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Executive Editor: Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Chronology of Islam in America (2017)
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
March 2017 - page two
Disturbing anti-Islamic note rattles community
March 19: A handwritten letter calling Muslims “vile” and “filthy” was delivered to a mailbox at the Islamic Center of Des Moines this weekend, shaking the Muslim community. The letter was not contained inside an envelope, was addressed to the "Children of Satan" and was only signed by “Americans for a Better Way.” The note appears to have been written by someone who claims to support President Donald Trump, saying Trump is “going to do to you Muslims what Hitler did to the Jews” and that it “would be wise to pack your bags” and leave. While it isn’t the first incident of anti-Islamic sentiment at the Islamic Center of Des Moines, spokesperson Esam Boraey said it is one of the most terrifying, pairing it with national rhetoric that is impacting Muslims’ daily lives. Similar letters have circulated in states such as California and Indiana. "I was just about to put it in the garbage, and I opened it and started reading, and this is what I've found," said Hamed Baig, administrator at the Islamic Center of Des Moines. "In a way you're worried because you never know who may have that grievance." [KCCI]
Community groups celebrate the signing of San Francisco anti-registry ordinance into law
March 21: Today, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee hosted a ceremony to celebrate the signing of the San Francisco Anti-Registry (“Non-Cooperation with Identity- Based Registry”) Ordinance into law. Dozens of community members attended the ceremony in support of the ordinance that will stop San Francisco from “using resources to create, implement, provide investigation or information for, enforce, or otherwise assist or support any government program requiring the registration of individuals on the basis of religion, national origin, or ethnicity, or creating a database of individuals on the basis of religion, national origin, or ethnicity.” A broad coalition of organizations - Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus, the San Francisco Bay Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-SFBA), Arab Resource & Organizing Center (AROC), Alliance of South Asians Taking Action (ASATA), the National Lawyers Guild -Francisco Bay Area (NLG SF), and the ACLU of Northern California advocated for this law that will create protections against any registry based on religion or country of origin. "The City of San Francisco and our local communities showed today that they stand ready to oppose any discriminatory policies that profile our communities, which the new administration may push forth,” said Elica Vafaie, National Security & Civil Rights Attorney at Advancing Justice-Asian Law Caucus. “This first of its kind local ordinance provides tangible protections and we hope it sets a precedent throughout the country.” “The Alliance of South Asians Taking Action stands in solidarity with all people impacted by racial profiling,” said Sabiha Basrai of ASATA. “We applaud the City of San Francisco for this anti-registry ordinance and will continue to push for policies that champion racial justice for all.”The San Francisco Non-Cooperation with Identity-Based Registry will go to effect 30 days after enactment on April 20th, 2017. [CAIR]
Army vet accused of murder came to NYC to kill black men
March 22: James Harris Jackson, 28, was allegedly caught on a security camera thrusting a knife into Timothy Caughman’s chest and back several times. Caughman had been rummaging through the garbage outside of a Manhattan building when Jackson attacked him. Bleeding profusely, Caughman managed to walk to a nearby police precinct. He was rushed to a local hospital where he later died. A little more than 24 hours after the stabbing, Jackson allegedly marched into the Times Square NYPD substation and turned himself in, saying he was planning to attack an interracial couple. He also allegedly revealed his hatred for black men dating white women motivated him to carry out the attack. NBC New York reports that police recovered a 26-inch mini sword on Jackson’s body, which they believe was the weapon he used to kill Caughman. According to Gothamist, Manhattan Chief of Detectives William Aubry told reporters today that during an unrelated press briefing that Jackson took a Bolt Bus from Baltimore, Maryland to NYC. He spent the weekend in a Manhattan hotel before fatally stabbing Caughman. He was specifically intending to target male blacks for assault,” Aubry said. “He has been harboring these types of feelings for quite some time. For well over 10 years.” The NYPD confirmed to Huffington Post that Jackson was arrested and charged with murder. NBC notes that while he was initially arrested on a second-degree murder charge, authorities want to classify the act as a hate crime and upgrade the charge to first-degree murder. Jackson reportedly served in the U.S. Army in Germany and Afghanistan, before being honorably discharged in 2012. [Huffington Post]
In the age of Trump, ever more Muslim travelers are being questioned about their beliefs
March 23: The stories have come fast and successive in the weeks since Donald Trump stepped into the Oval Office: tales of Muslim travelers being detained and then interrogated about their religious beliefs. (1) On January 29, at John F. Kennedy Airport, federal agents questioned a green-card holder about videos of Muslim religious leaders preaching that they found on his laptop, said Anisha Gupta, a staff attorney at the Bronx Defenders who volunteered at the airport after Trump’s first executive order on Muslim travelers went into effect. (2) On February 4, a Muslim-Canadian family said they were denied entry into the United States. Fadwa Alaoui, the mother, told CBC News that an agent asked her, “Do you practice? Which mosque do you go to? What is the name of the imam? How often do you go to the mosque? What kind of discussions do you hear in the mosque? Does the imam talk to you directly?” (3) And on February 7, in a case that captured headlines around the world, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents at the Fort Lauderdale Airport detained and interrogated Muhammad Ali Jr., the son of the legendary boxer. They pulled him aside, held him for nearly two hours, and asked him, “Where did you get your name?” and “Are you Muslim?” One month later, Transportation Security Agency officials at Reagan National Airport in Washington, DC, stopped and questioned Ali Jr. again, though they did not ask about his religion this time. Lawyers and civil-liberties advocates fear that the practice of detaining and interrogating Muslims about their religious beliefs at airports is increasing—a practice that echoes a history of US immigration laws and border-control policies that sought to keep out those who believed in communism, anarchism, and other radical left-wing ideologies. In this instance, the questioning of Muslims appears to reflect a theory within federal agencies that a person’s religious belief can indicate whether they have the propensity for violence. Border agents have weaponized that theory, and turned it into a basis for harsh questioning.
