c. 2005 Religion News Service
Senate Committee Finds Nothing `Alarming Enough’ in Probe of Muslim Groups (RNS) The Senate Finance Committee has quietly ended a two-year probe of 25 Muslim-American organizations, announcing that nothing in their tax records suggested terrorist financing.
Muslim leaders welcomed the Nov. 18 decision, but expressed frustration that the organizations have not been cleared more publicly.
“We did not find anything alarming enough that required additional follow-up beyond what law-enforcement agencies are already doing,” Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, the committee chairman, said in a statement. According to a spokeswoman at Grassley’s Senate office, the statement was initially sent only to the Washington Post, in response to a reporter’s inquiry on the matter.
A more public statement or press release was not forthcoming because “the tax documents involved were strictly confidential,” said Jill Gerber, press secretary for Grassley and the finance committee, which reviewed donor lists, applications for tax-exempt status and other information released by the Internal Revenue Service.
The probe began with a January 2004, letter to the IRS, in which Grassley and the committee’s ranking Democrat, Max Baucus, D-Mont., seemed to imply wrongdoing by the organizations under question.
The letter, which was made public, stated that “many of the groups” about whom they were requesting information abused their tax-exempt status and charitable reputations to “hide and move their funds to other groups and individuals who threaten our national security.”
Wendell Belew, a lawyer representing several of the Muslim organizations, said his clients would like to see a more forceful statement from the committee on the probe’s end.
“Sadly, however, (my clients) are all too familiar with allegations being made and exonerations being kept quiet” in terrorism-related cases.
Among the now-cleared organizations is the Islamic Society of North America, the largest Muslim umbrella organization in the United States.
Karen Hughes, the undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, met with leaders of the organization at their recent conference in Chicago, which drew more than 40,000 Muslim Americans.
“We wish the committee would make a stronger statement that (the Islamic Society) and other organizations are legitimate,” said Louay Safi, director of the Islamic Society’s leadership development program.
_ Andrea Useem
Deportation Delayed of Prominent Muslim Cleric Accused of Hateful Speech
(RNS) The deportation of a prominent Muslim cleric from Cleveland, who went to prison for lying about his ties to terrorist groups, is taking longer than expected and may not happen at all.
While federal authorities insist they still want Fawaz Damra out of the country, they no longer talk confidently of forcing him to leave.
“Unfortunately, immigration law is extremely complicated,” said Brian Moskowitz, special agent in charge of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Detroit, which is handling the deportation case. “Things are not always as simple as they appear.”
The news has solidified Damra’s standing within the Islamic Center of Cleveland, a mosque polarized by the terrorism accusations and the exposure of videotaped, hate-filled speeches. But Damra remains a controversial figure both inside and outside the Muslim community.
Moskowitz and U.S. Attorney Greg White declined to talk in specifics about the case.
White meets daily with Immigration and Homeland Security officials about the case.
“I can assure you we are diligently working on that,” White said. “I’m confident the process will move forward.”
Damra immigrated to the United States in the mid-1980s. He was a leader of al-Farooq mosque in the Little Arabia section of Brooklyn. It became a hotbed of support for the “holy war” in Afghanistan and was visited by many people who would later be linked to terrorist organizations. Damra became imam, or spiritual leader, of Ohio’s largest mosque in 1991. He denied any links to terror groups when he filled out his citizenship application and was interviewed between 1993 and 1994.
In 2004, he was accused of lying on his citizenship application by not disclosing ties to terrorist groups. During his trial, prosecutors showed tapes of a speech Damra gave in 1991 while raising money in Cleveland for the terrorist group Islamic Jihad.
On the tape, Damra told the crowd they must help pay for the battle in the Middle East and described how the money would “direct all the rifles at the first and last enemy of the Islamic nation, and that is the sons of monkeys and pigs, the Jews.”
_ Mike Tobin and Robert L. Smith
U.S. Backs Vatican Push for Catholic Religious Freedom in China
VATICAN CITY (RNS) The U.S. government has given its support to the Vatican as it pushes to expand religious freedom in China and repair a schism affecting millions of Chinese Catholics.
The newly appointed U.S. ambassador to the Holy See Francis Rooney pledged his support in a statement issued Monday (Nov. 21) following President Bush’s recent address in Beijing. In that address, Bush pressed Chinese leadership to expand China’s religious liberties.
