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11/15/2001 (14:00)

Double Jeopardy
By Mona El-Ghobashy
The Cairo Times

Part II
Despite the difficult days ahead, Arab-American activists are banking on the tolerant and democratic America that does not point fingers at innocents. 'There are two forces at work here,' says Jean AbiNader, managing director of the Washington, DC-based Arab American Institute (AAI). 'Shows of support from
public figures, community leaders, school principals, and so on. And the radio talk shows, editorials, and TV commentators trying to create stories where there aren't any.'

Unlike the aftermath of the 1993 World Trade Center and 1995 Oklahoma City bombings, awareness of bias attacks and harassment of Arab-and Muslim-Americans has reached the highest levels of government. Within hours of the attack on the Twin Towers, New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani cautioned against vigilante action. Attorney General John Ashcroft warned that bias attacks would get zero tolerance.

President George W. Bush, speaking in a phone conference with the mayor and Governor George Pataki on 13 September said, 'Our nation should be mindful that there are thousands of Arab-Americans who live in New York City, who love their flag just as much as the three of us do...we should not hold one who is a
Muslim responsible for an act of terror.'

On 17 September, Bush visited the Washington Islamic Center about two miles from the White House and condemned the bias attacks. Standing in stockinged feet, he read a passage from the Qur'an, adding, 'Islam is peace. These terrorists don't represent peace.'

Official recognition has extended to national events mourning the victims. At a 14 September memorial at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. which drew the nation's former presidents and top Congressional leaders, a Muslim imam from the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) said a prayer, followed by a rabbi and a priest.

Media reports have devoted airtime not just to the bias attacks but to interviews with prominent and ordinary Arabs and Muslims, from asking teenage girls in hegab what they feared the most to
consulting Muslim imams and community leaders on the teachings of Islam. Town hall-type programs such as CNN's Talkback Live have included young Arab and Muslim-Americans, many in hegab, talking about their experiences and dispelling any notions that they're somehow alien implants in American society.
According to the AAI, there are three million Americans with roots in the Arab world. CAIR estimates that there are seven million Muslims in the United States.

Credit for the heightened awareness in government and media circles must go to the effective organization and mobilization of Arab- and Muslim-American groups who have come into their own over the past 10 years, reaching new levels of political maturity. Walking in the footsteps of a long line of ethnic grassroots
movements and civil rights organizations that began with the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909, groups such as the Arab American Institute (AAI), the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), the Council on American-Islamic Relations
(CAIR), and the American Muslim Alliance (AMA) have established links to media outlets and government representatives, reached out to educators and community leaders, and addressed ordinary
Americans, making a visible dent on the stranglehold placed by pro-Israel groups and interests on any positive or even balanced views of the Middle East and Arab-American issues.

'In the past, we were perceived as somehow outsiders,' says Hussein Ibish, communications director at ADC. 'Now we are larger, better organized, and speak in the American idiom. Our language is non-accented.' Ibish pointed to the unanimous passing of a Senate resolution on 13 September condemning
attacks on Arab-Americans as further evidence of the effective links his group and others have made to the American political establishment. Soon after the attacks on New York and Washington, ADC and other groups took out ads in major national newspapers strongly condemning the attacks, set up funds for the
victims' families, and participated in candlelight vigils and interfaith services. ADC is also reminding Americans that some 200 Arab-Americans died in the Twin Towers, in addition to Arab-American firefighters.