Particularly Muslims: How Race and Religion Affect US Police Harassment

The relationship between Muslim communities and the police has always been tense. While American society looks to the police for protection in times of harassment, many Muslims distrust the police because of the post–9/11 surveillance that was conducted by the police.

An American study, the results of which were published on June 30, 2022, showed that American Muslims are five times more likely to be harassed by the police because of their religion, noting that white Muslims are less likely to be harassed by the police because of their faith than non-white Muslims.

Estimates attribute more than 1,000 murders annually to the US police, while new research indicates that more than half of police killings are not reflected in official statistics.

US Police continue to kill Native Americans, Latinos, and Black people aggressively and discriminately at significantly higher rates, as much as 350% more frequently, than white people.

Public opinion polls indicate that many Americans agree that Muslims are more vulnerable to discrimination than other religious groups.

 

Tense Relationship

A study conducted by Rice University in Houston in Texas and West Virginia University showed that Muslims in the United States are five times more likely to be harassed by the police because of their religion than other religions.

More specifically, adult Muslims who identify as black, Middle Eastern, Arab, or North African are more likely to report being harassed by the police because of their religion, according to the study.

A report published by Middle East Eye on August 23, 2022, said that the overall rate among adults in the United States was estimated at 3.8%. So Muslim individuals are about five times more likely to say they have been harassed by the police because of their religion.

The data for this study came from the survey component of the 2019 Experiences of Religious Discrimination Study (ERDS), a project that examines individuals' experiences with personal hostility, discrimination, and victimization based on their religion.

In July, the Arab American Action Network (AAAN) obtained 235 reports of suspicious activity through the Freedom of Information Act.

The Chicago Police Department and the Illinois State Police submitted the reports between 2016 and 2020, finding that more than 50% of suspects who reported to the police, primarily for doing ordinary things like texting or taking pictures, were described as being of Arab origin in Chicago.

The post–9/11 geopolitical environment has created a tense relationship with law enforcement for Muslim American communities.

Many American Muslims fear state-imposed police surveillance through measures such as online tracking, airport security, routine stops, or surveillance inside religious sites, according to the Rice University study.

The study notes that individuals who identify as of Middle Eastern origin are more likely to say they have been harassed by the police because of their religion, and just over 35% of individuals in this group, regardless of their individual religions, have experienced such harassment, which is approximately 10 times the percentage observed among adults in the United States in general.

Almost no white adult Muslims reported being harassed by the police because of their religion, but more than 23% of black Muslims have experienced police harassment because of their religion, rising to nearly 40% among adult Muslims of Middle Eastern origin.

"We believe it's an important topic to explore, and it can help us understand the connections between religion and race in experiences with police harassment," said Jauhara Ferguson, lead author of the study and a PhD student in sociology at Rice University.

Americans do not deny the persistence of many racist practices, and a poll conducted by Monmouth University indicated that 71% of white Americans considered racism and discrimination against blacks to be big and real problems within the United States.

 

Police Violence

Since Muslims of Black, Middle Eastern, and North African backgrounds living in the United States consider themselves vulnerable to police harassment because of their religion or, in other words, Islamophobia, Muslim organizations in the United States have, on several occasions, called for an end to religious discrimination and violence.

On July 27, 2022, social media pioneers shared a video clip on Twitter of police in Oak Lawn, Illinois, beating a Muslim teenager, which ignited the anger of Muslims in the United States.

The video, which was recorded by a passerby, showed a Palestinian youth named Hadi Abuatelah (17 years) after he was thrown to the ground and two policemen sitting on top of him took turns severely beating him and punched him at least 10 times in the legs and face. As a result, the Muslim youth was taken to the hospital, according to What CBS News reported.

In a press conference held by the city police to clarify its position, its spokesman said that "Hadi Abuatelah was smoking drugs with a group of his friends in one of the cars, and when the police arrived, he ran away from the car and was carrying a weapon."

In the conference, the police also showed a video documenting some footage that shows the police stopping next to a car parked on the side of the road and forcing its passengers to get out of it.

In turn, Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said that "Hadi Abuatelah is a student and barber and has no criminal record, revealing that he suffers from a broken nose and bruises on his face, right arm and back with internal bleeding near his brain and forehead."

The CAIR also condemned the incident in a tweet on Twitter and demanded the publication of videos recorded by cameras attached to the officers' chests and not those recorded by the police car camera.

Activists expressed their anger at the level of police violence against the young man, and some of them asked why Oak Lawn police officers felt that it was necessary for a child or teenager to be beaten in this way.

While others compared Hadi Abuatelah's incident with what happened in the famous story of George Floyd, who was also accused by the police at the time of outlawing, and activist Meridith Bolster said about this: "We were supposed to see a change in police behavior nationwide after they killed George Floyd while he was in custody, but police violence remains the same."

 

Suspicious Strategy

In January 2012, documents obtained by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University revealed that the New York Police Department used a film called The Third Jihad about Islamists as part of its three-month to year-long training of thousands of officers and police.

The New York Times said that the film showed pictures of Muslim terrorists shooting Christians in the heads, car bombings, the bodies of children wrapped in blankets and lying, and a fabricated picture showing the Islamic flag flying over the White House.

"This is the real agenda of Islam in America and adds that the strategy involves infiltration and domination of America. This is the war you don't want to know about," the film's narrator said.

However, New York City Council members, jurists, and Islamic leaders said at the time that the city's police trampled on civil rights, blurred the lines between domestic and foreign espionage, and sowed fear among Muslims.

It is noteworthy that the Muslims of the United States represent about 77 countries, and thus they are considered a microcosm of the Islamic world.

This micro-Muslim world lives as a suspicious group, targeted by anti-terror laws and US public policies that inflame feelings of hatred against Muslims there.

Studies from within the United States revealed a climate of suspicion and fear created by the security authorities and the American media towards Muslims so that they are seen as a potential threat, and at best, they are suspicious.

Hearings in Congress have long been awash with accusations of the Muslim community of extremism, including a claim by Republican Congressman Peter King that 85% of mosques in the United States are under the control of fundamentalist Islamists.

Mosques are subject to illegal espionage by the FBI and state police, operations that peaked under former President Donald Trump.

Mosques have also been subject to vandalism and criminal attacks, with ordinary citizens often seeking to intimidate Muslims into giving up mosques.

Muslims are also subject to inspections, particularly at airports, and discrimination against them also appears when applying for a job or in connection with the affairs of daily life.

The New York City Police did not stop the special unit assigned to monitor Muslims from 2003, in the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001, until April 2014. That is, spying on the Muslims of New York in general for more than ten years.