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Muslim American News Briefs, June 13, 2007

June 2007 News Links

June 2007 News Photos

 June 2007 Opinion Editorial Links

* Verse: Patiently Persevere
* CAIR-MD/VA: 3-Year-Old Child of VA Muslim Citizen Barred from U.S.
* VA: Court Rules Against Indefinite Terror Lockups (AP)
            - NY: Government's Handling of Muslims Protested
* Pew Report: Interpreting Statistics or Rushing to Judgment?
* MI: Muslim Women Return to Head Scarves (Free Press)
            - MI: Wearing Hijab Affects Woman's Husband (Free Press)
            - IL: Mosque Evolves to Traditional Islam (Herald Review)
* Video: Baghdad Morgue Overflowing with Bodies
* Settlers Desecrate Graves in West Bank (AP)

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VERSE OF THE DAY: PATIENTLY PERSEVERE - TOP

"So patiently persevere (in adversity), for surely the promise of God is true. And do not let those, who themselves have no certainty of faith, shake your firmness."

The Holy Quran, 30:60

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3-YEAR-OLD CHILD OF MUSLIM CITIZEN BARRED FROM U.S. - TOP
CAIR-MD/VA asks officials to expedite family reunification

(HERNDON, VA, 6/12/07) - The Maryland and Virginia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MD/VA) today called on immigration officials to explain why a three-year-old child of a father who is a U.S. citizen and a mother who is a permanent resident is being denied entry to this country.

CAIR-MD/VA representatives say the child has been denied entry to the United States for the past two years. They suspect the denial may be related to the child's name, "Ahmed Yasinne," which is similar to that of a Palestinian leader assassinated by Israel.

The child's father, who lives in Falls Church, Va., came to the United States from Morocco in 1997 after winning the U.S. immigration lottery. He became a citizen in 2005. His wife was granted permanent residence status in 2006. For the past two years, the child has been living with an aunt in Morocco while the immigration approval process has been stalled.

Many Muslims say they are facing similar issues with the slow pace of immigration name checks.

A recent article in Arizona's East Valley Tribune stated: "Although government officials say the name checks do not target people of certain races or religions, many in the Muslim community feel theirs are the majority of the names that produce 'hits' in the database. Immigration lawyers say the bulk of their clients who come seeking legal assistance because of security checks are of Middle Eastern descent."

SEE: Red Tape Snags ID Checks
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/91297

"We call on relevant government officials to explain why this child remains separated from his parents and to expedite the reunification process," said CAIR-MD/VA Civil Rights Manager Morris Days. He says the parents are devastated by the forced separation from their child.

CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, has 33 offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada. Its mission is to promote justice, enhance the understanding of Islam, and empower American Muslims.

CONTACT: CAIR-MD/VA Civil Rights Manager Morris Days, Tel: 703-689-3100, 703-599-6492; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail: ihooper@cair.com; CAIR Communications Coordinator Rabiah Ahmed, 202-488-8787 or 202-439-1441, E-Mail: rahmed@cair.com; CAIR Communications Coordinator Amina Rubin, 202-488-8787, E-Mail: arubin@cair.com

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VA: COURT RULES AGAINST INDEFINITE TERROR LOCKUPS - TOP
Associated Press, 6/12/07
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-usterr125252666jun12,0,2416938.story

The Bush administration cannot use new anti-terrorism laws to keep U.S. residents locked up indefinitely without charging them, a divided federal appeals court said yesterday.

The ruling was a harsh rebuke of one of the central tools the administration believes it has to combat terror.

"To sanction such presidential authority to order the military to seize and indefinitely detain civilians, even if the president calls them 'enemy combatants,' would have disastrous consequences for the constitution - and the country," the court panel said.

In the 2-1 decision, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel found that the federal Military Commissions Act doesn't strip Ali al-Marri, a legal U.S. resident, of his constitutional rights to challenge his accusers in court. It ruled the government must allow al-Marri to be released from military detention.

