www.amperspective.com Online Magazine
Executive Editor: Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Chronology of Islam in America (2015)
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
March 2015
Killing of three Muslim students in Chapel Hill: NYT says killer's rage went beyond parking dispute
March 3: Under the headline " Chapel Hill Killer's rage went beyond parking dispute," the New York Times reported today: " motive for the shooting may never be known. But interviews with more than a dozen of the victims' friends and family members, lawyers, police officers and others, make two central points: before the shootings, the students took concerted steps to appease a menacing neighbor, and none were parked that day in a way that would have set off an incident involving their cars. If those accounts do not prove what kind of malice was in Mr. Hicks's heart, the details that emerge indicate that whatever happened almost certainly was not a simple dispute over parking." The New York Times described Hicks as a different kind of neighbor who has problem with religion. On February 10, 2015, Shaddy Barakat, 23, his wife Yusor Abu-Salha, 21, and her sister, Razan Abu-Salha were shot dead in an execution style by Craig Stephen Hicks who later surrendered himself to police in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Hicks has been charged three counts of first-degree murder. On Facebook, Hicks describes himself as an "anti-theist" and has posted condemnations of all religions. One post, a picture from United Atheists of America, asks "why radical Christians and radical Muslims are so opposed to each others' influence when they agree about so many ideological issues. [AMP Report]
New York Man Pleads Guilty to Threatening CAIR Director
March 3: Bernhard Laufer, 58, a resident of Rego Park, Queens, New York, has pleaded guilty in federal court in the Eastern District of New York, to sending threatening communications from New York to an employee of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) located in Washington, D.C. CAIR is a civil rights and advocacy group with offices nationwide. According to documents filed with the court and statements made during the guilty plea hearing, Laufer admitted that he sent threatening communications to the employee of CAIR in June 2014. These communications threatened the employee with significant bodily harm and death."Those who make violent threats to others because of race, religion or national origin must be held accountable,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta of the Civil Rights Division. “The Justice Department is committed to vigorously prosecuting those who engage in such conduct.”Laufer faces a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment. [CAIR]
U.S. companies are stashing $2.1 trillion overseas to avoid taxes
March 4: Eight of the biggest U.S. technology companies added a combined $69 billion to their stockpiled offshore profits over the past year, even as some corporations in other industries felt pressure to bring cash back home. Microsoft Corp., Apple Inc., Google Inc. and five other tech firms now account for more than a fifth of the $2.10 trillion in profits that U.S. companies are holding overseas, according to a Bloomberg News review of the securities filings of 304 corporations. The total amount held outside the U.S. by the companies was up 8 percent from the previous year, though 58 companies reported smaller stockpiles. The money pileup, reflecting companies’ incentives to park profits in low-tax countries, has drawn the attention of President Barack Obama and U.S. lawmakers, who see a chance to tap the funds for spending programs and to revamp the tax code. That effort is stalled in Washington, and there are few signs that tech companies will bring the profits back to the U.S. until Congress gives them an incentive or a mandate. Microsoft, Apple and Google each boosted their accumulated foreign profits by more than 20 percent over the year, the largest increases by any of the 34 companies with at least $16 billion outside the U.S. International Business Machines Corp., Cisco Systems Inc., Oracle, Qualcomm Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. each added at least $4 billion. General Electric Co. topped the list for the fifth straight year. The company now has $119 billion outside the U.S., an increase of 8 percent from the end of 2013 and a 27 percent gain since 2010. By contrast, Microsoft has more than tripled its offshore holdings since 2010. Apple, which counts only part of its non-U.S. holdings as indefinitely held offshore, increased that portion to $69.7 billion from $12.3 billion in 2010. Cisco now has $52.7 billion outside the U.S., up 10 percent since 2013. [Bloomberg News]
Zaytuna College becomes nation’s first accredited Muslim University
