9.24.2001

Life has finally started to resemble some sense of normalcy, though the office now has a kind of heaviness, and most of us still can't totally concentrate on our work. My coworker has nightmares every night that our office is gonna get bombed. I'm getting educated (or bombarded?) with media coverage. I have to say that though I switch from Discovery Channel once and a while, I am mainly glued to CNN, watching things as they develop. Frankly, it's exhausting to see this major "kill 'em all" mentality, though trying to now narrow down suspects and then.. I don't know how the government plans to deal with them. Me, I'm totally about getting justice and getting these bastards to face up to their crimes. Though it's not totally confirmed, it seems that Bin Laden is the prime suspect. Either way, I think it's one fucking double standard to be all "religious killing terrorist style", and knowing full well how much terrorists love the media attention, why Bin Laden is such a wuss that he continues to deny it. What happened to the fearless leader? The proud murderer in the name of askewed fanatacism? Hmmm.. So on goes the debate of wether or not we go to war (with who?), vs. peace (and what exactly does peace mean to these people who advocate it most? There are many interpretations..)


For Immediate Release
September 19, 2001
Contact: Christine Chen, OCA, 202-223-5500
Kristine Minami, JACL, 202-223-1240
Amber Khan, 301-602-6713

RALLY AT JAPANESE AMERICAN NATIONAL MEMORIAL TO
CALL FOR SOLIDARITY AND END TO HATE-MOTIVATED VIOLENCE

40+ Organizations Stand Together

Washington, DC - 'We will not allow the brutal attacks of September 11 to divide our nation with hate and bigotry' was the message delivered at lunchtime rally at The National Japanese American Memorial to Patriotism in an event organized by a small grassroots group of South Asian and Asian Pacific American men and women.

Following a moment of silence in respect for the victims of last week's attack, Amber Khan addressed the rally, delivering a message of sorrow and solidarity.

"We stand here together because we will not allow the perpetrators of
violence to hijack our trust and faith in each other, we will not allow them to hijack our commitment to the principles and values that make our nation, a land of immigrants strong - tolerance for difference, belief in the inalienable human dignity and worth of each person, passion for creating a more justice society, and an unwavering commitment to liberty and freedom," said Amber Khan a Muslim activist of South Asian descent from Montgomery County, Maryland.

Over 200 diverse community leaders, federal employees, grassroots activists, veterans and other concerned Americans stood shoulder to shoulder to call for unity in this time of great sorrow and to not allow bigotry and hate to tear the fabric of our society. The crowd, reflecting the diversity of America, included Asian Americans, Arab Americans, Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, African Americans, South Asians, Christian leaders and many others.

Invoking the lessons of history from World War II after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Karen Narasaki, executive director of the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium and whose parents were interned, spoke passionately about the need for us to learn from history.

"Standing here today, while we grieve the terrible loss of life and the awful toll on the families of the victims of Tuesday's terrorist attacks, let us take to heart the lessons of World War II when my parents and hundreds of other Japanese American families were herded behind barbed wire simply because they happened to look like the enemy," said Narasaki.

Sharing stories of fear and the isolation experienced by the Muslim, Arab and Sikh communities, Sharifa Al-Khateeb of the North American Council for Muslim Women, James Zogby of the Arab American Institute and Tejpal Singh Chawla expressed gratitude for the outpouring of support by the larger community and urged fellow Americans to remain united and vigilant against ethnic-scapegoating by speaking out against all forms of bigotry.

This theme was echoed by all speakers. "In the wake of the tragedy that occurred last week, I urge you - community leaders, parents, teachers, the media and our elected officials - to send the message that as Americans, we cannot and should not afford to condone or tolerate any incidence of discrimination or bias against anyone. Such acts go against the grain of the ideals of freedom and equality on which our country thrives and threaten our civil and human rights as Americans," said Deepa Iyer, board member of the South Asian American Leaders of Tomorrow.

The event concluded with the powerful image of Japanese American and Filipino American Veterans of World War II leading the rally in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

For press statements from the event please see contact information above.

