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Chronology of Islam in America (2011)
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
July 2011 - Page Two
Georgia Tea Party holds anti-Islam event
July 12: More than 130 people filled the meeting room at The Carnegie in Newnan to hear radio talk show host and former pastor Dr. Jody Hice explain that Islam, far from being only a religion, is actually a totalitarian way of life that stands in opposition to the freedoms guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution. “Most people think Islam is a religion, It’s not. It’s a totalitarian way of life with a religious component. But it’s much larger. It’s a geo-political system that has governmental, financial, military, legal and religious components. And it’s a totalitarian system that encompasses every aspect of life and it should not be protected (under U.S. law),” Hice said. Broadening the conversation pertaining to the potential introduction of Sharia law and other aspects of global Islam into the United States, Hice claimed there are 200 Islamic organizations in the United States that answer directly to the Muslim Brotherhood. The event was sponsored by the Coweta County Tea Party Patriots. A previous appearance by Hice came in April at the American Family Summit in Fayette County sponsored by the South Atlanta Tea Party Patriots. (The Citizen)
ACLU sues CIA for documents on Iraq war critic Juan Cole
July 13: The American Civil Liberties Union and the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan filed a lawsuit today demanding that the government turn over any documents it has relating to University of Michigan Professor Juan Cole, a vocal critic of the Iraq War and the Bush administration. Under the Freedom of Information Act, the ACLU requested materials related to Cole from the CIA, the FBI, and the offices of both the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence. "The government cannot investigate Americans for simply exercising their First Amendment right to criticize the president or his policies," said Zachary Katznelson, senior staff attorney for the ACLU's National Security Project. "As U.S. citizens, we all have the right to express our opinions without fear of having the CIA or FBI digging into our private lives if the government doesn't like what we're saying." The ACLU filed a FOIA request after former CIA officer Glenn Carle alleged that in 2005 and 2006, the Bush administration asked intelligence officials for any potentially negative personal information about Cole that could be used to undermine his credibility. Carle says that he refused to participate and complained to his superiors at the CIA about the requests. The CIA is barred from conducting any kind of domestic activity except for collecting foreign intelligence or counterintelligence – and even those actions must be coordinated with the FBI. The purpose of this lawsuit is to find out what officials at the CIA, Justice Department and Bush White House actually did. (ACLU)
Police charge mother in Nashville airport altercation: Woman refused to let officers screen daughter
July 13: A 41-year-old Clarksville woman was arrested after Nashville airport authorities say she was belligerent and verbally abusive to security officers, refusing for her daughter to be patted down at a security checkpoint. Andrea Fornella Abbott yelled and swore at Transportation Security Administration agents at Nashville International Airport, saying she did not want her daughter to be “touched inappropriately or have her “crotch grabbed,” a police report states. After the woman refused to calm down, airport police said, she was charged with disorderly conduct and taken to jail. She has been released on bond. The arrest comes on the heels of public outrage over a video showing a pat-down of a 6-year-old girl at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. The April video prompted a new policy that took effect last month in which airport security screeners must try to avoid invasive pat-down searches of children. (Tennessean)
Canadian Muslim Lawyers Association applauds decision of Toronto District School Board
July 15: The Canadian Muslim Lawyers Association (CMLA) applauds the decision of the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) to permit private prayer for one half-hour each week in a designated space at Valley Park Middle School. This sign of tolerance and respect allows students of the Muslim faith to avoid having to leave school premises to attend the once weekly congregational prayer, which is an essential part of the Islamic faith, and ensures that they can return to class safely and in a timely fashion. Said Ms. Yusra Siddiquee, Chair of the CMLA: "I am proud to live in a country where we accommodate and respect the cultural and religious needs of various diverse communities within a public school system, so that all children can learn together." The TDSB is not involved in the prayer service, and students participate voluntarily and with parental consent. The accommodation was requested by the local community, and has been ongoing for three years without complaint.
