FBI: Less Drama, More National Security?

FBI Spying on Mosques Draws Senate Attention; Rights Workshop Helps Local Muslims Deal With the Feds

Thursday, Mar. 26 2009
By Matt Coker in A Clockwork Orange, OC Religion

Orange County Weekly


A Senate Judiciary Committee questioned FBI Director Robert Mueller Wednesday about a Muslim coalition's consideration of breaking ties with the bureau following the highly publicized federal government spying on an Irvine mosque.

Meanwhile, a workshop has been organized for this Sunday to help local American Muslims deal with this frightening new twist in the "Global War on Terror." Details on that in a bit.

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) told Mueller he was "disappointed" to learn of the AMT statement in light of recent discussions urging "the FBI to gain the trust of the American Muslim community to assist in the effort to stop terrorism."

Reading from a news report where AMT claims the FBI has pressured Muslims to become informants, labeled civil rights advocates as criminals and spread misinformation, Feingold had a question for Mueller: "Can you determine and report to this committee whether mosques have been entered by FBI agents or informants without disclosing their identities under the authority of the attorney general guidelines and, if so, how many?"

(New Justice Department guidelines that took effect in December have lowered the threshold for beginning FBI investigations, allowing race and ethnicity to be factors in opening a probe. The ACLU has a fact sheet on the guidelines here.)

Replied Mueller: "I will say that we do not focus on institutions, we focus on individuals. And I will say generally if there is evidence or information as to individual or individuals undertaking illegal activities in religious institutions, with appropriate high-level approval, we would undertake investigative activities, regardless of the religion. But it would -- we would single that out as an exceptionally sensitive circumstance that would require much vetting before that occurred..."

Feingold then asked if the new attorney general guidelines are helping or hurting the FBI's relationship with the U.S. Muslim community, and what the bureau plans to do in light of the AMT statement to improve relations. Mueller responded that his "expectation is that our relationships are as good now as before the guidelines" and he added that the Muslim community "has been tremendously supportive and worked very closely with [the FBI] in a number of instances around the country."

Is there a Purpose to Dialogue?

(For More on the picture read This American Muslim)

Salaam, Dear Muslamics readers I have to say I am quite disheartened these past four days. I am not in the mood to write because it just seems so pointless. I don't even have the heart to continue to watch or read the news, but to keep from loosing my humanity I have forced myself to keep "connected".

What I want to share is my reflection with you. Recently Muslim organizations took part in this "Twinning Project" where Jewish and Muslim congregations partake in matching up with each other and "were part of a national "twinning campaign" to establish synagogue-mosque partnerships to combat Islamophobia and anti-Semitism." Don't get things misinterpreted, I think the interfaith work is important and necessary.

However, what I am questioning is whether its worthwhile for us to set aside our principles- ie. distract ourselves from talking about the real issues in order to make friendly with the Zionists. The excerpt below is from LOS ANGELES TIMES article on "twinning":

"Jews and Muslims, as the children of Abraham, not only do we share a common faith, but we share a common fate," Rabbi Marc Schneier, president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, told the gathering. His organization has coordinated the interfaith effort with help from the Islamic Society of North America, the Muslim Public Affairs Council and the World Jewish Congress.

....

"We have to change ourselves, then we can change others," said [Dr. Muzzammil] Siddiqi, who is also chairman of the Fiqh Council of North America, the highest body of Islamic jurisprudence in the United States. "Muslims and Jews of America can . . . show this is possible to work together. This is the message of the Torah. This is the message of the Koran. This is the message of the Gospel."

While I agree with the premise of what is being said by the Imam and Rabbi say, I question again American Muslims inability to understand the implications of our full participation.

Why are we as American Muslims bending over backwards to support such efforts in the face of Zionist (often with mainstream Jewish complacency) agenda of only working Muslim organizations that bend over backwards and go out of their to not criticize Israel. Why are Muslims being asked to hold "Israel as a holy cow" that can not be criticized in order to benifit from "interfaith" efforts? Why are interfaith efforts even premised on the idea that Muslims have to put aside something principled in order to participate.

That is what I question. That is what I fear we as Muslims are loosing sight of when we rush to this "joining hands"- joining hands is such a facade if we can not come to terms that we "can agree to disagree and still work together on other issues" when one side- Muslims- are told that the litmus test for them to even come to join hands is to sell out the Palestinians in blind support of Israel.

