Hate Crime against Arab Americans - Research Paper Example

? Hate Crime against Arab Americans Hate crimes are crimes committed by individuals, communities, institutions, process or government against a group or individuals. In the United States of America, the period following September attacks recorded the highest period of hate crimes against Arab Americans. As reported in this paper, off all the hate crimes ever witnessed in the U.S., this nine week period recorded the highest. These hate crimes were committed by the individuals institutions as well as government agencies against the Arab Americans. This paper has also outlined the role of government and other agencies like the media in the perpetration of hate crimes at the period beginning September 2001. The increase in hate crime is however slowing down but still higher than the periods before 2001. The major objective of this paper is to outline the nature of hate crimes against Arab Americans that have been witnessed in the U.S. and outline the possible solutions to the problem. This paper has also outlined the rooted discrimination against the Arab Americans in the job market. As reported in this paper, the government agencies such as FBI, police, INS and the American airlines have been discriminatory against the Arab Americans. This paper also reports how the private sector has been discriminatory as well as providing unfavorable work conditions to the Arab Americans since the September attack. Hate crimes have not only focused on the Arab Americans but have also been witnessed against their property and their families. As reported in this paper however, the statements by high profile government officials like the president, the clergy, politicians as well as the involvement of the learning institutions is very important in ensuring that hate crimes are reduced in the US. Introduction The September 11, 2001 attack on the world trade center marked the beginning and the rise in the hate crimes mainly towards against the Arab Americans. The September attack which is claimed to have been engineered by the world most terrorist and leader of the Al-Qaida terrorist group Osama Bin laden also saw a number of Muslims being listed as either participated directly or indirectly in the attacks. This has resulted into the development of bad relationship between the government of the United States and the Muslim community. The level of hate crimes that has been reported against the Muslims, Arab Americans and Sikhs rose to five percent in the year 2001 just immediately after the September bomb attack that left property worth millions of dollars destroyed and several people dead. The statistics show that out of the total 9,730 victims of hate crimes, 481 were either of Muslims, Arab Americans or Sikhs (Leadership conference, 2009). However, the highest victims of the three have been the Arab Americans. At present, statistics have shown that this trend has reduced compared to the year 2001. However, it is important to realize that the levels of hate crimes against the Arab Americans have stood higher than the days before 2001. During the year 2007 and 2008, at approximately 115 hate crimes were reported against the Arabs Americans which is above those that were reported during the year 2000 and the previous years. In 2009, there have been serious deaths committed by assailants against two Arab Americans, Mohammed Al Hadi and another clerk of the Middle East origin (leadership conference, 2009). The perception of the Arab Americans as terrorists has resulted into the increasing hate crimes against the Arab Americans. These are just but few examples that reveal clearly that the law enforcement agencies have either failed in their duties to report these hate crimes or are just reluctant to end the problem that is fueling hatred between the Arab Americans and the other Americans. Hate crimes in United States of America against the Arab Americans is therefore a problem that has to be managed immediately. America is likely to ignite civil war or war between civilians if hate crimes committed are not reported, perpetrators brought to justice and the whole menace is manage. Background of the study Illegal discrimination and hate crimes against the Arab Americans have risen following the September terrorist attack. According to Gerstenfeld (2004), the Arab Americans are just like the other minority groups in the United States of America and have therefore faced several incidences of discrimination. However, these incidences of discrimination have risen tremendously following the attack. This has involved serious crimes from the hate crimes, discrimination, terrorist attacks and revenges that are illegal. As ADCRI (2011), observed, even though the trends are reported to reduce from the year 2001 and afterwards, these statistics does not represent the true picture of the number of hate crimes. This is because most of the hate crimes often go u reported by the law enforcement agencies. As observed by Gerstenfeld (2004), anxiety has also been created among the communities by the investigations that were carried by the government following the September attack. There were civil liberties concerns the followed the investigation especially after the establishment of Homeland Security (Ibish, 2002). The findings of this investigation were very instrumental to the American communities since it came out with finger pointing at the Muslim community. The notion that the Muslim community is targeting the United States has also been supported with the different investigations in the terrorist attacks in other nations such as the attack on American embassy in Kenya and Uganda during the year 1998 have also helped in the development of the negative