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Chronology of Islam in America (2005)
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
February 2005
Marines General in Iraq says that shooting people is 'fun'
Feb 1: Lt. Gen. James Mattis, commander of Marine Division, says that it is "fun to shoot some people." His comment in a gathering of defense contractors in San Diego came in reference to fighting insurgents in Iraq where he commanded Marines during the battle for Fallujah last Spring. He said "Actually, it's a lot of fun to fight them, you know? …. It's fun to shoot some people …I like brawling.” Gen. Mattis, who also commanded Marine expeditions in Afghanistan, went on to say: ``You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil. `You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them.'' The audience applauded the general's remarks. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a leading Muslim civil liberties group, called on the Pentagon to discipline Mattis for the remarks. ``We do not need generals who treat the grim business of war as a sporting event,'' said CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad in a statement. ``These disturbing remarks are indicative of an apparent indifference to the value of human life.'' In response to the CAIR call the commandant of the Marine Corps said he has counseled Lt. Gen. James Mattis about choosing his words more carefully. Nihad Awad said that they see the commandant’s statement less than a slap on the wrist and it sends a very negative message to the Muslim world that U.S. generals do not care about human life.
“New COINTELPRO campaign directed at Arabs, Muslims and South East Asians”
Feb. 3:The Arab, Muslim and South East Asian communities are currently facing a new FBI counter intelligence program similar to the COINTELPRO operation against the African Americans during the 1960s, says Dr. Hatem Bazian, Professor at the Near East and Ethnic Studies Department, University of California, Berkeley. COINTELPRO is the acronym for a series of FBI counterintelligence programs designed to neutralize political dissidents in the 1960s and 1970s. The program was directed against the civil rights movements, especially against the community leadership of African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans. In the 1980s similar program was used against Central American solidarity groups. In a speech entitled, the New COINTELPRO campaign directed at Arabs, Muslims and South East Asians, Dr. Hatem Bazian said that all sub-divisions - such as ethnic groupings, immigrants or indigenous and ideological orientations of the Muslims, Arabs and South Asians are included as target by the counter Intelligence operation in the name of national security. He pointed out that four methods were employed by the FBI at the height of the Cointelpro operation during 1960s and the same methods are being employed now which are: 1) Infiltration in the community. 2) Psychological warfare from outside. 3) Harassment through the legal system. 4) Extra legal force and violence.
Accused Saudi appeals to US Congress
Feb 2: A prominent Saudi, accused of funding terrorism through his work with Islamic charities, has sent a message to the United State Congress. Released to coincide with the Counter Terrorism International Conference in Saudi Arabia, the paper responds to allegations that have been made against Saudi Arabia and its religious practices since September 11. "Our religious teachings are not against modernity, progress or development. Rather, this religious movement has led to a general renaissance in the Arabian peninsula and the Islamic world as a whole," writes the author, Soliman al-Buthi. He was recently designated by the United Nations as a funder of terrorism as a result of his volunteer work with the al-Haramain Foundation.
Cleveland mosque raided by FBI
Feb 5: The FBI raided an accountant's West Park office in Cleveland, his home and a building containing both a mosque and an Islamic school, seizing records and computers in a money-laundering probe. Abrar Haque, 43, a certified public accountant and financial planner, helped launch a small Lorain Avenue mosque 15 years ago. The Islamic Mosque, which has since moved into a former church on Rocky River Drive, was touched by a terror-financing probe three years ago. In that case, the FBI alleged a murder and arson plot designed to raise money for "the cause" in Afghanistan.
VA mosque responds to freedom house report
Feb 7: The recent 95-page report by the conservative Center for Religious Freedom, Freedom House, titled "Saudi Publications on Hate Ideology Fill American Mosques," makes sweeping, unfair and generally incorrect assessments of the American Muslim community and mosques across America. The report mentions several prominent mosques including the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) Center. The Freedom House report falsely claims that the ADAMS Center "proliferate[s]" a "destructive ideology" by using Saudi publications to educate mosque-goers and urge them to subscribe to "Wahhabi" extremism. It further claims that researchers of the Freedom House visited the ADAMS Center and found a Saudi pamphlet, called "Religious Edicts for the Immigrant Muslim," which purportedly suggests, "it is forbidden for a Muslim to become a citizen of a country (such as the United States) governed by infidels."The truth is that the ADAMS Center has never acquired or distributed such hate-filled literature or indulged in anti-American rhetoric. The ADAMS Center Board of Trustees, the Executive Committee, and the community emphatically reject all sorts of "extremism," regardless of the way these may be labeled, and remains resolutely vigilant against such elements. In fact, the Center is a democratically-governed, interfaith-oriented, progressive and open mosque, as required by the tenets of Islam.
