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CAIR REPORT - May 11, 2005
The status of Muslim civil rights in the United States - 2005
Background and Findings
In the months directly following 9/11, Attorney General John Ashcroft, using his powers under section 412 of the now infamous USA PATRIOT Act(2), rounded up and imprisoned well over 1,2003(3) Muslim and Arab men based solely on pretextual immigration violations. The most disconcerting fact about these mass round-ups was the fact that the Justice Department refused to disclose the detainees’ identities, give them access to lawyers or allow them to have contact with their families.
In April 2003, Inspector General Glenn A. Fine reported that at least 1,200 men from predominantly Muslim and Arab countries were detained by law enforcement officials nationwide.(4) An August 2002 Human Rights Watch report documents cases of prolonged detention without any charge, denial of access to bond release, interference with detainees’ right to legal counsel and unduly harsh conditions of confinement for the over 1,200 detainees.(5) Georgetown University law professor David Cole said that, “Thousands were detained in this blind search for terrorists without any real evidence of terrorism, and ultimately without netting virtually any terrorists of any kind.”(6)
In addition to the indiscriminate immigrant dragnet after September 11, several high profile cases against American Muslims further stigmatized the American Muslim community.
For example, after spending seventy-six days in solitary confinement and being labeled a ‘spy’ in most media circles; where can Army chaplain and West Point graduate Captain James Yee go to regain his respectability after being falsely accused of treasonous crimes that could have resulted in the death penalty? Where might Oregon attorney Brandon Mayfield reclaim his good name after being falsely linked by the FBI to the Madrid train bombings of March 11, 2004? How does Sami Al-Hussayen resume a normal life with his family after being found not guilty of ‘aiding terrorists’ while serving as a webmaster and exercising his First Amendment right to free speech?
The American Muslim community has always categorically condemned acts of terrorism and believes that those who break the law should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. However, in order to remain consistent with the constitutional hallmarks of due process and ‘equal protection’ under the law; it is essential that our law enforcement agencies enforce and apply the law in a consistent manner to all people rather than selectively target people based on their religious or ethnic affiliation.
It is time once again for American society to reclaim its true legal tradition and judge a person on the criminality of their acts; not on the color of his skin or the religion to which she adheres.
2 H.R. 3162 available at http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=107_cong_public_laws&docid=f:publ056.107
3 The September 11 Detainees: A Review of the Treatment of Aliens Held on Immigration Charges in Connection with the Investigation of
the September 11 Attacks, U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General, April 2003 at 1 available at http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/doj/oig/detainees.pdf The Inspector General conceded in his official report that a senior officer in the Office of Public Affairs stopped reporting the cumulative count of detainees after 1,200 because the“statistics became too confusing. Id at note 2.
4 Id.
5 “U.S. Supreme Court Should Review and Reject Secret Detentions,” Human Rights Watch press release, September 30, 2003 available at http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/09/us093003.htm
6 Linda Feldmann and Warren Richey, “Has post-9/11 dragnet gone too far?” The Christian Science Monitor, September 12, 2003 available at http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0912/p01s04-uspo.html
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