Organizations represented at today's event included:

American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC)
American Humanist Association
American Muslim Council (AMC)
Americans for Democratic Action, Inc. (ADA)
Anti-Defamation League (ADL)
Arab American Institute (AAI)
Asian American Student Association, University of Maryland, College Park
Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum
Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies
Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA)
Asian/Pacific Islander-Domestic Violence Resource Project (A/PI-DVRP)
Bharti Association of Montgomery County Maryland
Bridge 2050
Coordinating Council of American Muslim Organizations
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
Democratic National Committee
Hmong National Development, Inc. (HND)
Human Rights Campaign
Indian American Center for Political Awareness (IACPA)
Iranian Student Association, U of MD, College Park
Japanese American Citizens League (JACL)
Japanese American Veterans Association
Korean American Coalition (KAC)
Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC)
NAACP
National Alliance of Vietnamese American Service
Agencies (NAVASA)
National Asian Pacific American Bar Association
National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium (NAPALC),
National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum
National Coalition for Asian Pacific American
Community Development (National CAPACD)
National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ)
National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA)
National Council of La Raza (NCLR)
National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA)
National Japanese American Memorial Foundation
Network of South Asian Professionals
North American Council for Muslim Women (NACMW)
Organization of Chinese Americans (OCA)
People For the American Way
Project IMPACT
Sikh Mediawatch and Resource Task Force (SMART)
South Asian American Leaders of Tomorrow (SAALT)
South Asian Bar Association (SABA)
South Asian Public Health Association (SAPHA)
Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC)
The Interfaith Alliance (TIA)
United Jain and Hindu Temple Association of Metro Washington
White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders
Young Muslim Professional Women, Inc.


* * * * * * *



LISTS OF RACIST ATTACKS ACROSS THE COUNTRY SINCE S11

Sep 20, 2001, NY IMC
compiled by Anura Idupuganti

These attacks have targeted Indians, Persians, Arabs, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and Christians alike. Keep in mind that these are only the reported cases of violence, hatred, and discrimination.
Compiled by Anura Idupuganti

CRIMES and EVENTS:

1) In Mesa, Arizona, Balbir Singh Sodhi, 49, an Indian gas station owner was shot. The assailant then drove to another service station where a Lebanese-American employee was working; he fired shots but injured no one else. (CNN: 9/14)

2) In Richmond Hill, Queens, an elderly Sikh man was beaten with a baseball bat; two others were shot at with paintball guns. (NY Times)

3) In Gary, Indiana, a man in a ski mask fired more than 21 shots from a high-powered assault rifle at Hassan Awdah, a U.S. citizen born in Yemen, who stood behind a 1-inch-thick shield at 3 am on Wednesday. Awdah fled as the gunman tried to shoot him again. (Reuters/Chicago and MSNBC.com)

4) On Friday, a turban-wearing taxi driver was attacked by a man who accused him of being a terrorist. He was of Indian descent. (Seattle Times/Detroit Free Press)

5) A car rammed into an Akron, OH Arab-owned grocery store by Jack Oueslati. (News Net 5: 9/16)

6) In Huntington, N.Y., a 75-year-old man tried to run over a Pakistani woman in a shopping mall parking lot. The police said he screamed that he was "doing this for my country." The man then followed the woman into a store and threatened to kill her for "destroying my country." (Seattle Times/Detroit Free Press and New York Times: 9/14)

7) Khaled Ksaibati, the faculty adviser for the Muslim Student Association at the University of Wyoming described an attack on the Muslim family at a Laramie Wal-Mart. "The people who screamed in her face wanted her to go back to her country," he said. "This is her country. She was born here." (Seattle Times/Detroit Free Press)

8) On Thursday night, a group of demonstrators gathered outside of the Madina Masjid on First Avenue and 11th Street in Manhattan. The mob yelled angrily and carried a banner saying "Destroy the mosque or remove it from this place." Neighbors shouted the crowd down as the police held them back. (News Net 5:9/16)

9) On Wednesday, a well-dressed young Manhattan couple yelled insults at a Lebanese-American who was desperately searching for survivors from the arts center he had run on the 92nd floor of the World Trade Center's north tower. "They told me, 'You should go back to your country, you f--king Arabs, we should bomb the s--t out of you," said the man, Moukhtar Kocache. (Seattle Times)

10) Yasser Ahmed, manager of an Arab-owned candy and grocery store on Broadway in Upper Manhattan, said about 10 people had come in shouting, "You guys did it!" and other accusations. (NY Times)

11) One student, Basel Al-ken, whose family is from Syria, was taking his mother to Wal-Mart one night this week. A man in a parked car turned a laser-pointer in her face and made a throat-slitting motion with his hand. (NY Times)

12) Four men chased Amrik Singh, a Sikh who wears a turban, on Tuesday as he fled lower Manhattan to return home to Hicksville. He jumped on a train to Brooklyn and took off his turban and stuffed it into his briefcase. (NY News Day)

13) The local Sikh Temple in Richmond Hill was vandalized and received threatening phone calls. (Masala.com)

14) A Pakistani familyís house was burned down in Sacramento. (Masala.com)

15) One man stormed into a South Seattle mosque and threatened to burn it down. Another poured gasoline on a North Seattle mosque and tried to fire a gun at some of its members. (Seattle Times/Detroit Free Press)

16) A 57-year-old Punjabi man was shot in Yuba City, California. Several cars of Punjabis were vandalized as well. (Masala.com)chatroom)

17) A student of either Indian or Middle Eastern origin was attacked on the University of Pennsylvania campus. Other colleges have reported similar stories of their students under attack. (MTV News and Seattle Times)

18) The Islamic Institute of New York received a telephone call threatening the school's 450 students. The male caller said he was
going to paint the streets with the children's blood. The school is closed, but continues to receive several threats a day. (Seattle Times/Detroit Free Press)

19) A mosque in Denton, Texas, was firebombed, and another in Lynnwood, Wash. had its sign defaced with black paint. (New York Times: 9/14)

20) In Bridgeview, Ill., a suburb of Chicago, police stopped 300 marchers, many of them teenagers--as they tried to march on a mosque on Wednesday night. Marcher Colin Zaremba, 19, told The Associated Press, "I'm proud to be American and I hate Arabs and I always have." (Seattle Times and Detroit Free Press/ Reuters: Chicago)

21) 43 percent of Americans said they thought the attacks would make them "personally more suspicious" of people who appear to be of Arab descent. (ABCNEWS/ Washington Post poll: 9/13)

22) 10 people were removed from an Amtrak train in Providence, R.I., on Wednesday, and held by the police and questioned for an hour and 40. Sher J. B. Singh, a telecommunications consultant, was one of three Sikh men escorted from the train at gunpoint, handcuffed and questioned about whether he had anything to do with the terrorism. The others held all appeared to be of Arab or South Asian descent, said Mr. Singh and Meera Kumar, a financial services officer at the Ford Motor Company, who was also held by the police. Those detained included a Hispanic and an African- American. "They broadcast four Arabic males, so four Arabic males is what we are looking for," Colonel Sullivan said. (September 14, 2001/New York Times)

23) An Indian girl was beaten to death in Long Island...Suspects are supposedly in custody. (Masala.com chatroom)

24) From Texas to Chicago to Long Island, there have been reports of arson, personal attacks and the police stopping men in Middle Eastern-style head coverings. (New York Times: 9/14)

25) In suburban Cleveland, Sukhwant Singh, a Sikh priest who lives at the Guru Gobind Sikh temple, awakened early Wednesday to find bottles filled with gasoline hurled in the temple's windows and flames pouring out. (New York Times: 9/14)

26) In Louisiana, schools in Jefferson Parish were closed on Wednesday after officials reported that students of Middle Eastern origin were being taunted and harassed. (New York Times: 9/14)

27) On Long Island, a market in Smithtown owned by a native of Pakistan was the target of what the police considered a probable arson attack Wednesday morning. The entire store was burned to the ground. (New York Times: 9/14)

28) In Ronkonkoma, a man was arrested on suspicion of waving a pellet gun and shouting obscenities at a South Asian gas station worker. (New York Times: 9/14)

29) Early Wednesday in Manhattan, a Sikh man said he was pounced on by three white men yelling "terrorist" at Broadway and 52nd Street. (New York Times: 9/14)

30) On Wednesday morning, three Sikh men waiting at Grand Central Terminal for a Connecticut-bound train were stopped and had their bags searched by the police. (New York Times: 9/14)

31) In Denton, Texas, a Molotov cocktail fashioned out of a beer bottle was tossed at a mosque and Islamic school, a day after windows were shot out at a similar Islamic center near Dallas. (Reuters/Chicago)

32) In New York’s Kennedy airport, law enforcement officers searched passengers boarding an American Airlines flight who appeared to be of Arab decent. "Anyone with dark skin or who spoke with an accent was taken aside and searched," one passenger said. "And they went to any male with too much facial hair." (NY Times and MSNBC.com)

