Corporate funding is provided by mutual of america designing customized individual and Group Retirement products. Thats why we are your retirement company. Additional support is provided by and by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. From the tisch wnet studios in Lincoln Center in new york, hari sreenivasan. Sreenivasan good evening. Thanks for joining us. North korea today called the Obama Administrations claims that it was behind the cyber attack on sony slander and threatened to retaliate unless the United States agrees to conduct a joint investigation about the matter. Its comments were included in a Statement Read on state controlled television. American Officials Say the attack was similar to others carried out by the north koreans. Chinese authorities have detained a 74yearold american missionary, peter hahn. The incident occurred yesterday near chinas border with north korea. Reuters today quoted sources as saying hundreds of christian missionaries have been forced out of china since august. The United States has freed four more detainees from the military Detention Center at guantanamo bay, cuba. The four, all from afghanistan, were returned home after being released late yesterday at the request of the new afghan president , ashraf ghani. The u. S. Has freed 23 prisoners from guantanamo this year. 132 remain imprisoned there. New hostilities between israel and hamas. A rocket fired from gaza landed in israel yesterday, and israel responded by bombing what it called a terror site in gaza. It was the first israeli air strike in gaza since a truce went into effect in august. Back in this country, the National LaborRelations Board has filed formal complaints against mcdonalds and some of its franchise owners. The government alleges they fired or intimidated employees for taking part in Union Organizing and in protests demanding higher wages. The complaints will be considered by Administrative Law judges beginning in march. Another major security breach, this time at staples. The Office Supply chain says hackers apparently stole the Financial Information of 1. 2 million of its customers throughout the summer and fall. They gained access to shoppers names, credit card numbers, card expiration dates and verification codes. In milwaukee, there were dozens of arrests last night after protesters blocked traffic on a major highway during rush hour. The demonstrators were protesting the killing of an unarmed black man by a white Police Officer earlier this year. The officer has not been charged. The dead man, 31yearold dontre hamilton, had a history of mental problems. He was shot 14 times. And an internal investigation revealed that the f. B. I. Routinely mishandles, mislabels or loses evidence. According to the new york times, investigators examined more than 41,000 pieces of evidence at f. B. I. Offices across the country and found problems with nearly half of them. The f. B. I. Is now alerting prosecutors across the country that these errors may need to be disclosed to some defendants, potentially undermining criminal cases. Sreenivasan in recent days, prowestern kurdish fighters, backed by american air power, have forced isis fighters in Northern Iraq to retreat from territory they seized last summer. For more about this, we are joined by Anthony Cordesman of the center for strategic and International Studies in washington. Cordesman previously served in the state department and was the director of intelligence assessment in the office of the secretary of defense. Sreenivasan so what happened in the past few days . What happened is that a combination of syrian and Iraqi Kurdish forces, backed by u. S. And other airpower, opened up a line where yazkis these are a Minority Group who have been stranded on a Mountain Range for months could actually move out along the ground. Now, this was important not only because the yazdis for the first time were given a secure ground route to escape, but there are estimates up to 8,000 kurdish troops were involved, that they were able to make effective use of air support, that this is the largest operation so far as an offensive groundair operation against the Islamic State. Sreenivasan so strategically its important because they are able to maintain control of a region . Well, its important because they were able to operate a significant ground force with air support. We need to remember that again and again, weve been told its going to take two to three years to create an effective combination of kurdish, iraqi, and sunni iraqi forces that could actually liberate the parts of iraq occupied by the Islamic State. This is not a decisive victory. The Islamic State is still making some gains in the south. It hasnt affected the situation in syria. There still has been no really effective operation by the iraqi Ground Troops, except in a refinery area in beiji. These are very early days in a very long but lowlevel struggle. Sreenivasan speak of iraqi Ground Troops there, have been reports there have been almost mass desertions in some sources from shiite forces that signed up. They were crucial in order to take back certain gains isis has made, but is iraq slipping again from maintaining that moral and maintaining that troop force that can hold off isis . We have to understand there are an awful lot of reports here, and some of them are more accurate than others. There were a lot of shiite militias involved. These are not forces that can really stay on the ground. They had only limited capability to push Islamic Forces out. They were helpful in defense. The core is the iraqi