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Chronology of Islam in America (2008)
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
February 2008
US Air Force Academy encourages Islamophobia?
Feb 5: Three self-styled “ex-terrorists” – Walid Shoebat, Kamal Saleem and Zachariah Anani - were star speakers today at the 50th annual United States Air Force Academy political forum in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The three anti-Muslim fear-mongering bigots have spent the past couple of years on speaking tour across America but this was the first time that the trio has spoken at a military academy for which they picked up $ 13,000. In the past events at campuses and TV appearances, they made similar bigoted and inaccurate statements about Islam and Muslims. They told one California university audience that Americans need to "wake up to the dangerous realities of the Islamic faith." Walid Shoebat has built a lucrative speaking career by manipulating the fears and whipping up hatred between Jews and Muslims. Another prominent speaker at the Air Force Academy was Islamophobe and controversial "terrorism expert" Steven Emerson, whose apparent lifelong goal is to banish Muslim Americans from American civil life. Like all professional propagandists, Emerson aspires to be detective, prosecutor, judge, and jury. It is an unfortunate consequence of the post 9/11 life in America, where fear-mongering is a reality, that notorious career Islamophobes, such as these individuals, are subjected to little scrutiny and virtually no credibility tests. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) had offered to help the Academy officials find representatives of the Colorado Muslim community who can offer a balancing perspective to the "hate-filled rhetoric" of the invited speakers. But CAIR’s offer was rejected which further indicates that the Academy was bent on poisoning the minds of cadets with the hate-filled rhetoric of these individuals. (AMP Report)
At 75,000 to 200,000, the Hispanic converts to Islam are a significant group
Feb 9: Since 2001, Hispanics in the United States have embraced Islam in increasing numbers. Estimates vary wildly, largely because mosques do not keep membership rosters, and many new converts opt to keep their faiths secret for fear of persecution from family and friends, demographers said. Still, scholars believe there are 75,000 to 200,000 Hispanic Muslims nationwide, an estimated 88 percent increase since 1997, when the American Muslim Council released a comprehensive study of the group. Anecdotal evidence shows much of the growth taking place in Florida and urban centers such as New York and Chicago as well as border states like California and Texas. In all, Hispanics who observe religions outside of Christianity make up less than 1 percent of the American Hispanic population, according to a 2006 Pew Forum study. But given the rapid increase of Hispanics in the United States, the new Muslims are a small but significant group. "The fastest-growing religion in the world is Islam," said Hjamil A. Martinez-Vazquez, a religion professor at Texas Christian University who is writing a book about Latino Muslims. "The fastest-growing group in this country is Latinos. There is no way you cannot see the relationship with it." (St. Petersburg Times)
Muslim student wins prestigious MIT business award
Feb 11: Syed Adil Hussain, a Harvard graduate student, is a recipient of the world-renowned MIT $100K Executive Summary Competition (ESC) award in recognition for the high-quality online tutoring his company, uProdigy, delivers to American college students. The MIT $100K ESC award is one of the world’s leading entrepreneur competitions and is designed to encourage students and researchers to act on their talent and ideas. It has produced hundreds of successful ventures since its establishment in 1990. The winners of the ESC competition were announced at the Business Plan Competition kick off held at the Strata Center in Cambridge, MA. Eight student-managed companies were selected from over 100 entries and were awarded cash prizes. (CAIR Bulletin)
FL Attorney General agrees to Muslim advisory group
Agreement follows controversy over 'propaganda' film shown to staffers
Feb 12: In a meeting today with state and national Islamic leaders in Tallahassee, Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum agreed to establish a Muslim community advisory group.Today's meeting came following a controversy in which McCollum's office reportedly directed staff throughout the state to view the controversial anti-Islam film "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West." The film includes interviews with infamous Islamophobes like Nonie Darwish, Walid Shoebat, Daniel Pipes, and Steven Emerson. During the meeting with representatives of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), the ACLU of Florida, and the Florida Muslim Bar Association, McCollum also agreed to offer educational programs on Islam and Muslims to his staff and to help build better relations between the Muslim community and law enforcement agencies. Critics of the "Obsession" film say it offers an inflammatory portrayal of Islam and stigmatizes all Muslims as potential terrorists. An article in today's St. Petersburg Times quotes Jack Shaheen, author of four books on anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bias, as saying, "[Nazi propagandist] Goebbels would be proud [of the film]." Shaheen added: "This film has a place in cinema history with the racist film Birth of a Nation and the Nazi film Triumph of the Will because it so cleverly advances lies to vilify a people." (CAIR/MPAC Bulletin)
Feds charge three with firebombing mosque
Feb 12: In Nashville, Tennessee, three men have been charged in the firebombing of a small mosque over the weekend, federal prosecutors said today. Authorities said Eric Ian Baker, 32, Michael Corey Golden, 23, and Jonathan Edward Stone, 19, had planned for a week to burn down the Islamic Center of Columbia, about 40 miles southwest of Nashville, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul O'Brian said. The men are accused of using gasoline, rags and empty beer bottles to set fire to the storefront mosque on February 9. The men, who were arrested later that day, are facing federal charges of unlawful possession of a destructive device and state charges of arson. The federal complaint filed against the men says Stone and Baker told officers they were members of the Christian Identity movement, an extreme doctrine that claims white Europeans are God's chosen people. The complaint also said Baker spray-painted swastikas on the walls of the building, including the phrase "White Power." (Associated Press)
ADC welcomes policy shift on immigration delays
Feb 13: The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) today welcomed the decision by the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff and Director of the United States Citizens and Immigration Services (USCIS) Emilio T. Gonzalez, to address the processing delays of citizenship and legal permanent residency applications. The change in policy affects approximately 47,000 green-card, or permanent residency, applicants whose cases are otherwise complete but have been waiting six months or more for a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) background check. Since April 2006, ADC has filed approximately 100 naturalization delay administrative complaints with the DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. (ADC Press Release)
Churches help rebuild burned mosque: Other churches offer spaces for worshippers
Feb 14: Churches in Maury County, Tennessee, are opening their doors and wallets to come to the aid of a mosque that burned over the weekend. Channel 4's news partners at the Columbia Daily Herald report that one church has already raised $10,000 to help rebuild the Islamic Center of Columbia. At least three others have offered the center space to conduct prayers. (Channel 4 News)
Fourteen sue U.S. government over lengthy citizenship application delays
Feb 19: In Florida, 14 Muslims are suing the U.S. Attorney General and heads of the FBI, Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, alleging the government has stalled their citizenship applications with indefinite background checks. Each plaintiff is in the country legally as a permanent resident and has been waiting 2 to 5 years for their applications to be processed, according to the lawsuit filed today in Florida's Middle District of federal court. When they asked about their status, officials said to simply wait longer. The plaintiffs do not allege religious discrimination, however, they say the CIS' expansion of FBI background checks required for naturalization has ensnared several Muslims.The check now looks for "any reference to the applicant's name (or to a similar name, or even to a common 'fragment' of a name) in any file in every case, and for an indefinite period of time," according to the lawsuit. "Even if it sounds like a name, they have to go through more than 200 different databases," said Danette Zaghari-Mask, head of the Orlando office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "It's targeted a lot of Muslim Americans - a lot of Muslims have very similar names." (Miami Herald)
Catholics, Muslims ink pact in South Jersey
Feb 20: Muslim and Roman Catholic leaders in South Jersey signed today a historic agreement of cooperation and understanding at the Voorhees Islamic Center. The document is the second of its kind in the nation. Among those who signed the agreement were Bishop Joseph Galante, who heads the Camden Diocese, and Zia Rahman, managing director and trustee of the Muslim American Community Association in Voorhees. The agreement contains five articles with commitments to uphold freedom of speech, thought, religion and conscience; to challenge religious and ethnic intolerance; to foster a deeper relationship; to build bridges between the two faith communities; and to establish a joint committee and Catholic-Muslim Institute to promote education about their faiths. (Courier-Post Online)
LAPD chief launches Muslim forum
Feb 20: About 25 representatives from various Muslim organizations met tonight with Los Angeles Chief of Police William Bratton in the first Muslim Community Forum sponsored by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). The co-chairs for the community forum are Imam Abdul Karim Hasan, a member of the Executive Board of the Shura Council of Southern California, and Salam Al-Marayati, Executive Director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council. The launching of the LA Muslim Community Forum follows an abortive attempt in November 2007 by the LADP to introduce a ‘mapping’ (read profiling) the Muslim community program in the Greater Los Angeles where at least 500,000 Muslims reside. (AMP Report)
Anti-Muslim sentiment surfaces in attacks on Obama
Feb 24: A furor erupted today as a photo of the Democratic Presidential hopeful, Barack Obama, in a white turban spread across the Web, drawing accusations of fear-mongering and racism from the Obama campaign. The photo was taken on a 2006 trip Sen. Obama made to Kenya. The picture first appeared on the Drudge Report website which said it was circulated by Clinton's staffers and quoted one saying: "Wouldn't we be seeing this on the cover of every magazine if it were [Clinton]?" The photo came in the wake of e-mail campaigns claiming Obama was raised a Muslim. The photos were an obvious intent to trigger a mental picture of Obama’s alleged Muslim roots to undermine his campaign and take votes away from his promising presidential campaign run. Even more troubling is the fact that the mere attempt to argue that a candidate who may have any "Muslim-ness" in his family background should be automatically disqualified from the Presidency. While religion should not be a factor in selecting a presidential candidate, distortions of faith -- which has included emails absurdly claiming Obama is a "secret Muslim" -- have become a prime example of negative campaigning. The picture episode was a deplorable new low in negative campaigning during this election season and the broader issue we face is: What does this attempt to smear Obama say about our society? (AMP Comment)
Continued on Page II
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