Turbulence and anxiety
【Ming Di】
For many years, American politicians have used the banner of "universal value" to attack other countries' regimes that do not conform to their wishes and interests in order to obtain strategic benefits and strategic resources. Internationally, under the guise of "universal values," the US government launched multinational wars against Iraq and Syria, causing countless civilian casualties. In May of this year, Palestine and Israel erupted in the fiercest exchange of fire in seven years. Reuters said this was the fiercest exchange of fire between Israel and Hamas since the 2014 Gaza War. The UN Special Envoy for the Middle East, Vinneslan, warned that the Palestine-Israel conflict "is escalating to a full-scale war." According to a Reuters report on May 12, the United Nations Security Council held its second emergency meeting within three days to discuss the conflict between Palestine and Israel. The report quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that the Security Council originally planned to issue a statement on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict after the 10th meeting, but was stopped by the United States because the United States said it was mediating a ceasefire behind the scenes and worried that issuing a statement at this time would have counterproductive effects. The US government’s indifference to human rights in the Middle East has become a major factor in the delay in resolving the dispute between Palestine and Israel. Apart from diplomatic factors, from the perspective of the United States’ own policy towards Muslims, American Muslims are increasingly feeling discriminated against and insecure.
1. The United States has long been discriminating and unfairly treating its own Muslims
The United States began to treat its own Muslims differently from the policy level as early as the 1960s and 1970s.
In 1967, after the outbreak of the Third Middle East War, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) began secretly monitoring Arab Muslims.
After the Iranian hostage incident broke out in 1979, anti-Muslim public opinion in the United States was rampant, and many Middle Eastern immigrants were under tremendous social pressure.
The bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993 added fuel to the fire and increased tensions between the Muslim community and mainstream American society.
Throughout the 1980s to the 1990s, Muslim groups continued to be discriminated against and expelled by mainstream society in community organizations, political movements and other social participation.
After the "September 11" incident, the American Muslim community suffered an unprecedented shock.
On October 26, 2001, President Bush signed the US Patriot Act.
According to the decree of the judiciary, relevant agencies can strengthen surveillance of specific religious sites or political organizations such as mosques and Islamic centers.
Obviously, racial profiling is a discriminatory act that violates the rights of citizens.
Although in the pre-September 11 era, racial induction cases against Muslim men of Middle Eastern origin were common, after the implementation of the Patriot Act, these racial induction behaviors have become more common in the eyes of intelligence agencies, law enforcement agencies, and the American public. Is necessary, and has gained a higher degree of social acceptance.
In the year after the "9.11" incident, the US government promulgated about 20 related regulations and policies, such as the "Border Security and Entry Visa Reform Act" and the "Special Registration" program, of which 15 were clearly directed at Muslim community.
In June 2002, the U.S. Department of Justice notified the Customs and Immigration and Naturalization Service to check all Yemeni Muslims entering the country. As a result, Yemeni passengers in the waiting crowd were listed separately and waited several hours for security investigations.
After the "September 11" incident, there were numerous cases of discrimination against Muslims at the airport.
After the terrorist attack, the "Islamophobia" in American society spread among some people.
A large number of people believe that Muslims and Arabs are equivalent to murder, cruelty, and violence.
Many Muslims stated that they were yelled, cursed, and abused by strangers in the street within a few months after the "September 11" incident. Women wearing veils are more likely to receive hostile eyes from people around them.
Overnight, the Muslim community seemed to be targeted.
Discrimination and hostility not only happen on the street, but a considerable part of it penetrates into the work.
Some scholars have made an in-depth study on the impact of the "9.11" incident on the employment of Muslim men in the United States.
The results show that although the terrorist attack did not significantly affect the employment situation and working hours of this group, their actual salary and average weekly income have declined by about 9 to 11 percentage points.
According to a 2002 report by the US Fair Employment Opportunity Commission, the number of Muslims suffering from employment discrimination increased substantially in the eight months after the terrorist attack.
During this period, the committee received 488 work discrimination complaints related to the "9.11" incident, of which 301 were fired by their employers.
