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Blog — Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
Thursday July 21, 2011
On March 9th, 2011, National Public Radio (NPR) published a story entitled "New Concern About Bias In Counterterror Training." The article sheds new light on potentially serious abuses of power and position in the training of local law enforcement. As part of an ongoing effort to protect the American people from terrorism, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has begun sending so-called “Counter Terrorism Experts” to local communities where they provide instruction to law enforcement personnel on how best to identify and combat terrorism. While in theory the program sounds like a good idea, in practice it leaves a bit to be desired. Read More »
Posted by John Olivieri at 2:03 pm / / Leave a comment
Wednesday July 20, 2011
Emulating the Twitter town hall hosted by the White House earlier this month, a few GOP presidential candidates will engage in the first-ever Twitter presidential debate today hosted by TheTeaParty.net. Tea Party favorites Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Rick Santorum, Gary Johnson, Thad McCotter and Newt Gingrich are all set to participate in today’s 3 p.m. debate moderated by conservative commentator S.E. Cupp and radio host Rusty Humphries. Like the forum held by the White House, questions can be submitted using the Twitter address @140townhall. However, in contrast to the televised forum in which President Obama answered the questions he received verbally, candidates will respond to questions via Twitter. POLITICO is also reporting that it is uncertain whether or not the candidates themselves will actually be tweeting answers. Read More »
Posted by Omar Tewfik at 10:02 am / / Leave a comment
Monday July 18, 2011
Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain is demonstrating an unwavering platform of anti-Muslim rhetoric on the campaign trail. On Fox News Sunday, Cain responded to a question from host Chris Wallace regarding the disputed construction of a mosque in the town of Murfreesboro, Tennessee by insisting that Muslims do not qualify for constitutional protection of freedom of religion under the First Amendment. “Islam combines church and state. They're using the church part of our First Amendment to infuse their morals in that community, and the people of that community do not like it. They disagree with it." Read More »
Posted by Adam Abosedra at 2:52 pm / / Leave a comment
Monday July 18, 2011
On August 4th, 2004, an upstate New York Imam named Yassin Aref was approached by FBI agents while walking along a run-down part of Albany, New York. The young Imam was arrested. His hands and feet were chained, and he was interrogated (off the record) throughout the night. Mr. Aref, who suffered persecution as a Kurd under Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, described the experience as the “hardest, darkest, and longest night of [his] life”, even more terrifying than what he had endured at the hands of a ruthless tyrant. Read More »
Posted by John Olivieri at 1:35 pm / / Leave a comment
Wednesday July 13, 2011
Today, the United States Senate hosted a hearing on “Preventing Terrorist Travel” in United States. Sitting in the hearing room of the Homeland Security Committee in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, ranking member Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) read aloud her statement. Halfway through the Senator remarked, “... It troubles many Americans to see the TSA putting the very young and the very elderly through intrusive and most cases unnecessary screenings.” Read More »
Posted by John Olivieri at 4:02 pm / / Leave a comment
Tuesday July 12, 2011
First there was West Nile Virus, then Swine Flu, now Sharia Islam? If you have been paying attention to the 2012 Republican Presidential primary battle you might believe that the United States was somehow suffering from a pandemic of sorts, with “Sharia Islam” slowly but surely replacing federal law. Already, over 12 states have some form of ban on “Sharia Law” on the books, and now the issue seems to have entered into the Republican Presidential Primary. Read More »
Posted by John Olivieri at 10:12 am / / Leave a comment
Monday July 11, 2011
By Tess Waggoner
The GOP 2012 Presidential field is beginning to take shape, and as it does a common theme is echoing among the candidates: Islam is presented as a doctrine incompatible with American values. This discourse is non-factual, and has the potential to alienate and isolate Muslims and Arab Americans alike. Read More »
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Wednesday June 29, 2011
By Ed Gaier
Aziz Huq, assistant professor of law at the University of Chicago, recently wrote an op-ed in Sunday’s New York Times in which he argued that defending Muslims from discrimination does not only preserve basic civil liberties, civil rights and the rule of law, but also carries significant national security advantages. Huq’s writing comes in the wake of the a number of worrying signs of growing Islamophobia, including the sharia ban voted into the Oklahoma constitution, the second round of Peter King’s McCarthy-style congressional hearings, rising popular discrimination of Muslims, and the detestable anti-Muslim rhetoric on display at the Republican presidential debates in New Hampshire. Read More »
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Friday June 24, 2011
The new edition of the FBI manual called the Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide is raising concerns about safeguarding privacy. Under the auspices of the guidelines, agents will be able to pick targets, commence and execute investigations without ever documenting their activity. They will also not be required to provide any factual evidence of current or future wrongdoing. Allowing agents to operate without any supervision, advocates argue, is inviting abuse of power. Former FBI agent Michael German, now Policy Counsel for the ACLU, has been the go-to expert on this. German joined AAI President, Jim Zogby on last night's edition of Viewpoint to talk about the new guidelines. We encourage you to take a look at this: Read More »
Posted by AAI at 11:44 am / / Leave a comment
Thursday June 16, 2011
Today, The New York Times carried the disturbing story of an ex-CIA officer, Glenn L. Carle, who claims that the Bush Administration asked the CIA to spy on Professor Juan Cole and gather damaging personal information on him in order to discredit him. Professor Cole was a sharp critic of the Bush administration and the war on Iraq, and “The White House wants to get him,” Carle recalled his boss saying. Read More »
