LA Police plan to "Map Muslims": Diversity exploited for the wrong reasons
There was a time when Arab Americans were begging the American government to include them as a formal designation on the US Census Forms, rather than as an after thought.
When they ask for your ethnicity on Census forms, they include African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, Asians and a few more. But not Arabs. When you are formally identified as a "minority" group, you suddenly qualify for special government funding support from federal programs created to help minority groups.
But because Arab Americans were always excluded from the category of being a "minority group," in the eyes of the Federal Government, we never qualify for, say, special contract awards like minority set-asides.
I think the reason had a lot to do with anti-Arab sentiment and the fundamental lack of knowledge by Americans which presumes, wrongly, that all Arabs are Muslims, and Christianity and Islam have a problem dating back to the Crusades, yadda, yadda, yadda ...
Being an American born Arab who was targeted by the FBI in the 1970s (immediately after serving two years during the Vietnam War (and subsequently 10 years in the Illinois Air National Guard), I am a little sensitive. I mean, when they do an FBI report on you and it begins they suspect that I am engaged in terrorist activity (although they never said "boo" when I was in the military with security clearances up the wazoo), and then 45 pages later and two years of wasted taxpayer money, they conclude that Ray Hanania is just an Arab American concerned about helping better his community.
Imagine, if they had treated Arab American properly back in the 1970s and 1980s when we were begging to be classified as a "minority," and begging to be recognized formally on the census.
Now, the Los Angeles Police -- an organization that many minorities compare to a domestic version of Blackwater -- wants to "Map Muslims."
Targeting someone on the basis of religion in this country is outrageous and violates the American Constitution. But, as we have seen over the past few years, the American Constitution is merely wrapping paper for Christmas presents and other "American recognized" holidays and groups.
The LA Police are not saying they want to Map Muslims because they hope to serve them better. They are saying that they want to map Muslims in order to better identify potential terrorism activity.
Nice.
I understand the logic. Most -- not all -- of the violence in the world is by people from the Middle East who are Muslims. Well, to be precise, most of the response to failed American foreign policies in the Middle East involves Arabs angry with seeing their relatives and friends and families and lifestyles murdered, destroyed and oppressed. And even more perturbed that Americans act as if they don't know that their policies have disrupted and destroyed so many lives in the Middle East over the years, or that American foreign policies have served to create situations of injustice in the Middle East, just so that Americans can buy gasoline at low prices. (Well, now it's just about making sure that gasoline stays in the "high price range" and doesn't skyrocket to the "I can't get elected" excessively outrageously priced gasoline, which is how gasoline is priced in Europe.)
But if the logic is that "Hey, Middle East terrorism is committed by Muslims," then we could apply that logic to Chicago where the Cook County Jail is filled up with mostly African Americans charged with criminal acts. Maybe the Chicago Police might "Map Black People" and place Black people under special watch since, according to this absurd logic, they are involved in most of the crimes in Chicago. (We can't look at the causes of Middle East terrorism, but we do look at the causes of crime in Chicago -- it's not about being Black, but about being poor, abused, disenfranchised, inadequate economic programs to help the homeless, poor, to fight rising street gangs and drug dealers.)
That "fear" of racially driven crime extends into the racist suburbs of Chicago. I live in Orland Park where minorities make up maybe 5 percent of the population. I see police there stopping "potential criminals" all the time, pulling them over on the side of the road. It's amazing how those police have such "luck" when it comes to pulling people over, that almost always, they drivers are African American. (Profiling at its most effective ineffectiveness.)
I think the LA Police want to "Map Muslims" because simply being professional crime fighters is too difficult. It's so much easier when you can profile a criminal as being "Black" or "Muslim" because it makes the public feel comfortable. It doesn't do anything to protect people, but making the public feel comfortable is a great way to keep the public off your back and strengthen political goals.
The real way to fight Middle East terrorism is to look at it as a crime, and fight it the same way we fight domestic crime. We investigate based on cause involving evidence, not a person's race or religion.
That means that agencies start treating Arabs and Muslims like we are equal citizens, instead of always figuring out ways to deny us. (Deny us jobs. Deny us government funding. Deny us support. Discriminate against us in politics and representation and service.) Embrace us, because some of us "Ay-rabs" are more "Amer-kin" than Americans. We serve this country in the military. Pay our taxes. Are as afraid of crime and terrorism as anyone else. And if we were treated with respect and dignity, instead of being criminals -- this behaviour on the part of American society to single us out and discriminate us didn't begin after Sept. 11, 2001 but has been going on for years before -- we would be more focused on helping instead of worrying about defending ourselves against government civil rights violations.
The LA Police wouldn't have to "Map Muslims." Muslims and Arabs would be front and center, as we always have been, serving this country and helping educate the uneducated American about the reality and the truth of the Middle East.
Treat us like human beings and we will do everything we can to help this country, as we always do. Treat us like animals, like outsiders, like non-Americans, and we respond with a disdain. And even a few of us, the real extremists, find themselves crossing the line and doing misdeeds and criminal acts they otherwise might not do.
People are not born criminals. They are not born terrorists. They are not born bad. In some cases, people are pushed to extremes. They are so excluded, abused, disrespected that they develop wrong attitudes and respond in the wrong way.
One of the places where we can start correcting this is to force the mainstream news media to set the example and be fair. Stop excluding us. Stop ignoring us. Stop pretending youare fair and unbiased when you are biased, unfair and, more importantly, unprofessional.
I know many journalists hate my "whining." I get it in emails. Usually odd yahoo addresses that disappear quickly.
But I don't care. You're not going to shut me up just because you don't agree with me. That's not a chip on my shoulder. That's a determine to right a wrong and make this country (and this news media) to be the better country (and news media) that it can be.
Thanks for being annoyed with me :)
Ray Hanania