www.amperspective.com Online Magazine
Executive Editor: Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Chronology of Islam in America (2017)
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
November 2017 [Page Three]
How big an issue is Islamophobia in Poland?
Nov 14: The scale of anti-Muslim feeling in the country was on display at Saturday's (Nov 11) Polish independence day march, which drew around 60,000 people, many of them from far-right groups. One banner carried by protesters showed a trojan horse labeled "Islam" attempting to enter a fortress marked "Europe". Inside the trojan horse was a stereotyped caricature of a Middle Eastern man with a long nose, wearing a suicide vest and carrying a banner which read "I'm a refugee." Fears of Islam and an influx of refugees to Poland, similar to what neighboring EU countries experienced, have been amplified by politicians and sections of the media, according to Konrad Pedziwiatr of the Cracow University of Economics. "Most of the information people get about Islam and Muslims comes from the media, and what has been happening over the last few years especially is this tendency to lump together the issues of terrorism, the refugee crisis, and Islam," he said. "You always had politicians who had strong opinions against Islam, but the refugee crisis helped jack the cause and helped the Law and Justice party come to power." Poland's largest party came to power in 2015 on a platform of restoring Polish pride and keeping refugees out of the country. Pedziwiatr explained that the rise of Islamophobia in political life had been in tandem with increasingly unfavorable coverage of Muslims in the media, especially state media outlets. "Whenever the issue of Islam and Muslims is there, it's always (represented) in a super negative way," he said. The combined effect of vilified political and media discourse on Islam, he argued, has brought about a "banalisation" of Islamophobia and led to many Poles holding inaccurate perceptions about the Muslim community. Muslims make up just 0.1 percent of the Polish population, or around 35,000 people, including indigenous Polish Muslims, such as the Tatars, converts, and immigrants from all over the world. However, the average citizen believes the number is much higher. "Poles hugely overestimate the size of the Muslim community, the average that people think is seven percent, which is ridiculous because it means over two and a half million people," Pedziwiatr said, explaining that such perceptions were of "the Polish fear of Islam and Muslims". While Poland's Muslim population is small, Islam has a presence there dating back to at least the Medieval era. The Lipka Tatars are a Muslim community descended from Mongol conquerors who later served as soldiers for a succession of Polish monarchs. [Al Jazeera]
Richest 1% own half the world's wealth, study finds
Nov 14: The globe’s richest 1% own half the world’s wealth, according to a new report highlighting the growing gap between the super-rich and everyone else. The world’s richest people have seen their share of the globe’s total wealth increase from 42.5% at the height of the 2008 financial crisis to 50.1% in 2017, or $140tn (£106tn), according to Credit Suisse’s global wealth report published today. “The share of the top 1% has been on an upward path ever since [the crisis], passing the 2000 level in 2013 and achieving new peaks every year thereafter,” the annual report said. The bank said “global wealth inequality has certainly been high and rising in the post-crisis period”. The increase in wealth among the already very rich led to the creation of 2.3 million new dollar millionaires over the past year, taking the total to 36 million. “The number of millionaires, which fell in 2008, recovered fast after the financial crisis, and is now nearly three times the 2000 figure,” Credit Suisse said. These millionaires – who account for 0.7% of the world’s adult population – control 46% of total global wealth that now stands at $280tn. At the other end of the spectrum, the world’s 3.5 billion poorest adults each have assets of less than $10,000 (£7,600). Collectively these people, who account for 70% of the world’s working age population, account for just 2.7% of global wealth. The report said the poor are mostly found in developing countries, with more than 90% of adults in India and Africa having less than $10,000. “In some low-income countries in Africa, the percentage of the population in this wealth group is close to 100%,” the report said. “For many residents of low-income countries, life membership of the base tier is the norm rather than the exception.” Meanwhile at the top of what Credit Suisse calls the “global wealth pyramid”, the 36 million people with at least $1m of wealth are collectively worth $128.7tn. More than two-fifths of the world’s millionaires live in the US, followed by Japan with 7% and the UK with 6%. While the global population of millionaires has grown considerably, the number of ultra-high net worth individuals (UHNWIs) – those with a net worth of $50m or more – has increased even faster. “The number of millionaires has increased by 170% [since 2000], while the number of UHNWIs has risen five-fold, making them by far the fastest-growing group of wealth-holders,” the report said. Most of the new UHNWIs have been created in the US, but 22% come from emerging economies, notably China. [The Guardian]
Superintendent apologizes after Muslim students prayer halted by principal
Nov 16: Parents are outraged after a situation involving a group of students praying at school today. Amelia County Public Schools says it was all a "misunderstanding and miscommunication." Superintendent Dr. Jack McKinley acknowledges to NBC12 that the four-year principal of the school stopped a group prayer that students began in the hallway, in between classes. "Moving forward together" - that's the message on the marquee at Amelia County High School, just one day after a group of eight or nine students were threatened with suspension for praying during passing period. "There's been a lot of hatred and aggression in our schools," said Matthew Dunn. He organized the prayer. Dunn says the purpose of the prayer was not to make a statement. “It was to bring people together. And I think around the holidays, that is something that's extremely needed,” Dunn said. After the incident, Danielle Hall Anderson took to social media to say her "son took his time with others today to pray in between classes and is now being punished because he did that." However, McKinley says no students were disciplined. "We do recognize that the situation could have been handled better and we are committed to learning from this incident and moving forward as a stronger school community," said McKinley in a letter to parents. "The school administration apologized to the affected students and parents for the manner in which the situation had been handled," said McKinley. [NBC12]
