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Chronology of Islam in America (2013)
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
May 2013 - Page Two
Are the Feds unfairly targeting Muslim students who oppose Israel?
May 14: In Washington D.C. today, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) opened a probe of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), following reports that the IRS was unfairly targeting conservative non-profit groups affiliated with the Tea Party movement. Closer to home, the California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), joined by a coalition of other civil rights groups, has petitioned the U.S. Department of Education (DOE), asking that the agency review how it investigates allegations of anti-Semitism at three college campuses: UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz and UC Irvine. Since 2008, the DOE has investigated the trio of schools for creating a "hostile climate" for Jewish students by allowing discussions to take place on campus that are critical of U.S. support for Israel. According to CAIR, these probes have falsely linked criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism and have unfairly targeted Muslim and other students who have done nothing more than exercise their constitutionally-protected rights to freedom of speech. "While the DOE should thoroughly look into civil rights complaints, these allegations cross the line between protecting civil rights and targeting certain political views," says CAIR-LA's lead staff attorney Ameena Qazim, who was featured on the cover of the Weekly's inaugural People issue earlier this year. "By not closing out these investigations, the DOE is undermining the university's responsibility to provide a safe space and equal opportunity for all students to engage in campus activism without fear of harassment or discrimination."
The letter sent by CAIR to the DOE points out that the agency failed to interview the student groups targeted in the probes despite the fact those groups "repeatedly made themselves available" to the agency. "The abuse of civil rights laws to silence political views tramples on the First Amendment, and is already causing a tangible, detrimental impact on Arab, Muslim, and other students who espouse particular views of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," adds Liz Jackson, Cooperating Counsel for the Center for Constitutional Rights. [Orange County Register]
The Criminalization of Political Dissent in America
May 14: Last week, Massachusetts high school student Cameron D’Ambrosio was arrested and charged under “terrorism” laws merely for posting lyrics on Facebook that make reference to the Boston Marathon bombings. He faces 20 years in prison. A string of similar “terror” prosecutions around the country take aim at the First Amendment protection of free speech and political expression. The authorities have already branded select participants in Occupy Wall Street and anti-NATO protests as “terrorists.” Last year, heavily-armed “domestic terrorism” commandos raided Occupy Wall Street protesters’ homes in Washington and Oregon, using battering rams and stun grenades. The commandos were authorized to seize all “anti-government or anarchist literature or material.” As with freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, also guaranteed under the First Amendment, has not been officially repealed. The reality, however, is that political assembly is already a semi-criminal activity in America. Political protests are routinely met with vastly disproportionate police mobilizations, confinement to oxymoronic “free speech zones,” “kettling” (in which protesters are surrounded and forcibly moved in one direction or prevented from leaving an area), beatings, tear gas, pepper spray, stun grenades or rubber bullets. The standard government response to a political protest is a massive show of force, complete with police snipers on rooftops. The drive towards the establishment of an American police state, initiated under the Bush administration, has shifted into high gear under Obama. For nearly twelve years, the phony “war on terror” has been used as the overarching pretext for illegal imperialist war abroad and a methodical assault on democratic rights at home. The basic structure of authoritarian rule is now emerging into plain view. Over the recent period, the government has vastly expanded its warrantless surveillance of the population. The Obama administration has constructed a massive data center in Utah big enough to store the contents of every personal computer in the country. Already at a government agent’s fingertips--without a warrant--are all of a person’s Internet browsing activity, telephone conversations, text messages, credit card transactions, mobile phone GPS location data, travel itineraries, Skype and Facebook data, medical records, criminal records, financial records and surveillance camera footage. [Information Clearing House]
Monitoring of AP Phones a "Terrifying" Step in State Assault on Press Freedom
May 15: The Justice Department has acknowledged seizing the work, home and cellphone records used by almost 100 reporters and editors at the Associated Press. The phones targeted included the general AP office numbers in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Hartford, Connecticut, and the main number for the AP in the House of Representatives press gallery. The action likely came as part of a probe into the leaks behind an AP story on the U.S. intelligence operation that stopped a Yemen-based al-Qaeda bombing plot on a U.S.-bound airplane. Chris Hedges, a senior fellow at The Nation Institute and former New York Times reporter, calls the monitoring "one more assault in a long series of assault against freedom of information and freedom of the press." Highlighting the Obama administration’s targeting of government whistleblowers, Hedges adds: "Talk to any investigative journalist who must investigate the government, and they will tell you that there is a deep freeze. People are terrified of speaking, because they’re terrified of going to jail." The phones targeted by the subpoena included the general AP office numbers in New York City; Washington, D.C.; and Hartford, Connecticut; and for the main number for the AP in the House of Representatives press gallery. The records were from April and May of 2012. Among those whose records were obtained were Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman, three other reporters and an editor, all of whom worked on a story about an operation conducted by the CIA and allied intelligence agencies that stopped a Yemen-based al-Qaeda plot to detonate a bomb on an airplane headed for the United States. [AlterNet]
