Five years after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, “Islamophobia” - intensified by the war in Iraq and government actions - has left millions of Muslims fearful of harassment, discrimination and questionable prosecutions, and confused about their place in society.

Recent polls indicate that almost half of US citizens have a negative perception of Islam and that one in four of those surveyed have “extreme” anti-Muslim views. A survey by the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) found that a quarter of people here consistently believe in stereotypes such as: “Muslims value life less than other people” and “The Muslim religion teaches violence and hatred.” In 2005, CAIR received 1,972 civil rights complaints, compared to 1,522 in 2004. This constitutes a 29.6 per cent increase in the total number of complaints of anti-Muslim harassment, violence and discriminatory treatment from 2004.

What is the impact on Muslims and other Americans of Arab descent? One, who did not want to be named, said, “It sometimes feels suffocating being in the US now. We cannot turn on our TV in the evening to watch CNN or MSNBC or the other ‘news stations’ because of people like Glenn Beck and others who spew hate, nonsense and misinformation about Islam and Arabs on primetime.”

Following 9/11, the US Department of Justice began rounding up Arabs and other Muslims and — mistakenly — anybody who looked “Middle Eastern,” including Sikhs from South Asia. In the months after the attacks, some 5,000 men were held in detention without charges, most without access to lawyers or family members. As confirmed in an investigation by the DOJ Inspector-General, many were held in solitary confinement and physically abused. There were no prosecutions and no convictions of any of these people. Some, who were in the US with expired visas or who had committed other immigration infractions, were deported. Since then, the seemingly endless catalogue of harassment and infringements on the civil rights of US citizens has grown unabated.

A few examples: Ahmad Al Halabi graduated from high school in Dearborn, Michigan, the centre of the nation’s Muslim community. He joined the Air Force and was assigned as a translator for Al Qaeda suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He was accused of spying and spent 10 months in solitary confinement before the spy charges were dropped. Osama Abulhassan and Ali Houssaiky, both 20 and from Dearborn, were charged with supporting terrorism in Marietta, Ohio, in August after making bulk purchases of cheap, prepaid cell phones.

Samer Shehata, professor of Arab Politics at Georgetown University, probably speaks for the feeling in most of the US Muslim community. “Quite simply,” he said, Islamophobia “produces an environment that is fundamentally at odds with what the US is supposed to be about; our values for treating everyone fairly and not discriminating on the basis of skin colour, race, religion, gender, etc. “This is damaging for all Americans and it is also damaging for the reputation of the US overseas,” he said. “One of the questions I hear the most whenever I am in Egypt and other parts of the Middle East is: how is it like now in the US for Arabs? Have you been the victim of discrimination, bigotry, abuse?” — IPS