Anti-Arab Sentiment in Post-9/11 America

"In world history, those who have helped to build the same culture are not necessarily of one race, and those of the same race have not all participated in one culture" (Benedict). This may serve Americans well as a new mantra as we head into the 21st century on the back of a seemingly arbitrary war, a war fought against "terrorism", with "terrorism" inevitably taking the form of a bearded, dark-complected, turban-wearing, Muslim man. As the September 11th attack on New York City showed us we are fighting this war not only on the foreign soil of Afghanistan and Iraq, but on our home territory as well; anyone could be a terrorist, I could be one and you wouldn't even know it, until you saw me on the news, that is, after I took my own life as well as those of countless others in some horrible terrorist atrocity. An American can become a terrorist just as a terrorist can become an American, and the ability to discern terrorist from non-terrorist is one that most of us have yet to master. This puts all Americans in a precarious situation, fear and suspicion growing as we wait for the next Taliban/Osama Bin Laden/Palestinian sponsored attack, and unfortunately for Arab Americans, they are an all too convenient target for the fear, anger, uncertainty, and hubris that many non-Arab Americans are going to vent. To most "white" Americans, a Jordanian American looks no different from an Iraqi, Afghani, Kuwaiti, Saudi, Egyptian, Pakistani, or Iranian American; this new description of the face of terrorism is obtuse, to say the least, and millions of people (including non-Arab Americans) may soon be paying the price for simply sharing the skin color of those we are in conflict with.

In World War I it was simple- the U.S. fought in Europe, alongside Europeans, against Europeans. No foreign soldier ever set foot on American soil, no shots were fired, no buildings destroyed, no cities razed. How did we know who the bad guys were? Well, they sure weren't here, they were in Europe, and they were the ones shooting at us. Simple enough, right? WWII was more of the same- bad guys? Just look for a swastika or a cry of "Achtung!" and chances are you're looking at one, the Nazi uniform kind of gives it away as well. That's if you happen to be in Europe, that is, because there weren't any over here in the U.S. The Korean and Vietnam wars made things a bit more complicated, especially in Vietnam, the line between enemy soldier and civilian often nonexistent in the foreign terrain of Vietnam. Once again, though, this was thousands of miles away, and the only war-related violence on American soil was that which took place at anti-war demonstrations, and was perpetuated mainly by white Americans against white Americans. Since September 11, 2001, however, we have found ourselves involved in a very different kind of conflict, with a very different kind of "enemy". This war is not against a country, or one specific regime, which can be cordoned off, attacked, or dealt with in any other conventional manner. This new war is on Terrorism, an ideal, which unfortunately has no borders and therefore cannot be dealt with in any conventional way. A terrorist can live in America or Canada just as he can live in the United Arab Emirates or Qatar, and be virtually as invisible. What a terrifying thought! To know that anywhere, at any moment, there could be a terrorist right next to you, in class, in traffic, at work, in line for a hoagie at Wawa, and you would never even know! The only thing that would make one even suspect someone of this would be their Arab looks or name. The Arab-American Institute Foundation puts it best by saying that Anti-Arab and Muslim stereotypes remain persistent in American popular and political culture, fueled by foreign policy attitudes and assumptions, competing domestic constituencies and public ignorance about this population (emphasis added) (Samhan).

Everybody is familiar with the popular American stereotype of "The Arab Guy". There is the convenience store clerk who doesn't speak English, watches you like a hawk, and smells bad. There is also the Middle Eastern cab driver, he talks in a funny accent so thick one can barely understand him, doesn't know where he's going, plays music that sounds like a cat being beaten to death with an out of tune violin, and tries to jack up your fare. Another is the Muslim religious zealot, with his funny hat and robe, mumbling some nonsense while he kneels on a carpet to pray to some strange god in between suicide bombings and giving suspicious looks to everyone he sees. These, as with all stereotypes, are due mainly to, again, "public ignorance about this population" (Samhan). We know that all stereotypes, especially of foreign cultures, are based on ignorance, and this is especially true of Eastern cultures such as the Japanese, Chinese, and Middle Eastern. Their languages are strange, some using sounds completely foreign to English speakers, as are their movies, music, clothing, food, and, most importantly, religion. Islam has been misrepresented beyond the point of absurdity by Americans just as it has by fundamentalist Muslims, and at the heart of this is the Koran, which, much like the Bible, contains passages which can be interpreted in many different ways to suit one's particular needs. Typical American knowledge of the Koran usually begins and ends somewhere around the part where Allah commands Muslims to kill all non-Muslims, with some other stuff about not eating pork and misogyny as law.

