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Chronology of Islam in America (2006)
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
July 2006
U.S. rules force Western Union to block money transfers by Muslims
July 2: Money transfer agencies like Western Union have delayed or blocked thousands of cash deliveries on suspicion of terrorist connections simply because senders or recipients have names like Mohammed or Ahmed, company officials said in Dubai, UAE. In one example, an Indian driver said Western Union prevented him from sending US$120 (euro96) to a friend at home this month because the recipient's name was Mohammed. "Western Union told me that if I send money to Sahir Mohammed, the money will be blocked because of his name," said 36-year-old Abdul Rahman Maruthayil, who later sent the money through UAE Exchange, a Dubai-based money transfer service. In a similar case, Pakistani Qadir Khan said Western Union blocked his attempt this month to wire money to his brother, Mohammed, for a cataract operation. "Every Mohammed is a terrorist now?" Khan asked. Western Union Financial Services, Inc., an American company based in Colorado, said its clerks simply are following U.S. Treasury Department guidelines that aim to scrutinize cash flows for terrorist links. Most of the flagged transactions are delayed a few hours. Some are blocked entirely. (Fox News)
Pig's head thrown into Maine mosque during prayers
July 4: The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today called for stepped up outreach efforts by the Muslim community in Maine after a severed pig's head was thrown into one of that state's mosques during prayers. CAIR said the frozen pig's head was rolled into the Lewiston Auburn Islamic Center last night as worshipers bowed in prayer. It said the use of pigs or pork products is a favorite theme of Islamophobic bigots who wish to attack or insult Muslims. Muslims are prohibited from eating pork. A 33-year-old Lewiston man told police today that he had thrown the head into the mosque. He was charged with desecration of a church, a misdemeanor, and is out on bail. (CAIR Bulletin)
Mediating the mosque dispute in Boston
July 4: A group of prominent Christian and Jewish leaders has begun trying to settle quietly a bitter dispute over construction of a mosque in Roxbury that has deeply strained relations between Muslims and Jews in Greater Boston. The 40-member panel of ministers, priests, rabbis, and laymen has talked with both sides in the battle: a Jewish group that accuses the mosque's developers of anti-Semitic views and terrorist sympathies, and the Muslim group building the mosque, which has sued the Jewish group and several of its allies for defamation and conspiracy. Each side presented its case to the panel and was told that court was not the place to resolve the dispute, according to participants in the reconciliation effort. The religious leaders fear that the acrimony and public posturing that have accompanied complex legal maneuvers will poison inter-religious relations in the wider community and create resentment that will endure even if the disagreements are resolved in the courts. The Islamic Society of Boston, the Cambridge-based organization designated by the Boston Redevelopment Authority to build New England's largest mosque on a 1.9-acre site in Roxbury Crossing, presented its view of the conflict to members of the inter-religious center May 11. The David Project, a Jewish leadership center, made its presentation on June 12. (Boston Globe)
Probes of links to Hizballah grow in Detroit
July 5: The clashing views of Muslims and U.S. authorities over Hizballah are playing out in southeastern Michigan as federal investigators increasingly target local residents purported to have ties to the group. Prosecutors have tried to link at least 29 metro Detroit men with Hizballah over the past three years, according to a review of court records and interviews with attorneys. About half the men were accused of the links in criminal cases over the past three months, including the owner of the La Shish restaurants, Talal Chahine. The FBI in Detroit says Hizballah has a presence in Michigan, and the bureau has set up a division to investigate the Shi'ite Muslim group. In recent cases, federal agents are looking at ties to Sheikh Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah, a Shi'ite Muslim cleric in Lebanon who the U.S. government says is a Hizballah leader. The FBI in Detroit also has divisions that investigate Hamas and Al Qaeda, but those groups are not cited as often as Hizballah in local cases. (Detroit Free Press)
Neo-Nazi sympathizers slip into U.S. military
July 7: Neo-Nazis and other white supremacists have increasingly been able to infiltrate the U.S. military due to recruitment pressures created by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a watchdog group said today. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks racist activities in the United States, said thousands of hate group members are now in the armed forces, especially in the Army, increasing the threat of domestic terrorism. "There is mounting evidence that military recruiters and commanders, under intense pressure to meet manpower goals with the country at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, have relaxed standards designed to prohibit racist extremists from serving in the armed forces," the center's Chief Executive Richard Cohen told Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in a letter. (CNN)
