End Racial Profiling Campaign
DRUM (Desis Rising Up and Moving)
In partnership with Rights Working Group
Julie
Teuber
Debbie
Campbell
The Department of Justice Civil Rights Division
defines “Racial Profiling “as:
“Racial profiling at its core concerns the invidious
use of race or ethnicity as a criterion in conducting
stops, searches and other law enforcement
investigative procedures.”(Swiney p. 35).
DRUM is an organization founded
in 2000 and was established to
help south Asian immigrant
workers gain economical and
educational civil rights. Since
September 11, 2001 DRUM has
been the leading organization in
protecting the civil and human
rights of South Asian and
Muslim immigrants. (DRUM)
Fahd Ahmed is the Legal Policy
Director for DRUM
He joined DRUM in 2000 as a volunteer and
worked with Muslim and Arab immigrant
detainees before, and immediately after 9/11.
Currently, Fahd is leading DRUM's End Racial
Profiling Campaign, which will document
NYC Muslim communities’ interactions with
law enforcement agencies and pursue
legislative and policy changes to end racial and
religious profiling. (Rockwood)
The Immigrant & Racial Justice program wages
campaigns at the local and national level to gain
just immigration reform and end racial profiling
through policy change. Our members are directly
affected by deportation and detention, racial
profiling, and immigration enforcement. DRUM
highlights the harshest impact of these policies on
low-income South Asians & Muslims whose
families are torn apart, are pushed into poverty,
deported, or detained. (DRUM)
THE PROBLEM: Since 9/11/01, racial and religious
profiling of South Asians, Arabs, and Muslims has
become national policy. DRUM and many civil rights
organizations have documented thousands of incidents
and programs of law enforcement agencies racially and
religiously profiling community members. This
includes the FBI, the NY Police Department, and the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Law
enforcement officials must act accountably to ensure
civil rights, due process, and transparency.
THE SOLUTION: DRUM works locally and nationally
to call for FBI, NYPD, and DHS accountability and an
end to racial profiling practices and policies. (DRUM)
The group that is most significantly impacted by the issue of racial
profiling post 9-11 is Arab and Arab-American Muslims. According
to Hall, Chapter 2, the worldviews, values and norms of this cultural
group would lead them to be collectivists. Collectivists focus on their
relationships with others and explain answers in terms of shared
membership in family, or other group memberships. They are also a
group that is predominantly hierarchical. The hierarchical
perspective sees every person as important to the extent that they
compliment each other’s roles, and a person’s position of authority
determines the person’s relative worth. (Hall, 2005)
Islam sees people as inherently evil which is why they they have
requirements in regard to gender and dress that reflect a belief that
humanity’s naturally evil self will exert itself if not guarded against.
The value systems and norms are also vastly different within the Middle
East and Muslim communities. There are a number of norms related
to restricting male and female interaction that, within the context of
their religious beliefs, make perfect sense but would be very
inappropriate to most Westerners. According to Hall, different norms
lead to very different judgments about the behavior.
Islamic basic values and needs define the foundations for good individual and
social life. These values are classified as necessities, convenience and
refinements.
In the legal theory of Islam there is a general aim of legislation to realize values
through protecting and guaranteeing their necessities as well as fulfilling
their importance and their embellishments . The human basic values
consist of life, reason, descent, property and religion. Islam protects these
primary human values, and prohibits any violation of them. (Akgunduz)
Islam has paid great attention to norms, which can protect basic values.
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Self Interest vs. Self sacrifice
Extravagance vs. Frugality
Greed vs. Contentment:
Generalizing a Crime vs. Personality in Criminal Law
Peace and Forgiveness
The racial profiling of Muslims, Arabs and Arab-Americans
began in earnest in January of 1991, as the United States
prepared for war with Iraq over its occupation of Kuwait.
The FBI initiated interviews with various Arab-Americans
regarding their knowledge of dissident students groups.
This practice extended to other groups, individuals and
business that were in any way part of the Arab-American
community. Though most of these interviews were kept
secret, there was evidence that it was part of a longer term
initiative. Other events that led to the increase of racial
profiling is the Iranian Hostage Crisis (1979-81), the
suicide attack on the USS Cole in 2000. All of these
incidents in the 1980s and 1990s (including the first World
Trade Center bombing in 1993), were reasons for the
increase in racial profiling pre-911. (Nacos 2007)
Americans showed great concern after the attack on
the World Trade Center. Many grieved for lives
lost and fear flourished. In the wake of the
destruction of the Twin Towers, the government
rounded up almost 1,200 “special interest cases”
(a euphemism in many instances, for innocent
individuals who resembled in physical appearance
and religion the 19 hijackers who crashed planes
into the World Trade Center and Pentagon). Many
were detained for questioning, some for long
periods of time under difficult circumstances. A
number were deported, not because of any
connection to al-Qaeda but because of immigration
violations. (Shiekh, 2011)
Before 9/11, racial profiling was a term that most
often referred to as “law enforcement practice
of taking the race of a potential suspect into
account in deciding whether to initiate
investigation of that suspect.” Before the tragic
events of 9/11, eighty percent of Americans
opposed racial profiling. Today, sixty percent
of Americans believe in the necessity of some
form of profiling to ensure public safety and
national security. (Nelson, 2009)
Racial Profile Video clip
“A few years back I was returning home from a vacation in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands.
