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September 11, 2007
American Muslims six years after 9/11
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
- A Muslim bus passenger en route to Chicago is put off with his bags in Toledo after he told the driver he is from Iraq. (Detroit Free Press – June 12, 2007)
- Dearborn offices of two Muslim charities - Al-Mabarrat Charitable Organization and Goodwill Charitable Organization – are raided. (Detroit Free Press – July 24, 2007)
- A mosque in Rochester (New York) has been vandalized for the three times this year. (Associated Press - May 30)
These recent episodes symbolize the dilemma of American Muslims in the post-9/11 America. Six years after the terrorist attacks, American Muslims remain under siege with institutionalized profiling, discrimination, high profile trials, raid on Muslim charities and defaming of mainstream Muslim organizations. Muslim Americans have experienced a large volume of negative reprisals from sectors of the American public in the form of violent hate crimes, defamatory speech, attacks on hijab-wearing Muslim women and discrimination and harassment at work place. American Muslims were shocked to find their bank accounts closed for no other reason but because of their faith.
There is a rising tide of Islamaphobia, intensified by the war in Iraq and U.S. government measures at home. Americans' attitudes about Islam and Muslims are fuelled mainly by political statements and media reports that focus almost solely on the negative image of Islam and Muslims. The vilification of Islam and Muslims has been relentless among segments of the media and political classes since 9/11. Politicians, authors and media commentators are busy in demonizing Islam, Muslims and the Muslim world. Six years after 9/11 attacking Islam and Muslims remains the fashionable sport for the radio, television and print media. Unfortunately, the events of 9/11 were used as an excuse to greatly magnify the hostility toward Muslims and cloak it in pseudo-patriotism. Alarmingly, Muslim-bashing has become socially acceptable in the United States.
Six year after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, American Muslims and Arabs continue to suffer a severe wave of backlash violence. The hate crimes included murder, beatings, arson, attacks on mosques, shootings, vehicular assaults and verbal threats. Tucson, Arizona, mosque vandalized twice within a span of two months. Another Arizona mosque was attacked with acid bomb. A mosque in Rochester in New York has been vandalized for three times this year. A Muslim home was torched by arsonists in Florida. Surely those involved in such hate crimes were motivated by evangelists, some politicians and anti-Muslim elements in the media.
There is a substantial increase in law enforcement discrimination against American Muslims which was causing delay in citizenship process for Arab-sounding immigrants. Several national human rights organizations have joined hands to help litigate these citizenship delay cases to ensure that the legal rights of all people are protected. According to immigrant advocates hundreds - if not thousands - of men with Arabic-sounding or Muslim names were experiencing endless delays in what should be the pro forma final step of the citizenship application process. More than 40 lawyers filed lawsuits in federal courts, requesting that a judge step in and force U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to complete the stalled naturalization cases. In response, CIS decided it will stop interviewing people whose FBI background checks have not cleared.
In the post-9/11 America, Muslims are witnessing a smear campaign against their prominent Muslim civil rights groups. Established Muslim organizations such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) are being targeted. In an unusual move, prosecutors publicly named 307 individuals and organizations as "unindicted co-conspirators" (UCCs) relating to the Holy Land Foundation charity that was shut down in December 2001. Among those listed are three major American Muslim organizations: the Islamic Society of North America, the North American Islamic Trust and the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Collectively, these groups represent the interests and viewpoints of the mainstream American Muslim community. Media and anti-Muslim groups are seizing this as an opportunity to defame these organizations.
Six years after 9/11, Muslim charity organizations remain under pressure. Two Muslim charities were closed in Dearborn, Michiga on July 24, the day trial of the largest Muslim charity, The Holy Land Foundation (HLF), began in Dallas. The HLF was being tried on suspicion of tieswith the Palestinian militant group Hamas while the two Michigan charities - the Goodwill Charitable Organization and Al-Mabarrat Charitable Organization were suspected of having ties to extremist groups in Lebanon. Just like the Holy Land, assets of the two Michigan charities have been frozen.
A continuing stream of high-profile trials on terrorism charges, the allegations usually don’t hold up in the end, continue to keep the American public afraid. However, a Justice Department audit report pointed out that federal prosecutors counted immigration violations, marriage fraud and drug trafficking among anti-terror cases in the four years after 9/11 despite no evidence linking them to terror activity. In February, Muhammad Salah, a Chicago businessman, and Abdelhallen Ashqar, a Virginia professor, accused of furnishing money and fresh recruits to the militant Palestinian group Hamas were acquitted by a Chicago jury of racketeering.
In another high profile “terrorism” trial case, a federal judge in June extended the contempt citation against Dr. Sami al-Arian, a former Florida professor who has refused to testify in the investigation into whether Islamic charities in Northern Virginia were financing “terrorist” organizations. Though a Florida jury acquitted him or deadlocked on all counts in 2005, the Feds kept him in prison.
What is the long-term impact on Muslims of the post 9/11 configuration of laws and government policies. Two reports best reflect on this phenomena. A new study by Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights, "Voices from Silence," finds that even six years after 9/11, without exception, all of the people interviewed had either directly experienced some kind of discriminatory or hostile act after 9/11 or knew of people who had. A report by the USA Today pointed out that the Arab Muslims who came to Dearborn, Michigan, eight decades ago to work on Henry Ford's new assembly line believed their American future was limitless but after six years on the home front in America's war on terrorism, many of their descendants are hunkering down, covering up and staying put.No wonder, the study of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs found that six years after the 9/11 attacks, US Muslims remain "largely outside the US mainstream."
Read full article:
http://www.amperspective.com/html/after_six_years.html
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