone interviews of Protestant pastors nationwide on Oct. 7-14. They were asked, “Which, if any, of the following people do you believe are Christians?” The names listed were Oprah Winfrey, George W. Bush, Glenn Beck, Barack Obama and Sarah Palin, PR Web said.

PR Web said the survey was taken among pastors leading Protestant churches. It said the survey is important because most Americans say that they are Christian, and Protestantism is the largest Christian denomination in the U.S.

P.R. Web noted that Protestant pastors adhere to specific theological beliefs and ideas of what it is to be a Christian. Because their opinions influence a large segment of America, it is essential to understand what they believe in.

PR Web said the findings were:

• Three-quarters of respondents believe former President George W. Bush is a Christian.
• Winfrey got the lowest score at 19 percent, followed by Beck, at 27 percent.
• Among the politicians, Bush at 75 percent got the highest score, followed by Palin at 66 percent. Obama got less than half at 41 percent.
• Four percent of the respondents said none of the people on the list are Christian, while 15 percent said they are “Not sure.”

Politicians

Ed Stetzer, president of LifeWay said that most Americans see “Christian” as a box that one checks in a survey form, while Protestant pastors have a more comprehensive view, considering terms like “evangelical,” “born again,” and a faith commitment, among others, as synonyms for Christianity, PR Web said.

This standard is applied when rating the names listed, which would be why only 41 percent considered Obama Christian, even though he is a mainline Protestant, Stetzer told PR Web. USA Today partly blamed the rating on groundless rumors that Obama is Muslim.

Conversely a Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life survey last August (which was focused on respondents who were not pastors) indicated that 43 percent of respondents were not sure of Obama’s religion. However, 34 percent said he is Christian, and 18 percent said he is Muslim, USA Today reported.

Personalities

Stetzer noted ironically that while most Americans think Oprah’s influence on American spirituality is good, most Protestant pastors don’t believe she is a Christian. He also noted that Glenn Beck may have scored low because he is Mormon, PR Web said.

Profile of respondents

Some factors in the profile of the respondents showed trends. For example, 88 percent of respondents who said they are Democrats with politics described as liberal or very liberal said Obama is a Christian, PR Web reported.

Only 31 percent of respondents who said they are conservative said Obama is Christian, and only 12 percent of those who described themselves as very conservative said Obama is Christian, according to PR Web.

In terms of age, among respondents aged 55 and older, 46 percent of them said Winfrey is Christian, and 83 percent said Obama is Christian. Among respondents aged below 55 years, only 30 percent said Winfrey is Christian, and 74 percent said Obama is Christian, PR Web said.

According to PR Web, churches were randomly selected, reflecting the geographic distribution of Protestant churches. Respondents were the church’s minister, senior pastor or priest. The survey has a 3.2 percent margin of error.

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President Barack Obama said recently in a “backyard discussion” in a home in New Mexico that he is a “Christian by choice.”

Obama was in New Mexico as the first of four states that he was slated to visit to discuss health care and the economy. The “backyard discussion” was held in the home of Andy and Etta Cavalier, where he addressed an invited group, the Christian Post said.

Obama dwelled on his faith in answer to a question that was asked by one of the guests. The L.A. Times noted that he has made recent moves to clarify his faith to the American people.

For example, for the first time in five months, Obama and his family went to St. John’s Church near the White House. However, he has not formally belonged to a church since 2008, when he was with the Trinity United Church of Christ under Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the Los Angeles Times said.

Obama sees pastors and preachers personally and in private, but had up until recently kept matters of faith personal. However, things changed after a recent Pew poll showed that 18 percent of Americans believe Obama is Muslim–a sharp rise from 11 percent in March 2009, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The same poll showed that only 34 percent of respondents said Obama is Christian (compared to 48 percent the year before) and 43 percent said they cannot identify the president’s religion (versus 34 percent last year) the Los Angeles Times said.

In the “backyard discussion,” Obama talked of his life, saying his family did not go to church every week, but his mother was spiritual. However, he became a Christian later in life, drawn by “the precepts of Jesus Christ,” such as “being my brothers’ and sisters’ keeper; treating others as they would treat me,” the Christian Post reported.

He said, “I think also understanding that … Jesus Christ dying for my sins spoke to the humility that we all have to have as human beings – that we’re sinful and we’re flawed and we make mistakes; we achieve salvation through the grace of God,” the Christian Post said.

