O Tempora, O Mores! (January, 2002)

Denmark for the Danes!

On Nov. 20, Danish voters threw out the socialists and voted in conservatives for the first time since 1929. The new government was to be formed by the Liberal Party, but of greatest significance was the success of the Danish People’s Party (DPP), which won about 12 percent of the vote to become the third largest party in parliament. Led by Pia Kjaersgaard, the DPP calls for “Denmark for the Danes:” an end to immigration, lower taxes, less foreign aid, but more spending on the poor and elderly. It’s “a powerful cocktail of xenophobia and social awareness,” says Christian Koch, a professor of rhetoric at Copenhagen University. The DPP will not actually be in the cabinet, but the ruling Liberals will have to please it to keep a majority. The Liberals themselves campaigned to reduce immigration but only because, as incoming prime minister Anders Rasmussen explains, “that will give us a breathing space to improve conditions for those already here.”

The proportion of immigrants has doubled since 1980 and is now 7.4 percent of the population. Many of the newcomers are Muslims, and the DPP’s Miss Kjaersgaard has said she crosses the street when she sees one coming. In the past three years she has been roughed up twice by “anti-fascists,” and now uses bodyguards. Her message has been particularly well received by ordinary Danes. “I’m worried we’ll lose our national identity,” says Mogens Jensen, 57, a bricklayer who used to vote for the Social Democrats, but now supports the Danish People’s Party. [Dara Doyle and Heidi Christensen, Love Her or Hate Her, Danes Can’t Ignore DPP’s Kjaersgaard, Bloomberg, Nov. 13, 2001. Per Bech Thomsen, Denmark’s New PM Denies He’s Hostage to Extremism, Reuters, Nov. 21, 2001.]

Reconquista Update

In California, banks will begin accepting Mexican ID cards as proof of identity. The cards, called matricula consular, are supplied by Mexican Consulates to Mexican citizens — legal or illegal — living in the United States, and look like an American driver’s license. In November, Wells Fargo Bank joined U.S. Bancorp and Union Bank of California in accepting the cards for people opening accounts. At a news conference at the Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles, John Murillo, a vice president for Wells Fargo Bank, said “We welcome you [immigrants] to come to one of our branches, where our Spanish-speaking staff will help you and where we won’t question your legal status.”

Executives explain that most American banks require a Social Security number in order to open an account, but Union Bank Vice Chairman Rick Hartnack explains that “a bank policy . . . that says you’ve got to have a Social Security number to have an account is not going to fly in the immigrant-laden Southwest.” Gari Helms, California marketing manager for Wells Fargo, says “Wells Fargo does not focus at all on the legal status of our customers.”

Orange County police officers have also decided to accept the Mexican cards as identification for people they stop for minor offenses. Laguna Beach Police Chief Jim Spreine said this policy will also make victims more willing to report crimes. “When a person shows an officer the Mexican ID, that is not evidence that the person is here illegally,” he explained. “It is not cause for an officer to start an investigation into the subject’s immigration status. In this country, it’s inappropriate for our officers to be saying, ‘Oh by the way, are you legal or illegal?’ That’s disrespectful.” Chief Spreine admitted, however, that since police routinely check the immigration status of suspects who cannot produce identification, the policy change is likely to lead to fewer illegals being turned over to the INS.

INS officials are not bothered by any of this. “Our priorities are to go after illegal immigrants involved in committing crimes,” said Tony Lew, a spokesman for the Los Angeles district office. “If they are law-abiding citizens, we don’t have the resources to go looking for them.” [John McDonald, Police to Accept Mexico-Issued IDs, Orange County Register (Santa Ana, CA), Nov. 8, 2001. Sean Scully, Mexican ID Given OK in Orange County, Washington Times, Nov. 12, 2001, p. A6. Lee Romney and Karen Robinson-Jacobs, Wells Fargo to Accept ID Cards Issued by Mexico, Los Angeles Times, Nov. 8, 2001.]

