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Executive Editor: Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Chronology of Islam in America (2017)
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
February 2017 - page two
GOP congressional candidate will ‘End Muslim Immigration, ’fundraising email says
Feb 18: A fundraising email on behalf of Karen Handel, a Republican running for office in Georgia, promises that she will end Muslim immigration if elected. “If elected to Congress, she will work to build a wall on the border and end Muslim immigration,” says the email, which the Save The American Way PAC sent yesterday. Handel is one of several candidates running to replace Tom Price, who gave up his seat in Congress to become President Donald Trump’s Health and Human Services Secretary. The email is an echo of Trump’s campaign pledge to ban all Muslims from entering the United States. In his first weeks as president, Trump issued an executive order banning travel and refugees from seven majority-Muslim nations. The federal courts blocked the move, but Trump has said the White House would issue a new order. Handel served as Georgia’s secretary of state from 2006 until 2010. She also ran for Georgia governor in 2010 and the U.S. Senate in 2014. In 2012, Handel resigned as an executive at the Susan G. Komen foundation after she pushed the group to end financial support of Planned Parenthood. There was widespread outcry over the decision and the foundation eventually reversed. [The Huffington Post]
SF Day of Remembrance marks 75th anniversary of internment order
Feb 19: When Ben Takeshita and his family were sent to Japanese internment camps 75 years ago, he said civil rights organizations told them: Don’t fight. Just go quietly. Four years in an internment camp taught Takeshita, now 86, the opposite lesson. “We realized that you’ve got to fight back and let your voices be heard.” Seventy-five years ago this day, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which led to the incarceration of Takeshita, his seven siblings, parents and nearly 120,000 other Japanese Americans in camps across America. The order, which called for “every possible protection against espionage and sabotage,” didn’t single out a specific class of people. But in practice it applied to all Japanese Americans living on the West Coast.The parallels between the history of Executive Order 9066 and President Trump’s action against immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries was a common theme at Sunday’s Bay Area Day of Remembrance, an event to recall that chapter of American history. Roughly 500 people attended a ceremony of speakers and artists at the Sundance Kabuki in Japantown, which they followed with a candlelit march to a nearby community center. In November, a member of Trump’s transition team cited the internment camps as a “precedent” for creating a registry for immigrants who come from countries with terrorist links. Trump has explicitly called for a Muslim registry. In January, Trump issued an executive order banning immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States. A federal court of appeals blocked that order this month on constitutional grounds. “Remember for Japanese Americans the loss of their freedom came incrementally. It began as a race-based curfew and culminated in a race-based imprisonment,” attorney Don Tamaki said at the event. “Today for Muslim Americans, what begins as a travel ban and calls for Muslim registries may ultimately end in detention. If we allow that to happen, then all over our freedoms are up for grabs.” Tamaki served on the legal team that pushed to revisit the U.S. Supreme Court case of Fred Korematsu, the Japanese American man who was convicted for evading internment. That decision upholding the internment order was never overturned, but in 1983 a federal judge vacated Korematsu’s conviction on the grounds that the government submitted false information to the high court. “We see the same stoking of fear today,” said Sameena Usman, government relations coordinator for the Bay Area Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “The time has come for us to come together to join hands and recognize bigotry for bigotry.” [San Francisco Chronicle]
More than 60 threats to Jewish centers across the US
Feb 20: In the wake of 11 new threats today against Jewish centers, from New York to New Mexico, the FBI said it is investigating, along with the Department of Justice, bomb threats to the centers across the country. Federal authorities are looking into threats communicated to at least 60 Jewish centers around the country this year. The threats started in January and the FBI began investigating later that same month. The threats have come in "different waves," with more threats phoned in to centers today, according to one source familiar with the matter. The FBI said it is "investigating possible civil rights violations in connection with threats to Jewish Community Centers." This year, a total of 69 threats to 54 JCCs have spanned 27 states and one Canadian province and came in four waves: Jan. 9, Jan. 18, Jan. 31 and then today, the JCC Association of North America said. In today's wave of threats 11 JCCs received bomb threats over the phone, the JCC Association of North America said. All threats were determined to be hoaxes, and all JCCs returned to normal operations, it said. The threats today included a JCC in St. Paul, Minnesota, a JCC in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and two Jewish centers around Buffalo, New York. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said in a statement today that the threats are "alarming, disruptive, and must always been taken seriously." "We look to our political leaders at all levels to speak out against such threats directed against Jewish institutions, to make it clear that such actions are unacceptable and to pledge that they will work with law enforcement officials to ensure that those responsible will be apprehended and punished to the full extent of the law," ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in the statement. At a press conference last week, when a Jewish reporter started to ask President Trump about a rise in anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S., he said it wasn't a fair question and told the reporter to sit down. Trump then said he is "the least anti-Semitic person you've ever seen in your entire life." He later responded to questions about possible anti-Semitic activity saying, "As far as people, Jewish people ... I think that you’re going to see a lot different United States of America over the next three, four, or eight years. I think a lot of good things are happening, and you’re going to see a lot of love." [ABC News]
Global entry privileges for Muslim-American travelers are quietly revoked
Feb 21: The Seven-million strong American Muslim community, on the receiving end since the ghastly terrorist attacks on 9/11/2001, has ostensibly become target of President Trump's policies. While the January 27 travel ban may still be affecting American Muslim citizens, some Muslim travelers outside the seven countries targeted by the controversial ban, including naturalized U.S. citizens and green card holders, are indicating that their Global Entry status has been revoked. Global Entry is a program run by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which provides expedited entry through customs checkpoints at U.S. airports to vetted travelers. Mic.com has quoted the Immigration lawyers as saying that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is revoking Global Entry status for their clients. Skift.com has also reported the same. According to Mic, lawyers are currently trying to decipher the pattern regarding the cancellation of Global Entry and TSA Precheck status for many Muslim-American travelers. Skift’s reporting backs up this pattern. Business travelers indicated to Skift that corporate visa vendors are alerting clients that Muslim men between the ages of 18 and 49 may be affected. One individual, who became a naturalized U.S. citizen while in middle school, was suddenly informed via email that his Global Entry status had been revoked, according to Skift. The CBP stated that his status has been revoked for the following reason: “You do not meet the program eligibility requirements.” He had first received Global Entry certification in 2012. Mic reported that Greg Siskind, attorney and board member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, has been leading the charge in investigating these cases and called for examples on Twitter in early February. "So far, we have heard from eight to nine people who are all Muslim," he said. "We expect that number to grow." [AMP Report]
Human Rights worldwide threatened by Trump's 'toxic agenda'
Feb 22: Amnesty International released its annual report on the state of the world's human rights today , highlighting the dangers of the "toxic agenda" of leaders like U.S. President Donald Trump which "hounds, scapegoats and dehumanizes entire groups of people," and which threatens to "unleash the darkest aspects of human nature." The 408-page report looking at 160 countries also highlights that governments around the world are increasing their repression of human rights activists and land defenders, pointing out that states are increasingly "painting the protection of human rights as a threat to security, law and order or national 'values'." "We cannot passively rely on governments to stand up for human rights, we the people have to take action," said Amnesty's Secretary General Salil Shetty in a press release. "In dark times, individuals have made a difference when they took a stand, be they civil rights activists in the USA, anti-apartheid activists in South Africa, or women's rights and LGBTI movements around the world. We must all rise to that challenge now," he added. The report makes multiple specific mentions of Trump, and in particular his recent Muslim ban, as an example of how "cynical narratives" of "blame, hate and fear took on a global prominence to a level not seen since the 1930s." The report noted that politicians such as Trump and Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban "are answering legitimate economic and security fears with a poisonous and divisive manipulation of identity politics in an attempt to win votes." "The first target has been refugees and, if this continues in 2017, others will be in the cross-hairs," the report noted. "The reverberations will lead to more attacks on the basis of race, gender, nationality and religion. When we cease to see each other as human beings with the same rights, we move closer to the abyss." [Telesur.TV]
Thousands mourn “blind sheikh” Omar Abdel-Rahman convicted in 1993 World Trade Center bombing
