www.amperspective.com Online Magazine
Executive Editor: Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Chronology of Islam in America (2016)
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
April 2016 page three
Southwest kicks Muslim woman off flight with no credible explanation
April 18: Maryland resident Hakima Abdulle had been hoping to take a connecting Southwest flight from Chicago to Seattle on Wednesday to assist a pregnant family member with her delivery. However, before her flight left the tarmac, Abdulle was allegedly kicked off the plane by an attendant who offered no adequate explanation. Abdulle, who is of Somali descent and was wearing a hijab at the time, says she was booted shortly after she asked another passenger to trade seats with her, a common practice on an airline that doesn’t assign seating. The attendant reportedly told police she decided to remove Abdulle because she “did not feel comfortable.” Abdulle, who speaks little English, was forced to wait hours for a later flight. The civil rights group Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is calling for an investigation into a “possible bias motive.” Abdulle and her husband, Abukar Fidaw, are demanding an in-person apology, as well as reimbursement for the flight and diversity training for the airline. Southwest is denying any wrongdoing, with spokesperson Brandy King telling the Baltimore Sun that “employees followed proper procedures.” However, CAIR-Maryland spokeswoman Zainab Chaudry told AlterNet that the company told the organization’s attorney that it is conducting an internal investigation and will get back in 30 days. [AlterNet]
Afton (Minnesota) City Council signs off on plans for mosque in city
April 20: The Afton City Council’s unanimous vote to approve plans for the city’s first mosque last was met with cheers and applause by the standing-room-only audience at City Hall. Many of the residents who attended the meeting stayed to greet and welcome members of the Islamic Society of Woodbury-East Metro after the council voted 5-0 to approve a conditional-use permit for the Islamic Society to build a 10,500-square-foot mosque on 29 acres it bought in 2013. “It’s good to see that a number of people from the community came to support us and welcome the new mosque,” Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations — Minnesota, said after the meeting. “We’re looking forward to having this mosque be an addition to this community’s growing diversity.” Most of the dozen or so people who spoke at the meeting supported the plans for the mosque. The society now meets in a 5,000-square-foot space in an office park behind Sam’s Club. The mosque mainly serves residents of Woodbury, Afton, Lake Elmo, Cottage Grove and Oakdale. The Islamic Society of Woodbury-East Metro expects that about 200 people will come to the mosque on Friday afternoons to worship together. About 100 students and teachers are expected to be at the mosque from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday for “weekend school,” said City Administrator Ron Moorse. Islamic Society leaders plan to develop part of the property for the Afton mosque and continue to rent out about 19 acres as farmland. The new mosque will include a 4,500-square-foot multipurpose hall that can be used for communal gatherings, as well as two community rooms and office space. [Twincities.com]
Rights groups want White House framework banning monitoring of Muslims
April 22: More than two dozen civil liberties and human rights groups today pressed the White House to make sure anti-terrorism efforts don’t infringe on people’s ability to freely practice their religion in peace. Especially given the “current climate of scapegoating and anti-Muslim bigotry,” the groups wrote, the Obama administration should be sure to implement policies making it difficult for a future president to use current policies to monitor Muslims. “It is all too easy to imagine a subsequent administration seizing on CVE [countering violent extremism] programs that are now in development as vehicles for systematic and large-scale profiling, patrolling and surveillance of American Muslim and communities presumed to be Muslim,” the 27 organizations wrote in the letter to White House counterterrorism adviser Jen Easterly. Many rights groups have routinely been concerned about CVE programs, which aim to prevent violent extremism by encouraging teachers and community leaders to discuss ways that people become radicalized. Critics worry that the programs quickly amount to having people spy on their neighbors, and allow police to use schools, community centers and religious institutions to gather intelligence. “Among our concerns is that law enforcement may use CVE as a pretext for intelligence gathering and other activities that treat entire communities as suspect,” the groups wrote today. Rights advocates have been outraged at suggestions by Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz that law enforcement officials should monitor mosques and Muslim communities. On the heels of the terrorist attacks in Brussels last month, Cruz said that the U.S. should “patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized.”The Obama administration has advocated for CVE-style programs, but has so far refrained from the kind of federal guidance for which the rights groups have advocated. [The Hill]
600 attend the fifth annual “Muslim Day at the Capitol” in California
