Thursday, 5 April 2007CAIRO ÔÇö The US sees its Muslim population as a success story because they are well integrated into society, warning that 9/11-style attacks would likely be launched from Europe where immigrants feel second-class citizens.
"Our Muslim population is better educated and economically better off than the average American," Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff told Britain's The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday, April 4.
"So, from a standpoint of mobility in society, it's a successful immigrant population.
"To some degree, the whole country is a country of immigrants, and therefore there's no sense that we have insiders or outsiders."
There are between six to seven million Muslims in the United States, making up less than three percent of the country's 300 million population.
Chertoff said the situation in Europe is quite different.
"You had an influx of people that came in as a colonial legacy and may have always have felt, to some extent, that they were viewed as second-class citizens, and they've tended to impact and be kind of clustered in some areas," he added.
The European Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia has recently reported that Muslim minorities in Europe face deep-seated discrimination in jobs, education and housing in addition to myriad barriers that give rise to feelings of hopelessness and exclusion.
It showed that Muslims are over-represented in low-paying sectors of the economy and that their educational achievement falls below average.
It also indicated that unemployment rates among Muslims are higher than average and that they are often disproportionately represented in areas with poorer housing conditions.
"Clean Skin"
Chertoff fears a second 9/11 could be carried out by a European who can easily enter the US.
"The fear has always been the so-called 'clean skin' - that's a person whose documents are completely legitimate, are not forged," he said.
European countries are among 27 states whose citizens benefit from a visa waiver scheme, which allows visitors to enter the US without a visa for up to 90 days.
About 18 million people visit the US every year under the scheme.
Chertoff said the US requires additional information from Europe, including email addresses and credit card details to vet European passengers.
"We have an absolute right to get this, in the same way that if someone wants to be a guest in my house I have a right to ask them who they are and get identification."
Ever since the 9/11 attacks, the Bush administration has secretly been tapping into the comprehensive Passenger Name Record database which is created by global travel reservation services that handle reservations for most airlines as well as for Internet sites.
An electronic file for each person who makes a reservation contains details on rental cars or hotels, credit card information, contact information for the passenger and next of kin, and at times even personal preferences, like a request for a king-size bed in a hotel.
"We need to build layers of protection, and I don't think we totally want to rely upon the fact that a foreign government is going to know that one of their citizens is suspicious and is going to be coming here."
5 April 2007
Islam Online
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Thursday, 5 April 2007
US Muslims
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