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AMP Report - December 4, 2008
Arab Americans continue to face discrimination
Arab Americans continue to face higher rates of employment discrimination in both the public and private sectors and continuing challenges associated with government watch lists, immigration enforcement and other actions, according to the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) “Report on Hate Crimes and Discrimination Against Arab Americans” announced on December 4, 2008.
The report was announced at a press conference in Washington by Lieutenant Colonel Lance Koury, a long-time member of the Alabama National Guard who for years has been subjected to a hostile and abusive work environment. Lt. Col Koury also told his story in public for the first-time during the press conference.
The ADC said that in simply announcing the release of this report, ADC’s Communications Director received a number of hate email messages. One such message read, “Why do we not hear of these "hate crimes." NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN all are in the pockets of the politically correct. Why not ONE news story? Could it be an overly sensitive Arab population who really doesn't give a damn about the U.S.S. Cole, 9/11/2001, Khobar Towers? If you folks are so "hated" here why not go back to your own kind? Simple solution and I seriously doubt you'd be missed in this, the greatest of all countries.”
The report spanning four years (2003-2007) examines: hate crimes and discrimination; civil liberties concerns; discrimination and bias in primary and secondary educational institutions; discrimination and political harassment campaigns in higher education; defamation in the media; communication and cooperation between community organizations and government agencies.
The ADC received an average of 120 to 130 reports of ethnically motivated attacks or threats each year between 2003 and 2007, a sharp decrease from the 700 violent incidents it documented in the weeks following the 2001 terrorist attacks. But that figure is still higher than the 80 to 90 reports it received in the late 1990s.
Discrimination at airports based on stereotyping, over-zealousness or prejudice by airline personnel or even other passengers is now one of the main sources of discrimination facing Arab-American air travelers. Arab-American travelers face serious issues with border crossing detentions and delays, especially on the U.S.-Canada border.
Arab-American students continue to face significant problems with discrimination and harassment in schools around the country. Arab-American students and faculty have faced increased levels of discrimination and political harassment campaigns, especially involving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and efforts by right-wing groups to stifle debate on U.S. foreign policy in academia.
Defamation in popular culture and the media remains a very serious problem facing the Arab-American community. In spite of a far better record from the film and television industry in 2003-2007, defamation spread wildly in the non-fiction world of television, magazines, radio, newspapers and websites. A campaign of relentless vilification against Muslims and Islam has been the single biggest contributor to the collapse in American public opinion of Islam during this period.
The report clearly points out that “Islamophobia” and “anti-Muslim intolerance” is on the rise in the United States and highlights the mushrooming of the so-called “terrorism expert” as a cottage industry with the Arab and Muslim-American communities often in its crosshairs.
Civil liberties concerns remain serious, including some aspects of the discourse on a homegrown terrorist threat, the reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act, aspects of the REAL ID Act, secret evidence provisions, warrantless wiretapping and elements of immigration reform, among other issues.
Lt. Col. Khory’s story
While unveiling the ADC study, Lt. Col. Lance Koury of the Alabama National Guard shared his story of a hostile and abusive work environment he suffered for years.
He said: “I have directly witnessed and have provided names of corroborative witnesses concerning untoward behavior and discriminatory language used against various minorities and especially Arabs and Muslims. My initial Verbal...complaints to the chain of command within the Alabama National Guard were ignored and dismissed as inconsequential. It was this dismissive attitude that prompted me, beginning in 2007, to make a formal written complaint.
“I am a full time civilian Federal Employee working within the Alabama National Guard. As part of my job requirement I am also an active member of the Army National Guard… where I serve as a Helicopter pilot and have qualifications as an instructor pilot.
“Because of the interconnected relationship and the multiple chains of command that I either... serve or report to... I wrote letters to both my Guard components and elements of the Active Duty chain that included the Secretary of the Army.
“In regards to the discrimination that I witnessed …I informed much of the Army hierarchy... to include: the Adjutant General of the Alabama National Guard, the Honorable Secretary of the Army, and the Chief of National Guard Bureau. In August 2007 I formalized my complaint with a letter addressed to the Army Secretary.
“The intolerance that I have come to observe involves general disrespect involving minorities within the Guard and vocalized prejudice and hatred against Muslims and Arabs. This issue extends beyond the National Guard or the National Guard Technician Program.”
ADC recommendations to the government
-It is imperative that the government continues to resist calls for racial or religious profiling, and recognize that counter-terrorism policies based on stigmatizing broad identity groups have failed, and will not provide reliable security in the future.
-Terrorism watch and “no fly” lists should be consolidated and rationalized between all agencies and kept to a manageable size. Effective mechanisms for challenging inclusion or distinguishing between persons supposed to be included as opposed to those with similar names, as well as efficient processes allowing persons routinely falsely caught up with these lists, should be instituted to avoid unnecessary problems.
-United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) should create a civil rights office or a similar wing to deal with complaints and concerns, similar to that of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and the government should make every effort to explain customs and border procedures to the public whenever appropriate.
-The government should avoid any form of preventative detention, which has no place in the American legal system.
-All relevant agencies need to take steps to ensure that unnecessary naturalization and immigration status adjustment petitions are not unnecessarily delayed; an issue that has seen improvement in the latter half of 2008.
-In considering any potential homegrown terrorist threat, Congress and executive branch agencies should take every effort to avoid stigmatizing entire communities and avoid the mistakes born out of some local law enforcement agencies; most notoriously the New York City Police Department (NYPD).
-Congress should also act to preserve civil liberties by repealing sections of the USA PATRIOT Act, curbing executive branch excesses such as warrantless wiretapping, and by ensuring that measures such as comprehensive immigration reform and immigration law enforcement generally do not violate the fundamental rights of any individual or are used as a pretext to detaining individuals.
-The leaders of both parties in Congress should ensure that members of the House and Senate do not make bigoted or stereotyping remarks without censure or disciplinary action, whether formal or informal.
-Since this would be the single most positive step that the United States could take in promoting better relations with the Arab world and reversing the alienation between Arab and American societies, American foreign policy should prioritize resolving the conflict in the Middle East by at long last ending the Israeli occupation and establishing a Palestinian state to live alongside Israel in peace and by appropriately resolving the occupation of Iraq taking into consideration the humanitarian disaster that occupation has generated.
ADC recommendations to schools and universities
-Secondary and primary schools around the country should ensure that Arab-American students are not subject to any discrimination, abuse or harassment based on their ethnicity and that Arab culture or Islam is not the subject of disparaging or biased characterizations by faculty or in the curricula.
-Universities should protect faculty, especially untenured professors, from politically motivated campaigns of harassment and should resist outside efforts to interfere with tenure and promotion processes plainly designed to enforce political orthodoxy and stifle academic freedom and dissent.
ADC recommendations to the media
-The entertainment industry should make every effort to continue the pattern of more balanced representations of Arabs and Muslims in American popular culture since the 9/11 terrorist attacks took place, and not revert to the unbalanced ethnic stereotyping that characterized earlier decades.
-The news media and publishers should employ a single standard of basic respect for all identity groups and communities regarding commentary that promotes racism, ethnic or religious intolerance and stereotyping. Censorship is unacceptable, but respectable news outlets properly draw limits on the kind of expression they deliberately invite for inclusion in public debates and quite appropriately maintain standards regarding fundamental propriety. Arab Americans and American Muslims should be treated with the same level of respect and decency as all other communities, within the context of a society that properly chooses to maximize the range of free speech. Needless to say, government should play no role in defining these standards and practices.
ADC recommendations to the Arab-American community
-Arab-American organizations and government agencies should continue to explore all available mechanisms for dialogue and cooperation whenever appropriate.
-Arab Americans should redouble their efforts to organize themselves as a community and engage the political system of our country at every level, both individually and as a collective.
-Arab Americans should expand their efforts at building coalitions with like-minded communities and organizations on all major issues of concern.
-Arab Americans, while vigilant in fighting stereotyping and discrimination, should be sensitive to and vehemently reject any extremism that may emerge from fringe elements within the community.
-Arab American parents should encourage their children to pursue professions in government service and the media if they are so inclined.
-Arab Americans should passionately promote public service within the community, and emphasize that they are proud and enthusiastic Americans when communicating with our fellow citizens.
The Arab American population is estimated at about 3.5 million, slightly more than one percent of the US population.
[Source: ADC]
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