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Anti-Muslim Violence 70% Up: CAIR Annual Report
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"The war on terrorism is equated with a war on Islam," Nimer |
WASHINGTON,
May 3 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Muslims in the United
States have been exposed to more than 1,000 incidents of violence,
discrimination, profiling, or harassment during 2003, according to a
report to be released Monday, May 3, by a prominent American Muslim
civil rights group.
The
ninth annual Muslim civil rights report "Unpatriotic Acts,"
issued by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), showed an
unprecedented increase of 70 percent of anti-Muslim violence over the
previous year, U.S. daily the Washington Post said Monday.
"There
are a number of factors, including government policies targeting
Muslims and pro-war rhetoric in the beginning of 2003, that we believe
led to this disturbing increase in Muslim civil rights
complaints," said CAIR Research Director Dr. Mohamed Nimer, the
report's author.
Details
of the report and possible reasons for the jump in reported incidents
will be outlined at CAIR's news conference. The report attributed also
the increase of such factors as Muslim-bashing on radio talk shows and
tensions surrounding the war in Iraq.
Hate
crime victims and representatives of other civil liberties groups will
also take part in the news conference.
‘Hate
Rise’
Meanwhile,
the report showed a major rise in the number of complaints CAIR
received from Muslims during the previous year concerning
discriminatory or violent actions as up to 1,019 complaints compared
to 602 the year before.
The
biggest number of incidents had to do with employment and the refusal
to accommodate religious practices. However, 93 cases were reported as
hate crimes, a number more than double the total in 2002.
"We
are definitely facing an uphill battle in the struggle for civil
rights in this country, especially with regard to the American Muslim
community," Nimer told the Post.
A
total of 130 of the reported cases occurred in the District, Virginia
and Maryland, he said.
On
the other hand, Muslims said that numerous cases of laws applied to
them were more harshly because of their ethnic or religious identity.
Within
the same context, a forthcoming report by the Senate Office of
Research illustrated the Patriot Act and other post 9-11 enforcement
powers and its impact on the California's Muslim communities
(negatively) affecting them severely.
‘War
On Muslims’
The
report included also many accidents of anti-Muslim violence and
harassments such as burning Islamic schools, vandalizing Muslim centers
and societies, radio
skits, attacking women wearing
hijab as well as mistreatment of Muslims in the governments
offices, the paper added.
"It
concerns us, of course, to see someone would target a community like
ours, sending a message that we are not welcome in the area,"
said Mohamed Magid, executive director of the Sterling-based center.
The
jump of the number, however, was attributed either to Muslims more
tendency to report the incidents because of the growth of CAIR, or the
increase of Islamophobia because of the American occupation war on
Iraq and fears of attacks on America, Nimer said.
"The
war on terrorism is equated with a war on Islam," Nimer said.
"Although the White House keeps saying this is not the case, a
lot of the people who support the White House cannot think of it in
any other terms."
The
report called for a congressional hearing on how rules and procedures
adopted after Sept. 11, 2001, have affected security and civil
liberties.
It
also opposed extension of the USA Patriot Act provisions set to expire
in 2005 and called for shifting more hate-crime prosecutions to
federal authorities.
CAIR,
America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, began documenting
anti-Muslim incidents following the 1995 attack on the Murrah Federal
Building in Oklahoma City.
The
prominent Muslim group, however, launched last month, April 17, a
campaign called "Hate
Hurts America", that is based on the conviction that the
increasing attacks on Islam by conservative talk show hosts nationwide
is not only offensive to Muslims and other people of conscience but to
the entire country.
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