[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 120 (Friday, September 14, 2001)]
[House]
[Pages H5691-H5693]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   CONDEMNING BIGOTRY AND VIOLENCE AGAINST ARAB-AMERICANS, AMERICAN 
                 MUSLIMS, AND AMERICANS FROM SOUTH ASIA

  Mr. GEKAS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on 
the Judiciary be discharged from further consideration of the 
concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res 227) condemning bigotry and violence 
against Arab-Americans, American Muslims, and Americans from South Asia 
in the wake of terrorist attacks in New York City, New York, and 
Washington, D.C., on September 11, 2001, and ask for its immediate 
consideration in the House.
  The Clerk read the title of the concurrent resolution.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania?
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, reserving the right to object, first of all, 
I would like to thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania and the 
leadership of this House for bringing this resolution up. Particularly, 
I would like to thank the Speaker; the majority leader, the gentleman 
from Texas (Mr. Armey); the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Davis), who 
has been so active; the gentleman from California (Mr. Dreier); and 
others. We appreciate the opportunity to have this resolution come 
before us this evening.
  Mr. Speaker, I do not intend to object to this, but I think there are 
Members who would like to speak on this important resolution.
  I will yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Gekas) and then 
to the distinguished majority leader.
  Mr. GEKAS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, the gentleman is correct, this is a resolution which has 
been approved by everyone in sight and is very apropos at this moment 
in our Nation's history, considering the events of this past week.
  The only comment I want to make before the gentleman from Texas (Mr. 
Armey) will be elucidating on the subject is that we do not want to 
repeat as a Nation the insidious events that took place after Pearl 
Harbor with respect to the treatment of Japanese-American citizens, who 
had to suffer the indignities which are so well chronicled and which 
were so noted by this Congress in recent years.
  So when we talk about treating Arab-Americans in the light of what 
happened this past week in similar ways, this resolution goes to the 
heart of that series of events.
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, continuing my reservation, I yield to the 
distinguished majority leader, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Armey).
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, let me begin by thanking the gentleman from 
Michigan (Mr. Bonior) for drafting this legislation and thank the 
gentleman even more for calling it to my attention and inviting me to 
be part of this discussion.
  Mr. Speaker, this is a serious matter. This goes to the heart of what 
we have been talking about for the last few days.
  This Nation was attacked by criminal terrorists, barbarians. For what 
reasons, we do not know. Of course, we have asked ourselves why, and we 
have been offered a lot of reasons.
  We are hurt, we are angry, we are disappointed. We intend to set this 
thing right. But we do not set it right, Mr. Speaker, if we paint the 
whole world with one brush.
  These were people with hatred in their hearts. They are not all the 
people of a race, a religion or a creed. Indeed, most of the people in 
this country that are Arab-Americans, most of the people in this world 
who are Arabs, most of the American Muslims, most of the people in the 
world who are Muslims, most of the people in the world who are South 
Asians, are as shocked and horrified as we are.
  These were criminals. These were thugs. I do not know their agenda, 
but it is wrong for us to spread the blame for that kind of behavior to 
any person other than those who are responsible. As a good decent 
Nation, we will hold those who are accountable, who are responsible for 
transgressing against the rules of human dignity accountable; and that 
same good decent Nation that holds them accountable with all the rigor 
of their law and force and might should use all the rigor of their law 
and force and might to speak up for and protect the innocent.

