Not enough Muslim defense

The American Muslim Political Coordination Council (AMPCC)
The American Muslim Alliance (AMA)
The American Muslim Council (AMC)
The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR)
The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC)
The Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA)
The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA)
The Muslim Students Association of USA & Canada (MSA)

Obviously, there hasn't been anyone to protect the rights of Muslims in this country, until now. So a new organization was necessary -- the Muslim Legal Defense and Education Fund.

According to the American Bar Association Journal, the organization's founding was necessitated by the increased discrimination against and insensitivity to Muslims in the wake of 9/11:

The federal government froze the assets of two Islamic charities in December during Ramadan, a sacred month when contributions to such charities are at their peak, says lawyer Kareem M. Irfan. The donations never reached those in need, leaving many Muslims, including Irfan, to wonder whether they were fulfilling a religious tithing duty known as Zakah, an act of purification by sharing wealth with others.

"That demonstrated a high degree of insensitivity to the Muslim population," says Irfan, an intellectual property lawyer who chairs the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago. "They should have informed the community [before the freeze], so at least we could have given elsewhere."

For reasons such as this, as well as new federal laws and hate crimes that seem to target Muslims in the wake of Sept. 11, Irfan applauds the formation of the Muslim Legal Defense and Education Fund, a Washington, D.C., group. Founded in January, the group seeks to protect Muslims against discrimination, much like similar organizations formed to ensure the civil rights of African-Americans and Latinos.

Of course, the Journal is careful to present a different perspective on this issue, as well:

Washington, D.C., lawyer Stewart A. Baker is a member of the ABA’s Standing Committee on Law and National Security. While he does not take a specific position on the new organization, Baker says that many of the government’s actions are necessary to protect the country's security, including the seizing of assets during Ramadan.

"If those assets were being used to support terrorists who were trying to kill Americans, then the sooner those assets were frozen the better," he says. "I wouldn’t want government attorneys wringing their hands about providing notice, which may lead to assets disappearing. To see an attempt to prevent the funding of terrorists through the lens of some kind of sensitivity grievance strikes me as absolutely the wrong way to look at what was done."

Yes, thanks, I do believe that was rather the point.

It remains to be seen whether this "new" organization will emerge as yet another apologist for terror or will blaze a more moderate path. It's mission statement says:

The Muslim Legal Defense & Education Fund (MLDEF) aims to preserve, protect, and promote the rights of the nearly 10 million Muslims in the United States. By so doing, the Muslim Legal Defense & Education Fund will work to ensure that the U.S. government treats Muslims across racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic boundaries equitably.

These sound like worthy goals, although one wonders what part of this agenda the ACLU can't already be counted upon to vigorously pursue. But here, perhaps, is a clue:

One of the community’s problems is that there are few Muslim attorneys in the United States, [Talib] Karim [a media lawyer who chairs the MLDEF's board of directors] says, but many think that will change in the next decade, in large part due to the situation at hand.

The "situation at hand," apparently, being

...complaints of increased religious discrimination in the workplace, and issues of people being jailed,"...referring to actions taken jointly by the FBI and INS, in which Muslims have been detained for alleged immigration violations.

I guess that the likes of Stanley Cohen and Lynne Stewart can't be really be relied upon to adequately defend Muslim interests.