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Chronology of Islam in America (2012)
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
June 2012
Missouri Anti-Shariah bill defeated for second year in a row
June 1: Another year of the Missouri legislative session came to end today, marking the second consecutive year that the Anti-Shari'a legislation was struck down in Missouri. Last year the State introduced a copycat bill specifically Thanks to all of your help, all of the emails, the telephone calls, and filling out forms on the website, we were able to make this possible. Many events contributed to this cause: One of them was the Muslim Day at the State Capitol with the ACLU, where we spoke with many of our Representatives and Senators, which made a very positive impact on their decision making. Another event was the panel discussion with bill sponsor Paul Curtman in Columbia, MO, which included a productive dialogue, as well as dinner. This allowed us to show him the true nature of the Muslim community, which is vital in building positive relationships with the Representatives. [CAIR]
American Enterprise Institute scholar promotes claim that
Norway terrorist attacked because he was censored
June 1: In a speech earlier last month, a scholar at an influential think tank and flagship of contemporary Washington conservatism, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), gave voice to one of the justifications for Norwegian anti-Muslim terrorist Anders Breivik‘s attacks, explaining that Breivik said “he had no other choice but to use violence” because his fringe views were “censored.” While accepting a prize this month from the German multimedia company Axel Springer, Somali-born Dutch AEI scholar Ayaan Hirsi Ali spoke on the “advocates of silence” — those she admonishes for purportedly stifling criticisms of radical Islamic extremism. In the speech, flagged by the website Loonwatch, Hirsi Ali noted that she herself appeared in Breivik’s 1,500-word manifesto (Breivik reprinted a European right-wing article saying Hirsi Ali should win the Nobel Peace Prize). While she denounced Breivik’s views as an “abhorrant” form of “neo-fascism,” she then postulated that Breivik was driven to violence because his militant anti-multicultural views were not given a fair airing in the public discourse. [Think Progress]
Muslim man sues JetBlue for barring him from flight at Palm Beach International
June 1: A Muslim U.S. Merchant Marine officer has sued JetBlue Airways for barring him from boarding a flight at Palm Beach International Airport and taking his luggage off the plane with no explanation. Mohammad Hossain, who lives in South Florida, said an airline employee at the gate singled him out Oct. 9 because of his ethnicity, even though he passed security screenings, according to the lawsuit filed today in West Palm Beach federal court. The midday flight was headed to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. Hossain, a U.S. citizen of Bangladeshi origin, was on his way to Bahrain for a 4-month private contract working on a U.S. Navy ship, the complaint said. The airline employee "humiliated, ridiculed and mocked" Hossain, the complaint said, and "[JetBlue] had no legitimate safety or security justification for refusing to transport [Hossain] on JetBlue Airways flight 138." The Boynton Beach man seeks more than $15,000 in compensation from the airline for alleged discrimination, breach of contract, intentional infliction of emotional stress and negligence. It was a confusing and humiliating scene that morning in Gate C at Palm Beach International Airport for Hossain, according to the complaint.
After passing through security, someone told Hossain his boarding pass was missing a seal, so he would need to go get screened again. A JetBlue employee called three Transportation Security Administration agents, who frisked him and rifled through his carry-on luggage. Eventually he was cleared and a new boarding ticket was printed for him 30 minutes before takeoff. But a JetBlue employee then took his boarding pass, inspected it and began screaming at him. "We are going to take care of business!" the employee yelled at him, according to the complaint. He continued to question Hossain aggressively, then said he was not allowing him on the flight and was taking his checked suitcase off the plane. The employee never replied when asked why. At one point, a Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office deputy walked up and told the airline employee to "calm down," the complaint said.
Hossain eventually left to go home traumatized, his Boynton Beach attorney wrote in the complaint, and suffered needless shame, despair, anguish and embarrassment. The incident also cost Hossain the $60,000 contract in Bahrain. He missed his connecting military flight to the Persian Gulf island, where the Navy ship was docked. The American company that hired Hossain to work in Bahrain had purchased the plane ticket. [South Florida Sun-Sentinel]
The Politics of Religious Freedom Take Two
June 7: A Muslim woman has filed a lawsuit against the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), assigned to advocate religious freedom globally, alleging that she lost a job because of her religion. Safiya Ghori-Ahmad filed the lawsuit today in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia saying that USCIRF rescinded a job offer after learning that she was Muslim and worked for a group promoting Muslims’ civil rights in the United States. Ghori-Ahmad was hired to work as an analyst and immediately was asked to produce a report on religious freedom in Pakistan to test if she could write “objectively.” Ghori-Ahmad said a commissioner detected no sign of bias in her report but still objected to hiring her, arguing that it would have been “really stupid” for the new employee to reveal her views. “Passing these tests (which she did) made no difference to the commissioners who opposed working with a Muslim,” said the lawsuit, which seeks a jury trial. The suit quotes Commissioner Nina Shea as writing that “hiring a Muslim like Ms. Ghori-Ahmad to analyze religious freedom in Pakistan would be like ‘hiring an IRA activist to research the UK twenty years ago.’” Ghori-Ahmad, a 26-year-old American born and educated in Arkansas, is seeking damages for distress as well as back pay, saying she was unemployed after the job offer was rescinded. She was later hired by the State Department.
The incident took place in 2009. Three commissioners whose actions were questioned in the lawsuit have since left after a shakeup last year led by Senator Dick Durbin, the second highest-ranking Democrat in the Senate. Speaking in December, Durbin said he “strongly” supported the group’s work but added: “I have been deeply troubled by allegations of misconduct, misuse of funds and discrimination at the Commission.” Durbin spearheaded an amendment that limited terms of commissioners and subjected them to federal regulations on discrimination and expenses, amid charges that some had flown first class and stayed in expensive hotels. The commission was set up under a 1998 law to advise the US government on religious freedom. It has strongly advocated for the rights of minorities around the world. Its statements on the Islamic world have sometimes been controversial. In its latest annual report, it called for the State Department to put Turkey — a secular state and US ally — on a blacklist over religious freedom that includes countries such as China, Iran and Saudi Arabia. Rejecting the USCIRF’s 2012 annual report Turkey said on April 5: “The report, which is prepared by politicians representing some interest groups, contradicts the findings of U.S. State Department’s annual reports so far.” In a written statement the Turkish Foreign Ministry also criticized the report for failing to address incidents in Europe based on Islamophobia, with many mosques having been attacked and religious leaders being appointed by the state. The statement thus said that “the report [had been] prepared for political reasons.” Shea and several other commissioners have long been accused of criticizing aspects of the Islamic faith in a way that unfairly stigmatizes all Muslims.
The allegations in the suit are the most explicit in a years-long series of allegations that commission leaders are biased against Muslims, specifically people associated with groups critical of U.S. foreign policy and who work for groups that fight anti-Muslim discrimination. Questions about the Ghori-Ahmad EEOC complaint — which commission lawyers had argued the body was exempt from — and how the commission uses its resources led some lawmakers last year to almost let USCIRF close for lack of reauthorization. Its budget was ultimately cut by a quarter and long-serving commissioners were forced out by retroactive term limits. [AMP Report]
Denial of 28 mosque applications spark federal government investigations
June 9: Concerned that prejudice rather than genuine zoning issues might be at work, the U.S. Department of Justice has opened 28 cases nationwide involving local denials of mosque construction applications since 2000, according to a department official. While Norwalk's (Connecticut) recent rejection of a proposed mosque on Fillow Street is not among them, the DOJ's investigations elsewhere are real. Of the 28 cases, 11 have resulted in full investigations and four remain open, The Hour online reported. "Of the 11 investigations opened since 2000, two resulted in the filing of DOJ lawsuits that were resolved by consent decrees, three resulted in the local government voluntarily permitting the mosque, one led to a settlement of a privately filed lawsuit, four are currently pending, and in one case we determined that further action by the department was not warranted," said the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. The department is now reviewing a case in West Haven to determine if an investigation is warranted, the official said. The Department of Justice opens matters and investigations when complaints are received by its Civil Rights Division or a U.S. Attorney's Office, or if a matter is brought to its attention through media coverage or referrals by attorneys, civil rights organizations or similar sources, according to the DOJ official.
For background, the official referred to the department's report on the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. Under RLUIPA, no government shall impose or implement a land use regulation that discriminates against any assembly or institution on the basis of religion or religious denomination. In its first 10 years of existence, RLUIPA has "had a dramatic impact in its first ten years on protecting the religious freedom of and preventing religious discrimination against individuals and institutions seeking to exercise their religions through construction, expansion, and use of property," according to the DOJ anniversary report. Since enactment of the law, the DOJ has opened 51 RLUIPA investigations, filed seven RLUIPA lawsuits, filed 10 amicus briefs in private cases, and intervened in private lawsuits to defend in the law in 30 land-use cases. Of the 51 investigations, 31 involved Christian, six involved Jewish, seven involved Muslim, three involved Buddhist, one involved Unitarian, one involved the Hindu faith and two involved multiple faiths, according to the report. The report cites 18 cases where RLUIPA was employed in response to churches or other houses of worship being denied construction or expansion. In Albanian Associated Fund v. Township of Wayne, N.J., the township allegedly delayed a mosque's building application then tried to stop the project by seizing property under eminent domain. The DOJ's Civil Rights Division argued that the township deliberately thwarted the mosque's application. The court agreed and the two parties ultimately settled their differences, according to the report. [The Hour Online]
FBI actions have left a Portland mosque and its imam feeling they're in the government's cross hairs
June 10: The Oregonian Masjed As-Saber, Oregon's largest mosque, draws Muslim immigrants, U.S.-born followers and local converts. Worshippers come from countries including Somalia, Morocco, Pakistan, and India. In the past two years, the FBI has placed at least five men with affiliations to the mosque, including its longtime religious leader, on the nation's no-fly list, a roster of suspected terrorists barred from flying in the United States. None has been charged with a terrorism-related offense, and federal officials haven't told them why they're on the list. The unexplained actions are aggravating the FBI's already poor relationship with the mosque and fueling fear and frustration among Muslims that their house of worship appears to be once again in the government's cross hairs. The FBI's top official in Portland said the agency doesn't go after people based on their religion, ethnicity or where they pray. "Nobody should be living in fear or concerned about random targeting by the FBI," said Special Agent in Charge Gregory Fowler. But he wouldn't comment about any of the local men detained by the FBI or respond to their allegations that authorities questioned them about the mosque and the imam and proposed that they become informants.
