U.S. Mobilizes Forces to Combat Post-Terrorism Discrimination

By Jane A. Morse
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- The intense effort of the U.S. Government to hunt down the terrorists responsible for the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon is being matched by a vigorous program to combat discrimination against Muslims or people of Middle Eastern descent, and people perceived to be members of these groups.

The Department of Justice has instructed the National Origin Working Group within its Civil Rights Division to collect reports of civil rights violations since the September 11 terrorist attacks and refer them to appropriate federal authorities. The National Origin Working Group will also conduct outreach programs to vulnerable communities to educate them about their rights and connect them with government agencies that can assist them.

The U.S. Justice Department, under the leadership of the Attorney General, is tasked with enforcing U.S. laws and ensuring fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans. It provides federal leadership in preventing and controlling crime, seeks just punishment for those guilty of unlawful behavior, and administers and enforces the nation's immigration laws.

U.S. federal laws prohibit discrimination based on a person's national origin, race, color, religion, disability, sex, or familial status.

U.S. laws prohibiting national origin discrimination make it illegal to discriminate because of a person's birthplace, ancestry, culture or language. This means people cannot be denied equal opportunity because they or their family are from another country, because they have a name or accent associated with a national group, because they participate in certain customs associated with a national group, or because they are married to or associate with people of a certain national origin.

A booklet describing these U.S. laws -- "Federal Protections Against National Origin Discrimination" -- is available in Arabic, English and 11 other languages on the Department of Justice's web site (http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/nordwg.html).

Soon after the terrorist attacks of September 11, President George W. Bush acknowledged the important role of Muslims in the United States. With 6 million practitioners, Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the United States and is expected to be the second-largest faith after Christianity by the year 2010.

Speaking at the Islamic Center of Washington, D.C., Bush said that "Muslims make an incredibly valuable contribution to our country," and noted that the United States is "a great country because we share the same values of respect and dignity and human worth."

The president emphasized that Islam is about peace, not terror, and urged that all Americans treat each other with respect.

Nonetheless, the Justice Department has noted that, since September 11, there has been a rise in incidents of bias -- including assaults and vandalism against individuals perceived to be of Middle Eastern origin. These incidents, according to the Justice Department, are targeted primarily at Arab Americans, South Asian Americans, Sikhs, and Muslims.

Attorney General John Ashcroft publicly condemned such acts September 17. At a press briefing he gave at the Washington headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Ashcroft said: "I want to make it very clear: Vigilante attacks and threats against Arab-Americans will not be tolerated."

He added that all Americans "are all saddened by the recent acts of terrorism against our nation," but acts of retaliation "violate federal law and, more particularly, run counter to the very principles of equality and freedom upon which our nation is founded."

FBI Director Robert Mueller, at the same press conference, noted that the FBI and the Department of Justice are committed to "aggressively investigating and prosecuting violations of the federal hate crime laws."

FBI regional offices have established phone "hot lines" so that citizens can report suspected "hate crimes."

A hate crime is defined by the Hate Crimes Statistics Act as "a criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by the offender's bias against a race, religion, disability, ethnic/national origin, or sexual orientation."

In 1999, the latest year for which statistics are available, there were 1411 incidents in the United States that were motivated by some sort of religious bias, according to the FBI. Of that number, only 32 were considered "anti-Islamic."

Since September 11, however, the FBI has already initiated more than 40 hate crime investigations and is working with other elements of the Department of Justice to review all incidents, according to Mueller. He added that the FBI "is reaching out to the leaders of the Arab American community in each of our 56 field offices across the country."

The U.S. Congress was quick to stress the need to protect the civil rights and liberties of all Americans.

On September 15, the House of Representatives passed House Concurrent Resolution 227, which declares "in the quest to identify, bring to justice, and punish the perpetrators and sponsors of the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, that the civil rights and civil liberties of all Americans, including Arab-Americans, American Muslims, and Americans from South Asia, should be protected." The Senate passed the measure on September 26.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., has collected 625 reports of anti-Muslim incidents nationwide since September 24.

But CAIR also reports that expressions of support nationwide have surprised many Muslims. It noted a Los Angeles Times article published September 26 that says: "Reports of ethnic profiling and sporadic attacks on perceived Middle Easterners persist, but Muslims in Southern California say they have been astounded by more numerous reports of restraint and kindness. They see it in the woman who brings roses to her Persian American colleague. They hear it in the reassurance of the auto mechanic who tell his Pakistani customer, 'It's OK' to be named Mohammed...."

Calm persists in Prince George's County, located near Washington, D.C. in Maryland, where police say that there have been no reported incidents of hate crimes against the many Muslims and people of Middle Eastern descent who live there.

Adil Khan, principal for a Muslim school in Lanham in Prince George's County, told The Washington File in an interview that their mosque has about 1,000 members, but no one has reported any sort of harassment so far. He added that the FBI and the Prince George's County Police Department have maintained close contact with the leadership of the Prince George's Muslim Association.

The Prince George's County Police Department, along with some 64 percent of all U.S. law enforcement agencies in United States, practices Community Oriented Policing (COPS). Under this approach to policing, officers are expected to develop a broad knowledge and understanding of the community they serve, as well as close personal contacts with citizens. In American policing, COPS goes considerably beyond simply responding to a steady stream of requests for police service.

In an interview with The Washington File, Gilbert Moore, a spokesman for the national COPS program at the Justice Department, said COPS has not developed any concrete initiatives to deal with the fallout from the September 11 tragedy.

"However, the general principle behind community-oriented policing lends itself well to the issues that law enforcement are dealing with now when it comes to (racial and ethnic) profiling and relations with Muslim Americans," Moore said. Under COPS, he said, trust is built between the citizens and police because "the community has access to the officer and also gets to know the officer.... There's really a working partnership there."

President Bush has worked tirelessly to reassure American Muslims and show American respect for Islam. On September 26 he welcomed American Muslim leaders to the White House and expressed his appreciation for their contributions following the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. President Bush also met with leaders of the American Sikh community at a separate meeting.

The same day, in remarks delivered at the Central Intelligence Agency, Bush said the terrorists who attacked the United States "underestimated America."

"They underestimated our resolve, our determination, our love for freedom," the President said. "They underestimated the compassion of our country."

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)