ST. LOUIS-AREA SOMALIS FEEL INTIMIDATED BY FBI - TOP
Phillip O'Connor, Post-Dispatch, 2/3/11

On the same November day that federal authorities arrested an airport cabdriver and accused him of supporting a Somali terrorist organization, the FBI cast a wider net.

Agents descended on Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, where over two days 25 to 50 other cabdrivers, all refugees from Somalia, were summoned to the airport police office. One by one, they entered small rooms where FBI agents waited. A series of questions followed: ...

But Jim Hacking III, a legal consultant to the local chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations, believes that trust is fading. Hacking once worked closely with the FBI in its outreach efforts to Muslims. When the FBI put out a bulletin that warned al-Shabaab might try an attack in the U.S. timed to the presidential inauguration, Hacking helped the FBI with a request to locate several local Somalis.

As word of the airport interviews spread that day, some drivers called Hacking, an immigration attorney who had represented them in their citizenship cases or had sat in with them during previous voluntary FBI interviews.

Hacking tried to contact an FBI agent at the scene. Despite what he thought was a good relationship, his messages went unanswered.

At a minimum, the drivers should have had a chance to contact a lawyer, he said.

"They knew if a lawyer was there, no one would be handing over (telephone memory) cards and personal computers," Hacking said.

He believes the drivers' civil rights were violated.

"These people come from a country where you don't have the choice to deal with law enforcement," Hacking said. "You do it or you get thrown in jail. I don't know how sophisticated these people were and how free they felt in responding to pretty strong-arm tactics."

The incident left Hacking less inclined to urge cooperation.

"I take the position now, you're a fool to talk to the FBI without an attorney," he said. "I recognize they have a difficult job to do. I just think the way they are doing it is backwards. You can't build bridges at the same time you're scaring ... people." (More)

-----

CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS MAY INFLAME ISLAMOPHOBIA - TOP
Rep. Peter King to Hold House Hearings on 'Radicalization' of Muslim Americans
By Sally Steenland, American Progress, 2/3/11

Rep. Peter King (R-NY) plans to hold hearings this month in the U.S. House of Representatives on his inflammatory charges about "radicalized Muslims" in America. According to King, 80 percent of mosques in this country are controlled by radical imams--including the Long Island mosque in his district that he regularly used to visit. King also believes that Muslim Americans are unpatriotic and that they don't cooperate with law enforcement in identifying extremists in their communities.

King's blanket condemnation of a diverse religious community flies in the face of facts. According to recent statistics, Muslim-American communities have helped prevent more than one-third of Al Qaeda terrorist plots in the United States since 9/11. Furthermore, a study by Duke University and the University of North Carolina last year found that community mosques actually deter radicalization and extremism through a range of efforts such as publicly denouncing violence, confronting extremists, providing programs for youth, and cooperating with law enforcement. And a study released yesterday showed terrorist attempts by Muslim Americans significantly declined last year. The study further said tips from Muslim-American communities provided information that thwarted terrorist plots in 48 of 120 cases involving Muslim Americans.

King's slanderous talk ignores the millions of hardworking, law-abiding Muslims in this country. Muslims have been part of America since before we were a nation, have fought in every war (including the Revolutionary War), and are an integral part of the vibrant mosaic that makes us who we are. Muslim Americans participate in virtually every sector of society and engage in interfaith efforts that bring together Christians, Muslims, and Jews to work for the common good. The fact that Muslim Americans strongly denounce terrorism, prove their patriotism, and serve their communities and nation every single day has been demonstrated in ways large and small.

Yet anti-Muslim hateful speech still thrives. Anti-Muslim hate crimes are on the rise as well. Last month police in Michigan arrested a man who was planning to blow up the Islamic Center for America, located in Dearborn. The mosque had been threatened and vandalized before, as have scores of other mosques, Islamic community centers, and individuals who are Muslim American.

Such actions and hate speech are a shameful reminder of past discrimination and intolerance, when Catholics, Jews, Mormons, and others were persecuted for their beliefs. (More)

SEE ALSO:

COALITION URGES HALT TO HOUSE HEARINGS ON MUSLIM RADICALIZATION - TOP
Religious and civil rights groups say the hearings headed by Republican Rep. Peter T. King will demonize Muslim Americans. King remains unmoved.
By Richard A. Serrano, Los Angeles Times, 2/3/11

A coalition of 51 religious and civil rights groups is calling on congressional leaders to stop upcoming hearings on Muslim extremism in the U.S. or have the investigation refocused to include other hate groups.

The coalition, working with the San Francisco-based Muslim Advocates legal organization, said the March hearings led by Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, would demonize Muslim Americans and persuade many of them not to cooperate with police.

"Our first preference is for him to kibosh the whole thing," Farhana Khera, executive director of Muslim Advocates, said Wednesday. "As it is framed now, the hearings are targeting an entire faith community, and that's not a proper exercise of congressional authority."

