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Muslim-Americans in Mainstream America
CAIR also initiated a Mosque Open House project, encouraging Muslim congregations to hold open houses for their communities. Many mosques have done so during the month of Ramadan, sharing international foods and crafts along with information. Anyone interested in visiting or touring a mosque should call that institution to make arrangements. Hundreds of Muslim activists have attended media and public relations seminars conducted by CAIR across the country and have been able to put their training to good use, representing their communities and becoming commentators on issues. RUSH TO JUDGMENT: EGYPTAIR 990 Recent events plainly show such commentary is needed. EgyptAir 990's tragic crash into the Atlantic Ocean is still unexplained. The controversy over the investigation and the rush to scoop the story of "what really happened" in the cockpit caused additional, unnecessary pain to the families of the victims, including the large, close-knit family of Gameel Al-Batouti, the co-pilot who is reported to have been praying as the airliner plunged toward the ocean. The manner in which the alleged prayer by Al-Batouti was released and interpreted reminded many of us of the way Jordanian-American Ibrahim Ahmad was seized in London's Heathrow airport the day of the Oklahoma City bombing. The common denominator in the two incidents is the readiness of investigators and the public to assume the guilt of Muslims and Arabs. Given the history of racism in American society, this practice of assigning guilt is all too familiar. Of the hundreds of travelers of various appearances and ethnicities who flew out of Oklahoma City's airport that fateful morning, Ibrahim Ahmad was selected simply because of his Muslim-sounding name. Ibrahim Ahmad did not commit any suspicious acts on that morning. He was guilty only of "flying while Muslim." His name was released to the media, and a case began to be custom-tailored against him. The gifts he was carrying to his family in Jordan, including silverware and a video cassette recorder, morphed into "bomb-making tools" in media reports. Back home in Oklahoma City, Ibrahim's wife also felt the weight of the false accusation. On the street, people spat on her and her young daughter. Others dumped garbage in her yard. For their own safety, the wife and daughter went into hiding. In the meantime at Heathrow airport, Ibrahim was being interrogated. Humiliated, strip- and cavity-searched, he was forced to remain naked in the interrogation room. He was prevented from calling his family and even using the bathroom. His first realization of why he had been singled out came only when, being escorted through the crowded airport in handcuffs, he looked up to the television monitor to see CNN broadcasting images of the shell of the destroyed Federal Building. CAIR stepped in to defend the Muslim community against the rising anti-Muslim, anti-Arab hysteria. While CAIR staffers were busy receiving reports from Muslims harassed or attacked (Arab American churches and Sikhs were also among the victims), I flew to Oklahoma City to deal with the situation on the ground. While delivering $21,000 in Muslim donations for the relief effort to Oklahoma Governor Keating, we urged officials to condemn the anti-Muslim backlash. We also helped an Iraqi refugee family that was among the victims of hate, and we ensured that Muslims were represented at the memorial service. Why was Ibrahim Ahmad singled out? Many people assume the worst when they see an Arab or Muslim. Certainly, Hollywood has done much of the damage, introducing the Muslim and Arab world as backward, violent and misogynistic. Unfortunately, a great deal of this damage is deliberate. For years now, spinmeisters wishing to turn the reporting of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to their advantage, have willfully distorted the facts. Knowing the misconceptions about Islam and Muslims prevalent in America, they have exploited and amplified them in order to portray Israel's history as that of a righteous underdog, hated and attacked by irrational enemies. In the past, the negative focus was on Arabs in general and Palestinians in particular. With the rising visibility of the American Muslim community, that focus has widened to include Islam. Several Hollywood thrillers have associated Islam with terrorism. The common thread in such movies as "Executive Decision," "True Lies," and "The Siege," is the terrorist who invokes Allah before slaughtering (in Hollywood-speak) "the infidels." No wonder the prayer spoken by EgyptAir co-pilot Al-Batouti, Tawakaltu ala Allah, ("I trust in God") now serves as an index of criminal intent. But this leap, which may seem logical to one accustomed to Hollywood thrillers, triggered an angry reaction against the investigators, the American media, and the U.S. government not only from the Egyptian government, but from Muslims worldwide, including the Arab press and the American Muslim community. Although it is disturbing to see how a single unnamed source in the government can trigger a media frenzy by leaking the words "Muslim prayer," nearly setting off an international incident, progress has been made since the high emotions of the Oklahoma bombing. In Oklahoma City, for example, where passions were most intense, the home of Iraqi refugees was stoned by people angered by the bombing. Led by the media, they assumed the explosion was the work of Arabs. The young wife and mother living in the house was so terrified by the shouted curses, squealing tires, and rocks crashing through her windows that, as she ran to hide in the bathroom with her child, the trauma caused her to miscarry her near-term baby. The parents named the unfortunate infant Salaam ("peace"), and buried it in the Muslim tradition.
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