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Chronology of Islam in America (2011)
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
June 2011 - Page Two
Islamophobia at the GOP debate in New Hampshire
June 13: The seven-million strong American Muslim community was dismayed at the anti-Muslim sentiment displayed by Republican presidential candidates during debate in New Hampshire. Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich's compared Muslims to Nazis. Gingrich responded to questions about loyalty tests for administration officials, he referred to the case of attempted Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad himself took an oath when he became an American citizen and compared hiring Muslims to how Americans dealt with Nazis in the 1940s. "We did this in dealing with the Nazis. We did this in dealing with the Communists. And it was controversial both times and both times we discovered after a while, you know, there are some genuinely bad people who would like to infiltrate our country. And we have got to have the guts to stand up and say, 'No,'" he concluded.
Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney distinguished himself from his GOP rivals at the debate in an important way: He refused to take the Sharia-panic bait and said: “Well, first of all, of course, we're not going to have Shariah law applied in U.S. courts. That's never going to happen. We have a Constitution and we follow the law. No, I think we recognize that the people of all faiths are welcome in this country. Our nation was founded on a principal of religious tolerance. That's in fact why some of the early patriots came to this country and we treat people with respect regardless of their religious persuasion. Obviously, anybody who would come into my administration would be someone who I knew, who I was comfortable with, and who I believed would honor as their highest oath -- their oath to defend and protect the Constitution of the United States.”
Herman Cain again refused to fully back away from his now-famous statement that he would not be comfortable appointing a Muslim to his cabinet. His response to a question about that stance was fairly muddled, but the bottom line seemed clear: he would apply special scrutiny to potential Muslim appointees in a future Cain administration. The former Godfather's Pizza CEO said to CNN's John King: "I would ask certain questions, John. And it's not a litmus test. It is simply trying to make sure that we have people committed to the Constitution first in order for them to work effectively in the administration." At one point Cain also explained his view that "you have peaceful Muslims and then you have militant Muslims, those that are trying to kill us." (AMP Report)
Canadian makes plea to be taken off UN terror watch list
June 16: Twenty-two floors up, in the German mission overlooking UN plaza (in New York), Abousfian Abdelrazik finally got a hearing of sorts with representatives of the United Nations sanctions committee that has kept him on a terror watch list for five years. Unable to travel, work or receive government benefits because of the sanctions, a delegation of Canadian supporters travelled from Montreal to New York in his place to plead his case and show a video of Abdelrazik urging them to take him off its list of suspected al-Qaida and Taliban operatives. While visiting his mother in Sudan in 2003, Abdelrazik was twice arrested and detained, for a total of 20 months, during which he says he was repeatedly beaten and tortured. Though subsequently cleared of any links to terrorism by both CSIS and the RCMP, he was added to the UN sanctions list in 2006, he believes at the United States' request. And because he was on the list, Canada refused to repatriate him for more than a year while he lived in the Canadian Embassy.