The ranking Democrat on the panel, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson of Mississippi, wrote to King on Tuesday suggesting that he broaden the scope of the investigation to look at other violent groups, such as neo-Nazi organizations.

"In the final analysis," he told King, "the ideology of a bomb-maker matters less than the lethal effects of his creation."

But King remained unmoved. Asked whether he would respond to a letter Muslim Advocates sent to House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), King said: "I don't believe it warrants an answer ... . I am too busy preparing for the hearings." (More)

-----

ALLEN WEST'S COMMENTS ABOUT ANOTHER CONGRESSMAN'S RELIGION STIR CONTROVERSY - TOP
Jaweed Kaleem, Miami Herald, 2/3/11

Allen West has declared he's "neither anti-Muslim nor anti-Islam" in response to a group of national Jewish and Christian organizations that have called on the controversial congressman to apologize for remarks he made about a fellow member of Congress.

Leaders of the Interfaith Alliance, the Rabbinical Assembly, the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism and the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, said in a letter to the Broward Republican that he has a "tendency to offer intemperate comments about Islam" that "intensify an unsettling trend of anti-Muslim rhetoric and fear.''

The letter cites a recent interview on the Shalom Show in which West responds to a question about Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., and his Islamic religion, by saying that Ellison "represents the antithesis of the principles on which this country was established."

"We urge you not to use the prestige of your position in the U.S. House of Representatives to proselytize for one religion or demonize another," the letter says ... .

And he says his comments were not directed at Ellison's religion but his support of theCouncil on American-Islamic Relations, a national Islamic civil liberties organization that West suggests is a group that may "masquerade as more peaceful moderates."

The Palm Beach Post reported that West clashed with the South Florida director of CAIR, Nezar Hamze, at a town hall meeting in Boynton Beach on Monday. At the meeting, Hamze told the congressman that he has "consistently demonized and insulted my religion." (More)

-----

SOUTH DAKOTA CONSIDERING SHARIAH BAN - TOP
South Dakota Considering Ban on Courts Using "Foreign Religious or Moral Code"
Submitted by Brian on January 31, 2011

In states like Wyoming and South Carolina, numerous state legislators are proposing measures to limit the application of "international" or "religious" laws in the court. An amendment that "forbids courts from considering or using international law" and "Sharia Law" passed easily in 2010, only to be blocked by a federal judge.

Now, it appears South Dakota is jumping on the bandwagon. The Republican-dominated State Legislature is considering House Joint Resolution 1004, which similar to the South Carolina resolution, uses broad language and does not explicitly mention Sharia law: (More)

SEE ALSO:

ANTI-SHARIAH PROPOSAL IN ARKANSAS? - TOP
Andrew DeMillo, AP, 2/2/11

An Arkansas lawmaker proposing to bar state courts from relying on international law said Wednesday she'll rework her bill to address concerns that it would hurt businesses that work with companies from other countries. (More)

-----

FREE THE IRVINE 11 - TOP
UC Irvine suspended the Muslim Student Union after several members disrupted a speech by the Israeli ambassador. The district attorney's involvement at this stage is simply overkill.
Los Angeles Times editorial, 2/3/11

When Michael Oren, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, was invited to UC Irvine last February to speak on the subject of U.S.-Israeli relations, members of the Muslim Student Union, a campus group, decided to protest his presence. They did so by repeatedly disrupting his speech -- about a dozen times, standing up one by one to shout anti-Israel slogans until each was removed from the room.

The behavior of the students was wrong. They could have held up signs or distributed leaflets or chanted slogans outside the lecture hall, but they should not have tried to shut down the event by making it impossible for Oren to speak. Protesters have the right to voice their objections in many ways, but not to silence those they disagree with. This principle is especially important at a university, which exists, in part, to promote the free exchange of ideas.

The students were removed from the hall by police. Eleven were arrested and cited for "disturbing a public event," although they were not criminally charged at the time. After an investigation, which found that the Muslim Student Union had planned the protest and subsequently conspired to deny its involvement, university officials suspended the group for an academic quarter.

That seemed reasonable. There was some dispute over whether it was the group that should have been punished or the individuals involved, but discipline of some sort was in order. The suspension ended last month; the group remains on probation.

Now, however, as the anniversary of the Feb. 8 fracas approaches, the Orange County district attorney's office is apparently considering bringing criminal charges against the students before the deadline to do so expires. A grand jury in Orange County has been hearing testimony.

Criminal charges, however, are not appropriate. They would be overkill, a punishment out of proportion to the offense. Is it really necessary to threaten the futures of students who engaged in a nonviolent protest that didn't, ultimately, stop Oren from delivering his remarks? These students have been punished already, in an effort to make clear the difference between legitimate protest and their unacceptable actions. We hope they've learned a lesson. Now it's time to move on.