[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 124 (Friday, September 21, 2001)]
[House]
[Page H5920]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 AMERICANS FACING UGLY THREATS AT HOME

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Bonior) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, as America mourns its dead and prepares to 
launch a global war on terrorism, some Americans are facing additional 
ugly threats here on the home front, and they are not from foreign 
terrorists but, regretfully, they are from fellow citizens.
  Since the attacks on New York and Washington last week, many Arab 
Americans, Muslim Americans, Sikhs, and other Americans of South Asian 
heritage have become the targets of terrible bigotry and violence based 
solely on their faith, their heritage, or their choice of traditional 
clothing.

                              {time}  2320

  Americans of just about every religion and ethnic heritage lost loved 
ones in this terrorist attack. At least five Sikh Americans were killed 
in the World Trade Center, and one a convenience store owner named 
Balbir Singh Sodhi was shot dead last week in Phoenix by an angry 
gunman calling himself a patriot. Other Sikhs are facing harassment and 
humiliation in our airports, and every American should deplore this 
backlash. It is morally repugnant.
  Sadly, Mr. Speaker, Indian and Pakistani Americans died in the 
attacks, too; and they have become targets of retaliation in the 
aftermaths. In Dallas, a Pakistani Muslim grocer named Waqar Hassan was 
shot dead in a hate crime on Saturday.
  In New Jersey, businesses owned by Indian Americans have been spray 
painted with crude epithets, warning them to leave town. Such 
intimidation is reminiscent of the KKK or Nazi Germany. It has no place 
in modern America, and all of us must stand with our neighbors in the 
face of such ignorance and hatred.
  I am reminded of the remarks that were made on the floor of the House 
last Saturday morning between 12:45 and 2 a.m. in the morning when the 
gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky) said on this floor in a 
comment or remarks that she made on the resolution, we had to condemn 
this kind of bigotry, that she was locking arms that weekend with 
religious leaders in her community, rabbis, ministers, priests, imams 
and others, and walking through the streets of her community in 
solidarity against this kind of repression and intimidation.
  Mr. Speaker, mosques and temples have been vandalized, business 
owners shot and killed, school children taunted, and women attacked 
with stones and knives. As we have just heard from the gentleman from 
Louisiana (Mr. Cooksey), in this House a colleague referred to the head 
covering some Sikhs or Muslims wear out of respect for God as a diaper, 
and his spokesman went on to say that all turban-wearing airline 
passengers should be taken aside and questioned.
  Mr. Speaker, this runs directly against the very ideals that make our 
country great. It runs against the ideals of equality of tolerance of 
diversity and, yes, our own democracy. We are a Nation built by 
immigrants, a Nation that is stronger, not weaker for the many people 
and cultures who proudly call it home, and we must stand united as one 
people in this difficult time and this time of crisis.
  So I say to my friends and colleagues here in the Chamber and across 
America, when this happens, join with your brothers and sisters of 
different faiths and races and nationalities and ethnicities and bind 
together and show your support for those who have been singled out 
unjustly.
  America will prevail against terrorism, and we will prevail not just 
through the strength and the courage of our military but through the 
enduring strength of our most cherished principles. Only if we stand by 
our ideals and our neighbors will we successfully defend the Nation 
that we love.

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