Thursday, February 8, 2007

wiki entry ch 1. pg 1-9 2/08

Muhammed Ratiq Butt:

He has a wife and five children in Pakistan. He arrived to America, working in New York City’s immigrant economy, in order to send money to his family back in his home country. Due to his inability to speak English and his old age (55years old), he was forced to work in a restaurant and sweetshop in the “Little India” sector of New York City. On September 19th, a tip from a local caller, caused FBI agents to arrest Butt. While in a U.S detention center, he died of a heart condition. Rumors spread amongst his Pakistani community that he was actually beaten, arousing fear. His body was shipped back to Pakistan with $1000 for his family.

Interesting Facts/ Statistics:

“From September 11 through February 2002, hate crimes and incidents of discrimination toward Muslims soared to 1,717 according to the council of American-Islamic Relations” (6).

“Of the approximately 1,200 [post-September 11] detainees, 762 were acknowledged later to be of ‘special interest’ to the government’s terrorism investigation” (8).

“Since the post-September 11 fallout, community advocates and lawyers working with detainees estimate that the total arrests and detentions in the Northeast have reached up to 10,000” (8)

1 comment: