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Chronology of Islam in America (2011)
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
February 2011
Jimmy Carter target of malicious lawsuit for authoring Palestine: Peace not Apartheid
Feb 1: Jimmy Carter has long been the target of what MJ Rosenberg calls "the Status Quo Lobby" (he's right to deny them the "pro-Israel" label). Now an enterprising attorney has filed a class-action suit against the former president -- and publisher Simon and Shuster -- that can only be seen as an ideologically-driven nuisance lawsuit. A class action was filed today in Manhattan federal court accusing Jimmy Carter and Simon & Schuster of consumer fraud for the former president’s 2006 book, Palestine Peace Not Apartheid. It alleges that the author and publisher marketed the book as a totally factual account of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in part based on the credibility of a former president and key character in the history, but that the book actually contains “demonstrable falsehoods, omissions, and knowing misrepresentations designed to promote Carter’s agenda of anti-Israel propaganda.” (Alternet)
Terrorism by Muslim-Americans down in 2010
Feb 2: A new study released today by the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security shows that the number of Muslim-Americans who perpetrated or were arrested for terrorist acts declined sharply in 2010. The study, "Muslim American Terrorism Since 9/11: An Accounting," reports that while 47 Muslim-Americans committed or were arrested for terrorist crimes in 2009, the number dropped to 20 this past year. The author of the study, Charles Kurzman, Professor of Sociology at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, said, "Of course, even a single terrorist plot is too many. But this trend offers a challenge for the American public: If we ratchet up our security concerns when the rate of terrorism rises, should we ratchet down our concerns when it falls?" David Schanzer, Director of the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security, said, "this study puts into perspective the threat presented by domestic radicalization of Muslim Americans." Schanzer noted, "Is this a problem that deserves the attention of law enforcement and the Muslim American community? Absolutely. But Americans should take note that these crimes are being perpetrated by a handful of people whose actions are denounced and rejected by virtually all the Muslims living in the United States." (The Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security is a consortium between Duke University, the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, and RTI International.)
St. Louis-area Somalis feel intimidated by FBI
Feb 3: On the same November day that federal authorities arrested an airport cabdriver and accused him of supporting a Somali terrorist organization, the FBI cast a wider net. Agents descended on Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, where over two days 25 to 50 other cabdrivers, all refugees from Somalia, were summoned to the airport police office. One by one, they entered small rooms where FBI agents waited. A series of questions followed: Do you ever send money overseas? Whom do you send money to? What trips have you taken? What rumors are you hearing? Anyone we should be worried about? Agents sought to copy the drivers' cell phone memory cards and examine their personal computers. "They sounded like when they are talking to you that you are guilty," said one cabdriver, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation. Several drivers offered similar accounts but did not want to be quoted. The cabdrivers said many Somalis felt harassed by repeated interviews and perceived threats from the FBI. Many of the drivers the FBI interviewed were only recently granted or are still awaiting U.S. citizenship and felt intimidated. The actions have some accusing the FBI of once again overstepping bounds in investigating whether St. Louis' Somali population of about 2,000 is a potential haven for terrorists. The critics say that such 'strong-arm" tactics hinder efforts by law enforcement agencies to make inroads among Somalis and Muslims. "We are disappointed they acted so rashly and harshly in this situation," said John Chasnoff of the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri. "These are people who are haven't been linked to any terrorist activity." On Nov. 1, authorities arrested Mohamud Abdi Yusuf, who they allege collected and wired about $6,000 to al-Shabaab, an Islamist group that is trying to overthrow the shaky government of his impoverished east African country. The U.S. government declared al-Shabaab a terrorist organization in 2008. (St. Louis Today)
11 UC Irvine Muslim students face charges for disrupting Israeli envoy’s speech
