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March 4, 2003

Arab-American Severely Beaten by Islamophobics in California

Details of a severe beating of an 18 year old Arab-American in Yorba Linda, California on February 22 by a mob of 20 American youths are just barely emerging. The vicious assault with baseball bats and gulf clubs against Rashid Alam on a Yorba Linda residential street has the Arab and Muslim community in Southern California extremely concerned. The family of Rashid Alam is also concerned that the Brea Police Department, which police Yorba Linda, is dragging its feet in making arrests and conducting an investigation.

Alam's friends and family said the attack was unprovoked. The recent high school graduate was left with a fractured jaw, his eyes swollen and shattered facial bones that required surgeons to place two metal plates in his cheeks.

Friends who witnessed the vicious attack said that the mob was yelling racial and ethnic epithets as they merciless beat 18 year old Rashid Alam. A neighbor said that one of the thugs yelled "you fucking camel jockey" as he bashed Alam's head with a golf club. Michael Tinio, another neighbor of Alam, said he saw Rashid tackled by one of the assailants, then surrounded by the group. Tinio said the final blows came from an attacker who jumped up in the air a couple of times and landed with both feet on Alam's head.

News of the cowardly attack surfaced yesterday only after Arab American activists and the victim's family accused the Brea Police Department of attempting to minimize the incident. Muslim leaders said they are puzzled that local police have given the incident no publicity and say they fear a new wave of hatred because of the looming war in Iraq.

The "foot dragging" by the Brea P.D. is usual behavior by the large majority of police departments in California when physical assaults are against racial or ethnic minorities and the perpetrators are "gringos". There has to be extreme community pressure in order to receive justice. A case in point is the cruel assault of five elderly Mexican migrant workers in North San Diego County by seven "gringo" thugs that took years and much pressure by concerned community members to eventually bring the criminals to justice. (Full Story)

Yesterday, La Voz de Aztlan sent our subscribers an e-mail message we received from the kind of person that would do to Mexicans what the mob above did to Rashid Alam. It said "You fucking slimy scummy wetbacks will never take over this country...More White people are taking up arms and ready to blow your oily heads clean off...Just look at what's happening in Arizona spics...I hate you people and always will, and it is my dream for one of you scummy putas to try and break into my house so I can shoot your worthless bitch ass dead... " The situation is getting very ugly. We can not depend on law enforcement to protect us or to do any kind of investigation after we have become victims. It is going to be up to ourselves to defend our children, families and community.