Islamophobia
Omer Bin Abdullah March/April 1998
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An American Muslim approached the counter at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport to purchase a one-way ticket to Dulles Airport. The airline refused to issue the ticket unless he produced a passport. "Sir," the exasperated Muslim blurted out, "I am traveling from New York to Washington, D.C. We don't need a passport to travel within the United States."
A female employee at an Office Depot store in California was placed on "administrative leave" after she came to work wearing an Islamic head scarf.
A Muslim firefighter was dismissed for refusing to shave his beard.
A Muslim athlete in Florida was denied renewal of his football scholarship for missing a practice that coincided with Friday congregational prayer.
A Muslim who works for a Holiday Inn in Philadelphia was denied her request to wear her Islamic head scarf while on duty as a telephone operator. It was only after Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) contacted the local and corporate Holiday Inn managements that the employee was allowed to wear her scarf while on duty. In fact, in order to help prevent the recurrence of such incidents, CAIR has published a booklet, "An Employer's Guide to Islamic Religious Practices."
Though the weight of the common culture in the United States appears to be swinging against ethnic prejudice, these stories-and countless others-show that this change hasn't spilled over to the Islamic community, which continues to face scorn, misunderstanding, and blatant discrimination in American society.
Although Muslims in America now number 8 million and are working as doctors, engineers, and scientists, many are still viewed with distrust, disdain, and outright hatred. Most Islamic Americans are solid, law-abiding citizens; they are not terrorists out to blow up buildings or hijack airliners. Nevertheless, discrimination against adherents of Islam is a growing problem in the United States.
The 1997 report on the status of Muslim civil rights in the United States issued by the Washington, D.C.-based CAIR states that "experiences of discrimination and bias increased from 50 percent to 65 percent" from last year.
During the 1996 presidential campaign Bob Dole addressed the issue: "Since the end of the Cold War, many American Muslims have been the targets of stereotyping, bias, and discrimination. This discrimination has been seen in the workplace, where Muslim workers were denied reasonable accommodation, in schools, and in the media, where our Muslim citizens are often unfairly associated with acts of violence."
Perhaps the most recent and best publicized example of Islamophobia occurred when, during a discussion about whether the Ten Commandments should be posted in public buildings, South Carolina Board of Education official Henry Jordan said about those who might object, "Screw the Buddhists and kill the Muslims! And you can put that in the minutes."
This unfortunate remark isn't surprising, considering the constant stream of anti-Muslim rhetoric that flows from various sources in American society. Public education, the church, academia, Hollywood, and the media have all played a role in projecting anti-Muslim stereotypes.
American Muslims, for instance, will never forget the anti-Muslim hysteria triggered by the media in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995.
Recently Simon and Schuster, the world's largest English language publisher, recalled a children's book that included inaccurate and inflammatory information about the prophet Muhammad. The book Great Lives: World Religions, by William Jay Jacobs, included the following false reference to Muhammad: "During his lifetime he was a man who loved beautiful women, fine perfume, and tasty food. He took pleasure in seeing the heads of his enemies torn from their bodies by the swords of his soldiers. He hated Christians and Jews, poets and painters, and anyone who criticized him. Once he had a Jewish prisoner tortured in order to learn the location of the man's hidden treasure. Then, having uncovered the secret, he had his victim murdered and added the dead man's wife to the collection of women in his harem."
With stories like these, and Hollywood films that usually depict Muslims about to do some dastardly act of terrorism all for the glory of Allah (a recent example being Executive Decision, in which Muslim hijackers are thwarted in an attempt to crash a jet filled with germ warfare toxins into the East Coast of the United States), it's no wonder Muslims face the type of prejudice and discrimination they do.
In the 1980s the Islamic Society of North America waged a 10-year struggle to secure a building permit for its headquarters in suburban Indianapolis because neighbors feared that Muslim presence would drive down property values (the real estate prices in the neighborhood have actually increased).
A major West Coast computer company tried to raise a legal issue when a neighborhood building was sold to an Islamic school. The Arizona Chandler Tribune, in March 1966, reported that the city planning and zoning commission opposed the building of a mosque, even though recently built churches had gone through the permit process without protests. Community leaders, fearing Muslim "terrorists," opposed building the mosque.
Muslims in America have a very hard time in airports, a problem that promises to increase if the United States adopts the passenger "profiling" system to weed out potentially dangerous travelers. At a meeting of the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security, Nihad Awad, executive director of CAIR, asked for assurances that Muslims and "Middle Eastern" looking travelers would not be singled out by any profiling scheme. He was told that "as of now" no such assurances could be given.
"American Muslims," said Awad, "have been stopped and searched, not because of suspicious activity, but because of their 'looks.' In some cases the special security measures seem to be triggered by otherwise harmless and constitutionally protected personal choices, such as the wearing of a beard or Islamic dress. In other cases American Muslim citizens and residents report being subjected to special attention because of their national origin or travel destinations."
The ACLU recently dealt with an incident in which a Muslim woman, Marian Saadeh, was pulled of a plane, along with her two preschool children, because it was feared she might be a terrorist.
Says the Koran, 49:13: "O humankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know each other (not that you may despise each other)"-a teaching that most American Muslims believe and follow, even if others aren't doing the same.
But until they do, Muslims have found some relief in the courts. In one case a Muslim worker at United Airlines repeatedly faced harassment on the job. The employee reported being compared to a "terrorist." Other workers ridiculed the sound of his name and made derogatory comments about his religion and national origin. When he reported the abuse to his supervisor, his complaints were trivialized, and no meaningful measures were taken. In fact, within six weeks of making his complaint he was terminated. In terminating his employment, United reportedly relied on false statements from coworkers accusing him of misconduct. The Muslim sued, and a California jury awarded him damages. The amount?
$2.9 million.
Allah Akbar!
Omer Bin Abdullah is editor of Islamic Horizons and has served on the Fairfax County, Virginia, School Board Task Force on Social Studies.