[wvns] American Muslims six years after 9/11

American Muslims six years after 9/11
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
http://www.khabrein.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6147&Itemid=88

- A Muslim bus passenger en route to Chicago is put off with his bags
in Toledo after he told the driver he is from Iraq. (Detroit Free
Press – June 12, 2007)

- Dearborn offices of two Muslim charities - Al-Mabarrat Charitable
Organization and Goodwill Charitable Organization – are raided.
(Detroit Free Press – July 24, 2007)

- A mosque in Rochester (New York) has been vandalized for the three
times this year. (Associated Press - May 30)

These recent episodes symbolize the dilemma of American Muslims in the
post-9/11 America. Six years after the terrorist attacks, American
Muslims remain under siege with institutionalized profiling,
discrimination, high profile trials, raid on Muslim charities and
defaming of mainstream Muslim organizations. Muslim Americans have
experienced a large volume of negative reprisals from sectors of the
American public in the form of violent hate crimes, defamatory speech,
attacks on hijab-wearing Muslim women and discrimination and
harassment at work place. American Muslims were shocked to find their
bank accounts closed for no other reason but because of their faith.

There is a rising tide of Islamaphobia, intensified by the war in Iraq
and U.S. government measures at home. Americans' attitudes about Islam
and Muslims are fuelled mainly by political statements and media
reports that focus almost solely on the negative image of Islam and
Muslims. The vilification of Islam and Muslims has been relentless
among segments of the media and political classes since 9/11.
Politicians, authors and media commentators are busy in demonizing
Islam, Muslims and the Muslim world. Six years after 9/11 attacking
Islam and Muslims remains the fashionable sport for the radio,
television and print media. Unfortunately, the events of 9/11 were
used as an excuse to greatly magnify the hostility toward Muslims and
cloak it in pseudo-patriotism. Alarmingly, Muslim-bashing has become
socially acceptable in the United States.

Republican presidential hopeful Tom Tancredo threatens to bomb the
holy Islamic cities of Mecca and Medina if there is a terrorist attack
on USA. Virginia Congressman Virgil Goode says that Muslims would want
U.S. currency to say "in Muhammad we trust," with an Islamic flag
flying over the White House and U.S. Capitol. Keith Ellison, the first
Muslim elected to Congress, is vilified for taking a ceremonial oath
of office on the Quran. A Christian evangelist, invited to speak at a
North Carolina High School, distributes pamphlets denouncing Islam. An
anti-Islam group known with the acronym SANE: the Society of Americans
for National Existence is formed with a mission to banish Islam from
the US by making "adherence to Islam" punishable by 20 years in prison.

Islamophobia has created an atmosphere of suspicion among the fellow
Americans towards the Muslims. In this Islamophobic charged
atmosphere, it is not surprising that thirty-two percent Americans
believe that their fellow citizen Muslims are less loyal to the U.S.,
as reported in a July 2007 Newsweek Poll. Although forty percent of
those surveyed believe Muslims in the United States are as loyal to
the U.S. as they are to Islam but 46 percent of Americans said the
U.S. allows too many immigrants to come here from Muslim countries.

Besides attacks on Mosques, another impact of Islamophobia was
negative public reaction to the building of new mosques and expansion
of the existing ones. In many cases permission to build a new mosque
or expansion of the existing mosques was resisted by communities
conditioned by the anti-Islam and anti-Muslim rhetoric. In the
pre-9/11 era, there was an extensive growth of mosques and Islamic
centers that has now been arrested although in some cases building and
expansion of existing mosques has been approved despite opposition and
ligitation.

Hate Crimes and discrimination

Six year after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, American Muslims and Arabs
continue to suffer a severe wave of backlash violence. The hate crimes
included murder, beatings, arson, attacks on mosques, shootings,
vehicular assaults and verbal threats. Tucson, Arizona, mosque
vandalized twice within a span of two months. Another Arizona mosque
was attacked with acid bomb. A mosque in Rochester in New York has
been vandalized for three times this year. A Muslim home was torched
by arsonists in Florida. Surely those involved in such hate crimes
were motivated by evangelists, some politicians and anti-Muslim
elements in the media.

