Being moslim in America

Anti-Muslim incidents in the United States increased three-fold over the previous year - up from 366 validated reports in 2001 to 1125 this year - according to a report released today by a prominent Islamic advocacy group.

The only national study of its kind also shows that almost 60,000 American Muslims have been negatively impacted by U.S. government policies since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations' (CAIR) seventh annual study, titled "Stereotypes and Civil Liberties," outlines 1516 reports of denial of religious accommodation, harassment, discrimination, bias, threat, assault, and even several murders. That figure represents more than 2,200 individuals targeted because of actual or perceived religion and ethnicity. The majority of violent incidents occurred in the period immediately following the September 11 attacks. If post 9-11 backlash incidents are eliminated from the count, the remaining reports (525) still show a 43 percent increase over the 2001 study.

In addition to the direct acts of discrimination and violence, the report shows that the civil rights of almost 60,000 American Muslims were negatively impacted by government policies instituted following the 9-11 attacks. Those affected include some 1,200 Muslims who were detained nationwide, mostly on immigration charges, but who were treated as if they were terrorists, 5,000 legal visa-holders who were asked to submit to "voluntary" interrogations and an estimated 50,000 individuals who donated to American Muslim relief agencies shut down by the government.

"Muslims, like all Americans, support policies that result in genuine increases in security. Unfortunately, many of the government actions prompted by 9-11, particularly those based on ethnic and religious profiling or stereotypes, merely create a false sense of security and preclude effective initiatives," said CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad.

"Now is the time for the judiciary to step in and reaffirm the constitutionally-protected rights that all Americans hold dear," said Awad. Awad added that Muslims were among the victims of the September 11 attacks, they died rescuing other victims and they died in the anti-Muslim hysteria that followed the attacks.

CAIR issued its first civil rights report, called "A Rush to Judgment," within a month of the 1995 attack on the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma.

The report was released against the background of more anti-Muslim harassment. At Dulles International Airport on Sunday, flight crews told of 11 Pakistanis acting suspiciously as their flight was delayed by inclement weather.

Then in Houston, four Saudi men on the way back to Washington were detained because they had no luggage. In Philadelphia, a half-dozen passengers of Middle Eastern descent had bought one-way tickets to Orlando with cash.

Although none of the incidents was particularly alarming by itself, the unusual number of incidents on the same day prompted FBI and airline security officials to delay flights, pull passengers from airplanes and run checks of other passengers to ensure that a hijacking was not in the works.

Also over the weekend, FBI officials in Baltimore were asked to check the names of seven Middle Eastern men flying to Dallas. Three Saudi men were pulled off a Delta flight at Dulles on Saturday for questioning.

Mohamed Nimer, research director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said most of the discrimination cases reported to the council involve "outright prejudice."

"There's no other way to put it," Nimer said. "Some people are not comfortable flying in an airplane that has people of Middle Eastern, Arab or Muslim backgrounds."

Managers at the Whirlpool Corp. plant in La Vergne entered restrooms to ensure that Muslim workers were not praying and yanked scarves off women's heads, workers at the factory claim in a religion discrimination lawsuit.

Sixteen current and former workers of the refrigerator and air-conditioning factory in Rutherford County filed the suit this week, seeking $310,000 in damages and a court order forcing the company to ''reasonably accommodate'' the workers' religious practices, as required by law.

Tom Kline, a spokesman at Whirlpool's corporate headquarters in Benton Harbor, Mich., would not comment on the lawsuit, saying, ''We do have a policy of not discussing the specific lawsuits that are in progress.''

A Washington, D.C., Muslim civil rights group is assisting the workers, most of whom are Somali immigrants and Nashville residents.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations has heard complaints from workers at the Whirlpool plant for the past five years, spokeswoman Hodan Hassan said.

''We tried to mediate with Whirlpool but, again, received a letter saying they wouldn't deal with us, only the EEOC,'' she said, referring to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which hears complaints about workplace discrimination.

The experience of former worker Siyad Dahir was the impetus for the suit this week, Hassan said. She said Dahir was fired in March last year when she spoke to supervisors about allowing breaks for prayer. Muslim religious practice calls for prayer five times per day.

Dahir was not available for comment yesterday.

Dahir's experience was chronicled in a report describing alleged anti-Muslim incidents nationwide that was released by Hassan's group Tuesday, the day after the lawsuit was filed. Anti-Muslim incidents have increased threefold in the past year, the report states.

The group has created a legal defense fund to help people alleging civil rights violations since Sept. 11, but that will not be used in this case. Lawyers are handling it on a contingency-fee basis, Hassan said.

Hassan said that complaints about anti-Muslim incidents in the La Vergne factory had predated the terrorist attacks.

In 1998, the organization first tried to mediate a dispute between plant managers and Muslim employees but was turned down by the company, she said.

That's a year before published reports described the company's newly launched English as a Second Language program for workers, who now number about 2,000. In 1997, the plant was recognized by the Tennessee Labor Conference for its efforts at promoting labor harmony.

The company also reportedly instituted religious-sensitivity training and began serving more chicken and non-meat entrees in its cafeteria because most practicing Muslims do not eat pork.

More than half of Whirlpool's 60,000 workers worldwide do not have a North American cultural background, Kline said.

arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)