In the last few days I've seen more than enough cartoonish clichés of pens and pencils vs. swords and guns scrolling through my Twitter feed.

I don't think this is about cartoons.

Imagine a world where the western powers were not invading, occupying, drone bombing, kidnapping, torturing and holding Muslims in prison without trial. Now try to imagine that world in which cartoonists who drew Islamophobic cartoons were murdered.

I can't.

A man from New Hampshire accused of putting a two-year-old boy in Bangor in a dryer pleaded guilty Tuesday to assault.

Police say 27-year-old Adam Morton admitted he put his girlfriend's son in the dryer and turned it on while he was babysitting.

The boy suffered second degree burns on his back and arms and burns and blisters on his feet.

Morton is scheduled to be sentenced February 2nd.

Summoned to a meeting at her seven-year-old son's primary school, Hayley White was prepared for a quick chat about his behaviour.

But when she was told that Elliott had been at the centre of an 'incident' with another pupil that was so serious she would have to sign an official form admitting he was racist, she refused to believe what she was hearing.

'When I arrived at the school and asked Elliott what had happened, he became extremely upset,' said Ms White, who is a 32-year-old NHS worker. 'He kept saying to me: "I was just asking a question. I didn't mean it to be nasty".'

It turned out that while in the playground Elliott had approached a four-year-old boy and asked him whether he was 'brown because he was from Africa'. On returning home, the younger boy had told his mother about the comment, and she had informed the school, hoping that they could have a quiet word with Elliott.

Instead, the school's anti-racism policy swung into action in full force.

The principal of an Alabama middle school believes that stockpiling canned goods in classrooms will give students a last line of defense against possible school shooters or other intruders.

According to the Associated Press, Priscella Holley, principal at W. F. Burns Middle School in Valley, Alabama, sent out a letter to parents on Friday explaining that children can fling the cans of peas, corn and Irish potatoes at individuals who would do them harm.

Holley asked that parents arm their children with eight ounce cans of their choice of foodstuffs, so that the students might "stun the intruder or even knock him out until the police arrive."

"The canned food item will give the students a sense of empowerment to protect themselves and will make them feel secure," she said.

Chambers County Schools Superintendent Dr. Kelli Hodge told WHNT News that the canned goods are just a part of a training program aimed at empowering students in case of a violent intruder.

"I can honestly say that the major point of the training," Hodge said, "is to be able to get kids evacuated and not be sitting ducks hiding under desks."

What percentage of terror attacks in the United States and Europe are committed by Muslims? Guess. Nope. Guess again. And again...

"Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims." How many times have you heard that one? Sure, we heard Fox News's Brian Kilmeade say it, but to me, that was simply part of the Fox News plan to make their viewers dumber, as we saw again this past weekend when its terrorism "expert" Steve Emerson was caught fabricating the story that Birmingham, England, is closed to non-Muslims. But more alarmingly, even some reasonable people have uttered this statement.

And that comment is often followed up by the question: Why don't we see Christian, Buddhist, or Jewish terrorists?


Obviously, there are people who sincerely view themselves as Muslims who have committed horrible acts in the name of Islam. We Muslims can make the case that their actions are not based on any part of the faith but on their own political agenda. But they are Muslims, no denying that.

However, and this will probably shock many, so you might want to take a breath: Overwhelmingly, those who have committed terrorist attacks in the United States and Europe aren't Muslims. Let's give that a moment to sink in.

They were arrested for sexual abuse involving a minor, but now former Aledo Police Officer Steven Bonynge says that he was treated unfairly by being forced to resign.

Officers Bonynge, 32, and Seth Degelman, 30, had been investigated by the Aledo Police Department after they received a complaint about their sexual abuse of a juvenile. That's according to Aledo Police Chief J. Michael Sponsler who spoke with reporters from local WQAD 8.

The Chief pointed us to a statement released from attorney Blaise Rogers of Gullbert, Box & Worby, LLC, who said he represents Bonynge. It said that the victim was "slightly under the age of 17." In other words, she was 16.

Homeless children in Manila are being rounded up by Philippines' police in an attempt to clean the city up for the Pope's visit, Daily Mail reports.

Children as young as 5 are being arrested and detained in subhuman living conditions. They are often held for months before being let go onto the streets. Unfortunately, the government has not provided any support for these children, and they often end up back in the temporary prisons.

