April, 12 2017, 02:30pm EDT
CAIR Calls for Hate Crime Probes of Anti-Muslim Incidents in Wisconsin, Texas
Muslim civil rights group decries ‘almost daily’ attacks on Muslims, other minority groups
WASHINGTON
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation's largest Muslims civil rights and advocacy organization, today called for hate crime investigations of apparently bias-motivated incidents targeting Muslims in Wisconsin and Texas.
CAIR said the incidents are part of "almost daily" attacks on American Muslims and other minority groups nationwide in recent months.
In Milwaukee, Wis., a Muslim woman was attacked Monday morning as she walked home from prayer. The victim says a car pulled up alongside her, and a man who jumped out of the vehicle proceeded to attempt to remove her Islamic head scarf, or hijab. "He said to take my hijab, my scarf. I tried to fight him. 'Don't take my hijab,' you know? So he threw me on the floor then he beat me like an animal," said the victim. She also said that the alleged attacker used a knife to cut her jacket and arm.
SEE: Muslim Woman Says Attacker Ripped Off Her Hijab, Cut Her with Knife
In Dallas, Texas, it was recently revealed that University of Texas student government senators found copies of the Quran, Islam's holy text, in the toilets of bathrooms after a March 28 student government meeting.
SEE: Qurans Found In SU Bathroom
In Northern Virginia, vandals spray-painted Nazi, anti-Semitic and anti-religious graffiti on a church and a Jewish community center.
SEE: Hate Graffiti Spray-Painted at Jewish Community Center, Church in Fairfax County
"We are concerned about the almost daily hate incidents targeting American Muslims and members of other minority and faith communities, and about the lack of a response from national political leaders," said CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper. "Our leaders, and particularly those in policy-making positions, need to speak out against the exploitation of increasing divisions in American society that inevitably results in such incidents."
Hooper noted that CAIR recently called on state and national Republican Party leaders to repudiate Islamophobic comments made by a GOP lawmaker in Delaware following a Muslim invocation in that state's legislature.
SEE: CAIR Asks GOP to Repudiate Islamophobic Remarks of Delaware Lawmaker Who Walked Out Before Muslim Prayer
Last night, CAIR's San Diego chapter called for the resignation of a local official who posted anti-Muslim comments on social media.
SEE: Otay Water District Board Member Hector Gastelum Faces Calls for Resignation Over Racist Tweets
On Sunday, CAIR's Greater Los Angeles Area office called for hate crime charges to be considered following an alleged bias-motivated attack on a Muslim woman in downtown Los Angeles Saturday by a man who reportedly shouted racial slurs and beat her in the head.
SEE: CAIR-LA Seeks Hate Crime Charges for Attack on Muslim Woman in Los Angeles
CAIR recently decried what it termed the Trump administration's "deafening silence" on a growing number of anti-Muslim incidents in recent days, part of trend that began during the recent presidential campaign and accelerated following the November 8 election.
SEE: CAIR Decries Trump Administration's 'Deafening Silence' on Series of Anti-Muslim Incidents Nationwide
Since the beginning of the year, CAIR has called for investigations of possible bias motives for 35 incidents targeting mosques in Colorado, Florida, Ohio, Iowa, Kentucky, Georgia, Arizona, Virginia, New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Texas, and a number of other states. By comparison, in the January-March period in 2016, CAIR recorded 19 such incidents.
CAIR: This Map Shows How Many Mosques Have Been Targeted Just This Year (CNN)
In a soon-to-be-published report, CAIR will detail a more than 50 percent increase in anti-Muslim bias incidents in 2016 over 2015. That figure is accompanied by a more than 40 percent increase in anti-Muslim hate crimes in the same period.
CAIR is asking American Muslims and Islamic institutions to take extra security precautions and is offering Muslim community leaders free copies of its booklet, "Best Practices for Mosque and Community Safety." The booklet may be requested through CAIR's website: https://www.cair.com/mosque-safety-guide.html
The Washington-based civil rights and advocacy organization urges community members to report any bias incidents to police and to CAIR's Civil Rights Department at 202-742-6420 or by filing a report at: https://www.cair.com/civil-rights/report-an-incident/view/form.html
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is a grassroots civil rights and advocacy group. CAIR is America's largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, protect civil rights, promote justice, and empower American Muslims.
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A day after U.S. voters elected climate-denying Republican Donald Trump in the presidential race, soon ushering in an administration that is sure to expand fossil fuel drilling, the European Union's Earth observation agency announced that 2024 is "virtually certain" to be the hottest year on record and to hit a worrying temperature milestone.
The year is expected to be the first on record in which the temperature is more than 1.5°C hotter than before the Industrial Revolution, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service (CCCS). The Paris climate agreement of 2015 urged countries to curb greenhouse gas emissions with the goal of limiting planetary heating to 1.5°C by the end of the century.
Over the past 12 months, said CCCS, global temperatures were 1.6°C warmer than the yearly average from 1850-1900.
"The average temperature anomaly for the rest of 2024 would have to drop to almost zero for 2024 to not be the warmest year," said CCCS.
Last month was the second-hottest October ever recorded, with temperatures 1.65°C higher than preindustrial levels. It was the 15th month in the past 16 to be hotter than 1.5°C over preindustrial temperatures.
While a single year above the 1.5°C mark does not necessarily indicate that the Paris climate goal is out of reach, CCCS director Carlo Buontempo said the planet has "never had to cope with a climate as warm as the current one."
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The Republican Party's capture of the U.S. Senate this week was made possible in part by massive spending from the nascent but increasingly influential cryptocurrency industry, which pumped more than $40 million into a successful effort to topple pro-worker progressive Sen. Sherrod Brown in favor of luxury car dealer Bernie Moreno.
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Crypto executive Tyler Winklevoss boasted in a social media post, "The crypto army is striking!"
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Labor reporter Steven Greenhouse wrote Wednesday that it is "obscene" that Brown lost his seat because "the billionaire-backed crypto industry donated $40 million to his right-wing opponent."
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The Israeli military on Thursday bombarded refugee camps in northern and central Gaza hours after inking a $5.2 billion deal with the United States to acquire more than two dozen F-15 fighter jets made by the American aerospace giant Boeing.
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As early as October 2023, NRC warned Israel, UK, US, Germany, & others, that Israeli "relocation orders" for civilian communities were forcible transfers, which under international law constitute an atrocity crime.
Since then there have been more than 60 "relocation orders"
1/2 pic.twitter.com/bsDvWKOqhY
— Jan Egeland (@NRC_Egeland) November 7, 2024
People here have been herded from unsafe location to unsafe location across the Gaza Strip.
They have lost everything, some having been forced to move more than 10 times.
Families I have spoken to here are enduring suffering almost unparalleled anywhere in recent history.
— Jan Egeland (@NRC_Egeland) November 7, 2024
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