No, such behavior is not common and is in fact punishable under U.S. law. If you do encounter such behavior, first of all report it to the proper authorities—the police if a crime has been committed or to the International Student Office if you believe discriminatory acts have taken place on campus. Housing discrimination can be reported to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; employment discrimination to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; discrimination in education to the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights. Civil rights organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union (www.aclu.org) can also provide you with support and referrals.

Yes, they are allowed admission to academic programs in all disciplines. No, there is no list of restricted fields. Individuals (of any religion, from any country) who are planning to study certain fields that are considered “sensitive” (mainly science and technology areas) are subject to additional security background checks at the time that they apply for a visa, but once they are approved for a visa they can continue on to study the field. A few U.S. research facilities restrict research opportunities to U.S. citizens only, but, again, the restrictions do not specifically target Muslims or individuals from specific countries. Discrimination against students or others because of country of national origin, religion, or ethnic background is prohibited by law in the United States.

The most recently reported FBI statistics show a U.S. crime rate for 2007 of about 3,730 violent and property crimes occurring for every 100,000 individuals in the U.S. population. Violent crimes (murder and non-negligent homicide, rape, aggravated assault, and robbery) accounted for about 467 crimes per 100,000 individuals over the year, with the remainder of crimes being crimes against property (burglary, larceny theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson).

No one can “guarantee” anyone’s safety but the university that you are attending has the responsibility to try to make sure you are safe. The U.S. university’s international student adviser is the individual who has particular responsibility for seeing to the welfare and safety of international students. Campuses also have their own police or security staff, and, of course, every U.S. community has police, fire departments, hospitals, and other community resources that work to ensure the safety of anyone living in or visiting that community.

Reports on crimes on every U.S. college and university campus can be found at the U.S. Department of Education’s Web site at http://ope.ed.gov/security.

Statistically, the risk of ethnically/religiously based hate crimes can indeed be expected to rise temporarily after such events, though such crimes were not widespread in the United States even after September 11. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reported that hate crimes against Muslim individuals (or individuals thought to be Muslim) went from 28 in 2000 to 481 in 2001, including between 3 and 7 murders (the American-Arab Antidiscrimination Committee (ADC) and other Arab and Muslim groups in the United States, which took reports on more minor incidents not reported to the FBI estimate that over 600 hate crimes took place against Muslims and Arabs in 2001, with most incidents involving name-calling or property damage).

Most crimes of this type took place in the days immediately after September 11, since which rates have declined. (The FBI recorded 115 hate crime incidents against Muslims in 2007, the most recent year for which statistics were available.)

The ADC has issued an advisory statement providing suggestions on precautions that individuals can take to protect themselves during the critical 24- to 48-hour period following a terrorist attack or other events that may spark anti-Muslim sentiment. This “Advisory Statement to At-Risk Communities” can be found on the organization’s Web site at http://www.adc.org/index.php?id=328.

There are also steps that you can take to prepare for the possibility of such an event. The organization Human Rights Watch suggests becoming aware of the agencies within your jurisdiction that combat bias-motivated violence and knowing whom to contact within your jurisdiction in case you are a victim of a hate crime. You can also work with other Muslims in your U.S. community to establish on-going channels of communication and interaction with U.S. community leaders. Such groups may want to consider appointing a community liaison or an advisory council to facilitate interaction between the group and local government and other community leaders.

AIDS is a problem in the United States just as it is in other countries. The U.S. Center for Disease Control estimates that approximately 1 to 1.2 million people out of the 300 million in the United States are living with AIDS or HIV, about a quarter of them undiagnosed and not even aware of their HIV-positive status. An estimated 56,000 cases of new HIV infection occur in the United States each year. College students are a particularly high risk group because they tend to not believe infection could happen to them and often follow unsafe sex practices. The condom is the only contraceptive that has been proven to block the transmission of AIDS. But even condoms sometimes fail; they break about 2 percent of the time.