Religion as a basis for questioning
For all the outrages faced by travelers like Muhammad Ali Jr. and the four Muslim-Canadians, the questioning of Muslims about their religious practices is not brand new. The Trump team may have ramped up a bunch of nasty, religiously intolerant practices, but they didn’t invent them. That honor goes to the George W. Bush administration, during which the practice of questioning Muslim travelers about topics such as which mosque they go to, and whether they are Sunni or Shi’a, is well documented. Nor did the practice stop under the Obama administration. On January 18, two days before Obama left office, CAIR filed numerous complaints about religious-based questioning to the Department of Homeland Security and to CBP. The Muslim advocacy group alleged that the ten travelers initially represented in the complaints (the number has since expanded) were asked questions such as: “Are you a devout Muslim?” “Do you pray five times a day?” “What school of thought do you follow?” “What Muslim scholars do you listen to?” and “What are the views of other imams or other community members that give the Friday sermon at your mosque?”CBP is not barred from ever using religion as a basis for questioning, said Margo Schlanger, a University of Michigan law professor and the former head of the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at the Department of Homeland Security. An agent processing someone who is traveling to a faith conference, for example, could legitimately ask questions about their religious affiliation. But advocates, international travelers, and Americans citizens allege Muslims are being singled out solely because of their religion in a discriminatory fashion—and that CBP sees their religion as a sign of being a terrorist threat. Targeting Muslims for interrogation about their religious beliefs reflects a view, particularly prevalent in law-enforcement circles since the September 11 attacks, that the depth of someone’s devotion to Islam can predict whether they are a security threat. In its crudest forms, “radicalization” theory, as it is known, posits that activities affiliated with a conservative practice of Islam—such as abstaining from alcohol, or wearing Islamic styles of clothing—are steps on a path that may end up leading to a terrorist attack.
Anti-Muslim ideologues
Beyond the legal concerns, Muslim Americans and civil-liberties advocates are worried that the apparent increase in religious questioning and detention of Muslim travelers is just the opening salvo of a broader Trump-era campaign targeting Muslims.The Trump administration has brought anti-Muslim ideologues into the heart of power, and many Muslim Americans fear the executive order was the first step in a long campaign aimed at making discrimination against them official policy. Of particular concern is the role of Steve Bannon, the White House chief strategist and former head of the far-right website Breitbart News, which frequently traffics in anti-Muslim bigotry. News outlets reported that Bannon helped draft Trump’s first executive order, which banned refugees and travelers from seven Muslim countries, and also suggested more vetting of Muslims. [The Nation]
San Francisco man threatened to shoot Muslim woman in alleged hate crime
March 24: A San Francisco man was arrested on suspicion of threatening to shoot a woman wearing a hijab because she is Muslim, police said today. Joshua Ruano, 27, is being held on suspicion of making a criminal threat with a hate-crime enhancement, according to the San Francisco Police Department. The woman and her toddler son were playing in a park just after 7 p.m. on March 17 near the Mission District when Ruano approached her, police said in a written statement. He allegedly made anti-Muslim comments and threatened to shoot her, according to the Police Department. “The victim and her son fled the area to get away from the suspect,” police said. Police were notified about the threat and searched the area. They found Ruano several blocks away from the park. He was arrested and booked into the San Francisco County Jail. [Los Angeles Times]
Japanese-Americans Speak Up for Muslim-Americans
March 27: About 200 of us gathered last weekend in front of City Hall (in San Jose) for the solidarity day organized by the Nihonmachi Outreach Committee and the South Bay Islamic Association. Masao Suzuki, the architect of the rally, explained: “In the lessons learned from 75 years of resistance from 1942-2017, we say No to Concentration Camps and Islamophobia. President Trump’s Executive Order 13769, banning travel from 7 Muslim-majority countries, has brought back painful memories of internment, among the darkest chapters in American history. We will not let Muslim-Americans stand alone. We will stand by them. We will not allow history to repeat. Never again!” City Hall is about a mile away from San Jose’s Japan Town but when we walked the distance on solidarity day, the weight of history was heavy upon us. The minutes spanned a lifetime of grief and sorrow. [New America Media]
Trump backs off Muslim Brotherhood's designation as terrorist organization
