WASHINGTON: Anti-Muslim incidents reported to a major US Islamic advocacy group rose sharply last year, particularly after the September’s terrorist attacks in New York and at the Pentagon, said a report.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), in its latest annual report, entitled “Stereotypes and Civil Liberties”, said the great majority of violent incidents, including several murders and scores of assaults, against Muslims took place in the immediate aftermath of the Sept 11 attacks.

Washington-based CAIR received a total 1,516 complaints from community members between March 2001 and March 2002, — a three- fold increase over the previous year. Excluding the post-Sept 11 backlash, the number of valid complaints was still up by almost 50 per cent.

Complaints included loss or denial of jobs due to religious appearance; refusal to accommodate religious practices in the workplace, schools, or prisons; singling out of individuals at airports because of their names or appearance; detention or interrogation of Muslims by federal or local authorities based on profiling criteria; and denial of access to restaurants or hotels due to religious or ethnic identity.

CAIR said almost 60,000 Muslims in the United States have been negatively affected by government policies adopted after Sept 11, including some 1,200 Muslims detained nationwide, mostly on immigration charges; 5,000 legal visa-holders asked to submit to interrogations by federal officials; and an estimated 50,000 individuals who donated to Muslim relief organizations subsequently shut down by the government.

“There is a growing sense of apprehension in the Islamic community about what are viewed as unconstitutional policies targeting ordinary Muslims,” said CAIR Research Director Mohamed Nimer. “American Muslims have been thrust to the forefront of the civil rights movement in this country.”

At the same time, the group said it has been gratified by the judiciary’s actions to protect Muslims in the United States.

Earlier this month, a federal judge in Detroit ruled unconstitutional the Justice Department’s post-Sept 11 policy of authorizing closed immigration hearings for security reasons. While on appeal, the ruling has forced the Department to end the practice.

In another case involving the murder of a South Asian man in Texas after Sept 11, a jury took less than an hour to convict the defendant.

And in New York on Tuesday, a federal judge dismissed a perjury indictment against a Jordanian student who was being held as a material witness for a grand-jury investigation of the Sept 11 hijackers. Analysts said her finding, if confirmed, could free dozens of others.

“Now is the time for the judiciary to step in and reaffirm the constitutionally protected rights that all Americans hold dear,” said CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad.

The 54-page report nonetheless paints a grim picture of the troubles faced by Muslims in the United States after Sept 11. “Muslims in the United States are more apprehensive than ever about discrimination and intolerance,” the group said.

In the immediate aftermath of the Sept 11 attacks, CAIR confirmed 303 acts of violence against individuals perceived to be Muslim or Arab. That compared with only 13 violent acts following the April 19, 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, which led to speculation by US media — proven incorrect several days later — that Muslim terrorists were behind it.

Muslims reported receiving almost 700 hate messages or similar forms of harassment and another 224 false arrests or intimidation by local or federal authorities after Sept 11, compared to 149 and 4, respectively, after the Oklahoma City attacks.

The report commended President George W. Bush for repeatedly calling for tolerance of Muslims after the attack, it assailed a number of right-wing public figures for inciting anti-Muslim sentiment, including televangelist Pat Robertson who accused them of wanting to “coexist until they can control, dominate, and then if need be destroy.”

“Such hateful rhetoric has gone largely unchallenged by other religious leaders and top government officials,” according to the report.

US officials also conducted major sweeps of non-US citizens from the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia, as many as 1,700 of who were taken into custody and held virtually incommunicado in the weeks after Sept 11. Several hundred have been released; many were never informed of the reasons for their detention or given prompt access to lawyers, according to the report. —Dawn/The InterPress News Service.