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hate crimes
In Trumplandia, Peace Ain’t What It’s Cracked Up to Be
Has anyone noticed how much peace has broken out in the USA ever since Donald Trump descended that golden escalator onto the stage of American politics?
Feb 04, 2026
This past January 15, the 2025 Nobel Laureate for Peace, Maria Corina Machado, took her prize medal, encased in a gold (of course) and glass frame, to the White House and presented it to our president. Beneath the medal, Machado had inscribed these words:
Presented as a Personal Symbol of Gratitude on behalf of the Venezuelan People in Recognition of President Trump’s Principled and Decisive Action to Secure a Free Venezuela. The Courage of America and its President Donald J. Trump, will Never be Forgotten by the Venezuelan People.
While our “peacemaker-in-chief” was no doubt gladdened by Machado’s unprecedented gesture, he still sounded a bit pouty by claiming that having “put out eight wars, in theory, you should get [a Nobel Peace Prize] for each war” in which he boasted that he had “saved millions and millions of lives.”
The eight “wars” he takes credit for ending—Israel-Hamas, Israel-Iran, India-Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo-Rwanda, Armenia-Azerbaijan, Cambodia-Thailand, Serbia-Kosovo, and Egypt-Ethiopia—on the one hand, were all short-lived ceasefires or border skirmishes rather than the end of formal wars and, on the other, are places where tensions persist and conflict continues. Bottom line regarding all these faux wars is that Trump is as entitled to claim Machado’s Nobel Peace Prize as he is to take credit for walking on the moon long before Neil Armstrong did.
Where are our patriots—progressive patriots, five, eight, ten-million strong—called to the nation’s capital, like the “patriots” of January 6, willing to take our stand and storm the White House?
Closer to home, has anyone noticed how much peace has broken out in the USA ever since Donald Trump descended that golden escalator onto the stage of American politics?
In his very first very “presidential” campaign speech, he launched his first anti-immigration salvo: “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best… They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
Since Trump entered politics, a 2020 report from the FBI revealed that hate crimes increased by just under 20% in America.
According to CNN (January 26, 2026), the Obama years (2009-2016) saw 213 mass shootings at schools, churches, or shopping areas—an average of 26.6 shootings per year. Since Trump (2017-2025), the total number has risen to 556 and an average of 61.8 per year.
At Charlie Kirk’s memorial service, Trump contrasted his approach to campaigning to that of Charlie Kirk—himself no saint in the political arena:
He did not hate his opponents. He wanted the best for them. That's where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent, and I don't want the best for them… maybe they can convince me that that's not right, but I can't stand my opponent.
Since Trump, instances of school bullying and antisemitic attacks have risen precipitously. These included the mass shootings in the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and in a Walmart supermarket in El Paso, Texas, conducted by white supremacists who embraced racist “Great Replacement” conspiracy theories popular in their circles. As to instances of bullying, just after Trump’s 2024 election victory an elementary school teacher in Georgia reported, “This is my 21st year of teaching. This is the first time I’ve had a student call another student the N-word.”
In 2022 a deranged attacker broke into the San Francisco home of then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Finding her husband at home, he asked, “Where’s Nancy?” Learning she was in Washington DC, he began assaulting Paul Pelosi, beating him with a hammer and fracturing his skull. Several days later, a number of Republicans, including the president, made light of the attack.
The president’s official coin commemorating the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution bears the face of Trump on one side and on the other his post-assassination image of a bloodied but defiant Trump admonishing his fellow Americans to “Fight! Fight! Fight!”
During his 2016 campaign rallies, he urged his followers to punch protesters in the mouth, promising to pay their lawyers’ fees.
In his first term, on immigration he wondered why the US could not get more migrants from, say, Norway instead of from “shithole countries” in Africa or elsewhere.
In his first off-year election (2018) Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) were all elected to the US House of Representatives and became known as “The Squad.” On July 14, 2019, Trump publicly advised them to “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how it is done.”
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) led the fight(s) to impeach Trump, one of whose followers left Schiff a warning in the congressman’s voice mailbox: “I’m gonna f-ing blow your brains out,”
As his first term was ending, Trump encouraged some 2,500 of his closest friends to march on Congress and “fight like hell” on January 6, 2021. Later, very early in his second term he pardoned them and awarded some of them the Presidential Medal of Freedom. When informed that the “patriots” had hung a noose from makeshift gallows on Capitol grounds to “hang Mike Pence,” as the chant admonished, Trump, the defender of evangelical Christians, replied, “So what?”
All through his second campaign for the presidency (2024) he centered his message on anti-immigration, frequently referring to immigrants as “not even human. They’re animals.” He warned that these newcomers would increase crime in the streets and, in a quotation from Hitler’s Mein Kampf, “poison the bloodstream” of America.
All the while, America’s megalomaniacal monster waved an imaginary Christian flag and promised to fight for it. That is one reason evangelicals were less than unenthusiastic about a potential Mike Pence presidency. As sociologists of religion Phillip Gorski and Samuel Perry explained, “[T]he fight was more important than the faith… Pence had the faith, but Trump had the fight. And the fight was really all they cared about.” (The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy, 3.)
All of which has brought us through several weeks of clashes between masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and American citizens using their First Amendment right of free speech to protest Trump’s dragnet of blue states, searching and destroying Black and brown families—some illegal, some documented, some American citizens—that have brought the nation to the boiling point.
Nowadays we have no “Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young” lamenting “four dead in Ohio.”
But we do have a president who makes Richard Nixon look like a Boy Scout. And we have Bruce Springsteen:
King Trump's private army from the DHSPeace, it would seem, is not what it’s cracked up to be. In Trumplandia, it appears, P-E-A-C-E spells MURDER.
