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Chronology of Islam in America (2011)
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
December 2011 - Page Four
Anti-Sharia bill introduced in Pennsylvania
Dec 14: A rabbi, an interfaith leader, and a Temple University professor joined the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) on Wednesday to denounce as "Islamophobic" a Pennsylvania bill they say is an attack on sharia law, which is followed by devout Muslims. House Bill 2029, introduced by Rep. Rosemarie Swanger (R., Lebanon), says state courts shall not, in deciding cases, "consider a foreign legal code or system" that lacks "the same fundamental liberties" as the state and federal Constitutions. The language is plain and seems innocuous. Swanger's June 14 letter promoting the bill to her colleagues, however, repeatedly mentioned Sharia law as a menace. "Increasingly, foreign laws and legal doctrines - including and especially sharia law - are finding their way into U.S. court cases," she wrote. "Invoking sharia law, especially in family law cases, is a means of imposing an agenda on the American people." In her October memo to colleagues, Swanger warned of "infiltration of foreign legal doctrine" but made no mention of sharia.
Critics say her bill is based on a model of legislation, introduced nationally two years ago, that has had the effect of ostracizing Muslims. Separately, the Anti-Defamation League of Eastern Pennsylvania, a Jewish anti-bias group, also criticized the bill. Since 2009, more than two dozen states have considered measures to restrict judges from consulting sharia, or foreign and religious laws more generally. "This bill feeds the perception that Muslims are anti-American foreigners," CAIR's Philadelphia chapter director, Moein Khawaja, said at a Center City news conference. He called on Gov. Corbett to veto the bill if it reaches his desk. "You seldom see such direct evidence of discriminatory purpose, particularly in a public document," said CAIR attorney Amara Chaudhry, waving a copy of Swanger's June memo. Nor, she added, is the bill needed, because the Supreme Court has ruled that religious laws cannot be used to circumvent generally applicable civil laws.
Speaking at the news conference, Rabbi Linda Holtzman of Philadelphia's congregation Mishkan Shalom said she feels in the June memo for the Pennsylvania bill "the echoes . . . of Germany in the 1930s," when Jewish law repeatedly was defamed "as a means of defaming all of Jewish tradition."Even if the bill is ruled unconstitutional, said Vic Compher of Philadelphia's Interfaith Walk for Peace and Reconciliation, Muslims will have been harmed because the legislative process creates "a forum for Islamophobic rhetoric." [Philadelphia Inquirer]
Congress members clash over call to investigate NYPD
Dec 15: Two members of the House Committee on Homeland Security sharply rebuked a call to investigate the New York Police Department over a report that it’s spying on Muslim Americans, calling the allegations “embarrassingly uninformed and shamefully misleading.” Reps. Judy Chu (D-Calif.), Robert "Bobby" Scott (D-Va.) and Mike Honda (D-Calif.) sent a joint letter to the attorney general saying they were “deeply troubled” by reports that the NYPD has been collecting information on members of the Muslim community in New York. The lawmakers requested that the Department of Justice investigate what they call “civil rights” violations, and that the House Judiciary Committee hold a hearing on the matter. “The NYPD has engaged in conduct that has singled out Muslims for police contact — stops and investigations — based upon their race, ethnicity or national origin,” the letter read in part. “This surveillance allegedly included targeting mosques, student groups, restaurants and even motorists in both NYC and outside the NYPD’s jurisdiction.”In addition to the allegations of racial profiling, the letter alleges that the NYPD has been collecting a database of information on Muslims in New York City without probable cause. The lawmakers based their concerns on a series of reports by The Associated Press detailing the NYPD's controversial counterterrorism intelligence-gathering techniques.
Reps. Pete King (R-N.Y.) and Bob Turner (R-N.Y.) shot back with a letter of their own, saying they wanted to “clear away the cloud of ignorance, political correctness, misinformation and false allegations against the NYPD.” “A recent 'Dear Colleague' from three members of Congress attacking the NYPD was embarrassingly uninformed and shamefully misleading,” the letter stated. “The reality is that the NYPD is the leading police department in the country with the largest and most effective counterterrorism force, dedicating 1,000 officers to protecting New York from terrorist attacks.” King, the chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, has held four hearings into the ‘radicalization’ of Muslim-Americans, the most recent of which focused on potential terrorist infiltration of the U.S. military. [The Hill]
U.N. adopts religious intolerance resolution
Dec 19: The U.N. General Assembly today adopted a resolution condemning the stereotyping, negative profiling and stigmatization of people based on their religion, and urging countries to take effective steps “to address and combat such incidents. No member state called for a recorded vote on the text, which was as a result adopted by consensus. The resolution, an initiative of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), is based on one passed by the U.N.’s Human Rights Council in Geneva last spring. The resolution calls on states “to take effective measures to ensure that public functionaries in the conduct of their public duties do not discriminate against an individual on the basis of religion or belief.” Governments also are expected to make “a strong effort to counter religious profiling, which is understood to be the invidious use of religion as a criterion in conducting questionings, searches and other law enforcement investigative procedures.” “Effective measures” to counter cases of religious stereotyping and stigmatization include education, interfaith dialogue and “training of government officials.” And in the worst cases, those of “incitement to imminent violence” based on religion, the resolution calls on countries to implement “measures to criminalize” such behavior. Also of note is the fact that the resolution singles out for praise only one interfaith initiative – and that initiative was established by Saudi Arabia, a leading OIC member-state with a long history of enforcing blasphemy laws. The resolution commends the establishment of the King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Inter-religious and Inter-cultural Dialogue, “acknowledging the important role that the Centre is expected to play as a platform for the enhancement of inter-religious and intercultural dialogue.” [CNSNews.com]
Tenn. Imams' Suit Accuses Delta of Passenger Profiling
