16 coalition groups call on Randall Woodfin to take action on ‘trust and public safety’ order
On Tuesday, the Alabama chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Alabama), the state’s largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization, and Adelante Alabama Workers Center, which unites day laborers, domestic workers, and other low-wage and immigrant workers and their families in the Birmingham area, along with other coalition partners, faith and civic leaders, met outside of the Birmingham City Hall where they called on Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin to honor his commitment to be on the front lines of resistance to President Donald Trump‘s polices. There they endeavored to hold the Mayor to the progressive mandate he was elected on by calling him to take action on the proposed “Trust and Public Safety” order. The order would prevent Birmingham from expending its own local resources on enforcing federal immigration policies. In addition to saving the city money, this policy would also promote trust in local law enforcement and protect public safety for all residents, regardless of immigration status. It does not interfere with any state or federal laws. CAIR-Alabama and Adelante met with Mayor Woodfin back in April to discuss this proposal, but after months of delays from the city, they two came together with their coalition partner organizations to ask Woodfin to take action. “We have been working with the Mayor on this proposal for months, but with the federal administration’s harsh enforcement of a ‘zero-tolerance’ immigration policy we’ve begun to see fear and anxiety reflected in our communities,” said Ali Massoud, CAIR-Alabama Government Affairs Coordinator. “The Mayor has expressed ample support for marginalized black and brown populations, and now we are asking him to keep his promises and pass this executive order.” He added, “Birmingham has a robust immigrant population, but this executive order isn’t just for them, it’s for everyone. Passing the ‘Trust and Public Safety’ order promotes trust between communities of color and local law enforcement, making the city safer for all of us.” Addressing the Mayor directly, Cesar Mata, Adelante Alabama Worker Center Volunteer said, “My community does not want to live in fear. We do not want to continue to suffer family separation. Our community wants to feel safe when we talk to the police. We need an official policy from the City of Birmingham that will protect all families. The “Fostering Trust and Promoting Public Safety and Civli Rights for All City Residents” executive order can help you keep the promise you made to keep us safe. We know Birmingham can do what is right. Mr. Mayor, you can decide what side of history you are on. All of Birmingham’s citizens still believe in you.” The following groups and organizations spoke at the event: Adelante Alabama Worker Center CAIR-Alabama Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice Black Lives Matter Birmingham Faith in Action Alabama La Casita Greater Birmingham Ministries National Lawyers Guild Southern Poverty Law Center NAACP of Alabama Southerners On New Ground Watch the event be live-streamed (previously recorded) below:
Alabama Muslims seek additional protection after recent email threats
The nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group is requesting additional police protection for the state’s Islamic community following emailed threats received by the Birmingham Islamic Society and Huntsville Islamic Center. The Alabama chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Alabama) said the emails, with the subject line “YOUR ONE WARNING, stated in part, (grammatical and spelling errors maintained) “. . .MUZLIMS MEXICANS BLACKS WE WILL HUNTED NATION WIDE UNTIL ARE ARE DEAD OR GONE. . .PLAN TO RUN OR DIE, THIS IS A KINDNESS THAT WE GIVE YOU ALL WARNING, TAKE IT AND GO .” Both organizations have reported the threats to local law enforcement, Department of Justice office in North Alabama and the FBI. “We are coordinating with law enforcement authorities to reach out to Muslim community leaders to ensure additional safety measures at this time of increased anti-Muslim bigotry nationwide,” said CAIR-Alabama Executive Director Khaula Hadeed. Hadeed added, “CAIR-Alabama also condemned the rhetoric that continues to embolden bigotry and Islamophobia leading to threats of terrorism such as these against Muslim, Jewish, African-American, and Latino communities. The Muslim community continues to receive support and cooperation from local law enforcement agencies.” The Washington-based Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization believes the emailed threats may be part of a mass mailing to mosques nationwide and is urging Islamic institutions to report any such threats to local police and to CAIR online. “Hate and threats will make us firm in our resolution to fight hate with love. We will take every opportunity to combat fear-mongering and build alliances and coalition that will give voices to all marginalized communities,” said Birmingham Islamic Society President Ashfaq Taufiq. CAIR has noted a spike in hate rhetoric and bias-motivated incidents targeting American Muslims and other minorities in recent months. “America is one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for ALL as guaranteed by the constitution we cherish,” said Huntsville Islamic Center President Mateen Muhammad. “We will work together to show the world, by example, how to live and love the diversity we find in this land we call home and defeat the forces of fear and bigotry that are trying to tear us apart. United we are strong.”
