Category Archives: State Oppression

Homeland Security apologizes for strip-searched Muslim woman in Tampa

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Homeland Security Department apologized to a Muslim woman who was detained at Tampa International Airport in April and strip searched at a county jail.

Safana Jawad, 45, a Spanish citizen who was born in Iraq, was detained on April 11 because of a suspected tie to a suspicious person, authorities said. Jawad was taken to jail, strip searched and held for two days before being deported to England.

Jawad filed a complaint and the agency apologized on Dec. 8. “On behalf of the Department of Homeland Security, I offer you my sincere apology for having to undergo a strip search,” wrote Timothy J. Keefer, acting chief counsel for the department’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.

Associated Press, 29 December 2006

Another non-terrorist imprisoned

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Taliban Fanatic...“A Halifax man with extreme Islamic beliefs has been jailed for four years. Rizwan Mahmood Ditta, 29, of Royd Terrace, Savile Park, supported the Taliban and the July 7 London bombings, a court heard. He admitted two offences under the Terrorism Act.

“Ditta, an English tutor for Asians in Halifax, would have been keen to take part in terrorist activity, said prosecutor Jonathan Sharp. Video footage found in his possession, showed military vehicles being blown up and audio messages encouraging terrorism.

“Ditta was arrested when counter-terrorism officers raided his Halifax home in January. He was charged with two counts of having data on a computer hard drive that contained information likely to be useful to a person preparing an act of terrorism.”

Halifax Courier, 18 December 2007

An accompanying editorial describes Ditta as having engaged in “a subtle type of terrorism” and observes: “Some may feel the sentence is lenient for a person described as supporting the Taliban and the London bombings on 7/7.”

Some, on the other hand, may note that Ditta didn’t actually engage in any form of terrorism at all, “subtle” or otherwise, nor did the prosecution present any evidence that he intended to do so. He was charged on the basis of downloading material from the internet.

As for the supposed “leniency” of the four-year prison sentence, some may wish to contrast that with the two-and-half-years that BNP member Robert Cottage received after being convicted of possessing explosives.

To believe in a European utopia before Muslims arrived is delusional

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“It has become a Europe-wide habit to refer to Muslims in particular and migrants in general as though they are barbarians who must either be civilised or banished, before they pollute the egalitarian societies in which they were either born or now live. Lacking all sense of humility, self-awareness and historical literacy, Europe’s political class acts as though these communities not only manifest homophobia, sexism, antisemitism, political violence and social unrest, but also as though they invented them and introduced them to an otherwise utopian continent….

“Herein lies the problem with Enlightenment values, as they have been promoted in recent years. The values are fine. But those who champion them most fervently also do so most selectively. They embrace Muslim women campaigning against sexism, but ignore those fighting racism, Islamophobia or war. They attack Muslim fundamentalist homophobes on housing estates, but align themselves with Christian fundamentalist homophobes in the White House. They demand secularism and assimilation, but view every action by Muslims and immigrants as essentially foreign or religious.”

Gary Younge in the Guardian, 10 December 2007

Woman nicknamed ‘lyrical terrorist’ escapes jail sentence

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A 23-year-old former Heathrow airport worker who stored military manuals and wrote poems celebrating the beheading of non-believers avoided prison yesterday. Samina Malik, who called herself the “lyrical terrorist”, was the first woman convicted under section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000 of possessing records likely to be useful in terrorism.

At the Old Bailey yesterday, Judge Peter Beaumont, the recorder of London, sentenced her to nine months’ prison, suspended for 18 months, and ordered her to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work. “In my judgment your offence is on the margin of what this crime concerns,” he told Malik. He said she was of previously good character and from a “supportive and law-abiding family who are appalled by the trouble that you are in”.

Inayat Bunglawala, of the Muslim Council of Britain, welcomed the decision to suspend the sentence. “Samina Malik was being prosecuted in effect for a thought crime because she had downloaded some material from the internet which anyone could download.”

Guardian, 7 December 2007

Muslims ‘criminalised for silly thoughts’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Abdul Bari at TUCYoung Muslims are being convicted of thought crimes and branded as terrorists for life, the country’s most prominent Islamic leader has told The Times.

Muhammad Abdul Bari said police and prosecutors were criminalising youths for harbouring “silly thoughts” and were undermining Gordon Brown’s £400 million drive to win Muslim hearts and minds. Dr Bari, Secretary-General of the Muslim Council of Britain, was commenting ahead of the sentencing today of Samina Malik, a shop assistant who styled herself as “the lyrical terrorist”, wrote poetry in praise of beheadings and joined extremist internet forums.

Dr Bari told The Times: “Many young people download objectionable material from the internet, but it seems that if you are a Muslim then this could lead to terrorist charges, even if you have absolutely no intention to do harm to anyone else. Samina’s so-called poetry was certainly very offensive but I don’t believe that this case should really have been a criminal matter. Young people may well have some silly thoughts. That should not be criminalised. It is their actions that we should be concerned about.” He said that if police were concerned about Malik they should have placed her under surveillance and detained her if she was involved in “actual terror-related activity”.

