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Executive Editor: Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Chronology of Islam in America (2016)
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
September 2016 Page Three
Donald Trump and the Rise of Anti-Muslim Violence
Sept 22: A new report from California State University-San Bernardino’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism suggests that political rhetoric may play a role in mitigating or fueling hate crimes. The report shows that anti-Muslim hate crimes in the U.S. rose sharply in 2015 to the highest levels since the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks. It also suggests that Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric could have contributed to this backlash against American Muslims. “There’s very compelling evidence that political rhetoric may well play a role in directing behavior in the aftermath of a terrorist attack,” Brian Levin, the author of the report said in an interview. “I don’t think we can dismiss contentions that rhetoric is one of the significant variables that can contribute to hate crimes.” The report from the non-partisan center examined the incidence of hate crimes in the aftermath of two reactions to terrorism from political leaders. First, George W. Bush’s speech following the 9/11 attacks declaring: “Islam is peace” and “the face of terror is not the true faith of Islam,” and the second, Trump calling for a ban on Muslims entering the U.S. after the San Bernardino terror attack. The report found a steep rise in hate crimes following Trump’s remarks and a significant drop in hate crimes after Bush’s speech, relative to the number of hate crimes immediately following the initial terror attacks. A Georgetown University report released in May similarly found that threats, intimidation and violence against Muslim Americans have surged over the course of the presidential election. Engy Abdelkader, the author of the report, believes that trend is linked to Trump’s political rise. “Trump has seized on people’s fears and anxieties,” Abdelkader said. “I think that has translated in a number of instances not just to hostility, but acts of violence.” Islamophobia existed in America long before Trump. Muslims have long been particularly vulnerable to backlash driven by negative stereotypes in part because they make up a relatively small slice of the overall U.S. population. But when a major-party nominee endorses and reinforces those stereotypes, researchers warn, American Muslims face serious risk of increased marginalization and outright violence. [The Atlantic]
Known extremists fan Georgia mosque debateREGIONAL
Sept 22: Newton County’s temporary moratorium on new houses of worship died this week, but it did not go quietly. Instead, it expired to the serenade of half-baked conspiracy theories about a Doraville-based Muslim community spread and supported by some of the state’s more notorious figures from the fringe of the political right. For the past two weeks, television cameras circled armed protesters on the Covington square. Let’s face it, paunchy guys in fatigues carrying assault rifles is pretty engrossing TV, particularly when they are itching to say what’s on their minds. If it needs to be said, these people are not part of the mainstream. The proposed mosque may be “controversial,” but it does not follow that all parties involved are equally legitimate. Take, for example, the Georgia Security Force III%, a heavily armed and costumed militia group led by McDonough resident Chris Hill. Hill, a former Marine, is one of the louder voices in the so-called “three-percenter” movement in Georgia. Three percenters are a loosely organized wing of the patriot movement who view the federal government as tyrannical and train to fight for various imagined future conflicts. Put bluntly, these guys aren’t just rednecks exercising their First and Second Amendment rights. They are training to fight the United States government. Another of the armed protesters tramping around the Newton County Courthouse is Augusta resident James Stachowiak, another member of the patriot movement whose anti-Islamic activism has made headlines for the past several years for his outrageous online statements, including on his internet-based radio show. [The Atlanta Journal-Constitution]
Donald Trump’s rhetoric energizes Muslim voters
Sept 23: Although Trump’s harsh rhetoric regarding Muslims has proved to be hugely popular with his supporters, it is also uniting and galvanizing Muslim voters, spurring unprecedented voter registration drives and get-out-the-vote efforts in their communities, including mosques in Boston, Lawrence, and Sharon. A surge in Muslim electoral participation could have consequences beyond the presidential race, helping Democrats in down-ballot races and perhaps creating a more cohesive voting bloc in future presidential contests. The country’s Muslim population is expected to more than double by 2050, to about 8.1 million, or 2 percent of the total population, according to the Pew Research Center. And Muslims tend to be younger than the general public, according to Pew. “We’re finally being able to begin to organize,” said Nadeem Mazen, Cambridge’s first Muslim city councilor and a community organizer who created Jetpac Inc., a nonprofit seeking to empower Muslim and other minority voices in civic life. “That will bear fruit in future elections.” Muslims have long been a tiny and unwieldy demographic in US elections. They do not fit in an ideological box: They are urban and suburban, well-educated and illiterate, highly observant and not so much. They are racially and ethnically diverse. But the Islamophobic rhetoric in the presidential campaign “may have given a fragmented community a rare common concern around which to mobilize, and a united party platform for which to cast their ballot,” concluded a recent study by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, a research and advocacy organization focused on American Muslims. Trump has called for a ban on Muslim immigration (he modified that over the summer, saying he would require an ideological test to keep out those with radical views and would ban immigrants from countries compromised by terrorism). He has backed mosque surveillance and flirted with proposing a national Muslim registry. He disparaged a couple who appeared at the Democratic National Convention, Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the parents of a Muslim-American soldier killed in Iraq. In Portland, Maine, last month, Trump denounced the area’s Somali refugee community as a security threat. The US Council of Muslim Organizations, a coalition of local and national groups, is responding to the harsh rhetoric by spearheading a “One America” campaign, whose goal is to register 1 million voters by Election Day. It had declared Eid al-Adha last week, one of the holiest days on the Muslim calendar, a national voter registration day: Registration tables, banners, and postcards were stationed at morning prayer services, which can draw thousands. [Boston Globe]