ACLU-Alabama files lawsuit for Christian woman’s right to headscarf in license photo
When Yvonne Allen of Tuskegee, Ala., went to renew her license in December, she was reportedly forced to remove the headscarf she wears for religious reasons. The clerk explained to her only Muslim women were allowed to cover their hair in the photos. On Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama filed a lawsuit on her behalf. “I was devastated when they forced me to remove my headscarf to take my driver’s license photo,” Allen said in a statement released by the ACLU. “Revealing my hair to others is disobedient to God. I should have the same right as people of other faiths to be accommodated for my religious beliefs.” Lee County’s refusal to grant Allen a religious accommodation contradicts state rules and violates her rights under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Alabama Constitution, according to the lawsuit. On Wednesday, the Alabama chapter of America’s largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) showed their support for the suit, saying that Christian women in Alabama should be able to wear a headscarf for a driver’s license photo, just as Muslim women and Sikh men are allowed to wear religious head coverings. “Alabamans of all faiths should have the right to wear religious apparel in driver’s license photos,” said CAIR-Alabama Executive Director Khaula Hadeed. “The right to practice one’s faith is a universal right, one that should not be limited to Muslims and Sikhs.” In 2004, Alabama changed a policy that prohibited the wearing of head scarves and turbans in driver’s license photos. The new policy allowed head coverings for religious and medical reasons.
Pro-Islamic organization calls for meeting with Gov. Robert Bentley after “insensitive” comments
The Alabama Chapter of Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Alabama) Thursday called for a meeting between Gov. Robert Bentley and representatives of Alabama’s Muslim community to discuss the governor’s remarks they said were “inflammatory” and “insensitive” in his Tuesday night State of the State address. During his speech, Bentley discussed the failure of the federal government to follow the law in consulting with states on the refugee resettlement program — an issue he’s been fighting for months. “The outdated program – which predates any recent acts of radical terrorism – allows refugees from the most radical nations to enter countries including the U.S. with little known about them,” Bentley said during his address. “Among those refugees are those who would commit the most violent, deadly and extreme acts of terrorism. When 130 people were slaughtered, in Paris at the hands of radical Islamic terrorists, among those killers was a refugee from a terrorist nation.” Khaula Hadeed, CAIR-Alabama’s executive director, said the governor’s statements marginalize an entire community. “Governor Bentley’s labeling of an entire Muslim-majority nation as ‘terrorist’ effectively equates Islam with terror and promotes prejudice,” said Hadeed in a news release. “The use of inflammatory language that marginalizes an entire community reduces one of the worst humanitarian disasters in recent human history to the status of a political football. We find such terminology insensitive and inappropriate. “Alabama has a large Muslim population, including a thriving Syrian-American community making substantial contributions to improving the lives of the people of our state. Using stereotypical terms that paint a diverse multicultural, multiethnic, multiracial Muslim community with such a broad brush is derogatory and dehumanizing.” CAIR is America’s largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.
Alabama KKK actively recruiting to ‘fight the spread of Islam’
Following the terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California, residents in Alabama neighborhoods of Cullman and Decatur have reportedly found themselves being recruited by the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) “to fight the spread of Islam in our country.” While the circumstances surrounding the distribution of the alleged KKK recruiting flyers have reportedly are not known, the Alabama chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations — America’s largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization — has called on statewide officials to reject growing anti-Islam sentiments, according to a news release. According to the release, similar flyers were reportedly distributed in the same area back in September but without any reference to Islam. “Our state’s leaders must speak out against the rising anti-Muslim bigotry nationwide that is apparently inspiring a new recruiting effort by racists,” said CAIR-Alabama Executive Director Khaula Hadeed. “The KKK must be repudiated, whether it targets African-Americans, Muslims or any other minority group with hatred and intimidation.” The recent flier distribution suggest the KKK’s presence in Alabama is growing, as some 4,000 fliers were left at people’s homes in March as civil rights activists descended on Selma for the 50th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday” in both Selma and Montgomery, historically African American cities. The week that followed, several African American residents in Auburn notified police back in March recruitment fliers attached to rocks were thrown on their driveways. Similar incidents are on the rise nationwide as anti-Muslim sentiment is growing in the wake of the recent terrorist attacks. Joining in the anti-Islamic rhetoric and adding fuel to the fire, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump stirred global outrage by calling for a “total and complete” ban on Muslims entering the country Monday night. “We have no choice,” Trump said to a standing ovation at a rally in South Carolina, calling the ban “common sense.” Trump continued in a statement, “Without looking at the various polling data, it is obvious to anybody the hatred is beyond comprehension. Where this hatred comes from and why we will have to determine. Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in Jihad and have no sense of reason or respect for human life.” Trump’s comments stoked widespread public outrage. “This is exactly what ISIS wants, to turn Americans against one another,” a CAIR representative said. “We stand today united as Americans against stigmatization, against Islamophobia, against ISIS.”