Spanish police shoot man 'shouting Allahu Akbar' near French border
Nov 18: Officers opened fire on the man, believed to be a Frenchman of north African origin, after he began to shout in Arabic when the vehicle he was travelling in was intercepted at a motorway toll near La Jonquera on the Spanish side of the border. He was hit in the leg and rushed to a nearby hospital. He has undergone an operation at the hospital - the Doctor Josep Trueta University Hospital in Girona - and his life is not said to be in any danger. Local reports said officers ordered him out of the car he was in after searching the woman driver - and became suspicious after seeing he had a ‘suspicious object’ by his waist. Civil Guard officers called for reinforcements from regional Mossos d’Esquadra police after he reportedly began shouting in Arabic, yelling the words ‘Allah is Great’, before getting back into the vehicle. Sources close to the inquiry said they were not probing it as a terror incident and believed the unidentified man may have been acting under the influence of drugs. Two other people - a man and a woman - were in the vehicle with him. [Express]
Anti-Islam GOP survey alarms American Muslims
Nov 18: The seven-million-strong American Muslim community was alarmed at an anti-Islam question included in the Republican Party survey titled as “Listening to America.” The question No. 27 of the 32 question survey asks: “Are you concerned by the potential spread of Sharia Law?” It may be pointed out that the term ‘Sharia’ refers to Islamic religious teachings, comparable to Catholic cannon law and Jewish Halacha. Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil liberties organization, Saturday (Nov 18) sent a letter to Republican Party leaders requesting a meeting and the immediate removal of the question. In the letter to Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker of the House of Representatives Paul Ryan, CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad wrote in part: “Just as it would be widely condemned as extremely inappropriate and indecent for the RNC to ask Americans if they are concerned about the potential spread of Catholic cannon law and Jewish Halacha, posing questions about the religious teachings practiced by American Muslims should be likewise condemned by the Republican Party. This GOP survey question about religious principles of American Muslims is comparable to the darker chapters of our nation’s history when Catholic and Jewish Americans were vilified and their loyalty to our nation was questioned. The Republican Party should not allow its resources to be hijacked by those who would seek to use its stature in American society to fuel the rise of un-American and anti-Muslim bigotry in our country. American Muslims deserve the same opportunities as all Americans – to build better futures for our families and children. However, just this week, the FBI released its hate crimes report for 2016, which shows American Muslims and Jews were the two most common targets of religiously-motivated hate crimes in the U.S. According to the report, 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.” The GOP survey question about Sharia echo’s a campaign of anti-Islam legislations in several states to ban the non-existent Sharia law. Researchers and critics fear that right-wing legislators are increasing anti-Muslim sentiment as Islamic law, known as "Sharia", was targeted by some 194 bills between 2010 and 2016, according to a report released in September last by the University of California, Berkeley's Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society. Of that total, 18 bills were signed into law in 12 different states. "The anti-Sharia law movement, by way introducing and enacting anti-Sharia law bills across the United States, seeks to legalise the othering of Muslims, as well as to perpetuate a fear of Sharia, Islam and ultimately Muslims," said Basima Sisemore, a researcher and an author of Legalising Othering: The United States of Islamophobia. [AMP Report]
Dissent under attack by government & corporations
Nov 19: It is often hard to tell how close popular movements are to success or whether they are even a threat to the status quo power structure. Despite vigorous protests, it is common to worry whether or not movements are having an impact. One tell-tale sign is when government and big business interests take action to stop or silence a movement. These days, there is a lot of push back against resistance movements in the United States. While it may be riskier for us when they fight back, it is a positive sign and means that the movement needs to escalate, build power and increase its pressure. One absurd example of suppression came from Los Angeles where police are enforcing an ordinance that makes it a crime to speak longer than your allotted time when testifying before the city council. When someone goes 20 seconds more than the time they are allowed, police arrest the citizen. This week, the trial of nearly 200 people arrested at the inauguration of Donald Trump began. Each person going to trial is facing 60 years in prison. Their collective sentence, if convicted, would total 12,000 years. Those going to trial were kettled by police during the J20 protest. The US Attorney for Washington, DC (since DC is not a state, it does not have a district attorney, but is prosecuted by the federal government) is prosecuting everyone, even if they were a legal observer, medic or reporter, in a collective punishment conspiracy. A registered nurse, who came from Pittsburg to use her medical skills to support people, now finds herself facing 60 years in prison for being part of an alleged riot conspiracy. Press freedom groups have called on the prosecutor to drop charges against journalists. [Information Clearing House]
2017: January February March April May June
July August September October November December