The bottom rung of America's race ladder: After the september 11 catastrophe are american muslims becoming america's new n…. s?

Journal of Law and Religion

Volumn 19, Issue 1, 2004, Pages 115-151

  Stubbs, Jonathan K ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84987629086     PISSN: 07480814     EISSN: 21633088     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3649168     Document Type: Article

References (261)

1. For a compelling analysis of evidence that Muslims and Arabs were being treated as a subordinate race before the September 11 catastrophe see Natsu Taylor Saito, Symbolism Under Siege: Japanese American Redress and the “Racing” of Arab Americans as “Terrorists,” 8 Asian L.J. 1,12–29 (2001).
2. For incisive critiques encompassing (among other things) the racial profiling of Arabs, Muslims and those thought to be Arabs and Muslims, see Leti Volpp, Critical Race Studies: The Citizen and the Terrorist, 49 UCLA L. Rev. 1575 (2002) (pointing out that over one thousand anti-Muslim hate crimes had been reported in the wake of September 11, 2001, and noting among other things, the inconsistency of governmental rhetoric that condemns racial profiling and government practices that implement racial profiling)
3. Susan M. Akram & Kevin R. Johnson, “Migration Regulation Goes Local: The Role of States in U.S. Immigration Policy”: Race, Civil Rights and Immigration Law after September 11. 2001: The Targeting of Arabs and Muslims, 58 N.Y.U. Ann. Surv. L. 295 (2002) (available at ) (accessed Jan. 24, 2004) (describing draconian governmental responses to the September 11, 2001 attacks which effectively disregarded the civil rights of many individuals who were detained simply because of their identities rather than anything that they had done)
4. Thomas W. Joo, Presumed Disloyal: Executive Power, Judicial Deference, and the Construction of Race Before and After September 11, 34 Colum. Hum. Rts. L. Rev. 1, 32–46 (Fall 2002) (arguing that persons perceived as “Oriental” are presumed disloyal Americans and that similar presumptions are now being applied to Muslims, Arabs and other individuals thought to be Muslim or Arab).
5. See Civil Rights Concerns in the Metropolitan Washington, D.C. Area in the Aftermath of the September 11, 2001 Tragedies, D.C., Md. & Va. Advisory Committees to the U.S. Commn. on Civil Rights (June 2003) [hereinafter Civil Rights Concerns] (available at ) (accessed Mar. 1, 2004) (evaluating the treatment of Arabs, Muslims, South Asians and others following September 11).
6. Regarding what constitutes a worldview, see Audrey Smedley, Race in North America: Origins and Evolution of a Worldview 19 (2d ed. 1999) (describing a worldview as “[A] culturally structured, systematic way of looking at, perceiving, and interpreting various world realities, a society's ‘Weltanschauung,’ to use a word made popular in sociological studies.”). Smedley contends: “Once established and conventionalized, worldviews become enthroned in individuals as mind-sets. They may even achieve the state of involuntary cognitive processes, actively if not consciously molding the behavior of their bearers.” Id. In addition, see Thomas Luckmann's description of a worldview as embracing an “encompassing system of meaning in which socially relevant categories of time, space, causality and purpose are superordinated to more specific interpretive schemes in which reality is segmented.”
7. Thomas Luckmann, The Invisible Religion: The Problem of Religion in Modern Society 52–54, 61 (Macmillan 1967)
8. quoted in Mechal Sobel, The World They Made Together: Black and White Values in Eighteenth Century Virginia 8 (Princeton U. Press 1987).
9. Lani Guinier & Gerald Torres, The Miner's Canary 11–16 (Harv. U. Press 2002) (discussing among other things how oppressed “racialized communities” reflect larger societal maladies).
10. See Eric S. Lander et al., Linkage Disequilibrium in the Human Genome, 411 Nature 199 (2001)
11. Lisa M. Krieger, Genetic Code Doesn't Reveal Distinctions in Race, San Jose Mercury News (Feb. 21, 2001)
12. Mark Henderson, Colour Irrelevant, Say Genome Researchers, The Times (London) 5 (Feb. 12, 2001) (copy on file with author)
13. Rick Weiss, Life's Blueprint in Less Than an Inch; Research: Little of Genome Makes a Human, Wash. Post A1 (Feb. 11, 2001)
14. Human Genome: Analysis of Genetic Map Yields Surprises, Am. Health Line (Feb. 12, 2001)
15. Jack Kemp, Genome Shows Race is Non-Existent, Seattle Post-Intelligencer B5 (Feb. 21, 2001).
16. Henderson, Genome Shows Race is Non-Existent, at 5. Data derived from the Human Genome project strongly suggests that all human beings originated in Africa, and that about twenty-five thousand years ago, a relatively small number of these humans immigrated to Europe and established the earliest European societies.
17. See Lander, Genome Shows Race is Non-Existent
18. David L. Chandler, Heredity Study Eyes European Origins, The Boston Globe A22 (May 10, 2001)
19. Emma Ross, Europeans Traced to Tiny Group of Africans, The Record A1 (Apr. 21, 2001)
20. Europeans Descended From Africans—Study a Few Hundred Just 25,000 Years Ago All It Took, Research Finds, Charleston Gazette A2 (Apr. 21, 2001).
21. One recent study suggests that, on more than one occasion, humans migrated from Africa and colonized other parts of the world. See Alan Templeton, Out of Africa Again and Again, 416 Nature 45 (2002).
22. A related study demonstrates a strong probability that Africans also colonized East Asia approximately thirty to ninety thousand years ago. Li Jin et al., African Origins of Modern Humans in East Asia: A Tale of 12,000 Y Chromosomes, 292 Sci. 1151 (2001).
