Arabs and Muslims a besieged lot in Canada

There is no hiding the truth anymore. Slowly but surely Arabs and Muslims, not only in the United States, but in Canada as well, are increasingly a besieged lot.

No amount of trying by them to adjust to their new circumstance in their adopted lands, seems to be helping them in the current heightened security environment.

They are upset, even angry, for being made to live under a cloud of suspicion, receiving infinitely more attention from law enforcement, fellow workers and from neighbours.

So much so, even a United Nations committee has been prompted to sit up and take notice, something unheard of in this much–touted haven of racial tolerance.

This week, the 18–member UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which was reviewing Canada's status report in Geneva, was constrained to remind Ottawa that certain minority groups are facing the risk of being unfairly branded as criminals and terrorists in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

The UN Committee did not specifically name Arabs and Muslims, instead referring to them broadly as minorities, refugees and newcomers. But the import was quite clear, as it is mostly Arabs and Muslims who have been subjected to detention and harassment here since September 11.

In fact, Danielle Koster, a Director with Amnesty International in Canada who attended the session along with other Canadian non–governmental organisations for the first time and submitted their own reports, complained that since September 11, the government has done little to combat the stereotyping of refugees as terrorists and criminals.

That the UN Committee rapped Canada on the knuckles is not really surprising. Arab and Muslim Canadians are increasingly feeling isolated.

To their credit, most of them recognise that they have been put in a difficult situation by Osama bin Ladin and Al Qaida, and are doing their best to live normal lives, staying clear of anti–Western rhetoric in community gatherings, co–operating as much as they can with the authorities whenever they come looking for help from them, even demonstrating their loyalty to their adopted countries by flying the national flags. Still, they no longer feel the same.

There is not a week that passes without some incident or other coming to light about some Arab or Muslim being the target of a security probe or the victim of some harassment, racial slur or being invited to be interviewed for information relating to September 11.

More often than not, they have given no cause for being singled out this way. Hardly anyone takes to the streets to support Osama or Al Qaida. They say there is no basis for this suspicion. Yet, increasingly they are feeling vulnerable.

To be sure, this sense of distrust and discomfort for Arabs and Muslims is 10 times worse in the United States than in Canada. There are hundreds of young Muslims still being held in detention centres and jails there on suspicion of being connected with terrorism, many of them without a hint from the government about their alleged crimes.

In Canada, the number is few and far between. But the widespread perception within the Arab and Muslim communities in Canada is distinctly similar – they feel, like the Arabs and Muslims in the United States, they are under attack, and that Canadians, like the Americans, no longer care what happens to them.

Authorities deny this, of course. Such things happen only in America and never in Canada, officials will say. But, as Canadian columnist Thomas Walkom, eloquently pointed out in Toronto Star this week, Canada has failed as much to protect its Muslims citizens as the United States.

A good example of this sad neglect is the case of Kuwaiti–born student Moham-med Mansour Jabarah, which came to light last week. Twenty years old and a full–fledged Canadian citizen from the Ontario suburb of St., Catherines, Jabarah has been languishing in a U.S. army base for the past three months, held against his will and uncharged.

The U.S. authorities have refused to reveal the grounds on which he is being held, and Canadian foreign affairs ministry, clueless about his detention for the most part, has not tried to find out why. At least, not until his father in Kuwait started inquiring about his son last week.

Even worse, it appears Jabarah was either handed over to American custody by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) after he was apprehended in Oman in connection with an alleged Al Qaida plot to blow up the U.S. Embassy in Singapore, and handed over to Canada, or, as the strange story goes, he managed to cross the border on his own and give himself up to U.S. custody.

Either way, it appears the Canadian Security Intelligence Service "facilitated" Jabarah's transfer without any reference to the Canadian Foreign Affairs Ministry or the country's judicial system.
But no one seems appalled by the plight of this young Arab–Canadian. There has been no outrage from politicians or civil libertarians.

No one is calling for due process of law for him. The government seems more embarrassed by the revelation than how he came to be transferred to American law enforcement while being in the custody of the Canadian CSIS.

As Walkom pointed out, if this Canadian citizen was not a Muslim and had the name Jones or Bouchard or Giancola, there would have been a tremendous public outcry. As it is, officialdom is more interested in sweeping the issue under the carpet than fighting for his Canadian rights.

Jabarah is just one story that has come to light. Arab and Muslim Canadians believe there may be scores of others in similar situations because the government is still to give a proper accounting of the number of Arabs and Muslims detained in Canada or handed over to the Americans.

The only consolation Arabs and Muslims here have is that they know for certain that the number in detention is vastly smaller than in the United States, and that the relatives and friends of most of the detainees are either battling in courts for their rights or are banding together to make their voice heard politically.

Still, a certain amount of disillusionment – coupled with some tension – is palpable on most Canadian streets where large concentrations of Arabs and Muslims live. Even some Canadians concede that these are testing times for Arabs and Muslims in Canada and for their country's own model of tolerance.

They agree that taunts are not uncommon and apprehension of discrimination is running high among them. There is even reason to think that policymakers in Ottawa are starting to see dangers ahead.

The fear is that Canada's commitment to a tolerant society may wobble under the weight of pressure from across the border to keep the continent free of would–be terrorists. With the U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft openly espousing detentions as a way to prevent new terrorist attacks – he claims detentions have actually thwarted other terrorist plots – the government here seems reluctant to charter its own course.

There is no doubt that Canada views such a policy as too extreme, too discriminatory, too intolerant. Canadians know it is inconsistent with their own id