Registration gives U.S. image another beating

At a time when the U.S. government is attempting to buy space on Arab television networks to air propaganda programmes focusing on the 'pleasant'‚ lives enjoyed by Muslims in America, hundreds of mostly Arab and Iranian temporary U.S. residents and visitors have been handcuffed and imprisoned. Many were shackled and hosed down with cold water.

Given America's current anti-Arab climate, perhaps it isn't surprising that Lebanon's Information Minister Ghazi Aridi was recently angered by the broadcast of an American government's public relations commercial by Future Television.

The advertisement showed Arab-Americans enthusing about their freedoms, job opportunities and the respect shown by society to Muslims. Aridi adjudged the ads to be nothing more than politically-driven, propaganda tools. Egypt has refused to run the ads on its state-run television for similar reasons.

Aridi could well be right. Since September 11 2001, the lot of Arabs in America leaves much to be desired. Last week witnessed one of the more unfortunate milestones in American history since the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans in World War II and the injustices of McCarthyism, which ruined the lives of so many innocents.

Upon the instructions of U.S. Attorney-General John Ashcr-oft, males from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan and Syria, over the age of 16, were required to voluntarily submit themselves to the INS (Immigration and Naturalisation Service) for fingerprinting, photographing and questioning.

Shocked

In southern California, several thousand willingly came forward, some accompanied by their lawyers. Almost one quarter of these were shocked to find themselves taken into custody for minor visa violations, mostly the fault of a cumbersome system.

Newspaper reports mention a 16-year-old boy who was ripped from his pregnant mother's arms even though she is a legal resident, married to an American citizen. According to journalist Andrew Gumbel, INS officials told the sobbing young man that he would never be allowed to return home.

Another victim of America's unwieldy immigration system was a British construction worker who was born in Iran. Kourosh Reyhanyfar heard about the INS requirement on the radio and was duly rewarded for his dutiful compliance with the inside of a cell.

Reyhanyfar and his wife, after extending their six-month visas twice, are awaiting the result of their applications for a green card and in the interim have received social security numbers and driving licences.

Despite having faithfully followed the strict letter of U.S. immigration law, Reyhanyfar, who hasn't even visited his home country in 25 years, was treated like a criminal, taken to a detention centre and forced to strip before being held for three days without charge.

Dangerous precedent

Ban Al Wardi, a lawyer who helplessly witnessed 14 of her clients being taken into custody, told the Los Angeles Times: "This is a very dangerous precedent. What is to stop Americans from being treated like this when they travel overseas?"

INS officials have refused to say just how many men were arrested after innocently turning up at their offices but estimates range from 700 – 1,000. Community leaders have pointed out that many of the men had worked in the U.S. for up to 10 years and were law-abiding taxpayers.

Embarrassed by the public outcry manifesting in large street protests when protesters carried banners asking, 'What next? Concentration camps?' the agency has since made the feeble excuse that it was not equipped to process so many people at one time. Obviously, a case of 'lock 'em up first and ask questions later'.

January 10 is the cut-off date for nationals of 13 other countries, most of them either North African, Middle Eastern or Gulf to report to the INS. After witnessing last week's fiasco, one can only wonder what their incentive will be for doing the right thing.

In any event, members of Al Qaida cells are extremely unlikely to give themselves up to the INS, and it is difficult to comprehend how alienating entire communities is going to aid the Department of Homeland Security with its responsibility of keeping America terrorist free.

Surely, these are the very communities, which should be encouraged to assist the U.S. government with exposing suspicious characters? The result of this bungling will surely be that America's enemies will go even deeper into hiding while mistreated, once genuine friends of the United States could now be having second thoughts and reviewing their loyalties.

But such racially oriented and disrespectful behaviour on the part of American officialdom, under the guise of combating terror, cannot all be put down to 'overwork'. Similar attitudes are being displayed at America's borders as a matter of policy.

Professor Muzaffar Iqbal, a Canadian national, refused to submit to humiliating treatment at the hands of U.S. immigration agents, who prevented him from catching the flight to Washington DC on which he was booked.

Iqbal, a writer, had been invited by the George Town Univer-sity's Center for Christian-Muslim Understanding to attend a meeting of its Advisory Committee. After handing over his Canadian passport to U.S. immigration officials, Iqbal was led into a room where he found other worried detainees, including a disabled and confused elderly woman.

After more than four hours, Iqbal was finally interviewed. He was naturally surprised to be asked: "So, you are a Pakistani citizen?"

"No," he answered. "I am a Canadian citizen. You have my passport in front of you."

After being interrogated as to why he had visited Saudi Arabia (pilgrimage) and Kazakhstan (a Unesco conference) and told that he would have to be fingerprinted and photographed, the Canadian writer had finally had enough.

"I refuse to be treated like a criminal. I have lived in Canada for 22 years and your Secretary of State has just assured us that we will not be discriminated against on the basis of the country of our birth," he protested.

"We have to protect our country," argued the officer.

"Indeed, you have the right to do so, but you should not humiliate citizens of other countries. There is an 85-year-old woman sitting in a wheelchair outside this room. Do you think that she is going to attack your country? She can hardly stand on her feet," was Iqbal's response.

Code of apartheid

He said: "I suddenly realised that the registration system is a complete code of apartheid based on race, religion and country of origin." He reacted by shunning entry to the U.S. and taking the next flight home to Edmonton after a frustrating 14 wasted hours.

If the Bush administration continues in such a discriminatory fashion, the efforts of Charlotte Beers, the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, to win hearts and minds in the Arab world are destined to fail. Beers may well have been the first female Product Manager for Uncle Ben's but selling Uncle Sam to the region is an almost impossible task these days.

The American government's establishment of a new Mid-East radio station which broadcasts the strains of American pop, the setting up of Arabic websites and the placement of U.S. government-sponsored commercials will do little to drown out the injustices experienced by Arabs and Muslims both within and without the borders of the U.S.

And even while Iranians were suffering the indignities of incarceration in California through no fault of their own, American President George W Bush was helping to launch a new radio service