23. Persuasive scientific evidence shows that if one traces human history back far enough, we are all one human family. Stated differently, as humans we all grew up in the same geographical home or if you prefer, “Garden of Eden.” See Gen 2:10–14. (noting that the Biblical Garden of Eden included parts of North and East Africa as well as Southwest Asia). Notwithstanding the numerous superficial changes in human anatomy that have occurred over centuries, many natural scientists have recognized humanity's common genetic and geographic origins.
24. Jonathan Marks, Human Biodiversity: Genes, Race and History 274–275 (Aldine De Gruyter 1995).
25. President William Clinton, Common Human Identity (U.S. Conf. Mayors Jan. 28, 2000) (copy of transcript on file with Fed. News Serv. 7 (Jan. 28, 2000)).
26. The CBS News program, Sixty Minutes, furnished a recent dramatic affirmation of the former President's comments regarding genetic similarity among groups who may look very different. The Lemba people of southern Africa look physically like the people of that region (dark skin, tightly curled hair, broad noses …) and have asserted for centuries that they are Jewish. Recently, through DNA testing, it was demonstrated that roughly ten percent of the Lemba are descended from the same male as other Jewish priests. See Sixty Minutes (CBS Apr. 23, 2000) (TV broadcast).
27. Sixty Minutes, “The Lemba; Claims by African Black Tribe to be Jewish and Descendents [sic] of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob put to Scientific Test” 5 (CBS Apr. 23, 2000) (tv broadcast, transcript available from author).
28. Smedley, Sixty Minutes, at 6.
29. Cf. Jacobellis v. Ohio, 378 U.S. 184, 197 (1964) (Stewart, J. concurring) (footnotes omitted, emphasis added): I have reached the conclusion … that under the First and Fourteenth Amendments criminal laws in this area are constitutionally limited to hard-core pornography. I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that.
30. Smedley, U.S., at 22.
31. For perceptive insights regarding the artificial nature of “race,” see Akram & Johnson, U.S., at 301–303
32. Joo, U.S., at 2–4.
33. For a more in-depth treatment of racial worldviews and their implications for humans in the new millennium see Jonathan K. Stubbs, Implications of An Uniracial Worldview: Race and Rights in a New Era, 5 Barry L. Rev. (forthcoming Fall 2004).
34. See Der Speigel Magazine, Inside 9–11: What Really Happened 63–153 (Paul De Angelis & Elizabeth Kaestner trans., St. Martin's Press 2002) (outlining in detail individual stories of survivors of the 9/11 tragedy)
35. Joel Achenbach & Brooke A. Masters, ‘“They're Jumping Out of Building One’; Newly Released Trade Center Transcripts Provide Real-Time Narrative to Sept. 11 Attacks,” Wash. Post A1 (Aug. 29, 2003) (describing among other things the heroism of rescuers and victims as revealed in transcripts of, in some cases, their last words).
36. See Civil Rights Concerns, Wash. Post A1, at 34, (testimony of Gautam Dutta, Vice Pres., S. Asian Bar Assn.)
37. Volpp, Wash. Post A1, at 1584
38. Akram & Johnson, Wash. Post A1, at 296
39. Joo, Wash. Post A1, at 33–34
40. Council on American-Islamic Relations Research Center, The Status of Muslim Civil Rights in the United States 2002, at 9 (2002)) [hereinafter CAIR] (available at ) (accessed Mar. 1, 2004) (annual report providing a comprehensive summary of discriminatory and sometimes violent treatment of American Muslims).
41. Civil Rights Concerns, The Status of Muslim Civil Rights in the United States, at 34
42. CAIR, The Status of Muslim Civil Rights in the United States, at 10.
43. See Jim Walsh, Valley Sikhs Want Justice, Tolerance, Ariz. Republic A1 (June 29, 2003) (discussing the impending trial of the alleged murderer of a Sikh killed in the aftermath of 9/11 as well as the more recent murder of the victim's brother in what some believe to be another race hate crime).
44. Civil Rights Concerns, Valley Sikhs Want Justice, Tolerance, Ariz., at 27.
45. Some estimates suggest that in the year following September 11, over seventeen hundred incidents of bias were committed. See CAIR, Valley Sikhs Want Justice, Tolerance, Ariz., at 9.
46. Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reporting Program, Hate Crime Statistics 2001 (foreword) (2002) (available at ) (accessed Mar. 1,2004).
47. Jamie Stockwell, Two Teens Charged With Burning Cross Near Mosque, Wash. Post B5 (Aug. 2,2003).
48. Civil Rights Concerns, Wash. Post, at 31 (testimony of Kareem W. Shora, Legal Advisor, Am.-Arab Anti-Discrimination Comm.) (see above)
49. Volpp, Wash. Post, at 1580
50. CAIR, Wash. Post, at 4, 5, 12–13.
51. U.S. Dept. of Justice, Fact Sheet: Civil Rights Accomplishments 5, 6 (July 23, 2003) (available at ) (accessed Feb. 1,2004)).
52. USA-PATRIOT Act, Pub. L. 107–156, 115 Stat. 272 (Oct. 26, 2001).
53. For media accounts of well publicized searches and seizures of American Muslim property by federal agents (during “Operation Green Quest”) following 9/11, see Judith Miller, A Nation Challenged: The Money Trail: Raids Seek Evidence of Money Laundering, N.Y. Times A19 (Mar. 21, 2002)
54. Tom Jackman, Raids Held in Terror Probe: N. Va. Sites Searched for Information About Funding, Wash. Post B1 (Mar. 21, 2002).
55. For critical responses of members of the American Muslim community to the raids, see Mary Jacoby, Fighting Terror: Muslims Hit Raids Linked to Al-Arian, St. Petersburg Times 1A (Mar. 22, 2002)
56. Kevin Murphy, Federal Raids on Charities Anger U.S. Muslim Leaders, Knight Ridder (Mar. 22, 2002).
57. See CAIR, Federal Raids on Charities Anger U.S. Muslim Leaders, at 7–8.
58. For a perceptive analysis of the First and Fourth Amendment implications of the well publicized dragnet type searches and seizures, see John G. Douglass, Raiding Islam: Searches that Target Religious Institutions, 19 J. L. & Relig. 137 (2003–2004).