American advocates for civil rights, joining the delegation on the steps of the UN, said they have been fighting similar regimes like the U.S. no-fly list. "Abdelrazik's case is very telling," said Cyrus McGoldrick of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "All the relevant intelligence agencies in Sudan and Canada have cleared him, but perhaps based on the FBI's request he is on the (UN) list. If people are suspected of a crime, bring it before the courts. Don't marginalize them and cast them out of society." Maria Lahood, who was Maher Arar's lawyer before the U.S. courts, said that despite the apology and $10 million settlement he received from the Canadian government, Arar is still on the U.S. no-fly list. Arar, a Canadian human-rights activist and engineer, was mistakenly described by RCMP as a terrorist in information exchanges with U.S. authorities in 2002. He was arrested in New York and sent to Syria, where he was held for a year and tortured before his release. [Montreal Gazette]
Christian missionaries take on Muslims, Catholics at Arab International Festival
June 19: A young Muslim girl broke down in tears after passing by a group of Christian missionaries who continued to yell insults Saturday at Muslims and others during the Arab International Festival in Dearborn. The missionaries are also now targeting Catholics. The Arab International Festival, which continues today, is the largest outdoor gathering of Arab-Americans in the country and so has increasingly attracted Christian missionaries who believe Islam has taken over the city of Dearborn. Today’s attacks against Muslims and Catholics came after Friday's rally by Quran Burning stunt master Terry Jones at Dearborn City Hall, where speakers railed against both Muslims and African-Americans. One supporter of Jones, Rabbi Nachum Shifren of California, assailed Muslims and black people during his talk on the steps of City Hall. Jones and his supporters have also attacked gays and lesbians in their talks. Last month, Jones led a rally in Texas against what he said in a news release were three evils confronting America. "Homosexuality, Abortion, and Islam." Christian missionaries have attended the Arab Festival for many years, but over the past two years, some of them have become more confrontational, said organizers. Two years ago, a group called Acts 17 that attended the festival produced a video of them getting into a dispute at the festival that has drawn more than 2 million views. Some Christians say the video shows that Islamic law, sharia, has taken hold in Dearborn; but city officials and local church leaders say it was selectively edited to defame Dearborn. (Detroit Free Press)
US Muslims alarmed by sentiments expressed by two GOP presidential candidates
June 20: The presidential election in the United States may be 18 months away but concern is already growing at the extent of anti-Muslim sentiments being expressed by leading Republicans seeking the party's nomination. Following last week's first debate of Republican runners organized by CNN, at least two prominent groups representing mainstream American Muslims have issued statements expressing alarm at the spread of Islamophobia by those GOP candidates. Both the Council on American-Islamist Relations (CAIR) and the American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections (AMT) issued statements condemning anti-Muslim sentiment expressed by candidates during the nationally televised debate in New Hampshire.
Herman Cain, a former pizza magnate, said he would not be comfortable having a Muslim member in his administration, nor would he appoint one. "You have peaceful Muslims and you have militant Muslims — those that are trying to kill us," Cain said. "And so when I said I wouldn't be comfortable I was thinking about the ones that are trying to kill us." Adding to the anti-Muslim fears, former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, echoed a need for caution and suggested a loyalty oath for Muslims. "There are genuinely bad people who would like to infiltrate our country," Gingrich said. "And we have got to have the guts and stand up and say no."
In a statement after the debate, AMT called on all Republican candidates to state clearly that they will not promote or exploit growing anti-Muslim sentiment to gain political advantage. "When the candidates were asked ‘Are American-Muslims as a group less committed to the Constitution than, say, Christians or Jews?' not one spoke up to support religious tolerance," said Nihad Awad, the national executive director of CAIR. While most remained silent, Herman Cain reiterated his position that he would treat Muslims differently than members of other faiths. Cain and Gingrich echoed the far-right manufactured controversy about Sharia replacing the Constitution. Awad said that was simply not the case as the Constitution is the law of the land.( The Gulf News)
Anti-Sharia bill forum on Capitol Hill
June 20: The Muslim Public Affairs Council today held a policy forum on Capitol Hill with prominent Muslim American leaders, interfaith allies, and civil rights groups to address the rash of anti-sharia bills being considered in many state legislatures across the country. The event, entitled "A Solution in Search of a Problem: The Impact of Anti-Sharia Bills in America," focused on the Islamophobic nature of these bills and delved into the meaning of sharia in the lives of everyday Muslim Americans. Dozens of Capitol Hill staffers, representatives of non-profit groups and members of the public attended the standing-room only briefing. The event was covered by members of the press, including PBS and Voice of America. Moderated by Haris Tarin, director of MPAC’s Washington, DC office, the forum featured Noha Bakr, Commissioner of the Montgomery (MD) County Commission for Women; Daniel Mach, Director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief; and Rabbi Gerry Serotta, Executive Director of Clergy Beyond Borders. Tarin stressed the damaging impact of such legislation and stated the importance of “ensuring that the principles that our founding fathers fought for and enshrined in the Constitution, continue to be part of our public discourse and legal framework”. (MPAC)