Mosques across the country are under close watch by local and federal authorities. In New York, police have conducted widespread surveillance of Muslim communities, even recording license plates of cars at mosques. In Southern California, the FBI is dealing with fallout from a claim by a former informant who says the FBI coached him to talk of violence to incite other Muslims at his mosque into terrorism-related conversations. In Oregon, Masjed As-Saber stands out for its traditional focus and charismatic imam, who urges worshippers to stay true to the vast library of strict Islamic teachings, down to the conviction that men and women shouldn't trim their eyebrows. The imam himself, Sheikh Mohamed Kariye, has been at the center of an FBI investigation. He also is one of 15 men suing the FBI over the constitutionality of the no-fly list.
Ongoing FBI attention
Somalia born Imam Kariye, 50, came to Portland in 1982, leaving Somalia, which was in the grips of political unrest that included harassment of Islamic scholars. A U.S. citizen since 1998, he became the imam at Masjed As-Saber in 1999. His rise has not gone unnoticed by the FBI. In September 2002, authorities arrested Kariye at Portland International Airport as he and family members prepared to fly to Dubai. He was charged the next day with Social Security fraud, but his arrest by the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force signaled a more ominous suspicion. The arrest was unusual. A federal prosecutor successfully argued to hold Kariye without bail, saying a customs official at the airport had found traces of TNT on his bags. Tests two weeks later concluded the initial findings were wrong and Kariye was released the following month. Kariye pleaded guilty six months later to understating his income to qualify for Oregon Health Plan benefits and using a Social Security card with a false birth date to obtain the benefits. A judge sentenced him to probation and he paid $6,000 in fines and restitution. But that didn't end the FBI's interest. An affidavit in August 2003 revealed that agents believed Kariye financially supported a group of Muslims -- known as the Portland Seven -- who had tried to reach Afghanistan to fight for the Taliban in September 2001. Most had regularly prayed at Masjed As-Saber and were turned in by an FBI informant at the mosque who recorded hours of conversations with two primary defendants. Kariye was never charged. The FBI affidavit stated the informant failed to record a key conversation that allegedly described the imam's support.
Then in March 2010, Kariye tried to board a flight to Dubai to visit his daughter, but was blocked by an airport official who told him he was on a government watch list, according to the lawsuit challenging the no-fly list. In the past year, four men who have or still regularly attend Masjed As-Saber have found themselves on the no-fly list as well: Michael Migliore, Jamal Tarhuni, Mustafa Elogbi and Yonas Fikre. All said they were asked about their faith. In some cases, FBI agents seemed to suggest that being devout was a sign of extremism, they said. At least two said they were asked to spy at the mosque. [The Oregonian]
The Nation Magazine highlights growing Islamophobia in the U.S.
June 15: The Nation Magazine has a special issue entitled "Islamophobia: Anatomy of an American Panic" with articles examining different aspects of Islamophobia in the US. Very informative and in-depth articles by prominent writers on Islamophobia include: (1) Fear and Loathing of Islam by Moustafa Bayoumi; (2) How the Media Created the Muslim Monster Myth by Jack Shaheen; (3) Deploying Informants, the FBI Stings Muslims by Petra Bartosiewicz; (4) Islamophobia and Its Discontents by Laila Lalami; (5) The True Story of Sharia in American Courts by Ramzi Kassem; (6) The Long Roots of the NYPD Spying Program by Abed Awad; (7) The Sugar Mama of Anti-Muslim Hate by Max Blumentha; and (8) When Your Father Is Accused of Terrorism" by Laila Al-Arian. [The Nation Magazine]
Continued on next page
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