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Chronology of Islam in America (2006)
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
March 2006
Islamic holiday closings rejected
March 1: The Baltimore County Board of Education (Maryland) has endorsed a subcommittee recommendation not to close schools on two Islamic holidays, as proposed by a Muslim group. The recommendations would have given special treatment to the Muslim holy days, including noting them on the school calendar and taking class time to teach their significance. School board member John A. Hayden III said that hundreds of religious sects are represented in county classrooms and that teaching all religions would be impractical. But Muslims in the county point out that schools are closed on Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year celebration, and Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement. The group wanted county schools closed for Eid al-Adha, which marks the end of the yearly pilgrimage to Mecca, and Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan, the month of fasting. In the upcoming school year, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. (Washington Times)
FBI's informant worked at Muslim charity 3 years
March 2: The FBI operative (Darren Griffin) known as the Trainer was a part-time employee for three years at KindHearts, the Toledo-based Muslim charity shut down by the government. During the three years Darren Griffin worked a $7-an-hour, part-time job at KindHearts, his co-workers knew him as Bilal and considered him to be a faithful Muslim and an American patriot who served in the U.S. military in Iraq. His work led to the arrests of three men on terrorism charges last month. Federal officials declined to confirm that Griffin, 39, of Toledo, is the Trainer. KindHearts' attorney and a board member Jihad Smaili said he believes investigators planted Griffin inside KindHearts in an effort to link the charity with terrorists. (The Plain Dealer)
Bush signs new version of Patriot Act
March 9: President Bush today signed the new version of the USA Patriot Act, the broad anti-terrorism law that gave the FBI expanded powers after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. "America remains a nation at war," Bush said at a White House signing ceremony. " . . . In the face of this ruthless threat, our nation has made a clear choice. . . . We are not going to be attacked again." Bush's signature followed approval by the House and Senate after an often emotional debate over whether the law tramples on civil liberties. Provisions of the original law expired at the end of last year, but Congress twice temporarily extended the expiration date while members debated how to handle the issue. Bush accepted some changes in the law. For example, one change involves National Security Letters, which are subpoenas for financial and electronic records that do not require a judge's approval. Libraries functioning in their "traditional capacity" would no longer be subject to such letters. The reauthorization would make permanent all but two of the Patriot Act's provisions. The Senate, in which four Republicans joined most Democrats in pushing for greater safeguards, insisted on four-year sunsets of the FBI's authority to conduct "roving wiretaps" of targets with multiple phones or e-mail devices, and of the government's powers to seize business records with the FISA court's approval. (Washington Post)
Dubai firm to shed stake in U.S. ports backlash led to decision
March 9: Bowing to extreme public and political pressure, a United Arab Emirates company said today that it would give up its management stake in U.S. seaports, including Baltimore's, rather than continue to fight what increasingly appeared to be a lost battle. For more than three weeks, the pending sale of British-owned Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. to state-owned Dubai Ports World has generated controversy, splitting many congressional Republicans - especially in the House of Representatives - from President Bush, who had said repeatedly that he supported the deal. Republican leaders told Bush at a White House meeting that the backlash was too extreme to overcome. Within hours, Virginia Sen. John W. Warner was on the Senate floor, announcing that DP World had decided to shed the U.S. holdings. Warner, a Republican who helped run interference between the company, the White House and his colleagues, said the prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, Sheik Muhammad bin Rashid al Maktoum, had told the company that giving up the U.S. portion of the deal was the best course for the interests of both countries. (Baltimore Sun)
Secrecy in Salah case hearing angers civil liberties advocates
