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US group says anti-Muslim crimes up
A leading US Islamic civil rights group has released a report that indicates anti-Muslim hate crimes in the country have increased by half in the past year.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations' (Cair) study - the only annual investigation of its kind - outlined 1522 incidents and experiences of anti-Muslim violence, discrimination or harassment in 2004.
The figure, according to Cair's Unequal Protection report published on Thursday, is 50% higher than an assessment made in 2003.
The rights group said factors contributing to the sharp increase in reported incidents included the lingering impact of post-9/11 fears, increased awareness of civil rights issues in the Muslim community and a general increase in anti-Muslim rhetoric.
Other factors for growth in the number of incidents may also include an increase in local Cair chapters reporting cases and alleged abuses associated with the implementation of national security policies.
Worst offenders
Ten states accounted for almost 79% of all incidents reported to Cair in 2004, with the majority of attacks reported in California, followed by New York, Arizona, Virginia, Texas, Florida, Ohio, Maryland, New Jersey and Illinois.
By far the greatest increase over last year, in both real and proportional terms, occurred in the areas of unreasonable arrests, detentions, searches/seizures, and interrogations.
In 2003, complaints concerning law enforcement agencies accounted for only 7% of all reported incidents. In 2004, however, these reports rose to almost 26% of all cases.
But not all the news was bad. There were drops in certain categories from the previous year's report.
For example, workplace discrimination complaints constituted nearly 23% of complaints in 2003, but dropped to just under 18% of total complaints in 2004.
Complaints involving governmental agencies decreased from 29% in 2003 to 19% in 2004.
Report comments
Cair Legal Director Arsalan Iftikhar, also the report's author, said the findings "come as no surprise given growing Islamophobic sentiments and a general misperception of Islam and Muslims".
Iftikhar said the phenomenon of Islamophobia would be addressed at a Cair conference, called Islamophobia and Anti-Americanism: Causes and Remedies, to be held on Saturday in Washington DC.
Cair Executive Director Nihad Awad added that the rights watchdog called on "President Bush ... to once again speak out against Islamophobic attitudes".
Awad also called on Congress to hold hearings on the findings of Cair's report.
Cair began documenting anti-Muslim incidents following the 1995 attack on the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The council is America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, with 31 regional offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/8D3AB7A8-F9D1-4BE5-A8E5-B1B04561EE07.htm
The figure, according to Cair's Unequal Protection report published on Thursday, is 50% higher than an assessment made in 2003.
The rights group said factors contributing to the sharp increase in reported incidents included the lingering impact of post-9/11 fears, increased awareness of civil rights issues in the Muslim community and a general increase in anti-Muslim rhetoric.
Other factors for growth in the number of incidents may also include an increase in local Cair chapters reporting cases and alleged abuses associated with the implementation of national security policies.
Worst offenders
Ten states accounted for almost 79% of all incidents reported to Cair in 2004, with the majority of attacks reported in California, followed by New York, Arizona, Virginia, Texas, Florida, Ohio, Maryland, New Jersey and Illinois.
By far the greatest increase over last year, in both real and proportional terms, occurred in the areas of unreasonable arrests, detentions, searches/seizures, and interrogations.
In 2003, complaints concerning law enforcement agencies accounted for only 7% of all reported incidents. In 2004, however, these reports rose to almost 26% of all cases.
But not all the news was bad. There were drops in certain categories from the previous year's report.
For example, workplace discrimination complaints constituted nearly 23% of complaints in 2003, but dropped to just under 18% of total complaints in 2004.
Complaints involving governmental agencies decreased from 29% in 2003 to 19% in 2004.
Report comments
Cair Legal Director Arsalan Iftikhar, also the report's author, said the findings "come as no surprise given growing Islamophobic sentiments and a general misperception of Islam and Muslims".
Iftikhar said the phenomenon of Islamophobia would be addressed at a Cair conference, called Islamophobia and Anti-Americanism: Causes and Remedies, to be held on Saturday in Washington DC.
Cair Executive Director Nihad Awad added that the rights watchdog called on "President Bush ... to once again speak out against Islamophobic attitudes".
Awad also called on Congress to hold hearings on the findings of Cair's report.
Cair began documenting anti-Muslim incidents following the 1995 attack on the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The council is America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, with 31 regional offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/8D3AB7A8-F9D1-4BE5-A8E5-B1B04561EE07.htm
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The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said in a report released on Wednesday, May11 , and obtained by IslamOnline.net, that 1522 incidents and experiences of anti-Muslim violence, discrimination and harassment were recorded in2004 , by an increase of50 % over the previous year's total.
CAIR said the greatest increase over last year, in both real and proportional terms, occurred in the areas of unreasonable arrests, surveillance, interrogation, search and seizure of US Muslims.
“These disturbing figures come as no surprise given growing Islamophobic sentiments and a general misperception of Islam and Muslims,” said CAIR Legal Director and the report's author Arsalan Iftikhar.
The US Muslim group received about1 , 900complaints of abuses and rights violations against the US Muslim minority last year and found it could substantiate1 , 522of them, he told the Washington Post in comments on the report.