March 11: The Berkeley-based Zaytuna College has been given accreditation by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, becoming the first accredited Muslim college in America. The approval letter from the association to the college states the school has been given “initial accreditation,” adding the institution may confer an accredited “Bachelor of Arts in Islamic Law and Theology” at this time. President Hamza Yusuf stated that the accreditation gives our community its first accredited academic address in the United States. Co-founder of the Zaytuna College, Dr. Hatem Bazian praised the development saying that “at a time of such extreme negative news cycle focusing on Muslims, the initial accreditation vote is a most positive development for a community that has been battered for more than a decade.” Imam Hamza Yusuf and Imam Zaid Shakir are other co-founders. Bazian said an accredited institution makes it possible to open many doors and creates local, regional, national and international academic relations. "In a short period of time, Zaytuna College will be ready to welcome students from across the globe and provide the much-needed context to understanding Muslim circumstances in the West, as well as provide diverse opportunities to engage in conversations with faith and civil society partners that are dedicated to seeing and bringing forth a different world.” [The College Fix]
Philadelphia's transit system ordered to accept anti-Islamic bus ads
March 11: Philadelphia's transit system has been ordered to accept provocative ads that include a 1941 photograph of Adolf Hitler with a former Arab leader after a federal judge, Mitchell Goldberg, ruled in favor of a pro-Israel group's free-speech lawsuit. The proposed bus ads carry a tagline saying: "Jew Hatred: It's in the Quran." The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) believes the ads violate "minimal civility standards." The ad in question features a photograph of a 1941 meeting between Adolf Hitler and Hajj Amin al-Husseini, claimed by the group as a Palestinian leader and Hitler ally. The ads are produced by the American Freedom Defense Initiative, a New Hampshire-based group that opposes U.S. aid to Islamic countries and has filed similar lawsuits in New York and other cities. When AFDI, led by Islamophobe Pamela Geller, first applied to run the ad last fall, SEPTA refused because of the content. The group has filed more than a half dozen lawsuits against transit authorities across the country over anti-Islamic ads. The CAIR-Philadelphia Executive Director Jacob Bender said “Islamophobic groups like the one that sponsored this ad are stunningly well-funded. Collectively, they receive millions of dollars every year to spend on hate speech that distorts Islam and smears American Muslims. These ads are stark evidence of the need to organize and finance efforts to counter this hate and to build bridges among America’s faith communities.” [AMP Report]
‘Hug a Muslim’ project goes beyond Toronto
March 13: In Toronto, a blindfolded man stands between two signs with his arms extended. The first sign reads “I am a Muslim, I am labeled as a terrorist” and the second reads “I trust you, do you trust me? Give me a hug.”Photos and videos of the stunt went viral on social media and the world watched as the man was enamored with hugs. The experiment, which was part of the Blind Trust Project initiated by three Canadian students, went on to inspire others to test the waters in New York, Germany, Sweden and Norway. In the Big Apple, YouTuber Karim Metwaly recently tried his luck with notoriously tough-talking, busy New Yorkers. In Germany, a Syrian man also had his fair share of hugs. Maaz Khan, who created the initial video in partnership with Mustafa Mawla and Asoomii Jay, said that the idea of blindfolding Mawla and asking for hugs came to them while shooting another video. “Anyone could have punched him, or hurt him. It was really nice to see people being nice,” Khan said. While the success of the video was unexpected, Khan said, he described himself as happy to have sent a positive message of co-existence in a climate tainted by apparent Islamophobic events, such as vandalism at an Alberta mosque and the murder of an Iraqi immigrant in the United States. [Al Arabiya News]
Four potential GOP presidential candidates attended an anti-Muslim summit in South Carolina
March 15: Four potential GOP presidential candidates attended an anti-Muslim summit in South Carolina today. The presidential candidates were: Ambassador John Bolton, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, and former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Penn.). Alleged threat from Shariah and the so-called Global Jihad Movement was one of the four items of the one-day summit hosted by the Center for Security Policy and High Frontier. One of the event's main sponsors is Frank Gaffney's Center for Security Policy (renamed as Secure Freedom), a key group in the U.S. Islamophobia network. Gaffney's conspiracy theories regarding Muslim infiltration of all aspects of American life are so overblown that he was banned from attending the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2011 after accusing its top leadership of being infiltrated by Islamists. Another Center for Security Policy leader, David Yerushalmi, is notable for writing, "There is a reason the founding fathers did not give women or black slaves the right to vote." He is the founder of the Society of Americans for National Existence (SANE) which aims at banishing Islam from the United States. He is one of the driving forces behind Shari'a-related conspiracy theories.
