www.amperspective.com Online Magazine
Executive Editor: Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Chronology of Islam in America (2015)
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
February 2015
Imam Moujahed Bakhach cancels Muslim rodeo prayer after backlash
Feb 2: A Muslim imam who was scheduled to say a prayer at a Texas rodeo today has canceled after online backlash to a similar blessing last week. Imam Moujahed Bakhach of the Islamic Association of Tarrant County delivered the blessing at the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo on Jan. 25 as part of a program in which members of different faiths offer prayers before rodeo events. Bakhach told the Dallas Morning News there was “a beautiful spirit” at the Will Rogers Coliseum when he delivered the blessing for the safety of the human performers, audience and cattle. He also called for world peace, spoke entirely in English and made no mention of Allah, the rodeo wrote on its Facebook page. Rodeo announcer Bob Tallman, known for giving the event a Christian tone, said Bakhach “did a wonderful job," according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. But since then, online anger directed at the rodeo for inviting a Muslim to deliver the prayer prompted Bakhach to cancel the blessing scheduled for Feb. 2. "..for you to embrace and allow an Imam to come in and offer a prayer is disgraceful and bowing down to political correctness when they are the very religion that is choosing to behead Christians for their beliefs and it calls for it in the Koran," wrote Cunningham Cattle. ….."As a Texan, I'm embarrassed at how vile people are being because they don't understand Islam and use the actions of people half way around the world to rain hate down on peaceful people here," wrote Diane Treider. "I'm glad the FWSSR did this." [The Huffington Post]
Minnesotans Arlene El-Amin and Lori Saroya join CAIR National Board
Feb 2: The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today welcomed two new additions to its national board of directors. Arlene El-Amin and Lori Saroya, both from Minnesota, bring years of civil rights, nonprofit and community service experience to the Washington-based Muslim civil rights and advocacy group. El-Amin is a long-time community leader and civil rights activist who serves as the manager of Masjid An-Nur in Minneapolis. Her volunteer experience includes serving on community, interfaith and social services organizations, such as North High School; Girl Scouts; Home Away; Volunteer Center of St. Paul; Al-Birr Family, Social and Counseling Services; and the Mall Area Religious Council. Saroya is the co-founder of the Minnesota chapter of CAIR and served as its executive director for almost eight years. Under her leadership, CAIR-MN handled some 200 cases each year and received several awards and recognitions, including the 2013 Difference Makers Award from the American Bar Association, 2012 CAIR Chapter of the Year Award and 2011 Nonprofit Mission and Excellence Anti-Racism Award from the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits. "We welcome Arlene and Lori to the board and are certain that their extensive experience will have an important and positive impact on the organization," said CAIR Board Chair Roula Allouch. [CAIR]
Muslim woman reports discrimination on Delta flight
Feb 4: An incident on a Delta flight has prompted a complaint to the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee as well as significant attention on Twitter. Darlene Hider, an Arab-American woman, who wears a hijab, said she was boarding a Delta Airlines flight with her husband and four children Monday when another passenger complained about her children and yelled at her, "This is America!" A ticketing agent who was on the aircraft to help in the boarding process for the Fort Lauderdale-to-Detroit flight did not reprimand the passenger in question, Hider said, but instead asked Hider's family to move to other open seats. Hider, who lives in Dearborn, Michigan, has since contacted the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee about the incident – part of which was videotaped by another passenger. Hider, 32, said the attendant told her to “change seats” and “you better be quiet before I kick you off of this plane!" "Not only did I feel belittled by the passenger, now I am being spoken down to and scolded by a Delta ticket agent," Hider said. "I was afraid to defend myself because of my scarf, at that moment, I felt that I couldn't defend myself." Delta confirmed that after the flight landed Hider was met by two representatives who told her the company would investigate the incident. The airline was made aware of the confrontation thanks to Hider’s brother Abed Ayoub, who is the legal and policy director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. Ayoub tweeted details about the incident and his tweets went viral. [ADC]
