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Executive Editor: Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Chronology of Islam in America (2015)
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
July 2015 - Page Two
CAIR-MI seeks U.S. Supreme Court review of ruling in case of Imam shot by FBI
July 9: The Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI) announced today that it filed a Petition for Writ of Certiori to the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of the family of Imam Luqman Abdullah, who was killed during an FBI raid in 2009. The Petition seeks to overturn a decision issued on February 13, 2015, by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit which found that the estate's claim began to run on the day Imam Abdullah was killed: October 28, 2009. Accordingly, knowledge of the killing itself started the clock, and the estate was responsible to determine the facts underlying the wrongful death and the identities of the four FBI agent shooters within the three-year limitations period. After Imam Abdullah, a respected Detroit-area Muslim leader, was killed, the Detroit Division of the FBI issued a press release stating that “[d]uring the arrests today, the suspects were ordered to surrender. At one location, four suspects surrendered and were arrested without incident. Luqman Ameen Abdullah did not surrender and fired his weapon. An exchange of gun fire followed and Abdullah was killed.” CAIR-MI, on behalf of Imam Abdullah’s family, challenged the FBI’s account of the shooting and sought information related to the events surrounding his death. CAIR-MI filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits against six government agencies, including the FBI. Settlements of these lawsuits yielded more than 1,000 pages of documents, including photographs, video footage, police cam footage, and audio. However, the documents withheld the identities of the FBI shooters and mirrored the FBI-narrative that Imam Abdullah fired a weapon toward the agents. On September 30, 2010, 11 months after Abdullah’s death, the Michigan attorney general released a report on the shooting. The report disclosed that four FBI Agents shot Abdullah; however, their identities were withheld. Moreover, the report concluded the shooting was justified because Imam Abdullah fired a weapon towards the FBI agents. On October 13, 2010, the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) released its report. That report also exonerated the FBI Agents of any liability, and found the shooting to be justified under federal law. Again, the DOJ Report withheld the identities of the FBI shooters. On October 25, 2012, the sole civilian eyewitness provided the Estate with a sworn affidavit that Imam Abdullah followed the FBI Agents commands to show his hands and get down on the ground, that Imam Abdullah was not carrying or holding a weapon and did not point a weapon at any FBI agents. The estate filed a wrongful death lawsuit the following day against “Unidentified FBI Agents,” and within the three-year limitations period. However, because the FBI shooters were not named parties to the lawsuit, the lawsuit was dismissed as untimely. CAIR-MI now seeks to overturn the Sixth Circuit Court’s decision, arguing that the three-year limitations period did not begin to run until the estate learned the truth of the events that transpired that led to the shooting death of Imam Abdullah: that he was unarmed, that he did not fire toward any FBI agents, and that he surrendered and was lying on the ground when the FBI first released a K-9 that attacked and mauled him, and then shot and killed him. [CAIR]
Another “terror” arrest; another mentally ill man, armed by the FBI
July 13: U.S. law enforcement officials announced another terror arrest today, after arming a mentally ill man and then charging him with having guns. ABC News quoted a “senior federal official briefed on the arrest” as saying: “This is a very bad person arrested before he could do very bad things.” But in a sting reminiscent of so many others conducted by the FBI since 9/11, Alexander Ciccolo, 23, “aka Ali Al Amriki,” was apparently a mentally ill man who was doing nothing more than ranting about violent jihad and talking (admittedly in frightening ways) about launching attacks—until he met an FBI informant. At that point, he started making shopping lists for weapons. The big twist in this story: Local media in Massachusetts are saying Ciccolo was turned in by his father, a Boston Police captain. The FBI affidavit says the investigation was launched after a “close acquaintance … stated that Ciccolo had a long history of mental illness and in the last 18 months had become obsessed with Islam.” According to the affidavit, Ciccolo first talked to the FBI informant about attacking two bars and a police station. Later, he spoke of attacking a college campus with a homemade pressure-cooker bomb like the one used in the Boston Marathon terror attack; he also talked about using guns and a lot of ammo. Ciccolo, according to the affidavit, then “ordered the firearms from a confidential human source (“CHS”) working with the FBI.” “You get the rifles, I’ll get the powder,” Ciccolo allegedly told the informant. “The next time we meet I want us to have at least those two things.” The FBI then surveilled Ciccolo as he bought a pressure cooker at a Walmart. When the informant showed up with the guns, Ciccolo had no black powder. He was, however, soaking Styrofoam strips with motor oil in an apparent attempt to make explosive “Molotov cocktails,” the affidavit alleged. The Justice Department’s press release referred to these as “Terrorist Attack Plans,” and alleged that he was a supporter of the Islamic State. But Ciccolo was notably not charged with any of the actual terror charges, such as use of weapons of mass destruction or providing material support to terrorists, that are most commonly employed by the Justice Department. [The Intercept]
ADC rejects Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) Act of 2015
