American Muslim community observes 10th anniversary of 9/11 in anxiety and hope

Pakistani Muslims say their Edi paryers at Makki mosque in Brooklyn on August 30.-- Photo by Mohsin Zaheer
By Jehangir Khattak

Linda "iLham" Barto was working on a project in her art studio on the fateful morning of September 11, 2001, when her home schooled 16 years old daughter came running downstairs informing her about a bombing footage on TV. Linda rushed upstairs to see what had her daughter so upset.

“I watched for a few seconds and said, Tana, it's just a movie. Why did you bother me just for a movie?"

“She said, ‘No, Mama, it's real.’”

“It took me a few minutes to realize that what I was seeing was news, not a movie. It seemed too horrific to be real,” recalls Linda, who had converted to Islam just two years back in 1999. Nineteen terrorists, 634 miles away from her Maiden, NC, home, had slaughtered 2,976 innocent people from 90 nations in just 102 minutes in the worst atrocity America had ever known on its soil.

“The pictures I've seen of the jumpers (from the two WTC towers) stick in my mind as symbols of the horror of that day," she recalls. One such picture is of a man falling like a bullet upside down from one of the towers with his arms to his side. “I wonder what was going through his mind. He knew death was inescapable for him. Was he overwhelmingly afraid, or did he calmly submit to his fate and accept it as his reality? ,” recalls the decorated hillbilly US Air Force veteran, who fought two wars and also served in North Carolina Air National Guard. “All the 9/11 images are burned into the minds of all those alive on that day. They shout of violence and cruelty and represent the worst of humanity.”

Linda, a celebrated author of four books on Islam and interfaith understanding and an accomplished illustrator and calligrapher, is part of America’s Muslim population that will observe the 10^th anniversary of 9/11 with mixed feelings of anguish, anxiety and hope. Like their compatriots, the pain of the atrocity will be felt in Muslim communities across the nation. At least, 31 Muslims, including at least six women, also died in the attacks.

Muslim community has remained a subject of public debate since the terrorist attacks. It has endured public backlash, at times violent, discrimination, eves dropping and targeted surveillance by the government. Questions have been raised about prospects of Muslims’ alienation with America, home grown terrorism and Muslims ability to fully integrate into mainstream America.

Answers to such questions have often been searched through numerous surveys. Several such recent surveys have reported almost identical emerging mixed trends surrounding Muslim community – an increase in Islamophobia with growing opposition to construction of new mosques across the country, more government surveillance of Muslim Americans, no signs of rising alienation or anger among Muslim-Americans and a marked increase in community’s confidence about its future in America.

Pew Research Center in its latest survey, says Muslims despite facing challenges have grown more satisfied with their lives in the US. The survey, one of most exhaustive ever of the country’s Muslim population and released on August 30, is based on interviews with more than a thousand Americans of Islamic faith, conducted during the spring and summer of 2011. Earlier, a Gallup poll released in July this year also found identical Muslims optimism about their future.

Pew survey says huge majorities of Muslim Americans are satisfied with the way things are going in their personal lives (82 percent) and their communities (79 percent). Also, two-thirds of Muslims say they have a better quality of life in the U.S. than they would in Muslim-majority countries.

Dr. Zahid Bukahri, president of one of the largest American Muslim community organizations, agrees with the survey findings. “Muslims not only have a future in America but also Muslims have a lot to contribute to America,” he says.

Bukhari heads the New York-based Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), which has over 388 chapters all over the country. He also wears the caps of Executive Director of the Center for Islam and Public Policy (CIPP) and Director of the American Muslim Studies Program (AMSP) at the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMCU) at Georgetown University, Washington, DC.

Abu Taher, Executive Editor of Bangla Patrika, one of largest weekly publications of Bangladeshi community in New York, is also upbeat about Muslims future. He calls 9/11 the sad story of American history and says: “This year and every year, we should always contemplate the impact of 9/11 and draw lessons.” He says every community of America must contemplate on how such kind of terrorism be prevented in the future.

Islamophobia

Muslim community’s growing optimism about its future is accompanied by an increasing wave of Islampohobia that has reached even state legislators. At least 13 states have either passed “anti-Shariah” legislations or considering such acts. The Council on American-Islamic Relations and the University of California, Berkley, found in June that Islamophobia was on the rise in the US, with higher reports of incidents and anti-Muslim rhetoric. A survey by Ohio State University in July also showed perceptions of Muslims worsened following Osama bin Laden’s death.

Abu Taher blames some legislators, sections of mainstream media and certain conservative groups for stoking anti-Muslim sentiment. Like Abu, Bukhari also believes Islamophobia has “definitely increased” over the past decade. He, however, says it’s expected to slide down this year after peaking in 2010. Many in the Muslim community believe the controversy surrounding the Ground Zero mosque last year contributed to heightening anti-Muslim sentiment in the US.

Bukhari believes that a quiet decade-long outreach by Muslim organizations, Islamic centers and a new generation of US-born Muslims has contributed to this change. But image remains a huge challenge for Muslims and many community leaders believe it will not change overnight.

Linda, who also has no doubt about increase in Islamophobia, blames the terrorists who commit senseless crimes in the name of Islam for the negative perception about Muslims. “They (the terrorists) are promoting a lie about Islam, about God, and about the Prophet (of Islam).” Linda also blames the media and sections of church for promoting Islamophobia.

“People ask, ‘If Islam is so good, why are the Muslims so bad?’ Of course, the majority of Muslims are good, but the only ‘Muslims’ about which most people hear are the alleged Muslims that make the news because of their violent and hateful acts,” says Linda.

Dr. Nurah-Rosalie Amat'ullah, Executive Director of Muslim Women’s Institute for Research and Development, does not agree with Linda, Bukhari and Abu Taher. “The level of ignorance among the general population about Islam has become public. That does not make it Islamophobia,” she says.

Nuruh’s Bronx and faith-based community service organization has been working in the areas of hunger relief, public health education, inter-faith initiatives, and transitional needs of new immigrants since 1997.

