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Chronology of Islam in America (2009)
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
November 2009
'Suspects' talk back: Muslims complain to FBI
Nov 2: Many Flushing (NY) residents object to their treatment in the wake of a terrorism investigation, and they're doing something about it. Almost two months after a suspected terrorist visited New York, setting off a chain of law enforcement activities including police raids of homes in Queens, activists are methodically collecting and recording complaints from Queens residents who allege a spectrum of harassment by law enforcement from verbal abuse to home entry without a warrant. The complaints will be logged by CUNY School of Law and given to Joseph M. Demarest Jr., the assistant director in charge of the FBI's New York City office. “An entire community and religion should not be profiled because of an investigation,” said Monami Maulik, executive director of the South Asian advocacy group DRUM (Desis Rising Up and Moving), which led a rally last month outside the Flushing branch of the Queens library. Yet some say this is exactly what has happened. In the weeks since the raids, staff from DRUM say they have spoken with more than 100 families in Flushing and have heard numerous stories of people being questioned on their way to or from work, and being asked for identification in their own homes, said organizer Ayesha Mahmooda.
Advocates say the latest series of raids and interviews has rekindled fears in the community that began in the wake of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Tensions escalated again in 2007 when the NYPD released a report titled “Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat,” which made sweeping generalizations about the city’s Muslim communities. This September, the NYPD added a “statement of clarification” to the two-year-old report which retracts the original report's statements linking the practice of Islam with terrorism, and states that increasing religiosity among Muslims "cannot be used as a signature of someone potentially becoming a terrorist." It also backs off from the conclusion that our area's Muslim communities have been "permeated" by radical ideologies. Faiza N. Ali, community affairs director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-NY), said the clarification was an important step, but additional measures should be taken in order to safeguard both civil liberties and national safety. They are laid out in a letter to Police Commissioner Ray Kelly from the Muslim American Civil Liberties Coalition, of which CAIR is part. "We remain concerned that the standing report sends mixed messages: the clarification decouples religion from terrorism but the core language continues to criminalize religious behaviors,” Ali said. “The NYPD report risks alienating mainstream Muslims, and if translated into policy, will only deepen mistrust between law enforcement and community members.” (City Limits Weekly)
US to pay five Muslims $1.26m in damages
Nov 3: In a settlement of unlawful imprisonment of Muslim men in the aftermath of 9/11 attacks, the US government has agreed to pay five Muslim men $1.26 million as damages. The five said they suffered inhumane and degrading treatment in a Brooklyn (New York) detention centre, including solitary confinement, severe beatings, incessant verbal abuse and a blackout on communication with their families and attorneys. Rachel Meeropol, a lawyer for the Centre for Constitutional Rights who brought the case in Brooklyn federal court, told journalists in New York that it was the largest settlement so far for claims of abuse in the United States following the attacks of September 11, 2001.
The Justice Department agreed to settle the suit, which was filed in 2002 after hundreds of immigrants were rounded up and held for months, according to the CCR. The five men were all eventually released after being cleared of any connection to terrorism but then deported. The roundups drew intense criticism, not only from immigrant rights advocates, but also from the inspector general of the Justice Department, who issued reports saying that the government had made little or no effort to distinguish between genuine suspects and Muslim immigrants with minor visa violations. The reports also documented widespread abuse at the Brooklyn jail.
The plaintiffs whose claims were settled include two Egyptians living in Alexandria and two natives of Pakistan, one who now lives in France, and the other, a physician, in Toronto. Two other plaintiffs, Ibrahim Turkmen and Akhil Sachdeva, who had been held in the Passaic County Jail, remain in the suit. (Media Reports)
Fort Hood Massacre: American Muslims react with grief & fear of backlash
Nov 5: The seven-million strong American Muslim community today reacted, with grief and fear of backlash, at the shooting at Fort Hood in Texas by Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan. All major Arab and Muslim organizations were swift in unequivocally condemning this heinous incident which claimed the lives of 13 people and injured scores other. Within hours after the attack, all major civil advocacy Arab and Muslim groups and Islamic Centers vehemently denounced the vicious attack and stressed that “No religious or political ideology could ever justify or excuse such wanton and indiscriminate violence.”
