Commentary
Hyper-vigilance toward Muslims only serves to alienate them from the law
By Hani Hamdan
Some time ago, a friend told me a story about his workplace. A Sudanese client came in for a visit. One of my friend's colleagues met the client, and afterward described him as "a very smart guy." He said it as though it were a cause for concern.
My friend understood where his colleague's concern was coming from. "He's not Muslim," said my friend. "He's a Christian Sudani." Relieved, his coworker said: "Oh, good, because I was thinking of reporting him."
My friend and I had a laugh about the story, and after that I didn't think much about it. At that time, I had heard of a few cases where anonymous callers would report their Muslim acquaintances for bogus charges and how that would wreck the lives of these Muslims. But I never thought that such an occurrence might be widespread.
Recently, however, a report by the Washington Post described how law enforcement agencies are hiring people with little knowledge about Muslims and little counterterrorism training to give consultation or lectures to law enforcement agents on the monitoring of Muslims. The report states:
"Seeking to learn more about Islam and terrorism, some law enforcement agencies have hired as trainers self-described experts whose extremist views on Islam and terrorism are considered inaccurate and counterproductive by the FBI and U.S. intelligence agencies."
In other words, the sort of people who like Glenn Beck and post hateful comments on Internet discussion forums have been getting hired by the government to watch Muslims -- including me and my family -- legally.
That might explain why the INS, according to the Washington Post report, "stores the profiles of tens of thousands of Americans and legal residents who are not accused of any crime." Extremists think that all Muslims are suspect until proven otherwise, leading to a deluge of needless reports and profiles. This wastes time and money and in effect makes America less safe, not more.
A colleague of mine, Daniel Bernard, has written a paper citing one example where an unqualified person was asked to give "expert advice" on Muslims here in Minnesota. Here is an excerpt:
"Former FBI-Minneapolis head [Deborah S.] Pierce recounted that in trying to improve relations with Minnesota Muslims, she received advice from experts. Pierce named two. One was Dr. Hamdi El Sawaf, director of the Islamic Center of Minnesota, who was active in interfaith attempts to prevent hostility after 9/11. The other was Dr. Nancy H. Kobrin, a St. Paul psychoanalyst who has written about Muslim terrorists. Kobrin ... gave Pierce a copy of her 2003 journal article, 'Psychoanalytic Explorations of the New Moors.' Pierce skimmed the article, discussed it with Kobrin, and later said the meeting was 'very good for understanding the big picture.'
"In the article, Kobrin ... wrote that the theology of Islam 'encourages black-and-white thinking and the need to have enemies against whom one defines himself as a believer.' Kobrin's article described terrorism not as a form of political extremism but as a group psychosis arising from subconscious conditions affecting all of Muslim culture. Kobrin theorized that jihadists attack the West because Muslims in general are still angry that the Muslim Moors lost possession of territory in Spain 500 years ago."
To a Muslim, this "psychoanalysis," in addition to being a generalization bordering on hate speech, is based on a deep lack of understanding of both Muslims and world history and politics. But when it is taken seriously by the head of the FBI in Minneapolis, it stops being funny in a hurry.
Another thing that is spooky to a Muslim is that there has been an alarming increase in cooperation in counterterrorism training between U.S. officials and the Israeli military. The Israeli military is not exactly scrupulous in avoiding human rights violations. Its long record of excessive violence, unwarranted detentions, home demolitions, extensive surveillance and strong anti-Arab and anti-Muslim sentiment make it a less than ideal ally in the fight against terrorism.
Hiring people who believe that Muslims are trying to impose sharia law in the United States or that all Muslims should be under surveillance only serves to alienate Muslims from law enforcement. It also takes away a big chunk of their freedoms when they have to watch every innocuous thing they do or say in public, worrying that it may be used against them in some way. Taking photographs outdoors, going hunting, showing interest in flight school, or any public display of religion are all brave and adventurous things to do if you are Muslim.
It would be safer for Minnesota to embrace Muslims and keep good connections with local mosques. Muslim Americans would love to help however they can to thwart any attempt at harming Americans.
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Hani Hamdan, DDS, lives in Burnsville and practices dentistry in Lakeville, Minn. He is a contributor and editor of Engagemn.com and a source in MPR's Public Insight Network.
Comments (9)
american muslims are being radicalized in mosques, no one believes islam is a religion of peace anymore especially with all these terrorist attacks happening all over the world. where is the moderate muslim outcry with the bombing of coptic christians in egypt? yet when the danish draw muhammad the whole muslim world cries out.. i find it extremely hypocritical.
Much of this is hearsay and secondhand stories. All of which are told to convince us all that Muslims are somehow the innocent victims of American bigotry.
Leaving aside the fact that there is basically no hate crimes committed against Muslims in America and the majority of hate crimes are committed against Jews, seemingly ordinary Muslims all over this land have been found to be involved in terror. Don't people have a right to be suspicious from time to time?