59. Civil Rights Concerns, J. L. & Relig., at 21–22 (testimony of Malea Kiblan, Esq. Immigr. Atty.)
60. Akram & Johnson, J. L. & Relig., at 317–336
61. CAIR, J. L. & Relig., at 5–6.
62. William Douglas, Powell Seeks Thaw In Canada, Newsday A30 (Nov. 15, 2002)
63. Gill Donovan, Avoid Travel to U.S. Islamic Congress Urges, 39 Natl. Catholic Rptr. 10 (Nov. 29, 2002).
64. For news reports of the recent imprisonment and deportation of two Canadian Muslim clerics who came to Florida to participate in religious activities, see Muslims Denied Entry to US-Threaten Suit, Deseret News E03 (Sept. 20, 2003)
65. Two Muslim Clerics Feel Canada Let Them Down, The Record H7 (Sept. 20, 2003) [hereinafter Two Muslim Clerics]. According to published reports, the two clerics, Ahmad Kutty and Abdool Hamid are Islamic scholars who were en route to Orlando, Florida to help lead prayer services.
66. Volpp, Two Muslim Clerics Feel Canada Let Them Down, at 1584–1585 (footnotes omitted).
67. For an in-depth biographical profile of McVeigh, see Richard A. Serrano, One of Ours: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing, passim (W.W. Norton & Co., Inc. 1998).
68. In addition, a provocative analysis of terrorist activities in America over the past fifty years, the societal context of the incidents, and responses to them is provided in Christopher Hewitt, Understanding Terrorism in America: From the Klan to al-Qaeda (Routledge 2003).
69. Rene Sanchez & Cassandra Stern, Gunman Wounds 5 at Summer Camp: Police Identify Suspect; 3 Children Shot, Wash. Post A1 (Aug. 11, 1999)
70. Teresa Mask, Memorial Service a Call to Action: Asian Americans Vow to Battle Against Hatred, Chi. Daily Herald 8 (July 16, 1999)
71. Edward Walsh, Gunman Fires at Minorities in Illinois; Black Ex-Coach Dies, Six Orthodox Jews are Wounded in Spree, Wash. Post A1 (July 4, 1999).
72. Material in this section is part of a larger (soon to be published) work on race and human rights. See Stubbs, Black Ex-Coach Dies, Six Orthodox Jews are Wounded in Spree, passim.
73. Thomas Fields-Meyer et al., One Deadly Night: Deep in the Woods of East Texas, James Byrd Died a Terrible Death. Leaving a Town and a Nation in Shock, People 49 (June 29, 1998)
74. Michael Dorman, Road to Hate, Raw Racism, Chance Lead to Brutal Crime in Texas, Newsday A7 (June 29,1998).
75. Diane Struzzi, Judge Oks Psychologist to Evaluate Man Charged in Burning, Beheading, National Attention has Focused on the Possible Racial Angle, Roanoke Times & World News C4 (Dec. 13, 1997)
76. Arlene Levinson, Was Murder a Lynching? Racial Overtones to Heinous Killing, Newsday A8 (Aug. 15, 1997)
77. Diane Struzzi, Slaying Puts Rural County in National Spotlight: Killing has Drawn the Attention of Big-City Newspapers, the FBI and Civil Rights Groups, Roanoke Times & World News 1A (Aug. 5, 1997).
78. In July 1997, Garnett “G.P.” Johnson (an African-American man) spent part of a night celebrating the birthday of a mutual acquaintance with several of Johnson's European-American associates, two of whom later took him outside into the yard of the house, doused him with gasoline, set him on fire and chopped off his head. Both of Garnett's killers were subsequently convicted of the murders. See Sylvia Moreno, Jury Convicts Man in Virginia Beheading Case; Defendant Found Guilty of First Degree Murder in Slaying of Black Handyman, Wash. Post B1 (Nov. 6,1998).
79. Fred Brown, Clinton: Don't Tolerate Hate! President Meets Officer's Widow on Denver Visit, Denver Post A1 (Nov. 23,1997) (discussing, in part, the slaying at a bus stop of Oumar Dia, a West African refugee by self-styled white supremacist skinheads). Dia was murdered in November 1997.
80. Scott Shepard, Clinton to Target Hate Crimes, Atlanta J. & Const. A14 (Nov. 9, 1997). The victim of the attack, Thien Nih Ly, was attacked and murdered while skating on a tennis court in Tustin, California in January 1996.
81. Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Crime in the United States 1999: Uniform Crime Reports, 58 (2000) [hereinafter F.B.I. 1999] (available at (accessed Mar. 1, 2004).
82. In the FBI's report, hate crime “victims” were defined as including “a person, business, institution or society as a whole.” Id. at 59, n. 1.
83. In a similar vein, in 1996, the California Attorney General's report regarding hate crimes in California also suggested that, second to African Americans, white people were the most likely group to suffer racist crimes. Cal. Atty. Gen., Hate Crime in California, 1996, Table 1 (available at ‘) (accessed Mar. 6, 2004).
84. Indeed, in 1992, following a decision by a jury that four European American male police officers were not guilty of criminal activity when they beat and almost killed an unarmed African American civilian (Rodney King), massive civil unrest broke out in Los Angeles, resulting, according to published reports, in at least 53 deaths and almost a billion dollars in property damage. Reynolds Holding, Mistrial is Declared on Final Assault Charge: Acquittal Ends Beating Trial, S.F. Chron. A1 (Oct. 21, 1993)
85. Jury Denies Verdict in Trucker Beating Based on Riot Fears, Toronto Star A26 (Oct. 26, 1993). At the height of the violence, one unsuspecting white truck driver, Reginald Denny, was yanked from his vehicle, kicked, punched and nearly murdered by a small group of African American men.
