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

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

April 11, 2002

Executive Summary

In the hours and days after the September 11 terrorist attacks, Muslim and Arab American groups denounced the attacks, issuing press releases and taking out full-page advertisements in major newspapers across the country. Nevertheless, for many Muslims and Arab Americans, and those perceived to be, an immediate consequence of September 11 was fear of reprisal from fellow citizens. And in the months that followed, their concern about civil liberties protection grew as the government began its war on terrorism. Many of the state advisory committees to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights held briefings after the attacks to investigate local civil rights issues arising from 9/11.

On April 11, 2002, seven months after the attacks, the Wisconsin Advisory Committee held a briefing to assess the civil rights implications of 9/11 for Muslims and Arab Americans in Wisconsin. Speaking before the Committee were representatives from the Milwaukee Muslim Women’s Coalition, the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, and the University of Milwaukee’s Muslim Student Association. Panelists discussed the aftereffects endured by Muslims and Arab Americans, including hate crimes, discrimination, and civil liberties concerns. They discussed misperceptions of Islam, how these misperceptions can inflame anti-Muslim sentiments, and efforts to educate the public. They also recounted acts of tolerance and kindness from the Milwaukee community. The full transcript of the briefing follows this summary.

Hate Crimes and Discrimination

Despite the widespread condemnation of the terrorist attacks by Arab and Muslim groups, many people of Arab, Middle Eastern, and South Asian descent were victimized for sharing a similar appearance or cultural or religious background of the terrorists. Civil rights groups reported a surge in hate-related incidents in the weeks after 9/11. Acts of retaliation against Muslims, Arab Americans, and others have included vandalism, verbal threats and intimidation, physical assault, and even murder. Reports of discrimination in employment, housing, education, and other areas also soared after the attacks.

Some Wisconsin residents became targets after 9/11, part of what the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee has called an “unprecedented backlash.” Ahmed Quereshi, secretary of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, reported that the Islamic Center, which houses a K–8 school, received about a dozen threatening or profane telephone calls in the days after the attacks. One caller threatened to blow up the building. Another caller was arrested by Milwaukee police when his address was traced through his telephone number left on the center’s caller ID. Before the school was temporarily closed on September 11, parents stood guard at the entrance and were subjected to drivers hurling profanities and comments like, “Go Home.” A Muslim woman driving near the center was confronted by a man who beat on the hood of her car with a flagpole.

People mistaken for Muslims also have been attacked, especially Sikh men because they wear turbans and beards. On the night of September 11, two Sikhs working at a Milwaukee gas station were beaten. The attackers reportedly told them, “This is what you get for what you did to us,” Mr. Quereshi said. Milwaukee was “fortunate,” he said, that this was the worst retaliatory act in the city.

Muslim women and girls have faced an “inordinate amount of hostility” since 9/11, according to Mr. Quereshi, because their headscarves, or hijabs, make them easily identifiable as Muslims. Passing comments and stares led many Muslim women to refrain from leaving the house alone. A few stopped wearing the hijab altogether. “Some of them I know were . . . either divorced or widowed and felt they had no one to protect them,” he said. Because many Muslims view the hijab as religiously mandated, a decision to take it off can cause anguish.

Janan Najeeb, director of the Milwaukee Muslim Women’s Coalition, discussed civil rights issues of particular relevance to Muslim women. Many of the issues existed before 9/11 but were exacerbated by the attacks, which ignited prejudices that had seethed for years. Employment discrimination is among the biggest problems for Muslim women, according to Ms. Najeeb. “This is a very big concern in our community because we have a lot of very intelligent women who unfortunately have many problems finding employment because of their hijab,” she said. Sometimes the discrimination is subtle and hard to prove. Many women call the Muslim Women’s Coalition saying they applied for a job, submitted their résumé, and spoke on the telephone with the employer, who appeared ready to hire them on the spot. When they showed up for the interview, however, suddenly the employer was no longer interested. Some face a similar situation when trying to find housing, especially around Islamic centers. Several years ago, the coalition sent out “testers”—one with and one without a headscarf—to try to rent an apartment in a four-unit building on Milwaukee’s south side. Despite providing matching information to the prospective landlord, only the woman without the hijab was offered an apartment.

The Milwaukee Muslim Women’s Coalition refers many complaints of discrimination to the Equal Rights Division, the state agency charged with enforcing Wisconsin’s equal employment and housing laws. But panelists said many Muslims and people of Arab descent are reluctant to file formal complaints with a government agency, often because of immigration concerns and especially since 9/11. Even those who are U.S. citizens are hesitant, because they “feel that at any time [citizenship] can be just ripped away from them,” Ms. Najeeb said. “I gather some of the recent events in the name of fighting terrorism and some of the recent actions that our government has taken have put more fear into them,” she added. When complaints are filed, Muslim groups often lack the resources to follow-up and ensure that action has been taken. Ms. Najeeb said Muslims do not have a liaison in the mayor’s office or, she thought, in any state agency. “We really don’t see anything materialize” from the complaints, she concluded.

