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ADC Fact Sheet: The Condition of Arab Americans Post-9/11
Washington, DC, March 27, 2002 – Following the appalling September 11 attacks on the United States, the Arab-American community has experienced an unprecedented backlash in the form of hate crimes, various forms of dis-crimination, and serious civil liberties concerns. This fact sheet from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) is intended to outline in the broadest terms the experiences and concerns of the Arab-American community during the past six months.
Hate Crimes:
 | ADC has compiled a report (due to be released at the end of April) summarizing over 600 violent incidents directed against Arab Americans or those perceived to be such (including Sikhs, South Asians and Latinos). These are defined as acts of physical violence (examples include vandalism, arson, beat ings and assault with weapons). Also included are direct threats of specific acts of violence, such as bomb threats and hostile phone calls. Not all cases have been confirmed as hate crimes. |
Discrimination:
| Airline Racism—ADC has received over 60 cases in which passengers, both men and women, perceived to be Arab have been expelled from an aircraft during or after boarding on the grounds that passengers or crew do not like the way they look. ADC has also received dozens of complaints from passengers subjected to extreme security measures, such as women wearing the hijab, or religious head scarf, being made to remove it in public, even after passing through security without incident.
| | Employment Discrimination—ADC has confirmed over several hundred cases of employment discrimination against Arab Americans, or those perceived to be Arab, since Sept. 11, including hostile work environments and numerous terminations. ADC has filed all complaints with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).Law Enforcement Profiling—ADC has received numerous reports involving Arab Americans being searched and questioned by police for no apparent reason.
| | Tensions in Schools—ADC has received 45 cases of violent incidents directed towards Arab-American students in grade schools and universities. These include beatings, harassment, threats and anti-Arab vandalism. ADC also has received 13 complaints of harassment or bias at the hands of school faculty, such as principals, educators and school boards.Discriminatory Service or Denial of Service—ADC has confirmed 23 cases in which Arab-American customers were discriminated against or denied service entirely. |
Civil Liberties Concerns:
Serious concerns about civil liberties in the United States, especially for Arab Americans and immigrants from the Arab and Muslim worlds, have been raised by the USA Patriot Act, a number of new Administration policies, and aspects of the investigation into the attacks of September 11. These provisions of the USA Patriot Act raise serious concerns regarding civil rights and liberties, especially as regards to due process, and undermine the separation of powers and the system of checks and balances between the branches of the Federal Government. With regard to the USA Patriot Act, there are three principle areas of concern:
| The Act provides the government with sweeping new powers to detain non-citizens indefinitely with little or no due process at the discretion of the Attorney General.
| | The law also permits the government to conduct searches, seizures and surveillance with reduced stan-dards of cause and levels of judicial review, although these elements will expire in four years unless re-approved by Congress.
| | The law contains elements that could be construed as embodying guilt by association, in effect criminalizing many kinds of otherwise lawful contacts with groups that engage in any form of politically motivated violence, sabotage or vandalism. The Act is only part of an increasingly alarming series of measures that could lay the groundwork for an all-out assault on civil liberties in the United States. Others include:
| | A presidential directive allowing the government to try certain non-citizens accused of terrorism-related charges in military tribunals rather than civilian courts, bypassing all legal and constitution rights.
| | Rules allowing the government to eavesdrop on attorney-client communications for certain detainees, rendering assistance of counsel ineffective and interfering with a suspect's ability to mount an effective defense.
| | Plans for authorities to interview an additional 3,000 young Arab men based solely on their gender, national origin, and time of entry into the United States. This smacks of racial profiling. Nearly half of the originally targeted 5,000 men were contacted by investigators in the first wave. To date, none of the individuals interviewed were able to offer any information on the September 11 attacks. All information divulged in these "voluntary interviews" is now being entered into a federal law enforcement database.
| | Procedures for increased scrutiny of visa applications based on gender, age and national origin, also aimed at young Arab men. These last two measures suggest that the government is stigmatizing young Arab men as potentially dangerous by definition.
| | The government is attempting to use foreign student advisors in colleges and universities to investigate international students, and turn these advisors into an arm of law enforcement.
| | ADC considers the government's refusal to cooperate with a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from the ACLU, ADC and other organizations, for the basic facts about the individuals being detained after the September 11 attacks troubling. ADC has received a number of complaints regarding the investigation involving arbitrary and extended detention, denial of counsel and prisoners being held incommunicado. The FOIA law suit, which is currently pending, seeks to obtain information from the government regarding these individuals and the conditions surrounding their detention. |
These serious civil liberties concerns should be alarming to all Americans, but there can be little doubt that it is the Arab-American and Muslim communities who are facing the gravest threats to their rights and that these communi-ties will bear the brunt of any major diminution of civil liberties in the United States.
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