86. Denny was a scapegoat and his atrocious beating (which was captured on videotape) prompted an outpouring of anger, shame, and horror at the seeming unending cycle of violence. See e.g. Reynolds Holding, Mistrial is Declared on Final Assault Charge, San Francisco Chronicle A1 (Oct. 21, 1993)
87. Jury Denies Verdict in Trucker Beating Based on Riot Fears, Toronto Star A26 (Oct. 26,1993).
88. See F.B.I. 1999, Jury Denies Verdict in Trucker Beating Based on Riot Fears, at 59. Similarly, according to one report, in 1996 racist militias spent an estimated $100,000,000 on explosives, weapons, and survival gear.
89. Earl O. Hutchinson, Wave of Hate Crimes Hit U.S.: Other States Should Follow Sheriff's, L.A.P.D. 's Lead in Responding to Racially Motivated Violence, Daily News L.A. V3 (Nov. 9, 1997). Hutchinson's report stated that these organizations conducted ‘“preparedness expos’ in six cities that drew thousands of participants, visitors and dozens of exhibitors.” This Los Angeles Daily News article also noted
90. See Shepard, Daily News L.A., discussing in part the activities of white supremacists like skinheads and members of the militia movements, some of whom see themselves as “the front line troops in the coming racial apocalypse”
91. (quoting Professor Arthur Gipson of Miami University in Ohio). Id. at A14.
92. The Internet is proving a fertile ground for the recruitment of young people into neo-Nazi, Ku Klux Klan, and similar white supremacist organizations. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, in the last few years the number of race-hate-oriented websites has increased from one to over one hundred sixty. Reevaluating the Net: A Growing Consensus of Experts Finds that Discussion Groups, not Websites are where Cyber-extremism Really Flourishes, Intelligence Report No. 102 (S. Poverty L. Ctr. Summer 2001) [hereinafter Reevaluating the Net] (available at ) (accessed Mar. 6, 2004)
93. Robert Marquand, Hate Groups Market to the Mainstream, Christian Sci. Monitor 4 (Mar. 6, 1998)
94. Kevin Sack, Hate Groups in U.S. Are Growing, Report Says, N.Y. Times A10 (Mar. 3, 1998).
95. For better or worse, the worldwide web is now serving as a pathway for the worldwide dissemination of words of peace and destruction. For instance, indications exist that some individuals involved in the neo-Nazi movement are shifting attention from websites to chat rooms and other more personal venues. Reevaluating the Net, Report Says, N.Y. Times.
96. See F.B.I. 1999, Report Says, N.Y. Times, at 59.
97. See e.g. Mark Potok, In Sheep's Clothing: Around the Country, Radical Right Groups are Staging ‘European’ Festivals in a Bid to Draw Ethnic Whites into the Movement, Intelligence Rpt. No. 110 (S. Poverty L. Ctr. 2003) (available at ) (accessed Mar. 1, 2004) (discussing multifaceted attempts by the American white supremacist movement to recruit whites who celebrate European culture)
98. Hewitt, In Sheep's Clothing: Around the Country, Radical Right Groups are Staging ‘European’ Festivals in a Bid to Draw Ethnic Whites into the Movement, at 126–128 (suggesting that some racist attacks are designed to ignite a “racial holy war”).
99. See In Sheep's Clothing: Around the Country, Radical Right Groups are Staging ‘European’ Festivals in a Bid to Draw Ethnic Whites into the Movement & accompanying text.
100. Vikram Dodd, Pre-riot Report Admits Bradford Plagued by Race Divisions, The Guardian 1 (July 10, 2001)
101. John Mahoney, Crisis Talks to Halt New Riots; Race Thugs Burn Burnley, Daily Star 8–9 (June 26, 2001)
102. Alfred Lee, Asian Youths Riot on Eve of British Polls, The Straits Times 3 (June 7, 2001)
103. Melanie Phillips, Race Riots Grow Out of the Balkanisation of Britain, Sun. Times (June 3, 2001)
104. Sarah Lyell, Riots Break Out in Second English City, Intl. Herald Trib. 7 (June 7,2001).
105. Paul Peachey, Minister Offers to Help Fund Recovery, The Indep. 6 (June 26, 2001) (reporting that British Home Office minister pledged governmental assistance to help four hundred businesses damaged in Oldham riots)
106. Sheila Jones, Police Maintain Zero Tolerance as Tension Remains High, Oldham Riots, 21 Arrests Made but Serious Outbreaks of Violence Contained, Fin. Times 2 (May 30, 2001)
107. Jan Disley & Stephen White, It Started as a Fist Fight … and Became One of the Worst Race Riots We've Ever Known; Cops Battle Mobs with Firebombs, The Mirror 12–13 (May 28, 2001)
108. Paul Stokes, White Extremists Blamed for Race Riots—Police Chiefs Promise ‘Zero Tolerance’ as far-Right Groups Stand Accused of Exploiting Ethnic Tensions in Oldham, The Daily Telegraph 10 (May 29, 2001)
109. Pauline Hawkins, Appeal for Calm after Riots, U.K. Newsquest Regl. Press (June 27,2001).
110. Harry Blaney, III, Europe's Threat form Within, The Moscow Times (June 8, 2001)
111. Sarah Lyall, Why are You Here? Britain's Problem, N.Y. Times § 4, 1 (June 4, 2001)
112. Lee, N.Y. Times.
113. See David Jones, Apartheid Britain, Daily Mail 12 (June 23, 2001)
114. Blaney, Apartheid Britain
115. Ken Livingstone, The Media have Helped Stoke the Flames in Oldham: “The BNP was able to Gain a Foothold because its Message was given Legitimacy,” The Indep. 5 (May 30, 2001)
116. Phillips, The Indep.
117. Alice Miles, The Ferocity was a Surprise, but the Riot Itself was Not, The Times (May 28, 2001)
118. Maurice Weaver, Race Fears on Streets of Oldham-Police seek to Prevent a White Backlash after Attack on Pensioner in ‘No-go’ Area Raises Tension, The Daily Telegraph 14 (Apr. 25,2001).
