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Chronology of Islam in America (2007)
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
January 2007
Truth at last, while breaking a U.S. taboo of criticizing Israel
Jan. 2: Americans owe a debt to former President Jimmy Carter for speaking long hidden but vital truths. His book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid breaks the taboo barring criticism in the United States of Israel's discriminatory treatment of Palestinians. Our government's tacit acceptance of Israel's unfair policies causes global hostility against us. . .Americans are awakening to the costs of our unconditional support of Israel. We urgently need frank debate to chart policies that honor our values, advance our interests, and promote a just and lasting peace in the Middle East. It is telling that it took a former president, immune from electoral pressures, to show the way. The debate should now be extended. Are Israel's founding ideals truly consistent with democracy? Can a state established in a multiethnic milieu be simultaneously "Jewish" and "democratic"? Isn't strife the predictable yield of preserving the dominance of Jews in Israel over a native Palestinian population? Does our unconditional aid merely enable Israel to continue abusing Palestinian rights with impunity, deepening regional hostilities and distancing peace? Isn't it time that Israel lived by rules observed in any democracy - including equal rights for all? [George Bisharat - Philadelphia Inquirer]
FBI Reports Duct-Taping, 'Baptizing' at Guantanamo
Jan. 2: FBI agents witnessed possible mistreatment of the Koran at the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, including at least one instance in which an interrogator squatted over Islam's holy text in an apparent attempt to offend a captive, according to bureau documents released today. In October 2002, a Marine captain allegedly squatted over a copy of the Koran during intensive questioning of a Muslim prisoner, who was "incensed" by the tactic, according to an FBI agent. A second agent described similar events, but it is unclear from the documents whether it was a separate case. In another incident that month, interrogators wrapped a bearded prisoner's head in duct tape "because he would not stop quoting the Koran," according to an FBI agent, the documents show. The agent, whose account was corroborated by a colleague, said that a civilian contractor laughed about the treatment and was eager to show it off. The reports amount to new and separate allegations of religiously oriented tactics used against Muslim prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. After a report of Koran abuse prompted deadly protests overseas in 2005, the U.S. military conducted an investigation that confirmed five incidents of intentional and unintentional mishandling the book at the detention facility. They acknowledged that soldiers and interrogators had kicked the Koran, had stood on it and, in one case, had inadvertently sprayed urine on a copy. (Washington Post)
German Muslim with American family detained, denied U.S. entry
Jan 2: A German businessman of Syrian descent who wanted to surprise his daughter with a holiday visit was detained for four days in a Las Vegas holding cell before being sent back home without explanation. The Council on American-Islamic Relations called authorities' treatment of Majed Shehadeh a case of anti-Muslim discrimination. Shehadeh, 62, flew from Frankfurt to Las Vegas on Dec, 28, 2006, hoping to meet with his wife and drive to Bakersfield, Calif., where his American-born daughter had just gotten news she'd passed the California bar exam. Instead, he wound up shivering in a holding cell without ever being told why he couldn't enter the country, he said. The detention follows a series of similar incidents involving Muslim passengers, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations. In October, an Islamic scholar from South Africa was denied entry at San Francisco International Airport. A month later, six imams were taken off a US Airways flight from Minneapolis to Phoenix after a passenger reported overhearing them criticize the U.S. war in Iraq. "Overall these cases send a message that Muslims are second-class citizens who can be detained and kept from their families," said Affad Shaikh, a civil rights coordinator for CAIR. (SignOn San Diego)
First Muslim Congressman Keith Ellison sworn in
Jan. 4: Keith Ellison, the first Muslim Congressman, was sworn today, holding his left hand on a leather-bound volume of a Qur'an that was once owned by Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States. He was sworn in by Nancy Pelosi of California, the first woman House speaker. Ellison, a Democrat from Minnesota, held his right hand in the air, placed his left hand on two brown leather-bound volumes of the Qur'an, which were held aloft by his wife, Kim. The historic moment was played out in wood-paneled chamber of the Capitol before hundreds of journalists from around the world. Moments earlier, the 110th Congress was sworn in en masse on the House floor, where Ellison shook hands with Rep. Virgil Goode, a Virginia Republican, who had criticized Ellison for using the Qur'an. In a sharp letter last month that warned of Muslims being elected to office. Ellison, the first black member of Congress from Minnesota, was born in Detroit and converted to Islam in college. He said earlier this week that he chose to use this Quran because it showed that a visionary like Jefferson believed that wisdom could be gleaned from many sources. (AMP Report)
