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www.amperspective.com Online Magazine

Executive Editor:  Abdus Sattar Ghazali


Chronology of Islam in America (2012)
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali

April 2012 - Page Two

Muslims in Europe discriminated against for demonstrating their faith
April 23: European governments must do more to challenge the negative stereotypes and prejudices against Muslims fuelling discrimination especially in education and employment, a new report by Amnesty International reveals today. “Muslim women are being denied jobs and girls prevented from attending regular classes just because they wear traditional forms of dress, such as the headscarf. Men can be dismissed for wearing beards associated with Islam,” said Marco Perolini, Amnesty International’s expert on discrimination. “Rather than countering these prejudices, political parties and public officials are all too often pandering to them in their quest for votes.” The report Choice and prejudice: discrimination against Muslims in Europe, exposes the impact of discrimination on the ground of religion or belief on Muslims in several aspects of their lives, including employment and education. It focuses on Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland where Amnesty International has already raised issues such as restrictions on the establishment of places of worship and prohibitions on full-face veils. The report documents numerous individual cases of discrimination across the countries covered.

“Wearing religious and cultural symbols and dress is part of the right of freedom of expression. It is part of the right to freedom of religion or belief – and these rights must be enjoyed by all faiths equally.” said Marco Perolini. While everyone has the right to express their cultural, traditional or religious background by wearing a specific form of dress no one should be pressurized or coerced to do so.  General bans on particular forms of dress that violate the rights of those freely choosing to dress in a particular way are not the way to do this.”

The report highlights that legislation prohibiting discrimination in employment has not been appropriately implemented in Belgium, France and the Netherlands. Employers have been allowed to discriminate on the grounds that religious or cultural symbols will jar with clients or colleagues or that a clash exists with a company’s corporate image or its ‘neutrality’.  In the last decade, pupils have been forbidden to wear the headscarf or other religious and traditional dress at school in many countries including Spain, France, Belgium, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
“Any restriction on the wearing of religious and cultural symbols and dress in schools must be based on assessment of the needs in each individual case. General bans risk adversely Muslims girls’ access to education and violating their rights to freedom of expression and to manifest their beliefs.” Marco Perolini said.

The right to establish places of worship is a key component of the right to freedom of religion or belief which is being restricted in some European countries, despite state obligations to protect, respect and fulfill this right. Since 2010, the Swiss Constitution has specifically targeted Muslims with the prohibition of the construction of minarets, embedding anti-Islam stereotypes and violating international obligations that Switzerland is bound to respect. In Catalonia (Spain), Muslims have to pray in outdoor spaces because existing prayer rooms are too small to accommodate all the worshippers and requests to build mosques are being disputed as incompatible with the respect of Catalan traditions and culture. This goes against freedom of religion which includes the right to worship collectively in adequate places. “There is a groundswell of opinion in many European countries that Islam is alright and Muslims are ok so long as they are not too visible. This attitude is generating human rights violations and needs to be challenged,” said Marco Perolini.

In the last decade, pupils have been forbidden to wear the headscarf or other religious and traditional dress at school in many countries including Spain, France, Belgium, Switzerland and the Netherlands.  “Any restriction on the wearing of religious and cultural symbols and dress in schools must be based on assessment of the needs in each individual case. General bans risk adversely Muslims girls’ access to education and violating their rights to freedom of expression and to manifest their beliefs.” Marco Perolini said. [Amnesty Press Release]

MPAC concerned over Brennan’s statements supporting surveillance of Muslim Americans
April 23: The Muslim Public Affairs Council today expressed deep concern over a statement by John Brennan, President Barack Obama’s Homeland Security adviser, supporting the New York Police Department’s surveillance of Muslim American communities. Brennan said during a law enforcement conference: "I have full confidence that the NYPD is doing things consistent with the law, and it's something that again has been responsible for keeping this city safe over the past decade… the Muslim community here is part of the solution to the terrorist threat, and they need to be part of that effort, and that dialogue needs to continue."

