CNN: A Muslim lobby as a counterattack to Fear Inc.

Note: This is one of my 30 Blogs, this particular blog contains only my writings or writings about me. Engy Fouda has quoted me in this write up.

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A Muslim lobby as a counterattack to Fear Inc.

CNN: http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-1281975

Recommended to visit CNN site, for colorful graphics on the subject matter.

By Engy Fouda (@engyfoda)

According to a recent report and investigation by the Center for American Progress (CAP), Fear Inc. is a $57 million fund network acting with the goal of spreading Islamophobia and hatred against Muslim minorities. It makes money out of what CAP describes as a “hate” business. A number of American Muslim organizations formed a coalition to launch what they described as a Muslim lobby to counter the increasing influence of Islamophobia.

The network funds misinformation from the so-called experts, who exploit a larger network of politicians, media outlets and organizations. “The name Fear Inc. is an analogy [to suggest] that a relative small group of people are pushing [towards] these ideas. They are similar to a corporation because they are making large amounts of money [by] spreading hateful messages,” said Ken Gude, senior fellow with the national security team at CAP and a member of the crew who developed Fear Inc. reports.

A coalition of leading national and local American Muslim organizations coalesced to form a Muslim lobby, also known as The US Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO). USCMO hosted the first National Muslim Advocacy Day in Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on April 13, 2015. However, still at its inception, the Muslim lobby faces significant challenges in reaching media and influencing legislation.

Media

One of the main goals of the Muslim lobby is to pushback against the daily stereotyping of Muslims in the media. Moustafa Elhusseiny, broadcaster in Al Jazeera network, expressed his frustration with prevalent stereotypes of Muslims and Arabs saying: “Americans who do not have Muslims in their social circles, carry the stereotype of the Muslim as a terrorist and an Arab as a potential threat. Some people cringe when they hear my name!”

The Fear Inc. and Islamophobia can be demonstrated by the polls resuts -shown in the pictures above- that were conducted in September 29, 2015 by the Public Policy Polling in North Carolina.

Gude added that the current Muslim lobby is doing well, but it is not enough. There is a need of more organizations to spread out. Anyone who is counterattacking Islamophobia should focus on having more communication with the media and the reporters covering the presidential campaigns. For example, on Trump’s campaign, the media focused most on “Obama is Muslim” as a smear. It is a smear but the response should not have been directed to that only. The response should have been to push back on the whole notion.  The media should get educated on how to talk about such issues.

As a reaction to Ben Carson’s Islamophobic attacks during his presidential campaign, Mike Ghouse co-founded the American Muslim Institution. “Bigoted people might not change their minds but when we talk in media on a daily basis, stand out and respond. This push back will make them hesitate to say any false statement again. After two or three years, they will not do it”, said Ghouse.

Education and Social diffusion

The Muslim lobby is faced with several challenges on both the Muslim and non-Muslim fronts. On the one hand, very few American Muslims know about the new coalition. “The Muslim community in the Unites States is self-enclosed. Even the organizations and Sheiks do not show up in the advocacy and human rights events. They neither interact with the American society nor support any persecuted minority groups from Latinos, and Blacks,” Elhusseiny said.

On the other hand, the wider public still harbors significant prejudices against Islam and Muslims. In 2014, the Pew Research Center conducted a survey about positive thinking towards Muslims; Republicans ratings were 33%, and Democrats ratings were 47%.

The FBI crime rate reported on their website stated that Anti-Muslim cases have slightly increased from 2012 to 2014. The Southern Poverty Law Center stated that Islamophobia in the United States goes into overdrive following France attacks. In 2015,  crimes such as Chapel Hill shooting, the discrimination incidents such as Ahmed Mohamed’s arrest in Dallas, and the latest anti-Muslim statements made by the Republican presidential candidates.

“It is highly required to found a new educational organization to train new cadres to represent Muslims. The education can be done through conferences and workshops,” Hesham El-Meligy, 2013 NYC comptroller candidate, co-founder of Muslims for Liberty (M4L), added.

