Fears of Inquiry Dampen Giving by U.S. Muslims -- NYT

[Bozita]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/30/us/30CHARITY.html?hp&ex=1162270800&en=b7e2277c4942f32c&ei=5094&partner=homepage

October 30, 2006

Fears of Inquiry Dampen Giving by U.S. Muslims
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR

DEARBORN, Mich. — By the end of Ramadan last year, Najah Bazzy remembers having more than $10,000 in cash donations to distribute to the needy, and a vast auditorium ringed with tables groaning with enough free food for 400 poor families to celebrate the holiday.

This year, Mrs. Bazzy formalized the good works she had been doing for a decade among the tens of thousands of Muslims who live in the Dearborn area by establishing a charity, Zaman International.

But by the end of the holiday, charitable contributions were meager. She said cash donations amounted to less than $4,000, and for the first time since she began her charity work she bought food to feed about 85 needy families instead of counting on gifts.

There are similar stories in Muslim communities across the country. Fearful that donations to an Islamic charity could bring unwanted attention from federal agents looking into potential ties to terrorism, many Muslim Americans have become reluctant to donate to Islamic causes, including charities.

more...

[Bozita]

1. Remember dancing in Dearborn streets on the day the statue was toppled?

The news media never mentioned the fact that the cheering demonstrators were largely Iraqi-born Shi'ites.

There was little cheering in other segments of Detroit's ME population.

[PassingFair]

3. I didn't see ANYONE dancing in the streets here....

Shiite OR Sunni OR Chaldean....

[Bozita]

4. Well, take a look

The Detroit TV stations were selling their helicopter coverage to the networks.

As I stated in the OP, the celebrants were largely Shi'ite and largely from Iraq. Other segments of both the Arab and Muslim populations were horrified by the US invasion of Iraq.

http://www.time.com/time/photoessays/iraq2003/saddamfalls/7.html


Saddam Falls
Celebrations ensue as U.S. troops move into the center of Baghdad and Saddam's statue is torn down
Iraqi men march on Warren Ave. in Dearborn, Michigan after news reports showed U.S. troops in Baghdad's town center



http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A1361-2003Apr9?language=printer

Whatever the excesses of Fox's coverage, all the networks were filled with legitimately encouraging images yesterday -- a young Iraqi woman riding in a car and holding a sign that read, "Thank You, USA"; an Iraqi man holding a poster of Saddam Hussein and taking happy whacks at it with his shoe; Iraqi Americans marching in Dearborn, Mich., with American flags waving wildly to celebrate the liberation of Baghdad.


and this from a CNN transcript:

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: One more quick newspaper headline, because it fits where we're going pretty well.

The "Detroit Free Press," their headline, "Baghdad Falls," but they also note, if I can tilt this so you can see it, Dearborn, the suburb outside of Detroit, and the celebrations that went on there.

We showed you the pictures of those celebrations. The suburbs of Detroit are home to a large number of Iraqi-Americans.

We're joined now by the spiritual leader of that community, Imam Hesham Al Husainy.

Imam, nice to have you with us. I suppose as days go, it doesn't get much better than this, does it?

IMAM HESHAM AL HUSAINY, KARBALAA ISLAMIC CENTER: Well, actually, thank you for this opportunity to express the Iraqi's feeling, and actually the community here are very excited and happy and they are going through a feeling nobody can explain. It is some feeling only the Iraqis, repressed people being under the regime of Saddam, are feeling it.

It's just like a volcano of feeling coming out, and hope, and looking forward to go back home, to see what's left of our country, to meet our family. It's a momentum.

BROWN: Do you think many Iraqis in the Dearborn area will in fact go home to live, or will they simply go home to see family members?

AL HUSAINY: Well, I would say most of them, if not all, will go home, visit their family, see what they can do, and maybe a lot of them will come back. And we, Iraqi-Americans, have been here for years. We have a lot of experience we would like to transfer to our country to build up our new system and our new future.

BROWN: What do you worry about back there now? They are in a kind of never-never-land, having been under this terrible oppression for so long and on the very edges, the very edges of democracy now.

