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Chronology of Islam in America (2007)
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
January 2007 Page II
Man wins suit in airline race-profiling case
Jan. 16: A Florida man removed from an American Airlines flight because he was considered a security threat has won a $400,000 jury award in a case that accused the airline of racial profiling. John Cerqueira, a U.S. citizen of Portuguese descent, charged that he was removed from a 2003 flight at Boston's Logan International Airport because he appeared Middle Eastern, and was denied service even after police determined he did not pose a threat. Cerqueira's attorneys said that the suit, which accused the airline of violating his civil rights, was the first of its kind to go to trial. The federal jury in Massachusetts made its decision on Jan. 12. Civil-liberties groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union say racial profiling, or ethnic-based targeting, against Middle Easterners has risen in the United States since the September 11 attacks. (Reuters)
Pakistani family intimidated:
Community Outraged at $35,000 bond set by immigration judge or mother & daughter
Jan 16: Muslim community was outraged at the $35,000 bond set by a Immigration Judge in New Jersey for mother and sister of Matin Siraj, a 24-year-old Pakistani immigrant, who was sentenced on January 7, 2007 to 30 years in prison for terrorism charges based on a paid informer of the New York Police Department. Less than twelve hours after sentencing, the Siraj family's Queens home was raided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials at dawn and father, mother and daughter were arrested and jailed in New Jersey. After today’s hearing, the family's immigration lawyer, Mona Shah, said that the bond amount was peculiarly high for a routine immigration matter. Desis Rising Up & Moving (DRUM) a civil rights group held a demonstration in support of the Pakistani family. A press release of DRUM said that given the high-profile media attention on their son's case, in which there were many underhanded legal irregularities and rights violations, these arrests and the unreachable bond are being seen by the community as an attempt to silence and make an example of the family through harassment. (AMP Report)
Northwest apologizes to Muslims barred from flight
Jan. 17: Reacting swiftly to allegations of discrimination, Northwest Airlines apologized to a group of 40 Muslims today for barring them from a plane in Germany on their return trip from the Hajj. The airline said it will reimburse the pilgrims for the other flights they were forced to take on their return from the Hajj, the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The Northwest Airlines apology came one day after the group of 40 Muslims held a press conference at a mosque in Dearborn to relate their plights. The group said that they were not allowed to board a flight from Frankfurt to Detroit because of their religion and background. On Jan. 7, the group of American Muslims who were largely Lebanese-American Shias had landed in Germany and were going to take a connecting flight to Detroit. Northwest allowed some of them on the flight, but barred about 40 of them, the pilgrims said. They said that Northwest discriminated against the Muslims and left them on their own to find accommodations while trying to book other flights. (AMP Report)
Bush won't reauthorize eavesdropping
Jan. 17: President Bush has decided not to renew a program of domestic spying on terrorism suspects, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said today, ending an law-enforcement tactic criticized for infringing on civil liberties. "The president has determined not to reauthorize the Terrorist Surveillance Program when the current authorization expires," Gonzales wrote in a letter to congressional leaders. Bush has reauthorized the program every 45 days, and the current authorization is mid-cycle, a senior Justice Department official said. Gonzales said a recent secret-court approval allowed the government to act effectively without the program. (Reuters)
Resolution affirming rights of Utah Muslims introduced
Jan. 17: State Senator Peter Knudson is asking the state Senate to send a message of support to Utah's Muslim community. That's why he's sponsoring SR2, a "Resolution Affirming Fundamental Rights of the Muslim Community of Utah," to recognize the rights of Muslims to freely practice their religion and to enjoy the same freedoms as other ethnic and religious groups. The resolution references "confusion and in many cases unfounded fear" of Islam. "People may look at people of the Muslim faith and categorize them in the same pot," Knudson said. "We have a lot of people of the Muslim religion in our state. To the best of my knowledge they are wonderful citizens." (Deseret Morning News)
IBM worker says he was fired for being a Muslim
Jan. 18: A Muslim electronics engineer who developed five patents for IBM claims the computer maker fired him because of his religion and that managers at the company mocked him for refusing to eat during the Ramadan fast and once told him to ignore Islamic law and clean a knife that had been used to cut pork. Mahmoud Mousa, who calls himself a "Jordanian Muslim American," was employed at IBM's microelectronics plant in Burlington, Vt., from June 2003 to December 2005, when he was fired because of his religious beliefs, according to a lawsuit Mousa filed last month in U.S. District Court in New York. Mousa claims that he was subject to discrimination and anti-Islamic comments and behavior from two different managers while working at IBM's Burlington operations. On one occasion, a manager of non-Muslim, Indian origin criticized Mousa for taking time out for Friday prayers, asking him "Why are you doing this?", according to court records. (Information Week)
