WASHINGTON, 26 August — “Hate Crimes and Discrimination against Arab Americans” is a shocking report that outlines extensive discrimination against Arab Americans by individuals, corporations, news and entertainment media, educational institutions, law enforcement and the federal government throughout the United States.

Compiled and published by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), the 1998-2000 Report on Hate Crimes and Discrimination Against Arab Americans, released Thursday, tracks patterns of discrimination and bias against Americans solely due to their Arab ethnicity.

The report should come as no surprise to those mindful of the consistent anti-Arab coverage in the news media throughout the United States.

The report was compiled as a permanent record of the serious problem of bias the Arab-American community faces, ADC President Ziad Asali told Arab News.

“The report basically follows through on legal issues of discrimination, education discrimination, and institutional discrimination — such as racial profiling, secret evidence, as well as media bias and defamation,” said Asali.

“It’s a compilation of complaints we have received, with example after example of shocking things that you can’t imagine in your own personal and professional experience. It is very unpleasant to know that this level of discrimination exists in this country at this time,” said the new ADC president.

“Our aim is to embolden people of our heritage who are subjected to this discrimination, at work, in schools, on the road or in airports, to stand up and make this country more equal and have it live to its own promise of liberty and justice to all,” said Asali.

The 80-page report is a professional, well-organized compilation of documented evidence that reads like horror story.

The initial chapters outline examples of physical battery and vandalism; assault and threats, it then moves on to painful examples of appalling anti-Arab hate speech. These were so distasteful they caused this correspondent to wince repeatedly.

ADC notes in the report that it receives at least 25 complaints a week regarding employment discrimination that take place in every workplace — and not just at blue collar work areas — but also at universities, law firms and hospitals. Discrimination and bias, one soon learns, exists at all levels of the professional ladder.

Another section outlines the Justice Department’s disastrous “secret evidence” law, which not only violates due process, as guaranteed in the Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution, but shows that the law created terrible racist profiling of anyone who accused of “being a threat to national security.”

The next example in the report focuses on airlines, and their use of “airline passenger profiling.” The ADC cites ludicrous examples of Arab American profiling, which, for the most part, the airlines have shrugged off as necessary regarding “potential threats to airline safety.”

For further details on the report on the Internet click on to: http://www.adc.org.