On Feb 4: In Santa Ana, CA, eleven students were charged today with conspiring to disrupt a speech last year by the Israeli ambassador to the United States at UC Irvine. The incident occurred Feb. 8, 2010, when Ambassador Michael Oren was the featured speaker on campus at a meeting co-sponsored by several organizations. Eleven Muslim students were arrested in the incident. In a letter addressed to the District Attorney, members of Muslim, Christian, Jewish and civil rights organizations questioned the resources being spent in the investigation, calling the possibility of felony charges being levied against the students excessive for a university demonstration. The defendants are: Mohamed Mohy-Eldeen Abdelgany, 23; Khalid Gahgat Akari, 19; Aslam Abbasi Akhtar, 23; Joseph Tamim Haider, 23; Taher Mutaz Herzallah, 21; Hakim Nasreddine Kebir, 20; Shaheen Waleed Nassar, 21; Mohammad Uns Qureashi, 19; Ali Mohammad Sayeed, 23; Osama Ahmen Shabaik, 22; and Asaad Mohamedidris Traina, 19. UCI has revoked the Muslim Student Union's charter for one year and placed it on probation for another year. In September, the school softened the sanctions and restored the group's charter on Dec. 31, but added a year of probation and 100 hours of community service. After the charges were announced, the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California said it was "deeply troubled" by the District Attorney's decision. (AMP Report)
Congressional hearings may inflame Islamophobia
Feb 5: Seven-million-strong American Muslim community is alarmed at the planned hearings by Rep. Peter King on his inflammatory charges about “radicalized Muslims” in America. King claims that 80 percent of mosques in America are controlled by radical imams—including the Long Island mosque in his district that he regularly used to visit. He also argues that Muslim Americans are unpatriotic and that they don’t cooperate with law enforcement in identifying extremists in their communities. Sally Steenland of American Progress Center warned that the world will be watching Rep. King’s hearings and added that he will have a global platform that will shape a narrative about whether America is a true home for Muslim Americans—or whether we see millions of our fellow citizens as alien and suspect because of their faith. Writing under the title: Congressional hearings may inflame Islamophobia, Steenland pointed out that “King’s blanket condemnation of a diverse religious community flies in the face of facts. According to recent statistics, Muslim-American communities have helped prevent more than one-third of Al Qaeda terrorist plots in the United States since 9/11. Furthermore, a study by Duke University and the University of North Carolina last year found that community mosques actually deter radicalization and extremism through a range of efforts such as publicly denouncing violence, confronting extremists, providing programs for youth, and cooperating with law enforcement. And a study released on February 2 showed terrorist attempts by Muslim Americans significantly declined last year. The study further said tips from Muslim-American communities provided information that thwarted terrorist plots in 48 of 120 cases involving Muslim Americans.” (AMP Report)
FBI watching Muslim Americans with COINTELPRO-like Division
Feb 8: Most Americans may believe that COINTELPRO—when the FBI infiltrated civil rights era activists groups like The Black Panther Party and SNCC—is a thing of the past. But these days, Muslim-American communities are increasingly under surveillance by the FBI, including the use of informant provocateurs and spying. While statistics remain elusive, grass-roots activist organizations charge that surveillance practices have spiked. Furthermore, according to the LA chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the number of Muslims who have reported being contacted by law enforcement to gather information has skyrocketed over the past few years.
Reports of FBI’s use of informants going awry continue to surface: There was the 2010 high profile case of the Portland teenager (dubbed the “Christmas Tree Bomber”) whose surveillance of local FBI is now being called into question by critics across the country because illegal entrapment may have been employed. There was the 2009 shooting death during an FBI raid of 53 year-old Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah, a leader of a Sunni Islam group in Detroit. According to reports, agents were attempting to arrest Abdullah for conspiracy to sell stolen goods but after refusing to surrender to police, Abdullah was shot in his Dearborn Warehouse. The autopsy later showed that he had been shot 20 times, calling into question the use of force in the shooting. Muslim Advocates, together with the NAACP, recently wrote a letter to the Attorney General Eric Holder expressing concern over the killing.
And in a story that sounds like a spy-thriller a 46 year-old Los Angeles fitness instructor—and convicted conman—Craig Monteilh was hired by the FBI to infiltrate the Islamic Center of Irvine. When the local chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), alarmed by his talk of jihad and plans for a terrorist attack, reported him to Irvine police, the FBI quickly turned on Monteilh. “This had a chilling effect on the Muslim community,” says Maznavi. “The FBI sent in someone with a criminal background to incite individuals in a place of worship. As a result people didn’t want to come to the mosque and pray.” Dr. Amir Hussain, professor of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles agrees and says that the problem with moles and infiltration is that it creates a level of distrust between the police and the community. “The first line of defense for homegrown terrorists is the Muslim community.” Hussain adds, “It’s the Muslims who can see and report criminal behavior in these communities.”