119. See Phillips, The Daily Telegraph
120. Livingstone, The Daily Telegraph
121. Asians in Running Street Battles, The Herald 2 (June 6, 2001).
122. See T.R. Reid, Party Stokes Racial Ire in Britain; Presence of Fringe White-Power Organization Triggers Riots in Multi-Ethnic Areas, Wash. Post A12 (July 10, 2001)
123. Paul Harris, Far Right Plot to Provoke Race Riots, The Observer 5 (June 3, 2001)
124. Melanie Phillips, They weren't Looking for Trouble, Sun. Times (June 3, 2001)
125. David Ward, Oldham Riots: “This has been building up for years”: Residents and Businesses Count the Cost of Night when Long-term Anger Flared Up, The Guardian 3 (May 28, 2001).
126. Blaney, The Guardian
127. Livingstone, The Guardian
128. Miles, The Guardian
129. Jones, The Guardian.
130. For instance, some observers believe that the widely publicized beating of Walter Chamberlain, a seventy-six-year-old white World War II veteran, helped precipitate the recent British riots. Four teenagers of Pakistani descent were charged with the offense. Adam Powell, Town Prays for Peace: Bishop Speaks Out After Race Demo Thwarted, Daily Mail 24 (May 7, 2001).
131. In response to significant media coverage of the assault, avowedly racist organizations targeted Oldham and later other northern English cities with large Asian-British populations for demonstrations—and some say to provoke violence. See Harris, Daily Mail
132. Livingstone, Daily Mail
133. Jones, Daily Mail.
134. Moreover in the period leading up to the most recent outbreaks of violence in the United Kingdom, other notorious incidents of violence along the color line had already stressed that country's social infrastructure. For instance, in London, in January 1998, Muhammed Rafique Khan, an Asian shopkeeper, was attacked and brutally murdered by a young white man in a section of the city which has “one of the highest rates of racial attacks in Britain,” and in which several people of color had been killed in recent years. Justin Davenport & Julia Hartley-Brewer, Shopkeeper Dies After “Race Attack’ Stabbing, Evening Stand. 5 (Jan. 8,1998).
135. Khan's slaying occurred not too far from the site of a well-publicized murder of a black teenager, Stephen Lawrence, whose case continues to draw attention not only because of the brutality of the attack of a gang of hooligans, but also because of the documented failure of the local police to competently prosecute Lawrence's killers. Id.; Bryan Cathcart, The Mental Ghetto that Hides Racist Killings, Guardian 17 (Dec. 17, 1997) (discussing the Home Secretary's publication of a report of the Police Complaints Authority investigation involving Stephen Lawrence's murder. The report of the Home Secretary identified a number of flaws in the investigation that resulted in an inability of the authorities to appropriately prosecute the killers.).
136. See Alan Travis, Fatal Flaws in Murder Inquiry, Guardian 1 (Dec. 16, 1997).
137. Without admitting negligence, the London Metropolitan Police recently settled the case with Lawrence's parents, Nick Hopkins & Vikram Dodd, Lawrence Family Accepts Pounds 320,000 Payout from Met, Guardian 2 (Dec. 20, 2000).
138. Similarly, a recent public inquest was held into the killing of a black musician who allegedly was burned to death by four white assailants in London. The inquest jury concluded that the death constituted homicide but that police failure to properly conduct the investigation made the likelihood of successful prosecution remote. Maggie O'Riordan & Terri Judd, Met Faces New Race Row Over Killing of Black Pop Star, Daily Mail 9 (Sept. 17, 1998)
139. Nigel Rosser & Emily Sheffield, Police Face Fury Over Blaze Killing, Evening Stand. 1 (Sept. 16, 1998). Although the victim told an officer the identity of one of the assailants who had set him ablaze, the police allegedly failed to write down the name of the attacker. Further, the police secured the scene many hours after the incident occurred, thereby making it more likely that evidence would be corrupted.
140. O'Riordan & Judd, Police Face Fury Over Blaze Killing.
141. Jason Bennetto, We are Still Racist, Police Chief Admits, The Indep. (Apr. 22, 2003) (discussing progress and challenges of the Metropolitan Police in London in the aftermath of widespread criticism of some of their policing attitudes and tactics following a number of cases including that of Stephen Lawrence)
142. Vikram Dodd & Nick Hopkins, Momentum in Fight Against Racism “wanes”: Ten Years on from the Lawrence Case, Many Argue the Lesson has not yet been Learned, The Guardian 9 (Apr. 19, 2003) (outlining some of the areas of progress and continuing tensions along color and religious lines in the United Kingdom).
143. See Amanda Ripley, Seven Days of Hatred: Anti-Semitic Attacks Have Been Making Headlines, But Strikes Against any Minority—Jews, Muslims, Roma, gays—are all too Common in Europe, Time 38 (Dec. 4, 2003).
144. Katinka Mezei, Austria Shocked by Video Showing Mistreatment of Dead African Immigrant, Agence France Presse (July 22, 2003)
145. Issa Mansaray, Austria/Africa: Police Brutality Caught on Camera: A 33 year-old Mauritanian, Cheibana Wague, was Brutalised to Death By the Austrian Police, All of Which Was Videotaped, New African 31 (Oct. 1, 2003).