"If people are intent on using religion to motivate terror or violence, they'll find an excuse there no matter what the actual text says," says David Rodier of American University in Washington, D.C., who is an expert on the world's religions. Like the Koran, he says, most holy scriptures are filled with stories of war and warriors, and these images have been used throughout history by some members of every faith to justify bloodshed (Standring). The quest to control base instincts such as greed, lust, and cruelty and to seek spiritual purity is known by Muslims as the "great jihad." Featured widely in the Koran, the "great jihad" is a person's most important internal struggle, not terrorist attacks that kill hundreds or thousands of people in the name of Allah, as we most frequently hear it described. But also in the holy scripture is a reference to "lower jihad," a more earthly and physical-and controversial-struggle. "To those against whom war is made, permission is given [to fight] because they are wronged; and verily, God is most powerful for their aid," (Standring). This is the jihad of Bin Laden and Arafat that we are accustomed to, but this is an incomplete definition, as the Koran goes on to say, "Fight in the cause of Allah those who fight you, but do not transgress limits; for Allah loves not transgressors." According to mainstream Muslim clerics, those "rules of engagement"' are explicit: women, children, and innocent civilians are off limits (Standring).

One would be hard pressed, in fact, to find a religion that hasn't been used to justify violence and war; Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, and Jews have all at one time or another used their religious texts as a basis for violence. In fact, the Holy Bible has been used to justify countless wars and atrocities, among them the Crusades and the United States' "Manifest Destiny" (both the original and current), which were as, if not more, barbaric than current terrorist acts. I hope I don't need to remind the reader that manifest destiny consisted mainly of the destruction of an entire race of people who have still not recovered over a hundred years later, and probably never will. Were it not for our official policy of separation of church and state, Bush, Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, and the other fundamentalist Christians in our government could justify just about anything they could imagine using the Bible, remember when Bush regrettably dubbed his war a "crusade". Why, the Iraqi regime could easily be likened to Sodom and Gomorrah, with torture, rape, and all manner of sinful atrocities being carried out daily, and it would be no less than our God-imposed duty to destroy it. Nonetheless, the "true" spirit of Islam can be summed up in one passage: "[I]f anyone slew a person-unless it be for murder or spreading mischief in the land-it would be as if he slew the whole people. And if anyone saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people." (Standring).

Sadly, racism against people of Middle Eastern descent is nothing new, it has been going on in the U.S. for many, many years, and for some time was actually written into our laws. In December, 1913, Faras Shahid, a Syrian, went before a South Carolina court in an attempt to become naturalized as an American citizen. Presiding Judge Smith denied his application, citing that he did not meet a key requirement of the 1790 Naturalization Act, that of being a "free white person", or in other words of European descent (Hassan). Again in February and April of 1914 identical verdicts were handed down for a man named George Dow based on the judgment that, as judge Smith put it, "Syrians are not white", and that "the applicant was excluded because he was an Asiatic and not a European". At the Fourth Circuit Court in 1915 Dow appealed and was successful, setting a precedent that Syrians now met the prerequisite requirements for citizenship; in 1923, however, the Supreme Court rejected this ruling, showing the ambiguous position of Arabs in American society (Hassan).

The Nationality Act of 1940 updated the 1790 Act, but still held to the prerequisite of "whiteness", and allowed for individual judges to determine whether one was "white" enough to be granted citizenship. In 1942 Ahmed Hassan pleaded his case for citizenship to the Eastern District Court in Michigan. Judge Tuttle describes Hassan in his decision as "an Arab, being a native of Yemen, located in the southwestern part of the Arabian peninsula. Petitioner was before the court and his skin was undisputedly dark brown in color." Judge Tuttle claimed that "Arabs as a class are not white and therefore not eligible for citizenship." The judge also noted that "[a]part from the dark skin of the Arabs, it is well known that they are a part of the Mohammedan world and that a wide gulf separates their culture from that of the predominantly Christian peoples of Europe." (Hassan). Using these criteria, if he were to make a second coming, Jesus Christ himself would be denied U.S. citizenship. Beginning in the 1960's reforms were undertaken and Arabs were now to be classified as Italians, Greeks, and other Mediterranean peoples. They were now "white" according to law, but this was a superficial victory, if one at all.

