As 2015 comes to a close, we are living in a challenging time. The violent attacks in Paris, San Bernardino and Colorado Springs weigh heavily on our minds.
In Colorado, these attacks are all too real to us, and resonate uneasily with our still-raw memories of the Aurora theater shooting and of Columbine. Coloradans are rightly concerned that we must keep the United States safe and secure from terrorist groups like al- Qaeda and the Islamic State.
As the U.S. attorney for Colorado, I not only share these concerns, it’s also my responsibility and duty to act on them, and help address them directly and effectively. The top priority of the Department of Justice and my top priority is to protect our people and our national security. We have investigated and prosecuted many national security cases, and are doing so now.
But even as we act forcefully on the very real threats that do exist, we also have to be sure that our legitimate fears do not cause us to react against an entire group of law-abiding people: the members of our Muslim- American communities.
Like many Coloradans, I came to the state from someplace else. My family moved to Colorado from the Baltimore, Md., area in 1973 when I was 12 years old. Since that time, one of my proudest boasts has always been that Colorado is my home. Colorado has long been the sort of open, welcoming community that develops when friendly and hospitable residents mix with so many newcomers who started their lives elsewhere and know exactly how fortunate they are to live here.
As Willie Nelson put it in his song, “Denver,” this is a place where “it’s nobody’s business where you’re going or where you come from, and you’re judged by the look in your eye.”
That open, welcoming approach, resting on an assessment of a person’s character and not “where you come from,” has long been one of Colorado’s strengths in challenging times. Most Coloradans know the history of Colorado’s Gov. Ralph Carr, who stood virtually alone among Western governors in supporting Japanese-Americans during World War II as they were being shipped from the West Coast to internment camps in the interior Western states.
As Carr forcefully put it, “The Japanese are protected by the same Constitution that protects us. An American citizen of Japanese descent has the same rights as any other citizen. If you would harm them, you must first harm me. … In Colorado, [they] will have full protection.”
Today, it is not Japanese-Americans but Muslim-Americans who are the target of sweeping hostility and vindictive rhetoric at the national level. That rhetoric is at odds with the greatest traditions of this country, and with Colorado’s long tradition of openness and individualism.
In the military
Just like the highly decorated Japanese-American Nisei soldiers who fought with such valor in World War II, Muslim-Americans serve and fight with courage as members of our military. Many have been wounded and many have lost their lives for our country.
Just like so many prior groups of religious newcomers to America — like my own Irish and German Catholic ancestors — Muslim-Americans are integrating into the fabric of our community, both in Colorado and across the nation. That process echoes across the long history of our country, whose early English settlers, after all, came seeking religious freedom and fleeing persecution.
As Coloradans, all of us have an opportunity today to ensure that this powerful tradition is a living, breathing thing, not just a story from the past.
Gov. Hickenlooper’s announcement that Colorado will do its part to welcome Syrian refugees was an important step toward honoring that tradition, and one that Gov. Carr would surely have appreciated.
Turning those Syrian refugees away would only have further victimized people who are already victims of the same evil that we too must fight. They have lost their fathers, mothers, siblings, children and friends to violent civil war and terrorism in Syria, in many cases to Islamic State terrorists.
Like us, they seek a life of freedom and safety. And before arriving in Colorado, they will have undergone lengthy, extensive security and background checks to help ensure the safety of our community.
Over the past five years, I have worked with many in Colorado’s Muslim communities. These are American communities, full of hard-working Muslim-Americans who deserve our support like any other Coloradans.
Last year, when three teenage girls from the Denver area were enticed by lies and social media propaganda to try to join the Islamic State, their families contacted the FBI, which was able to take immediate action to stop the girls before they arrived in Syria, and return them to their families.
Soon after, shaken community leaders reached out to me and the FBI special agent in charge, Thomas Ravenelle, for help. With their support, we undertook a series of meetings and education sessions to help address online and social media threats to young people.
Tragically, that same Colorado community of Muslim-Americans now not only feels besieged by the Islamic State and its hateful messaging, but also under attack here at home.
Fears and anxieties arising from the brutal incidents in Paris and San Bernardino, as well as national rhetoric, have spurred a wave of threats and attacks against Muslim-Americans and those, like Sikh-Americans, who are mistakenly perceived as Muslim.
When we receive reports of threats and potential violence against Muslim-Americans and mosques here in Colorado, my office, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies respond strongly, and will investigate and prosecute them forcefully when they cross the line into illegal conduct.
Stand strong
These threats are wrong, misguided and at odds with Colorado’s tradition of open-mindedness, independence and welcome. Under our constitution and our nation’s highest traditions, every religion has the right to practice its faith peacefully, and free from fear.
Threats and attacks against Colorado’s Muslim-Americans and mosques are attacks on all of us as Coloradans. Just as Muslim-Americans have denounced terrorist attacks made in the purported name of Islam — and they have repeatedly done so — we must stand strong against attacks on Muslim-Americans.
All Coloradans have a role to play to make sure that our welcoming state stays that way, and does not tolerate violence and intimidation against any group or segment of society.
To our Muslim neighbors, friends and fellow Coloradans: In the United States, the Constitution and the rule of law protect all communities, including Muslim communities. You are a living part of our great Colorado community, and you are not alone.
John F. Walsh has been U.S. attorney for the District of Colorado since 2010 and grew up in Arapahoe County.
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