by Extra!

About the author: Extra! is a bimonthly journal published by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), a media watchdog organization.

Since September 11, 2001, there have been at least six bias-related murders and reports from around the country of assaults and harassment targeting Arab- and Muslim-Americans. Homes, businesses, mosques and Muslim schools have been vandalized, children tormented, and students harassed on college campuses.

Media have reported many of these assaults (e.g., USA Today, 9/20/01; San Francisco Chronicle, 10/4/01) and denounced them as what Tom Brokaw (NBC Nightly News, 9/20/01) called “one of the ugliest legacies of this crisis.” “It’s insanity to burden an entire people with the label terrorist,” the New York Times pointed out (9/23/01), while a Long Island Newsday (9/18/01) op-ed counseled, “Don’t Form...