Jeb Bush ally slams Islam
July 7: The Rev. O'Neal Dozier, a Broward clergyman who has advised President Bush and is a political appointee of Gov. Jeb Bush, took to the air waves today to criticize Islam as a "cult" religion. The radio appearance by Dozier, who serves on the governor's committee that screens Broward judicial nominees, startled a local Muslim leader, and prompted the governor to immediately distance himself from the statements. "The Islamic religion in my view is a cult," Dozier said, when asked to recap the controversial comments he made earlier on The Steve Kane Radio Show on WNN-AM 1470. "On the show I said that Islam is a dangerous religion." Dozier was on the program to address efforts by him and other black ministers to block a plan by the Islamic Center of South Florida to build a center in Northwest Pompano Beach. Reached later in the day by The Miami Herald, a contrite Dozier said he was "concerned" his comments could jeopardize his position on Broward's Judicial Nominating Commission. But he did not disavow those comments. (Miami Herald)
Bill prevents exams on religious holidays in New York
July 10: The New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-NY) today welcomed passage of a bill in the New York State Legislature that prevents scheduling statewide school exams on religious holidays. CAIR-NY said the legislation is a victory for religious freedom and civil rights in New York, particularly for the Muslim community. Earlier this year, Muslim students in New York were not able to celebrate Eid-ul-Adha, one of two main Islamic holidays, due to state mandated exams which coincided with the event. Following that incident, CAIR-NY, the New York City Human Rights Commission and other advocacy groups began an initiative to ensure religious freedoms were upheld in New York public schools. (CAIR Bulletin)
Israel bars Palestinian Americans for first time since 1967
July 10: For the first time since 1967, Israel is preventing the entry of Palestinians with foreign citizenship, most of them Americans. Most of those refused entry are arriving from abroad, but have lived and worked for years in the West Bank. The Interior Ministry and Civil Administration made no formal announcement about a policy change, leaving returnees to discover the situation when they reach the border crossings. By various estimates, the ban has so far affected several thousand American and European nationals, whom Israel has kept from returning to their homes and jobs, or from visiting their families in the West Bank. (Haaretz)
Myspace video spurs Muslims' call for investigation
July 10: The Council on American-Islamic Relations reported to federal officials today that a video titled "kill the koran" was posted on MySpace.com showing two men shooting a Quran with a military rifle. The video was later tossed down outside a Chattanooga mosque, in Tennessee. The footage first shows a man identified as mully88 holding a paperback Quran outside a Barnes & Noble Booksellers. The next scene, taped in a wooded area, shows mully88 and another man taking turns shooting the Quran with a rifle mully88 identifies as a Colt M-16. The final scene shows a man tossing the bullet-riddled book onto the sidewalk outside the Islamic Center. In his profile on the Web site, mully88 identifies himself as a 33-year-old college-educated Chattanooga resident working as a paramedic and mechanic. He says he would "love to see the white race rule the world" and lists his heroes as "anyone who has killed a Muslim or tried to kill a Muslim." (Times Free Press)
Mosque protest at Pompano, Florida city hall
July 11: A group of black ministers and dozens of their supporters took their protest of a planned mosque to the Pompano Beach Commission today. Although the issue wasn't on the meeting agenda, the Rev. O'Neal Dozier addressed commissioners during public comments after leading a protest outside City Hall. Dozier, the pastor of Worldwide Christian Center Church, is leading the effort to block construction of a mosque in a ``black Christian community." Some called Muslims "dangerous" and "terrorists." Dozier, who last week called Islam a cult, said in an interview commissioners face repercussions at the ballot box if they do not change the June 14 decision. If the commissioners didn't change their minds, Dozier said, he would sue the city. Inside the commission's chambers, Dozier also repeated some of the rhetoric that prompted Gov. Jeb Bush's office to ask him to resign from Broward County's Judicial Nominating Committee recently. "We must remember that no matter how peaceful many Muslims seem to be, their core religion's doctrine allows for no other faith to exist peacefully alongside them," Dozier told the commissioners during a public comment period. (Miami Herald/South Florida Sun-Sentinel)
ACLU: U.S. government increasingly blocking entry at the border because of ideology
July 12: The American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Civil Liberties Union today released new documents that indicate the government is broadly interpreting and using a controversial Patriot Act power known as the "ideological exclusion" provision to block people from entering the country. The ACLU is concerned that the provision is increasingly being used to target foreign scholars and others whose politics the government disfavors. The ACLU and NYCLU obtained the documents through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed in coordination with PEN American Center and the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). Although the documents are heavily redacted, the records suggest that the government used the ideological exclusion provision to exclude from the country, among others, an Italian woman residing in Colombia, a mother and daughter residing in Canada, a businessman from Venezuela, and a woman from Costa Rica. The names of the individuals have been redacted. The ideological exclusion provision permits the government to exclude anyone from the country who, in the government’s view, "endorses or espouses" terrorism or "persuades others" to support terrorism. While the provision is nominally directed at terrorism, the government appears to be using the provision to censor and manipulate debate, said the ACLU. (ACLU)
Maine Community denounces mosque attack
July 12: Earlier this month, Muslim men participating in a serene evening prayer ritual at Lewiston Auburn Islamic Center were sharply interrupted: A severed, frozen pig's head, slightly larger than a basketball, was thrown into the mosque. The man charged in the incident, 33-year-old Brent Matthews of Lewiston, told police it was a joke. But community leaders and others say the act was a hate crime, and the incident has heightened concerns that local discrimination against Somalis has not eased. "Our message is simple: An attack on any house of worship is an attack on all houses of worship," Rabbi Hillel Katzir told a group of about 150 including the town's mayor, governor, students and community activists who rallied in support of the Somali worshippers. (San Francisco Chronicle)
A Muslim's choice: Help FBI or lose visa
July 13: Last November, when (24-year-old Moroccan) Yassine Ouassif crossed into Champlain, New York, from Canada, border agents questioned him for several hours. Then they took away his green card and sent him home to San Francisco by bus, with strict instructions: As soon as he got there, he was to call a man named Dan. Dan, it turned out, was Daniel Fliflet, a counterterrorism agent for the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Mr. Ouassif met the agent at a train station in nearby Oakland on Nov. 30. Mr. Fliflet made him an offer: Become an informant and regularly report to the FBI on what his Muslim friends in San Francisco were saying and doing. In exchange, he would get back his green card. He could resume his education, bring his Moroccan wife to America and pursue his dream of buying a car, moving to Sacramento, California's capital, and becoming an engineer. If he refused? asked Mr. Ouassif. "I will work hard to deport you to Morocco as soon as possible," Mr. Fliflet responded. His story provides a window into a largely covert front of the war on terror: the FBI's aggressive pursuit of Muslim informants. Since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the bureau has had the difficult task of penetrating a culture that few agents know anything about. It has responded with a forceful effort to conscript eyes and ears within Muslim communities. (Wall Street Journal Europe)
8 workers fired in wake of bias lawsuit
July 13: Saying it would not accept discrimination on the job, Super Steel Schenectady Inc. fired eight employees, three months after black workers at the locomotive manufacturer sued the company claiming they were subjected to repeated racial slurs and intimidation. Reports of racial abuse at the Milwaukee company's Glenville plant surfaced in April, when nine present and past black employees of the plant lodged a $175 million lawsuit against the company. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Albany, alleged racial harassment and discrimination were deeply embedded in the company's culture and work climate, and that the plant contained a segregated break room. Black and Muslim employees were allegedly subjected to threats of violence, pro-Ku Klux Klan graffiti and racial taunts on the job. It seeks $25 million in compensatory damages and $150 million in punitive damages, plus sensitivity training for the company's 200 employees. (Times-Union)
Hamas-trial secrecy bid