The jibe against Israel is absurd. Israel is basically America's only ally against terror internationally seeing that that nation is the victim of Islamic jihad. To pretend that Muslim in America are some how hurt and find it "spooky" that the US has a foreign policy which stands by Israel in its struggle to survive in the face of Muslim aggression is ridiculous and I suspect helps you hide behind your own bigotry against that nation and the Jewish people. Muslim can't change the foreign policy of the United States just because they don't like Jews.
Didn't the Muslims who came here in the past years know that America had a strong relationship with Israel? Why didn't they find it spooky then? Why did they bother to come to America if they were so afraid? And if it is so terrible here then why don't Muslims go back to from whence they came?
Give us a break!
People are forgetting that Muslims are here in America since 18 century. And America benefits from Muslims countries since its birth. Now we are at fight with few deviant Muslims, it does not mean that our Government and Politician are not benefiting and doing business with Muslim countries. Muslims also paying big price of terrorism. More Muslims are killed daily than anybody else. Muslims and their organisations (Cair or ISNA) condemns when ever any deviant Muslim commits terrorism. We all have ignorants in our ranks, we need to educate them and make them rational. I see extremist on both side. one is more violent than other.
This article is not about monitoring Muslims, it is about hiring biased parties against Muslims to do the job, "In other words, the sort of people who like Glenn Beck and post hateful comments on Internet discussion forums have been getting hired by the government to watch Muslims", if it is a necessity to monitor someone or a group of people then it should be done by a neutral party and not a biased one.
Besides, if Muslims are to be monitored just because terrorists happen to be Muslims, then all non- Muslim Americans should be monitored because the large majority if not all serial killers and drug dealers are non-Muslim Americans.
Muslims are not the only immigrants living in the united states, everyone here is an immigrant and everyone should be granted the right to live freely without being followed in every step he/she takes.
Once again we see here in this thread the inevitable equivalencies and comparisons.
There might be Christian criminals and maybe even a Jew too but Jews and Christians to not commit acts of violence in the name of Christianity or Judaism. How many times have we had to hear about some Muslim guy who went to a Mosque read the Koran and then went out and killed people or at least gave it their best try. Most have not been successful because our security forces are watching. I happen to think that that is a good thing and should continue and all Muslim should be supporting it instead of screaming racism and bigotry.
No other immigrant group in American history has plotted to destroy the US. This has been the unique contribution of Muslim in America.
To claim that Muslims have been a part of American history since the 18th century is an absurd invention of a history that never existed.
Muslim nations are complete failures. That is why they move to the West and we Westerns do not move there. That is all the proof I need. And when these muslim immigrants get here they show no appreciation for our societies instead they piss and moan about how bad they have it. Those are not the rules American immigrants are meant to follow and not American should tolerate it.
Shawn, it's only an absurd invention of history if you don't take the time to read. Try this.
-Gomez, Michael A. (November 1994). "Muslims in Early America". The Journal of Southern History (Southern Historical Association) 60 (4):-
Where exactly have you heard that Muslims in America are plotting to destroy us? Everywhere I've lived (in New York, Minnesota, and now Florida) the mosques I've been to have preached about contributing to your community, doing good works, giving to charity. If the mosque you go to does otherwise please report it.
Finally, were these 'Muslim" countries failures before or after our 'benevolent' European colonizers came in and installed the kings, shahs, or other various dictators - thanks for that!
History and current contexts prove that human complexity can't be easily quantified. Better, yet, personal experience beats hunkering down behind positions of distanced judgement.
As for history: whether Christians can harm as deeply as other religions, it is useful to remember the Crusades of history.
As for current: it's useful to consider priests and pastors who are pedophiles, etc., protected by their faith leadership and/or funders.
Which isn't to say Christian leaders are more prone to hurt than Muslims are. Only that humans, are not so easily quantified in terms of who does or doesn't do the most damage.
Two related essays, one about a Muslim woman leading Burnsville Minnesota people to prevent bullying by white, Hispanic and black youth. http://dynamicshift.org/archives/suburbanites-led-by-muslim-woman
The other by a Christian leader, recalling the Biblical reminder that all faiths, Muslim, Christian and Jew have to stop fighting and start seeing each other as holy as they are human.
http://dynamicshift.org/archives/priests-epiphany-common-humanity
@ shawn Savage............every muslim came to America either for education, refuge (no choice given in country to go to) and work. so are not here to have leisure and fun, we are here to move on with life and make the best of what were given. if we knew that Isreal and America had such strong relations we might have not came here, and the relations is not what is bothering us its the fact that we are victimized in the political problems when we are only civilians with no political power on either side of the war. grow up and think outside the box, show some intelligence when u decide to comment something so critical.
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