El-Meligy added that M4L is making conferences to correct people’s misinformation about Islam through the American Constitution. The audience is from the Tea Party. M4L is arranging a conference to counter Carson’s false claims with three of his campaign managers.

El-Meligy and Elhusseiny both emphasized that Muslims should be keener to vote. Muslims’ population should show up in: the voting base, the city council and the senate candidates.

Legislation

Gude declared that, from the legislative perspective, most of the Muslim organizations are playing defense. None tried to issue a law specific to Muslims, as this is not the target. It should be for all religions not only Muslims. The organizations are mainly concerned to stop the NYPD surveillance programs and the anti-Sharia bill.

Mapping the anti-Sharia bill shown in the pictures above.

USCMO announced on their website that the domestic priorities of the American Muslim community, includes: “Calling on Congress to urge the U.S. Department of Justice to amend its racial profiling guidance for federal law enforcement by removing any existing loopholes that continue to permit profiling in the name of national security, domestic surveillance and policing the border. Many of these programs have disproportionately targeted Latinos, Muslims and other minorities, and raise serious due process concerns.”

Gude declared that stigmatization and training of law enforcement to profile Muslims and monitor every mosque as a counter-terrorism strategy had negative consequences and lead to many false alarms. Moreover, he said that there should be no aligning based on practicing any religion, the society should stand out against Anti-Muslim, Anti-Jew, Anti-Christian, and Anti-Atheist.

Nevertheless, Ghouse added, “Muslims are safe in the United States, it is better than any other country in the world. It is a good country, it supports free speech and I am blessed to be here.”

Gude concluded that here is no big Fear Inc. report yet, but they intend to monitor and comment on the direction of the media, shed some light on respectful Muslims to recognize them and push back Islamophobia during the presidential campaign. Probably they will produce shorter videos to combat the negative Muslims’ stereotyping.

Acknowledgement: Thanks to Yomna Ali and Michael Fitzgerald for their editing.

Ben Carson: Founding Fathers wouldn’t have trusted a Muslim president

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/ben-carson-founding-fathers-wouldnt-have-trusted-muslim-president

Ben Carson: Founding Fathers wouldn’t have trusted a Muslim president

By Benjy Sarlin

Ben Carson offered up a new explanation for why he’s opposed to a Muslim American becoming president, citing fears of “different loyalties” that he believes the Founding Fathers articulated by barring immigrants from becoming chief executive.

As has been the case in the past, the implication was that outwardly patriotic Muslims could not be fully trusted as loyal Americans given their faith. He has previously cited theories popular on the far right warning that seemingly assimilated Muslim Americans may be using religious edicts to conceal an extremist plot.

The latest comments came at an appearance at the National Press Club on Friday, when an audience member asked why he felt a Muslim citizen couldn’t be loyal to the Constitution as president given that there were already Muslim military officers, policemen, and judges – all positions that require fidelity to the law.

RELATED: Ben Carson’s Holocaust theory prompts outcry from Jewish groups

“A good understanding of the Constitution answers that question for you,” Carson said. “Because when you look at the Article II, and we’re talking about requirements for the president, they have to be a ‘natural born citizen.’ Now why is that the case?”

The clause Carson refers to bars naturalized immigrants from the position of president. There are numerous Muslims born in America, of course, and a hypothetical Muslim president would by definition have to be a natural born citizen.

The Constitution prohibits any “religious test” for public office, but Carson argued on Friday that the audience should read between the lines to divine the Founder’s intent. 

“I’m sure if you had gone to the Founders and said, ‘but what about this person? They may not be a natural born citizen but you know they’ve been in America for most of their lives, and they’re a fine upstanding citizen, they served in the military, they came back they were on the police force, can’t they be the president?’… they would have said no,” Carson said. “They said ‘We don’t even want to take the slight chance that we would put someone in that position who had different loyalties.’ That’s the answer to your question.”

