www.amperspective.com Online Magazine
Executive Editor: Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Chronology of Islam in America (2017)
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
November 2017 [Page Two]
White supremacists now have their own anti-Islam military camps
Nov 9: Young, far-right Europeans are reportedly attending military-style training camps in France hosted by racist anti-Islam and anti-immigrant groups. Members of Generation Identity, a pan-European youth movement that claims "white European culture" is under attack by Muslim immigrants, bragged about their para-military training in an exclusive new documentary, which debuted on Britain's ITV network. Generation Identity also has a three-step program for “patriots” who want to get active in combating “the Great Replacement,” their name for the alleged Muslim takeover of Europe. The group is known for being tech savvy and adept at wooing a younger audience with its hip image. Its website claims chapters in Flanders, Germany, Austria, France, and Italy. Like the alt-right in the United States, Generation Identity is afraid European governments are promoting a mixing of cultures that will eventually lead to a “monoculture." The group is relatively new, riding a recent wave of anti-Islamic rhetoric among many European politicians and the public. The military-style training camp in France was also attended by members of Britain’s far-right, including members of the United Kingdom Independence Party that spearheaded Britain’s exit from the European Union and whose leaders are known to insult Muslims and oppose immigration. Generation Identity’s leader, Martin Sellner, is a far-right activist from Austria who was involved in the Defend Europe movement that chartered a 465 ton vessel to stop refugees arriving in Europe from Africa from being rescued in the Mediterranean. Defend Europe raised over $70,000 in grass roots donations to target and harass boats sent by international charities like Save the Children to rescue refugees who would otherwise die at sea. [Newsweek]
Nashville teacher suspended after student's hijab ripped off
Nov 9: A Nashville charter school suspended a teacher after video emerged showing a student's hijab being pulled off during class. In two videos posted to Snapchat, the student can be seen covering her face as her headcovering is removed in a classroom at New Vision Academy and other students are playing with her hair. Two videos — captioned "pretty hair" and "lol all that hair coverup" — were reportedly posted to the teacher's social media account and sent to WSMV by a concerned viewer. The school's principal, Tim Malone, initially told the station that the teacher denied making the video and that exposing the girl's hair was not mean to be disrespectful. The student's mother and teacher were shown the video and told WSMV "This should never happen." Later Wednesday, Malone sent a statement to Channel 4 saying the teacher had been suspended without pay. New Vision Academy is a diverse school. As a school community, we pride ourselves on embracing and celebrating our racial, ethnic, religious and economic diversity. Our students learn, and grow, best when they learn from one another. To foster this environment, all students must feel respected and supported. The actions depicted in the Snapchat video do not reflect the values, culture or climate of New Vision Academy. New Vision Academy will continue to emphasize that all staff members act in a way meant to empower and inspire our students. New Vision will use this video as an opportunity to press forward with increasing cultural sensitivity and awareness among all members of the New Vision community. The staff member in question has been suspended, without pay, and we have had direct discussions with the students depicted in the Snapchat. New Vision Academy apologizes for this unfortunate incident, and will be better in the future. [Patch Tennessee] The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, has called for a criminal investigation and the firing of a teacher at a Tennessee charter school after a video was circulated online of a Muslim student having her Islamic head scarf, or hijab, forcibly removed in a classroom. "The video depicts a criminal assault, evidently motivated by the religious identity of the student, which makes this a possible hate crime," said CAIR Senior Litigation Attorney Gadeir Abbas. "We call on local law enforcement authorities to investigate this incident, determine who removed the student's hijab, and take appropriate action to hold that person accountable." [CAIR]
Man with hammer smashes property at two mosques in Brooklyn
Nov 11: A man wielding a hammer damaged property at two mosques in Sunset Park and Bay Ridge over the weekend, the New York Police Department said. He smashed the windows and broke a security camera at the Beit El-Maqdis Islamic Center in Sunset Park. Then, about 30 minutes later, he appeared at the Fatih Camii Mosque, according to police. "Apparently that individual used a hammer to smash a mail box and a door handle," an NYPD spokesman told Patch. The NYPD is investigating the incidents as a hate crime. [Patch]