The government intends to ask the full 4th Circuit to hear the case, Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said.

"The President has made clear that he intends to use all available tools at his disposal to protect Americans from further al-Qaida attack, including the capture and detention of al-Qaida agents who enter our borders," Boyd said in a statement.

Al-Marri has been held in solitary confinement in the Navy brig in Charleston, S.C., since June 2003. The Qatar native has been detained since his December 2001 arrest at his home in Peoria, Ill., where he moved with his wife and five children a day before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to study for a master's degree at Bradley University.

"This is a landmark victory for the rule of law and a defeat for unchecked executive power," al-Marri's lawyer, Jonathan Hafetz, said in a statement. "It affirms the basic constitutional rights of all individuals - citizens and immigrants - in the United States." (MORE)

SEE ALSO:

NY: GOVERNMENT'S HANDLING OF MUSLIMS PROTESTED - TOP
Syracuse Post-Standard, 6/12/07
http://www.syracuse.com/articles/news/index.ssf?/base/news-9/118163902889200.xml&coll=1

A handful of protesters stood outside the federal building Monday afternoon to highlight the no-contest resolution for U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales before the Senate and the Justice Department's actions against Muslims in general.

Eight people held signs accusing local U.S. Attorney Glenn Suddaby of politicizing the Justice Department.

Madis Senner, a protester, said the arrest and conviction of Dr. Rafil Dhafir, who founded a charity to aid Iraqi children, was unreasonable.

Senner said he hopes the attention on Gonzales will make lawmakers take a closer look at the types of cases being prosecuted.

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INTERPRETING STATISTICS OR RUSHING TO JUDGMENT? - TOP
Sylvester Brown Jr., St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 6/12/07
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/columnists.nsf/sylvesterbrownjr/story

/DCA491BBF55F737C862572F8000FDFBC?OpenDocument

I'm usually one of the first to defend MSMers (mainstream media people) when conservative pundits label us irresponsible, sloppy or dangerous. After reading commentaries about a recent Pew Research Center study, I have to admit those pundits may have a legitimate gripe - at least in this case.

At first glance, Pew's study, "Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream," reveals a positive portrayal of our Muslim countrymen. Most reject "Islamic extremism" and believe that Muslims in the U.S. should adopt American customs.

Good news, right? Dr. Ghazala Hayat, a professor of neurology at St. Louis University, certainly thinks so: "It was a positive study, showing that most Muslims here are well-integrated and believe in the American dream."

Hayat is the past president of St. Louis' Interfaith Partnership and was the first woman to head the Islamic Foundation of Greater St. Louis.

Unfortunately, several writers offered a more ominous interpretation. Syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker admitted that most U.S. Muslims have assimilated but warned that "more than a few … think suicide bombings are justified."

New York Post writers Douglas Montero and Andy Soltis warned in a story headlined "Time Bombs in our Midst" that "one out of four young U.S. Muslims believe suicide bombings against innocent civilians are OK."

Washington Times columnist Diana West urged readers not to "ignore a dangerous percentage" of young Muslims who approve of "skin-ripping, skull-crushing, organ-piercing violence in civilian life as a religious imperative."

Hold up a minute. Let's take a closer look. The survey asked more than 1,000 respondents if suicide bombings and other forms of violence against civilians were justified to defend Islam from its enemies. "Never justified" was the answer given by 69 percent, while 11 percent said "rarely" and 15 percent answered "often/sometimes."

Critics jumped on the combined 11 and 15 percent numbers, arguing that more than a quarter of young U.S. Muslims support killing civilians.

Is it feasible to believe that some U.S. Muslims, like other Americans, believe in the idea of casualties of war? Last year, the University of Maryland released the findings of polls conducted concurrently with Americans and Iranians. When asked whether bombings and other attacks "intentionally aimed at civilians" are justified, 27 percent of Americans said "rarely," 24 percent said "sometimes" and 19 percent answered "often."