Dearborn Heights' first Arab-American judge
Jan. 4: Surrounded by family, friends and colleagues, attorney David Turfe was sworn today in at Crestwood High School as the next 20th District Court judge - a position previously held for more than 34 years by retiring Judge Leo Foran. Turfe was elected to the judicial seat in November, defeating rival Don Rivard by 386 votes, and holds the distinction of being the first Arab American elected to serve on the bench in the city's history. (Press & Guide)
FBI probes death threat against California Muslim activist
Threat came after Senator Boxer rescinded award to CAIR chapter director
Jan. 5: The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said today that the FBI is investigating a death threat against one of its chapter heads in California. The CAIR said the threat was contained in an e-mail message sent to Basim Elkarra, executive director of the Washington-based group's Sacramento Valley chapter. That threat came a day after a media report indicated that Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) had rescinded an award given to Elkarra because she read attacks against CAIR on an anti-Muslim Internet hate site and after a pressure campaign by Joe Kaufman, an anti-Muslim extremist in Florida. Kaufman has a long history of seeking to marginalize and disenfranchise the American Muslim community and its institutions. He has in the past promoted the terrorist organizations Kach and Kahane Chai and praised the Kahane movement and its founder Mier Kahane on a forum of the radical Jewish Defense League in Florida. In another article, Kaufman wrote that "we should nuke Damascus" and "we should have nuked the Afghanistan capital of Kabul." Last year, Kaufman joined forces with an anti-Islam preacher in Florida to block the expansion of a mosque in Boca Raton. "This mosque should not exist on American shores," said Kaufman. (St. Petersburg Times, July 14, 2006) The website Boxer consulted to form her opinions about CAIR, www.frontpagemag.com, regularly publishes Kaufman's writings and articles promoting conspiracy theories about Islam and Muslims in America. An editor with the Sacramento Bee in California today defended CAIR, while describing Kaufman as "a right-wing blogger." (CAIR Bulletin)
Arab pilot's suit alleges Muslim bias
Jan. 6: An Arab-American pilot based in Madison claims he was subjected to racial, religious and ethnic discrimination while training at a company's Memphis, Tenn., headquarters and fired after he complained about it, according to a lawsuit filed recently in federal court. According to the complaint: Nazeeh Younis, a Muslim, was hired in September 2002 as a pilot and promoted to captain in July 2004 by Pinnacle Airlines, which operates as Northwest Airlink at Dane County Regional Airport and several other locations. Beginning at a June 23, 2005, training session in Memphis, Pinnacle employee Terry Harvel humiliated Younis in front of other pilots, while other non-Arabs weren't subjected to similar verbal harassment. (Capital Times)
Three Arabs cleared in port scare 'treated like animals'
Jan. 9: Three Middle Eastern men who were arrested and later had charges against them dropped over a brief terrorism scare at the Port of Miami said they were unfairly targeted because of their ethnicity and creed. Amar Al-Hadad said he was "humiliated, disrespected (and) treated real badly just because my name is an Arabic name and I'm a Muslim." The Iraqi-born Al-Hadad cried during the news conference in which he described the way he, his brother, Hussain Al Hadad, and friend, Hassan El Sayed, were treated. "We were treated like animals," El Sayed said. Officials initially said the men, all permanent U.S. residents, had been caught trying to slip past a checkpoint at the port's entrance. Amar and Hussain Al Hadad were both charged with resisting arrest; Hussain Al Hadad was also charged with trespassing, as was El Sayed, a Lebanese national. A judge dismissed the charges, citing a lack of evidence. (Local10.com)
Muslim groups express concerns to Gonzales over post-9/11 policies and practices
Jan. 8: leaders of prominent Muslim and Arab American groups met with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in which they shared community’s concerns over post-9/11 federal law enforcement policies and practices. The meeting - which came amid reports of mounting Islamophobia in the nation as symbolized by incidents such as controversy over oath taking on the Quran by the first Muslim Congressman, Keith Ellison - was attended by the representatives from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), the Arab American Institute (AAI), the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), the National Association of Muslim Lawyers (NAML), and the Islamic Society of North American (ISNA). The meeting with Attorney General followed a similar meeting last December between prominent American Muslim leaders with key senior US government officials to discuss the state of Islamophobia in America and US-Muslim relations. Other issues raised at the meeting included termination of the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS) program, comprehensive immigration reform and a review of the immigration court system, community outreach efforts by the Department of Justice, ethnic and racial profiling, and the negative impact some regulations have had on Arab and Muslim-American charities. (AMP Report)
