Muslim Reaction

After 9/11 Americans became much more aware of the Muslim minority living in this country.  At the same time, Muslims are reported to have begun questioning their status as an immigrant group.

Initial reaction to detentions was restrained in the Mauritanian community in Louisville, where more than 40 people were arrested and held overnight on September 14.  "I understand why they were arresting our people," Mr. ould Mohamedou said. "They had all those thousands of people dead in the buildings and on the planes. At this time, you cannot expect them to be the good Americans that we are used to them being, respectful of everyone's rights. The country was in a special state. So we did not overreact or protest...continue"

Imad Hamad, regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said . Arab-Americans were feeling increasingly singled out.  "We all share the same concerns about safety and security," Mr. Hamad said. "It's just hard for us to accept this kind of racial profiling, and especially to accept that it could be part of our lives indefinitely."

 

Abe Turaani, special projects coordinator for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said he was starting to hear some people talk about returning to their homelands.   Describing one such conversation, Mr. Turaani said: "I had one man say to me, `Where I come from, this is the norm. Here we are taught democracy and then we see this happening. Maybe I would rather live somewhere where it's predictable and it's the norm....continue.' "

 

In March 2002, it was reported that "an ad hoc group of Muslim civic and religious groups have accused the administration of racial and religious harassment, citing the Justice Department's request that 3,000 Muslims living in the United States submit to voluntary interviews, as well as a series of federal raids last week on homes, businesses and charities in Northern Virginia." 

 

An overflow crowd of Muslim-Americans gathered at the public library in Sterling, a prosperous suburb in the high-tech corridor of Northern Virginia, to discuss the raids. Some women wore hijabs and a few men had the skullcaps and black robes of Muslim religious leaders. Others looked like high school students in their T-shirts and jeans. Many said they had been born in the area or had lived there for years, but felt alienated and uncertain of their rights after people they know and respect came under suspicion.

Speakers repeatedly condemned the tactics of Customs Service agents who conducted the raids, saying that agents forced their way into homes and businesses, sometimes with guns drawn, and rifled belongings. They said people were handcuffed during the searches.

 

Laura Jaghlit, an English teacher whose husband works at an Islamic study center that was a target of the investigation, said she returned to her home in Sterling on Wednesday to find agents interrogating her husband and parts of her house "in complete disarray."  "I can't tell you how sad I am for my country and my people," Ms. Jaghlit said. "As a proud American, I find it hard to take that such violations are being committed."