 

Nuruh says there are few people in the US who have taken upon slandering and fear-mongering about Islam and the Muslims. She is not sure if their number has actually increased over the past few years or they have received more media attention or greater public audience. “If we really look at them strictly in the context of United States, we realize that these are the same people who are racists, homophobic and bigoted. They have no care for people of color.” She says Muslims fall in the same sub-group of people that the racists would like to remove from the American landscape.

Nuruh believes Muslims should not focus on Islamophobia. “Because the real work ahead of us is civic participation and be good citizens in the United States.” She says Muslims as a community have failed to civically engage in the society and need to do a better job.

“If the Muslim population acted in Islamic way by caring for the humanity, we would be much more civically engaged in the United States.” She says civic engagement is the best and greatest counterweight for any bigotry or bias that is directed at the Muslim community.

Dr Nuruh organization started New York’s first Halal food pantry. Currently, it feeds 10,000 people every month from its two locations in the Bronx, serving both Muslims and non-Muslims.

Dr Bukhari says the best way of remembering 9/11 is to work for the betterment of communities across the nation. ICNA increased its community support programs through its charity arm, ICNA Relief, after 9/11. Ten years down the road, ICNA Relief, with the help of its 14 offices in 12 states, has emerged as the only Muslims-run American charity exclusively focused on the community and relief work in the US. It has partnered with FEMA, American Red Cross and several other relief agencies over the past few years.  ICNA Relief is currently running a national drive to distribute school supplies (school bags, note books, pens, pencils etc) among needy children irrespective of their community, color or belief. So far it has distributed about 15,000 sets of school supplies in over 40 communities across the nation.

Muslims integration

Despite stereotyping, the community seems determined to integrate itself into the society. Pew survey says 56 percent of Muslims are eager to assimilate and integrate in to the mainstream. Zahid Bukhari says the community has achieved as much as three decades of learning curve during the last decade in terms of its integration. According to him, a new generation of Muslim professionals is coming up on the national scene and presenting the Muslim story in a different narrative. He says this generation of Muslims has started asserting itself both socially and politically.

Nuruh believes civic participation and good citizenry are the best counter to ignorance and will ultimately lead to political engagement of Muslims. “We have gone about it reversely. We have pushed for political engagement and we don’t want to do the messy hard work of civic participation.”

Linda says Muslims are already a part of the US society, and an “us-and-them” approach is not helpful when thinking of Americans as a nation.  “I live in a rural area, and I consider myself integrated into my society.  I share my Islam openly, and most people are interested in learning about a religion that seems foreign to them,” Linda says.

Linda faces less social pressures and opposition as a Muslim because of her roots. “Having been born in the USA and having served in the US military, I suppose I have less opposition than immigrant Muslims, but we all must focus on the things that make us truly American and appreciate the diversity within the USA,” she says.

Intra-Muslim dialogue

Dr Nuruh, a Hijab-wearing African Muslim, is also an ardent champion of an intra-Muslim dialogue over race and ethnicity issues. “There needs to be within the Muslim community some difficult conversation around our own diversity.” She says African American, continental African and Latino Muslims have largely been left out of the community’s socio-political face in America. “When you talk about Muslims in America, those sub-groups are usually not in the picture. There needs to be an internal conversation within the Muslim community about our all racism and ethnic biases.” She says this racism is very much present. “I say this from personal experience as a woman of African descent. This is the reality that I live in.”

US withdrawal from an unstable Afghanistan may lead to civil war, warns Musharraf

By Jehangir Khattak

Pakistan's former military ruler and a key U.S. ally in the war against terror, retired General Pervez Musharraf has warned of civil war if the United States withdraws its troops from Afghanistan without stabilizing that war-ravaged country. "It will be a dangerous situation if they [Americans] withdraw in 2014 and don't bring stability to Afghanistan."
Talking to Pakistani journalists after addressing his supporters in New York on July 17, Musharraf opposed the U.S. timeline for the Afghanistan withdrawal. "I always tell the [Americans] here not to make [the Afghan withdrawal] time-related. Make it effect-related. You must leave, but go after creating political stability in Afghanistan."
Musharraf ruled Pakistan from 1999 to 2008 both as a military chief executive and as president. He currently lives in London in self-exile and faces murder charges in Pakistan in the assassinations of Pakistan's former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, in 2007, and Nawab Akber Bugti, a nationalist leader and former governor of Pakistan's restive Balochistan province, who was killed in a military action on August 26, 2006. An Anti-Terrorism Court in Pakistan declared Musharraf an absconder in the Bhutto murder case in May of this year.
Musharraf vehemently denies the charges.
The former Pakistani general foresees two possible scenarios in Afghanistan if Washington withdraws its forces in 2014 without stabilizing the country.
"Number one: a return to the 1989 era when [the Soviets] left Afghanistan and Pashtoon, Tajik, Uzbek and Hazaras [the major ethnic groups in Afghanistan] started fighting against each other. They caused unbelievable destruction to their country. Kabul became a ghost city because it had pockets of each of the warring factions, just like in Beirut [during the Lebanese civil war]."
The second scenario, according to Musharraf, could be the return of the 1996 era when the [predominantly ethnic Pashtoon] Taliban came into power and fought against the Northern Alliance [comprised of Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara ethnic groups]. He feared renewed hostilities between these groups.
"I think since the Taliban are not monolithic, they are not commanded by a single commander. [Sirajuddin] Haqqani is a Taliban commander. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is also a Taliban commander. The TTP [Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan – an umbrella organization of Pakistani extremists closely aligned with the Afghan Taliban and Al Qaeda] is also Taliban. So they are not monolithic and I think that they will fight again."
Hekmatyar is a former prime minister of Afghanistan who fought against the Soviet Union during its occupation of his land-locked country. He is remembered chiefly for his role in the bloody civil war of the 1990s. He is currently wanted by the US for participating in terrorist activities with Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
Musharraf believes instability in Afghanistan would have direct implications for Pakistan and even India, where Kashmiri groups, such as Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Hizbul Mujahideen, are fighting Indian rule in Jammu and Kashmir. In the past, the groups' activities "were focused on [the Indian administered] Kashmir," he said, but now they are allied to the Taliban in Afghanistan and to extremists in India. "It's a huge problem and I think Bombay-like incidents may continue to happen" destabilizing the entire region.
He advised Pakistan to tread a careful course on the question of a possible U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. "We should not be emotional [about the U.S. withdrawal] and think, before mindlessly demanding that the [Americans] leave [Afghanistan]. We should be more thoughtful."
United States considers the Haqqani network and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hizb-e-Islami group as the most serious threat to ISAF forces in Afghanistan. Washington has often accused Pakistan of not taking action against the Haqqani network in its lawless North Waziristan tribal region. The network's presence on Pakistani soil has contributed to tensions between Washington and Islamabad and bilateral relations have nose-dived in recent weeks. Washington has suspended $800 million in military assistance to Islamabad but the two sides are working behind the scenes to avoid a complete breakdown.
Musharraf believes Pakistan and the U.S. are critical allies. "It is extremely important that Pakistan and United States have good relations because we are fighting the war on terror together. Above all, it's an advantage to the Taliban and Al Qaeda if there is difference of opinion and there is no unity of thinking and action to fight them," Musharraf told his All Pakistan Muslim League Party supporters before the chat with the media.
He also made reference to U.S. demands that Pakistan take action against the Haqqani network on its soil and advised Islamabad to take Washington into confidence if a "national interest issue is involved" [for its inaction]. "We must tell the United we are handling the situation in our national interests. That [clarification] must be given, instead of not talking or hiding or distorting the [issue]; otherwise, confidence is lost."
When asked why he did not act against the Haqqani network while he was at the helm of the government in Pakistan, Musharraf countered he had initiated "huge" military operations against the Taliban and Al Qaeda, moving two Pakistan Army combat divisions from country's eastern border with India and deploying them in North and South Waziristan tribal regions. According to him, Al Qaeda was stronger than the Haqqani network back then and action was taken by the Pakistani military against all the insurgents.
Musharraf believes that Osama Bin Laden's presence near Pakistan's premier military academy in Abbottabad was an intelligence failure and not complicity of the country's intelligence establishment with Al Qaeda. He said the matter should be thoroughly investigated and the culprits punished.
Musharraf announced that he will end his exile on March 23, 2012 and his party will take part in the 2013 general elections in Pakistan.