Obama also said that this was the sort of life that he wanted to lead for himself, and that he prays to “see God in other people” and “help them find their own grace,” according to the Christian Post.

The Christian Post report said that the White House and several pastors had advised Obama to be more open about his faith to the public and to clearly state his commitment to Christ.

Regarding abortion, Obama said it should be “safe, legal and rare,” and that it should be a decision that is reached by the families and the women involved, rather than a decision of the government, the Christian Post said.

As for late-term abortions, Obama said there are many laws already in place which reflect a shift of interests beyond a period of time, with restrictions in place that he considers to be appropriate, the Christian Post reported.

Sources:

http://www.christianpost.com/article/20100929/obama-speaks-of-his-christian-faith-jesus-christ/

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-obama-religion,0,120080.story

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The head of a world evangelical umbrella group lauded recently the international censure from world leaders against the shelved Quran burning on 9/11, and asked for the same global outcry on behalf of Christians who are imprisoned, tortured and killed because of their faith.

Dr. Geoff Tunnicliffe, international director of the World Evangelical Alliance cited the global outcry which included an appeal from President Barack Obama, and condemnation from both Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the United Nations, against the 50-member Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida’s scrapped plan to burn copies of the Quran, The Christian Post said.

However, violence by anti-West and anti-Christian extremist Muslims cannot be expected to abate, and some Christian leaders said such acts of provocation are not necessary to goad some radicals, The Christian Post reported.

Faith McDonnell of the Institute of Religion and Democracy told The Christian Post, “Every day, Christians in Indonesia, Pakistan, Sudan and elsewhere in the Islamic world face oppression and persecution brought about without the assistance of Quran-burning clergymen.”

Tunnicliffe told The Christian Post it is not just extremist Muslims who persecute Christians, citing radical Hindus in India who since 2008 committed serial violent acts against Christians leaving 70 dead, over 4,000 Christian homes burned, 149 churches destroyed, and rendering 54,000 Christians homeless.

Also in 2008 hundreds of copies of the New Testament were burned in Or Yehuda, Israel upon provocation from the deputy mayor. Recently in Sri Lanka churches were razed to the ground, Pastors were killed, and radical Buddhist politicians have sought strong restrictions on Christian churches, The Christian Post said.

“Are actions only deemed wrong when there is a good chance that the victims, or those connected to them, will react in violence?” Tunnicliffe asked The Christian Post. IRD’s McDonnell said the most at risk by the scrapped Quran burning plan are, ironically, Christians in Muslim-dominant locations.

“Just as we do not hold all Muslims responsible for the September 11 attacks, Muslims should not hold Christian minorities responsible for the actions of one tiny Florida church,” McDonnell told The Christian Post.

“Will leaders react with the same kind of justifiable outrage as they have against the proposed burning of the Quran?” Tunnicliffe asked The Christian Post. “If so, will they have the courage to speak up, not only out of some concern for reciprocity or a fear of repercussions, but because it is the right thing to do?”

Tunnicliffe told The Christian Post that WEA condemned the scrapped burning because “it was simply the right thing to do,” and to prevent violence from extremists similar to what was experienced in 2005 by the Danish.

That year, a Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published cartoons depicting Islamic prophet Muhammad. As a result, some 150 people around the world were killed and thousands were injured, The Christian Post said.

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The leader of a Christian organization said recently that pulling American combat troops out of Iraq will worsen the situation for Christians in that country.

Dr. Carl Moeller, CEO of Open Doors USA said that he believed President Barack Obama’s decision to pull out U.S. soldiers from Iraq is premature and will accelerate the persecution of Christians in that country.

Moeller said, “I believe that we’re turning this country over to a government that is in chaos — it is in transition at best. It hasn’t yet settled on a firm form of government. We have just basically said, ‘Please don’t disturb us as you collapse.’”

Moeller said the Christian community is a definite underdog in the largely Muslim country adding, “We have very clear indicators from the ground that the Christian community in Iraq is suffering greatly by increased violence between factions of Islam. I’ve spoken at length with refugees all around the region [who are] saying it’s an unreported disaster — the extinction of the Christian community in Iraq,” according to a OneNewsNow report

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Over 70 pastors signed recently a letter to affirm that President Barack Obama is a Christian. The letter also urged public officials, religious leaders and media to ignore remarks that distort Obama’s “unwavering” Christianity.