This comes at a sensitive time in the process of accountability of NYPD’s actions. Brennan’s statements could undermine the preliminary review the Department of Justice is considering to determine if there were any unlawful practices that led to spying on Muslim Americans. "If the NYPD is a model for community partnership, then all of our hard work in building partnerships on the ground is in jeopardy,” said Haris Tarin, Director of MPAC’s DC office. “There are plenty of robust partnership models that both communities and the government have invested in, and those partnerships will be jeopardized if NYPD's current tactics are not halted, and its programs are not adjusted to more successful initiatives.”
 
MPAC requested an immediate public clarification of Brennan's statement in order to ensure the full integrity and independence of a review, free from even the appearance of any pressure to affect the decision-making process during this preliminary inquiry. After MPAC expressed deep concerns with Brennan’s statement to White House officials, they issued this brief statement attempting to clarify Brennan’s remarks:

“John Brennan met with NYPD Commissioner Kelly and told him we need to be sure we are balancing security and civil rights. Commissioner Kelly agreed and told him he was doing that in NY. John was not rendering any judgment as to whether NYPD’s practices should be the focus of a federal investigation; rather he was stating that everyone in the counterterrorism and law enforcement community must make sure we are doing things consistent with the law. The NYPD has an extremely difficult job in protecting New York City and Commissioner Kelly assured John they were doing it consistent with the law. In combating national security threats we all face, the Muslim community is a part of the solution, not part of the problem.  Federal, state and local law enforcement needs to partner with all of our communities to keep us safe. When Mr. Brennan referred to NYPD as a ‘model of how a community can come together,’ he was referring to the broad partnerships that NYPD has built since 9/11.  Mr. Brennan’s comment was made in the context of the NYPD Shield Conference, part of NYPD’s public-private partnership ‘with private sector security managers with the goal of protecting New York City from terrorist attacks.’ ”

In a letter to the White House, MPAC made it clear that unless there are steps taken to further clarify the statements this could harm our shared agenda of community-partnership approaches. We are concerned that this statement may potentially compromise the integrity of Attorney General Eric Holder's review. Holder is best positioned to determine the legal merits of NYPD’s surveillance actions. Following the White House’s strategy of using community partnerships to counter violent extremism, the NYPD needs to shift its model to be more inclusive of all communities, and the administration needs to be consistent in how it implements its strategy. Communities cannot be sent conflicting messages on the commitment this administration has towards partnership. Either we choose partnerships or broad surveillance of all Americans. [MPAC]

CAIR says gov't asked Muslim Americans how often they prayed
April 24: The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government, saying, among other things, that authorities questioned Muslim Americans reentering the country from Canada about their personal habits of prayer. "Upon information and belief, Defendants began implementing a policy or course of conduct under which Defendants ask Muslim American travelers attempting to re-enter the United States through the United States-Canada border at multiple international ports of entry a detailed list of questions about their religious beliefs and religious practices," says the complaint. The complaint says one of these questions is: "How many times a day do you pray?"

On April 13, CAIR filed the lawsuit in a U.S. District Court in Michigan against three federal agencies listed as defendants: Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the  Transportation Security Administration (TSA), both of which are components of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the Department of Justice’s FBI. The four plaintiffs are identified as Muslim male U.S. citizens. They are Abdulrahman Cherri, Wissam Charafeddine, Ali Suleiman Ali, and Kheireddine Bouzid. The lawsuit claims that the plaintiffs’ First and Fifth Amendment rights have been violated. It also alleges that the federal government violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act by “targeting and detaining Plaintiffs with a purpose of questioning them about their religious beliefs and practices.” During an April 13 news conference, Charaffedine, who described himself as an educator, told reporters, “I’m detained for a few hours, treated like a criminal right when my passport is swiped; right away there is a panic situation. Officers come out. Sometimes I’m handcuffed, escorted to the building. I’m detained from anywhere between three hours--to the most one was eight hours--and questioned and searched thoroughly.”

According to Dawud Walid, the director for CAIR in Michigan, individuals trying to reenter the United States through the northern border are not directly asked whether or not they are Muslim. Instead, he said that they are profiled based on their name, background, or physical appearance. “We believe [that] is based upon their name. They see names that appear to be Muslim, they have some type of Arabic background or people whose physical appearance, you know, they have the appearance of wearing some type perhaps scarf,” Walid told CNSNews.com. He said some individuals have been asked questions about their religious practices by the FBI after entering the country.