perception (Ibish, 2002). This negative perception has been increased further by the attempted bomb attack on Christmas day of the 25th day 2009. The attempt to explode the American airline that left Amsterdam has also contributed to the discrimination of the Arab Americans. According to Singh (2002), American media has also contributed to the discrimination which finally results to hate speech because of their campaign, defamation and the vilification against Arab Americans. This was however due to the American popular culture as well as the anxiety that were created by the rumors immediately after the attacks. Lack of media to pass the strong message of unity and the inability of the government to preach terrorism and not Muslim terrorist is also a contributing factor to the rising discrimination and hate crimes in America. In this way, the civilians in the United States are seeing the Arab Americans as terrorist but not as ordinary innocent Americans. According to ADCRI (2011), this is not only a problem within the ordinary Americans, but also among the public figures in the US. This period has therefore been a period of challenges not only to the Arab Americans but also to the other Americans of Muslims origin living in the United States of America. In a study by Singh (2002), the upsurge in the hate immediately nine weeks following the attack was as a result of the government failure. He also argues that the hate statements that resulted from the leading government officials such as the president Bush played a vital role in increasing the level of hate crimes. However, the combined efforts by the state, federal and the local law enforcements authority played an important part especially when the hate crime was on the rise after September attack. The vigilantes that were rising had to be brought to listen to the public outcry against these crimes (Singh, 2002). As a result, the level of violence that was increasing was finally managed. It therefore follows that the action by the government agencies was very important in putting a break top what was otherwise increasing and was tearing the American community. Political analyst have also argued that the rising assailants nine weeks after the September attack was serious and could have led to the break of another civil war. According to a report by ADCRI (2011), the Muslims and Arab Americans have mainly been victims of government abuses in the last ten years. The increase in the government abuses and the vulnerability of the American citizens of Arab origins is linked to several attacks that America has experienced in the last few years. Research has shown that of each and every terrorist attack targeted at America, American embassy as well as American airlines has at least been committed by citizens of Arab origin. In this context, Arab Americans have been highly vulnerable to these abuses and hence the public hate crimes have not left them out. This is because it is the function of the government to ensure that all its citizens are protected and enjoy equal rights. The vulnerability of the Arab Americans to government abuses is mainly seen at the air ports as well as in other ports where they have to pass through several security checks to authenticate their identity (Ibish, 2002). The government through the homeland security has also focused much on the citizens of Islamic origin. As a result, hate crimes begin within the government agencies and has spread to even other government officers and business. This has seen several Arab Americans shot in a broad day light by the assailants. Un-proportionate focus as well as the discriminatory policies on Arab Americans that were implemented during the period commencing after the 2001 attack were some of the factors that are thought to have increased hate crimes in America. According to ADCRI (2011), this has not only encouraged discrimination; it has also resulted into bigotry, racism and the rise in hate crimes against the Arab Americans. The hate crimes have not only been reported against the people but also hate crimes against the property owned by Arab Americans. This was evidenced when property worth thousands of dollars belonging to the Arab Americans were destroyed by the assailants upon the Arab Americans being killed. Results Research has shown that hate crimes have also increased in the employment sector. Discrimination against the Arab Americans in different job markets has been reported to increase since the December attack. The highest discrimination has been reported in the airline jobs with some Arab Americans who were employed before losing their jobs on unreasonable grounds. Within the private sector, employers are either reluctant to employ the Arab Americans or are creating very hostile conditions to the Arab Americans and hence has presented a difficult time for the Arab Americans. This has seen the discrimination rooting itself to the departments where the employees are carrying out their duties and has served to encourage hate crimes at the places of work and offices. Statistics have also shown that between the period starting September 2001 to the year ending 2002, ADC has actually received the highest levels of discrimination reports coming from the Arab Americans (ADCRI, 2011. Among the reports received most of the complaints were related to employment. In most jobs that are dealing directly with the United States security and investigations have been some of the jobs with serious discrimination. The perception that the Arab Americans are not patriotic has led to their discrimination against these jobs. Even though it is reported that most of them do not know their rights with respect to employment and discrimination, those who know their rights have