AL HUSAINY: Well, you're right. We trust our history, we trust our people. Iraqis people know they are good re-builders of their future and their country. We are people of Babylon. We people of Mesopotamia. We are people of Karbalaa and we can rebuild ourselves. So we do have that energy and trust in ourselves and our God that we can do it.

But what is the new government is going to be, well, again, Iraq's people, even though they've been under oppression for 35 years of Saddam, but they do have a hope and a lot of educated people, a lot of people who've been outside of Iraq, going back to pitch in their share.

So I believe in a very short time we are going to form a very democratic government. We'll be a good example for so many countries in the area and around the world. BROWN: Tell me how it came to be that you watched today the statue coming down and that moment. Did someone call you up and say, quick, come to the TV, Imam, you have to see this.

AL HUSAINY: Yes, sir. It is a momentum that I've been waiting for, 23 years living here in America.

A momentum of hope. A momentum that I've been waiting all my life. There was dictator on this earth. The killer, the criminal, Saddam, to be gone and destroyed and become history. It's a momentum that nobody can explain.

We've been waiting for that, sir, 20 million, 22 million Iraqis have been waiting for that.

This man, Saddam, he made our Iraq a big prison called Iraq. Four million Iraqis in exile. Two million Iraqis been killed by Saddam. So what else. And we understand the people who in sympathy with our country, that's the truth, so are we. And we didn't want the war in the beginning, but what can you do with this kind of criminal? He didn't understand nothing except the logic of power and force and bloodshed.

BROWN: Well, sir, you've waited a long time to enjoy this day. Enjoy every bit of it. It's nice to have you with us.

AL HUSAINY: Thank you. God bless you and we thank everybody who helped us to reach this victory and liberation. God bless you.

BROWN: Thank you, sir, very, very much.

We'll talk with General Wesley Clark. Take a break first.

Our coverage continues in a moment.

[PassingFair]

6. Propaganda

One close-up shot.

I did NOT see anything CLOSE to "dancing in the streets" when
shock and awe occurred.

I saw anguish from the Iraqi community. Shiite AND Sunni and Chaldean.

[Bozita]

5. ARAB-AMERICANS; Iraqis in the U.S. Celebrate Hussein's Seeming Downfall

http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F50617FA3D5F0C738DDDAD0894DB404482

A NATION AT WAR: ARAB-AMERICANS; Iraqis in the U.S. Celebrate Hussein's Seeming Downfall


By DANNY HAKIM
Published: April 10, 2003

Hundreds of Iraqis and Iraqi-Americans held an impromptu street celebration here today, chanting and cheering the seeming fall of President Saddam Hussein.

-snip-

In a jubilant traffic jam of honking horns, celebrants stood on car hoods, hugged each other and waved American flags or homemade Iraqi ones from the pre-Hussein era. Two women in black robes held large American flags out the windows of a red Ford Expedition. News media helicopters circled overhead as the police struggled to control the crowd.

They came from once unfamiliar places now part of the popular lexicon -- cities like Najaf or Basra -- and chanted, ''Thank you, Mr. Bush!'' and ''Saddam is gone!''

But Dearborn, with the nation's highest concentration of Arab-Americans, also has many Arabs with roots in other countries. They were absent from today's demonstration -- a sign that other groups were not so enthusiastic about the war to topple Mr. Hussein.

Most of the celebrators today were Iraqi Shiites, and for them the war is personal. All seemed to have family members who had been killed by the Hussein government, which is dominated by Sunni Muslims, or relatives who had been tortured or taken away and never were heard from again. Much of the celebrating took place in front of the Karbalaa Islamic Center, a gathering place for Iraqi Shiites.

-snip-

more...

[mcscajun]

2. Unfortunate, but predictable. Who wants to be named an "enemy

combatant" for giving to a charity?

Damn BushCo all to hell, anyway.

[alcibiades_mystery]

7. Result: Conditions worsen for Muslims, resentment towards West grows

Fabulous...

:eyes: