Asia Times: UN documents wave of anti-Muslim reactions


	March 26, 2002	atimes.com

WAR ON TERROR

UN documents wave of anti-Muslim reactions
By Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA - A new United Nations study highlights a wave of anti-Islamic and anti-Arab reactions in Australia, Canada, the United States and several European Union countries in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

The report, drawn up by UN Special Rapporteur Maurice Glele- Ahanhanzo, documents hundreds of incidents of racism, discrimination, xenophobia and other forms of intolerance against Muslims that occurred in those countries in the last few months of 2001. Presented last week to the UN Commission on Human Rights, the report also examines incidents of anti- Semitism, violence by extreme right groups, the situation of the Romani people - better known as gypsies - and racial hatred expressed over the Internet.

The Australian Human Rights Commission, cited by the special rapporteur, reported a backlash against Arabs, people of Middle Eastern origin and Muslims after the September 11 attacks. The Australian rights body received more than 400 phone calls, mainly on an Arab-language hotline, from people reporting verbal and physical attacks. The callers also complained of a slow response by or lack of sensitivity on the part of police and other officials. The Australian commission reported fires and hate graffiti at mosques, as well as an incident in which stones were thrown at a bus carrying children to an Islamic school.

In the case of the United States, Glele-Ahanhanzo's report bases its observations on information provided by the American- Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC). In a fact sheet produced in Washington, the ADC reported 520 violent incidents against Arab-Americans, "or those perceived to be such", since September 11. The ADC defined the incidents as "acts of physical violence or direct threats of specific acts of violence ... ranging from simple assault and battery to arson, aggravated assault, and at least six murders".

People perceived to be Arabs were expelled from aircraft after or during boarding on the grounds that passengers or the crew "did not like the way they looked".

The ADC also documented hundreds of cases of employment discrimination against Arab-Americans, including a number of dismissals, a number of cases in which the police searched and questioned Arab-Americans for no apparent reason, and problems between Arab or Muslim children and other students or even teachers and school administrators.

In Germany, the president of the Palestine Community reported that numerous Palestinians have been verbally abused in the streets. The Hessen Islamic Religious Community complained that it continued to receive daily hate messages by mail or telephone, especially against women wearing head scarves.

In Denmark, "an upsurge of verbal and physical attacks on ethnic minorities associated with Islam" was seen after September 11. The Danish media reported on a small number of Palestinian youngsters who celebrated the attacks on the United States, and "consequently aroused massive and strong emotional reactions".

"Danish politicians, the mass media and public discourse gave a broadly negative representation of Muslims, which was considered by several observers to express some of the toughest anti-migrant sentiment in Europe," said the Islamic Religious Community.

The UN report also lists a number of threats and attacks in Denmark targeting people or property associated with the Muslim community. At the annual meeting of the Danish People's Party in mid- September, "speakers consistently launched verbal attacks on Muslims, who were portrayed as 'our enemy'".

In the Netherlands, intolerance against Muslims has continued to grow since the September 11 attacks, according to Glele-Ahanhanzo's report. A bus driver in Amsterdam refused to pick up a female passenger wearing a head scarf, hate speech was written on the walls of mosques in the Hague, an Islamic school in Nijmegen was set on fire, and there was an attempt to set fire to a mosque in Zwolle.

In the United Kingdom, an Afghan minicab driver was left paralyzed from the neck down after he was assaulted by three men, who according to the police mentioned the September 11 attacks. Another Afghan man was assaulted and seriously injured in Dover. In Swindon, a 19-year-old Asian woman was beaten with a baseball bat after one of the two aggressors reportedly said "Here's a Muslim." Mosques were the targets of fire-bombs, bricks, excrement through mail slots, bomb threats and abusive phone calls in several British cities.

The special rapporteur also cites expressions of anti-Semitism in North America, the European Union and Russia, as documented by the report "Anti-Semitism Worldwide 2000/2001" by Tel Aviv University. According to the Tel Aviv report, "1994 was the worst year for violent anti-Semitism" over the past decade, with 300 anti- Semitic incidents documented in the three regions investigated. "The period 1995-97 was relatively quiet," it adds, while 1998-99 was the period with the most intense anti-Semitic activity.

"Yet even this escalation was dwarfed by the year 2000, when major violent attacks more than doubled, from 32 in 1999 to 66 ... and other acts of violence increased by 50 percent, from 114 to 189. Thus, at the end of the decade, the achievements reached after 1994, thanks to better legislation and law enforcement, as well as intensified police activity and increased public awareness, seem to have been erased," the report continues. "The steep rise in numbers of cases perpetrated against Jews between 1999 and 2000 was not paralleled by anti-foreigner hostility," adds the Tel Aviv University report, as quoted by the special rapporteur.

In Romania, the "chauvinist anti-Semitic Greater Romanian Party became the second-largest party" in parliament, according to the university report, which states that in the past few years, anti-Semitism has been "a major political weapon of the nationalist and the communist opposition in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union".

Russian President Vladimir Putin curbed the activities of the extreme right, and thus the number of anti-Semitic incidents in 2000 was lower than in 1999. However, Tel Aviv University notes that hundreds of anti- Semitic publications can be freely purchased in Russia. It also expresses concern that Putin's "authoritarian regime ... might diminish the involvement of world Jewish organizations and of Israel in Jewish life in Russia".

Glele-Ahanhanzo stated that he deeply regretted Israel's lack of cooperation with the mandate that had been conferred on him by the United Nations. The government of Israel has reacted "negatively to [the rapporteur's] appeals, even in the context of implementation of a Commission on Human Rights or General Assembly resolution", he added.

With respect to the September 11 attacks, the report refers to the "irrational" reactions that the "tragic and painful events" triggered among certain individuals. It also cites interpretations pointing to a supposed "clash of civilizations" sparked by the events of September 11.

But despite the increase in verbal and physical aggression against members of Muslim and Arab communities and their property, "authorities of the countries concerned and most of the other political players in those countries spoke up against these racist reactions", Glele-Ahanhanzo stressed.

In his recommendations, the special rapporteur asked governments to be careful when dealing with problems related to terrorism, in order to ensure respect for human rights and basic freedoms.

(Inter Press Service)