American Muslims 12 years after 9/11 - Page Four
More anti-Muslim episodes
Reverting to the plight of American Muslims in the post-9/11 America, here are few more examples:
FBI investigates vandalism at Oklahoma City mosque as potential hate crime: On April 27, Vandals spray-painted a profane message on an Oklahoma City mosque early, and the FBI was investigating it as a potential hate crime and raising questions about whether the incident was a backlash because of the Boston Marathon bombings. Oklahoma City police were initially called about 5 a.m. to the mosque by the imam of the Grand Mosque who was the first member of his congregation to see the vandalism. Vandals painted the words “Hale (sic) Satan” along with a four-letter profanity and a racial slur on the mosque's exterior.
'USA' spray-painted across Islamic center's sign: On August 28, someone spray-painted "USA" across the sign of the Islamic Center of Burlington, Massachusetts.
Du Page Not Ready to Issue Permit for Islamic School: The planners of an Islamic school just over the eastern edge of Naperville were still awaiting a permit from DuPage County, Illinois. In June, the County officials delayed vote on the Islamic school saying they seek a clarification about what a federal judge wants them to do. In March this year, Northern Illinois U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer opined that the county violated constitutional provisions protecting the group’s religious freedom, but did not discriminate against the members, most of whom hail from Iran and have lived in the Naperville-Lisle area for many years. Pallmeyer did cite the influence of local activists in the county’s decision process, however. Some opposed to the project pressed for its rejection “for reasons that suggest religious, racial, or national origin bias and prejudice,” she wrote.
Muslim development plans meet resistance in rural Maryland: Similarly, a Muslim group’s effort to move its campus from College Park to Maryland’s rural Howard County is being met with opposition from local residents, who say dense construction plans for the site would spoil the quiet character of the area. Although both sides insist that the debate turns solely on setting zoning precedent, it marks the latest in a series of disputes across the country in which locals have resisted the introduction of Islamic centers to their communities. The Maryland debate began last year, when the Dar-us-Salaam community proposed replacing its overcrowded facility. The center would be built on about 66 acres of land once home to a Catholic school. Islamic center planners initially talked about sweeping renovations to the former Catholic school, with a massive five-sided mosque and cultural center. Although opponents are vehement that their views are not based on anti-Muslim sentiment, a sensitivity to the perception of religious discrimination is never far from the discussion, according to the Washington Times.
Head scarf or hijab is considered a symbol of Islam. Muslim women wearing headscarves face job discrimination. In Hazelwood, Missouri, Gateway Metro Credit Union refused service to Adiaratou Sall because she was wearing a head scarf. Tellingly, a study by Assistant Professor Sonia Ghumman from the University of Hawaii Mānoa Shidler College of Business found that Hijabis (Muslim women who wear headscarves) encountered discrimination when seeking employment. Ghunnam conducted a field experiment to investigate the extent to which individuals wearing religious attire encounter discrimination during the hiring process. She asked students (ages 19-22) from several ethnic backgrounds to seek employment with and without the hijab (headscarf) at retail stores and restaurants in two shopping malls. According to Ghumman, the findings revealed that wearing a hijab had a negative impact in all aspects of the hiring process compared to Muslim women who did not wear a hijab. The field experiment tracked several areas of the hiring process, including the permission to complete job applications, job availability, job call backs, interaction time, and perceived negativity and lack of interest by the employer.
Closing of Muslim/Arab business bank account: The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in Michigan, which is a division of the U.S. Department of Treasury, is urged to investigate JPMorgan Chase for closing the account of Alif Arabic, an online business that teaches Arabic to non-Arabic speaking citizens. According to Alif Arabic, their business was notified by JPMorgan in a letter, dated May 30, that their account would be terminated within 10 business days, without detailing the reasons for the action. When an Alif Arabic affiliate requested clarification from the bank, they were told that an analytical tool had alerted them that the account "could pose a possible risk."
Earlier this year, the Arab-American Civil Rights League (ACRL) also asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate complaints made by local Arab American and Muslim individuals whose accounts were closed by various banking institutions, including Huntington Chase and Flag Star, without explanation.
Tellingly, complaints that Huntington Bancshares and other banks are shutting down accounts of Muslims and Arab-Americans for no apparent reason aren’t just limited to Michigan. An attorney for the Council on American-Islamic Relations-Ohio, Romin Iqbal, said that banks, including Huntington and JPMorgan Chase & Co., have taken similar steps in Ohio against similar groups. In central Ohio, the group has received about a dozen complaints over the past six months, he said. They are primarily from Arabs and Pakistanis who own gas stations, grocery stores and other small businesses. More complaints have been received in the Cleveland area, where Hindus from India also have been targets.
On July 11, the Arab-American Civil Rights League sued Huntington in U.S. District Court in Detroit, accusing the bank of discriminating against Arab-Americans and Muslims, or those who the bank thinks are Arab-American or Muslim.