March 9: A hearing is taking place at the federal courthouse in Chicago that has all the intrigue of a spy novel — Israeli agents, disguises and allegations of torture. But that intrigue is being kept far from the public eye: Two security guards block the public and press from entering the closed courtroom, a move that has raised many eyebrows and incensed some civil liberties advocates. The pretrial hearing involves Muhammad Salah, a Bridgeview, Ill., man charged with laundering money for the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Salah was arrested in Israel in 1993 and confessed but says he was tortured into giving that confession. Two Israeli intelligence agents are being called to testify about Salah’s interrogation in an effort to determine whether the confession can be used at Salah’s trial. Although experts say judges frequently take special precautions to protect witnesses, the judge’s decision to keep the pretrial hearing secret to better safeguard the agents against reprisals has upset opponents of government secrecy. “I don’t believe serving the interest of a foreign intelligence agency is high priority for the American people,” said Ahmed Rehab, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Chicago. “A higher priority is a fair and open trial guaranteed in the Constitution.” (MSNBC)
$360K Settlement for Harassment of Muslim Worker
March 9: The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has announced a $360,000 settlement of a workplace discrimination lawsuit against Lithia Subaru of Oregon City on behalf of two former car salesmen, one of whom was subjected to a hostile work environment because of his national origin (Iranian) and religion (Islam), forcing him to quit. The company, a national car dealership with headquarters in Medford, Oregon, also agreed to make policy changes to address any future discrimination. The EEOC's suit alleged that a new management team subjected the Iranian charging party to a daily barrage of slurs, including "terrorist" and "camel jockey" as well as commenting that he went to Al-Qaeda training camps. The charging party was also physically harassed, including being intentionally tripped by a co-worker, resulting in a broken nose and a knee injury. (CAIR bulletin)
ACLU files suit to stop domestic surveillance program
March 9: A civil rights group has asked a federal court in Detroit to immediately stop the Bush administration’s domestic surveillance program. The American Civil Liberties Union filed legal papers before U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor, saying that the program is illegal and unconstitutional, according to a news release from the civil rights group. After the New York Times reported that the National Security Agency was eavesdropping on people inside the United States without court approval, the ACLU field a lawsuit against the agency on behalf of a group of journalists, terrorism experts, and advocacy groups. Some of them are from Michigan, including the Michigan branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “The president does not have a blank check that allows him to ignore basic constitutional rights of Americans,’’ said Kary Moss, executive director of the Michigan branch of the ACLU, in a news release. (Detroit Free Press)
Two new polls show negative image of Islam in America
MARCH 10: Two polls released today indicate that almost half of Americans have a negative perception of Islam and that one in four of those surveyed have "extreme" anti-Muslim views. A growing proportion of Americans are expressing unfavorable views of Islam, and a majority now say that Muslims are disproportionately prone to violence, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. The proportion of Americans who believe that Islam helps to stoke violence against non-Muslims has more than doubled since the attacks, from 14 percent in January 2002 to 33 percent today, the poll indicated. Meanwhile, an independent survey by the Council on American-Islamic Relations CAIR), a leading American Muslim civil rights group, showed that some one-fourth (23 to 27 percent) of Americans consistently believe stereotypes such as: "Muslims value life less than other people," and "The Muslim religion teaches violence and hatred."
A similar poll released today by the Washington Post and ABC News also found that one in four Americans "admitted to harboring prejudice toward Muslims." That survey indicated that 46 percent of Americans have a negative view of Islam, a seven percent jump since the months following the 9/11 terror attacks. The Washington Post-ABC poll also showed that the number of Americans who believe that Islam promotes violence has more than doubled since 2002. Analysts blame the surge on a confluence of factors: the proposed takeover of US ports operations by a Dubai firm (now abandoned); the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; the election of Hamas in the Palestinian territories; and, above all, the riotous protests across the Muslim world against Danish cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad. (American Muslim Perspective Report)
Judge issues secret ruling in case of two at mosque
March 11: A federal judge issued a highly unusual classified ruling yesterday, denying a motion for dismissal of a case against two leaders of an Albany mosque who are accused of laundering money in a federal terrorism sting operation. Because the ruling was classified, the defense lawyers were barred from reading why the judge decided that way. The defense lawyers had asked the judge to dismiss the case, saying that they believed the government's evidence came from wiretaps obtained without a warrant by the National Security Agency. The two mosque leaders, Yassin M. Aref, 35, and Mohammed M. Hossain, 50, were charged in August 2004 with conspiring with a government informant to take part in what they believed was a plot to import a shoulder-fired missile and assassinate a Pakistani diplomat. The classified