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Executive Editor: Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Chronology of Islam in America (2016)
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
October 2016
Tennessee school board member calls for removal of textbook over Islam content
Oct 3: Following the impassioned tonight speech of a parent alleging a textbook used in Sullivan County, Tennessee, promotes Islam, county school board member Mark Ireson set the wheels in motion for possibly removal of that Pearson seventh grade social studies and history textbook. At the end of the meeting, Ireson made a motion to remove the Pearson textbook immediately “because it does not represent the values of the county.” However, after Ireson’s motion, school system officials said there is a textbook removal policy, 4.403, in place that is to be followed, including the parent filling out a form and the formation of a committee on the matter, and that the matter could be addressed at a future called board meeting. [Times News]
Concern expressed about hyper-militarized, anti-Muslim law enforcement training
Oct 4: The Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Chicago) today expressed deep concerns about anti-Muslim and hyper-militarized tactical training at the upcoming Illinois Tactical Officers Association's (ITOA) 2016 Tactical Training Conference taking place at the Stonegate Conference and Banquet Center in Hoffman Estates from October 9-13. CAIR-Chicago is calling on Stonegate as well as Cook County Department of Homeland Security & Emergency Management (DHSEM) and other government agencies to end their relationships with ITOA. ITOA's Tactical Training Conference is a five-day SWAT tactical training and weapons expo aimed at training local police and emergency medical technicians (EMTs) "like tactical squads in the military", and increasing the flow of weapons and militarized technology into greater Chicagoland and throughout nation. This poses a direct threat to Muslim communities and communities of color. The keynote speaker for the conference is Sebastian Gorka, a far-right extremist and Donald Trump consultant who has consistently called for the expansion of law enforcement to carry out suspicionless monitoring and surveillance of Muslim and refugee communities. [CAIR]
Yahoo secretly scanned customer emails for U.S. Intelligence
Oct 5: Yahoo Inc last year secretly built a custom software program to search all of its customers' incoming emails for specific information provided by U.S. intelligence officials, according to people familiar with the matter. The company complied with a classified U.S. government demand, scanning hundreds of millions of Yahoo Mail accounts at the behest of the National Security Agency or FBI, said three former employees and a fourth person apprised of the events. Some surveillance experts said this represents the first case to surface of a U.S. Internet company agreeing to an intelligence agency's request by searching all arriving messages, as opposed to examining stored messages or scanning a small number of accounts in real time. U.S. phone and Internet companies are known to have handed over bulk customer data to intelligence agencies. But some former government officials and private surveillance experts said they had not previously seen either such a broad demand for real-time Web collection or one that required the creation of a new computer program. Under laws including the 2008 amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, intelligence agencies can ask U.S. phone and Internet companies to provide customer data to aid foreign intelligence-gathering efforts for a variety of reasons, including prevention of terrorist attacks. [Reuters]
CAIR-CA launches 2016 School Bullying Survey
Oct 6: The California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CA), the state's largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization today launched a statewide survey on bullying targeting Muslim students, coinciding with National Bullying Prevention Awareness Month. The survey will collect information on Muslim students who are being targeted primarily for their religious identity. It inquires into the socio-political climate in which American Muslims attend school. Specifically, the survey seeks information on how Islamophobia, the fear or hatred of Islam and Muslims, in larger society filters into the school environment and manifests as teacher discrimination and student bullying. "The Islamophobic rhetoric surrounding the elections is impacting American Muslims across California", said CAIR-LA Executive Director Hussam Ayloush. "Students are increasingly facing discrimination and bullying from their teachers and fellow students. This survey will continue to facilitate our efforts to protect vulnerable Muslim students who are facing bullying in school." Just last week, Governor Brown signed AB 2845, a bill addressing bullying, harassment of Muslim and Sikh Students. The bill requires the California Department of Education (CDE) to assess whether local educational agencies have provided information to staff for students who are subject to discrimination and bullying based on actual or perceived religious affiliation. It also requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to post anti-bullying resources related to affiliation or perceived affiliation with any religion, nationality, race, or ethnicity on its website. [CAIR]
