The Story

Grand Jury Abuse in the Service of Islamophobia

Oct. 10, 2008 | By Cassie Cole, DSJ Staff Reporter

�"The freedoms the founding fathers fought so hard for are being eroded,” said Dr. Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad at his lecture given Wednesday, Oct. 7 entitled �"Grand Jury Abuse in the service of Islamophobia.”

Dr. Ahmad, a lecturer at the University of Maryland, College Park, and president of the group Minaret of Freedom, was well received by his audience of mostly students and a few other community members. His talk, which had a decidedly academic tone, focused on case studies in which Muslims in the United States were subpoenaed to speak before a grand jury.

He presented these cases in the context of how islamophobia, a fear of Muslims, in the United States justice system affects Muslims, both citizens and non-citizens, residing in the United States.

He began the lecture by describing how he felt the current �"over-extension of empire” by the United States government and its �"neo-imperialist mission” are eroding civil liberties in the United States and failing to expand them in the Middle East. He cited the Iraq War and the current economic crises as examples of how he feels the U.S government’s imperialism and overextension of power have adversely affected people in the United States and the Middle East.

Grand jury abuse, he said, is �"just an example of the problem.”

Dr. Ahmad focused specifically on the grand jury’s unconstitutional use as an investigative tool. The original purpose of the grand jury, as specified in the Constitution, is to protect the rights of the accused.

The case studies, including a case in which Dr. Ahmad was subpoenaed, shocked and at times angered the crowd.

Prior to describing the first case, he explained that one could be accused of conspiracy if one discusses an illegal act and then commits a legal act that indicates a desire to commit that illegal act.

In the first case study, 11 men were found in violation of the Neutrality Act because they played paintball after discussing the desire to fight on behalf of the Kashmir, a largely Muslim region in the Indian subcontinent. One of the eleven admitted he wanted to fight, but that none of the others did. He was sentenced to twenty years in prison. According to Dr. Ahmed, the judge did not like the sentence given, but the defendant was technically guilty of conspiracy and so had to be given the mandatory minimum sentence.

Another case study Dr. Ahmed described involved a Palestinian, Abdelhaleem Ashqar, who used to be a professor at Howard University. He was against what Dr. Ahmad described as the occupation of Israel; in 1994, he was asked by government officials if he would inform the U.S. government if he knew of someone who would attack the United States.

The motivation of the harassment, according to Dr. Ahmad, was to get Ashqar to spy on behalf of Israel. Ashqar didn’t want to incriminate any of his friends at home by naming names and was convicted of refusal to testify about the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas and put on house arrest. At the time he was initially questioned, Hamas was not officially labeled as a terrorist group.

In 2007 he was convicted of refusing to testify before the grand jury and sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison.

At the closing of his lecture, Dr. Ahmad described an experience in which he had been subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury for what he believed to be Islamophobic reasons. He wrote a letter to U.S. attorney Gordon Kromberg about the paintball case. Mr. Kromberg didn’t answer his letter, so he wrote a blog about the incident.

After this, Dr. Ahmad was subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury about a televised conference he had been an emcee for. His attorney met with Kromberg; he did not have to testify.

�"It pays to know your rights, guys,” Dr. Ahmad said.

After his lecture, Dr. Ahmad welcomed questions from the audience. Most of them revolved around how to prevent more government abuses of power.

Before asking students to glance at Islam-related books for sale at the front of the room, Dr. Ahmed ended by quoting the Koran. �"If you see oppression, change it with your hand, if you have the power to do so. If you can’t do that, at least speak against it with your tongue, and if you can’t do that, despise it in your heart.”