army, frankly, collapsed under the previous prime minister, a combination of corruption, bad leadership, almost everything that could go wrong did. We are now trying to salvage some nine brigades out of a force that once had 46 brigades. Sreenivasan all right, so whose happening in the mosul area now . Well, the fact is it remains under the control of the Islamic State. The air campaign, efforts to shut off the illegal export of petroleum all of these have weakened the Islamic State. There is really a problem with power. Almost all of it has to come from local generators. There are problems with water. There are no real jobs in the area, and, oddly enough, its the iraqi Central Government that is paying for the schools that the Islamic State now supervises. So you have some elements of a state from the Islamic State but the situation in mosul and the areas it controls seems to be steadily deteriorating. Sreenivasan Anthony Cordesman joining us from washington, thanks so much. Thank you. Sreenivasan and now to our signature segment. A new pew poll shows that americans feel much less favorably toward muslims than they do towards jews, catholics and evangelical christians, and the u. S. Justice department told the newshour weekend yesterday that a significantly higher percentage of discrimination cases it is investigating involve sites where muslim worship. The newshours William Brangham recently visited a rural georgia town that approved the opening of a mosque, but only after a large public outcry and the threat of a lawsuit. Reporter nasser omer is an accountant, husband and father of two grown kids. This indianamerican is also a devout muslim, and, as such, he tries to get to his nearest mosque as often as possible to pray. For muslim men, it is mandatory to pray five times a day in congregation. That is the reason we need to go to the mosque. Reporter omer lives in kennesaw, georgia, a Rural Community of about 30,000. Its just over 25 miles northwest of atlanta, a quiet town, one where confederate flags fly freely. There are at least 40 churches in kennesaw but no mosque, so omer one of perhaps a hundred muslims in town has to drive to the neighboring town of marietta where there are a couple of mosques. How far is the nearest mosque for you to go to now . Its about ten miles from here, and it takes about 30 minutes from my home to the mosque, one way. After the prayers, again, 30 minutes to come back. Reporter a few months ago, omer and a few other muslim families decided theyd like to open their own small mosque in their own town. They found this strip mall which had multiple vacancies, the price was right and so they filed the paperwork to open a small storefront mosque right here. This Pentecostal Church had done something very similar a few months before. To help them with the process, they enlisted a local Muslim Community leader, amjad taufique. Hed helped set up another mosque in marietta. So, why does kennesaw need a mosque . Well, i mean, muslims try to make it five times a day to the mosque, and, in this day and age, its a little difficult to be there five times a day. But usually, if you are close enough five, ten minutes drive you can go there early in the morning prayers, in the evening prayers at least. And you build up the community. Reporter at first, the application process was routine. The zoning board okayed the idea, but, as word got out about the proposed mosque, some opponents showed up in force at the next Planning Commission meeting. Cris eaton welsh, who thinks the mosque should be approved, sits on the Kennesaw City Council. From my understanding, there were over 200 people that showed up to the meeting, and there. Reporter and thats unusual . Very unusual, you might have three people, five people. Reporter is that right . Normally three people show up . You had 200 this time . 200 people show up this time, and it was you cant let this in our community, theyre going to practice sharia law, and lots of fear, and, i believe, misunderstanding in the community. Reporter it certainly didnt help that the day before the city council was to hold their next meeting to discuss the mosque, the Islamic Militant group isis released another video showing the beheading of another american, this time aid worker and former u. S. Army ranger, peter kassig. Welsh says this ongoing violence by some muslims in the middle east made any moves by a muslim group in georgia seem suspicious to some people in her community. And theyre seeing it every single night on the news, and. And i think that instills. Reporter seeing isis and al qaeda, beheadings. Isis and alqaeda, uhhuh. Reporter and so they thought that this was going to be an outpost for isis . Yes, absolutely. Reporter over the last couple of days, weve been asking people around town what they think of the proposed mosque, and the reactions have been split about 50 50 half the people for, half against. The interesting thing though is the people who are against the mosque were very reluctant to talk with us about it oncamera. People who support the mosque, however, they were very eager to talk. You know, they have every right to worship where they want. It really doesnt bother me. I mean, i hope it goes through for them and, you know, i hope its successful. I dont have a problem with the mosque coming to town. I think that this countrys built on religious freedom, and i think that we should respect that. I do have prejudice. Prejudices like everybody else thats been formed with all the 9 11 and everything thats been going on. Im a liveandlet live type of person. And as long as people