Chicago-Area Muslims and Arab Americans Face Backlash, Expressions of Solidarity

By Kristin Szremski

As all Americans watched the World Trade Center towers crumble in horror and disbelief, Muslim- and Arab-Americans also were affected by an hysterical rage that took to the streets of suburban Chicago. As days passed, however, calm and cautious hope began to replace the fear that resulted from verbal and physical assaults against members of those communities, and demonstrations and attacks on their mosques.

On Sunday, Sept. 16, leaders of the Mosque Foundation in Bridgeview, Illinois, held an impromptu information session for their female members, many of whom had remained closed up in their houses throughout the week. The meeting was called to address the isolation and depression that seemed to have been creeping up on the women, many of whom did not want to go out in public without the traditional hijab head scarf.

The Mosque Foundation’s Imam Jamal Said answered the women’s questions and spoke about the terrorist attacks. Later in the day, the mosque’s board of directors held a meeting to further address women’s concerns, and the evening was capped off with an interfaith dialogue. According to mosque board member Rafeeq Jaber, nearly 200 women attended, in a session that was as informative as it was supportive.

One woman expressed the pain she felt after days of seeing hundreds of demonstrators lined up in the neighborhood surrounding the mosque, which required the protection of police officers from more than a dozen neighboring communities.

Explaining that she’d lived in that town for 30 years, the woman’s pain was palpable. “This hate doesn’t just spring up overnight,” she lamented.

In other acts of violence, according to reports in the The Daily Southtown, graffiti stating “Kill Arabs” was sprayed on several Chicago buildings Sept. 11. The next day an Arab Chicagoan was beaten, after he came to the aid of a taxi driver who also was being attacked; a Molotov cocktail was thrown at a South Side Chicago mosque, with the subsequent fire extinguished by the imam; families from a Bridgeview apartment building reported that someone drove onto their lawn and tried to run them down; a gas station clerk was assaulted twice in two separate incidents: first he was bludgeoned with the blunt end of a machete, and three hours later was punched in the face; and several businesses had windows broken. On Thursday, Sept. 13, a Bridgeview business was set afire, an incident that is being investigated as a hate crime.

In this atmosphere of hysteria, local Muslim and Arab leaders held numerous press conferences to condemn the attacks and to reassure the public that American Muslims and Arabs are just as harmless and innocent of the attacks as the non-Arab and non-Muslim public.

On the day after the tragedies in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, leaders from the Mosque Foundation and the Islamic Association for Palestine called an interfaith press conference in response to an offer of help from Fr. Walter Turlo, pastor of Bridgeview’s St. Fabian Catholic Church. The Muslim leaders gathered with more than 20 Christian clergy and spoke about their unity as Americans. “We are an indivisible part of the American community,” said Mosque Foundation president Basam Jody.

Rafeeq Jaber, who is national president of the Islamic Association of Palestine, stressed Muslim and Arab unity with other Americans. “We need to send a positive message out to the rest of the community,” he said. “The leadership of the religious community is here to send this message strongly to the rest of the nation, because the whole nation is together today. The nation has to come together regardless of religion or [skin] color.”

Representing the Chicago Archdiocese was Roman Catholic Bishop John Gorman, who brought a message of hope and support from Cardinal Francis George. Several other Christian clergy said they were united behind their Muslim brothers and sisters.

A similar press conference, sponsored by several Arab-, Muslim- and Jewish-American organizations, along with the Japanese American Citizens League, was held in Chicago that same day. Rev. Jesse Jackson, president of the national Rainbow Push/ Coalition, spoke at that event.

Yet, while Said, Jaber and other Muslim leaders of Palestinian heritage reassured Americans about their loyalty to the United States, and publicly expressed their grief for the victims of the attacks, they were aware of the irony of the situation. While Muslim leaders throughout the country were denouncing the terrorist acts and expressing sympathy, Israeli tanks had moved boldly into Palestinians towns. Said mentioned at the conference that Israeli troops killed 13 residents of Jenin on Sept. 11.

