A discussion panel on fighting discrimination and racial profiling began Islam Awareness Week Saturday afternoon in Lincoln Hall.

The panel of three speakers included the director of the Legal Affairs Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and civil rights attorney Arsalan Iftikhar. Carl Estabrook, visiting professor of history, religious studies and sociology joined Iftikhar and Rajmohan Gandhi, visiting professor of South Asian and Middle Eastern studies.

Other Islam Awareness Week events include a showing of the Academy Award-nominated film Children of Heaven today at 7 p.m. in 314 Altgeld Hall and a panel discussion titled "My Journey to Islam" Tuesday at 228 Natural History Building. A full schedule of the week's events can be found at http://www2.uiuc.edu/unit/psames/IAW.html.

"People see Islam as a foreign alien thing, inherently different from their own beliefs," Iftikhar said on Saturday.

Iftikhar said he is disappointed with the media treatment of Arabs and Muslims since Sept. 11, 2001.

As Americans were coping with Sept. 11, "the American media and public lashed out in the only way it could by blaming it on Arabs and Muslims," Iftikhar said. He said he is disappointed to "see the level of ignorance with the broadcast media" toward Muslims and Arabs.

College of Communications Interim Dean Ronald Yates disagrees with Iftikhar's assessment. He said the media coverage of Sept. 11 and Arabs and Muslim Americans has remained balanced.

"All the coverage wasn't negative and anti-Islam," Yates said. "There was a lot more restraint than I thought. It is easy to blame the messenger, the media. But if everyone is happy with the media, then the media is not doing its job."

CAIR, the nation's largest Muslim civil rights organization, has received more than 1,700 incident reports of discrimination from Muslim and Arab Americans since Sept. 11. Incident reports include descriptions of hate crimes, employment discrimination, airport profiling, secret detention and police brutality.

"Since Sept. 11, I can't go to the airport without having to take off half my clothes," Iftikhar said. "Out of the 820 people that have been detained since 9-11, not one has been charged."

Iftikhar said Americans forget that Arab and Muslim Americans also lost family in the attacks.

"I'll never forget where I was at 8:54 a.m. on Sept. 11," he said. "300 to 400 Arab/Muslim Americans died in the Sept. 11 attacks. Many Americans think all the Arabs and Muslims were called and told not to go to work."

Gandhi also addressed tolerance issues post-Sept. 11.

"We must distinguish between the angry and terrorists," Gandhi said. "It is very important to separate those who sympathize with the aims of terrorists and those that are taking part in terrorism."

Gandhi also said it is important for discrimination to be fought by Americans and for Muslims to fight discrimination in the Muslim world.

"I am interested in anything that gives you a new perspective on how we can interact with each other," said Sheri Krueger, freshman in LAS. "And this is a good way to create a better society."

The speakers' messages hit home with Muslim and senior in LAS Baseer Tajuddin.

"This is a really important issue that I am affected by daily," Tajuddin said.

Carl Estabrook, a visiting associate professor of sociology at the University, brought the issue of civil rights to the discussion table.

"We discriminate against people because they are not like us," Estabrook said. "They don't belong to our culture or nation."

A question and answer workshop session followed the speakers.

"We have come a long way as a nation," Iftikhar said. "But we have a long way to go."