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Comment Sept. 11, 2003
American Muslims two years after 9/11 tragedy
Two years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Muslim community in America, victim of guilt by association, remains under siege. Profiled, harassed, reviled, attacked, peeped at by the CIA and the FBI, interrogated and permanently controlled at airports, the whole community felt excluded of American society. After the Japanese attack on the Pearl Harbor, more than 110,000 Japanese Americans on the West Coast were imprisoned in 10 relocation camps in the United States. But after 9/11 2001, the whole country is converted into a virtual detention camp for the Muslims by abridging their civil rights.
A report released on Sept. 4 by three federal advisory committees - the Virginia, Maryland and D.C. advisory committees to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights - said some tactics used in the government's war on terrorism pose threats to civil liberties, citing "racial profiling, searches, interrogations, detentions, deportations and violent raids on homes and businesses." Hate crimes and discrimination have had a severe impact on Arab Americans, Muslims, and South Asians in the Washington area in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to the report.
Defending civil rights has been the single most important challenge before the seven million-strong American Muslim community as the consequences of the 9/11 tragic terrorist attacks continue to unfold. The erosion of civil rights came in the form of various programs and legislations such as the USA Patriot Act, which effectively nullifies Amendments 4, 5, 6, and 8 directly and indirectly amendments 1 and 9 and the INS Special Registration which targeted men from Muslim countries.
The American Muslim Political Coordination Council (AMPCC), an umbrella organization that includes four major groups, has decided to make civil rights a top issue in any endorsement of a presidential candidate in next year’s elections and launch an intensive drive to register one million Muslim voters. Leaders of four organizations - the American Muslim Alliance, the American Muslim Council, the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Muslim Public Affairs Council - who met at the sidelines of the ISNA Convention at the Labor Day weekend in Chicago, declared: “We are challenged by the after effects of 9/11, erosion of civil rights, and the general tone of anti-Muslim sentiment emanating from Washington D.C. and some elements in the media.” AMPCC was instrumental in delivering a bloc Muslim vote in favor of President Bush in 2000 elections.
A range of anti-Muslim issues and events have challenged the American Muslims everyday life in the past two years and forced Muslims to do some soul-searching and reach out to the community-at-large. Now American Muslims are re-emerging in more active, visible, involved roles in society. Some are teaching classes on Islam to non-Muslims, while others organize voter registration drives or speak out against laws like the USA Patriot Act and its discriminatory anti-terrorism provisions. Most of all, many have moved beyond the fear and isolation they experienced shortly after the attacks to reclaim a place in this country. Muslim groups have held town hall meetings with the FBI, conducted sensitivity training for local police departments, and held rallies and public seminars on the Patriot Act.
American Muslim Voice, a newly established California-based organization has made building bridges with other communities and organizations in order to seek wide support in its drive to protect and defend civil liberties. Islamic Society of North America invited moderate and liberal Protestant leaders to address their 40th convention in Chicago. After the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001, attacking Islam and Muslims became the fashionable sport for the radio, television and print media as well as Christian right. The Rev. Bob Edgar, head of the National Council of Churches, which represents thousands of mainline Protestant and Orthodox Christian congregations, condemned the "hate speech" of conservative Christian leaders who condemn Islam. The Rev. Daniel Vestal of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, which represents moderate Southern Baptists, told the audience that not all Baptists agree with recent statements by evangelicals "demeaning Islam….We desire understanding, community and common cause."
In short, the American Muslim community has responded to the post 9/11 development with political activism and outreach to other communities, groups and organizations. However, the community faces a daunting task of defending their civil liberties because the government has sanctioned institutionalized racism against its own citizens. As Gray Orfield, Co-Director of the Civil Rights Project of Harvard University, said: “The history of the United State is that rights are not given, they are won and they must always be defended.”
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