This includes fully enforcing civil rights laws and protecting religious liberty, said Timothy Keefer of the DHS Office for Civil Rights in remarks to a conference on "Human Rights and the Fight Against Terrorism" July 15 in Vienna, Austria.
"We believe that people should be viewed as individuals, based on the content of their character, on what they do, not on their race or ethnicity or religious beliefs," Keefer said during the two-day meeting sponsored by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
"We are convinced that we cannot do an effective job in homeland security without actively, fully connecting with the Muslim-American and Arab-American communities here in our country," he said. "We need these communities to be part of our team."
He described several concrete actions federal agencies have taken to defend the rights of religious minorities in the United States, such as a successful lawsuit to protect a Muslim student's right to wear a headscarf.
Government must take "proactive steps" to prevent civil rights problems from occurring in the first place, Keefer said. He cited as examples President Bush's ban on racial profiling, outreach to community leaders, and training sessions and material on Arab and Muslim culture for law enforcement personnel.
Ensuring that Muslim-Americans and Arab-Americans are given full and equal opportunity in education, employment, housing, and in their interactions with government agencies is also a top priority, Keefer said.
He said the secretary of homeland security, the attorney general, and the director of the FBI have met with leading Arab-American, Muslim-American, Sikh-American and other groups within the last few months. "It is critical that we talk with each other -- when an inflammatory incident happens, if community leaders know to call a law enforcement official the incident can be addressed or explained quickly and the tensions eased," Keefer said.
The full statement is available online.