Civil Liberties Concerns

Attacks against Muslims started to taper off eight weeks after 9/11, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations. But for many, fear of hate crimes was replaced by concerns that the government was compromising civil liberties in its war on terrorism. “Lately we feel that the same agencies that we thought would protect us are, in fact, the same agencies that are now responsible for violating our rights,” Janan Najeeb said. To counter further terrorist attacks, the government has initiated legislation, federal agency rule changes, and law enforcement policies—measures some contend potentially affect such civil liberties as freedom from discrimination based on religion, ethnicity, and national origin; the right to a fair trial; and freedom from unreasonable search and seizure. Finding the right balance between protecting public safety and safeguarding civil liberties in times of national emergency is challenging. In the context of the war on terrorism, panelists discussed FBI interviews in the Muslim community, indefinite detention by law enforcement officials of Middle Eastern men on criminal or immigration charges, secret hearings, and the freezing of assets of charitable Islamic organizations.

After 9/11, the government announced plans to interview more than 5,000 men of Middle Eastern background in the United States on visas in hopes of developing leads and gathering information to prevent future attacks. Agents both arrived at Muslim homes unannounced and used the more restrained approach of mailing letters requesting voluntary interviews. Two hundred Wisconsin residents received such letters, according to Zeeshan Habeeb of the University of Milwaukee’s Muslim Student Association.

Panelists Naahed and Maqbool Arshad, longtime Milwaukee residents and active members of the city’s Islamic Society, said two FBI agents rang their doorbell around 6 p.m. on September 13, an experience Mrs. Arshad described as “unexpected” and “scary.” “I have never had so much as a speeding ticket in 21 years,” she said. “And I think the nature of what happened that evening set the tone for how we felt Muslims were being treated.” Her husband, who she called home from work, “just wanted to get [the questioning] over and done with because it looked like they could take anyone and everyone in that day without giving us any information,” she said. The agents did not provide a reason for the visit, according to Mr. Arshad, but asked broad questions about Milwaukee’s Muslim community.

Ahmed Quereshi, secretary of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, characterized some FBI interviews as “intimidating” because of the timing of the visits and questions asked. Agents, he said, had arrived unannounced at area homes extremely early in the morning or late in the evening, and at times when there would be “a Muslim woman at home who culturally and for religious reasons wouldn’t feel comfortable inviting a man who is not part of her family into her house in her husband’s absence.” The Islamic Society emphasized to Muslims the importance of giving the government any information that might help apprehend the terrorists. However, he alleged, some of the FBI’s questions were not easily relatable to the terrorist attacks, such as those regarding views on the Mideast peace process and frequency of mosque attendance.

Panelists also discussed the government’s detainment of more than 1,000 Middle Easterners and Southeast Asians, many for overstaying their immigration visas. The USA Patriot Act, passed in October 2001 to combat terrorism, gave the executive branch expanded power to detain immigrant suspects for long periods of time. Mr. Quereshi said he was aware of only “a couple of” people in Wisconsin who were detained temporarily, but observed that of all those taken into custody, only one, the so-called 20th hijacker, has been publicly linked to the September 11 attacks. Nevertheless, many have been incarcerated for months without access to an attorney. The government has not released the names of the detainees and has held their trials behind closed doors. “Detaining people in secret, allowing the use of secret evidence, allowing secret hearings . . . it’s against our great tradition in this country of due process, of a right to a public trial,” Mr. Quereshi said.

In another effort to combat terrorism, the government in December 2001 froze the assets of the three largest Muslim charities in the United States for suspected terrorist links. No evidence had been made public showing these groups were funneling money to terrorists, Mr. Quereshi said. “None of us sitting here in Milwaukee have any knowledge of what the boards of directors of these organizations were planning,” he said. “But we believe from their publications that they were all engaged in reputable activities.” That the charities were shut down during the holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims are instructed to increase charitable giving, was for some an outrage. Many Muslims had donated money to these organizations days before the assets were frozen, leaving them wondering whether they had fulfilled their religious obligation to help those in need. They were also left fearing that they would be connected to a now-designated terrorist organization.

Misperceptions of Islam

Misperceptions of Islam abound and are fueled by the media, according to panelists. “The truth is that most people in this country know little about the religion. . . . The only image they have of Islam is the image that some portions of the media portray of Islamic terrorism,” Mr. Quereshi said. Because knowledge of the real Islam is scant, assertions that it condones violence sometimes go unchallenged. And when people view Muslims in general as a threat or somehow responsible for 9/11, civil rights abuses are more likely.

After 9/11, Muslim groups expanded efforts to educate the public about Islam and cultural issues. “The challenge for the Islamic community here in Wisconsin,” Mr. Quereshi said, “is to try to educate as best we can the public and others about our religion and tell them that our religion condemns terrorism. It condemns suicide.” Janan Najeeb said the Milwaukee Muslim Women’s Coalition “quadrupled” its education and outreach activities, which include lectures and workshops. The response has been positive. “Overwhelmingly, people are open to learning new things, to understanding, particularly within the interfaith community,” she said.

Conclusion

Because the briefing was held to gather information on the civil rights implications of 9/11, panelists focused on issues of discrimination, hate crimes, and civil liberties concerns. Some spoke of personal experiences after 9/11 and others about fallout across the Muslim and Arab communities. But they also related instances of support from the Milwaukee community—acts intended to show Muslims and Arab Americans that they were still welcomed members of the community. For every hostile telephone call the Islamic Center received in the days after 9/11 were 10 supportive calls, Mr. Quereshi said. Panelists also noted a willingness on the part of Milwaukee residents to foster a better understanding of Islam and in the process stem anti-Muslim bias.