www.amperspective.com Online Magazine
Executive Editor: Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Chronology of Islam in America (2017)
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
September 2017 - page two
The religious concepts of militia extremists
Sept 12: Many will remember the 2014 standoff between the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and an anti-government extremist rancher named Cliven Bundy in Bunkerville, Nevada. After a decades-long legal battle, a federal judge finally issued a court order for the BLM to seize Bundy’s cattle, which had been illegally grazing on federal land. When BLM rangers attempted to serve the judge’s order, a heated confrontation ensued between them and Bundy family members. This clash, recorded on video, led to the mobilization of hundreds of armed “Bundy supporters” (e.g. militia members, sovereign citizens, Oath Keepers, III Percenters and other antigovernment extremists) who descended upon Bundy’s ranch in April. They rallied to defend the Bundy family against a perceived overzealous and tyrannical government — some even pointing long guns at federal agents during the weeks-long standoff. Federal authorities eventually backed down, fearing a bloodbath. Many extremist Bundy supporters viewed the government’s retreat as a sign from God and a victory for their cause, especially since Cliven Bundy had prayed for divine intervention during the crisis. In January 2016, Bundy’s sons, Ryan and Ammon, again mobilized their fellow antigovernment extremists to defend what they perceived as big government’s encroachment on the Constitutional rights of land owners in Burns, Oregon. The Bundy brothers orchestrated an armed takeover of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge, a Federal facility, which lasted 41 days. As with Waco and Ruby Ridge during the 1990s, the Bunkerville and Malheur standoffs today used religious concepts to guide and motivate others into recruiting for extremist causes and radicalizing some into open rebellion against federal authority. Some were even inspired to break the law as a result of the religious concepts and scripture being incorporated into these events. Despite extensive media coverage of these events, few know that religion played a key role in both standoffs. Cliven, Ryan, and Ammon Bundy are “Mormon Constitutionalists” — a unique brand of right-wing extremism linked to LDS Church members and their religious beliefs concerning prophecies of Christ’s return, America’s divine founding, and God’s role of inspiring America’s Founding Fathers and the U.S. Constitution. Cliven Bundy and his family referred to Mormon scriptures to justify their actions against the government. Bundy believed his grazing rights on federal land stemmed from his Mormon ancestry. Bundy rationalized that Mormon pioneers had worked the land long before the BLM was established and that God created the federal land in question. Therefore, the government had no right to control who uses the land. Bundy, his family, and supporters reportedly fasted and prayed for “the spirit of their forefathers to be with them” during the confrontation. In 2014, Cliven reportedly used the Mormon belief in personal revelation from God to gain divine insight into organizing and carrying out the Bunkerville standoff. Ammon Bundy, who is named after a well-known Book of Mormon figure, would later use the same religious concepts as his father for the Malheur takeover. As demonstrated by these standoffs, militia extremists compare themselves to “Christian Patriots” and the minutemen of the American Revolution in an attempt to “save” the perceived ideals and original intent of the U.S. Constitution. The militia movement wants to return America to what they perceive as the country’s Judeo-Christian roots. They have adopted some of the symbols associated with the American Revolution, such as the using the term “Minutemen” in group names, hosting anti-tax events (much like the Boston Tea Party), celebrating April 19th — the anniversary date of the Battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775, and using the Gadsden Minutemen flag with its revolutionary “Don’t Tread on Me” slogan. Many militia members have a deep respect and reverence for America’s Founding Fathers. Their admiration takes on religious overtones. They believe that the U.S. Constitution was “divinely inspired,” that the Founding Fathers adhered to Judeo-Christian principles and were actually chosen and led by God to create the United States of America. For example, an Indiana Militia Corps’ Citizenship recruitment pamphlet states, “the Christian faith was the anchor of the founding fathers of these United States.” Further, an Indiana Militia Corps’ Citizenship training manual states, “People of faith, Christians in particular, recognize that God is the source of all things, and that Rights come from God alone.” Many militia extremists erroneously believe that the principles the founding fathers used to create the U.S. Constitution are derived solely from the Bible. It is important to note that many people not associated with militia extremism believe similarly about the U.S. and America’s Founding Fathers. This does not make them extremists. [SLPC]
