April 15, 2002

In search of enemies

By Chido Onumah
conumah@uwo.ca

Farhang Jalali prides himself on being a lawful citizen.

So, it was shocking for the 36-year-old cab driver when his employer recalled him one afternoon last December and told him he was wanted by the police.

Neither Jalali nor his employer knew why the police wanted to see him. For a while Jalali's mind raced through the different routes he had plied earlier in the day. "The first thing that came to my mind was that there was an accident," he says.

After minutes of not knowing what was wrong, he walked to the parking lot to wait. Shortly after, a police cruiser pulled close to where he was standing. Three men stepped out and began questioning him.

Jalali's interrogators -- two U.S. secret service agents and an RCMP officer - were not there to discuss an accident. They had come to interrogate him about far more serious matters: a comment he allegedly made in his cab about President George W. Bush.

Photo courtesy Farhang Jalali

Farhang Jalali poses in front of one of his works.

Jalali doesn't know who gave his name to the security agents, but he thinks it must have been motivated by the racial hysteria against minority groups following Sept. 11.

"I don't know why they came for me. I know I am a minority. I know I am from Iran, which is a Muslim country, even though I am not Muslim. I know I lived in Pakistan."

For Jalali, Sept. 11 has proved deeply unsettling, as it has for the Muslim community in London. In 1988, he left his native Iran to escape persecution. That journey took him to Pakistan and eventually to Canada in 1993.

After almost a decade of trying to forget the memories -- memories he doesn't feel comfortable retelling -- he now finds himself reliving them because of the events of Sept. 11.

The last thing Jalali expected during his interrogation was to be accused of terrorism or of having links to terrorists, but that was exactly why he had been summoned. He was being investigated as part of the U.S. dragnet on alleged terrorists. He was alleged to have told a passenger, "Mr. Bush dies within two months."

On the heels of Sept. 11, the country witnessed a spate of racially motivated attacks. In Hamilton, Ont., the Hindu Samaj Temple was set on fire and at a mosque in Ottawa, Ont., a 15-year old boy was reportedly beaten unconscious by a gang of youths.

In London, a Muslim teen was assaulted and left bleeding on the sidewalk after he refused to drop to his knees and ask forgiveness for allegedly praising Osama bin Laden.

At first, Jalali didn't know that two of the three men who questioned him were U.S. security operatives, but he was able to show them through his calendar that he wasn't working at the time of the alleged remarks, but volunteering at an art show. His employer's logs also showed proof he was not working.

Jalali was asked if he supported Jihad. "I told them I am not a Muslim and I don't have a religion." He handed over his keys when the officers asked if they could visit his house. That was the beginning of his troubles.

By the time he got home in the evening his room had been ransacked. He was working on a piece of artwork then titled Let's Cry Out in support of the victims of Sept. 11. The piece was slated for a show in Toronto sponsored by the Iranian-Canadian Artists Association.

"It was shocking for me. I don't know if they turned on my computer. I don't know what else they did."

What Jalali does know, however, is that his interrogators took pictures of his works. His landlord told him the officers were in his basement apartment for 15 to 20 minutes and took close-up shots of his art.

His immediate fear was that Let's Cry Out, which had images of Bush and bin Laden, could be misinterpreted.

However, the RCMP, who facilitated Jalali's interrogation, say the case is closed and no charges were filed. Const. Paula Rogers, the RCMP's London spokesperson, refused to talk about the details of the case, noting that there is nothing unusual about U.S. agents interrogating suspects in Canada with the help of the RCMP.

Jalali has had no contact with the U.S. agents or the RCMP since he was interrogated. He read in the press that the matter was closed and he has made no attempt to contact the RCMP. And he has no plans to take legal action.

All he plans to do is carry on his role as a crusading artist and he says this incident has emboldened him. "I am more determined to do art on this and other issues. I am more determined to do what I have been doing in support of humanity, whether people like it or not."

Though Jalali is not as troubled now as he was immediately after the incident, he says it has shaken his beliefs. "I have lost my trust in the belief that I had total freedom of expression in Canada."

Jalali isn't worried his interrogators will come back because as he says, "I know I have not done anything wrong."

What he is worried about now is putting together the bits and pieces of his life. His landlord did not like the media attention the case attracted and pleaded with him shortly afterwards to look for another apartment.