American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Right and Elections, an umbrella group representing major Muslim organizations, urged the national political and religious leaders and media professionals to set a tone of calm and unity. However, predictably this tragic incident once again provided fodder for talk shows and websites, which exploit such isolated events to ratchet up Islamophobia. For example: Fox News host Shepard Smith asked Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas on air: "The name tells us a lot, does it not, senator?" Hutchinson's response was: "It does. It does, Shepard." As John Nichols, author of “Horror at Fort Hood Inspires Horribly Predictable Islamophobia,” said with those words, the senator leapt from making assumptions about one man to making assumptions about a whole religion. What could Hutchinson have said that might have been more responsible response? She could have emphasized that the investigation of the shooting spree has barely begun. Nichols went on to say: “It should be understood that to assume a follower of Islam who engages in violence is a jihadist is every bit as absurd as to assume that a follower of Christianity who attacks others is a crusader.”
Not surprisingly, the Washington Post, a major reputable newspaper, ran a story titled "Suspect, devout Muslim from Va. Wanted Army discharge...." The story was illustrated with a picture of an Islamic center and this caption: "The Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring where Maj. Nidal M. Hasan used to pray. John Esposito, Professor of religion, international affairs and Islamic studies at Georgetown University, asks why immediately rush to brushstroke Islam, Hasan's religion, by linking it to this tragedy? He says there can be no excuse, personal, political, or religious, to justify this senseless act of mass murder. However, there should also be no excuse for a rush to judgment that creates "facts on the ground," that once again negatively impact the American public's perception of Islam and the vast majority of our Muslim fellow citizens. Why this common tendency and double standard towards Islam and Muslims post-9/11? Prof. Esposito asked and added: We judge the religion and majority of mainstream Muslims by the acts of an individual or an aberrant minority of extremists. Yet, when Jewish fundamentalists kill a prime minister or innocent Palestinians or Christian extremists blow up abortion clinics or assassinate their physicians, somehow the media is capable of sticking to all the facts and distinguishing between the use and abuse of a religion.
Several new reports suggested that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan saw a deployment to Iraq as his "worst nightmare" and recounted how he had treated victims of combat-related stress and was upset about the war. He began having second thoughts about a military career a few years ago after other soldiers harassed him for being a Muslim. Alluding to these reports Prof. Esposito pointed out that it apparently wasn't challenging enough to figure out an already complex puzzle:
(1) Why had this American-born psychiatrist, a serious, quiet, and reserved military officer, who joined the Army over his parents' initial objections in order to serve his country, made substantial efforts to get out of the military in recent years? (2) What was the connection between reports that Hasan had been deeply affected by his work with veterans from the Iraq war and his refusal to accept the fact that he was to be deployed to Iraq? (3) How serious and substantial were reports that post-9/11 harassment by colleagues over Hasan's Muslim name had contributed to his growing disaffection with and desire to get out of the military?
Did all of these factors push him over the edge psychologically or was his horrific act of mass murder more calculated? Instead, reports that Hasan was a practicing Muslim were seen as an immediate reason to focus on the "religious angle," Prof. Esposito lamented.
Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, argues that trauma of war is contagious. “The stress of war damages beyond belief--years and years after serving in the military, troops can still be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. But one thing we may not have sufficiently appreciated is that the trauma of war is contagious. Witnesses to violence, those who work with people who have experienced war directly, also can become severely traumatized.” As our thoughts go out to Fort Hood today, let us really see war in its ever widening effects and really count the cost, she argued. (AMP Report)
U.S. leaders urged to reject anti-Muslim rhetoric prompted by Fort Hood shootings
Nov 12: The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today called on American political and religious leaders to challenge Islamophobes engaged in a rhetorical backlash to the recent shooting spree at Fort Hood in Texas. The Washington-based CAIR said anti-Muslim extremists are upset that mainstream media outlets have largely avoided blanket indictments of Islam and Muslims in their coverage of the attack. “It is the proper role of national religious and political leaders to challenge those who promote hatred and intolerance,” said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad. “Extremists who seek to exploit the Fort Hood tragedy are doing a disservice to our nation and to the values of justice and inclusion on which it is based.” Awad cited a number of statements by anti-Muslim extremists seeking to exploit the Fort Hood attack to generate hostility to Islam and to marginalize American Muslims.