Muslims fear '24' nuke-plot fallout
Jan. 19: Muslim groups are concerned the fictional dark hero of Fox television's "24" will jeopardize their civil liberties by branding them as sleeper-cell agents waiting for orders to strike. The pulse-pounding drama starring Kiefer Sutherland as counterterrorism agent Jack Bauer featured a group of Muslim terrorists this week successfully detonating the first of five nuclear suitcase bombs near Los Angeles. "When people don't have access at work or have neighbors who are Muslim, they rely on the images they see on television to shape their perceptions," said Rabiah Ahmed, a spokeswoman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "The worst outcome would be that they would act on their fears. They won't be able to distinguish peaceful, law-abiding American Muslims and the minority who act against our faith and commit acts of terror." Muslims fear the show will foster hate against them and foster a climate of Islamophobia in the country. Just yesterday, the American-Islamic council said, cops in Michigan arrested a white man in Warren County for threatening an imam and attempting to vandalize a mosque. (NY Daily News)
Arar affair a 'black mark' on America, senator says
Jan. 19: U.S. Senate Democrats threatened congressional hearings into the Maher Arar affair, calling the deportation of the Canadian engineer to Syria a "black mark" on America. Senator Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, demanded the Bush administration provide intelligence information to back its claim Arar was ever a security threat to Americans. The Vermont Democrat also asked for a detailed explanation about why Arar still remains on a U.S. terror watch list despite being cleared last year by a Canadian inquiry. During a heated exchange at the committee with U.S. Attorney-General Alberto Gonzales, Leahy said he was perplexed "this country has not said anything at all that we made a mistake or had any apology" to Arar. "The Canadian government has apologized for its part in this debacle," Leahy said. "Why is he on a [U.S.] government watch list if he's been found completely innocent by this Canadian commission?" Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian, was detained by U.S. authorities at New York's JFK airport in 2002 and deported to Syria, where he was imprisoned and tortured for nearly a year. (Vancouver Sun)
ABC hires noted Islamophobe as commentator on “Good Morning America”
Jan. 20: In a move sure to win the coveted "xenophobe demographic," ABC News has hired CNN's noted Islamophobe Glenn Beck as a regular commentator on "Good Morning America." According to the media reports, "Beck will make specials for CNN in 2007 on people who believe in the apocalypse, Islam in America and the 'myths of global warming.” Calling his CNN Headline News show the "Fusion of Entertainment and Enlightenment," Beck has distinguished himself, not for cutting edge or insightful news, but by his almost obsessive hateful rhetoric attacking and vilifying the Arab and Muslim communities in the US. Beck has suggested that Arab and Muslim Americans are apathetic to terrorism and that if they do not take action they will be “looking through a razor wire fence at the West.” You can read just a few of the blatantly prejudice statements he’s made on the show at the bottom of this alert. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), the Arab American Institute (AAI), and the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) sent a letter to ABC News and Good Morning America requesting that they reconsider Beck’s hiring. (AMP Report)
New Jersey Muslims seek equality in school holidays
Jan. 21: Kulsum Soonasra is one of perhaps 50 Muslims at Parkland High School but 1.5 billion in the world. And, while her argument for public school recognition of Islam's holiest day isn't a statistical one, those numbers mean something. ''We're a huge religion,'' the 17-year-old junior from Upper Macungie said, offering an earnest distillation of her message: that Eid al-Fitr, the prayerful family celebration that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, is as important to Muslims as Christmas is to Christians. And if schools are closed for Christmas, they ought to be closed for Eid. It's an argument being posed around the country as the Muslim population grows, and it's become a challenge to school districts as they try to balance cherished principles of inclusiveness and diversity against the strict demands of the school calendar. The law requires a fixed number of class days a year, so any time off must made up somewhere along the line. (The Morning Call)
Critics interrupt speaker's talk on Islam
Jan. 21: A talk on the basic tenets of Islam was repeatedly interrupted by a few anti-Muslim members of a crowd at the Cesar Chavez Central Library in Stockton, CA. One woman was forced to leave early in the two-hour program after she accused guest speaker Tarek Mourad of lying, yelling that Islam's holy book teaches Muslims to kill Jews and Christians and that Muslims are trying to take over the Western world. Mourad, an engineer from Santa Clara, was invited to the Chavez Library after making a similar presentation in Tracy. (Stockton Record)
Muslims see no conflict between Islamic law and democracy: poll
Jan. 23: Muslims worldwide believe Islamic law is compatible with democracy and most admire values championed by the US but doubt Washington is serious about implementing them overseas, according to a poll. The Gallup poll, conducted in the Palestinian territories as well as nine predominantly Muslim countries representing more than 80 percent of the global Muslim population, showed that majorities believe Sharia law and democracy can co-exist in a government and that Islamic law should be at least a source of legislation. In Egypt, for example, 66 percent of those polled said Sharia must be the only source of legislation while in Pakistan 60 percent felt that way, in Iran 17 percent and in Turkey nine percent. Interestingly, Gallup posed the same question to Americans, 55 percent of whom felt that the Bible must play a role in legislation. Dalia Mogahed, a senior analyst at Gallup and executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, said she was surprised at the findings which send a message to the US administration that it should rethink its policies when dealing with the Muslim world. (Agence France Press)
