A Virtual Siege?
When
Muslims stoke the ire of the West, it
is American-Muslims that suffer retribution.
As well as the illegally detained in
Guantanamo, Bagram and Abu-Ghraib, where
torture increases.
A Washington Post-ABC poll conducted
in early March reveals that a growing
proportion of Americans are expressing
unfavorable views of Islam, and a majority
now says that Muslims are disproportionately
prone to violence. The poll found that
nearly half of Americans -- 46 percent
-- have a negative view of Islam, seven
percentage points higher than in the
tense months after the Sept. 11, 2001,
attacks on the World Trade Center and
the Pentagon, when Muslims were often
targeted for violence.
Polls lend credence to personal experience,
though they are necessarily sterile,
for being a victim of hate is an altogether
different ballgame. Prior to 9/11, the
average American knew little about Islam
and Muslims, now they seem to know all
the wrong things. The Washington Post-ABC
poll reports that “conservative
and liberal experts said Americans'
attitudes about Islam are fueled in
part by political statements and media
reports that focus almost solely on
the actions of Muslim extremists”.
Brown or people with Muslim sounding
names cannot be easily targeted for
they may as well be Hispanic or biracial.
It is the obvious Muslim, the hijab
wearing woman that endures the hate-filled
looks and road rage. As though 9/11
were not enough to tarnish Muslims forever,
the violent protests during the cartoon
controversy essentially seal negative
perceptions. Especially when the media
and vested political interests cheer
on the vilification campaign.
And it all even came to my town, Toledo
Ohio in February. KindHearts a charity
that did wonderful work in the Pakistan
earthquake as well was padlocked and
seized on the premise that it was funneling
money to Hamas. The premise of innocent
until proven guilty has been reversed,
and even if KindHearts after investigation
is found to be not guilty, its life
is over. Well said by a Toledo Blade
columnist that they closed the charity
on suspicion, not proof and before a
run through the legal system.
Within two days of that closure three
men, ages 22, 24 and 46, one Egyptian-American
and two Jordanian-Americans were arrested
on charges of conspiring to kill American
forces in Iraq as well as President
Bush. Bilal, also dubbed “The
Trainer”, an ex-Marine and a supposed
revert to Islam, was apparently the
informant to the government about the
three men. The arrested 22-year-old
worked at a travel agency and wanted
to help Bilal with questions he supposedly
had about Islam.
The domestic spying program of the US
government is alive and well. Even though
FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
Act) courts gave rapid approval of surveillance
warrants, the Bush administration thumbed
its nose at the courts and spied on
its citizens. According to some reports
1500 individuals at any given time are
spied on by Big Brother. Google showed
gumption and refused to turn over names
doing what the government deemed “suspicious
searches”.
The Republican-led Senate Intelligence
Committee does not have that courage
or conscience, for it rejected a proposal
by Democrat Senator Jay Rockefeller
to investigate the Bush administration’s
domestic spying program. So the National
Security Agency shall continue to monitor
phone conversations and emails between
people in America and suspected terrorists
abroad without court approval.
The American Civil Liberties Union has
filed suit against the government, terming
the NSA’s domestic spying program
as illegal and unconstitutional.
The wheels of justice turn slowly; numerous
lives will have been destroyed in the
interim. One of the three Toledo residents
that have been arrested on suspicion
of terrorism is the father of seven
young children, and the mother barely
speaks English. When the media swooped
down on the Toledo Muslim community,
its leaders did the “hot potato”
thing: “We do not know who these
people are; they did not come to our
mosques”. Photographs of these
community leaders at the time epitomize
fear and the state of siege that Muslims
are in. Factually, all the three worshipped
at local mosques, the wife of one was
a teacher’s assistant at a local
Muslim school.
Local imams persuaded people to help
the families of the men arrested with
statements like “their children
are not guilty”, but within Muslim
families husbands forbade their wives
to go anywhere close to the house with
the seven children. High horses and
chest thumping aside, one cannot blame
the Muslim leaders or the people. Concerned
friends and family tell me directly
and indirectly to “tone down”
my writing, for they fear the FBI knock
on the door and yet again the “guilty
until proven innocent” premise
that is the current rage. I write unabated,
based on not having anything to hide
as well as the “que sera sera”
theory. Most classify this as being
cavalier, and there is now a further
withdrawal of American-Muslims into
the cocoon of minimal participation.
Attendance at Friday and Sunday services
at local mosques has visibly declined.
In March 2003 I wrote an article titled
“Is the internment of Muslim-Americans
looming ahead?” drawing a parallel
between the conditions during World
War II and now. After Japan bombed Pearl
Harbor the FBI detained 2107 Japanese-Americans
and classified them as “dangerous
enemy aliens”. In another article
in September 2004 “From 1984 to
the Gulag”, I tried to illustrate
how from an Orwellian state America
was headed to its Guantanamo version
of the Siberian Gulag (Alexander Solzhenitsyn
got the Nobel Prize for The Gulag Archipelago).
I would much rather have been labeled
histrionic than right.
The US government made Florida professor
Dr. Sami Al-Arian’s arrest and
two-year detention a telling lesson
to American-Muslims who might try to
speak out. In 2003 after an appearance
on the ultra-right TV talk show of Bill
O’Reilly, Al-Arian was arrested
and placed in inhuman jail conditions
for two years. Only recently, in December
2005, he was acquitted of charges of
funneling money to the Hamas, though
he remains in custody pending deliberation
on the other charges.
Brandon Mayfield a Colorado lawyer and
revert to Islam was charged with conspiracy
in the Spain train bombings, imprisoned
for several months, tried and acquitted.
Captain James Yee a Muslim chaplain
in Guantanamo Bay was charged with espionage
and held in solitary confinement for
76 days, tried, acquitted and given
an honorable discharge. The lives of
Al-Arian, Mayfield and Yee have been
incalculably damaged.
The National Security Agency’s
domestic surveillance program has Muslims
in essentially virtual internment. World
events like the cartoon controversy
pummel away at the remnant of freedom
that American-Muslims have. To me, that
is being under siege.
Protestant Pastor Martin Niemoller,
a harsh critic of the Nazis, was twice
imprisoned for protesting Hitler’s
policies. He famously said “First
they came for the Communists, but I
was not a Communist so I did not speak
out. Then they came for the Trade Unionists,
but I was not a Trade Unionist so I
did not speak out. Then they came for
the Jews, but I was not a Jew so I did
not speak out. And when they came for
me, there was no one left to speak out
for me.”
Is it now the Muslims’ turn?
(Mahjabeen Islam is a physician and
freelance columnist living in Toledo
Ohio. Her email is mahjabeenislam@hotmail.com)