Appeals court allows Trump's Muslim ban 3.0 to take partial effect
Nov 13: The San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Monday (Nov.13) allowed President Donald Trump's Muslim travel ban 3.0 to go partially into effect, exempting persons with 'bona fide relationships' to the US. The Monday order means the ban will apply to people from Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia and Chad who do not have connections to the United States. Those connections are defined as family relationships and “formal, documented” relationships with U.S.-based entities such as universities and resettlement agencies. Those with family relationships that would allow entry include grandparents, grandchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins of people in the United States. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overrode US District Judge Derrick Watson of Hawaii, who blocked the ban on October 17 by declaring it violates immigration law by discriminating on the basis of nationality. President Trump issued an executive order on September 24 indefinitely restricting travel to the US for citizens from eight countries: Somalia, Syria, Libya, Iran, Yemen, North Korea, Venezuela and Chad. Judge Watson ordered a block of the order on October 17. He was joined by US District Judge Theodore Chuang in Maryland, who sought to block the policy on grounds of Constitutional prohibitions against religious discrimination. Chuang’s ruling still needs to be addressed by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. The Richmond, Virginia-based court has scheduled a full-bench hearing for December 8. Hawaii Attorney General Douglas Chin said the court’s decision tracked what the Supreme Court said in June when it partially revived Trump’s second travel ban, which has now expired. “I‘m pleased that family ties to the U.S., including grandparents, will be respected,” Chin added. Separately today, a group of refugee organizations and individuals filed a lawsuit in Seattle federal court challenging Trump’s decision to suspend entry of refugees from 11 countries, nine of which are majority Muslim, for at least 90 days. In a parallel case from Maryland, a judge had also ruled against the Trump administration and partially blocked the ban from going into effect. The Maryland case was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, which represents several advocacy groups, including the International Refugee Assistance Project. [AMP Report]
Hate crimes — especially against Muslims — went up in 2016: FBI
Nov 13: Incidents of hate crimes, particularly against African-Americans, Jews and Muslims, went up to 6,121 during 2016, seeing an increase of 4.6 percent compared to the previous year, according to data released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) today. According to the FBI report, Jews and Muslims were the two most common targets of religiously-motivated hate crimes. There were increases in reported hate crimes across the board compared to 2015. Anti-Muslim hate crimes rose by nearly 20 percent, anti-white by 17 percent, anti-Latino by 15 percent, and anti-Jewish by 3 percent. In its report, the FBI notes: "In 2016, the nation's law enforcement agencies reported that there were 7,615 victims of hate crimes." The data also show that, "Of the 1,584 victims of anti-religious hate crimes" 24.5 percent were victims of anti-Islamic (Muslim) bias. "We have all witnessed the anger and prejudice that characterized last year's election season, and that is growing nationwide in the current political environment," said CAIR National Department to Monitor and Combat Islamophobia Director Corey Saylor."To reverse this disturbing trend toward increased hatred and societal division, we must stand up to bigotry and the targeting of minority groups." CAIR's own preliminary data, derived from different sources than the FBI, reveals that so far, anti-Islam prejudice incidents are up 9 percent in the first three quarters of 2016 over the previous year. So far this year, the organization has recorded 195 anti-Islam hate crimes. Although the FBI report is the most comprehensive look at the nation’s hate crimes released every year, the report is known to be woefully inadequate — because it may undercount the number by the hundreds of thousands, based on other federal surveys, VOX said adding: "But the report gives a glimpse at the numbers in a year in which concerns about hate crimes skyrocketed due to President Donald Trump’s campaign and election. Research shows that support for Trump was driven largely by racial resentment, and Trump played into that resentment with his own racist rhetoric. As a result, Trump’s election led to widespread fears that there would be an emboldening of racist acts across America. (Indeed, some attendees at the violent protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August — made up of white nationalists, neo-Nazis, and Ku Klux Klan members — cited Trump a s partial inspiration for the demonstration.)" In the month after Trump was elected, there were more than 860 reports of hate attacks to the Southern Poverty Law Center — including school teachers making Islamophobic comments, students telling Latino