Arson suspected at Kansas City under construction Mosque
Sept 24: A possible arson is being investigated at a mosque under construction in Kansas City. Islamic Center of Northland leaders say they arrived at the site, near Barry road in Kansas City north, for a meeting early this morning and discovered blackened interior walls. There was no serious damage reported. Kansas City police and a bomb squad responded. Police confirm that two burned bottles were found inside the building. Laeeq Azmat, ICN's board secretary, says they've had a good relationship with the Northland community. For the last 13 years they've held services at nearby Hillside Christian church. Azmat says ICN has so far invested nearly $1.7 million in its new facility. But he says the site, which has been under construction for three years, doesn't bear obvious resemblance to a mosque. Still, the incident is discouraging for the Muslim community, especially considering the current political atmosphere in the United States. "We live already in fear, all the time. Whenever I leave for work, I always tell my wife to be careful, going to the gas station going to the grocery store, but this will definitely add to our fear," Azmat says. [KCUR.ORG]
Islam removed from draft Tennessee 7th grade social studies standards
Sept 25: Most of the Tennessee middle school social studies standards involving Islam have been removed from new draft standards undergoing public comment in Tennessee through Oct. 28. In seventh grade, where studies of Islam are concentrated in current standards, the whole section of “Islamic World, 400 A.D./C.E. - 1500s” has been removed in the draft, which went online from the state Board of Education for public review and input Sept. 15. An appointed Standards Recommendation Committee will make the ultimate recommendation for new social studies standards to the SBE in early 2017. Implementation will take place in the 2019-20 school year. The 2018-19 school year will serve as a transition and training year for educators on the new standards. Based on conversations with concerned parents, Sullivan County Board of Education Chairman Michael Hughes said the proposed changes may reflect opinions among some parents, especially those who have contacted him recently. For years, the standards involving Islam have drawn controversy and charges of indoctrination, following terrorist attacks by the Islamic State, and study of Islam continues to be controversial. A new law in effect this year specifically prohibits proselytizing for any religion and grew out of the controversy, and public commenter Joe Cerone at the Sept. 6 Sullivan County school board meeting decried the current seventh-grade social studies text as proselytizing for Islam. [Times News]
How Many Muslims Will Vote In US Presidential Election?
Sept 27: Muslims make up just one percent of the United States population but they could yet have a significant impact on the outcome of November’s presidential election. Donald Trump’s rhetoric, including calling for a blanket ban on all Muslims entering the country, is thought to have spurred a sharp increase in Muslims registering to vote. As of June, more than 300,000 Muslims had registered to vote since 2012, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). According to the group, there are currently 824,000 registered voters whose first, middle or last names match a list of more than 43,500 traditionally Muslim names. Meanwhile, the U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations, the largest coalition of local and national Muslim groups, is aiming to get one million Muslims to register to vote ahead of the Nov. 8 election. On Monday, CAIR launched its own voter registration effort, in which participants pledge to register five people to vote. The percentage of Muslim voters identifying as Democrat has been on the rise since 2000, when an estimated 90 percent of the community voted for George W. Bush. In just the last two years the number has jumped from 51 percent to 67 percent, while the percentage identifying as Republican remained unchanged at 15 percent. Meanwhile, a poll by CAIR on Super Tuesday in March showed Trump with the support of just 11 percent of American Muslims. In 2008, 90 percent of Muslims voted for Barack Obama, according to CAIR. [International Business Times]
Obama defends decision not to say "radical Islamic terrorism" during CNN Town Hall
Sept 28: Wednesday night, during a CNN Town Hall interview with Jake Tapper, President Barack Obama defended his decision to avoid the term "radical Islamic terrorism" — a choice he's had to explain more than a few times during his time in office. "I've said repeatedly that where we see terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda or ISIL, they have perverted and distorted and tried to claim the mantle of Islam for an excuse, for basically barbarism and death," Obama said. He added, "These are people who kill children, kill Muslims, take sex slaves. There's no religious rationale that would justify in any way any of the things that they do." Republican nominee Donald Trump is among those who have criticized Obama for not using the term. Following the July attack in Nice, France, Trump said it was high time for Obama to call attacks from ISIS "radical Islamic terrorism," saying the president would never be able to tackle terrorism without "defining it." "People would sigh with relief if he would say it, but he doesn't want to say it," Trump said at the time. But Wednesday night, Obama said he's always been careful with his words when it comes to speaking about terrorism — because words matter. Obama said it's dangerous when "a president or people aspiring to become president get loose with this language." How we talk about Islam, he said, has a real impact on the lives of Muslims in the United States. [MIC News]
Islamic School Awarded $1.7 Million in Settlement Against Michigan Township
Sept 29: The Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI) today announced that it reached a settlement in a lawsuit the Muslim civil rights organization brought on behalf of the Michigan Islamic Academy (MIA) against Pittsfield Township for unlawfully denying the Islamic school its right to build on its property. The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court, Eastern District of Michigan in August 2012, claimed violations of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA), and the Establishment and Equal Protection Clauses of the United States Constitution. The federal government intervened in the lawsuit on behalf of MIA in October 2015. CAIR-MI said the settlement, one of the largest since RLUIPA was enacted, grants MIA the right to build a 70,000 square foot Islamic school, a residential development consisting of 22 duplex units and three single family homes, and a park. The settlement also awards MIA $1.7 million. [CAIR]
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