The CMLA statement
The TDSB's decision is consistent with provincial and federal human rights laws, which oblige service providers, including public schools, to accommodate religious needs. It furthers the aims of the Education Act by maximizing instruction time for its students. The TDSB's decision upholds the Charter of Rights of Freedoms, which guarantees freedom of conscience and religion for all Canadians. We believe that the TDSB has struck a helpful balance that is in line with the legal obligations of the TDSB, but also furthers the values of tolerance, respect and fairness that Canadians proudly uphold. The TDSB adopted a community-based approach in fulfilling its legal and ethical obligations, and worked with parents and members of the Valley Park neighbourhood to achieve a solution that accommodates the needs of over 300 students. Organizations across faith lines have come forward to support the prayer accommodations at Valley Park Middle School. The CMLA applauds the TDSB's commitment to ensuring that the religious needs of all faith groups are respected and accommodated, without imposition or detriment to others. (Newswire)
Canadian citizen tortured in Bahrain... But Harper government keeps silent
July 17: A young Canadian man suffering from a serious heart condition has been abducted and tortured by the Bahraini regime – yet the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper has maintained a steadfast silence over his plight. This lack of action by the Harper government is in spite of the fact that the Canadian Consuls in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia are fully aware of the case. The official silence may be due to a bilateral trade deal Canada is in the process of completing with the Bahraini regime, and also Ottawa’s increasing subordinance to Washington’s foreign policy and therefore unwillingness to upset an important US ally in the Persian Gulf. Naser Al Raas (28), who resides in Ottawa, was caught up in the popular uprising in the oil-rich Gulf kingdom that erupted in mid-February while on a family holiday. He arrived in Bahrain on 6 March to visit his five sisters who live there. But when the former Microsoft IT specialist went to exit the country on 20 March, he was stopped while boarding his flight by ministry of interior officers. Although Al Raas was travelling on a Canadian passport, he was hauled into a room at Bahrain’s international airport and detained for several hours during which time he was hooded, interrogated and physically assaulted. That was just the beginning of his nightmare. He was then taken by his captors to the infamous Al Qala – the ministry of interior headquarters in the capital, Manama, and incarcerated for four weeks without any criminal charges being made. During his illegal detention, Al Raas was severely tortured.
For one month, the family of Naser Al Raas did not know of his whereabouts or even if he was alive. They knew that his last movements were in the airport because he talked to a friend by phone just before his scheduled departure. However, for the next four weeks, the Bahraini government denied all knowledge of the Canadian man. After one month of being held incommunicado, the Bahraini regime released Al Raas but with-held his passport. He is now stranded in Bahrain – without medication – pending a prosecution trial. On three dates in June, he was brought before a Military Court. It was during the opening hearing on 7 June that he first learnt of the charges against him. Al Raas stands accused, along with 12 other men, of kidnapping a police officer and promoting crimes against the rulers. He recalls that during his interrogation period he was forced to sign a piece of paper. This has turned out to be a confession to the crimes he is being accused of – accusations that Al Raas denies. All trials in Bahrain since the Saudi-led invasion have been conducted in Military Courts, with minimal legal counsel permitted to the defendants. In over 400 trials, confessions forced through torture are the sole basis for the prosecution case. In eerie show trial fashion, sometimes videos of defendants making confessions are even televised on Bahrain state TV before the verdicts are reached.
For Al Raas, the next court appearance is set for September. If found guilty, the Canadian is facing up to 20 years in prison. Given his acute heart condition and weakened state from torture, Al Raas’ family fear that his conviction could result in a de facto death sentence. The fact that a civilian – a foreign civilian at that – can end up being illegally detained, tortured and dragged before a Military Court by a regime that has incurred worldwide condemnation is a sobering episode. But what makes the plight of Naser Al Raas shocking is the seeming indifference of his Canadian government. This silence from the Harper government is not out of ignorance of the case. The plight of Al Raas has been reported in the Canadian press on two occasions in March and June. Canada’s consul in Saudi Arabia Michael Erdman travelled to Bahrain to attend two of his trial dates in June. And the man’s family has made repeated phone calls to the Canadian department of foreign affairs in Ottawa. Yet to date the Harper government has failed to make any public statement on the matter.