peers that Trump would deport them, and outright physical violence that was seemingly motivated by racism, VOX pointed out. Tellingly, On Saturday, Nov 11, A man wielding a hammer damaged property at two mosques in Sunset Park and Bay Ridge over the weekend, the New York Police Department said. He smashed the windows and broke a security camera at the Beit El-Maqdis Islamic Center in Sunset Park. Then, about 30 minutes later, he appeared at the Fatih Camii Mosque, according to police. "Apparently that individual used a hammer to smash a mail box and a door handle," an NYPD spokesman told Patch. The NYPD is investigating the incidents as a hate crime. On November 4, vandals put up hateful and anti-Semitic posters on Temple Or Rishon Jewish synagogue in Orangevale, California walls. The Department of Homeland Security is offering tens of thousands of dollars to religious institutions to help safeguard their houses of worship. Temple Or Rishon is one of the recipients of this nationwide grant program. [AMP Report]
Synagogues, mosques getting federal help as hate crimes rise
Nov 13: The Department of Homeland Security is offering tens of thousands of dollars to religious institutions to help safeguard their houses of worship. Temple Or Rishon, a Jewish synagogue in Orangevale recently targeted by vandals, is one of the recipients of this nationwide grant program. Our primary concern is the safety of our congregants,” said Ted Blumenstein, the synagogue’s past president, who now heads its security committee. On Nov. 4, vandals put up hateful and anti-Semitic posters on the temple’s walls. Temple Or Rishon will be using the $75,000 grant award towards better lighting, more sophisticated surveillance cameras, and a safer entry and exit system. Some mosques in the region have also been recent targets of vandals. “Right now with the spike in anti-Semitic and Islamophobic incidents. this is a great program to boost security at synagogues, at mosques, at churches,” said CAIR Executive Director Basim Elkarra. [CBS3]
Czech Republic's tiny Muslim community subject to hate
Nov 13: Though no exact figures exist, the Muslim community in the Czech Republic is small, between 5,000 and 20,000, or less than 0.02 percent of the total population. Just a portion lives in Prague. Yet Islam has become a hot-button topic in Czech national politics, where the power to resolve the country's hung parliament could lie with a politician whose only policy is, "No to Islam. No to terrorism". Czech-Japanese entrepreneur Tomio Okamura and his Freedom and Direct Democracy Party (SPD) rode into parliament as the third most powerful party after the recent October nationwide elections, with no discernible policy other than to drive Islam completely out of the Czech Republic. The campaign slogan was convincing enough for the newly formed SPD to scoop significant votes in its first ever electoral race. Having built ties to other far-right movements in Europe, such as Marine Le Pen's National Front in France, Okamura hopes to achieve his goal through ongoing coalition talks with controversial billionaire Andrej Babis, who is slated to become the country's next prime minister. Babis' Action of Dissatisfied Citizens Party (ANO) won the October elections in decisive fashion but did not secure a simple majority. Now he must form a coalition with a fragmented parliament that has expressed little willingness to work with the populist agro-magnate who at the time of the elections was being investigated for fraud. Some Muslims in Prague fear that the circumstances may lead to an alliance with Okamura, giving him an unprecedented platform - a worrying prospect given ANO and SPD's common disdain for Muslim refugees. "We have to fight for what our ancestors built here. If there will be more Muslims than Belgians in Brussels, that's their problem. I don't want that here. They won't be telling us who should live here," Babis told journalists in June. This type of increasingly hostile rhetoric against migrants has profoundly stoked Islamophobia. For the members of Prague's small Muslim community, it is a sign of worrying times ahead. Currently, Islam is recognised as a religion in the Czech Republic, but its followers are restricted from several basic privileges enjoyed by other faiths, including the right to establish schools, to hold legally recognised weddings and conduct religious ceremonies in public spaces. "Most of the Muslims here are doctors, engineers and IT specialists and so on, yet some [political] parties…are trying to change our rights and eliminate Islam," said Vladimir Sanka, a 58-year-old Czech Muslim, who is on the board of the Muslim Community in Prague association. Slovakia last year passed a law effectively banning Islam from gaining official status as a religion. Making matters worse, growing anti-Islam sentiment has resulted in an uptick in hate speech and even physical attacks against Muslims who moved here long before the refugee crisis. In July, local media reported two Muslim women were escorting a group of children to an aquapark in Prague when a third woman began verbally and physically assaulting them. [Al Jazeera]
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