“New York Police entrapped Pakistani immigrant in bomb plot case”
Jan. 10: Martin Stolar, defense attorney for Shahawar Matin Siraj a twenty-four year-old Pakistani immigrant, who was sentenced on January 8, 2007 to 30 years in prison for plotting to bomb the Herald Square subway station says that Siraj was entrapped by a paid police informant who cajoled and inflamed him to lure him into the conspiracy and that it was the informant who pushed the bombing. Shahawar Matin Siraj was arrested days before the Republican National Convention in 2004 and held without bail. Last May, he was convicted on four counts of conspiracy, including the most serious, plotting to bomb a public transportation system. Attorney for Siraj said his client had no explosives, no timetable for an attack and little understanding about explosives. He also criticized the New York Police Department's tactics of sending informers and the undercover detectives into mosques to cast a wide net in search of radical Islamists. In an interview with the Democracy Now Radio, Martin Stolar said the story of Siraj is a simple which is the story that has been replicated across the country. “We have a paid police confidential informant who was put into the mosque.” (AMP Report)
Damra's handover to Israel puzzles Muslims
Jan. 10: Cleveland Muslims have reacted with angry incredulity to news that the U.S. government sent their one-time spiritual leader into the hands of Israeli security and that he was arrested before ever reaching home. While some called for help pinpointing Fawaz Damra's whereabouts and condition, others accused the U.S. government of deception and possible crimes in his disappearance. Fawaz Damra, a Palestinian originally from the West Bank city of Nablus, was ordered deported in June 2004 for hiding ties to Palestinian extremist groups when he applied for U.S. citizenship in 1994. During his trial, jurors were shown evidence of Damra raising money for Islamic Jihad in 1991. Damra later apologized for anti-Semitic remarks and said he was a changed man. He fought to stay in the United States but finally accepted deportation rather than remain in jail, and the government went searching for a country to agree to take him. Damra holds Jordanian citizenship, but Jordan refused to accept him, said Damra's lawyer, Mo Abdrabboh. Israel arrested the former imam of Ohio's largest mosque after he was deported from the United States last week, the Shin Bet internal security service confirmed on January 9, 2007. (AMP Report)
Nine Muslim workers sue bus company on Minneapolis
Jan. 10: Nine current and former Muslim employees of MV Transportation Inc., a nationwide public transportation company, filed suit in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, alleging they were harassed because they are immigrants from East Africa or because of their Muslim faith.The plaintiffs sued MV Transportation Inc. -- whose trademarked motto is "We Provide Freedom" -- saying that they were called derogatory names, told they had no rights as immigrants, forbidden to speak their native languages even on breaks, and denied promotions, training and other benefits. The lawsuit also alleges that a company manager read Bible passages to the employees, seven of whom are Muslim, confiscated their prayer rugs and forced them to listen to loud Christian music. They were called names such as "stupid" and "freak show," denied time off on their religious holidays, told they made too much money for the work they performed, and told they should return to their homelands, the suit says. (Star Tribune/ Pioneer Press)
Jewish membership in Congress at all-time high
Jan. 12: While Democrats celebrated the election of the House's first female speaker, another milestone passed more quietly: The 110th Congress includes more Jewish lawmakers than any other in history, and all but four are Democrats. About 2 percent of Americans identify themselves as Jewish. But in Congress, the proportion of Jewish members is now four times that. Six new Jewish House members were sworn in last week, bringing the total to 30. In the Senate, the 13 Jewish members, according to the National Jewish Democratic Council. Other faith-related facts: This Congress includes its first Muslim member and, in Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.), its highest-ranking Mormon ever. Catholics remain the largest single faith group in Congress, at about 30 percent -- slightly larger than their proportion of the U.S. population. Baptists, Methodists and Presbyterians outnumber Jewish members, who outnumber Episcopalians. (Washington Post)
