HamzaB

__ Religious Freedom Story By Hamza Bahramzi __

One sunny afternoon, Joe went home right after school came out. When he got inside, he grabbed some cheese and went upstairs to his room, to check his computer. He dropped his backpack on the floor next to his bed, sat down on his desk, and gently pressed the power button on his computer. He ate his cheese by the time his computer turned on, and he logged into //Yahoo! Messenger®//. To his surprise, his best friend Hamadi was online. Without even having enough time to minimize the window, the chat window of Hamadi popped up. It read, “Joe! I am having a problem and would like to ask for your advice!! I went to the library today, and the time to pray was nearing. I asked the librarian if there was a quiet place where I could pray for less than 5 minutes, but she told me that I was not allowed to pray in the library! I was infuriated, but I calmly left the library without saying a word. What should I do?” “I think you should let other people know about this injustice. I would also feel offended if I was not allowed to do something peaceful in the library. How about you come to my house to see what we can do.” “Okay.” So Hamadi went to Joe’s house and he rang the doorbell. Joe answered and they talked about what they could do about this problem. When they got to Joe’s room, Joe suggested that they should spread the word by printing flyers and posting them around the neighborhood. “We could make a flyer and print it on bright orange paper, so people will notice them.” Hamadi agreed with Joe, so they quickly put together a flyer that said: “Would you like to be able to pray in the library? Well currently you are not allowed to, but now is the time to change. If you do want change, send an email to **change_now@mail.com**. We thank you for the support.” So they posted it up all over the library. After they posted the flyers, Hamadi wanted to get his dad involved, so they went home. When Hamadi got home, he greeted his dad, told him about what happened at the library, showed him a flyer, and then asked him if he would like to participate in any activities that him and Joe would do. He said that it was a good thing that him and his friend were expressing their right of freedom of religion, and that America is a place for freedom. Hamadi’s father, named Ahmed, also mentioned that they could be targeted because not everybody likes change, especially a foreign change. Ahmed decided to go to the //Glock// store. When he got inside, Hamadi had to stay in the car because children under 18 are not allowed in the store. So when Ahmed went inside, there was a special //Glock// in a rotating case. It was labeled “//Generation 4”//. This gun was the choice of Ahmed because it was most appealing for the features. So he bought the gun from the dealer and went back to his car and drove home. When they got home, they all decided to hold a peaceful rally at the library. Hamadi’s father, (info that has already been shared in a previous paragraph) Ahmed, decided to bring his new //Glock// with him for protection, in case they were attacked. So Hamadi notified Joe and they all went to the library at 1 PM. They made enlarged copies of the flyers that they previously made, put them on poster boards, stapled them to wooden sticks, and held them up. Many people walked by into the library, but paid little or no attention to them. But then suddenly, a police officer came and told Ahmed to put his hands up and to remain silence. Joe and Hamadi got scared, so they dropped their signs and ran into the library. Ahmed was arrested for carrying his gun on public property. He surrendered, and then walked into the police car where the police man took Ahmed’s gun and closed the door. After that, the police man got into his car and drove away. Ahmed was taken to the temporary jail where he would have to wait until his trial. Hamadi and Joe were very scared, so they decided to get home as quickly as possible. They split up at the library and went to their own houses. As soon as Hamadi got home, there was a message on his answering machine. It sounded like a cop, and he said that Ahmed was staying in jail until his trial for the crime that he committed. Hamadi was worried, so he decided to visit his father at the county jail. What will happen next?...

TO BE CONTINUED…

Wikispace – Hamza Bahramzi Topic: Practicing the right of freedom in religion (such as praying) in public.

