Brandon Mayfield is a Muslim-American convert in Washington County, Oregon, who was wrongfully detained in connection with the 2004 Madrid train bombings on the basis of a faulty fingerprint match. On May 6, 2004, the FBI arrested Mayfield as a material witness in connection with the Madrid attacks, and held him for two weeks, before releasing him with a public apology following Spanish authorities identifying another suspect. A United States DOJ internal review later acknowledged serious errors in the FBI investigation. Ensuing lawsuits resulted in a $2 million settlement. An initial ruling declared some provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act unconstitutional, but the United States government appealed, and the ruling was overturned at the Ninth Circuit level on technical standing grounds.
The Muslim Students Association, or Muslim Student Union, of the U.S. and Canada, also known as MSA National, is a religious organization dedicated to establishing and maintaining Islamic societies on college campuses in Canada and the United States. It serves to provide coordination, community, outreach and support for affiliated MSA chapters in colleges across North America. Established in 1963, the organization now has chapters in colleges across the continent, and is the precursor of the Islamic Society of North America and several other Islamic organizations. The Muslim Students Association has at times been the subject of scrutiny; for example, the New York Police Department (NYPD) targeted MSAs across several US college campuses for monitoring as part of their Muslim surveillance program.
The state secrets privilege is an evidentiary rule created by United States legal precedent. Application of the privilege results in exclusion of evidence from a legal case based solely on affidavits submitted by the government stating that court proceedings might disclose sensitive information which might endanger national security. United States v. Reynolds, which involved alleged military secrets, was the first case that saw formal recognition of the privilege.
Muzammil H. Siddiqi is an Indian-American Muslim writer who has been on the faculty of Chapman University.
Yassin Aref is poet, writer, and religious scholar of Kurdish background who was the central figure of a controversial sting operation leading to years of incarceration in the Federal Bureau of Prisons. A resident of Albany, New York, Aref was arrested by Federal authorities in August 2004 as part of a sting operation, convicted in October 2006 of conspiracy and money laundering charges and sentenced to 15 years in prison in March 2007. The sting operation revolved around FBI informant Shahed Hussein, who later became notorious for his involvement in other controversial cases of entrapment as well as the Schoarie Limousine crash. In 2023, a federal judge ordered the release of 3 other defendants who were also entrapped in a separate sting by Shahed Hussein, saying that FBI had used a "villain” of an informant, and that "the real lead conspirator was the United States". Aref's case drew criticism from human rights groups such as the ACLU and the NYCLU . In July 2008, an appellate court upheld the convictions, rejecting all of the defense's arguments. The decision caused outrage amongst the local community, as supporters maintained the position that he was being persecuted. Aref completed his 15-year prison sentence in October, 2018 and was deported to Iraqi Kurdistan in June, 2019.
The Islamic Society of Orange County, incorporated on January 5, 1976, is one of the largest Muslim centers in the Western Hemisphere, with almost 7,000 worshipers. It is located on approximately 5.2 acres (21,000 m2) in Garden Grove, California. It is neighbored by the Islamic Center of Irvine. Its director, Dr. Muzammil Siddiqi, is a scholar of Comparative Religion who received his Ph.D. from Harvard University. ISOC is one of the first Muslim centers to be established in Southern California.
Hujjat al-Islam Sayyid Dr.Moustafa al-Musawi al-Qazwini is an Iraqi-American Shia imam.
Cormac Joseph Carney is an inactive senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
On May 20, 2009, US law enforcement arrested four men in connection with a fake plot concocted by a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) informant to shoot down military airplanes flying out of an Air National Guard base in Newburgh, New York, and blow up two synagogues in the Riverdale community of the Bronx using weapons supplied by the FBI. The group was led by Shahed Hussain, a Pakistani criminal who was working for the FBI to avoid deportation for having defrauded the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles. Hussain has never been charged in the United States with any terrorism related offenses and was paid nearly US$100,000 by the FBI for his work on this plot.