Mid-Easterners may now be white on paper, but their Arab descent is obvious to anyone who sees their physical features or (for the most part) hears or reads their name. Say you were having coffee with a friend and she said that her friend Aziz Oman would be joining you later. How shocked would you be if Aziz Oman showed up with blond hair, pale skin, and blue eyes? I, myself, would be absolutely dumbfounded, because Aziz Oman is a decidedly Arabic name, and is almost unconsciously regarded by Americans as such. Despite the official classification, Middle-Easterners are a very distinct minority with their own unique culture, who can be easily identified. This would not present a problem were it not for the current anti-Middle Eastern fanaticism rampant in mainstream America, but since virtually all of the Middle East (save for Israel) is now seen as the enemy this brings a very ominous threat to those of Arabic descent- that of state-sponsored racial profiling under the auspices of National Security. I believe we're all familiar with George Orwell's classic 1984, the tale of a future society in which "Big Brother" watches everything and has illimitable power to do as it pleases with its citizens. I was always taught that this was meant to mirror Soviet society under Communist rule, but, especially for Arab-Americans, our society is now turning into this modern fable thanks mainly to the USA Patriot Act. Remember, this is only the beginning. According to the Center for Constitutional Rights, "Hundreds of non-citizens have been rounded up and detained, many for months, in violation of constitutional protections, judicial decisional authority and INS policy. The government has repeatedly resisted requests for information regarding the detainees by loved ones, lawyers and the press; it has denied detainees access to legal representatives; and has conducted its hearings in secret, in some cases denying the very existence of such hearings. In a democracy, the actions of the government must be transparent or our ability to vote on policies and the people who create those policies becomes meaningless." (CCR). Our anti-terror zeal is compromising the first, fourth, fifth, and sixth amendment rights that we hold so dear as Americans, and that are only dreamed of by those in many places around the world. Again, from the Center for Constitutional Rights, "From the USA PATRIOT Act's over-broad definition of domestic terrorism, to the FBI's new powers of search and surveillance, to the indefinite detention of both citizens and non-citizens without formal charges, the principles of free speech, due process, and equal protection under the law have been seriously undermined" (CCR). "Under this section, a lawful permanent resident who makes a controversial speech could potentially be barred from returning to his family after taking a trip abroad" (ACLU). An excellent example of unjust imprisonment is that of Mike Hawash, a man from Oregon who is now being held in solitary confinement in a federal prison. Unjust how? He is not charged with any crime, rather he is being held as a material witness for reasons that aren't being revealed. Hawash was snatched from the parking lot of his office, where he works as a software engineer, by officers with flak jackets and assault rifles, and his family questioned and home searched. No one knows why he is being held, but friends believe it is due to his two $5,000 donations to the Global Relief Foundation, an Islamic charity that conducts charitable work in Muslim countries, and has recently been investigated for ties to terrorist groups. It's important to mention that this group was formally recognized by the same United States government as a humanitarian organization.

In Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, right now there are hundreds of prisoners rotting in crude cells, as they have been since late 2001, all of Middle Eastern descent. They can't see lawyers, friends, family, or anyone for that matter, save for their jailors. They won't receive trials, get to call witnesses or expert testimony, try to plea bargain, or any of those things that would be allowed in a court of law. Why, you ask? They have no rights. Not limited rights, or restricted rights, but none at all. They're not prisoners of war, though they were "detained" under the auspices of the United States' War on Terrorism, so they are not covered by the Geneva Conventions, nor have they been charged with anything, removing the possibility of a trial. They are "unlawful combatants". What is an unlawful combatant, you ask? A nonsense word, with no meaning at all. So what will happen to these people? Most will probably die in their cells in Guantanamo Bay, and no one will ever know or care. In America, that is. If you're thinking, "Oh, they're from Afghanistan or Iraq or Pakistan or whatever, they can't do that to an American!", think again. The perceptive reader will have noticed that in my introdcuction, in my mentioning of World War II specifically, I said that no enemy fighting took place on American soil, which was true until the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Japanese were the last to bring the fight to American soil, and we all remember what happened as a result (aside from Hiroshima and Nagasaki). Camps. Camps where American citizens were forced to live solely on the basis of their nationality, independent of any wrongdoing or even suspicion of wrongdoing. They had no rights or privileges, the thousands of Japanese who were herded into these camps, and were to be held for an indefinite period of time, basically until the U.S. government deemed it safe to let them out. Imprisoned becaue of their race. I will not go so far as to ellicit comparison with Nazi concentration camps, these were two very different things that should not be lumped together, however both are now recognized as atrocities, I was taught in every school that I went to that what we did to Japanese-Americans was wrong, and that it should never happen again. Evidently, John Ashcroft, our Attorney General, slept through history class, becaue he has a very similar plan, and I think you can guess who the victims will be. According to Ashcroft, these would house "enemy combatants", an apparently racially blind term meaning anyone believed to have conspired with an enemy of the U.S. But take the examples of John Walker Lindh (the "American Taliban") and Yasser Hamdi, and then consider if race is a factor in their treatment. According to Jonathan Turley, a legal scholar, in the Los Angeles Times, "Hamdi has been held without charge, even though the facts of his case are virtually identical to those of the case of John Walker Lindh. Both Hamdi and Lindh were captured in Afghanistan as foot soldiers in the Taliban units. Yet Lindh was given a lawyer and a trial, while Hamdi rots in a floating Navy brig in Norfolk." (Hassan).

Arab-Americans face a dire situation, indeed. In the past few years or so I have seen so much Anti-Arab sentiment that I almost cease to be disgusted by it anymore. Almost. I can't tell you how many times I've heard someone yell, "Kill all them fuckin' ragheads!", seen t-shirts with mosques being destroyed or urinated on or defiled in some other ridiculous manner, or driven behind someone with an anti-Arab bumper sticker. I actually drove behind a jeep last week that featured a dummy, covered in blood, dressed up to look Mid-Eastern, hanging from a noose from its spare tire. The danger to Arab-Americans is evident, and this time it's not going to be the Klan burning a cross on someone's lawn, it's going to be a court issued warrant, signed by an official judge, that simple renders one a non-person. No rights, no freedoms, nothing. Just like that. This may be the most serious problem we have ever faced as a country, and I say "we" because it affects us all, not just Arab-Americans, but all Americans.