The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“THE CIVIL RIGHTS OF ALL AMERICANS” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the Senate section on pages S2616-S2617 on May 3, 2011.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
THE CIVIL RIGHTS OF ALL AMERICANS
Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, I recently joined Senator Durbin and Senator Graham at an important Senate Judiciary Committee hearing focused on the civil rights of American Muslims. This bipartisan hearing was a positive statement from the committee that its members believe strongly that all Americans enjoy the rights and freedoms provided by our Constitution and our civil rights laws.
Today, I wanted to highlight a recent column written by the U.S. attorney in Cleveland, OH, Steven Dettelbach, which addressed the same subject. As one of our leading Federal prosecutors, Mr. Dettelbach is known for protecting the people of northern Ohio by enforcing our Federal laws. But he is also known for his wise counsel which is no doubt why the Attorney General selected him to serve on his advisory committee.
At the Attorney General's direction, several U.S. attorneys have been trying to better understand the needs of American Muslims. This is a laudable initiative, given that there have been attacks targeting the American Muslim community in the past few years.
To make matters worse, some leaders have sought to sow fear and divisiveness against American Muslims. Fanning the flames of hate against those with different faith traditions runs contrary to our American values because this Nation was founded in large part on the importance of religious freedom.
In his April 29 piece, Mr. Dettelbach wrote, ``Our enemies seek not only to kill our citizens and destroy our cities, they also want to attack the most fundamental American principle of all--our free, open and diverse society. We cannot and will not let them succeed.''
I could not agree more.
All Americans deserve civil rights protections and the freedoms provided in the Constitution. This does not end with the vital protections afforded by the first amendment. It continues to ensure due process and equal protection. It is bolstered by important civil rights laws that we have passed to protect the practice of religion without discrimination.
Religious freedom has long been a bipartisan issue in the Senate, but more importantly it has been a consistent American value. American Muslims, like all Americans, must be protected by the rule of law that upholds these constitutional and statutory protections.
I agree with Mr. Dettelbach when he noted that, ``[w]e find ourselves facing foreign-based terrorists, including al-Qaida, seeking to radicalize people here in the United States in new ways. Using sleek ad campaigns on the Internet, these terrorists try to recruit Americans to attack their neighbors. We must counter these efforts, but must do it wisely and without sacrificing our ideals. ``
As the President said when he announced the news that the world's No. 1 terrorist was dead, Osama bin Laden was not a Muslim leader. He had killed scores of Muslims. I hope that in the coming days, we will not see misguided passions lead to more attacks on American Muslims. In order to live up to our American values we must protect all Americans from attack. I thank the President and the Attorney General for their unwavering leadership on civil rights issues.
I ask unanimous consent that Mr. Dettelbach's short article be printed in the Record. I hope all Senators will read it.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows:
Ohio's Muslim, Arab Neighbors
(By Steven M. Dettelbach)
Those of us in law enforcement know all too well that terrorists continue to target the United States. We have seen the dangerous consequences take hold in places like Fort Hood, Texas, and Times Square in New York, and even reach here in Ohio, where our office and the FBI prosecuted a homegrown terror cell plotting to kill Americans abroad. Preventing these kinds of attacks is our top priority.
Our enemies seek not only to kill our citizens and destroy our cities, they also want to attack the most fundamental American principle of all--our free, open and diverse society. We cannot and will not let them succeed.
We find ourselves facing foreign-based terrorists, including al-Qaida, seeking to radicalize people here in the United States in new ways. Using sleek ad campaigns on the Internet, these terrorists try to recruit Americans to attack their neighbors. We must counter these efforts, but must do it wisely and without sacrificing our ideals.
Some, however, have wrongly resorted to portraying American Arab or Muslim communities, or the Islamic faith itself, as a threat to our country. While we must repel attempts by foreign terrorists to radicalize Americans, vilifying Islam or all Arab-Americans will not make our nation safer. Indeed, suggesting these Americans are less loyal than their countrymen is not only inaccurate and irresponsible, it also adds an air of legitimacy to violent extremism of another kind: directed not by American Muslims and Arabs, but at them.
In the past year, a passenger stabbed a New York cabbie after learning he was Muslim, and an arsonist in Tennessee burned a mosque, among other examples. Such acts are not only illegal, they are also profoundly at odds with one of our nation's bedrock values: ``E pluribus unum,'' or ``Out of many, one.''
Stigmatizing Muslim communities not only contradicts our nation's commitment to religious freedom, it also makes it easier for al-Qaida to radicalize Americans. Since the day a band of religious refugees stumbled off their ship near Cape Cod in what eventually would become the commonwealth of Massachusetts, practitioners of every faith have come and worshiped freely in this country.
Acts of violence and hostility against American Muslims risk obscuring these truths and feeding the enemy's false narrative that America is at war with Islam.
We must recognize that American Muslim and Arab communities are a vital part of the solution to the problem of radicalization. Terrorists do not radicalize entire communities; they recruit individuals. American Muslims and Arabs who recognized threats have worked with law enforcement when they suspect a problem. For this we owe them gratitude, not sideways glances.
In an effort to improve communication, collaboration and trust with Muslims and Arab-Americans, I have been part of a group of U.S. attorneys across the country having a series of conversations to better understand the needs of these American communities. The people of these communities should understand that the Department of Justice is here to protect them.
I have met with hundreds of American Muslims in Northern Ohio over the past few months. Not surprisingly, they want for their children what everyone wants--a good education, freedom from bullying and the opportunity for their children to grow and become productive citizens.
I heard troubling stories from parents whose children's trust in this country was shaken by various indignities suffered in our community, which they perceived to have stemmed from their religion or ethnicity. This is wrong. It is not the Ohio I know and love, and none of us should stand silently by and tolerate such intolerance.
I heard from doctors, architects and workers who have a deep love for their nation. I spoke with their American-born children who, just like the youth in our Irish, Italian and Eastern European communities, are working on their resumes, fiddling far too much with their Blackberrys and who think of themselves as American more than anything else--because that is who they are.
Law enforcement alone cannot eradicate the root causes of terrorism and hate crimes. Each of us must do all we can to forge lasting relationships with our Muslim and Arab neighbors. We need to affirm loudly that they, too, are Ohioans, our neighbors in a wonderfully diverse state that thrives on its many faiths, languages and ethnicities.
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