These incidents have ranged from vandalism to murder. This number likely undercounts the total number of incidents in dramatic fashion as Muslim Americans remain wary about reporting incidents of discrimination because of fears of retaliation. Most Muslim Americans have experienced incidents of hate directly in some form or fashion. My experiences with xenophobia are similarly not abstract academic concepts but very real and incredibly visceral.
Like so many other Muslim Americans during that time, during which politicians openly questioned the Americanness of Muslims like me, I received my introduction to improper government action and racial profiling in the aftermath of September 11. As a teenager, in the aftermath of 9/11, I heard the threats left on my mosque’s answering machine—messages of death, arson, and rape against my family and community.
Not long thereafter, I was improperly detained by police for the first time at a convenience store when I was accosted by a man who appeared to be intoxicated, called me a xenophobic slur, and pushed me. After I pushed him back and he fell, police were called, and I was detained as I was deemed an “aggressor.”
I have been detained five times in three jurisdictions, including humiliating stop-and-frisk stops while working as an attorney in New York City. I have never been arrested. In case one might think bigotry has died down, I routinely receive social media comments or notes attacking me not for my work but for my religion, my race, and even my name.
I came to the ACLU of Nevada to serve as its executive director with a deep belief in the organization’s First Amendment work, including religious liberty, and I have reformed our organization in critical ways of which I am proud. We grew our legal staff to the largest it has been since our organization was founded in 1966. We have won major lawsuits on a slew of issues and successfully litigated the first Equal Rights Amendment challenge in our state’s history.
At the core of our work are our values. At the core of our values is religious liberty, which includes our constitutional right to engage in the free exercise of religion and to be free from government-imposed religious doctrine. In our world, it does not matter what anyone’s faith is or if they subscribe to a faith at all. The basic tenets of civil libertarianism and civil rights encourage freedom, not tyranny, and fairness, not bias.
As division continues to engulf the nation, now remains as good a time as any to come together to condemn all hatred and bigotry. Attacks on racial minorities, transphobia, antisemitism, and anti-Muslim hatred all remain very real and the benchmark for the United States. Those of us who have entered the powerful profession of law must commit ourselves to ensuring that we all stand together to condemn hatred.
Violations that go unchallenged stack and spread, reinforcing systemic inequalities. As attorneys, we are uniquely positioned to challenge inequity, and we must do so for the United States to fulfill its potential to ensure liberty and justice for all, not simply all who share a monolithic background.
The United States of America is an ideal to achieve. We are nowhere near a finished product. This ideal will not grow more realistic without unity and strength, which can only exist if we all stand up for the rights of people subject to hate and discrimination. Those fortunate enough to be attorneys must be at the forefront of driving the United States forward to a better tomorrow.
Please note: The views expressed herein have not been approved by the House of Delegates, the Board of Governors, the Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice or the Human Rights Editorial Board of the American Bar Association and, accordingly, should not be construed as representing the policy of the American Bar Association. They are the views of the individual authors themselves in their personal capacities.
