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Chronology of Islam in America (2008)
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
May 2008
Mock attack on the fake mosque in Illinois sends a wrong message
May 1: Over 120 officials from almost 30 government agencies participated in the drill in Irving, Illinois, targeting a community facility that had been re-named the "Irving Mosque" for the purposes of the exercise. There were participants from local law enforcement, fire departments and ambulances. In the exercise, officers from the Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System (ILEAS) stormed the "mosque" using an armored car. One "hostage" was hooked up to an explosive device and the "suspects" in the "mosque" released nerve gas. For the purpose of the emergency exercise drill, the Continuing Recovery Center in Irving, Ill., had become Irving Mosque, the home-base for a radical, heavily armed group with suspected terrorist ties. There were explosions outside and inside the building. Not surprisingly, a preview of the May 1st training was highlighted by the media with such sensational headlines: "Pennsylvania's police prepare for radical Islam," and “Radical Islam: A Law Enforcement Primer.” What message that exercise conveys to the American masses who are already conditioned by the anti-Islam and anti-Muslim rhetoric by some radio hosts, electronic and print media as well as some political and Christian Right leaders in the post-9/11 America? Surely, it reinforces the anti-Islam and anti-Muslim image among the masses. According to a March 2008 Gallup survey, a substantial number of Americans have a negative perception of Muslims. The poll shows that only 17 percent have positive perception while 23 have negative. 48 percents were found neutral which are surely not positive. (AMP Report)
US military coordinated day of prayer events with Christian right group
May 1: At least half-a-dozen active-duty military officials have been working closely with a task force headed by the far-right fundamentalist Christians planning religious events at military installations around the country to commemorate today’s National Day of Prayer. In working directly with the National Day of Prayer (NDP) Task Force and agreeing to work as event coordinators, these military officials not only violated constitutional provisions governing the separation of church and state but they also signed an oath that states they “believe that the Holy Bible is the inerrant Word of The Living God” and that “Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the only One by which I can obtain salvation and have an ongoing relationship with God,” according to materials posted on NDP Task Force’s website. Furthermore, the declaration signed by the military officials says that they promise to “ensure a strong, consistent Christian message throughout the nation” and that National Day of Prayer events scheduled to take place at their military installations “will be conducted solely by Christians.” (Counter Currents)
Senate panel moves to shift costs of war to Iraq
May 1: With energy prices soaring and the federal deficit approaching $400 billion, senators from both parties moved today to force Iraq to shoulder more financial responsibility for its reconstruction and self-defense. On a unanimous vote taken late Wednesday night and announced yesterday, the Senate Armed Services Committee approved legislation that would prohibit the Defense Department from funding any reconstruction or infrastructure program that costs more than $2 million. Under the plan, Iraq also would have to pay to train and equip its security forces and provide the salaries of Sunni-dominated "Sons of Iraq" security groups. In addition, the administration would have to negotiate cost-sharing agreements for U.S.-Iraqi joint military operations, with an eye toward Iraq picking up the tab for items such as fuel. (Washington Post)
Eager to vote, Muslims file stack of lawsuits over citizenship delays
May 2: Shadi Odeh has lived 17 of his 31 years in the United States. He is a Palestinian, transplanted at age 14 to Texas, where he was a boisterous Dallas Cowboys fan. In 1999 he moved to South Florida. Odeh says he has become an American in every way but one: He has so far been denied citizenship and the right to vote. He very much wants to vote in November - for a Democrat. The question is whether he will be able to register. Odeh passed his naturalization exam and citizenship interviews in 2006, but FBI name checks have delayed his swearing-in for more than two years. Odeh is one of six South Florida Muslims who in December sued the federal government, charging that their citizenship applications have been delayed "unreasonably and unlawfully" by name checks. Federal statutes, they insist, require the government to render a decision within 120 days of the interviews. (Palm Beach Post)
New York Times Exposes Immigrant Deaths in Custody
May 5: A front-page article in New York Times provides some insight into the barbaric treatment of immigrants held in US custody. After obtaining a government list through a Freedom of Information Act request, the Times investigated the circumstances surrounding a number of immigrant deaths that occurred in detention centers between 2004 and 2007. Sixty-six immigrants died in custody during those three years, according to the scantly detailed list, compiled by the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in January under pressure from Congress to provide an accounting of its treatment of prisoners. At that time, the House passed a bill—which later stalled in the Senate—that would have required states receiving specific federal funds to report deaths of prisoners. The Times article (“Few Details on Immigrants Who Died in Custody,” by Nina Bernstein, May 5, 2008) describes the immigrant detention system as “a patchwork of federal centers, county jails and privately run prisons that has become the nation’s fastest-growing form of incarceration.” The prisons, through which some 330,000 people pass each year according to ICE, are run with little oversight and little documentation Within this system, thousands of immigrants are “locked up for days, months or years while the government decides whether to deport them,” the Times notes. “Some have no valid visa; some are legal residents, but have past criminal convictions; others are seeking asylum from persecution.” Many who are swept up in ICE raids have committed no crime beyond simply overstaying their visas, and others are needlessly imprisoned while their citizenship applications are processed in the government system. ICE is part of the Department of Homeland Security, an agency created by the Bush administration as part of its clampdown on democratic rights in the name of the so-called “war on terror.” (New York Times)
