Washington and its police agencies set the stage for the attacks by targeting Arabs and Muslims in the days following the September 11 events. In highly publicized arrests at New York's Kennedy and La Guardia airports, the FBI arrested 11 people claiming they were connected to the hijacked airliners. Mike Glass of Seattle told reporters the federal agents took aside and searched "anyone with dark skin or who spoke with an accent." Ten of them were later quietly released without any charges being filed. Police stopped an Amtrak train in Rhode Island September 12 and arrested a Sikh man who was wearing a green turban. Other raids by federal agents in Florida and elsewhere helped foment an anti-Arab and anti-Muslim air.

Students at New York's Columbia University protested incidents of abuse at a September 13 forum organized by the Columbia North Africa and Middle Eastern Club, known as Turath. One student had been on the receiving end of obscenities because she "wears a head covering," Henna Hussain of the Muslim Students Association, told the meeting. "We just want all Muslims and any South Asian-looking people to just be careful because there are people out there who don't differentiate," she said.

"Arab people sympathize with [the victims]," said one participant. Many objected to the media coverage of reaction to the attacks in the Middle East. "I was watching CNN on Tuesday and I kept hearing three words: Islam, Jihad, and Terrorism," said Hafsa Ali.

A range of organizations have added their voices to the widespread outrage at such attacks. The representatives of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the American Muslim Alliance, and six other groups met September 12 and issued a statement urging "our fellow Americans, the government and media to...not assign any form of collective guilt against communities for the crimes of individuals."

The Arab American Action Network (AAAN) reported that on September 12 a number of church, civil liberties, and community groups organized a press conference in Chicago "in solidarity with Arab Americans and Muslims."

Staff and proprietors of retail outlets, and others who work by themselves, like taxi drivers, are particularly vulnerable to attacks. Balbir Sing Sodhi, the Sikh proprietor of a gas station, was shot and killed on September 15. Twenty minutes later, the gunman shot at, and missed, a clerk of Lebanese descent at another gas station. He then fired into the home of an Afghan family. As he was arrested and handcuffed, he said, "I'm a patriot. I'm a damn American all the way."

Sikh representatives have pointed out that their religion is neither Muslim nor from the Middle East. "Our turbans have turned us into targets," said Mandeep Singh Dhillon in California.

Accounts have come in from at least six states of attacks on Muslim mosques. AAAN, which monitors incidents of harassment, reported on September 12 that "approximately 350 people, some waving American flags...attempted to march" on a mosque in Bridgeview, a Chicago suburb that is home to many Arab-Americans. The police say they prevented the march from reaching its target. In Cleveland, a man drove his car through the doors of an Islamic center, causing up to $100,000 in damage.

Alongside such serious assaults have been numerous incidents of verbal and physical abuse, including the forcible removal of the scarves often worn by Muslim women. Reporting incidents of "harassment or threats on kids in junior high school or high school," Salam al-Marayati, director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles, noted, "There's been a backlash after every major international crisis involving the Middle East."

Faced with the three killings and reports of widespread assaults, President George Bush stated, "Our nation should be mindful that there are thousands of Arab Americans who live in New York City, who love their flag as much as [we] do, and we must be mindful that we seek to win the war, that we treat Arab Americans and Muslims with the respect they deserve."  
 
 
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