The Arab-American Civil Rights League said it has received more than 100 complaints about banks closing accounts, many from small-business owners. While the group has gotten complaints about banks from as far away as California and Texas, most have been from the Detroit area and involved Huntington. A lawsuit was the only way to get answers for why the accounts were closed, because the bank won’t tell it according to the ACRL.
Bigotry/Fringe Muslim Groups: Unfortunately, there has been no shortage of blame and hatred directed at Islam and American Muslims over the past twelve years. Studies from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and the United States Department of Justice, among many others, have shown that there has been a sharp increase in anti-Muslim sentiment from politicians, an increase of anti-Muslim activity, an increase of opposition to Mosques, and an increase in the number of anti-Muslim hate groups since 9/11.
These attacks come from many different avenues: ignorant comments and ideas from politicians such as Alan Hays, a Republican state senator in Florida, likened Sharia law to a "dreadful disease" requiring vaccination to protect Americans.
In June, the American Muslim community was alarmed by Republican Congressman Mike Pompeo’s statement that the Muslims here have not condemned acts of terrorism against the U.S. and therefore are complicit in those and any future attacks. In a statement on the House floor on June 11, Kansas Congressman Pompeo said that there has been a relative silence from leaders in the Islamic community in the two months that have passed since the bombings in Boston, calling the silence ‘deafening’ and ‘dangerous.’ Listing off a number terrorist acts committed by extremists, including the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and several more recent failed plots, Pompeo blamed the leaders of the Islamic community for not doing more to prevent these actions, hinting that they could be complicit in the deaths they’ve caused. “Instead of responding, silence has made these Islamic leaders across America potentially complicit in these acts, and more importantly still, in those that may well follow. I know not all Muslims support these actions, [but] the silence in the face of extremism coming from the best funded Islamic advocacy organizations and many mosques across America is deafening,” Pompeo accused.
Surprisingly, Pompeo lauded the condemnation by Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, the founder of a fringe group known as American Islamic Forum for Democracy but he failed to notice repeated condemnation of terrorism by the major civil advocacy groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), Muslim American Society (MAS) and Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC).
The overwhelming majority of American Muslim leaders have unequivocally done so. University of North Carolina Professor Charles Kurzman has compiled a list of condemnations by Muslim leaders of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks specifically.
Naming of Muslim student to University of California board stirs controversy: In July, the University of California appointed a Muslim American woman as a student member of its governing board in a move opposed by Jewish groups that objected to her pro-Palestinian activism. Sadia Saifuddin, a 21-year-old social welfare major at the prestigious University of California at Berkeley, will become the first Muslim student member of the 26-person board of regents for a year-long term starting in 2014. Jewish groups including the prominent Simon Wiesenthal Center strongly objected to her nomination, citing her involvement in a campaign to divest university funds from companies with business connections to the Israeli military. They also objected to her sponsoring a student senate resolution that condemned a lecturer at the system's Santa Cruz campus for what the resolution said was Islamophobic rhetoric. The groups said it was Saifuddin who showed an intolerance toward opposing viewpoints. Saifuddin's supporters said she was an exemplary student who cared about students of all faiths and has worked to benefit the system as a senator in the Association of Students of the University of California and a member of the Muslim Student Association. [Reuters]
On the positive note:
Islamic school gets OK from Blaine City Council, Minnesota: In June, small Islamic school in Blaine, Minnesota, aimed at helping students memorize the Quran was allowed to continue to operate in a Blaine office building. With about 150 people in attendance, the Blaine City Council has voted 5-0 to approve a conditional-use permit for the Darul Arqam Center of Excellence. The approval means the Islamic school, which already is offering classes to a handful of students, will be allowed to stay in the building and to expand its program.
North Carolina University Muslim students get place to pray: In March, the N.C. Central University (NCCU) Women’s Center offered dedicated space for Muslim students to pray. Until recently they prayed in stairwells, empty classrooms, bustling hallways, and sometimes, campus restrooms.
NJ Church offers prayer space for Muslim community:
In March, the Second Reformed Church, in New Jersey, offered a place for Muslim students to go for their Friday prayers. Until now, the students have had to pray in some uncommon places. The Center for Islamic Life at Rutgers University, a nonprofit organization, works for the rights of the Muslim community at the University helped find this place.
Associated Press takes positive step on use of 'Islamist': At the suggestion of the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a leading Muslim civil advocacy group, the Associated Press (AP) has updated its online Stylebook about the use of the term "Islamist." The AP modified the "Islamist" reference to read: "An advocate or supporter of a political movement that favors reordering government and society in accordance with laws prescribed by Islam. Do not use as a synonym for Islamic fighters, militants, extremists or radicals, who may or may not be Islamists. Where possible, be specific and use the name of militant affiliations: al-Qaida-linked, Hezbollah, Taliban, etc. Those who view the Quran as a political model encompass a wide range of Muslims, from mainstream politicians to militants known as jihadi." [CAIR]
Abdus Sattar Ghazali is the chief editor of the Journal of America and author of Islam & Muslims in the Post-9/11 America.\
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