July 14: Federal prosecutors requested today that Israeli intelligence agents be permitted to testify under official aliases and outside the presence of the public in the upcoming trial of a Bridegview man accused of aiding the terrorist group Hamas. They also argued the agents should be allowed to appear before the court "in light disguise" if they choose. Muhammad Salah of Bridgeview and Abdelhaleem Ashqar are scheduled to face charges in October that they funneled money to the Palestinian terror group Hamas. Prosecutors succeeded earlier this year in having two Israeli agents testify in private during a pretrial hearing involving allegations that Salah was tortured into confessing while in Israeli custody in 1993. Before that testimony, no Israeli Security Agency officer had testified in any legal proceeding abroad. U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve also allowed those agents to use aliases on the stand. Based in part on their testimony, she ruled Salah's confessions could be used against him at trial. Salah's attorneys argued vigorously against allowing the agents to testify in secret and against the admission of the confessions. (Chicago Tribune)
Wayne (NJ) sued over mosque application: Islamic group claims bias by the township
July 17: An Islamic organization in Wayne (NJ) has sued the township, contending it has discriminated against the group's application to build a mosque on its 11-acre site. In the case filed today in federal court in Newark, the Albanian Associated Fund asked for financial damages and for the court to stop the township's ongoing effort to condemn its land for open space. The lawsuit contends Wayne's planning board has for 3 1/2 years forced the group to take application steps not asked of non-Muslim religious groups. It claims the township has violated state and federal constitutional protections of religious freedom, as well as the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. The lawsuit contends the township has caved in to anti-Muslim sentiment at government meetings. In a sworn statement included in the lawsuit, Violca Camaj, a Montville resident who attends the mosque, said that although planning board members "for the most part" never said outright they don't want a mosque in town, at government meetings "the cold hatred in the faces of the neighbors, the palpable tension in the hearing room, the snide remarks and people jumping out of their seats when we would describe our prayer rituals and religious practice made it very clear." Earlier this year, the township sent the group a letter saying it intends to take the property by eminent domain, for use as open space. (Star-Ledger)
Retaliation case of Arab specialist at FBI advances
July 18: The Justice Department has concluded there is "reasonable cause" to believe that senior FBI officials retaliated against the bureau's highest-ranking Arabic speaker for complaining that he was cut out of terrorism cases despite his expertise. An internal investigation by the department's Office of Professional Responsibility found "sufficient circumstantial evidence" that Special Agent Bassem Youssef was blocked from a counterterrorism assignment in 2002 after he and U.S. Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.) met with FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III to discuss Youssef's complaints. The 12-page report, dated last month and provided to The Washington Post by the office of Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), represents a rare endorsement of a whistle-blower's allegations by the Justice Department's internal review office. It also represents another setback for the FBI as it struggles to attract Arabic speakers and informants in its fight against Islamic extremists. (Washington Post)
ADC advice on possible FBI interviews
July 18: In the past few days, media reports have discussed a possible plan by the FBI to monitor and interview Arab Americans in an effort to identify potential threats to national security. An ADC statement said that according to media reports, this plan may involve tracking and interviewing thousands of Arab nationals and Arab Americans in the United States. This would not be the first time that the FBI has engaged such tactics. Similar initiatives, in the form of voluntary interviews, were conducted by the FBI in 2001 and 2002. If media reports are correct, this proposed plan would ethnically profile thousands of individuals, including American citizens, which smacks of guilt by association and the criminalization of an entire ethnic population. (ADC Bulletin)
Domestic Detainee From 9/11 Released
July 20: Benamar Benatta, believed to be the last remaining domestic detainee from the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, was released today after negotiations involving Canada, the United States and his attorneys ended his captivity at nearly five years. Benatta crossed the border from the United States to Canada, where he will be allowed to resume the bid for political asylum that resulted in his detention shortly before the terrorist attacks. The Algerian air force lieutenant spent more than 58 months behind bars even though the FBI formally concluded in November 2001 that he had no connection to terrorism. He was among more than 1,200 mainly Muslim men who were arrested after the attacks and held under tight security while authorities scoured their backgrounds for links to terrorist groups. It is believed that Benatta was the last to be released, though it is difficult to be certain because of the secrecy that surrounded some of the cases. (Washington Post)