The legalization of Islamophobia is underway in the United States
Sept 14: Donald Trump is in many a ways a symptom of a greater shift in American culture: Since 9/11, it has increasingly become acceptable to suspect Muslims of being a threat to the country without the normal proof or justification that would be required if that charge was levied against a member of any other religious or ethnic group. A 2017 Pew Research Center survey found that 50% of US Muslims reported that in recent years their religion was making their lives more difficult, and nearly as many say they faced at least one episode of discrimination in 2016. And, as researchers at the University of California-Berkeley’s Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society found in a recent report, Islamophobia is also starting to get baked into the American legal system. The report, published Sep. 8, examines dozens of anti-Sharia laws that have been approved in recent years that, the researchers argue, have channeled Islamophobia and, in turn, exacerbated the problem. Combing through state legislature websites, the researchers compiled a comprehensive dataset of every anti-Sharia law proposed in US state legislatures from 2010 to 2016, identifying 194 bills in 39 different states. So far, 18 of the 194 bills have been enacted into law in 12 states. Only 14 of the 194 anti-Sharia laws identified actually included the word “Sharia.” The remaining 180 bills were included because researchers felt confident they could make a strong argument that the intent behind those pieces of legislation was anti-Sharia, often because they were promoted as such by their sponsor.
For example, they included as anti-Sharia any bill that was modeled after the The American Laws for American Courts Act, an act promoted by the anti-Sharia advocacy group The American Public Policy Allianceand written by anti-Sharia activist David Yerushalmi. The text of the Americans Laws for American Courts Act talks about “protecting” the US from “foreign laws” broadly, rather than explicitly from Sharia, yet on the web page that promotes the legislation, the dangers of Sharia are referred to repeatedly, while no other type of “foreign law,” religious or otherwise, is mentioned. Of the 385 sponsors of anti-Sharia bills identified, 373 were Republicans, and of the twelve states to pass anti-Sharia bills, eight are in the Republican-leaning US South. The researchers argue that anti-Sharia rhetoric and law-making isn’t, as it claims to be, an attempt to curb extremism, but rather a way to spread an Islamophobic attitude, by identifying Islam with violence and repression. “This represents a demonization of Islam that is a complete distortion of what it is, and is inventing a spectrum of damage that doesn’t actually exist,” says Tisa Wenger, a professor of American religious history at Yale University, who wasn’t involved in this study.
The researchers argue that anti-Sharia rhetoric and law-making isn’t, as it claims to be, an attempt to curb extremism, but rather a way to spread an Islamophobic attitude, by identifying Islam with violence and repression. “This represents a demonization of Islam that is a complete distortion of what it is, and is inventing a spectrum of damage that doesn’t actually exist,” says Tisa Wenger, a professor of American religious history at Yale University, who wasn’t involved in this study. This isn’t the first time religion has been used as a tool to stir the emotions of the US electorate. From the founding of the US until the late 1950s, Catholics were portrayed as “a danger to American democracy,” says Wenger. Politicians stoked the public’s fear of Catholics by raising suspicion that their loyalty would lie with the pope rather than the US. Catholics, the political rhetoric of the time went, were a threat to American freedom, because they would try to implement religious repression on everyone. Over time, the anti-Catholic sentiment became conflated with resentment of Italian, Irish, and Polish immigrants and their descendents, most of whom were Catholic and who represented the bulk of the 30 million foreigners who entered the US in 1800s and early 1900s. In the late 1800s, discrimination against the Irish was so common that the label No Irish Need Apply (NINA) showed up regularly in classified ads and the lyrics to popular songs. [Dan Kopf & Annalisa Merelli - Quartz]
Islamophobia represents a form of racism mixed with cultural intolerance
