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SPJ creates guidelines to help reporters counter ethnic, religious profiling

By Alicia Benjamin-Samuels
freedomforum.org

10.26.01

"Assalamu alaikum," or "may peace be upon you," is the greeting Islamic people all over the world offer to others. But peace is not what some have found in the United States since Sept. 11, as several Muslims and those who look like Muslims have been harassed and assaulted.

To help combat this, the Society of Professional Journalists has created guidelines to help journalists demystify and more accurately cover targeted populations.

"Journalists need to cover all aspects of a complicated and emotional situation in a fair and accurate way," said Sally Lehrman, SPJ diversity chairwoman. Incorrect and sloppy reporting about Muslims, Arab-Americans and South Asian-Americans "can unintentionally lead to racial profiling and the hate crimes that come with it," she said.

Because Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind behind the attacks, has been referred to as an Islamic extremist, some Americans blame all Muslims for the tragedies in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania.

When Detroit Free Press reporter Niraj Warikoo was assigned to cover the attacks on Sept. 11, he immediately began calling his Arab-American sources, Victor Merina wrote in an October Quill Magazine article titled "Covering Arab Americans: Minimizing harm to a vulnerable community."

But Warikoo soon remembered what happened after the Oklahoma City bombing when the news media and others assumed that Muslims or Arabs were responsible for the attack. "Caught in the middle of the crossfire were innocent members of the Arab-American community," Merina wrote.

"I didn't want to jump to conclusions," Warikoo told Merina. "I remember Oklahoma City. A lot of people got hurt [by the speculation], and I didn't want to make that mistake," he said.

Arab-Americans, Muslims and South Asian-Americans were also shaken and deeply affected by the Sept. 11 events.

"Because we're part of this society, we were also attacked," said Hussein Ibish, communications director for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, during an interview Sept. 13 on CBS' "The Early Show."

"Hundreds of Arab-Americans worked in the World Trade Center," Ibish said. "We are reeling and suffering with our fellow citizens. But we are also horrified to find that some of our fellow citizens are holding us somehow culpable because of our ethnicity."

Anticipating adverse actions, the Arab-American Institute released a statement on the day of the attacks, saying:

"We urge our fellow citizens not to rush to judgment and point fingers at their Arab American neighbors and colleagues who are suffering, like all Americans, from these despicable acts. Regardless of who is ultimately found to be responsible for these terrorist murders, no ethnic or religious community should be treated as suspect and collectively blamed."

But unfortunately, since the Sept. 11 attacks, many Muslims, Arab-Americans, South Asian-Americans and others have been blamed and hurt.

For example:

• On Oct. 25, the Associated Press reported that free-lance journalist Haider Rizvi, 38, told police he was leaving a Pakistani-owned grocery store in New York City when three men said he looked like Osama bin Laden. When the men then asked Rizvi if he was from Pakistan, he said yes. The men allegedly then kicked and beat Rizvi into unconsciousness.

• On Sept. 18, the Arizona Republic reported that Frank Silva Roque shot and killed a Sikh man, Balbir Singh Sodhi.

• The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on Sept. 18 that four men tried to stab a Sudanese man after telling him, "You killed our people in New York — we want to kill you tonight."

• The Dallas Morning News reported on Sept. 18 that the Islamic Society of Denton in Texas was fire bombed.

• On Sept. 13, the Associated Press reported that a drunken 75-year-old man tried to run over a Pakistani woman in the parking lot of a shopping mall, then followed her into a store and threatened to kill her for "destroying my country."

Hundreds of similar cases have been reported across the country since the Sept. 11 attacks. To help end this violence, some journalists, like Warikoo, are trying to more fairly portray Muslims and South Asian-Americans in their reporting.

The Detroit Free Press, located in the city with the country's most concentrated Arab-American population, has published 100 Questions and Answers about Arab-Americans: A Journalist's Guide.

"Like all people, Arab Americans are too often described in simplistic terms," the guide states. "Although the Arab culture is one of the oldest on Earth, it is, in many parts of the United States, misunderstood."

The guide provides answers to such questions as:

• "Are Arabs frequently involved in terrorism?"

• "What is meant by the phrase 'Islamic Fundamentalist?' "

• "Is Islam a violent religion?"

• "Are there issues about the way Arab-Americans are portrayed in the media?"

• "Is there a coverage pitfall that reporters should avoid?"

On Oct. 6, at its national convention in Seattle, SPJ passed a resolution urging members and fellow journalists to take steps against racial profiling in their coverage of the war on terrorism. The group also created guidelines to help journalists avoid ethnic stereotyping when reporting on the war.

The guidelines call for journalists to "use language that is informative and not inflammatory; portray Muslims, Arabs, Middle Eastern and South Asian Americans in the richness of their diverse experiences; and seek truth through a variety of voices and perspectives that help audiences understand the complexities of the events in Pennsylvania, New York City and Washington, D.C."

The guidelines are divided into two sections called "visual images" and "stories." The "visual images" section includes the following advice on which types of photographs to take and which to avoid:

• "Use photos and features to demystify veils, turbans and other cultural articles and customs."

• "Do not represent Arab Americans and Muslims as monolithic groups. Avoid conveying the impression that all Arab Americans and Muslims wear traditional clothing."

The "stories" section offers advice on how to cover Muslims, Middle Eastern and South Asian-Americans and what to avoid when reporting those stories:

• "Cover the victims of harassment, murder and other hate crimes as thoroughly as you cover the victims of overt terrorist attacks."

• "Make an extra effort to include olive-complexioned and darker men and women, Sikhs, Muslims and devout religious people of all types in arts, business, society columns and all other news and feature coverage, not just stories about the crisis."

• "Avoid using word combinations such as 'Islamic terrorist' or 'Muslim extremist' that are misleading because they link whole religions to criminal activity."

• "Avoid using terms such as 'jihad' unless you are certain of their precise meaning and include the context when they are used in quotations. The basic meaning of 'jihad' is to exert oneself for the good of Islam and to better oneself."