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A file photo for American Muslims mourning the victims of the 9/11 attacks
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CAIRO,
October 5 (IslamOnline.net) – Facing racial-profiling and increased
discrimination in post-Sept. 11 era, American Muslims in New York City
have become united as one community, setting aside the sectarian and
linguistic differences that have traditionally divided them, a major
US daily reported Tuesday, October 5, citing a six-year study.
They
worship at roughly 140 mosques, have 14 schools and are united now by
a common burden under the larger cultural banner of Islam, The New
York Times quoted the study released Monday by Columbia University.
“It's:
How do you find strength?” Peter J. Awn, a professor of Islamic
religion at Columbia who helped coordinate the study, told the NY
Times.
“You'll
find strength in numbers in affirming your Muslimness. You can be a
cultural Jew. I think there's something similar here.”
The
study further found that local fund-raising efforts had helped bolster
the city's mosques, which are not primarily financed by institutions
abroad.
“They're
very much reliant on the local businesses,” said Louis Abdellatif
Cristillo, a Columbia anthropology professor and the project
coordinator.
The
study also found that New York’s 600,000 Muslims have become the
fastest-growing community.
Roughly
102,000 Muslim children are enrolled in the city's public school
system, according to the study, which started in 1998.
‘Defined
By Religion’
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“The general comfort level felt by most Muslims was truly jarred by Sept. 11, and they became this threatening minority,” said Awn
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In
the aftermath of Sept. 11, Muslims across the country experienced a
range of discrimination, from the loss of jobs to hate crimes.
More
than 80,000 men from mostly Muslim countries were forced to register
with the federal Department of Homeland Security, and roughly 13,000,
none of whom have been charged with terrorism-related offenses, have
been placed in deportation proceedings, the NY Times said according to
the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.
The
study further showed that women and children have suffered the most
from incidents of social bias and discrimination after the 9/11
attacks.
Women
reported having their head scarves torn from their heads, for
instance, and children endured verbal and physical assaults by their
non-Muslim peers, it said.
“The
general comfort level felt by most Muslims was truly jarred by Sept.
11, and they became this threatening minority who would be defined
mostly by their religion,” Professor Awn said.
“That
has caused serious soul-searching by the community.”
Jesse
Bradford, a doctoral candidate at Harvard University's sociology
department, interviewed roughly 400 Muslims in New York, Boston and
Chicago.
During
the presentation at the conference at Columbia, he read this statement
from an anonymous South Asian Muslim interviewed in New York: “I was
made to think more of myself as a Muslim from the outside world.”
Media
Coverage
A
group of graduate students examined, under the study, more than 800
newspaper articles, as well as photographs and television reports.
They
found that articles implying that American Muslims support terrorism
increased around the first anniversary of the deadly attacks.
Four
percent of the articles in the six months after 9/11 carried the
implication, but the rate rose to 14 percent in articles around the
first anniversary.
Journalistic
representations of the Muslim world, especially abroad, portrayed
women as victims and men as brutal and war-mongering, presenting an
incomplete picture of Muslims and fueling negative stereotypes,
according to the study.
A
May 2004 report released by the US Senate Office Of Research concluded
that the Arab Americans and the Muslim community in the United States has
taken the brunt of the Patriot Act and other federal powers
applied in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The
Los Angles Times reported Monday that Arab Americans in the
battleground state of Florida are turning
away from their traditionally favorite the Republican Party as
they are furious over the Bush administration's post-Sept. 11 policies
that unfairly targeted them.
