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Chronology of Islam in America (2012)
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
September 2012
Muslim delegates at Democratic National Convention quadrupled since 2004
Sept 5: The number of Muslim delegates attending the Democratic National Convention has quadrupled since 2004, the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations said today. The CAIR counts more than 100 Muslim delegates representing some 20 states at the Democratic convention in Charlotte, N.C., this week. That’s up from 25 delegates in 2004. "The more than doubling of Muslim delegates at this year's Democratic National Convention is a direct result of their hard work and grassroots organizing within the Democratic Party," said CAIR Government Affairs Coordinator Robert McCaw. "It is also a sign of the American Muslim community's growing civic engagement and acceptance in the Democratic Party."He also said that Democrats had targeted outreach to American Muslims. A “handful” of Muslims were delegates at the Republic National Convention last week in Tampa, Fla., McGraw said. Campaign officials for Mitt Romney, President Barack Obama’s GOP challenger, did not respond to a request for comment. Neither Republicans nor Democrats invited a Muslim cleric to deliver a blessing during their conventions, even as Christian, Jewish and Sikh leaders received invitations, according to Omar Sacirbey, Religious New Service correspondent. McCaw noted that with large concentrations of Muslim voters in key swing states such as Ohio, Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, the American Muslim community has the potential to be influential in determining the next president of the United States. In 2008, about 90 percent of American Muslims voting in the presidential election cast ballots for Democrat Barack Obama, according to a poll by the American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections. CAIR says Muslims were encouraged by a political action group to vote for Republican George W. Bush In the 2000 presidential election and for Democratic U.S. Sen. John Kerry in 2004. [AMP Report]
Seattle-area Muslims say they were targeted by hate crime
Sept 7: A civil rights group is calling for the FBI to investigate what they say was a hate crime against nine Seattle-area Muslims. On Sept. 1, Philip Brown and eight other young Muslim friends set out for a jet skiing trip to Lake Chelan, driving a Toyota Prius and a rented BMW 3 series sedan. After an afternoon in the freezing cold water, they say they returned to the parking area to find the BMW covered in racist slogans. “Doon coons,” and another anti-Muslim slur that includes the “N-word” were scrawled in permanent marker, along with scratches and vulgar images. Brown says he and his friends were upset, but pretty matter-of-fact about it. “It didn’t seem like many of us were like very surprised. I know that’s kind of sad to say, but that’s just – after seeing this happen so much, it wasn’t a surprise to us,” Brown said. Brown says he came forward because most bias crimes never get reported, as victims fear reprisals. His companions at Lake Chelan declined to speak publicly. [KPLU.ORG]
Anti-Islam ads on San Francisco buses put Muslims at risk
Sept 9: Ads running on San Francisco municipal buses, paid for by noted anti-Islam activist Pamela Geller and her American Freedom Defense Initiative, have sparked controversy about hate speech and fears they could stoke more violence against the American Muslim community. The ads come at a time when American Muslims have suffered at least nine attacks across the nation over a two-week period in August. The advertisements, cribbed from an Ayn Rand quote, state: "In Any War Between the Civilized Man and the Savage, Support the Civilized Man. Support Israel, Defeat Jihad." The Southern Poverty Law Center has identified the American Freedom Defense Initiative as a hate group. The outcry has focused on discrimination against adherents of Islam, and rightly so. On Aug. 10, pigs' feet were strewed on the lawn of a mosque in Ontario, while Muslim worshipers in Hayward were pelted by oranges and lemons as they walked into prayer. In Illinois, an acid bomb was thrown at an Islamic school and shots were fired at a mosque. In both cases, worshipers were inside attending to Ramadan prayers. A mosque in Joplin, Mo., was torched and burned to the ground, and other mosques in Oklahoma and Rhode Island reported incidents of vandalism. In Panama City, Fla., a Molotov cocktail was thrown at a Muslim family's home. Geller's ads demonize Muslims at a time when they are under attack. [Dr. Hatem Bazian – San Jose Mercury News]
10 Myths about Muslims in the West
Sept 10: In my new book The Myth of the Muslim Tide, I chronicle the widespread misunderstanding of Muslim immigration to the West. As with Jews and Catholics before, I discuss that Muslims are being seen as an impossible-to-integrate, fast-reproducing invasion force who follow a religion that's more an ideology of conquest than a faith. Using the latest facts and figures, I illustrate the far less alarming truth about these new arrivals. Here are 10 common myths about Muslims in the West:
1. Muslims have a higher birth rate than other religions, and will take over the world by population: Today, it is readily apparent that Islam is not connected with population growth. Just look at Iran, the world’s only Islamic theocracy, where the average family had around 7 children in the 1980s - - and has 1.7 today, a lower rate than France or Britain.