Several Muslim activists briefly approached Carson at a reception before the event, hoping to convince him that citizens like themselves were as American as anyone else.

“One is innocent until proven guilty, but he’s called Muslims guilty even before verifying them,” Mike Ghouse, executive director of the American Muslim Institution, told msnbc after offering himself to Carson as a resource for information about Islam. ” I think it comes out of ignorance. He needs some guidance.”

 

Anti-Muslim and Anti-Christian Frisco meeting by Global Hindu Heritage Forum in Dallas, Texas

The Title should have been opposite of Anti-Muslim or Anti-Christian, as it turned out to be not-anti-at all. But since it is a continum of the letter, we kept the same title.

http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2014/06/anti-muslim-and-anti-christian-friscy.html


An Alarming letter was posted by Global Hindu Heritage Foundation and held an anti-Muslim and anti-Christian rally in Frisco, Texas - so I went to the meeting. The agenda was not the same as it was in the letter.

I think Indians in general and Muslims in particular need to hear Madhu Kishwar, she will be in town through Thursday in New York. She threw me off with her perspectives, with a grain of salt and skepticism, I did hear her full one hour talk. A critique turned defender of Modi. A few notes for your to ponder upon. 

An alarming letter was posted by the Global Hindu Heritage Foundation at our forum, DallasIndians@yahoogroups.com . The letter was outright discriminatory, tearing India apart kind of letter, and was sent to India's newly elected Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi. The letter was insane, and it was hard to believe that Indians living in America want to discriminate and deny equal rights to Christians and Muslims in India. I just could not fathom that most of the men on the list were Medical Doctors and PhD's.  The letter and my response to the letter is at: http://foundationforpluralism.blogspot.com/2014/06/tearing-india-apart-hatefilled-mindset.html  
 

The occasion  was the 7th Annual Hindu Unity Day in Frisco. Unity of each community and Unity of communities must be appreciated.  By the way, the first Hindu Unity day in Dallas was organized by the Foundation for Pluralism on June 17, 2005 in Dallas.

I wanted to attend the event to understand what goes on. A few years ago they had organized a summit on Islam – and I had asked them if there was any Muslim on the panel, there was none, and they ignored my request and perhaps passed judgments on Muslims without the presence of Muslims. It is always good to be engaged and hear each other’s point of view; when it is about the each other.

The speakers were Madhu Kishwar and Dr. Graham Schweig. The first session before lunch included several Dallas based organization heads talking about their efforts in campaigning for Mr. Narendra Modi, and I missed the first speaker Kalyan Viswanathan, who might have delivered a negative speech. I did not hear Dr. Schweig’s speech as I had to leave.

Madhu Kishwar delivered a full hour’s speech “Modi and the Media – setting the record Straight” – it was a pleasant surprise, there was no hatred spewing out for Muslims or Christians. Usually fund raisers get people riled up against something or someone to get people to open their check books, and a lot of people fall prey for that. I have been to the fund raisers of right wing Jews, Christians and Muslims as well, and have spoken up against their rhetoric.

Madhu Kishwar was rather inclusive in her approach.

Whenever she mentioned a positive statement about inclusion of Muslims – people clapped out of their hearts. I have always believed that humans instantaneously react with goodness, it’s only when they deliberate they get corrupted.   Indeed, in my response to GHHF letter I had mentioned that a majority of the signatories on that letter probably did not even read the contents and had simply signed it, for a few to carry forward. It is hard for me to believe that so many people in a group could subscribe to such vitriolic pronouncements,  and most of them would not have signed it, had they read it.

It was refreshing to hear her. She threw in a lot of information that I need to verify and absorb.  It is always good to verify before you believe, when the information is different than what we have heard it all along.  I ran into her again at the Sonu Nigam Show, and she assured me that her reports are legitimate and said the Nanavati Report was accurate.

Some of her points:

She was bashing the media for not agreeing to the clean chit by SIT - to me democracy exists because of the press, good, bad and ugly. There are some great statements by Jefferson and others on the topic.

Do you realize, both the left and right have exactly same complaint? That the media in on other's side.

She thinks - BJP was not convinced that Modi was not involved in the riots as accused, that hesitancy was reflected in the talks and acts of BJP.

Per her Modi has done a lot of good things, but never flaunted it.

50% of Muslims Voted for Modi in Gujarat on February 24^th 2002 results.

The hell broke loose within a couple of days – she asks, why would Modi initiate riots when Muslims voted him so overwhelmingly?

28 Muslim Organizations headed by Kader Bhai in Rajkot had asked for a cemetery plot which Modi had granted, and Modi never claimed or flaunted about it.

He is not divisive as claimed. Sab Ka Sath; sab ka Vikas has been his slogan from the very beginning.

I really liked when she spoke my language – that is she will not accuse any one exclusively without seeing the same mistake in others.  Referring to Togadia, she said, Muslims are no exception; we have our own share of Danga-ee (trouble makers).  It was not Modi that needed the riots, but it was the Congress who needed it. (we have to assess this).

She claimed Army was called in immediately. And deployed on 3/1 – George Fernandez, the then Defense Minister apparently toured the riot torn place on 2/28 while the riots were still going on.  

I bought the book - but wont't be able to read it, as I have to wrap up my book without any excuse.

Because of the differences or dominance of Hindus, most  of  the Muslims, Christians, Dalits and Sikhs have stayed away from being a part of India based organizations.

All I ask Indian Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and others to be involved with Indian organizations, we have to be a part of the society, and all others have to be a part of our lives. Otherwise, all of us would remain in shells not knowing what goes on, we will be harming ourselves and our nation by not being a part of each other. We have to live together, at least our relatives have to live together in India and we need to care for all.

Mike Ghouse is an Indian American Public Speaker, thinker and a writer committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day.

Herman Cain's bigotry speech

Herman Cain delivered another bad speech at the Values Voter Summit today, October 8, 2011. He appeals to the right wing without any doubt, but his bigotry is apparent. We need leaders who have one mouth that communicates and not the one that contradicts.

In the following video http://www.therightscoop.com/herman-cain-brings-the-house-down-at-values-voter-summit/near the 7^th minute, Herman Cain releases foul air from this mouth.

He says not to tread on someone’s liberty – yet he has the balls to tread on the liberties of Gays and Lesbians… He said he will ask the department of justice to enforce the defense of marriage act and yet his foul mouth delivers this. “You can pursue happiness all you want, as long as you don’t tread on someone’s liberty.”   Why doesn't he mind his own business?Although a pro-lifer myself, I firmly believe a woman has the choice to make that call about her body. He believes that life begins at conception and that is fine, but that does not give him the right to become authoritarian and tread on women's right.

Herman Cain does not have any qualms on treading the liberties of Muslims to build mosques or live their life as they wish to.

I urge Herman Cain to quit pandering to the few who applaud him. A few right wingers among Republican leadership don’t get it. America is not as bigoted they are. Americans believe in life liberty and pursuit of happiness; Herman Cain does not. America is not made of right wingers, America is made of good decent, moderate, get-along with all human beings kind of people along with the right and left, we all need to respect each other’s liberties.

If we can learn to respect the otherness of other and accept the uniqueness of each one of the 312 Million of us, then conflicts fade and solutions emerge.

Mike Ghouse is committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day to the media and the public. He is a speaker thinker and a writer on the topics of pluralism, politics, cohesive societies, Islam, interfaith, India and Peace. He is available to speak at your place of worship, work, school, college, seminars and conferences. . Mike's work is reflected in 4 website's and 27 Blogs indexed at http://www.mikeghouse.net/ and you can find this article at www.TheGhousediary.com