www.amperspective.com Online Magazine
Executive Editor: Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Chronology of Islam in America (2016)
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
June 2016 page two
Redmond (Seattle) mosque receives threats after Orlando shooting
June 13: Redmond (Seattle) Police received several anonymous calls threatening worshippers — specifically women and children — at a Redmond mosque after the mass shooting that killed 49 people at a nightclub in Orlando, Fla., over the weekend. The gunman in that attack, Omar Mateen, had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, law-enforcement officials said. He was killed by a SWAT team. Members of the Muslim Association of Puget Sound (MAPS) — the largest mosque in the Puget Sound region — and city of Redmond officials including Mayor John Marchione gathered to condemn the threats and the shooting. The threats came into the Redmond Police Department call center at about 6:30 p.m. After contacting mosque leaders, officers were posted near the mosque as worshippers continued evening Ramadan celebrations. A multiagency investigation of the calls is ongoing, officials said. The FBI is conducting its own assessment of the threat, said regional liaison Brad Deardorff. [Seattle Times]
Threat Reported Against Chicago Area Mosque
June 13: In the wake of the Orlando mass shooting, Muslim organizations in the Chicago area say they’ve reported to the FBI an emailed threat that came in Monday morning against a suburban mosque. The email to the Islamic Center of Wheaton says: “Your tactics are well known by now. You accommodate local opinion until you are large enough to overcome the locals. Then you strike.” The email says: “Americans fight back with a vengeance.” Muslim leaders in Chicago say the Naperville mosque received a hostile phone call. Muslim leaders in Chicago called a news conference to condemn the mass shooting in Orlando. [CBS Chicago]
Trump says profiling American Muslims is “common sense”
June 19: In a move that goes beyond his call to ban Muslim immigration into the United States, Donald Trump said today that profiling American Muslims is something that needs to be considered. In an interview with Face The Nation on CBS, Trump said that profiling Muslims was a matter of “common sense.” “Just as a bottom line here,” host John Dickerston asked, “are you talking about increasing profiling of Muslims in America?” “Well, I think profiling is something that we’re going to have to start thinking about as a country,” Trump responded. “So, we really have to look at profiling. We have to look at is seriously. And other countries do it, and it’s not the worst thing to do,” he continued, citing Israel as an example. “I hate the concept of profiling, but we have to use common sense. We’re not using common sense.”Asked by Dickerson how Mateen, the Orlando shooter and an American citizen born in New York, would have been stopped by Trump’s policy, he repeated the idea that people in the Muslim community failed to report Mateen’s plan. Using an example, Trump falsely reiterated that the Muslim community in San Bernardino, California knew of the attack but did nothing. Last week, Trump said that the San Bernardino couple had “bombs all over the floor of their apartment,” but did not report the information to authorities. BuzzFeed News reported in March that there was no evidence to support this claim. [BuzzFeed News]
New CAIR, UC Berkeley Report Reveals Funding, Negative Impact of Islamophobic Groups in America
June 20: According to a report released today by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Center for Race and Gender at UC Berkeley, 33 Islamophobic groups had access to at least $205 million in total revenue between 2008-2013. The report, titled "Confronting Fear," documents the negative impact of Islamophobia in America, including: a) Anti-Islam bills became law in 10 states. b) At least two states, Florida and Tennessee, have passed laws revising the way they approve textbooks for classroom use as a direct result of anti-Islam campaigns. c) In 2015, there were 78 recorded incidents in which mosques were targeted. In both November and December of 2015, there were 17 mosque incidents reported during each of these months, numbers almost equivalent to an entire year's worth of reports from the previous two years. d) Two recent phenomenon - "Muslim-free" businesses and armed anti-Islam demonstrations - raise deep concerns. [CAIR]
2015 Saw a Record Number of Attacks on US Mosques
June 20: There were nearly four times as many attacks against mosques in 2015 compared with 2014, with many coming at the end of the year in the wake of the Paris and San Bernardino attacks and amid and a sharp rise in anti-Muslim rhetoric from Republican presidential candidates, according to a report published today. There were 78 instances where mosques were targeted — counting vandalism, arson, and other destruction — in 2015, according to the report compiled by the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Thirty-four of the incidents from 2015 came in November and December. There were 20 total in 2014, the group counted. Some of the incidents from December 2015 include the firebombing of a mosque in Coachella, California and the discovery of a severed pig’s head at a mosque in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, according to the report, which also detailed and tracked a wide array of Islamophobic incidents and trends around the U.S. from January 2013 to December 2015. “The targeting of mosques is an act of collective lynching directed at a targeted minority,” said Dr. Hatem Bazian, who contributed to the report and is the director of the Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project at the Center for Race and Gender at U.C. Berkeley, which collaborated with CAIR on the report. [Buzzfeed]
