[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 182 (Tuesday, December 15, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8654-S8655]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    COMBATING ANTI-SEMITISM, RACISM, AND OTHER FORMS OF INTOLERANCE

  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I have had the honor of being the ranking 
Democrat for the U.S. Senate on the Helsinki Commission. I work with 
Senator Wicker, who is the Senate chairman of the Helsinki Commission. 
The two of us have worked very hard on many issues.
  As I am sure everyone here knows, the Helsinki Commission is the 
implementing arm for U.S. participation in the Organization for 
Security and Cooperation in Europe--the OSCE. It is probably best known 
for its human rights basket. It does deal with security, military 
security. It does deal with economic and environmental security. But I 
think it is best known for its human rights and the impact human rights 
have on the security of the OSCE region.
  In March of this year, the president of the Parliamentary Assembly of 
the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Mr. Ilkka 
Kanerva, appointed me to serve as the assembly's first special 
representative on anti-Semitism, racism, and intolerance. Since that 
time, I have focused my work on the urgent issue of anti-Semitism and 
community security, anti-Muslim bigotry, and discriminatory policing. 
So let me share with my colleagues the work I have done this year on 
behalf of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and on behalf of all Members 
of the Senate.
  My appointment came after horrific back-to-back terrorist attacks in 
Paris and Copenhagen in January and February. In both instances, Jewish 
institutions were targeted--a kosher supermarket in Paris and a 
synagogue in Copenhagen. In both instances, some symbol associated with 
free speech was also attacked. In Paris, a murderous rampage was 
unleashed against the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. In 
Copenhagen, a conference on free speech, where a Danish cartoonist was 
among the speakers, was attacked.
  I subsequently visited both cities, along with Senator Wicker and 
Representative Aderholt, fellow members of the Helsinki Commission. 
Following our trip, I authored Senate provisions to increase State 
Department funding to combat anti-Semitism and other forms of 
discrimination in Europe and cosponsored Senator Menendez's resolution 
on anti-Semitism. That resolution supports national strategies to 
combat and monitor anti-Semitism and hate crimes, including training 
law enforcement and collecting relevant data. I am pleased that our 
State Department has advanced many of the efforts outlined in these 
legislative provisions through OSCE and civil society initiatives.
  I have also focused on the problem of discriminatory policing. This 
summer, Hungary's Commissioner for Fundamental Rights issued an 
important report on community policing in Hungary's second largest 
city, Miskolc. He

