bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
=== News Update ===
http://www.antara.co.id/en/seenws/?id=19358
US Muslims plagued by discrimination after 9/11 attacks
Dearborn, Michigan (ANTARA News) - Discrimination and harassment by law enforcement have come to plague American Muslims in the years since the terrorist attacks of September 11.There have been suspicious looks, slurs, physical attacks, extra screening at airports and arrests on groundless charges.
And it seems to be getting worse.
A recent Gallup poll showed that 39 percent of Americans admit to being prejudiced against Muslims and that nearly a quarter say they would not want a Muslim for a neighbor.
"Most Americans don't know Muslims except for those they work with in an urban environment so all the information they get is through the media," Dawud Walid, director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American
Islamic Relations, was quoted by AFP as saying.
After having shown some restraint in his rhetoric after 19 Muslim men affiliated with Al-Qaeda flew planes into the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon, President George W. Bush has of late been using far more inflammatory language such as 'Islamofacists,' Walid said.
"When the religious and political leaders use polarizing language these are the unfortunate side effects. It stretches from the likes of (Christian Coalition leader) Pat Robinson all the way up to President Bush."
CAIR has seen a steady increase in the number of complaints of harassment, violence and discriminatory treatment over the past five years. In 2004, complaints rose 49 percent to 1,522, of which 141 were reports of actual and potentially violent hate crimes.
It appears that those numbers will continue to rise in 2005 and 2006, Walid said.
Osama Abulhassan, 20, registered one after he spent a week in jail on terrorism charges last month. He was arrested for buying pre-paid cell phones in a small town in the midwestern state of Ohio with his friend Ali Houssaiky.
Both were born in the United States to Lebanese immigrants.
"I couldn't believe they would charge us for something like that," he said over a Halal chicken sandwich. "For a week straight we were asking what are we doing here and realizing it could happen to anybody."
Dressed in an Air Jordan T-shirt and Puma baseball cap, Abulhassan looks like any other college student. But his name has evoked gasps when he is called onto the basketball court for a game and he has grown used to suspicious looks as he walks down the street.
He never expected to be sitting in a jail cell and seeing his mug shot on the national news interspersed with images of bombings in Iraq.
"This didn't need to happen. It was all very unwarranted," he said of the charges that were eventually dropped.
"We're still proud to be Americans and of our heritage, but you experience something like that it's going to change the way you see things," he explained.
"It makes us feel, not hatred... I've lost confidence in the justice system in general and the way things are done here."
At the Islamic Center of America, Imam Sayed Hassan Al-Qazwini sorts through his hate mail. After five years, the virulence still shocks him.
"I hope all you and your swine people die. Go home towel head," one reads.
"After seeing the sinister rise of Islamofascism over the last several years I am now dedicating my life as a Christian to do whatever it takes to cleanse the world of islam (sic) and hopefully convert its sad and misguided followers," reads another.
Slipping into a police state
But more disturbing than the e-mails are the actions of the Bush administration and law enforcement.
"I see that the United States is slipping into being a police state, at least to us Muslims," he said as he recounts incident after incident that have affected the members Dearborn's large Muslim and Arab communities.
The cell phone arrests. The mosque board member who was handcuffed by border guards. His own six-hour detention after he took a wrong turn and ended up on the bridge to Canada.
"There is a saying, those who sacrifice liberty for the sake of security -- they deserve neither one," he said. "If a moderate Muslim leader speaks with so much disappointment and dismay and is giving up on American ideals, this tells you what other American Muslims feel." (*)
COPYRIGHT © 2006 ANTARA
September 3, 2006
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