veiled4allah

the "crime" of Flying While Muslim

Forget Snakes on a Plane, how about Islamophobia on a plane? First some British passengers "mutinied" because two apparently Muslim men were on the flight. Then a Canadian doctor was removed from a flight because a drunk passenger thought his Muslim prayers were suspicious. Now a British pilot was removed from a flight apparently for being Muslim. Where will this end? Muslim-only lines at the airport? Sara Robinson at Orcinus has some good commentary on this:

There's only one word for this. It's vigilantism, pure and simple. It's no different than any other kind of lynch mob. And it is beneath the dignity of a civilized society... ...But there's far more at stake here than meets the eye. If these vigilante mobs are allowed to get their way on airplanes, what's to stop them from taking their show on the road? Are we going to see subway mobs assaulting brown people on train platforms to "prevent" subway bombings? Are restarauters going to find themselves under pressure from upset diners not to hire -- or seat -- certain "frightening" classes of people? Will neighborhood groups press realtors to stop selling local homes to specific ethnic groups, for fear property values will drop? Or will they, perhaps, subject "undesirable" neighbors to harassment campaigns until they're forced to move on? This all sounds far-fetched -- until you realize that we're hardly forty years past an era when most of this was standard operating procedure in much of America. Vigilante justice, racial segregation in public accommodations, real estate redlining, and sundown towns are part of a past that we've worked hard to leave behind. It will be a disgrace to all of us if we allow a few irrational bullies on airplanes put us on the road to bringing it all back.

This is something that we should not allow to continue. It is beneath us. Update: As if that isn't enough, there's more:

All 12 passengers arrested after a US airliner returned to Amsterdam will be released, Dutch prosecutors say. Northwest Airlines flight 42, bound for Mumbai (Bombay) in India, changed course over Germany and flew back to Schiphol airport on Wednesday. The 12 men, said to be of Asian appearance, reportedly aroused suspicion by fiddling with mobile phones and plastic bags.

God forbid that a passenger should ever fiddle with their mobile phone. Security expert Bruce Schneier explains why this is exactly what the terrorists want. Let's not do their job for them, mm'kay? Later: I should have included this one earlier. Iraqi blogger Raed Jarrar was made to cover up his T-shirt with Arabic writing on it (see some pictures with the T-shirt here). It appears that some people may not realize that Arabic is a language spoken by some 200 or 250 million people, of all religions and of none. It isn't some kind of "terrorist language" for God's sake. Meanwhile, what do you want to bet that this flight was diverted because of a Muslim name? This is getting out of control here. More reports of passengers refusing to fly with Muslims. Then they should leave the flight, not have people arrested and removed for having the "wrong" religion. Aside: This is no better:

Some fellow passengers are questioning why an Orthodox Jewish man was removed from an Air Canada Jazz flight in Montreal last week for praying. The man was a passenger on a Sept. 1 flight from Montreal to New York City when the incident happened. The airplane was heading toward the runway at the Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport when eyewitnesses said the Orthodox man began to pray. "He was clearly a Hasidic Jew," said Yves Faguy, a passenger seated nearby. "He had some sort of cover over his head. He was reading from a book. "He wasn't exactly praying out loud but he was lurching back and forth," Faguy added. The action didn't seem to bother anyone, Faguy said, but a flight attendant approached the man and told him his praying was making other passengers nervous. "The attendant actually recognized out loud that he wasn't a Muslim and that she was sorry for the situation but they had to ask him to leave," Faguy said.

I love the part where they "recognized out loud that he wasn't a Muslim". Would that have made it better? Update: Thankfully, this has been quieter for awhile, but here we have a Spanish professor and a Jewish architect, whose apparent crime was simply to be brown-skinned. This racist hysteria can stop now, thank you.

time to use the F word: fascism

About 27 percent of respondents said that all Muslim Americans should be required to register their location with the federal government... (source)

If you believe that I need to register my location with the government because of my religion, you can go to hell. This is America not a f***ing police state. Added: A little news coverage. A very little. Added 2: Zack Ajmal took a lot more time than I did to write his blog entry on the issue (in my defense, I was blogging on the run while on a business trip). By way of him, I found the blog of one of the researchers behind the study. This site, naturally, has lots more links and information. Reaction to my own little post includes The Yellow Doggeral Democrat and Indigo Jo Blogs (the latter available as a trackback to this post).

America: where Muslims need not enter?

