by Imraan Siddiqi

While we have been focusing on the subject of hate and Islamophobia, when it comes to violent attacks and vandalism against institutions thus far – the human toll goes much further.  Beyond the physical toll that anti-Muslim bigotry takes on a variety of communities, there also exists a much deeper issue of how legislative Islamophobia can affect our communities.  The effects are far-ranging, and can have adverse effects on the community when it comes to being consumers, travelers, or just citizens.

The post 9/11 world has shown us that reactionary policies have been enacted – such as the ability of airlines to remove passengers of Muslim descent, at the behest of fellow travelers.  The recent upswing in anti-Muslim rhetoric has made this a more frequent occurrence  – even resulting in the profiling of Sikh women by airlines.

By riding the wave of public sentiment, legislators were able to push through the Patriot Act – and its repercussions on not only American Muslims – but all Americans can be felt today.  Travel restrictions, no-fly lists that include 18-month old babies, as well as massive financial implications just scratch the surface on the impacts of this draconian legislation.  Most recently, we’ve seen a huge upswing in Muslim accounts being closed by banks – most notably Chase.  The reality of being Muslim in the West now includes having to deal with the repercussions of your name (which is often a very common name) appearing on some shadowy list, affecting your ability to travel, spend, or bank like everyone else.

Now, take a look at what happened to attorney and associate professor at Broward College in Florida – Muhammad Zakir Khan:

Khan attempted to sign up for a beta version of a game, offered by Epic Games – only to find out that he was locked out because of his name.  It would be one thing if the individual’s name were “Abu Bakr al Baghdadi” or a more unique name.  “Muhammad Khan” is one of the most common names among Muslims, especially of South Asian descent.  In fact – the name “Muhammad Khan” is more prevalent on sites like Linkedin than the name “Joe Smith.”  Take into account that the name can be spelled a few different ways (Mohammed, Mohamed, etc.) – and you get the picture.

After this was tweeted out:

The founder of the North Carolina-based gaming company, Epic Games responded:

To the company’s credit – they responded in a timely manner, and stated that the restrictions were put into place based off a coding error.  This stems from Treasury Department-implemented rules aimed at policing certain financial transactions that take place internationally.

Sweeney also stated adjustments would be made, and was truly apologetic about it:

The general response that comes from companies like Epic – along with banks that are closing accounts is “we are complying with Federal guidelines.”  How companies implement these guidelines varies – as evidenced by the fact that Khan has not been restricted from using any other competing gaming platforms, to date.

This is also evidenced in the aforementioned banking cases, where companies like Chase have clearly implemented much harsher readings of these guidelines – and thereby are closing far more Muslim accounts than any other major bank.

The bottom line is that the existence of government watch lists with unknown numbers of names are having a negative impact on everyday Muslims who have no affiliation with terrorism, but are just merely the victims of collective punishment and blanket legislation.

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