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Chronology of Islam in America (2009)
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
April 2009
Obama reaches out to Muslim world
April 6 -- President Obama made his most direct outreach to Muslims around the world today, telling Turkey's Grand National Assembly that the United States "is not and never will be at war with Islam." "Our partnership with the Muslim world is critical in rolling back a violent ideology that people of all faiths reject," Obama told the assembly. "The future must belong to those who create, not those who destroy. That is the future we must work for, and we must work for it together." Obama's speech focused primarily on the U.S. relationship with Turkey. But he also used it as a chance to continue his outreach to Muslims and to signal an approach to the region based more on pragmatism than ideology. He sidestepped a campaign pledge to label as genocide the 1915 mass killing of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire and promised the Turks a broader relationship than one focused solely on combating terrorism. During his campaign, Obama consistently played down connections to Islam, rarely mentioning his middle name, Hussein, or his childhood years in an Indonesian state school. The tactic helped fuel false Internet-driven rumors that Obama, a Christian, had once been Muslim. But in his appearance Monday, the president noted the contributions that Muslim Americans have made to the United States, saying that many Americans "have Muslims in their family, or have lived in a Muslim-majority country." "I know," Obama said, drawing applause from the lawmakers, "because I am one of them." (Washington Post)
U.S. Muslim coalition applauds Obama’s speech in Turkey
April 6: The American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections (AMT), a coalition of major national Islamic organizations, today applauded President Obama’s Monday address to the Turkish parliament. A statement issued today at a press briefing at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., read in part: “We applaud President Obama’s remarks and hope that they are a sign of improved relations between America and the Muslim world. In his speech, President Obama rightly said that the United States ‘is not and will never be at war with Islam.’ This is a position that needs restating at every opportunity. We also agree with the president’s statement that better relations with the Muslim world are vital in ‘rolling back a fringe ideology that people of all faiths reject. We appreciate that the president noted the contributions of American Muslims and recognized that many Americans ‘have Muslims in their family, or have lived in a Muslim-majority country.” At today’s briefing, AMT representatives also called on President Obama to address domestic issues such as the rising level of Islamophobic attitudes in the United States, the deteriorating relations between the FBI and American Muslims, the dissemination of inaccurate and agenda-driven information by DHS-recognized "fusion centers," and Muslims' concerns about Justice Department guidelines implemented in December 2008 that allow race and ethnicity to be factors in opening an FBI probe. (AMT)
America's Muslims still under siege
April 6: As President Barack Obama made his public appearance with Turkish President Abdullah Gul as part of his first trip to a Muslim country, U.S. federal agents were preparing to arrest Youssef Megahed in Tampa, Fla. Just three days earlier, a jury in a U.S. federal district court had acquitted him of charges of illegally transporting explosives and possession of an explosive device. Megahed, acquitted by a jury of his peers, thought he was secure, back with his family. He was enrolled in his final course at the University of South Florida that would allow him to receive his college degree. Then the nightmare he had just escaped returned. His father told me: "Yesterday around noon, I took my son to buy something from Wal-Mart ... when we received a call from our lawyer that we must meet him immediately ... when we got to the parking lot, we found ourselves surrounded by more than seven people. They dress in normal clothes without any badges, without any IDs, surrounded us and give me a paper. "And they told me, 'Sign this.' 'Sign this for what?' I ask him. They told me, 'We are going to take your son ... to deport him.' "Megahed is being held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for a deportation proceeding. The charges are the same ones from which he was completely acquitted. In August 2007, Megahed and a fellow USF student took a road trip to see the Carolinas. When pulled over for speeding, police found something in the trunk that they described as explosives. Megahed's co-defendant, Ahmed Mohamed, said they were homemade fireworks. Prosecutors pointed to an online video by Mohamed, said to show how to convert a toy into an explosives detonator. Facing 30 years behind bars, Mohamed took a plea agreement and is now serving 15 years. Megahed pleaded not guilty, and the federal jury in his trial agreed with his defense: He was an unwitting passenger and completely innocent of any wrongdoing. That's where ICE comes in. Despite being cleared of the charges in the federal criminal case, it turns out that people can still be arrested and deported based on the same charges. The U.S. Constitution protects people from "double jeopardy," being charged twice with the same offense. But in the murky world of immigrant detention, it turns out that double jeopardy is perfectly legal. (Amy Goodman, Democracy Now TV host)
