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Poll Says One in Five Arab Americans Discriminated Against
WASHINGTON, Oct 12 (News Agencies) - One in five Arab Americans say they have experienced some form of discrimination since the September 11th terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, according to a poll by the Arab American Institute (AAI).
As it relates to their community, some 45% of Arab Americans said they know someone in their community who has been targeted in the wake of the attacks by alleged individuals professing the Islamic faith, while 69% report increased profiling of Arab Americans in the past month.
Nevertheless, in spite of the backlash against Muslims and Arabs in the wake of the attacks, the poll found overwhelming support for President George W. Bush's administration's handling of the crisis.
The respondents gave Bush an 83% positive job rating, and more than two thirds of them said they supported an all-out war against countries which harbor or aid the terrorists who attacked the United States.
"Arab Americans overwhelmingly support the president," said John Zogby, president of Zogby International, the Utica, New York-based polling company which carried out the survey for AAI, which is based in Washington.
"This is a statement of solidarity and a way of formally documenting their patriotism," he added, noting that a majority of the people questioned for the survey said they felt embarrassed that the 19 hijackers who took over four planes on September 11th were from Arab countries, notably Saudi Arabia.
The poll did, however, point up a "sharp difference" between Arab Americans born in the United States and recent immigrants, with more recent transplants feeling much more uncomfortable with being singled out by authorities than first, second or third-generation Arabs.
Most Arab Americans are historically sensitive to the issue of racial profiling, but the more confident members of the community are not so nervous about being the focus of official scrutiny in a time of national emergency, said Zogby - at least in theory.
"I'm sure they would draw the line very quickly if they became the victims of actual profiling," he added.
The survey of 508 Arab Americans nationwide (of an estimated population of 3.5 million) had a 4.5% margin of error and was released Thursday.
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