|
HEADLINES
Does the Right view Muslims as equal citizens?
By Ibrahim Hooper: Given the political right's hate-filled and hysterical response to all things Muslim, one has to ask whether American Muslims face a future in which they will no longer be treated as equal citizens. The best example of the right's campaign to deprive American Muslims of the civil liberties enjoyed by citizens of other faiths is the neo-McCarthyite response to a planned Islamic cultural center in New York City. Read More
Mosque controversy: Signs of religious intolerance?
By Dr. Habib Siddiqui: New York City is home to millions of people of all races and religions. It is probably the most ethnically diverse metropolis on earth. It is, therefore, not surprising that one will find one’s place of worship, whether it be a church, synagogue, mosque, temple or whatever in this most populous city in America. Read More
The planned Ground Zero Mosque is now a campaign issue
AMP Report: The planned ground zero mosque – the Cordoba House - has become a full-fledged campaign issue — just days after a Quinnipiac University survey of 1,183 New York City registered voters found that most New Yorkers are opposed to it. Read More
UC Irvine MSU appeals draconian suspension
AMP Report: The Muslim Student Union (MSU) at the University of California, Irvine, has filed an appeal to the recommendation by the Senior Executive Director of Student Housing to revoke the student group's charter for one year, following allegations that the MSU violated sections of University policy. The allegations arose as a result of the appearance of Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren for a UCI-sponsored event in February. During the event, eight UC Irvine students stood up and protested against Israeli policies which deprive Palestinians of their human rights. Read More
Israel's Latest Violation
American Muslim groups hope flotilla raid could lead to end of Gaza blockade
AMP Report: Prominent American Muslim groups hope that the Israeli raid on the Gaza-bound aid flotilla will pressure Israel to end its blockade against Gaza. "No human being in the 21st century should have to be subjected to medieval tactics, like in the old days of surrounding the castle and starving the people out," Imam Mahdi Bray, executive director of the Muslim American Society, to a press conference in Washington DC. Israel's May 31 attack on the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara ship traveling in international waters and carrying humanitarian supplies for Gaza killed at least nine people, including Furkan Dogan, a Turkish-American who was struck by five bullets. Read More
Frustrated hopes?
Al Ahram: One year after US President Barack Obama's historic speech at Cairo University, hopes of change are giving way to disappointment in the Arab and Muslim world, reports Gihan Shahine of the Al Ahram Weekly.. Read More
US-Muslim relations one year after Obama’s Cairo speech
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: One year after President Obama’s widely-publicized speech in Cairo, Muslims remained skeptical about his administrations’ core policies towards the Muslim world, particularly the Arab-Israeli dispute. While Obama should be congratulated on his efforts to change the discourse of US policy towards the Muslim world, it is clear that people expect more than new policy statements from him. Read More
A Muslim Response to 'Draw Muhammad Day'
By Nihad Awad: In reaction to the recent controversy over a depiction of Islam's Prophet Muhammad in an episode of Comedy Central's "South Park," a Seattle cartoonist apparently declared May 20th to be "Everybody Draw Muhammad Day." Despite the cartoonist's and the Facebook page creator's seemingly sincere attempts to distance themselves from the fake event, Muslim-bashers and Islamophobes made sure the call to "draw Muhammad" went viral on the Internet. They are hoping to offend Muslims, who are generally sensitive to created images of the Prophet Muhammad or any prophet. Read More
Alarming rise in hate crimes against American Muslims
AMP Report: Recent weeks have witnessed a dramatic increase in violent acts against Arab and Muslim Americans. These incidents involve acts of domestic terrorism, vandalism, intimidation, and discriminatory campaign tactics. Read More
Botched New York car-bombing: American Muslims fear backlash
AMP Report: In the wake of an arrest of a Pakistani American, Faisal Shahzad, as the suspect behind the failed Times Square bombing plot, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has assured the Muslim community that any backlash against them will not be tolerated. "We will not tolerate any bias or backlash against Pakistani or Muslim New Yorkers," he said. Fearing a backlash, major American Muslim organizations hastily held a news conference in Washington DC, on Tuesday, saying that the alleged actions of the Pakistani-American suspect are not representative of the nation's Muslim community. They also urged the fellow citizens not to allow the incident to be exploited to advance growing anti-Islam sentiment. Read More
Arizona Immigration law legalizes racial profiling
AMP Report: American Arab and Muslim civil rights advocacy groups have joined other organizations, such as the American Civil Liberties Union, the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund and the South Asian Network, in condemning the signing of Arizona Senate State Bill 1070 into law by Governor Jan Brewer. The draconian measure allows law enforcement agencies to detain anybody "if there is reason to suspect they are illegal immigrants," and requires legal immigrants to carry paperwork proving their status at all times. Read More
Civil rights groups question fairness of Syed Fahad Hashmi’s trial
AMP Report: Amnesty International USA, the Center for Constitutional Rights and the Council on American-Islamic Relations have expressed serious concerns about the trial of Syed Fahad Hashmi who trial is scheduled for April 28 on charges relating to material support for terrorism. In an open letter, the human rights organizations discussed Hashmi's severe conditions of confinement over the last three years in which he has awaited trial under Special Administrative Measures (SAM) and the impact of these conditions on his mental health and his ability to effectively participate in his own defense. Read More
Islamophobia – now in American Children’s Textbooks?
