Lynn C. Woolsey: “the savage attacks of September 11 resulted in the deaths of more than 5,000 innocent victims. To add to this horror…”

“the savage attacks of September 11 resulted in the deaths of more than 5,000 innocent victims. To add to this horror, the horror of terrorist strikes, acts of violence against Muslims and Arab-Americans increased dramatically throughout the United States since September 11. The Council of American Islamic relations has received more than 300 reports of harassment and abuse committed against innocent Sikhs, Arabs, Indians, and people of Muslim faith. Communities across the Nation are horrified by these brutal crimes: a threat to a turban-wearing Sikh in Connecticut, an attack of a woman on a Maryland college campus, rocks thrown through an open bedroom window in Roanoke, Virginia. Hate crimes are not new to our country, but these are different. The victims of these hate crimes were children. The victim in Connecticut was a second grader. The woman was a teenager attacked by fellow young adults. And the child who barely missed being hit by a rock was only two years old. Throughout the country, Muslim and other Arab-American children are fearful of attacks on the street, in their homes, and at their schools in reprisal for the terrorist strikes of September 11.”