                              {time}  0030

  That is what America is about.
  Mr. Speaker, I would ask that this body pass this resolution, and I 
would say to my Nation that I love so much, vindicate our heroes, those 
that have come before us and those that we now fear we will have to put 
on the fields of danger, by having the ability to understand that all 
the world's people, each and every separate person in this world, is 
God's child that deserves our respect and our decent care and love and 
affection, only when they demonstrate that they do not hold any animus.
  Finally, two thoughts from our scripture. We are admonished no matter 
how bad things are, no matter how angry we are, do not sin in your 
anger, Mr. and Mrs. America. Do not diminish yourself. Secondly, even 
for those who are criminal perpetrators, we are told to love the 
sinner, but hate the sin.
  Let us try to rise to an occasion, an occasion where we can 
demonstrate in our common ordinary business where we treat one another 
on the street, in their homes, in their places of religious 
observation, wherever we find them, irrespective of creed or national 
origin, that we treat everybody the same, with equal respect and decent 
treatment. Then, we as a Nation of people might be worthy of all that 
has been sacrificed by our national heroes.
  Again, I thank the gentleman for bringing this to my attention. I 
know so many good Americans who happen to be Arab Americans, South 
Asian Americans, American Muslim communities, and they are hurt and 
they are injured and they are angry, and they too cry out with their 
heart, why this pain and why this harm should be brought to this great 
Nation. Let us let it end with us setting the better example.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman.
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the leader for his eloquent 
statement.
  Under my reservation, I yield to the distinguished gentleman from 
Virginia (Mr. Tom Davis), who has played a very important role in 
making this happen.
  Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I want to commend the 
gentleman from Michigan for his leadership on this issue.
  Just in the last few days, in my district in Northern Virginia, anti-
Arabic graffiti was written at a local high school. We have had an 
Islamic bookstore that has been vandalized.
  The vast majority of American Muslims and Arabs are as appalled at 
these acts of terrorism as the rest of us. Many of these Muslim and 
Arab Americans and Sikhs came to escape this type of terrorism in their 
own countries, and it has come here now. But they have come here, as 
most of our forbears, for the freedom and the opportunity offered in 
America. We cannot afford to let the terrorists divide

[[Page H5692]]

our country between Muslim and Arab and Jews and Christians. We do not 
want to repeat the mistakes of World War II where we singled out 
Japanese Americans for discrimination. We need to show that Americans 
stand together: Christians, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs and others in support 
of our President and against any type of discrimination. Against any 
group, discrimination cannot and should not be tolerated.
  This resolution affirms our role as leaders in recognizing that no 
group should be singled out for discrimination simply because they 
share a common heritage or religious background similar to the 
terrorists.
  I ask that we pass this resolution. Again, I commend the gentleman 
from Michigan (Mr. Bonior) for his leadership.
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, further reserving the right to object, I 
yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Dreier).
  Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding under his 
reservation.
  I want to say that I strongly support this resolution. I want to 
thank the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Davis) and the gentleman from 
Michigan (Mr. Bonior) for the leadership that they have shown on this 
very important issue.
  There are few things that outrage me more than the kind of 
discrimination that was just outlined by the gentleman from Virginia 
that has taken place. The graffiti that has come up in the wake of 
Tuesday's tragedy is just horrible, and we need to do everything that 
we can to ensure that that does not happen. I believe that this 
resolution should send a very strong signal about the leadership that 
the United States is going to take in ensuring that this kind of 
discrimination does not take place.
  Just a little more than 12 hours ago, Mr. Speaker, Dr. Muzammil 
Siddiqi, the leader of the North American Islamic Society, gave the 
opening prayer at the very moving service that most of the Members of 
this body attended. I believe that his presence at that service that we 
attended was a very strong signal from President Bush and other leaders 
in this country that we are not going to tolerate that kind of 
discrimination which has been described already here and which, 
frankly, is of concern to me and to others.
  Attempts to bring about generalization is something that is very 
tempting for a lot of people, and I will simply say that we need to 
caution the American people against that. That is why I chose to stay 
here when the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Davis) first mentioned to me 
the prospect of this resolution. I wanted to voice my very strong 
support for it.
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman. Before I yield to the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Rahall), my good friend who is of 
Lebanese descent, I want to just say a few words, if the gentleman 
would permit me.
  Like all Americans, Arab Americans, Muslims in America, Sikhs, they 
have strongly condemned these heinous and outrageous acts that have 
been perpetrated against America and its people. And like their fellow 
citizens of all faiths, they have joined in efforts to give blood; they 
have been parts of vigils around this country; they have conducted 
their own religious services. They were the firemen and the police that 
were involved in trying to rescue people in New York City. They are 
part of what we all are grieving and suffering from so painfully in 
these last 3 days, 4 days.
  So I would say tonight that in the wake of this attack, it is really 
most unfortunate and sad and outrageous that the Arab American 
community and the Muslim American community and the South Asian 
community, the Sikhs particularly, have been targeted with this bigotry 
that the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Davis) alluded to, and violence.
  Near Chicago, bigots tossed a fire bomb at an Arab American community 
center. In old town Alexandria, vandals attacked an Islamic bookstore, 
as the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Davis) said, and two Virginia 
mosques received threatening phone calls. In New York, a man tried to 
run over a Pakistani woman in the parking lot of a shopping mall, 
accusing her of destroying my country, and the list goes on and on. 
Many of the children in the schools are fearful because of their 
religion or because of where their ancestors or families may have come 
from. Women, Muslim women are fearful about wearing their head 
coverings in public, as well are Sikhs who have expressed that same 
concern to me today. It is a serious problem.
  I think not only did Muzammil Siddiqi speak today at the service, but 
Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the Archbishop of Washington, spoke as 
well.