146. Other outrages include the July 27, 2000 neo-Nazi bombing in Duesseldorf, Germany which injured ten people, six of whom were Jewish. The Duesseldorf bombing followed, by less than two months, the brutal murder of Alberto Adriano, a German resident originally from Mozambique. Three neo-Nazis kicked Adriano to death. Peter Finn, German Gets Life Term for Racial Killing; Two Sixteen Year Old Skinheads also Sentenced for Murder of African Immigrant, Wash. Post A24 (Aug. 31, 2000).
147. A memorial erected to honor Adriano's memory was subsequently defaced as well as memorials to the victims of the Holocaust. Opposition Calls for Debate on Jewish Life in Germany, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (Oct. 10, 2000).
148. In response to such outrages, many individuals and groups have launched protests. Over 200,000 Germans March against Neo-Nazi Violence, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (Nov. 9, 2000).
149. More recently legislation has been proposed to curb the rising wave of racist and anti-Semitic violence. Id.; German MPs Back Action Against Right-wing Extremists, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (Mar. 30, 2001)
150. Roger Cohen, German Official Pessimistic About Far-Right Violence, N.Y. Times A6 (Aug. 26, 2000).
151. Terror tactics have been widely condemned. The March of Defiance: Brummie Nazi Attack Victim Leads Protest, Sun. Mercury (June 17, 2001) (describing a demonstration in Berlin led by a black Briton who was partially paralyzed when neo-Nazis hurled a paving stone at his automobile causing him to have an accident)
152. German MPs Back Action Against Right-wing Extremists, The March of Defiance: Brummie Nazi Attack Victim Leads Protest
153. Over 200,000 Germans March Against Neo-Nazi Violence, The March of Defiance: Brummie Nazi Attack Victim Leads Protest.
154. Unfortunately, the extremists may be attracting more followers in part because of the notoriety that their activities have attained. See Peter Finn, Bad Publicity is a Boon for German Party; Leader of Far-Right Group Says Threat of Ban has Increased Interest, Wash. Post A16 (Aug. 20, 2000).
155. Not too far removed from these events (temporally and geographically), in November 1997, a Sudanese student, Hassian Elamin Abdelradi, was stabbed to death by members of a neo-Nazi skinhead group in the Czech Republic. See A.G.B., Investigation into the Murder of Sudanese Almost Complete, C.T.K. Natl. News Wire (Dec. 9, 1997).
156. These atrocities underline the persistent attempts of militant multiracialists to destroy individual persons perceived as being outside of their group. Ian Traynor, Neo-Nazis Set Up “No Go” Zones, Guardian 13 (Dec. 11, 1997). In addition, the German government commissioner for foreign persons has asserted in an annual report that Neo-Nazis have set up “liberated zones” in more than twenty-five towns and cities throughout the country. Foreigners, most of whom are people of color, are forbidden to enter the liberated zones. Such zones include cafes, discos, clubs, and “even whole streets.” Id. The commissioner for foreigners concluded that this was an “alarming, comparatively widespread and growing phenomenon. Id.
157. For example, recently riots broke out in Kosovo in which Serbs were the victims of Albanian attacks. See Nicholas Wood, Kosovo Smolders After Mob Violence, N.Y. Times A10 (Mar. 24, 2004).
158. It has been alleged that approximately ninety thousand Roma people living in the Kosovo region have been compelled to leave their homes by the returning Albanians. German Study Says 90,000 Gypsies Forced to Flee Kosovo, Duetsche Presse-Agentur (Sept. 7,1999).
159. The Roma, who are also sometimes referred to as Romany and others times (somewhat pejoratively) as “gypsies,” present a difficult classification case for persons accustomed to thinking in multi-racial categories. The Roma lived in India approximately one thousand years ago, migrated to central Europe, and reside in a number of Central European countries. H.R. Subcomm. on Intl. Sec. Intl. Org. & Human Rights of the For. Affairs Comm., Human Rights Abuses of the Roma (Gypsies) 19, 103rd Cong. (Apr. 14, 1994) (Testim. of Tom Lantos, Subcomm. Chair).
160. While they have many physical features associated with “whiteness” (facial architecture, hair texture, and frequently skin complexion), in many European countries, the Roma are viewed, referred to and treated as blacks. See V.V., Skinheads Sent to Prison for Attacking Romanies, CTK Natl. News Wire (Mar. 14, 2001) (Czech court sentenced six skinheads to between twelve and sixteen months in prison for stoning and throwing beer bottles at Roma persons in a restaurant while shouting “Gypsies to the Gas Chambers, the White Race, the Black Bastards, and Nothing but Nation.”).
161. Other recent examples of skinheads assaulting and killing Roma people include two neo-Nazis brutally beating Helena Bihariova (a mother of six), and, as she lost consciousness, forcing her into a frigid river where she drowned. See R.J.C., Law is Disgrace to Romanies Murdered by White Racists, CTK Natl. News Wire (Oct. 7, 1998).
162. The assailants in Bihariova's case received sentences totaling fifteen years, in part because (according to published reports), the prosecutor asserted that the victim was killed by the icy River Elbe, rather than by the men who kicked, punched and forced her into the water. This rationale caused one commentator to conclude that “For judges in the Czech Republic [to hold that a racial hate crime existed] the only substantial proof is if the attacker had shouted ‘You black bastard, I'm going to kill you because of your black skin’ or suchlike before committing the crime.” Id. See R.J.C., Romanies Say Skinhead Attacks are Now Part of EveryDay Life, CTK Natl. News Wire (Nov. 19, 1997) (discussing similar attacks against Roma people living in Slovakia, including a murder in 1997, and three other homicides in 1996).
163. The United Nations Committee Against Torture has recently expressed concern about racism and xenophobia in Czech society. See V.V., Czechs Criticized for Discrimination against Minorities, CTK Natl. News Wire (May 15, 2001).