This is no doubt the sort of thing our Clinton-appointed ambassador to Mexico Jeffrey Davidow means when he says the United States and Mexico share an “intermestic” relationship, meaning that the two countries’ international relations are so intertwined they are really domestic policy issues. In a speech delivered in Utah, he said Mexicans think illegal immigrants are “following a natural and understandable path” to higher wages, and that “US laws and policies are seen as unjust and, at the very least, incoherent.” [Glen Warchol, Ties With Mexico ‘Infinitely Complex,’ Salt Lake Tribune (Salt Lake City), Nov. 13, 2001, p. A11.]

Although he had virtually no Hispanic support in his recent election, Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn is truckling anyway. In Mexico City to meet President Fox, Mayor Hahn said, “Our city is a Mexican city, and Mexican Americans have greatly shaped our cultural, political and commercial landscape.” He said he wants to be a strong advocate for immigrant rights, and made sure President Fox knew he supported bills to let illegal immigrants get California driver’s licenses and to let their children pay in-state tuition at California colleges. [Matea Gold, Hahn Makes Bid to Build L.A.’s Ties to Mexico, Los Angeles Times, Nov. 6, 2001.]

In the meantime, the Sept. 11 attacks and the economic downturn have made the United States less attractive to illegals. In mid-November, the National Migration Institute of Mexico reported that during the preceding two months 350,000 Mexicans came home from the United States. The total may reach two million once migrant farm workers, who have decided to work through the winter to avoid crossings at a time of increased border security, finally decide to go back. At the same time, fewer Mexicans are arriving. Arrests of illegals on the Mexican border are down 25 percent from last year, and dropped 54 percent during the period Oct. 1 through Nov. 15. The Mexican economy depends on the $8-10 billion it gets in remittances from Mexicans in America, and this source of money could begin to dry up as more illegals go home. [Joel Millman and Eduardo Porter, Mexicans Rush Across Border, This Time Headed South, Wall Street Journal, Nov. 15, 2001, p. A22.]

The New South Africa

In South Africa, which has the world’s highest rape rate, there is said to be a rape every 26 seconds. Many of the victims are children, with an estimated 58 child-rapes every day. In 1998, the South African National Council for Child and Family Welfare reported that child rape had increased by 78 percent since 1994 (the last year of white rule), and the rate continues to climb. One of the reasons there is so much child rape is that many South Africans think sex with a virgin cures AIDS.

Infants have been the latest victims. In late October six men in Kimberley gang-raped a nine-month old baby, whose 16-year-old mother had gone out to buy food. The rapists, aged 22 to 66, did so much damage to the child she required a full hysterectomy, and will need several more operations to repair her rectum and intestines.

On November 24, someone snatched an eight-month-old Cape Town girl from her parents’ bed while they were sleeping, raped and sodomized her, and left her bleeding on the sidewalk. Passersby found the girl at 3:40 in the morning and took her to a police station. Police believe the perpetrator(s) crept in through the window to take the child. The parents did not realize she was missing until a neighbor woke them up to tell them a baby had been found in the street, and asked if theirs was missing.

Rape of older girls is more or less routine. Three days before the Kimberley rape, a man reportedly raped his three-year-old granddaughter, and about the same time a 14-month-old was raped by two uncles. On Nov. 2, police in the Northern Province reported that a four-year-old girl had died of injuries she sustained four months ago when her 35-year-old father raped her at her home in Tshirolwe.

Although baby-rapes have shocked even South Africans, many men do not think rape is a very serious crime. A judge recently sentenced a rapist to just seven years in prison, saying he was a first-time offender and not likely to be a danger to society. After all, it was only his own 14-year-old daughter that he had raped. [Charmaine Pretorius, Baby Has Hysterectomy After Gang Rape, Independent (London), Nov. 2, 2001. Ann Simmons, Rise in Rapes of Children Outrages South Africans, L.A. Times, Nov. 7, 2001. Sue Thomas, AIDS ‘Virgin’ Myth Drives South Africa’s Hideous Child-Rape Epidemic, Reuters, Nov. 5, 2001. Murray Williams, Sleeping Baby Stolen, Raped and Abandoned, Independent on Line (South Africa), Nov. 24, 2001.]

