DEARBORN — The horrors of the September 11, 2001 attacks led to many policy changes both across the country and locally, and they also led to the creation of a forum that changed the way that local Arab Americans and law enforcement officials communicated with each other. 

Shortly after the tragedy of 9/11, the BRIDGES, or Building Respect in Diverse Groups to Enhance Sensitivity, forum was created as a means to provide an outlet for open, honest discussions of issues and concerns of the local community. 

Next week, the BRIDGES forum will mark its 10th anniversary at Byblos Banquets on Friday, September 9 at an invitation-only event. 

At a time when tensions were high and discrimination and suspicion of Arab Americans and Muslim Americans were more prevalent than ever following 9/11, the BRIDGES program brought law enforcement officials, federal agents and community members to the table in settings that wouldn’t have otherwise been possible. 

“The format was excellent for breaking the ice, engaging and connecting as people,” said co-founder Imad Hamad, the Regional Director for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee’s Michigan office and a Senior National Adviser for ADC. 

“The first time we were together, it was a ‘wow’ moment, everybody came with prepackaged assumptions only to find out that so much of it is not true; that we’re all human. 

“We continue to take pride that Arab American and Muslim American communities led this great initiative.” 

The forum, which has become a national model for other communities across the country over the past 10 years, was originally founded about a month after the attacks in October 2001. 

U.S. Senator Carl Levin (D-Michigan) called former U.S. Lead Attorney of the Eastern District of Michigan Jeffrey Collins on Collins’ first day in the post, telling him that immediate connections were important to make considering the political climate of the time. 

Collins then called Hamad and other community members to meet up in forums discussing key issues of the post-9/11 era such as profiling, immigration charitable giving and more. 

The name and logo were adopted 2-3 years later, but not before the meetings had become roughly a monthly occurrence featuring local community representatives of various backgrounds and law enforcement officials. 

Other key contributors to the initiative have been former FBI Special Agent in Charge and co-founder John Bell as well as current U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan and participant Barbara McQuade, who has been among the most actively engaged over the years and helped design the name and logo for the forums. 

“The climate was very tense in the community at times was on edge which I thought made it even more important that there be a working group it would allow the fear factor and distrust factor and suspicion factor to go down to mitigate that; a lot of times the worst fear is the fear of the unknown,” Collins said. “Over time we were able to build mutual respect and trust.” 

Hamad said that discussions were often frank between the law enforcement and community sectors of BRIDGES but also said that the community’s role was mainly to create open lines of communication and not to influence policy or decision-making. 

He added that many view the government as one single entity without differentiating between the roles of each branch, noting that the agencies are not the ones who change laws and policies. But he said that members of the agencies can be great advocates and voices for conveying messages to higher-up organizations. 

“At the end of the day they are there to do their jobs and it is not our job to ask for privileges or to play a role that might compromise their integrity,” he said. 

Hamad said that some have questioned the merits of the meetings, but maintains that they have been successful at putting human faces on issues, airing concerns, and for each side getting a feel of where the other is coming from. 

“The challenge went beyond what so many may have imagined especially following September 11,” he said. 

“Lots of people were skeptical from both the community side and government side and we understand that but lots of people don’t know the ins and outs of what went on and they may be surprised to know that we did great things,” he said. “We became a model for the rest of the country.” 

Hamad has been invited to national and international panels to speak about his experiences with the forum.

He said that one of the major accomplishments came in the time following the attacks when FBI agents were instructed to visit Arab and/or Muslim American homes, a huge amount of them in Dearborn, to solicit them for surprise intelligence-gathering interviews after the 9/11 attacks. 

Collins and Hamad said that discussions from the BRIDGES program helped the FBI draft a more fair plan for those who were not aware of the circumstances. 

“The FBI would just go to peoples’ homes unannounced but eventually we started sending them a letter indicating that this was a voluntary process and if they chose to be interviewed they could call us back with their most convenient time and location,” Collins said. 

“We were the only district in the country that did it like that and it proved to be very successful, that’s an example of having the flexibility to enable policies in our district to be effectively implemented.” 

Collins said that BRIDGES has withstood the test of time and said that he enjoyed working and learning in the forum. 

Andy Arena, Detroit’s current FBI Special Agent in Charge, also believes it has been productive for both sides. Both he and Collins are among several guests who will attend the anniversary event. 

“I think it opens up communication lines and gets all the relevant parties in a room together so you can build relationships and know who to call or email when you need something,” he said. 

Arena said that BRIDGES and community outreach efforts may have had an effect on the way the FBI operated in the community. 

“The group has been a success…it was the first of its kind and I just saw Boston is forming a group (as others have),” he said. “It helped open the lines of communication to another level.”