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Chronology of Islam in America (2007)
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
April 2007
Tucson mosque vandalized twice in two months
April 3: The Arizona chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-AZ) today called on the FBI to investigate the latest act of vandalism targeting a Tucson mosque as a possible hate crime. Officials of the Islamic Center of Tucson told CAIR-AZ that the mosque has been vandalized twice in the past two months. In the latest incident, the mosque's office was ransacked and a hand-written message saying "Bush was here" was left on a computer monitor. Two months ago, about $1,000 was stolen when someone broke into the same mosque. (CAIR bulletin)
Relatives of interned Japanese-Americans side with Muslims
April 3: Holly Yasui was far away when a federal judge in Brooklyn ruled last June that the government had wide latitude to detain non-citizens indefinitely on the basis of race, religion or national origin. The ruling came in a class-action lawsuit by Muslim immigrants held after 9/11. But Ms. Yasui, an American citizen of Japanese ancestry, had reason to take it personally.Her grandparents were among thousands of Japanese immigrants in the United States who were wrongfully detained as enemy aliens during World War II. And her father was one of three Japanese-Americans who challenged the government's racial detention and curfew programs in litigation that reached the Supreme Court in the 1940s. Now, Ms. Yasui, along with Jay Hirabayashi and Karen Korematsu-Haigh, a son and a daughter of the two other Japanese-American litigants, is urging an appeals court in Manhattan to overturn the sweeping language of the judge's ruling last year. The ruling "painfully resurrects the long-discredited legal theory" that was used to put their grandparents behind barbed wire, along with the rest of the West Coast's Japanese alien population, the three contend in an unusual friends-of-the-court brief to be filed today in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. In recent years, many scholars have drawn parallels and contrasts between the internment of Japanese-Americans after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the treatment of hundreds of Muslim noncitizens who were swept up in the weeks after the 2001 terror attacks, then held for months before they were cleared of links to terrorism and deported. (New York Times)
NYPD names its second Islamic chaplain
April 3: The New York Police Department has hired a 24-year-old Muslim leader to become the Islamic chaplain for the thousands of Muslims in the department, officials announced yesterday. Khalid Latif is the second Islamic chaplain ever hired by the police. "Because of the life-and-death nature of police work, the role of the chaplain in the police department takes on specific importance," the Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. The NYPD chaplain position is part time.The department's first chaplain, Imam Pasha, left more than a year ago. (New York Sun)
Texas Senator Patrick walks out on religious tolerance
April 4: The Texas Senate came into session today with an Islamic prayer. Imam Yusuf Kavacki offered blessings from the Koran on the Senate floor. Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, became so irate that he walked out. Sen. Kay Shapiro, R-Plano, the state's senior Jewish Senator, had granted the prayer request from the Freedom and Justice Foundation. In a press release, Sen. Shapiro stated that "Our country prides itself on freedoms, the most relevant today is freedom of religion. In our blessed country, everyone is free to pray according to their religion, and allowing a Muslim to express his freedom demonstrates what we all have in common in the United States." (Daily Texan)
Self-proclaimed experts exploit ignorance of Islam
April 4: The local (Indiana) Muslim community is very concerned about Robert Spencer's invitation from the local FBI office to talk about Islam and terrorism. Spencer, a self-proclaimed expert on Islam and jihad, has published at least one book and numerous articles about what he refers to as "radical" Islam. He also has a Web site, Jihad Watch, where he chronicles embarrassing events involving Muslims. The problem is that Spencer is no expert, but an ideologue who exploits the average American's ignorance of Islam by rendering a Christian fundamentalist reading of translated Islamic texts. Since the despicable terrorist act on 9/11, a new industry has emerged in which anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of Islam can proclaim himself an expert, proclaim Muslims as the new world threat, and receive widespread attention to propagate the misinformation. An example of this scenario is promotion of the Somali-born author of "Infidel" (Ayaan Hirsi Ali), who recently moved to the United States after it was learned that she had illegally entered the Netherlands. (Indianapolis Star)
Media quoted criticism of Pelosi for wearing headscarf in Middle East
without noting that Rice, Laura Bush have also done so
April 5: News reports in the Associated Press and the New York Post, and an editorial in Investor's Business Daily, quoted Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney criticizing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) by saying that "being seen in a head scarf and so forth is sending the wrong signal to the people of Syria and to the people of the Middle East," without noting that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and first lady Laura Bush have both done the same when visiting the Middle East. (Media Matters)
Hearing of House Homeland Security Sub-committee on intelligence,
info sharing & terrorism risk assessment
April 5: Muslim Public Affairs Council Southern California Government Relations Director, Sireen Sawaf, testified today at the Torrance City Council Chambers about the phenomena of radicalization and the critical role of the Muslim American community in protecting the country in a House Committee on Homeland Security Subcommittee hearing entitled, "Radicalization, Information Sharing and Community Outreach: Protecting the Homeland from Homegrown Terror". Sawaf urged for the discourse on radicalization to consider key factors, such as identity, social and political alienation, the definition of a moderate vs. an extremist, and Islamophobia as a root cause of alienation and possible radicalization. Sawaf highlighted the challenges, such as federal bureaucracy inhibiting partnership, and opportunities in current partnership models between the Muslim American community and local and federal law enforcement, while emphasizing the need for a more systematic and organized approach for cooperation supported by Congressional funding. The significant role government officials and other decision-makers and opinion-shapers play in preventing radicalization was also acknowledged. (MPAC Bulletin)
'Anti-Muslim rhetoric' cited after vandalism at mosque in University of Arizona area
April 5: Officials with the Islamic Center of Tucson say a recent rise in "anti-Muslim rhetoric" may have spurred vandalism at the University of Arizona-area mosque. Tucson Police Department detectives are investigating a break-in at the mosque during which someone smashed the lock on a side door, broke an office window, ransacked the office and wrote "Bush was here" in magic marker across a computer screen. Nothing was stolen, mosque officials said. Mosque spokesman Muhammad As'ad said there's an increasing obsession with Islam that's been stirred up by a small cadre of people. "The obsession is growing because of events overseas. We deplore the hate speech going on. After all, Muslims, like Christians, are encouraged to love their neighbors." As'ad said an example of the "anti-Muslim rhetoric" was former CNN reporter Steven Emerson's December lecture at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. (Arizona Daily Star)
Philadelphia governor speaks at CAIR dinner
April 8: The Pennsylvania chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-PA) today thanked that state's governor for taking part in its first annual banquet Saturday night in Philadelphia. Gov. Edward G. Rendell joined Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA) in addressing a sold-out crowd of some 500 people who attended the event. Sestak told dinner attendees: "CAIR does such important and necessary work in a difficult environment to change such perceptions and wrongs -- from racial profiling and civil rights to promoting justice and mutual understanding -- at a time when it is challenging to be an American-Muslim." (CAIR bulletin)
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