Tunku Varadarajan, a professor at NYU's Stern Business School suggested that the term “going postal” be changed to “going Muslim.” Television evangelist Pat Robertson said Muslims should be treated as communists or fascists. Robertson told his “700 Club” audience: "Islam is a violent -- I was going to say religion -- but it's not a religion. It's a political system. It's a violent political system bent on the overthrow of governments of the world and world domination…I think you should treat it as such and treat its adherents as such. As we would members of the Communist party and members of some Fascist group."
Dave Gaubatz, author of a Muslim-bashing book, called for a “backlash” against American Muslims. Gaubatz wrote on a right-wing Web site: “Now is the time for a professional and legal backlash against the Muslim community and their leaders.” Widely-syndicated conservative columnist Cal Thomas said the Fort Hood shooter’s “preference for Muslim clothing” should have alerted authorities “that he might be a time bomb waiting to go off.”
The American Family Association has called for a ban on Muslims in the military. In an article titled "No More Muslims in the U.S. Military," the group's Director of Issues Analysis Bryan Fischer wrote: “It is time, I suggest, to stop the practice of allowing Muslims to serve in the U.S. military. The reason is simple: the more devout a Muslim is, the more of a threat he is to national security.” Oklahoma writer Timothy Rollins echoed the call to exclude all Muslims from the military. He wrote: "What [the Fort Hood] attack does is further strengthen the case for the honorable discharge of all Muslims from the United States Armed Forces, regardless of the degree to which they may adhere to their faith." (CAIR)
German man guilty of courtroom killing of Egyptian woman
Nov 11: In Dresden, Germany, a 28-year-old Russian-born German man was found guilty today of murder and sentenced to life in prison for fatally stabbing a pregnant Egyptian woman in a Dresden courtroom, an attack that triggered outrage in the Muslim world. The Dresden state court said in its ruling that because of the particularly brutal nature of the crime defendant Alexander Wiens would not be eligible for early release. During the trial, Wiens admitted to stabbing Marwa al-Sherbini to death at a July 1 court hearing. Wiens had argued, however, that his actions were not premeditated and that he had no xenophobic motivation. Al-Sherbini, a 31-year-old pharmacist, was stabbed at least 16 times by Wiens in the Dresden courtroom where she was to testify against him. She had filed a complaint against him in 2008, accusing him of insulting her with racial slurs, calling her a "terrorist" and "Islamist" during an altercation. Her husband, a scientist conducting research in Dresden, was stabbed and suffered serious injuries when he intervened to protect her. The couple's 3-year-old son was in the courtroom and witnessed the attack. (AP)
American Muslim groups express concern over government seizure of four US mosques
Nov 12: -American Muslim groups today expressed concern over the government’s move to seize four mosques in New York, Maryland, California, and Texas. The U.S. government today filed a complaint in a U.S. Federal Court to seize the assets of Alavi Foundation which controls the assets of four US mosques named in the complaint. The government has accused the foundation of being tied to the Iranian government. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said the unprecedented move by the government may have First Amendment implications for the American Muslim community. “Whatever the details of the government’s case against the owners of the mosques, as a civil rights organization we are concerned that the seizure of American houses of worship could have a chilling effect on the religious freedom of citizens of all faiths and may send a negative message to Muslims worldwide,” said CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper. He said the government’s move comes at a particularly bad time, as American Muslims are fearful of a backlash resulting from the recent shooting spree at Fort Hood in Texas. The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) called on the U.S. government to avoid indicting entire institutions and mosques if the accusations proven true in the federal court. The MPAC also called on mosques to review their bylaws and procedures to ensure complete transparency and accountability of all financial transactions. (AMP Report)
Church sign raises objection
November 18: A sign at a Terre Haute, Indiana, church bearing a message that many people would deem “intolerant” has raised an objection from a concerned teenager who could not let the message go unchallenged. Saagarika Coleman submitted a letter to the editor of the Tribune-Star stating that she was “hit with a wave of shock. I was horrified” when she saw the sign at Bible Baptist Church as her father drove her to school. The sign stated, “Jesus died and rose and lives for you. What did Allah do.” To Coleman and others, the message seems to challenge or belittle the Muslim faith. At best, such sentiments strike some people as an un-Christian approach to tolerance of other beliefs. The use of the word “Allah” in the sign may seem to challenge Islam, but Pastor Bob Parker of Bible Baptist Center said the intent was not derogatory. “People are making it a political statement,” said Parker when asked about the meaning of the sign’s statement. (The Tribune Star)
