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Chronology of Islam in America (2011)
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
February 2012
Singling Out Islam: Newt Gingrich's Pandering Attacks
Feb 1: In the 1980s, the Ron Paul newsletters played on white anxiety about urban crime and racism toward blacks. It was awful. And apparently America didn't learn its lesson, for Gingrich 2012, like Cain 2012 before it, is playing on majority anxieties about terrorism and xenophobia toward Muslims. This is particularly dangerous in the civil-liberties climate produced by Bush and Obama, where American citizens can be deprived of their liberty and even their life without charges or due process, a protection that is especially valuable to feared minorities. [The Atlantic]
Review of all anti-Sharia efforts in state legislatures since 2010
Feb 1: 2012 marks the third year in a row to see major legislative efforts to ban state courts from using sharia or international law. A recap: 2010 saw three efforts make their way out of their respective legislatures. The Oklahoma constitutional amendment would never take force, having been struck down by a federal district court, a determination upheld by the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in January 2012. ...Despite having far more bills introduced in 2011 than in 2010, there was only one such piece of legislation enacted. 15 sharia/international law bans were carried over from the 2011 session. Combined with 18 newly introduced bills this puts the issue front and center for the 2012 sessions. Already there has been activity, with the Florida Senate Judiciary Committee giving its approval to a ban. [By Bill Raftery - Gavel to Gavel]
Philadelphia City Council resolution against anti-Sharia bill welcomed
Feb 1: The Philadelphia office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Philadelphia) and the Philadelphia Arab-American Community Development Corporation (PAACDC) today welcomed the introduction of Philadelphia City Council Resolution 120031, which urges the Pennsylvania General Assembly to reject House Bill 2029. Currently in the PA House Judiciary Committee, the resolution is expected to pass unanimously tomorrow during the Philadelphia City Council session. Last month, CAIR-Philadelphia and local interfaith leaders held a news conference expressing opposition to House Bill 2029, which would ban courts from considering any "foreign legal code or system" that doesn't grant the same basic rights as the federal and state constitutions. Since then, people of all faiths and various organizations have condemned the bill as unnecessary fear mongering. Jewish groups have expressed concern regarding the bill's impact on halakha, or Jewish religious law. The legislative intent of HB 2029 is evidenced by a memo from its sponsor, Rep. Rosemarie Swanger (R - Lebanon), who has asserted that the bill is designed to protect against the "infiltration" of foreign law into the American legal system, "especially Shariah law," the practices and beliefs that comprise Islam, "which is inherently hostile to our constitutional liberties." The legislation is part of anti-Sharia hysteria sweeping the nation in which Sharia, the religion of Islam, and by extension all Muslim citizens are depicted as threats to the constitution.
The language from the city council resolution affirms that the "City of Philadelphia welcomes all religious beliefs, traditions and heritages, and has full confidence in the U.S. Constitution and the laws of the state of Pennsylvania and does not entertain any concern that any foreign or religious law offers a threat to the law of the land." The memorandum specifies CAIR-Philadelphia's constitutional concerns with House Bill 2029 and provides a brief history of the anti-Sharia movement that inspired the bill. It notes that every court that has considered the constitutionality of such legislation has ruled in favor of CAIR against the proposed legislation. The language for House Bill 2029 was drafted by anti-Islam activist David Yerushalmi. Yerushalmi is head of the anti-Islam hate group Society of Americans for National Existence (SANE), which on its now password-protected website offered a policy proposal that would make "adherence to Islam" punishable by 20 years in prison, called for the immediate deportation of all non-citizen Muslims and urged Congress to declare war on the "Muslim Nation," which SANE defined as "all Muslims." [CAIR]
Hearings urged on NYPD targeting of Shia mosques
Feb 2: Arab and Muslim communities today expressed outrage about a leaked 2006 New York Police Department document - titled "US-Iran Conflict: The Threat to New York City" - which called for widespread profiling and surveillance of entire Shia and Iranian communities. The Associated Press reported today that the document offers a rare glimpse into the thinking of NYPD intelligence officers and how, when looking for potential threats, they focused their spying efforts on mosques and Muslims. Police analysts listed a dozen mosques from central Connecticut to the Philadelphia suburbs, the paper said adding: None has been linked to terrorism, either in the document or publicly by federal agencies. The 10-page document, addressed to Commissioner Ray Kelly, explicitly called for the routine monitoring of Shia and Iranian centers of community gathering and worship, inside and outside New York City, in order to monitor potential threats in the event of a U.S. war with Iran. The report mostly quotes publicly available sources, including the neo-conservative newspaper the New York Sun, of investigations or incidents involving specific people in order to justify “Expand[ing] and focus[ing] intelligence collections at Shi’a mosques.”
