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Chronology of Islam in America (2014)
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
October 2014 page four
Maryland Public Schools Board hearing on Muslim holidays
Oct 27: The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today provided testimony at the Montgomery County Public Schools' Board of Education meeting in Rockville, Maryland, seeking inclusion of the Muslim "Eid" holidays on the public school calendar. CAIR Maryland Outreach Manager and Equality for Eid Coalition Co-Chair Zainab Chaudry spoke on behalf of the Montgomery County Muslim community, advising MCPS Superintendent Dr. Joshua Starr and board members on the importance of fairness and equality in their decision to recognize religious holidays in public schools. Members of the Montgomery County Muslim community -- who account for up to 10 percent of the county's population -- have been struggling for more than a decade to have the Eid holidays of Eid ul-Adha and Eid ul-Fitr be recognized by the school board, but their efforts have met with resistance. In 2013, CAIR, at the behest of local Muslim leaders, led efforts to form the Equality for Eid Coalition -- a grassroots initiative that has launched an organized campaign to raise awareness and support for this cause. Thousands of signatures, letters, and phone calls by county residents supporting the movement have so far been largely ignored. Chaudry was joined by other witnesses -- including several MCPS high school students of diverse faiths and ethnicities -- who also appeared to testify in front of the board for inclusion of the Eid holiday. [CAIR]
Alabama Christian Leaders Organize to Defeat Anti-Islam Amendment
Oct 28: Christian leaders from across the state – including the Alabama Christian Coalition – have come together to urge voters to oppose the Amendment One ballot initiative. The vaguely worded “anti‐foreign law” measure would block foreign adoptions, negate overseas marriages by Alabama citizens, and threaten the religious liberty of Alabama churches. To stop these negative consequences, Christians in Alabama have mounted an unprecedented effort to prevent this dangerous ballot initiative from passing. Earlier this fall, the Christian Coalition drafted a petition explaining the threat Amendment One poses to Christian families seeking international adoptions, Christian couples who marry overseas, and the protection of church doctrine and law of Christian communities in Alabama. As of October 28, this petition had garnered over 30,000 pledges from Christians across the state to vote against Amendment One. The Christian Coalition of Alabama represents many Christian leaders and thousands of Christians from Mobile to Huntsville. It spearheaded the campaign, Christians Against Amendment One, to defend religious freedom in Alabama. “Christians know to beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing. That’s why more than 30,000 Evangelicals have spoken out against Amendment One,” Said Alabama Christian Coalition president Randy Brinson. “This amendment may seem harmless, but it would prevent international adoptions, negate marriages of Alabama citizens performed overseas, and undermine the ability of churches to hire based on conscience.” [CAIR]
Muslim group slams Berkeley for Maher invite: Would they invite KKK too?
Oct 28: UC Berkeley students have been protesting Bill Maher‘s invitation to speak on campus over his supposedly bigoted views on Islam, and a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations agreed on MSNBC today. To make his point, Ibrahim Hooper asked if Berkeley would ever consider inviting the “grand dragon of the KKK” too. Greg Lukianoff, the president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, argued that campus censorship of opposing views has gotten more intense recently, with recent disinvitations to Condoleezza Rice and Ayaan Hirsi Ali as examples. Hooper argued that in the case of both Hirsi Ali and Maher, he has no problem with them being invited by campus groups to speak, but it’s when universities decides to honor them with commencement addresses or awards that they have a problem. Because, he argued, by giving Maher that kind of platform, Berkeley is basically giving a “tacit endorsement of his hate-filled views.” Lukianoff said, “My concern is we’re teaching a generation to think like censors.” Hooper shot back that it’s “a form of censorship” to say no one should be allowed to criticize such choices. And Hooper even we to liken Berkeley inviting Maher to a university inviting “the grand dragon of the KKK or a rabid anti-Semite.” [Mediate]
Australian Muslim women suffer hate and harassment
Oct 28: A Muslim woman is nursing a broken arm after being pushed onto a road in an unprovoked racist attack in Melbourne’s north. The attack occurred outside a Lalor shopping centre in the middle of a weekday earlier this month. The 48-year-old woman, who was wearing a hijab and a “long Islamic dress”, had been shopping at Lalor Plaza and was on her way home when she was attacked. The woman’s daughter, Abrar Ahmed, saw the incident unfold from her car. “A man approached my mum and said, ‘You Muslims, go back to where you came from’,” Ms Ahmed said. “As my mum turned around to see who was yelling at her in such a disgusting way, she saw this really big guy. "He pushed her on the ground, she landed in the middle of the road. When she fell on the ground she broke her arm. She heard her bone crack.” Ms Ahmed, who organised a recent protest against racism in the CBD, said attacks like the one on her mother were not uncommon. “A lot of other Muslim women, they have been going through worse assaults, they are being attacked in very different ways and they don’t have the courage to speak out.” In Carlton, Quman Ali was pushed down the steps of a tram earlier this month, falling into the metal barricade on the street. She said the incident occurred about 6.30pm on a weeknight on a packed No. 1 tram travelling to East Coburg. As she tried to exit the tram, a man whom she was passing pushed her down the stairs. “He pushed me out of the tram. When I looked up he was mumbling something. I was so shocked, I could not even say anything.” Ms Ali hit the metal tram barrier, injuring her knee. She believes the attack was racially motivated because she was wearing a hijab. Neither woman reported the attacks to the police. Federal member for Melbourne Adam Bandt said the current political climate is contributing to an increase of attacks on Muslim women. “It can divide our community and some people end up on the receiving end of abuse. In this case, Muslim Australians – and especially women – tell me they are being harassed and assaulted,” he said. [The Northern Weekly Melbourn]
Court denies motion to dismiss state secrets case
Oct 31: A federal court yesterday denied a government motion to dismiss a pending lawsuit that the Obama Administration said involved state secrets. The lawsuit,Gulet Mohamed v. Eric H. Holder, concerns the constitutionality of the “no fly” list. The government filed its dismissal motion last May 28. It included a declaration from Attorney General Eric Holder in which he asserted “a formal claim of the state secrets privilege in order to protect the national security interests of the United States.” An accompanying memorandum of law elaborated on the government’s claim. In August, Judge Anthony J. Trenga of the Eastern District of Virginia ordered the government to provide copies of the assertedly privileged documents for his in camera review. After initially resisting and seeking reconsideration of that order, the government complied. Based on his review, Judge Trenga yesterday issued his order denying the government motion for dismissal of the case. He said that “the information presented to date by the defendants in support of the state secrets privilege as to these documents is insufficient” to justify suspending the proceeding, though he declined to rule definitively on whether the state secrets privilege did or did not apply to any of the documents. He did allow that some of the documents appear to contain security sensitive information that may be subject to a law enforcement privilege.....A government assertion of the state secrets privilege has previously been rebuffed in court. Judge Allen G. Schwartz denied a CIA state secrets claim in a 2003 decision in Sterling v. Tenet, an employment discrimination case. However, the dismissal of the case was upheld on appeal. [Federation of American Scientists www.fas.org]
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