Military quietly grants itself the power to police the streets without local or state consent
May 15: The manhunt for the Boston Marathon bombing suspects offered the nation a window into the stunning military-style capabilities of our local law enforcement agencies. For the past 30 years, police departments throughout the United States have benefitted from the government’s largesse in the form of military weaponry and training, incentives offered in the ongoing “war on drugs.” For the average citizen watching events such as the intense pursuit of the Tsarnaev brothers on television, it would be difficult to discern between fully outfitted police SWAT teams and the military. The lines blurred even further Monday as a new dynamic was introduced to the militarization of domestic law enforcement. By making a few subtle changes to a regulation in the U.S. Code titled “Defense Support of Civilian Law Enforcement Agencies” the military has quietly granted itself the ability to police the streets without obtaining prior local or state consent, upending a precedent that has been in place for more than two centuries. The most objectionable aspect of the regulatory change is the inclusion of vague language that permits military intervention in the event of “civil disturbances.” According to the rule: “Federal military commanders have the authority, in extraordinary emergency circumstances where prior authorization by the President is impossible and duly constituted local authorities are unable to control the situation, to engage temporarily in activities that are necessary to quell large-scale, unexpected civil disturbances.” Bruce Afran, a civil liberties attorney and constitutional law professor at Rutgers University, calls the rule, “a wanton power grab by the military.” He says, “It’s quite shocking actually because it violates the long-standing presumption that the military is under civilian control.” [AlterNet]
NY newspaper Slams Islamophobe Pamela Geller
May 16: We don’t often reply to letters from readers in this space. But the words of reader Joan Swirsky cannot stand without response. Swirsky wrote about an editorial in which we called activist Pamela Geller a “bigot” and criticized Great Neck Chabad for inviting Geller to speak on April 14. She writes that “Geller is soft-spoken, often humorous, and the opposite of hateful.” Really? Geller once posted a drawing on her blog of Muhammad with the head of pig superimposed over his own. She also said that Muslims have sex with goats. When she was criticized for this, Geller responded by saying, “I don’t know where it is in America that you can’t make jokes or make fun.” On her blog, Atlas Shrugs, she posted a mock photograph of Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan in a Nazi uniform and a doctored photograph showing President Obama urinating on an American flag and said the president had been involved as a youth with a “crack whore.”
That’s just a sample of Geller’s venom. Swirsky asks if we would criticize an organization that invited a leader of the Klan or a Neo-Nazi to speak. Indeed we would, but as in the case of Geller, we would recognize their constitutional right to do so. We would make an exception for a college or university that invited such vile people to participate in a debate-type format where their comments would be challenged. That didn’t happen at Great Neck Chabad or when Geller spoke before the Nassau County Federation for Republican Women two weeks ago. Apparently the GOP on Long Island has written off everyone who worships in a mosque..... We stand by our editorial and our belief that speakers who are divisive and hateful, even if they are “soft-spoken,” and “humorous,” should not be honored guests at religious or political events. [The Island Now, New York]
State Department report recognizes rising Islamophobia
May 20: The State Department, in a new on international religious freedom, has recognized rising Islamophobia. The International Religious Freedom Report pointed out that “Anti-Muslim rhetoric and actions were clearly on the rise--particularly in Europe and Asia.” According to the report, “Government restrictions, which often coincided with societal animosity, resulted in anti-Muslim actions that affected everyday life for numerous believers.” The report which covers the year 2012 pointed out: (a) The impact ranged from education, to employment, to personal safety within communities. Government restrictions on religious attire also remained an issue, as Muslim women faced increasing restrictions on head coverings in schools, in public sector employment, and in public spaces. (b) In Belgium, the Constitutional Court ruled that the nation’s 2011 ban on face-covering attire, with no exception for religious garments, did not violate religious freedom. (c) In India, several educational institutions in Mangalore, Karnataka, reportedly banned Muslim girls from wearing headscarves. Since 2009, schools and colleges run by both Hindu and Christian administrations have prevented Muslim female students and teachers from covering their heads, citing a uniform dress code. (d) In contrast, in November, Turkey lifted a ban on female students wearing headscarves in schools that provided religious education.”
