Dearborn Community Forum Addresses Discrimination

November 21, 2001

Source: The Detroit News

http://www.detnews.com/2001/metro/0111/21/a03-349230.htm

On November 21, 2001, The Detroit News reported that "Arab Americans in Metro Detroit have been the targets of discrimination following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the Justice Department vowed Tuesday night to fight it. At a community forum that drew about 100 people at Dearborn's main Public Library, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, Ralph Boyd Jr., noted that the government has opened more than 250 investigations into racially-charged incidents, including the murder of a Sikh gas station worker in Phoenix...Among the most contentious issues at the forum is the government's plan to ask 5,000 young Middle Eastern men to submit to voluntary interviews as part of the terror probe. 'We don't want people to be guilty by association,' said Imad Hamad, regional director of American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.