From a Concerned Community Member/Activist ...

Disclaimers:

1. The whole "mapping" issue has the community up in arms. Everybody has a different take/view/opinion. What you're reading below comes from a community activist who I personally respect. Again though, it is just one view.)

2. In addition to contacting Shura Council to indicate your support for their approach to the mapping (remember every Muslim organization is against it, but they've all got different approaches), you should contact MPAC. They are your organization, you have the right to ask them for clarifications as well as any other questions you may have. In addition, they've expressed an interest in community members contacting them - so take them up on the offer!

Subject: Please read and respond to protect your rights as Muslims

Assalamu `alaykum wa rahmatullah,

I'm sure many of you are by now outraged by the LAPD's plan to map Muslim communities in LA. What seems to potentially pose an even greater threat is the lack of a unified, cohesive voice in opposition on behalf of the Muslim community itself. While non-Muslim groups are willing to join forces to denounce this plan as an outrage and a threat to the freedom and civil liberties of all, I have learned that the Muslim leadership is shockingly divided in its response. I have spoken with Shakeel Syed of the Shura Council today and he confirmed that MPAC favors a toned down approach and a willingness to try to work with the LAPD (or at least be engaged in the process though they say they are against racial profiling). This is in stark contrast to Shakeel's position and that of CAIR (and probably all the other member organizations of Shura) who reject outright any plan based on the premise of singling out Muslim communities on the misguided and bigotted position that we are somehow more prone to violent acts or extremism than other groups. Shakeel assured me this is his position but due to MPAC's sphere of influence within Shura Council, he asked me to get others to speak out so that MPAC clearly knows that they do not represent the Muslim community on this, and so that Shura Council can come out with a forceful unified stand against this nonsense.

So I am requesting each of you to send an email to Shakeel Syed emphasizing the following two points:

1) We are shocked and dismayed by the position of MPAC on this issue and it does not reflect the overwhelming sentiment of the broader Muslim community in Southern California.

2) We call upon the Shura Council as a representative, united voice to categorically denounce and reject any plan that is predicated on the wholesale targeting of the Muslim community without any reasonable cause as an affront to our civil liberties, as a violation of the law of this land, and to exercise any means at its disposal to fight such a measure.

A request has been put in to Shakeel to call an emergency meeting of the Shura Council prior to the scheduled meeting with the LAPD this Thursday. He is also contemplating an emergency town hall meeting to hear the voice of the community, which I have encouraged him to proceed with.

Please send this to anyone on your email contacts and urge people to flood his email box, even if you write two or three sentences to capture the above points. Remember, this is no longer about whether or not you agree with MPAC on a particular issue--this threatens the privacy, security and freedom of every one of us.

wassalamu `alaykum wa rahmatullah,
Mohammad Mertaban

IECOC Opposes the Proposal to Map Muslim Communities

November 11, 2007

IECOC Statement

IECOC Opposes the Proposal to Map Muslim Communities

The Islamic Educational Center of Orange County joins in the efforts by Muslim advocacy groups and civil libertarians to denounce the Los Angeles Police Department to map Muslim communities in the greater Los Angeles area.

Los Angeles Police Department Deputy Chief Michael P. Downing, who heads the counter-terrorism bureau, testified before a United States Senate committee on Oct. 30, 2007 that “we want to map the locations of these closed, vulnerable communities [Muslims].”

“To do this, we need to go into the community and get to know peoples’ names. We need to walk into homes, neighborhoods, mosques and businesses,” he said.

If the mapping project goes forward then we fear that over 500,000 American Muslim families in the greater Los Angeles area could automatically become suspects as “risk factors.”

Targeting peaceful Muslim communities reminds us of how the Jews first began being identified by the Nazis during the Holocaust and the American Japanese internment camps after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

The mapping project strikes at the heart of the American constitution and the civil liberties of its citizens.

Let us not run on fear factors but on sound facts.

Let not our leaders compromise the very essence of “justice for all” and innocence before guilt.

American Muslims are peaceful and law-abiding citizens who care for the safety of their homeland and their neighbors.