“You would figure, four years removed from a tragic event like9 /11, things would tend to normalize. Unfortunately, this report shows this is not the case yet.”
Ten states accounted for almost79 % of all reported incidents with the majority of attacks reported in California ( 20percent), New York (10 percent), Arizona ( 9percent), Virginia ( 7percent), Texas (7 percent), Florida ( 7percent), Ohio ( 5percent), Maryland ( 5percent), New Jersey ( 5percent), and Illinois ( 3percent).
CAIR is America's largest Muslim civil liberties group, having 30 offices and
chapters nationwide and in Canada.
Post 9 /11
The sharp increase in the reported anti-Muslim hate incidents was attributed, according to the CAIR report, to the lingering impact of post-9/ 11fears, increased awareness of civil rights issues in the Muslim minority and a general increase in anti-Muslim rhetoric.
It also said the increase in local CAIR chapters reporting cases of discrimination and abuses associated with the implementation of national security policies were also instrumental in the increase of the reported anti-Muslim violence.
“We honestly believe the American Muslim community is being selectively prosecuted by the Justice Department,” Iftikhar said.
He cited the case of Brandon Mayfield, a Muslim lawyer from Oregon who was jailed last year on suspicion of involvement in a train bombing in Spain.
Mayfield was released, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) apologized, after discovering it had mistakenly matched a fingerprint from the crime to him.
Nihad Awad, CAIR Executive Director, urged US Congress to hold hearings on the findings of the report on the increasing anti-Muslim hate crimes in the country.
“We call on President Bush, whose statements after the9 / 11attacks were so important in helping to protect the well-being of the American Muslim community, to once again speak out against Islamophobic attitudes,” he said.
Drops
The US Muslim liberties group, however, said there were drops in certain categories of anti-Muslim discrimination from the past year.
For example, workplace discrimination complaints constituted nearly23 percent of complaints in2003 , but dropped to just under 18 percent of total complaints in2004 .
Complaints involving governmental agencies decreased from 29 percent in 2003 to 19 percent in2004 .
On the third anniversary of the9 / 11attacks, Amnesty International said in a report that Racial profiling by US law enforcement agencies has grown over the past three years to cover one in nine Americans, mostly targeting Muslims.
A new nation-wide poll, conducted by the Cornell University and posted on its Web site, showed that at least 44 percent of the American society back curbing Muslims’ civil rights and monitoring their places of worship.
A May 2004 report released by the US Senate Office Of Research concluded that the Arab Americans and the Muslim community in the United States have taken the brunt of the Patriot Act and other federal powers applied in the aftermath of the9 / 11attacks.
http://islamonline.org/English/News/2005-05/12/article01.shtml
The Cairo-based body began on Wednesday, May11 , two days of discussions on the strategy which aims at to counterbalance the US State Department’s report on anti-Semitism.
It urges the pan-Arab body to issue a similar report documenting discriminations against Arabs and Muslims across the world, on the upswing since the9 / 11attacks.
The strategy, seen by IslamOnline.net, also encourages coordination with EU organizations that report on both anti-Semitism as well as anti-Arabs and Muslims incidents.
The document underlines the need to accord due attention to legal studies related to discrimination against Arabs and Muslims.
On Wednesday, May11 , the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) released a new report documenting 1522 incidents of anti-Muslim violence, discrimination and harassment in2004 , a50 % increase from the previous year's total.
IWCDR groups 86 Muslim organizations and is chaired by Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Mohamed Sayyed Tantawi.
Counterbalance
The IWCDR’s strategy includes a number of key proposals to counter the controversial anti-Semitism report, including cooperation between Arab and Muslim civil community organizations.
It proposes documenting patterns of discrimination against Arabs, Muslims and Christians in Israeli textbooks based on Hebrew-language sources.
A recent study has concluded that Israel’s curricula aim at psychologically mobilizing youngsters for war, inciting “hostility, grudge and hatred” against Arabs and tarnishing the Arab image.
The strategy also encourages strengthening ties with anti-Israeli Jewish intellectuals.
The New York-based anti-Israel Neturei Karta Jewish group has condemned the latest attempts of Israeli extremists to storm Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third holiest site, urging the Jews of the world to reject Zionist schemes orchestrated by the “illegal” state of Israel.
The IWCDR’s strategy further takes issue with deliberate attempts to mix anti-Semitism with the criticism of Israel as a punitive measure waived in the face of Israel’s opponents.
The US report was mandated by the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act of2004 , which established a monitoring office and new reporting standards for anti-Semitism acts both in the United States and abroad.
The bill also established additional requirements for reporting on anti-Semitism in the State Department's annual reports to Congress on human rights practices and international religious freedom.
A recent report released by the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) said Muslim minorities across Europe have been experiencing growing distrust, hostility and discrimination since the9 / 11attacks.
The UN Commission on Human Rights adopted Tuesday, April12 , a resolution calling for combating defamation campaigns against Islam and Muslims in the West.
http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2005-05/12/article02.shtml
LOL!!!! Like they need help in tarnishing their image...beheadings, massacres, suicde bombers...ad nauseum.
They need to mixf prozac in their falafel