A Muslim woman has accused a New Jersey shopping mall security guard of trying to force her to remove her head-covering garment.“He came into my face and made a hand gesture like he was going to lift my veil off,’ ” Wakeelah Salaam, 30, told The Post of her ordeal at the Bridgewater Commons Mall last Saturday. “I felt like he was going to do something. I didn’t feel safe in the mall.”The US-born Salaam said the confrontation happened about 10 minutes after she entered the mall with her two young sons.She was wearing a Muslim veil known as a niqab, which covered her entire head and face except for her eyes. Christopher Sadowski CULTURE CLASH: Wakeelah Salaam, at home in Elizabeth, NJ, yesterday says ... Continue reading →

The 14th Amendment, adopted in 1868, overturned the atrocious Dred Scott ruling and guaranteed full citizenship rights to black Americans in the wake of the Civil War. The amendment’s language mandating equal protection under the law provided the basis for the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling that ended segregation in public schools.“Civil marriage is a civil right and a matter of civil law,” NAACP President Benjamin Jealous said in a statement. That’s about as clear as you can get.Those tempted to see the NAACP’s stance as purely symbolic haven’t read the fine print. The resolution commits the organization to “oppose any national, state, local policy or legislative initiative that seeks to codify discrimination or hatred into the law or to remove ... Continue reading →

ATLANTIC CITY - Two sets of visitors to this seaside casino resort often mingle in the streets behind the glitter of the Boardwalk - tourists and homeless people from across the region - and something went dreadfully wrong in that uneasy mix Monday when a woman described as homeless and deranged plunged a 12-inch butcher knife into two tourists from Canada, killing both. Antoinette E. Pelzer, 44, who holds a Philadelphia driver's license but who a relative said had been homeless for five months and undergone treatment for schizophrenia, made a first appearance Tuesday afternoon in state Superior Court in Atlantic County. The charges against her - two counts of murder, and robbery and weapons offenses - were read to her by Judge Michael Donio, ... Continue reading →

MAYS LANDING, N.J. - "Both of them?" Double murder suspect Antoinette Pelzer expressed surprise and swallowed hard in a court appearance Tuesday afternoon after learning that both the Canadian women she allegedly stabbed with a 12-inch butcher knife in an attack Monday in the tourism district of Atlantic City had died. According to charges read by Superior Court Judge Michael Donio, who set bail at $1.5 million for Pelzer, the older of the two victims, an 80-year-old, intervened as Pelzer attacked the younger, who was 47 and believed to be the older woman's daughter. Both were stabbed repeatedly in a bloody scene outside Bally's Atlantic City casino hotel at the intersection of Pacific and Michigan Avenues that sources said was captured on surveillance video cameras. ... Continue reading →

THE OFFICIAL grand opening of the luxurious Revel Casino this coming weekend has led many rooting for Atlantic City to imagine a bright future for the troubled resort town. On Monday, they were forced to deal with a reminder of Atlantic City’s dreary recent past. Two female Canadian tourists were stabbed multiple times Monday morning in the shadow of an Atlantic City casino and died in a trauma center a block away. The Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office said Antoinette E. Pelzer, 44, of Pennsylvania, stabbed the two Canadian women, ages 47 and 80, at the intersection of Michigan and Pacific avenues, a busy section of the resort city near Bally’s Casino. Both women were taken to AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center just a short walk from ... Continue reading →