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Chronology of Islam in America (2007)
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
August 2007 Page III
Group cancels forum on book against Israel lobby
August 21: The Chicago Council on Global Affairs' decision to cancel a forum about a controversial upcoming book on the influence of the pro-Israel lobby on U.S. foreign policy has sparked a heated debate about free speech. "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy," a book due out in September by University of Chicago professor John Mearsheimer and Harvard University professor Stephen Walt, argues that the pro-Israel lobby has had a negative effect on U.S. foreign policy. Expanding on a previous academic article that caused uproar and protest, Mearsheimer and Walt argue that the Israel lobby -- including Jewish organizations, Christian fundamentalists and neo-conservatives -- helped, among other actions, to stop diplomatic talks between the U.S. and Syria and hampered efforts to solve the Israel-Palestinian conflict. The council had planned to hold a public discussion of the book in September with the two authors. But in late July, the council decided to scrap the program. In a letter sent to the council's 94 board members shortly after the decision, Mearsheimer and Walt said they felt political pressure was behind the move. In a telephone interview with the Tribune, Mearsheimer said a council scheduler told him that the council was "feeling heat" over the authors' anticipated appearance before Council President Marshall Bouton called to cancel. Bouton confirmed to him that the council was facing criticism, Mearsheimer said. (Chicago Tribune)
People with Arab ancestry play vital role in area economy
August 22: Arab American economic activity supports between 99,494 and 141,541 jobs in southeastern Michigan (or 4 to 5.7 percent), according to a study by Wayne State University and the League for Economic Empowerment on Arab American Economic Impact in Southeast Michigan. Findings of the study revealed that $7.7 billion in wages and salary earnings in Southeast Michigan economy are directly associated with Arab American salaries and business initiatives. As of the 2005 U.S. census statistics, there are 162,000 Arab Americans living in Southeast Michigan. Of that, about 68,515 were employed. According to the study, Arab Americans represent 1.8 and 2.6 percent of all state tax revenues collected in 2005. (Press & Guide)
The Pentagon has a disturbing relationship with private evangelical groups
August 22: The Pentagon has abruptly announced that it would not be delivering "freedom packages" to US soldiers in Iraq, as it had originally intended. The packages contained Bibles, proselytizing material in English and Arabic and the apocalyptic computer game "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" (derived from the series of post-Rapture novels), in which "soldiers for Christ" hunt down enemies who look suspiciously like U.N. peacekeepers. The packages were put together by a fundamentalist Christian ministry called Operation Straight Up, or OSU which has planned an entertainment tour to Iraq called the "Military Crusade." The Defense Department realized the folly of participating in any Operation Straight Up crusade. But the episode is just another example of increasingly disturbing, and indeed unconstitutional, relationships being forged between the U.S. military and private evangelical groups. (Los Angeles Times)
TV station pulls plug on anti-Muslim televangelist
August 23: For the first time in nearly five years, controversial Christian televangelist Bill Keller is going off the air. Keller - known for his vitriolic criticism of religious, political and pop culture figures - said today his program was yanked in response to pressure from local Muslims. Earlier this month, officials from the Council on American Islamic Relations wrote to executives at CBS asking them to investigate Live Prayer with Bill Keller, an hour long nightly program. In a May 2 broadcast, the televangelist said Islam was a "1,400-year-old lie from the pits of hell" and called the Prophet Mohammed a "murdering pedophile." He also called the Koran a "book of fables and a book of lies." CAIR officials asked for equal air time for Florida Muslims to counter Keller's assertions. (St. Petersburg Times)
U.S. attorney is charging up to $115K for return of charity records
August 23: Nearly one year later, the Muslim charity Life for Relief and Development today asked U.S. District Judge Nancy G. Edmunds in Detroit to order the return of nearly 200 boxes of paperwork it says are critical to its operations, including tasks such as filing its federal tax return. The U.S. Attorney's Office is willing to provide the records, but only if Life for Relief pays copying charges of between $21,000 and $115,000, the charity said in a recent federal court filing. Those charges are higher than normal because the government insists copies be made inside FBI offices by a company with a U.S. security clearance. "It strikes me that after this period of time, they ought to be in a position of either moving forward or being able to return the records," Life for Relief attorney Thomas Cranmer said. Today's hearing was three weeks before the start of Ramadan, a month of fasting and charitable giving for Muslims. Islamic leaders have complained that raids on Life for Relief and other Muslim charities in the United States have chilled donors. (The Detroit News)
