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WAR ON IRAQ ESCALATES HATE CRIMES IN
U.S.
By Becky Knauer
While physical combat ensues on Iraqi territory, verbal combat plagues United States soil.
As the war on Iraq heightens, so too do the various hate crimes on those of Muslim, Arab and Sikh descent living within the United States. According to Newsday, there have been roughly a dozen potential hate crimes involving verbal harassment or property damage towards any individual that resembles the followers of Saddam Hussein or Osama bin Laden.
Spokeswoman for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Laila Al-Qatami, told Newsweek that a rise in war intensity and causalities directly correlates to the rise of current hate crimes.
“The longer the war goes on and the higher the number of American casualties there, I think probably you can make a correlation there would be more hate crimes and harassment against Arab-Americans and those perceived to be,” said Al-Qatami.
Newsday reported that hate crimes recently escalated in places like Wisconsin-Milwaukee where someone wrote “Suicide bomb yourselves” in marker on a display board at the Muslim Student Association’s offices as well as in Eugene, Oregon where a man pointed his finger at a Sikh woman and pretended to shoot her. So far, the most destructive hate crime was reported in Burbank, Illinois where an explosive device was thrown into the van of a Muslim family.
These crimes are not localized to one area and therefore town police departments, such as those in small suburbs of northern New Jersey, are well prepared to deal with hate crimes should they arise. Former police chief of Old Tappan, New Jersey, John Kramer, said that any crime that promotes degradation of other cultures is grounds for vigorous investigation.
“There is a Bias Crime Unit in place in the Bergen County Prosecutors Office and it’s a requirement that the police department vigorously investigate any hate crime,” Kramer said.
On a larger scale, The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) distributed “safety kits” to mosques, community leaders and others as a way to prevent hate crimes. It urges individuals to develop a relationship with the local law enforcement as to further protect themselves against those who commit hate crimes.
Education about hate crimes does not have to begin with adults. Kramer said that the police departments send trained officers into local school districts to help children understand the current war situation as well as to promote prevention against hate crimes.
“There are juvenile officers that work in the schools to help [promote safety],” he said. Officers from each department are designated [for this position]. The officers themselves go through classes at the police academy to better deal with such problems.”
As Newsweek reported, the duration and intensity of these hate crimes are uncertain. A spokeswoman for the council, Hodan Hassan, said she fears a continuation.
“There are a lot of variables to determine whether or not this will be a severe backlash – how long the war lasts, if there are increasing American casualties, if there are, God forbid, terrorists attacks in retaliation for the war,” said Hassan.