Islamic fascism the enemy, not terror, says Santorum
July 20: The United States is not fighting a war against terrorism so much as a war against Islamic fascism, U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) said today. Days after Sept. 11, 2001, President George W. Bush announced that the United States would fight a war against terrorism, starting with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda and the group's political benefactors - Afghanistan's Taliban government. But today, Santorum said labeling the conflict a war against terrorism was politically "safe and misleading." (CNSNews.com)
Schools across the country juggle holidays for Muslims and other faiths
July 21: Sikh, Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish, Hindu, and Christian - each faith has its holy days. Schools across the country are asking how to respect them all. Consider the University at Albany, which canceled classes on major Muslim holidays. Faculty wanted the move out of concern for Muslim students after the Sept. 11 attacks. But then came the questions: What about Hindus? Buddhists? President Kermit Hall last fall decided to return to the original calendar. "Can you operate a university and give each religious group an accommodation? I think the answer is, 'No,'" he said. Make that "maybe." School administrators across the country are rethinking their calendars as their student bodies become more diverse. In May, Muslim parents asked New York City's education department for days off on two major Muslim holidays, which some districts in Michigan and New Jersey already have granted. In January, a Long Island mosque petitioned New York Gov. George Pataki to consider the holidays when scheduling mandatory statewide testing. Last month, the state Legislature passed a bill that would take all religious holidays into account when scheduling the mandatory tests. But also last month, despite a Muslim group's lobbying at every board meeting, the Baltimore County district in Maryland approved a calendar with a day off for the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashana, but none for Muslim holidays. (CBS News)
Muslims told state is safe after mosque attack
July 21: Authorities reassured Muslims today that Maine is safe after the state filed a civil-rights lawsuit against a man accused of rolling a frozen pig's head into a mosque during prayers.Noel Bonem, director of the northeastern state's new office of multicultural affairs, said Maine was working with public safety officials to protect its 6,000 to 8,000 Muslims after the incident in Lewiston, the state's second-largest city. The incident angered state politicians and local community leaders, who feared it would intimidate Lewiston's estimated 2,000 Muslims, many of them members of its burgeoning Somali community. Bonem said a civil-rights lawsuit filed yesterday by the state attorney-general against Brent Matthews, 33, sends a message to Maine's Muslims "that mosques will continue to be a safe haven, and that such acts will not be tolerated." The suit, which calls the pig-head toss "a threat of violence," would require Matthews to stay away from the mosque, and its members, and could carry a fine of $5,000. ( Reuters)
Islamic charity will get literature back
July 21: Federal officials today agreed to return 155 cartons of religious literature seized two years ago from an Ashland-based Islamic charity, according to the charity's attorney. "They are turning all the materials over to me. No strings attached," said Thomas Nelson, a Portland attorney representing the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation. Nelson filed suit earlier this year on behalf of Al-Haramain, claiming that the government's refusal to release the materials and allow their dissemination violated the charity's First Amendment rights. (The Oregonian)
Plans for Muslim centers stir concerns from neighbors
July 22: A long-abandoned Roman Catholic high school in this northern Westchester (NY) town still bears a few markers of its past. There is the metal cross near the main entrance and the small, granite placard that offers a simple mission statement: “For God and Country.” But the old Franciscan High School is in the midst of a conversion, both physical and spiritual. A new religious institution, the Hudson Valley Islamic Community Center, is taking shape there. “It’s really the coming of age of a community,” said Zead Ramadan, spokesman for the center, which closed on the $3 million property in May. After some minor renovations, Mr. Ramadan said, the center will combine a mosque, meeting space and a weekend school in the first large-scale Muslim institution in the northern half of the county. The Westchester Muslim Center in Mount Vernon is the largest mosque in the county, and many Muslims