•  Special Report: Coping With the Trauma of 9/11 •  Special Report: Teaching Children Not to Hate

The terrorism that struck two American targets left behind a horrified and angry nation. But in the wake of the September 11 attacks, a new domestic threat has emerged. In a country that prides itself on democracy, a minority of self-styled vigilantes are terrorizing Middle Easterners -- and people who simply have dark skin.

Immediately after September 11, Arabs, Sikhs from India, and others mistaken for Middle Easterners were singled out for harassment and, in some cases, murder.

Pakistani grocer Waqar Hasan was gunned down without cause in Pleasant Grove, Texas. Balbir Singh Sodhi, a Sikh, was shot dead outside the gas station he owned in Mesa, Arizona. In San Gabriel, California, the FBI investigated the murder of grocer Adel Karas as a hate crime. And in Gary, Indiana, Hassan Awdah survived a hail of bullets only because he worked behind bulletproof glass.

"I lived in the Middle East for most of my life and have never seen anything like this," Awdah told reporters after a man in a ski mask fired a high-powered assault rifle at the gas station where he worked. A United States citizen, Awdah was born in Yemen.

Although the violence died down in the months after the attack, Middle Eastern immigrants say they now face new harassment, this time, from the US government. In December 2002, male immigrants between 16 and 45 from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Sudan were required to register with the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).

Many say that after they registered, they were detained without cause and subjected to unnecessary cavity searches. In January 2003, immigrants from Afghanistan, North Korea, Algeria, Bahrain, Eritrea, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Somalia, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen were required to register. A month later, the requirement was extended to citizens of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, and Kuwait.

In southern California INS officials detained hundreds of men and boys for several days on suspicion of minor visa violations, actions that were criticized by civil rights advocates.

"This registration program is an extended vacation from common sense," said Dalia Hashad, the American Civil Liberty Union's Arab, Muslim, and South Asian Advocate. "Not only does it undercut core American conceptions of law and basic decency -- it reduces security by alienating the very communities whose cooperation is essential in the fight against terrorism."

While the INS registration program has been suspended, in its place a new immigration rule allows the Department of Homeland Security to subject Middle Eastern immigrants to interrogation whenever it wants.

When the violence first erupted after September 11, outright attacks were common. In a suburb outside of Chicago, a group of about 300 people attempted to march on a mosque, many waving flags and shouting, "USA! USA!"

In the Dallas area, at least three mosques were hit by bullets or homemade firebombs. In Suffolk County, New York, a man tried to run down a Pakistani woman with his car while screaming that he was "doing this for my country." And in San Francisco -- a city with a reputation for promoting diversity -- Arab-Americans and other immigrants have experienced hate crimes and harassment, including beatings, ethnic slurs, and vandalism.

Thirty-five-year-old Iraqi immigrant Saif Ataya received threatening phone calls at his grocery store in an upscale neighborhood in San Francisco. Some just yelled "Arab, go home!" into the receiver, others said more demeaning things. For three days in a row, he painted over anti-Arab graffiti on the front of his store. His daughter was also harassed at school.

"My 5-year-old daughter, she came to me and asked, 'What does it mean, terrorist? The other kids called me a terrorist.' And she was born here," he says.

Ataya, a Muslim, came to this country in 1992 as a refugee fleeing Iraq. "We all believe in peace. We don't believe in retaliation," he says. "This is not the reaction of religious people. You have to believe in peace and humanity, not destroying another human."

Ironically, many of the victims are neither Muslim nor Arab. Vigilantes have targeted Sikhs from India, who are not Muslims or Arabs but who, like Osama Bin Laden, have long beards and wear turbans. In the South of Market district of San Francisco, 26-year-old Australian software engineers Robin Clarke and his friend Sean Fernandes, who is of Indian and Latino descent, were attacked by a group of well-dressed young men outside a nightclub.

"We were crossing the street towards a bar, when we noticed about 10 people -- five guys, with five girls -- all white, cross behind us. Suddenly, one guy jumped on the two of us, simultaneously, punching us and knocking us down," Fernandes told reporter Aseem Chhabra. "[My friend] Robin asked why he was hitting us, and he said, "Because your friend is a f------ Arab and you're a white n----- lover." As more men joined in the fight, Clarke was stabbed with a screwdriver. After being rushed to a hospital in critical condition, he underwent surgery for three hours.

"I feel really bad, because even though I did nothing to cause this to happen, I still feel responsible," said Fernandes, who wanted the perpetrators behind bars. "I was completely shocked that it could happen here."

Worried that the backlash will continue unless communities take action, government, student, and spiritual leaders across the country continue to call for tolerance and have worked to prevent further harassment.

