As part of the ongoing series from the Washington Post on “othering” and the Muslim-American community, scholar Evelyn Alsultany states that there is a civil rights crisis. She makes the point, “Arab and Muslim identities are politicized, racialized and criminalized. Arab and Muslim Americans face bigotry from presidential candidates, profiling by law enforcement and heated public debates on the extent to which their entire religion should be demonized.”
The scholar notes that there have been improvements on the portrayal of Arab and Muslim Americans characters in Hollywood, offering Muslim CIA analyst Fara Sherazi on the Showtime series “Homeland” as an example, but adds that the harsh realities in which many Muslim-Americans face can not be ignored.
“Hate crimes, workplace discrimination, airline discrimination and mosque vandalism have all increased exponentially. According to the FBI, Muslim Americans are five times more likely to be the victim of a hate crime today than before 9/11. A 2012 survey by the Arab American Institute found that 55 percent of Arab American Muslims have experienced discrimination and 71 percent fear future discrimination,” reports Ms. Alsultany.