So is the COINTELPRO of the 60s a fair comparison? Maznavi insists yes, adding that many of the protections that were put in place after the 1960s surveillance abuses have been eroded since 9/11, specifically since the 2001 Patriot Act. Among other things, the 2001 law allows for law enforcement to search telephone, e-mail communications, medical, financial, and other records without probable cause. Says Maznavi, “It’s actually worse now because the government can monitor groups without evidence of wrong-doing.” (News One)
King’s extremism should be shut down
Feb 14: Buffalo News has called on House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to shut down Rep. Peter King’s congressional extremism in the name of decency. Is it worth alienating millions of working Americans just to advance a politically convenient bigotry. In an editorial on King’s planned anti-Muslim hearings - titled King’s extremism should be shut down – the paper said as the new chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, King is plunging ahead with something that the late Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, R-Wis., never thought to do — or any other congressional chairman in American history ever ventured. This kind of red-blooded branding two hysterical decisions by Franklin D. Roosevelt’s regime: Turning away 937 Jewish refugees fleeing Hitler aboard the ship St. Louis in 1939, and the internment of Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor, the paper said adding: “There’s no doubt that the new House majority has a solemn responsibility to take a fresh look at homegrown terrorism. Threats and violent acts against Americans and our government have escalated in the last few years. Last year, the Rand Corp. said between 9/11 and the end of 2009, there were 46 incidents of “domestic radicalization to [Muslim] jihadist terrorism” involving 125 people. However, last month’s massacre in Tucson, Ariz., the 2009 suicide plane crash into an IRS building and the 2009 shooting at Washington’s Holocaust Museum had no elements traceable to Islam. And there are many reports that white supremacist sentiment is growing because of antagonism toward President Obama’s race and broadcast rants about his religious beliefs and birthplace. So there were plenty of reasons for King to recast this hearing into a broad, hard look at where and how Americans nurture extremism. Everywhere.” (Buffalo News)
Rep. West meets with head of anti-Muslim group ACT! for America
Feb 15: U.S. Rep. Allen West, R- Fort Lauderdale, never one to shy away from controversy, appears to be coordinating with a highly controversial anti-Muslim group, judging by a recent article posted online by West himself. The piece, which West wrote for the conservative blog Red County, detailed what he calls “the most eventful weeks of [his] life.” From visiting a Fort Lauderdale elementary school to visiting with constituents to discuss a renewed focus and political strategy to ”move forward in 2011,” West had a seemingly busy week. But perhaps the most interesting portion of West’s week was a meeting in Washington, D.C., with a notoriously controversial figure: First on my agenda once I got back in the office, was a meeting with the incredible Brigitte Gabriel, President and CEO of ACT! for America. This woman is fully charged and focused and determined to secure the safety of her country.
Touted on ACT!’s website as “one of the leading terrorism experts in the world,” Gabriel has long made headlines for her outspoken views on Islam. The New York Times Magazine caught heat for calling her a “radical islamaphobe” in the preface to an interview, but Gabriel’s views are unarguably extreme. She was once quoted by the Australian Jewish News as saying that “every practicing Muslim is a radical Muslim.” During a Fox News interview with Sean Hannity, Gabriel addressed rumors of Presiden’t Obama’s Muslim background, saying that she could not “speak to what God he prays to in his private space,” but that ”all the signs show that he has a very soft spot for the Islamic world.” Gabriel is no stranger to Florida politics, either. In August 2010, she was one of several keynote speakers (others included Marco Rubio) at an Emerald Coast Tea Party rally. ACT! made a splash in Jacksonville in the summer of 2010 after its members verbally renounced the appointment of Muslim Professor Dr. Parvez Ahmed, to the Human Rights Commission. Shortly after the group penned a 20-page report accusing him of having ties to Islamic-extremist groups, an area mosque was pipe-bombed. Though no one was hurt, and no suspects were ever identified, many thought that the timing was more than mere coincidence. In late November, the group renewed its call to oust Ahmed from the Commission, even going so far as to release a avideo purportedly proving his radical ties. The video itself did little more than show ACT! supporters bombarding Ahmed with accusations during an event at which he spoke in Clay County. (Florida Independent) ACT! for America leader Brigitte Gabriel claims an American Muslim "cannot be a loyal citizen" and that Islam is the "real enemy." She once told the Australian Jewish News: "Every practicing Muslim is a radical Muslim." She also claimed that "Islamo-fascism is a politically-correct word ... it's the vehicle for Islam ... Islam is the problem." (CAIR)