”Human Services Department and a local church are conspiring
to prohibit his daughter from practicing Islam”
Jan. 24: A Muslim man says the state Department of Human Services and a local church are conspiring as part of a custody battle to prohibit his daughter from practicing Islam and visiting him. Abraham Ben-Abbad, 38, of Dearborn alleges in a suit filed Monday in U.S. District Court that the Department of Human Services and a caseworker, William McDonald, advised Ben-Abbad's former wife that she need not allow their daughter, Hend Almanasir, 13, to visit her father, including during Ramadan and on other religious holidays, despite court orders mandating the visitation. McDonald and the state also allowed a local church, the Dearborn Assembly of God, on Tireman, to participate in meetings to plan his daughter's future, according to Ben-Abbad, his lawyer, Shereef Akeel of Birmingham, the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and the Council on American-Islamic Relations.The purpose of involving the church in planning for his daughter's future is to steer her away from Islam, the faith in which she was raised, Ben-Abbad said and the suit alleges. (The Detroit News)
Religious leaders condemn divisive politics in presidential campaign
Jan. 25: Prominent religious leaders in expressing outrage at recent political smear tactics in the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign. Recent emails, blogs and one cable news program about Senator Barack Obama's (D-IL) religious upbringing prompted several religious leaders to speak out against such divisive politics. The stories suggested Obama had attended a "radical Muslim madrasa" as a child. Signed by ten national religious leaders, the open letter to the religious community states: “Many of you have seen hateful emails, blog postings and reports circulating on the Internet and in the media about Senator Barack Obama and his religious upbringing…. Senator Obama never attended a radical Madrassa nor was he ever educated in a wahabi school. In the years he lived in Indonesia as a child, from ages 6 to 10, he attended a neighboring Catholic school for two years and then a public school. Senator Obama was not raised in a religious household. Senator Obama became a Christian long before he entered politics.”According to a CNN report from Jakarta, allegations that Sen. Barack Obama was educated in a radical Muslim school known as a "madrassa" are not accurate. Insight Magazine, which is owned by the same company as The Washington Times, reported on its Web site last week that associates of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-New York, had unearthed information the Illinois Democrat and likely presidential candidate attended a Muslim religious school known for teaching the most fundamentalist form of Islam. (AMP Report)
CAIR-CAN applauds government settlement with Maher Arar
January 26: The Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN) applauds the settlement reached today with Maher Arar over his illegal detention and torture in Syria after the RCMP wrongly labeled him an Islamic extremist. The settlement comes after two reports were handed down by Justice Dennis O'Connor. The first detailed how the RCMP passed false information to American officials; the second outlined the urgent need for an RCMP review body.
"The government must fulfill its promise and continue to pursue all diplomatic efforts to have Maher Arar's name removed from American security lists. In addition, all Canadian officials involved in Mr. Arar's deportation and torture must be held accountable," said CAIR-CAN Executive Director Karl Nickner. Since Justice O'Connor's second report, an inquiry has been struck into the overseas detention and torture of three men: Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad Abou-Elmaati and Muayyed Nureddin. All claim to have gone through circumstances similar to that of Mr. Arar's. (CAIR Bulletin)
CA: Islamic Center attacks take more violent turn
Jan. 28: Repeated vandalism at the Islamic Center of the East Bay (CA) over the past two years has some local Muslims concerned. The most recent and violent came last week, when clergy workers arrived at the Antioch center Monday morning to discover that someone had shot up the center on West 18th Street. Investigators counted seven bullets that had pierced the windows and walls of the mosque. This was the fifth such malicious incident directed at the center in the past two years. A year ago, someone hurled a brick through the same front window. In September, derogatory voice messages were left on the center's answering machine. (Mercury News)
Preliminary State Department report finds Israeli weapons violations when it dropped cluster bombs on civilians in Lebanon