The Associated Press has reported for months that the NYPD infiltrated mosques, eavesdropped in cafes and monitored Muslim neighborhoods with plainclothes officers. Its spying operations were begun after the 2001 terror attacks with help from the CIA in a highly unusual partnership. The May 2006 NYPD intelligence report, entitled "US-Iran Conflict: The Threat to New York City," made a series of recommendations, including: "Expand and focus intelligence collections at Shi'a mosques." The report, drawn largely from information available in newspapers or sites like Wikipedia, was prepared for Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. It was written at a time of great tension between the U.S. and Iran. That tension over Iran's nuclear ambition has increased again recently. Police estimated the New York area Shiite population to be about 35,000, with Iranians making up about 8,500. The document also calls for canvassing the Palestinian community because there might be terrorists there.
In a joint statement more than 40 Arab and Muslim organizations and their coalition partners said the activities of the NYPD have raised grave concerns within the broader Arab American and American Muslim communities and, in this particular instance, among Shi’a Muslims. The joint statement said: “Through excessive stop and frisk practices, overzealous surveillance measures, and a complete lack of transparency, the NYPD has blatantly violated civil rights and destroyed the trust necessary for effective policing. Such acts of surveillance undermine trust between the Muslim community and the NYPD. These measures are merely the latest in the well-documented history of NYPD’s targeting of communities of color through discriminatory policing practices. The NYPD’s use of widespread ethnic, racial, and religious profiling is a threat to all Americans’ constitutional rights and freedoms. This behavior creates distrust and suspicion among all vulnerable communities and sends the message that law enforcement is not accountable for upholding the right of all Americans to be free from unwarranted police scrutiny. The NYPD should be focused on tracking down actual threats, not targeting innocent Americans for invasive investigations and surveillance.”
In a separate statement the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-NY) called for hearings in that state's legislature to investigate new revelations that the New York City Police Department (NYPD) initiated a program of spying on Shia mosques without warrants and without any evidence of wrongdoing by worshipers. "We are beginning to wonder whether NYPD officials believe American Muslims have any constitutional rights that need be respected," said CAIR-NY Civil Rights Manager Cyrus McGoldrick. "Each new revelation of NYPD targeting of the Muslim community without evidence of wrongdoing paints a picture of a department that has little regard for legal prohibitions on ethnic and religious profiling." “By continually violating the trust of the Muslim community, the NYPD has undermined our shared goal of combating violent extremism,” said Dalia Mahmoud, chair of Muslim Public Affairs Council-NYC. “The NYPD and Mayor Bloomberg have continually refused to engage in a meaningful dialogue with community leaders regarding issues of surveillance and profiling. This has prevented the formation of meaningful community partnerships. Such partnerships are the most effective method for achieving our shared safety and security goals.” ”By racially and religiously profiling, the NYPD’s continue abuse of power and trust is undermining the work of this country to build a safer and more peaceful society. Many reports and studies have proven that profiling does not help thwart and stop crimes, smart law enforcement based on accurate information does,” Mahmoud said.