"When I got to school the day after the attack on the World Trade Center, every telephone pole on campus had a sign reading "Kill All Arabs!" or "Shoot an Arab today -- it's open season," said a student of North-African descent who attends San Francisco City College and works at a local YMCA. After tearing down the posters, he says, students on campus began organizing a campus rally and teach-in for peace and nondiscrimination. "It's scary to see this kind of hatred," he says, "but on the other hand, there are so many good people on our side."

Across the country, community and religious leaders have held interfaith services and memorials in churches, temples, college classrooms, and even street corners to bring people of all faiths together.

"We don't care where you were born, whether it's the Mission District [of San Francisco] or the Middle East," said California Governor Gray Davis at an interfaith vigil attended by thousands at San Francisco's Civic Center on September 17, 2001. "We are one people. And Americans do not scapegoat and retaliate against other Americans." Many Sikhs and Muslims in traditional dress stood beside people in jeans and business suits, all applauding Davis's words and waving small American flags.

In the same week, President Bush issued a special plea to the American people, and he later visited a mosque in Washington, DC "We must be mindful that as we seek to win the war that we treat Arab-Americans and Muslims with the respect they deserve," he declared.

Experts say it's normal to feel rage and anger after an attack. "The root of this anger is people's demand for justice, and that's right and healthy," says Marvin Wingfield, director of education and outreach for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) in Washington, DC "But justice can never be served by attacking innocent people who had nothing to do with these horrors." Many other community leaders and politicians have condemned the evil and cowardice of vigilante attacks.

At the vigil in San Francisco, nearly 3,000 people of Asian, African-American, Jewish, Latino, Arab, and European ancestry held hands, burned candles, and bowed their heads in prayer. Islamic speakers stressed that Muslims in the United States were also horrified and grief-stricken by the terrorist attacks. In fact, many victims of the World Trade Center collapse were Arab Americans, as are many of the rescue workers.

Some attacks can be attributed to bigotry among "unstable individuals," Wingfield says, meaning the kind of people already guilty of hate crimes against various groups in the United States. Wingfield suspects other incidents may be perpetrated by ordinary people who simply feel overwhelmed by the tragedy, and want to strike back at someone they believe is responsible.

"The logical mind, the rational mind cannot encompass this, because no logical person could do this," said Amatullah Almarwani, the executive secretary at the Islamic Society of San Francisco. Not that it's justified, but partly, she says, the instances of hatred may stem from fear of the unknown. Arab-Americans, she says, "have been very isolated in this society," Almarwani says. "Most people think we're different, we're strange, we're from another planet." Since the Islamic community has been making its members available for media interviews, the attacks have diminished, she says.

Wingfield agrees that media exposure and people continuing to speak out against hate are the best weapons against bigotry.

"This is a very teachable moment," he says. Many community leaders around the country are organizing educational events on Arab and Muslim culture, politics, and history. Others, like the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, are declaring their cities and districts "hate-free zones."

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a nonprofit organization that fights racism and anti-Semitism, has long called on individuals to speak out against slurs or jokes that target people or groups. "Silence sends a message that you are in agreement. It is not enough to refuse to laugh," according the ADL's guidelines on 101 Ways to Combat Prejudice. "Avoid making stereotypical remarks and challenge those made by others."

The organization encourages communities to establish a Human Rights Commission if they don't already have one, to sponsor a "Walk Against Hate," to declare their town a hate-free zone, and to suggest that the local newspaper devote part of its editorial page to a regular opinion piece about the dangers of discrimination and prejudice.

In the aftermath of the attacks, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and the Southern Poverty Law Center (based in Montgomery, Alabama) have redoubled their efforts to convince parents and teachers to teach tolerance. Many parents have probably already talked with their kids about the 9/11 attack to reassure them that they are safe. Given the extent of the current backlash, however, spiritual and religious leaders say parents should also make sure to broach the subject of tolerance with children and to point out the dangers of racism.

Parents of Arab or Muslim children -- or kids who could be mistaken for Arabs or Muslims -- should be aware that their children may fear being harassed by other children or adults. Rather than wait for kids to come home in tears because they've been hit, bullied, or called an ugly name, parents should talk to their children about what they may experience at school, according to the ADC. It's also helpful to explain that US government leaders have urged the American people not to blame Arab-American and Muslim communities for the attacks.

Parents should also find out what kinds of programs their child's school has organized to deal with the tragedy. School officials have made counseling available to students and organized special classroom activities to help them cope. If your child's school hasn't organized these activities and resources, see our advice for educators below.

The ADL has tips for talking to kids about tolerance and diversity, as does the Southern Poverty Law Center. For more information about teaching your children tolerance, see "Teaching Children Not to Hate."

