www.amperspective.com Online Magazine
Executive Editor: Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Chronology of Islam in America (2018)
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
November 2018
Two in five Americans say Islam 'is incompatible with US values'
Nov 1: A large proportion of non-Muslim Americans think Islam is incompatible with American values, research by the New America foundation and the American Muslim Initiative found. According to the findings announced today, 56 percent of Americans believed Islam was compatible with American values and 42 percent said it was not. About 60 percent believed US Muslims were as patriotic as others, while 38 percent they were not. The study said that although a big majority of Americans - 74 percent - accepted there was "a lot" of bigotry against Muslims existed, 56 percent said they were concerned about extremism spreading within the Muslim community. Researchers found that Republicans were more likely to hold negative perceptions of Muslims and Islam, with 71 percent saying Islam was incompatible with American values. About 56 percent of Republicans also admitted they would be concerned if a mosque was built in their neighborhood. A slight majority of Republicans disagreed with the statement that having more than 100 Muslim candidates in the midterm elections was a positive thing. Robert McKenzie, a senior fellow at the New America foundation and one of the authors of the study, said there were a number of factors that contributed the shaping of anti-Muslim sentiment, and that they were not limited to the political right. The survey also found that just below half of Americans actually knew a Muslim. McKenzie cautioned, however, against correlating knowing a Muslim personally with a more positive perspective on Muslims. Rabiah Ahmed, an American Muslim media relations specialist, told Al Jazeera rising Islamophobia had consequences beyond the Muslim community. Ahmed argued that Muslims could not afford to not engage with other communities, and had a duty to "plug information gaps" to dispel negative ideas about the community. However, she also said politicians, segments of the media, and religious leaders from other communities had played a role in stoking anti-Muslim bigotry. The New America foundation report comes amid a notable rise in anti-Muslim rhetoric in US political discourse and within the media. [Al Jazeera]
Odeh family, ADC testify against prime suspect in Alex Odeh murder
Nov 5: The daughter of Alex Odeh, Ms. Helena Odeh, and Mr. Samer Khalaf, President of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), today testified at the parole hearing of Robert Manning who is the primary suspect in the assassination of Mr. Odeh, ADC’s Southern California Regional Director. Mr. Odeh was murdered by a pipe bomb that exploded upon him entering the ADC office on October 11, 1985, in Santa Ana, California. During the hearing, Ms. Odeh delivered a statement alongside Mr. Khalaf, about the severe trauma and impact that Mr. Odeh’s murder has had on his family, loved ones, the American Arab community at large, and the entire nation. To this day, over three decades later, we are still waiting and pursuing justice for this racially-motivated assassination of a civil rights leader. Manning has refused to cooperate with law enforcement regarding the murder of Mr. Odeh. There has yet to be a conviction for this terrorist act, and the case is still an open investigation. While the Arab American community lost a hero and our nation lost a civil rights leader, for Ms. Odeh and her two sisters the loss of their father is immeasurable. In her statement, Ms. Odeh shared the personal impact the vicious murder of her father continues to have on her and her sisters and mother. Speaking in the hearing, Mr. Khalaf re-affirmed the necessity for accountability emphasizing that raced-based hateful violence cannot be tolerated by the US criminal justice system in any way. [Anti-Discrimination Committee]
Three Muslims elected to House of Representatives
Nov 6: Three Muslim candidates were elected to the House of Representatives in today’s election. Ilhan Omar won in Minnesota's 5th Congressional District and Rashida Tlaib won in Michigan's 13th Congressional District. They are the first Muslim women elected to the Congress. In Indiana, Rep. André Carson (D) won his re-election bid for the 7th District. More than 90 American Muslims ran for office this year at the local, state and national level according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), and Jetpac, a group that seeks to build a strong American Muslim political infrastructure and increase American Muslims' influence and engagement. The CAIR exit poll survey indicated that 95 percent of eligible Muslim voters turned out at the polls. Seventy-eight percent of Muslim voters cast ballots for Democratic Party candidates and only 17 percent for Republican Party candidates. CNN reported winning of two Muslim Women to the House of Representative with the headline: What happens when Muslims and Islamophobes both win. Writing under the above heading, Juan Cole, chief editor of Informed Comment and Professor of History at the University of Michigan, comments about Tuesday’s election: “Perhaps the most remarkable stories are the two Muslim women elected to the House, one from Minneapolis (Ilhan Omar of Somalia) and the other from Detroit (Rashida Tlaib of Detroit, but ultimately Palestine). They aren’t only women, and Muslims, but also refugees. They are Donald J. Trump’s worst nightmare and the antithesis of what he thinks America is or should be, if you listen to his rhetoric. But actually he has some commonalities with them.” [AMP Report]
Five Arab Americans were elected to the House of Representatives
Nov 6: Five Arab Americans were elected today to the House of Representatives: Donna Shalala (FL) winning Florida’s 27th district, Ralph Abraham (LA) US Congress 5th District, Darin LaHood (IL) US Congress 18th District, Garret Graves (LA) US Congress 5th District, and Justin Amish (MI) US Congress 6th District. Chris Sununu was re-elected as New Hampshire's Governor. Michael Saba was elected to the Ninth District seat in the South Dakota House of Representatives. There were over 60 Arab American candidates running for office in local, state and federal elections. [AMP Report]