“China has a great opportunity following the president’s visit to become more open to the Holy See and to work toward greater freedoms for its Catholic citizens and indeed for those of all faiths,” Rooney said.
An estimated 5 million Chinese Catholics belong to the state-controlled church, which severed ties with the Vatican in 1951 after China’s atheist Communist Party took control of government.
The underground church is believed to have at least 8 million faithful, but has been subject to frequent crackdowns.
“As the U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, I intend to make it a priority to support the Holy See on this issue,” Rooney said.
Since Benedict’s election last spring, the Vatican has frequently signaled that it is ready to reestablish diplomatic relations with China if religious freedoms are guaranteed.
In an attempt to normalize its relations with China’s state-controlled church, the Vatican has begun to give its tacit approval to Chinese bishops. China has responded to the Vatican’s appeals by warning the Holy See to sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
_ Stacy Meichtry
Historian Who Denied Holocaust Under Arrest in Austria
(RNS) Austrian prosecutors are expected to announce soon what charges, if any, they will file against right-wing British historian David Irving for statements he made in 1989 denying the Holocaust, according to the Austrian newspaper “The Standard.”
Irving was arrested in the southern province of Styria Nov. 11. His Web site states he was in Austria to address university students, though the university was not named. An arrest warrant for Irving has been outstanding since 1989 when he delivered a series of speeches questioning whether the Holocaust had happened.
Austrian laws make Holocaust denial a crime, but it is not clear if punishment can be meted out more than 15 years after the fact.
Irving’s arrest was first reported Nov. 17. It is still not clear why six days elapsed between Irving’s arrest and its public announcement. Various officials in Vienna reported they had only learned about the arrest themselves on Nov. 17. One Interior Ministry official stated that there was “no obligation” regarding such information.
Irving’s Web site accused Austrian authorities of using wiretaps and intercepting e-mails to find out about Irving’s travel plans.
Irving first made a name for himself with books suggesting Allied war crimes were committed during firebomb campaigns against Germany during World War II. A few years later he began actively questioning the Holocaust.
_ Niels Sorrells
High School Football Coach Sues for Right to Participate in Team Prayer
(RNS) A New Jersey high school football coach has filed suit against the district his team plays in, claiming it is violating his constitutional rights by prohibiting him from praying with his players before games.
In the suit, filed in Superior Court in Middlesex County on Monday (Nov. 21), East Brunswick High School football coach Marcus Borden is asking the court to rule that he can silently nod his head during team prayers before pre-game meals with players and to kneel on one knee with the team in the locker room before a game.
Borden missed coaching one game Oct. 7 when he resigned in protest of a school board ruling saying he could not participate, lead, encourage or even be present at those traditional ceremonies or risk being charged with insubordination.
He rescinded his resignation within a week and hired Newark-based attorney Ronald Riccio to represent him in his quest to coach the team the way he had for the past 23 years.
School Superintendent Jo Ann Magistro referred all queries to the school board’s attorney, Martin Pachman of Freehold.
Pachman said he had not received a copy of the suit.
“I don’t know what it’s about. We have acted in accordance with the mandates of federal law. If they want to change the law, they can try to do that, but I wish they would do it on someone else’s time,” Pachman said.
He said Borden has been teaching and coaching without issue since he rescinded his resignation.
Riccio said Borden filed suit not to challenge U.S. Supreme Court rulings on school prayer but to get a clear ruling on what the coach can and cannot do.
“Our position is team prayer is permitted, which the district admits. But they say Coach Borden can’t participate, without saying what that means,” said Riccio.
“All we’re asking the court to declare (is) he can bow his head and take a knee, not as prayer but as a sign of his respect and collegiality with his players,” he added.
_ Patrick Jenkins
Quote of the Day: Author and Christian Reconstructionist Gary DeMar
(RNS) “All governments are theocracies. We now live in a secular humanist theocracy. I want to change that to a government with God at its head.”
_ Gary DeMar, president of Powder Springs, Ga.-based American Vision and a writer for a movement that aims to help Christians convert the world. He was quoted in the December issue of Mother Jones magazine.
MO/JL END RNS
