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Islam in
America: 9/11 and the Muslim civil rights campaign
by Ameen Izzadeen
(Deputy Editor The Sunday Times and Daily Mirror-Sri Lanka)
In 2003 Ameen Izzadeen spent nearly a month in the United States
as a guest of the US State Department. This is part one of a series of
observations penned after his visit.
As an outside observer Mr. Izzadeens insights are both enlightening and squarely
on the mark. Mr. Izzadeen addresses the concerns of Post 9-11 Muslims in
America and the campaign to vilify the American Muslims. We present
the series in its entirety.
Islam in
America(P-4)
9/11 and the Muslim civil rights campaign
Friday, October 24th 2003
Rahma Salie, a Sri Lankan Muslim, was
a passenger on American Airlines #11 that crashed into the North Tower. She was
traveling with her husband Michael (a convert to Islam) to attend a friend’s
wedding in California.
Rahma was seven-months pregnant with
their first child. According to
the London-based Independent (October
11, 2001), Rahma's name was
initially put on an FBI watch list,
because her "Muslim-sounding" name was on the passenger manifest, and her
travel patterns were similar to those of the hijackers (she was a computer
consultant living in Boston). Although her name was eventually removed from the
list, several of her family members were barred from taking flights to her
memorial service. Her mother, Haleema, said, "I would like everyone to know that
she was a Muslim, she is a Muslim and we are
victims too, of this tragic incident." -
http://www.islam.about.com/
Along with Rahma, hundreds of Muslims
- according to some statistics, about 600 - perished on September 11 when 19
terrorists, who were purportedly Muslims, hijacked four planes and attacked New
York and Washington. By using the phrase 'purportedly Muslims', I wish to convey
two points: First, Islam, as preached by Prophet Muhammad, does not condone the
killing of non-combatants. The Quran says the killing of one innocent person is
like the killing of all humanity. Secondly, my cynical mind refuses to reject
various conspiracy
theories, which talk about
masterminds other than Al-Qaeda. Whatever the truth, the fact remains that the
Muslims in America paid a bloody price on that day and still continue to pay.
They were killed by the terrorists but are now being hounded by racists who
believe every Muslim is a terrorist or a terrorist sympathizer, courtesy a
section of the US media - like Fox, which many Muslims say, is anti-Islam. It
appears that no sooner the attack took place; the Muslims became a target - a
target of attack and suspicion. Take, for instance, the case of 23-year-old
medical student Salman Hamdani, who was also a New York City police cadet and
part-time ambulance driver. This is what www.Islam.about.com had to say about
his fate:
"When he disappeared on September 11,
law enforcement officials came to his family, seeking him for questioning in
relation to the terrorist attacks. They allegedly believed he was somehow
involved. His whereabouts were undetermined for over six months, until his
remains were finally identified. He was found near the North Tower, with his
medical bag beside him, presumably doing everything he could to help those in
need. His family could finally rest, knowing that he died the hero they always
knew him to be."
A target of attack and a target of
suspicion, the Muslims in America were forced to go into their shell in the
immediate aftermath of 9/11. In some instances, Sikhs were mistaken for Muslims
and attacked or killed. The Imam of a mosque in New Jersey, after lying low for
a week in the aftermath of the attack, went to a nearby store for coffee. He was
taunted by some passers-by who yelled at him, saying "Hey bin Laden".
But I must stress here, the attacks
were isolated incidents committed by a handful of people - a misguided minority,
as some American Muslims magnanimously call them. A large number of Americans,
Muslims in America say, are good people who provided them protection, food and
shelter when many Muslims feared to venture out after the attack.
In Tulsa, Oklahoma, once white racist
Ku Klux Klan stronghold, we met Sheryl Siddiqui, a community worker and
prominent member of the Islamic Society of Tulsa. She is an American of European
descent (the racist term 'White American' is avoided here) and converted to
Islam in her youth. When we asked her to describe the fear psychosis that
prevailed among the Muslims in the aftermath of 9/11, she said some Muslims of
Pakistani or Indian origin were attacked and the Muslim school was closed for
several days, but she also paid a glowing tribute to a large number of Tulsa
citizens who sent food and comforted their Muslim neighbors who feared to
venture out. She also had many generous words for the Tulsa police who were
prompt in providing security to Muslims and their mosques and schools.
In Washington, we met Baheeja
Abdussalam, an Afro-American Muslim who is a powerful voice in the American
Society of Muslims of Imam W. Deen Muhammad and ex-co member of the Inter-faith
Conference of Metropolitan Washington. She said that on 9/11 she attended to her
chores as usual and encountered no problems. But these two Muslim women admitted
that their "sisters and brothers" of Asian and Middle Eastern origin faced
unpleasant experiences. In Washington, we had a discussion with Nihad Awad,
executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, an organization
that is fighting for Muslim rights in the United States. While we were at the
CAIR office, he had to cut short his discussion to
attend to an urgent matter. He told us that he had just been informed that a
mosque in Savannah, Georgia, had been destroyed by a suspicious fire, which the
FBI believed was an act of arson.
CAIR has been carrying out a campaign
- a campaign that has been intensified in the aftermath of 9/11 - against
alleged harassment of Muslims not only by racists but also by government
institutions such as the Justice Department, the FBI and local law enforcement
authorities. Its annual reports make a shocking indictment on the state of
Muslims in America and affirm its resolve to fight injustice whether it is
institutional or ad-hoc.
According to CAIR's 2003 annual
report appropriately titled "The Status of Muslim Civil Rights in the United
States" Guilt by Association", complaints received by CAIR have increased by 64
percent after 9/11 while FBI's 2002 report says that hate crimes against
Muslims had increased from 28 in 2000 to 481 in 2002 - a 1,600 percent
increase.
The CAIR report notes that in the
first few days after 9/11, government officials, including President George W.
Bush, made it a point to reach out to the Muslim community.
"Islam is a peaceful religion," said
President Bush in spite of his slip-of-the-tongue remark about a "crusade"
against terrorism. US officials whom we met said the President, who later
retracted the word, had used it not in its historical sense but in a semantic
sense to mean a determined effort to achieve a just goal - the elimination of
terrorism. "For instance, we often refer to campaigns against
crime or poverty as crusades," said
one official, who dismissed allegations that the Bush administration was
anti-Islam. Despite the President’s kind words for Islam, CAIR says that since
the initial period of support from the administration, a number of government
policies have singled out Muslims and Muslim organizations.
CAIR says the government action and
recent anti-terrorism legislation such as the USA Patriot Act of 2001 violate
the First, Fourth and the Sixth Amendments to the US Constitution. Muslims in
America are beginning to realize that they have no choice but to become more
active in defending their civil and religious rights. The irony is that while
American Muslims in their struggle cling to and revive the spirit and the basic
principles on which the founding fathers of the United States framed the
constitution, there are signs that a small but powerful segment of the Bush
administration is trying to make the country a police state.
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