Category Archives: USA

‘Ayatollah of the RAF’: Mail on Sunday witch-hunts Joel Hayward

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Mail on Sunday has published an attack on Joel Hayward, dean of the Royal Air Force College at Cranwell (“Ayatollah of the RAF: Academic ‘university’ head is Muslim convert who claims Nazi gas chambers were British propaganda and criticises Libya air strikes”). The story has since been taken up by the Daily Star, under the bizarre headline “RAF pilot converts to Islam”.

The main source for the Mail‘s witch-hunt is a letter headed “The Air Force Ayatollah”, which was sent to the paper by anonymous RAF officers who would obviously rather have Robert Spencer running the college. Apparently students at Cranwell “are in fear” of expressing anti-Muslim sentiments in front of Hayward. Worst of all: “Anyone who fails to follow the line that Islam is a peace-loving religion is hauled into his office for re-education”.

The Mail concurs in finding it sinister that Hayward “has frequently challenged claims of Islamic aggressiveness”. In fact, his views on that subject are so off-the-wall that one of his articles, “The Qur’an and war: Observations on Islamic just war”, was published in the RAF’s own academic journal, Air Power Review.

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Muslim woman threatened with gun

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ann Arbor — A 21-year-old Muslim woman said she was the victim of a hate crime as she drove along State Street on Sunday morning. The woman, who wears a head scarf, or hijab, told Ann Arbor police she was in her car at the intersection of State Street and Eisenhower Parkway when a driver in a black Dodge Ram truck behind her started honking and later pulled up beside her, where he hurled insults.

“I laughed about it, honestly, because it happens so much wearing a scarf that it didn’t bug me,” said Aisha. The Detroit News is not using her last name because of her fears of retaliation. The comments, she said, included “You don’t belong here,” “You are a terrorist” and “Your people need to be killed.”

Aisha said she dialed 911 on her cellphone and when she looked back, saw that the driver was pointing a handgun at her.

The woman, a nursing student, also reported the incident to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which asked the FBI to investigate.

“No people in America, be they Christian or a part of a religious minority, should be subjected to such threats because of their religion or faith,” said Dawud Walid, executive director for CAIR Michigan. “For any individual to be taunted because of their religion and have a firearm pointed at them is a hate crime in our mind. This is an individual who’s a threat not just to Muslims, but to society at large, and they need to be apprehended.”

Detroit News, 8 August 2011

See also WXYZ, 7 August 2011

And “CAIR-MI asks FBI to probe threat against Muslim driver”, CAIR press release, 7 August 2011

ACLU fights US government’s attempt to block release of information about FBI mosque surveillance

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The ACLU of Southern California is protesting the U.S. government’s attempt to block information from being released in a lawsuit over the FBI’s monitoring of Orange County mosques.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and the Department of Justice are trying to invoke the seldom-used state secrets privilege to avoid talking about how the FBI paid at least one informant to monitor mosques in 2006. They want the judge to toss the lawsuit.

The ACLU said in a statement Friday that lawyers have filed a motion urging the court not to dismiss the case until it has ruled on whether the state secrets doctrine can properly be invoked.

In February, the ACLU and others accused the FBI of carrying out surveillance at mosques because the agency was targeting Muslims.

Associated Press, 5 August 2011

See also ACLU press release, 5 August 2011

Update:  See Hamed Aleaziz, “Want to sue the FBI for spying on your mosque? Sorry, that’s secret”, Mother Jones, 8 August 2011

N.J. Governor: ‘This Shariah law business is crap’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Thursday slammed the anti-Muslim “crazies” who have raised objections to his nomination of a Muslim lawyer to become a state Superior Court judge.

“Ignorance is behind the criticism of Sohail Mohammad,” Christie said in response to a reporter’s question at a Thursday press conference. “Sohail Mohammad is an extraordinary American who is an outstanding lawyer and played an integral role in the post-September 11th period in building bridges between the Muslim American community in this state and law enforcement.”

Critics have used the very track record Christie cited to depict Mohammad, an Indian-American, as a radical unfit for the bench. Steve Emerson’s Investigative Project on Terrorism in January derided Mohammad as a “longtime mouthpiece for radical Islamists”. Emerson traced Mohammad’s career back to his work as an immigration lawyer on behalf of Arab men who were detained after 9/11.

Christie pointed out that many people were wrongly arrested during that time, and that none of Mohammad’s post-9/11 clients were charged with crimes of terrorism. Christie added that Mohammad set up “dozens of meetings” between government and law enforcement officials and members of the Muslim-American community to build lines of trust.

A reporter asked Christie a question about Shariah law, which only fired up the governor’s frustration. “Shariah law has nothing to do with this at all. It’s crazy. It’s crazy. The guy is an American citizen … and has never been accused of doing anything but honorably and zealously acquitting the oath he took when he became a lawyer…. This Shariah law business is crap. It’s just crazy. And I’m tired of dealing with the crazies. It’s just unnecessary to be accusing this guy of things just because of his religious background…. I’m happy that he’s willing to serve after all this baloney.”