Countries of particular concern included Burma (Myanmar), in which "Muslims in Rakhine State, particularly those of the Rohingya minority group, continued to be subjected to lethal violence and to experience severe forms of legal, economic, educational, and social discrimination." The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, has welcomed the State Department report. "We hope there will now be serious effort by the Department of State to challenge the dangerous phenomenon of Islamophobia," CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said adding that just today, media reports indicate that Greek neo-Nazis are threatening to block construction of that nation's first mosque. He said protection of minority communities and their rights is a religious obligation in Islam. [AMP Report]
Hindu immigrants to U.S. doubled in last decade, reveals survey
May 20: A survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has unearthed surprising trends in the religious identities of immigrants who received permanent residence in the U.S., particularly the fact that the footprint of Hindu migrants increased from three per cent in 1992 to seven in 2012. The rise of minority religions in the U.S. immigrant profile appeared to come at the cost of Christian immigrants, the survey suggested. While Christians still comprised the majority, their estimated share among legal permanent residents dropped from 68 to 61 per cent over the period. While the overall estimated share of green card holders among religious minorities rose from 19 to 25 per cent, other religions also witnessed a surge, with the share of Muslims climbing from five to 10 per cent. The Pew results will be food for thought to U.S. lawmakers, who are close to formalizing what might be the most significant overhaul of immigration rules in recent times under the rubric of “comprehensive immigration reform.” [The Hindu]
Islamophobia still plagues Muslims living in Alameda County
May 21: The quarter-million Muslims live in the San Francisco Bay Area face ongoing, entrenched Islamophobia more than a decade after 9/11, according to a new study. “The Bay Area Muslim Study: Establishing Community and Identity” found 40 percent of Muslims in the region have experienced personal discrimination and 23 percent have been victims of a hate crime. The discrimination against Muslims was particularly pronounced in school-aged children, the study found. “More than a decade after 9/11, we see that Muslims of all ethnicities and backgrounds are still dealing with a lot of anxiety, a lot of fear, a lot of bias,” said Hatem Bazian, Ph.D., one of the principal researchers and a University of California, Berkeley, senior lecturer said in a prepared statement. “Unfortunately, the tragic events in Boston won't help the problem.” Bay Area Muslims cope with cultural isolationism, socioeconomic factors and immigration issues, according to the study. Alameda County is home to 37 percent of the approximately 250,000 Muslims living in the Bay Area. Four other counties also were included in the study: Santa Clara County — 27 percent; Contra Costa County — 12 percent; San Francisco County — 3 percent; Marin County — 1 percent and San Mateo County — 6 percent.
The study, which surveyed more than 1,100 Muslims living in those six counties, found there were significant income disparities within the Muslim community. The median household income is $70,686, lower than the average for the general Bay Area region of $77,879. South Asian Muslims had the highest income levels, but some families made far less, with 11 percent of Muslim households reporting an income under $20,000 annually. Muslim immigrants in the Bay Area tend to be well-educated and multilingual, the study found. Among survey respondents, 74 percent had attended some college, 25 percent had earned a graduate degree and 5 percent had a Ph.D. Over 71 percent speak a language other than Englihs and 67 percent speak at least three languages. Researchers attributed the high rate of bilingualism to high tech companies recruiting employees from India and Pakistan. But the study found that Muslim refugees, such as those from Iraq and Afghanistan, have tremendous needs for social and legal services. The larger Muslim community would benefit from opportunities for coalition building and collaboration with non-Muslim civic organizations to prevent isolationism among Muslims, the study stated. [rockridge.patch]
Study finds Muslim women wearing headscarfs face job discrimination
May 23: In a study, Assistant Professor Sonia Ghumman from the University of Hawaii Mānoa Shidler College of Business found that Hijabis (Muslim women who wear headscarves) encountered discrimination when seeking employment. “We conducted a field experiment to investigate the extent to which individuals wearing religious attire encounter discrimination during the hiring process,” said Ghumman. “We asked students (ages 19-22) from several ethnic backgrounds to seek employment with and without the hijab (headscarf) at retail stores and restaurants in two shopping malls. The malls were located primarily in middle-income cities in the Midwest. The job seekers were paired with an observer and yielded a total of 112 trials.” The study measured: 1) formal discrimination, marked by explicit negative behaviors such as outright refusal; 2) interpersonal discrimination, a more subtle expression of discrimination both in nonverbal and verbal behaviors; and 3) expectations to receive job offers. According to Ghumman, the findings revealed that wearing a hijab had a negative impact in all aspects of the hiring process compared to Muslim women who did not wear a hijab. The field experiment tracked several areas of the hiring process, including the permission to complete job applications, job availability, job call backs, interaction time, and perceived negativity and lack of interest by the employer. [University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa]
Violent altercation between teacher, student caught on video