With Lebanon war just behind us and this atrocity currently in Gaza, HOW can we as American Muslims conciensly continue to keep this charade wanting to participate in such hollow proposals like the Twinning Project? Why should we dirty our principles in order to be present at the table?

If we really want to look at doing something, then lets work on long term changes, lets begin by sending a clear message to our leaders that as Muslims we need to stick up to our principles.

Amina Wadud Leads Prayer...again....

Professor becomes first female to lead mixed Islamic congregation in Britain
By Chris Irvine

A female professor has become the first woman to lead a mixed congregation in Islamic prayer in Britain.

Professor Amina Wadud gave the sermon at a centre in Oxford in what is being called a "leap forward" for equality in Islam.

The sermon was controversial as tradition holds that Muslim religious leaders, called Imams, must always be men when there are services with both sexes.

Some Muslims also believe it is against Islam for a woman to conduct such services.

Prof Wadud took the service, known as a khutbah, to mark the start of a conference on Islam and feminism at Wolfson College, Oxford.

"There's nothing in the Koran that prohibits it," she said.

"My own theological research into the essence of Islam indicates the necessity for us to be able to move away from the tradition that restricted women from the practice of leading prayer."

The move has angered many Muslims and a small group gathered outside the college to voice their opposition.

Aishah Samah, from Oxford, said: "We're here to uphold the traditions and the values of Islam and uphold the ways of the prophet - peace be upon him."

Fellow protester Maryan Ramzy said: "We have no objections to women being heads of state, or organisation leaders.

"Women are highly-respected in Islam. But in Islamic law, women cannot lead prayer."

Chairman of the Muslim Education Centre Oxford Dr Taj Hargey, said earlier this week he was undeterred by the possible protests, arguing the prayer service is a step in the right direction.

"We believe Islam is a gender-equal religion," he said.

"There is a record that the Prophet Mohammed allowed a woman to lead a mixed-gender congregation, but this precedent has been ignored.

"Women have led prayers in South Africa, Canada and the US and this is a first time here – it is a celebration."

Dr Hargey added: "People thought it was a bad idea to give women the vote.

"When Emmeline Pankhurst chained herself to the railings in protest there was uproar, but things move on.

"This is about theological self-empowerment - women as well as men have the right to determine their own theological destiny."

Prof Wadud has attracted controversy before - in 2005 she led a service in New York City, which had to be held in an Anglican church after mosques refused to host the event.

Source. Is this still bothering people? Thoughts?

Welcome to Somber September 11th

The Seventh year in a row, we remember, like all Americans the tragic events of Sept. 11th. Here is a link to my blog where you can read my reflection for this year. I thought here we can share with one another, how as special Americans Sept. 11th also marks a time where we get special remarks, and special events, for some rites of passage into the real world. Let me start:

Today, I got an email forwarded to me that read "hard to believe it's been seven years. we haven't forgotten, pig*&^%..." Then just an hour ago, my 13 year old sister called me, distressed and anxious with fear in her voice, telling me that some African American kid named Issiah has been harrassing her all day calling her a terrorist, asking her "when she planned to bring a AK-47 to school and kill everyone?" Her voice was desperately asking me to make it stop.

What can I tell her, sorry sis' there are some ignorant and stupid dumb people out there who only know how to torment people because they get a thrill out of it?

Share your American Muslim experiences that come around this time of year, or for that matter anytime of the year.

Shouldn't Islamic funds be socially and environmentally responsible too?

The big winners in faith funds (if you can be so crass) are the Islamic funds. They screen out "sin stocks"—and producers of pork products. The profitable difference is riba, or interest. The Qur'an strictly prohibits the borrowing or lending of money at interest: "Whatever you give as riba so that it might bring increase through the wealth of other people will bring you no increase with Allah," it says. Because of this prohibition, Islamic mutual funds, like those in the Amana group, don't invest in financial-services companies: they escaped the subprime mortgage debacle altogether. Most energy companies, however, are fine. "We don't consider ourselves an environmental or socially responsible fund," says Monem Salam, Amana's director of Islamic investing. "Energy was a big part of our growth."

Over the past year, the Amana funds outperformed the market; their assets have more than doubled from $400 million in 2003 to $1.3 billion this year. Five years ago, most of Amana's investors were American Muslims, Salam adds. Now, he guesses, 80 percent of new investors are non-Muslims.

Continue at Newsweek

Good news: 'Islamic' funds exist and they stay away from anything to do with pork, "sin", and riba-dealing financial services - and, they're leading the market.