Digital-divide issues blindside ethnic communities

By Jehangir Khattak;

Jehangir Khattak (3rd from L) at a panel at the National Conference for Media Reforms in Boston.

Participants of the forum at the National Conference for Media Reform in Boston.

NEW YORK CITY—When AT&T started capping customer’s Internet usage on May 2, one person paying closer attention than she might have before was Aleksandra Slabisz, a journalist at the New York-based Polish Daily/Nowy Dziennik. 

AT&T’s decision to charge extra fees to customers who use more gigabytes per month over certain capped limits means that many of Slabisz’s Polish-language readers--and countless other ethnic and community news consumers--will get hit in the pocketbook with little warning for new overage fees of $10 for every additional 50GB of data. That may not sound like much, but the fees can mount and hit lower-income people hard.

AT&T will offer its subscribers an initial two grace periods so they won’t actually be charged more until the third month after going over the cap, but the additional cost will catch many unaware soon enough. That’s why ethnic and community news outlets need to begin reporting on media policy developments, such as these new fees—and translating their complexities and impacts in terms anyone can understand.

Learning how to humanize the widening stream of complex media policy issues for ethnic and community audiences will be critical to closing the digital divide between media haves and have-nots, according to journalists and media-reform advocates, who attended the National Conference for Media Reform in Boston last month.

Slabisz is among numerous ethnic media journalists exploring how to cut through the jargon and complicated tech-talk for their audiences. Community voices will be lost in vital media debates unless readers in all languages learn about issues, such as Net neutrality (keeping Internet access open as possible without gatekeepers controlling cost or content), broadband access or crucial decisions being made by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

“I think the participation in the Boston conference further encouraged me to dig in the topic,” Slabisz said. “I think I have a better understanding of many problems, not to mention that media policy issues are important for our community.”

The Boston conference, which drew thousands of media professionals and advocates nationwide, was organized by Free Press, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization working to reform the media. 

Free Press made special efforts to bring the ethnic and community media into the national debate by facilitating participation of ethnic media journalists from across the nation and including several conference sessions on diverse media policy issues. Especially significant for Slabisz and others attending the conference was its "Information Exchange Forum for Ethnic Media and Media Advocates."

Attended by more than 50 journalists and advocates, the Information Exchange addressed steps ethnic and community media can take to increase coverage of media policy issues and how to improve the quality of current reporting. They also examined the role of media policy advocates in crafting the best course for effective messaging on these issues and what steps they should take.

The information exchange was developed with Free Press by the New York Community Media Alliance and G.W. Williams Center for Independent Journalism, a San Francisco-based nonprofit, which develops national reporting projects to support more ethnic journalists, women and youth. 

“I plan to write more stories on media policy issues,” said Jessica Xu, a senior reporter at theWorld Journal, New York’s biggest Chinese daily. She said the event convinced her that journalists from ethnic and community media need more training, resources and access to experts for writing well-framed stories grounded in the communities.

Xu stated, “We need to learn how to explain these technical terms to normal people. They care about how much money it costs and what functions it has. We need to translate these terms into plain English, and that’s the biggest challenge for reporters.” 

“I have no idea what media policy means to me and to my readers,” Mohsin Zaheer, editor ofSada-e-Pakistan, told participants. He noted communities face language barriers—on top of such confusing jargon as “net neutrality” and “digital divide.”

At the exchange session, John Rudolph, executive producer of the radio show Feet in Two Worlds, advised, “If you approach media policy as a policy story, every body’s eyes glaze over. I think we have to humanize it.” 

Ivan Roman, executive director of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, observed that ethnic community reporters need to break policy stories for their readers into fragments focusing on personal or local effects of an issue.

Freelancer Victor Merina, a former Los Angeles Times reporter and correspondent for the Native American news website Reznet, said, “I think there is a real opportunity for advocates, when there is a national story, to actually localize it for the community.” He also suggested that the reporters think about stories in multiple layers, the political, human and economic story. 

