Freedom--Not for everyone?

Avatar for mrsed4
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Registered: 08-22-2003
Freedom--Not for everyone?
1
Tue, 07-20-2004 - 9:47am
(My thanks to a friend for sharing this with us.)

And this is what the Patriot Act boils down to....

http://www.timesunion.com/aspstories/story.asp?storyID=267537

Incident unsettles Muslim family

Colonie -- Immigrant from Afghanistan says act of faith led to undue scrutiny at mall

By BRENDAN LYONS, Staff writer

First published: Monday, July 19, 2004

The terrifying memories of a shattered childhood in war-torn Afghanistan gripped Yasin Amin momentarily last month when the Colonie Center security guards ran toward him.

The guards -- Amin thinks there were about four -- hovered close by as Amin and his brother-in-law, and Amin's wife and three young children watched in disbelief. They were in Sears, looking for a DVD player, but cut their plans short because the guards' suffocating stares unnerved them.

"We were there to shop, but it came to a point where my wife said: 'Let's just go,' " Amin said.

Outside, the situation grew more disconcerting. At least three Colonie police cars, emergency lights flashing, were parked around the family's car.

"I said: 'What do you guys want to talk to me about?' " said Amin, who works for an Internet search company that caters to engineers.

The Colonie cops told Amin security officers had called them after Amin and his brother-in-law were spotted praying in a parking lot before entering the mall. But it was just after sunset, Amin said he told them, and their Islamic faith requires they pray at that moment every day -- no matter where they are.

"The police officer said: 'We know what you were doing and we're sorry, and these people need to be educated on your religion,' " Amin said, crediting the officers for their handling of the situation.

But in an era of heightened fear of terrorism, Muslims say public misconceptions of their customs are resulting in unfair profiling.

On May 16, nearly three weeks before the incident at Colonie Center, police in Albuquerque, N.M., were criticized when they handcuffed and detained eight people for two hours at a mall there. In that case, security officers called police when two men who looked Middle Eastern entered the mall after praying on a grassy area outside.

In both cases, police found no connection to terrorism and no legitimate reason to suspect a terrorist act was about to unfold.

But in the New Mexico case, police went inside the mall and detained several people who looked Middle Eastern, including a 20-year-old man who had not been praying but was ordered to sit on the ground inside the mall -- his wrists in handcuffs -- for about an hour, his attorney told newspapers in New Mexico.

Muslim leaders contend public-awareness warnings about terrorism should be paired with education on Islam. Without it, people may overreact when they see any of this country's estimated 1.2 million Arabs praying -- which is required five times a day for many Muslims, especially men.

"We want to make sure something like this doesn't happen again, and we want to educate the community," said Nizar Yaghi, president of the newly formed Albany chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "Just because someone is praying in a non-familiar way doesn't mean this is a precursor to a terrorist attack."

Yaghi, an engineer who lives in Schenectady, said his group has been offering sensitivity classes to area police officers and hopes to do the same for private security companies -- starting with Colonie Center's. The group also wants to encourage mall managers to consider devoting small areas inside their facilities as "meditation" spots, as has been done at many airports nationwide, including Albany International Airport.

Many malls have set aside floor space for purposes unrelated to shopping -- such as private areas for breast-feeding mothers -- but officials at Colonie Center and Crossgates Mall in Guilderland said they have no plans to offer designated areas for prayer.

Colonie Center Marketing Director Susan Despart said the night Amin and his family were at the mall, security officers felt he and his brother-in-law were "putting themselves in danger" by praying on the ground in a parking lot. She did not say why police were called in this instance, but added: "If our security team sees something that's considered unusual, they will contact the Colonie police."

Despart said mall security forces across the nation have been instructed to be on alert.

"Prior to that, a number of politicians were talking about how malls are being targeted (by terrorists)," she said. "You walk that fine line between being vigilant and being accused of being insensitive to someone's religious beliefs."

