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Chronology of Islam in America (2011)
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
September 2011 - Page Two
9/11 Attacks Used to Promote Islamophobia
Sept 10: The number of Americans who thought Muslims living in the United States “increased the likelihood of terrorist attack” jumped from 27 percent to 34 percent after news of bin Laden's death, according to an Ohio State University study led by Erik Nisbet, assistant professor of communication at OSU. The percentage who thought Muslims “make America a more dangerous place to live” went from 17 to 25 percent. “These shifts in perceived threat and negative stereotypes and uncertainty about terrorist attacks led people to be more willing to consider restrictions on Muslim-American civil liberties,” Nisbet said.
Beginning April 7, Nisbet and his colleagues conducted interviews of 500 people prior to bin Laden's death on May 1. A remaining 341 interviews were conducted after his death. The change in opinion occurred mainly in moderate or liberal respondents, with conservatives maintaining a generally negative perception of Muslims. “A lot of these effects might be short term, two or three weeks while the media's focusing on this, but even though they're short term, they might have a long-term effect,” Nisbet said. “Every time you have another focusing event, those feelings and attitudes and associations become more chronically associated.” Events such as the Park51 or Ground Zero Mosque debate, bin Laden's death and 9/11 all keep a connection between Islam and terrorism alive in people's minds.
Julia Shearson, executive director of the Cleveland and Northern Ohio chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said using the tragedy of 9/11 to promote Islamaphobia in America has become increasingly common. In “Fear, Inc.,” a report by the Center for American Progress released in August, a number of organizations and individuals are cited for creating or perpetuating the negative stereotypes in America. “I'm not sure why some people want to continue to try to scare the American people,” Shearson said. She added that while terrorism is a legitimate threat, it is important not to misplace blame. Since the Cleveland and Northern Ohio chapter was founded in 2003, Shearson said the organization saw discrimination cases ranging from vandalism to physical attacks. One boy was beaten at school until his vision blurred, and pepper spray was used on a woman in Columbus just a few months ago. “It's very detrimental to our country to misunderstand the threat and to mischaracterize it,” Shearson said. “I mean, the threat is real, but we need to understand it.”
Evolution of a threat
This anti-Muslim attitude can already be seen emerging leading up to the Republican primary. Candidate Herman Cain, of Georgia, made headlines in March when he announced he would not hire Muslims to his administration. He later retracted those statements, but his comments about the threat of “sharia law” encroaching on America demonstrate a new kind of fear. “It's a subtle shift to talk about more the symbolic threat of Islam rather than the actual material threat or physical threat of Islam,” Nisbet said. Although it seems the number of people who see terrorism as an immediate threat has decreased, the fear of a cultural threat has allowed stereotypes to thrive. Nisbet said it is this open-ended fear that harkens back to the Cold War and Communist threat. Recent public discourse in American has taken a similar turn, focusing less on the threat of an Army invasion and more on subversion from within. “You see that in both media and political discourse, this idea of this clash of civilizations between the West and Islam,” Nisbet said.
Khalid Al-Olimat, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Ohio Northern University, said the greatest misconception is that “Muslims are terrorists.” As the advisor of ONU's Muslim Student Association, Al-Olimat said many Quran verses oppose violence, and the killing of innocent people is never promoted in any Islamic teachings. “Some of these verses include, ‘Fight in the way of Allah those that fight you, but do not transgress limits, for God does not love transgressors,'” he said. “This basically allows for only self-defense.” Yet, like any religion, parts of verses can be taken out of context and used to justify other means. They're means that are often referred to as a hate crime rather than a terrorist attack, unless the perpetrator is a Muslim. Al-Olimat said people are led astray by media that associate an attack with Islam rather than the individual. “We cannot say that everyone who claims he is a Muslim means he is following the Islam religion,” Al-Olimat said.