Joshua Brietbart, senior field analyst for the Open Technology Initiative at New American Foundation and formerly the policy director at People’s Production House, noted, “People think it’s amazing that advocates can follow policy.” 

But, alluding to an article in Sada-e-Pakistan about unusual ways New York’s Pakistani community is finding to close their digital divide, Brietbart continued, “I think it’s amazing that Mohsin Zaheer can go to Coney Island and find the tax attorney who has the Internet connection an entire community uses. There are so many pieces to the [media] ecosystem, and they are all critical to getting the story out.”

Joe Torres of Free Press encouraged participants to learn complicated media issues through continuous coverage: “Over time it’s going to start making sense. It just takes time; it’s not an easy issue at all.”

Jehangir Khattak, Communications Manager of New York Community Media Alliance (NYCMA), wrote this article as part of a partnership between NYCMA, the G.W. Williams Center for Independent Journalism and New America Media, in a media policy reporting fellowship sponsored by The Media Consortium.

American Muslims feel elated at Osama bin Laden’s elimination

By Jehangir Khattak

Muslim community in the United States has received the news of death of Osama bin Laden in a military operation in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad with a sense of relief and in the hope that it will turn a new page in U.S. relations with Muslims at home and overseas.

Leading Islamic organizations and civil rights groups are calling the death of the Al Qaeda leader as the evil face of global terrorism who met justice. American-Muslim community organizations were quick to welcome the killing of world's most wanted man. Blogs and social media were filled with reactions from the community. Their wording was varied, but the message was identical – bin Laden did not represent the Muslims in any way. Muslim organizations also welcomed President Barack Obama's declaration that America was not at war with Islam.

The nation's leading Muslim civil rights group, the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), said bin Laden "never represented Muslims or Islam." In a statement issued hours after President Obama announced bin Laden's death, it said: "We join our fellow citizens in welcoming the announcement that Osama bin Laden has been eliminated as a threat to our nation and the world through the actions of American military personnel."

Plainfield, Indiana-based Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) in a separate statement said the ideology of bin Laden is incompatible with Islam. It hoped Osama's death would bring some relief to all the families, of every faith and walk of life, who lost loved ones on 9/11 and in every other terrorist attack orchestrated at the hands of Osama. 

Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), a New York-based Muslim community organization, called Osama "a serious threat to the security of America and the world" and termed his removal "a significant turning point in the post-9/11 global War on Terror." ICNA hoped that the Obama administration will use "this pivotal moment as an opportunity to rapidly end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and ensure the safe return of our troops."

Washington DC-based Muslim Public Affairs Council, a public service agency working for the civil rights of American Muslims and for the integration of Islam into American pluralism, said Osama's actions and those of Al-Qaeda had violated the sacred Islamic teachings upholding the sanctity of all human life. "We hope this is a turning point away from the dark period of the last decade, in which bin Laden symbolized the evil face of global terrorism," said MPAC President Salam Al-Marayati. He pointed out that Osama's senseless terror "had been met with moral outrage by Muslims worldwide at every turn in the past decade." 

Americans of Pakistani origin, the country where bin Laden was hiding, also expressed their elation at the news. Some in the community recalled the humiliation that they had to face in the post 9/11 period in the West, especially in the United States, while others questioned the Administration's wisdom of not releasing the photos of Osama's corpse.

"The Pakistani community is very happy. But everyone is in suspense wondering if he is really dead or not because photo of his dead body has so far not been released by the U.S. authorities," said Mujeeb Lodhi, Publisher ofPakistan News, a New York-based Urdu language weekly. Lodhi said he heard many in the Pakistani community questioning the hurry that was displayed in burying Osama's body in the sea. "We have yet to see if the dead Osama will be more dangerous than when he was alive," he added. According to Lodhi, many Pakistanis felt unhappy at the growing hostility towards Pakistan in the mainstream media without recognizing the sacrifices that Pakistanis made in the war against terror. Pakistan says 30,000 of its citizens have fallen prey to terrorism since 9/11 and the country has sustained losses to the tune of $68 billion.

Mohsin Zaheer, another New York-based senior community journalist and editor of Sada-e-Pakistan, reminded those questioning the death of Osama in a Pakistani garrison town not to forget that his death on Pakistani soil proved "that Pakistan was not a safe place for bin Laden."

The Pakistani American Leadership Center (PAL-C), a Washington DC-based Pakistani community organization that lobbies on Capitol Hill, termed Osama's death as "a successful outcome of the U.S.-Pakistan security partnership." In a statement, it also referred to the growing criticism of Pakistan in the U.S. media by saying: "As we demand justice we must ensure that we do not act unjustly."

Goatmilk, a California-based blog run by playwright, journalist, attorney and humorist Wajahat Ali, was one of several Muslim community blog sites that carried mixed reactions to Osama's killing.

"With the passing of a man who came to represent violence and hate overseas, incite ignorance and misunderstanding within our own nation, and become the face of an agonizing war, I pray that our leaders turn this into a turning point in our history, bring our brave troops back home to safety, and allow for the suffering peoples of Afghanistan and Pakistan to establish the peace and security they have been longing for," wrote Hammad Moses Khan from Sacramento, CA.

"I'm Egyptian American and when Mubarak fell, it was one of the happiest days of my life, and today is too," wrote Aya A. Khalil.

Another commentator, Art Balaoro wrote: "Though I am not Muslim, I was happy to hear President Obama reiterate in his global statement that it WAS NOT a war against Islam. Very happy to hear the promotion of racial, religious, and ethnic tolerance in a critical moment."

Maleeha Haq wrote: "I cannot bring myself to celebrate for the death of any person, even one as hateful as OBL. The celebrations of his death at Ground Zero and the White House etc. strike me as macabre. I think OBL was largely irrelevant at this point. I fear for the reactions of the terrorist groups he inspired, especially how they will affect the people of Pakistan."