The Islamic Educational Center of Orange County welcomes all forms of dialogue and cooperative effort in getting to know the American Muslim community. The doors of our mosque have always been open to the public and law enforcement agencies, we have held numerous interfaith and civic functions, and generously extended our hands to help our neighbors in need. We earnestly work towards the betterment of our nation and its national security for all people.

IECOC will continue to update and inform the community on this issue.

Imam Sayed Moustafa al-Qazwini

Islamic Educational Center of Orange County (IECOC)

3194-B Airport Loop Dr.

Costa Mesa, CA 92626

Tel: 714-432-0060

"Proactivity" defined

I've recently started reading Stephen Covey's "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People". The first chapter or so were kind of boring but while waiting for my flight yesterday I got through reading about the first out of the seven habits: Proactivity.

It inspired and excited me because everything Covey said made complete sense and I wished I could get his message through to every Muslim, starting with myself. So here goes my effort of being Proactive, and trying to share a few of Covey's words with you:

"The word proactivity is now fairly common in management literature, it is a word you won't find in most dictionaries. It means more than merely taking initiative. It means that as human beings, we are responsible for our own lives. Our behaviour is a function of our decisions, not our conditions. We can subordinate feelings to values. We have the initiative and the responsibility to make things happen.

Look at the word responsibility-"response-ability"-the ability to choose your response. Highly proactive people recognize that responsibility. They do not blame circumstances, conditions, or conditioning for their behaviour. Their behaviour is a product of their own conscious choice, based on values, rather than a product of their conditions, based on feeling.

Because we are, by nature, proactive, if our lives are a function of conditioning and conditions, it is because we have, by conscious decision or by default, chosen to empower those things to control us.

In making such a choice, we become reactive. Reactive people are often affected by their physical environment. If the weather is good, they feel good. If it isn't, it affects their attitude and their performance. Proactive people can carry their own weather with them. Whether it rains or shines makes no difference to them."

Based on the definition above, it seems obvious to me that Prophet Mohammad (pbuh) is one of the greatest examples of proactivity because of his attitude towards spreading the message he believed in.

Also, conspiracy-theory minded people are by definition NOT Proactive. That means half the population of the Muslim world, I think. We have a long way to go to become the proactive community our Prophet would have wanted us to be.

I hope the next six tips are as useful and inspiring. If they are you will be hearing more about them from me.

The Shia-Sunni Drama for Yo'Momma

Recently I had a post on Al-Azhar called "Fresh off the Unity Parade". This began a long conversation with my close friends and then with Shia acquaintances. One thing I realized was that Sunnis are experiencing for the first time being a minority community in society. Yet the Shia experience has been adapted to this minority status. That raised a question for me, which was how has the Shia community experienced life in the paradigm of being a super-minority?

To answer this question, a friend relates her experience at a local University. Muslamics is interested in dialogue and most of all a neutral and safe environment to discuss these sorts of issues. The Shia-Sunni divide is filled with history, bad blood, and most of all emotion. While all three components are important to everyone's narrative, I would encourage people to follow these ground rules while reading, processing and commenting on the issue:

1. Respect.
2. We all agree to disagree.
3. Keep in mind that if we disagree, we are still HUMAN.
4. Lets keep the conversation relevant.
5. Finally, lets not personalize- no finger pointing, back biting, labeling and finally NO CALLING out of schools, places of worship, organizations or individuals (anonymity is key and some degree of vagueness for the sake of opening discussion is critical)

Without further "dancing around the bush"- a post by Anonymous Guest Writer on the Shia experience in the MSA/University environment:

My School Experiences as a Shi'a Sister

As I recall back to my first two years in college, there were only three, maybe four Muslim girls that I knew were Muslim because they wore hijab. I had never met them before, but it made me very happy to bump into these girls in random hallways and eventually in our "prayer" room at school. It made me happy not only because I identified with them, but because the MSA was full of male. So, I stopped going to the MSA events after my first year. That was until in my third and fourth year, the number of hijabis almost quadrupled. The MSA took on a different role on campus and for me. The girls were all friendly and lovingly gave hugs and had sincere conversations with my sister and I , who also started going to school there. I could say the same about the brothers, also. Lunchtimes flew by, MSA meetings were great, and there was such a bond between everyone.