FBI says men in ferry photo were innocent sightseers
May 6: The FBI has called off a global manhunt for two men who looked Middle Eastern and were spotted snapping pictures and demonstrating "suspicious behavior" on a Washington ferry last summer. The men appeared at a U.S. Embassy two weeks ago and identified themselves as European business consultants who were on a trip to Seattle, FBI officials said. Special Agent in Charge Laura Laughlin said the men took a couple of days off in the middle of the July visit and decided to ride a car ferry. They took photos to show relatives back home, she said. FBI agents have seen the photos and found them to be innocuous, as were the pair's business activities, Laughlin said. The consultants came forward to clear their names, stating that they feared getting arrested if they returned to the United States. They gave U.S. Embassy officials documentation of their identities, jobs and the reason for their trip to the U.S. last summer. The men, described as residents of a European Union country, were not identified. (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
Arab-American leader unhappy McCain campaign cutting ties
May 6: In Dearborn, Michigan, Arab Americans today urged John McCain's campaign to apologize for cutting ties with an Arab-American businessman serving on the GOP presidential candidate's Michigan finance committee. Ali Jawad, founder of the Lebanese American Heritage Club, was listed with five other finance committee members on an invitation to a $2,300-per-person fundraising dinner McCain plans to attend in Oakland County. He was asked to resign from the committee after Michigan blogger Debbie Schlussel wrote that he had ties to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. "We do not want a president who makes a decision ... based on false information," said Osama Siblani, president of the Arab American Political Action Committee and publisher of the Arab American News. "This is an insult to every Arab-American and Muslim-American in the country." (Associated Press)
American Muslims alarmed at the new report on “Violent Islamist extremism”
May 15: American Muslims are alarmed at a new government report on “homegrown terrorism” which claims that the threat posed by “violent Islamist extremists” now comes increasingly from within the U.S. The report - titled Violent Islamist extremism, the internet, and the homegrown terrorist threat – was released on May 8 by Senator Lieberman, Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee and Senator Susan Collins, the committee member. “No longer is the threat just from abroad, as was the case with the attacks of September 11, 2001; the threat is now increasingly from within, from homegrown terrorists who are inspired by “violent Islamist ideology” to plan and execute attacks where they live,” the report said. Four leading Arab-American and Muslim-American advocacy groups, in a joint letter to the two senators, have expressed deep concern about the report that the report heavily relied upon a widely criticized and deeply flawed New York Police Department study on domestic radicalization that claimed that typical “signatures" of radicalization include wearing traditional clothing, growing a beard, or giving up cigarettes, drinking, and gambling. The four groups who sent the letter are: American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), Muslim Advocates and Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC). The call was also supported by the American Muslim Voice. (OpEdNews.com)
Bush says we are all Israelis
May 15: "Israel's population may be just over 7 million but when you confront terror and evil, you are 307 million strong, because the United States of America stands with you," President George Bush says in his address to the Israeli Knesset. President Bush, in this bold statement, committed all U.S. citizens ipso facto citizens of Israel. The decades-long U.S.-Israel alliance aside, the President presumed that all American citizens welcome our country's friendship with Israel with the same warmth and admiration which Bush so readily delivered on behalf of the American people. What the President did not consider was that many American citizens conscientiously object to the ongoing occupation of the Palestinian Territories. Among them are Christians and Jews who have joined Muslim and Arab Americans who oppose Israeli policy toward the Palestinians. All are eagerly waiting for the time when the U.S. can have a serious, balanced discussion regarding this issue. (MPAC bulletin)
Bush apologizes for shooting of Quran by US soldier in Iraq
May 20: After US army’s prompt apologies for shooting of the Quran by a US soldier stationed in Iraq failed to calm down this potentially explosive situation, President George Bush has stepped in and offered apology to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. According to the White House press secretary Dana Perino, the president apologized during a videoconference with the Iraqi Prime Minister. President Bush’s apology came after US army commanders’ apologies failed to defuse the situation. Maj. Gen. Jeffery Hammond, the commander of U.S. forces in Baghdad, met with tribal leaders in Radwaniyah, where this incident happened, to apologize while another American officer kissed a copy of the Quran before presenting it to the chiefs. The U.S. military said earlier that it had disciplined the sniper and removed him from Iraq after he was found to have used the Quran for target practice on May 9 in a firing range in Radwaniyah, near Baghdad. The Quran was found two days later by Iraqis on a firing range in Radwaniyah with 14 bullet holes in it and graffiti written on its pages. (AMP Report)
Arab-American agent not allowed to work on important counterterrorism assignments