from northern Westchester are among the 700 people who attend Friday prayers there. The Yorktown center and a similar one planned for nearby New Castle are, in a sense, simple statements of arrival: a small Muslim population, growing in numbers, is staking claim to this land of well-kempt lawns and quaint Main Streets just as Protestants, Catholics and Jews did before them. But almost five years after 9/11, making those statements has proved difficult. In Yorktown, the welcoming words of town officials, church leaders and several neighbors have found a counterpoint in a series of anti-Muslim statements at public meetings of the Planning Board and angry letters to town hall, some expressing fears about the spread of terrorism in suburbia, but most voicing concerns about traffic. While many parents at George Washington Elementary School next door have greeted the center’s arrival with a shrug, some said they were uncomfortable. “I’m scared,” said Beka Brucaj, 48, who has two children in the school. “It’s a stupid thing to put the mosque next to the school,” added Mr. Brucaj, who said he fears recruitment of children for extremist ends. (New York Time)
Former Army chaplain says he was unfairly detained at border
July 24: Former Army Capt. James Yee, whose work as a Muslim chaplain at Guantanamo ended when he was arrested and accused of spying, says he believes he was unfairly detained at the Canadian border over the weekend on his way back from a day trip. Yee, who spent 76 days in solitary confinement before being cleared of all charges in March 2004, said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press that memories of his experience in Army detention came back to him while he was being questioned for two hours at the border last evening. "Perhaps this is an indication I'm still of interest to the federal government," Yee said. He said customs' officials were polite and professional but would not tell him why he was stopped or if he had done anything wrong. (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
Wisconsin lawmakers want Islam teacher booted
July 25: After Kevin Barrett started talking about a class he planned to teach this fall on Islam, the little-known lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found himself in the middle of a fierce political battle between the school and state politicians. Barrett told a Milwaukee talk show host in June that he believed that the U.S. government used "controlled demolitions with explosives" on Sept. 11 to bring down the World Trade Center buildings and later said that the idea of a hijacked plane hitting the Pentagon was "preposterous." He plans to discuss these beliefs over one week of the 15-week course for undergraduate students. Wisconsin lawmakers, however, are trying to stop him. In a letter delivered to university administrators and Wisconsin Gov. James Doyle, state lawmakers demanded that school officials fire Barrett before the fall semester begins. Sixty-one of the legislature's 133 members — now on summer recess — signed the letter. And if the school allows Barrett to teach "these lies," some of the legislators who signed the letter are threatening to cut the university system's public funding when the next state budget is reviewed next year, said Republican Rep. Stephen L. Nass. (Los Angeles Times)
Muslim inmate ordered to handle pork can sue staff
July 25: Prison staff who punished a Muslim inmate for refusing to handle pork do not have immunity from his religious-freedom suit, a federal appeals court ruled in Philadelphia. Henry Williams sued on First Amendment grounds, saying he lost his cook's job and was restricted to his cell for 30 days after refusing to handle roast pork. Williams missed religious and other events during his confinement, and ended up with a lower-paying janitorial job, according to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling issued today. (Center Daily)
FBI paid key informants $56,000 to trap the Miami seven
July 26: The FBI paid almost $56,000 to two confidential informants who are key to the case against seven men accused of being involved in a terrorist plot to blow up the Sears Tower and other targets. According to a document filed by federal prosecutors, the FBI paid one unnamed informant $10,500 and an additional $8,815 in expenses. They also paid a second informant $17,000 with another $19,570 for expenses. U.S. officials also granted the second informant a "significant public benefit" -- immigration parole so he could remain in the country. The seven men, part of a religious group headquartered in the Liberty City area of Miami-Dade County, are facing various charges in connection with attacks they allegedly planned. Much of the case hinges on the two informants, one of whom knew the men and participated in the investigation after alerting authorities. The second man posed as an al-Qaida operative at the FBI's direction, according to prosecutors. Secret recordings made by the informants are also central to the case. (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)
American troops ordered to stop posting combat videos online