The corporate funding of Islamophobia, a multimillion dollar operation in support of Donald Trump
June 20: Inciting hate towards Muslims has become a multimillion-dollar endeavor, supported by neocon corporate foundations, according to The Guardian quoting a recent report by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the University of California at Berkeley’ Center for Race and Gender (CRG). Of significance, several of the groups involved are working hand in glove with the Trump election campaign. According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and University of California Berkeley’s Center for Race and Gender (CRG), some 74 foundations, think tanks, research centers, etc “contribute in some way to Islamophobia in the US, the primary purpose of which “is to promote prejudice against, or hatred of, Islam and Muslims”. The core group, which includes the Abstraction Fund, Clarion Project, David Horowitz Freedom Center, Middle East Forum, American Freedom Law Center, Center for Security Policy, Investigative Project on Terrorism, Jihad Watch and Act! for America, had access to almost $206m of funding between 2008 and 2013, the report said. [According to] Corey Saylor, author of the report: “The hate that these groups are funding and inciting is having real consequences like attacks on mosques all over the country and new laws discriminating against Muslims in America.” Saylor added that the Washington-based Center for Security Policy and Act! for America have the most impact, because they are trying to push their anti-Muslim rhetoric beyond their formerly fringe following. (The Guardian, June 20, 2016) The Center for Security Policy (headed by Frank Gaffney, a former Defense official) and the David Horowitz Freedom Center have direct ties to Donald Trump’s election campaign. The CSP considers that Muslims constitute a threat to “America’s way of life” [Global Research]
Illinois measure would create advisory council for Muslims
June 21: The Chicago Tribune reports that a bill approved by the Legislature would create a 21-member Illinois Muslim-American Advisory Council. It’s awaiting Republican Governor Bruce Rauner’s signature. The governor’s office said he’s reviewing it. Illinois could become the first state in the US with a law giving Muslim-Americans a formal voice in state government. Muslim leaders said it would send a welcoming message to Muslims. The governor and legislative leaders would appoint council members. Kareem Irfan, a Chicago lawyer who led an earlier version of the council under Governor Pat Quinn, said it would be good to have a lasting institutional body so the community is not subject to the whims of each governor. “Given all that is going on with the misinterpretation about Islam and the interests and concerns of the Muslim-American community, it’s almost obligatory on behalf of a governor of this state and all governors to have such a body,” Irfan said. Democratic Senator Jacqueline Collins, a co-sponsor of the bill, said she hopes the council will be the first of many efforts to ensure that the governor considers minority perspectives. [Indian Express]
Trump’s vote-winning strategy – attack Muslims
June 28: Donald Trump prides himself on not backing down from any fight or controversial position. Hours after the Orlando nightclub mass shooting on June 12, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee doubled down on his plan to ban Muslim immigrants from entering the United States. He also renewed his call for U.S. law enforcement agencies to use greater racial profiling, especially of Muslim Americans. In December, Trump shocked the world when he called for the ban on all Muslim travelers entering the United States – until American leaders “can figure out what the hell is going on.” Throughout the campaign, Trump has advocated increased surveillance of Muslim American communities and mosques. He also said he would consider registering Muslim Americans in a database, or requiring Muslims to carry special identification cards. Trump is persisting with his attack on Muslims because it has proven to be his strongest issue, according to exit polls in many Republican primaries. In the pivotal March 15 contests, exit polls of voters in the five states that held elections revealed a remarkable fact: two-thirds of Republican voters support Trump’s proposal to ban Muslim immigrants and tourists. In some states that held early primary elections – South Carolina and Missouri – nearly 75 percent of Republican voters support the ban.Since he became the presumptive