Megahed arrest looks vindictive: St. Petersburg Times
April 8: Three days after having their heads handed to them in the case against Youssef Megahed, federal authorities arrested the former Tampa college student on secretive immigration charges. Whether this amounts to more than sour grapes for having lost a flimsy case on explosives charges against Megahed remains to be seen. It surely looks vindictive. Immigration officials, at the very least, need to publicly explain why Megahed's arrest was so compelling it justified whisking him off the street. (St. Petersburg Times Editorial)
Groups ask AG Holder to release acquitted Florida Muslim
April 15: The Tampa chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Tampa) today joined other civil rights and religious organizations in asking Attorney General Eric Holder for the immediate release of Youssef Megahed, a Florida Muslim arrested by immigration officials on charges apparently identical to those he was acquitted of in federal court three days earlier. A letter to Holder signed by CAIR-Tampa Executive Director Ramzy Kiliç, Melva Underbakke of Friends of Human Rights, and Chuck Leigh, president of the Florida Council of Churches, stated in part: “The American Muslim community is convinced that Megahed’s arrest, just after he was exonerated in Federal Court, sends the message that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) cannot afford the American Muslim community with the same freedoms and justice it does to other Americans. American Muslims perceive this as an obvious pursuit of an individual, based upon his religious affiliation, ethnic and/or national origins. The DOJ and DHS must remain consistent in treating individuals fairly…You must intervene on Megahed’s behalf personally, in order to end the continued alienation of our community as well as the American Muslim community. “You recently made a commitment to this very issue stating, ‘Under my leadership, the Civil Rights Division will fight discrimination and inequality just as fiercely as the Criminal Division fights crime. Under my leadership, in all that it does, the Civil Rights Division will reflect the spirit of the movement that inspired its creation. That won’t happen unless we relentlessly pursue an end to the scourge of racial profiling of African-Americans, Muslims and other Americans that alienates citizens from their own communities.’” (CAIR)
Immigration arrest angers Megahed jurors
April 15: Five of the federal jurors who acquitted Youssef Megahed of explosives charges are speaking out against a U.S. Immigration decision to arrest him just three days after the verdict. "It may be 'legal,' but that doesn't make it right," says a statement signed by foreman Gary Meringer and fellow jurors Sandra Cleland, Stephen Short and Brenda Kumpf. "It strikes us as fundamentally wrong that the government has put Mr. Megahed back in jail for suspicion of the same activities that he was acquitted of in the criminal case." The St. Petersburg Times has been in contact with jurors since Megahed's federal trial ended. Some jurors wanted privacy and declined to be interviewed or publicly express an opinion. But after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials snatched Megahed from a Wal-Mart parking lot last week and announced that they would try to deport him, a few jurors reconsidered. They were too angry to remain silent. They elaborated in an exclusive interview with the Times, first published on tampabay.com. "I was stunned," said Cleland, 66, via conference call from Meringer's Sarasota office. "I never felt the government had a substantial case," said Short, 38, also on the call. "It didn't seem fair," said foreman Meringer. "It didn't seem right. I was embarrassed as a citizen for what the government had done." Meringer, 57, said he was upset enough by the immigration arrest that he contacted Megahed's attorneys to offer help and to ask for updates on his case. (St. Petersburg Times)
Court asks FBI for Muslim surveillance files
April 15: In Santa Ana, CA, a federal district court judge today gave the FBI 30 days to make available for review 48 pages of surveillance memos pertaining to Southern California Muslim organizations that had previously been released only in heavily redacted form, 47 pages of previously withheld memos, and FBI files on the Council of American Islamic Relations and Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the group's Southern Californian Chapter, ACLU staff attorney Jennie Pasquarella said. The announcement came on the heels of Irvine resident Craig Monteilh's public admission that he spent more than a year pretending to embrace Islam at various local mosques as part of an FBI-backed effort to uncover terrorist threats. Monteilh claimed his work played a key role in the arrest of Ahmadullah Niazi, a Tustin-resident and member of the Islamic Center of Irvine, on several immigration-fraud charges. But Islamic leaders claim the FBI violated the sanctity of the Islamic religion by sending in Monteilh, a felon who previously served a prison term for conning two women out of more than $150,000. "While we were led to believe we were partners, we learned we were also under surveillance," said Shakeel Syed, the executive director of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California. (The Country Register)