been reluctant to go for the jobs. This is because the job would increase their vulnerability to the hate crimes (Ibish, 2002). In case any mistake takes place at the ports or within the airlines, they are often the first to question, the perception that they might be having links with the long wanted terrorist is one of the factors that has resulted to the increased hate crimes. Statistics has also shown that the report from discriminations and hate crimes reported after the attack of September were the highest. It is estimated that the calls that were received by the legal department of ADC, the emails and the letters were on the rise by almost four times since the attack (Ibish, 2002). Other government agencies and officials such as the airlines, the FBI, Police and intelligent national security had been reported to deny services to Arab Americans and other Americans of Islamic origin. There were also several attacks and harassments by these government officials during the first five months after the attack. The rise in hate crimes was also indicated by the action by the legal department of ADC to increase the number of their staffs and even increase their branches in different parts of the nation. Other institutionalized forms of discriminations and hate crimes were also seen after the September attacks. These institutionalized discriminations were mainly seen among the private sector employers, public sector employers as well as the public sector service providers. This form of discrimination was the most common form of hate crimes and was the highest on the rise (Ibish, 2002). This resulted into nine weeks continuous attacks on the Arab Americans resulting to property losses while others lost their lives. However, the Arab Americans were not lucky because of the discrimination that affected their institutions of justice. It was therefore difficult for the Arab Americans to get justice from the government authorities. This is because most people argued the people who committed the attack on the world trade center are limited to men of Arab origin and hence it was very difficult to convince even the law enforcement agencies trust the citizens of Arab origin. Conclusions Hate crimes as well as discrimination against the citizens of Arab origin had existed in the United States of America before. However, after the attack on the world trade centre, the hate crime against Arab Americans increased tremendously. The ninth week period following the September attack of 2001 resulted into the highest ever experienced hate crimes. The hate crimes that had been reported against the Arab Americans were the highest percentage ever witnessed in the history of the United States. The rising hate crimes were mainly due to the ideology that the perpetrators of the terrorism especially on the world trade center on September 11, 2001 were men of Arab origin. The major forms of hate crimes witnessed included crime against property as well as the individuals themselves. Certain Arab Americans have been executed by the assailants and or others lost their properties to the assailants. There is also increased discrimination in the employment industry. Most employers are reluctant to give jobs to the Arab Americans while the few who offer job opportunities provide very hostile work conditions for them. As a result, the Arab American have declined seeking job in the public sector as well as in the private sector due to the perceived lack of patriotism. The hate crimes that has rocked even the government law enforcement agencies such as the police, INS, FBI and the airlines has resulted into the Arab Americans shying away from the services since most of the hate crimes committed by the assailants are not reported by the agencies. Instead, the agencies are themselves victims of hate crimes. Despite the efforts and statements from the pubic figures including the president, clergy and politicians, Arab Americans have been, are still and will still be vulnerable to hate crimes if something is not done urgently. It is therefore important for the government to ensure that its policies that are formulated especially as an effort to curb crime and terrorism does not threaten the rights of other citizen or immigrants. There should be public awareness from the government, public, private organizations, nongovernmental organizations as well as institutions of learning to emphasize on the rights of everyone in the community. The government officials should also stop misusing the law especially as was witnessed immediately after the September attack. Several people were detained yet they were not under investigation which was against the law. Generally, public policies should be focused at ensuring that security is provided for each and every citizen while the ideology that Arab Americans are always terrorists is removed from the minds of Americans References ADCRI. (2011). “Report on hate crimes and Discriminations against Arab Americans: The Post – September 11 Backlash.” http://server.traffic.northwestern.edu/events/rps/shora.pdf April 23, 2011. Gerstenfeld, P. (2004). “Hate Crimes: Causes, Controls, and controversies.” London: Sage Publications. Ibish H. (2002). “Report on hate crimes and Discriminations against Arab Americans: The Post – September 11 Backlash September 11, 2001- October 11, 2002.” Washington, DC: American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. Leadership conference. (2009). Hate Crimes against Arab Americans, Muslims, and Sikhs.” Confronting the new faces of hate: hate crimes in United States of America 2009. April 23, 2011. Singh, A. (2002) “United States: “We are not the enemy”: hate crimes against Arabs, Muslims.” Human rights watch, vol.14, no. 6, P. 3-39. Read More