Texas governor urges civility after lawmaker's anti-Muslim remarks
Feb 4: After igniting a firestorm of criticism, on January 29, for suggesting that Muslims visiting her legislative office would be asked to "renounce Islamic terrorist groups and publicly announce allegiance to America and our laws," state Republican Rep. Molly White said on February 2 that she has nothing to apologize for — though she might have used her words differently. In her Jan 29 Facebook post Rep. Molly White said: “Today is Texas Muslim Capital Day in Austin. The House is in recess until Monday. Most members including myself are back in District. I did leave an Israeli flag on the reception desk in my office with instructions to staff to ask representatives from the Muslim community to renounce Islamic terrorist groups and publicly announce allegiance to America and our laws. We will see how long they stay in my office.” "Hindsight's 20-20," White said of the Facebook status she posted on Texas Muslim Capitol Day last week. "I never thought it was going to go viral. And I thought it was just to folks that were in my district. I didn't know that there [were] fringe groups out there watching every word you say and things you do." Speaking to The Texas Tribune in her Capitol office, the Republican legislator and anti-abortion activist from Belton said no one who visited her office on Texas Muslim Capitol Day was asked to say or do anything before speaking to her legislative staff. But had she been there, she said, "I would have asked them if they would renounce terrorism." White publicized her plans on Facebook before hundreds of Muslims arrived at the Capitol for their biennial lobbying day. [AMP Report]
President Obama meets American Muslim leaders
Feb 4: President Barack Obama met todayat the White House with 14 Muslim Americans for an hour-long discussion about civil rights, anti-Muslim bias and extremism. It was the first time the president has held a round-table meeting with Muslim-American leaders. According to Detroit Free, the President had round-table discussions in the White House with African-American, Jewish-American and labor leaders, but never Muslim-American advocates. Among the topics of discussion were the community’s efforts and partnerships with the Administration on a range of domestic issues such as the Affordable Care Act, issues of anti-Muslim violence and discrimination, the 21st Century Policing Task Force, and the upcoming White House Summit on Countering Violence Extremism, according to a statement from the White House. "The president reiterated his administration's commitment to safeguarding civil rights through hate crimes prosecutions and civil enforcement actions," the White House said adding: The president stressed the need to continue countering ISIS "and other groups that commit horrific acts of violence, purportedly in the name of Islam." President Barack Obama quietly met with a group of Muslim political activists in the White House to get them to support the Democrats’ political machine, The Daily Caller reported under the headline " Obama Seeks Alliance With Islamic Groups." "The meeting didn’t focus on U.S. foreign policy or Islamic jihadi attacks. Instead, it was Obama’s outreach to a growing Democratic-affiliated political constituency, similar to other meeting with environmental, African-American or Latino political groups," added The Daily Caller.
Also discussed at the hour-long White House meeting was a program by the Obama administration to counter radicalization by working with Muslim Americans in cities with sizable Muslim populations, the Detroit Free Press reported. The Hill said the administration has launched a series of pilot programs in cities with large Muslim populations in a bid to thwart homegrown extremists. The White House is particularly concerned about the possibility of radicalized individuals traveling to the Middle East for training with ISIS or similar terror groups, and then returning home to carry out attacks. Obama also used the closed-press meeting to discuss the task force he launched in the aftermath of grand jury decisions not to charge police officers involved in the deaths of unarmed suspects in Ferguson and Staten Island, the Hill reported. For Bloomberg, the Obama administration is reaching out to American Muslim leaders as it tries to stem extremism in the U.S. while heading off a domestic backlash against mainstream Islam over atrocities committed by Islamic State.
