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AMP Comment - September 11, 2005
American Muslims four years after 9-11
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Four years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Muslims in America remain under siege. There are no second thoughts about it: Arabs and Muslims are the prime targets of the post 9/11 reconfiguration of American laws, policies, and priorities. And they are feeling the brunt of it. Their constitutional rights to free exercise of religion and assembly, due process and security from unreasonable searches and seizures have been violated. The government initiatives have reshaped public attitudes about racial profiling and created a harsh backlash against the Muslim community. At the same time Muslims and Islam remain a popular past time for the US media and some prominent religious and political leaders who never miss any opportunity to attack Muslims and their faith in the name of extremism.
During the past four years, U.S. authorities have trampled on the civil liberties of Arabs, other Middle Easterners, South Asians and Muslims under the pretext of keeping America safe. The way America's domestic security agencies have handled Muslims has been a roller coaster, yet in some ways little has changed since the anxious weeks after the 2001 attacks.
People with common Muslim or Arab names frequently are detained at airports and borders. A member of delegation meeting with the Under-secretary for Public Diplomacy Karen Hughes at the 2005 ISNA convention in Chicago earlier this month, walked in at the end because he was held by airport security for three hours until his name was cleared.
Last year marked the highest number of Muslim-related civil rights cases ever recorded in the United States, according to a report of Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) entitled, “Unequal Protection: The Status of Muslim Civil Rights in the United States 2005.” The main conclusions of the CAIR report were that in 2004 the reported cases to CAIR of harassment, violence and discriminatory treatment increased nearly 50% from 2003 to1,522 incidents. Also disturbing was the finding that incidents of anti-Muslim physical violence had grown by 52%, from 93 in 2003 to 141 in 2004. Why the big spike of 1,522 cases? The increase of anti-Muslim rhetoric, which often portrays Muslims as enemies of the U.S.
The CAIR report also detailed a sharp increase in law enforcement discrimination against American Muslims in 2004. In 2003, complaints concerning law enforcement agencies accounted for only seven percent of all reported incidents. In 2004, however, these reports rose to almost 26 percent of all cases. The greatest increase over last year, in both real and proportional terms, occurred in the areas of unreasonable arrests, detentions, searches/seizures, and interrogations.
Racial profiling by US law enforcement agencies has increased since 9/11 and now affects one in nine Americans, according to an Amnesty International USA (AI-USA) report. State and federal agencies, under the guise of fighting terrorism, have expanded the use of this degrading, discriminatory and dangerous practice, said the AI-USA.
A report released by the California Senate Office of Research last year concluded that Arab Americans and the Muslim minority have taken the brunt of the Patriot Act and other federal powers applied in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks. The report on the impact of Patriot Act, Other Post-9/11 Enforcement Powers and The Impact on California’s Muslim Communities, said that Muslim communities in California found troubling, if not alarming, was the FBI headquarters directive of February 3, 2003, ordering each of the bureau’s 56 regional field offices to base their terrorist investigations on demographic data of Muslim communities. Included in the data for field agents to ascertain were the number of mosques that the FBI could identify in a given area. On Sept. 22, 2004, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill into law that enhances protections for the faith community by explicitly adding “mosque” to the list of religious institutions covered by California's laws protecting religious institutions.
Immigration laws are being used against Muslims as an anti-terrorism tool. Authorities are enforcing minor violations by Muslims and Arabs, while ignoring millions of other immigrants who flout the same laws. "The approach is basically to target the Muslim and Arab community with a kind of zero-tolerance immigration policy. No other community in the U.S. is treated to zero-tolerance enforcement," according to David Cole, a Georgetown University law professor. In a high profile terrorist related case, two Imams and son of one of the Imams were arrested in June this year in Lodi, CA, but no terrorism charges were filed against them. They were deported to Pakistan for violation of immigration law.
Muslims are increasingly the target of a "shoot first and ask questions later" policy by our government. In April this year, two sixteen-year-old Muslim girls - one born in Bangladesh, the other in Guinea - were detained in New York on immigration violations and shipped to a Pennsylvania detention center. The FBI claimed the girls presented "an imminent threat to the security of the United States based upon evidence that they plan to be suicide bombers." After holding the girls for six weeks, the government quietly released the Guinean girl and deported the Bangladeshi girl for visa violation.
Stereotyping and scapegoating Muslims and Islam remain a popular past time for the US media and many religious and political leaders who never miss any opportunity to attack Islam in the name of extremism. Just two examples: In July this year, Colorado Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo calls for a nuclear attack on Islam’s holiest site, Mecca, if there is another terrorist attack on US. A Washington DC radio talk show host repeats "Islam is a terrorist organization" 23 times on his July 25, 2005 program. He also repeatedly said that "the problem is not extremism. The problem is Islam."