order by Judge Thomas J. McAvoy of United States District Court for the Northern District of New York came only a few hours after the government filed its own classified documents to the judge. Prosecutors were responding to a motion filed on Jan. 20 by Mr. Aref's lawyer, Terence L. Kindlon. The prosecutors asked the judge to review their papers in his chambers without making them public or showing them to the defense. At mid afternoon the judge issued a document announcing that he had entered the classified order denying Mr. Kindlon's request. It is common in federal court for judges to place documents and legal discussions under seal, meaning that the judge and the lawyers can be informed of the proceedings, but the public cannot. In this case, Judge McAvoy's order is classified, a higher degree of secrecy. (New York Times)
U.S. bungled cases against terror suspects
March 14: Mistakes and bungled prosecutions have bedeviled the Bush administration's prosecution of suspected terrorism. The Los Angeles Times listed a series of what it called "missteps and false starts," including the botched handling of witnesses in the current trial of accused al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui. It noted that in 2002, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft announced that Jose Padilla, a Bronx-born Muslim, had been arrested on suspicion of "exploring a plan to build and explode a radiological dispersion device, or 'dirty bomb,' in the United States." Padilla was held for nearly four years in a military brig without being charged. This year, as his lawyers appealed his case to the Supreme Court, the administration indicted him in Miami on charges of conspiring to aid terrorists abroad. There was no mention of a "dirty bomb," the newspaper said. In May 2004, the FBI arrested Brandon Mayfield, an Oregon lawyer and Muslim convert, saying that his fingerprint was on a bag containing detonators and explosives linked to the Madrid train bombings that had killed 191 people two months before. Mayfield was freed after almost three weeks in custody and received an apology from the FBI, which blamed the misidentification on a substandard digital image from Spanish authorities, the newspaper said. The Los Angeles Times noted that a computer science student in Idaho was accused of aiding terrorists when he designed a Web site that included information on terrorists in Chechnya and Israel. A jury in Boise acquitted Sami Omar Al-Hussayen of the charges in June 2004. And after Florida college professor Sami al-Arian was indicted on charges of supporting terrorists by promoting the cause of Palestinian groups, a jury in Tampa acquitted him in December, the paper said. (United Press International)
U.S. leaders asked to repudiate Pat Rebertson’s anti-Islam remarks
March 14: The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today called on mainstream American political and religious leaders to repudiate the most recent Islamophibic remarks by televangelist Pat Robertson, who claimed yesterday that the goal of Islam "is world domination." The CAIR said Robertson made that claim and other anti-Muslim remarks on his Christian Broadcasting Network "700 Club" program. He told his audience: "Islam is not a religion of peace," and "The goal of Islam, ladies and gentlemen whether you like it or not, is world domination." He also referred to some Muslims as being motivated by "demonic power." In the past, Robertson has repeatedly defamed Islam and Muslims on the "700 Club" program. He called Islam the "religion of the slavers" and said Americans who converted to Islam exhibited "insanity." Robertson once said he would be wary of appointing Muslims to positions in the U.S. government, including judgeships. "The failure by mainstream religious and political leaders to challenge Mr. Robertson's Islamophobic remarks will send the false message to Muslims worldwide that the majority of Americans agree with his hate-filled views," said CAIR executive Director Nihad Awad. "The constant, and largely unchallenged, drumbeat of anti-Muslim rhetoric is poisoning the public's attitude toward ordinary American Muslims." (CAIR Bulletin)
Muslim immigrants' lives in limbo
March 14: It took immigration authorities nearly three years to determine that commercial jet pilot Mazin Shalabi was not a security threat. Each time Mazin Shalabi settles into the cockpit of an American Eagle jet, he is entrusted with the lives of all passengers on board. As a Jordanian citizen and a pilot for the regional affiliate of the world's largest airline, Mr. Shalabi is vetted regularly by the Federal Aviation Administration, the FBI and other federal agencies. But when Mr. Shalabi applied for U.S. citizenship, it took immigration authorities nearly three years to determine that he was not a threat. Mr. Shalabi is not a devout Muslim . But he is one of at least 40 Muslim men from North Texas, and hundreds more across the country, who have waited years on end for an answer to citizenship or green card applications. They are told their cases are snagged because of security issues, including an FBI background check. Until that hurdle is cleared, their immigration applications can remain pending indefinitely. (The Dallas Morning News)
Group drops plan for Turkish cultural center in South Park, Pennsylvania
