Post-September 11 atmosphere fosters anti-Islamic climate

by PAULA BLANTON

American Baptist preacher Jerry Falwell angered many Muslim-Americans with a statement he made about the prophet Muhammad.
“I think Muhammad was a terrorist. I read enough by both Muslims and non-Muslims [to decide] that he was a violent man, a man of war.” Falwell made these comments in a taped interview on”60 Minutes in October.
According to an article from the BBC, when news of the remarks hit worldwide it set off riots, including one in India where it left at least eight people dead. Later, Falwell apologized about his comments and insisted that he’s always respected other faiths and religions. Of course, Falwell is not a stranger to controversial comments. Just last year, right after the attacks, Falwell publicly attacked atheists, gays and civil-rights activists, saying that they had angered God.
While the rest of the nation was marking the one-year anniversary of the attacks last month, three Florida students were being accused of plotting terrorist attacks. Kambiz Butt, Ayman Gheith and Omer Choudhary, all resident student doctors, were dining at a Shoney’s in Georgia when customer Eunice Stone allegedly overheard them talk and joke about the Sept. 11 attacks. Stone got frightened and called the State Patrol. While leaving the area, the students’ cars were pulled off the highway to be sniffed by dogs and robots. An empty bag was blown up that authorities believed may have carried explosive devices. Authorities even accused the students of going through a tollbooth without paying,. Tapes later proved the charge to be false. During this whole ordeal, the students were held for questioning for 17 hours. It was only later, when the students talked to reporters nationwide, that the whole story came out that they were discussing ways to bring a car from Kansas City, MO to Miami, FL.
All of the students were interning at Larkin Community Hospital in South Miami, FL. Unfortunately, the hospital declined to accept them back at this time because of racist threats directed to them and the students. Luckily, the three students were released without any charges against them and a hospital in the Caribbean has decided to take them in.

Muslim-American groups were angered by not only what the students were accused of but also by authorities who assumed that they were terrorists because of their ethnic background and subjected them to a search by nearly 600 officers.
“The whole incident was a complete over-reaction based on stereotypes,” says Attaf Ali, Chairman of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Muslim-Americans are not the only ones who feel this way. Muslim-Canadians reportedly feel similar as well. The Council on American-Islamic Relations Canada (CAIR-CAN) conducted a survey of about 300 participants on how they’ve been treated in the past year. Sixty percent felt they’ve been subjected to discrimination while an overwhelming 80 percent know someone who has. Even some Canadian columns and editorials have described Muslims as “murderous” and”"barbaric.” Nearly half of all non-Muslim-Canadians favored some form of racial profiling or another.
Here in America, much of this is not uncommon. Jewish- and Italian-Americans were discriminated against earlier this century, while Japanese-Americans were detained in interment camps across the west coast during World War II. With the “war against terrorism” going on right now it seems like we, as Americans, haven’t learned a thing about embracing other cultures, only repeating our own mistakes.