Feb 22: Thousands of mourners gathered in a small Egyptian town today for the funeral of the Muslim cleric known as “the blind sheikh” who was convicted of conspiracy in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing in New York. Omar Abdel-Rahman died on Feb 18 in a North Carolina prison aged 78. Movements across the Islamist spectrum from the Muslim Brotherhood to Al-Qaeda attended, including several leaders from Egypt’s Islamic Group, which renounced violence in 1997. When Mohammed Mursi, a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, began his short-lived presidency of Egypt in 2012, he said winning the sheikh’s freedom would be a priority. Even in exile, he remained a force in the Middle East, where followers listened to cassette tapes and radio broadcasts of his sermons decrying the Egyptian government and Israel. Abdel-Rahman was arrested and went on trial with several followers in 1995, accused of plotting assassinations and synchronized bombings of the U.N. headquarters, a major federal government facility in Manhattan and tunnels and a bridge linking New York City and New Jersey. They were also accused of plotting to kill Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak during his U.S. visit in 1993. He and nine followers were found guilty in October 1995 on 48 of 50 charges. [Reuters]
Trump administration adopts ruthless new immigrationﾠprotocol
Feb 22: The Trump administration officially adopted new immigration enforcement policies today that place all undocumented immigrants living in the US at risk of deportation. The new policies were outlined in Department of Homeland Security (DHS) memos leaked over the weekend. These memos were subjected to only minor changes before DHS Secretary John Kelly made them official on Monday. Press Secretary Sean Spicer addressed the White House press corps Tuesday: “Everyone who is here illegally is subject to removal at any time,” he said. Spicer explained that the DHS memos establish guidelines for those undocumented immigrants who are the first priority for deportation, a staggering one million people. These immigrants have already been found removable in court and are subject to final orders of removal. The government will also target immigrants with any criminal record, as well as those who have supposedly “abused” public services (a very broad category that includes anyone who filed a false Social Security number or gave a false answer on an official document about their immigration status) and those who have been charged with or are suspected of committing a crime. But Spicer explained that after the government expels the first million immigrants, agents will move in stages against the remaining population: “The president has made clear that when you have 12, 14, or 15 million [immigrants] here illegally, there has to be a system of priority.” He added, “We are doing this one step at a time in a very methodical way.” The language of the memos confirms this. “Department personnel have full authority to arrest or apprehend an alien whom an immigration officer has probable cause to believe is in violation of the immigration laws,” one memo said. “They also have full authority to initiate removal proceedings against any alien who is subject to removal under any provision of the [Immigration and Nationality Act].” Spicer’s estimate that the Trump administration plans on ultimately deporting as many as 15 million immigrants nearly doubles an earlier estimate by the Los Angeles Times that 8 million were at risk. This much higher figure raises the specter that Trump will also seek to deport green-card holders, revoking their status as legal permanent residents.Though the memos do not repeal Obama’s executive order establishing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, covering 750,000 immigrants who were brought to the US as children, the DHS notes that the issue will be addressed in the future. However, DACA enrollees who have been convicted or charged with a crime or who immigration officials believe may have committed a chargeable offense can be slated for removal. One DACA enrollee was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Washington State last week. [Counter Current]
Donald Trump’s immigration plans could impact 3 lakh Indian-Americans
Feb 22: Nearly 300,000 Indian-Americans are likely to be impacted by the Trump administration’s sweeping plans that put the nation’s 11 million undocumented immigrants at risk of deportation. President Donald Trump has laid the groundwork for potentially deporting millions of undocumented immigrants by issuing new guidance that drastically broadens the ways in which federal immigration laws should be enforced. “The Department no longer will exempt classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement,” the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in an enforcement memo. “Department personnel have full authority to arrest or apprehend an alien whom an immigration officer has probable cause to believe is in violation of the immigration laws,” it said. The Department of Homeland Security has issued two enforcement memos, which among other things, tightens deportation of illegal immigrants. The emphasis is on criminal aliens, though, but opens up the door for others too. Indian-Americans as per unofficial figures account for nearly 300,000 illegal aliens. [Press Trust of India]
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