A New Study Found Muslims in America Experience Up To Eight Times the Discrimination That Other Religious People Do
By Samar Warsi
Oct 5, 2020
When Qasim
Rashid, a practicing Muslim, finished his internship at a labour law firm in
Virginia 10 years ago, he was told he would be offered a full-time attorney
role on one condition: if he toned down his outspokenness on Islamophobia.
Bette
Cassaro, left, of Woodside, N.Y., protects Mohammad Abdul Awal, right, of
Queens, N.Y., from the passing foot traffic as he prays during a rally in
support of a proposed Islamic centre and mosque near Ground Zero in New York on
Sept. 11, 2010. David Goldman, Associated Press
-----
Rashid, who
is now the Democratic nominee for Virginia’s 1st Congressional District, said
the incident happened in 2010 amid the Ground Zero mosque controversy, the
“Burn a Quran Day” initiative, and the Times Square bombing attempt.
“I was
outspoken about my faith to say, ‘Hey we are human beings, too,’ and apparently
that made some people uncomfortable,” said Rashid, who had taken to social
media to voice his concerns about rising anti-Islamic sentiments in the
country.
Linda
Jacknow, 70, of Long Island, N.Y., right, an opponent of the proposed Islamic
centre and mosque to be built near Ground Zero argues against Aviva Stampfer,
21, of Manhattan, N.Y., left, and Blake Luley, 23, of Brooklyn, N.Y., both in
favor of the plan, as their respective rallies converge in New York on
Saturday, Sept. 11, 2010. David Goldman, Associated Press
----
Rashid’s
experience speaks to the institutional discrimination that many American
Muslims face in the U.S., according to a new report. Data from the Institute
for Social Policy and Understanding indicates Muslims are more likely than any
other faith groups to experience religious discrimination in both institutional
and interpersonal settings.
The survey
noted that Muslims face higher levels of institutionalized discrimination
compared to their Jewish counterparts and those belonging with other faith
groups in the general population. At the airport, roughly half of Muslims (44%)
say they face discrimination, a significantly higher number than Jews (2%) and
other faith groups (5%) experienced.
American
Muslims also face higher levels of discrimination when applying for jobs (33%
of Muslims, 5% of Jews and 8% of faith groups), in interactions with law
enforcement (31% of Muslims, 2% of Jews and 8% of others), and even when
receiving health care services (25% of Muslims, 5% of Jews and others).
“Discrimination
is not always someone wearing a KKK hoodie screaming slurs at you, it can be
much more subtle and sinister,” said Rashid.
The
institute’s findings are part of its fifth annual poll of U.S. religious
communities, which surveyed 2,157 Americans who self-identified as either
Muslim, Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, white evangelical or unaffiliated.
According to the institute’s Director of Research Dalia Mogahed, one goal of
the research is to provide insights to the Muslim community and policymakers so
they can identify issues and effectively allocate resources toward combating
anti-Muslim sentiment discrimination.
Institutional
discrimination can have two causes, said Mogahed. The discrimination can stem
from inherently racist policies or from people executing neutral policies in a
racially biased way. “In some cases, implicit biases can manifest as
institutional Islamophobia while in other cases, structural forces target
certain groups.”
In the
aftermath of 9/11, those “structural forces” showed up in the form of expansive
federal policies such as the Patriot Act, the New York Police Department’s
Muslim Surveillance Program and the federal National Security Entry-Exit
Registration System.
The
“special registration” system, as it was called, required all males 16 or older
from 25 countries to register every time they entered and exited the U.S. The
process included fingerprinting, photos, providing private financial
information and interrogating people about the purpose of entry and nature of
their travel outside the country. While the “special registration” did not
explicitly target any particular religious group, it disproportionately
affected Arabs and Muslims, according to research on the impact of the program
that was discontinued under the Obama administration.
Dr. Adil
Solaiman, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Thomas Jefferson University,
dubs the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System “the original Muslim
ban.” When the Bush-era program was introduced, Solaiman was a 16-year-old
boarding school student at Cate School, located just outside of Santa Barbara,
California. A Pakistani citizen whose family lived in Saudi Arabia at the time,
Solaiman would fly between the Middle East and the U.S. about three times a
year and remembers being subjected to lengthy interrogations almost every time,
with one particular round of questioning lasting more than 4 hours.
Solaiman,
who is now a U.S. citizen, said the experience still informs how he travels.
“I’ll
always put on a nice shirt and carry my hospital badge when I fly so I appear
more professional when I reach the immigration desk,” said Solaiman. “I know I
am looked at differently, so it feels like I have to prove that I belong in
some way.”
Research
shows that when people are “chronically treated differently, unfairly or
badly,” it can lead to a variety of negative health outcomes including low
self-esteem and higher risk of developing stress-related conditions such as
anxiety and depression.
Muslim
advocacy organizations, like Muslim Advocates, MPower Change, Justice for
Muslims Collective and the Council on American Islamic-Relation, have worked to
combat various forms of religious discrimination for years through community
building, civil rights advocacy and civic engagement.
Hate groups
and persistent anti-Muslim discourse have been “hyper successful” at framing
Muslims as “inherently foreign” and this idea seeps into discriminatory
policymaking, law enforcement, attitudes toward Muslims and virtually
everything, said Scott Simpson, public advocacy director at Muslim Advocates.
Muslim
Advocates is a national civil rights organization working to fight anti-Muslim
bigotry with the goal of “attaching consequences” to religious discrimination
at every level. Whether it’s asking Joy Reid to apologize for casual
Islamophobic rhetoric; naming and shaming Hyatt Hotels for hosting an
anti-Muslim conference; filing a complaint with the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission when Amazon refused to give its employees prayer breaks;
or sending a demand letter to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for serving
pork to Muslim detainees in violation of their religious beliefs — the
organization’s goal is to “halt bigotry in its tracks.”
The
organization, like many others, encourages Muslims to report instances of
discrimination on its website.
Simpson
said anti-Muslim sentiment is common in both political parties with some of the
most blatant discrimination coming from individuals and institutions that claim
to be progressive and liberal. On the other hand, there are some conservatives
that have “really gotten it” because they understand that religion is sacred,
even if it’s not their own.
“The
reality is that there is a small percentage of the population that is ‘really’’
overtly anti-Muslim and then there is everyone else, who would rather not deal
with it,” he said. “We need everyone to speak up.”
Original Headline: Why Muslims experience more
discrimination than other faith groups in America
Source: The Deseret
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-west/a-new-study-found-muslims/d/123079
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