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Chronology of Islam in America (2011)
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
October 2011 - Page Three
Tennessee Muslim student barred from JROTC over hijab
Oct 18: Demin Zawity, a Ravenwood High School, Brentwood, Tennessee, student says her Muslim beliefs were put to the test when commanding officers in her Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program told her she couldn’t both wear a headscarf and march in the September homecoming parade. According to The Tennessean, Demin Zawity, 14, has since quit the JROTC and returned to regular physical education classes. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIT), a leading Muslim civil advocacy group, has sent a letters of complaint to Williamson County Schools Director Mike Looney and to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, urging them to change a policy being used to effectively bar a Muslim student in that state from participating in a Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) class because she wears an Islamic head scarf, or hijab. After being contacted by the student's family, CAIR contacted both the school district and the DOD to seek constitutionally-protected religious accommodations for the girl and for future Muslim JROTC participants.
In its letter to the school district, CAIR Legal Counsel Nadhira Al-Khalili wrote in part: "It is unconscionable that a school district would enforce a third party's discriminatory policy. This failure to protect religious rights sends a negative message to students of all faiths and sets a precedent that could be used to restrict the rights of future JROTC participants ... We do not believe that a prohibition on students wearing religiously-mandated head coverings serves any compelling governmental interest." In her letter to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Al-Khalili wrote: "As it stands, existing policy effectively bars any Muslim female student wearing hijab from inclusion in the JROTC. This policy of denial sends a message of exclusion to all Muslims and should be amended."
CAIR is calling the situation religious discrimination and demanding a formal apology to the teen and modification of JROTC policy that would allow Zawity to wear her religious head covering. They say Ravenwood High is a school and not bound by the codes and regulations of the U.S. Army. No one is saying Zawity should be exempt from the rules, but schools cannot keep her from practicing her faith, said Gadeir Abbas, staff attorney for CAIR. A school has to provide reasonable accommodations for her to practice her faith. “CAIR is deeply troubled by these allegations,” said Nadhira Al-Khalili, legal counsel for the organization. “It is unconscionable that a school district would enforce a third party’s discriminatory policy.”
Zawity told The Tennessean, she felt like crying when she was told she couldn’t wear the headscarf with her uniform. She’d been wearing it all along, but homecoming marked the first time she was going to wear her JROTC uniform as well. “They were making something that is not such a huge deal into something so dramatic,” she said. “The next day was the parade, and I couldn’t march. If I can’t march, I want it to be because I don’t want to and not because of my religious headwear.” Zawity said she’s lost her interest in returning to the JROTC even if the rules are changed, but she wanted to make things better for future Muslim girls who wish to join. [AMP Report]
ACLU report stirs civil rights concerns about FBI's terrorism monitoring
Oct 20: Documents released by the American Civil Liberties Union confirm the FBI's concern about possible terror cells in Michigan, and have reignited the debate over how to balance civil rights with security. The ACLU today unveiled its "Mapping the FBI" initiative, which accuses the FBI of racial and ethnic profiling, a claim federal officials dispute. "Nationwide, the FBI is gathering reports on innocent Americans' so-called 'suspicious activity' and sharing it with unknown numbers of federal, state and local government agencies," the ACLU said in a statement. As part of the report, the ACLU released a 2009 memo from the FBI's Detroit field office, which sought permission to collect information about possible terrorist activity in Michigan. "Because Michigan has a large Middle Eastern and Muslim population, it is prime territory for attempted radicalization and recruitment by these terrorist groups," the memo said. The memo also outlined the FBI's concerns about possible "violent terrorist acts within the state of Michigan." And the July 6, 2009, memo also noted that terrorist groups have a twisted view of Islam, using "an extreme and violent interpretation of the Muslim faith." The memo was heavily redacted, and it's unclear whether the permission sought by Detroit FBI to watch Arabs and Muslims was granted.