The letter, which was sent out by the Eleison Group included signatories such as Joel Hunter, TD Jakes and David Gushee among others. Many of the signatories said they had prayed and worshiped with Obama, CBN News said.

The letter also said that the signatories come from diverse ideological and political backgrounds and noted, “As Christian pastors and leaders we believe that fellow Christians need to be an encouragement to those who call Christ their savior, not question the veracity of their faith,” CBN News said.

Last week a poll showed that 18 percent of Americans think Obama is Muslim, compared to 11 percent last year. Another poll showed 34 percent of Americans say Obama is Christian, down from 48 percent the year before, The Hill said.

Obama’s job approval rating among Protestant Christians has gone down from last year at 43 percent, making them the group that approves of Obama the least, except for the Mormons, The Hill said.

Leith Anderson, president of NAE cited Romans 10:9 which is about a confession of faith in Jesus and concluded, “I’ve never heard President Obama describe himself as anything other than a Christian. He should know better than anyone else,” CBN News said.

The signatories to the letter represented some seven Protestant denominations among other religious groups. In the letter, they said “the personal faith of our leaders should not be up for debate,” The Hill said.

In Obama’s book The Audacity of Hope, Obama said his biological father was an atheist and his mother, agnostic. His stepfather was a “nominal Muslim,” and he was not raised in a religious home, although his mother’s parents (who raised him to a large degree) were Baptist and Methodist. In his 20s Obama embraced Christianity and joined the church of Jeremiah Wright, the Huffington Post said.

According to the Huffington Post, “It’s irrelevant whether Barack Obama is a Christian or a Muslim — as long as he governs like he’s neither.”

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Tens of thousands of people of faith participated recently in a five-mile Phoenix prayer rally that ended at the Arizona State Capitol to peacefully protest immigration law SB 1070, which state governor Jan Brewer signed into law in April.

The protesters, members of the Interfaith Immigration Coalition, came from as far as the east coast and represented various faith traditions and ethnicities.

The IFC made prayer an integral part of their participation, according to ILLUME.

The IFC had recently launched a campaign to urge people of faith nationwide to fight for comprehensive immigration reform that is aligned with the pro-social values of their religious traditions, according to ILLUME.

Over the next eight weeks, the campaign will involve public actions, fasting and constant prayer across all 50 states. Partners include Muslim, Christian, Jewish and other religious organizations, ILLUME reported.

Under the new policy,which is slated for implementation in late July,  law enforcement would be required to determine the status of people they stop and suspect are in the country illegally, ILLUME said.

Since Brewer signed the law, several groups have brought lawsuits against her and the state, calling the new policy an ‘infringement on federal authority,’ ILLUME reported.

The law has also drawn large crowds in rallies and protests around the nation over the course of the last few weeks, including the one held at the Arizona state capitol, which is the biggest since the law was signed.

Fears have been raised that the law will lead to more racial profiling, according to Newsopi.com.

Many of its critics are well known, including President Barack Obama who recently commissioned the Department of Justice to look into the legality of the law.

Obama has publicly said that he believes immigration should be governed at the national level, and not at the state level, Newsopi.com reported.

The Arizona Interfaith Network  immediately released a statement last April when Brewer signed the law. Among the reasons cited against the bill was that it would be bad for neighborhoods and the state economy, according to ILLUME.

However, AIN noted, “At its root, SB1070 violates the basic moral code that is common to Judaism, Christianity and Islam: we must welcome the stranger as we would welcome God himself.It is time to raise a moral and prophetic voice against this terrible law, which causes even more distress to families and society in general, pushing the immigrant population further into the shadows,” according to ILLUME.

Even as the protest ended at the capitol, supporters of the new immigration law rallied at nearby Diablo stadium in Tempe.

The ‘Stand with Arizona’ rally took place on the same day as the protest coincidentally.

The gathering was organized by a coalition of largely Tea Party and Conservative movements, who are also pushing forward a “Buycott Arizona” campaign, which aims to show support of Arizona’s stance on immigration and enforcement of its laws by encouraging the purchase of goods and services from Arizona.

Because of the passage of Arizona's new "immigration" policy, people who look Hispanic may be subject to racial profiling/Credit: Garrison Photography

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