Post 9/11 Muslim Immigrants

      History reveals that racism and migration are inextricably intertwined. An outflow of migration is by nature racial as it is a movement in which people move to a country where they are not nationals. In other words, opposition to migrants is opposition to the arrival of foreigners in one’s land. This opposition is usually based on reservations of the locals that the migrants are not credible and that they are not acquainted with the culture and language of the land of arrival.

     Opposition to migrants in the present age is not uncommon. A similar manifestation may be found in the treatment of Muslims in the post 9/11 arena of the world. In the Western society, history is marked simply by BC and AD. But now there is a third distinction and that is 9/11. Since the advent of 9/11, which is a considerably debatable and vague phenomenon, Muslims in almost all parts of the world are generally targeted as a suspect population simply for being Muslims. They are stereotyped as fundamentalists, militants, terrorists and so forth. They are being targeted and attacked. In the wake of 9/11, a lot of Muslim Americans are changing their names to escape racial profiling. Questions are being raised about the West’s, more particularly of America’s, biased views towards the Islamic community. After 9/11, America’s view towards the Islamic inhabitants is changing rapidly. It is consistently propagated that of all the world religions Islam is the most violent and aggressive and that it encourages killing or ‘Jihad’ as they (Muslims) call it, in the name of God.

    Following 11th September 2001, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reported a 1,700 percent increase of hate crimes against Muslim Americans between 2000 to 2001 (Anderson, 2002) and Muslim immigrants, more than any other immigrant group, were met with negative attitudes (Saroglou & Galand, 2004). Likewise, research focusing on Islamophobia, a dread or hatred of Islam, has been conducted in Europe where a survey in the United Kingdom indicated that discrimination against Muslims has increased in recent years (Sheridan, 2006). According to a report released by the Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) in May 2005 entitled "Unequal Protection: The Status of Muslim Civil Rights in the United States," anti-Muslim hate crimes rose by more than 50 percent between 2003 to 2004; while 93 anti-Muslim hate crimes were recorded in 2003, 141 hate crimes were recorded in 2004. The study cites 1,552 cases of anti-Muslim occurrences including violence, discrimination, and harassment. Approximately 225 of these cases involved religious discrimination, such as a city's opposition to a mosque. 196 cases involved discrimination in the workplace and 190 cases cited verbal harassment.

    An  alleged discrimination took place in France as Shimon Peres arrived at a train station on March 8, 2013 to discuss the Middle East peace process. An official complaint by the SUD-Rail transport union stated that everything was done to ensure there were "no Muslim employees to welcome the head of the state of Israel". A site manager, on the previous day, had told all workers at the station about the ban on black staff, and those of North African descent, because they might be Muslims. Besides, Muslim women have been reduced to tears after being told to 'f*** off and go back to your own country'.

    This attitude has affected the Muslim immigrant communities that are spread in almost all parts of the world. Singled out and targeted both by the government and the public in America “they faced deportation, extraordinary rendition, interrogation, surveillance, random searches, acts of vandalism, hate crimes and various other forms of discrimination” (Bilici, p.133). It has led to a number of racial conflicts. Religious restrictions such as controversy over the wearing of Islamic scarf (hijab) in France, discrimination in jobs, social disgrace and undue interrogations (on airports and public places) have become a matter of everyday life. The immigrant Muslim communities are thus caught up in a dilemma of double-consciousness putting them in an awkward place of ethnic hierarchy.

    A rift between the world’s two largest civilizations is rampant and as long as Muslims continue to be marginalized, no change would come into effect. Islamophobia, like any racism, is a challenge to the so-called highly civilized and secular western world.

                                                                                                           
                                                                                                                                   Muhammad Abdul Wahid

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      REFERENCES:

• Anderson, C. (2002, November 25). FBI reports jump in violence against Muslims. Associated Press.

• Saroglou, V. & Galand, P. (2004). Identities, values, and religion: A study among Muslim, other immigrant, and native Belgian young adults after the 9/11 attacks. Identity, 4(2), 97–132.

• Sheridan, L. P. (2006). Islamophobia Pre-and Post-September 11th, 2001. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 21, 317–336.

• Mucahit, B. (2011). Being Targeted, Being Recognized: The Impact of 9/11 on Arab and Muslim Americans. Contemporary Sociology, 40 (2), 133-137

• Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) Report 2005