That was until they found out we were Shi'a. I can't say that I was affected by it directly in any way because the girls who started school with me were still as friendly and did not care for the difference between me and them. However, something very different happened for my sister and another sister who was also Shi'a. I remember one brother in particular, after he found out that the other sister was Shi'a, told her a series of very hurtful remarks like "Shi'as are not Muslims." At that point, I don't think he knew that I was Shi'a, but I kept distance from him anyway. Although he did not say any verbal remarks to my sister, he also began to act very rudely with her.

How could someone be so naïve? Slowly, the other sophomore and junior girls began to act the same way. They didn't say anything in front of us, but just being around them made us feel less welcome. And, we saw straight through the façade with invitations made out of obligation. It's not like we didn't try to fit in. I remember distinctly praying with them, eating with them, going to MSA meetings with them, and even going out of my way to go to Qur'an discussions where they discussed things that were the complete opposite of what I believed in (for example, Shi'as do not believe the Prophet was ever illiterate.

But, the truth is, sometimes we did not and could not fit in. We pray with our arms down, we don't practice taraweh, and maybe the most important difference—our view about the successors of Prophet Muhammad PBUH. Despite these differences, we still believe in and worship ONLY Allah SWTA, we pray five times a day, we fast in the month of Ramadhan, we believe strongly in giving charity and helping the less fortunate, we believe in dawah and spreading the goodness of Islam—then, why the animosity? It's the biggest confusion that I have.

How can one Sunni sister treat her fellow Christian (or any non-Muslim) sister with such respect and give her friendship, yet alienate her fellow Shi'a Muslim sister? I realize that there is a lack of information and large quantities of misinformation about Shi'a Islam, specifically, Shi'a Ithna-Asheri Islam (believers of the twelve guided Imams). I, as one sister, can tell you that there is discrimination and hate against Shia’s, but I cannot tell those who refuse to listen. In this time when many in the world are against Muslims, we should at least try to understand each other and build unity so that we can defeat the ignorance. Non-Muslims will ask us questions and be inspired by our commitments, charity, and unity. What will we tell them when they realize that there really is no real unity.

---

Now its your turn. Please add your experience. We need to hear from you about this issue because it is critical. I look forward to your thoughtful comments, questions and stories.

Sincerely on behalf of the Muslamics Team,

Affad Shaikh

Torture: The New Litmus Test

As Sheikh Hamza put it, since when is Torture a "question"?!

Remember that golden, innocent time -- the 1980s and '90s -- when the phrase "political litmus test" was associated with the debate about abortion rights, and torture was associated with the Spanish Inquisition?

Those days are gone. And, as usual in life, there's good news and bad news.

The good news? Abortion isn't nearly as divisive an issue as it used to be. The bad news? For the GOP, torture is the new abortion.

These days, you can forget that old-style GOP rhetoric about "values," "human dignity" and the "culture of life." Because the GOP has a new litmus test for its nominees: Will you or will you not protect U.S. officials who order the torture of prisoners?

Giuliani's main selling point with GOP stalwarts is his toughness on terrorism, symbolized by his "gloves-off" approach to interrogations. In the campaign's first GOP presidential debate, Giuliani told a cheering crowd that if the U.S. captured a suspect believed to be planning a terrorist attack, "I would tell the people who had to do the interrogation to use every method they can think of." Pressed on whether that would include waterboarding, Giuliani repeated, "Every method they could think of, and I would support them in doing that." More recently, Giuliani claimed that whether or not waterboarding is torture "depends on who does it."

Far more than the abortion debate ever did, the debate about torture goes to the very heart of what (if anything) this country stands for. Do we want to be the nation imagined by the signers of the Declaration of Independence, a nation with "a decent respect to the opinions of mankind," committed to a vision of human dignity and unalienable rights, limited government and the rule of law?

Or would we rather bring back the methods of the Spanish Inquisition?

As litmus tests go, that's not such a bad one.

Complete Opine in LA Times

Gem of Prophetic Wisdom

Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said...

The Creator has advised me with nine duties:

The duty of Sincerity in private and public

Justice in anger or happiness

Moderation in times of scaricty or abundance

Forgiving those who wronged me

Generosity to those who deny me

Relationship with those who break off with me

To let me Silence be contemplative

my Speech be mindful

and my Looking insightful

Source: Booklet by Islamic Center of Irvine: Muhammad (Peace and Blessings upon Him)

UMMA Clinic featured in LA Times!