March 15: After facing what it saw as anti-Muslim sentiment at a public hearing last week, a Turkish organization has dropped its plan to turn a vacant school in South Park into a cultural center. "As a group that promotes peace and dialogue, we have never encountered such negativity in our long history here," the West Penn Cultural Center board said in a statement. The group withdrew its application for a permit to turn the old Broughton Elementary School into a facility where members of the Turkish community could adapt to American culture while maintaining Turkish traditions and language. They also planned to worship in one of the classrooms on Friday afternoons. At the public hearing, some residents said they didn't want the cultural center to renovate the school, claiming Islamic centers and mosques can harbor sleeper cells of terrorists. The group, which has been in Pittsburgh for six years, said it was looking for a place to keep its traditions alive and to engage in interfaith dialogue. It bought the graffiti-covered, boarded up school for $100,000 and planned to make about $300,000 in improvements, their attorney, Dwight Ferguson, repeatedly told South Park officials and residents. In a letter to the editor that appeared in Tuesday's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Rob Belan, of South Park, demanded that the cultural group openly denounce radical Islam and terrorism if it hopes to be accepted in South Park. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
Franklin Graham reaffirms scorn for Islam
March 15: The Rev. Franklin Graham, who outraged Muslims in 2001 when he said that Islam "is a very evil and wicked religion," told an interviewer of ABC News "Nightline" that he hasn't changed his mind about the faith. Asked by ABC correspondent John Donvan whether Muslim groups had succeeded in altering his outlook about Islam, Graham said "No." Frank Graham angered Muslims following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks when he told NBC News: "We're not attacking Islam but Islam has attacked us. The God of Islam is not the same God. He's not the son of God of the Christian or Judeo-Christian faith. It's a different God, and I believe it is a very evil and wicked religion." (Associated Press)
Author says American Muslim women defy stereotypes
March 15: Contradicting traditional stereotypes of Muslim women as veiled and oppressed, Muslim Women in America: The Challenge of Islamic Identity Today (Oxford University Press, 2006), by Georgetown University Professor Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad and co-authors Jane I. Smith and Kathleen M. Moore, reveals Muslim women in America to be diverse and active in shaping the role of Muslims in the West. “Muslim women have been empowered to participate in the public arena to pursue their interests, whether these interests are counteracting prejudice or pursuing professional dreams or serving the common welfare through community service,” the authors write. “They have contributed in especially significant ways in the negotiation of what it means to be Muslim in the American context.” Haddad, Smith and Moore argue that Western imperial history, the entertainment industry and the government have helped reinforce negative stereotypes of Muslim women. The authors, rather, aim to show that Muslim women in America are “members of American society who act in conformity neither with Western assumption nor, necessarily, with the dictates of Islamic traditionalism.” (Georgetown University News)
Muslim father and son removed from airplane because flight attendant felt 'uncomfortable'
March 16: The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights today asked the U.S. Department of Transportation to investigate a recent incident of racial profiling on board UA flight 6501, operated by United Express/SkyWest Airlines, and to take action against the airlines. Two Muslim men of South Asian descent were removed from the flight simply because their presence made a flight attendant uncomfortable, and despite the fact that they posed no security risk. On January 31, 2006, Mohammed Khan and his father, Fazal Khan, had boarded their flight from Los Angeles to Oakland and were waiting for the plane to take off. Both men wore traditional South Asian tunics and white skullcaps, and both had long beards. After the flight was delayed an hour on the runway, a customer service representative boarded the plane and told the Khans that they would have to leave the aircraft to discuss something inside the terminal. There, the representative informed the men that they could not remain on the flight because their presence made the flight attendant uncomfortable. She found them seats on a different flight that departed two hours later. The circumstances make it abundantly clear that no security rationale existed for the Khans' removal. The airline even left the men's checked luggage on board the original flight, which took off shortly after the Khans were removed. In addition, when the Khans protested to the customer service representative that they had done nothing wrong, the representative did not deny their claim or state that their behavior was suspicious, but only repeated that the flight attendant was not comfortable with them on board. Moreover, the Khans were not questioned or searched before they boarded the second flight, and to their knowledge, no airport security official was even informed of their removal."Racial stereotypes must never be the basis for a decision to remove someone from an airplane," said attorney Shirin Sinnar of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights. "In the months after 9/11, South Asian or Middle Eastern passengers were removed from flights numerous times based purely on prejudice. (CAIR Bulletin)