Jan. 29: The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) has welcomed the congress statements concerning the possible Israeli violations of bilateral weapons treaties with the United States. The possible violations were included in a preliminary report delivered to Congress today by the US Department of State. The report indicates that the Department of State may have found evidence that Israel violated bilateral weapons agreements when it dropped US-made cluster bombs on civilian populations in Lebanon last summer. During its conflict with Hezbollah last summer, Israel dropped the majority of unexploded ordinances during the last 72 hours of the conflict before an impending cease fire deadline. Reports from international human rights groups have determined that Israeli Forces dropped more than 130,000 cluster bombs containing 1.2 million cluster bomblets in 498 locations in villages throughout southern Lebanon. These cluster bombs added to those already in southern Lebanon from previous Israeli operations. Long after hostilities have ended, the Lebanese civilian population continues to be killed and maimed by these American-made weapons. (ADC Press Release)
Stereotypes resented: Critics say all Islamic characters are painted as terrorists
January 29: For several years television shied away from story lines connected to Sept. 11, 2001. Now, five years later, things have changed. Scripted television programs no longer avoid terrorism-related story lines. Muslim characters are increasingly commonplace, mostly in a negative way. From episodes of "The Unit" and "Without a Trace" to the upcoming BBC America miniseries "The State Within," it appears any Muslim who isn't a terrorist is suspected of being one. Or a sympathizer. "There really are no other images of Muslims in the media now," says Rabiah Ahmed, spokeswoman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which worked with Fox two years ago on a public service announcement that aired during "24." But Ahmed says her group was somewhat surprised by the intensity of this story line, featuring a string of attacks on U.S. cities by Islamic militants. "People frame it as a freedom of speech issue, and we support that. But these portrayals have real consequences on how people view Muslims." (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
AMT seeks end to 'harassment' of Dr. Al Arian
Jan. 30: The American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections (AMT), a national coalition of major American Muslim organizations, says that the new prison sentence given to former Florida Professor Dr. Sami Al-Arian amounted to unconstitutional "double jeopardy." Al-Arian on Jan. 22 began a hunger strike after being given a sentence of up to 18 months for refusing to testify before a grand jury in Virginia. He and his attorney say an early plea agreement freed him from further cooperation with the government. In 2005, a Florida jury rejected federal charges that Al-Arian operated a cell for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Al-Arian later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and was scheduled for release and deportation in April. In a statement, the AMT said: "It is becoming increasingly clear that the government is seeking to impose legal and physical penalties on Dr. Al-Arian that it could not obtain through the judicial process. The government's actions amount to an unconstitutional 'double jeopardy' situation in which a person who was cleared of all charges by a jury of his peers is nonetheless being imprisoned in harsh conditions through administrative means.” (AMP Report)
Self-proclaimed ex-terrorists address University of Michigan students
January 31: Amid hecklers, an apparent death threat and a staged walkout, a panel discussion by three self proclaimed "ex-terrorists" managed to carry on at University of Michigan's Rackham Auditorium. "Yes, we confess we were terrorists, but by confession we can begin to heal," said Walid Shoebat. The men, who say they committed acts of terror against Jews, were invited to speak by the conservative student group Young Americans for Freedom. However, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and at least one expert on jihad have called the men fakes.
Young Americans for Freedom sparked controversy in October when it sponsored "Catch an Illegal Immigrant." "Without doubt, the threat from political extremism is serious, and the threat of homegrown jihadism is growing, but this type of extremist language is as much a threat to stability as a bomb attack itself," said Tom Quiggin, an expert on global jihadism who has researched one of the ex-terrorist's stories. Shoebat, who is American, was joined by Kamal Saleem, another U.S. citizen, and Zachariah Anani, a Windsor resident. (Detroit News)
U.S. loses 20-year attempt to deport 2 Palestinian immigrants
January 31: A federal immigration judge has dismissed the government's attempt to deport two men who were arrested along with six other U.S. residents because of their alleged ties to Palestinian terrorists and who fought relentless efforts to force them to leave the country for 20 years. Judge Bruce E. Einhorn of Los Angeles said the government had violated the constitutional rights of Khader M. Hamide and Michel I. Shehadeh by its "gross failure" to comply with his instructions to produce "potentially exculpatory and other relevant information." In a scathing decision, Einhorn said the government's conduct in the case was "an embarrassment to the rule of law" that left "a festering wound on" Hamide and Shehadeh, who have been in legal and personal limbo for two decades. The two men, both longtime legal residents of the United States, are part of a group that was dubbed "the L.A. 8" after the government launched attempts to deport them in January 1987. All eight denied that they were members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, or PFLP, a radical offshoot of the Palestine Liberation Organization that has taken credit for airline hijackings and car bombings in the Middle East. Hamide and Shehadeh, as well as the others, steadfastly maintained that they were being persecuted even though their political activities - distributing newspapers, participating in demonstrations, assisting Palestinians with human rights and medical needs, raising money for hospitals, youth clubs and day-care centers - were lawful. (Los Angeles Times)
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