|
CAIR REPORT - May 11, 2005
The status of Muslim civil rights in the United States – 2005
2004 CAIR Civil rights findings
Statistical Highlights
For the 2004 calendar year, CAIR and its affiliate chapters processed a grand total of 1,522[192] incident reports[193] involving claims of civil rights discrimination and harassment. This was a 49 percent increase in reported cases of harassment, violence and discriminatory treatment from 2003 (1,019 reports). This also marks the highest number of Muslim civil rights cases ever reported to CAIR in our eleven year history.
Anti-Muslim Hate Crimes
Incidents of anti-Muslim physical violence have also gone up by 52 percent-increasing from 93 in 2003 to 141 in 2004[194]
Some examples of anti-Muslim hate crime reports received by CAIR in 2004:
On March 17, 2004 Abbas Salmi and his family filed a lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court against Eric K. Nix for bombing the family’s van in Burbank, Illinois. According to the lawsuit, Nix threw a large, mortar-type firework into the Salmi family’s van parked in front of their home. The bomb exploded, causing irreparable damage to the vehicle and terrifying family members who were home at the time, including Salmi, his wife, two small children and parents.
In September 2003, Nix pled guilty to arson and hate crime charges for the bombing. The 26-year-old was also convicted of criminal damage to property in 2001 for vandalizing an Arab-owned furniture store two days after the 9/11 attacks[195].
According to police reports and eyewitnesses, a home-made bomb exploded outside of the Champions Mosque in the Houston suburb of Spring, Texas. Muslim children who saw two white males place the bomb in the mailbox narrowly missed being injured in the attack. [196]
Thomas Carroll, 33, pled guilty[197] and was sentenced to 30 years in prison for setting a string of arsons at Muslim owned convenience stores and gas stations in San Antonio, Texas.
a. His sentence was enhanced under the James Byrd Hate Crime Law, signed into law by Texas governor Rick Perry[198], which allows judges to increase the sentencing range for a defendant who committed crimes of ‘race or © FBI ethnic hatred or bias.’
b. “These crimes were targeted against people because of their national origin and were designed to spread fear throughout the whole community. Terrorists [like Carroll] commit crimes based on hatred of a people or a religion and such acts will not be tolerated and will be dealt with firmly,” said District Attorney Susan D. Reed[199].
Investigators in Massachusetts are still investigating a potential hate motivated arson against the Al-Baqi Islamic Center in Springfield, Massachusetts.[200]
An American Muslim family in Tucson, Arizona recounted the horror of how bullet shots pierced through their home as they ate dinner in October 2004. In December, the same family’s truck was smashed and vandalized in the front driveway of their home.[201]
Civil Rights Cases by State
Over the past year, CAIR has received complaints of potential civil rights violations from all 50 states. Overall, ten states alone accounted for nearly 79 percent of all reported incidents to CAIR in 2004. These ten states (and their percentages) include: California (20.17%), New York (10.11%), Arizona (9.26%), Virginia (7.16%), Texas (6.83%), Florida (6.77%), Ohio (5.32%), Maryland (5.26%), New Jersey (4.53%) and Illinois (2.96%).
Table 1. Number of Civil Rights Reports by State
|
State
|
Case Count
|
Percentage (% Total)
|
|
CA
|
307
|
20.17
|
|
NY
|
154
|
10.11
|
|
AZ
|
141
|
9.26
|
|
VA
|
109
|
7.16
|
|
TX
|
104
|
6.83
|
|
FL
|
103
|
6.77
|
|
OH
|
81
|
5.32
|
|
MD
|
80
|
5.26
|
|
NJ
|
69
|
4.53
|
|
IL
|
45
|
2.96
|
|
All Others
|
329
|
21.62
|
Civil Rights Cases by Place of Occurrence
Discrimination can take many forms and occur in many different settings. A person who is wrongfully terminated from the workplace because of their religious affiliation may not be provided the same legal protections as someone who has had a violent hate crime committed against them. Therefore, in order to ascertain what current areas of civil rights law need the most immediate attention, it is essential to study where discrimination actually occurs within American society.
