CAIR-Chicago Discusses Dangers of National Fear

CAIR-Chicago staff discussed Japanese internment with students and community members to reiterate the dangers of a nation overcome by fear. Earlier this year, staff members Rabya Khan, Renner Larson, and Fatima Ahmed traveled to Arkansas with a group of students to visit the site of the former Rohwer internment camp.

“The history of Japanese internment in the United States reminds us of what could have happened to American-Muslims as well, and why our continued work at CAIR-Chicago is so important.” Fatima Ahmed, Operations Coordinator, CAIR-Chicago

In the spring of 1942 thousands of Japanese Americans were forcibly relocated from their homes along the west coast of the United States to internment camps across the country. It is a page so often forgotten in one of the most glorified chapters of American history, but it is one that Americans must never forget.

Following the horrific attacks on September 11, 2001, the Japanese American community was one of the loudest voices to warn against infringing on citizen’s rights. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, it had been their communities that suffered the consequences of national suspicion and it was a history that Japanese American activists did not want to see repeated.