                              {time}  0040

  He reminded us. He said this. He reminded all Americans in prayer 
that: ``We must seek the guilty and not strike out against the 
innocent, or we become like them who are without moral guidance or 
direction.'' So I hope and pray in the days ahead that people will 
remember that.
  When I was at the White House on Wednesday, the day after the 
tragedies, I had occasion to speak with the President and the Cabinet 
and the other leaders of the Congress. We talked about this issue. We 
raised this issue. There was agreement throughout the room that we 
would keep this issue in mind and in the forefront of our discussions 
as we proceed in the weeks and months ahead.
  So I want to commend the President, because he soon thereafter 
condemned this bigotry on national television, and so did the Attorney 
General, John Ashcroft, and so did Mayor Giuliani, with quite a bit of 
force in New York City.
  Today, we in the Congress lend our voices to this chorus for American 
tolerance, Mr. Speaker, and diversity, and for the rights of every 
American of every heritage and faith to live and worship with safety 
and confidence and pride.
  It is very heartening to see Members on both sides of the aisle stand 
up in support of what this resolution says.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to my friend, the gentleman from West Virginia 
(Mr. Rahall), who has always been, for the 25 years he has been in the 
House, a leader on these issues.
  Mr. RAHALL. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend from Michigan for 
yielding; and I to want to commend him for bringing this to the floor 
this evening, as well as the gentleman from Pennsylvania, and to thank 
the gentleman from Michigan for his leadership on other relevant issues 
in this arena as well, and most particularly, his sponsorship and fight 
for the secret evidence legislation.
  Mr. Speaker, we are all justifiably angered about the events of 9/11 
last week. We, often, in our rage, in our fit of anger, say and do 
things that, upon reflection, we perhaps regret. But the instances that 
have been referred to by previous speakers, including the gentleman 
from Michigan (Mr. Bonior), go beyond those just temporary slips of 
judgment or temporary slips of the tongue. They go to what is basic 
about our American society, and it is really an attack upon what is 
basic about our military society.
  Let us not forget that Arab Americans, Muslim Americans, South Asian 
Americans, are Americans first. They chose to come to this country in 
order to seek a better way of life for themselves and their families. 
They pay taxes. They vote. They donate to various charitable causes 
within their communities. They have become well respected, and they 
have contributed in so many walks of life, whether it be the medical 
profession, the legal profession. Whether it be doctors, lawyers, 
whether it be teachers, whether it be laborers in our factories, they 
have contributed so much to our American way of life.
  Let us not forget as well that there were members of these 
communities that were in those Twin Towers that lost their lives, as 
well. Let us not forget that fact.
  So I guess the best way to describe these attacks against Arab 
Americans or Muslim Americans or South Asians is, as my hometown 
newspaper described it today, to paraphrase my hometown paper in 
Beckley, West Virginia, these are yahoos that are making these attacks, 
yahoos who happen to pose as great a threat to our American society, to 
our freedoms, and to our way of life as those perpetrators of those 
heinous crimes against our country last Tuesday.