According to the 2007 annual report by the Council on American-Islamic
Relations' (CAIR) there were 167 reports of anti-Muslim hate crime
complaints during 2006. The CAIR report - the only annual study of its
kind - also recorded almost 25 percent increase in the number of
anti-Muslim bias incidents in 2006. The CAIR report outlines 2,467
incidents and experiences of anti-Muslim violence, discrimination and
harassment, the highest number of civil rights cases ever recorded in
its report.

There is a substantial increase in law enforcement discrimination
against American Muslims which was causing delay in citizenship
process for Arab-sounding immigrants. There were 729 complaints
related to Legal and Immigration issues during 2006. These issues
primarily involved government agencies and citizenship/naturalization
delays.

The depth of the citizenship delay problem was highlighted by the
Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHR&GJ) at the New York
University School of Law. The NYU report states: The U.S. government
is illegally delaying the naturalization applications of thousands of
immigrants by profiling individuals it perceives to be Muslim and
subjecting them to indefinite security checks. The 63-page report,
titled Americans on Hold: Profiling, Citizenship, and the " War on
Terror," documents the impact of expanded security checks on the lives
of those experiencing citizenship delays, often for years on end.

The CAIR 2007 Report release was marked with an announcement by the
CAIR Chicago office of the resolution of a citizenship delay case that
has been pending for the past five years. Despite successfully passing
his citizenship exam in 2002 and taking part in repeated interviews,
CAIR-Chicago's client had his naturalization delayed pending a
background check.

Several national human rights organizations have joined hands to help
litigate these citizenship delay cases to ensure that the legal rights
of all people are protected. According to immigrant advocates hundreds
- if not thousands - of men with Arabic-sounding or Muslim names were
experiencing endless delays in what should be the pro forma final step
of the citizenship application process. In April 2006, the
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee launched a national legal
campaign to get the government to resolve hundreds of cases. More than
40 lawyers filed lawsuits in federal courts, requesting that a judge
step in and force U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to
complete the stalled naturalization cases. In response, CIS decided it
will stop interviewing people whose FBI background checks have not
cleared.

Prominent Muslim civil rights groups are being targeted

In the post-9/11 America, Muslims are witnessing a smear campaign
against their prominent Muslim civil rights groups. Established Muslim
organizations such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations
(CAIR), the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the Muslim
Public Affairs Council (MPAC) are being targeted.

In an unusual move, prosecutors publicly named 307 individuals and
organizations as "unindicted co-conspirators" (UCCs) relating to the
Holy Land Foundation charity that was shut down in December 2001.
Among those listed are three major American Muslim organizations: the
Islamic Society of North America, the North American Islamic Trust and
the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Collectively, these groups
represent the interests and viewpoints of the mainstream American
Muslim community. Media and anti-Muslim groups are seizing this as an
opportunity to defame these organizations.

In this atmosphere it is not surprising that an award given to Basim
Elkarra, executive director of CAIR-Sacramento Valley, by Senator
Barbara Boxer was recalled later due to pressure from some right-wing
groups who claimed that CAIR has terrorist ties. Similarly, in March
this year the CAIR was forced to cancel a forum titled "Global
Attitudes on Islam-West Relations: U.S. Policy Implications," after
the right wing Washington Times accused the CAIR of refusing to
disavow terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah and the
Republicans urged House speaker Nancy Pelosi to retract permission to
use the conference room for the seminar.

While defamation campaign continues against major American
organizations, certain marginal groups were propped up by interested
individuals and organizations to replace the mainstream American
Muslim organizations. After 9/11, attempts have been made to divide
the community and establish alternate compliant American Muslim groups
in the name of moderate voices. Establishment is encouraging one such
fringe Muslim group - the Free Muslim Coalition - whose president says
that investigations of many Muslim organizations after the September
11th attacks were justified and many of them deserved to be closed.
Not surprisingly, the group was chosen to represent the U.S. and more
than six million American Muslims at the Organization for Security and
Cooperation Conference on Anti-Semitism and on Other Forms of
Intolerance held in Cordoba, Spain.

Campaign against Muslim charities

Six years after 9/11, Muslim charity organizations remain under
pressure. Two Muslim charities were closed in Dearborn, Michiga on
July 24, the day trial of the largest Muslim charity, The Holy Land
Foundation (HLF), began in Dallas. The HLF was being tried on
suspicion of tieswith the Palestinian militant group Hamas while the
two Michigan charities - the Goodwill Charitable Organization and
Al-Mabarrat Charitable Organization were suspected of having ties to
extremist groups in Lebanon. Just like the Holy Land, assets of the
two Michigan charities have been frozen.