“It’s very hard,” he said privately, after the press conference. “When we [Palestinians] have a problem, when we are the victims, very few come to our aid. We are hurt when we see educated men and women trying to avoid this issue.”

By Friday, just three days after the attacks, press conferences gave way to rallies that were more organized but just as focused on interfaith and intercultural solidarity. The Palos Hills, Illinois-based United Muslim American Association invited legislators and civic leaders to a Sept. 14 rally, which was attended by State Sen. Patrick O’Malley, a candidate for governor of Illinois.

“This is a time for a measured response that is focused on the perpetrators of the unconscionable acts and those who harbor them,” O’Malley said in a prepared statement. It is not the time for blind anger against anyone.”

By week’s end, after several days of such support, the south suburban Chicago Muslim leadership seemed to feel more optimistic. Jaber said he was heartened by President George W. Bush’s words asking Americans to refrain from blaming their Arab-American neighbors.

“The outpouring of support that we got, from all over… from everybody, pastors, reverends, rabbis, laymen, politicians,” Jaber said, “brought tears to my eyes and made me proud to be an American.”

Kristin Szremski is a news editor with a suburban Chicago newspaper.

Portrait of a City

Chicago-Area Muslims and Arab Americans Face Backlash, Expressions of Solidarity

By Roxane Assaf

Driving home from Chicago’s Southwest Side, the glittering Oz of downtown crests on the horizon. But the cluster of once seemingly steadfast stalagmites is now but a glass menagerie, a tray of crystal—the Sears Tower no longer a boastful edifice, but a vulnerable spire exposed above the city’s skyline.

The Southwest Side of Chicago is home to the greatest number of Arabs and Arab Americans in the Chicagoland area. The nights following our national and global tragedy saw multi-denominational prayer vigils, candlelit ceremonies, blood drives, teach-ins and sing-ins. Those nights also saw hostilities of the kind one hopes, and perhaps assumes, have been exorcised from the American consciousness—at least in the larger community.

Near Midway Airport along Highway 43 (Harlem Avenue) and 93rd Street, the usually quiet, middle-class suburb of Bridgeview hosted endless parades of flag-topped vehicles in raucous profusion, while flag-wavers flanked the road in clusters. On its face, the show was a cheery one. The honking horns and bursts of patriotism should make any American well up with pride. Standing ready in shopping mall parking lots, however, were authorities from 20 to 30 police organizations. The sea of squad cars, riot gear and emergency vehicles looked like the scene of another national disaster. And it might well have been, if not for their presence. The Bridgeview mosque was off limits, while a SWAT team stood guard.

On the Friday night following the attack on the World Trade Towers, Christians, Jews and others joined hands encircling a Chicago mosque, while Muslims prayed inside. During morning prayers at 5:30 the next morningthis protective gesture of interdenominational solidarity was shattered along with the mosque’s windows, when unknown attackers threw bricks at what they may have thought was an empty Islamic house of worship. A gas station attendant was threatened with a machete after admitting he was Moroccan.

On the heartening side, the Reverend Jesse Jackson prayed with a throng of Chicagoans near the Federal buildings downtown, encouraging unity and tolerance. At the same time, a number of Chicago organizations held a press conference in solidarity with Arab Americans and Muslims. The press conference was convened by American Friends Service Committee, Illinois Peace Action, Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Japanese American Citizens League, National Lawyers Guild, Chicago Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights, Jewish Peace Forum, Not In My Name, and Eighth Day Center for Justice.

Having held Friday noon vigils for months, members of the Chicago-based Jewish group Not in My Name considered canceling their vigil on the national Day of Prayer called by President Bush for Friday, Sept. 14. The vigil’s usual location was at one of the two downtown spots where Mayor Richard Daley had encouraged Chicagoans to gather in remembrance of the victims. Deciding to face the prayerful mourners, Not in My Name members changed their usual message of ending the Israeli occupation to placards reading: “Arabs and Jews: We Refuse To Be Enemies.”