Children are locked up alongside convicted criminals, and guards often are apathetic or look the other way while children are physically and sexually abused by inmates. The captured children sleep on and eat off of concrete floors, often using buckets as toilets. In some instances, children were chained to poles in these cellars.

Father Shay Cullen, who was nominated for a Nobel Prize, runs a missionary about 100 miles from Manila and recently traveled through these temporary prisons to help children and adopt some to the missionary. One boy, Mak-Mak, had scabies and had been abused by adult inmates during his times in the prison. He was apparently abandoned by his parents and was picked up on the street by Manila police while cleaning up for the Pope. Cullen brought Mak-Mak to his missionary to rehabilitate him.

An inmate in a temporary cell said: "Lots of children have been brought here lately. We're told they're being picked up from under the road bridges where the Pope will travel."

The day after a New Mexico prosecutor charged two police officers in the shooting death of a mentally ill homeless man last year, Albuquerque officials refused to allow representatives from the District Attorney's office to participate in the investigation of a new officer-involved shooting that occurred on Tuesday.

According to KRQE, Chief Deputy District Attorney Sylvia Martinez was barred from a briefing about a shooting that occurred Tuesday evening because, she was told, the District Attorney's office "has a conflict of interest because we charged the officers" who shot the homeless man last year.

The District Attorney's office typically plays a vital role in investigating police-involved shootings - issuing warrants, providing legal counsel for the officers involved, and determining whether a shooting was justified - but when DA Martinez attempted to enter the briefing about Tuesday's shooting, City Attorney Kathryn Levy told her that the officers "wouldn't be needing any legal advice or help" and that she "could go home."

"I have never seen anything like this ever," District Attorney Kari Brandenburg told KRQE. "Clearly, this could compromise the integrity of the investigation of this shooting."

In 2004, the District Attorney's office signed an agreement with the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) that allowed it to oversee the APD's investigation of officer-involved shootings. Last year, Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry signed a settlement with the United State Department of Justice (DOJ) that implemented measures to combat the widespread use of excessive force by APD officers.

According to DA Brandenburg, the APD's decision to exclude the District Attorney's office from investigating Tuesday's shooting violates both those agreements.

"It is my opinion that they violated [the agreement with the DA's office]," she said, adding "that means they also violated their agreement with the DOJ."

The FBI today arrested an Ohio man for allegedly plotting an ISIS-inspired attack on the U.S. Capitol, where he hoped to set off a series of bombs aimed at lawmakers, whom he allegedly considered enemies.

Christopher Lee Cornell, 20, of Green Township, was arrested on charges of attempting to kill a U.S. government official, authorities said.

According to government documents, he allegedly planned to detonate pipe bombs at the national landmark and open fire on any employees and officials fleeing after the explosions.

Tanzania has banned witchdoctors in an attempt to combat a rise in the killing of people with albinism for their body parts, officials said on Wednesday.

At least 74 people with albinism have reportedly been murdered in the east African country since 2000. After a surge in 2009, the government placed children with albinism in special homes to protect them.

Witchdoctors believe their body parts bring good fortune and wealth. Isaac Nantanga, an interior ministry spokesman, told Agence France-Presse: "These so-called witches bear responsibility for the attacks against albinos."

The government and the Tanzania Albinism Society have agreed to form a taskforce to conduct special operations against the kidnaps, abductions and murders. But the society warned that a ban on witchcraft alone does not go far enough. Ziziyada Nsembo, its secretary-general, said on Wednesday: "It's just a starting point. The government should understand it is an endless story from 2006 until this time. No action has been taken to stop the killings."

Witchdoctors may not be the ultimate source of the problem, she added. "We haven't seen where these hands, legs and skin are taken. This is the big question. If the witchdoctors will tell us that they are taken to somebody, and what purpose they are used for, we will be in a better position. Through the witchdoctors we can reach the real culprits. That is our one demand: for the government to find these people."

A hereditary genetic condition that causes an absence of pigmentation in the skin, hair and eyes, albinism affects one Tanzanian in 1,400, according to experts. It affects just one person in 20,000 in the west.

Body parts sell for around $600 in Tanzania, with an entire corpse fetching $75,000. A US survey in 2010 found that while most people in Tanzania are Christian or Muslim, 93% said they believed in witchcraft. Despite the scourge, only 10 people have been convicted of murder.