Islamophobia in United States still rising

By Nisa Islam Muhammad -Staff Writer- | Last updated: Dec 28, 2011 - 10:51:12 PM

(FinalCall.com) - Hate in America continued in 2011 to be aimed at Islam and Muslims. From congressional hearings on the “radicalization” of Islam by Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) to a report that revealed an anti-Islam network impacting views on Muslims to the release of 2010 FBI Hate Crime Statistics, which found an increase in anti-Muslim hate crimes, to Lowes home improvement stores yanking ads from TLC’s “All American Muslim Reality Show,” Muslims felt the sting of Islamophobia.

The Council on American Islamic Relations documented the following incidents in 2011:

• A state legislator in Tennessee called for a ban on Muslims in the military.

The rise in hate against Muslims can be attributed to the rise in Islamophobia, according to the investigative study “Fear, Inc.” by the Center for American Progress. The study found a small group of so-called “experts” have undertaken the task of “profoundly misrepresenting Islam and American Muslims in the United States.”

• American mosques were targeted by threats posted online on an anti-Islam hate site, including the comment “I want [Muslim] blood on my hands” by an individual who claims he regularly drives past a Virginia mosque. In the past year, mosques or mosque construction sites in Massachusetts, Oregon, Ohio, New York, Iowa, Maine, Georgia, Missouri, Louisiana, Tennessee, Texas, California, and Michigan have been targeted by arson, vandalism or threats.

• An Illinois man who was reportedly perceived as “Middle Eastern” had his throat slit by an attacker wanting to “save his country.” A Texas Muslim had part of his ear bitten off by an attacker who allegedly questioned his name and national origin.

• An alleged attacker said “f*** Osama Bin Laden” during an assault on a Wisconsin man of Moroccan heritage.

“After hate crime declined in 2009, it’s disturbing to see it rise again in 2010. The rise in anti-Muslim violence is particularly significant. Human Rights First has long maintained that anti-Muslim violence, as well as other forms of hate crime, must be viewed and responded to as a serious violation of human rights. The U.S. government can and must do more to confront these abuses,” said Human Rights First’s Paul Legendre.

This is an “American problem,” said Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), who held a hearing on Capitol Hill about Islamophobia. “What looks like generalized unfairness or intolerance is really not that at all. It’s actually fairly well planned, organized and executed,” he said.

“It is being carried out in a way that’s difficult to understand unless you do what these researchers have done which is to probe the very roots of the issue to the donors, to the funders, the propagandists all the way out to people who voice some of these things to others,” he said.

FBI Hate Crime Statistics found anti-Muslim hate crimes were up 50 percent, increasing from 107 reported incidents in 2009 to 160 reported incidents in 2010.

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