It was extraordinary that there were so few incidents in a country the size of the U.S. It just goes to show what an unbridled success our nation of immigration has been.

Sure, that's of little comfort to you if you're the Sikh gas station owner who got shot in the arm because some local imbecile assumed you were an Arab and also to the Islamic school children in Jersey who endured taunting from your classmates who come from ignorant families, but the rarity of these manifestations was astounding.

In Japan, Eastern Europe or Africa there'd have already been several days of "ethnic cleansing".

This is just reality.

Persecution shouldn't always be put on non-US citizens because they are a main source for cheap labor and a majority of non-US citizens contribute tremendously to our economy!

Anybody remember Timothy McVeigh? Since he's white and I'm white I guess I'm a terrorist too..

This is a flawed question. RateItAll needs to define what they mean by "persecution." If it means physically abusing non-citizens who are living here peacefully, that's one thing. But there are lots of people who shout "persecution" or "discrimination" just to try to get favored treatment. There is also a big difference between legal and illegal non-US citizens.

This is definately a very distrubing result of these terrorist attacks. Perhaps its not important to Americans who cannot seem to see the fact that not all Arabs are terrorists. However, it disturbs me when I see Arabs being beaten up (as the Freak stated) and terrorized simply because of their race, and simply because Osama Bin Laden is an Arab. It is hard to imagine now, but during WWII, we stuck Japanese immigrants who were legal U.S. citizens in internment camps. These people posed no other threat, but a widespread panic following Pearl Harbor (or in this case 9/11) led to the denial of basic liberties to Japanese Americans (Arab Americans). Now, obviously nobody is sticking Arab Americans in internment camps, but they are being singled out in airports and public places and sometimes beaten or murdered simply because someone of that same race and religion attacked this country. And as far as "persecution being a risk if you move to another country, even the United States".... I suppose Lady Liberty's invitation of "bring me your tired, your weak and your poor" doesn't mean anything anymore.

That's the risk you take when you move to another country, even if its the US. When you move to another country, you take multiple risks. Persecution is one of them. There are always going to be rasicsts out there, not just in the US.

There is just and unjust persecution. A Terrorist might employ the screen of claiming "persecution" to restrain authorities from searching them for their hidden box cutters. Searching Europeans Americans in the same proportion and instead of Arab or Middle Eastern because of fear of the claim of persecution is stupid. Persecution is irrelevant in public safety concerns.

This is particularly frightening because the new rules that allow Johnny Ashcroft and the rest of the anti-american legion to do this stuff to INNOCENT foreigners could very well be used against us as citizens. He who gives up essential liberties for temporary security deserves neither liberty nor security.

I agree completely with abichara1882; we have gotten extremely soft in this country and overly mushy when it comes to the Muslim issue. Sure, there were a few reported cases of backlash hatred and ill treatment at the beginning of this new phase in terrorism. I don’t think that surprised anyone because as an extremely large and diverse country we never seem to suffer a shortage of reactionary morons – and that goes for extremists on both sides of the political spectrum. Most intelligent people know almost instinctively that vigilante action is never the civilized way to handle anything. It almost always just ends up causing chaos and muddling the issue thereby defeating any valid point the person or group may have had. All that said; let’s now turn to one of the real problems in this country – that ugly little creep - political correctness. The zealous embracing of this “it’s all about me” philosophy over the years has made us appear to be more tolerant when we are, but, in reality, has only served to make us soft. Sadly and frighteningly, that softness tends to reside in the heads of so many people. Because everyone’s personal agenda seems to outweigh the common good we have lost the courage of our convictions. Something like 9/11 happens – the worst thing to ever occur on our shores in the history of the country and what do we do? Get mad, fly our flags send people off to fight terrorism and hunt down the maniacs who started it. Oddly, at the same time we sit around collectively biting our nails and stressing whether or not we’ve offended someone who may or may not pose a threat to us. A Ramadan celebration is even thrown at the White House (which would have been okay if it had not so obviously been done merely to placate people). Don’t you think Ossama has been counting on this little crack in our armor? Well, I’m sorry but this happens to be a time when being somewhat suspicious of people makes sense to a certain degree. You will notice once again, I did not mention anything about verbal or physical abuse, hate campaigns, or detention camps. Just a little healthy caution tempered with wisdom and self control. After all, if you don’t learn to keep your eyes open and face reality someone may give you a reality check that will close them for you permanently.

The Persecution of non-US citizens living here has not occured in a large scale, therefore it is not that important. I do think that people in this country understand that a terrorist action by a group of extremist Muslims does not deem everyone in that religion as terrorists. Now what is happening is that everyone is getting all marshmellowy about Muslims being good people. This is a result of excessive political correctness. Sometimes an off the cuff joke does not mean that people are being "persecuted". It's true when older people say that the American culture has gotten softer; in my opinion, it's because of political correctness. People take things too personally and this is a result of that.

No, the pacifism is not a problem. What is wrong with believeing that any type of slaughter is wrong? It's the fact that an Afghan girl at my school was beaten up very badly by a couple of classmates that is troubling to me. I have seen fists fly, I have heard nasty remarks, I have smelled multiple rats. The problem in this world is not pacifism; it's bigotry. Bigotry is a disease that just be cured before it's too late. Take care, everyone!

It is a terrible thing that this is going on in our country today. It is turning back into the Red Scare days and the days when slaves were set free and helpless African Americans were being lynched. Persecution in any form is wrong and it is happening as a consequence of Sept. 11.

I don't think it's right to persecute ALL non-US citizens in the United states because of the actions of a group of crazies.