164. See Harris, CTK Natl. News Wire
165. Martin A. Lee, The Wandering Jew-Hater: Neo-Nazi David Duke Found Many New Friends—and Even More Buyers of His Books—During His Recent Years in Europe, Intelligence Rpt. No. 109 (S. Poverty L. Ctr. 2003) (available at ) (accessed Mar. 1, 2004) (describing David Duke's international networking with other white supremacists while living abroad).
166. See Two Muslim Clerics, The Wandering Jew-Hater: Neo-Nazi David Duke Found Many New Friends—and Even More Buyers of His Books—During His Recent Years in Europe.
167. Civil Rights Concerns, The Wandering Jew-Hater: Neo-Nazi David Duke Found Many New Friends—and Even More Buyers of His Books—During His Recent Years in Europe, at 34
168. Akram & Johnson, The Wandering Jew-Hater: Neo-Nazi David Duke Found Many New Friends—and Even More Buyers of His Books—During His Recent Years in Europe, at 352–355.
169. Brought in the Eastern District of Virginia, this case has generated an opinion by the trial court, three Fourth Circuit panel opinions, and upon denial of a motion to rehear the case en banc, several opinions by members of the en banc court. See Hamdi v. Rumsfeld 243 F. Supp.2d 527 (E.D. Va. 2002); 294 F.3d 598 (4th Cir. 2002) {Hamdi I); 296 F.3d 278 (4th Cir. 2002) (Hamdi II); 316 F.3d 450 (4th Cir. 2003) (Hamdi III); and 337 F.3d 335 (4th Cir. 2003), respectively.
170. Recently, the Supreme Court granted certiorari from Hamdi III, see Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, 124 S. Ct. 981 (2004).
171. Id. at 49–51.
172. For a first-hand account of the Scottsboro case as experienced by one of the defendants, see Kwando Mbiassi Kinshasa, The Man from Scottsboro: Clarence Norris and the Infamous 1931 Alabama Rape Trial, in his Own Words 107 (McFarland 1997) (recounting the lower court's discussion of the prosecution's incredible evidence of rape).
173. Id. at 71–72.
174. Id. at 72.
175. See Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335, 343–345 (1963) (Constitution requires appointment of counsel for indigent defendants in state felony cases)
176. Argersinger v. Hamlin, 407 U.S. 25, 37–40 (1972) (holding that judge may not sentence indigent misdemeanor defendant to incarceration unless, at beginning of trial, judge had appointed counsel to represent defendant)
177. Scott v. III., 440 U.S. 367, 373–374 (1979) (refusing to extend right to court appointed counsel to indigent defendants convicted of a misdemeanor but not imprisoned).
178. Id. at 230.
179. Id. at 231–233.
180. Id. at 232.
181. Id. at 235.
182. Id. at 237–238.
183. Id. at 240–241.
184. Id. at 241.
185. Chambers, 309 U.S. at 241.
186. Id. at 90–91, 94–95.
187. Id. at 96.
188. Id. at 97–98.
189. Id. at 99.
190. Id. at 216.
191. Id. at 219–220.
192. Id. at 107–108.
193. Id. at 108.
194. Id. at 109–118.
195. Id. at 127.
196. Id. at 131.
197. Id. at 21.
198. Id. at 20.
199. Subsequent scholarship confirms that Haupt was very probably an American citizen. See Louis Fisher, Nazi Saboteurs on Trial: A Military Tribunal and American Law, 15 (U. Press Kan. 2003).
200. Id. at 45 (quoting Ex Parte Milligan 71 U.S 2 at 121).
201. Id. at 42.
202. Fisher, Id, at 68–69, 77–80.
203. See Francis Biddle, In Brief Authority 339 (Doubleday & Co., Inc. 1962) (giving an eyewitness account of the cases from the perspective of the Attorney General of the United States who personally tried them). The Court published its full opinion nearly three months after the imposition of the death penalty.
204. Quirin, 317 U.S. at 46.
205. Id. at 37–38.
206. Id. at 45.
207. Matt 25:40.
208. For a comprehensive and thoughtful treatment of military tribunals and the Executive Branch's encroachment upon courts' jurisdiction, see Carl Tobias, Detentions, Military Commissions, Terrorism and Domestic Case Precedent, passim 76 S. Cal. L. Rev. 1371 (Sept. 2003).
209. In a similar vein see U.S. v. Schenck, 249 U.S. 47 (1919) (free speech protections are limited by circumstances in which the speech is uttered)
210. U.S. v. Dennis, 341 U.S. 494 (1951) (upholding convictions of members of the Communist Party for conspiring to form a party which would, among other things, advocate the future violent overthrow of the American government).
211. Brought in the Eastern District of Virginia, this case has generated an opinion by the trial court, three Fourth Circuit panel opinions, and upon denial of a motion to rehear the case en banc, several opinions by members of the en banc court. See 243 F. Supp.2d 527 (E.D. Va. 2002); 294 F.3d 598 (4th Cir. 2002) (Hamdi I); 296 F.3d 278 (4th Cir. 2002) (Hamdi II); 316 F.3d 450 (4th Cir. 2003) (Hamdi III); and 337 F.3d 335 (4th Cir. 2003), respectively.
212. Hamdi appealed to the Supreme Court and the Court granted certiorari, see Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, 124 S. Ct. 981 (2004).
213. Id. at 600.
214. Id. at 592 (citations omitted).
215. Id. at 593.
216. Id. at 608.
217. Padilla Allowed Access to Lawyer, U.S. Dept. Def. News Release, Feb. 11, 2004, [hereinafter Padilla Allowed Access] (available at 1 (accessed Apr. 12, 2004).