Islam, like Christianity, is a diverse religion. It is present in society in many ways, but Nisbet said the present negative associations can become self-sustaining. “I think it's always going to be present in some core parts of our population,” he said. “Some core part of our population's going to have strong anti-Islamic, Islamaphobic-type attitudes.” Muslims have long lived in America. Still, Shearson said continued hate toward Muslims and the recent spike in Islamaphobia can only harm our country. “That's not what we're about,” she said. “America's about diversity and pluralism.” [Lima Ohio]
"Mixed bag" for U.S. Muslims since 9/11
Sept 10: The attack may well have been the most acute example of anti-Islamic sentiment last summer, but it was hardly the only one. For months, a debate raged over the plan to build an Islamic center within several blocks of the World Trade Center site - with critics weighing in from around the country, including some family members of 9/11 victims. In Florida, the Rev. Terry Jones threatened to burn a Quran if the proposed site wasn't moved. (Efforts to block the center's approval failed and Jones, though he backed away from his initial threat, went through with a Quran-burning in March after finding the Muslim holy book guilty of crimes against humanity in a televised "trial.") In the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks, American Muslims have had a complicated relationship with their own country. According to a Pew Research Center study, more than half - 55 percent - say it's been more difficult being Muslim in the U.S. since 9/11, yet almost the same exact number - 56 percent - report being satisfied with the way things are going in the country. "It's a mixed bag," Ibrahim Cooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations said. "Yes, it's easy to be a Muslim in America as far as religious freedom, but there's a sense of being under greater scrutiny."
Just last month, the Associated Press reported that the NYPD, with the help of the CIA, has been aggressively monitoring Muslim communities in New York and beyond, placing clandestine officers in neighborhoods in an effort to glean intelligence about possible security threats- tactics that have drawn accusations of profiling, though they have been defended by city officials, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg. In March, Rep. Peter King launched a series of controversial hearings on Islamic radicalism in U.S. Muslim communities - hearings that were characterized by some as a witch hunt, though King, R-NY, defended them as important to understanding threats to Muslim communities and the country at large. There are also examples from the fringe - Terry Jones' Quran-burning and opponents of the construction of a Tennessee mosque questioning Islam's standing as a legitimate religion in court. Americans largely agree that Muslims face greater scrutiny in the country - a recent CBS News/New York Times poll found that 78 percent think Muslims and Arab-Americans are unfairly singled out.
But the statistics also show just how much of a "mixed bag" life in the U.S. can be for Muslims. According to the Pew study, while 56 percent of Muslims think most other Muslims want to adopt the American way of life, just 33 percent of the general public agrees (51 percent see Muslims as wanting to remain distinct from the mainstream) - highlighting a gap in how American Muslims perceive themselves and how they are perceived by others. And while, according to the CBS News/New York Times poll, 73 percent of Americans report no negative feelings toward Muslims after 9/11, a sizable and at times vocal minority - 25 percent - do. Thirty-three percent believe American Muslims are sympathetic toward terrorists.
But for however mixed the numbers may be or controversial some of the rhetoric may get, there are positive signs. After hate crimes spiked in the months following 9/11, they've dropped by 31 percent from 2002 through 2009, according to FBI data. And there are encouraging stories of Muslims finding friendship and acceptance in communities throughout the country. In Cordova, Tenn., just outside Memphis, Dr. Bashar Shala began constructing an Islamic center right across the street from Heartsong Church two years ago. The pastor, Steve Stone, put up a sign welcoming them to the community and even made his church available to his new neighbors during Ramadan while their center was under construction.