2. Immigrants from Muslim countries are going to swamp us: In reality, the family sizes of Muslim immigrant groups are converging fast with those of average Westerners - - faster, it seems, than either Jewish or Catholic immigrants did in their time. Muslims in France and Germany are now having only 2.2 children per family, barely above the national average. And while Pakistani immigrants in Britain have 3.5 children each, their British-born daughers have only 2.5.
3. Muslims will become a majority in European countries: In fact, we now have several large-scale projections based on population-growth trends and immigration rates which show that the Muslim populations of Europe are growing increasingly slowly and that by the middle of this century - - even if immigration rates are not reduced - - the proportion of Muslims in Europe will probably peak somewhere short of 10% (it is currently around 7%). By that point, Muslims will have family sizes and age profiles not that different from Europe in general.
4. Muslims will become a dominant group of cultural outsiders in the United States: Despite the hysterical rhetoric coming from Newt Gingrich, Michelle Bachmann and their ilk, Muslims there are not only a very tiny group, but they are also one of the most integrated groups in the country. There are only 2.6 million Muslims in the United States today. By 2030, that number is likely to rise to 6.2 million (because Muslims are young and fertile) - - at which point Muslim will be 1.7% of the population, almost as numerous as Jews and Episcopalians.
5. Muslim immigrants in the West hold the same backward views that Muslims do in the Middle East and Pakistan: Actually, Muslims change their cultural views dramatically when they emigrate. For example, 62% of American Muslims say that “a way can be found for the state of Israel to exist so that the rights of Palestinians are addressed” - - a rate barely lower than that of average Americans (67%).
6. Muslims in America are more loyal to their faith than their country: True, 49% of Americans from Muslim backgrounds say they consider themselves “Muslim first and American second” and 47% claim to attend a mosque on Friday. But you have to compare that to American Christians, 46% of whom say they identify themselves as “Christian first and American second” (that number rises to 70% among Evangelicals).
7. Poor Muslims are flooding out of overpopulated countries into the West: In fact, the poorest most overpopulated Muslim countries are producing the least emigration - - and very little of it is to the West. Immigration tends to come from the countries with the lowest population-growth rates, and it’s rarely to the closest countries. Muslims are far from the largest immigrant group - - even in countries that immediately adjoin the Islamic world. In Spain, which lies across a narrow state from poor Arab countries, only 13% of immigrants are Muslim: Most have come from Spanish-speaking countries across the Atlantic. In Britain, only 28% of immigrants are Muslim. And those numbers do not seem poised to increase.
8. Muslim immigrants are angry at the society around them: In fact, Muslim immigrants appear to be MORE satisfied with the world around them, and its secular institutions, than the general population. Muslim immigrants in the United States are more likely to say they are “satisfied with their lives” (84%) than average Americans are (75%) - - and that number rises to 90% for American-born Muslims.
9. Muslims in the West cheer for terrorist violence: While it might seem chilling to learn that 8% of American Muslims feel that violence against civilian targets is “often or sometimes justified” if the cause is right, you have to compare that to the response given by non-Muslim Americans, 24% of whom said that such attacks are “often or sometimes justified.” This is reflected in most major surveys. When a large-scale survey asked if “attacks on civilians are morally justified,” 1% of the French public, 1% of the German public and 3% of the British public answered yes; among Muslims, the responses were 2%, 0.5%, and 2%. Asked if it is “justifiable to use violence for a noble cause,” 7% of the French public agreed, along with 8% of French Muslims; 10% of the German public and fewer than 2% of German Muslims; 10% of the British public and 8% of British Muslims.