But the statement "We don't consider ourselves an environmental or socially responsible fund" doesn't give me a warm, fuzzy feeling.

I will not pretend we live in an ideal world but it would be great if Muslim funds moved to being more environmentally and socially responsible. I am not sure were the line should be drawn but I think some thought should be put into this. A flat out statement like the above should raise some questions from the Muslims investing in the fund.

Middle East and Economy the Muslim Way

One of the most enjoyable parts of my drive to work in the morning is listening to NPR's Marketplace. Its a fascinating and mind boggling world of business that is presented in a an upbeat and lively way. My routine has now also involved listening to Marketplace on the internet radio for this past week because of the fascinating special coverage they have been doing on the "Middle East at Work".

They have covered topics about Islamic Shariah compliant student loans and mortgages, to the mega health cities and desert building sprees, the new silk road and on the "Islamic Roots of Green" business.

Its quite a fascinating work that they have put together. Please do visit here and listen to it. Kai Ryssdal, the host of the show has an interesting story on his job here. He really carries the show for me, makes business seem like its not the 3 trillion dollar economy it is. Also for more on Islamic economics check out wikipedia, its a good beginning point.

Second Muslim in Congress

No Analysis, Just the NEWS!!!

Andre Carson, also known as the Juggernaut (rap name), who converted to Islam some seven years ago is now OFFICIALLY THE SECOND MUSLIM IN CONGRESS!!!

May Allah have mercy on the poor man, he has his work cut out for him. Here is a link to Indy Star, that tells of how he handly defeated his opponent and got a wide population to come and vote for him- hispanics, blacks, whites, poor, rich.

YEH!

Why Black American Muslims Don't Stand for Justice...

First, I have to admit I know very few African-American Muslims and know very little about the African-American-Muslim community.

I recently stumbled on this blog which I must say has a whole bunch of thought-provoking posts and provides much-needed insight into the Black Muslim community.

Below are excerpts from a popular post:

Taking the lead in a resurgence of civil rights activism is a tightly-knit coalition of Black radio personalities (Micheal Basden, Warren Ballentine, and Sharpton himself) and church leaders, who’ve been raising public awareness for the past year about these disturbing incidents.

And then a question occurred to me: How is it that pork chop, chittlin-eating preachers were able to corner the market on civil rights struggle, and how did a religion that teaches its followers to “turn the other cheek” and “love those who spitefully use you” become identified as a viable force for racial and justice in this country? At the same time we the Muslims, inheritors of a pure scripture which commands the doing of justice in the here-and-now, are left totally out of the picture.

After twenty years of the immigrants’ controlling the Islamic agenda in America, by the year 2000 Blackamericans had clearly taken the “back seat” when it came to community issues. Having taken up this knotty and controversial question of why “Blackamerican Muslims don’t stand for justice”, we’ve learned that one of the most important factors in our failure to develop and maintain a community activist, social justice tradition has been the overwhelming dominance and influence of the immigrant Muslim community.

However after having looked at this issue from all angles, its also becoming clear to me that immigrant dominance does not fully explain why Blackamerican Muslims don’t stand for justice. The record reflects that the immigrant organizations’ power-play for control of the “Islamic” agenda in America met little to no resistance from Blackamerican Muslims. The question then is why.

It was certainly expected that in attempting to explore this question we would invite the usual criticisms that always tend to impede any type of serious and frank discussion of Black community issues, especially when viewed in the context of Islam’s universality. Unfortunately, in the minds of some confused individuals “Blackamerican progress” and Islam are mutually exclusive thoughts. Because of the ‘teachings’ of the past decade or so from certain imams and du’aat - even Blackamerican ones - we now see that any talk of Blackamerican Muslims showing concern for their own community immediately provokes shrill accusations of “nationalism” or of “dividing the Muslim community”.

And what is so tragically ironic about it all is that at the same time these people raise the ugly specter of “nationalism” - being unable to advance even a cogent definition of the term - they will in the same breath utter the completely absurd statement of “I’m not Black, I’m not African American. I’M JUST MUSLIM”. However they are not able sustain the delusion of being a racial and ethnic tabula rasa (blank slate) for very long, and waste no time reinventing themselves into the mirror image of a Saudi, Sudani, Pakistani, or what have you.

Before you rush to make a judgment, take a deep breath and go through some more posts on the blog and the blogroll to really get an idea of what our brothers are going through.