September last year, FBI agents raided the Muslim charity Life for
Relief and Development and carted away computers and records but
charged nobody and allowed the agency to continue operating. Nearly
one year later, when the charity asked the U.S. Attorney's Office to
return nearly 200 boxes of paperwork return, the Attorney's Office
said it is willing to provide the records, but only if Life for Relief
pays copying charges of between $21,000 and $115,000. The paper work
is critical to the charity's operations, including tasks such as
filing its federal tax. These kinds of charges will be putting an
exceedingly high burden on the charity that seeks to use these funds
to help people who are facing starvation.

Since 9/11, the government has frozen the assets of six large Muslim
organizations and shut them down--although no one has been convicted
of "terrorism."

As Ramadan fast approaches, the American Muslim community fears more
measures against the Muslim charities. Last year, the US authorities
raided one of the biggest Muslim charities in the United States, the
Michigan-based Life for Relief and Development on the eve of the
beginning of the month of Ramadan. However, in meetings with the U.S.
Treasury Department's Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial
Crimes, Muslim groups failed to get absolute assurances that they
could not be prosecuted for giving to a charity that is legal today
but could be deemed a terrorist front tomorrow. Such meetings proved
no more than public relations exercise for the government.

Most people used to give 70 percent of their donations for charities
abroad and 30 percent to local causes. Now, it's the opposite, with 70
percent going to local organizations and mosques. People have begun
donating in larger numbers to local charities, assuming these
organizations to be free of international ties and safe from
government interference. Many donations are in cash in order not to
leave any paper trail.

High profile trials where charges usually don't hold up in the end

A continuing stream of high-profile trials on terrorism charges, the
allegations usually don't hold up in the end, continue to keep the
American public afraid. However, a Justice Department audit report
pointed out that federal prosecutors counted immigration violations,
marriage fraud and drug trafficking among anti-terror cases in the
four years after 9/11 despite no evidence linking them to terror
activity. Overall, nearly all of the terrorism-related statistics on
investigations, referrals and cases examined by department Inspector
General Glenn A. Fine were either diminished or inflated.

In February, Muhammad Salah, a Chicago businessman, and Abdelhallen
Ashqar, a Virginia professor, accused of furnishing money and fresh
recruits to the militant Palestinian group Hamas were acquitted by a
Chicago jury of racketeering. However they were found guilty of lesser
charges of obstructing justice. In their trial an American court for
the first time allowed the testimony of two Israeli intelligence
agents in a U.S. courtroom. Despite the use of Israeli torture, secret
evidence and former Attorney General, John Ashcroft's incitement in
the press that Mr. Salah, a US citizen, was running a "U.S.-based
terrorist-recruiting and financing cell" he was proven innocent of any
connection to terrorism in the United States or abroad.

In another high profile "terrorism" trial case, a federal judge in
June extended the contempt citation against Dr. Sami al-Arian, a
former Florida professor who has refused to testify in the
investigation into whether Islamic charities in Northern Virginia were
financing "terrorist" organizations. Though a Florida jury acquitted
him or deadlocked on all counts in 2005, the Feds kept him in prison.
Faced with a retrial, Al-Arian agreed last year to plead guilty to the
least serious charge in exchange for what was supposed to be a small
addition sentence and his deportation. But Al-Arian's nightmare
continues. First, federal Judge James Moody ignored prosecutors'
recommendations and sentenced Al-Arian to the maximum possible.
Al-Arian's release was set for April 13, 2007. Last year, Gordon
Kromberg, the assistant U.S. attorney for the eastern district of
Virginia, had Al-Arian transferred to Virginia to testify in an
investigation into a Muslim charity there -- despite an agreement with
Florida prosecutors, recorded in court transcripts, that he would be
exempt from future testimony. When he refused to testify, Al-Arian was
found guilty of civil contempt -- adding an additional 18 months onto
his sentence and opening up the possibility that the government can
keep him in prison indefinitely by extending the contempt charge,
which the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld. This was one of
the first big show post-9/11 trials in which the U.S. government has
gone out of its way to make an example of this outspoken advocate for
Palestinian rights.