Republican nominee last month, there’s been much discussion of how Trump would adjust his views to appeal to a broader American public in the general election. But even if other Republican leaders denounce his views, don’t expect Trump to curtail his attacks on Islam or his overt Islamophobia – he has little incentive to do so, as long as it wins him votes. The polling shows that while Trump is fanning the flames of anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States, he did not create this phenomenon. He’s a demagogue who is taking advantage of deep-seated fears of Muslims among Americans, especially Republican voters. Trump is winning votes because he is willing to go further than any other candidate in tarnishing all Muslims. In an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper in March, Trump declared flatly: “I think Islam hates us.” When Cooper asked him whether the religion is at war with the West, Trump added, “There’s a tremendous hatred. We have to get to the bottom of it. There’s an unbelievable hatred of us.” [Reuters]
'Never been a time like this': Alarmed Muslim voters mobilize to stop Trump
June 29: This election cycle – with Republican nominee Donald Trump proposing a ban on Muslims entering the country and threatening to shut down mosques–Muslim Americans have are urgently aware that they need to mobilize against him. “There has never been a time like this with so much tension,” says Ehsan Islam of the Dar Alnoor Islamic Community Center in suburban Washington, D.C. Since announcing his candidacy, Trump has shown a pattern of ostracizing minority groups, calling undocumented immigrants “criminals” and “rapists” when he declared his candidacy. Trump’s demagoguery against Muslim Americans, however – his conflation of religious Muslims with radical Islamists at a time when the country appears to be more alarmed by terrorism than at any other point since 9/11– has especially divisive and is now leading American Muslims to take action. “There is a real sense that this particular election cycle has really targeted our community,” said Maya Berry, the executive director of the Arab American Institute, which works to mobilize Arab Americans, including, but not limited to, Muslim Americans. "The response has certainly been that we need to get more organized. Berry said that this cycle she will deploy field workers in five different states – Michigan, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and California–to work on mobilization This cycle, Republican candidate Ben Carson said on Meet the Press that the country shouldn’t elect a Muslim-American president. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) sought foreign policy advice from well-known anti-Muslim conspiracy theorist Frank Gaffney. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush announced on the campaign trail that he would prioritize Christian Syrian refugees above Muslims. Data on Muslim American voters is scarce, their voting patterns have hardly been studied, and it may be too early to know exactly how Trump’s rhetoric is spurring action. But, according to CAIR–which keeps its own private voter database on individuals with traditionally Muslim names– more than 300,000 new Muslim voters have registered to cast ballots since the 2012 presidential election. [Talking Points Memo]
2 million-person terror database leaked online
June 29: A 2014 version of the World-Check database containing more than 2.2 million records of people with suspected terrorist, organized crime, and corruption links has been leaked online. World-Check, which is run by Thomson-Reuters, is used by 4,500 institutions, 49 of the world’s 50 largest banks and by over 300 government and intelligence agencies. Security researcher Chris Vickery originally discovered the leak, and told media outlets that even after notifying Thomson-Reuters of its location the database is still available online. World-Check is intended for use as ‘an early warning system for hidden risk’ and works by combining records from hundreds of separate terror and crime suspect and watch lists into a simple, searchable database format. However, as World-Check is completely unregulated, it has come under fire for bias, and for the validity of its sources. Additionally, information is not available to the general public who may not be aware that they are on such a list, but whose bank accounts and business transactions may be cancelled without warning or recourse. Banks are not required by law to provide consumers with a reason for account closures, and World-Check has a binding secrecy clause for users of the service. In February 2016 it was revealed that several respected, internationally-renowned anti-terrorism activists had been included in the World-Check database as ‘heightened-risk indivduals’, including the Executive Director of the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Nihad Awad, who described his inclusion on the World-Check list as “inaccurate, bigoted garbage.” He said, “You can imagine how many innocent individuals and organizations have suffered at the hands of World-Check and similar entities with no recourse.” [www.thestack.com]
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