Long Island remembers Salman Hamdani a decade after 9/11
June 24: Salman Hamdani, 23, of Bayside, was a police cadet and paramedic who went to the scene to volunteer on 9/11. His remains were found under the north tower. In March, U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) honored Salman Hamdani at the House Homeland Security Committee hearing on Muslim radicalization as he spoke of how the NYPD cadet "bravely sacrificed his life." For his mother, Talat Hamdani, a substitute high school English teacher who lives in Lake Grove, the moment brought peace. "Finally his sacrifice was acknowledged - and in the U.S. Congress," she said. Hamdani, who came from Pakistan with his family when he was 13 months old, had used his skills as a brown belt in karate more than once against bullies as he was growing up in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and Bayside, Queens, his mother said. But no one in his family was prepared to defend his memory against false accusations that, as a Muslim, he was somehow linked to the World Trade Center terrorists. The accusations in the days immediately following Sept. 11 were painfully ironic, given how hard Hamdani, who liked to be called "Sal," had embraced being an American: He was an ardent "Star Wars" fan who liked John Grisham novels. He played baseball and basketball and was in his final year as a police cadet. A Queens College chemistry major, he was in his first year in an MD-PhD program at Howard Hughes Medical Institute, working out of Rockefeller University. His father "never came out of his grief," his mother said, and died in 2004. Difficult years followed as she and her two remaining sons, Adnaan and Zeshan, 19 and 17 when their brother died, dealt with their compounded grief. To give them a new start, Talat Hamdani sold their Bayside home and moved to Lake Grove. Both sons are now married and happy, she said. She joined Peaceful Tomorrows, a group founded by 9/11 families advocating nonviolent pursuit of justice. "Those who died that day died because they were American, not because of their race or religion," she said. "As a tribute to them, we have to uphold American values of democracy, liberty and freedom of religion for all - not for just a few." (Newsday)
Wilders’ Acquittal a 'Slap in the Face for Muslims'
June 24: His supporters have hailed Geert Wilders' acquittal as a victory for free speech, while his many detractors have slammed the decision not to punish a man who described Islam as "fascist." The Dutch right-wing populist politician was cleared of inciting hatred against Muslims by a court in Amsterdam Thursday after the judge ruled that his comments -- which also included comparing the Koran to Hitler's "Mein Kampf" -- were "acceptable within the context of public debate." In his verdict , leading judge Marcel van Oosten said that while Wilders' statements were indeed offensive to Muslims, they were also part of a legitimate political discussion. Wilders' claim that Islam is a violent religion and his demands for a ban on Muslim immigrants should be viewed in the context of the larger societal debate over immigration policies, the judge argued. The verdict has sparked a re-examination of free speech in a multicultural Europe, with some asking just how far the basic democratic right to speak one's mind actually extends. German commentators were deeply divided over the issue on Friday. While some argued Wilders should have been punished, others suggested that free speech trumps any discomfort with extreme opinions. (Spiegel Online)
Islamophobia on the rise in US: UCB/CAIR Report
June 24: The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), along with the University of California Berkeley’s Center for Race and Gender (CRG), released today a report outlining the exponential growth of Islamaphobia in the United States. The report argues that politics is to blame for much of the problem. The CAIR/UC Berkeley report - called Same Hate, New Target - says Muslim-bashing factored into the 2010 midterm elections and is already front and center in the upcoming presidential campaign. It says that Islamophobia has actually increased since the election of President Barack Obama, with right-wing Republicans feeding on anti-Muslim sentiments and fears over the so-called Sharia law. According to those interviewed for this study, on a scale from 1(best situation for Muslims) to 10 (worst possible situation for Muslims) Islamophobia in America stands at a 6.4. Interviews were conducted in September and October of 2010. The CAIR/UCB report, based on available data and interviews with experts, provides a definition of Islamophobia. “Islamophobia is close-minded prejudice against or hatred of Islam and Muslims. An Islamophobe is an individual who holds a closed-minded view of Islam and promotes prejudice against or hatred of Muslims. It is not appropriate to label all, or even the majority of those, who question Islam and Muslims as Islamophobes,” the report says.