Writing in the New York Magazine Joe Coscarelli said: “Details of the NYPD's widespread surveillance of local Muslim communities after 9/11 are now widely known thanks to an ongoing Associated Press investigation of the secretive programs, and the material just keeps mounting. The latest info comes from a confidential NYPD intelligence report entitled, "US-Iran Conflict: The Threat to New York City." Recommendations include, "Expand and focus intelligence collections at Shi'a mosques," but as noted by NBC New York, none of the dozen mosques listed in New York and nearby states "has been linked to terrorism, either in the document or publicly by federal agencies." “The document's release comes at a time when the NYPD's view of Muslims is already under a microscope, fueled by both the AP's journalism and the reports about a film shown during department training built around the idea that Muslims hope to "infiltrate and dominate" the U.S.,” Coscarelli added. [AMP Report]
Muslim Advocates files complaint demanding NY Attorney General investigate NYPD
Feb 3: Muslim Advocates, along with 32 faith-based and civic organizations, submitted a letter of complaint to New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman demanding an immediate investigation into the New York Police Department's (NYPD) continuous and systemic targeting of American Muslims based on their race, ethnicity, and religion. Yesterday, the Associated Press (AP) exposed the NYPD's wholesale surveillance of New York’s Shi’a community based on nothing more than its religious beliefs. These revelations are only the latest in a series of reports about how the NYPD has mapped out and spied on New York’s Muslim communities at mosques, schools, restaurants, and cafes. A report last month revealed that an inflammatory and bigoted “training” video on American Muslims, “The Third Jihad,” was viewed by almost 1,500 officers, despite NYPD claims that the video had been screened for a select few. Later it was revealed that Police Commissioner Ray Kelly participated in the production of the video. As the largest police department in the United States, the NYPD sets an example for other law enforcement agencies across the nation, and these discriminatory policing practices have serious consequences far beyond the New York tri-state area. The Mayor and other New York City officials have demonstrated that they are unwilling to hold the NYPD accountable for violating the rights of both the citizens of New York and surrounding states. New York state officials must now step in. Among the signatories to the letter are: American Coalition For Good Government; Arab American Association of New York; Desis Rising Up & Moving (DRUM); Emerge USA; Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA); Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA); Muslim Bar Association of New York; Shia Association of North America (SANA); and Universal Muslim Association of America (UMAA). [Muslim Advocates]
Islamophobic filmmakers promote comment seeking to legitimate Norway terrorist’s views
Feb 7: The Clarion Fund, an organization which produces Islamophobic documentaries, came under renewed scrutiny last month when news broke that their film “The Third Jihad” was screened at an NYPD conference. Facing calls for his resignation, NYPD commissioner Raymond Kelly, after some dissembling, admitted he was interviewed for the project and apologized for his role, calling the film “inflammatory.” Clarion, however, bragged about the attention. Now, Clarion appears to be throwing caution to the wind — along with any plausible defense that the group is not Islamophobic — by promoting a comment from a reader seeking to redeem the views of the anti-Muslim right-wing extremist who terrorized Norway this summer, killing 77, including 69 people at a youth camp. In an e-mail newsletter to supporters, Clarion Fund quoted the reader suggesting that a recent report that militant Islamic extremism posed the top threat to Norway redeemed the unheralded warnings of Anders Breivik, the anti-Muslim killer. The newsletter, published by the organization’s radicalislam.org website, promoted the comment from a “reader in Norway.” It read: “What a hot current topic this is! Just today the news came out in Norway, “officially” and in spite of all the PC-ness of this government, that according to the national security forces, the threat of Islamist terrorism is the foremost threat against Norway. You probably remember the July 22 shootings. One of Breivik’s arguments was that the authorities were not taking this threat seriously because you musn’t offend a Muslim. Interesting development.”