The FBI has “gone as far as to ask community members, you know, how they feel about our holy book Koran, including asking questions [on] their belief about specific verses,” said Walid. “Not only have they asked questions about, you know, prayer habits, what mosque do they attend, but the questions have even been specific.” CNSNews.com asked Walid whether the number of complaints by Muslims about intrusive religious questioning at the northern border has increased in recent years. Walid said the number has increased “within the last couple of years” under the Obama administration. The complaint states, “Defendants’ course of conduct or policy includes asking Muslim American travelers, at minimum, a fixed set of questions about their Islamic religious practices, which include, but are not limited to the following: (a.) Which mosque do you go to? (b.) How many times a day do you pray? (c.) Who is your religious leader? (d.) Do you perform your morning prayer at the mosque. [CNSNews]

Anti-terror law targets Arab names in shutting bank accounts
April 27: In the chilling aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001 — when authorities found that hijackers had active bank accounts in the U.S., including in New Jersey — the federal government enacted laws to try to detect suspected terrorist links at financial institutions. But those laws have also had a side effect: Banks in North Jersey and elsewhere have delayed or blocked money transfers and shut down the accounts of some Muslims and non-Muslims who do business with them, sometimes because of an Arabic-sounding name. A Wayne businessman and a landlord in Jersey City are among the people to encounter such wariness.  “Nowadays, given the Patriot Act and post-9/11 era, banks don’t even have to explain,” said Ibrahim Hooper, communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Hooper said the most common complaint he hears from Muslim-Americans was that banks had closed an account without explanation. He said U.S. policy “enables them to discriminate in this way.” “Because of the Patriot Act and other legislation and government policies, it’s extremely difficult to challenge this,” he said. “We have not had much luck with this particular issue with the banks.” The Council on American-Islamic Relations has received 133 banking-related complaints since 2006, many of them about blocked and suspended transactions, said Gadeir Abbas, a staff attorney. More people call for consultations but don’t file complaints, he said.

“They can close your account for any reason or no reason and [customers] have absolutely no recourse.”  Among other things, the USA Patriot Act, signed into law by President George W. Bush six weeks after the attacks, expanded the obligations of financial institutions to monitor and report suspicious activity and gave government agencies greater power to go after banks that didn’t comply. North Jersey Muslims believe the financial scrutiny has fallen disproportionately on them and is one of the ways life has changed because of their faith or their names. The scrutiny, they say, has extended from airport security checkpoints to banks and even to their mosques and businesses, as evidenced by the New York Police Department’s surveillance in their communities. On March 16, John Lory of Jersey City said he tried to wire $1,000 to a business partner who co-owns a house they rent in South Plainfield. He wrote the name of a new tenant on the transfer with the comment “Saed’s rent” – similar to notes he said he makes to mark who paid. For days, the money wasn’t sent. When Lory called his Chase bank, he said, a representative said the bank needed “Saed’s” last name, date of birth, country of origin and address before it could release or refund the money. Though he said he found the request offensive, Lory supplied the information on March 21. “It just felt wrong,” said Lory, who is not a Muslim. “It’s racial profiling when you can judge somebody based on their first name, and that’s all they knew about this person.” The representative called six days later and asked why Lory had misspelled the tenant’s name, which actually is Zaid, Lory said. He said he didn’t remember the spelling and didn’t think it mattered because it was a note to himself. The money was returned to Lory that day, he said, and he called the experience unsettling and disruptive.[The Record - New Jersey)

Police remove Muslim women from Pam Geller’s ‘Human Rights Conference’
April 29:  Dearborn, Michigan, noted anti-Muslim activists Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer hosted today a conference promising to advocate for “human rights” in one of the largest Muslim communities in the United States. Geller, writing on her blog on Sunday, warned, “We will meet fierce resistance by Islamic supremacists who will do anything, say anything to impose the sharia and whitewash the oppression, subjugation and slaughter of women under Islamic law.” But surprisingly, Muslim women found themselves denied entry to the conference and, after patiently waiting in the corridor after being told to wait, were removed from the Hyatt Hotel by the Dearborn Police Department and Hyatt security. Several of the young women commented that they shared a similar appearance with Jessica Mokdad, the young women who Geller and Spencer claim was murdered in an “honor killing” (a conclusion not shared by Mokdad’s family or Michigan prosecutors). ThinkProgress attempted to attend the event and was turned away, and eventually removed from the Hyatt by the police, along with the young women. One of the women commented, “I tried emailing [Pamela Geller to register] and I literally couldn’t get any kind of response back.” That comment seems to contradict Geller’s claim that she wants to help Muslim women and that the conference was in defense of the human rights of Muslim women. Another woman who tried to attend the conference told ThinkProgress: Coming in, I was asking where the human rights conference is. [Hyatt Security and Dearborn Police] were like, ‘what are you talking about?’ I’m like, ‘the human rights conference on the second floor.’ They were like, ‘the anti-Islam conference?’ That’s what they’re calling it now. [Think Progress]

OC Muslims connect with Japanese-American internment struggle at Manzanar
April 30: John Asanuma was 11 years old when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, paving the path for mass imprisonment of Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor. The Los Angeles native, and his parents were sent to Manzanar in 1942--one of the largest camps housing more than 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II. The desert weather at the camp, located near Death Valley, brought in scorching summers and chilling winters. When it snowed, John and his friends built makeshift snow slides. During the other seasons, they played softball with sticks and pine cones. Three years later, officials closed the camp, and John and his parents moved to Fresno. Asanuma revisited the camp on Saturday at the yearly "Manzanar Pilgrimage", a day-long program dedicated to remembering that dark era in American history and the lessons that came out of it. The annual program draws approximately 1,000 participants; among them was a group of about 50 Muslim Americans, hosted by the Anaheim-based chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR).

"It's important for Muslim Americans to understand how another group struggled," said CAIR spokesperson Munira Syeda. "And what happens if people remain silent and don't stand up for the rights our Constitution grants us." Munira said that members of the Japanese-American community, like Kathy Masaoaka, were among the first groups to reach out to Muslim Americans post-9/11 attacks. Masaoka fought for government reparations for the Japanese American community in the 1980s, and now she co-chairs Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress. She said she understood the importance of reaching out to Muslims after 9/11.  "When I heard Muslim and Arab-Americans talking about how afraid they were after 9/11, that's when I understood how our community felt for the first time," she said. "I didn't understand it before - feeling that fear just because of the way you looked."

The relationship between both groups culminated in programs like Bridging Communities (a learning exchange between Japanese-American and Muslim-American students) and a yearly trip to Manzanar. Around 50 Muslim Americans attended the pilgrimage this year. Some of them said they barely learned about the internment camps in high school, and they wanted to find out more about the history. Among them was Kashif Ghani, who leads weekend religious studies classes at a Mission Viejo mosque. While he said he can't compare the Japanese-American experience to that of Muslims in America, he felt empowered by the trip. "After 9/11, I didn't want to get involved," 25-year-old Kashif said. "I wanted to avoid confrontation. Coming here and seeing how Japanese-Americans have confronted the government inspired me to not feel ashamed. We didn't do anything wrong, and we shouldn't feel afraid to say anything against the government or bad policies."

In one of the discussion groups, Don Hosokawa of Huntington Beach said his parents were interned at Manzanar, and two of his sisters were born there. At the camp, his father used to sneak out with friends at night to fish at streams nearby; a documentary called Manzanar Fishing Club was later made about the fishermen. As Hosokawa shared his parents' story, other group members reflected on discrimination in general, including Omar Jarrad, a Muslim-American of Palestinian descent. The eighth grader at Las Flores Middle School in Rancho Santa Margarita, said that some of his fellow peers repeatedly taunt him at school by calling him names like "camel jockey" and "terrorist." "Hey, don't feel bad," Don said to Omar. "We went through this stuff, so just know that you're not alone."  [Orange County Weekly]

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