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2009: Another hard year for American Muslims

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The Status of American Muslims' Civil Rights in 2009.

Four days before the arrest of five American Muslim youth in Pakistan the Council on American-Muslim Relations (CAIR) released a report on the "Status of American Muslims' Civil Rights in 2009" which pointed out the American Muslim community continued to face barriers to their full and equal participation in American society.

A PEW ResearchCenter report of September corroborates this observation of CAIR. Eight years after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Americans see Muslims as facing more discrimination inside the U.S. than other major religious groups, according to the 2009 annual survey of PEW. "Nearly six-in-ten adults (58%) say that Muslims are subject to a lot of discrimination, far more than say the same about Jews, evangelical Christians, atheists or Mormons."

In the wake of discrimination and profiling reports, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, the nation's first African-American attorney general, said in November that full rights of American Arabs and Muslims must be protected. He told a gathering in Detroit that it's vital that all ethnic and religious groups in America be treated equally. "For the last nine months, I've heard from Muslim and Arab Americans who feel uneasy about their relationship with their government, who feel isolated and discriminated against by law enforcement," he said adding: "Some of them have told me that they feel denied the full rights of citizenship." Holder said "It is inconsistent with what America is all about."

American Muslims continued to fear profiling, surveillance and undue scrutiny by law enforcement and other authorities, the CAIR 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.

The guidelines are similar to COINTELPRO, an FBI program used in the 50s and 60s to spy on civil rights, environmental and labor groups, with the goal of unearthing Communist ties those organizations may have had. At Congressional hearings last May, FBI Director Mueller -- who continues to serve as FBI director in the Obama administration -- said the guidelines simply formalized processes the FBI had begun to use, post-9/11. President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have not indicated whether they intend to scrap the new guidelines.

At the same time, fear of government surveillance ranks consistently high as a key concern in the American Muslim community. Two main concerns are: mosque surveillance and the warrantless wiretapping component of the Presidential Surveillance Program.

The ACLU has filed a Freedom of Information Act request "to determine if the intelligence including spying on civilians, particularly Southern California Muslims and their mosques." The request is currently pending.

In November the American Muslim community was shocked when the government moved to seize four mosques in New York, Maryland, California, and Texas. On November 12, 2009, the U.S. government filed a complaint in a U.S. Federal Court to seize the assets of Alavi Foundation which controls the assets of four US mosques named in the complaint. The government has accused the foundation of being tied to the Iranian government.

Prominent Muslim civil rights groups are being targeted.

In the post-9/11 America, not only American Muslim institutions are under attack but they are also witnessing a smear campaign against their prominent civil rights groups. Established Muslim organizations such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) are being targeted.

In a fresh attempt to destroy a national American Muslim civil advocacy group, four Republican congressmen which have been dubbed by the Washington Independent as "the Anti-Muslim Bigot Caucus at the Capitol Hill' accused the Council on American-Muslim Relations (CAIR), of attempting to plant spies in key Congressional offices in order to affect policy.

On October 14, 2009, the four congressmen - Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC), Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ), Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), and Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) held a bizarre McCarthy-era like press conference accusing the CAIR of "trying to infiltrate the offices of members of Congress by placing interns in the offices." The four are the Republican members of the Congressional Anti-Terrorism Caucus.

The congressmen formally asked the House Sergeant at Arms to launch an investigation of the Council for American-Islamic Relations. The lawmakers also wanted a Department of Justice investigation to find out "if CAIR was successful in placing interns" with key congressional committees, including the Intelligence and Homeland Security panels.

Not surprisingly, the Democrats weren't amused by the accusations. House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.), Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) and Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.), have defended the CAIR, saying that Muslim-American interns on Capitol Hill should not have their patriotism questioned.

President urged to address rise in anti-Islam hate.

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Author and journalist. Author of Islamic Pakistan: Illusions & Reality; Islam in the Post-Cold War Era; Islam & Modernism; Islam & Muslims in the Post-9/11 America. Currently working as free lance journalist. Executive Editor of American (more...)
 
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