Ben Carson: Refugee program must screen for ‘mad dogs’
Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson said Thursday that blocking potential terrorists posing as Syrian refugees from entering the U.S. is akin to handling a rabid dog. At campaign stops in Alabama, Carson said halting Syrian resettlement in the U.S. doesn’t mean America lacks compassion. “If there’s a rabid dog running around in your neighborhood, you’re probably not going to assume something good about that dog,” Carson told reporters at one stop. “It doesn’t mean you hate all dogs, but you’re putting your intellect into motion.” Carson said that to “protect my children,” he would “call the humane society and hopefully they can come take this dog away and create a safe environment once again.” He continued: “By the same token, we have to have in place screening mechanisms that allow us to determine who the mad dogs are, quite frankly. Who are the people who want to come in here and hurt us and want to destroy us?” He later repeated the comparison at a rally at the University of South Alabama, while telling hundreds of supporters that reporters had misrepresented his earlier remarks. “This is the kind of thing that they do,” he said, drawing laughs and applause. Carson is among the GOP hopefuls who have called for closing the nation’s borders to Syrian refugees in the wake of the shooting and bombing attacks in Paris that killed 129 people and wounded hundreds more. The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the carnage, stoking fears of future attacks across Europe and in the U.S. The retired neurosurgeon, who is near the top of many national and early state preference polls, said he’s been in touch with House GOP leaders about their efforts to establish new hurdles for Syrian and Iraqi refugees trying to enter the U.S. Dozens of Democrats joined majority Republicans in the House to pass the measure on Thursday. It would require the FBI to conduct background checks on people coming to the U.S. from those countries. The heads of the FBI and Homeland Security Department and the director of national intelligence would have to certify to Congress that each refugee “is not a threat to the security of the United States.” Asked whether he would sign it, Carson said he hasn’t reviewed the details. “If, in fact, it does satisfy basic needs for safety, of course,” Carson said. The Council on American-Islamic relations condemned Carson’s dog comparisons at the same time it blasted another GOP hopeful, Donald Trump, for declining to rule out setting up a U.S. government database and special identification cards for Muslims in America. “Such extremist rhetoric is unbecoming of anyone who seeks our nation’s highest office and must be strongly repudiated by leaders from across the political spectrum,” said Robert McCaw’s, CAIR’s government affairs manager. In Mobile, Carson said, “Islam itself is not necessarily our adversary.” But he said Americans are justified in seeing threats from Muslim refugees and the U.S. shouldn’t “completely change who we are as Americans just so we can look like good people.” He continued: “We have an American culture, and we have things that we base our values and principles on. I, for one, am not willing to give all those things away just so I can be politically correct.” Separately, Carson said Thursday that Islamic State militants are more organized and sophisticated than the al-Qaida terrorists who carried out the 9/11 attacks. Those attacks, he said, “really didn’t require a great deal of sophistication because we weren’t really paying attention.” He added, “You didn’t have to be that great. You had to be able to fly a couple of planes. You’re going to have to be a lot more sophisticated than that now.” Carson’s spoke a few days after some people in and around his campaign offered public concerns about his command of foreign policy. The chief critic, former CIA agent Duane Clarridge, told The New York Times that Carson struggles with Middle Eastern affairs. He “not an adviser,” Carson said, adding that Armstrong Williams, his longtime business manager, also “has nothing to do with my campaign.” Williams spoke to the Times, the Associated Press and other media about Carson’s need to improve as a candidate. Carson described Williams as an independent operator who “speaks for himself.” But, Carson acknowledged, Williams as recently as this week helped the candidate edit a foreign policy op-ed the campaign sent to The Washington Post. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
