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Chronology of Islam in America (2007)
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
July 2007 Page II
College student pleads guilty to hoax alleging bomb threat on Chicago's Sears Tower
July 12: A man who misled federal authorities into thinking that a Muslim student he met on a social networking Web site planned a terrorist attack on the Sears Tower in Chicago pleaded guilty to the hoax. Adam Hart, 22, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Boston to one count of maliciously conveying false information. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 16, and could be ordered to serve up to 10 years in prison.Hart was a student at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth in April 2006 when he sent an e-mail to the National Security Agency claiming that a University of Chicago student he met on Facebook Inc.'s popular online site was planning to detonate a bomb at the landmark skyscraper. The hoax prompted increased security at the building and an investigation of the person Hart identified.The investigation revealed that Hart had sent e-mails containing racial slurs to the man in the days before he contacted the NSA. (The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Jews help Muslims fight St. Louis County council
July 16: When Rick Isserman found out last month that St. Louis County wouldn't allow a group of Muslims to build a new mosque in south St. Louis County, the story sounded too familiar. Forty-eight years earlier, Isserman's grandfather, Rabbi Ferdinand Isserman, fought to move his congregation, Temple Israel, from the city to the county, where the Jewish population had been relocating for some years. The city of Creve Coeur cited zoning problems and tried to block the move, but the rabbi and his flock took the case to the Missouri Supreme Court and prevailed. The case, Congregation Temple Israel v. City of Creve Coeur, produced what is considered a landmark religious-freedom decision that says Missouri municipalities can invoke only health or safety issues in denying a religious group the zoning required to build houses of worship. In the spring, the St. Louis County Council refused the Islamic Community Center's request to rezone a 4.7-acre parcel it bought a year before for $1.25 million. The Muslims - mostly Bosnian immigrants - planned to build a second mosque and community center in addition to the current mosque and center off South Kingshighway in St. Louis. When Khalid Shah, a member of the mosque and a friend of Isserman's, told him about the council's decision, the 53-year-old Department of Agriculture employee began making the connection to his family's legal legacy. County Councilman John Campisi, who represents the area where the mosque and community center would be built, opposes the rezoning. He said the council's vote did not reflect religious discrimination. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
National Muslim American youth summit brings leaders to Capitol Hill policy arena
July 16: The Muslim Public Affairs Council held its 1st Annual National Muslim American Youth Summit, a historic gathering of young leaders from across the nation selected to discuss pressing policy issues with high-level officials from government agencies and Congress. During the two-day summit, 27 young leaders engaged in face-to-face dialogue with government officials and policy makers from the Departments of Justice, State, and Homeland Security as well as staff members from the Senate and House Committees on Homeland Security to discuss widespread concerns about the threat of domestic radicalization and violent extremism from Muslim American youth. They also had the rare opportunity to meet with Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN) and with Muslim American Congressional staffers from half a dozen offices, who all stressed the need and possibility of greater Muslim American involvement and contribution to policymaking and opinion shaping. The Washington Post ran a story about the gathering, in which described the frustration they feel as Muslim American youth six years after 9/11 in interacting with a "government many Muslims feel speaks about them but not to them." (MPAC Bulletin)
Judge clears Muslim store owner, cites potential FBI wrongdoing
July 17: A Butte County (CA) judge has dismissed the case against a Chico market owner who was accused of purchasing stolen cigarettes, saying it appeared the charges were a way for the FBI to question the owner about terrorism. Bilal Abdul Yasin, his brother Muwaiia Abdulra Yasin, 35, and a co-worker, Alberto Cabrera, 39, were arrested in March 2005 for allegedly purchasing dozens of cartons of cigarettes from an undercover agent with the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control who said the cigarettes were stolen, prosecutors said. However, once they were arrested, FBI agents questioned Bilal Yasin about connections to his Palestinian homeland, his Muslim religion, his relationship with other Middle Eastern shopkeepers in Butte County and whether he sent money to terrorist groups, according to testimony he gave during the trial. The FBI not only provided the initial tip that led to the ABC sting, it installed a surveillance camera across the street from the Chico neighborhood market months earlier. In his three-page ruling, Howell said the FBI refused to turn over court-ordered documents which could have provided Bilal Yasin a fair trial. In dismissing multiple counts of attempted receiving stolen property, the judge said testimony in the case suggested the real focus of the investigation was not about cigarettes, but the store owner's "connection to his Palestinian homeland, his practice of the Muslim religion, and relationship with other Middle Eastern shopkeepers in Butte County. (Mercury News & Chico Enterprise-Record)
As Muslim group goes on trial, other charities watch warily
July 17: The strained argument between the United States government and nonprofit groups over how to deal with charities suspected of supporting terrorism is expected to play out in federal court here with the trial of the largest Muslim charity in this country, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. The government, in the lengthy indictment and other court documents, accuses the foundation of being an integral part of Hamas, which much of the West condemns as a terrorist organization. The prosecution maintains that the main officers of the Holy Land foundation started the organization to generate charitable donations from the United States that ultimately helped Hamas thrive. The defense argues that the government, lacking proof, has simply conjured up a vast conspiracy by claiming that the foundation channeled money through public charity committees in the occupied territories that it knew Hamas controlled. The federal government, the defense says, has never designated these committees as terrorist organizations.
