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http://www.icare.to/archivemay2003.html#MUSLIMS%20DECRY%20ACTS%20OF%20PROFILING,%20RACISM(usa)

MUSLIMS DECRY ACTS OF PROFILING, RACISM(usa)
May 25, 2003- Muslims from across the country gathered yesterday on two very different downtown D.C. stages, one group looking inward as a way to strengthen their community, the other railing outward over their tenuous place in a post-9/11 United States. The more vocal assembly also was the more public, a Muslim Solidarity Day that boomed warnings across Freedom Plaza about an erosion of civil liberties. President Bush and Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, the two men held responsible, were censured for the detention, interrogation and profiling that speakers said have many people living in fear. War with Iraq has only heightened concerns. “We now live in a climate of secrecy,” said Mahdi Bray, executive director of the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, which organized the rally. “I think civil rights and civil liberties are in jeopardy.”

The event attracted several hundred men, women and children, some from as far as Ohio. They worried aloud about the government targeting mosques, monitoring activities, recruiting informants. They considered this a “first step” of speaking out, though their numbers were far smaller than the thousands expected, organizers said. “What scares me,” said Asma Ashqar of Alexandria, “is that we’ve been talking about democracy and freedom of speech, [but] when you say your opinion, that’s when you’re opposing, that’s when you’re a terrorist.” Shadi Balawi and his wife and two young sons rode a bus from Cincinnati to “stand for justice,” as a stage banner urged. A native of Jordan who is studying aerospace engineering, Balawi recently reported to federal authorities for the registration and fingerprinting required by the 2001 Patriot Act. He has heard comments from strangers — “Go back home,” a driver shouted toward him at a gas station one day — and his wife, who wears traditional dress and covers her head with a hijab, sees the stares of strangers. “This is something we feel,” he explained. “There is some kind of injustice here. We need to stand up to it and say, ‘This is not right.’ “

Toward the back of the crowd, under a frequently threatening sky, Faheem Darab and his brother held a long green banner that in Arabic praised Allah and the prophet Muhammed. Darab needs no sign to be identified, though, and recounted how he and a group of Arab Americans traveling to Saudia Arabia this year for the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, were stopped at Dulles International Airport and questioned for 20 minutes about their travel. “We were walking down the tunnel, about to get onto the plane,” the University of Virginia student said. “Everyone was being allowed to pass, but every single person in our group got stopped.” He would expect that in other countries, he added, but not the United States. “Justice and peace are our lives . . . but they’re under attack.” Half a dozen blocks away, in the posh confines of the Grand Hyatt Hotel and Convention Center, more than 1,000 other Muslims heard far different speeches, intended to strengthen their religious beliefs and identity. Islam as a religion of “peace and justice” was the overriding theme. “We wanted to bring people together, to educate ourselves, to educate our children,” said Ali Shakibai of Hartford, Conn., a spokesman for one of the organizers. The convention was a first for the Universal Muslim Association of America and drew Shia Muslims from the United States and Canada. Shiites are the second-largest branch of Islam, representing 10-15 percent of the faith.