Not in My Name co-founder Cindy Levitt was taken aback when someone in the crowd read the signs and began hugging each person in the line. “Then someone else followed suit,” she said. “And then it was as if we were in a wedding receiving line, with one after another waiting their turn to travel down the line. Some were crying as they hugged and thanked us. Some said, ‘God Bless you!’ and ‘This is just what I needed to see.’ ‘You have restored my faith!’ ‘I feel hope again.’”

Following the attacks on New York and Washington, DC, condemnations from Arab and Muslim organizations flooded the fax machines. The Arab American Bar Association said of the “unspeakable acts of terror” that they “represented an assault on the freedoms we cherish as Americans and the rule of law which helps to guarantee these freedoms.”

The Muslim Community Center expressed shock and stated, “In no uncertain terms, we want to condemn this act of terrorism, which has taken so many innocent lives and is completely repugnant to Islamic teachings. This cannot be the work of a rational mind.” They offered “sympathy with the families of those who lost their loved ones inside the airplanes, in the buildings and on the ground.”

From abroad came denouncements, condolences and pledges of solidarity, including one from Rev. Mitri Raheb of the Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem. His church’s sister relationship with the First Presbyterian Church of Evanston, Illinois links the city’s Christian community with Palestinian Christians in the West Bank. The pastor of the Evanston congregation, known for his warm associations with the Evanston Rabbi Peter S. Knobel, held a special prayer service on the evening of the 11th which was attended by extraordinary numbers of individuals and denominations.

Speaking for all Chicago Muslims, Oussama Jammal, spokesperson and former president of the Mosque Foundation, not only condemned the heinousness of that day’s tragedy, but expressed concern over the setback it represents. “We are part of the American fabric,” Jammal said. “This is a blow to Arabs and Muslims because we were just in recent years becoming recognized for our aspirations, achievements, successes and contributions to society, in business, in politics and in culture. This is an attack on all our values.

“Terrorists don’t represent Muslims any more than Timothy McVeigh represents the (Christian) American people,” he added.

As for the racial smears, Jammal said the women in his community would have to take care, since their head coverings make them easy targets when they go to work, to school or to shop. When asked if the religious leaders had considered suggesting that the women remove their hijab, Jammal replied, “No. We have similar values to the traditional American values. We don’t give up.”

Since the Gulf war, Jammal said, a hotline has been set up with the police departments of several Arab-populated suburban villages in the area. “At that time, people were shot at,” he said. “It’s not over yet. I hope nothing serious happens.”

As for Osama bin Laden, the general consensus in Chicago’s Arab and Muslim community seems to be that it would have taken more than the resources available to the “Nomad of Afghanistan” to carry out operations of the sophistication and magnitude of the Sept. 11 terror. “How certain are we that it was Arabs who were behind it?” asked Jammal.

Suggesting that Americans look at the causes, he argued that despair and fear are at the roots of terrorism. His remedy: “Go after what makes people hopeless.”

Do Americans have the patience for that? Jammal sounded doubtful. “We, as Arabs, are no strangers to suffering,” he noted. “Americans are saying now that they are willing to give up some luxuries to get through the next phase. But how long will they hold out?”

A common thread among all groups and individuals offering their perspectives on the harrowing event is a reminder that scapegoating is not to be tolerated. As Mahmud Ahmad, speaking for the Committee for a Democratic Palestine, put it: “We have hope and faith that the process will bring the culpable parties to justice without holding innocent parties responsible.”

Nonetheless, assaults abound as Arab Americans see their depiction by the media. Television images of a handful of Palestinians cheering over the attack, along with Washington’s withdrawal from the recent racism conference in Durban, South Africa have left Arabs and Muslims in the U.S. feeling stung and deserted. One Palestinian Chicagoan, acknowledging this, added, however, that nobody, NOBODY wanted this.” Sincerely, he explained, “We are a cynical people. We think the U.S. is just doing its duty as a Superpower by maintaining the upper hand. We are hurt, but we don’t want to see America destroyed.”

Chicago-area Arabs and Muslims victimized by racist gestures or attacks are urged to call the Mayor’s Advisory Council on Arab Affairs at (312) 744-4115.

Roxane Assaf is a free-lance journalist based in Chicago.