LOS
ANGELES, May 19, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – A hate
message scrawled on the inside cover of a Qur’an copy has rekindled
fears of increasing discrimination against American Muslims in the
wake of the 9/11 attacks.
“I
was taken back to 9/11, my fear that somebody is going to hurt me,”
Azza Basarudin, a graduate student, told a news conference at the
Islamic Center of Southern California in Los Angeles, reported Los
Angeles Times on Thursday, May 19.
She
had discovered a “Death to all Muslims” message on the inside
cover of a Qur’an copy she ordered from Amazon.com.
“I
felt that fear coming back. It really hurt me,” Basarudin told the
press on Wednesday, May 18.
The
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said on May 11, that
anti-Muslim hate crimes, discrimination and harassment in the US have
increased by half over the past year.
Amnesty
International said in a report, on the third anniversary of the 9/11
attacks, that racial profiling by US law enforcement agencies has
grown to cover one in nine Americans, mostly targeting Muslims.
A
May 2004 report by the US Senate Office Of Research concluded that
Arab Americans and the Muslim community in the US have taken the brunt
of the Patriot Act and other federal powers applied in the aftermath
of the 9/11 attacks.
Public
Apology
The
Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) has asked the giant online
bookseller to issue a public apology, reported Reuters.
“Amazon
has a responsibility to make a public apology and condemnation,”
Edina Lekovic, the spokeswoman for MPAC, told the same press
conference.
The
Muslim group, which was notified of the hate message two weeks ago,
asked the online bookseller for a zero-tolerance policy toward sellers
and employees.
“It
is important for business leaders to come out with a zero tolerance
policy”, Lekovic stressed.
Amazon.com
has already apologized to Basarudin, refunded her money, sent out a
new copy of the Noble Qur'an and issued her a gift certificate.
It
also suspended the Pennsylvania-based Bellwether Books, which packaged
and mailed the copy, from selling the Noble Qur’an.
“We're
deeply sorry and we think we've taken all appropriate steps to make
sure this is not done again,” Amazon spokeswoman Patty Smith said.
Culture
of Hatred
The
Los Angeles-based MPAC said it also discovered an anti-Muslim message
on the voicemail of the Islamic Center on Saturday.
In
a taunting tone, the caller said he had just used the Qur'an in the
bathroom and flushed it down the toilet.
“This
is not an isolated incident,” said Salam Al-Marayati, the MPAC
director.
“This
is a culture of hatred [spread] through … schools, government and
here through a bookseller.”
In
its May 9 edition, the mass-circulation Newsweek quoted “a
knowledgeable US government source” as saying that investigators
probing abuses at Guantanamo found that US interrogators “had placed
Korans (sic) on toilets, and in at least one case flushed a holy book
down the toilet.”
The
report sparked angry and violent protests across the Muslim world from
Afghanistan, where 16 were killed and more than 100 injured, to Gaza.
After
protests from the Pentagon, the weekly cast some doubts on the story
in its next edition, saying the source “couldn't be certain about
reading of the alleged Qur'an incident in the report we cited, and
said it might have been in other investigative documents or drafts”.