Bin laden's death reminded Zahir Janmohamed of the post 9/11 discrimination against Muslims: "Like all Americans, I am elated that Osama bin Laden is dead. This is indeed a day to celebrate and Americans deserve this day.  But I am also reflective on all that occurred in the name of 9/11. I am thinking about watching my friends lined up in humiliation for "special registration" at a U.S. government office in 2003 because they were born in Iran. I am thinking about greeting my cousins from Pakistan at the LAX airport in 2002, who were in tears because of the questions they were subjected to by the DHS staff. And I am reflective of the tragedies the Bush administration created in the name of 9/11: the prison at Guantanamo and the Afghanistan war. The pain of 9/11 will endure, just as the pain of what was created in response to 9/11 will also endure."

While the American-Muslim community was quick to celebrate bin Laden's elimination, reports of hate attacks on Muslims in California and vandalism at a mosque in Maine sent new fears amongst pockets of Muslim communities across the nation about a possible backlash.

The Portland, Maine police are investigating the anti-Islam graffiti, which included: "Osama today, Islam tomorrow (sic);" "Long live the West;" and "Free Cyprus," painted on the exterior of the Maine Muslims Community Center sometime between late Sunday night and Monday morning (May 2).

"We ask Americans of all faiths to reject intolerance and to send a message of national unity to the rest of the world," said CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper. "We urge state law enforcement authorities and the FBI to investigate this incident as a hate crime."

AT&T/T-Mobile deal could hurt ethnic communities

By Jehangir Khattak

NEW YORK, NY--AT&T’s recently announced acquisition of T-Mobile will significantly impact ethnic communities around the United States, especially low-income populations that could be confronted by reduced service access and higher costs.
But the arcane nature of media policy—jargon-ridden and full of obscure legalisms—often leaves ethnic and community media able to present only sketchy reports for their audiences.
For example, most of the ethnic and community media reported the basic news of the deal because it is one of the biggest business transactions in recent years -- $39 billion. But not many connected the dots for their readers to explain the deal’s impact on their community.
AT&T’s buyout of T-Mobile, if it wins federal approval, would create the nation’s largest wireless carrier. The newly combined entity would have over 125 million subscribers—making it more than a third larger than Verizon’s 93 million. But it would also reduce the number of major wireless carriers in the United States to three, with Sprint being the smallest.
Further wireless-market consolidation could involve Verizon buying Sprint or Sprint swallowing up smaller operators, such as MetroPCS, Cricket Wireless or U.S. Cellular. In any case, wireless services are likely to become more expensive.
Positive Claims
While announcing the deal on March 20, AT&T Chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson promised a process of “seamless integration” of the two companies, with additional spectrum and network capabilities. He said the deal would “help achieve the President’s goals for a high-speed, wirelessly connected America.”
With this deal, AT&T is committing to significantly expanding public access to the higher bandwidth required for such applications as high-quality wireless, video surveillance and multidata-stream wireless connections. Stephenson said if regulators approve the deal, it will spread greater availability of this technology, called 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution), to 95 percent of the U.S. population. That would add 46.5 million Americans beyond access currently planned and would include wiring rural communities and small towns. 
Stephenson’s promise is not so reassuring for community journalists, such as Aleksandra Slabisz, a senior reporter with the Polish Daily/Nowy Dziennik, who fears the deal will give AT&T enough market control to behave as a monopolist. 
While Slabisz acknowledged potentially positive aspects of the acquisition, such as improving wireless infrastructure and service, as well as expanding broadband to currently underserved areas, she expressed serious concerns about the deal.
Possible Negative Actions
Slabisz, who completed a media-policy fellowship last fall with New York Community Media Alliance, noted that once federal agencies approve the acquisition, AT&T could take actions contrary to a community’s best interests. For example, she said, the corporation could increase prices beyond reach for many consumers, or cut them to undercut competitors.
The new company, Slabisz said, could also control the quality of services, such as by dictating the available applications, software or the amount of data they’d allow to be transferred. Such maneuvers, she stressed, could greatly reduce customers’ ability to communicate and curtail their access to information through mobile networks.
“I think there could be substantial impacts on communities of color and immigrant folks,” said Jamillah King, news editor of Colorlines, a daily news site focusing on racial justice issues. King outlined the basics of the deal and its possible effects on ethnic communities in her article,“Understanding the AT&T Takeover of T-Mobile." 
King continued, “What we're talking about is a merger that would ultimately lead to AT&T and Verizon owning 70 percent of the market.” That, she said, could lead to blocked mobile content, or so-called "pay for play" plans that would charge for different levels of online access.
“Put simply, consumers want choice. The telecommunications industry is already one of the least competitive out there,” stated King. She observed that AT&T and Verizon are both offshoots of the old Bell monopoly, broken up by federal courts in the 1980s. Advocates also claim that AT&T has a century-long history of running very closed networks. Many media-reform advocates worry that this history is slowly creeping back and could lead to blocked mobile content.
Other community and ethnic-media editors are picking up on similar fears. Mohsin Zaheer, editor of the New York-based Sada-e-Pakistan and a veteran Pakistani journalist, was among those frankly admitting their initial difficulty in translating the acquisition’s complications for their readers, except in broad terms. 
Even though Sada-e-Pakistan had carried recent reports on other complex media policy subjects, such as net neutrality, Zaheer said that at first he had “no idea what could this deal mean to a customer or immigrant community.” He found, though, that many in the Pakistani community were asking about the deal’s impact on services, such as their monthly plans or their data plans. 
“Customers are talking to us and to their phone dealers, too, but our understanding is no one in [our immigrant community] has clear answers,” Zaheer said.
Regulators Should Take “Extreme Caution"
Wireless regulators -- the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Department of Justice -- have to approve the transaction before it takes effect. Experts believe legal formalities may take up to 12 months to complete. Ethnic and community media journalists are asking regulators to exercise extreme caution while taking a decision on the deal.
King said community and ethnic-media advocates are concerned about the FCC’s compromise last December on net neutrality—the principle of keeping the Internet as open as possible without gatekeepers controlling cost or content. Although the decision forbids the nation’s largest cable and DSL Internet service providers from blocking or slowing online services, the agency allowed wireless companies much more latitude.
With that decision, said King, many community media advocates realized that FCC Commissioner Julius Genachowski, a recent Obama appointee, is unlikely to take the hardline, pro-regulatory stance they expected of him. 
Progressive media advocates hoped that Genachowski’s addition as a Democratic vote on the highly partisan, five-member commission, would shift the FCC’s balance from its more corporate stance in recent years to a more public focus. Regarding the AT&T/T-Mobile deal, King is hopeful that FCC Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Michael Copps “will ask very important questions and really push the debate.” It is doubtful they would support the deal, she said.
Emphasizing the critical role of ethnic and community media, Slabisz said, “I am afraid the majority of the nation, especially immigrant communities, don’t understand the intricacies involved in business deals. Once educated the communities may be able to formulate their concerns about such deals and pass them on to their legislators.”
Jehangir Khattak, Communications Manager of New York Community Media Alliance (NYCMA), wrote this article as part of a partnership between NYCMA, the G.W. Williams Center for Independent Journalism and New America Media, in a media policy reporting fellowship sponsored by The Media Consortium.

