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AMP Comment - March 15, 2006
How to tackle the rising Islamophobia in US?
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Two polls released on March 9, 2006 indicate that almost half of Americans have a negative perception of Islam and that one in four of those surveyed have extreme anti-Muslim views.
The results of the two polls – conducted by Washington Post-ABC and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) – are not unexpected as anti-Muslim and anti-Islam campaign continues unabated since 9/11 by print and electronic media along with politicians, religious leaders as well as the government policies that have reinforced Islamophobia which may be defined as “alienation, discrimination, harassment and violence rooted in misinformed and stereotyped representations of Islam and its adherents.”
The two polls come at a time of increasingly charged atmosphere: the proposed takeover of six US ports operations by a Dubai firm (now abandoned); the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq with little sign of ending; the election of Hamas in the Palestinian territories; and, above all, the riotous protests across the Muslim world against Danish cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad.
According to the Washington Post-ABC News poll, a growing proportion of Americans are expressing unfavourable views of Islam, and a majority now say that Muslims are disproportionately prone to violence, The proportion of Americans who believe that Islam helps to stoke violence against non-Muslims has more than doubled since the attacks, from 14 percent in January 2002 to 33 percent today, the poll indicated.
The CAIR survey showed that only six percent of Americans have a positive first impression of Islam and Muslims. A majority of the respondents in CAIR's survey said they would change their views about Islam and Muslims if they perceived that: 1) Muslims condemn terrorism more strongly; 2) Muslims show more concern for issues important to ordinary Americans; 3) Muslims worked to improve the status of women, and 4) Muslims work to improve the image of America in the Muslim world.
There can be no two opinions that Americans' attitudes about Islam and Muslims are fuelled mainly by political statements and media reports that focus almost solely on the negative image of Muslims and Islam. Politicians, authors and media commentators are busy in demonising Islam, Muslims and the Arab world since 2001.
American Muslims have responded to the challenge with a massive outreach campaign to remove the negative image. American Muslim groups have repeatedly condemned terrorism of any kind. The (CAIR) "Not in the Name of Islam" public service announcement campaign, a fatwa against terrorism by the North American Muslim religious leaders and an online petition drive rejecting violence in the name of Islam are but a few examples.
However, the latest polls affirm that so far the intensive Muslim outreach campaign has produced little or no positive results. Why? Because there is no ease in the Islamophobia drive by media, some politicians and the establishment. Now Islamophobia is not only more widespread but also considerably more mainstream and respectable. The events of 9/11 were used as an excuse to greatly magnify the hostility toward Muslims in the United States and cloak it in pseudo-patriotism.
The hysteria surrounding the approval of a Dubai firm to manage six American ports demonstrates how Islamophobia was used by some politicians to force the cancellation of a normal business deal. Surely the furore over handing control of some operations at the U.S. ports to an Arab company had more to do with politics than security. Exploiting the security concerns, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) went to the extent to announce in a New Jersey public rally: "We wouldn't transfer the title to the devil; we're not going to transfer it to Dubai."
The intensive outreach has so far failed to make any significant dent in the biased public opinion because the government initiatives that have reshaped public attitudes about racial profiling and created a harsh backlash against the Arabs and Muslims who are the prime targets of the post 9/11 reconfiguration of American laws, policies, and priorities.
What impression fellow Americans get when a Muslim charity is shut down on the alleged links with terrorists? KindHearts is the latest Muslim charity. On February 19, 2006 the Treasury Department froze the assets of and padlocked the West Toledo offices of KindHearts while it probes alleged links between the charity and Hamas terrorists in the Mideast. Under the USA Patriot Act, the U.S. government is authorized to close down a charity while an investigation is going on. The government is under no obligation to reveal the evidence used to justify the seizure of assets and the designation of the charity as a "specially designated national," i.e. a bad guy on the list of suspected terrorists issued by the Treasury Department. Since Sept. 11, 2001, six American Muslim charities have been shuttered in this fashion. The government still doesn't have a single terrorism conviction against any of the employees or board members of any of those charities. Similarly, the government has never been able to document a bona fide trail showing how money from the charity got into the hands of actual terrorists.
Now take the example of high profile arrests and “terror” trials of Muslims. Our fellow Americans only get a negative image from these trials where secrecy prevails. A federal judge in New York issued a highly unusual classified ruling on March 10, 2006, denying a motion for dismissal of a case against two leaders of an Albany mosque who are accused of laundering money in a federal terrorism sting operation. Because the ruling was classified, the defense lawyers were barred from reading why the judge decided that way.
At the same time, radio talk show hosts are busy in spewing out venoms against the Muslims. Los Angeles radio show host Bill Handel even made fun of the deaths of about 360 Muslim pilgrims during the January 12th stampede in Mina, Saudi Arabia. Later Handel apologized for his remarks only under pressure from the Muslim civil rights group. Anti-Islam bigotry remains a popular past time for some public personalities. Even interfaith events are not spared from the hate speech and bigotry as the Idaho State Senator and an organizer of the Idaho State Prayer Breakfast, Dave Baumann, undercut the event’s goal by saying that Islam is a violent religion that espouses killing all Jews and Christians. Consequently, the Muslims boycotted the March 4, 2006 event. In the latest remarks against Islam, televangelist Pat Robertson said on March 13, 2006 that Islam seeks 'world domination,' Islam 'not a religion of peace.'
The troubling results of the Washington Post-ABC and CAIR polls are not surprising in this atmosphere of fear and hatred against the Muslim community created in the name of national security. The CAIR also conducted a survey in 2005 that brought similar results. One wonders what will be the result of a poll next year if media continues an unbiased posture towards the Muslims, perceived threat to national security is being used for political purposes and most of all the government continues its anti-Muslim policies here and abroad.
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