He Shot the Sheriff

Sidney Dorsey was the first black ever to be elected sheriff of DeKalb County, Georgia, which includes part of Atlanta. He inspired little confidence, and came under investigation for putting on-duty deputy sheriffs to work for his private security company and for letting jail inmates work in a home-repair program run by his wife. In November 2000, he lost reelection to another black, Derwin Brown, who promised to clean up the sheriff’s department. Sheriff-elect Brown even promised to fire 38 of Mr. Dorsey’s corrupt deputy sheriffs, but Mr. Brown never took office. Three days before he was to be sworn in, someone shot him to death in front of his house in South DeKalb. Police have now arrested the defeated Mr. Dorsey along with several former deputy sheriffs, and have charged them with murdering Mr. Brown. Mr. Brown’s widow says she suspected Mr. Dorsey from the moment she found her husband dead in their driveway. [Ben Smith and Don Plummer, Ex-sheriff Charged With Rival’s Death, Washington Times, Dec. 1, 2001, p. A3.]

Black World Not Ours

The State of the Black World Conference, held in Atlanta at the end of October, celebrated the view that blacks are not really part of America. Rev. Al Sharpton was met with a thunderous standing ovation from 700 delegates when he taunted the American military for failing to find Osama bin Laden. “This country can’t find a guy who comes out every two weeks to cut a video, and then you challenge us to stand under one flag?” He urged the crowd to take on the problems of blacks rather than those of the nation.

Cosme Torres, deputy ambassador of Cuba to the United Nations, also got a warm welcome. He said people from 24 different countries attend Cuba’s medical school whereas the United States has “millions of people without health care.” “Cuba is right there, ready to build solidarity for the revolution,” he added. “The Negroes of Cuba day after day make the dream of their ancestors a reality.” [Steve Miller, Black World Conference Loses Its Audience, Washington Times, Dec. 1, 2001, p. A3.]

What the Alamo Meant

A Line in the Sand, a recent book about the battle of the Alamo, describes some of the racial motivations of the leaders of the Texas independence movement:

At a meeting in Texana on January 20, 1836, citizens from the municipality of Jackson resolved that ‘the great mass of . . . [Mexicans are] incapable of appreciating or even comprehending the Blessings of free institutions.’ Another Texan justified independence because ‘we separate from a people one half of whom are the most depraved of the different races of Indians, different in color, pursuits and character.’ David G. Burnet, soon to be Texas’s interim president, would later tell Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky that ‘Texas has pronounced a final separation from the miserable and revolutionary government of Mexico . . . The causes . . . are too numerous to be detailed in a single letter; but one general fact may account for all; the utter dissimilarity of character between the two people, the Texians and the Mexicans. The first are principally Anglo-Americans; the others a mongrel race of degenerate Spaniards and Indians more depraved than they.’

For many Anglo Texans, and perhaps on both sides, the rebellion was assuming the dimensions of a race war — American against Mexican, white against brown . . .

Like so many other Southerners, the Anglo Texans feared that a race war would culminate in sexual apocalypse against white women.

As one Texan reportedly put it:

And will you now as Texian freemen . . . suffer the colored hirelings of a cruel and faithless despot, to feast and revel, in your dearly purchased and cherished homes? . . . Your beloved wives, your mothers, your daughters . . . given up to the dire pollution, the massacre of a band of barbarians? (emphasis in original) [Randy Roberts and James Olson, A Line in the Sand, The Free Press, 2001, pp. 143f.]

The same book describes the historical context in which 19th century Americans viewed the battle:

In the aftermath of the Alamo, journalists repeatedly mentioned the story of Thermopylae, insisting that now Texas had heroes made of the same mettle as the ancient Greeks. The defenders, wrote a resident of Nacogdoches, Texas, ‘died martyrs to liberty; and on the altar of their sacrifice will be made many a vow that shall break the shackles of tyranny. Thermopylae is no longer without a parallel, and when time shall consecrate the dead at the Alamo, Travis and his companions will be named in rivalry with Leonidas and his Spartan band.’