Almost half of Vermont landlords discriminate against Muslims
Feb 8: There are signs it's less of a landlord's market-- as more and more vacant apartments become available in Vermont. They're ready to rent, but not to everyone. A year-long study at the Fair Housing Project tested landlords in Vermont according to the Fair Housing Project survey. The group found nearly 50% illegally discriminated against Muslim immigrants.
Arab Bank retreats from U.S. market
Feb 8: Under investigation on suspicion of money laundering by U.S. banking authorities, Arab Bank plans to curtail operations at its New York office and gradually withdraw from the U.S. market, according to a statement issued by its chief regulator, Jordan's central bank. Arab Bank's retreat comes under growing pressure from civil lawsuits and regulatory investigations as an alleged terror-funding conduit.
Judge orders Muslim fund-raiser deported
Feb 8: A federal immigration judge in Los Angeles ordered a former fund-raiser for a prominent Islamic charity to be deported, saying his activities posed a threat to national security. The judge found that Abdel Jabber Hamdan, who has lived in Orange County for more than 20 years, knew or should have known that the money he raised for the Holy Land Foundation was being used to support terrorism. The government contends that the foundation has funneled more than $12 million to Hamas and other Palestinian organizations that the United States considers sponsors of terrorism. The immigration judge, D. D. Sitgraves, ordered Mr. Hamdan, 44, who has been in custody since last summer, deported. But Judge Sitgraves said he could not be sent to Jordan, where he was born in a Palestinian refugee camp, because he would be at risk of torture by the Jordanian government because he has been accused by the American authorities of terror-related activities.
Fox affiliate apologizes to Muslims: References to holy city for story on snobbery led to protest
Feb 9: Fox Charlotte (WCCB, Channel 18) apologized for airing a spoof on the Muslim tradition of visiting Mecca. Promoting a news story about elitism and snobbery at upscale SouthPark mall, the station used images of pilgrims coming to Mecca, one of the world's holiest religious sites. "The hajj, a pilgrimage Muslims take to the holy city of Mecca," the promo said. "Members of Charlotte's elite make a similar pilgrimage to the corporate altar of brand-name merchandise -- SouthPark mall, where believers gather to be among their kind," said a voice-over on the spot, which then showed the mall and the word "Mecca." Ten Muslim viewers protested to WCCB over the ad.
Civil Rights lawyer Lynne Stewart convicted of helping terrorists
Feb 10: Lynne Stewart, 65, who always espoused lost causes, was convicted in a New York court of smuggling messages of violence from her client to 'his terrorist disciples'. Ms Stewart represented Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, who was convicted in 1995 of conspiring to attack US targets - a plot prosecutors say included the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center - for eight years until her 2002 arrest. The anonymous jury, which deliberated 13 days over the past month before convicting Ms Stewart, also convicted a US postal worker, Ahmed Abdel Sattar, of conspiracy for plotting to 'kill and kidnap persons in a foreign country' by publishing an edict urging the killing of Jews and their supporters. A third defendant, Arabic interpreter Mohamed Yousry, was convicted of providing material support to terrorists. Ahmed Sattar could face life in prison and Mohamed Yousry about 20 years.
9 Jewish and one Islamic group given security grant
Feb 11: Ten Baltimore County nonprofit organizations - nine Jewish organizations in the county's northwest area, and the Islamic Society of Baltimore in Catonsville - will share a $400,000 federal homeland security fund grant. Baltimore County Executive James Smith announced the grant which will be used to boost security at at-risk organizations. The Maryland Emergency Management Agency, or MEMA, distributes more than $1 million in federal grant funds to seven Baltimore area jurisdictions. Money was allocated for nonprofit organizations that demonstrated a high risk of terrorist attack, such as religious organizations.
9/11 Pakistani victim’s mother questions treatment of Muslims
Feb 14: The mother of a Muslim Pakistani-American who was killed in the World Trade Centre to which he had rushed to help victims told a news conference in Washington DC that it was a pity thousands of Muslims had been subjected to interrogation after 9/11. Mrs Talat Hamdani’s son, 23-year old Mohammed Salman Hamdani, a Pakistani-born paramedic who was not even on duty that day, rushed to the World Trade Centre to help victims after the first plane hit one of the towers. Mrs Hamdani said in a tearful voice that her son’s death was not because of his ties to Islam. “He was killed because he was an American,” she added. She joined other Muslims at the news conference to release a written response to the 9/11 Commission report, hoping that Congress will consider the views of Muslims on terrorism-related issues.