Yusuf Islam, better known as the former pop star Cat Stevens, has been barred from the U.S. He was flying to the U.S. from his home in the UK when, mid-flight, officials discovered that although he was on the government's no-fly list, he had been allowed to board the plane. The plane was diverted 600 miles, apparently to make sure he didn't enter the airspace of heavily populated areas in the U.S. My God! You would think he had bombs strapped to his body or something. And what's the reason for this? Authorities declined to say, except that it was on "national security grounds". Ah yes, that good old catch-all category. The news stories mention that the state of Israel banned him from entry several years ago, accusing him that donations he had made to charities in Palestine were being funnelled to terrorist groups. News reports also indicate that some 15 years ago he supported Khomeini's fatwa against Salman Rushdie. Is this enough now to bar someone from entry to the U.S. and treat him like a clear and present danger on an airplane? What's especially interesting is that he was in the U.S. earlier this year, promoting a new record he had released. What changed between then and now?? It's becoming pretty clear that if you are a famous foreign Muslim, you can just forget about trying to visit the U.S. no matter what you say or do. Here's an excerpt from a message Yusuf Islam recently posted on his website about Beslan:

The religious premise of the oft-repeated accusation disappears when you look closer at the facts: how opposed to the teachings of Islam this kind of act is. Even the most unlearned of Muslims know that the Prophet of Islam was always so merciful to children and their mothers. Once when he visited his daughter whose baby was dying, tears flowed from the eyes of the Prophet. Someone said to him, 'What is this, O Messenger of God?' He said. 'This is Mercy which God has embedded in the hearts of whomever He wished of His slaves. And God does not bestow His Mercy except on the merciful among His slaves.'1 Islam eradicated infanticide which was sometimes performed in ignorant societies. The Qur'an specifically warns the murderers about this on the Day of Judgement, '…and when the girl-child who was buried is asked for what sin she was killed…'2 Even if the torment of the oppressor reaches the unbearable, Muslims are commanded to restrain themselves, '…and do not let your hatred of a people incite you to act unjustly. Be just! That is closer to righteousness, and fear God!'3 Crimes against innocent bystanders taken hostage in any circumstance have no foundation whatsoever in the life of Islam and the model example of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. The concept that Islam allows the taking of one person's life in exchange for another person's sin is absolutely warped, the Qur'an in fact put an end to the concept of sins being passed on from generation to generation, father to son, or from one soul to another. God says, '…And every soul earns not [blame] except against itself, and no bearer of burdens will bear the burden of another. Then to your Lord is your return and He will inform you concerning that over which you used to differ.'4 Also, 'Whoever takes a life without due justice, it will be as if he has killed the whole of mankind…'5 and, 'Do not take the life which God has made sacred except through (due process of) law.'6 The whole belief system in Islam is based on ultimate responsibility and a final Day of Accounting for every individual soul. People will seek to take shelter behind others on that day but will be left exposed to answer for their own deeds, 'And whoever has done an atom's weight of good shall see it; and whoever has done an atom's weight of evil, shall see it.'7 There is no collective responsibility in Islam; neither in Natural Justice, another reason why both sides in the political games and conflicts we are witnessing are way beyond the borders of God's sacred law. Footnotes 1. Sahih Bukhari 7:559 2. Al Takweer (81):8-9 3. Al Ma'idah (5): 8 4. Al An'am (6):164 5. Al Ma'idah (5):32 6. Bani Isra'il (17):33 7. Al Zalzalah (99): 7-8

So that's the kind of message we don't want in America these days? More news coverage is available from the BBC, The Guardian, and the Associated Press. Update: CNEWS says that "multiple intelligence sources in recent weeks indicated the peace activist may have associations with potential terrorists", according to an anonymous government source. No further information is given. In the same article, Yusuf Islam's brother and manager denies the charges. Its the secrecy that's really killing in these cases. They won't say what they're doing, then they won't say who their sources are, then they won't give specifics so that the charges can be responded to. A little more due process would make this look less like a witch-hunt. Update 2: The British foreign minister has officially protested the exclusion of Yusuf Islam when speaking to Colin Powell, saying that it should not have been done and that "there was no evidence in the British intelligence community that Islam posed any danger". Update 3: In the latest news (also here), Yusuf Islam has announced that he's going to sue. Yep, typical "terrorist" action, that. Update 4: Was it all a spelling mistake? Were authorities actually looking for an individual named Youssouf Islam? Since Yusuf Islam is British by birth and legally changed his name in England with the exact spelling he uses, it seems unlikely that he would be using any other spelling, no more than any of us would deliberately mis-spell our name. Senators, members of Congress, even federal marshals have been caught because of spelling issues and having names similar to someone who's on the no-fly list. Update 5: The State Department will now be reviewing the case.

