By Anna Cameron
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) chaired the first-ever Congressional hearing on the civil rights of American Muslims Tuesday, a response to a charted rise in discrimination over the past year.
“This is a hearing that we need to have, quite frankly,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who also sits on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights Subcommittee. “[Freedom of religion] means that I have to stand up for your right to pursue your religion, because if I don’t stand up for your right, you wont stand up for mine.”
In his opening statement, Sen. Durbin spoke out against rising instances of discriminatory attacks on Muslims, including claims that there exist “too many mosques” in America, and that Islam is “wicked” and “evil.”
“Those who use this type of rhetoric, who burn Qurans and who engage in other forms of bigotry and discrimination may be few in number, but their bigoted conduct and remarks violate the spirit of our Bill of Rights,” said Sen. Durbin.
Adding to the Senators’ remarks were the testimonies of Muslim civil rights leader Farhana Khera, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez and former Assistant Attorney General Alex Acosta.
“While nearly a decade has passed since 9/11, we continue to see a steady stream of violence and discrimination targeting Muslim…communities,” noted Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez. “In each city and town… I have been struck by the sense of fear that pervades their lives - fear of violence, of bigotry and hate.”
Perez asserted that the Department of Justice continues to work to protect American Muslims from hate crimes as well as other forms of injustice, including employment discrimination, education discrimination, limits on the use of land for religious purposes and denied access to public facilities.
Though Sen. Graham emphasized the importance of the protection of religious freedoms, he stressed that attention be paid to the increasing threat of domestic Islamist radicalization.
“The front lines of this war are in our own…neighborhoods,” Graham said. “To the American Muslim community: I will stand with you as you practice your religion and you exercise your rights under the Constitution, but I am asking you to get in this fight as a community.”
The hearing comes less than three weeks after Rep. Peter King’s (R-N.Y.) controversial hearing on Islamic radicalization.