www.amperspective.com Online Magazine
Executive Editor: Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Chronology of Islam in America (2016)
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
May 2016 page two
Five anti-Muslim protesters and 400 peace supporters meet at New York rally
May 16: A motorcycle group’s plan to “raise awareness” of the threat of homegrown jihad by riding to an all-Muslim New York town backfired on Sunday, when only five motorcyclists showed up. Hundreds of people, meanwhile, flocked to the town to show their support for its residents. American Bikers United Against Jihad spent months calling for people to take part in the event, which organizers described as a “ride for national security” and promised would see “hundreds” of bikers riding past Islamberg, in upstate New York. But the five riders who showed up found themselves completely overshadowed when more than 400 people travelled to Islamberg – some driving for hours to get there – to take part in a “peace rally and community day”. As the motorcyclists rode past the town, about three hours north-west of New York City, residents and supporters stood along the street. Some waved American flags, some called out “Welcome!” Others chanted: “Freedom, justice, USA!” “I don’t know what they’re riding against,” said Islamberg mayor Rashid Clark. “My only concern is for our safety. It doesn’t provoke me.” After witnessing the ride-by, the supporters – who included people from Christian churches and other faiths – were welcomed into the town. Residents laid on food, music and speeches from community leaders. The majority of Islamberg residents are African Americans. The town was established by The Muslims of America in 1984, and is home to around 25 families. The organization has established more than a dozen towns across the US, with Islamberg serving as its headquarters. A series of online conspiracy theories have given rise to the idea that Muslims of America towns are home to jihad training camps. The notion has been repeatedly debunked by law enforcement officials, but this has not deterred extremists. In April 2015, a man named Robert Doggart pleaded guilty to planning to attack Islamberg. He faces trial this summer. In November 2015, the FBI issued a warning to New York police after Jon Ritzheimer, a man later involved in the occupation of the Malheur wildlife refuge in Oregon, posted a video online saying he planned to drive to Islamberg and confront residents. [The Guardian]
Anti-Muslim School Bullying: Sometimes, It’s Even the Teachers Doing It
May 17: Muslim students being bullied or harassed for their faith is increasingly becoming the norm not the exception in America. A 2015 study by California’s CAIR chapter surveyed over 600 Muslim students in California and shockingly found that 55 percent had either been bullied or discriminated against. To put that in perspective, that’s more twice the number of student reporting being bullied on a national basis. “This disparity is a reflection of how Islamophobic rhetoric by certain media and public figures has become normalized in our society,” Hussam Ayloush, executive director of CAIR’s Los Angeles Office, explained. And disturbingly the CAIR study found that 20 percent of Muslim students say they have experienced discrimination by a school staff member, the very people charged with protecting them from this type of hate. We have seen an alarming increase in these type of incidents as of late. For example, just last month in Fort Bend County, Texas, 12-year-old Muslim student Waleed Abushaaban was watching a comedy movie with his classmates that caused him to laugh. His teacher told him, “I wouldn’t be laughing if I was you.” When the Muslim student asked why, the teacher responded, “because we all think you’re a terrorist.” After the teacher’s comment, Waleed’s fellow students then followed her lead and ridiculed him by making jokes about him having a “bomb” and other hateful stereotypes. Last year in Florida a teacher called a 14-year-old Muslim student in front of classmates a“raghead Taliban” for three days in a row. A Georgia teacher jokingly asked a Muslim student in front of the class if she had a bomb in her backpack. And last April another Texas teacher apparently wanted to teach students to hate Muslims by giving out an unapproved homework assignment that contained false claims about Muslims wanting to kill them. Sadly there have been, and likely will always be, bullies in schools. When I was a kid I had to deal with it as well but it was never for my faith or ethnicity. It was more run of the millbullying because someone didn’t like my face or thought I was a “dork.” But what’s happening to these Muslim students is far worse. These young people are being in essence told they don't belong in this country and that they are less than fully American simply because of their religious faith. [The Daily Beast]
St. Johns County month of civility proclamation in response to anti-Islam billboard
May 18: The Council on American-Islamic Relations - Florida (CAIR-Florida) today welcomed the Board of County Commissioners of St. Johns County issuance of the Civility Month Proclamation publicly proclaiming the County's strong adherence to fostering civility among its diverse community of residents. This proclamation comes after CAIR-Florida and other groups approached the County Commissioners in reaction to an Islamophobic billboard poster that was on display in St. Augustine Beach last month. The billboard prompted numerous rejection reactions from the broader community in addition to those voiced by the Muslim neighbors. The Proclamation, signed by Chairman Jeb S. Smith and attested to by Hunter S. Conrad, Clerk of Courts, reads in part:
"WHEREAS, the St. Johns County community, with its rich history of faith, worship, and building religious toleration benefits from promoting respect and civility. . .
"NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT PROCLAIMED by the Board of County Commissioners of St. Johns County, that May, 2016 be designated as: Civility Month; and calls upon all citizens to exercise civility toward each other this month and throughout the year."
CAIR-Florida's Orlando Regional Coordinator, Rasha Mubarak, worked closely with the St. Johns County Commissioners in requesting that they express their support to their constituents after the controversial anti-Islam, xenophobic billboard message was posted. Mubarak said: "Hateful messages hurt not only the Muslims but the community as a whole. St. Johns County residents and the vast majority of the state's constituents reject the hateful rhetoric that aims to divide us all instead of bringing us all together as Americans standing for our communities, our state, and our nation.” [CAIR]
U.S. Immigration Department sued over “unlawful delay” of citizenship applications Of Muslims
May 18: The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) unlawfully delays the citizenship applications of Muslim immigrants due to a secretive immigration program, according to a lawsuit filed today in St. Louis. The lawsuit — filed by the Hacking Law Practice on behalf of 13 Muslim immigrants in the Eastern District of Missouri — alleges that the “USCIS has applied different rules under a policy known as the Controlled Application Review and Resolution Program (CARRP), which has resulted in the agency refusing to adjudicate Plaintiffs’ applications.” CARRP, which first began in 2008, is designed to identify security risks among immigrants who apply for visas, asylum, green cards, and naturalization in the U.S. “Plaintiffs bring this action to compel the USCIS to finally — after years of waiting — adjudicate their pending applications for naturalization as required by law,” the complaint states. In January, a BuzzFeed News investigation revealed how the FBI, against their own guidelines, offered immigration assistance to Muslim immigrants affected by CARRP’s delays in exchange for spying on their friends, family, and communities. Jim Hacking, lead attorney on the case, said CAARP discriminates against Muslims, since it “holds Muslim immigration applicants to a higher legal standard.” “What my clients want is simple: they want what the law provides. They want to be vetted like everyone else, and treated like every other person applying for citizenship. The USCIS has unilaterally taken it on themselves to hold Muslims to a higher scrutiny. They find themselves in this black hole where they can’t get out. There’s no recourse for them,” Hacking said. [BuzzFeed]
SETA hosts panel on Islamophobia in the U.S. & Europe
May 19: The Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA) at Washington D.C. hosted a panel discussion entitled “Islamophobia in the U.S. and Europe: Policy Implications.” The event discussed the recently released SETA Foundation report of the same title. Panelists included the authors of the report, Enes Bayrakli and Farid Hafez, as well as distinguished experts on the issue of Islamophobia, Dalia Mogahed and Corey Saylor. The issue of Islamophobia in Europe is understudied, and there is an unquestionable narrowing of understand of Islam in the U.S. and Europe today, Enes Bayrakli of the SETA Foundation argued. Since the Paris attacks in November 2015, Europe has experienced an increase of hate crimes against Muslim populations. Islamophobia is also on the rise in the European media. Bayrakli counseled that the EU should move to adopt hate crime legislation, provide counseling services for victims of hate crimes, and establish an independent media watchdog as measures to stem increasing Islamophobia in Europe. Farid Hafez, a researcher from the University of Salzburg, discussed the similarities between the political landscape and anti-Islamic discourse experienced in the U.S. today and the rise of similar sentiments in Europe a decade ago. Dalia Mogahed, Director of Research at the Institute for Social Policy Understanding, and Farid Hafez both argued that Islamophobia has become part of a greater institutional structure of racial hierarchy. “There is an appetite in the U.S. for infringement on the Constitution out of fear of Islam and Muslims,” Corey Saylor of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) asserted. [SETA Foundation]