The report gives an overview of Islamophobia’s growing negative impact in the United State, and lists people and institutions known for promoting Islamaphobia. Those listed as actively promoting Islamophobia included Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, co-founders of the anti-Muslim hate group Stop the Islamization of America(SIOA); Act! for America leader Brigitte Gabriel; and GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich. The report also details the best of those pushing back against growing anti-Muslim sentiment. Those commended for pushing back against Islamophobia include New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg;Loonwatch.com; CongressionalTri-Caucus; Rep. Keith Ellison(D-MN); Jon Stewart, Aasif Man-dvi and The Daily Show; KeithOlbermann and Countdown with Keith Olbermann; StephenColbert and The Colbert Report; Media Matters for America; interfaith leaders; and Rachel Maddow and The Rachel Maddow Show.
The CAIR/UCB report emphasized that American Muslim reflections on Islamophobia in the United States occur in full recognition that virtually every minority in our nation has faced and in most cases continues to face discrimination. In its chapter - Evolving toward ever-greater cultural pluralism – the report recalled: In his Pulitzer Prize-winning book Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era,1 James McPherson reports on English Protestant Americans’ suspicion of German and Irish Catholic immigrants to the U.S. in the nineteenth century: More dangerous was the specter of ethnic conflict. Except for a sprinkling of German farmers in Pennsylvania and in the valleys of the Appalachian piedmont, the American white population before 1830 was overwhelmingly British and Protestant in heritage. Our nation placed Japanese- Americans in internment camps following the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. The deeply troubling story of the African-American struggle for full equality is well known. Sadly, it is commonplace for minority groups and their leaders to be painted as a threat and vilified, even by the government. Martin Luther King—a non-violent, shining example of the civil rights movement who now has a federal holiday named after him and who won a Nobel Peace Prize—was branded “the most dangerous and effective Negro leader in the country” in an FBI memo. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover labeled King a “degenerate.”
The CAIR/UCB report argued that America was founded on a set of ideals such as individual liberty, freedom of speech and worship and equal justice under the law. America was not founded as a place for any single religion, race or ethnic group. That said, people of conscience must continually remind themselves that the specters of bigotry, discrimination and second class citizenship are omnipresent. Muslims have the great fortune to receive guidance, support and wisdom from the many groups who have fought bigotry before us, the report added. “America has a reset button,” a professor of contemporary Islamic studies told us. “It has the ability that once in a while the historical processes come to bear where the group that previously had been marginalized, discriminated against, persecuted that America hits the reset button and that from that point on that group has now become vested, that group has become indigenized.” (AMP Report)
GOP presidential candidates' views of Islam stir controversy
June 25: Some candidates for the U.S. presidential election next year have been making statements about Islam and its American adherents that are stirring controversy. Civil rights groups warn that the candidates are pushing anti-Muslim views into the mainstream. No one has gone as far as Herman Cain. The former chairman of a pizza chain was one of the lesser known Republican candidates - that is, until a few months ago - when he said that, if he was president, he would not like to have a Muslim working for him. At a debate in New Hampshire several weeks ago, Cain said that would make him uncomfortable. "And I would not be comfortable because you have peaceful Muslims and then you have militant Muslims, those that are trying to kill us," he said. Another republican candidate, Newt Gingrich, suggested during the New Hampshire Republican debate that Muslims seeking a job in an administration he leads would be subject to special loyalty tests. “Now, I just want to go out on a limb here. I'm in favor of saying to people, 'If you're not prepared to be loyal to the United States, you will not serve in my administration, period," Gingrich stated. Not all the candidates single out Muslims in this way. Mitt Romney, the Republican front runner so far, recalled at the debate that America was founded on the principle of religious tolerance. Romney belongs to the Mormon faith, which some evangelical Christians consider to be heretical.