Masjid al-Ikhlas, also referred to as The Islamic Learning Center of Orange County, is a mosque in Newburgh, New York.
The Baitul Hameed Mosque is the largest Ahmadiyya Muslim mosque in the Western United States with an area of 19,000 square feet (1,800 m2) sitting on nearly 5 acres (20,000 m2). Initially built in 1989 at a cost of $2.5 million, entirely from donations of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, it is located east of Los Angeles in Chino, California, just inside San Bernardino County. The San Gabriel Mountains provide a beautiful backdrop to this Spanish-inspired mosque with modern amenities. In 2003, an electrical fire caused heavy damage to the front building which was used for library and office space, as well as a kitchen. The affected areas were demolished, and rebuilt with a second story. In addition, a separate auxiliary hall was built adjacent to the existing Tahir Hall, for the exclusive use of Lajna Imaillah. The reconstructed mosque opened again for full use in August, 2009. A separate commercial kitchen and missionary residence/guest house are also on site. Plans are now underway for the construction of an NCAA sized basketball court with space allocated in the back lot.
Jewel v. National Security Agency, 673 F.3d 902, was a class action lawsuit argued before the District Court for the Northern District of California and the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, filed by Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) on behalf of American citizens who believed that they had been surveilled by the National Security Agency (NSA) without a warrant. The EFF alleged that the NSA's surveillance program was an "illegal and unconstitutional program of dragnet communications surveillance" and claimed violations of the Fourth Amendment.
The Islamic Center of Murfreesboro (ICM) is an Islamic community organization located in the town of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, United States. Established in the early 1980s, the ICM supports about a thousand congregants, drawn from local permanent residents and numerous students at Middle Tennessee State University.
Dr. Mohamed El Ghanem is an Egyptian refugee detained without charge for seven years by the Geneva judiciary, between 2007 through 2013, allegedly in retaliation for refusing to spy on Geneva's Muslim community leaders.
The Islamic Center of Southern California is a mosque and Islamic cultural center located in Los Angeles, California. It is located on Vermont Avenue adjacent to the Chinese Consulate General in the Wilshire Center neighborhood of Los Angeles. It is one of the largest mosques in Southern California with thousands praying there every Friday. Although the institution dates back to 1952, the center's current mosque opened in the late 1970s.
American Muslims often face Islamophobia and racialization due to stereotypes and generalizations ascribed to them. Due to this, Islamophobia is both a product of and a contributor to the United States' racial ideology, which is founded on socially constructed categories of profiled features, or how people seem.
Ralph Kenneth Deleon is a Filipino, and legal permanent resident of the United States, who in 2015 was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder of members of the United States military and government, and providing material support for terrorists. Deleon is serving a 25-year sentence.
Baitus Samee Mosque is a prominent Ahmadi Muslim mosque in Houston, in the U.S. state of Texas. It was developed in stages during 1998 to 2004; its doors opened in 2001 or 2002.
Federal Bureau of Investigation v. Fazaga, 595 U.S. ___ (2022), was a United States Supreme Court case dealing with the use of law enforcement surveillance under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) and the state secrets privilege defense. The case stems from a 2011 class action lawsuit filed against the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) related to one of its surveillance operations. In August 2012, the district court dismissed the case on the basis of the FBI's invocation of state secrets privilege. The Ninth Circuit overturned this ruling in part in 2019, ruling that FISA precluded the defendants from invoking the state secrets defense. However, the Supreme Court overturned the Ninth Circuit’s ruling in a unanimous decision in March 2022, stating that FISA does not override the state secrets defense.
The King Fahad Mosque is a mosque located in Culver City, California in Los Angeles County, US. The mosque has a capacity of 2,000 worshippers and a 72-foot high (22 m) minaret. The complex on about 77,500 square feet (7,200 m2) of land contains other facilities including a lecture and meeting hall and classrooms.
