When being a citizen doesn't count

photo: "hand of Fatima" by M.T. Hernandez


A few weeks ago, while in France, a country with a substantial Arab population, I was walking through a neighborhood market and found a small "hand of Fatima" -I bought the charm and have been wearing it since then. When I flew back to the United States I wondered if the ICE people at the airport would question anything. I have a Spanish surname, but also could easily be identified as Arab.

The pendant I bought is called "the hand of Fatima" by Muslims-- which is an intriguing name, since as a Jewish symbol it is known as "the hand of Miriam" - Fatima is also a city in Portugal where the Virgin Mary was said to have appeared - she is called Our Lady of Fatima. Whether there is a Muslim, Jewish, or even Catholic connection, I still felt vulnerable at the airport - doesn't matter if I'm a 7th generation Texan -- the amulet would make people think I'm someone else.

Normally that wouldn't be a problem, but with new profiling rules, who knows what the ICE people will do when an Arab looking Mexican (American) wearing an Arab/Jewish symbol shows her U.S. Passport.

According to an article in Salon.com, later this summer U.S. Justice Dept. will probably implement rules that will allow the profiling of Muslims - even if they are U.S. born citizens. It is really not like this hasn't been happening already. Remember the 1,000+ Muslim men who were detained in California after 9-11?
Of course this is unconstitutional, as Dr. Juan Cole, historian from the University of Michigan explains in an article from Salon.com

The issue of legality has not concerned the Bush administration (and the Congress that plays with them*). If U.S. born citizens who are Muslim, some whose families have been U.S. citizens for generations - can be profiled - how long before other U.S. citizens are also followed around. Soon you could be detained if you look like you could be from an Arab country (if not already), or if you speak English with an accent, or if you travel often to countries with large Arab populations?

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The FBI's plan to "profile" Muslims

It's unconstitutional, un-American -- and it might hurt, rather than help, the FBI's effort to stop real acts of terror.

By Juan Cole
Salon.com

July 10, 2008 | The U.S. Justice Department is considering a change in the grounds on which the FBI can investigate citizens and legal residents of the United States. Till now, DOJ guidelines have required the FBI to have some evidence of wrongdoing before it opens an investigation. The impending new rules, which would be implemented later this summer, allow bureau agents to establish a terrorist profile or pattern of behavior and attributes and, on the basis of that profile, start investigating an individual or group. Agents would be permitted to ask "open-ended questions" concerning the activities of Muslim Americans and Arab-Americans. A person's travel and occupation, as well as race or ethnicity, could be grounds for opening a national security investigation.

The rumored changes have provoked protests from Muslim American and Arab-American groups. The Council on American Islamic Relations, among the more effective lobbies for Muslim Americans' civil liberties, immediately denounced the plan, as did James Zogby, the president of the Arab-American Institute. Said Zogby, "There are millions of Americans who, under the reported new parameters, could become subject to arbitrary and subjective ethnic and religious profiling." Zogby, who noted that the Bush administration's history with profiling is not reassuring, warned that all Americans would suffer from a weakening of civil liberties.

The new guidelines would lead to many bogus prosecutions, but they would also prove counterproductive in the effort to disrupt real terror plots. And then there's Attorney General Michael Mukasey's rationale for revising the rules in the first place. "It's necessary," he explained in a June news conference, "to put in place regulations that will allow the FBI to transform itself as it is transforming itself into an intelligence-gathering organization." When did Congress, or we as a nation, have a debate about whether we want to authorize the establishment of a domestic intelligence agency? Indeed, late last month Congress signaled its discomfort with the concept by denying the FBI's $11 million funding request for its data-mining center....


for complete Salon.com article click here