Of the 1,522 reports that CAIR received this past year, the most common places of occurrence for civil rights violations were the following (in descending order): governmental agencies, workplaces, prisons and businesses. These five categories alone constituted 59 percent of all of CAIR’s received complaints in 2004.
Table 2. Number of Civil Rights Cases by Place of Occurrence
|
Place of Occurrence
|
Case Count
|
Percentage (% Total)
|
|
Government Agencies
|
293
|
19.25
|
|
Workplace
|
278
|
18.27
|
|
Prisons
|
117
|
7.69
|
|
Private Home/Property
|
115
|
7.56
|
|
Businesses
|
99
|
6.50
|
|
Schools
|
95
|
6.24
|
|
Airports
|
88
|
5.78
|
|
Internet/Mail
|
59
|
3.88
|
|
Street
|
56
|
3.68
|
|
Public Accommodation
|
41
|
2.69
|
|
Mosque/Community Centers
|
39
|
2.56
|
|
Police
|
37
|
2.43
|
|
Shopping Centers
|
34
|
2.23
|
|
Courts
|
30
|
1.97
|
|
College Campus
|
29
|
1.91
|
|
Financial Institution
|
25
|
1.64
|
|
Military
|
3
|
0.20
|
|
Other
|
81
|
5.32
|
Although governmental agencies and the workplace still represent the places where civil rights violations against American Muslims are the highest; if we look closely, we will actually see that both government agencies and the workplace declined in proportional terms from last year.
For example, discrimination involving governmental agencies constituted 19 percent of the reports received by CAIR in 2004. However, in 2003, reports of discrimination involving a government agency constituted 23 percent of last year’s report[202]. Although government agencies still constitute the highest frequency of discrimination in both real and proportional terms, the fact that it dropped four percent in proportional terms from last year is a notable statistic.
In addition, workplace discrimination accounted for a over 18 percent of 2004 case reports. When compared with the fact that workplace discrimination accounted for 29 percent of case reports from last year’s report[203]; although workplace discrimination received the silver medal this year in both real and proportion terms, it is also important to note that reports of employment discrimination accounted for 10 percent less of the total reports than they did one year prior.
Table 3. Percentage of Complaints by Place of Occurrence
Setting 98/99 99/00 00/01 01/02 2002 2003 2004
Workplace 47 42 48 26 23 23 18.27
Government Agency 8 11 10 19 23 29 19.25
Police* - - - - - - - - - - 4 2.43
Airport 3 3 2 26 14 4 5.78
School 8 13 15 8 7 7 6.24
Public Accommodation 10 8 9 7 6 4 2.69
Mosque/Community Organization 2 2 1 3 4 2 2.56
Prisons 17 13 9 3 6 6 7.69
Internet/Email/Mail 0 0 0 3 6 7 3.88
Court 2 3 1 0 3 1 1.97
Military 1 0 1 0 1 1 0.20
Housing 0 0 0 0 4 1 7.56
Shopping Center 0 0 0 0 2 2 2.23
Financial Institution - - - - - - - - - - 3 1.64
Muslim-owned Business - - - - - - - - - - 1 6.50
Street - - - - - - - - - - 4 3.68
Other 1 3 2 5 1 1 5.32
Civil Rights Cases by Types of Alleged Abuse
Equally as important as the place where discrimination occurs is the type of alleged abuse involved in every case. In order to comprehensively grasp the full scope of Muslim civil rights in America, it is essential to analyze the types of alleged abuse and any trends which can be ascertained from the compilation of this data.