Posted by Omar Baddar at 1:00 pm / / Leave a comment
Wednesday June 15, 2011
Rep. Peter King (R-NY), Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, continued his baseless examination of the “radicalization” of the American Muslim community today, hosting his second hearing on the subject entitled “The Threat of Muslim-American Radicalization in U.S. Prisons.” King’s first hearings back in March garnered considerably more attention from the media than today’s. The relative lack of attention (even from Rep. Keith Ellison, who was in and out of the room half the time) demonstrates how ineffective King’s first hearing was. Read More »
Posted by AAI at 2:01 pm / / Leave a comment
Monday June 13, 2011
Earlier today, The Washington Times posted an outrageous article in the paper's online "communities" section. The Article's author, Eliana Benador, attempts to stir up frenzy about an absurd question posed in her article: Whether Anthony Weiner, by way of his marriage to a Muslim woman, is "Married to a Muslim agenda." Benador makes a number of shocking, incoherent claims about Weiner and his wife Huma Abedin and paints them part of some grand Muslim conspiracy. We'd like to highlight a great piece of commentary on Benador's article from Salon's Justin Elliot and get your reactions. Read More »
Posted by AAI at 1:38 pm / / Leave a comment
Friday June 10, 2011
Things are not looking good for comprehensive immigration reform, not to mention the DREAM Act. Yesterday, Alabama Governor Robert Bentley signed into law a new - and probably unconstitutional - immigration law. HB 56, which will take effect on September 1st contains many provisions that surpass even those of Arizona's controversial SB 1070 in its racist undertones and its draconian enforcement measures. Just to refresh your memory, SB 1070 grants law enforcement officials the right to pursue people they suspect might be in the country illegally. If the individual in question is unable to produce documentation, they are arrested and possibly deported. Sound bad? Alabama’s law is far worse. Read More »
Posted by Omar Tewfik at 1:00 pm / / Leave a comment
Friday June 10, 2011
By Ed Gaier
A recent New York Times Op-Ed by Council on Foreign Relations senior fellow Ray Takeyh argues that the Middle East is headed for a post-American era. In this era, the United States would ostensible have limited ability to project its power and cajole Arab regimes to pursue policies aligned with American interests. He posits that new Arab countries in democratic transitions in the “era of self-determination” will not be as subjective to American foreign policy priorities as previous alliances of patronage have been. Read More »
Posted by Guest at 10:46 am / / Leave a comment
Thursday June 09, 2011
After facing steadily-declining support, and a number of highly critical news stories, the Associated Press has reported that the senior staff of presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has resigned “en masse.” Campaign manager Rob Johnson, senior strategists Dave Carney and Katon Dawson, and spokesman Rick Tyler have all tendered their resignations from Gingrich’s campaign today. Read More »
Posted by Samer Araabi at 2:41 pm / / Leave a comment
Wednesday June 08, 2011
In a troubling story in today's Washington Post, Jeffrey Smith examines the Department of Homeland Security's emphasis on the threat of home-grown terror related to Islam while downplaying the risks posed by right-wing extremists. After issuing a report on the subject in 2009 entitled "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment," the story reports the unit that created it has been "effectively eviscerated." Read More »
Posted by AAI at 9:36 am / / Leave a comment
Tuesday June 07, 2011
A White House press release yesterday announced President Obama's nomination of Dr. Azizah al-Hibri, founder of KARAMAH: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights, to become a member of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. al-Hibri is also a professor of law at the T. C. Williams School of Law, University of Richmond and Founding editor of Hypatia: a Journal of Feminist Philosophy. A White House official referenced al-Hibri's extensive experience and contributions to her field saying she is "a tireless human rights advocate who will be a great asset to the Commission in its work."
Read More »
Posted by Omar Tewfik at 3:31 pm / / Leave a comment
Friday June 03, 2011
U.S. Representative Paul C. Broun (R-GA), a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, has repeatedly and publicly urged the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to profile "Arabian looking" people and individuals wearing "Arabian dress" at airport security checkpoints. Yes, the "Arabian" is not a typo. Read More »
Posted by Omar Tewfik at 9:20 am / / Leave a comment
Thursday June 02, 2011
In response to a question about whether he would be comfortable appointing Muslims to his cabinet or as federal judges were he elected President, Herman Cain said the following:
You think that’s shocking coming from a presidential contender? Wait until you hear who took issue with his comments! Glenn Beck (yes, seriously, Glenn Beck) noted that even he would trust his Muslim friends with such positions, and asked Cain via telephone on his show to explain his perplexing statement. Read More »
Posted by Omar Baddar at 3:38 pm / / Leave a comment
Friday May 27, 2011
The GOP presidential field is filling in nicely. Seven contenders have either officially announced their candidacy or have established exploratory committees. Declared candidates include Herman Cain (CEO of Godfather’s Pizza), Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, and Tim Pawlenty. In June, Michele Bachmann, Mitt Romey, and Rick Santorum are expected to announce their candidacies (in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania, respectively). John Huntsman, Roy Moore, and Buddy Roemer have launched exploratory committees, and Huntsman is expected to announce his decision soon. Texas Governor Rick Perry has said that he will consider seeking the Presidential nomination, and NY Congressman Peter King, best known for convening the February hearings on homegrown radicalization of Islam, has said that he’ll run if there’s broad enough GOP support for his candidacy — and has recently been sending constituents e-mails with links to press speculation about his intention to run in 2012. Read More »
Posted by Adam Abosedra at 2:50 pm / / Leave a comment
Looking at Iran by James Zogby
Kahlil Gibran Awards Gala - April 16, 2013
