www.amperspective.com Online Magazine
Executive Editor: Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Chronology of Islam in America (2016)
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
December 2016
Anchorage Assembly Member Amy Demboski
targets Wasilla man with fake news alleging ‘Islamic Compound’
Dec 4: Friday night (Dec 2, 2016) , Anchorage Assembly member Amy Demboski (Eagle River) — who also hosts a local conservative talk show on KNTV — posted a salacious and misleading link to her radio show’s Facebook page.The link directed viewers to a post penned by AnnetaGriffee, published on former Newsmax host Dennis Michael Lynch’s blog. Lynch is a film documentarian specializing in anti-immigration flicks. The article, entitled “Report: Why Islamic Compounds Across the US Are Stockpiling Arms,” asserts that radical Muslims are collecting weapons in several U.S. states with the intention of committing terrorist attacks.“With the election of Donald Trump, they believe that their end times prophecies that they believe in are now being fulfilled, Donald Trump is part of a Satanic Jewish conspiracy, and they are preparing for the camps to be raided and to fight back,” Anti-Muslim extremist and conspiracy theorist Ryan Mauro explained to Fox Business channel’s Stuart Varney, accompanied by an infographic showing nine states with alleged compounds.Mauro (misidentified as Ryan Morrow in the article) is a national security analyst for the Clarion Project — a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit dedicated to “exposing the dangers of Islamic extremism while providing a platform for the voices of moderation and promoting grassroots activism.” Clarion was listed in a 2013 report published by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as an organization “designed to vilify Islamic religious practices.” The Southern Poverty Law Center describes Clarion as an anti-Muslim group.Griffee’s article echoed Mauro’s sentiment:“[M]ultiple sources have confirmed that the people living within the Islamic compounds believe that, with the election of Donald Trump, the ‘end-times’ prophecies they believe in are now being fulfilled. They think that Donald Trump is part of a ‘Satanic Jewish conspiracy’ and they are preparing for their camps to be raided.”…..There have been multiple online posts documenting the so-called terrorist training camp in Alaska. None offer anything remotely resembling concrete to substantiate the claim, yet Clarion went as far as to put someone’s name out there without a shred of legitimacy. And, yet, it was picked up by fake news sites, like Truth and Action, with hyperlinks that either take viewers no where or to error messages, but were nevertheless sanctioned (read: legitimized) on Fox News/Business repeatedly without mention of the fact that the claims are completely based in fantasy. Then, it continues on to Facebook posts, like Demboski’s, where people cite the sources echoing the same unsubstantiated claims. [Alaska Commons]
Flynn: Prophet Muhammad and Quran are “incompatible” with modernity
Dec 6: National Security Advisor-designate Michael T. Flynn is a lightning rod for controversies surrounding the Trump transition team. Yesterday, 53 advocacy groups released a joint statement urging President-elect Donald Trump to rescind his appointment of Flynn, describing him as a “completely inappropriate choice to serve in the most senior national security position in the White House.” Flynn, the letter notes, exhibits a “lack of respect for the rights and dignity of Muslims.”In a previously unreported video, reviewed by LobeLog, of an interview at the Republican National Convention, Flynn directly attacks the prophet Muhammad and the Quran and blames the introduction of Islam for the Middle East’s alleged failure to “become modern.”Indeed, Flynn has previously said that “fear of Muslims is rational” and describes Islam as a “cancer.” But some analyses of Trump’s pick for national security advisor have glossed over Flynn’s sweeping anti-Muslim statements. Bloomberg View columnist Eli Lake, for example, described Flynn as having “spoken and written at length about combating radical Islam, not just the most extreme terrorist groups inspired by this ideology.” And mainstream publications like Politico and The New York Times have published articles focusing on Flynn’s fixation on combating “radical Islam,” which Flynn sometimes acknowledges is separate from, although closely related to, the Islamic religion.[LobeLog.com]
Worries grow that election has 'empowered' bigotry