Lillian Nakano, a third-generation Japanese American from Hawaii, was right when he said that 1942-style bigotry targets Muslims in the U.S. today. “Muslim Americans became victims of the same kind of stereotyping and scapegoating we faced 63 years ago. They too have become targets of suspicion, hate crimes, vandalism and violence, all in the name of patriotism and national security.”
It is not surprising that a national poll from Cornell University found that almost one in two Americans feel that the U.S. should curtail Muslim-Americans’ civil liberties—such as making them register with the government. The poll result echoes the climate of hysteria that has been whipped up by the Bush administration and fueled by the media. The Cornell survey also found that of the 715 people polled, respondents who classified themselves as highly religious Christians supported limitations on Muslim-Americans significantly more than the respondents who categorized themselves as less religious.
Government crackdown of Muslim charities has caused tremendous fear and anxiety among Muslims, with many fearful that a simple act of charity could lead to federal agents knocking at their door. Since 9/11, millions of dollars in donations have been seized and frozen, leaving Muslims with unfulfilled obligations. Some have found FBI agents at their doors, asking about specific checks they have written. According to the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, the U.S. government has closed down 25 Muslim charities and frozen $8 million in donations in Illinois alone.
In January, Kinder USA suspended its operation as it was targeted for federal investigation. “In the current environment, we cannot in good faith continue to solicit donations when there are no safeguards in place to guarantee that the federal government will not seize these funds and divert them from their intended, legitimate destination,” Kinder USA said.
The federal government has rejected a plea by Muslim groups that wanted a list of pre-approved Islamic charities to which they could donate without being suspected of helping fund terrorism. The case of Dr. Nasar Chaudhry of New York symbolizes the Muslim dilemma. In April this year, his office and home were raided in a federal investigation for making donations to a Muslim charity in 1996.
In March a Chicago bank closed the account of a Bridgeview mosque because the mosque donated $10,000 to the Islamic American Relief Agency that is now under federal scrutiny for allegedly helping terrorists. The mosque made its donations in August and September 2004, before the U.S. government froze the charity's assets and raided its Missouri offices in October. At that time, the Treasury Department alleged the organization was involved in helping terrorist activities.
Muslim organizations were among the first to respond to the relief efforts for the hurricane Katrina victims. Islamic Relief transferred $1 million to an interfaith fund to feed 25,000 persons. Earlier this month, a coalition of major American Islamic groups meeting at the annual convention of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) in Chicago announced a pledge to raise $10 million in humanitarian relief for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. However, they were disappointed to see that not a single Muslim organization was included in the list of charities accepting donations.
The American Muslims have responded to the state of siege with political and social activism, media campaigns, outreach and interfaith dialogue. It is now more proactive as it believes that the best way to protect its eroding civil rights is to become more active politically.
Muslim community played an active role in the 2004 presidential election with dozens of voter registration campaigns, civic education forums and fund raisers. Muslim vote became focus of mainstream media and several presidential candidates addressed their gatherings. Disenchanted by the policies of President George Bush that abridged their civil rights, Muslims on individual as well as organizational level backed the Democratic Presidential candidate, John Kerry, who had pledged to address their grievances.
In a vigorous response to allegations that the American Muslims have not condemned terrorism enough, The Fiqh Council of North America issued a fatwa, or religious edict, in July last saying that Islam condemns terrorism, religious radicalism and the use of violence. The fatwa was later endorsed by more than 200 American Muslim organizations and groups. It was the first time Muslims in North America had issued an anti-terrorism edict, although they had repeatedly condemned such acts of violence. The fatwa had desired result as it was reported widely by mainstream media. The Council on American-Islamic Relations has, meanwhile, launched “Not in the Name of Islam” ad campaign condemning terrorism. However, many in the community were wondering why only Muslims were compelled to issue an edict or ad against terrorism. Neither Christians nor Jews, or people of other faith feel compelled to issue edits declaring their faith’s innocence whenever acts of violence and extremism are carried out by individuals or groups who share their religion.
Besides issuing fatwa and ads, the Muslim organizations have launched interfaith dialogue to remove misconceptions about Islam caused by the growing use of anti-Muslim and anti-Islam rhetoric. There has been tremendous response to Muslim outreach as many individuals, communities and civil right groups responded to their plight. American Civil Rights Union and American Lawyers Guild helped the Muslims called for ‘voluntary’ FBI interviews.
Muslims join the nation in commemorating the 4th anniversary of this ghastly tragedy with an optimism that the state of present anti-Muslim campaign in the name of war on terrorism will subside in due course of time as happened during the Second World War with the Japanese Americans who also endured similar national intolerance, social prejudice and legal injustice.
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