218. Padilla, 233 F. Supp. 2d at 595.
219. Padilla v. Bush, 243 F. Supp. 2d 42,46 (S.D.N.Y. 2003).
220. Padilla v. Bush, 352 F. 3d 695, 698 (2d Cir. 2003) (emphasis in the original).
221. Padilla, 352 F. 3d at 720.
222. Id. at 715, n. 24.
223. Id. at 715 (citation omitted).
224. Id. at 724.
225. Id. at 727.
226. Authorization for Use of Military Force Joint Resolution, Pub. L. No. 107–140, 115 Stat. 224(2001).
227. Rumsfeld v. Padilla, 124 S. Ct. 1353 (2004).
228. Padilla Allowed Access, Stat.
229. For an informative biographical sketch of Padilla see Deborah Sontag, Secret Justice: Terror Suspect's Path From Streets to Brig, N.Y. Times, Apr. 25, 2004, §1, at 1.
230. Hamdi, 243 F. Supp. 2d 529.
231. Hamdi II, 296 F.3d at 279,280.
232. Id. at 282.
233. Hamdi, 243 F.Supp. 2d at 533.
234. Id. at 533–534.
235. Id. at 535.
236. Hamdi III, 316 F.3d at 476 (emphasis added).
237. Id. at 465.
238. Id. at 477.
239. Hamdi, 337 F.3d at 341.
240. Id. at 342 (Wilkinson, J., concurring in dismissal)
241. id. at 345–347 (Traxler, J., concurring in dismissal).
242. Id. at 376, n. 9.
243. Ex parte Quirin, 317 U.S. at 37–38.
244. DOD Announces Detainee Allowed Access to Lawyer, U.S. Dept. Def. No. 908–03 (Dec. 2, 2003) (available at ) (accessed Apr. 2, 2004).
245. Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, 124 S. Ct. 981 (2004).
246. See e.g. Strauder v. W. Va., 100 U.S. 303 (1879) (African Americans cannot be excluded from grand or petit juries on the basis of race); and 42 U.S.C. § 1981 (mandating among other things that all persons in the United States have a right to give evidence in court).
247. U.S. v. Carotene Products Co., 304 U.S. 144,153 n. 4 (1938).
248. See Volpp, U.S.
249. Akram & Johnson, U.S.
250. Civil Rights Concerns, U.S. passim.
251. Cf. Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393,407 (1856).
252. Theodore W. Allen, The Invention of the White Race vol. 1, 32 (Verso 1994).
253. See N.A.A.C.P., Thirty Years of Lynching in the United States. 1889–1918 (Arno Press & N.Y. Times 1969) (Apr. 1919) (documenting the lynching of over three thousand individuals during a thirty year time period, giving some details regarding one hundred of the murders, and pointing out that the number of lynchings was probably understated)
254. Stewart E. Tolnay & E.M. Beck, A Festival of Violence: An Analysis of Southern Lynchings: 1882–1930 (U. 111. Press 1995) (discussing some of the broader societal causes for lynching while describing some illustrative cases)
255. James Cameron, A Time of Terror (TD Publications 1982) (firsthand account of an African American criminal defendant who was nearly lynched by a mob following his arrest and charge with murdering a white man). A particularly gruesome murder/lynching occurred in Coweta County, Georgia in 1899, when Sam Hose was burned at the stake and dismembered, and the pieces of his cooked remains were sold to on lookers. According to the New York Tribune
256. For example, in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain brilliantly captured the low regard in which the lives of blacks were held in antebellum America. In describing some of his travels to Aunt Sally (who had mistaken him for her nephew, Tom Sawyer) Huckleberry Finn concocted a tale about why he was delayed: “We blowed out a cylinder-head.” Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, in The Works of Mark Twain: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn vol. 8, 279 (Walter Blair & Victor Fischer eds., U. Cal. Press 1988).
257. In response to Aunt Sally's inquiry regarding whether anyone was hurt, Huck responded: “No'm. Killed a nigger.” Id. Sally replied: “Well, it's lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt. Two years ago last Christmas, your uncle Silas was coming up from Newrleans on the old Lally Rook, and she blowed out a cylinder-head and crippled a man. And I think he died, afterwards. He was a Babtist.” Id. Twain's satire reverberates an uncomfortable echo of some contemporary attitudes about the supposed inhumanity of people of darker colors. See e.g. Heidi Beirich & Mark Potok, Creator Crack-Up: With its Leader Imprisoned, its name Illegal and its Ranks Thinned by Splits, the World Church of the Creator is on the Ropes, Intelligence Rpt. No. 109 (S. Poverty L. Ctr. 2003) (available at ‘) (accessed Mar. 1, 2004) (discussing recent arrest of Mathew Hale, leader of the racist and anti Jewish World Church of the Creator organization on charges, among other things, that he solicited the murder of a federal judge).
258. See Stubbs, Creator Crack-Up: With its Leader Imprisoned, its name Illegal and its Ranks Thinned by Splits, the World Church of the Creator is on the Ropes.
259. Gertrude Himmelfarb, Lord Acton: A Study in Conscience & Politics 239 (U. Chi. Press 1952).
260. Michael Stuckey, The High Court of Star Chamber 85 (Gaunt, Inc. 1998) (noting that the term Star Chamber has become “equivalent for the vernacular ‘kangaroo court.’”). Stuckey argues that objective evidence supports the proposition that generally “the Star Chamber was an institution at the centre of social and legal reform.” Id. at 2. See Cora L. Scofield, A Study of the Star Chamber: Largely Based on Manuscripts in the British Museum and the Public Record Office (Burt Franklin Research & Source Works Series B. Franklin 1969) (originally published 1900) (evaluating some primary though admittedly incomplete sources relevant to better understanding the nature and function of the Star Chamber).
261. Pastor Martin Niemöller, Speech (Colum. Theological Seminary, Decatur, Ga. 1959 or 1960) (accessed Apr. 12,2004).