Article 1: ** http://www.startribune.com/local/11585901.html ** __ Nov. 22, 2006: Uproar follows imams' detention __ Bob Von Sternberg and Pamela Miller, Star Tribune From now on, Omar Shahin won't be praying at the airport while waiting for a flight. "This was humiliating, the worst moment of my life," Shahin said Tuesday, a day after he and five fellow Muslim imams were escorted off a US Airways jet at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. "To practice your faith and pray is a crime in America?" he said. The incident set off a nationwide uproar, and the Department of Homeland Security's Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties said it will review the incident. Bloggers and talk radio buzzed about the need to be vigilant against potential terrorists, while civil rights advocates and Muslim leaders cried foul. The national Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) called for a congressional hearing about ethnic and religious profiling at airports. Locally, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas and the Somali Justice Advocacy Center questioned the detention. Bushra Khan, spokeswoman for CAIR's Arizona chapter, said, "All these men did was pray, and it was misunderstood. The bottom line is that they were Middle Eastern-looking men ... and that scares some people." US Airways said that it will fully investigate the matter and that passenger safety is paramount. The religious leaders were heading home after a three-day North American Imams Federation conference in Bloomington. The pilot ordered the men off the flight after their praying, conversation and behavior alarmed several passengers and flight attendants. The imams denied that they did or said anything that could be considered threatening. They were released without charges after being questioned for five hours by federal law enforcement officials. ** Left behind by US Airways ** Shahin, president of the imams' group, called for a boycott of US Airways after an agent and his supervisor, without giving a reason, refused to sell him r! eplacement tickets Tuesday morning. "I'm not going to s! tay sile nt," Shahin said. "I came to this country to enjoy justice and freedom." The US Airways supervisor told Shahin that his tickets had been refunded and that he would have to go to another airline. The supervisor offered Shahin a customer service phone number. "I want to go home. I don't want phone numbers," Shahin said. "They have no reason to refuse service to us just because of the way we look." He bought six one-way tickets at the Northwest Airlines counter, and the men flew to Phoenix without incident. ** 'Praying very loud' ** In a statement to police, a US Airways gate agent wrote that three of the men prayed in Arabic at the gate. "I was suspicious by the way they were praying very loud," the gate agent said. Said Shahin: "We were never bothering anyone, not saying anything loudly. We were just prostrating ourselves, the normal way we pray." Devout Muslims pray five times a day, but practices vary among cultural groups, said Ow! ais Bayunus, a Muslim scholar in the Twin Cities. "Those who pray in the airport would be more conservative Muslims who stop to pray at the designated times no matter where they are," he said. "Others accept the //fatwa// [an opinion by an Islamic legal scholar] that it is acceptable to combine the prayers during travel." Before passengers boarded, one became alarmed by an overheard discussion. "They seemed angry," he wrote in a police statement. "Mentioned 'U.S.' and 'killing Saddam.' Two men then swore slightly under their breath/mumbled. They spoke Arabic again. The gate called boarding for the flight. The men then chanted 'Allah, Allah, Allah.' " Marwan Sadeddin, another of the imams, said, "What bothers me the most is these false statements and lies that we were shouting, 'Allah, Allah.' This never happened." Another, Ahmad Shqeirat, said, "That is a lie. We were not talking politics. And even if we did, so what? What is suspicious about that! ?" Once the six were seated, two in front, two in the mi! ddle and two in back, and paid visits to each other to chat, some passengers became alarmed, the police report said. One passed a note to a flight attendant citing the alleged comments about Allah and Saddam. Flight attendants alerted the pilot, who called airport police and asked them to remove the men from the plane. They left "cooperatively," according to the police report. A bomb-sniffing dog examined the men, their luggage and the entire airplane and found nothing. The plane left for Phoenix about three hours late after the other 141 passengers reboarded. After being questioned by agents of the U.S. Marshals Service, the FBI, the Secret Service and the Transportation Security Administration, the men were released. Asad Zaman, communications director for the Muslim American Society (MAS) of Minnesota, said an Arizona MAS chapter member called him for help about 11 p.m. Monday because the six imams had not arrived and one had called his wife to say police! had detained them. Within 10 minutes of a Minnesota imam's call to police, the six were free, Zaman said. "This event would be the equivalent of Roman Catholic bishops being arrested in China because they wore clerical robes and invoked Jesus Christ in prayers," Zaman said. vonste@startribune.com • 612-673-7184 pmiller@startribune.com • 612-673-4290

a. Position (pro/con). The position of this article is **CON** because it is showing that you cannot pray in public without being prosecuted. b. Argument and persuasive technique used. This article’s argument is that practicing freedom of religion is not possible in airports for Muslims because they might be mistaken for terrorists. One persuasive technique that was used was testimonials from the men arrested c. Counter-argument It has some quotes of what people said what happened, but were actually not true. d. Explain the bias of the text The bias is con because it is telling people that read the article that people are not allowed to practice freedom of religion in public

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