Dr Bari added: “Instead, she was prosecuted for what can only be termed really as a thought crime. This should not be of concern just to Muslims, but to all in our society who care about natural justice. Her conviction raises a lot of deeply worrying questions about Section 58 of the Terrorism Act and just how incredibly broad its scope is.”

He contrasted the stance taken by the police in cases like Malik’s with Gordon Brown’s antiradicalisation initiatives in schools, mosques and youth groups. The Prime Minister spoke in his security statement last month about mentoring programmes, roadshows and other methods to “isolate extremists”.

Dr Bari said that Malik’s conviction and other cases could prove counter-productive. He added: “It is certainly sensible for the Government to work with Muslim groups to counter extremist propaganda. This is, we have been told often, part of a ‘hearts and minds’ campaign directed at young British Muslims, but it is difficult to see how Samina’s conviction can do anything other than impair this effort.”

Times, 6 December 2007

Muslim woman sues for being forced to remove headscarf in US jail

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Jameelah MedinaA Muslim woman arrested for riding a commuter train without a valid ticket has filed a federal lawsuit in the United States, claiming her religious freedom was violated when she was forced to remove her headscarf when she was taken to jail.

Jameelah Medina also said she was intimidated by a deputy who accused her of being a terrorist and called Islam an “evil” religion, according to the suit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

The suit names the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department and Deputy Craig Roberts of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

After determining her ticket was invalid, the officers told her to get off at the next station, where a deputy would be waiting for her. Roberts handcuffed Medina, put her in the back of a police car and began driving her to a jail.

During the ride, Roberts berated Medina and Islam, according to the suit. Roberts “accused Medina of being a terrorist and supporting terrorism. He stated that Muslims are evil … and that the United States was in Iraq at God’s direction to squash evil,” read the suit.

At the West Valley Detention Center in San Bernardino, Medina was forced to remove her headscarf despite several attempts to explain to a female deputy why she wore it, the suit said.

After several hours, Medina was released without being charged or fined, her lawyer said.

Associated Press, 6 December 2007

See also ACLU press release, 6 December 2007

Mistrial in Muslim air force guard case

Posted on by Bob Pitt

GREENBELT, Md. — A federal judge declared a mistrial Monday in the case of a former Andrews Air Force Base security guard accused of failing to include his Muslim name on a background check to hide his ties to an outspoken Washington imam and mosque. U.S. District Judge Deborah Chasanow made the ruling after jurors failed to reach a verdict for Darrick Michael Jackson after two days of deliberations. Jackson, 37, of Washington, was charged with making a false statement for not listing “Abdul-Jalil Mohammed” as an alias on the federal form he was required to fill out in 2005. He could have been sentenced to five years in prison if convicted.

Jackson’s defense was that he did not know he had to include his religious name for the background check he needed to work at the suburban Washington base, which is home to Air Force One. His attorney accused the government of going after the security guard for religious and political reasons. Jackson reacted to the judge’s decision by thanking God. “I didn’t do anything on purpose,” he said. “I don’t think I should be here.”

Associated Press, 4 December 2007

The politics of the veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Politics of the Veil“‘A kind of aggression’. ‘successor to the Berlin Wall’. ‘lever in the long power struggle between democratic values and fundamentalism’. ‘An insult to education’. ‘A terrorist operation’. These descriptions – by former French President Jacques Chirac; economist Jacques Attali; and philosophers Bernard-Henri Lévy, Alain Finkielkraut and André Glucksmann – do not refer to the next great menace to human civilization but rather to the Muslim woman’s headscarf, which covers the hair and neck, or, as it is known in France, the foulard islamique.”

Laila Lalami reviews Joan Wallach Scott’s recently published book The Politics of the Veil.

The Nation, 21 November 2007

LA police chief scraps Muslim mapping

Posted on by Bob Pitt

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton said Thursday a plan to map out where Muslims lived had been scrapped, saying strong reaction from Muslim communities forced the department to change course. “The proposal will not be moving forward,” Bratton said, standing with several Muslim leaders after a closed-door meeting. “It’s dead on arrival.”

Muslim groups praised the move, but said reversing the damage would take a long time. “We hope to receive a written statement from the chief on the demise of the plan, and a recognition of the pain it caused in our communities,” said Shakeel Syed, executive director of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California. “We’ll also wait to get new ideas of engagement from the chief.”

Deputy Chief Michael P. Downing announced last week that the department’s counterterrorism bureau planned to identify Muslim enclaves to determine which might be likely to become isolated and susceptible to “violent, ideologically based extremism.”

The plan was immediately and roundly criticized by Muslim and civil rights groups who said it amounted to religious profiling. Many argued it would achieve the opposite of its intent, making Muslims hesitant to work with authorities. “My first mistake was not reaching out to more groups” before announcing the plan, Downing said.

Associated Press, 16 November 2007

Stand by for a denunciation of the LAPD at Dhimmi Watch.