Sept 14: Islamophobia represents a form of racism mixed with cultural intolerance as a whole, rather than simply intolerance of Muslims and Islam, according to a new paper from a Rice University sociologist. “The Racialization of Islam in the United States: Islamophobia, Hate Crimes and ‘Flying While Brown’” is published in the journal Religions. Author Craig Considine, a lecturer in sociology at Rice, reviewed more than 40 news articles and referenced dozens of academic studies relating to the experiences of American Muslims and the stereotypical depictions of Muslims. His analysis revealed several findings from the various articles and research papers that support his argument that racism is a symbolic form of Islamophobia, which has been misrepresented as a form of religious bias that oppresses U.S. Muslims on the grounds that Islam is nefarious and antithetical to American values. “We often hear that because Muslims are not a race, people cannot be racist for attacking Muslims," Considine said. "This argument does not stack up. It is a simplistic way of thinking that overlooks the role that race plays in Islamophobic hate crimes.” Considine summarizes the findings below: In 2016 alone, incidents of Islamophobia, including acts of violence and nonviolent harassment, rose by 57 percent. · More than half of hate crimes in the U.S. in 2015 – 59.2 percent – were linked to a race/ethnicity/ancestry bias. Only 19.7 percent of hate crimes were linked to a religious bias, and 17.7 percent to a sexual orientation bias. · More than 50 percent of Muslims experienced some form of hostility between 2010 and 2014, and more than one-third of Muslims felt they had been targeted on the basis of being identified as Muslim. · News outlets give drastically more coverage to crimes by Muslims. Attacks by Muslim perpetrators received, on average, 449 percent more coverage than crimes carried out by non-Muslims. · Out of more than 1,000 Hollywood films depicting Arabs, 932 of these films depicted them in a stereotypical or negative light. For example, Arabs/Muslims were constructed as the ominous figure: the bearded, dark-skinned, turban-wearing terrorist. Only 12 films depicted these individuals in a positive way. Considine said that in spite of the racialization of Islam, the population of Muslims in the U.S. is heterogeneous. “Despite the racial, ethnic and cultural diversity of the U.S. Muslim population, they continue to be cast as potentially threatening persons based on perceived racial and cultural characteristics,” Considine said. He also said the racially motivated incidents of hate crime examined in this paper – including one incident where a Sikh in Mesa, Ariz., was shot and killed in the days following Sept. 11 by a man who said he wanted to “kill a Muslim” in retaliation for the terrorist attacks – suggest that Islamophobia does not belong in the realm of “rational” criticism of Islam or Muslims. In this situation, the perpetrator confused the man’s beard and turban as a representation of Islam, and effectively used his “race” to categorize and ultimately harm him in the worst way imaginable, Considine said. [Newsroom America]
CA State Assembly Passages sanctuary state bills
Sept 15: The State Assembly passed the California Values Act (SB 54) and the California Religious Freedom Act (SB 31), marking a momentous victory for immigrant rights organizations. SB 54, introduced by Senate Pro Tem Kevin de León, will protect the safety and well-being of all Californians by ensuring that our state and local resources are not used to fuel mass deportations and ensuring that state services are accessible to all Californians. SB 31, introduced by Senator Ricardo Lara would prohibit a state or local agency from participating in a federal program to create a database based on a person’s religious beliefs, national origin, or ethnicity for law enforcement or immigration purposes. “CAIR-CA welcomes the passage of immigrants rights legislation, SB 54 and SB 31”, said CAIR-CA Legislative & Government Affairs Coordinator Yannina Casillas. “Since the inauguration of President Donald Trump we have seen policies that threaten the livelihood of vulnerable communities. SB 54 and SB 31 will limit local law enforcement cooperation with prejudicial federal immigration policies and ensure that all Californians’ safety and civil rights are protected.” The California Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations advocated for the California Values Act and the California Religious Freedom Act at their 6th Annual Muslim Day at the Capitol where over 700 Muslims across California gathered in Sacramento to urge their legislators’ support. [CAIR]
Anti-Muslim attack reported in New York City
Sept 15: In the second anti-Muslim attack reported in New York City on Wednesday, Sept. 13, an unidentified suspect made "anti-Muslim remarks" to a 53-year-old man near the Dekalb Avenue L train station, then "slapped the victim's cellphone from his hand" and "punched him one time to the left side of his neck," according to the NYPD. The attack was carried out in broad daylight, around 8:30 a.m., police said, on the busy corner of Wyckoff Avenue and Stockholm Street. Just a few hours later, at another subway stop in Forest Hills, Queens, a pair of Orthodox Jewish women were brutally beaten by a man who mistook them for Muslims and told them to go back to their "f---ing country," according to the Queens District Attorney. Dimitrios Zias, 40, was arrested soon after. ("Is it because I'm rich and white?" he allegedly told his arresting officers.) A total of 214 hate crimes were reported across NYC during the first six months of 2017, police data shows.Of those, 25 were anti-Muslim or anti-Arab. [Patch.com]