US rights group reports spike in ant-Muslim bias

Congressional testimony says Ground Zero mosque controversy may have stoked anti-Muslim hate crimes

 29 anti-Muslim incidents documented since May 2010

By Jehangir Khattak

NEW YORK: A leading national civil rights organization has said that controversy over a proposed Islamic cultural center near the World Trade Center site, also known as Park 51, in New York City appears to have stoked an increase in hate crimes and other bias incidents directed at Muslims in the United States.
In a written testimony submitted with Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights on March 29, Montgomery, Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center President Richard Cohen said the FBI had not released statistics for 2010 or 2011. It was the first-ever congressional hearing to investigate anti-Muslim discrimination and civil rights civil rights issues.
“But our own compilation of news reports suggests that anti-Muslim incidents are again on the rise. We have compiled news reports on 156 anti-Muslim incidents since the terrorist attacks. Fifty-one of those incidents – approximately one-third – occurred within one year of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But since May 2010 – when a controversy erupted over the opening of an Islamic cultural center near the site of the World Trade Center attacks – we have documented 29 anti-Muslim incidents. That means nearly one-fifth of the incidents spanning 10 years occurred within one 10-month period.”
Mr. Cohen asked America’s political leadership to condemn hate speech directed at Muslims in America. SPLC monitors the activities of hate groups, anti-government militias and other extremists in the United States through its Intelligence Project. It also works to reduce prejudice and bigotry among the nation's youth by providing educators across the country with free anti-bias resources through its Teaching Tolerance project.
The testimony was submitted as Sen. Dick Durbin began a series of hearings on the civil rights of Muslims in response to recent incidents involving desecration of the Holy Quran, restrictions on mosque construction, hate crimes, hate speech and other forms of discrimination.
"Today’s political leaders have an important role in speaking out against anti-Muslim hate and bigotry," Cohen said. "They must follow the example set by President Bush in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and remind the American public we are not at war with Muslims. At the same time, the government must ensure that hate crimes are vigorously prosecuted so that the Muslim community knows the government is on their side." He added that schools must combat prejudice by fostering an understanding of Islamic culture.
The FBI has yet to release hate crime statistics for 2010, but SPLC quoting media reports says that there has been a recent spike in such crimes. The last such spike occurred in 2001.
According to the SPLC testimony, the first spike in anti-Muslim hate crime followed the 9/11 attacks. In 2001, Department of Justice statistics showed a 1,600 percent increase in anti-Muslim hate crime incidents in the United States – 481 incidents reported to the FBI, compared to 28 reported a year before. Cohen said because of limitations in the collection of data, these numbers vastly understated the problem; adding: “more than half of all hate crimes are never reported to police and many others are incorrectly categorized. An extensive 2005 Department of Justice study concluded that the real level of hate crime is between 20 and 30 times higher than the FBI statistics suggest.”
Of the 156 hate crimes and bias incidents collected by the SPLC from news reports since 9/11, about one-third occurred within a year of those attacks. But nearly one-fifth have occurred since May 2010, when controversy over the Islamic center in New York City erupted.

Cohen said anti-Muslim hate groups, including Stop Islamization of America, played a major role in creating a toxic atmosphere surrounding the planned Islamic center near the site of the 9/11 attacks. He said one of the most prominent anti-Muslim hate groups is Stop Islamization of America, the New York City-based group run by Pam Geller and Robert Spencer. It was instrumental in creating national anger over the so-called Ground Zero mosque.
He said in 2010, Muslims had been harassed, threatened, attacked and stabbed. For example, in August a taxi driver was slashed in the neck and face after his fare discovered he was Muslim. That same month, a piece of construction equipment was set afire and gasoline poured over other pieces of equipment at the future site of an Islamic center in Murfreesboro, Tenn. “These attacks touch more than their victims. They tear at the fabric of our society and instill fear in entire communities,” said the testimony.
It notes that the toxic atmosphere has also entered the schools, manifesting itself in the harassment of Muslim students and teachers as well as in attempts to limit how the history and culture of Islam is taught. “This past October, four high school students in Staten Island, New York, were charged with a hate crime after spending more than a year bullying a Muslim classmate, occasionally beating him and calling him a terrorist. A teacher in Arizona contacted us after an angry caller complained that she had invited a representative from the Islamic Speakers Bureau to speak to students about Islam,” says testimony. It documents the following other incidents:

•  Sikhs in Queens, New York, have complained about harassment and bullying of their children in schools. Sikh boys are often threatened with having their turbans pulled off, in addition to being called "terrorists.
• In Cambridge, Massachusetts, when a store burned down, Muslim high school students were asked by classmates if they bombed the store.
•  In St. Cloud, Minnesota, Somali refugees have experienced a spate of incidents. In March 2010, for example, a high school student created a short-lived Facebook group called "I hate the Somalians at Tech High."