It took him two months to secure a much smaller apartment, and now he has no place to set up his studio.

Jalali says he feels humiliated by his interrogation. "I think about it a lot. Why me? I am not saying they should go to other people. But I am known in this community. I am known as a peaceful artist."

To show its support for Jalali, London's art community held an open forum at the Central London Public Library in February. The forum, which attracted about 150 people, including artists, lawyers, journalists and human rights activists, drew attention to issues of racial profiling in London since Sept.11.

The Forest City Gallery, which exhibited Jalali's paintings prior to Sept.11, was one of the organizers of the forum. Its administrator, Tomas Jonsson, had contacted the RCMP to discuss the investigation, but was not pleased with the response he received.

Jonsson says it was important to address Jalali's case and bring it to the public even though the RCMP said the case was closed because he was "concerned that any images that were taken (from Jalali's studio) could be used against him."

Photo by Chido Onumah

Artist Rob Benner, left, and Farhang Jalali listen to the audience during a public forum for Jalali at the Central London Public Library.

"We were worried that the images would reflect poorly because they have as their subject matter what happened on Sept.11," says Jonsson. "However, the works are from a pacifist point of view … so he is actually dealing with the issues in terms of promoting peace."

Jonsson says London needs more of the kind of event he and his friends held on Jalali's behalf to tackle the problems minority communities have faced because of Sept. 11.

"Judging by the attendance and the discussions that came out of it, people are really examining their biases and the official story that is put out in the media."

The forum plans to publish the outcome of its deliberations as a way of keeping the post-Sept.11 questions of racial profiling and human rights in the public consciousness.

This concern for human rights is also attracting attention within the Muslim community. Muslim leaders say some members of the community were contacted recently by federal anti-terror squads and interrogated for hours without being told their rights.

The community plans to bring Shirley Heafey, chair of the Commission for Public Complaints against the RCMP, to London later this month to discuss the police interrogation of its members in light of the Anti-Terrorism Act introduced in response to Sept. 11.

Jalali's interrogation brings back sad memories of his time in Iran where he once received 80 strokes of the cane for walking along the street with his sister. He has had frequent dreams, too, of death.

With his trademark black beret and a patch of goatee, Jalali looks every inch a revolutionary. But he doesn't see himself as one. He calls himself a pacifist. And his art, he says, protests terrorism and violence.

"My art is totally against the kind of thing they were looking for. I know my art is controversial (but) I never talk of death and I never uttered the words attributed to me. I don't think of death."

Though he hopes he has heard the last of his interrogators, Jalali, a graduate of the Fanshawe College fine art program, is basking in the attention his questioning has occasioned. He has been interviewed by the London Free Press, the CBC and Persian-language magazines in Toronto and Vancouver.

"I am extremely happy with the kind of support I have received. People tell me they stand by me; that they are ashamed that this thing happened to me in Canada."

Like Jalali, London's Muslim community is also reaping the positive fallout of the attention it attracted post-Sept. 11.

"People are now opening up … and trying to find out more about each other because they discovered they didn't know enough about each other," says Munir El Kassem, acting imam of the Islamic Centre of Southwestern Ontario. Kassem has received numerous invitations to speak at churches and synagogues since Sept. 11.

Photo by Chido Onumah

Munir El Kassem sits in his office at the school of dentistry, University of Western Ontario.

One of the ways the Muslim community is reaching out is through a one-hour radio program Kassem hosts every Sunday on 1290 CJBK called Islamic Perspectives. "It was never heard of that there would be such a program on a major radio station in the city of London, but it happened," he says.

He says the program is changing public perception of Muslims and creating a better understanding of Islam as a religion that preaches tolerance and peaceful co-existence.

"I have been receiving so many phone calls from people who appreciate what we are doing and we are very excited about the prospect of steering the Islamic religion away from sensationalism."

"This is what Islam is about. It's not what you hear from Al-Jazeera or from a tape from Osama bin Laden."

Seven months after Sept. 11, things appear to have returned to normal, but Kassem fears the emotions that run high every time there is some kind of anniversary.

"We all feel bad and continue to feel bad about what happened. But I don't feel it is necessary to re-ignite that frequently the kind of feelings that usually with the public can be quite uncontrollable. People may remember and say this is a suitable time for me to express my anger again."