- Arts
- September 14, 2009
- 2 minutes read
Hate-motivated crimes against Muslims in America take its toll
The Committee on American- Islamic Relations (CAIR), one of the biggest Islamic organizations in the United States, called for charging assailants who attacked a 16-year-old Iraqi girl, causing injury to her face. They also attacked her brother, who came to her defense. The committee demanded that the offenders be charged with committing a hate-motivated crime, according to the laws of Michigan and the US.
CAIR-MI Executive Director Dawud Walid in Michigan said that “because of the profanities and indecencies reportedly used during this attack, we urge local, state and national law enforcement authorities to consider hate crime charges for any of the perpetrators arrested.”
Walid noted that CAIR called for similar charges in the recent case of two men who allegedly called a California assault victim "Taliban" and "terrorist" during the attack.
Such attacks against Muslims and Arab in the US are clearly being repeated.
The most recent attack was in August when two anonymous men shot an American-Muslim man of Somali descent after leaving a mosque in Portland. They escaped, leaving the victim suffering from serious injuries.
A church in Florida also designed a banner bearing the words “Islam is of the devil” in June 2009, causing wide debate and condemnation by Jews, Christians and Muslims alike as they called for the mutual respect of religions, however the Church ignored the call and continued encouraging a handful of school students in the American state of Florida attend school wearing t-shirts with the words "Islam is of the Devil" printed at the end of August.
In a related issue, the FBI is investigating the case of discovering the phrase “death to Muslims” scratched into a sidewalk near a side entrance of the Islamic Center and Mosque in Meridian Avenue, North Carolina late August.