Dec 10: The 54-year-old white man donning a Pirates cap elbowed and then punched in the head the brown-skinned man who sat at the Red Robin restaurant in South Hills Village."I don't want you sitting next to me ... you people," witnesses said they heard Jeffrey Burgess say in addition to anti-Muslim racial slurs during the incident two days before Thanksgiving, according to a criminal complaint filed by Bethel Park police.The assault marked the first high-profile violent act against a person in Western Pennsylvania believed to be motivated by hate or bias since Donald Trump clinched the U.S. presidency, though reports of hate-fueled acts during and in the aftermath of the presidential campaign have proliferated nationwide."Anyone even perceived to be a Muslim now is subject to this kind of public harassment or attack," said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation's largest Muslim advocacy group. "The election really has empowered bigotry and hatred, and it's not only targeting American Muslims."When pressed, Trump denounced acts of hate during his first interview as president-elect. "If it helps, I will say this, and I will say right to the cameras: Stop it," Trump told "60 Minutes."Pennsylvania GOP spokeswoman Megan Sweeney acknowledged that the presidential race "was a particularly bruising campaign on both sides." "But just like every other presidential election year," she said, "it's up to us as Americans to come together as we move to a new administration."Concerns about racial prejudice and inequities have persisted for years.Black and white pastors, Muslim clergy, interfaith groups, foundation executives and Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik are those who have felt compelled to speak out. Many ramped up efforts following nationwide uprisings spurred by the 2014 deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Eric Garner in New York — and again in late 2015 following Trump's call for a ban on Muslim entry into the U.S.On Nov. 10, Pittsburgh's Commission on Human Relations urged people to report "instances of unrest or conflict related to the results of the Nov. 8 election."We want people to know that Pittsburgh is a welcoming city and that we thrive because of our diversity," Chairman Carlos Torres said.[Pittsburgh Tribune-Review]
Bay Area Muslims and non-Muslims band together in wake of Trump election
Dec 11: Earlier this month at daybreak, Kristen Krauss, a teacher from San Jose, put on a headscarf for the first time and walked beside SaimaSaleem, a mother of three from Santa Clara, who has worn one for most of her life. Joined by about 70 other hijab-wearing hikers, the group trekked towards Mission Peak, past rolling green hills dotted with cows as the city of Fremont began to appear below them.Krauss organized the Dec. 3 “Hijab Hike” via Facebook after reading reports of a woman with lupus who went for a hike near Mission Peak wearing a headscarf and returned to find her car window smashed and a hate note left on her windshield by someone who thought she was Muslim.“That really concerned some of us,” Krauss said. “We wanted to reclaim this place, Mission Peak, and public places in general as places that can be safe for all people and for women that choose to cover their heads.”President-elect Donald Trump’s proposals to institute a Muslim registry and to ban all Muslims from entering the United States have left many Muslim-Americans feeling unwelcome in their own country. Although Trump’s proposals may or may not become actual policy, the rhetoric of his campaign has served as the impetus for dozens of reported acts of hate against Muslims.“People are scared,” said Saleem, who is Muslim. “They are worried about what is going to happen in the future; are we safe here or not? I have fear too about what is going to happen with our children.”In the Bay Area since the election, a woman wearing a hijab, a symbol of modesty worn by Muslim women, was threatened by a group of men at UC Berkeley, a student at San Jose State had her hijab pulled off in a parking garage and a San Jose mosque received a virulent hate letter that said Trump would do to Muslims “what Hitler did to the Jews.”The Southern Poverty Law Center counted 51 reported acts of anti-Muslim hate and harassment across the nation in the week following the election, stating that many incidents involved direct references to Donald Trump. Zahra Billoo, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations Bay Area chapter, said that even more crimes against Muslims have occurred and gone unreported.But alongside the threats and attacks, there has also been an outpouring of support from Bay Area residents that has heartened the local Muslim community. Billoo said that since the election, her office has been flooded with calls from allies asking what they can do to support the Muslim community.[Peninsula Press]
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