Schools have not been exempt from these acts of harassment and violence. In New Orleans, for example, the Jefferson Parish public school system was forced to close down due to attacks on Arab and Muslim students. Other incidents of harassment across the country involved school-age children shouting racist slurs at fellow Arab and Muslim students.

Officials at the ADC, which has also received menacing threats, say teachers are key to calming the backlash. Educators can teach tolerance in the days to come in three ways, Wingfield says:

•Go public. School officials, university presidents and deans, and student government leaders should issue public statements -- in school assemblies, for example -- that innocent people should not be blamed for the acts of others. They should discipline students for all physical assaults, harassment, and insults targeting Arabs and Muslims.

•Organize teach-ins. Schools and universities can set up discussion groups and forums to give students a chance to express their views, make clear what kinds of responses are inappropriate, and teach students about Islam and the Arab world. Be sure to invite members of the Arab-American and Muslim communities to participate. (The ADC can assist in providing speakers and films.)

•Provide counseling for students. Schools and universities should make counseling available to all students who may wish to discuss their more personal and private concerns.

The Southern Poverty Law Center's "Teaching Tolerance" is a 17-year-old program that helps elementary and high-school teachers promote tolerance in the classroom and learn how to respond to hate crimes. Janel Bell, the director of communications for the center's Teaching Tolerance campaign when the 9/11 attacks occured, hopes more teachers will use the lesson plans and activities.

"Hate crimes are born of anger, fear, and misunderstanding," Bell says. The classroom is one of the best places to counteract many of the misconceptions that lead children to adopt stereotypes and mistaken ideas about the world, she says.

In the meantime, people continue to take precautions. Recently, Ataya has closed his San Francisco grocery store early for fear that vandals would attack again.

With a wife and two small children, Ataya has become so worried that he organized his important documents and gave copies to friends. He is convinced that his family will be sent away to an internment camp, like Japanese Americans were after the attack on Pearl Harbor. And yet, despite his fears, he is also encouraged by the enormous outpouring of support from his customers and other business owners in the surrounding neighborhood.

"A couple of days ago, the neighborhood signed a petition in support. They gave it to us, and we put in the window. I even found flowers in front of the store, which makes me feel good. But still we have fear," he says. "If one person in 1,000 is bad, there's still fear."

Although media interviews and speeches against bigotry have helped, Almarwani says that for her, the hatred is still palpable. "I don't think there's been a second [in the past week] where I didn't say to myself, 'We're in trouble.' But I do believe that underneath the anger and frustration, Americans have open hearts and open minds."

-- Paige Bierma is a health and medical writer based in San Francisco. CHI editors Elaine Herscher and Psyche Pascual contributed to this report.

The following resources on the Internet are especially helpful for teachers who would like to incorporate discussion of tolerance into their lessons:

•"Who Are the Arab-Americans?" This article from the Southern Poverty Law Center's Teaching Tolerance Web site provides activity ideas to challenge students' misperceptions about people of Arab descent.

•You may also want to use the center's special fact sheets about Arab-Americans and Islam.

•"Small Steps: A Tolerance Program" helps students examine how racial slurs and stereotypes advance bigotry and lead to violence, or even genocide.

•"A Pilgrimage to Atlanta" describes how one educator introduced her class of predominantly Jewish and Christian students to Islam during an unforgettable trip to a mosque in Atlanta.

•In "Arab-American Students in Public Schools," Wendy Schwartz of Columbia University provides a useful summary of techniques that educators can use to create a welcoming environment for Arab students .

•The Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University is a valuable resource for cultural information about the Arab World. "Who are the Arabs?" by Steve Tamari is a helpful primer on the diversity of contemporary Arab society. Activities and additional resources are included.

•"World Issues: Whose Side Are We/They On?" helps students understand how stereotypes and misperceptions foster division between different cultures .

•Discovery.com's "Understanding Stereotypes" includes classroom activities to help students understand how assumptions about different cultures create stereotypes and unfair judgments, and how these biases affect our lives.

Further Resources

American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC)
4201 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 300
Washington, DC 20008
202/244-2990
Email: adc@adc.org
http://www.adc.org

Anti-Defamation League (ADL)
823 United Nations Plaza
New York, NY 10017
212/490-2525
http://www.adl.org

Southern Poverty Law Center
400 Washington Avenue
Montgomery, Alabama 36104
334/956-8200
http://www.splcenter.com

U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
This government agency has established a hotline to report incidents of harassment or violence against Arabs or Muslims in the United States: 800/552-6843
http://www.usccr.gov

References

Last updated February 16, 2009
Copyright © 2001 Consumer Health Interactive

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