March 27: President Trump has — for the time being — put on the back burner an executive order designating the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization, according to U.S. officials close to a heated debate inside the administration over the status of the global Islamist movement. While the White House has declined to comment publicly, officials speaking on condition of anonymity say the administration backed down from a plan to designate the Brotherhood last month after an internal State Department memo advised against it because of the movement’s loose-knit structure and far-flung political ties across the Middle East. The memo “explained that there’s not one monolithic Muslim Brotherhood,” according to one of the officials, who told The Washington Times that while the movement may well be tied to such bona fide terrorist groups as Hamas, its more legitimate political activities would complicate the terrorist designation process. The Brotherhood has prominent political factions engaged — at least perfunctorily — in democracy in Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia and several other Muslim-majority nations, and the State Department memo coincided with high-level pressure placed on the Trump administration from at least one of them. Senior diplomats from Jordan — a close U.S. ally — are believed to have weighed in heavily against the idea of adding the Brotherhood to the State Department’s foreign terrorist organizations list, said the official, because the movement’s political arm in Amman currently holds 16 Jordanian parliament seats. A small but vocal group of Republicans on Capitol Hill is pushing legislation that would direct the State Department to either designate the Brotherhood, as well as the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, as terrorist organizations or justify why they are being kept off the list. Sen. Ted Cruz, who reintroduced the Muslim Brotherhood portion of the legislation last month with a House version backed by Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, says listing the movement would “codify needed reforms in America’s war against radical Islamic terrorism.” While several Gulf Arab monarchies view the Brotherhood as an internal political threat, the movement’s factions are seen as part of the democratic landscape in other places, including Turkey, where many see the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) as a distant Brotherhood affiliate. [Washington Times]
Omaha City Council candidate wants Muslims and their worship banned from U.S.
March 30: An Omaha man running for city council is now airing controversial TV and radio ads. He claims local Muslims are connected to a terrorism group. WOWT 6 News sat down with the candidate and those he's trying to prevent from worshiping."Omaha are you listening? The mosque that is part of the Tri Faith Initiative has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood," Paul Anderson says in the political radio spot. He calls the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorism group and says there’s evidence they’re linked to Omaha mosques. Anderson sources web sites and articles written by groups that call themselves “Watchmen”. They say they are inspiring the lost with the hope of Christ. Anderson says he wants to use the city's resources to stop the construction of a new mosque already being built on the Tri Faith Initiative campus in Omaha. [WPWT]
The 4 main sources of Islamophobia in America
March 30: Before discussing four interconnected institutional sources of contemporary Islamophobia in the United States, it is important to recognize that the actions of violent extremists also contribute to Islamophobia. Many Americans were unfortunately introduced to Islam and Muslims through the images of planes crashing into towers on 9/11. Although violent groups like ISIS target and murder more Muslims than others, these groups continue to color American perceptions of Islam and all Muslims with the dangerous shade of prejudice.
1. The U.S. News Media: MediaTenor, an international media research institute, examined nearly three million news stories and found that the U.S. news media’s coverage of Muslims and Islam is overwhelmingly negative in both content and tone. Coverage has almost exclusively focused on portraying Islam as a national security risk and Muslims as a threat to liberty and life, and this has grown worse over time. It is indisputable that the U.S. media disproportionately overemphasizes negative coverage and news pertaining to Muslims and Islam. Unsurprisingly, this leads the American public to possess an exaggerated sense of threat, and consequently fear, of Muslims and Islam which plays neatly into Islamophobia.
2. America’s Foreign Policy: This Islamophobic categorization of Islam as inherently violent is rooted in European colonization, and has been transplanted and utilized by the U.S. to justify its foreign policy in Muslim-majority regions of the world. In orienting American political antagonism onto the sphere of racialized religion, Islamophobia serves as a convenient ideology to obfuscate and dismiss the U.S. government’s own role in fostering violence against Muslims around the world. This advances a worldview of “us vs. them,” which otherizes Muslims and those perceived to be Muslim. Consider President George W. Bush’s failed War on Terror, which can be summed up by his infamous phrase, “you are either with us or against us.” The government decimated Iraq, an act that in part created the power vacuum from which ISIS emerged. This serves as an excellent example of policies which were presented to the American public as essential for freedom and safety. More recently, President Barrack Obama permitted an ongoing drone war that has killed thousands of civilians in Pakistan and Yemen. The continuation of war in Muslim-majority regions thus perpetuates the ideas and structures of Islamophobia. Effectively dismantling Islamophobia in the American society is countered by this constantly reinforced prejudice.