The case of Bilal Yasin, a Chico, CA, market owner is another
illuminating example how the FBI tries to trap innocent Muslims in
"terrorism" cases. Bilal Abdul Yasin, his brother Muwaiia Abdulra
Yasin, 35, and a co-worker, Alberto Cabrera, 39, were arrested in
March 2005 for allegedly purchasing dozens of cartons of cigarettes
from an undercover agent with the California Department of Alcoholic
Beverage Control who said the cigarettes were stolen. However, once
they were arrested, FBI agents questioned Bilal Yasin about
connections to his Palestinian homeland, his Muslim religion, his
relationship with other Middle Eastern shopkeepers in Butte County and
whether he sent money to terrorist groups. The FBI not only provided
the initial tip that led to the ABC sting, it installed a surveillance
camera across the street from the Chico neighborhood market months
earlier. In dismissing, in July this year, the case the judge said
testimony in the case suggested the real focus of the investigation
was not about cigarettes, but the store owner's "connection to his
Palestinian homeland, his practice of the Muslim religion, and
relationship with other Middle Eastern shopkeepers in Butte County.

What is the long-term impact on Muslims of the post 9/11 configuration
of laws and government policies. Two reports best reflect on this
phenomena. A new study by Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights,
"Voices from Silence," finds that even six years after 9/11, without
exception, all of the people interviewed had either directly
experienced some kind of discriminatory or hostile act after 9/11 or
knew of people who had. A report by the USA Today pointed out that the
Arab Muslims who came to Dearborn, Michigan, eight decades ago to work
on Henry Ford's new assembly line believed their American future was
limitless but after six years on the home front in America's war on
terrorism, many of their descendants are hunkering down, covering up
and staying put. No wonder the study by the Chicago Council on Global
Affairs and Woodrow Wilson International Center found that six years
after the 9/11 attacks, US Muslims remain "largely outside the US
mainstream." Some existing Muslim American institutions have avoided
foreign policy issues for fear of drawing unfavorable scrutiny, said
the report. "There is an urgent national need for Muslims and
non-Muslims to work together to create full and equal opportunities
for civic and political participation of Muslim Americans," concluded
the one-year study.

On the positive note

On the positive note, as the Muslims respond to the post-9/11
challenges with pro-activism, several Muslims are appointed and
elected to public offices and political candidates seek support of
Muslim voters. Three Arabs have been appointed this month to official
positions in Michigan and New Jersey. Ismael Ahmed was named to lead
Michigan's Department of Human Services by Governor Jennifer Granholm.
In New Jersey, Samer Khalaf and Tawfiq Barqawi were appointed
respectively to the Executive Committee of the State of New Jersey
Human Relations Committee and the New Jersey Governor's Blue Ribbon
Advisory Panel on Immigration Policy.

In a display of their emerging political power, Muslims were two of
the top three vote-getters in last month's primary election in
Hamtramck for City Council in Michigan. Political candidates at the
state and local levels are courting voters in northern Virginia's
Muslim community. More than 70 candidates for the Virginia General
Assembly and county offices showed up recently in Reston to tout their
records and issue campaign promises to the fast-growing community. The
seventh annual "civic picnic" was organized by area mosques to
encourage area Muslims to get more involved in local politics. More
than 56,000 Muslims are registered to vote in Northern Virginia, and
last year, more than eight in 10 turned out to vote.

In a spirit of solidarity with Muslims, Alabama House and Connecticut
and Texas senates are opened with Islamic prayers. Kareem Abdullah,
Imam of the Birmingham Islamic Center, gave the opening prayer in the
Alabama House. Dr. Saud Anwar, co-chairman of the American Muslim
Peace Initiative, delivers the invocation in the Connecticut Senate.
Imam Yusuf Kavacki offered blessings from the Quran on the Texas
Senate floor. Interestingly, in a law suit to allow use of the Quran
when administering oaths, a North Carolina County judge has ruled that
any religious text can be used to swear in a witness or juror in the
state's courtrooms, not just the Bible.

American Muslims join the nation in commemorating the 6th anniversary
of this ghastly tragedy with an optimism that the state of present
anti-Muslim campaign in the name of war on terrorism will subside in
due course of time as happened during the Second World War with the
Japanese Americans who also endured similar national intolerance,
social prejudice and legal injustice.
(Abdus Sattar Ghazali is the Executive Editor of the online magazine
the American Muslim Perespective: www.amperspective.com )

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