Publications

Comment: In this article, Omar T. Mohammedi - speaker at this year's American-Arab anti-discrimination convention and lawyer for 'the Six Imams' case - discusses racial profiling by airlines in the US.The mounting number of civil rights violations against Muslims, Arabs, South Asians and anyone who is perceived to be of Middle Eastern heritage, is alarming. These violations are committed by our law enforcement, private and public institutions, as well as ordinary citizens. As a lawyer, I have an even deeper concern knowing that many Americans feel that all Arabs and Muslims should be treated as terrorists until they can prove otherwise. It seems the notion of a person is innocent until proven guilty has been reversed.Guilt by association has become the ordinary analysis of many scholars. The American public is being subjected to a daily barrage of right-wing anti-Muslim rhetoric from Donald Trump and other public officials, that goes largely unchallenged. This has resulted in further violations of civil rights against members of the Muslim and Arab communities. Statements made by some right-wing extremists and media outlets are resulting in profiling, discrimination and hate crimes such as the unprecedented surge in killings of Muslims in New York and around the country. Read More...

Comment: In this article, Omar Mohammedi - President of the Association of Muslim American lawyers - unpicks the challenges to Trump's travel ban, and demonstrates its legal as well as moral flaws.As early as 7 December 2015, in the midst of the Republican primaries, Donald Trump proposed a systemic policy of religious discrimination against Muslims with regards to immigration into the United States. The trump campaign issued a press release setting forth his ideas to prevent Muslim immigration, and calling for a total "shutdown" of Muslims entering the United States until the government could understand the dangerous threat of "Islamic terrorism", where it comes from and why.True to his promise, President Trump issued an Executive Order on 27 January 2017 entitled "Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States".  Though the Trump Administration has adamantly claimed in the past week that the Order is a "travel ban" and not a "Muslim ban," there is extensive extrinsic evidence that the intent and effect of the Order is, in fact, to preclude the immigration of Muslims into the United States.  Read More...

According to media reports and direct accounts from family members, Khalid Jabara was shot in front of his home by neighbor Stanley Vernon Majors. Mr. Majors was continuously brought to law enforcement’s attention for harassing and threatening the Jabara family for years. On the afternoon of August 12th, Mr. Jabara was frightened after he learned that Mr. Majors, a felon and known danger, possessed a gun. Mr. Jabara called his mother warning her not to come home because he was worried about what might happen and also informed the police that Mr. Majors was armed. After responding to Mr. Jabara’s call, the Tulsa Police Department (TPD) felt nothing could be done and left the scene. Minutes later, Mr. Majors shot and killed Mr. Jabara on the front porch of the Jabara family home. Read more in this open letter to Mayor Bartlett: Coalition Letter re. Tulsa Murder

According to media reports, Imam Alauddin Akonjee, a religious leader at the Al-Furqan Jame mosque in Ozone Park, and his assistant, Thara Miah, were shot while walking together outside of the mosque shortly after completing prayers. According to witnesses and video footage, a man approached the two men from behind and shot each one in the head. Both victims were found at the scene with gunshot wounds in their heads and eventually died.Read more in this open letter: Coalition letter re. Queens murders