Muslim

also anti-muslim bias, muslim discrimination

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09/15/2011
FBI

9/11's Legacy of Religious Discrimination

By Heather L. Weaver, ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief at 4:23pm

It's no secret that, after 9/11, a wave of anti-Muslim bigotry washed over the country. The intensity of that prejudice has sustained it for a decade, and, in many ways, anti-Muslim sentiment and fear of Islam seem even stronger and more deeply rooted today than in the months and years after the attack. In the last few years, for instance, a number Muslims or people perceived to be Muslims have been violently assaulted; and scores of mosques and Islamic Centers have been vandalized, with attacks ranging from racist and anti-Muslim graffiti to arson and firebombing.

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09/15/2011
FBI

ACLU Lens: FBI Using Biased Counterterrorism Training Materials

By Scott Swenson, Washington Legislative Office at 12:40pm

Innocent, peaceful American Muslims are being targeted by the FBI, with the bureau engaging in racial-mapping programs and informants infiltrating and spying on neighborhood mosques. Now we know that at least some of these activities might be the result of FBI counterterrorism trainings that describe Muslims as terrorist sympathizers.

FBI documents obtained by Spencer Ackerman of Wired.com's Danger Room blog detail training manuals and graphs depicting Islam as "violent" by comparison to Christianity and Judaism. Ackerman writes, "The FBI isn't just treading on thin legal ice by portraying ordinary, observant Americans as terrorists-in-waiting, former counterterrorism agents say. It's also playing into al-Qaida's hands."

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09/13/2011
Sharia

Defending the Indefensible: Oklahoma Struggles to Salvage Its Unconstitutional Sharia Ban

By Daniel Mach at 2:06pm

Are all faiths equal under the law? Does the fundamental right to worship in this country depend on approval of the majority? These questions lie at the heart of a legal challenge by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Council on American-Islamic Relations to Oklahoma's "Save Our State Amendment," which bars state courts from applying — or even considering — Islamic "Sharia law" and "international law."

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09/12/2011
NYPD

The Courage to Be Safe and Free

By Laura W. Murphy, Director, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 12:52pm

Once the shock subsided, we set out to determine what new powers the government would seek in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The smoke billowing from the Pentagon was visible over Washington as I met with several ACLU colleagues from around the country in a Dupont Circle hotel. We watched the tragedy unfold on television, looking out on streams of frightened pedestrians uncertain the attacks were over.

"Ten years later, as we remember and mourn those who died on Sepetember 11th, our nation still faces the challenge of remaining both safe and free."

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09/08/2011
Detention

Tenth Anniversary of Worldwide War; A Time to Reassess Who We Are

By Chris Anders, Senior Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office & Chris Anders, Senior Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 4:39pm

While the country focuses on the upcoming tenth anniversary of 9/11, there is another tenth anniversary that is coming up next week that triggered sweeping changes around the world.

Just a few days after 9/11, Congress passed the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) — a single sentence that became the legal foundation for 10 years of war and of 10 years of claims of military power to imprison or kill civilian suspects far from any battlefield. Particularly with Osama bin Laden dead, al Qaeda incapacitated, tremendous levels of casualties for American service members, horrific harms caused by war to innocent people around the world, and with a country emotionally exhausted and financially depleted from 10 years of war, it is time for all Americans to decide whether it is time to turn the page on worldwide war, and decide for ourselves whether and where our country should actually be at war.

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09/08/2011
Detention

The Legacy of 9/11: Endless War Without Oversight

By Hina Shamsi, Director, ACLU National Security Project at 4:33pm

Almost ten years after 9/11, in May of this year, a majority of the US House of Representatives voted to give President Obama — and all future presidents — more war authority than Congress gave to President Bush two days after the 9/11 attacks: a president would no longer have to show a connection to 9/11, or even any specific threat to America, before using military force anywhere in the world that a terrorism suspect may be found, including within the United States.

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09/07/2011
U.S. Torture

Ten Years Later

By Anthony D. Romero, ACLU at 2:44pm

On September 4, 2001, my first official day on the job at the ACLU, our agenda was already full as we embarked on a new decade of defending civil liberties. Just one week later, our nation’s future—and the ACLU’s — was fundamentally altered.

As we mourned the innocent victims and honored the fallen heroes of 9/11, we were reminded that America is not only the land of the free, but also the home of the brave. On the evening of the attacks, President Bush addressed the nation and stated, “Our country is strong. Terrorist acts can shake the foundation of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America.”

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08/25/2011
FBI

Who's Spying on You? Might Depend on Your Race.

By Robyn Greene, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 12:34pm

Yesterday, two important news stories demonstrated how new unchecked surveillance programs we've highlighted in our Spyfiles campaign are violating the constitutional rights of innocent Americans.

The first, a New York Times article revealed that from March 2009 to March 2011, the FBI opened an eye-popping 82,325 investigations called "assessments," which agents can open against individuals or groups without any evidence of wrongdoing. Not surprisingly, based on the low threshold for opening these inquiries, only 3,315 uncovered any facts to justify further investigation. No doubt far fewer actually resulted in criminal charges. But all of the information about the 79,000 innocent people investigated during this two-year period can be retained by the FBI forever, despite the fact no one engaged in wrongdoing of any kind.

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08/04/2011
Sharia

Gov. Christie Is Tired of Dealing with the Crazies

By Daniel Bullard-Bates, ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief at 5:35pm

"Ignorance is behind the criticism of Sohail Mohammed," said Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey during a press conference last week. "They're criticizing him because he's a Muslim American." Sohail Mohammed was appointed as a New Jersey Superior Court judge last week, having been nominated by Gov. Christie.

Gov. Christie's comments came after the state Senate Judiciary Committee focused on his faith instead of his credentials, questioning Mohammed about Hamas, the Muslim community's reaction to terrorism, and the terms "jihad" and "Islamo terrorist" during his confirmation hearing last week. These questions were asked despite the fact that Mohammed has, in Gov. Christie's words, "never been accused of doing anything but honorably and zealously acquitting the oath he took when he became a lawyer," and despite his assistance in setting up "dozens of meetings with Muslim American leaders to convince them that federal law enforcement could be trusted in the aftermath of September 11th and that they should provide information and leads to help to combat potential terrorist attacks in our state."

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08/01/2011
Sharia

ACLU Lens: The Truth Behind the Anti-Sharia Movement

By Alicia Gay, ACLU at 2:52pm

Over the past few years, anti-Sharia organizations and politicians have introduced versions of anti-Sharia legislation in 26 states -- with some bills expressly singling out Sharia law for condemnation, and others sweeping Islamic law under broader categories of “foreign” or “international” law. The ACLU is currently working to overturn an example of this kind of legislation in Oklahoma.

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