Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, August/September 1997, pgs. 55-63

Muslim American Activism

AMA Involves Community Members In Strategy Building

American Muslim Alliance (AMA) leaders met with West Coast Muslim Activists May 17 at San Francisco's Arab Cultural Center to discuss "How to get 2,000 Muslim Americans elected in the year 2000." This strategy session brought together African-American, Arab-American and South Asian-American leaders from as far away as Seattle to attend the event.

Emcee for the evening was Mohammed Hijazi. Among speakers, Imam Abu-Khadir Al Amin, an African-American community leader, urged Muslim Americans to "get involved" and "infuse our value system into the American system." He said there is much to be hopeful for, and advised his listeners: "Don't deny the good that exists in America."

AMA Chairman Dr. Agha Saeed then told participants, "What we are trying to do tonight is to incorporate individual insights into the larger strategy." He said, "If the present effort is successful, then we will hold similar meetings all over the United States to involve the larger Muslim community in strategic thinking."

He added that "Last week a Pakistani Muslim was elected to the British Parliament. By the grace of Allah, that is going to happen in this country."

Dr. Askia Abdulmajeed, a Democrat in the Republican administration of California's Governor Pete Wilson, told participants: "We are being ignored by the Republicans and are being taken for granted by the Democrats. We need to get Muslims elected." He stressed the need for unity in the American Muslim community and said, "We know that ultimately we must build coalitions."

Prof. Metwalli Amer from Sacramento's SALAM organization, who recently joined the AMA, spoke of how to get Muslims involved. Dr. Nadeem Amman from Seattle discussed change and opportunities.

Asked to contribute ideas to the strategy session, participants proposed steps to broaden participation of Muslim women in politics, build coalitions with other communities, increase Muslim voter registration, get involved in PTA and other local community activities and issues, take a stand on all social issues, not just Muslim causes, and start immediately since three years is a very short time.

Dr. Aga Saeed concluded the meeting with a Chinese proverb: "Almost everyone can tell you the number of seeds in an apple, but not even the wisest can tell you how many [future] apples are in a seed." It is time for the Muslim community to plant this seed, he said, and share in the good that exists in America.

—Ras H. Siddiqui

Tampa Muslims Demand Bond for Imprisoned Community Leader

Some 250 people filled the auditorium of a Tampa Marriott Hotel for a June 3 rally in support of Dr. Mazen Al-Najjar, a prominent member of the local Islamic Center who also serves as administrative director of the World and Islam Studies Enterprise in Tampa. Dr. Al-Najjar, who has a Ph.D. in engineering from the University of South Florida, was born in Gaza, Palestine, when it was under Egyptian occupation, and was taken to Saudi Arabia as a child with his family. He traveled with his wife to Tampa seven years ago to settle with her brother's family there. As a result, Dr. Al-Najjar is stateless, traveling on papers issued to Gaza residents by the Egyptian government for identification. He was arrested at his home May 19 in the presence of his wife, who also is stateless, and three daughters by Immigration and Naturalization Service and FBI officers who had brought with them a photographer from the Tampa Tribune, which published a photo of the arrest on its front page the following day.

Dr. Al-Najjar now is being held without bond pending deportation proceedings. Bond has been denied on the basis of what the government describes as "secret evidence" which, the government says, charges that Al-Najjar is affiliated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad organization, according to his attorney, Luis Coton. Because neither Coton nor Al-Najjar has been allowed to see the "evidence," it is extremely difficult to deal with, the attorney said. He has sought to bring witnesses, including former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, to testify about the use by the Israeli government of falsified "intelligence reports" aimed at blacklisting or intimidating opponents of Israel engaged in lawful political activities in the United States.

Members of the Tampa Islamic community charge that the arrest and deportation proceedings seemingly have grown out of local anti-Palestinian and anti-Islamic hysteria whipped up by one newspaper, the Tampa Tribune, following the appearance in Syria, six months after he left Florida, of a former official of the World and Islamic Studies Enterprise who announced he was the new head of the Islamic Jihad organization. Since that time, local Muslims charge, in a series of reports the newspaper has depicted everyone associated with the Tampa think tank as a "terrorist," with Dr. Al-Najjar particularly vulnerable because of his stateless status.

Speakers at the June 3 rally supporting bail for Dr. Al-Najjar pending an immigration hearing included (seated from left to right above) David Pugh, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York City; University of South Florida adjunct Prof. Arthur Lowrie, a retired U.S. foreign service officer; President Abdurahman Alamoudi of the American Muslim Council in Washington, DC; Washington Report on Middle East Affairs executive editor Richard Curtiss, also a retired foreign service officer; and public interest attorney Abdeen Jabara of New York City, a former president of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. At the rally, Mr. Alamoudi said that members of the media were welcome to cover the event but the Tampa Tribune was not. He declined to speak until the representative of the Tampa Tribune left the room. He then called upon Florida Muslims to boycott the newspaper and companies that advertise in it until it abandons its anti-Islamic reporting.

—Richard H. Curtiss