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Chronology of Islam in America (2014)
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
April 2014 Page Two
Suit charges FBI used no-fly list to coerce Muslims to become informers
April 22: Four Muslim-American men filed a lawsuit against the FBI on today, charging that the bureau placed them on the “no-fly list” in retaliation for their refusal to inform on their communities and then denied them the chance to clear their names. “I do not want to become an informant, but the government says I must in order to be taken off the no-fly list,” said Awais Sajjad, a plaintiff in the lawsuit. “How can the government tell me that the only way I can see my family again is if I turn my back on my community?” The men say they believe that the FBI used the no-fly list in attempt to coerce and intimidate them into being spies for the bureau. Some were told that infiltration could get their names wiped from the list, while others were threatened with being placed on the list if they resisted recruitment. “Plaintiffs are among the many innocent people who find themselves swept up in the United States government’s secretive watch list dragnet,” reads the complaint. “Plaintiffs declined to act as informants for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) and to spy on their own American Muslim communities and other innocent people.” Being placed on the no-fly list had severe repercussions in all of their lives, including loss of jobs, stigma, and being cut off from family members and loved ones. [Mint Press News]
Muslim, Arab- American Groups Call on 9/11 Museum to Edit 'Insufficiently Vetted' Film
April 24: A coalition of American Muslim and Arab-American organizations today urged the National September 11 Memorial Museum to consider editing a planned film presentation, "The Rise of Al Qaeda," because it may lead viewers to wrongly conclude that that the entire faith of Islam is responsible for the 2001 terror attacks. In an open letter to museum President Joe Daniels and Director Alice Greenwald, the organizations wrote in part: "We have learned that you have been aware, since at least June 2013, that viewers have found this video confusing and possibly inflammatory. The museum's own interfaith religious advisory group has repeatedly asked that this video be edited, with their concerns being dismissed. [ADC/CAIR/MPAC]
Queens street renamed for Mohammed Hamdani, a Muslim police cadet who died helping victims at the World Trade Center on 9/11
April 28: A police cadet who died helping World Trade Center victims on 9/11 was honored today at a Queens street renaming — 13 years after being accused of involvement in the attacks. Residents and elected officials came together to formally rename 204th St. at 35th Ave. “Salman Hamdani Way” after Mohammed Salman Hamdani, the son of Muslim immigrants from Pakistan who lived a block from the Bayside street. “It’s a joyous and victorious day,” said Talat Hamdani, the mother of the police cadet, who died at the age of 23. “And it’s a turning point in America’s fight against prejudice and bigotry. It symbolizes that OK, American Muslims are also Americans, and we are an integral part of society.” [New York Daily News]
Supreme Court refuses to stop indefinite detention of Americans under NDAA
April 28: The United States Supreme Court said it won’t weigh in on challenge filed by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges and a bevy of co-plaintiffs against US President Barack Obama, ending for now a two-and-a-half-year debate concerning part of an annual Pentagon spending bill that since 2012 has granted the White House the ability to indefinitely detain people "who are part of or substantially support Al-Qaeda, the Taliban or associated forces engaged in hostilities against the United States.” The Obama administration has long maintained that the provision — Section 1021(b)(2) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 — merely reaffirmed verbiage contained within the Authorization for Use of Military Force, or AUMF, signed by then-President George W. Bush in the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Opponents, however, argued that the language in Section 1021 of the NDAA is overly vague and could be interpreted in a way that allows for the government to detain without trial any American citizen accused of committing a “belligerent act” against the country “until the end of hostilities.” When the provision was first challenged days after Pres. Obama signed it into law on December 31, 2011, Hedges — who previously worked as a war correspondent for the New York Times and covered matters concerning Al-Qaeda for the paper — said, “I have had dinner more times than I can count with people whom this country brands as terrorists … but that does not make me one.” [RT]
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