The summit also features former Lieutenant General Jerry Boykin, a longtime commander of Special Operations forces. Since his retirement in 2007 and a new career as a popular conservative Christian speaker, General Boykin has described Islam as “a totalitarian way of life” and said that Islam should not be protected under the First Amendment. He says that there should be "no mosques in America," and that there can be no interfaith dialogue or cooperation between Muslims and Christians. General Boykin first caused controversy after the Sept. 11 attacks when, as a senior Pentagon official, he described the fight against terrorism as a Christian battle against Satan. Another event speaker at the summit is disgraced former FBI agent John Guandolo who refers to America's mosques and Islamic centers as "barracks" and falsely claims "it is a permanent command in Islam for Muslims to hate and despise Jews and Christians." U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has an already established relationship with Gaffney, having brought him as a witness to a 2013 congressional hearing. [AMP Report]
Appeal for US Muslim's Release from Iran
March 18: The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today renewed its call for the release of Amir Hekmati, a Michigan Muslim man who has been detained in Iran since 2011. A statement from Hekmati's family details torture and abuse he has endured in Iranian prison and says he has renounced his Iranian citizenship and is seeking to be deported from Iran to his home in the U.S. Hekmati, a U.S. Marine veteran who was born in Arizona and grew up in Michigan, was detained in Iran in August of 2011 while he was visiting relatives in that country. He had obtained dual citizenship in order to make the trip. According to the statement from Hekmati's family, after months of abusive treatment and torture in detention, he was forced to falsely confess to being a spy on Iranian state TV. He was sentenced to death in 2012, but that sentence was later overturned because of a lack of evidence. In a second, secret trial he was sentenced in absentia to 10 years in prison for "cooperating with a hostile government," referring to the United States.The family's statement describes abuse and torture Hekmati has endured while imprisoned, including being held in solitary confinement for 17 months, being kept shackled in a 3-by-3-foot cell for four months, Tasering, and being forcibly injected with drugs such as lithium and then experiencing painful withdrawal symptoms. The statement says he is being held in a prison without heat in a region with harsh winters and that his food has been limited, causing him to lose weight and suffer from lung infections.vHekmati's family says he is also subjected to "mental torture," including being denied access to speak with his family for 20 months, being told that his mother had been killed in a car crash when no such accident had occurred, as well as "threats, insults and humiliations."v"We appeal to Iranian officials to release Amir Hekmati and allow him to return to his family in the U.S.," said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad. "Indefinite detention and torture are wrong no matter which government is responsible." Awad urged Americans and others who are concerned about Hekmati's plight to increase awareness about it on social media using the hashtag #freeAmir. [CAIR]
Somali students in Minnesota protest against harassment
March 20: Tensions were high in St. Cloud following a walkout and protest by Somali students alleging a pattern of bullying and discrimination against them. The KRE11 said: "Reports of a fight triggered a lockdown at St. Cloud Technical High School Friday, summoning police, sheriff's deputies and State Troopers to the same place more than 100 students and parents gathered on the lawn Wednesday to protest what they describe as an insufficient response by Tech teachers and administrators to their concerns." Minnesota Public Radio quoted the students as saying that they were acting in frustration over unequal discipline at the school and harassment by other students. Now they are waiting to see how the school responds to their concerns. In interviews, students involved in the walkout described the incident that set off their protest — involving a photo of one of them, posted with a slur on social media — and said it was just part of a larger pattern of behavior. Protesters said the catalyst for March 18 protest was a social media post that pictured a Somali Tech student in a wheelchair and implied she was affiliated with the Islamic State terrorist organization.Last week, someone posted on Snapchat a photo taken during lunch at Tech. It was of a Somali-American student, Hodo Nour, who was using a wheelchair after breaking her leg last month. A caption said she was "disabled in ISIS." The photo circulated among Tech students. When Ifrah Abukar saw it, she was outraged. The 19-year-old senior said it felt like a breaking point after years of harassment at the school. "Enough is enough," she said. "I had to do something about it." She and several friends organized the walkout and protest. Among their other complaints, they said the school has not made efforts to diversify the staff. [AMP Report]