July 26: The Pentagon is asking American soldiers in Iraq to stop posting private combat videos on to the Internet amid fears that they could be regarded as anti-Arab. Many of the digital clips feature explosions, gunfire, and even dead bodies, with the images often set to a soundtrack of rock ballads, rap, or heavy metal music. Defense officials believe they could be interpreted as portraying the military as unsympathetic to Arabs and obsessed with barbarism. Dozens of such clips can be found by searching for "Iraq" and "combat" on video-sharing sites such as YouTube.com and Ogrish.com, creating an unprecedented opportunity for the public to view servicemen's unedited perspective of the war. (Daily Telegraph)
Congresswoman Maxine waters recognizes the first Muslim-founded community clinic
July 26: Congresswoman Maxine Waters proudly proclaimed that "the UMMA Clinic provides Muslim-Americans with an institution in which they can take pride, one that enriches the community with services that save lives." The University Muslim Medical Association (UMMA) Community Clinic was celebrating its tenth anniversary of dedicated service to the residents of South Los Angeles -- regardless of their race, religion or socio-economic status. Her address before a session of the U.S. Congressional House of Representatives may be the first time in over two centuries of U.S. Congressional history that a Muslim-American institution was hailed as a model of hope, progress and benefit to the whole of American society. Noting that the UMMA Clinic is the nation's first Muslim-American founded charitable health center, Congresswoman Waters underscored that UMMA emerged "as a result of the obligations Muslim-Americans feel to ensure the well-being of everyone in society." (MPAC News Bulletin)
CAIR condemns attack on Seattle Jewish center
July 28: The Council on American-Islamic Relations today condemned an attack on a Jewish community center in Seattle, Wash., that left one person dead and several more injured.
A lone gunman who reportedly said, "I'm a Muslim American; I'm angry at Israel," entered the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle and began shooting. The alleged gunman was later arrested. In a statement CAIR said: "We condemn this senseless attack on a religious institution and offer sincere condolences to the loved ones of those killed or injured. The American Muslim and Jewish communities must do whatever is within their power to prevent the current conflict in the Middle East from being transplanted to this country. We also urge local, state and national law enforcement authorities to step up security measures at synagogues, mosques and other religious institutions of both faiths." (CAIR Bulletin)
Muslim scouts; Gulf Stream Council launches its first Islamic troop
July 28: Hassene Chaabane, 31, who attends religious services at the Islamic Center of Boca Raton, Florida, is spearheading the formation of Cub Scout and Boy Scout Troop 394, the first Muslim troop in the Gulf Stream Council, which covers Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River and Hendry counties. "I can't imagine the life of a boy without Boy Scouts," Chaabane said. Chaabane, a native of Tunisia, drives from his home in Hallandale Beach to attend the Boca Raton mosque and help form the troop. Participating in scouting in his homeland helped him grow into the man he is today, he said. Members of the mosque approached Jennifer Thomason, district executive of the Gulf Stream Council, about starting a new troop. "We are very excited about it, because Boy Scouts are for no specific faith, and we look to any community organization of faith or not of faith to take our standards," Thomason said, adding that there are several new troops forming in Boca Raton, two at synagogues. (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)
Islamic charity fundraiser released
July 31: The top fundraiser for an Islamic charity, Abdel-Jabbar Hamdan, 45, that the government claims has ties to terrorism was released today from a federal detention center where he had been held for more than two years. Earlier today the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a last-ditch government request to keep him locked up.Hamdan, who founded a mosque in Anaheim, was arrested on immigration charges in July 2004 when federal authorities unsealed an indictment against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. The government charged that the Texas-based charity funneled millions to the Palestinian militant group Hamas. The Holy Land Foundation's president, chairman and director of endowments were also charged with terrorism-related crimes. Hamdan himself was never charged with terrorism. Instead, he was convicted of overstaying a student visa he got 27 years ago. The month after the Holy Land Foundation was charged, he was ordered deported on the immigration charge. His requests to be released while he fought the charge were denied until U.S. District Judge Terry Hatter ordered him freed. (Washington Post)
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