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Blog — Profiling
Thursday June 21, 2012
Is there a double standard in the response to anti-Semitism against Arab-Americans compared with the response to anti-Semitism directed against Jewish-Americans? Because the question seems too controversial for most in the mainstream to want to touch, Ralph Nader’s “Debating Taboos” debate series is taking it on. Read More »
Posted by Omar Baddar at 9:15 am / / Leave a comment
Wednesday June 13, 2012
A few weeks ago, we wrote about two legislative efforts to impose independent oversight on the NYPD. The New York City Police Department is currently the only New York City agency without an independent Inspector General. At the City level, two City Council Members are introducing legislation today to change that. If the measure passes (34 out of 51 votes plus the support of the City Council Speaker are needed to push the bill through without opposition), the NYPD will have to answer to an independent Inspector General who would in turn make regular reports to the public. Read More »
Posted by Omar Tewfik at 2:35 pm / / Leave a comment
Friday June 08, 2012
In response to the troubling revelations of racial, ethnic, and religious profiling by the NYPD, a leading national legal advocacy group has made a powerful and impactful response. Muslim Advocates, representing a diverse group of American Muslims, has filed suit against the New York Police Department alleging unconstitutional and discriminatory behavior in its surveillance of Arab American and American Muslim communities. Read More »
Posted by Samer Araabi at 1:08 pm / / Leave a comment
Thursday May 24, 2012
AAI President Jim Zogby and Executive Director Maya Berry co-host the latest episode of Viewpoint with James Zogby and discuss a wide-range of issues, including the roots and driving forces of Islamophobia in the United States as well as the use of surveillance and infiltration techniques used by local and federal law enforcement agencies to spy on ethnic and religious minorities. Guests include, Matt Duss of the Center for American Progress, Sarah Posner of Religion Dispatches, and MIke German from the ACLU. Read More »
Posted by Omar Tewfik at 2:19 pm / / Leave a comment
Tuesday May 22, 2012
Today the New America Foundation hosted an informative discussion on the use of infiltration and surveillance by law enforcement in preventing homegrown terrorist attacks. The discussion primarily focused on the New York Police Department, and the efficacy of the vast counterterrorism unit which has drawn criticism since the Associated Press revealed that the NYPD was spying on American Muslims and Arab Americans. Read More »
Posted by Omar Tewfik at 4:46 pm / / Leave a comment
Friday May 18, 2012
Two New York City councilmembers are leading an effort to make sure the New York City Police Department no longer operates without independent oversight. Read More »
Posted by Omar Tewfik at 1:35 pm / / Leave a comment
Tuesday May 15, 2012
The tide is finally turning against racial profiling and Islamophobia, but it won’t happen without your help. Read More »
Posted by Samer Araabi at 12:56 pm / / Leave a comment
Monday May 14, 2012
In an amendment to an appropriations bill being considered last week, Rep. Rush Holt’s (D-NJ) [pictured left] attempted to strip federal funding from police departments that use ethnic or religious profiling, as the NYPD has done against American Muslims and Arab Americans in and around New York City. Read More »
Posted by Jeffrey Wright at 3:44 pm / / Leave a comment
Friday May 11, 2012
On the one hand, Obeidallah and Manna are absolutely correct, the movie (and Sasha Baron Cohen’s earlier work, for that matter) does contain crude stereotypes, and it is also true that there is a double standard at work which would have excluded other (but not all) non-Arab stereotypes from being the topic of humor in a major Hollywood movie. On the other hand, subtle racism and sexism are rampant in pop culture, and comedy is an area where the boundaries of appropriateness tend to be more flexible. Read More »
Posted by Omar Baddar at 3:59 pm / / Leave a comment
Thursday May 10, 2012
Rep. Holt has also introduced H.RES 651, a resolution which would express the House of Representatives’ disapproval of the NYPD’s use of ethnic and religious profiling. Though the resolution is nonbinding, its passage would be a strong signal to Mayor Bloomberg and NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly that the Congress disapproves of their surveillance program. Read More »
Posted by Jeffrey Wright at 3:42 pm / / Leave a comment
Thursday May 10, 2012
by Omar Baddar and Omar Tewfik
Today, Spencer Ackerman and his colleague at Wired Noah Shachtman released the contents of a recently-terminated DoD training course for senior military officers. The course, entitled “Perspectives on Islam and Islamic Radicalism,” was terminated late last month by General Martin Dempsey, Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces. As expected, the outrageous materials released today show exactly why the course was shut down. Read More »
Posted by Omar Tewfik at 3:28 pm / / Leave a comment
Thursday May 03, 2012