Dec 19: The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and United Firm of Carolina Law (UFC Law) today announced the filing of a lawsuit against Delta Air Lines and Atlantic Southeast Airlines for removing two Islamic religious leaders, or imams, from a flight to a conference on Islamophobia in Charlotte, N.C., earlier this year after the pilot refused to fly with them on board. CAIR and UFC Law attorneys announced the lawsuit at a news conference earlier today at Memphis International Airport in Tennessee. Interfaith leaders also took part in the news conference. The lawsuit states in part: "Despite having been cleared twice by TSA agents, Defendants' pilot took the matter into his own hands when he chose to eject Plaintiffs from the flight based on arbitrary and capricious reasons, including his personal preconceived notions of race, religion, and national origin." According to the lawsuit, the defendants violated both a federal law preventing an air carrier from subjecting a passenger to "discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, or ancestry" and a Tennessee law that prohibits denying an individual the "full and equal enjoyment of the. . .advantages and accommodations of a place of public accommodation. . .on the grounds of race, creed, color, religion, sex, age, or national origin." The lawsuit seeks a permanent injunction that would prohibit the defendants from "singling out passengers for mistreatment based on their perceived race, color, ethnicity, religion, alienage, ancestry, and/or national origin" and order them to "take all affirmative steps necessary to remedy the effects of the illegal, discriminatory conduct described herein and to prevent similar occurrences in the future." It also seeks attorneys' fees and compensatory and punitive damages against Delta and Atlantic Southeast Airlines "in an amount to be determined at trial." [CAIR]
CAIR launches 2012 'Muslims Vote' campaign
Dec 20: America's largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), today launched its 2012 "Muslims Vote" campaign designed to empower American Muslims by increasing their political capacity and presence. CAIR's initiative -- launched two weeks before the January 3 Iowa Caucus -- includes a 2012 presidential voter guide, an online voter registration tool, a video promoting online voter registration, and the Twitter hashtag "#MuslimsVote." CAIR has also mailed all presidential candidates its 2012 election questionnaire. CAIR’s non-partisan voter campaign will focus on ensuring that American Muslims actively participate in the 2012 election cycle by volunteering in election campaigns, registering to vote, hosting candidate forums, and by mobilizing other community members through "get out the vote" initiatives. CAIR will also pay special attention to Muslim voters under the age of 30 who -- like all Americans of that age -- are under-represented on voter rolls. [CAIR]
34 Congress members call for NYPD-CIA probe
Dec 21: More than two dozen members of Congress are calling for investigation into the CIA's relationship with the New York Police Department. The members of Congress want to know more about the CIA's collaboration with the police department to monitor Muslims after an Associated Press investigation. A letter signed by 34 members of Congress was sent to the Department of Justice and House Judiciary Committee asking for a thorough probe. Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., says: "We cannot allow the explicit profiling and targeting of Muslim Americans by the very people who are tasked with protecting and serving their community." Earlier this year, the AP revealed that the CIA helped the NYPD build intelligence programs to monitor Muslims after Sept. 11, and a top CIA operative was working at the police department. [Washington Post]
The ADC is alarmed by increase in reported discrimination complaints
Dec 22: The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), in a Community Advisory said today that it is alarmed at the significant rise in the number of discrimination complaints that have been reported to the Legal Department during the month of December thus far. The advisory said that the ADC has experienced a significant increase in the number of complaints received in December, marking the highest total for any month of 2011. The total number of cases received is nearly triple the number of cases received in December of 2010, and nearly 80% above the average for the month of December over the past 10 years. “It the opinion of ADC that this increase in cases is directly linked to the negative sentiments and hateful rhetoric launched against the Arab American and Muslim American communities during the recent controversies involving Lowe’s and its advertising on TLC’s reality TV show All-American Muslim and Newt Gingrich’s comments on Palestinians. A majority of reported complaints immediatley followed the Lowe's controversy.” The ADC advisory was addressed to the members of the Arab, Muslim, South Asian and Sikh American communities. The ADC advised its members and greater community to be safe during this Holiday season and take precautionary measures as you celebrate the holidays with family and friends. [ADC]
New Army policy will allow JROTC hijabs, turbans
Dec 22: The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) announced today that the Department of Defense (DOD) will begin allowing Muslim and Sikh students who wear an Islamic head scarf (hijab) or a turban to participate in the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC). In October, the Washington-based Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization wrote to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta after a 14-year-old Muslim student at Ravenwood High School in Brentwood, Tenn., was forced to transfer out of a JROTC class when her commanding officers told her she could not wear hijab while marching in the September homecoming parade. CAIR requested constitutionally-protected religious accommodations for the girl and for future Muslim JROTC participants. In a December 19 letter sent to CAIR, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army Larry Stubblefield wrote:
"I have been asked to respond on behalf of the Secretary of Defense Leon E. Panetta to your October 13, 2011 letter concerning Miss Demin Zawity's request to wear a religious head covering (hijab) while participating in an Army Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) event at Ravenwood High School. Based on your concerns, the Army has reviewed its JROTC uniform policy and will develop appropriate procedures to provide Cadets the opportunity to request the wear of religious head dress, such as the turban and hijab. This change will allow Miss Zawity and other students the chance to fully participate in the JROTC program. Additionally, a representative from the U.S. Army Cadet Command will contact Miss Zawity and provide her the opportunity to rejoin the Ravenwood High School JROTC unit.The Army prides itself in being a diverse organization, comprised of individuals from many faiths and religions. We appreciate you bringing this matter to our attention." "We welcome the fact that Muslim and Sikh students nationwide will now be able to participate fully in JROTC leadership activities while maintaining their religious beliefs and practices," said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad. [CAIR]
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