Richard White, New Orleans airport attacker, dies in hospital
March 21: The machete-wielding man who was shot by police when he attacked security agents at a New Orleans airport yesterday has died in hospital, police said on today. Richard White, 63, was carrying six homemade explosives when he attacked agents at the airport with wasp killer spray and a machete. He had a history of mental illness, officials said. White sprayed the Transportation Security Administration agents at a at a security checkpoint at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. A TSA agent threw a bag at White and slowed him down. White then brandished a machete and chased an unarmed TSA agent, until he was shot three times by a sheriff's officer. During the attack White dropped a bag containing a lighter and six glass jars with cloth wicks in gasoline, commonly known as a molotov cocktails, Normand said. Officials found tanks of acetylene, freon and oxygen in White's car at the airport. [Reuters]
New probe into Clinton's Muslim assistant Huma Abedin started by Senate
March 29: Senate Republicans are again attempting to ascertain why former-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's top assistant Huma Abedin, was allowed to keep working at the State Department under a special, part-time status while also being employed at a politically-connected consulting firm, according to news reports on Saturday. Questions also linger about Ms. Abedin's alleged connection to the Muslim Brotherhood's women's auxiliary while having access to classified information and documents. Iowa GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, is following up on allegations that both women used a private Internet server and email accounts for State Department correspondence, even those that were considered confidential and classified. Grassley claims that the earlier requests to the department have been largely ignored since the Senate was controlled by the Democrats. Now with the GOP in the majority new requests have gone to the department’s inspector general and to Secretary of State John Kerry, seeking their involvement. [Examiner]
The 12th anniversary of Aafia Siddiqui's Abduction: What happened to Aafia Siddiqui and where is she now?
March 30: A Pakistani Woman named Aafia Siddiqui was abducted from a taxi in Karachi, Pakistan along with her 3 children 12 years ago on March 30, 2003. At the time she was vulnerable, recently divorced from an abusive husband; living with her mother; her father had just died of a heart attack. The youngest child was an infant. Following her abduction, Aafia Siddiqui and her children disappeared from view for 5 years. She spent those years in US Black Site prisons in Afghanistan and Pakistan. One can only imagine the torment she suffered there, in a system created to enable the torture and abuse of terrorism suspects. She was a woman alone. In July of 2008, Aafia Siddiqui arrived in Manhattan a week after abdominal surgery to remove a couple of bullets from her intestines, and was brought directly into a courtroom in her wheelchair for arraignment on charges of attacking US military personnel in Afghanistan. After a highly publicized trial during which the press consistently referred to her as ‘Lady al Qaeda’, she was sentenced to 86 years in prison and sent to Carswell Medical Center, a high security federal prison in Texas, where she remains to this day, so we are told. At the trial, no physical evidence was presented by the prosecution. There was none. Basic questions related to context were neither asked nor answered. Where was Aafia Siddiqui between the time of her disappearance 5 years earlier, and her encounter with the soldiers in Ghazni, Afghanistan? Why wasn’t she believed when she said she had been rendered and tortured? Today, Aafia Siddiqui remains in the psychiatric division of Carswell, seven years into her 86 year sentence. She had a hard time early on, and apparently was beaten at one point, by the guards? Other inmates? [By Judy Bello - Countercurrents]
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