Senate Votes to Extend PATRIOT Act
Feb 16: The US Senate voted today to extend controversial counter-terrorism search and surveillance powers at the heart of the Patriot Act law adopted after the September 11, 2001 attacks. With the three provisions set to expire February 28, lawmakers approved legislation to extend them to May 27 by a 86-12 margin, one day after the House of Representatives passed an extension to December 8. The vote came amid a bitter battle over how long to extend the intrusive powers at the core of the signature legislative response to the terror strikes nearly 10 years ago, and with what safeguards. The provisions allow authorities to use roving wiretaps to track an individual on several telephones; track a non-US national suspected of being a "lone-wolf" terrorist not tied to an extremist group; and to seize personal or business records or "any tangible thing" seen as critical to an investigation. While the White House backs extending those powers through 2013, the law has drawn fire from an unusual coalition of liberal Democrats and Republicans tied to the archconservative "Tea Party" movement who say it goes too far. "I might not have the votes to stop this bill, but we should at least discuss this in public as adults. We should have the opportunity to explain why the Constitution is being violated," said Republican Senator Rand Paul. "We should talk about how we do not have to give up who we are in order to fight terrorism," he continued, echoing complaints from Democratic foes of the measure as well as the American Civil Liberties Union. (AFP)
ACLU, CAIR sue FBI for alleged surveillance of Muslims in Southern California
Feb 22: The American Civil Liberates Union of Southern California (ACLU-SC) and the Los Angeles office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIRE-LA) filed a federal class action lawsuit, against the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for alleged 14 months of illegal surveillance of Muslims in Southern California. The lawsuit says paid FBI informant Craig Monteilh infringed on the constitutional rights of several hundred Muslims several years ago when the FBI allegedly ordered him to engage “indiscriminate surveillance” of Muslims. The suit named the FBI and seven of its agents and supervisors, and sought class-action status, unspecified damages and a court order instructing the FBI to destroy or return the information Monteilh collected. Law enforcement officials have said Monteilh served as a paid FBI informant for a number of years until 2007, according to The Post. But they have said he was working on an existing probe and wasn’t ordered to spy on Muslims because of their religion. Filed on behalf of three Muslim plaintiffs, the 64-page document seeks class action status, unspecified damages and a court order instructing the FBI to destroy or return the information Monteilh collected. Monteilh, a Los Angeles native, has said he became an informant for a federal-state task force in 2003 and was later recruited by the FBI for counterterrorism cases. Agents, he said, provided his cover: Farouk al-Aziz, a French Syrian in search of his Islamic roots. His code name was "Oracle." Monteilh said he was instructed to infiltrate mosques throughout Orange County and two neighboring counties in Southern California but was told to focus on the Islamic Center of Irvine. (AMP Report)
Tennessee lawmakers try to make Islam illegal
Feb 26: In a replay of Islamophobist David Yerushalmi’s attempt to banishing Islam from the US by making "adherence to Islam" punishable by 20 years in prison, Tennessee State Senator Bill Ketron and Representative Judd Matheny (both Republicans) have introduced similar bills to make it illegal to follow Islamic moral code. Republican State Senator Bill Ketron argues that there are Muslim extremists who interpret Shariah (Islamic) law as a license to commit terrorist acts, that's why he has introduced a bill that would make it illegal to follow the moral code. The bill exempts any peaceful practice of Islam. But it also claims that any adherence to Shariah law – which includes religious practices like feet-washing and prayers – is treasonous. The bill also claimed that Muslims want to replace the U.S. constitution with Shariah Law. It would require the state attorney general to investigate Shariah-compliant groups. The Tennessee bill came at a time when a dozen other states are also considering anti-Shariah law bills. Most would ban courts from citing Shariah law. Oklahoma voters approved a referendum in November 2010 that banned Oklahoma courts from using Shariah law in their rulings. A federal judge blocked the Oklahoma law from being implemented, pending a federal lawsuit claiming the law is unconstitutional. Charles Haynes, a senior scholar with the First Amendment Center, said the law is based on a complete misunderstanding of Shariah law. He described it as a set of voluntary religious rules, similar to Catholic canon law or Jewish religious law. Jackson Sun, in an editorial also described the bill as nonsense. The paper said the thought of jailing people because of their religious beliefs is offensive. (AMP Report)
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