Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) chaired a committee hearing this morning on the civil rights abuses faced by Muslim Americans. In many ways, it was a response to the controversial hearing held by Rep. Peter King on the homeland security threat posed by Islamic extremists in America.
Just like many advocates, including the BJC's Brent Walker, argued that those earlier hearings should not have focused solely on Muslims – that it was an improper governmental isolation and suspicion directed at adherents of a single faith – there were some members of the committee who similarly charged that today's hearing should focus on the discrimination faced by members of all faith, rather than only that which targets the Muslim community.
In his opening statement this morning, however, Civil Rights Division head Thomas Perez explained the particular plight faced by Muslims (and the followers of some minority faiths mistaken for Muslims) throughout the country. (My transcript)
Regrettably, while nearly a decade has passed since 9/11, we continue to see a steady stream of violence and discrimination targeting Muslim, Arab, Sikh and South Asian communities. In each city and town where I have met with leaders, I have been struck by the sense of fear that pervades their life – fear of violence, bigotry, hate, discrimination.
This headwind of intolerance manifests itself in many different ways. Last month, we secured a guilty plea from the 50th defendant charged with a federal criminal case of post-9/11 backlash violence. Last year, three men were sentenced for vandalizing and firebombing a mosque in Columbia, Tennessee.
In my outreach, I consistently hear complaints that children face harassment in schools, that they are called terrorists and told to go home, even though this is their home. America is indeed where they were born. We have a regrettably robust docket of cases in the school systems involving harassment of Muslim, Arab, Sikh and South Asian students. In fact, these sorts of harassment cases are the largest category of religious discrimination cases that our education section handles.
Surely there is a difference between a congressional hearing that exposes the unique and growing victimization of a single faith in need of determined religious liberty protections, and a hearing like Rep. King's, which suggested Islam is inherently more dangerous than other faiths, casting a broad net of suspicion over millions of peaceful Muslim-Americans.
We have every reason to believe – from big headline stories to the back page news items about workplace discrimination to the statistical compilation of complaints – that Perez is right, and that American Muslims face a uniquely harrowing and burdensome existence in simply trying to live out their faith according to the protections the law offers.
The Justice Department is right to prosecute such cases vigorously, and the Senate was right today to hold the first ever hearing on the topic. Muslims were singled out today because Muslims *are* singled out – every day.
You can watch the hearing here.