By the way, 80 percent of the Iranians polled said such attacks were "never justified."

Funny, I don't remember panicked commentaries denouncing our cavalier attitude toward the death of Muslim civilians. (MORE)

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MI: A RETURN TO TRADITION - TOP
More Muslim women in metro Detroit defy stares and prejudice by wearing head scarves
Niraj Warikoo, Free Press, 6/12/07
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070612/NEWS05/7061

20343/0/SPORTS18

At 19, Sandra Jawad decided she wanted to wear an Islamic head scarf. Her mother's response: a long lecture on how that could draw prejudice and limit her career options. "She told me, it's going to be hard. ... It'll make things difficult," Jawad said, recalling a four-hour talk with her mom in their Dearborn home last July.

Jawad eventually convinced her family to let her wear the head scarf. And six months later, her 44-year-old mother began wearing one, too, spurred by her daughter's religious awakening.

The two are part of the growing number of Muslim women in Michigan choosing to wear the head scarves, known as hijab, with many donning them at increasingly younger ages.

The upswing is driven by increased attendance at local mosques and Islamic schools, where clerics often describe hijab as the flag of Islam.

And the local trend mirrors an increased use of hijab among women in the Middle East and Europe, where Islamic beliefs in Muslim communities have intensified. In the past, women often waited until reaching their teenage years or middle age before putting on hijab, but now, even elementary school-age children are wearing them.

The changes represent a fundamental shift in how Muslim youth identify themselves. But it comes with a price.

Some "look at us, smirk, stick out their tongues or shout out the window, 'Why do you have that on?'" said Arrwa Mogalli, 29, of Dearborn, who has worn hijab since she was 11. "You have nuns totally covered ... and no one questions it. But when a Muslim does it, we're from outer space."

Flip through Fordson High School yearbooks and you'll see a marked change. In 1990, only seven seniors at the Dearborn school wore hijab in their class photos. That's less than 5% of the female students in the senior class of a public school with a student body that's at least 85% of Arab descent.

In the class of 2006, 78 are wearing hijab -- 40% of the women in the class. (MORE)

SEE ALSO:

MI: WEARING HIJAB AFFECTS WOMAN'S HUSBAND, TOO - TOP
Niraj Warikoo, Free Press, 6/12/07
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070612/NEWS05/706120405/1007

Her mother, grandmother, and all her aunts had never worn hijab. And for the first 44 years of her life, neither did Sandra Amen-Bryan, a third-generation American living in Dearborn.

But with the anti-Muslim backlash after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks weighing on her mind, Amen-Bryan decided to put on a head scarf in November 2003 on Eid, an Islamic holy day that marks the end of Ramadan. When in public, she's kept it on ever since.

"I was not going to blend into the background," said Amen-Bryan, 48. "I was going to stand up and say, 'This is who I am, this is who I'm proud of, and this is what I'm willing to struggle for.' "

But the decision strained her 15-year marriage to a Christian-raised man.

For most of her life, Amen-Bryan wasn't particularly religious and had rarely attended mosques with her husband.

So when he came home one day from work to see her wearing hijab, "I thought it was a joke, that she was playing around," recalled her husband, Keith Bryan. "To have that dramatic change was quite shocking."

Bryan, who sees himself as more spiritual than overtly religious, wondered what friends and family would think.

I felt "kind of spinned off into a different life," Bryan said. "She's going this way, and I'm headed this way. ... There was an uncertainty: 'What does that mean for our relationship?' "

Amen-Bryan's decision came after months of internal debate in which she wrestled with questions about the meaning and purpose of life. The grandchild of Lebanese immigrants, she was attending more mosque events and associating more with religious women.