are good citizens like i try to be its okay with me. I dont want sharia law in georgia. Reporter we were able to track down one critic whod speak publicly. Chad legere works at a fire proofing company and lives in a neighboring georgia town. He says from what hes seen of groups like isis and al qaeda, he cant trust the intentions of any muslims. Do you know the people who are behind this mosque . I mean, they say, weve been living in this community for decades, weve raised our families, gone to schools, and weve never shown a trace of violence. Does that example not convince you that they might have different intentions than you think . Like i said, prove it. Go on record condemning isis. I havent seen it. And definitely not on a widespread level. Why are christians running around scared . Why did they. Why did they need to put a mosque inside a Shopping Center . Whats the next step . Walmarts . We going to have a mosque at every walmart . What theyve seen in the news media is a small, you know, group of people acting upon themselves, calling themselves muslims and doing the things that are heinous crimes. And we as muslims in america, you know, definitely do not condone those acts at all. We condemn those acts. We are against those as much as anybody else. Reporter you mentioned that you condemn these acts, and this is one of the things that we heard from people is that they feel that the american Muslim Community doesnt do enough to condemn the acts of isis and al qaeda. What is your response to that . Im really, you know, trying to do this for past so many years. Its just dont know how else can we go out and reach out to the community and tell them that weve done that and continue to do that. There are web sites which gives links after links after links where muslims, not only in the United States of america but all around the world, have condemned these acts. And we continue to do that because this is really not islam. Im a practicing catholic. You know, i dont understand their religion, but i know that our Founding Fathers meant it when they penned the constitution, and that means that whether i agree with it or not, theyve got the right to be there. Reporter but City Council Member welsh says the anti muslim vitriol only got worse when the city council had to finally vote to approve or deny the proposed mosque. Welsh, who by day is a chiropractor, wife and mom of two young girls, says the day of that vote was a scary one. The monday of the vote, around 4 00 in the afternoon, i was here in my office, and a Police Officer came over in the middle of my patient hours and said that she needed to speak to me. And i was like, im really busy. And she said, no, i have to talk to you now. And my facebook information, my childrens pictures, my office phone number, my home address, my Office Facebook page had all been released onto a hate site. And sending me some very graphic torture pictures of isis and saying, this is the kind of thing that youre trying to bring to our community, what kind of person are you . And at that point, i got a little rattled. Antiislamic protesters demonstrated outside kennesaw city hall. Reporter the Police Escorted welsh over to city hall for the vote. Protesters had already been gathering, many from out of town, and they were happy to speak out. To me, it is a threat to my freedom, my children and everything i own. And that includes my life and the life of my children. Theyre training their kids how to do terrible things to americans, and were trying to stop it. Reporter that night, the city Council Voted down the proposed mosque, 41. Welsh was the only one who voted in favor. The city council didnt give any reason why they rejected the mosque proposal, and none of the council apart from welsh would talk with us. The mayor of kennesaw has said that the debate had nothing to do with religion. Instead, he said it was based on concerns about proper zoning, parking and traffic congestion. But atlanta attorney doug dillard says those cant be the sole reasons. So parking, traffic, hours of operation, all that kind of thing can be dealt with, but they cannot be, in and of themselves, a reason to deny the application. Reporter dillard is building a lawsuit against kennesaw on behalf of the mosque group. He represented two other mosques in two other georgia towns in recent years whod been denied permits to build or expand, and, both times, he helped the mosques move forward. Dillard says kennesaw, just like those other towns, is violating both constitutional and federal protections against religious discrimination. Dillard says just look at that Pentecostal Church that was allowed in that other strip mall. He says kennesaw cant greenlight a Christian Church and then turn around and deny the muslim mosque. I think the reason for the opposition is that this is a group of muslims. They dont want them to worship in kennesaw, period. They dont care where you put them. Reporter but do you have any evidence that thats the case . Only through their actions having approved christian and opposing the muslims, and if you look at the opposition terrorists go home its pretty evident that the opposition is uninformed and is putting forth an argument thats not lawful. Reporter on top of dillards proposed lawsuit, the u. S. Justice department told the newshour it was also looking into the situation in kennesaw. Given the immense blowback and that the mosque was voted down, do you wish you had not stepped out and publicly declared yourself in favor . I dont like the publicity, i dont like the spotlight, i dont like any of that. I