Hatewatch, 4 August 2011

Rocks thrown through window of Iowa mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

CLINTON, Iowa — Police have opened an investigation after Muslims in Clinton reported that rocks were thrown through the window of their mosque.

Anis Ansari, president of the Islamic Society of Clinton County, said Wednesday that members who arrived for evening prayers on July 22 discovered a broken window with about 17 rocks thrown through it. He says the mosque is repairing the window, which is attached to an exit door, at a cost of $1,200.

A police report shows officers from Clinton responded that night and documented the damage. The report says police are investigating the damage as criminal mischief.

Ansari says mosque members are troubled by the incident and wonder about the motivation.

The Iowa chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations on Wednesday asked the FBI to investigate.

Associated Press, 3 August 2011

See also Quad City Times, 3 August 2011

American Muslim sues employer for firing over beard

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Seattle-area Muslim man is suing his former employer, claiming he was fired as a security guard for refusing to shave the beard he wears for religious reasons.

Abdulkadir Omar, 22, filed his federal lawsuit July 15 in Seattle against Sacramento-based American Patriot Security, seeking back pay and unspecified damages for emotional pain and loss of enjoyment of life, among other reasons. “Growing up in this country, where the Bill of Rights guarantees freedom of religion, I was let down,” Omar said Thursday at a press conference.

According to the lawsuit, Omar was hired by a local manager of the security company in May 2009 and earned $9 an hour guarding a FedEx warehouse in Kent, Wash. He said he started the same day he was hired, and was not told about the clean-shaven policy.

In November 2009, a supervisor from headquarters told him he had to shave his beard because of company policy. Omar responded that his beard is part of his religious beliefs and refused. He was suspended, and then fired the following spring, the lawsuit said.

A representative from American Patriot Security declined to answer questions.

Omar filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which found that he was wrongfully terminated and had the right to sue, according to a press release by the Council for American-Islamic Relations.

“There’s no policy that can go against the law of the land,” said Arsalan Bukhari, executive director of the Washington state chapter of CAIR. “Civil Rights Act trumps any (company) policy.” Bukhari said companies need to accommodate someone’s religious beliefs unless it’s an “undue burden.”

Associated Press, 4 August 2011

See also Seattle Times, 4 August 2011

Gallup publishes poll of US Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Gallup reports: “A decade following September 11, 2001, Muslim Americans still face some public distrust and are more skeptical of law enforcement than are other U.S. faith communities. Despite these challenges, American followers of Islam are optimistic about their future, and they embrace their country’s civic institutions and religious pluralism.”

Download the Gallup survey Muslim Americans: Faith, Freedom, and the Future here.

See also Washington Post, 3 August 2011

And Christian Science Monitor, 2 August 2011

Update:  See “U.S. Muslims most likely to reject violence: poll”,Daily Star, 4 August 2011

PFAW report: The Right Wing Playbook on Anti-Muslim Extremism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

People for the American Way press release

Right-Wing extremists are leading a sustained attack against American Muslims, attempting to prevent them from freely practicing their religion, curtail their political rights, and in some cases, compel their deportation, according to a new report by People For the American Way. The report lays out how the Right Wing is using a set of specific strategies to stir up destructive fears, and as a result are putting our fundamental tradition of equality and justice at risk. The report, The Right Wing Playbook on Anti-Muslim Extremism, identifies the scare tactics used by the Right Wing to conjure up anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States and outlines some ways that concerned Americans can push back against anti-Muslim extremism.

“Right-wing activists, elected officials and even some presidential candidates have launched an overt assault on American Muslims, using a religious minority as a scapegoat for any number of national fears and frustrations,” said Michael Keegan, President of People For the American Way. “In doing so, they compromise some of our dearest national values. Anti-Muslim extremists and the political leaders who repeat their talking points are spreading baseless and destructive fears and explicitly disregarding the Constitution’s guarantee of freedom of religion and equal treatment under the law.”

The report discusses eight strategies employed by anti-Muslim activists to cast doubt on the validity of Islam as a religion and the integrity of American Muslims in order to justify prejudice and illegal discrimination:

  • Framing American Muslims as dangerous to America
  • Twisting statistics and using fake research to “prove” the Muslim threat
  • Inventing the danger of “creeping Sharia”
  • Justifying taking away freedoms and liberties from Muslims in order to “defend liberty”
  • Denying the validity of Islam as a religion
  • Arguing that Muslims have no First Amendment rights under the Constitution
  • Linking anti-Muslim prejudice to anti-Obama rhetoric
  • Slandering progressives and non-Christians as unholy and anti-American

The report is available here.