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Bush Administration Not Doing Enough to Satisfy U.S. Muslim Leaders
By Ayesha Ahmad
WASHINGTON, July 25 (IslamOnline) - The current U.S. administration is enforcing a policy of exclusion of U.S. Muslim from politics and policy-making, U.S. Muslim leaders said here after a meeting with White House officials Wednesday over President George W. Bush's Faith-based Initiative.
"There is a Neo-McCarthyism taking place [here] at this time," said Salam al-Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) - a Muslim advocacy group - which scheduled Wednesday's meeting and held a press conference afterwards.
"It's an insult to the tradition of American democracy," he said.
The meeting, which focused on the participation of American Muslims in Bush's Faith-based Initiative, was the first between White House officials and U.S. Muslim leaders since the Muslims walked out of a similar meeting last month in protest of the ill-treatment of a Muslim intern.
The initiative is designed to allow government funding for faith-based organizations that provide social services.
Al-Marayati's statements at the press conference referred to what he described as an atmosphere of exclusion imposed upon the American Muslim community by the Bush administration, manifested openly in the actions of the Secret Service at the last Faith-based Initiative meeting on June 28.
Abdullah al-Arian, a Duke University student interning with Congressman David Bonior (D-Mich.), was escorted out of the June 28 meeting by Secret Service agents without any explanation.
Al-Arian is the son of Sami al-Arian - an outspoken critic of the use of secret evidence by the Immigration and Naturalization service to detain non-citizens without explanation or trial - whose brother-in-law, Mazen al-Najjar, was detained under secret evidence.
The elder al-Arian is only one of many Muslims and non-Muslims who feel that the use of secret evidence unfairly targets those of Islamic or Arab background.
The director of the Faith-based Office, John DiIulio, called al-Arian's crime "guilt by association," according to an MPAC press release.
Al-Arian - who said his father had walked freely through the White House just the week before - added that although he received a formal apology from the White House and an apology over telephone from the Secret Service, he has yet to be offered an explanation beyond "it has been acknowledged as a mistake."
As a leader in an organization that lobbies against anti-Muslim discrimination, Nihad Awad, director of Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), emphasized that Muslims in the U.S. were frustrated by Bush's failure to deliver on promises made during his campaign.
He said this was "undemocratic, un-American and very unbeneficial to the health of the relationship" between Bush's administration and the American Muslim community.
The administration of former president Bill Clinton had established a pattern of regular briefings, recognition and inclusion of the American Muslim community, al-Marayati said.
With the Bush administration, the Muslim leadership had hoped to go even further - to establish a dialogue rather than listen to a monologue, and especially to have an influence on policy, he added.
But now, he said "We feel like we have gone back to just trying to get a foot in the door [instead of] getting a seat at the table," al-Marayati said.
"There are obvious special interest groups that want to keep the Muslim community shut out of American politics.... That feels like our presence is a threat to their interests," he added.
Although al-Marayati did not specifically name any groups, Muslim leaders have previously identified a pro-Israel lobby in Washington that openly works to block Muslim influence on U.S. policies, especially those regarding the Middle East.
Awad told IslamOnline that the Office's apology to al-Arian amounted to little more than "damage control".
"The apology was necessary, but [it was] not enough," Awad said. "We're waiting for some serious initiatives from this administration to come forward."
As MPAC's political advisor Mahdi Bray said succinctly, "We're looking for stuff, not fluff."
Although the meeting discussed other issues, including secret evidence, it centered on Bush's Faith-based Initiative project, which aims to provide federal funding for charities sponsored by religious groups - teetering on the edge of the line between church and state.
Al-Marayati said that the aims of the American Muslim leadership in participating in Bush's initiative were threefold.
"Number one, to have a Muslim staff member in there to make sure that Muslims will not be marginalized," he said.
Number two, he said, was to establish programs to train Muslims to apply for the federal grants; and three, that participating Muslim groups should ensure fairness in the program by watching for double standards.
On a broader level, he said, the main goal was to use the Faith-based Initiative as an opportunity to broaden the dialogue on Muslim-American relations.
Al-Arian, who remains in Washington for his summer internship with Rep. Bonior, agreed with this aim.
Although what happened to him was a setback, he said, "[It's still] an opportunity to really speak out. We can... seize the moment to speak out."
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