Pakistani Americans feel the heat

Here's an interesting article from the Detroit Free Press:

A new national poll challenges the view that Arab Americans were the only victims of bias and profiling after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. A survey conducted by Florida-based Bendixen & Associates found that Pakistani Americans reported higher levels of discrimination and government targeting than Americans of Arab descent. About 31 percent of Pakistani Americans said they have experienced discrimination in their schools, workplaces or neighborhoods over the past three years. Twenty-one percent of Arab Americans made the claim. When it came to profiling, 16 percent of Pakistani Americans said they had been mistreated or targeted by government officials because of their background, compared with 11 percent of Arab Americans. Asked who did the profiling, 63 percent of Pakistani Americans said it was local police. Among Arab Americans, 36 percent said they had been targeted by airport security, and 21 percent answered that they had been targeted by local police. The head of the polling company, Sergio Bendixen, said one reason why Pakistanis reported higher levels of profiling by police officers may be because they, in general, tend to have darker skin than Arab Americans, and therefore may raise the suspicions of some people in law enforcement. Others said that religion may be a factor. The vast majority of Pakistani Americans are Muslims, while at least half of the Arab-American population is Christian, experts say.

Most of the attention has been on Arab-Americans but I've read an awful lot of stories about Pakistani Americans facing various types of trouble. One recent story I read was about a Pakistani American man who was harassed by someone who told him to "Go back to whatever Arab country you come from". Also, a number of Sikhs, including some in my own area, have been harassed by people who think they're Muslims. I guess all those brown skinned people look alike when you're a bigot, or something.

racial profiling strikes again

The Electronic Privacy Information Center reports:

EPIC has obtained documents revealing that the Census Bureau provided the Department of Homeland Security statistical data on people who identified themselves on the 2000 census as being of Arab ancestry. The special tabulations were prepared specifically for the law enforcement agency. There is no indication that the Department of Homeland Security requested similar information about any other ethnic groups. The tabulations apparently include information about United States citizens, as well as individuals of Arab descent whose families have lived in the United States for generations. One tabulation shows cities with populations of 10,000 or more and with 1,000 or more people who indicated they are of Arab ancestry. For each city, the tabulation provides total population, population of Arab ancestry, and percent of the total population which is of Arab ancestry. A second tabulation, more than a thousand pages long, shows the number of census responses indicating Arab ancestry in certain zip codes throughout the country. The responses indicating Arab ancestry are subdivided into Egyptian, Iraqi, Jordanian, Lebanese, Moroccan, Palestinian, Syrian, Arab/Arabic, and Other Arab. The heavily redacted documents show that in April 2004, a Census Bureau analyst e-mailed a Department of Homeland Security official and said, "You got a file of Arab ancestry information by ZIP Code Tabulation Area from me last December (2003). My superiors are now asking questions about the usage of that data, given the sensitivity of different data requests we have received about the Arab population." The same day, a Department of Homeland Security Customs and Border Protection official e-mailed the analyst to explain, "At U.S. International airports, U.S. Customs posts signage informing various nationalities of the U.S. Customs regulations to report currency brought into the US upon entry . . . . My reason for asking for U.S. demographic data is to aid the Outbound Passenger Program Officer in identifying which language of signage, based on U.S. ethnic nationality population, would be best to post at the major International airports." During World War II, the Census Bureau provided statistical information to help the War Department round up more than 120,000 innocent Japanese Americans and confine them to internment camps. The tabulations were produced using data from the 2000 census long-form questionnaire, which goes to only a sample of the population. The tabulation figures, therefore, do not provide an entirely accurate representation of the Arab American population.

The site provides links to the documents received via the FOIA request. Do we really need to go through all the old arguments about racial profiling again? Less than half of all American Muslims are of Arab descent. Less than half of all Arab-Americans are Muslim. Even if this kind of thing was justifiable, which I don't believe it is, a lot of Muslims would not be caught by it (non-Arab Muslims, including people like "dirty bomb" suspect Jose Padilla, a Latino convert) while a lot of people who have nothing to do with Islam (non-Muslim Arabs) would be caught up. And what about terrorism committed by other groups? I know that some people have a hard time understanding this concept but terrorism is not some kind of unique Muslim phenomenon. It is a tactic used by groups worldwide, of any religion, race, or ethnicity. And this doesn't even get into American domestic terrorism (Timothy McVeigh, anyone?) As long as Arabs and Muslims are being uniquely singled out and targeted while terrorist groups of other ethnicities and religions who are equally bad are ignored, it will appear that we are not interested in genuinely combating terrorism as a security threat but are more concerned with engaging in a "war against Islam". It may be that the threat posed by Arab and/or Muslim groups is greater than the threat posed by other groups, but I see very little comparative threat analysis or even much discussion of this issue at all. And will we use the same measures to combat other groups, including profiling by race or religion? Let's get past the fevered "Islam is evil" talk and see some serious discussion.