Table 4. Case Reports by Type of Alleged Abuse
|
Type of Alleged Abuse
|
Case Count
|
Percentage (% Total)
|
|
Unreasonable Arrest
|
385
|
25.30
|
|
Religious Accommodation
|
225
|
14.78
|
|
Employment Discrimination
|
196
|
12.88
|
|
Verbal Harassment
|
190
|
12.48
|
|
Hate Crime
|
138
|
9.07
|
|
Law Enforcement Discrimination
|
113
|
7.42
|
|
Other
|
94
|
6.18
|
|
Racial/Religious Profiling
|
61
|
4.01
|
|
Passenger Profiling
|
40
|
2.63
|
|
Service Denial/Public Facility
|
37
|
2.43
|
|
Business Discrimination
|
22
|
1.45
|
|
Attack Threat
|
17
|
1.12
|
|
Housing Discrimination
|
14
|
0.92
|
|
Internet Harassment
|
4
|
0.26
|
…For purposes of this Report, we categorized all case reports of unreasonable arrest, detention, surveillance, interrogation, seizure and accusations into one consolidated category of ‘unreasonable arrest’.
Unreasonable arrests, denial of religious accommodation, employment discrimination, verbal harassment and hate crimes made up almost 74% of all alleged abuse reports in 2004.
The top five types[20]4 of alleged abuse made up nearly three-quarters of all civil rights incident reports received by CAIR in 2004. Of the 1,522 total reports received by CAIR in 2004, these five categories alone accounted for more than 1,100 of total reports.
Islamic Features Which Trigger Discrimination
Regardless of the situation, when a Muslim is discriminated against, there is usually a tangible feature or factor which the individual possesses which motivates the discrimination. Whether it is a Muslim woman who is not allowed to wear her hijab[205] in the workplace or other Muslims who are discriminated against solely based on their national origin; it is important to acknowledge which Islamic features in today’s society tend to trigger the most ©Inminds.com acts of discrimination against American Muslims.
TABLE 6. Case Reports on Muslim Features Triggering Discrimination
|
Feature Trigger
|
Case Count
|
Percentage (% total)
|
|
Ethnicity/Religion
|
1051
|
69.33
|
|
Hijab/Scarf
|
131
|
8.64
|
|
Organizations/Activists
|
129
|
8.51
|
|
Prayer
|
82
|
5.41
|
|
Muslim Name
|
25
|
1.65
|
|
Beard
|
23
|
1.52
|
|
Quran/Literature
|
14
|
0.92
|
|
Ramadan/Hajj
|
14
|
0.92
|
|
Other
|
11
|
0.73
|
|
Halal Food
|
11
|
0.73
|
|
Eid/Religious Holiday
|
10
|
0.66
|
|
Kufi
|
9
|
0.59
|
|
Niqab
|
6
|
0.40
|
192 Although CAIR received over 1,900 reports of potential civil rights violations, CAIR found that only 1,516 of these
‘reports’ warranted further investigation by CAIR.
193 See Graph 1.
194 See Graph 2.
195 See http://www.cair-net.org/default.asp?Page=articleView&id=1496&theType=NR
196 See “Bomb explodes outside mosque,” Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Press Release, July 7 2004 available at http://www.cair-net.org/default.asp?Page=articleView&id=1100&theType=NR
197 “Man sentenced in hate crime arsons,” Bexar County (TX) District Attorney Press Release, February 28 2005 available at http://www.co.bexar.tx.us/da2/PressRelease/2005/2282005a.htm
198 See also http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2002/twotownsofjasper/update.html
199 Supra note 197.
200 Patrick Johnson, “Mosque fire’s cause remains a mystery,” Springfield (MA) Republican, December 10 2004 available at http://www.masslive.com/chicopeeholyoke/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1102668343122802.xml
201 Millie Martinez, “Hate Crime, Were They Targets?” KOLD-TV, October 27 2004 available at http://www.kold.com/Global/story.asp?s=2490503
202 See Table 3. 203 Id.
204 The top five types of alleged abuse in CAIR cases were: unreasonable arrest, denial of religious accommodation, employment discrimination, verbal harassment and hate crimes. See also Table 4 and Graph 5.
205 Hijab is a Muslim headscarf for women. See also p.1.
|
