Source: The Washington Post
On November 27, 2000, The Washington Post
reported that "Muslims in the Washington area and across the country
begin observing the holy month of Ramadan today amid signs of Islam's
growing acceptance in the United States--but also persistent examples of
how Muslims here sometimes face mistrust and unusual legal problems
because of suspicions about their Mideast ties. Muslim chaplains now
serve in the U.S. armed forces and on many college campuses, and women
in head scarves are not an unusual sight in the workplace. The Clinton
White House has hosted Muslims on several Islamic holidays, and for the
first time, a Muslim gave the benediction at the opening session of this
year's Republican Party convention. In public schools, rooms have been
set aside during Ramadan for fasting Muslim students to study while
their non-Muslim peers eat lunch. The U.S. Postal Service is releasing a
stamp next year that commemorates the two most important Islamic
holidays. And banks are creating new kinds of transactions for Muslims,
whose religion forbids them from accepting interest on deposits. But
when violence flares in the Middle East or when Islamic extremists
target Americans, as in the recent USS Cole attack, Muslims in the area
say they face increased scrutiny by U.S. law enforcement agencies,
suspicions about their faith and accusations that they support
terrorism...For the next month, Washington area Muslims, who number
between 100,000 and 200,000, will observe Ramadan, abstaining from food,
drink and other sensual pleasures during the day to learn discipline,
self-restraint and generosity. They make up a racially diverse community
that includes people of Arab descent, American-born converts,
Pakistanis, Afghans, Indians and Africans, and they worship in nearly 40
sites and support five Islamic schools. In 1996, the country's first
school for training imams, or prayer leaders, opened in Leesburg. Local
politicians are noticing. Virginia Reps. James P. Moran Jr. (D) and
Thomas M. Davis III (R) regularly visit Dar Al Hijra, a mosque in Falls
Church, members said. And Fairfax County Supervisor Penelope A. Gross
(D-Mason) helped Afghan Muslims overcome neighborhood opposition when
building their Annandale mosque, Mustafa Center.
"Muslims also have
tossed aside an earlier generation's reluctance to be politically
active, forming several organizations to promote their interests and
starting voter registration drives. For the first time, Muslim advocacy
groups endorsed a U.S. presidential candidate, backing Texas Gov. George
W. Bush... These efforts to form what they call "a Muslim voting bloc"
have begun to bear fruit, activists said. The D.C.-based Council on
American-Islamic Relations sent a post-election questionnaire to mosques
across the country. Of the 1,774 respondents--10 percent of whom live in
Virginia--72 percent reported voting for Bush. Of those, 85 percent said
their decision was influenced by the endorsement of the Muslim groups.
Yet despite efforts to move into mainstream America, Muslims say
violence overseas often leads to a backlash...Ashqar arrived in the
United States from Gaza in 1989 on a U.S.-financed Thomas Jefferson
Fellowship to get his doctorate in business. But in February 1998 he was
jailed for civil contempt after refusing to testify before a New York
grand jury investigating the Islamic Resistance Movement, also known as
Hamas. Calling the probe a 'witch hunt' against Palestinian political
activists, Ashqar told a judge that testifying would violate his
religious, political and personal beliefs and betray friends, relatives
and colleagues in the Palestinian liberation movement... In jail, Ashqar
began a hunger strike, and a federal judge ordered that he be force-fed.
After Ashqar went from 180 pounds to 120 pounds during his six-month
confinement, the judge concluded that Ashqar would never testify and
ordered him released...A former spokesman for Islamic University of
Gaza, Ashqar said he has been an activist since college and is
'sympathetic to the Islamic movement in general.' But, he said, he was
never a member of Hamas and deplores terrorism...In other examples of
what they say is guilt by association, Muslims here have complained
about being unfairly singled out by airport security officers using
racial profiling. And they object to a 1996 anti-terrorist law that
permits immigrants to be deported on classified evidence that is
withheld from the immigrants and their attorneys. Critics say that such
'secret evidence' has been used disproportionately against Muslims and
Arabs, some of whom have been jailed for years while they seek access to
the evidence in order to refute it. In at least three cases, Muslim
immigrants held for more than a year were released after courts let them
see and challenge such evidence...Muslims also say that outspoken
critics of Israel and its policies toward Palestinians are sometimes
accused of supporting terrorism. Last year, the nomination of a
prominent Muslim activist to the advisory National Commission on
Terrorism was rescinded after Jewish leaders complained that the nominee
had said Israeli policies helped cause Palestinian terrorism."