Frustration toward FBI boils over for American Muslim groups
April 15: Months of deteriorating relationships between the FBI and major American Muslim organizations came to a head when revelations of a FBI informant posing as a convert in mosques became public in February 2009. The incident, combined with the FBI's disengagement from communications with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), has lead several American Muslim advocacy groups to consider a suspension of ongoing outreach with the FBI. The growing tension was raised during a Senate hearing where FBI Director Robert Mueller was questioned about the Bureau's conduct about investigating Muslim organizations. (OBM Watch)
Michigan Muslims say FBI using spies to entrap mosque worshippers
April 16: The Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan (CIOM) today asked US Attorney General Eric Holder to launch an investigation into complaints that Michigan Muslims are being approached to spy on activities of Muslim congregations by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI). Through coercion of certain members of congregations, the FBI is reportedly promoting entrapment of innocent, law-abiding citizens in otherwise peaceful houses of worship. CIOM is an umbrella organization of mosques and Islamic organizations within the state of Michigan. “We seek to ensure that our country is secure from all threats regardless of the source, but we take exception to community members being asked to spy on law-abiding Americans exercising the constitutional rights of freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom of assembly,” said CIOM Chair Victor Ghalib Begg. “We call on Attorney General Holder to launch an investigation into the current methods used by the FBI, targeting entire Islamic congregations, which we believe are misdirected and un-American.” The Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI), which is a CIOM member, has received complaints that the FBI has approached Michigan Muslims, asking them to spy on unsuspecting worshippers including monitoring their legitimate charitable donations. (CIOM)
Pakistani American jailed over Hezbollah channel
April 23: A Pakistani American, Javed Iqbal, was sentenced today by a Federal District Court in Manhattan to nearly six years in prison for assisting terrorists by providing satellite television services to Hezbollah’s television station, Al Manar. Javed Iqbal, 45, who emigrated to the United States from Pakistan as a teenager, ran his business from a Brooklyn storefront and the garage of his home in Mariners Harbor, Staten Island. The US treasury labeled Al Manar a terrorist organization in March 2006, saying it supported Hezbollah's fund-raising and recruitment activities. Iqbal provided transmission services to the Beirut-based channel in return for payment in 2005 and 2006 and sold the channel to US customers through his company, HDTV Ltd.Iqbal's lawyer, Joshua L. Dratel, said that Iqbal's business had offered a variety of programming, including Christian broadcasting and adult entertainment, which he said was "180 degrees from Islamic fundamentalism." A second man, Saleh Elahwal, who also worked for Javed Iqbal’s company, was sentenced to 17 months jail on June 24, 2009.(Media Reports)
FBI meets with Arab American leaders to quell spy allegations
April 30: Federal law enforcement officers met in Dearborn, Detroit, with a group of Arab American leaders today to combat rumors the FBI is forcing people of Middle Eastern ties to work as informants. Over the past six months, the rumors have intensified that FBI agents are coercing people across the country to spy for the agency at mosques and other meeting places where Arab Americans and Muslims gather. But Andrew Arena, special agent in charge of the FBI's Detroit office, said the rumors are not true during the meeting, which was held at the Lebanese American Heritage Club. "I have no legal right to just send informants into a mosque, Catholic church or Jewish synagogue. We don't do that." Arena said the FBI, like all law enforcement agencies, do use informants but said the government is not targeting people for investigations simply because they may be Muslim or Arab. Arena said his office has not received any complaints and he believes the rumors are a matter of perception and not fact. However, many of the people gathered at the meeting said they have been contacted by numerous people who believe this is true but are too frightened to come forward for fear of retribution. People at the meeting also talked about the need for immigration reform, but the majority of the session was spent talking about informants. Participants said they hoped the meeting would lead to better trust in the community for the FBI. (The Detroit News)
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