April 25: The California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CA) drew more than 600 attendees to its fifth annual “Muslim Day at the Capitol” in Sacramento on April 25. Participants—including a record number of students from all regions of California—discussed important issues with their state representatives or their staffers and urged them to support the following legislative items: (1) SB1286, which will enhance community oversight on police misconduct and serious uses of force and allow local governments that choose to establish civilian review boards to hold public hearings. (2) AB2845, which will provide school employees with the resources and training necessary to assist students subjected to school bullying and discrimination. (3) AB2792, which will require local government and law enforcement agencies to enter into an agreement, vetted through public meetings and a public vote, before participating in Immigration and Customs Enforcement programs in order to bring transparency to federal immigration programs. Constituents also asked their elected officials to oppose AB1551, AB1552 and AB2844, which would penalize businesses and institutions that participate in the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel. The global BDS initiative began in 2005 in response to a plea by Palestinian civil society for a boycott due to the continued illegal occupation of Palestinian land by the state of Israel. This important issue is one of constitutionality, students told their representatives, as boycotts—being a form of free speech—are protected under the First Amendment.“This is just the beginning,” CAIR Sacramento Valley executive director Basim Elkarra told the enthusiastic attendees following their meetings. “When you return to your districts, keep up your engagements with these assembly members and senators—go to their district offices and do the same thing you did today to keep the pressure on.” CAIR Los Angeles executive director Hussam Ayloush thanked the participants for “representing the one million Muslims in California” and standing up for issues which are important to all Californians. [Washington Report on Middle East Affairs]
NYCLU denounces “Anti-Muslim,” “Extremist” speaker at officers’ convention
April 26: The New York Civil Liberties Union Central New York Chapter today denounced the decision by the New York Tactical Officers’ Association to feature a keynote speaker at its annual expo who has been labeled an "extremist" and "anti-Muslim” by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Nearly 800 law enforcement officers from New York and surrounding areas reportedly attend the annual expo in Verona, where they receive training and advice on police strategies and equipment. This year’s keynote speaker, Ryan Mauro, is a senior employee of the Clarion Project, the group that created the notoriously discriminatory movie “The Third Jihad,” which was once used to train NYPD officers. “A training session that nearly 800 law enforcement officers have access to is an important matter, and spotlighting a representative of the Clarion Project is harmful to promoting common sense law enforcement,” said Yusuf Abdul-Qadir, director of the NYCLU’s Central New York Chapter. “The Clarion Project is responsible for producing the widely discredited training movie ‘The Third Jihad,’ a tremendous source of misinformation that fostered discriminatory attitudes toward New York City’s Muslim population. New Yorkers across the state are right to question the legitimacy and value of a police training expo that places a Clarion representative in such a prominent position.” “We also call into question banning of media from attending this expo where manufacturers showcase and sell certain highly intrusive law enforcement technologies. New Yorkers have raised serious concerns about being kept in the dark over the use of military grade surveillance technology in their local neighborhoods. It’s time to lift the veil of secrecy: Police departments should be wholly transparent about using technology that could significantly intrude upon people’s privacy.” [New York Civil Liberties Union]
Muslim stereotyping in pop culture is worse than ever
April 26: There was always prejudice, says media expert Jack Shaheen. When I first started, nobody even recognized the existence of the stereotype . . . now there is awareness and, despite that, it persists and endures more than before according to Jack Shaheen, media expert. Anti-Muslim depictions have been common since the 1920s. Arabs and Muslims continue to be portrayed as monolithic groups prone to violence and the subjugation of women. “I just turned 80 and I didn’t want to have to confront all this bigotry,” Shaheen told Sacramento Bee by telephone. “I’ve never had anxiety speaking about this issue. I’ve never felt this way before. That’s how strong this bigotry is. There was prejudice before, yeah, but this is bigotry.” In all his years of research, Shaheen said, he’s never seen anti-Muslim prejudices this intense, including in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. The current hostility toward Arabs and Muslims, he said, is reflected in and reinforced by on-screen portrayals that haven’t evolved much over the years. [Sacramento Bee]
Muslims advised to introduce anti-Islamophobia resolutions in state legislatures
April 26: The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is calling on American Muslims and other people of conscience to help counter the continued introduction of unconstitutional and discriminatory "anti-Sharia," "anti-foreign law," and "anti-Islamic Indoctrination" bills in state legislatures nationwide by introducing a pair of anti-Islamophobia resolutions that recognize the contributions of American Muslims and reaffirm the right of citizens to practice their faith within the law and free of government interference. The two resolutions, "Recognizing the Accomplishments of Muslim Citizens" and "Faith in Our State and Laws," along with step-by-step advice on the introduction and passage of those resolutions, are part of a new CAIR toolkit called "Recognizing American Muslim contributions in Our States." CAIR's toolkit has sections such as "Understanding the Legislative Process," "Legislative Advocacy: Limits for Non-Profit Organizations," "Checklist: Meeting with an Elected Official," and "Ensuring an Effective Meeting with an Elected Official," as well as fact sheets that may be given to lawmakers and their staff in support of the two resolutions. CAIR is urging Islamic communities nationwide to ask state lawmakers to stand with their Muslim constituents in countering the injustice of growing Islamophobia nationwide that is being spread by anti-Muslim activists and hate groups. [CAIR]