The ACLU and Arab leaders say the report proves federal authorities have systematically stepped over the line in their zeal to fight terrorism. But FBI officials say the agency's mapping is a crucial tool used in the war on terror to target suspicious activity, not particular religious or ethnic groups. The ACLU based its findings on documents obtained from the FBI through Freedom of Information Act requests made last year through 34 ACLU affiliates. It said the partially redacted documents put on its website show the FBI crossed the line in its assessment of Arab Americans in Michigan, blacks in Georgia, Chinese and Russian-Americans in California and large groups of Hispanic communities in Michigan. [The Detroit News]
Islamophobic bullying in our schools
Oct 24: "You boys were so much fun on the 8th grade trip! Thanks for not bombing anything while we were there!" read the yearbook inscription penned by the middle school teacher. The eighth grade yearbook was littered with similar remarks by classmates linking Omar to a "bomb." "To my bomb man!" read one note. "Come wire my bomb," read another. "What is this?" asked Omar's mother incredulously. He had handed the yearbook over to her moments earlier when he arrived home that afternoon. Omar answered quietly, "I know, Mom, I know." He stared down at the kitchen floor. His eyes could not meet his mother's but he began to tell her what had happened just one month earlier.
In May 2009, Omar joined his classmates on a school trip to Washington, D.C. As they toured the Washington Monument, visited area museums and passed by the White House, the kids repeatedly told Omar they hoped he wouldn't "bomb" any of the sites. A teacher chaperoned the children, heard the comments and responded by doing... well, nothing, except leave a denigrating remark in Omar's yearbook a month later. It was clear to Omar's mother that her American born and raised son was harassed because of his Muslim faith and Arab ancestry.
Unfortunately, this was not the first bias-based bullying incident involving Omar that school year. Only several months earlier a peer was intimidating Omar, calling him a "terrorist," during an elective trade course. Omar finally told his mother about the bullying when his report card indicated that he was failing that same class, while acing the others where he was not subjected to such humiliating treatment. [Huffington Post]
Holy Terror comic is 'Islamophobic'
Oct 24: Originally envisioned as a Batman tale after September 11 attacks on the US, the comic (Holy Terror by Frank Miller) features heroes The Fixer, and thief-come-love interest, Natalie, as they join forces to stop an Al Qaeda plot on Empire City, a thinly veiled New York City. For some, the best-seller underlines a worrying shift in American entertainment. "We are witnessing a growing industry of information and fear-mongering, and this work fits in the centre ... It's unfortunate that Islamophobia is becoming mainstream," said Nihad Awad, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington-based Muslim civil-rights group. He described the work as "shameful".
Certainly, Miller's mixing of Muslims and Arabs - the book never differentiates - with terrorists highlights Holy Terror's unflattering portrayal of Muslims. Jack Shaheen, a professor of mass communications at Southern Illinois University, said this combining is a "common thread" in post-September 11 media, and that Holy Terror warrants attention by rights groups as comics grow in influence within the American entertainment industry. [The National]
Anti-Shariah conference loses Nashville hotel home
Oct 25: A Nashville hotel has canceled its contract with an anti-Shariah conference out of fear the event could attract protests and disrupt business. Organizers of the Preserving Freedom conference, who include Lou Ann Zelenik of the Tennessee Freedom Coalition, had planned to meet Nov. 11 at the Hutton Hotel in Nashville. Hotel management said they received complaints about the event from the public and from their clients. Steve Eckley, senior vice president of hotels for Amerimar Enterprises, which owns the Hutton, said he wasn’t aware of the details of the conference until recently. “If this group had let us know what kind of program they were planning and who was involved, we wouldn’t have booked it,” Eckley said. Among the event’s scheduled speakers are Atlas Shrugs blogger Pamela Geller; Murfreesboro mosque opponent and Center for Security Policy President Frank Gaffney; and former Republican Rep. Fred Grandy, who played the character Gopher on the popular TV series The Love Boat.
Last week, the Hyatt Hotel in Sugar Land, Texas, near Houston, backed out of an Oct. 18 event featuring Geller, executive director of Stop Islamization of America, an anti-Islam nonprofit. Hyatt issued a statement Monday: “In a recent phone conversation with the event organizer, we apologized for not working hard enough with the group to address concerns about potential business disruptions the way we should have to find a resolution.” [The Tennessean]
NYPD shadows Muslims who change names
Oct 26: Muslims who change their names to sound more traditionally American, as immigrants have done for generations, or who adopt Arabic names as a sign of their faith are often investigated and catalogued in secret New York Police Department intelligence files, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. The NYPD monitors everyone in the city who changes his or her name, according to internal police documents and interviews. For those whose names sound Arabic or might be from Muslim countries, police run comprehensive background checks that include reviewing travel records, criminal histories, business licenses and immigration documents. All this is recorded in police databases for supervisors, who review the names and select a handful of people for police to visit. The program was conceived as a tripwire for police in the difficult hunt for homegrown terrorists, where there are no widely agreed upon warning signs. Like other NYPD intelligence programs created in the past decade, this one involved monitoring behavior protected by the First Amendment. Since August, an Associated Press investigation has revealed a vast NYPD intelligence-collecting effort targeting Muslims following the terror attacks of September 2001. Police have conducted surveillance of entire Muslim neighborhoods, chronicling every aspect of daily life, including where people eat, pray and get their hair cut. Police infiltrated dozens of mosques and Muslim student groups and investigated hundreds more. [Associated Press]
Muslim activist challenges Florida Republican Allen West’s views
Oct 27: There's no member of the Republican freshman class in Congress more outspoken than Florida Rep. Allen West. Since he was elected last year, West has become a strong voice on Capitol Hill for fiscal restraint, socially conservative values. On the topic of Islam, West has been particularly controversial. He calls it not a religion but a "theocratic political ideology" that's a threat to America.