It grew out of the 1992 riots, a vision by a small group of Muslim medical students to bring charitable, high-quality healthcare to the needy residents of South Los Angeles.

Eleven years later, the UMMA clinic on Florence Avenue has served nearly 20,000 patients, the great majority of them non-Muslim. It has become a mainstay of its largely low-income neighborhood, sponsoring blood drives, literacy promotions and even tax return workshops, along with its medical services.

And in an era when Middle Eastern conflicts and terrorist attacks have often brought uncomfortable attention to America's Muslim communities, the clinic has become a source of considerable pride for Muslims in Southern California and nationwide.

"We believe this is really Islam at its best," said Shakeel Syed, executive director of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, an umbrella group for the region's mosques. "We are very proud of those who started UMMA and those who are continuing the work there."

• continue reading this article : LA Times: Health trumps faith differences at Muslim clinic
• UMMA Clinic Official website: www.ummaclinic.org
• Donate to UMMA Clinic: Donate Now!

One mo'again...

Premise Four: Civilization is based on a clearly defined and widely accepted yet often unarticulated hierarchy. Violence done by those higher on the hierarchy to those lower is nearly always invisible, that is, unnoticed. When it is noticed, it is fully rationalized. Violence done by those lower on the hierarchy to those higher is unthinkable, and when it does occur is regarded with shock, horror, and the fetishization of the victims.

-Derrick Jensen

Yay Pakistan?

Security forces were reported to have rounded up about 500 opposition party figures, lawyers and human rights advocates Sunday, and about a dozen privately television news stations remained off the air. International broadcasters, including the BBC and CNN, were also cut.

The crackdown, announced late Saturday night after General Musharraf suspended the Constitution, was clearly aimed at preventing public demonstrations that political parties and lawyers were organizing for Monday.

“They are showing zero tolerance for protest,” said Athar Minallah, a lawyer, and a former minister in the Musharraf government.

In Islamabad, police forces continued to block the Parliament and Supreme Court buildings. But the day was mostly quiet, and there was no formal curfew. Several small protests were broken up, including one involving a two dozen people who scuffled with the police before being subdued and taken away.

Police officers armed with tear gas broke up a meeting at the headquarters of the Pakistan Human Rights Commission in Lahore and took dozens of people away in police vans, including elderly women, school teachers and about 20 lawyers, according to people at the meeting. In all, about 80 lawyers were detained, and many others who faced arrest warrants remained in hiding, according to members of a nationwide lawyer’s lobby that has grown increasingly influential as an anti-Musharraf voice.

The head of the human rights commission, and one of Pakistan’s most prominent democratic figures, Asma Jahangir, was placed under house arrest Saturday night. Among others arrested were Javed Hashmi, the acting president of the political party of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, and workers of the political party of the opposition leader, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Full Story: NY Times

NYT: End to a Shabby Prosecution

Full Editorial here, excerpts below:

The federal government agreed this week to terminate 20-year-old deportation proceedings against two Palestinian men who were wrongly targeted for their political beliefs and activities. Better late than never, but we fear that there is little hope that the Bush administration will learn any lesson from this shockingly mishandled prosecution.

The key allegation was that they had distributed a magazine published by the Popular Front and raised funds for lawful charitable organizations somehow linked to the group. Yet, fairly early on, the government conceded that it had no evidence that the two defendants had ever been involved in any criminal or terrorist activity — and that had they been citizens, there would have been no grounds for their arrest.

Unfortunately, that did not stop the government from obsessively pursuing the case under four presidents.

In January, Bruce Einhorn, an immigration judge, issued a ruling denouncing the long and winding prosecution as “an embarrassment to the rule of law.” He also castigated the government’s “gross failure” to produce potentially exculpatory and other relevant information.

It’s easy to see this case as a tragic anachronism, a relic from the bad old days of the Red Scare and cold war. But the Bush administration continues to risk injuring innocent people and deflecting resources from real terrorist threats with cases built on weak allegations of guilt by association.