back to Niagara Falls Reporter archive
"Islam is evil. Christ is King." -- Religious slur found scrawled on an Islamic calendar after federal agents raided a Dearborn, Mich. home.
Bigotry is thriving and prejudice especially blossoms among U.S. government law enforcement agents. Many of those sworn to uphold the law impartially do not and, sadly, federal agencies are riddled with people who judge others by the color of their skin, their ethnicity and religious beliefs.
Yes, the great majority are fair-minded and decent, but far too many who carry guns and enforce federal laws are drawn to that service for the wrong reasons, and they harbor bigotry that has no place in government, most particularly law enforcement.
Since Sept. 11, there have been countless incidents of profiling, detentions, arrests and harassment that federal agents have carried out in the name of security and protecting us from terrorism.
Now reasonable profiling, especially at airports, can be justified. The Sept. 11 hijackers were all Arab Muslim men, and foreign nationals with visitors' visas. Should we continue to keep a close eye on that profile? Of course.
But profiling can and should be more precise. If we want to focus on the prime pool for terrorists, it's very simple: Young (under 35) Saudi Arabians, members of the Wahabi sect of Islam, who have family access to oil money.
It's that simple. We should impose severe restrictions on those who fit that profile, and to set the tone for our seriousness, we should carry out some wholesale expulsions. But we don't, and the reasons for that pivot on politics and money.
You can find plenty who fit this profile at the Saudi Embassy in Washington, Harvard and MIT, White House receptions, intimate Bush family gatherings, and Republican and Democratic party fundraisers.
The trouble comes in when people are judged more broadly and, invariably, unfairly. It's been happening all over the country, and with the likes of the Constitution-trampling John Ashcroft leading the charge, it's bound to get worse.
People from the Middle East or of Middle Eastern descent, Muslims from anywhere, and people with dark skin, like Indians and Pakistanis, are prime targets, while Saudi princes who finance terrorism waltz into New York City to shop at Tiffany's with no questions asked.
So many people in the news business lump the whole non-Northern European world into the same group that we shouldn't be surprised when others, like federal agents, do the same thing.
I remember once trying to explain to an editor the difference between Iranians and Iraqis. He was dumbfounded to learn Iranians are not Arab, but other distinctions were well beyond his superficial grasp of the world.
When a passenger on a flight from Indonesia (by the way, the nation with the largest Islamic population) arrived at Detroit's Metro airport on July 17, a U.S. Customs inspector found nine cashier's checks, worth $12 million, in his luggage. The checks are suspected to be counterfeit. The man was arrested, and federal agents immediately began hinting at a major terrorist connection.
He's 47-year-old Omar Shishani (the Washington Post prefers his more ominous-sounding full name -- Omar Abdul-Fatah Al Shishani) and he was born in Jordan. His family is originally from Chechnya, the republic in Southern Russia where Islamic rebels have been in armed revolt for years.
He came to the United States in 1979 and has been a naturalized citizen for about 15 years. His wife is a flight attendant for Northwest Airlines and they have twin 8-year-old daughters. The family lives on a quiet, neat block in Dearborn, Mich.
On July 18, members of the Detroit Joint Terrorism Taskforce raided the Shishani home to execute a federal search warrant. Since it was a counterfeiting case, agents of the U.S. Secret Service led the operation, joined by FBI agents and U.S. Customs inspectors.
"I've never seen so many police in my life," one neighbor gasped. They were heavily armed and quickly yanked Omar Shishani's brother Abdallah and his wife Petimet from the home. They offered no resistance whatsoever, but were handcuffed, with guns pointed at their heads. Shishani's twin daughters stood by shivering in terror.
The federal agents searched the home, but have not revealed what, if anything, they found there. The brother and sister-in-law were freed, as the little girls huddled at a neighbor's home.
Several federal agents keep brandishing their weapons in the predominately Muslim neighborhood, clearly enjoying their night out on the town.
When Abdallah Shishani returned to the home, he saw some disturbing writing on an Islamic religious calendar attached to the refrigerator, which certainly had not been there before the federales visited.
In bold letters written with a black magic marker were the words, "ISLAM IS EVIL" and "CHRIST IS KING." Abdallah made copies of the graffiti-scrawled calendar and set out to do something about it.
He contacted the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington (CAIR), and they wrote a letter to the Justice Department requesting an investigation.
He also brought the incident to the attention of Imad Hamad, Michigan Director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. The story broke, but there was considerable skepticism about it, especially in newsrooms.
I met with Hamad, a trusted friend, and he gave me his read on it. He wondered what possible motivation the family would have to create the graffiti. "They were shocked, stunned. They were already enduring fear and intimidation. The last thing the family wants to do is focus more attention on them. It's obvious someone involved in the raid did it."
Hamad also made the point that he did have faith the U.S. District Attorney would pursue the incident and that it was certainly no reflection on government policy or on the terrorism task force. "It is an individual act of someone who is biased who shows ill will toward those of a different faith."
The report aired, although a few scoffed and proclaimed unflinching faith in the innocence of the federal agents. One of the duller knives in our newsroom drawer proclaimed loudly, upon seeing my report, "Oh, that's crap."
The next day, a U.S. Secret Service agent confessed he had written the religious slur. He's been placed on administrative leave and he could, and should, face criminal charges.
Besides immortalizing his bigotry in print, you have to wonder about a federal agent assigned to a terrorism task force who could be such a stupid, juvenile jerk.
You also have to wonder if other agents saw what he did and stood by snickering like a bunch of grade schoolers, and did nothing to stop or, at least, admonish the jerk with a badge.
The case has more importance since the feds claim Omar Shishani told them he could provide information about terrorism and the names on the checks might belong to a member of al-Qaida. Shishani's lawyer Nabih Ayad says the admitted slur is evidence that his client is the target of a shoddy, wrongful investigation. "It's a slap in the face to their credibility ... and it lends credence to our position that Mr. Shishani didn't make certain statements."
Ayad says the agent deserves more that a disciplinary slap on the wrist. "It's outrageous that one of our law enforcers who swears to serve and protect is making religious slurs against individuals. It's disturbing."
U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Collins calls the incident "a gross aberration and embarrassment. ... This type of behavior by a federal agent will not be tolerated."
But I suspect that behavior, and the attitude it reflects, is far more pervasive in some quarters of federal law enforcement than we know.
Omar Shishani may be involved in some questionable or illegal business deals. Or maybe he's laundering money for Chechen rebels or for one of their street gangs in Moscow.
Or maybe there's a reasonable explanation for the checks and he's perfectly legitimate. The case presents some, for now, baffling questions.
But the notion that he's a terrorist and al-Qaida operative is a serious stretch.
And given the fact that, of the scores of men from the Middle East in the Detroit area arrested or detained since Sept. 11, not a single one has even been charged, let alone convicted of any kind of terrorist activities, you can appreciate my doubts.
Most of the federal agents involved in these cases are dedicated people, doing their jobs.
But more than a few are card-carrying bigots who tend to make things up.
We can do without them.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | July 30 2002 |