In addition to being discriminated against in life and employment, Muslim groups have also suffered various hate crimes. Hate crimes usually refer to criminal acts against a specific social group. Its forms include criminal acts caused by hatred and hate speech defined as crimes. Some scholars have made statistics on hate crimes against Arab Americans that occurred between January 2001 and May 2002: From January 1 to September 10, 2001, there were a total of 260 related records; From September 11, 2001 to May 31, 2002, this number soared to 1,502. The FBI received 481 anti-Islam hate crime reports in 2001, compared with 28 in 2000. It is worth noting that most of the reports received in 2001 occurred within a short period of 4 months after "September 11". These hate crimes against Muslims include assault, intimidation, arson, vandalism, threats of violence and even shooting. After the "9.11" incident, the news media reported at least 15 cases of arson (including attempted arson) against Muslims. At least three people were killed by anti-Muslim elements. In the first week after the terrorist attack alone, there were 104 attacks on mosques and other religious sites in the newspapers.
For a long time, there have been endless incidents of discrimination and abuse against Muslim groups in the United States.
On March 11, 2005, the U.S. Department of Justice Inspector General Glenn Fain disclosed in his report that Muslim prisoners were discriminated against and abused in federal prisons in many parts of the United States.
This kind of incident not only happened in the United States, which advertises "freedom and democracy," but what is even more puzzling is that after the incident, the responsible warden and guards were not punished.
These incidents also appeared in other people's investigation reports.
Fain needs to investigate possible civil rights violations by the Ministry of Justice every six months. In his 2004 report, he mentioned multiple cases of unfair treatment of Muslims.
The report pointed out that federal prosecutors refused to initiate criminal proceedings against the warden, and the case was only transferred to the Federal Penitentiary Administration.
In another incident, Fain’s investigators discovered that the guards of another federal prison had tortured a Muslim prisoner. Not only that, they also encouraged and allowed other prisoners to attack the aforementioned prisoner.
In previous investigations, Fain had found some videotapes taken in prisons. These video files confirmed the behavior of guards beating prisoners, hitting their heads against walls, twisting prisoners’ arms, and conducting unnecessary naked searches on prisoners. .
At the same time, some prison officials admitted that they had more video materials that had not been handed over to investigators.
What shocked him most was that the investigators he sent had interviewed a Muslim prisoner in a federal prison. Five days later, the director of the prison transferred the prisoner with an "illegal and inappropriate" order. Arrived in a solitary confinement "trumpet", and the prison lasted more than 4 months.
The coverage of Fain’s report was from June 22, 2004 to the end of the year. During this period, the inspector general received 1,943 complaints, of which 1,300 were trivial matters, such as accusing prisons. The use of radio to interfere with people’s freedom of thought, etc., and 435 complaints were not within the scope of the supervisory power of the inspector general.
This shows that Fayin’s report disclosure is only the tip of the iceberg, and the discrimination against Muslims is far more serious than the report.
Prison institutions often best reflect the perfection of a country’s rule of law. The United States has always regarded itself as a “real country under the rule of law.” From the above incidents, it can be said that the United States has a long way to go if it wants to achieve a truly democratic rule of law.
2. The situation of Muslims in the U.S. has deteriorated during Trump's tenure
"Muslim ban" puts everyone in danger of Muslims settled in the United States
Donald Trump preached the plan to prohibit Muslims from entering the country during his campaign. On January 27, 2017, the newly appointed US President Trump signed an administrative plan called "National Protection Plan to Prevent Foreign Terrorists from Entering the United States" command.
This "ban on Muslims" declares that in the next 90 days, visas will be banned to ordinary citizens of the seven Islamic countries of Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, and Libya, in order to prevent what Trump calls " High-risk areas" import terrorism.
As soon as the order was issued, there was a stir in the United States. There were protests and prosecutions. The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the Prime Minister of Canada expressed disapproval. Google, Amazon, Facebook, etc. publicly opposed it. Thousands of people jointly protested, and even Goldman Sachs stood up and accused .
Columbia University scholar Mustafa Bayomi wrote in the Guardian that Trump’s move indicated that he officially wanted to "hunt Muslims." The president brought the United States into a backward era, just as the Chinese were banned in the 19th century. The same as traveling to the United States.
Trump's policy has caused trouble to the Muslim groups settled in the United States.
In a Shiite mosque in Boston, the person in charge is in an extremely embarrassing situation-his wife is a Sunni Muslim from Egypt, received a university education in the United States, and has worked in the United States for many years, but Trump announced After the first "Muslim ban," her application for renewal of her work visa was rejected by the US Immigration Service, even though Egypt is not one of the seven countries listed in the "Muslim ban."
