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FRANCISCO CHRONICLE - MARCH 21, 2003 War in Iraq | Media Outreach | San Francisco Chronicle --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/03/21 /ED278505.DTL --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday, March 21, 2003 (SF Chronicle) THE WAR ON OUR STREETS/Curbing hate at home Imran Maskatia It was 3:38 p.m. on Jan. 16, 1991. I was a sophomore at Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose. I was waiting for wrestling practice to begin, half-heartedly doing my homework while listening to music on my pocket radio, when I heard the news: Operation Desert Storm had begun. Allied forces in Apache helicopters had struck targets in Iraq. The ground war was soon to follow. Despite the fact that a coalition of nations had deployed hundreds of thousands of troops in the previous months, the events of the day struck me by surprise. It was the first time in my short life that America had gone to war. Growing up as an American Muslim, I had gotten used to taunts and teasing because of my faith. I had been called a "terrorist" since elementary school. When I explained to kids at school that Muslims don't eat pork, and that we fast from dawn to sunset for one month each year, one clever colleague put two and two together and threatened to force-feed me pepperoni pizza during Ramadan. In eighth grade, a student even signed my yearbook "Salman Rushdie," hoping to get a rise out of me. While much of this was good-natured ribbing, after the start of the first Persian Gulf War, threats of physical harm became much more serious. I remember how I felt when, at a school sports rally, fellow students started chanting "Kill Iraq! Kill Iraq!" As the chants deepened to a roar, I wondered whether the young men would turn words into action. I wondered whether I, as someone who made no secret of my religion, would be a target of misplaced patriotism. I knew other Muslims who, fearful for their safety, had stayed home from school. Mohammed became "Mo." While teenagers of all backgrounds can be expected to be a bit embarrassed by their parents, that embarrassment was taken to a new dimension at other schools, as Muslim friends I knew made sure their mother in a head scarf or bearded father didn't come anywhere near school grounds, lest they be identified as "the enemy." Thankfully, while the verbal assaults continued, they never devolved into physical violence against me. But other Muslims were not so lucky. I heard of vandalized mosques and girls in head scarves assaulted. I read of a family who were attacked in their home by hooligans claiming to solicit donations to the "Saddam Hussein Fund." Throughout the 1990s, hate crimes against Arabs, Muslims and others whose only crime was a swarthy complexion continued. After the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, businesses owned by Arab Americans had their windows smashed. Even though the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City and the downing of TWA Flight 800 were not caused by Muslims, hundreds of Muslims and others who "looked Muslim" were attacked, assaulted and threatened. And after the horrific attacks of Sept. 11, a new flood of hate crimes surged against Arabs and Muslims. Now, as we find ourselves again at war against "the land between the two rivers," many things seem similar. Presidents Hussein and Bush are trading insults. A number of nations have spent months amassing troops in the Persian Gulf. I'm optimistic, however, that some things can be different this time around. Hate crimes don't have to happen, especially if a few simple standards are followed: -- Schools must ensure the safety and respect for all students, regardless of their ethnicity, religion or political points-of-view. -- Every school should have a zero-tolerance policy for hate crimes with clearly enunciated consequences. -- Teachers should make sure they don't single out Muslim students or expect them to comment as "experts" on the war. -- Teachers and administrators should use incidents such as name-calling and teasing to highlight the problems of prejudice. Stereotypes can be addressed by giving children an understanding of the history of the Middle East and discussions about different groups who have suffered from the same problem in the past. -- Most importantly, educators should emphasize critical thinking. Hate crimes emanate from ignorance, and thus education is the best preventive measure against such violence. Our youth need to be able to examine multiple sides of an issue, conduct in-depth research and construct -- and deconstruct - - an argument. This is part of the education process and will ultimately produce a human being who can analyze and think on his/her own, rather than parroting the ideas of others. In the end, wars come and go, and they will unfortunately come again. But our schools should never be the battleground. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Imran Maskatia is a spokesperson for Islamic Speakers Bureau, a program of the Islamic Networks Group. For information on the group's "School Program to Prevent Hate," go to http://www.ing.org/prevent_hate/. |
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