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Report Finds Discrimination Against Arab Americans
WASHINGTON, May 21 (IslamOnline) - "Civil Rights Issues Facing the Arab American Community in Michigan", a study presented by the Michigan Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights last week reports that Michigan's Arab-Americans still face many problems ranging from racial profiling to outright discrimination.
The bipartisan advisory committee reports that even though Arab-Americans are eager to become part of the social fabric of the country, prejudicial attitudes and discriminatory actions have been directed against them. This persistent prejudice makes many of them feel like virtual outsiders.
Metro Detroit area in Wayne County is home to more than 300,000 Arab Americans making it the county with the largest concentration of Arab-Americans in the country.
The report finds that Arab Americans are facing a host of civil rights issues including:(1) the "profiling" and detaining at airports and ports of entry to the country, (2) denial of due process in deportation hearings, and (3) discrimination.
The report also found that Muslim women who wear hijab (head covering) are often harassed and sometimes even fired from work, or denied interviews at colleges and jobs.
Mohammed Elahi of the Islamic House of Islam in a statement to the committee's report said, "There are cases of Muslim men fired from their job or rejected during job interviews because they wear a beard, a religious requirement.
"Recently, there was a Muslim police officer in New York suspended from his job because he wore a beard. Then there was a case of nine Muslim men ousted from an airplane because they started their daily prayer, and out of ignorance the pilot thought that they were creating a disturbance on board and they were removed from the plane just because they were doing their daily prayer."
Roland Hwang, Chairman of the Michigan Advisory Committee said that use of secret evidence and the denial of the right to have counsel during detention in these cases violates constitutional rights of all Americans.
"The federal government needs to cease its targeting of the Arab and Muslim communities as suspect communities," he said.
The report also observed that somehow, and in some manner, officials within the federal government have determined that Arab Americans and Muslims fit some common physical and traveling description of "terrorists".
It said that Arab American and Muslims are disproportionately selected by the FAA's (Federal Aviation Administration) Computer Assisted Passenger Screening system (CAPS). The Committee urged the FAA to immediately rectify this problem and said that it objected to the CAPS systems continued use.
The report identified several key problems in current attitudes towards Muslims and Arabs, and suggested recommendations.
Muslim and Arab-American leaders welcomed the committee's efforts to address the issues.
Imad Hamad, regional director of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) told the Detroit News, "I see this as a step forward ... Hopefully this can serve as a challenge to peoples' morals, ethics and fairness so that some changes will be made. In the meantime, we will keep trying to cultivating more awareness and fight for our rights."
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