May 21: The FBI’s highest-ranking Arab-American agent told a congressional panel today that he is not being allowed to work on important counterterrorism assignments, despite a shortage of agents who speak Arabic. Bassem Youssef, chief of the communications analysis unit of the FBI’s counterterrorism division, said only 62 percent of posts were filled in the counterterrorism unit. In other words, more than one out of every three positions in an elite FBI division that tracks Al-Qaeda terrorists is vacant. Egyptian-born Bassem Youssef, a Coptic Christian, has been an agent with the FBI since 1988. Youssef, who is represented by the National Whistleblower Center, has sued the FBI, claiming he was discriminated against for not being posted on counterterrorism assignments since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. The suit alleges Youssef has been passed over for promotions inside the counterterrorism division after voicing concern about less qualified agents being promoted. (ABC News)
UK Student researching al-Qaida tactics held for six days
May 24: A master’s student researching terrorist tactics who was arrested and detained for six days after his university informed police about al-Qaida-related material he downloaded has spoken of the "psychological torture" he endured in custody. Despite his Nottingham University supervisors insisting the materials were directly relevant to his research, Rizwaan Sabir, 22, was held for nearly a week under the Terrorism Act, accused of downloading the materials for illegal use. The student had obtained a copy of the al-Qaida training manual from a US government website for his research into terrorist tactics. The case highlights what lecturers are claiming is a direct assault on academic freedom led by the government which, in its attempt to establish a "prevent agenda" against terrorist activity, is putting pressure on academics to become police informers. (The Guardian)
Keffiyeh: The Politics of Symbolism
May 24: Dunkin' Donuts today withdrew an ad in which Rachael Ray - the talk-show host, cookbook author and magazine editor - wears a scarf that resembles a keffiyeh (a traditional headdress worn by Arab men) - after anti-Islam, anti-Muslim and pro-Israel activists criticized the ad and even threatened to boycott the company. The ad, which appeared earlier this month on the doughnut chain's web site to promote its iced coffee, was first attacked by Pam Geller, who posted it under the headline "Rachel Ray: Dunkin Donuts Jihad Tool." "Have you seen Rachel Ray wearing the icon of Yasser Arafat bastard and the bloody Islamic jihad," Geller wrote. "This is part of the cultural jihad." Another Islamophobist, Michelle Malkin, following Geller, wrote on her website: "The keffiyeh, for the clueless, is the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad. Popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos, the apparel has been mainstreamed by both ignorant (and not so ignorant) fashion designers, celebrities and left-wing icons." Before the latest keffiyeh controversy, there was a row over the pop singer Ricky Martin’s sporting of a red keffiyeh to show support for the Palestinian human rights. Other celebrities, such as Collin Farrell, Mary Kate Olsen and Kanye West, have been wearing the keffiyeh. (AMP Report)
Mission foods fires six Muslim women over Islamic attire
May 27: The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN) today called on Mission Foods (also known as Gruma Corporation) to rehire six Muslim workers allegedly fired from a plant in New Brighton, Minnesota for refusing to wear tight-fitting pants and shirts as part of a new company uniform. CAIR-MN said the workers were fired after a new manager implemented a dress code that did not accommodate the Muslim women, whose religious beliefs require them to dress modestly and prohibit them from wearing tight or revealing clothing. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Minnesota Human Rights Act requires employers to reasonably accommodate the religious practices of their employees unless an "undue hardship" would prevent them from doing so. (CAIR)
Surveillance of L.A., San Diego mosques sparks calls for congressional hearing
May 29: Alarmed by a report that the mosques in Los Angeles and San Diego are under surveillance, Muslim civil rights groups today called for congressional hearings. The call for public hearings followed a San Diego newspaper report that a group of military reservists and law enforcement officers at Camp Pendleton Marine base stole the data from a federal surveillance program that monitored mosques in Southern California. The Union-Tribune of San Diego reported last week that Col. Larry Richards, a Marine reservist, and his accomplices had no trouble evading the security measures of the Strategic Technical Operations Center at Camp Pendleton. Richards, who was the center's chief, also worked as a top specialist for the Los Angeles County Terrorist Early Warning Group. In January 2004, he escorted two Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies through the Strategic Technical Operations Center’s vault like doors and to the man stealing classified files for them. The paper said that Richards recruited Gunnery Sgt. Gary Maziarz, an intelligence analyst at the center to raid the database. Maziarz was the linchpin of the theft group until his arrest in late 2006. He pleaded guilty the next summer and named Richards as the ringleader. The California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Southern California, the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties, and the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California sent a joint letter to the Congressional Committees on the Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform expressing concerns over the possible civil rights violations posed by the alleged monitoring of U.S. citizens on the basis of religious affiliation. (AMP Report)
ADC Calls on US to abide by international obligations at OSCE meeting in Vienna
May 29: Kareem Shora, National Executive Director for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) today called on the US Government to abide by its international obligations in combating anti-Muslim intolerance and promoting non-discrimination policies pursuant to the Madrid OSCE Ministerial Council decision and other recommendations. This came during Kareem Shora’s address today at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) "Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting on the Role of National Institutions against Discrimination in Combating Racism and Xenophobia" (SHDM) in Vienna, Austria. This was part of ADC's participation as a subject-matter expert in three OSCE events in Vienna and Warsaw, Poland. (ADC)
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