“Educators also must contend with organizations such as the American Textbook Council, which has criticized textbooks and complained that textbooks don't highlight "Islamic challenges to global security." In September 2010, the Texas Board of Education approved a resolution that would require its textbooks to pass an American Textbook Council litmus test and not cast Islam in a favorable light.
“A Pennsylvania educator told us that a history program had come under attack by several parents because they believed the text was "advocating a positive 'indoctrination' of Islam." This type of scrutiny makes teachers extremely wary of teaching about Islam at all, thus perpetuating the fear and myths that are percolating throughout society and creating this anti-Muslim atmosphere.
“We must examine what is helping to fuel this toxic atmosphere. The Southern Poverty Law Center has documented a number of anti-Muslim hate groups operating in the United States. They portray Muslims as fundamentally alien and attribute to its followers an inherent set of negative traits. Muslims are depicted as irrational, intolerant and violent, and their faith is frequently depicted as sanctioning pedophilia, marital rape and child marriage,” says the testimony.
Cohen said these groups also typically hold conspiratorial views regarding the inherent danger to America posed by its Muslim-American community. “Muslims are depicted as a fifth column intent on undermining and eventually replacing American democracy and Western civilization with Islamic despotism. Anti-Muslim hate groups allege that Muslims are trying to subvert the rule of law by imposing on Americans their own Islamic legal system, Shariah law.” He said we shouldn't be surprised by the effects of such vitriol on the public. The Pew Research Center found that nearly one-fifth of Americans (18 percent) believed President Obama was a Muslim in August 2010 – up from 11 percent in March 2009, prior to the controversy over the supposed "Ground Zero mosque." In addition, 43 percent of all Americans said they didn't know what Obama's religion is, despite his profession of Christianity.
Another indicator of the hysteria sweeping the country is the introduction of bills in numerous state legislatures to ban the use of Islamic Shariah law in our courts. These bills are based on a completely unfounded fear. “They are little more than political stunts designed to pander to the country's growing anti-Muslim sentiment. The real danger is that the fear-mongering associated with these bills will add fuel to the anti-Muslim fire that is brewing,” Cohen added in his testimony.
“Today's political leaders have an important role in speaking out against anti-Muslim hate and bigotry. They must follow the example set by President Bush in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and remind the American public we are not at war with Muslims. At the same time, the government must ensure that hate crimes are vigorously prosecuted so that the Muslim community knows the government is on their side,” the SPLC testimony concluded.

A crispy interview with an Arab journalist

A decade ago the U.S. government attacked Al-Jazeera as a propagator of anti-American propaganda. Now Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is citing the network for fine news coverage and tweaking the U.S. media in the process.
The Arab broadcaster says it’s ready to take advantage of what it considers a major boost in its acceptance in the United States. Here is one more reason why it should. Al Jazeera's Ayman Mohyeldin tells Stephen Colbert the American cable companies that refuse to carry Al Jazeera help contribute to the misinformation about the Middle East. (05:36)

Number of U.S. hate groups on the rise: Report

By Jehangir Khattak

An Alabama-based organization says hate groups in America are growing at an explosive rate – wake up Congressman Peter King. In its quarterly publication, Intelligence Report, SPLC said hate, “Patriot” and nativist groups expanded explosively in 2010 for the second year in a row. The report says this increase was driven by resentment over the changing racial demographics of the country, frustration over the government’s handling of the economy, and the mainstreaming of conspiracy theories and other demonizing propaganda aimed at various minorities. For many on the radical right, anger is focusing on President Obama, who is seen as embodying everything that’s wrong with the country.

SPLC says hate groups topped 1,000 for the first time since the Southern Poverty Law Center began counting such groups in the 1980s. Anti-immigrant vigilante groups, despite having some of the political wind taken out of their sails by the adoption of hard-line anti-immigration laws around the country, continued to rise slowly, the report says, adding that by far the most dramatic growth came in the antigovernment “Patriot” movement — conspiracy-minded organizations that see the federal government as their primary enemy — which gained more than 300 new groups, a jump of over 60%.

Taken together, these three strands of the radical right — the hatemongers, the nativists and the antigovernment zealots — increased from 1,753 groups in 2009 to 2,145 in 2010, a 22% rise. That followed a 2008-2009 increase of 40%, the SPLC report noted.

It pointed out that the “remarkable” growth of right-wing extremism came even as politicians around the country, blown by gusts from the Tea Parties and other conservative formations, tacked hard to the right, co-opting many of the issues important to extremists. Last April, for instance, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed S.B. 1070, the harshest anti-immigrant law in memory, setting off a tsunami of proposals for similar laws across the country. Continuing growth of the radical right could be curtailed as a result of this shift, especially since Republicans, many of them highly conservative, recaptured the U.S. House last fall.

But despite those historic Republican gains, says the report,  the early signs suggest that even as the more mainstream political right strengthens, the radical right has remained highly energized.

According to the report, in an 11-day period this January, a neo-Nazi was arrested headed for the Arizona border with a dozen homemade grenades; a terrorist bomb attack on a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade in Spokane, Wash., was averted after police dismantled a sophisticated anti-personnel weapon; and a man who officials said had a long history of antigovernment activities was arrested outside a packed mosque in Dearborn, Mich., and charged with possessing explosives with unlawful intent. That’s in addition, the same month, to the shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona, anattack that left six dead and may have had a political dimension, it added.

It’s also clear that other kinds of radical activity are on the rise. Since the murder last May 20 of two West Memphis, Ark., police officers by two members of the so-called “sovereign citizens” movement, police from around the country have contacted the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) to report what one detective in Kentucky described as a “dramatic increase” in sovereign activity. Sovereign citizens, who, like militias, are part of the larger Patriot movement, believe that the federal government has no right to tax or regulate them and, as a result, often come into conflict with police and tax authorities. Another sign of their increased activity came early this year, when the Treasury Department, in a report assessing what the IRS faces in 2011, said its biggest challenge will be the “attacks and threats against IRS employees and facilities [that] have risen steadily in recent years.

Egyptian Americans support calls for Mubarak’s resignation

By Jehangir Khattak, NYCMA, 2 February 2011.