Complaint accuses Southwest for profiling of Muslim passenger
Oct 7: A Bay Area American-Islamic group called Wednesday (5/10) for a federal investigation of Southwest Airlines for “racial and religious profiling of a Muslim passenger” after a UC Berkeley student said he was removed from a flight in April for speaking Arabic. The San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings, asking it to investigate the airline. “Nobody deserves to be discriminated against for their perceived religious and racial identity,” said Saba Maher, the civil rights coordinator for the CAIR chapter. “People speak hundreds of different languages and it shouldn’t be seen as a threat.” Khairuldeen Makhzoomi, a 26-year-old Iraqi refugee and son of a slain Iraqi diplomat, was supposed to fly into Oakland from Los Angeles on April 6. He was asked to leave the flight by a Southwest employee after a passenger raised concerns over him speaking Arabic on his cell phone. The passenger claimed she heard Makhzoomi use words in Arabic connected to martyrdom, but Makhzoomi said he was using the word “inshallah,” an Arabic term meaning “god willing,” or “hopefully.” Southwest said in a statement that it removed Makhzoomi from the plane because of “potentially threatening comments made aboard our aircraft” and “further discussion.” Makhzoomi was speaking to his uncle in Iraq on the phone about a dinner he had attended in Los Angeles the evening before with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon. “I had an emotional breakdown and cried a little bit,” Makhzoomi told The Chronicle in an interview shortly after the Southwest incident. “I was so afraid. I was so scared.” Makhzoomi eventually made it home on a different flight, but Maher said the trauma he has since dealt with was one of the main reasons for filing the complaint with the Department of Transportation. Makhzoomi is not seeking damages from the airline, but is hoping that Southwest will be held accountable and will, at the very least, issue an apology to him, Maher said. Makhzoomi’s experience with discrimination on an airline or at an airport isn’t uncommon among Muslims and Muslim Americans, especially in this political climate, Maher added. She said that extra diversity training would be crucial for airline employees. “He was exposed to the most egregious of things that could happen,” Maher said of Makhzoomi. “My hope is that our complaint wouldn’t fall on deaf ears - especially with something as severe and pervasive as this.” [San Francisco Chronicle]
CA Governor signs bill aimed at halting bullying, harassment
Oct 11: Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a bill authored by Assemblymember Das Williams (D-Carpinteria), designed to address potential bullying, harassment, and intimidation of Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, Sikh, and South Asian students. AB 2845 requires the California Department of Education (CDE) to assess whether local educational agencies have provided information to certificated staff serving grades 7-12 on school site and community resources for students who are subject to discrimination and bullying based on actual or perceived religious affiliation. The bill also requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) to post anti-bullying resources related to affiliation or perceived affiliation with any religious groups, including Muslim, on its website. Members of Williams’ Capitol staff and organizations in support of the bill held a press conference in Sacramento celebrate the bill’s signing. “Unfortunately, discrimination, whether intentional or not, exists in our schools and this bill aims to help educate staff on how to develop an awareness and prevent harassment,” said Assemblymember Williams. “These are already difficulty and challenging years for students. We need to show that our schools have no room for discrimination or bullying.” According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, California Chapter (CAIR-CA), 55 percent of American-Muslim students attending California public schools surveyed experience some form of bullying based on their religious identity. This is twice as high as the national statistic for students who report being bullied at school. CAIR-CA also finds that American Muslim youth continue to identify student-teacher relations as needing improvement in addressing such bullying. Similarly, the Sikh Coalition has reported that 50 percent of Sikh students have encountered school bullying. This number increases significantly for turbaned Sikh students, 67 percent of whom have encountered bullying. [Independent]
Bus assault on a 7-year-old Muslim student in North Carolina