10. Muslims have become so populous that the most common baby name in Britain is now Mohammed: This is true - - but it means far less than you’d think. In 2010, if you combined all 12 spelling variants of the Islamic prophet’s name, “Mohammed” was more popular than any other name given to new babies. But that’s more a consequence of naming trends than anything else. In a great many Muslim cultures, ALL male babies are given “Mohammed” as an official first name. But among many Westerners – especially white Anglo-Saxons and black Christians - - there has been an explosion in unorthodox baby names - - as of 2011, these groups are 50% more likely than they were a generation ago to give their children uncommon baby names. As a result, Mohammed manages to reach the Number 1 spot without being all that common - - when combined, babies named after the Islamic prophet made up only 1% of British newborns in 2010. [By Doug Saunders - Huffington Post]
U.S. Muslims condemn killings of American diplomats in Libya
Sept 12: American Muslim civil advocacy groups Wednesday strongly condemned the killings of the U.S. Ambassador J Christopher Stevens and three other diplomats and the attack on the American embassy in Egypt. This senseless act of violence occurred amidst angry protests decrying an anti-Islamic film produced in the U.S. that appeared on YouTube. Thousands of Egyptians also protested the film at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo yesterday. Led by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a number of Muslim organizations, held a news conference today on the Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., to condemn the killings of the American ambassador to Libya and three other diplomats. Other organizations represented at the news conference included Naeem Baig, Vice President of the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), Rafiuddin, President of the Council of Muslim Organizations of the Greater Washington, D.C., Area (CMO), and Johari Abdul Malik of the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center. A representative of the Libyan Emergency Task Force also addressed the press conference. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) and the Muslim Public Affairs Council also issued statements condemning the brutal killings.
In their statements the Muslim groups emphasized that while the purposeful provocation of any religious group is divisive and reprehensible, however, responding with violence only plays into the hands of those who seek to divide us and inevitably leads to painful loss. They said we must not let extremists control the political or religious discourse which means that people of all beliefs should repudiate those who would commit acts of violence in response to intentional provocations and repudiate those whose only goal is offending religious sentiments. While extending their deepest condolences to the family, friends, and colleagues of those killed, the Muslim groups urged Muslim Americans and Muslims around the world to always react with reason, not anger, against any ignorant attack on Islam. They appealed to Muslims in the Arab region and elsewhere to ignore cheap attempts for publicity by hateful bigots. By engaging in violence Muslims are not only harming innocent lives but also falling in the trap set up by bigots. They also appealed to the larger American public to be wary of such attempts by individuals and groups, who in most cases have foreign ties, engaging in such hateful projects that not only endanger American and others’ lives overseas, but also incite hate attacks against minorities in America as well. [AMP Report]
Hidden causes of the Muslim protests
Sept 16: What are the sources of simmering hostility toward America that helped fuel these demonstrations? ….we have to ask why the protestors responded to such calls in Egypt and elsewhere--and why sometimes the crowds swelled. Part of the answer is that the video itself did offend people. But, as when a single offensive remark from someone you've long disliked can make you go ballistic, the explanation for this explosion goes deeper than the precipitating event. What are the sources of simmering hostility toward America that helped fuel these protests? Here is where you get to answers that neither Barack Obama nor Mitt Romney wants to talk about and that, therefore, hardly anybody else talks about. Below are three examples, but first the customary disclaimer: I'm not excusing any violence that American policies may have helped cause and I'm not blaming America. But when American policies have bad side effects, Americans need to talk about them.
[1] Drone strikes: Obviously, President Obama doesn't want to say anything bad about the gobs of strikes he's authorized. Neither does Mitt Romney; if you're going to spend your whole campaign calling Obama a hyper-apologetic girly boy, you can't turn around and complain that he kills too many people! But American drone strikes--which seem to always target Muslim countries, and sometimes kill civilians--are famously unpopular in the Muslim world. Note which countries tend to cluster toward the bottom of this graph from the Pew Global Attitudes Project. And watch the one-minute-clip below of my conversation on BhTV with Robert Becker, an American who lives in Cairo, taped after the protests had started. I asked him to list the most common Egyptian complaints about America, and here's what he said:
[2] Israel-Palestine. That's the second issue Becker mentions in the video clip, and it is also cited in a recent Atlantic piece by Middle East expert Steven Cook of the Council on Foreign Relations. Again, don't expect to hear about this from Romney or Obama. During an election campaign, especially, neither man wants to dwell on the downside of America's essentially unconditional support of Israel even as Israel pursues policies that violate both international law and basic principles of justice, such as the expansion of settlements in the West Bank. But rest assured that the Israeli-American relationship gets plenty of airtime in Muslim, and especially Arab, nations. And, while some of this assumes the form of wild conspiracy theories, the core fact that American support helps sustain highly objectionable Israeli policies is not a figment of anyone's imagination. Neither is the fact that when President Obama did try to get Israel to freeze settlement expansion, he encountered so much blowback in Israel and America that he had to give up.