Pentagon viewing Americans' bank records
Jan. 14: The Pentagon and to a lesser extent the CIA have been using a little-known power to look at the banking and credit records of hundreds of Americans and others suspected of terrorism or espionage within the United States, officials said. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the Defense Department "makes requests for information under authorities of the National Security Letter statutes ... but does not use the specific term National Security Letter in its investigatory practice." The national security letters permit the executive branch to seek records about people in terror and spy investigations without a judge's approval or grand jury subpoena. Vice President Dick Cheney said the Pentagon and CIA are not violating people's rights by examining the banking and credit records of hundreds of Americans and others suspected of terrorism or espionage in the United States. (Associated press)
Katy, Florida, pig races near mosque site sparked meetings to prevent bigotry
Jan. 15: A Katy (Florida) man's decision to stage weekly pig races to protest a mosque construction has prompted an alliance of local clergy to conduct a series of forums aimed at what they characterize as preventing bigotry and promoting religious acceptance. Local Christian and Jewish leaders say they chose, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, to launch the discussions. Leaders from Christian, Jewish and Islamic denominations delivered speeches to about 200 people at Katy's Living Word Lutheran Church, touting the significance of being able to live, worship and be respected in a community of choice. A dispute between the Katy Islamic Association and some Katy area residents has been brewing in this affluent West Houston suburb since the group bought an 11-acre property to build a mosque next door to Craig Baker's marble shop on Baker Road. In late September, the lifelong Katy resident said a member of the association advised him to relocate his marble shop because it would not go well with the mosque. Baker protested by staging weekly pig races during Friday prayers. Baker said in asking him to move, the Muslim group showed no respect for his family, which has 200-year-old ties to the land. Some residents from neighboring subdivisions have formed a group called PLANK, Preserve the Lifestyles and Neighborhoods of Katy. They are also critical of the mosque project. (Houston Chronicle)
Shia, Sunni rift in US a spillover of Iraq war
Jan. 16: The Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan met last week at the Islamic House of Wisdom to discuss recent acts of vandalism against Iraqi Shiite properties in Metro Detroit. There is no basis for Shiite and Sunni animosity anywhere, certainly not in the United States. While each school of thought in Islam has its special qualities and reflects cultural diversity, Shiites and Sunnis have a common belief system. Unfortunately, the U.S. invasion of Iraq, not minor religious differences, has raised tensions whose flames have already hit some other homes worldwide. The Shiite and Sunnis of Iraq were united in state-building and ending British colonial rule, although the Shiites led the independence movement of 1920 and suffered the most from the brutalities and repression of Saddam Hussein and his evil Baath Party in more than 30 years of rule. The suicide bombings and anti-civilian atrocities in Iraq are an external disease. (Imam Mohammad Ali Elahi Detroit News)
Lawsuit over Quran oaths to continue in North Carolina
Jan. 16: A lawsuit filed by the ACLU and a Muslim woman over the use of the Quran and other non-Christian texts for courtroom oaths in North Carolina should be allowed to go forward, the state Court of Appeals in Raleigh, North Carolina ruled today. A three-judge panel voted unanimously to reverse a trial court decision that had dismissed the challenge to state law and policy. Currently, only the Bible can be used by witnesses when swearing or affirming truthful testimony. The lawsuit was filed in July 2005 and the trial judge determined it was moot because there was no actual controversy at the time warranting litigation. But the appeals court said that wasn't so, pointing to the individual plaintiff, Syidah Matteen, who said her request to place her hand on the Quran as a witness was denied in 2003. And several Jewish members of the North Carolina chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union have filed affidavits indicating they would prefer to swear upon the Old Testament, one of the religious texts of their faith, Chief Judge John Martin wrote. "We conclude the complaint is sufficient to entitle both plaintiffs to litigate their claims ... though we are careful to express no opinion on the merits of those claims," Martin wrote. Judges Ron Elmore and Barbara Jackson concurred. The issue surfaced after Muslims from the Al-Ummil Ummat Islamic Center in Greensboro tried to donate copies of the Quran to Guilford County's two courthouses. Two Guilford judges declined to accept the texts, saying an oath on the Quran is not a legal oath under state law. (News Observer)
Continued on page II
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