Holder: Protect rights of Arab Americans, Muslims
Nov 19: In the wake of recent anti-Islam and anti-Muslim rhetoric by rightist leaders and some media outlets, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said today that full rights of American Arabs and Muslims must be protected. Holder, the nation's first African-American attorney general, was speaking at the banquet of Advocates and Leaders for Police and Community Trust, which consists of about 100 minority groups and law enforcement officials in metro Detroit. He said that it's vital that all ethnic and religious groups in America be treated equally. He also said racial profiling was bad policy that breeds mistrust and division. "For the last nine months, I've heard from Muslim and Arab Americans who feel uneasy about their relationship with their government, who feel isolated and discriminated against by law enforcement," he said adding: "Some of them have told me that they feel denied the full rights of citizenship." Holder said "It is inconsistent with what America is all about." The speech came amid heightened sensitivities in the Muslim community, following the fatal shooting last month of Detroit Imam Luqman Abdullah by FBI agents and the November 5 Fort Hood, Texas, shooting that killed 13 people and wounded 29. (AMP Report)
Best Buy Wishes Muslims Happy Eid al-Adha
November 23: Best Buy stands by its decision to wish U.S. Muslims a Happy Eid Al-Adha, a rep for the company said, and though some Best Buy customers took offense, a Muslim advocacy group praised the move. The retailer got some flak this week for including, along with its circular advertising Thanksgiving Day sales, a note saying "Happy Eid Al-Adha," which refers to a holiday of sacrifice for followers of Islam on Nov. 27 this year. Best Buy rep Lisa Svac Hawks explained the thought behind the greeting: "Best Buy's customers and employees around the world represent a variety of faiths and denominations. We respect that diversity and choose to greet our customers and employees in ways that reflect their traditions," she said. Ahmed Rehab, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said he could not recall when any American retailer mentioned the holiday in its ads. "It makes perfect business sense to acknowledge and celebrate a holiday that one out of four people celebrate," Rehab said. (Brandweek)
School holiday issue sends Muslims to NY city hall
Nov 23: Isabel Bucaram of Astoria, Queens, didn’t want her 6-year-old daughter, Huyam, to miss her class trip to the Nutcracker ballet, but she could find no other alternative. The trip coincided with the Muslim holiday of Eid-ul-Fitr, one of the holiest days in Islam, and Bucaram wanted her daughter to participate in the day's religious festivities. "It was upsetting for her not to share in that field trip with her teachers and friends," Bucaram recalled. Not wanting her daughter or any other Muslim child to miss out on a day of school because of a religious holiday ever again, Bucaram last winter become involved in the movement to have Muslim holidays recognized by the New York City Department of Education. Until then, Bucaram’s political knowledge had revolved mostly around national politics. But once she started working with the Coalition for Muslim School Holidays, a group of over 80 labor, community, faith, and civil rights organizations, she was meeting with City Council members James Gennaro and Peter Vallone Jr., and learning about what it take to change policy. Bucaram is not alone. More Muslims are getting involved in the political process than ever before, many spurred by the Muslim school holiday issue, according to Faiza Ali, community director for the Council on American Islamic Relations and a member of the coalition’s steering committee. "The issue of Muslim school holidays has mobilized the community in a great way," she said. "Across the five boroughs, community members have participated in the civic process testifying at hearings in City Hall and lobbying their elected officials, some for the first time, to support this cause." The Muslim population in New York City numbers around 600,000 according to a study by Columbia University. Peter Awn, the dean of Columbia’s School of General Studies, characterizes Muslims as one of the fastest growing religious communities in New York City. Muslim New Yorkers hail from all parts of the globe, and an estimated 10 percent of the city's 1.1 million public school students are of the Muslim faith. Approximately 90 percent of Muslim children in the city attend public schools. The movement to make the New York City Department of Education recognize the holidays of Eid-ul-Fitr, which marks the end of the month of Ramadan, and Eid-ul-Azha, which is the culmination of the yearly hajj to Mecca, began a few years ago when concerned parents like Bucaram decided that they should not have to choose between their children’s education or their religion. This summer, the City Council's education committee voted overwhelmingly in favor of a non-binding resolution to close all public schools on Eid-ul-Azha and Eid-ul-Fitr. The full council approved the resolution in a voice vote. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, though, indicated his opposition to the proposal. "One of the problems you have with a diverse city is that if you close the schools for every single holiday, there won’t be any school," he said last summer. Muslims must be resolute in order to achieve victory on the holidays, according to Amy Sugimori of La Fuente, an organization that advocates for workers’ and immigrants’ rights. "They must demand an answer from Mayor Bloomberg," she said. (Gotham Gazette)
Michigan Unversity server intercepts emails of Muslim scientist
Nov 25: Retired Aerospace Physicist, Bashir A. Syed, complained today to President Obama and the President of the University of Michigan that since May 25, 2009 his emails are being intercepted and quotations from the Quran are deleted by the Lyris-List Server Computer at the University of Michigan. In an email to the President, Bashir Syed said: I am a law abiding, peace loving U.S. senior citizen, and regard this action tantamount to Harassment or intimidation being a MUSLIM. He said he was quoting Verses of the Quran, related to the current affairs and relating them with references by American Authors, none of which are my personal writings. (Via Email)
The Politics of Minaret in Europe
Nov 29: The seven-million strong American Muslim community received the ban on Minarets in Switzerland with alarm and dismay. The referendum is seen as part of a recent disturbing trend in Europe to restrict the religious freedom and self-expression of religious and ethnic minorities, notably of Muslims. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) urged President Obama to repudiate the decision of Swiss voters to deny Muslims in that nation the same religious rights granted to citizens of other faiths. “Our nation’s silence on this flagrant denial of religious freedom would send a very negative message throughout the Muslim world, which must improve its own record on religious rights. ”The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) is troubled that Swiss voters have succumbed to the intolerance and fear mongering of the Swiss Party.
In a referendum today the Swiss voters approved a ban on the construction of new minarets on mosques. Under Switzerland’s system of direct rule, the referendum is binding. Switzerland’s 400,000 or so Muslims, most of whom come from Kosovo and Turkey, are legally barred from building minarets as of now. Anti-immigrant, right-wing People’s Party - the Union Démocratique du Centre (UDC) - had launched the initiative for referendum, which passed with more than 57 percent of the vote. The outcome says a lot about how Western Europeans feel about the growing number of Muslim immigrants, who live as second-class citizens for all practical purposes. To borrow Tariq Ramadan, a prominent Swiss Muslim scholar, the Swiss majority are sending a clear message to their Muslim fellow citizens: we do not trust you. (Ironically the UDC has in the past demanded Tariq Ramadan’s citizenship be revoked because he was defending Islamic values too openly.)
Telling only four of Switzerland’s 150 mosques have minarets, and none are used for the call to prayer because of strict noise-pollution rules. Hence, it is only a tiny fraction of the Swiss population which regularly encounters the sight of a mosque minaret. So what the real motives were behind the most dramatic move any nation has made to limit the visibility of Islam?
The campaign posters as well as those who have promoted this ban, indicate that Europe is in the throes of an Islamophobic trend gathering pace. Tellingly, the Swiss referendum coincides with the rise of far-right parties across Europe. According to John Esposito, Professor of religion, international affairs and Islamic at the Georgetown University, the stunning Swiss vote was really not all that surprising, considering the growing power of Islamophobia. In both Europe and America right-wing politicians, political commentators, media personalities, and religious leaders continue to feed a growing suspicion of mainstream Muslims by fueling a fear that Islam is a threat. (AMP Report)
Oregon Mosque Targeted with Hate Graffiti
Nov 30: The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today reported that hate graffiti was scrawled on the mailbox of a Eugene, Oregon, mosque. CAIR said a police report indicates that vandals wrote “Allah is a pig” on the Abu-Bakr As-Siddiq Islamic Center‘s mailbox sometime on or before November 15th. Local police say they view the incident as a bias crime. Earlier this month, CAIR called for an investigation of a possible bias motive for repeated vandalism at a North Carolina mosque. CAIR also called on the FBI to investigate the bias-motivated vandalism of a Houston, Texas, mosque in which anti-Islamic remarks were scrawled on the walls of the facility. (CAIR)
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