The meeting was organized by Farhana Khera, executive director of Muslim Advocates. She worked with Obama’s deputy for Muslim outreach, George Selim, to set up the meeting. The meeting participants were: Arshia Wajid, founder, American Muslim Health Professionals; Azhar Azeez, President, Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) which held its annual convention in Detroit last year; Bilqis “Qisi” Abdul-Qaadir, Director of Women’s Basketball Operations, Indiana State University, who played basketball while wearing the Islamic head scarf; Maya Berry, Executive Director, Arab American Institute (AAI); Dean Obeidallah, Palestinian-American comedian, who has a show on Sirius XM Radio and writes for the Daily Beast website; Diego Arancibia, Board Member and Associate Director, Ta’leef Collective and Farhan Latif, Chief Operating Officer and Director of Policy Impact, Institute of Policy and Understanding (ISPU), a think tank in Dearborn founded and led by Muslim Americans. Other participants at the meeting included: Farhana Khera, President, Muslim Advocates; Haroon Mokhtarzada, CEO, Webs; Hoda Hawa, National Policy Advisor, Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC); Kameelah Rashad, Founder of Muslim Wellness Foundation and Muslim Chaplain of University of Pennsylvania; Imam Mohamed Magid, the Executive Director of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) and former president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA); Rahat Hussain, President, Universal Muslim Association of America (UMAA) and Sherman Jackson, Professor of Religion and American Studies and Ethnicity, University of Southern California. [AMP Report]
Waterbury becomes first Connecticut school district to honor Muslim holidays
Feb 5: The school system in the town of Waterbury has become the first in Connecticut to honor the Muslim holidays of Eid Al-Fitr and Eid Al-Adha. Children in the Waterbury school district who celebrate two of Islam's most important holidays of the year will be excused from classes on those days, the Waterbury School Board decided today. The board voted to recognize Eid Al-Fitr, marking the end of the month of Ramadan, and Eid Al-Adha, an annual feast day, by giving observerant students the day off to celebrate with their families. It also voted to instruct educators not to schedule any field trips, major tests or class events on the two holidays, according to the FoxCT channel. "Our school board takes pride in the fact that we're very sensitve to all the needs of our students and that we have a diverse population in Waterbury," said Charles Stango, president of the board, according to the station's report. "That population deserves to have their culture represented and respected." The decision makes Waterbury the first Connecticut school district to provide formal acknowledgement of the two Muslim holidays, according to WTNH. [New York Daily News]
Dr. Sami Al-Arian deported to Turkey
Feb 6: More than six months after the US government finally dropped all charges against Dr. Sami Al-Arian, the stateless Palestinian academic and activist was deported today to Turkey. In 2003, Sami Al-Arian was a professor at the University of South Florida, a legal resident of the U.S. since 1975, and one of the most prominent Palestinian civil rights activists in the U.S. That year, the course of his life was altered irrevocably when he was indicted on highly controversial terrorism charges by then Attorney General John Ashcroft. These charges commenced a decade-long campaign of government persecution in which Al-Arian was systematically denied his freedom and saw his personal and professional life effectively destroyed. Despite the personal harm he suffered and the intense surveillance to which he had been subjected since as early as 1993, the government ultimately failed to produce any evidence of Al-Arian’s involvement in terrorist activities, instead relying at trial overwhelmingly on the pro-Palestinian writing and speaking he had done over the years. His ordeal finally ended tonight, 12 years after it began, as Al-Arian was deported from the United States to Turkey. His deportation was part of a 2006 plea bargain to which he acquiesced in order, he told The Intercept while at the airport preparing to leave the U.S., to “conclude his case and bring an end to his family’s suffering.” Al-Arian added: “I came to the United States for freedom, but four decades later, I am leaving to gain my freedom.” During his appearance on Democracy Now!, Dr. Al-Arian expressed relief that his twelve-year-long persecution in the US, where he lived for forty years, had finally come to an end. His daughter, journalist Laila Al-Arian, also appeared on the show. “I think what people should take away from what has been a nightmare for our family is the fact that in the United States of America there’s no room for political prisoners, there’s no room for politically motivated prosecutions,” she said. Al-Arian, the son of Palestinian refugees, was born in Kuwait and came to the United States in 1975. In 1986, he and his family came from North Carolina so he could teach computer science at USF. He founded a Muslim school and co-founded the World and Islam Studies Enterprise, a think tank on Middle Eastern topics at USF. He isn't the only member of his family to be accused of terrorist activities. His brother-in-law, Mazen Al-Najjar, a former USF instructor, was jailed for almost five years on accusations he had links to Palestinian extremists. Although never charged with a crime, he overstayed his student visa and was deported in August 2002. [AMP Report]
Obama's provocative remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast
Feb 6: President Obama personally added a reference to the Crusades in his speech this week at the National Prayer Breakfast hoping to add context and nuance to his condemnation of Islamic terrorists by noting that people also committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ, the New York Times quoted presidential aides as saying today. The White House has defended President Obama's remarks after he was widely lambasted by conservatives for bringing up acts done in Christianity's name amid a discussion of modern-day terrorist threats. Speaking of the tension between the compassionate and murderous acts religion can inspire the President said: “Humanity has been grappling with these questions throughout human history.” He went on to say: “And lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ. In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ.” The Republican response to President Obama's remarks was predictable: “The president’s comments this morning at the prayer breakfast are the most offensive I’ve ever heard a president make in my lifetime,” said former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore (R). “He has offended every believing Christian in the United States. This goes further to the point that Mr. Obama does not believe in America or the values we all share.” Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), a potential 2016 presidential candidate, also criticized the speech, saying in a statement, "While Christians of today are taught to live their lives as the reflection of Christ's love, the radicals of ISIS use their holy texts as a rationale for violence." "To insinuate modern Christians — the same Christian faith that led the abolitionist movement, the Civil Rights Movement, and global charitable efforts fighting disease and poverty — cannot stand up against the scourge we see in the Middle East is wrong," Santorum added. Former Gov. Jim Gilmore (R-Va.) called the remarks "the most offensive I’ve ever heard a president make in my lifetime," the former Republican National Committee chairman added that Obama "has offended every believing Christian in the United States." [AMP Report]
The Media coverage of his speech was also hostile
Feb 7: Writing under the headline, "Critics pounce after Obama talks Crusades, slavery at prayer breakfast," Juliet Eilperin wrote in Washington Post: As a new president, he dismissed the idea of American exceptionalism, noting that Greeks think their country is special, too. He labeled the Bush-era interrogation practices, euphemistically called “harsh” for years, as torture. America, he has suggested, has much to answer given its history in Latin America and the Middle East. "Mr. President, the Crusades were 800 years ago and the Inquisition 500 years ago. What's happening right now is not Christians on the march, it is radical Islam," Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer said on Fox News, calling the remarks "astonishing." Obama’s comparison of Crusades to Islamist terror acts misses mark was the title of the Washington Times story by Wesley Pruden. He writes: But given the widespread and well-founded suspicion that Mr. Obama is soft on those who, as he says, distort Islam to justify jihad, why did he choose a Christian prayer breakfast to equate the faith of most of his constituents to the barbarism of the cult whose proper name he cannot bring himself to say? Obama defends Islam, attacks Christianity at prayer breakfast was the title of Frontpage story by Daniel Greenfield who writes: When it comes to Islam, Obama is like the weather in Seattle. There are no surprises. If there’s a national prayer breakfast, then he’s going to slam Christianity and defend Islam. While Obama defends Islam, he attacks Christianity. He has to do this because it’s the only way to uphold the myth that Islam is peaceful. He can’t defend Islam. He can just deny, redirect and attack another religion. Tea Party Network News headline was: Obama throws Christ and Christians under the bus to prop up Islam at nat’l prayer breakfast Mathew Burke. of the TPNN wrote: At the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, Obama, who is supposedly a Christian even though his pastor of over 20 years isn’t quite sure, attacked Christ and Christianity in a thinly veiled attempt to prop us the religion of his youth, Islam. Don’t criticize Islam, Obama seems to be saying at the National Prayer Breakfast, because Christianity, after all, is just as bad — or something, while of course, using the opportunity to pull the race card as well, killing two birds with one stone. “In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ,” Obama outrageously claimed. The Daily Caller headline was: Obama uses prayer breakfast to call for curbs on Islam criticism. Its White House Correspondent, Neil Munro wrote: President Obama used a speech at the annual prayer breakfast Thursday to portray Americans’ routine criticism of Islam as “insults” and “attacks,” and to repeatedly suggest that Americans should curb their criticism of Islamic ideas. Obama's Comparison of Christianity to radical Islam defies logic was the headline of Chicago Sun Times where Jonah Goldberg wrote: ....the Inquisition and the Crusades aren’t the indictments Obama thinks they are. For starters, the Crusades — despite their terrible organized cruelties — were a defensive war. To support his point he quotes an agenda-driven historian of Islam, Bernard Lewis: “The Crusades could more accurately be described as a limited, belated and, in the last analysis, ineffectual response to the jihad — a failed attempt to recover by a Christian holy war what had been lost to a Muslim holy war.” Not surprisingly, James Taranto writing in the Wall Street Journal quoted Bernard Lewis’s 2007 American Enterprise Institute speech in which he argued that the Crusades were not an unwarranted act of aggression against the Muslim world. " But let us have a little sense of proportion. We are now expected to believe that the Crusades were an unwarranted act of aggression against a peaceful Muslim world. Hardly." Headline of the WSJ was, Obama’s Crusades: Get off your high horse. The chickens are coming home to roost. Ironically, when President Georg Bush used the same phrase (the Crusade), he was forced to apologize. Five days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks Bush vowed to "rid the world of evil-doers," then cautioned: "This crusade, this war on terrorism, is going to take a while." Two days later, fearing a negative reaction from the Muslim World, the White House said Bush regretted use of the term. The Wall Street Journal described it an indelicate gaffe. [AMP Report]
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