Hate Group Demonstrates Outside Columbus, Ohio, Mosque: 'We Love Donald Trump'
Sept 15: A hate group identified as The Official Street Preachers held a demonstration outside a Columbus mosque on Friday afternoon, drawing a counter-protest of around 50 people. Ten members of the Los Angeles-based Official Street Preachers, identified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, held signs and shouted Islamophobic and homophobic slurs outside Masjid Omar mosque. "We love Donald Trump, you wicked devil," shouted one protester, who held up a sign saying, "Homos and Muslims go to hell." Another protester's sign, however, read, "Lukewarm Christians like Trump will burn in hell with all liberals. Repent and obey Jesus." The Christian organization Peace Catalyst Columbus organized a counter-protest, with plans to form a "silent line of protection" around the mosque during Friday prayers. "They were defiling Islam, just blatantly trying to find the most radical things they could say about Islam," said Rebecca Brown of Peace Catalyst Columbus, a Christian group. "But also very confrontational and aggressive towards those of us who were trying to be peacefully present." The mosque director invited counter-protesters inside and thanked them, at which point the hate group left. Ruben Israel, leader of the Official Street Preachers, announced on Facebook that his group would be protesting in Columbus and Cincinnati this weekend from "an abortion mill, campus, Mosque, sporting events and of course the drunken Oktoberfest." [www.radio.wosu.org]
New report offers proof of US hate crime rise in the Trump era
Sept 17: The number of hate crimes rose across the United States in 2016, marking the first time in over a decade that the country has experienced consecutive annual increases in crimes targeting people based on their race, religion, sexuality, disability or national origin. Data collected by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, and provided exclusively to HuffPost, shows hate crimes rose about 5 percent from 2015 to 2016. The study, authored by Professor Brian Levin, is seen as a reliable predictor of official FBI hate crime statistics, released each year in November. Levin’s 2016 findings amount to the most comprehensive hate crime data to date for the divisive election year, and back up alarming anecdotal evidence of emboldened bigotry in America. According to Levin, the study found “nearly identical” increases in hate crimes across two separate data sets. The first data set consists of hate crime numbers reported by law enforcement agencies in 31 large cities and counties, including the 10 largest cities in the U.S. The study found 2,101 hate crimes in those cities and counties, a nearly 5 percent rise from the 2,003 hate crimes in the same places the year before. The second data set in Levin’s study consists of hate crime numbers provided by 13 states, including 5 of the nation’s 10 most populous. There were 3,887 hate crimes in those 13 states in 2016, according to Levin, representing a nearly 5 percent increase from the 3,705 such crimes the year before. Although some states showed substantial increases in hate crimes, others experienced decreases. Tennessee, notably, saw a 30 percent drop in hate crimes. “If these moderate overall increases of 5 percent hold nationally for 2016, this will be the first time since 2004 that the nation has experienced consecutive annual increases in hate crime,” Levin said . Hate crimes rose nearly 7 percent from 2014 to 2015. Levin’s study projects — with a “slightly greater than moderate degree of confidence,” he said — there being anywhere from 6,069 to 6,245 reported hate crimes in the FBI’s 2016 Unified Crime Report, marking the highest number of hate crimes since 2012, another presidential election year.
President Donald Trump’s election campaign was rife with rhetoric targeting or scapegoating minorities, and he often was slow to condemn ― and in some cases appeared to signal his support for ― white supremacists. A white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, last month — the biggest such gathering in well over a decade, according to the Anti-Defamation League — saw many white supremacists holding pro-Trump signs, chanting pro-Trump slogans or wearing his signature “Make America Great Again” hat. After a neo-Nazi at the rally drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one and injuring 19 others, Trump refused to specifically condemn the white supremacists. Trump later said there were “fine people” on “both sides” of the Charlottesville rally — a statement he repeated this week. Levin and other experts on hate and extremism have expressed concern that Trump’s rhetoric could correlate to a continued rise in hate crimes. Levin found a precipitous rise in anti-Muslim hate crimefollowing Trump’s initial Muslim ban proposal in December 2015.
