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Bias charges in port issue

BY CHRISTINE ARMARIO | STAFF WRITER

February 24, 2006

While officials battle out whether having a United Arab Emirates company run six U.S. ports could pose a security threat, Muslims in the New York region see another perspective: a double standard against Arabs.

The company that has been running the ports in question is also foreign: the British Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. And if a government panel on foreign investment and the president himself determined the state-run Dubai operation will uphold its security standards, then what is the difference? they ask. A simple name?

"We acknowledge that Sept. 11th was carried out by Arabs," said Shamsi Ali, deputy imam of the Islamic Cultural Center of New York. "But generalizing this tragedy to all Arabs I think is unwise and just further creates negative impact on the minds of the Arab people."

Critics of the turnover have said the government's security review was not thorough enough. Yesterday, the Port Authority said it would file a lawsuit to discontinue its lease of a Port Newark container terminal. And numerous lawmakers have questioned the logic of having a company from a nation to which some of the hijackers had ties run U.S. ports.

"We're giving them [Arabs] the impression we're not going to do business with Arabs because they're all terrorists," said Riad Khawam, an executive committee member of the Muslim Center of Long Island in Bay Shore. "It's not true. In every country, there's good people and bad people."

If the Port Authority and others were successful in blocking Dubai Ports World from operating the ports, some fear it would further harm relations with Arabs abroad. "This is not the first time a foreign company is running a port in the United States, so it leads one to wonder why Dubai is being singled out as a threat," said Mohammad Nobani, another executive committee member of the Muslim Center of Long Island.

Security, Muslims said, is their chief concern too. "I think in general, we have the right to be very careful," Ali, of the Manhattan Islamic center, said.

"We always look for the benefit of our homeland, our security," Khawam added. "But I don't see any threat just because of the name."