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News :: Miscellaneous |
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1 out of 2 Americans want Arabs to carry "special identification" - Poll |
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by Aries de la Cruz/NYC IMC
Email: aries (nospam) indymedia.org (unverified!)
Phone: (212) 684-8112
Address: 34 East 29th Street 2nd floor NY, NY 10016-7918 |
20 Sep 2001
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United we stand? |
 United we stand? |
A New Yorker holds a candle during a vigil for peace in Union Square.
(Photo: Lina Pallotta)
"If I see someone (who) comes in that’s got a diaper on his head and a fan belt wrapped around the diaper on his head," Rep. John Cooksey (R-Monroe) said, "that guy needs to be pulled over."
These comments by Louisianna Congressman Cooksey advocating racial profiling preceded the release of a Gallup poll on Tuesday, which concluded that 49% of Americans, approximately 1 out of 2 people that you meet, favor requiring that Arabs, including Arab-Americans, carry special identification of some sort.
Six out of ten Americans polled favored requiring people of Arab descent to undergo "special security checks" when flying on American planes, even though Attorney General John Ashcroft has said that racial profiling is illegal.
"The leader of these groups, bin Laden, always wears a turban," the Congressman noted, "and I think a lot of his followers — if they were not based here and trying to blend into our society — would be wearing them, too."
The poll also states that 32% of Americans believe Arab residents of the United States should undergo "special surveillance" similar to those of Japanese-Americans after Pearl Harbor. It was not immediately made clear what sort of "special surveillance" the 32% advocated.
The poll and Rep. Cooksey's comments comes as the US Commission on Civil Rights opened a special hotline to report hate crimes against Arab American, Muslim and South Asian American victims of bias attacks. The hot-line, which can be reached at (800)552-6843 and online at ocre02 (at) attglobal.net, has received such an overwhelming response nationwide that the Commission has opened a second hot-line, (866)76U-SCCR.
These hotlines have recieved as much as 70 calls per hour, according to USCCR officials.
Recent incidents reported as possible bias-related crime include a bomb explosion outside a Mosque in San Diego, CA a slaying of a Sikh gas station owner in Mesa, AZ and a shooting death involving a Pakistani grocer in Dallas, TX.
"This rising tide of hostility towards Arab Americans is creating a troubling situation for communities around the nation," said American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) President Ziad Asali. "Make no mistake about it, this attack was aimed at all Americans without exception and the Arab-American community shared every bit of the heartache and anguish that all Americans have been enduring."
New York City activists, who have repeatedly called for tolerance and respect since last Tuesday's attack on the World Trade Center, found the Gallup poll and the recent bias crimes troubling.
Mike, 16, a founding member of the Union for New York City Free Youth (UNYFY), told Indymedia that he was "...afraid that Americans could be sinking towards the level of the terrorists, continuing the cycle of hatred and only adding to the inhumanity."
"If the intention of the terrorists was to attack 'American freedom,' and this 'special surveillance' becomes a reality," he said, "Then those terrorists can claim victory." |
See also:
http://nyc.indymedia.org
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