New York Pakistanis

Excerpt from "Pakistani Areas of New York City, A Lingering Fear"

    Written by Marjorie Valbrun and Ann Davis

    Published in Wall Street Journal, November 13, 2002

Hate crimes emerge from fear, anger, the human need to blame others for troubles or to retaliate, and from misunderstanding. Hate crimes are violent attacks against a person or group because of their race, ethnicity, religion, or gender. Following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C., anti-Arab and anti-Muslim prejudice in America ran at an extremely heightened state. Followers of the Islamic religion are called Muslims. Mosques (Muslim places of worship), Islamic centers, and Arab American organization offices were vandalized, bombed, and set on fire. Several Arab-looking Americans were gunned down and killed. Arab American children, although born in the United States and therefore, U.S. citizens, were harassed by classmates.

"Before, it was like freedom, no worries … I used to go out at night with my cousins [in Florida] as late as midnight. After Sept. 11, we never went out."

The stereotype that all Arabs or Muslims were terrorists started in America long before September 11, 2001. A broad public hostility of Americans toward Arab Americans developed in 1973 with the Arab-Israeli war, known as the Yom Kippur War (1973–74). The resulting Arab oil embargo (a government order preventing commercial ships from leaving ports with certain goods) imposed against the United States because of U.S. support for Israel caused gasoline prices to skyrocket in the United States throughout 1974. Long lines of angry people formed at any gas station open and pumping. The gas pumping would seemingly end arbitrarily (without logic or reason) at different stations, leaving the next in line who had often waited an hour or more furious. Although Arab Americans had nothing to do with and no responsibility for the situation, Americans turned their anger towards them.

At the end of the decade in 1979, Shiite (one branch of Islam) Muslims led by Ruhollah Khomeini (1900–1989) overthrew the U.S.-friendly Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi (1919–1980), and took control of Iran. The American embassy in Iran was stormed on November 4, 1979, and sixty-six Americans were taken as hostages. The hostage situation dragged on for 444 days, ending on January 20, 1981, the day newly elected U.S. president Ronald Reagan (1911–2004; served 1981–89) was sworn into office. On television, Americans watched nightly the faces of Iranians as they marched in Tehran's (capital of Iran) streets with fists raised, endlessly shouting hate-filled words against America. Violent hate crimes against Arabs and Muslims in the United States dramatically increased. The exact reason for the release of hostages on that date has never been precisely determined though it may be related to the fact that U.S. president Jimmy Carter (1924–; served 1977–81) against whom the Iranians had developed much hate for his support of the Shah in exile was now out of office. It could also be that they were unsure what Reagan might do in response to the hostage crisis, perhaps attempt to use more force than Carter had.

When the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was bombed on April 19, 1995, killing 168 people, most Americans assumed Arab terrorists were at work. It was two days before U.S. officials announced foreign terrorists were not at fault. Further inflaming American sentiment were two airline hijackings (forcible takeovers). TWA flight 847 was hijacked by Shiite militants on June 14, 1985. The Italian cruise liner Achille Lauro was seized on October 7 by Palestinian Arabs, a crime that resulted in the death of an elderly American who used a wheelchair.

The Persian Gulf War in 1991 between Iraq and a broad alliance of nations led by the United States led to another round of hate crimes against Arab and Muslim Americans. By this time, Americans lashed out at any persons appearing to be Arab. For example, Lebanese, Jordanians, Iranians, Americans, and persons from India were all victimized. A Polynesian Jew was attacked as he sat in his car in Baltimore, Maryland. State governors and President George H. W. Bush (1924–; served 1989–93) appealed to the American public for an end to violence against Arab Americans.

Prejudicial hate acts had been recorded by Arab American civil rights organizations such as the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) for years. The U.S. Congress passed legislation in 1990 for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to begin keeping statistics on hate crimes, including all hate crimes against any ethnic or racial group.

Until the 1990s, most Americans paid little attention to the occurrence of hate crimes against Arab Americans. They had even less concern about the effects of such crimes on Arabs and Muslims. Although rarely acknowledged by Americans, the actions were followed closely by Arab and Muslim nations and organizations and negatively affected U.S. international relations.

On September 11, 2001, Arab Americans and Muslim Americans joined all Americans before their television screens, horrified as they watched the destruction of the World Trade Center towers in New York and three thousand lives. Apprehensive that they would be the target of backlash violence, messages were posted on Muslim, Arab, and Sikh (followers of the Sikh religion of India who wear turbans and grow beards) email groups, warning each other to beware of a likely serious backlash of prejudicial acts against anyone who appeared to be Arab. Muslims knew their faith communities had been tied to the worse terrorist attack in U.S. history.

While many Americans showed tolerance and kindness toward the Muslim community as U.S. leaders urged, others turned to intolerance and even violence. For example, in the suburbs of Dallas, Texas, mosques were vandalized and a Pakistani grocer was shot and killed. In Mesa, Arizona, a Sikh gas station owner was gunned down. Sikhs' turbans and beards gave a similar appearance to Osama bin Laden (1957–), presumed mastermind behind the September 11 attacks. Such hate crimes occurred across the nation from California to New York.

Many Arab Americans reported losing their jobs, which left their families without income. Arab American children were targets of harassment at schools. They were hit, bullied, or called ugly names. School officials immediately had to speak at school assemblies to condemn harassment of any student. They organized groups for discussion and teaching about Islam and the Arab world, and for conversations on prejudice and tolerance.