As reported on "The Early Show," both sides have built such a relationship that they're now planning to build a park using property from both sides of the street and host events together like a recent Labor Day party. Church member Lee Raines is perhaps a symbol of some Americans' evolving attitudes. "I was anti(-Islam) at first, big-time," he admitted. "To me it was a religion of hate. And with 9/11, I just kind of lost it."But unlike 20 other church members who left Heartsong, Raines decided to give his neighbors a chance. "They're normal people just like me and you," Raines said. "They have families, they've got kids, you know, they're running around, they enjoy sports just like I did, you know, they do the same things we do." [CBS NEWS]
Pennsylvania: Rise in Anti-Muslim Sentiment
Sept 10: Ten years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, people in the Lehigh Valley aren't very nervous about a second attack and are much less fearful of flying, but their wariness of "individuals of Arab origin" has increased. In the immediate aftermath, as people watched over and over the images of one plane and then another crashing into the World Trade Center towers in lower Manhattan, fear was widespread. At that time, close to a third of Lehigh Valley residents were very concerned that they or a family member would be a victim of a terrorist attack in the future and just 3 percent said they were not concerned at all. In subsequent years, as each anniversary came and went without incident, people's worries dissipated. Today, only 14 percent are very worried they or their family will be victims, and 16 percent are not concerned at all, according to a new Morning Call/Muhlenberg College poll of 421 residents in Lehigh and Northampton counties.
Since September 2001, Muhlenberg has surveyed Lehigh Valley residents six times to gauge their feelings about the nation's security and their own safety. The region lost 15 people that morning. One of the largest shifts is people's attitudes toward flying. Right after the attacks, a majority of people in the Lehigh Valley — 62 percent — said they were less willing to travel by airplane. Although there have been threats to air travel as recently as the attempted bombing of a jetliner on Christmas 2009, people are much more comfortable flying. But about a third of those surveyed in the Lehigh Valley still remain wary of air travel. Those 31 percent, Borick said, represent the lingering effects of Sept. 11.
Views on individuals of Arab origin
Another impact is how people view "individuals of Arab origin [who] are citizens or residents of the United States." When asked if the attacks affected their view of Arabs, more people now said yes than 10 years ago. In 2001, 21 percent said yes, compared with 33 percent today. The number spiked even higher — 39 percent — in 2006, the eve of the deadliest period of the Iraq war. Moein Khawaja, executive director of the Philadelphia chapter of the Council of American-Islamic Relations, also has seen an uptick in anti-Muslim sentiment. Twenty-five percent of federal employment discrimination cases are from Muslim-Americans, he said. He also said the council has heard from Muslim students in eastern Pennsylvania who said they were made uncomfortable at school. In one case, a teacher made an anti-Islam remark and the student did not want to go back to class, Khawaja said. President Barack Obama has been attacked verbally for being a Muslim, although he is not. Khawaja said that shows that prejudice against Arabs and Muslims is more acceptable than comments about the president's race. [The Morning Call]
FBI ends up offending Muslims at outreach workshop in Seattle
Sept 10: FBI agents participating in an outreach workshop Saturday hoped to improve their relationship with Seattle's Muslim, Arab, East African and Sikh communities, but ended up offending some participants. About 20 community leaders attended the workshop at North Seattle Community College, which featured presentations by the FBI, Seattle police and the U.S. Attorney's Office. The event was aimed at improving communication and building trust between law enforcement and communities that feel targeted and profiled by authorities. A Seattle Police Department presentation on the rights of citizens when approached by an officer was well-received.
But the event grew confrontational during the FBI's presentation, which community members complained was too focused on Islamic terrorist groups. Then, the agents showed a PowerPoint slide about state-sponsored terrorism that included a photograph of a man many in the audience believed was a Shia Islamic leader based on his clothes. Several people in the audience asked whether it was Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a political and religious leader who led the 1979 Iranian Revolution and died in 1989. The photo was small, and the two FBI agents giving the presentation said they didn't know who it was. That offended members of the audience even more, and one of them compared it to calling the pope a terrorist or serving pork to Muslims. Turnout to the event was small. Distrust of law enforcement is so fierce that some Muslims refused to attend, said Jeff Siddiqui, a Pakistani-American and Lynnwood real-estate agent who is a member of American Muslims of Puget Sound. "Most Muslims are not coming because they feel that the door is closed to them, so why would they come to a PR class?" he said.
