AMERICAN MUSLIMS AND THE TRAUMA OF ANTI MUSLIM BIGOTRY

Source: muslimmatters.org

By: Kameelah Mu’Min Rashad

In Aug 2011, Associated Press journalists Chris Hawley, Adam Goldman, Eileen Sullivan and Matt Apuzzo began publishing a series of detailed reports exposing a decades long secret surveillance program. This program was engineered by the NYPD (with assistance from the CIA) to gather intelligence on entire Muslim communities. Operating under the auspices of the “Demographic Unit”, law enforcement spied on American Muslim citizens all along the Northeastern seaboard— from New Haven, CT to Philadelphia, PA. The extent and reach of this suspicion-less spying extended far beyond the boundaries of New York City; with local officials and police departments seemingly unaware that the NYPD was conducting such far-reaching clandestine activity outside of its jurisdiction.

This series of Associated Reports revealed the surreal and sordid details of a program that read more like a Hollywood Spy/Crime drama- filled with informants, undercover police officers (“rakers and mosque crawlers”), monitoring of masjids, bookstores, homes, cafés, halal meat markets, and other businesses. Muslim Students’ Associationswere also targeted for surveillance –including Yale MSA, City College of New York, Rutgers New Brunswick and UPenn MSA. NYPD informants infiltrated MSA student meetings, chat rooms, online forums and group outings. Based on information obtained by the Associated Press “Student groups were of particular interest to the NYPD because they attract young Muslim men, a demographic that terrorist groups frequently draw from. Police worried about which Muslim scholars were influencing these students and feared that extracurricular activities such as paintball outings could be used as terrorist training.”

Charlie Hebdo: We cannot let the Paris murderers define Islam

Source: theguardian.com

By: Ed Husain

The killing of journalists in Paris on Wednesday was not only an attack on France but also an assault on Islam and the very freedoms that allow 30 million Muslims to prosper in the west.

Free speech is not a western concept: it is a universal craving of the human soul. The gunmen ran away shouting that they were “avenging the prophet Muhammad”. How dare they? We cannot let the murderers define Islam.

In sixth-century Mecca, it was the prophet Muhammad who fought for free speech to proclaim one God as the creator of life and worthy of worship. The city’s pagans were his violent persecutors.

Suhaib Webb – Response to FOXNEWs and Other Writers of Fiction: I Never Met The Oklahoma Murderer

Source: ellacollinsinstitute.org

By: Suhaib Webb

The Oklahoma Beheading
As the horrid details of murder trickle from Oklahoma, I awoke today shocked to hear that FoxNews and other hate groups are trying to tie me to the criminal. Outside of poor journalism, a quick glance at their timeline reveals that this is simply impossible. I left Oklahoma in 2001 and never met the murderer. There is really not much more to say on that except that FOX and other “News” outlets are only damaging their credibility by reporting it.

In a single tweet, one man beautifully destroys the hypocrisy of Anti-Muslim bigotry

By: Sophie Kleeman

Source: http://mic.com/

In July 2013, Ryan Carr tweeted what he thought was a “funny joke” and then probably forgot about it.

One year later, Asishpal Singh stepped in.

His comeback, posted on Tuesday, quickly went viral and for good reason: It’s brilliant.