Oct 11: The parents of a 7-year-old boy say he was beaten by five students on a school bus, allegedly while they made references to Muslims and the boy’s Pakistani heritage. Abdul Usmani’s father, Dr. Zeeshan-ul-hassan Usmani, told BuzzFeed News that his wife and three sons have left the US for Pakistan after this latest incident in a long history of discrimination towards his children and family. “These are six and seven year old kids calling him names, with one kid punching him in the face, while two other kids attacked him, kicked him, and held his arms back,” Usmani said of his son. “They keep beating him all the way from school to home on the bus,” Usmani said of the ride home from Weatherstone Elementary School in Cary, North Carolina, last Friday (10/7). Abdul, his father said, is traumatized by the attack and has a sprained arm. Usmani, 38, first came to the US as a Fulbright Scholar from Pakistan and currently works as a Chief Technology Officer of a Silicon Valley data software company. He told BuzzFeed News that his two elder sons and his family have been the targets of discrimination for years because of their religion and nationality. Usmani said his family was harassed by a neighbor for months because of their religion, and that his other son has been called a terrorist. At one point, he claims a fellow student tried to force food in his son’s mouth after learning that he only ate halal food — meat slaughtered and prepared according to Islamic law. “Times are changing and it’s not the America we always thought of and believed in. It’s not the America that I studied in,” Usmani said. “If Trump wins, America will be great again, but a great that nobody will care about.” [BuzzFeed]
First National Law Conference for Muslim Leaders Held in Dallas
Oct. 12: More than 150 Muslim community leaders from nearly 30 states traveled to Dallas this weekend to participate in the first national law conference designed for American imams and mosque leaders. Attorneys from Dallas-based Constitutional Law Center for Muslims in America and guest presenters from Florida, Texas, California, Illinois, Pennsylvania, District of Columbia and Washington gave more than 21 hours of presentations on topics related to day-to-day mosque operations. Subjects included engaging with law enforcement, family law, accommodating LGBT community members, employment law, immigration, law, tax code, child protection, prisoners’ rights, mental health, international humanitarian aid, banking regulations and watchlists. Dallas-based Muslim Legal Fund of America, a nonprofit that funds legal work to defend constitutional rights for Muslims in America, organized the conference. [MLFA]
Armed '3%' militia fights against proposed mosque in tiny Georgia town
Oct 13: A Muslim congregation in central Georgia that wants to build a mosque faces opposition from an armed “3%” militia that has terrorized county officials and smeared the mosque as a training ground for the Islamic State. The militia’s actions have forced the cancellation of a county meeting meant to discuss the application to build the mosque, a move commissioners blamed on “uncivil threats or intentions [that] must be taken seriously”. The members of Al Maad Al Islami bought 135 acres about 40 miles south of Atlanta, in rural Newton County. The mosque would only require a small section of the land, which would otherwise be used for a cemetery, a park and possibly a school. Newton County is solid Trump country, however, and the presidential candidate’s suspicion of Muslim immigrants revealed itself in local reaction. On 11 August, county commissioner John Douglas asked in the Rockdale Citizen newspaper: “Would building those things make us a prime area for the federal government to resettle refugees from the Middle East?” Soon there was a Facebook page, called Stop the Mosque, alongside videos of armed and masked men firing weapons and setting off explosives in Georgia’s woodlands. By mid-August, Newton County’s commissioners had enacted a temporary ban on building any places of worship, a reversal for a body that a few years ago passed a zoning ordinance designed to allow unimpeded construction of places described as “cathedral, chapel, church, synagogue, temple, mosque, tabernacle”. An opposing outcry arose in support of the mosque, and the US Department of Justice reviewed a complaint by the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Under pressure, the commission set a date in mid-September to lift the ban. But just before meeting day, a militia emerged, calling itself the Georgia Security Force III% (GSF). Three Percenters are a collection so-called patriot groups, scattered around the US and loosely affiliated. They draw their name from a claim that only a noble 3% of the American colonies’ population fought against the British in the American revolution. In reality, the colonies’ population at the time was about 2.5 million, of whom half were women, others were children, others old or infirm – and about 250,000 still fought. [The Guardian]
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