Why was the lawsuit withdrawn?

We received positive feedback from last week’s email newsletter regarding our recent lawsuit against the FBI and USCIS. We interpret the influx of emails as a sign of strong community support for our commitment to fighting governmental discrimination against American Muslims and we appreciate the feedback.

In addition to this positive response, we also received a question from a reader which we want to address here. The question was basically this: “I understand that your client received his green card, and that you believe this happened because CAIR-Philadelphia filed the lawsuit. However, as I understand it, an injustice still occurred, and CAIR-Philadelphia believes that the FBI unlawfully interfered with the client’s immigration status. If such an injustice occurred, why was the lawsuit ultimately withdrawn? The fact that the client received his green card doesn’t undo the previous injustice, so why does the receipt of the green card seemingly undo the lawsuit?”

That’s an excellent question, and Legal Director Amara Chaudhry wants to give an honest response: Read more…

CAIR-Philadelphia filed a federal lawsuit against the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and the United States Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) on March 14, 2013. The lawsuit alleged the FBI unlawfully interfered with our client’s green card application which was timely filed in 2006. After CAIR-Philadelphia initiated this lawsuit, and after a 7 year delay in his immigration proceedings, our client suddenly received his green card in the mail. CAIR-Philadelphia withdrew the lawsuit after this favorable result. We believe the filing of the lawsuit led to this favorable result, and we have seen a similar result in other immigration delay cases involving Muslim applicants in the Philadelphia area.  Read more…

Delaware County Daily Times

A week after the cruel attack on the Boston Marathon, our nation is still trying to answer that piece of the — who, what, and why — puzzle. Despite our lack of information as to the “why,” we do know some facts as to “what” happened. We know that when the suspects placed their bombs amongst the crowd of joyous spectators, they did not check for the race or religion of their potential victims. Instead, they coldly sought a body count.We know that three young people lost their lives — an 8-year-old boy who once held up a sign “no more hurting people,” an outgoing restaurant manager, and an immigrant who had traveled far from northeastern China to seek an education in our land. We also know that over 150 people were injured, and many more witnesses were traumatized by this event.

The victims of this horror represented a wide spectrum of American society: white, brown, citizen, immigrant, Christian and, yes, even Muslim. Muslims, like their fellow Americans, attended the Boston Marathon as runners and spectators. When the bombs went off, their bodies were torn by the same shrapnel and their hearts raced with the same fear. Read more…