At the airport in St. Thomas there was an Arabic man behind me in line. He was dressed
in casual business attire and appeared to be in his 30’s. As we continued to wait to board
the plane he began getting irritated, jittery and he began to perspire. Once we boarded
we were seated in the front and he was somewhere in the back. As the plane began to taxi
to the runway he suddenly walked very quickly up the aisle and begged to be let off
immediately. He said he didn’t care about his luggage, he needed off the plane “right
now.” The pilots taxied back to the gate and an on board Air Marshall got off with him.
Soon police came and searched around his seat and in the luggage compartment. After
an hour someone complained to one of the flight attendants who replied, “Sir, if you
knew what just happened you would be glad that we waited.” I was so afraid that I
contacted family back home while we waited to inform them what was going on if
anything should happen when we flew from St. Thomas to Miami. It did not help sooth
the nerves I have felt since 9/11.
I have struggled greatly not to judge a group of people based on the acts of a few but the
fact that there are still members of groups like al-Qaeda out there wanting to harm the
United States keeps me suspicious and still afraid. It is very difficult for me to relax and
trust. Do I think that people should be racially profiled against? Normally, no. Do I
think we still have to be watching out for terrorist acts and those who would seek to
commit them? Yes. How do we find a balance? I don’t have an answer and this research
while giving great reasons for not allowing racial profiling of Muslims does not address
nor adequately relieve the concerns that remain within my own heart. “
Julie Teuber
Racial profiling as it pertains to people based on race and religion in
the United States should not occur. The issues of discrimination
that others have faced simply for being racially different from
ourselves should never be tolerated. We share this belief both
individually and collectively. We chose to explore the issue of
racial profiling as it pertains to the Muslim culture as a way to
somehow bring understanding and closure to some of the issues
that we struggle with post 9-11. This has proven to be very
difficult. Though many Muslims profess to be peaceful and
harbor none of the beliefs that the radical Muslims did who took
part in the events of 9/11, issues still remain that prevent this from
happening. The fact that those involved in the terrorist acts that
day had blended into our society, living amongst us as friends,
neighbors and co-workers leaves an unsettled feeling of fear and
distrust.
Further accounts of terrorist acts that have been prevented since
that time show us that there are those that still seek to perpetuate
this type of act on the United States. Records show there have
been at least 45 jihadist terrorist attacks plotted against Americans
since 9/11. we do not want to fall into a false sense of security.
This makes it very difficult to resolve this issue. (Avlon, 08 0)
Avlon, J. (08 0). The daily beast. Retrieved from http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/09/08/9-11-anniversary-45-terror-plots-foiled-inlast-10-years.html
Akgunduz, A. (n.d.). www.islamicuniversity.nl. Retrieved from http://islam.uga.edu/norms_values.html
Davis, Angela J. Racial profiling post 9/11 – still a bad idea. American University Washington College of Law.
http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/racial_profiling_post_9_11_still_a_bad_idea/
DRUM Desis Rising Up and Moving. http://www.drumnation.org/DRUM/Immigrant_Justice.html
Hall, B. J. (2005). Among cultures- the challenge of communication. (2nd ed., pp. 37-55). Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Nacos, B. L. (2007). Fuelingour fears. Boulder: rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Nelson, D.E. Racial Profiling. (2009) Opposing Viewpoints Series. Greenhaven Press, San Francisco.
Rockwood Leadership Institute. http://www.rockwoodleadership.org/article.php?id=202
Shiekh, I. (2011) Detained without cause: Muslims stories of detention and deportation in America after 9/11. Palgrave Macmillan. New York.
Swiney, C. F. (2006). Racial profiling of arabs and
muslims in the us:historical, empirical and legal
analysis applied to the war on terrorism. (Vol. 3). http://www.bepress.com/mwjhr/vol3/iss1/art3
DOI: 10.2202/1554-4419.1053
Viemo, Let's Breakthrough Together 2010 - Restore Fairness. Video, http://vimeo.com/16292875