The early Texans, historian Paul Andrew Hutton has pointed out, viewed the battle ‘as a contest of civilizations: freedom vs. tyranny; democracy vs. despotism; Protestantism vs. Catholicism; the New World Culture of the United States vs. the Old World Culture of Mexico; Anglo-Saxons vs. the mongrelized mixture of Indian and Spanish races; and ultimately, the forces of good over evil.’ [Ibid., pp. 172f.]

The ‘Decatur Seven’

Just over two years ago, seven black students got into a brawl at a high school football game in Decatur, Illinois. The school expelled the students, only to have Jesse Jackson descend on the town and bellow about “racism.” School authorities were beginning to wobble, when video clips of the brawl appeared, showing the blacks hammering people in the most vicious way. The hubbub did drag in the Illinois governor, and a two-year suspension was reduced to one year. Rev. Jackson said this was still much too harsh for the little dears. Where are they now?

Bruce Manns was arrested on a mob action and battery charge for jumping someone in a hotel parking lot. Shawn Honorable has been arrested several times on drugs charges and was fined $200 after pleading guilty to resisting an officer. Gregory Howell still owes $406 in fines in connection with the 1999 brawl and could not be located. Terrence Jarrett spent 17 days in the Macon County jail last November in connection with a shooting, but journalists have been unable to reach him since then. Errol Bond graduated from high school and, so far, has had no known brushes with the law. Roosevelt Fuller has since pleaded guilty to aggravated domestic battery, for which he got a year of probation. More recently he was arrested for beating an acquaintance and taking $120. Courtney Carson has been arrested for unlawful possession of a stolen firearm, but is now in college playing basketball. He appears to be the most ambitious of the seven. “I plan on owning at least 20 to 30 barber shops around the world,” he says. [Janet Rausa Fuller, Decatur Seven, 2 Years Later, Chicago Sun-Times, Nov. 30, 2001.]

Bradford Still Simmers

Bradford, England, the scene of spectacular race riots last summer, continues to have race problems. For more than 20 years, Brownies have met in the town’s St. Philip’s Church but have had to go elsewhere after Pakistani and Bangladeshi thugs started intimidating the girls and their parents. Lucy-Jane Marshall, a Brownie leader, says Asians have thrown stones at her and called her a “Christian bitch.” She called the police several times but they did nothing. [Paul Stokes, Brownies Forced to Quit Church After ‘Race Attacks,’ Telegraph (London), Nov. 14, 2001.]

On November 5, shortly after the Brownies moved out, Anglican vicar Tony Tooby noticed people inside his church as he drove by, and stopped to investigate. He found a gang of some 50 masked Asian men about to set the church on fire. They chased and stoned him, shouting “Get the white bastard,” and one threw a rock through his car’s rear window. The thugs fled before police arrived, but not before spreading gasoline all over the church, burning an antique chair and altar cloth, and breaking a 140-year-old stained glass window. If Rev. Tooby had not stopped in, his church would have gone up in flames. [Ian Herbert, Masked Asian Youths Stone Vicar in Attempt to Burn Down His Church, The Independent (London), Nov. 7, 2001. Alexandra Phillips, Mosques Say Sorry to Attack Vicar, Bradford Telegraph, Nov. 7, 2001.]

A report on Bradford by Ramindar Singh, former deputy chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, has tumbled to the obvious. “Bradford is becoming a city of two separate worlds — a world of white people and another of brown and black communities with their own languages, cultures, religious beliefs, dress and food patterns,” it said. “The division between these two worlds is becoming sharper and more visible.” The report even seemed to grasp what the problem might be: “The high visibility of south Asian people, their cultures and institutions, is continuously perpetuating the white population’s fear of being swamped by foreigners and their alien value systems.” Needless to say, the solution is for whites to overcome these silly fears. [Neil Tweedie, Frightened Whites in Bradford’s ‘Two Worlds,’ Telegraph (London), Nov. 2, 2001.]

Meanwhile, racism and xenophobia will become serious crimes in Britain if regulations drafted by the European Union are adopted. The EU decided it didn’t like the hodge podge of anti-“hate” laws in the member nations, so it cooked up a uniform code for the continent based on Germany’s laws, which are the most repressive. Holocaust denial and “trivializing” Nazi atrocities would become crimes, as would “racism” or “xenophobia,” defined as “aversion to individuals based on race, color, descent, religion or belief, national or ethnic origin.” Other crimes could include “public insult” of minority groups, “public condoning of war crimes,” and “public dissemination of tracts, pictures, or other material containing expressions of racism or xenophobia.” In order to become law, the proposal would require unanimous approval of all 15 member states, so there is a chance this foolishness can be averted. [Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, EU Considers Plans to Outlaw Racism, Telegraph (London), Nov. 29, 2001.]

To no one’s surprise, a Sunday Times survey has found that four out of ten British Muslims believe Osama bin Laden is justified in attacking the United States. It is not clear whether openly expressing views of this kind would be a hate crime under the proposed EU laws. [Melanie Phillips, Sunday Times, Nov. 4, 2001.]

‘No Obvious Motive’

Seven black students at George Washington High School in North Philadelphia were arrested on November 14, the day after they beat a white student so severely he needed surgery to treat a blood clot on his brain. Although the assault was the third racial attack at the school in two weeks, the school district’s chief safety executive Dexter Green says “there was no obvious motive.” Kathy Gremo, the victim’s mother, thinks the attack was clearly racial. “He was on his way to the lunch room and eight or so black kids jumped on him and beat him,” she says. [Susan Snyder, Seven Students Held in Beating at High School, Philadelphia Inquirer, Nov. 14, 2001.]

Through the Back Door

In 1996, California approved a voter initiative banning race-based preferences in admissions to the University of California system. As non-achieving blacks and other minorities disappeared from campuses, opponents of the 1996 initiative cast about for ways to circumvent the policy. They may finally have succeeded. On Nov. 14, a key committee of the University of California Board of Regents voted 13-2 to change the admissions policy to allow consideration of non-academic achievements for all freshman applicants. The new policy would include a student’s athletic or artistic ability, or his “struggle against poverty.” Critics of the change say it reinstates racial preferences through the back door, and will only cause more litigation and lower academic standards. [Regents Endorse Shift in Admissions Policy, Miami Herald, Nov. 15, 2001, p. 17A.]

Wrist-slap for Slaver

Evelyn Djoumessi, originally from Cameroon, needed someone to look after her three children and help out around her house in suburban Detroit, so she and her husband Joseph brought 14-year-old Pridine Fru over from Cameroon in 1996. They promised they would provide for her education in exchange for baby-sitting and housework. Instead, the Djoumessis kept Pridine as a slave for three years, beating and raping her.

At trial, Mr. Djoumessi was convicted of child abuse and third-degree criminal sexual conduct, and sentenced to 9 to 15 years in prison. Mrs. Djoumessi was convicted of third-degree child abuse. On November 15, Oakland County Circuit Judge Alice Gilbert sentenced her to three years’ probation and forbade her from hiring a housekeeper or a nanny. “You must do all your own housework cleaning, laundry, everything,” said the judge. Prosecutor Cheryl Matthews, who wanted Mrs. Djoumessi sent to prison, was outraged by the sentence. “I have to do all my own housework and care for my children,” she told the Detroit Free Press. “It’s not a sentence.” [Woman Sentenced For Keeping Girl As Slave, ClickonDetroit. com, Nov. 15, 2001. Housework Part of Sentence for Woman Who Enslaved African Teen-ager, AP, Nov. 16, 2001. Jennifer Chambers, Enslavement Trial Nears Finish, Detroit News, Aug. 30, 2001. Cameroon Couple Lose Rights To Daughter Held As Slave, Clickon Detroit.com, Sept. 22, 2000.]

