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Copyright 2006 North Jersey Media Group Inc.,
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A08All Rights Reserved Herald News (Passaic County, NJ) September 11, 2006 Monday All Editions LENGTH: 749 words HEADLINE: Prejudice yields an era of resistance; Arab-Americans focus on guarding civil rights SERIES: Sept. 11: Five Years BYLINE: By SAMANTHA HENRY, Herald News, North Jersey Media Group BODY: Life for many Arab-Americans in the United States especially Muslims has changed forever since Sept. 11, 2001. >From special-registration programs and bias attacks to profiling and detentions, many have been forced to re-examine their place in American society, their religious commitments and their cultural identities. "We are as American as any other Americans, and we were hurt the same way as anyone. But as Arab-Americans, we were victimized and hurt twice," said Hesham Mahmoud of New Jersey's American-Arab Anti Discrimination Committee. "One, as Americans it's our country two, because of the ignorance of some people who blame an entire religion, population or ethnic group because of a few bad apples." The sense of double-victimization was compounded for many immigrants from the Middle East or South Asia who witnessed their home countries become battlegrounds for post-Sept. 11 military actions from terrorist bombings to full-scale military operations. National hate-crime statistics compiled by the FBI show an increase of 1,600 percent in anti-Islamic religious-bias incidents after Sept. 11, compared to the previous year bumping such incidents up from the second-lowest reported among religion-based hate crimes to the second-highest. Also, crimes motivated by ethnic and national origin more than doubled since Sept. 11, according to FBI reports. There were also many Muslims killed in the Sept. 11 attacks among them Zuhtu Ibis of Clifton, a 25-year-old Turkish-born computer programmer. Ibis' parents legal immigrants from Turkey who had lived in New Jersey for nearly 20 years not only lost their son but fell victim to anti-Muslim backlash just weeks after they were notified that their son's partial remains had been identified a day that Zuhtu's younger brother, Mehmet, described as "worse than 9/11" for his family. Mehmet Ibis recounted how his mother, Ayse, wearing a Muslim headscarf, and his father, Ali, who had grown a beard in keeping with cultural mourning customs, were leaving a grocery store near their Clifton home when a man screamed at them from a passing car. "'You terrorists, you freakin' terrorists ... Go back home, go back to your own country.'" Others who suffered the brunt of anti-Arab, anti-Muslim backlash were neither Arab nor Muslim. Sikhs, who wear turbans as part of a religious faith originating in the Punjab region of India, were targeted, and even killed, in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. Rajbir Singh Datta, director of the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, said such incidents continue, citing a current case in an upstate New York high school where a Sikh student is being continually harassed not only by fellow students, but by town officials as well, he said. But Datta said the educational outreach, law-enforcement sensitivity training and cultural-awareness programs his group has conducted since the Sept. 11 raids have lead to some positive changes. "Out of a horrible incident, you always have good things that come of it," he said. "Unfortunately, it took this to give the community a wake-up call and get involved." Amal Elrafei, an office coordinator for the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee or ADC in Clifton, said she's also seen positive changes among Arab-Americans: a newly energized civil-rights movement, and more political involvement. But the ADC continues to receive complaints of Arab-Americans suffering harassment and discrimination, especially in the workplace, she said. Elrafei said she and her children were detained by airport officials and questioned for more than five hours after landing at John F. Kennedy International Airport three weeks ago on their way back from vacation in her native Egypt. Elrafei says she understands that heightened security measures are necessary in the wake of the recent terror plot foiled by Scotland Yard to blow up trans-Atlantic airliners. But she, as an American citizen, was horrified and offended by the treatment her family received at the hands of airport and law-enforcement officials. She said incidents like that make her worry for the future of civil rights, not just for Arab-Americans, but for all Americans, and it motivates her to keep focused on the issue. "I realized that for us, as Americans or Arab-Americans, we need to be more visible and more vocal, and we should start identifying ourselves by ourselves, and not letting anyone do it for us," she said. Reach Samantha Henry at 973-569-7172 or henrys@northjersey.com.
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