[[Page H5693]]

  They are ignorant, those who espouse these attacks. They are not the 
majority of Americans. No, they are a small group; and fortunately, 
these attacks are not as prominent today as they were in past 
occasions, like the Gulf War or the Oklahoma City bombing. That is 
because more and more recognition is coming to the communities 
represented by Arab Americans, Muslim Americans, South Asians, because 
of their contributions to our American way of life.
  As the gentleman from Michigan has mentioned, they have all, to the 
group, condemned, highly condemned, the acts of last Tuesday. They have 
organized themselves into blood donation drives, they are contributing 
their money, they are praying as hard as each of us for the victims of 
these crimes against our country, and for the hopes of their families 
and their futures.
  So I commend the gentleman from Michigan and the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania for bringing this resolution to the floor and urge its 
unanimous passage.
  Mr. BONIOR. I thank my colleague.
  Continuing to reserve, Mr. Speaker, I yield to the distinguished 
gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky), who has not only spoken out 
against this kind of bigotry, but has actually organized in her own 
district.
  Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman yielding to 
me, and the efforts and leadership of my colleague, the gentleman from 
Michigan, to end this kind of bigotry and discrimination.
  In the face of this unspeakable assault on the American people, we 
have so many reasons to be proud this week. We look at the 
firefighters, the police, the other emergency workers who went into 
harm's way, and so we are celebrating as an American family an 
opportunity to embrace each other, even as we grieve, and congratulate 
those who have worked so hard to end the suffering.
  At the same time there has been this one sour note, and that is, that 
there are those who have used this occasion to commit acts of bigotry 
and even violence against people who want to join with us as Americans, 
as residents of this country, as people offended by this act of 
terrorism and find themselves being the victim. It is hard for me to 
even imagine people who are feeling so hurt by what happened and then 
themselves go out in the street and find themselves to be harassed as 
somehow to blame for these acts of violence when they are completely 
innocent.
  I have a district that is so diverse, all kinds of people, every race 
and religion and ethnic origin; and we are going to take a walk down 
Divine Avenue this Sunday, a street in my district that has shops, a 
booming commercial district of Muslims and Indians, Pakistanis, 
Bangladeshis, Orthodox Jews, Jewish people. And we are going to walk 
from one end of the street to the other, just take a walk together, 
hand in hand, arm in arm to express our solidarity.
  That is the kind of thing that we need to be doing in this hour of 
need in this country to help heal each other and not turn against each 
other, and that is the essence of this resolution that I hope everyone 
will support.
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, further reserving the right to object, I 
think it is a beautiful idea, and I hope it is emulated around the 
country. I yield to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee).
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman very 
much for his leadership on this issue. He has been a continuing 
advocate for these issues, and as well, I thank the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Gekas), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Immigration 
and Claims for bringing this particular resolution to the floor of the 
House. And I would certainly want to offer to the American people the 
fact that we are better than this.
  Clearly, it is important during this time of great emotion, 
constantly seeing our brethren searching for those who may still live 
or those who do not live. It is stressful as we watch the continuous 
rescue efforts in New York, some still continuing at the Pentagon, the 
review of the heroic act of those who downed the plane in Somerset 
County, Pennsylvania, you want to lash out. You want to find some 
easing of your pain. But listening to a woman who was full of pain say 
we do not want them here is not the way that America shows its pain. 
America understands what freedom, what democracy, and what our values 
are all about.
  So I think this is particularly important today for the Congress of 
the United States to use its national platform to be louder than those 
disjointed chords of confusion and hatred and really speak loudly to 
our local jurisdictions, our governors, our mayors, our county 
commissioners, our local law enforcement, our parishes, churches, 
synagogues and mosques, our community organizations, all of them, our 
neighbors, our schools. We must speak in one voice that we will not 
tolerate this kind of singling out of Americans, Arab Americans, South 
Asian Americans, and American Muslims.
  In particular, I think one of the greater tragedies is what is 
happening to our children, children who have to go to and from school, 
children who have to mingle on school playgrounds, and it is in school 
classrooms and on school sports teams. What are we doing to them? Are 
we setting up a situation where those who believe this is the right 
thing to do because they heard adults say this? Are they then 
intimidating others who happen to be Arab American, South Asian 
Americans and American Muslims? We are dividing our children.
  The one thing about a terrorist act is it is to instill an enormous 
amount of fear in society, and what happens out of fear? You begin to 
turn on each other. Let us show the perpetrators of these terroristic 
acts that we do stand against terrorism, and we are fearless. In fact, 
we are so fearless that we are going to unify with each other and we 
are going to find unity in being an American, an Arab American, South 
Asian American and American Muslim.

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