Bargain Booths

City Clerk Nancy Banks of Southfield, Michigan, thought she was getting a deal when she bought 500 used voting booths from Pasco County, Florida, for $5.00 each. Rather than congratulate her on her thrift, the local NAACP accused Miss Banks of being insensitive to blacks who are upset about their supposed “disenfranchisement” in Florida during the 2000 election. Heaster Wheeler, director of the Detroit chapter, criticized Miss Banks for not understanding what the booths mean to blacks. “You don’t use swastikas or KKK robes for table cloths and then have to explain why ethnic groups are offended,” he said.

Miss Banks, who is white, stood her ground. She said the booths were a bargain, and noted that the voting machines were identical to the 450 used in the city since 1977. “If they are so upset about this equipment, why didn’t they come forward earlier?” she asked. “We’ve been using these machines forever.” She saw the NAACP criticism as an attempt to bolster the campaign of Terry Tyler, a Southfield NAACP commissioner running against her for city clerk. [Daniel Duggan, Voting Booths Purchase is ‘Insulting,’ NAACP Says, Oakland (Michigan) Press, Oct. 26, p. A1.]

It didn’t work. On Nov. 6, Nancy Banks was re-elected Southfield City Clerk, beating Terry Tyler by more than 7,400 votes.

Death Sentence

According to Ronald Taylor, “Jesus Christ made a very big mistake by putting white trash people on the face of the earth.” On March 1, 2000, Mr. Taylor decided to take out the trash. He went on a shooting rampage in the Pittsburgh suburb of Wilkinson, killing three white men. At his trial, prosecutors showed that Mr. Taylor had singled out whites, even telling a black woman she was safe because he was going to shoot only whites. Mr. Taylor’s lawyers argued he was insane and suffered from delusions that whites were persecuting him, but on November 11, after deliberating for two days, a Pittsburgh jury sentenced him to death. [Shooter From Hate Spree Gets Death, AP, Nov. 12, 2001]

The Wisdom of the East

The Japanese government has pledged more than a billion dollars to the United Nations to help Afghan refugees, but it will not grant political asylum to nine Afghans who entered the country illegally. Kensuke Ohnuki, a lawyer representing the would-be asylees says, “High officials and bureaucrats believe that Japanese people harbor racism against foreigners. They think accepting refugees is contrary to the people’s will.” Of 598 requests for asylum between 1994 and 1998, Japan granted only 12.

As a rule, Japan lets in foreigners only if they are ethnic Japanese. This is how former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori became a Japanese citizen earlier this year, despite having been born in Peru. Because Japan does not extradite its citizens to other countries, Mr. Fujimori will not have to face corruption charges in his native country. [Michael Zielenziger, Japan Denies Nine Requests for Asylum, Knight-Ridder News Service, Nov. 8, 2001.]

Black Magic Woman

Willie B. Aldridge, black former principal of Central High School in Pontiac, Michigan, faces eight counts of embezzlement for allegedly spending thousands of school dollars on Neiman Marcus underwear, beauty products and the like. A police search of her home in connection with the investigation turned up something unusual: a jar full of an unknown liquid, in which were floating little strips of paper with the names of her enemies written on them.

According to the police report, “Research shows that writing names on slips of paper and then placing them in vinegar or urine is a common voodoo or black magic practice to place a spell on the individual named.” Among the names in Miss Aldridge’s jar were those of Pontiac’s school superintendent, two Central High employees, three police officers conducting the embezzlement investigation, and retired Pontiac Police Chief Larry Miracle. “Maybe there’s something to it,” said Chief Miracle. “I got gout and my back went out the same week I found out about it.”

Also on the enemies list was a newspaper, the Oakland Press, which Miss Aldridge had tried to sue because it published unflattering articles about her. [John Wisely, Police: Names of Foes Stored in ‘Magic’ Jar, Oakland (Michigan) Press, Nov. 29, 2001, p. A1.]