Muslim leaders say no radicalism preached in US
Feb 15: Local Islamic leaders say Houston's Muslim community does not practice the radical, anti-democratic theology preached in some books and pamphlets that a human rights group said were found in two local mosques. In a recent report, Washington, D.C.-based Freedom House said the Saudi government has distributed in U.S. mosques anti-American and anti-Jewish propaganda that reflects a "totalitarian ideology of hatred that can incite violence." The propaganda, the group said, espouses Wahhabism, the dominant form of Islam in Saudi Arabia. In Houston, Wahhabism-related materials were found at the Islamic Society of Greater Houston North Zone Masjid at 11815 Adel Road and the Masjid El-Farouq at 1207 Conrad Sauer Drive. "Just because those books were there does not mean that the organization condones such books," said Rodwan Saleh, president of the Islamic Society of Greater Houston. "All of these books ... they don't express the views of that Muslim community." He said the local Islamic Society is investigating how the literature was placed in the two Houston sites.
Former U.S. military translator sentenced to 20 months
Feb 18: A former Arabic translator who admitted taking classified documents from the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was sentenced in Boston to 20 months in prison in a plea deal that will allow him to be released by mid-March with time served. Ahmed Fathy Mehalba, 32, an Egyptian-born U.S. citizen and civilian translator at Guantanamo, was arrested at Logan International Airport on Sept. 29, 2003, after returning from a trip to Egypt. Last month, Mehalba pleaded guilty to one count of unauthorized possession of classified materials and two counts of lying to federal investigators.
1942-style bigotry targets Muslims in the U.S. today
Feb 19: Lillian Nakano, a third-generation Japanese American from Hawaii and member of Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress, said on the 53rd anniversary of internment of Japanese during the Second World War that some of my fellow Americans are now being targeted because they are Muslim, Arab or Middle Eastern. Writing in the Los Angeles Times, under the title - 1942-style bigotry targets Muslims in the U.S. today, Nakano said: When the attacks of Sept. 11 happened, I mourned for the innocent lives that were lost. But I also began to identify and sympathize with the innocent Muslim Americans who immediately became victims of the same kind of stereotyping and scapegoating we faced 63 years ago. They too have become targets of suspicion, hate crimes, vandalism and violence, all in the name of patriotism and national security.
Abu Ali is accused of plotting to assassinate Bush
Feb 22: A former Virginia high school student who had been detained in Saudi Arabia as a suspected terrorist was charged with conspiring to assassinate President Bush and with supporting the al-Qaida terrorist network. Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, 23, a U.S. citizen, made an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, but did not enter a plea. He said that he was tortured while detained in Saudi Arabia since June of 2003 and offered through his lawyer to show the judge his scars. The federal indictment said that in 2002 and 2003 Abu Ali and an unidentified co-conspirator discussed plans for Abu Ali to assassinate Bush. They discussed two scenarios, the indictment said, one in which Abu Ali “would get close enough to the president to shoot him on the street” and, alternatively, “an operation in which Abu Ali would detonate a car bomb.” However, the Justice Department said that the suspected member of Al Qaeda who prosecutors say once talked with Ahmed Omar Abu Ali about assassinating President Bush was killed by Saudi authorities in a shootout 17 months ago.
Banks close accounts of Muslims
Feb 27: Increasing numbers of banks across the country are closing accounts of what they deem "high risk" customers in part because of confusing regulations put in place as part of the Patriot Act, the News Day reports quoting a national banking official in Union City, New Jersey. The issue came to the fore in New Jersey when the Islamic Education Center protested the closing of its account at Hudson United Bank after almost 13 years. The bank did not say why it took the action, and cited laws that allow financial institutions to shut down accounts at any time without giving a reason for the closure. John Byrne, director of the American Bankers Association's Center for Regulatory Compliance, said more banks are taking an aggressive posture toward account closures because of a lack of consistency in the interpretation and enforcement of regulations instituted after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The number of suspicious-activity reports filed by banks rose from 81,197 in 1997 to 288,343 in 2003, the newspaper reported. Civil rights groups have said that Muslim account holders have been targeted for unreasonable requests for private information such as financial statements, proof of residency and proof of identity.
Texan sentenced in hate crime arson cases
Feb 28: San Antonio, Texas, District Attorney Susan D. Reed announced that Thomas Carroll, age 33, received a 30-year prison sentence for setting on fire businesses of owned or operated by the Muslims in 2003 and 2004. The sentence was handed-down by Judge Phil Kazen, who also entered findings that Carroll committed the offenses because of his bias and prejudice against a group identified by national origin and ancestry. In 2003 and 2004, Carroll set fire to several local convenient stores located throughout the community. The series of fires raised fear and anxiety in the Asian Muslim community as well as with several hundred independent storeowners throughout the San Antonio area. While several of the stores sustained substantial damage or were totally destroyed, no one was injured in the fires. “These crimes were targeted against people because of their national origin and were designed to spread fear throughout the whole community. Terrorists commit crimes based on hatred of a people or a religion and such acts will not be tolerated and will be dealt with firmly,” the District Attorney said.
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