Briefing on Civil Rights Issues Facing Muslims and Arab Americans in Ohio Post-September 11

Before the Ohio Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights

November 14, 2001

Executive Summary

The September 11 terrorist attacks profoundly changed the lives of many Americans. For those of Middle Eastern descent or appearance, September 11 ushered in fear of reprisal and concern for personal safety. Some Muslims, Arab Americans, and Southeast Asians have paid a high price for sharing a similar appearance or cultural and religious background of the accused terrorists. In the months after the attacks, reports of harassment and assaults against these groups soared; as did complaints of workplace bias and allegations of racial profiling by law enforcement and airline personnel. Civil liberties concerns have heightened as the new war on terrorism progresses and the related legislation and government policies are implemented. It is against this backdrop, and two months after the attacks, that the Ohio Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights held a briefing to gather information on civil rights issues facing Muslims and Arab Americans in Ohio post-September 11.

The Ohio Advisory Committee’s November 14 briefing was the first of many events scheduled by the Commission’s state advisory committees to examine local civil rights issues in the aftermath of September 11 and supplement the Commission’s national focus on the topic. Speaking before the Committee were representatives from the Ohio chapters of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), and a professor from the University of Toledo College of Law. Panelists from ADC and CAIR discussed harassment and hate crimes against Muslims and Arab Americans in Ohio triggered by September 11 and how their organizations were responding to these acts. The focus of the university professor’s presentation was racial profiling.

The ADC and CAIR have both seen an upsurge in civil rights-related complaints since September 11. In what ADC has called an “unprecedented backlash,” retaliatory acts against Arab Americans—or those perceived to be—have included hate crimes, ranging from simple assaults and battery, to arson, aggravated assault, and murder; various forms of discrimination, particularly employment based; and allegedly civil liberties infringements. In the two months after the attacks, CAIR’s Ohio office had received 126 complaints, according to Jad Humeidan, the chapter’s executive director. The surge in complaints, he said, has presented an “overwhelming challenge” to the nonprofit organization, which, unlike ADC, does not pursue legal action but instead only mediates complaints. About 40 percent of the complaints, he added, entail “overt” acts of aggression, including assaults and property damage. The remaining have been “tacit,” often involving employment or public accommodations, or relate to questioning by FBI officials.

Ohio has been the scene of some high-profile “overt” cases. One of the most widely reported incidents concerned vandalism of Cleveland’s Grand Islamic Mosque, the largest Islamic center in the state. On September 17, a 29-year-old man rammed his car through the front entrance of the mosque, causing at least $100,000 in damages. CAIR, Mr. Humeidan noted, began a fund-raising campaign to pay for repairs. Other cases reported to CAIR-Ohio, he said, include the beating of a taxi driver and that of a Middle Eastern family whose house was set on fire when their neighbors tossed a Molotov cocktail bomb through a window. Panelist Amal Wahdan of ADC described other retaliatory acts. In the days after the terrorist attacks, she said, five Arab-owned stores in Cleveland were sprayed with red paint, a Sikh temple in suburban Cleveland was pummeled with lighted gasoline bottles, and a store owner in downtown Cleveland was shot at by a passing car.

The mere threat of backlash has caused some Arab Americans to make life-altering decisions. Panelists reported that Muslim women are afraid to wear the hijab, the traditional headscarf that symbolizes their faith. Marwan Hilal, vice president of ADC’s Cleveland chapter, said, “You either take it off or stay home under house arrest, because you are scared, generally scared of going out and being either intimidated or possibly hurt.” At Ohio State University, 300 foreign students packed their bags and went home in the days after the attacks, fearing FBI questioning and suspicion by their classmates, according to Mr. Humeidan.