Signifigance Wright, RIP

Sabrina Wright of New York City was the mother of four-year-old twin girls, Signifigance and Ellagance. The children were originally taken from her by child welfare authorities when Miss Wright tested positive for illegal drugs in the hospital shortly after she gave birth. Miss Wright got them back, but lost them again when a social worker visited her only to find her trying to attack her boyfriend with a knife. Authorities sent the children to live with one of the father’s sisters in Virginia, but the sister already had four children of her own and got tired of Signifigance and Ellagance. The twins recently came back to live with their mother, but on Nov. 12, Miss Wright drowned Signifigance in the bathtub. She says she was convinced her building was possessed by demons, and that she drowned the girl in an attempted exorcism. [William Gorta, Devil Made Her Do It, New York Post, Nov. 16, 2001.]

‘No More Hispanics’

In July 2000, Damon Campbell, who is black, shot to death Carlos Villanueva in an alley east of downtown Las Vegas. Witnesses said he opened fire after saying he did not want any more Hispanics in his neighborhood. In November, 2001, a Nevada jury convicted Mr. Campbell of first-degree murder and sentenced him to life in prison. [No Parole Given in Shooting Death, Las Vegas Sun, Nov. 16, 2001.]

Islam in America

Mohammad Juniad is the child of Pakistani immigrants and a U.S. citizen. His mother was in the World Trade Center at the time of the Sept. 11 attack, but was led to safety by firemen. A week later, Mr. Juniad, 26, bought a one-way ticket to Pakistan, where he planned to volunteer to fight with the Taliban. “I may hold an American passport,” he said, “but I am not an American. I am a Muslim.” He explained further: “I’m willing to kill the Americans. I will kill every American that I see in Afghanistan. And I’ll kill every American soldier that I see in Pakistan.” [Damon Johnston, New York Survivor’s Son Turns Traitor, Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Australia), Nov. 11, 2001.]

Meanwhile, American schools are trying to accommodate Muslims by setting aside school rooms in which they can pray. “My religion is a really big part of my life, and it’s really good I can practice it, even at school,” says 14-year-old Saba Quadri, who is in 9th grade in a Chicago public school. Because Muslim girls are not supposed to bare their arms or legs in the presence of boys, Chicago schools separate the sexes for physical education classes. Schools Chancellor Harold Levy of New York City had also announced he was setting aside prayer rooms for Muslim students, but backed down when he received a flood of complaints. [Carl Limbacher, Chicago Schools Create Prayer Room for Muslims, NewsMax. com, Nov. 29, 2001. Carl Limbacher, NYC Schools Chancellor in Ramadan Prayer About-Face, NewsMax.com, Nov. 16, 2001.]

Common Sense, Finally

The U.S. State Department grants seven million visas each year, more than 250,000 of which go to Middle Easterners. Saudi Arabia, home to 15 of the 19 terrorists who hijacked the planes on Sept. 11, gets 60,000. Because the State Department has only 900 consular officials checking applications, most everyone gets a visa, and since the government does not keep track of foreigners once they arrive, many stay permanently.

For several weeks after Sept. 11, the State Department refused to change the visa-granting policy only for Middle Easterners or Muslims, saying this would be “racial” or “ethnic” profiling. On Nov. 9, the department finally announced that men aged 16 to 45 from 26 Muslim-majority countries will now have to postpone travel for up to four weeks while their names are sent to the FBI for background checks.

Meanwhile, the Justice Department says it wants to question more than 5,000 young, mainly Middle Eastern men, aged 18 to 33, who entered the United States on visitor or student visas since January 2000. The interviews are voluntary, and to be conducted mainly by state and local police. The Justice Department had hardly made the announcement before the acting police chief of Portland, Oregon, a black man, said he would not cooperate with the interviews because they constitute racial profiling. [Martin Gross, Yielding to Common Sense, Washington Times, Nov. 14, 2001, p. A14. Mary Beth Sheridan and Dan Eggen, Arab, Muslim Men to Get Tougher U.S. Visa Screening, Washington Post, Nov. 14, 2001, p. A24.]