Fear-mongering vs. fearlessness
May 20: “So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning terror, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” In spite of these eloquent words uttered during his first inauguration in March 1933, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the same president who signed an order in February 1942 forcibly relocating and detaining more than 100,000 people simply because they were of Japanese ancestry. The 1933 speech was a fearless effort to rally U.S. citizens in the face of a cataclysmic Great Depression. In 1942, FDR’s Executive Order 9066 was a fear-mongering reaction to the infamous Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. We are now in the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign, where almost daily fear-mongering seems to be a winning strategy. Therefore, people of faith and the rest of America should be especially concerned about the possibility of our 1942 history repeating itself. Thankfully, we have the words and actions of people like Harriet Tubman, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. to draw upon. Aside from being the new face of the $20 bill, Harriet Tubman exemplified fearlessness in the face of great adversity. Who needs a fictional “Wonder Woman” when we have a real person who, in spite of being born in captivity, took on several distinguished careers as Underground Railroad “conductor,” abolitionist, armed scout and spy for the Union Army, suffragist and humanitarian? Additionally, she was known as a “God-fearing woman” who was nicknamed “Black Moses.” Fearlessness also epitomized the life of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. He not only believed that “God is Love” — he actualized that belief through his ministry of preaching, teaching and marching in spite of being demonized by many. His fearlessness was exemplified by his famous April 3, 1967, sermon at New York’s Riverside Church titled “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence,” wherein he fearlessly stepped out of his role as “Negro civil rights leader” and spoke as a person of faith determined to support justice everywhere, no matter the cost. This past May 19 marked the 91st anniversary of the birth of yet another fearless American leader. Eulogized as “Our Shining Black Prince” by actor Ossie Davis in February 1965, Malcolm X epitomized a person who “spoke truth to power.” Yet he was not afraid to admit major errors as he did with his views on race relations that changed shortly before his assassination. America desperately needs people of faith who emulate Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. We must step up to fight the fear-mongering with a justice-seeking fearlessness. As the Asad translation of the Quran points out: Oh, verily, those who are close to God — no fear need they have, and neither shall they grieve (10:62). [By Jimmy E. Jones - New Heaven Register]
Jersey City public schools to close for Muslim holy day
May 20: Jersey City public schools will be closed to students one day this September for the Muslim holy day Eid al-Adha, with the school board last night voting unanimously to add the holiday to the school calendar. The vote came during a four-hour meeting during which some speakers compared the fight to win the school holiday to the civil rights struggles of the 1960s. "On behalf of the Muslim community, we made history," said Jessica Abdelnabbi, a Muslim mother of three who pushed for the district to close for the holiday. "My children will not be excluded." Jersey City joins other districts around the state, including in Paterson, Trenton and Atlantic City, by officially recognizing Eid al-Adha, also known as the Feast of Sacrifice. Board of Education President Vidya Gangadin said she is "very much pleased" with the board's action. "The board voting unanimously shows that the board does acknowledge the diverse population in Jersey City," Gangadin said. "It's a step in the right direction." The board will create a committee that includes religious leaders of various faiths to determine which holidays the district should add to its calendar starting in 2017-18. The Muslim community is also pushing for a school holiday to commemorate Eid al-Fitr, which does not fall on a school day during the 2016-17 school year. [New Jersey.com]
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