The days and weeks following September 11 have been difficult for all Americans. The affect on American Muslims was felt doubly hard. Not only did they mourn the unspeakable attacks against the Pentagon and the World Trade Center and the massive loss of life, but also endured the vicious backlash against their communities. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Washington-based Islamic advocacy group, has received well over a thousand reports of incidents against American Muslims that include harassment, discrimination, threats, hate mail, ethnic slurs, vandalism, shootings, including several deaths. And while hate crimes have for the most part tapered off, the climate of distrust and suspicion toward American Muslims remains.
There have been many incidents of employment discrimination, tensions in schools and on college campuses, and law enforcement profiling. And with the enactment of the USA Patriot Act in response to September 11 many serious civil liberties concerns have been raised which directly effect American Muslims/Arabs and immigrants from Arab and Muslim countries. These concerns will no doubt continue to be heavily debated inside and outside of the courts far into 2002.
In the months since the September 11 tragedy there has also been an increase in the occurrence of racial and religious profiling in American airports. Passengers who “look” Arab or Middle Eastern have been removed from flights because passengers and crew felt they were a threat to security. Republican Congressman Darell Issa, the grandson of Lebanese immigrants (a Christian), was not allowed to board his flight because of his last name.
One case that has generated a lot of media attention was the removal of an Arab-American Secret Service agent from an American Airlines flight on Christmas Day. The case is currently under investigation, but President Bush has said that he would be “madder than heck” if the incident was in fact the result of ethnic profiling. When asked again about the case on Monday Bush said the Secret Service agent was an “honorable fellow” and he restated that he would “be plenty hot. That means angry” if a government inquiry found the agent was mistreated because of his ethnicity. According to CAIR's civil rights department there have been more than 170 reports of airport profiling of Muslims or those who "look Middle Eastern" since the terrorist attacks of September 11.
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