Anti-Muslim views becoming more acceptable to the broader public
Haris Tarin of the Muslim Public Affairs Council is concerned that anti-Muslim views could become more acceptable to the broader public after being aired during a debate among presidential candidates on the Cable News Network, CNN. "We're very worried, because these views have been consistently found in the fringes. Now they're being viewed on CNN and debated on a nationally televised debate of Republican nominees. And so when it moves from the fringes to the homes of mainstream America we get very worried," Tarin noted. There is evidence that may already be happening. A recent report on Islamophobia by the Council on American-Islamic Relations cited a 2010 poll which found that one-third of Americans believe adherents of Islam should not be allowed to run for president. The issue got further attention when Congress’ House Committee on Homeland Security conducted hearings in March and again this month on al-Qaida’s reported attempts to recruit followers among the Muslim-American community. The committee chairman, Republican Peter King of New York, said the hearings were necessary to protect America from terrorist attack. And according to the Muslim Public Affairs Council and the American Civil Liberties Union, at least 25 state legislatures are considering proposals aimed at banning the Muslim Sharia code of law from being cited in U.S. courts.
9/11 terror attacks, plots - American views changing
Anti-foreigner sentiment has come and gone in America because of its development over the centuries as a nation of immigrants. Steve Grand is a Middle East expert at the Brookings Institution. "There's a long tradition in the United States, unfortunately, of fearing the unknown and fearing those who seem different from us," he said. "And then eventually we come to know and understand those people and they become part of the American mainstream and American culture." But 10 years after al-Qaida’s 9-11 terror attacks in New York and several foiled terror plots since then, the prospects for Muslim Americans may be different than America’s previous waves of immigrants. Grand concedes that while earlier immigrants became part of the mainstream fairly quickly, Muslim Americans may find that process takes much longer. (Voice of America)
Federal judge rules against Abercrombie & Fitch in Hijab suit
June 29: A Tulsa federal judge ruled today in favor of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in its lawsuit against Abercrombie & Fitch for not hiring a Muslim teenager who wore a Hijab, or religiously mandated headscarf. U.S. District Judge Gregory Frizzell found that the company did not show that it would have sustained any significant "undue hardship" if it had accommodated the religious beliefs of Samantha Elauf, who in June 2008 applied to work in a sales position at the Abercrombie Kids store in Tulsa's Woodland Hills Mall. Frizzell's decision means a jury will determine what, if any, damages should be awarded. The EEOC filed the lawsuit in September 2009 in U.S. District Court in Tulsa, citing the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1991 as the basis for the action. “Defendant refused to hire Ms. Elauf because she wears a Hijab, claiming that the wearing of headgear was prohibited by its Look Policy, and, further, failed to accommodate her religious beliefs by making an exception to the Look Policy,” the EEOC stated in the lawsuit. EEOC Regional Attorney Barbara Seely told the court today that the company has made about eight or nine exceptions to the headscarf policy since the lawsuit was filed and that there is no evidence that the exceptions have had any sort of negative impact on its business. Since the Tulsa case was filed, at least two other similar lawsuits - one of which made national news earlier this week - have been filed against the company. That most recent lawsuit was filed Monday in federal court in San Francisco on behalf of a former stockroom worker for Abercrombie & Fitch. The EEOC had ruled in September that she was illegally fired after refusing to remove her Muslim headscarf while on the job. In the other case, the EEOC said the company denied work to a Hijab-wearing woman who applied for a stocking position in 2008 at an Abercrombie Kids store in Milpitas, Calif. (Tulsa World)
Texas anti-Sharia amendment dropped
June 29: The Texas Senate today stripped, among other House amendments, an anti-"Sharia Law" provision by Rep. Leo Berman (R-Tyler). "Sen. Duncan took out three different times an amendment that bans Sharia Law in Texas," Berman said. "We did everything we could have done to get the amendments acceptable to the Senate. But it just didn't happen," said bill author Rep. Tryon Lewis (R-Odessa). Lewis noted that if there are any potential flashpoints or conflicts with other laws, there is plenty of time to analyze certain parts of the bill. (The Lone Star Report)