flying while Arab

It seems that there was a bit of hysteria caused by a woman who mistook a group of Syrian musicians on a plane fight who found themselves being accused of being terrorists doing a "dry run". David Neiwert compares this to the anti-Japanese hysteria in the wake of Pearl Harbor. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Unfortunately, we seem to be dooming ourselves to repeat what we did sixty years ago. Zack Ajmal looks at some other similar cases and reflects:

I am a political liberal and a secular Muslim. I detest the terrorists and thugs who kill in the name of my religion. I am dismayed at the lack of democracy and civil liberties in Pakistan. However, when I read about incidents like the ones described in this post, I remember that like Ansar, I am a Pakistani immigrant to the US; like the Syrians on the Northwestern flight, my native language is written in the Arabic scrript; and so on. For me, unfortunately, these things are not beyond imagination. I can easily think of myself in their shoes and the feeling I get is scary. At a rational level, I understand that the US is a better place in terms of liberty than most other countries and that the chances of anything bad happening to me or my family are quite minute. I just hope that we get over these "tribal" attitudes and get to the task at hand: getting rid of terorrism and spreading democracy and human rights around the world.

Aziz Poonawalla has more, including a list of "suspicious" things he's done on an airplane.

got racism? part two

Received via email:

The Florida office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-FL) today called on law enforcement authorities to investigate an assault on a Muslim child at a school in that state as a hate crime. The 12-year-old victim, a student at a middle school in Boyton Beach who wears an Islamic head scarf, says she was assaulted in the hallway of her school last week by four teenage boys who hit her across the face with a leather belt, injuring her lip. During the assault, the boys allegedly called the Muslim child "Osama" and used derogative remarks about her head scarf and about her ethnic background. (The child is of Pakistani heritage.) The perpetrators also threatened further attacks if the victim notified school authorities. The same student told CAIR-FL that she was the target of several similar but less violent incidents of harassment in the recent past. She says school officials failed to take corrective action following those incidents.

What is creating this climate where attacking people think they can get away with physically assaulting random Muslims they come across? Maybe it's all this "Islam is evil, Arabs are savages" rhetoric coming from certain parts of the political spectrum. Are you proud of yourselves knowing that a 12 year old girl was assaulted? She was hit across the face with a belt.

got racism?

Three recent headlines: Imam's wife assaulted at Maryland mosque Tampa police investigating battery of Muslim woman as hate crime Arson attacks target San Antonio Muslim businesses Whenever I post about an incident of prejudice or harassment experienced by Muslims in America, invariably somebody will post a comment saying "non-Muslims are treated much worse in xyz Muslim country". Folks, that is completely irrelevant. It doesn't become OK to engage in bigotry just because someone else does it. If a person is being mistreated because of their religion or ethnicity, it should be a concern to all people who care about justice, wherever it happens. America is a much better place than this. Let's get back to showing it.

They 'picked the wrong day to fly'

The Toronto Star reports:

One of Canada's most moderate and respected Muslim clerics was pulled off a plane Thursday and thrown in jail by U.S. immigration officials in Fort Lauderdale without any charges being laid. Ahamad Kutty, who has preached tolerance and peace throughout North America for more than two decades, was ordered off his Orlando-bound flight from Toronto and interrogated in an airport holding cell and a local jail for 16 hours as the U.S. marked the second anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington. He has been declared a risk to national security. Kutty, an imam and scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto and at the city's west-end Jami Mosque, was detained with fellow Toronto cleric Abdool Hamid. The pair had travelled to Florida to attend seminars and give a series of lectures and sermons on, among other things, the dangers of fanaticism in the Islamic world. "We have gone through a traumatic experience. Really it dehumanized us," said Kutty, who arrived at Pearson International Airport last night at 8:30 p.m. Kutty said he was pulled off the plane at 9:30 a.m. Thursday and was grilled by at least 10 officials until about 1:30 a.m. yesterday. "They handcuffed us and took us to jail." Kutty said immigration officials told him his Islamic Institute of Toronto organization sounded familiar in name to the Islamic Institution of America, which he assumed was some sort of suspect group. Authorities, Kutty said, were especially interested in a business card that he carried in his wallet bearing the name Islamic Society of North America. He said immigration officials made him sign a waiver giving up his application to enter the United States. Kutty also said he would not return to the United States and would caution others in the Canadian Muslim community against doing so. Hamid, who arrived with Kutty at Pearson last night, said one of the two Federal Bureau of Investigation agents who had joined in the pair's interrogation had been apologetic about their detention, saying "You picked a bad day to fly," referring to the 9/11 anniversary. Kutty, 57, and Hamid, 38, were released yesterday afternoon. Members of both men's families say they were kept in the dark about the pair's whereabouts until 4:30 a.m. Friday when Kutty and Hamid were finally allowed to place phone calls home from a Fort Lauderdale jail. "He was supposed to deliver the Friday sermon at the biggest mosque in Orlando today (Friday)," said Kutty's son Faisal. Norma Morfa, a spokesperson for the department of customs and border protection in Miami, said the two men were denied entry to the United States because they were deemed to be a risk to national security. She said the decision was made by a customs officer employed by the department of Homeland Security in Fort Lauderdale, but she refused to elaborate on how the decision was reached. "This is by far the most bizarre incident I have ever heard of or witnessed," said Altaf Ali, executive director of the Florida office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, who visited Hamid in a Fort Lauderdale jail. "You are allowed to fly on any day you wish in this country." Ali said he had been denied permission to see Hamid's affidavit by the Homeland Security department. Khurrum Wahid, a New York lawyer who spoke with Kutty, called the decision "outrageous" and said he would be willing to file a lawsuit against the U.S. government if Kutty wanted to take the case further. "These are long-time Canadian citizens," Wahid said. An FBI spokesperson in their Miami office said two officers were called to the airport to question the men on the request of immigration officials. "We were there for a couple of hours but didn't see any reason to have them detained further," the FBI's Judy Orihuela said yesterday. "This is really shocking because both of them are totally against all forms of extremism," said Faisal Kutty, a lawyer and general counsel for the Canadian Muslim Civil Liberties Association. In the wake of 9/11, Kutty became a beacon of reason and calm within the city's Muslim community. In an October, 2001 column, the Star's Jim Coyle quoted one of the imam's sermons at the Jami Mosque in which he cautioned his congregation against Islamic extremism: "Let us make no mistake about it: Today, Muslims have no enemy greater than fanatics in their midst. "Let us know that fanaticism is ignorance; it is nothing but sickness and bigotry; let us know that fanaticism is opposed to both scripture and reason." Muslim leaders in Canada were quick to slam the detentions as racially motivated and were calling on Ottawa to denounce the incident and insist on fairer treatment for Islamic Canadians and Arabs travelling to the United States. "There's absolutely no doubt whatsoever, with the racial profiling laws and regulations the U.S. has instituted, that Canadian Arabs and Muslims travelling to the U.S. are treated like second-class citizens," said Riad Saloojee, executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations Canada. Tarek Fatah, founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress, said that in the early 1990s Kutty was the target of threats from extremist groups who believed his views were too moderate. In a news release last night, the Muslim Canadian Congress warned Muslim Canadians to not travel to the U.S. "for their own safety" and urged a boycott of American products. They also lashed out against Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham for not denouncing recent detainments. Foreign Affairs spokesperson Reynald Doiron said the department was not given any reasons as to why authorities detained the Canadian citizens but noted that every country has the right to refuse entry. At the Jami Mosque, prayers were offered for Kutty's safe return. "It was a shock," said Imtiaz Uddin, as he emerged from the mosque. "I have never known such a harmless person."

See also reports from: The Sun-Sentinel, The Globe and Mail, and The Miami Herald.

by airbrushing, Hollywood misses an opportunity

I don't really keep up with movie news so I hadn't heard that an animated version of "Sinbad the Sailor" is coming out. I also hadn't heard that the story, which originally comes from the "Thousand and One Arabian Nights", has been "airbrushed" so that it is no longer about Arab characters or set in Baghdad (capital of the Islamic caliphate during the period that the Arabian Nights are set). Instead, it has been turned into a classical Greek legend. Traditional stories, legends, and myths are often remade in a new setting. So there's nothing wrong in itself with putting Sinbad in a Greek milieu. But as Sean Clarke explains, it's a missed opportunity, especially in a time like this when relations between Muslims and the West are so volatile:

In airbrushing out the Arabs, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas encourages a warped view of our collective cultural heritage. In its Hellenised form, it perpetuates the idea that all learning, all civilisation, even that all stories, come from the Greek and Roman tradition... ...As long as we think of the people of the Middle East as others, as belonging to a separate "civilisation", a different "cultural tradition", it's easier for those with an interest to demonise the people who live there, belittle their rights, and understate the suffering inflicted upon them. Faceless Iraqis elicit little sympathy. In its own small way, Sinbad could - should - have been a chance to celebrate our nearness to the traditions of the Middle East. In not taking that opportunity, we push them further away, where their voices cannot reach us.