Commercial interests may be a telling factor
The question of commercial interests may be a telling factor. Canada is in the process of finalising a bilateral trade agreement with the Bahraini regime. According to the Canadian Foreign Affairs and International Trade website, Bahrain “offers significant investment opportunities for Canadian investors in a variety of sectors, including education, infrastructure and healthcare.” Currently, the two countries are signing off a Foreign Investment and Protection Agreement (FIPA) after three years of negotiations. Another factor is Ottawa’s increasingly militarist foreign policy and supine deference to Washington. As Rick Rozoff and Michel Chossudovsky have pointed out, Canada has in recent years emerged as a key NATO player in concert with Washington. NATO’s criminal warmongering in Libya has relied on crucial support from the monarchical dictatorships of the Persian Gulf, including Bahrain. In the grand scheme of Canada’s commercial trade interests and imperialist intrigues in the Gulf, the fate of one of its citizens appears to be a matter that needs to be buried rather than raised. The case of Naser Al Raas begs the question: have western governments become so lawless and wanton in their geopolitical calculations that even the basic human rights of their own citizens are now worthless? (Global Research)
Herman Cain: Communities have right to ban mosques
July 17: Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain said today that communities have a right to ban Islamic mosques. Appearing on "Fox News Sunday," the former Godfather's Pizza CEO said protests and legal challenges to a planned mosque in Tennessee city are an example of local residents pushing back. Asked if his view could lead any community to stand up in opposition to a proposed mosque, Cain replied, "They could say that." He pointed to opposition to the planned mosque in Murfreesboro, Tenn., as an example. "Let's go back to the fundamental issue that the people are basically saying that they are objecting to," Cain said. "They are objecting to the fact that Islam is both religion and (a) set of laws, Shariah law. That's the difference between any one of our other traditional religions where it's just about religious purposes. "The people in the community know best. And I happen to side with the people in the community." Campaigning in Murfreesboro last week, Cain sided with mosque opponents. "I happen to also know that it's not just about a religious mosque," he said Sunday. "There are other things going on based upon talking to the people closest to the problem. It's not a mosque for religious purposes. This is what the people are objecting to." Cain previously stirred controversy by saying that he would not want a Muslim bent on killing Americans in his administration. (Associated Press)
Keith Ellison: Herman Cain is a "bigot"
July 20: Over the past few months, former Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain has carved out a place as the most prominent anti-Muslim figure in the GOP presidential field, and, arguably, the country. First, earlier this year, he promised he would not hire any Muslims to be in his future cabinet, subsequently repeating various versions of that pledge. Then, on a trip to Tennessee last week, Cain came out against the construction of a mosque project there. On Fox News Sunday, he expanded that stance, endorsing the idea that any American community could bar construction of mosques. To get a response to Cain's new comments, Justin Elliott, Salon reporter, spoke to Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., who is one of two Muslim members of Congress and who has emerged in recent years as a loud anti-anti-Muslim voice. "It seems like a week doesn't go by without Cain saying something incredibly offensive, so I can only guess that he's doing it on purpose," said Ellison. "He's probably figured out that he can get headlines if he says something really ugly, so he doesn't disappoint." Ellison said he feels moved to address these issues because when people "start whipping up hatred against a certain group over the course of years, bad things happen. History teaches us that if you continue to stir the pot, stir the cauldron, it will not be long before something awful happens." In response to a question - What's your reaction to Herman Cain's comments on Sunday that communities should be able to ban construction of mosques? Keith Ellison said: “This is ridiculous and has no foundation in American law. In fact, the U.S. Constitution says Congress shall make no law establishing a religion and shall not abridge the exercise thereof. He runs right into the First Amendment. But the larger question is, why is he trying distinguish himself as the religious bigot of the presidential race of 2011 and 2012?”
There is an anti-Islam industry in the United States
In response to another question - Even though we're coming up on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, these comments from Cain and Gingrich, and the whole Park51 controversy last year seem to mark something new. Do you have any theories as to why all of this happening now? - Keith Ellison said: ”There is an anti-Islam industry in the United States, and it's also active in Europe. The individuals who are associated with those movement are people like Pam Geller, and Robert Spencer. Stop the Islamization of America is a website/organization that the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled a hate group. There's a cast of characters. There's Frank Gaffney -- he is so outrageous he tried to expel [former Bush aide] Suhail Khan from the Conservative Political Action Conference for no reason other than he's a Muslim. So you have Muslim Republicans that are being attacked for their religion alone. So you have an organized hate group that is actively trying to manipulate fears, they go into local communities and whip up hatred. They have a whole movement around the country to ban Shariah law. They often market themselves as counterterrorism experts. They have been receiving honoraria from police departments and various law enforcement agencies, some from the federal government.” (Justin Elliott, Salon reporter)
Negative stereotypes persist between West and Muslims