The hysteria that followed September 11 affected lawmakers in the U.S. Congress. Congress agreed to demands by President George W. Bush's (1946–; served 2001–;) administration to pass the USA Patriot Act in October 2001 that sacrificed civil rights in the name of fighting terrorists and preventing future terrorist acts. Arabs and Muslims were immediately subjected to questioning and searches by officials. The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service and the FBI detained and questioned hundreds of men and boys. They were frequently held for days on minor visa (official authorization on a passport) violations.

The following excerpt from "Pakistani Areas of New York City, A Lingering Fear" illustrates the prejudice experienced by Pakistani Arab Americans following September 11.

Things to remember while reading excerpts from "Pakistani Areas of New York City, A Lingering Fear":

• Muslims can be found in all nations and in many ethnicities, including white Americans. On the other hand, not all Arab-appearing persons are Muslims. Some are Christians. However, since September 11, 2001, Americans equate Muslims and anyone appearing Arab with terrorism. Americans have constructed this new stereotype which they fear and respond to with violence.
• Approximately three million Muslims lived in the United States at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
• Civil rights advocates protested the aggressive action of U.S. federal officials in questioning and detaining Arab Americans, but without success. American sentiment was clearly supportive of government officials doing everything possible to prevent another catastrophic attack.

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What happened next …

As the years passed after the September 11, 2001, attack, violence against Arab and Muslim Americans gave way to more subtle forms of discrimination, such as harassment at work or school or difficulty in finding housing. There was less fear of the physical danger they had experienced in late 2001 and 2002. Although pockets of suspicion and intolerance existed, Arab and Muslim community leaders had stronger ties with local law enforcement agencies. All realized that another terrorist attack would again unleash ethnic violence and the communities must be protected. Organizations, such as CAIR, thanked U.S. authorities for vigorous prosecution of reported hate crimes. Before the September 11 attacks, such prosecution often was lacking.

Interfaith organizations were established around the country. The organizations made up of people of all faiths became forums for education and understanding. Many Americans, adults and children alike, became much more knowledgeable about Islam and Muslims. Before September 11, 2001, most Americans knew very little about Islam. Despite these gains in tolerance and understanding, an ABC News poll in March 2006 indicated almost six in ten Americans still thought Islamic followers tended toward violent extremism. Almost half of those polled thought Islam did not teach respect and tolerance for religions other than Islam. These results showed American opinion of Islam had worsened considerably since a similar poll in 2002.

Other political polls of Americans conducted at the end of 2004 by Cornell University indicated 44 percent favored some form of restriction on the civil liberties of Muslim Americans. Forty-eight percent said there should be no such restrictions. Twenty-seven percent of Americans thought all Muslim Americans should be required to register with the federal government where they lived. Twenty-nine percent believed undercover agents should be placed in Muslim civil and volunteer organizations to monitor fundraising and other activities.

Did you know …

• The FBI reported that immediately after September 11, 2001, terrorist attack the hate crime categories of "ethnically motivated" and motivated by "national bias" (prejudice against persons believed to be of a certain nationality) accounted for the majority of total hate crimes committed in the United States. This predominance of ethnic violence in the United States did not exist in the previous eleven years of recordkeeping. Records kept by the CAIR concurred.
• Immediately after September 11, 2001, Arab Americans feared they would be rounded up and sent away to internment (holding) camps just as Japanese Americans had been by the U.S. government after the Japanese attack on U.S. military facilities at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941. In preparation, some gave copies of their most important documents to friends for safekeeping.
• Many Arab Americans and their families who experienced hate crimes had been U.S. citizens for years.
• In March 2002, the FBI, looking for ties to terrorist groups, raided the homes and offices of Muslim scholars associated with well-respected, established institutions of Islamic thought in America. The groups included the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences (GSISS) and the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT). Both were known for their sensible, fair voices and had maintained good relations with U.S. governmental agencies. The shocked Muslim American community guessed that the only reason could be to scare Muslim scholars into believing they no longer could enjoy freedom of speech.

Consider the following …

• List five good ways to combat ethnic prejudice in schools and in local communities.

• Interview an Arab American student and perhaps his family about their personal experiences after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack.
• Read a book about a student's experiences in the United States from a Muslim country and report on it to the class.

For More Information

BOOKS

Combs, Cindy C. Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2006.

Outman, James I., and Elisabeth M. Outman. Terrorism Almanac. Detroit, MI: Thomson/Gale, 2003.

Pillar, Paul R. Terrorism and U.S. Foreign Policy. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2003.

White, Jonathan R. Terrorism and Homeland Security. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2006.

PERIODICALS

Valbrun, Marjorie, and Ann Davis. "Pakistani Areas of New York City, A Lingering Fear." Wall Street Journal, November 13, 2002.

WEB SITES

"Counterterrorism." Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). http://www.fbi.gov/terrorinfo/counterrorism/waronterrorhome.htm (accessed on December 12, 2006).

"Responding to Hate Crimes: A Police Officer's Guide to Investigation and Prevention." International Association of Chiefs of Police. http://www.theiacp.org/documents/index.cfm?fuseaction=document&document_id=141 (accessed on December 12, 2006).