“What’s Radicalizing American Muslims?” asks Peter King, (Newsday – December 19, 2010).
Mr. King, the U.S. Representative for New York’s 3rd Congressional district, who will take the reins as chair of the House Homeland Security Committee next year, announced his plans to investigate Muslim Americans last week and to hold hearings on the subject when the House re-convenes in January, 2011. In his Newsday article he alleges that no moderate Muslims have spoken out against terrorists, “no moral outrage or condemnation”. He cites his own record of working with the Muslim community in his district and his support for President Bill Clinton’s military offensives in Bosnia in 1995 and Kosovo in 1998. We do not doubt he is an honorable man.

Mr. King’s planned hearings on Muslim communities are reminiscent of the McCarthy hearings of the 1950′s. His accusations bear no basis in reality. For instance, since 2002, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, (CAIR) has clearly condemned violence with open letters in major newspapers both local and national, announcements on TV and radio and worked with Mosques around the country to develop interfaith forums. In addition to specific campaigns, they have compiled a 68 page document showing all of the condemnations of terrorism after September 11th, 2001. It is unfortunate Mr. King missed all that. But, like Senator McCarthy, Mr. King is a true patriot.

The results of a study done by David Schanzer, Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke U., Charles Kurzman, U of N.C., Chapel Hill and Ebrahim Moosa of Duke U., called AntiTerror Lessons of Muslim Americans, identified characteristics and practices of Muslim American Communities that are preventing radicalization and violence.

Public and private denunciations of terrorism and violence.
• Self policing by confronting individuals, preventing radicals from preaching in mosques, working with law enforcement and developing youth programs to address concerns that might lead to radical behavior.
• Community building to reduce isolation of Muslims.
• Polictical engagement which channels grievances into democratic forums and integrates Muslim Americans into the American mainstream.
The recomendations of the study can be found atthinkprogress.org/2010/08/08/mosques-deterrent.

Mr. King seems to have overlooked it, although he is a knowledgable man.

In February of 2003, Dr. Muqtedar Khan, Director of Inernational Studies at Adrian College, MI, and a member of the Association of Muslim Social Scientists at the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy said, “I would rather live in America under Ashcroft and Bush at their worst, than in any Islamic state established by ignorant, intolerant and murderous punks like you and Mullah Omar at their best.” Mr. King in his claim that moderate Muslims have not spoken out against violence and terrorism seems to have overlooked this statement directed at Osama Bin Laden. Although Mr. King is “immersed in attempting to unravel the radical Islamic threat to our nation and our civilization”, this one got by him. But we know he is an honest and forthright man.

In addition, we know that the so-called “Christmas bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, from Nigeria, was turned in by his own father. His father is a ‘moderate Muslim”. We know that the Times Square bomb was first reported by a Muslim merchant, Aloune Niass. No radical extremist is he. According to FBI Director, Mueller, the American Muslim Community is co-operating with the FBI and since 911, ten terror plots have been foiled by their help.The the case of undercover FBI agent, Craig Montielh, in Irvine, Ca is a case where the Muslim community took out a court order of protection against him. He is suing FBI for entrapment of Muslim American. In his article, What Patriotism Is and Is Not, Michael Winship (TruthOut, July 3, 2008) states, ” It is an unmistakable lesson of history that when one group of people starts to see another group of people as ‘other’ or as ‘different’, as ‘undeserving’, as ‘inferior’, ill treatment inevitably follows.”

The lessons of history must be learned lest we repeat the mistakes of the past, horrors still vivid in the memories of many of us, even of Mr. King.The nation has to heal. Mr. Kings actions reek of suspicion, revenge and further divide our country. We hope he reconsiders his misguided undertaking and reaches out to those in the Muslim community working to bridge the divide and form a true interfaith coalition for peace.

Talat Hamdani is an American who became a commentator after her son was killed during the attacks on September 11, 2001. Her son, EMT Mohammad Salman Hamdani, was a New York Police Department cadet.

WASHINGTON – Canadian television viewers looking for the most thorough and in-depth coverage of the uprising in Egypt have the option of tuning into Al Jazeera English, whose on-the-ground coverage of the turmoil is unmatched by any other outlet. American viewers, meanwhile, have little choice but to wait until one of the U.S. cable-company-approved networks broadcasts footage from AJE, which the company makes publicly available. What they can’t do is watch the network directly.

Other than in a handful of pockets across the U.S. – including Ohio, Vermont and Washington, D.C. – cable carriers do not give viewers the choice of watching Al Jazeera. That corporate censorship comes as American diplomats harshly criticize the Egyptian government for blocking Internet communication inside the country and as Egypt attempts to block Al Jazeera from broadcasting.

The result of the Al Jazeera English blackout in the United States has been a surge in traffic to the media outlet’s website, where footage can be seen streaming live. The last 24 hours have seen a two-and-a-half thousand percent increase in web traffic, Tony Burman, head of North American strategies for Al Jazeera English, told HuffPost. Sixty percent of that traffic, he said, has come from the United States.

Read more here.

Aafia Siddiqui’s sentence was handed down by a federal New York court.

The case, barely covered in the United States, has been closely watched in Pakistan, where for months people have been demonstrating and calling for her release.

The following video is reported by Kristen Saloomey and produced by Laila Al-Arian for Al Jazeera.

You can see my previous post (explaining why the charges are highly questionable) on Siddiqui here.

Reprieve
April 6, 2010

Reprieve launches emergency legal action for Guantánamo prisoner Ahmed Belbacha as US government makes worrying deal with Algeria

Lawyers for former British resident Ahmed Belbacha yesterday submitted an emergency plea to the US courts seeking to prevent his forced return to persecution and torture in Algeria.

Ahmed’s legal team is deeply concerned by the Obama Administration’s Easter weekend announcement of a deal with the Algerian government.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will travel to Algiers tomorrow (Wed., April 7) “to discuss cooperation on combating terrorism and enhancing law enforcement coordination” and to sign a “mutual legal assistance treaty” with the Algerian Minister of Justice.

Ahmed, a 39 year-old accountant, was visibly terrified during his attorney visit last week and remains a tragic figure in Guantánamo. Cleared of all charges by the Bush Administration, he has consistently chosen to stay imprisoned rather than face his fate in Algeria, a country he originally fled after threats on his life by the terrorist group Group Islamique Armé (GIA).

Ahmed’s plight, together with his gentle nature, has attracted private offers of help from both sides of the Atlantic, but no government has come to his rescue. Reprieve is appealing worldwide – to the governments of Britain, Ireland and Luxembourg – for help.

Ahmed’s attorney, Reprieve’s Tara Murray said:

“As Attorney General Holder travels to Algeria, all signs now point towards Ahmed’s imminent forced transfer to torture and persecution. We implore the European nations of Ireland, Luxembourg and the UK to stand up and put an end to Ahmed’s agony.”

BACKGROUND:

Ahmed Belbacha lived for years in the seaside town of Bournemouth, UK, where he studied English and worked; during a Labour conference he was responsible for cleaning the hotel room of Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, from whom he received a healthy tip and note of appreciation. He is now in his eighth year of imprisonment without charge in Guantánamo Bay.

Ahmed’s fears about Algeria were confirmed by an alarming “conviction” delivered in absentia by an Algerian court last November. In a disgraceful show trial, where no lawyer was appointed to defend Ahmed, the court sentenced him to 20 years in prison for belonging to an “overseas terrorist group.” Despite repeated requests and extensive investigation, Reprieve’s lawyers have been unable to discover what exactly Ahmed is supposed to have done. No evidence has been produced to support his “conviction,” which appears to be retaliation against Ahmed for speaking out about the inhumane treatment he would be subjected to if sent to Algeria.

Ahmed had been protected by an injunction barring the U.S. government from repatriating him against his will, but a U.S. judge dissolved the injunction in February. Reprieve immediately requested the decision be reversed, citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s ongoing consideration of a related case, Kiyemba v Obama (Kiyemba II), in which it was decided that U.S. courts could not prevent the Obama Administration from forcibly repatriating prisoners to countries where they face persecution. Worryingly, on Monday, 22nd March, the Supreme Court decided not to review Kiyemba II; Reprieve then submitted another plea to D.C.’s federal district court on 24th March, followed by an emergency motion over the Easter weekend following Holder’s announcement.

Ahmed has been given a room in a flat by a Bournemouth resident, and the Massachusetts town of Amherst has offered him refuge in defiance of Congress. So far, however, no government has come forward to help.

For more information please contact Katherine O’Shea at Reprieve’s Press Office: katherine.oshea@reprieve.org.uk 020 7427 1099/ 07931592674 or go to http://www.reprieve.org.uk/ahmedbelbacha.

(Reprieve, a legal action charity, uses the law to enforce the human rights of prisoners, from death row to Guantánamo Bay. Reprieve investigates, litigates and educates, working on the frontline, to provide legal support to prisoners unable to pay for it themselves. Reprieve promotes the rule of law around the world, securing each person’s right to a fair trial and saving lives. Clive Stafford Smith is the founder of Reprieve and has spent 25 years working on behalf of people facing the death penalty in the USA. Reprieve’s current casework involves representing 33 prisoners in the U.S. prison at Guantánamo Bay, working on behalf of prisoners facing the death penalty, and conducting ongoing investigations into the rendition and the secret detention of “ghost prisoners” in the so-called “war on terror.”)