July 21: Westerners and Muslims continue to hold negative stereotypes of each other, although views of Muslims in the West appear to have improved marginally over the past five years, according to a new survey released in Washington by the Pew Global Attitudes Project today. Nonetheless, the survey, which was based on in-depth interviews with respondents in six predominantly Christian and six predominantly Muslim countries, as well as in Israel and the Palestinian Territories (PT), used the same words as in its last study on the subject, released in 2006, to describe how each group saw the other. "Many in the West see Muslims as fanatical and violent …," it concluded. At the same time, "Muslims in the Middle East and Asia generally see Westerners as selfish, immoral and greedy – as well as violent and fanatical." Among Christian respondents who agreed with that assertion, overwhelming majorities said that Islam was the most violent. Among respondents in predominantly Muslim countries, on the other hand, similar majorities named Judaism as the most violent. Turkey, however, was an exception: 45 percent pf respondents who said some religions were more violent than others named Christianity as the most violent; 41 percent chose Judaism. Western or predominantly Christian nations covered by the survey included the United States, Spain, Germany, France, Britain, and Russia. Predominantly Muslim countries included Indonesia, Lebanon, Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan, and Turkey, as well as the PT. An average of 1,000 interviews was conducted in each country in March and April this year. (IPS)
New Jersey Muslim judge takes oath after combative confirmation hearings
July 22: The state of New Jersey got its first Indian American Superior Court judge June 30, as Sohail Mohammed, a former engineer from Hyderabad, took his oath of office. Following contentious confirmation hearings in the New Jersey State Senate, Mohammed, 47, who became interested in law after serving jury duty, began working July 1 in Passaic County Superior Court’s Family Division. “I am deeply, deeply honored to be representing the two greatest democracies in the world: India and the U.S.,” Mohammed told India-West, adding that he hoped to create a process in his courtroom that left people’s dignity intact, regardless of whether they had won or lost. Mohammed refused to comment on his combative confirmation hearings, saying only, “It was a process.” New Jersey Governor Chris Christie had nominated Mohammed for the post Jan. 14, and the attorney had told India-West in an earlier interview that he expected his nomination to be fast-tracked through the confirmation process. At his confirmation hearing June 29, Mohammed was grilled extensively about his ties to radical Islamist groups, and his opinion of Sharia law. Republican state Senator Gerald Cardinale, asked Mohammed about the organization Hamas - defined by the U.S. as a terrorist group - and also asked him to define the term jihad. Cardinale also asked Mohammed if he had ever objected to the term “Islamo terrorist.” Republican state Senator Joseph Kyrillos asked Mohammed why there was not more condemnation from Muslims about terrorism. In an editorial, local columnist Bruce Lowry likened Mohammed’s confirmation hearings to a “witch hunt.” (India West)
Feds profiling whites, middle class Americans as terrorists
July 22: A shocking Department of Homeland Security video that caused outrage yesterday after it depicted white Americans as the most likely terrorists only confirms that the federal government is now profiling middle class America as the main terror threat, something that becomes made abundantly clear when one studies the history of training manuals and other literature put out by the feds that identifies politically active US citizens as domestic extremists. On the day that Janet Napolitano repeated rhetoric about “domestic terror” being the primary security threat, a newly released DHS video caused outrage by depicting white Americans as the most likely terrorists. The footage illustrated a number of scenarios encouraging people to report suspicious activity, and in almost every case the evildoer was a white American and in not one case was the terrorist a Muslim or an Arab. Far from representing some superficial nod to political correctness, this is in fact a deliberate effort by the feds to characterize white, middle class, politically engaged Americans as domestic extremists. It’s all part of the agenda to frame dissent against big government as dangerous radicalism. Contrary to claims by the DHS that it does not profile, the bulk of literature and other training tools issued by the federal government over the last decade clearly go to great lengths to demonize informed, middle class, and predominately white Americans as the most likely terrorists, despite the fact that the 126 people who were indicted on terrorist-related charges in the United States over the last two years were all Muslim.
In March 2009 we broke the story of the infamous MIAC report, leaked to us by two concerned Missouri police officers. The report listed Ron Paul supporters, libertarians, people who display bumper stickers, people who own gold, or even people who fly a U.S. flag and equates them with radical race hate groups and terrorists. Indeed, the MIAC report is just one in a series of similar threat assessment documents released over the last decade that list average American citizens as dangerous extremists and potential terrorists.
We discovered that similar propaganda was being disseminated from the very top in September 2006 when it was revealed that the Bush administration had been targeting “conspiracy theorists” as terrorist recruiters. President Bush himself gave speeches about a White House “strategy paper” that formed “an unclassified version of the strategy we’ve been pursuing since September the 11th, 2001,” that takes into account, “the changing nature of this enemy.” The document says that terrorism springs from “subcultures of conspiracy and misinformation,” and that “terrorists recruit more effectively from populations whose information about the world is contaminated by falsehoods and corrupted by conspiracy theories. The distortions keep alive grievances and filter out facts that would challenge popular prejudices and self-serving propaganda.”