The defense is expected to liken a donation to the Holy Land foundation to one to a Roman Catholic charity in Northern Ireland that ends up helping poor Irish Republican Army sympathizers. The case is being closely watched by a large number of charitable organizations, as well as Muslim-Americans, because its outcome might well help determine the line separating legitimate giving from the financing of banned organizations. (New York Times)
4 Arab-Americans claim discrimination in suit against Fedex
July 17: Four Arab-American men claim in a lawsuit filed against FedEx Corp. that their supervisors subjected them to religious and ethnic slurs, called them terrorists and gave them less lucrative delivery routes. FedEx has argued that the plaintiffs, who worked for the company's ground package division in Wilmington, were independent contractors and ineligible for protection under state antidiscrimination laws. The suit seeks damages similar to a discrimination case filed last year by drivers of Lebanese descent in California. The jury in that case awarded $61 million to two FedEx employees who contended that a manager harassed them with racial slurs. A judge reduced the judgment to $12.5 million. The lawsuit filed in Middlesex Superior Court claims Loay el-Dagany, originally from Kuwait; Montaser Foad Harara, who is of Palestinian descent; Oukhayi Ibrahim of Morocco; and Yasir Sati from Sudan, experienced a "pervasive hostile work environment and have been treated differently and less favorably than non-Arab, non-Muslim drivers in the terms and conditions of their employment." The Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination ruled in March that the employees' complaints were valid, clearing the way for the drivers to pursue their case. (Boston Herald & Boston Globe)
Study on how American Muslim communities counter radicalism
July 19: Finding out how American Muslims address messages of extremism in their communities will be the goal of a two-year study funded by the U.S. Department of Justice. Researchers at Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will then use the information to recommend policies for reducing the likelihood that the United States experiences the type of homegrown terrorism seen recently in Europe. “In light of the recent events in London and Glasgow, it is critically important to understand why widespread radicalization has not occurred in the United States and take steps to reinforce this trend,” said David Schanzer, a visiting professor at Duke and adjunct professor at UNC and principal investigator for the study. (Duke University News)
Newsweek Poll: Americans are mixed on U.S. Muslims
July 20: Americans are largely accepting of their fellow citizens who are Muslims, but remain worried about radicals inside the United States, according to a new NEWSWEEK Poll, the first the magazine has conducted on attitudes toward Islamic Americans. Forty percent of those surveyed believe Muslims in the United States are as loyal to the U.S. as they are to Islam. (Thirty-two percent believe American Muslims are less loyal to the U.S.) But close to half (46 percent) of Americans say this country allows too many immigrants to come here from Muslim countries. A solid majority of Americans (63 percent) believe most Muslims in this country do not condone violence, and 40 percent tend to believe the Qur'an itself does not condone violence (28 percent feel it does). (Newsweek)
Former security guard says he was harassed for being Muslim, then fired
July 20: A former security guard, Palm Beach Gardens Florida, claimed he was harassed by a co-worker because of his religion, and then fired for complaining about it. Refat Amar, 31, a Muslim, said he was hassled because of his faith and origin. He came to America from Egypt in 1998. "This is a case of religious discrimination because [the co-worker] used words like 'terrorist' and 'Guantanamo,'" said Altaf Ali, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a national group that defends the civil rights of Muslims in America. Cases such as Amar's are common, he said. There were 168 anti-Muslim discrimination cases in Florida last year, he said. The council held a news conference to present Amar's case against his former employer, Wackenhut Corp., a private security and investigation business. Amar asked the company for a formal apology and a full investigation of his harassment complaints but got neither, he said. (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)
U.S. Islamic charities feel post 9/11 heat
July 20: Islamic charities in the United States complain they are being unfairly scrutinized and persecuted as part of a broader backlash against Muslims since the Sept. 11 attacks. The issue has come under renewed focus as a major trial gets under way in Dallas in which the U.S. Department of Justice is trying to prove the Holy Land Foundation charity illegally sent money to the militant Palestinian group Hamas. U.S. law enforcement officials maintain some Islamic charities have been used as fronts to channel cash to groups Washington has deemed terrorist. Islamic activists say charities that donate to Palestinian causes have been singled out. "Any charity that decides to provide aid to Palestine is either shut down or intensely scrutinized," said Khalil Meek, who is president of the Muslim Legal Fund of America. Other Islamic charities also find it tough. "It is very difficult right now for American Muslim charities to operate and at the same time American Muslims themselves are finding it difficult to donate to these charities," said Nidal Ibrahim, executive director of the Arab American Institute. (Reuters)
No place to call home for Kuwait-born immigrant
July 21: An immigration agent called Maha Dakar to his office a few weeks ago and told her the time had come to make a choice. Dakar began to weep. The choice was simple, yet impossible: leave behind her Green Township home, her four young daughters and her husband and move to Jordan alone, or take the girls with her and subject them to a new and frightening life in a country they'd never seen. Her husband was not permitted to go with her. She was not permitted to stay. How could she decide, Dakar asked, when neither choice would keep her family together? How could any mother do such a thing? The sympathetic immigration agent gave Dakar a reprieve that day, but it will be short. She must report to him again in August with a plan to leave the country by October. As Palestinians born in Kuwait, both Dakar and her husband, Bassam Garadah, are considered "stateless." In other words, they have no country to go home to. Dakar carries a Jordanian passport and can be deported to that country. Garadah, who carries only Egyptian travel documents, cannot go with her or move anywhere else. The couple came to America legally in 1997, they have permission to work and pay taxes, they report monthly to immigration officials and they have filed the paperwork necessary to obtain U.S. citizenship. Unlike many of the 200,000 people facing deportation from the United States each year, Dakar and her family did not break any law. They were deemed deportable after the courts rejected their application for political asylum, a decision that does not bar them from seeking citizenship but limits their time to do so. (Cincinnati Enquirer)
Continued on Page III
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