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concluded that police had participated in mass, raid-like joint 
controls, executed with local government authorities, public utility 
providers, and other public institutions, without explicit legal 
authorization and predominantly in segregated areas inhabited mostly by 
Roma. In short, police targeted Roma for harassment, fines, and daily 
indignities.
  For those of us who listened to Attorney General Holder present the 
Department of Justice's report on Ferguson last March, the Hungarian 
Commissioner's report has the feeling of deja vu--many differences, to 
be sure, but similar in that critical community confidence in law 
enforcement has been abused and damaged.
  I have sought to address these issues with several pieces of 
legislation, including S. 1056, the End Racial Profiling Act; S. 1610, 
officially named the BALTIMORE Act, Building and Lifting Trust in Order 
to Multiply Opportunities in Racial Equality, and S. 2168, the Law 
Enforcement Trust and Integrity Act. Among other provisions, these laws 
would ban racial profiling by State and local law enforcement, 
establish mandatory data collection and reporting, and address the 
issues of police accountability and building trust between police 
departments and communities by providing incentives for local police 
organizations to voluntarily adopt performance-based standards to 
reduce misconduct.
  In the OSCE, where discriminatory policing issues have been 
documented from the United Kingdom and France to Russia, I have urged 
the chair-in-office to hold a high-level meeting on racism and 
xenophobia focused on concrete action.
  Following the most recent tragedies in Paris and San Bernardino, 
there has been a backlash of hatred directed against the asylum 
seekers, immigrants, and Muslims in many OSCE countries, often fueled 
by populist or extremist parties, such as Le Pen in France, UKIP in 
Great Britain, the True Finns in Finland, Swedish Democrats, Austrian 
Freedom Party, or Golden Dawn in Greece. Worse still, this kind of 
xenophobia bleeds into the discourse of mainstream parties. As such, I 
will add an increased focus on prejudice and discrimination linked with 
the migration and refugee crisis to my priorities.
  In addition to focusing on anti-Semitism and discriminatory policing 
and the anti-Muslim backlash, I will also look at the protection of 
migrants and refugees, as that is becoming an area of discrimination 
that is troubling in the OSCE region--including in our own country of 
the United States. I am particularly troubled by the spike in violence 
in our own country directed at houses of worship and community 
centers--fueled by escalating anti-Muslim discourse. In Palm Beach, FL, 
vandals broke all the windows at the Islamic Center, ransacked the 
prayer room, and left bloody stains throughout the center. That cannot 
be tolerated in our country. A number of mosques have reported 
receiving death threats or messages of hate. A pig's head was thrown at 
a Philadelphia mosque, shots were fired at a mosque in Connecticut, and 
a fake bomb was left at a Virginia mosque not far from where we are 
here today in the U.S. Capitol.
  I disagree in the most emphatic way possible with those who would 
have us call for excluding people from this country based on their 
faith, and limiting political participation based on religion. That is 
not who we are. Those are not our values.
  The images of Jewish refugees on SS St. Louis turned away, port after 
port, many of whom ultimately perished in death camps, and the image of 
American citizens, including children, imprisoned in internment camps 
solely because of their race, are dark corners of our own history. We 
must be careful not to retread that path. It is one reason I question 
those who describe terrorism as a Muslim problem. Such statements 
prevent our communities from working together against a common threat. 
The slaughter of schoolchildren in Columbine, the massacre of 
churchgoers in Charleston, and the Oklahoma City bombings were not 
White problems just because the perpetrators were White; neither should 
the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino be distilled as Muslim 
problems.
  Radicalization is a very real problem that currently tries to exploit 
the Muslim community, but it is our problem--Muslims Jews, Christians, 
Whites, Latinos, Blacks, all Americans--to all come together to solve 
this problem.
  When I see the young people who engaged in these horrible acts, I 
question why they were susceptible to such great untruths that would 
allow them to harm themselves and others. No family should have to lose 
their mother, son, or cousin to mass shootings. No family should have 
to live with the fear that their loved ones were the perpetrators of 
mass violence. We must work together to guard against such ideologies 
that would steal our young people from us.
  Given that the United States is historically a nation built upon 
immigration and the tenets of religious freedom, Americans have long 
lived alongside others and have seen people of different faiths live 
together in peace. Muslims have lived in America since the colonial 
days and served under the command of George Washington. There are an 
estimated 5,900 Muslims who currently serve in our armed services 
defending our country and our way of life. When the Supreme Court ruled 
this summer in favor of a young Muslim woman who allegedly suffered 
employment discrimination because of her head scarf, Justice Scalia 
announced the 8-to-1 decision, noting, ``This is really easy.'' Neither 
immigrants nor Muslims are new to our shores.
  Islam is also not new to Europe. Europe's own historic relationship 
with the rest of the globe has set the stage for ties that have long 
served as the backbone of prosperity for the Western world. Europeans 
have created a presence throughout the world--and that is a two-way 
street. Many countries in the OSCE region, including our own, therefore 
have a learned history of integration that can be useful in addressing 
the increasing diversity stemming from the refugee crisis and changing 
demographics.
  Given the conflicts that have forced mass displacement and migration, 
we should support long-term inclusion and integration efforts at the 
national, regional, and local level throughout the OSCE region--
especially with the leaders of humanitarian efforts for Syrian and 
other refugees--such as what is being done today in Turkey, Germany, 
Sweden, Austria, and OSCE partner states such as Jordan and Lebanon. 
They are taking on tremendous burdens for the refugees because they 
know it is the right thing to do. They need partners, including the 
United States.
  The successful integration of immigrants and refugees--including 
access to quality housing, education, employment, and public services--
facilitates meaningful intellectual, economic, and other contributions 
of migrants and refugees that are especially critical for children. 
These are areas in which our nations should exchange experts and 
information.
  Earlier this year, I introduced provisions in the Senate for a Joint 
Action Plan between the United States and the European Union to 
formulize and coordinate public and private sector anti-discrimination 
and inclusion efforts. We need diverse coalitions working together to 
address the momentous threats we face today. This includes leading by 
example by providing factual information about refugees and immigrants 
and publicly addressing narratives of hate. It is in that spirit that I 
will continue to work with other parliamentarians and with the 
administration to combat anti-Semitism, racism, and other forms of 
intolerance in the United States and elsewhere in the OSCE region. I 
will do that as the special representative of the OSCE Parliamentary 
Assembly, and I will do that as a U.S. Senator.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wyoming.

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