NY Post says Good Muslims are those who spy on their Muslim neighbors
April 27: Two Pakistanis now working as cabbies. A Sudanese guy who fixes flat tires for a living. A Palestinian woman, formerly married to a guy involved in credit card fraud. A Lebanese woman who works in a hotel but once made excellent money catering to all the needs of Middle Eastern royalty when they visited New York. And a Somali guy — perhaps the most daring person I know — who scrounges out a good living doing this and that. What do these six people have in common? They are, you might say, “good Muslims” who spy on bad Muslims and any other troublemakers who might cross their paths. They live and work in the New York area and regularly tip off law enforcement to wrongdoing. And they aren’t the only ones. One of the cabbies — who is a Hindu posing as a Muslim — says he personally knows of at least 10 Muslims who have been keeping their ears and eyes open for potential problems and reporting them to various US government agencies. Some of the informants are in this country illegally or semi-legally and hope their cooperation will get their immigration status upgraded. Others have gotten into minor legal scrapes and only then decided to work with US officials. Most the informers started by unearthing financial crimes. But after 9/11, they began including possible terrorist threats as well. What they are doing is courageous as well as dangerous. They need to remain undercover. The six informants I mentioned are all in their 40s and 50s. Middle-aged people have a harder time snooping on today’s terrorists, who tend to be younger.We’d better hope younger Muslims suddenly start taking their place. [By John Crudele New York Post]
More than a dozen Muslims discriminated against at work
April 28: More than a dozen Minnesota Muslims say their employers discriminated against them because of their religious practices, according to a claim filed with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Amarita Singh, civil rights director for the state chapter of the Council on Islamic-American Relations, said Truth Hardware and Doherty Staffing Solutions violated the workers' constitutional rights to reasonable on-the-job accommodations for their religious practices. CAIR-MN announced the claims yesterday it says the EEOC is investigating them. Singh said the employees' requests did not represent an undue burden on the companies. "The employees requested that they either be allowed to take breaks outside the scheduled time or that the break time be changed," Singh said. "Most employees only needed one additional or a different time for their break during each shift changed." Neither company has offered a comment or a response to the allegations. Several former employees of Truth Hardware and Doherty Staffing Solutions say at first, praying on the job was not a problem. [MPR News]
Trump repeats hoax story about shooting Muslims with pigs blood to rapturous applause
April 28: At a rally in Costa Mesa, Calif., Donald Trump repeated the vile hoax story about U.S. General John Joseph Pershing dipping bullets in pigs blood, shooting 49 Muslims and letting the 50th off with a warning. The crowd in California erupted in applause as he told it. Trump has used this story to illustrate how effectively you can combat radical Islamic terrorism if you refuse to be politically correct. Trump told this exact story at a rally in South Carolina back in February. Mediaite’s Josh Feldman wrote at the time: There has been a persistent rumor for years that United States General John Pershing cracked down on Islamic terrorism in the early 1900s by dipping bullets in pig’s blood and shooting Muslim prisoners with them. This is a hoax. It has never been proven. [Mediaite]
TSA official in Minneapolis says he was ordered to profile Somali-Americans
April 28: Somali-American community leaders in the Twin Cities voiced dismay Wednesday after a Minneapolis manager for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) alleged that they have been targets of racial profiling. Andrew Rhoades, an assistant federal security director for the TSA, said in congressional testimony that he was pressured by his supervisor earlier this month to profile Somali imams and community members visiting his Twin Cities office. The allegation sparked a call by Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., for an investigation by the Department of Homeland Security, of which TSA is a part. In a letter to Jeh Johnson, secretary of the department, Ellison cited a New York Times report that the TSA supervisor wanted to screen Somali-Americans through national security databases for terrorist ties — “by the same office designed to address their complaints.” The department’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties is investigating the claims. In a statement, TSA said it doesn’t tolerate racial profiling. “TSA takes allegations of racial profiling seriously. We are reviewing this complaint and will take appropriate action if there is evidence that any TSA officer acted inappropriately. “However, it would be unfair and irresponsible to infer or conclude that profiling is a common TSA practice based upon a single interaction between one employee and his supervisor,” the statement concludes. Jibril Afyare, spokesman for the Somali-American Task Force, said the TSA profiling charges, if proven true, would hurt community relations in and around the Twin Cities. [Star Tribune]