The FBI presentation was led by Seattle agents Brenda Wilson and Daniel Guerrero. They wouldn't comment to the media afterward, but during a question-and-answer session they told community leaders they welcomed their feedback. Guerrero said the reason the FBI came to the meeting was to hear from community members. He acknowledged the FBI is "an agency of people" and is therefore imperfect. "First of all, the FBI does not profile," he said. "We don't target because of religion. We don't target because of race. We don't care about that. We care about protecting America." Many attendees said they have had bad experiences with the FBI, so the agent's denial that profiling ever occurs undermined the rest of the conversation. "When you say you don't profile — and our reality is you do — you negate everything else you say," Siddiqui told them. [The Seattle Times]
Post 9/11: We Are All the Usual Suspects
Sept 11: George W. Bush, on October 26, 2001, signed the USA PATRIOT Act into law, codifying numerous privacy-depleting measures. Among other things, the act allowed the government to spy on U.S. citizens and non-U.S. citizens alike, whereas before it was only the latter that was subject to this clandestine surveillance. It eased procedures to tap into emails and voicemails of citizens. When we travel by airplanes you have to take your shoes off at the security checkpoint because a bomb can be put in shoes. Now, you have to get sexually assaulted by a TSA employee or provide naked pictures of yourself before you board a plane because you can put explosives in your underwear. A six year old girl was searched and had that private area between her legs touched by a TSA employee this year. In the past that would be a crime of child molestation. But in the post 9/11 world it's considered normal. We are all the Usual Suspects. [By willy Scanlon – OpEdNews]
Walid Shoebat: False prophet of fear
Sept 11: In the think tank community in Washington, DC, experts are a dime a dozen. You want someone to speak on Islamic radicalisation in prisons? Boom. That same person can also talk to you about Afghan reconciliation, and the entire Middle East region from Iran to Egypt. In some cases, the expert of choice seen pontificating on the topic du jour may have actually last visited the region over five years ago. But in many cases, these experts do continue to study the region, albeit from a safe distance, and are knowledgeable or experienced enough to be believable.
Up until fairly recently, Walid Shoebat was considered to be an expert who actually knew what he was talking about. This is how Shoebat describes himself on his website: “I used to be a radicalised Muslim willing to die for the cause of jihad until I converted to Christianity in 1994. As a member of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) I was involved in terror activity, and was imprisoned in Jerusalem for three weeks. In prison, I was recruited to plant a bomb in Bethlehem as a result of which, thank God, no one was injured. My mother was an American and my father a Palestinian Arab.”
While many organisations had repeatedly drawn attention to Shoebat’s dubious credentials, it took a while before the mainstream American media caught onto the scam that they themselves had fallen victim to. In July this year, CNN’s Anderson Cooper finally investigated Shoebat’s claims, finding no evidence of him being a terrorist, nor did Shoebat’s relatives, who were interviewed for the investigation, support his claims. More damningly, CNN’s Jerusalem bureau reported: “The Tel Aviv headquarters of Bank Leumi had no record of a firebombing at its now-demolished Bethlehem branch. Israeli police had no record of the bombing, and the prison where Shoebat says he was held ‘for a few weeks’ for inciting anti-Israel demonstrations says it has no record of him being incarcerated there either.”