Australia: Muslim immigration likened to bird flu
August 23: Australian Christian Democratic Party (CDP) Senate candidate Paul Green called today for a moratorium on Muslim immigration while a study on its social impacts was carried out. He said it would be easier to carry out such a study with the country's Muslim population at 300,000, rather than three million at a later date. "If there was bird flu coming from a people's group across the nation would we not halt, assess the risk management of what it means to Australia and then assess the factors and then say, is it not safe to continue that or withhold it until it is dealt with," he said. Mr Green said Australia would suffer the same fate as "Britain, France and Holland" unless the study was carried out. Christian Democrats leader Fred Nile said his party's immigration policy also called on a priority for Christians who have been persecuted, particularly in Muslim countries, to be allowed into Australia. (Herald Sun)
Feds apologize for Iraqi refugee's detention
August 24: An Iraqi refugee from Kent, Seattle, has received a written apology and $250,000 from the U.S. government after federal border and customs agents illegally jailed him in 2003. Yet Abdul Habeeb and his attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) remain fiercely at odds with the government over whether Habeeb was a victim of racial profiling when he was improperly arrested in Havre, Mont., in April 2003. Jesse Wing, board president of the ACLU of Washington, said in a news release: "The settlement is a strong reminder that the government must not engage in ethnic profiling." At the time of his arrest, Habeeb was taking a train from Seattle to Washington, D.C., where he planned to take a new job as a journalist. When the train made an extended stop in Havre, Habeeb, who is an artist, took a walk to stretch his legs and to see if any local art was on display in the station. Once inside he noticed a man in a uniform and a cowboy hat watching him. Eager to avoid trouble, Habeeb said he turned to walk away from the agent, but the agent followed him and questioned him. The questioning became more severe, Habeeb said, after he disclosed that he was an Iraqi refugee, even though Habeeb provided documentation proving his legal status. Habeeb was held for three days in Montana and then transferred to a federal detention center in Tacoma, where he spent four more nights. Then, with no explanation, he was released. "[The guard] tried to cover something wrong," Habeeb said. "He told me just go home, away, hurry up." With the assistance of the ACLU, Habeeb filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Montana against border and customs agents Thomas Castloo and Dary Essing, claiming unreasonable search and a violation of his due-process rights. He also filed a suit in U.S. District Court in Western Washington against the federal government for unlawful detention. He sought more than $600,000 in damages. The Montana lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge, but the ACLU appealed the decision to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. During the appeal, Jeffrey Sullivan, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Washington said, the government concluded "that the detention of Mr. Habeeb was incorrect." The Border Patrol agents detained Habeeb because they thought he had failed to register with immigration officials as required by a regulation known as the National Security Entry/Exit Registration System (NSEERS), according to the settlement and the apology letter. The detention was improper because as a refugee, the documents say, he was exempt from the NSEERS requirements. "The United States of America acknowledges that, by not registering ... you did nothing wrong," Sullivan wrote in the apology. "The United States of America regrets the mistake." (Seattle Times)
Virginia candidates seek support from Muslim community
August 25: Political candidates at the state and local levels are courting voters in northern Virginia's Muslim community. More than 70 candidates for the Virginia General Assembly and county offices showed up today in Reston to tout their records and issue campaign promises to the fast-growing community. The seventh annual "civic picnic" was organized by area mosques to encourage area Muslims to get more involved in local politics. More than 56,000 Muslims are registered to vote in Northern Virginia, and last year, more than eight in 10 turned out to vote. (ABC 7 News)
Islamophobist Pipes joins Giuliani campaign
Aug 28: Add another neoconservative adviser on the Middle East to an already impressive roster-Islamophobist Daniel Pipes signed on today with Republican Presidential hopeful, Rudy Giuliani's campaign. Giuliani Advisors’ AIPAC’ dream team includes: Martin Kramer, who spent 25 years at Tel Aviv University and whose Middle East policy can basically be summarized as “What’s Good for Israel,” and Norman Podhoretz who portrays a military attack on Iran as not only the best option but the only option. (Harper's Magazine)