Amin said he believes the security officers were practicing racial profiling and that their call to police bolsters his contention. He said after dropping his wife and children at Sears at dusk that evening, he and his brother-in-law drove to an isolated parking area to pray -- an area they felt was private and out of danger from passing cars. A security patrol car, yellow lights flashing, parked near them as they prayed but the guard inside kept his distance and did not say anything to them, Amin said.

Minutes later, inside Sears, Amin said the group watched security guards run toward them "from four different directions."

"Wherever we would go they were like 10 feet away from us," he said.

Colonie Police Chief Steven Heider was briefed about the incident by his command staff. He said his officers responded because they were called and handled the situation professionally.

"Obviously, everybody's tensions are running a little high," Heider said, referring to the war in Iraq, U.S. government terror warnings and continuous news reports on unrest in the Middle East. "Not all people understand different faiths or different customs, and that's never going to change. So there are certain things, especially in today's climate, that may bring people to a certain level of suspicion because they don't understand. But in a way, we're happy that happens because it creates an arena where things are discovered."

In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Heider said, town police have received more calls about people who appear to be Middle Eastern. The police chief said many people "are nervous" and unfamiliar with certain cultures.

Still, Amin said he was left unsettled by the encounter that night. On Sunday afternoon at his Latham apartment, with his wife and children nearby, he recounted the summer of 1982 when his father -- an Afghan resistance fighter who was college educated in Australia and had worked for a U.S. Embassy -- was poisoned as he met with other resistance supporters in Islamabad, Pakistan.

At age 40, his father had fled Afghanistan with his family in 1980, joining thousands of other refugees who sought safety in Iran as Soviet troops took control of their country. But they went to Pakistan to rejoin resistance fighters because "he said he just couldn't stay and do nothing," Amin said. "He was a man of writing ... educated."

In Kabul, Afghanistan, where Amin grew up, he still remembers the nights when secret forces from the Soviet Union would slip into cities and villages, pull suspected communist-resistance fighters from their homes and murder them in front of their families.

"Right up until this happened, we thought the life we ran from was over," Amin said.

After his father's death, Amin said, his mother moved to Albany with her six children -- four boys and two girls -- and enrolled them in city schools. They arrived here as refugees, scraping by in an unfamiliar land. But Amin and his siblings graduated in good standing from high school and went on to attend local colleges -- Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Siena College and Hudson Valley Community College.

He said he understands why Americans fear terrorists, but he does not think it's right to associate all Muslims -- about one-fifth of the world's population -- with terrorism. Amin said his father's dying wish was for his family to go to America, where they could live free and express their opinions without fear of being killed.

But that night last month, in the glare of the police lights and as passers-by stared suspiciously at them in the mall's parking lot, Amin said he saw the confused looks on his children's faces.

"That stays with you," he said. "I remember as a kid in Afghanistan when the Soviets invaded. I remember those moments ... and I was very afraid. This is why we moved to this country. There was no need for this."

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-23-2004
Tue, 07-20-2004 - 10:23am


And he got that wish, didn't he. His family can live without fear of being killed for expressing their opinions. It's sad that some extremists have brought such suspicion and misunderstanding upon the Muslim religion, the same way a handful of soldiers have brought such a negative image onto our troops in Iraq. Luckily for these people they were in America and so were only observed, or in the case of the other story questioned for several hours and released, not beaten, tortured or killed like they would have been for expressing another religion in their former country.


"Prior to that, a number of politicians were talking about how malls are being targeted (by terrorists)," she said. "You walk that fine line between being vigilant and being accused of being insensitive to someone's religious beliefs.">

One can only imagine if nothing had been done and these people actually were terrorists-no, we can't assume that people who happen to be Muslims are terrorists, but unfortunately for peaceful law abiding Muslims those who want to attack us claim to be doing so in the name of Islam. If I were Muslim I would be very angry that these few had brought such suspicion upon me.