Source: India Abroad

http://www.indypressny.org/article.php3?ArticleID=1154

On November 21, 2003 India Abroad reported, "There have been more incidents of discrimination and bias-related harassment of South Asians, Arabs and Muslims in the city since September 11 than has been reported, a New York City Commission of Human Rights report reveals. Last month, the commission released its first report on such incidents: 'Discrimination against Muslims, Arabs and South Asians in New York City since 9/11.' It was based on an anonymous multilingual survey conducted in all five boroughs... Out of over 11,000 surveys distributed between October 2002 and April of this year, the commission received 956 completed surveys. A total of 659 individuals noted 1224 incidents. Thirty-nine percent of the respondents were South Asian, second only to Arabs. The survey was conducted in English, Arabic, Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi and Urdu... The report said that in many cases the respondents felt that nothing would be done, even if they did report such instances. 'The target groups clearly need more information about their rights and considerable encouragement to exercise them,' it stated. Bias-related harassment comprised 37 percent of the incidents, followed by employment discrimination at 26 percent, and public accommodation at 25 percent; housing discrimination represented the remaining 11 percent of the incidents."