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Preventing Fear from Becoming Hatred
by
Gregory J. Rummo
”The enemies
we face are resourceful, merciless and fanatically
committed to inflicting massive damage on our
homeland, which they regard as a bastion of evil.”
These words came from FBI Director Robert Mueller,
who joined CIA Director George Tenet and other
intelligence chiefs in a briefing before the Senate
Intelligence Committee on a day when all across the
country newspapers were presenting the stark
contrast of the two sides of Islam on their front
pages.
As thousands of peaceful Muslims gathered to
celebrate Eid al-Adha, one of two important holy
days in Islam and the end of Hajj, the pilgrimage
to Mecca, bin Laden resurfaced in a voice
recording, urging suicide missions among his
followers: “We stress the importance of martyrdom
operations against the enemy, these attacks have
scared Americans and Israelis like never before,”
he said.
If duct tape sales were any indication, bin Laden
made his point. Many stores sold out shortly after
al Qaeda’s Demon-in-Chief made his latest
pronouncement over al Jazeera television.
American’s reaction is indicative that this country
is still edgy about another terrorist attack. And
perhaps there is some good that can come from this
fear which again has become palpable the way it was
shortly after 9-11. Let it steel our resolve to rid
the world of these monsters from the pit of hell
once and for all.
But we must be careful that our fear does not breed
hatred.
Earlier this year middle-eastern men received
notices—arrest warrants for all practical
purposes—ordering them to appear at the INS
headquarters here in New Jersey at Newark Airport.
The usual crowd of bleeding hearts was quick to
protest this as an assault on civil rights, an
absurd argument since most if not all of the
individuals the INS wanted to interview had
overstayed their visas.
I suspect memories may be fuzzy about the potential
for terrorism such an immigration status
implies—many of the 9-11 hijackers had entered the
US legally but overstayed their visas also.
Nonetheless, anytime a dragnet is thrown out,
everyone is caught up in its mesh, both good and
bad individuals.
Yusuf (that’s not his real name) is one of the good
ones. He entered the US from Syria in 1995 and
overstayed his visa. Most of his family is here
legally but unfortunately Yusuf is not.
When I spoke to him in January after his first
meeting with INS officials, he was frightened. “I
love America,” he told me. “I came here because
there are so many opportunities. I don’t want to be
deported.”
He said it was chaos inside the INS office. “The
building was mobbed with Arabs, some in handcuffs,
some yelling angrily,” he said.
After extensive questioning by INS officials which
Yusuf characterized as “mean,” he was released on
his own recognizance and ordered to re-appear
monthly. When he went back for his first visit in
February, he was flatly told he would be deported
on February 28.
He went home and dejectedly told his family what
had happened. But then his father called the
immigration lawyer who has been working on Yusuf’s
case for several years. Apparently something had
fallen through the cracks and he was able to
convince INS officials that they had made a
mistake. Yusuf’s father, who became a citizen
several years ago, is sponsoring his son for
citizenship.
Yusuf will have to pay a $6,000 fine for
overstaying his visa, but eventually he should get
his green card. “I am willing to do whatever the
INS wants me to do in order to stay here,” he said.
America is a nation that prides itself upon
tolerance of all people regardless of race or
religion. One of the greatest political thinkers of
all time—a 19th-century Frenchman named Alexis de
Tocqueville, wrote, “There is no country in the
whole world in which the Christian religion retains
a greater influence over the souls of men than in
America, and there can be no greater proof of its
utility, and of its conformity to human nature,
than that its influence is most powerfully felt
over the most enlightened and free nation of the
earth.”
We are at war. We have identified the enemy. The
Department of Homeland Security and the INS are to
be applauded for carrying out their mandates to
enforce existing laws and keep America safe.
But as individuals you and I have a responsibility,
based on America’s biblical foundation, to “love
our neighbors as ourselves,” no matter where those
neighbors originally came from.
Gregory J. Rummo is a syndicated columnist.
Contact him through his website at
www.GregRummo.com
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