33) An Islamic information service reported that a bag of pig blood was eft on the doorstep of an Islamic community center in San Francisco. (Reuters/Chicago)

34) An Islamic center in Ohio received menacing messages and a bullet was fired through one window. (Toledo Blade and Reuters/Chicago)

35) One Muslim woman said she, her husband and their eight children endured a night of terror when an angry mob rose outside of their home in Oak Lawn, Ill. The woman, who asked not to be identified out of fear, said ``We had people riding up and down our block shouting obscenities. 'Go home you bleeping ragheads, bleeping a-rabs, we're gonna get you." My husband and I stayed up all night guarding the windows,'' she added. ``My husband is of Arab descent. He gave four years of his life in the U.S. Navy ... to have some skinhead with an American flag screaming at your house.'' She said the family was afraid to call the police because it would single out their house, adding that other Muslim families in the neighborhood were considering whether they should leave the area Thursday evening. (Reuters/Chicago)

36) Police in northern Indiana were investigating several other hate crimes. (Reuters/Chicago and MSNBC.com)

37) A Pakistani Muslim store owner was shot and killed in Dallas Saturday evening. (MSNBC)

38) The FBI has initiated 40 hate crime investigations involving reported attacks on Arab American citizens and institutions. (MSNBC)

39) In Palos Hills, Ill., two Muslim girls were beaten at Moraine Valley College.

40) In Evansville, Ind., a man driving 80 miles an hour rammed his car into a mosque. In both cases, police arrested suspects. (MSNBC)

41) Damage was reported at another Arab-owned gasoline station in Indiana, as well as at a restaurant owned by a native of Jordan, where windows were broken and the windows of a parked car were shot out. (Reuters/Chicago)

42) At Jacksonville State University, tensions over the terrorist attacks have extended beyond the Islamic students. Students from abroad with dark complexions, including one Brazilian woman, reported hostile looks, snide comments and fearing for their safety. (MSNBC)

43) Muslim schools in several areas have canceled their classes as a precaution against threats and reported violence. (Reuters/Chicago)

44) In Alexandria, Virginia, Hazim Barakat, a native of Jerusalem who came to the United States 11 years ago, said he arrived to open his Islamic bookstore the day after the attack to find windows shattered with note-bound bricks. "You come to this country to kill our people. We want to kill you'' and "Death to the Arab murderers,'' read the notes, according to Barakat, a U.S. citizen. (Reuters/Chicago)

45) The LAPD said 8 hate incidents have been reported in the city of Los Angeles, including four that have been classified as hate crimes --2 cases of vandalism; one assault with a deadly weapon, in which a gun was put to a woman's face; and an "annoying" phone call to the Southern California Islamic Center. Four other incidents involved racial epithets and slurs but were not classified as hate crimes. (Los Angeles Times)

46) Two students at Pierce College in Woodland Hills wrote "die" on a Persian Club booth on campus. An altercation ensued between the suspects and one or two students, but the victims did not press charges. (Los Angeles Times)

47) At the University of Southern California, some Muslim students have been harassed and some Muslim women have had their veils pulled off, according to Sarah Eltantawi of the Muslim Public Affairs Council. (Los Angeles Times)

48) Some Jewish Americans express fears of being targeted for blame that this terrorism stems from continuing US support for Israel.
(Seattle and Detroit Free Press/ Reuters: Chicago)

49) Arab-Americans have been singled out in airports for searches by security agents and assaulted by thugs, according to published eports. The Internet has also become a hotbed for the harassment of>Arab-Americans. ( MSNBC.com)

50) Fairfax County police are investigating two weekend bias crimes they say may be linked to the terror attacks. (MSNBC)

51) The Windows 2000 French-language spell-checker suggests replacing "anti-stress" with the word "anti-arab." The head of Microsoft's European and Middle East operations said on Wednesday the problem should be fixed in "a few weeks" and that customers would be offered a new version free of charge. (Reuters)

* * * * * * *


Statement On the Terrorist Attacks on NYC and Washington, DC

JUSTICE, NOT REVENGE; PEACE, NOT WAR;
CIVIL LIBERTIES and HUMAN RIGHTS, NOT FASCISM


GABRIELA Network, a US-Philippine women's solidarity organization, grieves with the families of those who perished in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the cities of New York and Washington, DC. We grieve most profoundly for the loss of Americans of Philippine ancestry, and the deaths of Filipino migrant workers who held jobs at various establishments at the World Trade Center. We extend our condolences and our support to the bereaved families.