Hats, turbans part of new extra screening at airports
August 29: A directive advising the nation's 43,000 airport screeners to scrutinize anyone wearing a head covering that might hide explosives -- be it a turban, baseball cap or beret -- is prompting bitter denunciations by Sikhs and Muslims, whose head coverings are part of their religious observance. "We have complaints from our community that the way it's being conveyed on the ground is a mandatory pat-down [of turbans]," said Neha Singh of the Sikh Coalition, the nation's largest Sikh civil rights organization. "People who travel all the time tell us that they're stopped every time." A Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman denied that turban pat-downs are mandatory, or that the agency is engaging in religious or ethnic profiling. "This is not a profiling issue, and in fact we have multiple measures in place to make sure profiling does not occur," said the spokeswoman, Amy Kudwa. (Newsday)
Muslims in Europe/Australia
Fury over talks with anti-Islam thinker in Australia
August 21: Moderate Islamic leaders have attacked Howard Government ministers for meeting anti-Muslim thinker Wafa Sultan, accusing Attorney-General Philip Ruddock and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer of endorsing her view that Islam is evil. The nation's most senior spiritual Muslim woman, Aziza Abdel-Halim, also accused the Government of double standards for barring radical Islamic clerics while allowing an equally "dangerous" thinker such as Dr Sultan to stage a secret visit. Dr Sultan, a US-based Muslim Syrian psychiatrist, who shot to recognition last year after attacking Islam and Mohammed on al-Jazeera television. (The Australian)
Attitudes toward Muslims mixed in Europe and the U.S.: Financial Times/Harris Poll
August 23: A new Financial Times/Harris Poll of cross sections of adults in the five largest European countries and the United States looks at attitudes toward Muslims and finds differing opinions on Muslims as a threat to national security, prejudice towards Muslims and whether parents would object to a child marrying a Muslim. When it comes to Muslims as a threat to national security, the British are the most wary as 38 percent say the presence of Muslims in their country is a threat, followed by 30 percent of Italians and 28 percent of Germans who believe the same. Approximately one in five French (20%), American (21%) and Spanish (23%) adults also say the presence of Muslims in their respective countries is a threat to national security. With the exception of Spain and Great Britain, where large pluralities say the presence of Muslims does not present a threat to national security, majorities of adults in the other four countries say they do not present a threat. (Business Wire)
NATO sacks two women for Muslim marriage
August 27: Two Dutch women who recently married young Muslims from Tunisia have lost their jobs at the NATO base at Gellenkirchen in Germany, close to the Dutch border. The Defence Ministry confirmed to the Volkskrant that its AIVD security service has banned the women from the base.One of the women is taking legal action to get her job back. The other is the secretary to acting commander Jelle Zijlstra who told Telegraaf newspaper that the women had given years of loyal service. (Dutch News)
Austria's Haider says to ban mosque-building
August 27: Austrian right-wing firebrand Joerg Haider said today he plans to change building laws to prevent mosques and minarets being erected in his home province of Carinthia. Haider, Carinthia's governor, said he would ask its parliament to amend the building code to would require towns and villages to consider "religious and cultural tradition" when dealing with construction requests. "Muslims have of course the right to practice their religion, but I oppose erecting mosques and minarets as centers to advertise the power of Islam," Haider said in a statement. Muslims in Europe are meeting increasing resistance to plans for mosques that befit Islam's status as the continent's second religion after Christianity, with petitions in London, protests in Cologne, a court case in Marseille and violence in Berlin. (Reuters)
Dutch govt plan to combat ‘radicalization’
August 27: The Dutch government today announced a four-year plan to combat radicalization especially among Muslim youths, amid concern over domestic Islamic extremism. Most of the plan’s 28 million-euro (38 million-dollar) budget will go to local governments to support projects designed to keep youths from turning against Dutch society and its values, officials said. ‘It is the first time that the Netherlands has launched an integral plan involving all eight relevant ministries to combat radicalization and polarization in our society,’ Interior Minister Guusje ter Horst said. The Netherlands has been shaken by radical Muslim violence since the assassination of filmmaker and columnist Theo van Gogh in 2004 by a Muslim who was angry at a film he had made criticising the treatment of women in Islam. The killer, Mohammed Bouyeri, came from the Slotervaart district of Amsterdam where Ter Horst presented her plan. (The News)
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