May 24: The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN) today welcomed a Champlin Park High School investigation of a violent altercation in a classroom between a teacher and minority student. Concerned Somali community members reported the incident to CAIR-MN after two videos were posted online. In the first video, a student is seen approaching the minority student and violently attacking him after a verbal altercation. In the second video, a teacher grabs the minority student by the throat, chokes him, and twists his limbs. In that video, a student watching the ordeal is heard saying to the teacher, “That’s enough, Mr. Hall” in an attempt to stop him. “We are asking the school to conduct a swift, open and independent investigation into this matter,” said CAIR-MN Executive Director Lori Saroya. “A determination must be made as to whether the teacher followed protocol and if he used excessive force during this violent altercation.” Saroya said that Minnesota law states that any “unreasonable interference with a child’s breathing” cannot be considered reasonable force. In 2012, the Anoka-Hennepin School District settled two lawsuits and a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the bullying of students after six district students committed suicide in less than two years. In February 2013, CAIR-MN called on Minneapolis South High School to utilize mediation and multi-cultural competency training to help remedy race-related issues at the school after a brawl reportedly between Somali and African-American students erupted at the school. In January 2013, African-American students reported feeling unsafe at Washburn High School after a hate incident involving a dark-skinned doll that was hung by a string at the school. Last year, the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) reached a federal agreement with Owatonna and St. Cloud Public Schools after CAIR-MN asked for an investigation into the harassment of Somali Muslim students. [CAIR]
U.S. District Court ruling prevents Maricopa County Sheriff's office from racial profiling
May 26: The Council on American Islamic Relations - Arizona Chapter welcomed a May 24 ruling in U.S. District Court that Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his deputies violated the civil rights of Latinos by racial profiling during raids and traffic stops. According to the ruling, it is now illegal to use "race or ancestry" as a factor when making traffic stops. The ruling also makes it illegal to detain or report individuals to federal immigration authorities based on "reasonable belief" alone. "It is refreshing to see the Constitutional protections afforded to all Americans - such as the 4th Amendment in this case, being protected and upheld by the U.S. District Court." said Imraan Siddiqi, CAIR-AZ Board Member. Siddiqi also stated "Additionally, we have been a strong opponent of racial and religious profiling - specifically the provisions of SB 1070, since they were introduced. By implementing this ruling, this will ensure that law enforcement is not over-reaching and abusing its power when it comes to the area of immigration." [CAIR]
Honoring Muslim American Veterans on Memorial Day
May 27: Americans celebrates today Memorial Day, a day of remembrance for the men and women who have died fighting in the United States armed forces. On this Memorial Day, I want to draw attention to the Muslim Americans who have died in battle for the United States. In doing so I hope to honor the Muslim American community for the sacrifices they have made for their country. In the spring of 2009 I visited Arlington National Cemetery with Professor Akbar Ahmed to stop by the gravestones of Muslim American soldiers who died fighting in the Iraq War. Colonel Martinez of Washington's Old Guard, a regiment of the United States army, walked us around to see the resting place of several of his "great soldiers," which made feel humbled and thankful to be in the presence of such brave American citizens.
One of the soldiers was Captain Humayun Saqib Muazzam Khan, a Pakistani-American who received a Purple Heart, a military decoration awarded by the President to those who have been wounded or killed in action. Next to Captain Khan was Ayman Abdelrahman Taha, an Arab-American, who also received the Purple Heart for the courage he exhibited in the Iraq War. The graves of Captain Khan and Ayman Taha show that Muslim Americans have not only been soldiers in the United States armed forces, but that they have also brought honor to the United States for their courage and bravery in fighting for freedom. Captain Khan and Ayman Taha are just two of the many Muslim Americans who have died fighting for the country that they love. In fact, the history of Muslim Americans' service in the United States armed forces goes back to the founding of the country in the American Revolution.
Under George Washington, several Muslim Americans served in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. Bampett Muhammad, for example, fought for the "Virginia Line" between 1775 and 1783. History also denotes a man named Yusuf Ben Ali, referred to by his slave name Joseph Benhaley. Ben Ali was descended from North African Arabs and served as an aide to General Thomas Sumter in South Carolina.
Another man believed to be a Muslim in Washington's army was Peter Buckminster, who etched his name into American history at the Battle of Bunker Hill by firing the shot which killed Great Britain's Major General John Pitcairn. After being granted his freedom for freely enlisting in the army, Buckminster changed his last name to "Salem." Historian Amir Muhammad points out that "Salem" is nearly identical to the word "Salam," which is the word for "peace" in the Arabic language. Salem later reenlisted in Washington's army and fought victoriously at the Battle of Saratoga and the Battle of Stony Point, where Washington served as commander. The presence of these Muslim Americans in several of Washington's most defining moments suggests that Washington cared little for the religious makeup of his army and cared more for their devotion to freedom and independence.
In reflecting on the Muslim Americans in Washington's army and my visit to the gravestones of the Arlington National Cemetery, I cannot help but be struck by the symbolism of the religious backgrounds of America's soldiers. Christians, Jews, and Muslims have all died fighting for the American people. On this Memorial Day, we should remember the power of American pluralism and that our strength as Americans comes in our diversity and not in our differences. [by Craig Considine, Ph.D. candidate, Trinity College Dublin; Film director, 'Journey into America'; Interfaith activist - Huffington Post]
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