Muslim woman says judge asked her to leave courtroom when she declined to remove her head covering
April 28: A Muslim woman in Jefferson Parish (Louisiana) says she was discriminated against in court because of her religion. The judge says the incident was simply court procedure. The woman, who did not want to be identified on camera, says she went to Jefferson Parish Traffic Court on Tuesday to pay off a ticket she received from an accident. After she cleared security at the entrance, the woman says she walked into the courtroom for her hearing. "I saw the bailiff and he was motioning for me to remove it from my head, and I clenched on to my covering and shook my head, and mouthed to him 'No, I can't.'" The woman says she declined to remove the head covering for religious reasons. She says she was then escorted outside WDSU News reached out to Judge Raylyn Beevers, Division "B" of Second Parish Court, who admitted that she asked the woman to leave the courtroom Tuesday. Judge Beevers says she did not realize at the time the woman's head covering was for religious reasons. She says she thought it was a scarf worn as a fashion statement. [MSNBC6]
Worcester, Massachusetts area Muslims step up as presidential election delegates
April 28: Muslims make up only about 1 percent [*] of the population of the United States. But with politicians on the national scene increasingly focusing on Islam, and policy proposals from Republicans drawing accusations of Islamophobia from those on the left, Muslims across the country are trying to make their voices heard in the upcoming presidential election. The Worcester Islamic Center recently jumped into the fray, getting dozens of Worcester-area Muslims to drive down to Greenfield earlier this month for a caucus to determine delegates for the presidential election The move paid off, as two area Muslims were elected delegates for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, and will travel to Philadelphia in July for the Democratic National Convention. “Our community generally hasn’t been involved in politics,” Noman Khanani, the first delegate elected in the 2nd Congressional District for Sanders. “I guess it’s more a frustration with politics. But Bernie’s campaign really resonated with me.” The Council on American-Islamic Relations and other Muslim groups recently announced a national drive to register 20,000 voters, and some are shooting for a more ambitious goal of one million voters. But first come the primaries, and although former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has a substantial delegate lead, WIC Media Relations Director Tahir Ali said it was important to get the Muslim community involved and active as early as possible. “It doesn’t matter whether you win or lose. You’re already a winner if you participate,” Ali said. “Winning is a goal, but it’s not the only goal.” Ali knows a thing or two about American Muslims and their voice in politics. In 2004 he published “The Muslim Vote: Counts and Recounts” about Muslim voters before and after the Sept. 11 terror attacks. He said this year is different than past years, with both front-runners for the Republican presidential nomination – Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz – proposing policies ranging from barring Muslims from entering the country (Trump) to ordering law enforcement to patrol Muslim neighborhoods (Cruz). [Worcester Magazine]
[*] The American Muslim population is approximately seven million. The 3.3 million figure is perhaps updated quote from the PEW Institute survey of 2007 which arbitrarily estimated the American Muslim population at 2.35 million which is closer to the estimates announced by the American Jewish Committee in October 2001. Tellingly, the AJC study – titled Estimating the Muslim Population in the United States – claimed that the best estimate of Muslims in the United States is 2.8 million at most, compared to the 6 or 7 million figure used by many researchers and Muslim organizations. Read more http://www.amp-oneb.ghazali.net/html/pew_surveys.html [AMP Editor]
Donald Trump supporter attacks Muslim woman in D.C.
April 29: The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today said it has asked the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C., to preserve any surveillance video covering the site of an alleged attack on a Muslim woman by another woman shouting religious slurs and statements of support for GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump. Investigators tell CAIR the incident is being investigated as a hate crime. The Muslim woman, who is African-American and wears an Islamic head scarf (hijab), reported to CAIR that she was assaulted on April 21 outside a Starbucks in northwest Washington. According to the victim, the alleged assailant shouted slurs such as “f**king Muslim” and “f**king Muslim trash,” and told her to “go back to where you came from.” The white, blond-haired attacker also reportedly stated that she was voting for Donald Trump and expressed hope that he would send “all of you terrorist Muslims out of this country.” After the alleged victim called 911, an officer arrived at the scene, but said he could not do anything about the hate rhetoric because it was “freedom of speech.” When the officer left, the alleged attacker walked away, but then returned, approached the victim from behind and poured an unknown liquid over her head. The victim again called 911 and filed a police report. [CAIR]
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