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: As if the adult media’s vitriol wasn’t enough, the seven-million strong American Muslim community, is now being faced by the alarming publication of a series of ‘children's books’, containing misleading and inflammatory rhetoric about the Islamic faith. The 10-book series - entitled the "World of Islam," – is published by Mason Crest Publishing in collaboration with the Philadelphia-based pro-Israel and pro-war Foreign Policy Research Institute. Anti-Islamic sentiment pervades the entire series, portraying Muslims as inherently violent and deserving suspicion. It encourages young readers to believe Muslims are terrorists, who seek to undermine US society. Read More
AMV peace convention draws large crowd
American Muslim Voice (AMV) held its 2010 peace convention on March 20, 2010 at the Muslim Community Association hall in Santa Clara, CA. Judge LaDores Cordell was the keynote speaker at the convention that drew large crowd from near and far towns. This year’s convention theme was From Fear to Friendship: Replacing the culture of despair, division and violence with a culture of hope, inclusion and peace. Read More
Alarming rise in the number of anti-government, anti-immigrant extremist groups
AMP Report: The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has reported an alarming rise in the number of American anti-government militia and anti-immigrant groups which remained largely dormant since their heyday in the mid-1990s. The number of extremist groups exploded in 2009 as “militias and other groups steeped in wild, antigovernment conspiracy theories exploited populist anger across the country and infiltrated the mainstream,” according to the SPLC annual report titled: “Year in Hate and Extremism.” Read More
USA PATRIOT Act extended through backdoor
President Obama, on February 27, 2010, signed into law a one-year extension to provisions of the controversial USA Patriot Act that were set to expire on February 28. The extended provisions include those that: (1) Authorize a secret court to approve roving wiretaps that permit surveillance on multiple phones. (2) Authorize a secret court to approve seizure of records and property in anti-terrorism operations. (3) Permit surveillance against "lone wolf" targets (a non-citizen suspected of being engaged in terrorism without being a part of a recognized terrorism group). No amendments to restrict the government's ability to spy on Americans were passed. Read More
Reinforcing prejudice, stereotyping
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) cadets used props portraying stereotypically-dressed Muslim men in a February 20 exercise held just two blocks from a mosque used by students at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. One cut-out prop depicted a man crouched behind a sheep, while the other represented a man standing behind an oil barrel. The practice highlights a disturbing Islamophobic trend demonizing Islam and equating Muslims with 'the enemy.' The depiction of a Muslim man in traditional Arab clothing hiding behind a sheep and an oil barrel is a stereotype that portrays all Arabs as being enemies of the state. Read More
Fresh attempt to destroy national American Muslim organizations
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: In a fresh attempt to destroy the national American Muslim civil advocacy groups, the Dallas Morning News (DMN) has published an article smearing the largest Muslim American organization, Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). The DMN article written by Brooks Egerton under the title “U.S. torn over whether some Muslims pose threat or offer insight” resorted to half-truths and twisted facts to smear the ISNA. The article also tried to link ISNA with terrorism through guilt by association. It attempted to project ISNA as an arm of a foreign organization, the Muslim Brotherhood. Read More
On guilty verdict of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui
AMP Report: A jury in New York has found Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, the Pakistani neuroscientist once dubbed by the US media as Al-Qaeda Lady, guilty of attempted murder charges on all seven counts listed in the complaint against her. She was tried on charges of trying to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan when she was arrested in the town of Ghazni with notes indicating plans to attack the Statue of Liberty and other New York landmarks. Read More
TSA tells Muslim traveler hijab now triggers security checks
New TSA screening rules amount to profiling
AMP Report: American Muslim and Arab civil rights and advocacy organizations have described the new security measures announced by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) amount to profiling of Muslims. Read More
No positive change for American Muslims in 2009
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: President Obama's good gestures and public policy measures have little positive impact on the restoration of civil rights of American Muslims curtailed since 9/11. The year 2009 brought no positive change to alleviate the plight of the seven-million strong American Muslim community which remains victim of guilt by association. Read More
US Muslims & Media...Lost Love
By Dina Rabie: The Muslim community remains poles apart from the media industry in post- 9/11 America, where a severely negative image about Islam and Muslims is being projected by many media outlets in the absence of a clear Muslim media voice. Media professionals agree that in the aftermath of the 9/11 attack, the US media put much focus on Muslims, estimated between 7-8 millions. Read More
American-Islamic group alerted FBI to missing students
AMP Report: The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) played a key role in alerting U.S. authorities about five young Americans who were arrested in Pakistan on suspicion of attempting to join militant groups after going missing from the United States. The five lived in Northern Virginia. The incident provoked deep concern in the Muslim community about the existence of homegrown extremism among Muslim American youth. Read More
The Status of American Muslims’ Civil Rights in 2009
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: The seven-million strong American Muslim community continued to face barriers to their full and equal participation in American society while certain individuals and institutions persisted in profiting by smearing Islam, says the 2009 CAIR report on the status of American Muslims. American Muslims continued to fear profiling, surveillance and undue scrutiny by law enforcement and other authorities, the report said adding: “The government’s ability to conduct surveillance without adequate oversight or control has expanded and shows no immediate sign of contracting.” The report was alluding to the Attorney General’s Guidelines issued in the waning days of Bush Administration and adopted by the Obama administration. Read More
The Politics of Minaret
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: The seven-million strong American Muslim community has received the ban on Minarets in Switzerland with alarm and dismay. The referendum is seen as part of a recent disturbing trend in Europe to restrict the religious freedom and self-expression of religious and ethnic minorities, notably of Muslims. Read More
A rejoinder to “The 500 most influential Muslims of the world”
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: The Amman, Jordan-based Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre in collaboration with the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at the Georgetown University, Washington DC, has issued a list of 500 most influential Muslims in the world. Read More
Islam in America chronology
More Headlines
Disclaimer and Fair Use Notice: Many articles on this web site are written by independent individuals or organizations. Their opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the American Muslim Perspective and its affiliates. They are put here for interest and reference only. More details
This web site is powered by Eagle Enterprises, P. O. Box 579003 Modesto CA 95357
|