3. U.S. Political Rhetoric: Interwoven with the media and the government’s foreign policy, the irresponsible rhetoric of elected officials and those in positions of political influence augments Islamophobia in the United States. Politicians play on people’s emotions and exploit their fear to actively instigate Islamophobia when it serves their own political interests. Then presidential candidate Trump’s dangerous proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States offers a prime example. Far from being a spontaneous proposition, the proposal was crafted on December 2, and then held to be announced on December 7, National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, for “symbolic impact.” A study by a former Gallup researcher has demonstrated that spikes in anti-Muslim sentiment are correlated with election cycles. The statements and actions of leaders shape Islamophobia more so than international events. This can be evidenced by the last year, an election year, in which politicians and those with political influence sought to gain greater power. In an upcoming report, CAIR recorded an alarming 50 percent increase in anti-Muslim bias incidents in 2016 as compared to 2015. Moreover, the increase in the number of incidents has been accompanied by an increase in their severity and violence as well. A larger percentage of cases involve physical violence or property destruction and vandalism.
4. The U.S. Islamophobia Network: Within the U.S. there exists an influential network of groups and individuals who falsely cast Islam and Muslims as a malevolent existential threat, and work actively to promote prejudice, discrimination, and oppression towards the faith and its practitioners. This Islamophobia Network operates on the basis of misinformation, hostility, and lies to sway public opinion and influence policy and law at a local and national level. CAIR has identified 74 groups in the U.S. that are a part of this network, and divides them into the inner and outer core. Those who are a part of the inner core, which consists of 33 groups and individuals, exist primarily and exclusively to vilify, demonize, and promote hatred and fear towards Islam and Muslims. The outer core, consisting of 41 groups and individuals, while regularly demonstrating Islamophobic themes in their work, does not exist solely for this purpose. An example of a group in the outer core is Fox News Channel. Fox repeatedly hosts individuals who make claims such as, “terrorists are Muslims,” Muslims “hate Jews and Christians,” and Islam “is the worst, most deadliest idea in the history of the world.” It is the inner core, however, that is the more noxious of the two. It is a source of much of the common Islamophobic rhetoric which is disseminated through the public space, including false ideas such as, Shari’a is a totalitarian political ideology and the Muslim Brotherhood, a loosely connected global movement, is taking over the United States government. CAIR’s 2016 Islamophobia report, Confronting Fear, found that this inner core had access to at least 205 million dollars in total revenue over a five year period. [The Muslim Vibe]
An anti-Muslim slur on their wall made this family think of leaving the U.S. Then neighbors came to their aid.
March 31: When Mahrukh and Shoaib Ahmad got a call from their apartment manager, saying that their home in Fairfax County had been burglarized while they were visiting relatives in New York for the weekend, they rushed home to find out what had been stolen. They weren’t prepared for what they discovered when they got there. The burglar or burglars had spotted the illustrations of Koranic verses on the Ahmads’ walls and had broken the frames, the couple said. Someone had taken their Koran from the shelf and torn out its pages. On the wall, they had written in tall, wobbly black letters: “F— Muslims.”“It was a complete mess. It was like a tornado came into our apartment. Basically everything that was over $100, it was gone,” Mahrukh said. The valuable jewelry she received for her wedding was gone, she said, as was the jewelry given as gifts to her daughter when she was born. But what hurt the most was looking at the pages of her holy book, lying on the floor, Mahrukh said. “We couldn’t believe our eyes, that this could actually happen and it happened to us,” she said. “It felt like they were rubbing it in our faces, just because we’re Muslims. Especially about the Koran, it was very, very hurtful. It truly brought tears to our eyes.”Fairfa x County police, who are investigating the case, have not identified a suspect. They said they are investigating it as a bias-related incident. Privately, after the police finished fingerprinting and a relative took their 1- and 4-year-old children so they wouldn’t have to see the hateful words on the wall, Mahrukh and Shoaib said they asked each other: Should they leave the country? But since Monday, her feelings have changed entirely, thanks to the response of her neighbors to the burglary. After she posted about it in a Facebook group for mothers, neighbors offered to help the Ahmads clean up their house, to babysit their children and to bring them food. Link created a GoFundMe page with the stated goal of collecting $1,000 to help the Ahmads recoup their losses. As of Thursday, 265 people had contributed a total of more than $10,000. “We were shocked,” Mahrukh said. “Complete strangers, they’re doing that for us. We don’t feel alone anymore.” Link said she has been moved by the messages of solidarity with the Ahmads that have been pouring in along with the donations. [Washington Post]
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