Clarion’s willingness to promote and publish an e-mail sympathetic to Breivik seems a bizarre move for an organization under fire for Islamophobia, especially when the comment obfuscates the bigoted point Breivik was making about Islam at-large — the very same conflation between extremism and the whole faith the Clarion Fund has repeatedly been accused of making. Breivik’s warnings did not focus on Muslim extremism, but rather on Islam at-large. Breivik’s 1,500-page manifesto is littered with comments about Islam in general, for instance arguing that the Muslim veil “should more properly be viewed as the uniform of a Totalitarian movement, and a signal to attack those outside the movement.” He called Islam a “totalitarian, racist and violent political ideology,” and said its holy book, the Koran, should be banned. Breivik’s warning was not about, as the reader wrote, “Islamist terrorism,” but about Islam:
What is likely to happen to the West, if it continues to follow its present policy of ‘political correctness’ and apathy towards the hostile teachings of Islam, [will be like] “the Islamic conquest of India…” - - “In order to wake up the masses,” the soon-to-be killer wrote before attacking government offices and a political youth camp, “the only rational approach will be to make sure the current system implodes.” - Breivik went on in his manifesto to cite the writings of numerous American right-wing Islamophobes and recommended the Clarion Fund’s film “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West” for “further studies.” He even included a link to it. Despite the citations, Clarion is not, of course, responsible for Breivik’s attack. But by singling out and publishing a reader comment that whitewashed and sought to exonerate Breivik’s murderous ideology, the Clarion Fund may be tipping their hand as to how closely their views dovetail with his. [Think Progress]
Civil advocacy groups express concern to the FBI Director over inflammatory training material
Feb 8: In a continuing effort to address concerns related to inflammatory training material, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Robert Mueller met today with community and interfaith organizations to provide an update on steps taken by the agency to rectify the matter. The meeting was attended by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), the Arab American Institute (AAI), Interfaith Alliance, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), Muflehun, the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF). The use of the material was first uncovered by Wired Magazine in an article published on September 14, 2011. Director Mueller informed the participants that the FBI took the review of the training material very seriously, and he pursued the matter with urgency to ensure that this does not occur again in the future. The Director also informed participants that to date, nearly all related FBI training materials, including more than 160,000 pages of documents, were reviewed by subject matter experts multiple times. Consequently, more than 700 documents and 300 presentations of material have been deemed unusable by the Bureau and pulled from the training curriculum. (ADC)
Tennessee police training seminar taught by notorious anti-Muslim activist
Feb 16: A number of police officers in Tennessee attended a training seminar in Murfreesboro this week that was taught by a known Islamophobe who claims that Muslims should not get First Amendment rights. In a free training session, John Guandolo, a former FBI agent and the vice president of the Virginia-based Strategic Engagement Group (SEG), spoke to law enforcement officers in Rutherford County, Tennessee, at the World Outreach Church. The seminar was part of a three-day training course about Islam and the threat of terrorism, and was attended by roughly 100 law enforcement officers in the area, according to Middle Tennessee Public Radio. The Sheriff's Department in Rutherford County confirmed that 25 of its officers had attended the training course. WSMV-TV attempted to film the event, and their camera was pushed away by Guandolo. But, according to reporter Nancy Amons, "Guandolo talked about Hamas and its plan to destroy Western civilization from within, and spoke of Islamic centers as potential military compounds." .
The list of the rest of the players connected to the Tennessee seminar reads like a who's-who of anti-Muslim activists. Allen Jackson, the pastor of World Outreach Church, where the training session was held, has previously said that "we have a duty to investigate anyone under the banner of Islam." According to WSMV-TV, the SEG was hired for the seminar by the Tennessee Freedom Coalition, itself a reliable hotbed of Islamophobia. Lou Ann Zelenik, the Executive Director of the TFC, made an unsuccessful bid for Congress in 2010, and used her opposition to the controversial plans to build a mosque in Murfreesboro as a central tenet of her campaign.The TFC also played host to anti-Islam Dutch Parliamentarian Geert Wilders, who spoke at a free barbecue lunch. "I compare Islam not with Christianity and Judaism. I compare Islam with fascism and communism," Wilders said at the time. [Talking Points Memo]
Probe urged into widespread spying against Muslim students across Northeast
Feb 19: The New York Police Department monitored Muslim college students far more broadly than previously known, at schools far beyond the city limits, including the Ivy League colleges of Yale and the University of Pennsylvania, The Associated Press reported today. "Police talked with local authorities about professors 300 miles away in Buffalo and even sent an undercover agent on a whitewater rafting trip, where he recorded students' names and noted in police intelligence files how many times they prayed. Detectives trawled Muslim student websites every day and, although professors and students had not been accused of any wrongdoing, their names were recorded in reports prepared for Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly." The AP report goes on to say that the universities included Yale, Columbia, the University of Pennsylvania, Syracuse, New York University, Clarkson University, the Newark and New Brunswick campuses of Rutgers, the State University of New York campuses in Buffalo, Albany, Stony Brook and Potsdam, Queens College, Baruch College, Brooklyn College and La Guardia Community College.
