Human rights board: Rhetoric tops realitySource: Florida Times Union, Editorial, April 25, 2010. The biggest contract in city history awaits a City Council vote Tuesday. Hard choices on budget cuts and city fee hikes of all kinds loom because of next year’s $58 million budget gap. But the hottest issue facing council right now is whether members should put...

Source URL: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2010-04-25/story/city-looks-stance-human-rights The Jacksonville City Council Rules Committee recommended on Monday that UNF professor Parvez Ahmed be confirmed to the city Human Rights Commission despite opposition from the anti-Islamist group ACT! for America. The full council will take up the issue Tuesday. Ahmed...

Source: Florida Times Union, April 25, 2010.Despite shrill critics, Ahmed an ideal appointee By Ron Littlepage. From the editorial page Some are upset that the terms “bigoted” and “intolerant” have been used in the debate over Parvez Ahmed’s nomination to the Jacksonville Human Rights Commission. Here’s just one example of why...

Jacksonville.com Submitted by Ron Littlepage on April 20, 2010 – 1:30am Good people came to the City Council Rules Committee meeting Monday in support of Parvez Ahmed, Mayor John Peyton’s nominee to the Jacksonville Human Rights Commission. Their presence and words will help erase some of the stain placed on this community by the bigotry and intolerance...

FROM ONEJAX April 15, 2010 Dear Jacksonville Friends and Supporters, We at OneJax, an interfaith organization whose mission is to promote respect and understanding among people of different religions, races, cultures and beliefs, must go on record to express our dismay and disappointment at the actions of the City Council regarding the delay of a vote to approve the...