Egyptian Americans are watching the events in their homeland with anxiety, fear and hope for a better tomorrow. With the Internet blacked out by President Hosni Mubarak's government, the Egyptian community here has reported increasing difficulties in reaching families and friends in the land of the Nile and pharaohs. The community is disappointed by what many call President Obama's soft peddling on the crisis and his failure to demand Mubarak's resignation. Community leaders fear that whatever the results may be of the current mass uprising, it will have an impact on the peace process in the Middle East.

President Mubarak has few supporters in the Egyptian-American community. "We are obviously very supportive of the demands of Egyptian people because we feel that they have the right to have democracy. We feel that the Mubarak regime must go," said Linda Sarsour, director of the Brooklyn-based Arab American Association, a nonprofit working to empower the Arab immigrant community.

Khaled Lamada, president of Society of Egyptian Americans for Development, another Brooklyn-based community organization involved in charitable work in Egypt, shared Linda's sentiments. "Every one is asking Mubarak to leave. He has to go. I don't think they (the protesters) will accept any thing less than that," he told NYCMA. He said Egyptians deserved democracy and freedom.

Nadine Wahab, a spokesperson for Egyptian Association for Change (EAC), called Mubarak government "most brutal and oppressive." EAC is a Washington DC-based non-partisan community group that supports Mohammad Elbaradei's National Association for Change's 7-point reform agenda. Talking over phone to NYCMA from Washington DC, she agreed Mubarak must leave power. The economic plight of Egyptians, she said, had deteriorated over the years under his watch, with over 40 percent of its population of 82 million living on less than $2 a day. 

Narine didn't think the United States was a real player in the current crisis. "It has to be a people's movement and foreign interference is completely unacceptable." She sounded critical of Obama Administration's soft stance on Mubarak's future, saying Egyptians expected a much firmer U.S. stand against the Mubarak regime. She said Egyptians were disappointed that President Obama didn't demand Mubarak's resignation in his remarks following the strongman's announcement on Tuesday, February 1, that he wouldn't seek re-election.

Khaled Lamada agreed with Narine. "Obama sided with the regime. He didn't make a clear cut demand that Mubarak should resign. It's not really encouraging," he said, referring to Obama's February 1st remarks.

Some Egyptian Americans did agree with President Obama. "He talked about change and free elections. I think the message was very clear and good," said Amjad Maky, a Queens-based Egyptian photojournalist who works for his community publications in Astoria and New Jersey. Amjad supports the demand for Hosni Mubarak's exit; however, he saw no need for the people to continue protesting after Mubarak announced his decision to not seek re-election and felt Egyptians needed to be more patient with change. "It's not like you hand over the keys and leave. It's more complicated."

The Internet blackout

The Mubarak government clamped down on the Internet shutting down major providers in the country to stop people from using Facebook and Twitter, the social media that has been extensively used to usher in the massive protests. Google has reported its Internet traffic going down to zero percent, while mobile phone lines and SMS services are reporting more and more glitches. 

Khaled, whose immediate and extended family lives in Cairo and Alexandria and is safe, said it was becoming a challenge to get connected with his next of kin in those cities. "Most of the times only land lines work as much of the cell phone services are down." Both Linda and Khaled said people in Cairo and elsewhere in the country had started community policing after several looting incidents were reported.

Community protests

The crisis has evoked a spirited response from Egyptian community overseas. In the United States, the Egyptian Association for Change has reported "hundreds" of protests in as many as 15 states since the crisis began. These protests are receiving support from other communities as well, including American social justice and civil rights organizations and some Palestinian groups.

There are no exact numbers available about the Egyptian community's population in the United States; however, some community leaders believe their population could be as much as half a million. In New York, southwest Brooklyn, Astoria, Queens and Staten Island have large pockets of Egyptian immigrants. According to Khaled, the Egyptian community is the fifth largest in Staten Island.

Most of the anti-Mubarak demonstrations in New York have been organized by Egyptian American United, a membership-based community organization and Al Awda, The Palestine Right to return Coalition. Both Linda's and Khaled's organizations have actively participated in these protests. Khaled said his organization will hold another protest in Times Square this Friday, February 4.

Like in Egypt, Facebook remains the favorite means of mobilizing the community for protests in the United States. 'Peaceful protest' postings have received robust response with people seeking shared rides and help with logistics in places as far as Detroit and Portland.

Fears about Middle East peace process

The crisis has pushed the Obama Administration into a virtual scramble. Many in Washington and other Western capitals are gauging the impact of the tumult. There are mounting fears that the uprising might spillover into other countries of a volatile Middle East, the majority of which lack representative governments. Many of these governments have enjoyed Washington's support for decades and played key role in promoting the U.S.-lead peace process in the region.

Jordan, Washington's key ally in the region, has already felt the heat. Its dynastic ruler King Abdullah has dismissed his government and appointed Marouf Bakhit, a conservative former army general with deep tribal roots, as the new prime minister. Abdullah's father, King Hussein, changed prime minister 45 times in his 47-year reign and successfully placated any challenge to his monarchic rule.

Khaled Lamada is convinced that the Egyptian crisis will have domino effect in the region and will transcend Egyptian borders into countries like Jordan and Syria.

While it is too early to calculate the implications of regime change in Cairo on the peace process, many foreign policy experts are warning that these are bound to impact the process.

Linda Sarsour, who is of Palestinian parentage, echoed these sentiments. "We feel it will have impact on the Israel-Palestinian conflict. It will have good implications for the region," she said, adding that Israel could come under renewed pressure if its biggest supporter in the region, Hosni Mubarak, is ousted from power.

Khaled Lamada agreed but said that the impact will be limited. He said Egypt is a stable country and has good institutions. "I think any future government in Egypt will honor its commitment to peace and international treaties." They will respect Egypt's peace treaty with Israel.

Sarsour, who feels the United States should help Egypt and Israel rebuild their mutual relationship if the Mubarak regime falls, says the United States needs to restart the peace process and bring greater stability to the region.

Khaled's biggest fear is that the popular revolt against Mubarak regime could be hijacked by any group or a country, although he did not elaborate which they could be. He also brushed aside fears that the protests could increase anti-American sentiment in Egypt, saying most of Egyptians admired the United States.