------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Dec. 13, 2001 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
AS ARABS ARE HAULED IN BY FEDS: MICHIGAN PROTEST HITS RACIAL PROFILING By Mark Marzolf Dearborn, Mich. Over 100 people marched in front of Dearborn City Hall on Nov. 29 to voice their opposition to the racist-profiling dragnet imposed by the U.S. Justice Department against the Arab-American population. The "Justice" Department plans to question some 5,000 Arab- Americans as part of its ongoing investigation into the events of Sept. 11. This same government body recently concluded an investigation into the Detroit Police Department, which led the nation in fatal shootings of civilians by police departments during the 1990s, without a single prosecution. The demonstration was organized by the Detroit Anti-War Network. People carried signs declaring "FBI and INS out of Dearborn!" and chanted colorful and militant slogans such as "Black, Arab, Latino, Asian and white--We demand our civil rights!" and "Arab-Americans under attack! What do we do? Stand up--fight back!" A statement issued by DAWN says: "5,000 Arab men who have arrived here in the last year are to 'voluntarily' report for questioning at local law enforcement departments. Police departments in Oregon and Texas have refused to assist with the questioning because it stinks of racial profiling, and there is no basis to question these men." Lawyers for several of the 566 men targeted for questioning in the metropolitan Detroit area have confirmed that those who "voluntarily" decide not to respond to the Justice Department by the Dec. 4 deadline will nevertheless be paid a "follow-up" visit by FBI agents. Thousands of Arab-Americans from New York to Los Angeles have been victimized by an escalating and systematic state sponsorship of racial profiling and intimidation since Sept. 11. Within days of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, a mosque and frequent meeting place of the Islamic Student Union at Wayne State University in Detroit was vandalized. Broken windows and racial slurs covered the building. The next night, in an immediate wave of solidarity, a diverse gathering of hundreds stood watch over the mosque during a boisterous demonstration against these racist attacks. The number of discrimination and ethnic intimidation reports fielded by the Michigan chapter of the American-Arab Anti- Discrimination Committee has increased from an average of 20 per week to well over 200. This is a nationwide trend, according to the ADC. Michigan is home to some 350,000 Arab-Americans, the biggest Arab population in the United States. Some 700 Arabs in the state are currently being targeted by Attorney General John Ashcroft and the Justice Department's racist investigation. In the city of Dearborn, over 20 percent of the populous is Arab-American, making up the biggest percentage of Arabs in any U.S. city. Middle Eastern restaurants, bakeries, grocery stores and retail shops are an enormous part of the cultural diversity in the metropolitan Detroit community. Some 200 Arab men in Dearborn alone have received letters from the Justice Department seeking "cooperation." Those interviewed would be subject to highly personal questions, such as their political and religious beliefs, as well as information about family and friends--where they work, where they live and where they go to school. A fundamental source of genuine cooperation is trust. Do the Arab and Muslim Americans have any reason to trust the U.S. ruling class? ADC Vice President Khalil E. Jahshan condemns the racist questioning as "a short-sighted public relations gimmick that is destined to fail because the trust needed to secure Arab participation in such a program no longer exists." Jahshan said, "The trust between the U.S. government, including law enforcement agencies, and the Arab community has been further eroded over the past few weeks by denial of due process, by revoking of attorney-client privileges, by arbitrary and extended detention, and by casting the investigative net so broadly as to implicate thousands of innocent people." And there is more: the international control of U.S. imperialism through its military and economic sponsorship of Israel, which continues to subjugate the people of Palestine to an intensifying occupation and military war carried out by heavily armed convoys, aircraft and tanks against highly populated villages; the sanctions against Iraq, where more than 1.5 million people have died a slow, agonizing, premature and preventable death; and now an escalating war in Afghanistan, where hospitals, Red Cross and food-supply depots, schools and mosques have all been destroyed by missiles and carpet bombs bearing the stars and stripes. The racist profiling measures and executive directives smack of martial law. They are reminiscent of the civil, constitutional and human-rights violations seen throughout U.S. history against many peoples of color and progressive movements. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