In the aftermath of these tragedies, we ask that the public bear in mind that the dead of the World Trade Center twin-tower collapse came from 62 countries. To use their deaths for xenophobia and anti-immigrant hysteria is to disrespect their suffering and those of their families.

It is a matter of grave concern that within hours of the attacks, we witnessed and continue to witness an assault on civil liberties and human rights within the US itself. Militarization has proceeded apace, attended by mobilization, overseas deployment, police and military barricades, wiretaps, raids, the zoning off of neighborhoods, "detention," – all wrapped in secrecy and the legal fiction of "sealed documents" violative of due process. "Immigration questions" is the excuse used for arrest and interrogation, a phrase designed to quell any question regarding the processes by which investigation surrounding the tragedies are carried out.

That little time has been spent in asking questions - why the choice of targets, why such an acceptance of "collateral damage," why such disregard for human life, etc. - and even less time in seeking for answers add to our sorrow. We urge that time be spent in understanding the source of such rage towards the US, the role of the US outside its borders and finally, the role of the US in fostering the very climate in which massive death and destruction are acceptable. The root causes of the attacks have to be understood, so that the events of September 11, 2001 are never again repeated, whether the victims be people of the United States or peoples of Asia, Africa or the rest of the Americas.

Osama bin Laden, the Ak-Qaeda, the Taliban, and others accused of terrorism did not spring full-blown; nor did they develop in a vacuum. Certainly, the acute disparity in wealth, power and even in how grievances are heard create a fertile source of recruits for those who would commit such acts of despair as the attacks on the Twin Towers of New York City. Certainly, encouragement and support for their violence did not come from one culture or one religion or one system of beliefs alone. Indeed, the US itself was and continues to be instrumental in the creation and shaping of the Taliban, in the fostering of fundamentalism and fanaticism. And certainly, the US has been a prime creator of a world climate wherein the large-scale slaughter of civilians has become acceptable. The very term "collateral damage," to objectify the death of civilians, emerged from US military history.

Moreover, US transnational corporations, with their ruthless drive for profit, has been instrumental in creating a value system which ranks human lives as not even a poor second to the accumulation of wealth. Where medicine vital to survival becomes priced out of reach of the majority of the sick, where medicine is not manufactured because the sick poor does not constitute a market, where the food self-sufficiency of nations is compromised to maintain a world trading system, and where the most fundamental needs of human beings are ignored in favor of "globalization," not only despair but also a vast reservoir of hatred becomes the constant emotion of daily existence of the populations of the world.

We therefore urge that the response to the attacks be predicated on justice, not revenge; that it be predicated on the resolution of long-standing conflicts in various regions of the world, in lieu of war; that militarism be curbed, if not totally eradicated; that solutions to disparities in wealth and development be actively sought and implemented; and that the people of the US hold even more strongly and with greater fervor to civil liberties, due process and the respect for human rights.

We call on everyone to resist and oppose the current xenophobic and anti-immigrant hysteria. We call for an end to general public apathy and ignorance of the international situation, so carefully cultivated in the mass culture of the US. We call for even greater effort towards
knowledge and the understanding of peoples, cultures and conditions outside US borders, and even firmer solidarity with those struggling for economic and social justice, independence, national liberation and genuine democracy.

We must do this in commemoration of the thousands who died in those attacks and toward the single objective that similar attacks not happen again, whether the victims be people of the US or people of Asia, Africa and the rest of the Americas. # # #

GABRIELA Network USA
A Philippine-US Women's Solidarity Organization

Chapters in Los Angeles, Chicago, New Jersey,
New York, San Francisco, Seattle.

