William A. Dorman, writing in the compedium The United States and the Middle East: A Search for New Perspectives (1992) notes that whereas "anti-Semitism is no longer socially acceptable, at least among the educated classes. No such social sanctions exist for anti-Arabism."[96] In the mid-1970s, prominent American Objectivist author, scholar and philosopher Ayn Rand, expressed strong anti-Arab sentiment following the Arab-Israeli War of 1973: "The Arabs are one of the least developed cultures. They are typically nomads. Their culture is primitive, and they resent Israel because it's the sole beachhead of modern science and civilization on their continent. When you have civilized men fighting savages, you support the civilized men, no matter who they are."[97] During the 1991 Gulf War, hostility toward Arabs increased in the United States.[98] Arab Americans have experienced a backlash as result of terrorist attacks, including events where Arabs were not involved, like the Oklahoma City bombing, and the explosion of TWA Flight 800.[99] According to a report prepared by the Arab American Institute, three days after the Oklahoma City bombing "more than 200 serious hate crimes were committed against Arab Americans and American Muslims. The same was true in the days following September 11."[99] According to a 2001 poll of Arab Americans conducted by the Arab American Institute, 32% of Arab Americans reported having been subjected to some form of ethnic-based discrimination during their lifetimes, while 20% reported having experienced an instance of ethnic-based discrimination since September 11. Of special concern, for example, is the fact that 45% of students and 37% of Arab Americans of the Muslim faith report being targeted by discrimination since September 11.[99] According to the FBI and Arab groups, the number of attacks against Arabs and Muslims, as well as others mistaken for them, rose considerably after the 9/11 attacks.[100] Hate crimes against people of Middle Eastern origin or descent increased from 354 attacks in 2000, to 1,501 attacks in 2001.[98] Among the victims of the backlash was a Middle Eastern man in Houston, Texas who was shot and wounded after an assailant accused him of "blowing up the country",[99] and four immigrants shot and killed by a man named Larme Price, who confessed to killing them as revenge for the September 11 attacks.[101] Although Price described his victims as Arabs, only one was from an Arab country. This appears to be a trend; because of stereotypes of Arabs, several non-Arab, non-Muslim groups were subjected to attacks in the wake of 9/11, including several Sikh men attacked for wearing their religiously-mandated turban.[102] Earl Krugel and Irv Rubin, two leaders of the Jewish Defense League (JDL), described by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as a terrorist organization,[103] planned to bomb Arab-American Congressman Darrell Issa's office and the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City, California. The two were arrested as part of a sting operation when they received a shipment of explosives at Krugel's home in Los Angeles. Krugel was murdered in November 2005 while in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Phoenix. His conviction, which was under appeal at that time, was dismissed in U.S. District Court. Rubin committed suicide in 2002 while in Federal Bureau of Prisons custody in Los Angeles.[104] Although the JDL was suspected in the 1985 bombing death of ADC leader Alex Odeh, no arrest has been made in that case.[105] Stephen E. Herbits, the Secretary-General of the New York--based World Jewish Congress (WJC) made several racist remarks and ethnic slurs in an internal memo against the president of the European Jewish Congress Pierre Besnainou: "He is French. Don't discount this. He cannot be trusted ... He is Tunisian. Do not discount this either. He works like an Arab."[106] The WJC in Israel has condemned the statements as both hateful and racist. "It appears that the struggle in the World Jewish Congress has now turned racist, said Knesset member Shai Hermesh (Kadima), who heads the Israeli board of the WJC. Instead of creating unity among the Jewish people, this organization is just creating division and hatred."[107] Conservative pundit and author Michelle Malkin has accused the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee of exaggeration and questioned the existence of a post--September 11 anti-Arab hate-crime epidemic. She says that the "hype artists" and "book-cookers" of ADC reported that "a Muslim student was pelted with eggs at Arizona State University", but that of two such incidents logged at the university, one was a "complete hoax", and the other was not considered a hate crime by police. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Arabism#United_States Image By Mark Coggins from San Francisco (Gore Vidal) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

• published: 11 Oct 2013
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