Apartment Warning Gives Muslims New Worry

I try to imagine being of Middle Eastern descent and renting an apartment these days.

Uh, no thanks. And it has nothing to do with first- and last-month’s rent.

It was tough enough after the terrorist attacks in September. Newspapers across the country ran stories about outbreaks of violence against people who appeared to be of Middle Eastern ethnicity. In Orange County last year, 69 hate incidents were reported against people perceived to be Muslim or of Middle Eastern descent--and almost all occurred within a month of the Sept. 11 attacks. It was the most in any year against any single group in the 11 years the county has kept such records.

Such incidents have diminished in recent months. Now, however, comes an FBI warning that Islamic fundamentalist terrorist cells may be planning to rent apartments for the sole purpose of planting explosives to bring down the buildings.

Like it or not, that likely will put Middle Easterners under a microscope.

Once again, life may get more complicated for my friend Ra’id Faraj, a Palestinian who moved to Orange County early in 1995 and eventually graduated from Santa Ana College.

Now 34, Faraj is the spokesman for the Anaheim-based Council on American-Islamic Relations. We hadn’t talked since last summer, and I assumed the latest FBI warnings would mean his life just got tougher.

True, he says.

He understands the need for vigilance but fears that could lead to the targeting of innocent people and, in the worst of circumstances, a resurgence of anti-Muslim or anti-Arab activities.

“The media has played over and over that it’s only a matter of time before the next terrorist attack occurs,” Faraj says. Those reports featured various apartment managers across the country who were interviewed, Faraj says, with the message being “to stay vigilant, to be on the lookout.”

“All of us need to be vigilant and on the lookout for suspicious behavior, but not the look of someone or his or her [ethnic or religious] background.”

He knows that’s easier said than done.

That’s why he and millions of other people of Middle Eastern heritage in America experienced the double whammy from Sept. 11. In addition to absorbing the psychic horror of the attacks, they felt the lingering hostility from fellow countrymen after the terrorists were identified as being Middle Eastern.

“The individuals who did the crime of 9/11 did a tremendous disservice to the rest of the community,” Faraj says. “No doubt. No doubt. After all, the majority of Muslims in America are law-abiding citizens, well-educated, well-established, good families, good track record. It’s out there.”

It is that same community, Faraj says, that may be among the government’s best allies in thwarting future attacks. “If [the Sept. 11 terrorists] used the Arab American and Muslim community to hide within it, who would be best to help the authorities and the government prevent such acts in the future? But if they feel like they’re cornered or viewed as constantly being under suspicion or that they don’t belong here or they’re outsiders, or a Fifth Column, how would they feel?”

I made several random calls to apartment managers in Orange County. None said the publicized FBI warnings would give them second thoughts about renting to people of Middle Eastern descent. I’ll take them at their word, and Faraj says, as a general rule, he doesn’t think people from the Middle East have been shunned by landlords.

However, the FBI warnings are only a few days old and it’s uncertain how things will play out.

But as I’ve found him before, Faraj is upbeat. He’s confident Americans as a whole won’t treat Arab Americans unfairly.

He also says that the tragedy of Sept. 11 produced some positive things in the Muslim community in America.

“They got more involved,” he says, “to disassociate themselves from those who committed the crime and to be proactive about what they stand for and what they don’t stand for.”

*

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Readers may reach Parsons at (714) 966-7821 or at The Times’ Orange County edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or at [email protected].