PO Box 403, Times Square Station
New York, New York 10036
tel.: (212) 592-3507
email: gabnet@gabnet.org
web: www.gabnet.org

VARIOUS CONTACTS FOR INFO AND ACTION

* Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund: Sinyen Ling, 212-760-9110 or 212-966-5932. Incidents can also be reported via email to: sling@aaldef.org.
* Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund: Margaret Fung, 212-966-5932, x201 or mfung@aaldef.org.
* Dissecting American Media Now (D.A.M.N.) http://www.saja.org, Various list options: http://www.saja.org, lists, Jyoti Thottam, thottam@hotmail.com
* International Action Center, 39 W. 14th St., New York, NY 10011, (212) 633-6646, Email: iacenter@iacenter.org, www.iacenter.org
* Nonprofit Coordinating Committee, wwwnpccny.orgdmyers@npccny.org.
* NYC Arts Coalition will be a clearing house for resources and/or assets arts groups may offer others. If you know of any special resources been made available, or special events been held, etc., please contact Mary-Jane Louaver at ext. 227 or mjlouaver@art-newyork.org.

Emergency and Victim Information

Please do not use the 911 emergency system to seek information on your loved ones and friends. Use these numbers instead.

* NYC Emergency Information: http://home.nyc.gov/portal/index.jsp?pageID=nyc_home, 212-560-2730
* FBI Information: http://www.fbi.gov/, To report any leads on the incidents in New York or Washington, call 866-483-5137, 800-331-0075 (NYPD Tipline call 718-765-4300).
* Justice Department: Office of Victims of Crime: http://responsecare.com/ Information for families about victims and about services for survivors and their rights: 800-331-0075
* Report Safety Web Page: http://do.millennium.berkeley.edu/find.php, A service which merges unofficial survivor registries into one searchable database.
* Federal Emergency Management Agency: 800-462-9029 http://www.fema.gov/.

* * * * * * *

CAMPUS ANTI-WAR PROTESTS

There have just been over 100 U.S. anti-war protests on campuses! Some very large, and all peaceful. Pretty good for the first week of the movement. The "Washington Post" mentioned a national rally in DC set for Sept. 30th– Please e-mail everyone a flyer for this rally as soon as you get one. Is it really happening?

As soon as the many campus Muslim and Arab groups feel a little safer, they will turn these protests into a really massive national and international movement. The last year's events in Palestine have made strong, confident campus leaders out of hundreds of Arab and Muslim students in North America. Many thousands of Arabs and Muslims have confidently marched for human rights and freedom in Palestine, in all the largest campuses and cities of North America.

Meanwhile, everybody who’s doing these big peaceful protests, and holding teach-ins, should keep doing it! Every person, and every group, is really needed now.

This week’s campus protests (most of them were held on Sept. 20) included, just to name a few:

* Ann Arbor, Michigan–

"Antiwar rallies are vocal and peaceful"

"300 at U-M barely louder than 30 who support war", September 21, 2001 "Detroit Free Press" (Detroit, Michigan), on the Web at:
www.detroitfreepress.com/news/nw/terror2001/march21_20010921.htm see also (Hundreds attended)

Ann Arbor also had a scholarly Teach-In against racial profiling of Muslims, Arabs, and Sikhs (600 people attended, far more than reported!):
www.michigan daily.com/articles.php?uniqid=20010921n03

* Berkeley, California–

On the Web at:

(At least 2,500 rallied at Berkeley!)

* University of Illinois–

www.dailyillni.com/sep01/sep21/news/stories/news_story01.shtml

* All over the country–

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59308-2001Sep19.html

* Harvard University– dailytexanonline.com


* * * * * * *


REMOVAL OF PASSENGERS FROM AIRLINE FLIGHTS

Since the terrorist hijackings and events of September 11, we have seen several reports of airlines apparently removing passengers from flights because the passengers appeared to be Middle Eastern and/or Muslim. We caution airlines not to target or otherwise discriminate against passengers based on their race, color, national or ethnic origin, religion, or based on passengers' names or modes of dress that could be indicative of such classification. Various Federal statutes prohibit air carriers from subjecting a person in air transportation to discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, or ancestry. At DOT, we are and will continue to be vigilant in ensuring that the airport security procedures, mandated by FAA and implemented by the airlines, are not unlawfully discriminatory.

We strongly encourage each airline to take steps to ensure that its employees understand that, not only is it wrong, but it is also illegal to discriminate against people based on their race, ethnicity, or religion. Recently, the President and Chief Operating Officer of Delta Airlines sent a letter to all of the airline's employees worldwide requesting tolerance of all people and cultures, and explaining that its employees must comply fully with civil rights laws. A copy of this letter is attached.

Norman Strickman
Assistant Director for Aviation Consumer Protection
Office of Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings
Office of the General Counsel
U.S. Department of Transportation