"The defining moment for me came when I realized how much legislation had been developed and passed and how much this administration was trying to convince the population that Islam is the enemy," said Amen-Bryan, a mental health therapist. "And the more I saw that Islam was being demonized in the media, the question I put to myself was, ... 'Are you going to take a stand?'" (MORE)

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IL: DECATUR'S MOSQUE EVOLVES - TOP
Sheila Smith, Decatur Herald Review, 6/12/07
http://www.herald-review.com/articles/2007/06/12/life//1024049.txt

"In the name of Allah, most merciful" were the chants heard inside the Masjid Wali Hasan Islamic Center.

A place that has brought two factions of Muslims - blacks and those from the Middle East - together for worship.

During a recent service at the local mosque, more than 20 men, some wearing the traditional scull cap, bowed and prayed several times.

A few of the male children stood behind them, and a handful of women and girls formed a line behind the boys; everyone bowed and prayed at the same time.

But for those who remember, the mosque evolved during a time of uncertainty as the country was still winding down from the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.

In 1972, a black man named John Mohammad came to Decatur from Chicago, remembered Ramon Portee, one of the founding members of the mosque.

Portee said he ran into Mohammad and some other men on the street and was invited to a meeting they had. He found out they were with the Nation of Islam under the leadership of Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

"The brothers had shiny heads, shiny faces, wore bow ties and asked me to hear them speak over on Oakland Street," Portee said. (MORE)

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VIDEO: BAGHDAD MORGUE OVERFLOWING WITH BODIES IN COURTYARD - TOP
David Edwards and Muriel Kane, Raw Story, 6/11/07
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Baghdad_morgue_overflowing_with_bodies_in_0611.html

On Sunday, CNN showed bodies laid out in an Iraq courtyard for wailing relatives to reclaim, reporting that "for over a year, there's been little or no room in Baghdad's morgues."

The "surge" plan did appear to be reducing sectarian killings in March and April, as the militias laid low, but now, as reported by the Washington Post in late May, the number of murders is nearly back to pre-surge levels. Almost 750 bodies were found last month, many of them showing signs of torture.

An Iraqi police colonel explained to CNN that "the killings will continue as long as the security forces remain on the outskirts of neighborhoods. Few Iraqi police dare to enter inside the most dangerous areas."

The US military describes the increase in murders as a "spike," saying that overall levels of violence are lower since the surge. However, the report concludes, with "only a quarter of the capital under control, it's difficult to see how increased troops on the ground will consistently reduce sectarian violence."

The following video is from CNN, broadcast on June 10.

Video: http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Baghdad_morgue_overflowing_with_bodies_in_0611.html

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JEWS DESECRATE GRAVES IN WEST BANK - TOP
Ben Hubbard, Associated Press, 6/12/07
http://www.contracostatimes.com/nationandworld/ci_6117033

A Palestinian mayor called Monday for the end of pilgrimages by Jewish groups to a holy site in his West Bank village after Muslim graves were desecrated there last week.

Ahmed Bouzia, mayor of Kifl Hares in the northern West Bank, said villagers discovered the desecration Friday morning after 1,300 Jewish pilgrims came there to pray with Israeli army protection the night before. Nine tombstones were damaged, he said some broken and others bearing graffiti such as "Death to Arabs" and "Revenge."

Israel Edri, spokesman for the pilgrims group, criticized the desecration, adding that members of his group saw some suspicious people in the cemetery but were unable to catch them. They could have been settlers who sneaked in with the group or even Palestinians, Edri said.

Since February, there have been three large pilgrimages to this site, which settlers believe to be the graves of biblical figures Joshua and Caleb, Bouzia said. But smaller groups of armed settlers come more frequently.

Villagers' feelings were further ruffled when Israeli soldiers returned early Sunday morning with pilgrimage organizers to fix the damaged graves and paint over graffiti.

"This was desecration on top of desecration," Bouzia said, adding that Muslim graves can be repaired only by Muslims. The village leaders are planning to consult with Islamic authorities on how to restore the graves. (MORE)

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CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: info@cair.com
URL: http://www.cair.com

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