Imam Hamza’s story became internationally known. Who knows this guy? Everyone’s talking about Imam Hamza. Nobody knows Bilal. These two stories are amongst the hundreds of thousands that we haven’t heard but know enough that they are going on. We read them as good stories for a sensational passtime. Rarely, if ever, we stand up and take action to get involved.
We will discuss these stories and a thousands more. We will shed tears for the fallen. We will pray for the fallen. We will feel a wave of anger on the absolute biased treatments against the Muslims. We do all that sitting in one place… for majority find it hard to get up and do something about it. I guess… the effort is just too much to bear. More then the pain that others go through that cuts through our hearts for which we raise our hands to Allah (sbwt) and pray to him for mercy.
==============================================
TSA tells Vietnam vet he’s a security threat
By Wali Muhammad
**Bilal Mahmud is ‘bewildered’. He received a letter earlier this month that put his life on hold. Mahmud, an African American Muslim and a family man what happened to due process and why he was commanded to surrender his commercial driver’s license – in effect his livelihood. **
Mahmud, a former Marine who saw combat in Vietnam was recently notified that he’s ‘a security threat pursuant to Title 49 C.F.R. ¤ 1572.107.’ Subsequent to this notification Mahmud was forced to surrender his commercial driver’s license (CDL) without due, or any, process to the Georgia Department of Motor Vehicles.
“Basically it started with me being notified by TSA in a Certified Letter. I got this letter stating that according to their findings, I posed a national security threat.” Mahmud said.“By posing a national security threat, the hazardous materials endorsement on my CDL was revoked. In that communiqu, I was instructed to immediately surrender my CDL to the state that I lived in. I had ten days to respond.”
Title 49 C.F.R. ¤ 1572.107 ‘precludes individuals from holding a hazardous materials endorsement on a CDL, if the TSA determines or suspects an individual of being to a threat to national security, to transportation security, or of terrorism.’
“I’m just in a hold pattern, waiting to find out exactly what I’ve done,” Mahmud explained.“In my life, I’ve never been arrested, never been indicted, never been convicted of any crime. I make my living driving; I’ve held a commercial driving license for 27 years, and for the last 17 years I haven’t had a traffic violation. I’ve been with the same company twenty years hauling hazardous materials and nobody ever told me I posed a threat or anything.”
Mahmud questions if this “is all this just because I am a Muslim? I fought for this country in Vietnam and now this same country is asking me to give up my only means of income and my only means to provide food & shelter for my family..”
“I served this country and risked my life to protect it. I did three years in the Marines Ð honorably discharged.” Mahmud continued,“I’ve proven I can mesh with society, I pay my taxes, I vote, I do everything a good citizen is supposed to do, and this is how I am treated? I truly don’t understand how they determine who is a threat and who is not. Does my belief in God make you a threat to the United States?”
In order to avoid further ‘undue harassment’ Mahmud accompanied by Jabril Alexander of CAIR North Georgia reported to the DMV office to surrender his CDL on August 10 in Conyers, Ga. In addition, he responded to the initial notification and has not received any reply. “I know from a certified return receipt that TSA received my reply on August 11. That much is documented. I have repeated called the office to no avail.”
Mahmud is respected member of the Atlanta community, the descendant of former slaves–a multi-generational American – born in Richmond, VA, raised in rural Roanoke Rapid, NC, with small town family values. His father served the United States in the Korean War, and was an inspiration to Mahmud to also serve and protect his country.
During his tour of duty in Vietnam, Mahmud became attracted to Islam by reading. “I didn’t smoke, drink or use drugs so I had time to read. At that time of growing social and political awareness in America, I started to study about African history. I learned that the majority of African People brought to this country were Muslim. I also discovered that Christianity was not our religion. It was a religion that was basically forced upon us as a result of being enslaved.”
Mahmud said that when he learned of the monotheistic principles of Islam “and the fact that most of my African ancestors brought to this country were Muslim. There was a natural inclination that drove me to be like my African ancestors and if I was to truly follow their example, I had to become Muslim. That was January 1974.” His efforts to share what he learned about Islam brought him to Atlanta in 1976 where he has lived ever since.
Asked if he could think of any past associations that might make him subject of an investigation, Mahmud said although he has been blessed to travel around the world he has never knowingly associated with any groups that were anti-American. Asked about local association, he explained that he is not a member of any of he major Islamic associations like ICNA, ISNA, and so forth. He added, “I associate with members of SCLC, but I’m not a member. I’m sure living in the south, I’ve had the opportunity to associate with people who are in the Klan or the Nazi party, but I’m not a member of either of those parties either.”
To resolve this matter, Mahmud would like to be “totally cleared of any allegations and charges that have been lodged against me because they are totally unfounded. They’ve (TSA) ruined my reputation. I am unemployed. My employer stepped away from me based on the fact that I got this letter from TSA. I think in the future I may be unemployable by the fact that this stench is attached to my name.”
“How do you fix a man’s life after you mess it up?” Mahmud wonders.“That will be something we will definitely have to discuss and come up with some amiable answer.”
for more info contact Br. Wali Muhammad @ [email protected]