Levin has also started to collect hate crime data for 2017 — and it’s not looking good. An analysis of official police hate crime data from 13 large cities, Levin said, shows 827 hate crimes so far this year, a nearly 20 percent rise in those cities compared to the same period in 2016. America’s six largest cities have recorded 526 hate crimes so far this year, amounting to a 22 percent rise, Levin said. Anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim and anti-black attacks have fueled a 28 percent rise in hate crimes in New York City. Los Angeles saw a 50 percent rise in violent hate crimes, while Washington, D.C., and Seattle’s hate crimes are both up 22 percent so far this year. And Phoenix, which experienced a decline in hate crimes in 2016, has so far seen a 46 percent increase in 2017. Levin’s numbers for both 2016 and 2017, by his own admission, paint only a partial portrait of hate crimes in America. His data, after all, is reliant on crimes tallied by law enforcement agencies. But hate crimes often go unreported to authorities, or might go uncounted by police departments that lack training on how to identify hate crimes. A national survey by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics found that between 2003 and 2015, there were likely a staggering 250,000 hate crimes each year in the country, the majority of which go unreported to police. [Huffington Post]
SPLC tells Supreme Court: President Trump's Muslim ban is an unconstitutional violation of religious freedom
Sept 18: The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) joined other civil-rights organizations and members of the clergy today in telling the U.S. Supreme Court that President Donald Trump’s Muslim ban is an unconstitutional violation of religious freedom. “Long before Donald Trump became president, he made his hostility toward immigrants, refugees and Muslims abundantly clear,” said SPLC Deputy Legal Director Naomi Tsu. “As president, his Muslim ban blatantly discriminates against travelers to the United States on the basis of religion—a violation of the First Amendment. It also encourages a climate of harassment that allows people to be singled out for their religion, language, skin color or dress. A policy that so brazenly violates our nation’s fundamental principles cannot stand.” In a friend-of-the-court brief filed today, the SPLC, Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU), allied religious and civil-rights organizations and members of the clergy explained that Trump’s executive order banning immigration from six Muslim-majority countries is unconstitutional because it singles out one group of people—Muslims—for disfavor based solely on their religion. “(B)y design and in actual effect the challenged Executive Order denigrates, maltreats, and fuels discrimination against Muslims, just for being Muslim,” the brief states. “This official denominational preference and the harms that it causes cannot be squared with the First Amendment’s guarantees of religious freedom.” Joining the brief were the religious and civil-rights organizations Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, and People For the American Way Foundation. Also joining were The Riverside Church in the City of New York and seven faith leaders from Colorado, Florida, Minnesota and New York. The SPLC, joined by Americans United, Bend the Arc, the Riverside Church and members of clergy, had previously filed friend-of-the-court briefs with lower federal courts in both cases now being argued before the Supreme Court—Trump v. International Refugee Assistance Project and Trump v. State of Hawaii. [SPLC]
Facebook Silences Rohingya Reports of Ethnic Cleansing
Sept 18: Rohingya activists—in Burma and in Western countries—tell The Daily Beast that Facebook has been removing their posts documenting the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya people in Burma (also known as Myanmar). They said their accounts are frequently suspended or taken down. The Rohingya people are a Muslim ethnic minority group in Burma. They face extraordinary persecution and violence from the Burmese military; military personnel torch villages, murder refugees, and force hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes. Human rights watchdogs say the persecution has intensified in recent months, and a top UN official described a renewed offensive by the Burmese military as “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.” Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees have fled to Bangladesh. Rohingya people trying to use social media to share information about the attacks on them tell The Daily Beast they have had their posts removed and their accounts shut down, and that they hope Facebook stops silencing them. Facebook is currently facing substantial criticism for what appears to be an indifferent attitude toward promoting divisive material. Last week, ProPublica revealed that the network sold ads tailored to “Jew haters.” Days earlier, The Daily Beast reported that Russian front groups used Facebook to organize anti-refugee rallies. Facebook is an essential platform in Burma; since the country’s infrastructure is underdeveloped, people rely on it the way Westerners rely on email. Experts often say that in Burma, Facebook is the internet—so having your account disabled can be devastating. [The Daily Beast]
