*EPF418 12/12/2002
U.S. Government Fights Hate Crimes in September 11 Aftermath
(American Muslim Spokesman Concerned over Discrimination, Defamation) (1120)

By Stephen Kaufman
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington ���� On November 25, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reported that during 2001 hate crimes against Muslims and those of Middle Eastern and South Asian ethnicity surged dramatically in the weeks following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

The FBI's 2001 Uniform Crime Reporting Program's Hate Crime Statistics said anti-Islamic incidents, "previously the second least reported, ����became the second highest reported among religious-bias incidents," with a total of 481 episodes, second only to anti-Jewish incidents which totaled 1043.

The statistics showed that of the roughly 9700 total hate crimes reported for 2001, anti-religious incidents comprised 19 percent. Crimes motivated by a bias against ethnicity or national origin (including Arabs, South Asians, and Hispanics) made up 22 percent, while incidents against racial groups (such as African-Americans, Whites, and Asians) accounted for almost half of all reported hate crimes.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), an incident against a person or the person's property, such as physical assault or vandalism, is considered a hate crime if it is motivated at least in part by bias. Evidence such as slurs or other hate speech can be used by law enforcement as evidence to support a hate crimes charge.

In the United States, violent crimes are normally prosecuted at the state or local level, but
when it appears a crime is motivated by bias, federal prosecutors from DOJ become involved. The federal government's involvement not only brings in vast resources and personnel to help bring a perpetrator to justice, but, according to a Justice official, it also sends a strong signal that the crime is seen by the government as an attack on an entire group rather than just one individual, making the crime exceptionally heinous.

Hussein Ibish, communications director for the Arab-American Anti Discrimination Committee (ADC) said the general performance of the federal, state and local authorities against crimes directed against Arabs and Muslims since September 11, 2001 "has been excellent." Ibish praised the authorities for conducting "vigorous" investigations and prosecutions.

"This is the first time ����in living memory that we see federal agencies like the FBI and the Justice Department taking hate crimes, threats and the like against Arab-Americans as seriously as we would have wanted them to," he said.

"I think there's more that could be done, but I do think ����in most cases, where possible threats of violence or targets are identifiable, protections have been provided. There have been numerous cases where local police and others have stepped in to protect mosques, Islamic centers, shops, and others from vandalism, from potential problems," said Ibish.

Jorge Martinez, a DOJ spokesman, said the department's Civil Rights Division set up a National Origin Working Group specifically to prosecute crimes that occurred in the September 11 backlash and other crimes believed motivated by the victim's national origin. The working group was also directed to reach out to ethnic and community organizations to educate potentially vulnerable individuals, he said.

As part of its outreach, the National Origin Working Group has conducted seminars in several large cities across the United States in order to educate Arab-Americans and American Muslims on how to protect their individual rights.

These educational seminars discuss topics such as "what are backlash crimes or threats, what are an individuals rights under the law, what are some of the resources the federal government provides for those who are victims of violence or threat," said Martinez. "They also talk about how to file a complaint with authorities."

Ibish praised government activities such as the seminars, saying they have helped to "forge better links between the authorities and the community."

"[T]he authorities are to be commended for their attempts to be proactive. And also I think the kind of outreach we've seen has really been commendable and it has been, I believe, effective," said Ibish.

As part of its outreach, DOJ has also created a website showing how a victim of a hate crime can file a claim (http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/nordwg.html), as well as an Internet document in Arabic which explains an individuals' legal rights (http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/legalinfo/natlorg-ar.pdf).

But now, according to ADC's Ibish, Arab and Muslim Americans are no longer as concerned about facing violence as a backlash to the attacks.

"I don't think people feel physically threatened anymore by their fellow citizens," he said. "I think they did for a few weeks, but since then I don't think that's really been an issue across the board."

Indeed, the FBI's data shows that after the first two months following the terrorist attacks, violent hate crimes against Arab and Muslim Americans more or less returned to pre-September 11 levels. A DOJ official attributed the quick drop in crimes in part to the fact that the Bush Administration treated hate crimes cases very seriously, and that many political and local leaders, from President George Bush on down, spoke out to condemn them.

Ibish said the communities are now more worried about how they are perceived by their fellow citizens, and whether issues such as immigration and employment discrimination, or defamatory statements against the Islamic faith by several prominent American Christian leaders will be tolerated by the wider American public.

The ADC communications director said that according to the federal government's Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), there has been "about a four-fold increase" in the rate of employment discrimination against Arab and Muslim Americans.

The Justice Department has committed some of its own resources to combat job discrimination. According to Jorge Martinez, DOJ's Office of Special Council has been "very effective in investigating and prosecuting employers who discriminate on this National Origin and Citizenship Status matter."

"It's another asset we have in trying to combat these types of discriminations and/or crimes against people because of their national origin," he said.

In countering defamation, the Muslim community received help on November 13 when President Bush repudiated anti-Islamic rhetoric made by conservative Christian leaders. Ibish praised Bush's remarks as well as his visits to Washington's Islamic Center as "enormously helpful," but called upon more Americans to follow his example.

"I think [Bush] has done a great deal, and I don't see how we could really fault him given how upfront he's been on this. But I think there's more to be done by society, generally, in not accepting this sort of discrimination, this sort of defamation," said Ibish, arguing that the public should make "the political costs of such rhetorical violence of this defamation prohibitive."

Ibish said ADC will release its report on anti-Muslim and anti-Arab hate crimes early in 2003. He said the report would cover the thirteen month period between the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and October 11, 2002, and would incorporate data supplied to the organization by individuals who had chosen not to pursue hate crimes cases in a lawsuit.

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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