Here in America, Arjun Sethi, is championing the great Guru’s message of humanity by fighting for the civil rights of Muslims and of all Americans.
By Akbar Ahmed
To the well-known American maxim ‘driving while black,’ a more recent one has been added after 9/11, ‘flying while Muslim,’ as Muslim passengers on planes are now frequently targeted for speaking Arabic, wearing the Hijab or merely looking ‘Middle Eastern.’
Professor Anila Daulatzai, a Pakistani-American, became a victim when on September 26, she boarded a flight in Baltimore, expecting to land in Los Angeles a few hours later to take care of her elderly father. After informing flight attendants of her non-life-threatening allergy to dogs, she seated herself in the back of the aircraft away from two dogs on the plane and prepared to grade her students’ papers. She was suddenly requested by the flight crew to provide medical documentation of her allergy, which she had already mentioned was not serious, and upon not being able to produce it, was told to exit the aircraft. When she refused, the police came and violently dragged her off the plane, as seen in a video of the incident that went viral. Following the incident, multiple charges were issued against her, including disorderly conduct and failure to obey a reasonable and lawful order.
Countering Racial and Religious Profiling
Daulatzai’s lawyer, Arjun Sethi, classified the arrest as the confluence of sexism, racial profiling, and discrimination. Formerly national legislative counsel for human rights and national security related affairs for the American Civil Liberties Union and presently Co-Chair of the American Bar Association’s National Committee on Homeland Security, Counterterrorism, and Treatment of Enemy Combatants, Arjun has spent most of his career focused on countering racial and religious profiling, advancing counterterrorism reform, and combating hate-motivated violence.
I first met Arjun, who has a Sikh background, a few years back following a talk I gave at the National Press Club launching my book, The Thistle and the Drone. After the programme, he came up to me and began discussing his civil and human rights work on behalf of not only Muslim Americans, but minorities throughout the US. I was impressed: He was fighting for justice within the system.
Prevailing Negative Attitudes
When I invited Arjun to speak before my World of Islam class at American University recently he made some core points related to the rise in hate-related incidents against Muslims since 9/11, noting they are trending at least five times higher than prior to the attacks. He said we are living in an ‘open season’ of prejudice against Muslims. Perpetual war in Iraq and Afghanistan has contributed to prevailing negative attitudes, he argued, and the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba stands as a testament to negative treatment of Muslims suspected of terrorist activities.
Arjun also spoke of police tactics that often serve to perpetuate discrimination. He shared how a team of Associated Press reporters revealed that covert domestic surveillance programs established in New York City following 9/11, for example, were explicitly designed to monitor Muslim citizens, representing an abandonment of rights to privacy that all Americans are entitled to enjoy. None of the surveillance was based on reasonable suspicion or probable cause, but instead solely based on identity. The surveillance did not result in a single conviction.
Arjun argued that the US government needs to begin addressing the structural racism, discrimination, and criminalisation that foster hate and violence against Muslims, who remain disproportionately targeted by American national security policy.
Viewing the compassion he brings to his work, I could not but think of the wisdom of the founder of his faith, Guru Nanak, who famously said, “Those that have loved are those that have found God.”
Here in America, Arjun Sethi, is championing the great Guru’s message of humanity by fighting for the civil rights of Muslims and of all Americans.
(Akbar Ahmed is an author, poet, filmmaker, playwright, and is the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies, American University in Washington, DC).
(Extracted from newageislam.com)
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