Texas Republican Congressman Louie Gohmert has yet again displayed his creative ability to completely flip an issue to reflect a viewpoint directly counter to conventional wisdom or reason. Yesterday, an article in The Washington Examiner gave us a glimpse of what Congressman Gohmert is likely to focus on when the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security – Gohmert is Vice Chair –hears testimony from FBI director Robert Mueller. As the article alluded, Gohmert will likely express concern that criticism in the wake of the months-long controversy involving the FBI’s use of bigoted anti-Muslim and anti-Arab training materials may be leading the FBI to overcompensate and appease critics , which Gohmert believes will compromise the FBI’s ability to effectively fight terrorism. Read More »
Posted by Omar Tewfik at 5:06 pm / / Leave a comment
Monday April 30, 2012
Despite repeated attempts to incite a media frenzy surrounding their “Jessica Mokdad Human Rights Conference” in Dearborn, Michigan this Sunday, the Islamophobes did not succeed this weekend in garnering the press attention they wanted, and now they are crying about it. On her website, Pamela Geller, the conference’s main organizer, vents about her event’s lack of media coverage: “There is something fundamentally broken in our culture. Imagine a society that extols the supremacist tyranny of the sharia while smearing and defaming human rights activists fighting for freedom and individual rights over gencdercide [sic] and gender apartheid.” Read More »
Posted by Omar Tewfik at 5:54 pm / / Leave a comment
Sunday April 29, 2012
This week, we’re faced with the latest challenge when Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer bring their so-called “Jessica Mokdad Human Rights Conference” to Dearborn on Sunday. Along with a tremendous group of local organizations, AAI has organized a community town hall on Islamophobia on the same day as their conference this Sunday, April 29 at 1pm at the Doubletree Hotel in Dearborn (5801 Southfield Road). AAI President Jim Zogby will be there, along with Eli Clifton, the co-author of a groundbreaking report on Geller and friends called Fear Inc., and prominent journalist and blogger Sarah Posner. Read More »
Posted by AAI at 10:18 am / / Leave a comment
Thursday April 26, 2012
By Danielle Malaty
In the midst of the controversy circling Arizona’s SB 1070 and the fight over the power to regulate immigration, the prevalence of racial profiling is certainly not limited to Arizona. Read More »
Posted by Guest at 3:38 pm / / Leave a comment
Wednesday April 25, 2012
By Jeffrey Wright
Spencer Ackerman, Wired’s intrepid national security correspondent, broke yet another important story yesterday evening, revealing that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, has ordered a top-to-bottom review of military training materials to ensure that they do not contain Islamophobic content. Dempsey’s order came after military brass learned that a class intended for senior military officers had used Islamophobic course materials. The class, entitled “Perspectives on Islam and Islamic Radicalism,” was offered as an elective at the military’s Joint Forces Staff College (JFSC) in Norfolk, Virginia. JFSC was founded after the Second World War with the goal of training military officers to work cooperatively, and it educates mid-level officers, many of whom will spend their careers in the military and eventually rise to the highest ranks of their branches. Read More »
Posted by Guest at 11:05 am / / Leave a comment
Tuesday April 24, 2012
Last Friday, several New York news outlets reported that John Brennan, President Obama’s top National Security Advisor, praised NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly for striking an appropriate balance “between our security and our freedoms and our rights as citizens.” These comments engendered a storm of criticism from American Muslim and Arab American groups who contend that such remarks put the White House “seal of approval” on the NYPD's controversial policing and surveillance program. Pulitzer Prize-winning AP reports have revealed that the NYPD has been spying on American Muslims and Arab Americans without criminal predicate. Read More »
Posted by Omar Tewfik at 1:55 pm / / Leave a comment
Wednesday April 11, 2012
The Arab American Institute Foundation (AAIF) will present the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) with the Award for Institutional Excellence at the 2012 Kahlil Gibran Spirit of Humanity Awards Gala in Washington, DC. AAIF is bestowing the award on SPLC for its tireless efforts and accomplishments in building a society where mutual respect and understanding exists across racial, ethnic, political, and religious lines. Read More »
Posted by Omar Tewfik at 4:06 pm / / Leave a comment
Monday April 09, 2012
For as long as they have been around, the Muslims are Coming! Comedy Tour has been trying to supplant our traditional Gibran Awards ceremony with a Sharia-compliant program. This year they have finally infiltrated the Gala. But seriously, the comedy tour will receive a Special Recognition Award at this year’s Kahlil Gibran Spirit of Humanity Awards Gala for their use of comedy to break down cultural barriers and for their efforts to dispel misconceptions about Muslims and Arabs throughout the country. Read More »
Posted by Omar Tewfik at 3:52 pm / / Leave a comment
Thursday April 05, 2012
By Danielle Malaty
Arizona's notoriously controversial immigration law has captured the attention of minority communities across the country, and will certainly have a dramatic ripple effect on the way law enforcement agents interact with Arab American and American Muslim communities. Read More »
Posted by Guest at 1:24 pm / / Leave a comment
Looking at Iran by James Zogby
Kahlil Gibran Awards Gala - April 16, 2013