[3] American troops in Muslim countries. Though American soldiers have left Iraq, they remain in Afghanistan. Noting the downside of this fact doesn't fit into either Obama's or Romney's game plan as they try to out-hawk each other. But, while they stay silent, there are people who are happy to talk about American troops in Afghanistan: Jihadi recruiters. And the reason is that they know this subject strikes a chord among young Muslim men who for various reasons (including local ones such as unemployment) are unhappy campers to begin with. This demographic played an important role in many of the protests last week.
The three grievances I've listed (and there are others) aren't wholly unrelated to that horrible YouTube video. They're interpreted by some Muslims as evidence of American contempt for the Muslim world, and the video was taken as yet more confirmation. [By Robert Wright - The Atlantic]
American Coptic Church and MPAC denounce the anti-Islam movie
Sept 17: Fearing backlash of the American Coptics’ produced anti-Islam movie on the Christians in Egypt, the Los Angeles Diocese of the Coptic Orthodox Church has denounced the movie and emphasized that no religion or group should be blamed for the actions of one. Copts in Egypt constitute the largest Christian community in the Middle East accounting for an estimated 10% of the Egyptian population. Addressing a joint press conference in Los Angeles today Bishop Serapion of the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Los Angeles, Southern California and Hawaii joined Dr. Maher Hathout Senior Adviser of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, a leading American Muslim civil advocacy group, to condemn the violence and desecration of any religion. “We cannot allow the actions of a few deceived fanatical individuals to define our communities. Responding with violence only serves to continue the hate rather than taking the positive steps to start the healing process,” Bishop Serapion said. “We call on members of both religions to lean on our faiths to counter the hate and the violence with good speech and positive work. That is why we are here together today. Our communities must continue to strive and take reasonable and practical steps to allow the healing to begin.” “We are here to condemn putting prejudice and hate in a production that only serves to insult groups,” Dr. Hathout said. “We declare in no ambiguous terms that we are totally against mass labeling of a group of people because of the actions of some who claim to belong to that group. These people are neither Muslims nor Copts. Those are people who are psychologically diseased, with hearts full of hate and minds full of disease.” The Coptic and Muslim leaders’ press conference came as anti-American protests triggered by the anti-Islam movie continued throughout the Middle East, with burning cars and throwing rocks at a U.S. military base in Afghanistan, torching a press club and a government building in northwest Pakistan and clashing with police outside the U.S. Embassy in Indonesia. Protesters have breached the walls or compounds of several U.S. diplomatic missions, including the consulate in Benghazi, Libya where the ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed, Cairo and Tunis since September 11. [AMP Report]
Anti-Islam film script was written in prison
Sept 17: As the week-long anti-American demonstrations continued in the Muslim world, more detail is emerging about the group which financed and produced the move. The anti-Islam movie known as "Innocence of Muslims" was written, produced and directed by a convicted drug manufacturer and scam artist, who has told authorities he actually wrote the script in federal prison and began production two months after his June 2011 release from custody. ABC News quoted authorities as saying that Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, of Cerritos, California, admitted his role in the film, after seeking help from law enforcement in dealing with death threats he has received since the release of the film. Authorities told ABC News that Nakoula told them he and his son, Abanob Basseley, 21, were responsible for producing the movie which, he reportedly said, cost between $50,000 and $60,000 and was shot in a little over 12 days. Authorities say Nakoula claimed the money for the movie came from his wife's family in Egypt. Using the false name Sam Basile, Nakoula had told reporters earlier this week that he was an "Israeli Jew," that the film had cost about $5,000,000, and that the money had come from wealthy Jewish friends. Records obtained by ABC News show Nakoula was convicted of intent to manufacture methamphetamine in the 1990s, and also served time in federal prison on bank fraud charges, where he told authorities he wrote the script. Sentenced to 21 months in prison and five years on probation, Nakoula was moved from the federal correctional complex in Lompoc, California to a halfway house in 2010, according to the website The Smoking Gun. He was released from federal custody in June 2011 and production on the film began just two months later at a soundstage in Southern California.
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