Buffalo: More proof Islamic sharia is incompatible with U.S. law

…and that U.S. law protects human rights better. For the Buffalo News it’s all about culture clash and culture shock. First it was child abuse by Somali’s as “culture clash.” As sharia creeps further in upstate New York, now Domestic violence laws compound immigrants’ culture shock – The Buffalo News.

A refugee from Somalia was accused of trying to sell her 16-year-old daughter into marriage against her will.

Social Services took another Somali couple’s six children because the father belt-whipped his 8-year-old son and tied him up for misbehaving in school.

A Yemeni husband beat his wife and threw her down the stairs for talking back to him in front of the family.

“How else can I teach her how to behave?” the bewildered man asked in court.

These and other cases like them are raising the concerns of judges, lawyers and human services providers in Buffalo.

Erie County Family Court judges say they have seen a startling rise in the number of domestic abuse and juvenile delinquency cases involving immigrant, refugee and Muslim families who want help but fear police intervention.

In the immigrants’ native countries, these incidents would be considered common social and cultural practices. But in their new home, they are classified as abuse and felony assault.

“We don’t come from another city; we come from another planet,” said Burma refugee Law Eh Soe. “In Burma, you can hit your your wife or kid, but here, it’s a crime.”

Many foreign abusers hold victims hostage by threatening their immigration status in this country, said Shea Post, the victim services outreach coordinator for the International Institute resettlement agency. Language is also a major barrier.

“It’s common for us to work with women who are terrified of being hurt or killed,” Post she said, “terrified of being ostracized by their community if they come forward, who have no idea about how our system works.”

Soe added that services such as counseling are culturally unrecognizable to foreigners from conflict-ridden countries who liken extensive personal questioning to interrogation.

With more than 800 new refugees resettling in the Buffalo area each year, and nearly 1,500 expected next year, the question of how to work with non-native residents struggling with family violence has become a growing challenge for those in the court system.

The problem is serious enough that a special community and courts collaborative was formed 10 months ago to improve services to this newer population. The group recently hosted a daylong workshop in Buffalo for Family Court judges, lawyers and social service workers.

[A sharia court? Or a collaborative to help reconcile Islamic sharia law with American law?]

“In America, we emphasize independence and individual freedoms,” said Family Court Judge Lisa Bloch Rodwin in her opening remarks. “This is in direct conflict with certain cultures that emphasize obedience to parents and authority. How do we bridge the gap between behaviors which are accepted between spouses in other cultures, but which are not acceptable or legal here?”

In the 2 1/2 years she’s been judge, Rodwin said, she’s seen at least a doubling of cases involving newcomers to the country and culturally isolated Muslims, noting that child neglect, abuse, family violence and juvenile delinquency are rampant.

These issues certainly are not confined to immigrants and refugees. Domestic violence and child neglect reach across all ethnicities and income levels.

However, social service and legal advocates say immigrants and refugees face additional burdens of cultural differences, post-traumatic stress, generational power struggles, language barriers, immigrant community pressure and family isolation.

This country’s dim view of corporal punishment, its acceptance of women’s rights, and the criminalization of certain family behaviors are often lost on culturally insulated families who come from places where laws against family violence are nonexistent or unenforced.

Kenneth Gibbons, a lawyer who defends many immigrants accused of family violence crimes, said his clients often have a glorified view of this country and are completely shocked when they land in jail on family offense charges.

“They find themselves in court and charged with things that aren’t culturally considered wrong in their countries,” he said.

In addition, immigrant parents accustomed to complete obedience from their children find themselves in a losing power struggle as their children become Americanized and abandon their parents’ cultural values in favor of the individualistic cultural norms of the United States.

“This is where the tensions happen,” said Awadiya Yahyia, a refugee from the Darfur region of Sudan who spoke at the workshop.

Those tensions can line the path to family violence and crime.

Lawyer Eli Ciambrone defended a Somali mother who was accused by her daughter of beating her and trying to sell her into an arranged marriage for $5,000.

The mother denied the charges, saying she was just trying to keep her daughter from dating another Somali refugee who came from a rival clan — an act that would have resulted in her daughter’s execution in her home country.

The daughter later recanted and returned to live with her mother, but Ciambrone found herself fighting Social Services to keep the mother from pleading guilty to charges that could have eventually led to deportation by the Department of Homeland Security.

Another lawyer, Wallace Wiens of Neighborhood Legal Services, recounted an incident where an African refugee’s disabled daughter wound up pregnant by another local male refugee, and questions of consent arose.

The grandmother, who was seeking custody, did not comprehend that lack of consent would be considered a crime in this country. She was pressured by male elders to let the matter drop and allow the father to have the child, Wiens said.

Given the tribal culture the woman came from, the lawyer said, deciding to place faith in the foreign court system was an act of courage. She was awarded custody.

“Domestic violence in just about any culture is a taboo issue, and if you’re a minority here, you don’t want to portray the culture that you’re from in a negative light,” said April Arman, who co-founded RAMAHA in 2006, a local Muslim support group for abuse victims.

[Taqiyya. It is permitted, video: Wife Beating in Islam - The Rules.]

Advocates said many victims come from cultures where airing family problems is considered shameful and family unity is paramount.

But more local communities are learning that Family Court can provide orders of protection and other services through civil dispositions that can assist troubled families without leaving a criminal conviction on an immigrant’s record.

“The word is getting out in domestic violence cases that you can get relief without pressing charges,” Rodwin said.

The recent daylong workshop spearheaded by Rodwin and the Western New York Muslim and Immigrant Community/Family Court Collaborative, included sessions on immigration law, use of interpreters, addressing the Muslim faith and cultures, the role of refugee resettlement agencies and perspectives from defense lawyers and child and family advocates.

[Muslim groups collaborating with Family courts...to create pseudo-sharia courts? That is the effect of submitting Family courts to Islamic dawah and lying about sharia law and Islamic doctrine, like saying domestic violence is taboo.]

Many in attendance grilled immigration law experts about what types of offenses and court dispositions could lead an immigrant to be deported in domestic violence and child neglect cases.

They also were given practical tips from Khalid Qazi, president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council of Western New York, and Arman about how to interview Muslim families and work with less-Americanized victims in a culturally sensitive way.

[Background on MPAC - an Islamist group that backed terror group Hizbollah's attack on U.S. Marines - from Discover the Networks]

They differentiated between cultural standards and the actual teachings of the Islamic faith, which condemns family violence.

“Domestic violence is not acceptable in Islam, or really any faith tradition,” Arman said.

Paula Feroleto, administrative judge for the eight-county 8th Judicial District in Western New York, praised the recent workshop for its enlightening topic.

[Does anyone have a transcript of the meeting and what the Hizbollah-supporting MPAC was promoting? If so, comparing MPAC's deception to what Islamic sources teach might really enlighten the judge.]

She said, “I think education promoted understanding.”

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Are N.Y. courts and law enforcement doing their jobs, or making it easier for Muslims to practice sharia law and evade U.S. law?

BEST PRACTICES IN WORKING WITH MUSLIM AND IMMIGRANT FAMILIES: BREAKING THE CULTURAL BARRIER (pdf)

The Buffalo News conveniently ignores the topics of sharia law, Islamic honor killings, and the most abhorrent example – Muslim, CEO of Islamist tv, charged with beheading wife in Buffalo, NY.