Keith Ellison elected Attorney General of Minnesota
Nov 6: Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to the House of Representative in 2006, was elected Attorney General of Minnesota today. In a victory message Ellison said: “No matter what color you are, what your gender identity is, what your religion is, how much money you make, how old you may be, how healthy you are, who you love, where you live, or how you pray, know that as Minnesota Attorney General, I’ll be on your side fighting for your rights every day. Because we believe everybody counts, and everybody matters.” Keith Ellison received national attention for his decision to use an English translation of the Qur'an, translated by British scholar George Sale in 1734, that once belonged to President Thomas Jefferson for his reenacted swearing-in ceremony, which generated praise and criticisms from political pundits. Ilhan Omar is one of the first Muslim-American woman took up the seat vacated by Keith Ellison. [AMP Report]
Muslims elected to various offices in California and New Jersey
Nov 6: Five American Muslim candidates were elected today to local offices: Sabina Zafar, Aisha Wahab, Maimona Afzal Berta, Cheryl Sudduth, and Javed Ellahie. A total of 12 Bay Area Muslims ran for elected office in the November 6 election. In New Jersey at least 11 Muslims were elected to various offices which include: Assad Akhtar, Passaic County Freeholder; Mohamed T. Khairullah, Mayor Prospect Park; Alaa Abdelaziz, Councilman, Paterson; Hazim Yassin, Councilman, Red Bank; Sadaf Jaffer, Councilwoman, Montgomery; Salim Patel, Councilman, City of Passaic; Mussab Ali, Jersey City Board of Education; Mariam F. Khan, Dennis Township Board of Education; Mohammad M. Ramadan, Passaic County Board of Education; Alaa Matari, Councilman, Prospect Park; and Adam Chaabane, Woodland Park Board of Education. [AMP Report]
NSJP and PYM condemn repression, racism and Islamophobia during NSJP Conference at UCLA
Nov 26: On November 16th-18th, National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) hosted its annual conference at UCLA. This year’s theme was “Radical Hope: Resistance in the Face of Adversity.” Unfortunately, while the theme is certainly fitting for an event exploring the Palestinian struggle for freedom and justice, many organizers, presenters and attendees came to realize that it was also unexpectedly fitting for the simple attempt to hold the conference itself at an institution of higher learning. The “adversity” against which we needed to shoulder forward just to be able to hold a convening (which should be the unquestioned right of students and community members) came from all levels, from the political to the administrative as well as in the form of intense, militant harassment and intimidation from off-campus, Zionist vigilante groups. One of the most blatant instances of repression came from LA city council member Paul Koretz, who introduced a resolution calling on UCLA to ban NSJP from taking place, sent a letter to Chancellor Block similarly calling for the conference’s cancellation, and is cited in a news article as having taken part in the anti-NSJP protest whose participants frequently threatened and harassed conference attendees. Koretz’s quote echoes the sentiments of the more aggressive protestors and Brad Sherman, all of whom attempted to shut down the proceedings under false allegations of anti-Semitism. Repression was also on full display when NSJP organizers received a cease and desist letter from UCLA administration claiming that NSJP’s use of a bear in the logo violated UCLA’s “trademark” of the Bruin Bear, and that inclusion of a kite with colors of the Palestinian flag potentially constituted an endorsement of “violence.” Make no mistake, by throwing out the accusation of promotion of “violence” against Palestine activist and solidarity movements so lightly, UCLA administration is complicit in stoking the flames of Islamophobia and racism that have recently become even more normalized at the governmental level and that has seen a spike in racist vigilante violence against Muslims (or anyone presumed to be Muslim). As such, the administration’s attempts to shut down the conference through such blatantly racist and Islamophobic rhetoric cannot be disentangled from the actual physical threats of violence conference attendees also faced. For all of this, we are proud of our ability to persevere in spite of seemingly insurmountable odds. Over 550 students, speakers, artists and organizers attended to learn about “Radical Hope: Resistance in the Face of Adversity”, making it the largest student conference focused on the Palestinian struggle to date. No matter how severe the opposition was, scores of attendees came and learned about the Palestinian plight, and that is something that no resolution, no administrative critique and no disruption will ever be able to take away. We further recognize that the colonization of Palestine does not end at the Palestinian homeland. The Zionist colonial project also necessitates the complete erasure and stamping out of any expression of Palestinian history and culture, not to mention the rightfulness of the Palestinian struggle for justice and freedom. But as Palestinians continue to struggle heroically in the homeland and the world over against such erasure and repression, so too will we continue to take heart. We reject the UCLA administration and the Los Angeles City Council’s attempts to stigmatize and silence us, but we also reject their power over our ability to push forward, no matter the cost. As Dr. Rabab Abdelhadi often remarks, Palestine is a cause about “the indivisibility of justice.” And no repression, no matter from what level, can ever slow the surging momentum of justice. [National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) and the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) - Mondoweiss]
2018: January February March April May June
July August September October November December