American Muslims during the Trump administration, like Jews half a century ago and Catholics a century and a half ago, suffered political discrimination and isolation because of their beliefs. Even more than 80% of Muslims have American citizens. Identity or permanent residency.
Ignore the religious beliefs of the Muslim community
According to US Business Insider, a US lawyer alleged on August 19, 2020 that a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (hereinafter referred to as ICE) detention center in Miami, FL Detained Muslim immigrants supply pork products and force them to choose between "faith and hunger."
The center has detained 440 immigrants, including dozens of Muslims. “Muslim detainees are forced to accept these (contained pork or pork products) meals because the religious or halal food provided by ICE has always been rotten. And expired.” As early as 2017, ICE and its officials provided rotten and expired halal food to Muslim detainees at the Crom Service Processing Center in Miami, Florida, among the pre-prepared meals for Muslim immigrants. Pork is contained at least 2 to 3 times a week.
When Muslim immigrants reported the situation to ICE staff, related complaints were deliberately ignored.
The religious service staff in the facility also refused to provide them with any help, saying "this is the way it is".
Ordinary Muslims face death threats and personal attacks
Social groups such as the so-called far-right “white first” have also become increasingly active with Trump’s election. The violent crimes of these groups against American Muslims have also increased significantly. According to the data released by the FBI, the targeting in 2016 The number of violent incidents among Muslims has increased by approximately two times compared with 2014, from 154 in 2014 to 307.
Research has found that Americans’ views of Islam have become increasingly negative in recent years.
A survey conducted by the Center for Public Religion Research in 2015 showed that 56% of Americans believe that Islam is in conflict with the basic values of the United States, compared with 76% of Republicans.
According to a 2016 survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, 82% of the American public believe that Muslims in the United States face discrimination, and 57% of them believe that Muslims face severe discrimination, which is 7 percentage points higher than the survey three years ago.
Related survey results also show that Muslims have been among the most discriminated against in the United States for many years.
The Muslim population is less than 1% of the total population of the United States, but 14% of the religious discrimination cases investigated by the federal government involve Muslims; in the workplace religious discrimination cases, 25% involve Muslims.
Incidents of hate crimes against Muslims have occurred continuously in recent years.
Similar cases against ordinary Muslims have occurred from time to time. On February 10, 2015, three Muslim students near the University of North Carolina were shot and killed. In December 2016, a 34-year-old Muslim female police officer in New York City was subjected to hateful intimidation. A man yelled at her: "Islamic State terrorist, I want to slit your throat and go back to your country. "In November 2016, a female high school Muslim teacher in Georgia, the United States, received a note of intimidation from a student. It happened after the general election. The note read: "Why don't you tie your headscarf around your neck (hang it)". Two American flags were painted on this anonymous note found in the classroom, and the signature was "United States". The teacher who received the note is Myra Terry, 24, who is a language arts teacher at the school. She took photos of the note and uploaded it to social media, and wrote: “I want to share (this incident) with us. Concern about the reality of society and the situation. Spreading hatred will not'make America great again'." "Make America great again" is Trump's campaign slogan. According to US media reports, after the election, incidents of rejection and hatred of Muslims and other minorities occurred in many parts of the United States.
In March 2019, U.S. Muslim Congresswoman Ilhan Omar received death threats. Omar, 36, was elected to Minnesota in December 2016. He was the first Somali-American to be elected as a state member in U.S. history. Together with Rashida Tlaib, he became the first Muslim female member of Congress to be elected. After the suspect was arrested, Fox News and then U.S. President Trump were pushed to the forefront for spreading "Islamphobia." According to the Guardian, a 55-year-old man, Patrick Carinho, called Omar’s office. He violently answered the staff member and said, “Are you working for the Muslim Brotherhood? Why do you work for her? She I'm a terrorist, and I will shoot her in the head." According to the FBI's investigation, Carinho first admitted his threatening remarks on the phone, and then denied it, saying that he was just "angry." In the investigation, Carinho described himself as a patriot who "loved the president" and "hated the radical Muslims in the government." The FBI also found a shotgun and a 2.2 caliber pistol at his residence. The Guardian reported that after Carinho was arrested, New York congresswoman Alexander Ocasio-Cortez believed that Omar’s death threat was extremely controversial with Fox News host Jeanne Piro. There is a causal relationship between speech. "When Piro called on people to view the headscarf as a threat on Fox News, it would cause this to happen," Cortez said in a tweet.