Ironically, the Israeli media had caught the scent of deceit as early as 2008. In an interview, they grilled Shoebat over his claims and the fact that the purported bombing attempt was never reported in the media at the time. Cornered, Shoebat answered that he wasn’t aware of any coverage as he had “been in hiding for the next three days”. This is despite the fact that in 2004, he had told Britain’s Sunday Telegraph that he “was terribly relieved when [he] heard on the news later that evening that no one had been hurt or killed by [his] bomb.” Mikey Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, calls Shoebat a scandalous outrage. In a telephone interview, Weinstein said that they had been tracking Shoebat for over two years, and in the process of the investigation, contacted CIA, Mossad and other organisations, “No one had ever heard of him.” [The Express Tribune]
FBI Teaches Agents: ‘Mainstream’ Muslims Are ‘Violent, Radical’
Sept 14: The FBI is teaching its counterterrorism agents that “main stream” [sic] American Muslims are likely to be terrorist sympathizers; that the Prophet Mohammed was a “cult leader”; and that the Islamic practice of giving charity is no more than a “funding mechanism for combat.” At the Bureau’s training ground in Quantico, Virginia, agents are shown a chart contending that the more “devout” a Muslim, the more likely he is to be “violent.” Those destructive tendencies cannot be reversed, an FBI instructional presentation adds: “Any war against non-believers is justified” under Muslim law; a “moderating process cannot happen if the Koran continues to be regarded as the unalterable word of Allah.” These are excerpts from dozens of pages of recent FBI training material on Islam that Danger Room has acquired. In them, the Constitutionally protected religious faith of millions of Americans is portrayed as an indicator of terrorist activity. “There may not be a ‘radical’ threat as much as it is simply a normal assertion of the orthodox ideology,” one FBI presentation notes. “The strategic themes animating these Islamic values are not fringe; they are main stream.”
Over the past few years, American Muslim civil rights groups have raised alarm about increased FBI and police presence in Islamic community centers and mosques, fearing that their lawful behavior is being targeted under the broad brush of counterterrorism. The documents may help explain the heavy scrutiny. They certainly aren’t the first time the FBI has portrayed Muslims in a negative light during Bureau training sessions. As Danger Room reported in July, the FBI’s Training Division has included anti-Islam books, and materials that claim Islam “transforms [a] country’s culture into 7th-century Arabian ways.” When Danger Room confronted the FBI with that material, an official statement issued to us claimed, “The presentation in question was a rudimentary version used for a limited time that has since been replaced.” But these documents aren’t relics from an earlier era. One of these briefings, titled “Strategic Themes and Drivers in Islamic Law,” took place on March 21. [Wired Danger Room]
San Juan Capistrano Councilman named his dog 'Muhammad'
Sept 14: San Juan Capistrano City Councilman Derek Reeve announced at last week's council meeting that he gave one of his dogs — animals considered particularly impure in the Muslim world — the same name as the Muslim prophet Muhammad. "That's right," Reeve said at the council meeting, "I named my dog Muhammad." The remarks came during a discussion about a planned dog park in the city. Mayor Sam Allevato said he was "frankly shocked" when he heard Reeve make the comment. Allevato said elected officials need to be held to a higher standard. "I do not believe that comment does any good in the furtherance of good relations with members of the Muslim faith," Allevato said. "We have to be mindful as the elected leaders of the city. What we speak from the dais reverberates throughout the community and throughout the organization." This isn't the first time this year that a local city council member has made comments offensive to Muslims. Hundreds turned out at a Villa Park City Council meeting in March to protest comments made by Councilwoman Deborah Pauly, who called attendees at a Muslim charity event "enemies of America." [Voice of Orange County]
OC Councilman asked to apologize for Anti-Islam Facebook comment
Sept 15: The Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA) today called on the City of Orange Councilman Jon Dumitru to apologize for an anti-Islam Facebook posting in which he falsely linked the "teachings of Islam and the Koran" to the 9/11 terror attacks. On the anniversary of 9/11, the Councilman posted a picture of the burning Twin Towers on his official Facebook page, and wrote underneath: "It was 10 years ago today that most Americans learned first-hand of the teachings of Islam and the Koran being filled with messages of peace....as they killed thousands of our fellow Americans! Today I remember those lost, left behind, and those across the world searching for these pure evil terrorists and dispatching them from this world! WE WILL NEVER FORGET, WE WILL NEVER FORGIVE!" CAIR-LA sent a letter to the Councilman today informing him of the offensive nature of his comment and called on him to apologize to American Muslims. The letter also asked the Councilman to meet with members of the American Muslim community to discuss the negative impact of his inflammatory remarks. Jon Dumitru took down the original post from his Facebook wall, apparently in response to the CAIR letter. [CAIR]
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