After September 11th By Stephen McGuire Our City and our borough have been forever altered by the events of Sept. 11, 2001. One result has been a backlash directed toward anyone who fits a "Middle Eastern" or "South Asian" profile.
Since Sept. 11 there have been over 200 hate crimes reported citywide. Case in point, an Aug. 2003 incident in Queens where hate came to a head. A Sikh couple dressed in traditional Indian clothing, their two children and an adult cousin were returning to their Sunnyside apartment on Aug. 3 when three attackers attacked the group and started beating up the adults, according to police. The attackers called the Sikhs, "Bin Laden Family." They shouted, "go home." The victims were assisted when Greg Hodge, a deliveryman from Woodside Pizzeria, shouted at the assailant to leave. "I can say I saved the guy’s life because it looked like they were going to leave him for dead," Hodge said about the husband, who was wearing a turban and was attacked most directly.
The Impetus For Change Nearly 30 immigrant activists from across the City crowded into a meeting at the Jackson Heights’ Humanist Center of Cultures, following the August attack. The director the New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE), Bryan Pu-Folkes, called on "all fair, decent-minded people to come together."
Pu-Folkes and NICE’s 9/11 Community Organizer Partha Banerjee also called for more activism to fight policies like the Patriot Act and Special Registration, which both give the government more power to profile and investigate immigrants from Muslim countries in anti-terrorism probes. The policies, they said, help fuel anger against Middle Easterners and South Asians stereotyped as anti-American terrorists. "For too long we have not been engaged enough," Pu-Folkes said. He noted a 2003 attack in which a Muslim man was stabbed in a bias attack in Brooklyn but never reported the attack because he’s an undocumented immigrant. "It happens a lot more and many people don’t even report it," Banerjee said. Banerjee said police are "doing okay" in responding to hate crimes, but that the real problem is that they’re happening in the first place.
Concerns For Safety Jamaica activist Morshed Alam, who is president of the New American Democratic Club and executive director of the American Bangladesh Friendship Association, said "we have the same kind of problem in the Jamaica area." "A lot of people are not feeling comfortable. They are not feeling secure," Alam said. In the wake of Sept. 11, people are afraid of being deported and harassed. "A person I know is in a detention center in Jamaica," Alam said referring to the Wackenhut facility in Jamaica. "He has had his green card since 1997. They have been holding him in the detention center and he is facing a deportation order because his paper work is not correct," Alam explained. According to Alam these things seem to be happening with greater frequency since the Sept. 11 attacks. "It’s these kinds of things that people are experiencing. People are trying to get some kind of aid. But they are not feeling America is safe," Alam said, " People do not trust immigrants. Especially South Asian and Middle Eastern immigrants. They are using them as a scapegoat," Alam added, "There are people who are too conservative and People with less education. [They target] some cultural groups out of emotion They are mistaken a lot." "I try to do whatever I can. We had a big demonstration at the beginning of the year with the free giving of information. Normally they try to contact the pool of people they know that can help."
Knowing The Law According to City officials, The New York City Human Rights Law is one of the most comprehensive civil rights laws in the nation. The law prohibits discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations based on race, color, creed, age, national origin, alienage or citizenship status, gender (including gender identity and sexual harassment), sexual orientation, disability, or marital status. In addition, the law affords protection against discrimination in employment based on arrest or conviction record and status as a victim of domestic violence. In housing, the law affords additional protections based on lawful occupation and family status. The City Human Rights Law also prohibits retaliation and bias-related harassment. Those who find themselves as victims of bias or discrimination can contact the New York City Commission on Human Rights or the New York City Police Department. Repealing The Patriot Act? Following Sept. 11, Congress passed the Patriot Act in an effort to protect Americans from terrorism.
But some feel that the passage of the act which grants Federal agencies greater power in fighting terrorists, has allowed the Federal government to compromise the civil liberties of some immigrants. In January of 2003, the New York City Council introduced legislation calling on the Federal government to repeal the Patriot Act. According to the City Council resolution, "The Patriot Act makes changes to over 15 different statutes, and a number of legal scholars and organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union, agree that many of these statutory changes have the potential to compromise our civil liberties; voices in opposition to the Patriot Act include a number of municipalities nationwide including Cambridge, Massachusetts, Ann Arbor, Michigan and Berkeley, California, all of which have found the Patriot Act to be a potential threat to the civil rights of the residents of their communities." The City Council is expected to vote on their resolution in January 2004.
— Shams Tarek and Azi Paybarah contributed to this article
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