July 13, 2014: The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) today strongly opposed Congress’ attempt to codify anti-Arab and Anti-Muslim profiling. Texas Rep. Mike McCaul is proposing an amendment to the Homeland Security Act of 2002 entitled the Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) Act of 2015. The Act would authorize the creation of a new Office for Countering Violent Extremism (“CVE Office”). The ADC in a press release said: “The CVE Act is based upon completely false premises that discriminate against minority communities, particularly Arab-Americans. It wrongly asserts that minority communities are more at risk of violent extremism. It also asserts that the FBI and DHS should target and engage entire communities. These two approaches are not only incorrect, but will also continue to strain relation between the Government and Arab-American populations. It has been proven time and time again that no religious or ethnic traits can be substantively linked to violent extremism. The FBI's own studies have found that the vast majority of terrorist attacks in the U.S. are committed by non-Muslims. Further, the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point found that the major ideological movements linked to violence varied widely from “a racist/white supremacy movement[s], anti-federalist movement[s] and a fundamentalist movement[s]." The only documented link between Arab community centers and violent extremism in the study was that mosques were often the targets of violent attacks of racist groups..... The Countering Violent Extremism Act proposed by Rep. McCaul should not be passed. The Act and the Office that it intends to create are founded on misguided and incorrect ideas about the causes and remedies for violent extremism. The CVE Office would waste monetary and bureaucratic resources pursuing ends that are not only useless but that would have a detrimental effect on relations with minority communities living in this country.” [ADC]
Rock Hill (South Carolina) zoning board axes Muslim cemetery
July 22: After a contentious public hearing where several residents opposed a Muslim cemetery in a Rock Hill neighborhood – including one woman admitting that she was not “politically correct” or “nice” but was scared at what would go on inside a proposed Muslim cemetery fence – the cemetery was shot down last night by the city’s zoning board of appeals.The decision drew a few claps and short applause from a packed City Council chambers room filled with people against the cemetery. Muslim leaders were dismayed by not just the vote, but what they said was perceived prejudice against Muslims. The zoning board debated the issue with three members – Donovan Steltzner, John Antrim and Michael Smith for the cemetery. Steltzner said that the issue was new for Rock Hill which is used to western cemeteries but “this is the way people who practice Islam bury their dead.” Zoning board members Keith Sutton, Jeff Greene and chairman Matthew Crawford opposed the cemetery. With the seventh member absent, the cemetery failed to get a majority. Muslim officials say they are disappointed but will not be deterred. [Independent Mail]
Protests outside St. Augustine Fl. Islamic Center
July 23: A group of three protesters held American flags and homemade signs outside the Islamic Center in St. Augustine (Florida) today, saying they were there to take a stand against evil. “We’ve been angry, but we never once said we hate these people. That’s where we draw the line,” said Debora Emerick, a St. Johns County resident. “I don’t hate them; there’s no hate in my heart for anyone, but I hate evil and the killings and the murders, not just in this country but all over the world, and I can’t take it anymore.” What started as a one-woman protest is a response to the servicemen killed last week by a gunman, said Jaime Spears, another St. Johns County resident. The gunman, 24-year-old Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez, killed at least four Marines and a Navy sailor, authorities and witnesses said. The attacks were over within 30 minutes, and the FBI is treating the investigation as an act of terrorism. The St. Augustine protest started as a way to prove that not all Muslims are anti-American, Spears said. “This isn’t to show that they’re all evil. But unfortunately, they proved me wrong,” she said. “I have videos of people screaming at me and telling me they were going to kill me. All they’ve been doing is producing hate.” When Spears started the protest last Wednesday, she was alone for three days. But as word grew about her efforts by word of mouth and on Facebook, her support grew. By the fifth day, she says 40 people gathered on the sidewalk in peaceful protest. St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office officials say the protests have been relatively quiet. [The St. Augustine Record]
American Muslims alarmed at Anti-Muslim rhetoric by Sen. Rand Paul, Gen. Wesley Clark, Rev. Franklin Graham
July 23: The seven-million-strong American Muslim community was alarmed by the recent anti-Muslim proposals by Senator Rand Paul, former NATO Commander General Wesley Clark and Christian evangelist Franklin Graham. Their anti-Muslim proposals came in reaction to the deadly shootings that took the lives of five service members and injured one law enforcement officer in Chattanooga, Tenn. Although investigators are still seaching for possible terrorist links of the attacker (Kuwait-born Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez), right wingers quickly jumped in to cash in on the attacker’s Muslim identity. In the wake of the tragedy in Tennessee, 2016 presidential hopeful Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) – notorious for his Muslim-bashing speeches – wants to restrict immigration from Muslim countries and restore National Security Entry Exit Registration System (NSEERS) program which required nonimmigrant men and boys from 25 Muslim countries to report to an immigration office to be photographed, fingerprinted and interviewed. In an interview with MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts, retired general and former Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark called for the creation of internment camps for “disloyal Americans.” “In World War II, if someone supported Nazi Germany at the expense of the United States, we didn’t say ‘that was freedom of speech,’ we put him in a camp, they were prisoners of war,” he said adding: “If these people are radicalized and they don’t support the United States and they are disloyal to the United States as a matter of principle, fine. It’s their right and it’s our right and obligation to segregate them from the normal community for the duration of the conflict.” The rounding up of more than 100,000 Japanese-Americans — and their placement in squalid camps — during the Second World War was a racist disgrace that the country apologized for in 1988 and left traumatic scars that last to this day. The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 offered an official U.S. government apology and granted reparations to Japanese Americans interned, without due process, during the war.In response to the killing of five service members in Chattanooga, Tenn., , Graham, son of evangelical leader Billy Graham, wrote on Facebook that the U.S. should bar Muslims from immigrating. He wrote: “Every Muslim that comes into this country has the potential to be radicalized--and they do their killing to honor their religion and Muhammad. During World War 2, we didn't allow Japanese to immigrate to America, nor did we allow Germans. Why are we allowing Muslims now? Do you agree? Let your Congressman know that we've got to put a stop to this and close the flood gates.” [AMP Report]
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