Florida witch-hunt of Arab students
Bush-Ashcroft policy kindles lynch mob atmosphere
By Leslie Feinberg
The xenophobia that has hounded three Arab American medical
students from Georgia to Florida is certainly rooted in racism.
But that racism, branching into vigilantism, was nourished and
flourished in the orange light of the Bush administration
"national terror alarm," timed to coincide with the anniversary
of 9/11 and Pentagon plans to invade Iraq.
Deepening the hue of the Homeland Security Alert brazenly
escalates the Bush-Ashcroft domestic policy of racist profiling
and kindles a lynch-mob mentality. The population is told that
an imminent and immense threat of terror attack looms. No
details. No facts. "Just be vigilant. Report anyone or anything
suspicious."
Despite the horrific right-wing detonation that claimed so
many lives in Oklahoma City, few would interpret the Code
Orange Alert to mean keeping an eye out for Timothy McVeigh
look-alikes. Instead, Arab, South Asian and Muslim people in
the United States are government-ordered targets of distrust,
their every action viewed with misgiving.
On Sept. 11, a Northwest Airlines flight from Memphis to Las
Vegas was diverted after reports that four men of Middle
Eastern descent locked themselves in a bathroom together. Were
it not for the depth of racism involved, the accusation would
be farcical considering how hard it is for one person to
squeeze into an airplane bathroom. It turned out that Indian
passengers had merely used the bathroom in succession. (New
York Post, Sept. 15)
A Latino passenger recovering from surgery had been fast
asleep on the same flight. He was also arrested in the
incident, he explained, merely for "being dark-skinned."
The same day, an American Airlines jet was forced to land
prematurely after an allegation that a passenger had a weapon.
No weapons were found.
The next day, a military escort forced a National Airlines
flight to land after a passenger, whose first language was not
English, didn't understand an instruction to stay in her
seat.
The crime of 'Driving While Muslim'
"We want our dignity back," medical student Ayman Gheith
declared on CNN's "Larry King Live" on Sept. 16.
Gheith, Omer Choudhary and Kambiz Butt were detained in a
police van in Florida for 17 hours in the wee hours of the
morning for the "crime" of having made a pit stop at a Shoney's
restaurant in Calhoun, Ga., hours before on Sept. 13.
The three third-year students at Ross Medical School in
Dominica were traveling from Illinois to a nine-week course at
a South Miami hospital.
Gheith, dressed in traditional Muslim garb, said he and his
friends drew stares from patrons. Eunice Stone was eating at a
nearby table. "As soon as we walked in this restaurant, we were
suspects obviously by this woman," he recalled. (CNN.com, Sept.
17)
Stone claims the trio jested about Sept. 11. She told
authorities they also said they would "bring something down" in
Miami. (New York Post, Sept. 14)
"Not once did we mention 9/11," Kambiz Butt stressed. (New
York Times, Sept. 16)
Gheith added, "We value human life, and this is why we chose
to become doctors--to protect human life. Not only did I mourn
9/11, I have friends that are directly affected by 9/11. I had
friends who had family members who were in the building."
(CNN.com)
Choudhary explained that he was talking about buying a car
at home and bringing it down to Miami.
Stone betrayed her own mindset when she expressed surprise
that the three spoke in "perfect American accents." (New York
Times, Sept. 14) Gheith, a Palestinian born in Jordan, is a
naturalized citizen, as is Butt. Both live in Chicago.
Choudhary was born in Detroit. Stone said she also heard them
speaking in Arabic, but only one of the students understands
and speaks it. (CNN.com)
Stone scribbled down the license numbers of the students'
cars and called the Georgia State Patrol, which parlayed the
info into a countrywide alert by the Georgia Bureau of
Investigations.
The authorities later pulled them over in Collier County,
Fla., where I-75 bends east into a stretch of road known as
Alligator Alley.
Racist nightmare
Officers from at least a score of agencies shut down a
20-mile stretch of the interstate, and brought out water
cannons, X-ray machines, an explosive to blow up one of the
student's backpack, protective gear and a robot. An army of
media materialized at the scene.
After grilling the three for 17 hours, authorities couldn't
even pin so much as an old jaywalking violation on them. But
after their release, highway cops trailed them and news
helicopters pursued their cars, beaming live images of their
drive to Miami over CNN.
Officials then suggested, with no evidence to back it up,
that the three had created a hoax to freak out Eunice
Stone.
"We're looking into seeing what laws might be applicable.
These people are going to learn a lesson," vowed John Bankhead,
director of public affairs for the Georgia Bureau of
Investigation. Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said if a hoax could be
proved he hoped the three would be prosecuted. (New York Times,
Sept. 14)
Within a day the media picked up this spin that the three
had carried out a "sick joke." A New York Post editorial,
titled "The Laugh's on Them," alleged that the three "provoked
their own arrests" and added, "the fact that the three men
actually thought it amusing to talk about 'making America cry
on 9/13' says a great deal about their worldview."
Chief Executive Dr. Jack Michel said that the students'
medical internships were rescinded after his hospital received
more than 200 email messages--many racist and some threatening.
(New York Times, Sept. 16)
"We are in a state of shock and we are scared," Butt told
reporters at a Sept. 15 news conference.
Stone, on the other hand, is being hailed as a "patriot"
from the White House on down.
Gheith pointed out that there were no attempts to confirm
Stone's allegations. "How is it that one person can pick up a
phone and make any statement that they will, and we end up in
custody?" When asked by reporters if he was suggesting she had
lied, he answered, "I'm not suggesting. I'm telling you she's
flat-out lying." (Daily News, Sept. 14)
"Injustice is injustice," Gheith concluded, "whether you are
Muslim or Chinese or Jewish."
Reprinted from the Sept. 26, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
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