We have highlighted previous training manuals issued by state and federal government bodies which identify whole swathes of the population as potential terrorists. A Texas Department of Public Safety Criminal Law Enforcement pamphlet gives the public characteristics to identify terrorists that include buying baby formula, beer, wearing Levi jeans, carrying identifying documents like a drivers license and traveling with women or children. A Virginia training manual used to help state employees recognize terrorists lists anti-government and property rights activists as terrorists and includes binoculars, video cameras, paper pads and notebooks in a compendium of terrorist tools.
Such training documents are manifesting real-life situations where people are being harassed, assaulted and arrested by law enforcement simply for owning material or discussing topics related to the Constitution and the bill of rights. In May 2008, a student of a large bible college in east Texas was accused by federal agents of committing an “act of terror and espionage” after he gave a talk to a group of Boy Scouts in which he encouraged them to educate themselves about the U.S. constitution. In July 2007, the Kuhns, a North Carolina couple were terrorized by sheriff’s deputy Brian Scarborough, who broke into their house, assaulted them and then arrested the couple for the crime of flying an upside down U.S. flag. The couple were handcuffed, arrested and bundled into a squad car, to the protests of numerous neighbors who demanded to know why the Kuhns were being incarcerated, but were told to leave by police.
Founding fathers described as “terrorists”
Alex Jones’ 2001 documentary film 9/11: The Road to Tyranny featured footage from a FEMA symposium given to firefighters and other emergency personnel in Kansas City in which it was stated that the founding fathers, Christians and home schoolers were terrorists and should be treated with the utmost suspicion and brutality in times of national emergency. The lecturer identifies George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and other founding fathers as “terrorists”.
In 2004, Kelly Rushing was charged with making “terroristic threats” after he handed out Alex Jones videos and recordings of a Congressman Ron Paul speech on C-Span to Lyon County, Kentucky officials and Kentucky State Trooper Lewis Dobbs. A jury later ruled in favor of Rushing but he continues to be harassed by authorities and local law enforcement.
In August 2008, a Las Vegas couple were stopped by police, detained and searched as cops demanded to know if there was anything illegal inside the vehicle. When the couple asked why they had been stopped, the police officer pointed at “Infowars” and “Ron Paul” bumper stickers on their car. In 2001, housewife Abbey Newman was assaulted and arrested by police at a checkpoint for exercising her 4th amendment rights. Cops looked through literature which included a copy of a pocket constitution and debated whether or not the material was illegal.
The federal government’s clear intent to profile politically active middle class Americans as likely terrorists is manifestly provable from their own internal and public documents. Only when conservatives become cognizant of the fact that they too are as much of a target in the “war on terror” as Muslims, whether it’s a Republican or a Democrat in the White House, will we have any hope of dismantling the Homeland Security police state. (By Paul Joseph Watson – Infowars)
DHS denies “racial overtones” in ‘white middle class terrorists’ video
July 22: Following widespread outrage yesterday, the Department of Homeland Security has ludicrously denied that a video it released encouraging Americans to report suspicious activity contains “racial overtones,” despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of people depicted as terrorists in the clip are white middle class Americans. The story, first featured on Infowars.com, went viral yesterday, appearing on the Drudge Report, Fox News, Breitbart.tv, the Daily Mail as well as featuring highly amongst the most read articles on the entire Internet during that 24 hour period. The Fox Nation version of the story received well over 2000 comments. The Department of Homeland Security was forced to issue a terse response to the controversy. The DHS confirm “the video is theirs but adamantly deny there are any racial or politically correct overtones to it.”
Really? Then why out of all the scenarios shown in the video that depict terrorists are no less than 12 of them white people and only three are minorities? In addition, of the people depicted as patriotic Americans for reporting the terrorists, only one of them is white seven are from minorities. Furthermore, at the start of the clip, the majority of citizens depicted as proud Americans and potential victims of terror are from minorities. Examples of terrorists who have been arrested in recent years are shown later in the clip – four are white Americans and only one is a foreign Muslim. “Reporting suspicious activity should not be based on a person’s race, religion or gender,” states the voiceover in the DHS clip, before we are hit by an onslaught of mainly white, presumably Christian, middle class men.
In actual fact, the video serves a very useful purpose for the DHS as it fits perfectly with their obsession to frame white, politically active Americans as domestic extremists and terrorists, who by no coincidence are also the biggest roadblock when it comes to expanding the DHS-driven takeover of America through TSA-staffed checkpoints and stifling “security” measures that have nothing to do with stopping terrorists and everything to do with creating a police state. (By Paul Joseph Watson – Infowars)
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