Angry Arabs denounce dumping Merhi
March 27: Arab-Americans from both political parties expressed outrage and sadness a day after Passaic County Democrats pulled their support from Lebanese-born freeholder candidate Sami Merhi. Merhi was booted from the party ticket when Democratic Party leaders feared that comments he made in 2002 about Palestinian suicide bombers would hinder their election chances in November. "It's a sad day for Muslims, it's a sad day for Arabs, and a sad day for immigrants in general, and for any community that wants to participate in the great political process in the U.S.," said Sohail Mohammed, a Clifton-based general counsel for the American Muslim Union. (Herald News)
Arab-Americans tell NJ Governor of candidate's 'political lynching'
March 29: Arab-American leaders told the New Jersey Governor Jon S. Corzine that dumping a Lebanese-born candidate for a county office because of comments he made about terrorism amounted to "political lynching," and asked the governor for help fighting what they feel is a renewed climate of Arab-bashing. At a private meeting with the governor in the Statehouse, eight Arab-American community leaders protested the treatment of Sami Merhi of Totowa. Merhi was chosen by Passaic County Democrats to run for freeholder, then dumped from the ticket a week later over comments he made in 2002 that some interpreted as sympathetic to suicide bombers. Merhi reiterated that he has always condemned terrorism in all forms. When he said he could not see the comparison between the Sept. 11 hijackers and Palestinian suicide bombers, he meant that while all murder is wrong, the 9/11 attacks were mass murder on an unprecedented scale. Corzine and U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez publicly opposed Merhi's nomination, citing the comments. (Associated Press)
Michigan Muslims worked for Carroll's release
March 30: From holding news conferences to making a hazardous trip to Baghdad, Iraq, Muslims in Michigan and across the United States launched an extraordinary campaign to help secure the release of kidnapped journalist Jill Carroll. During the three months that she was held hostage, Muslims - with their words and their actions - organized for her freedom and condemned the kidnapping as un-Islamic. Some even worked their political and religious contacts inside Iraq. American Muslims have called for the freeing of hostages before. But this time, they went all out. In Michigan, local Muslims swung into action in the days after Carroll's kidnapping on Jan. 7. On Jan. 18, the Islamic Shura Council of Michigan - an umbrella group of more than 20 Muslim groups from across the state - said in a statement that "kidnapping and hurting innocent civilians will help no cause." (Detroit Free Press)
Terror prosecutor indicted
March 30: Richard G. Convertino, the one-time federal prosecutor who won two convictions in the nation's first terror trial after September 11, was formally indicted Wednesday on charges that he built that case on perjury and deception. The four-count indictment alleges Convertino and Harry Raymond Smith III, a State Department security officer in Amman, Jordan, concealed photographs and lied under oath about a hospital in that country that was supposedly a terrorist target. The pictures could have helped the defense attorneys, authorities say. The indictment marks another low point for the government in the disastrous Detroit sleeper cell case.If convicted, Convertino faces up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine. Smith faces up to 20 years and a $750,000 fine. (The Detroit News)
AI expresses concern over Ahmed Abu Ali’s trial and conviction
March 31: In a statement, Amnesty International said today: Ahmed Omar Abu Ali was yesterday (March 30, 2006) sentenced in a US federal court to 30 years’ imprisonment with an extra 30 years of supervised release, after being convicted in November 2005 by a federal jury on nine counts of conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism, including plotting with members of al Qa’ida to assassinate US President George W. Bush. US District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee stated that the sentence would “provide just punishment” and Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty called the conviction and sentencing a “milestone achievement in the international effort to bring terrorists to justice”. Amnesty International remains seriously concerned that the trial of Ahmed Abu Ali was flawed as the jury was not allowed to hear evidence supporting his claim that he was tortured into confessing while he was held for one and a half years without charge or trial in Saudi Arabia. Amnesty International is seriously concerned that the case may have set a worrying precedent on the admissibility of torture evidence in US courts. Amnesty International urges that, if appealed, the courts will address this issue. (Amnesty International)
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