Trump is considered to be the culprit behind the spread of "Islamophobia."
Only a few hours after Carinho’s arrest, Trump specifically mentioned Omar in his speech to the Republican Jewish League in Las Vegas: “Oh, I forgot. She doesn’t like Israel. I’m sorry. She doesn’t. Israel, right?" Trump thanked Omar in a sarcastic tone, alluding to his failure to express support for Israel, which caused the Jewish Republicans to laugh.
After the shooting of two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand on March 15, 2019, Omar once accused Trump of being the "hatred instigator" behind this violence.
Omar said that Trump is a president who publicly declared that Islam is hateful of Americans. “He has aroused hatred of Muslims who believe that they can talk about faith and followers in an inhuman and slanderous way.”
The American Muslim community warned that the fierce rhetoric surrounding Islam, especially Omar himself, has made the social atmosphere dangerous.
Afaf Nasir, executive director of the U.S. Council on Islamic Relations, stated that “the political environment led by the White House’s Islamophobia normalizes hate speech,” he pointed out that “Islamphobia” and “white supremacy” must be taken seriously. .
According to US media reports such as the Washington Post and CNN, on July 1, 2020, Aisha, a Muslim woman living in St. Paul, Minnesota, went to a Starbucks store in a local shopping mall to order a drink. But when I took the drink, I found that the clerk had written "ISIS (Islamic State)" on the body of the cup.
On May 14, 2021, according to CNN, Muslims near Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn, New York, arrived at the local "Taba" Islamic Center to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, which marked the end of Ramadan. At that time, they found sprays at the entrance of the center. It has the words "Palestinian die".
The vandalism occurred at a time when tensions and violence between Israelis and Palestinians increased. Mohammed Yunus, the imam of the mosque, said he was shocked by the graffiti and did not understand why someone would target this small community.
Due to the influence of US policies and other factors, the situation of domestic Muslims has gone from bad to worse.
Under the double standards, the United States’ domestic issues have become the “best negative teaching material” for the so-called “universal values”.
The US government ignores lives and fails to fight the epidemic, causing more than 620,000 Americans to lose their lives in the new crown pneumonia epidemic. Although the United States advertises the value of "religious freedom" and "human rights supremacy", the discrimination faced by Muslim groups in the United States is getting worse.
According to the U.S.’s own survey results, 75% of American adult Muslims said that there is a lot of discrimination against Muslims in American society, and 69% of the general public hold the same view.
50% of American Muslims believe that being a Muslim in the United States has become more difficult in recent years.
Muslims have always been the most discriminated against in the United States.
According to a report issued by the American Council on Islamic Relations in April 2018, the number of anti-Muslim groups in the United States has tripled since 2016.
More than one third of the anti-Muslim incidents in the United States in 2017 were incited by federal government agencies.
In the 2018 mid-term elections in the United States, more than one-third of candidates claimed that Muslims are inherently violent or pose an imminent threat, and nearly one-third of candidates called for depriving Muslims of their basic rights or declared Islam is not a religion.
According to the Associated Press report on July 20 last year, because of dissatisfaction with Trump restricting the entry of Muslims, U.S. Muslim officials announced their support for Biden, and the "Millions of Muslim Votes" online summit was organized by Operation Immog, composed of American Muslims. It emphasized its importance to increasing the Muslim turnout rate in November.
After Biden took office as President, he lifted the "Muslim ban". On April 12 this year, the White House issued the "President's Statement on the Beginning of Ramadan", which affirmed the role of Muslims in American history and also recognized that American Muslims Still the target of bullying, bigotry and hate crimes.
This prejudice and these attacks are wrong.
They are unacceptable.
They must stop.
In the United States, no one should live in fear of expressing their beliefs.
In June, the U.S. Senate voted 81 in favor and 16 against, and a large majority approved the appointment of Gulahi, a descendant of Pakistani immigrants, as the federal judge of the state of New Jersey. Gulahi was the first Muslim federal judge in the United States. It can be seen that the Biden administration passed different approvals. Way to fulfill the promises made during the campaign.
However, the various domestic actions of the Biden administration cannot effectively solve the discrimination and unfair treatment of Muslims in the United States. The international community has every reason to be strongly concerned and worried about the U.S. Muslim policy, including the human rights situation of Muslims in the United States. .
(Contributed by the Institute of World Religions, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)