Florida PoliceOfficer Who Asked Gun Store Clerk to Alert Him of Shoppers of 'Muslim Descent'
Sept 19: CAIR-Florida, the state's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today welcomed Gainesville Police Department's suspension of police officer Nicholas Domico who asked a clerk at a military supply store to call him anytime someone of "Muslim descent" looked at firearms.It was reported that the Gainesville Police Department suspended officer Nicholas Domico for violating the city policy that bans discrimination on the basis of religion and national origin. "There should be zero tolerance for profiling activity by law enforcement. It is immoral and illegal - whether it is religious, ethnic, gender, national origin, or any other type of profiling," said Wilfredo Amr Ruiz, CAIR-Florida's Communications Director. He continued, "We welcome the disciplinary measures taken by the Gainesville Police Department for taking prompt action with regard to officer Domico's racial and religious profiling directed at Muslims. We are available to provide a cultural awareness training to GPD at no cost. CAIR-Florida has provided several Florida police departments and other agencies with this training in the past and we believe it would be of great benefit to this police department as well." [CAIR]
Judge Roy Moore penned an op-ed claiming Muslim military members are ‘a great danger to our country’
Sept 28: In a recently-unearthed op-ed from 2006, the Alabama GOP’s new Senate nominee, Judge Roy Moore, wrote that allowing Muslims into military service constitutes a danger to America. “A great danger to our country exists when government offices and institutions are opened to Islamic influence,” Moore wrote in the editorial for World Net Daily titled “ Jihad on our faith.” He went on to say that allowing mosques on military bases, such at Marine headquarters in Quantico, Virginia and the United States Military Academy at West Point presented a “security threat.” Moore is known for making bigoted comments, such as his claims that he believes and that Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), a black Muslim congressman, should not be allowed to serve in Congress based on his faith. [Raw Story]
CAIR Letter to Chinese President xi seeks clarification on reports of Quran confiscations
Sept 29: The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today sent a letter to Chinese President Xi Jinping seeking clarification of media reports that officials in the northwestern region of Xinjiang are requiring ethnic minority Muslim families to turn over personal religious items, including prayer mats and copies of the Quran, Islam's revealed text, to state authorities. In his letter to President Xi, CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad wrote in part: “We understand that Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang has denied these reports, recently telling reporters that, ‘We hope relevant parties refrain from making groundless allegations and rumors.’ However, we request that your office further investigate these widespread reports of state confiscation of personal religious items by credible international media outlets. If they are in fact true, then we urge your government to rescind all existing orders and return all religious items already confiscated to their rightful owners. We only seek your government’s assurance that Muslims in China are free to practice their faith. This request follows similar past appeals made by CAIR for local authorities in Xinjiang to halt routine state campaigns that suppress Islamic religious practices and local Muslim traditions, which include authorities harassing Muslim men who grow beards and women who wear Islamic attire, bans on fasting during Ramadan, preventing Muslims under the age of 18 from practicing their religion or attending mosques (Islamic houses of worship), and the imposition of heavy fines on families whose children study Islamic texts. The Chinese Constitution guarantees freedom of religion to those who practice Islam. As a signatory to the United Nations Charter, the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the People's Republic of China is responsible for ensuring that Muslims in Xinjiang and across China are entitled to equal protection under the law against any state discrimination and against any incitement of discrimination. The American Muslim community, which includes Uyghur Americans, respectfully urges the People's Republic of China to uphold its own laws and international conventions by removing all barriers to religious freedom for the Muslims in Xinjiang, for Muslims throughout China and for the rights of all other people of faith in your nation.” The Washington-based Muslim civil rights organization also requested a meeting between the Chinese ambassador in Washington, D.C., and representatives of the American Muslim community and other concerned parties to discuss resolution to this important issue. [CAIR]
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