In addition to hostility from fellow citizens, Arab Americans have had to adjust to new government policies and airline practices initiated in response to September 11. News accounts of Middle Eastern-looking passengers being expelled from airplanes and the FBI rounding up Arab American men abounded after the attacks. In the Columbus area alone, Mr. Humeidan said, more than 100 people had been questioned by the FBI in its effort to track down terrorists. Although some anti-terrorism measures have drawn the ire of civil libertarians, Dr. Hilal noted that overall ADC supports the measures, provided they are carried out in a nondiscriminatory manner. “Somebody who’s three days late in their visitors visa cannot be labeled as a terrorist suspect immediately. Somebody who shares obvious Arabic names with some of the terrorists on the airplanes should not be subject to immediate discrimination,” she said.

Amid the war on terrorism have been allegations of racial profiling. Airport security officials, for example, have been accused of singling out Arab Americans for more intrusive inspection. David Harris, professor of law and values at the University of Toledo, acknowledged that September 11 provided “the strongest possible case in favor of profiling” because the suspected terrorists were all Muslims, Arabs, and from the Middle East. However, he said, statistics show that racial profiling simply does not work. Traditional policing, which focuses on suspicious behavior and other indicators, is more effective than pinpointing suspects based on race. He noted a memo from senior intelligence officials that said any profile based on immutable characteristics draws an investigator’s attention (and resources) toward too many innocent people and away from too many dangerous ones. “The bitter truth is we don’t know what the next group of terrorists will look like or where they will come from. If we simply track everybody with visas from Syria or Libya we will not get Mohammad Atta, who came in from Germany,” he said. Furthermore, unnecessarily treating certain populations like suspects breeds distrust and alienates them from law enforcement efforts, making it difficult for investigators to obtain their future help.

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and the Council on American-Islamic Relations have worked to protect the rights of Arab Americans and Muslims in light of the anti-terrorism measures and to stem backlash against these groups. Both organizations have tracked civil rights complaints arising from September 11, and because misconceptions have fueled anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bias, they have expanded their education efforts.

As the largest Arab American grassroots organization in the United States, ADC has been at the forefront of preserving the rights of Arab Americans and combating bias through advocacy, education, and legal action. A primary mission of the ADC is to ensure that Arab Americans are treated equally under the law—a task made more difficult by anti-terrorism measures that seem to implicate Arab Americans more than any other group. Educating people about Arab Americans has been another focus of ADC’s work. Through neighborhood meetings, appearances on radio and television programs, and speaking engagements at schools and civic organizations, ADC representatives have tried to dispel negative stereotypes of Arab Americans and, in Dr. Hilal’s words, show that the people who committed “those atrocities and those unthinkable crimes are renegade Arabs and Muslims [who] hardly represent Arabs or Muslims in their actions.”

CAIR was established in 1996 to “promote a positive image of Muslims in America.” CAIR-Ohio, one of the organization’s 12 chapters, first responded to September 11 by distributing a pamphlet to area Muslims describing actions to take if they became victims of hate crime or discrimination. Like ADC, CAIR posted a form on its Web site for reporting bias incidents. Education, Mr. Humeidan said, has been a focal point of CAIR’s activities because misconceptions about Muslims are rampant. After the terrorist attacks, the council set up a speakers bureau, whose members have lectured at numerous schools, churches, and civic organizations. Presentations typically include what Mr. Humeidan calls an “Islam 101” component that describes the tenets of Islam; discussion on the Koran’s condemnation of suicide and murder; video clips showing how the media sometimes propagates misconceptions; and a 45-minute question-and-answer session.

The full transcript of the Ohio Advisory Committee’s briefing follows. Because the briefing focused on civil rights implications of September 11, examples of the support Arabs and Muslims received from their fellow Americans after the attacks are few. But in the transcript are the panelists’ detailed accounts of the ignominious side of post-September 11 and efforts to combat retaliation. Panelists also discuss frequent misconceptions about Muslims and Islam and the media’s role in fueling misconceptions. They discuss the importance of preserving the constitutional rights of Arab Americans in what appears will be a long war on terrorism.