Jihad Against Islam
June 2011: The Southern Poverty Law Center’s Summer 2011 Intelligence Report, titled Jihad against Islam, says: Rarely has the United States seen a more reckless and bare-knuckled campaign to vilify a distinct class of people and compromise their fundamental civil and human rights than the recent rhetoric against Muslims. It would also be hard to imagine a more successful campaign. In the span of the two years since the start of Barack Obama's presidency in early 2009, an astonishing number of people have turned into a kind of political wolf pack, convinced that 0.6% of the U.S. population is on the verge of trampling the Constitution and imposing an Islamic, Shariah-guided caliphate in its place. Like the communists that an earlier generation believed to be hiding behind every rock, infiltrated "Islamist" operatives today are said to be diabolically preparing for a forcible takeover. Ironically, the Constitution seems more threatened by certain Americans who, prodded into paranoia by clever activists, opportunistic politicians and guileful media players, seem downright eager to deny Muslims the guarantees of religious freedom and the presumption of innocence. "As an American Muslim, what is of most concern to me is that it is no longer only a small cadre of dedicated Islamophobes who are expressing bigotry and even hatred towards the American Muslim community — but sadly, also many among our elected representatives and government officials," Sheila Musaji, moderator of the website The American Muslim, wrote in an E-mail to the Intelligence Report. "It provides a veneer of respectability and reasonableness to what would otherwise be more easily perceived to be outright bigotry." The American public psyche has undergone a subtle but profound metamorphosis since 2001, moving from initial rage at the 9/11 mass murder to fear of another devastating attack by Muslim extremists to, most recently, a more generalized fear of Islam itself. That evolution from specific concerns to general stereotyping is the customary track of racism and xenophobia — and in Muslims, those inclined to bigotry may have found their perfect bogeyman. [The Southern Poverty Law Center’s Summer 2011 Intelligence Report, Issue Number: 142]
The Year in Hate & Extremism, 2010
June: The Southern Poverty Law Center’s Spring 2011 Intelligence Report says:
For the second year in a row, the radical right in America expanded explosively in 2010, driven by resentment over the changing racial demographics of the country, frustration over the government’s handling of the economy, and the mainstreaming of conspiracy theories and other demonizing propaganda aimed at various minorities. For many on the radical right, anger is focusing on President Obama, who is seen as embodying everything that’s wrong with the country. Hate groups topped 1,000 for the first time since the Southern Poverty Law Center began counting such groups in the 1980s. Anti-immigrant vigilante groups, despite having some of the political wind taken out of their sails by the adoption of hard-line anti-immigration laws around the country, continued to rise slowly. But by far the most dramatic growth came in the antigovernment “Patriot” movement — conspiracy-minded organizations that see the federal government as their primary enemy — which gained more than 300 new groups, a jump of over 60%. Taken together, these three strands of the radical right — the hatemongers, the nativists and the antigovernment zealots — increased from 1,753 groups in 2009 to 2,145 in 2010, a 22% rise. That followed a 2008-2009 increase of 40%. What may be most remarkable is that this growth of right-wing extremism came even as politicians around the country, blown by gusts from the Tea Parties and other conservative formations, tacked hard to the right, co-opting many of the issues important to extremists. Last April, for instance, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed S.B. 1070, the harshest anti-immigrant law in memory, setting off a tsunami of proposals for similar laws across the country. Continuing growth of the radical right could be curtailed as a result of this shift, especially since Republicans, many of them highly conservative, recaptured the U.S. House last fall. [The Southern Poverty Law Center - Intelligence Report, Spring 2011, Issue Number: 141]
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