Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a prominent Washington-based Muslim civil rights and advocacy group urged the FBI to probe a disturbing hate attack targeting New York Muslims, the third of its kind in recent months.
CAIR issued a press release calling on the FBI to launch an immediate investigation into a NY anti-Muslim incident involving a 26-year-old Muslim woman of Pakistani origin who was attacked Thursday evening in Niagara Falls by a group of passerby’s who shouted at her using the most defaming racial slurs ever. According to reports, assailants called the Muslim lady, who was dressed in traditional Pakistani attire, “bloody Paki.”
Recent anti-Muslim attacks in New York are particularly saddening for, as stated Dr. Khalid J. Qazi, president of the local chapter of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, relations between Muslims and Americans of other ethnicities and religions are relatively good in Western New York compared to other areas in the U.S, and similar hate crimes threaten to hinder such peaceful co-existence let alone renew Islamophobic sentiments and attacks targeting innocent Muslims.
Muslims form a large community scattered across various U.S. states and they represent one of the rich and quite diversified ethnicity in the country. However and despite many honest and adamant attempts to integrate into the country’s other ethnicities, incessant anti-Muslim hate crimes increase tension between Muslims and other Americans, and fuel more Islamophobic attacks.
Statistics put the number of Muslims living in the U.S. between 3 million to 5 million.
CAIR National Communications Director, Ibrahim Hooper, cited the most recent examples of growing Islamophobia, including GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain’s opposition to a Tennessee mosque, claims that a Virginia mosque is seeking to take over America, the exposure by CNN of fraudulent “ex-terrorist” Walid Shoebat, and a Virginia Tea Party group’s effort to ban a “pro-Islam” textbook.
Last month another hate crime, also in NY, triggered nation-wide anger among Muslims, after a 56-year old Muslim woman came under attack by two people who ripped off her religious attire, calling her a “f**king terrorist.”
The New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-NY) also urged the state and federal authorities to file hate crime charges against two assailants who terrorized the old Muslim lady.
Muslims are growing more concerned over growing Islamophobia and incidents of hate and discrimination they’ve been facing over the years- and while they’re asked to exert more effort to co-exist, continuous attacks targeting them hamper any achievement done towards the fulfillment of this objective.
Muslims keep getting accused of being less tolerant to other ethnicities, while bigoted and hate incidents targeting them never cease to exist.
CIAR Press Release issued in response to the latest NY attack:
WASHINGTON, July 15, 2011
The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) reports that a 26-year-old Muslim woman of Pakistani heritage was attacked Thursday evening in Niagara Falls by assailants who yelled racial and ethnic slurs at her and called her a “bloody Paki.” (“Paki,” a derogatory term for people of Pakistani origin, was spelled “packy” in the police report.)
SEE: Police Probe Hate Crime in Falls (Buffalo News)http://tinyurl.com/6fmsy5s
The victim told CAIR she was dressed in traditional Pakistani attire at the time of the attack. One alleged attacker was charged with third-degree assault as a hate crime. A second assailant is being sought by police.
“What may appear to be isolated hate crimes may be more accurately viewed as a troubling symptom of the growing level of Islamophobia in our society,” said CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper.
He cited the most recent examples of growing Islamophobia, including GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain’s opposition to a Tennessee mosque, claims that a Virginia mosque is seeking to take over America, the exposure by CNN of fraudulent “ex-terrorist” Walid Shoebat, and a Virginia Tea Party group’s effort to ban a “pro-Islam” textbook.
Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/07/15/3772636/cair-seeks-fbi-probe-of-third.h…
By: The Muslim Tribune Staff
Posted on: July 16, 2011