TomDispatch: Citizen Alioune, How Not to Deal with Muslims in America

From TomDispatch today: a striking exploration of why the treatment of the Muslim community in America, especially by law enforcement authorities, has made no sense since 2001 (by a reporter who has long covered the subject) -- Stephan Salisbury, "Citizen Alioune, How Not to Deal with Muslims in America." (In addition, catch Salisbury on the latest TomCast audio interview discussing the words that changed our world since September 11, 2001.)

There was another vendor, Alioune Niass, a Senegalese Muslim, in Times Square on the night of the now infamous car bomb. He was the one who first spotted the smoking car and played a crucial role in reporting it. He got no press attention, no calls from the president, no free tickets to a Mets game. He was not called a hero. And yet his was, as Stephan Salisbury reports, the most courageous of acts.

Salisbury, a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, has long been covering the Muslim community in America and the way it has been treated since September 11, 2001 -- and has just published a book on the subject, Mohamed's Ghosts, An American Story of Love and Fear in the Homeland. Of Niass, he writes: "Why do I say that his act required courage? Like many Muslim immigrants in New York City and around the country, Niass senses that he is viewed with suspicion by fellow citizens -- and particularly by law enforcement authorities -- simply because of his religion.... in terrorism cases, law enforcement authorities view every Muslim as a potential threat. Ordinary citizens become objects of suspicion for their very ordinariness." And yet he did not hesitate to act.

Using his knowledge of just how ham-handedly law enforcement has dealt with Muslims here, Salisbury explores two new studies. Each was, at least in part, government supported and each indicates just how overblown the fear of terrorism is in the U.S. today -- terror bombing incidents are now significantly lower than in the 1970s! -- and how wrongheaded has been the law-enforcement approach to Muslims in this country. As he writes: "Despite the demurrals of law enforcement officials, the sweeps and on-going, ever-widening investigations have focused exclusively on Muslim enclaves. I have seen the destructive impact on family and community such covert police activity can have: broken homes, deported parents, bereft children, suicides, killings, neighbors filled with mutual suspicions, daily shunning as a fact of life. 'Since when is being Muslim a crime?' one woman whose husband had been swept up off a street in Philadelphia asked me."

In fact, writes Salisbury, quite a different, community-oriented approach to American Muslims would have made far more sense for law enforcement officials. This is a powerful look at a subject many American would prefer not to think about. It's a must read.