Elham Asaad Buaras
Anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian hate crimes in the US increased by a whopping 78 per cent in the three months following the October 7 Hamas-led attacks on Israel, according to a report by America’s largest Muslim advocacy group.
In the report, released on January 28, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said on January 29 that it received 3,578 complaints during the last three months of 2023 since the Israel-Palestine war began.
Most of the reported complaints fell into three main categories: 19 per cent were employment discrimination cases; 13 per cent were hate crimes and hate incidents; and 13 per cent of the instances were discrimination in educational environments.
“In the face of relentless hate and bogus smears, American Muslims, Arabs, and a broad coalition of Jewish, Christian, African American, Asian American, and others continue calling for justice for Palestine,” CAIR research and advocacy director Corey Saylor said.
“This coalition knows the way to stop the hate is to end the apartheid, occupation, and genocide occurring in Palestine.”
In early 2023, CAIR reported that 2022 showed the first-ever drop in incoming complaints to the organisation since it started tracking data in 1995; however, the events on October 7 changed that.
In October, a six-year-old Palestinian American was fatally stabbed 26 times and his mother was seriously wounded in the US in an attack officials say was linked to the ongoing Israel-Palestine war because they identified as Muslims.
Wadea al-Fayoume had a 12-inch serrated military knife with a seven-inch blade lodged in his body.
In December, three Palestinian-American college students were speaking Arabic and wearing keffiyehs, a scarf synonymous with Palestinian solidarity, and were en route to dinner before they were shot by a gunman in Vermont. One of them is now paralysed from the chest down and may not be able to walk again.
“Despite this disturbing wave of bias targeting the Muslim, Arab-American, and Palestinian communities, we are witnessing impressive resilience in the face of bigotry,” said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad.
Photo: A billboard criticising the hate-filled media coverage of the war in Gaza that many claim contributed to the murder of 6-year-old Palestinian American Wadea Al-Fayoume was displayed outside the Mosque Foundation in Bridgeview, Illinois, where his funeral took place on October 18. (Credit: Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu Agency)
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