The AP report pointed out that though the NYPD says it follows the same rules as the FBI, some of the NYPD's activities go beyond what the FBI is allowed to do. Kelly and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg repeatedly have said that the police only follow legitimate leads about suspected criminal activity. But the latest documents mention no wrongdoing by any students. In one report, an undercover officer describes accompanying 18 Muslim students from the City College of New York on a whitewater rafting trip in upstate New York on April 21, 2008. The officer noted the names of attendees who were officers of the Muslim Student Association. "In addition to the regularly scheduled events (Rafting), the group prayed at least four times a day, and much of the conversation was spent discussing Islam and was religious in nature," the report says.
The AP first reported in October that the NYPD had placed informants or undercover officers in the Muslim Student Associations at City College, Brooklyn College, Baruch College, Hunter College, City College of New York, Queens College, La Guardia Community College and St. John's University. All of those colleges are within the New York City limits. In recent months, the AP has revealed secret programs the NYPD, built with help from the CIA, to monitor Muslims at the places where they eat, shop and worship. The AP also published details about how police placed undercover officers at Muslim student associations in colleges within the city limits; this revelation has outraged faculty and student groups.
American Muslim groups alarmed
American Muslim civil advocacy groups have expressed concern over the spying of Muslim college students at more than a dozen colleges and universities across the northeast and called upon the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the New York City Police Department.
Officials with the New Jersey and Connecticut chapters of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said today they will request that Yale and Rutgers take concrete steps to protect the constitutional rights of Muslims students following revelations that the New York City Police Department (NYPD) spied on them without warrants, legal jurisdiction or probable cause. "University officials may be the last line of defense for Muslim students whose rights were apparently violated by the clearly unconstitutional –- and possibly illegal -- tactics used by the NYPD," said CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper. "The NYPD continues to act as if it is somehow above the law that governs all other individuals and institutions."
“University organizations are supposed to be safe spaces for students of all backgrounds and faiths to Constitutionally express their thoughts and practice their faith,” said Alejandro J. Beutel, Muslim Public Affairs Council Government and Policy Analyst and former MSA President at Seton Hall University in South Orange, NJ. “Without providing a shred of evidence indicating any activity posing a threat to public safety, the NYPD has grossly criminalized a community of youth seeking to explore their identities and pursue a better future for themselves.” (AMP Report)
Informants integral in FBI's war on terror
Feb 20:His name was Hussien. To Amine El Khalifi, the Virginia man was his alleged connection to al-Qaeda-style sympathizers in the USA. The two shared a belief, according to federal court records, that the war on terrorism was actually a "war on Muslims." El Khalifi wanted to be "ready for war," so he accompanied Hussien last December on a short trip from Alexandria, Va., to Baltimore to meet a man who could help. The man, known as "Yusuf," was actually an undercover FBI agent, one of two key players in an elaborate sting operation that would result in El Khalifi's arrest last Friday on charges that he plotted to detonate a suicide bomb inside the U.S. Capitol. The operative who delivered El Khalifi to federal investigators, Hussien, represents part of an increasingly active informant pool that's helping the FBI identify suspects involved in alleged plots against the USA from within.
Since the 9/11 attacks, when virtually no anti-terror intelligence network existed, federal authorities have tapped into a vast network of informants — many of them in the U.S. Muslim community — who have assisted in the arrests of suspects from D.C. to Portland, Ore. Civil rights advocates and some defense lawyers have complained that the tactics smack of a disproportionate focus on Muslims. "We are getting regular calls from people across the country who are being approached by the (federal government) to act as informants," said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American Islamic Relations, which advocates for Muslim civil liberties in the USA. "And we are concerned about what kind of pressure is being used to get that cooperation." Court documents highlight major roles informants play in helping to identify what the government contends are potentially fatal plots. [USA TODAY]
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