Nezar Hamze, a Muslim activist in South Florida, has devoted himself to challenging West's views. Hamze is the director of the South Florida office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR. It's a civil rights organization headquartered in Washington that has long sought to spread information and dispel myths about Islam. Hamze says it was with that purpose that he went to one of West's town halls in February. It was captured on video and posted to YouTube by a West supporter. Hamze brought with him a Quran. In an interview recently, he said he wanted to ask West to explain a statement he'd made at a conference while serving on a panel discussing national security.
"A Marine ... stood up and asked him, 'Why are these people twisting their religion, or perverting their religion, to attack America — as an excuse to attack America?' [West] said that the people that are attacking America are not twisting their religion. They're doing exactly what the Quran is telling them to do," Hamze says. Hamze went to the town meeting to ask West to defend his views on Islam. He found that West, a former Army lieutenant colonel, is a keen student of military history who doesn't step away from a challenge. West said "there is talk about killing infidels" in the Quran and reeled off a history of violent conflicts between Muslims and non-Muslims to applause from his supporters.
Hamze has attended four of West's town meetings and sought — unsuccessfully — to have a private discussion with him. Hamze says he wants to talk to West about the congressman's views on Islam and discuss the larger context of the passages he sometimes quotes from the Quran. Hamze says there's another important topic he wants to discuss on behalf of South Florida's estimated 100,000 Muslims. "To make him understand that discrimination and bigotry is real. And his comments are irresponsible and it fuels that bigotry and intolerance," Hamze says. West declined to comment on Hamze's charges, or on his refusal to meet with the activist. In a letter he sent to Hamze, West says he's not anti-Islam, but he is concerned about what he calls the "radical element of Islam that presents a dangerous threat" to the U.S. [NPR]
Florida County GOP official says 'Islam is NOT a religion'
Oct 31: The Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-FL) has called on state and national Republican Party leaders to repudiate bigoted comments by a GOP official in that state who claimed in an email that "Islam is NOT a religion." In an email sent on Oct. 31 to CAIR-Tampa Executive Director Hassan Shibly, Hillsborough County Republican Party Executive Committee Member Scott D. Barrish wrote in part: "Islam is NOT a religion, but rather a theocracy. It uses elements of religion to bind a spiritual, cultural and system of law elements. It is NOT a pluralistic ideology for it seeks complete domination; to say otherwise is a complete and utter lie. It is totalitarian and littered with human rights violations. Your efforts in espousing Islam in America and Florida will not succeed. . .This is us vs. you." It may be pointed out that Barrish's email was signed in his official capacity with the county Republican Party.
"It is imperative that Republican Party leaders at the state and national levels repudiate these bigoted comments and take concrete steps to challenge the growing perception that the GOP is not a big tent party that welcomes Muslims," said Shibly. Barrish apparently sent the email in response to a letter to the editor, headlined "U.S. Muslims are not the enemy," written by Shibly and published today in the St. Petersburg Times. In his letter, Shibly was critical of the Hernando County Republican Party for hosting a dinner with Rep. Allen West (R-FL) and former Florida House Majority Leader Adam Hasner, two politicians who he said misdirect their political efforts using the "disturbing smokescreen" of "the hysteria-myth that Islam is the enemy and we must be at war with Islam." Shibly also wrote: "American Muslims are not the enemy, nor is our faith. We are proud and loyal Americans. . .We cannot let religious extremists — of any faith — guide our political discourse as Americans. I call on Republican leadership to remind their party members that they are also representatives of their Muslim constituents and that there is no room for such bigoted discourse in a civilized and free society." [CAIR]
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