Guns belted to their coats
Came to Minneapolis to enforce the law
Or so their story goes
Against smoke and rubber bullets
In the dawn's early light
Citizens stood for justice
Their voices ringing through the night
And there were bloody footprints
Where mercy should have stood
And two dead, left to die on snow-filled streets
Alex Pretti and Renee Good
Oh, our Minneapolis, I hear your voice
Singing through the bloody mist
We'll take our stand for this land
And the stranger in our midst
Here in our home, they killed and roamed
In the winter of '26….
Now they say they're here to uphold the law
But they trample on our rights
If your skin is black or brown, my friend
You can be questioned or deported on sight….
Oh, our Minneapolis, I hear your voice
Singing through the bloody mist
Here in our home, they killed and roamed
In the winter of '26
We'll take our stand for this land
And the stranger in our midst
We'll remember the names of those who died
On the streets of Minneapolis...
But where are our patriots—progressive patriots, 5-, 8-, 10-million strong—called to the nation’s capital, like the “patriots” of January 6, willing to take our stand and storm the White House?
In 1970, massive numbers of protesters marched to Kent State University. Millions of others showed America that nonviolent protest could work. So where are those of us willing to chant; spill some of our own blood, if necessary; and chant, “Hey, hey, Donald J, how many protesters did you kill today?” until “We the People” come face to face with Mr. Trump, call on Congress to invoke the 25th Amendment, and tell them all: “NO MORE KINGS!?”Keep ReadingShow Less
DHS Strips Security Grants From Muslim Nonprofits Based on Report From Islamophobic 'Hate Group'
The Council on American-Islamic Relations says the Muslim groups being targeted "were smeared as 'Hamas-aligned'... because of their opposition to Israeli human rights abuses."
Aug 20, 2025
The Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday that it has suspended more than $8 million in grants to Muslim organizations it claims have "alleged terror ties" following a report from a notorious anti-Muslim group.
The money comes from FEMA's Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP), which provides aid to religious groups at risk of hate-based terrorist attacks, including security alarms, cameras, and armed guards.
DHS said it made the decision following a report from the Middle East Forum (MEF), a pro-Israel group, which alleged that DHS had given $25 million to "terror-linked groups" between 2013 and 2023. According to DHS, it has already suspended the funds to 49 different projects based on this report.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) describes MEF as an "anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim hate group" and its leader, Daniel Pipes, as "racist."
The foreign policy commentator was nominated to the board of the United States Institute of Peace by former President George W. Bush in 2003 despite a long history of anti-Muslim rhetoric.
This has included referring to Muslims as "brown-skinned peoples cooking strange foods and maintaining different standards of hygiene" and blaming the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, which was committed by a US-born white supremacist, on Muslim "fundamentalists."
In 2004, after being nominated to the position, Pipes said he did "support the internment of Japanese Americans in World War II," and suggested it as a model for dealing with Muslims.
In the report, MEF described CAIR, which it says received $250,000 from FEMA, as a "Hamas-aligned" group. But the only evidence it cites is the organization's naming as an "unindicted co-conspirator" in the 2007 trial of the Holy Land Foundation for allegedly funnelling money to Hamas.
CAIR was never charged with a crime, but that case has nevertheless been used to tie it and many other Muslim nonprofits to terror groups with little to no evidence of wrongdoing.
MEF also singled out other organizations like the Islamic Society of Baltimore, merely because it was once "previously under FBI surveillance."
Others MEF singled out for their harsh rhetoric towards Israel. For instance, it described Michigan's Islamic Institute of Knowledge as an "outpost for Iran's revolutionary brand of Shi'a Islamism" because its leaders have allegedly "echoed Iranian regime rhetoric regarding Israel, including comparing Israel to the Nazis and blaming it for October 7."
It also suggested that other mosques and organizations have terrorist affiliations because leaders have family members who were, at some point, Iranian clerics or government officials.
According to DHS, merely "alleged" terrorist ties are enough for funding to be pulled, and that includes the allegations made by the MEF.
While DHS said it is conducting its own review to determine which groups to strip funding from, it told Fox News: "We take the results of the MEF report very seriously and are thankful for the work of conservative watchdog groups."
MEF previously told the New York Post that it is working with DHS to "rescind grants to extremist groups."
CAIR says the groups being targeted "were smeared as 'Hamas-aligned' by MEF because of their opposition to Israeli human rights abuses."
During his second term, Trump and congressional Republicans have aggressively targeted nonprofit organizations that criticize his policies, particularly those critical of Israel.
Trump has attempted to coerce universities, including Harvard, into cracking down on pro-Palestinian speech by students by threatening their nonprofit status.
In May, Republicans also snuck a provision into their giant reconciliation bill that would have given the treasury secretary unilateral authority to strip the nonprofit status of any organization he deemed to be supportive of a terrorist organization, which, to the Trump administration, often simply means voicing solidarity with Palestinians. However, that "nonprofit killer" measure was struck from the final version of the law.
This month, DHS updated its terms for providing grants to nonprofits. One new section now requires nonprofits to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Another requires them to swear off boycotts of Israel, which CAIR describes as "a political test targeting supporters of Palestinian rights."
"Our civil rights organization has no active federal grants that the Department could eliminate or cut," a CAIR spokesperson told Fox. "The government cannot ban American organizations from receiving federal grants based on their religious affiliation or their criticism of Israel's genocide in Gaza."
CAIR also condemned DHS Secretary Kristi Noem for "making decisions based on the ravings of the Middle East Forum, an Israel First hate website."
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Illinois Man Gets 53 Years in Prison for Vicious Hate-Crime Killing of 6-Year-Old Wadee Alfayoumi
"No sentence can restore what was taken, but today's outcome delivers a necessary measure of justice. Wadee was an innocent child. He was targeted because of who he was—Muslim, Palestinian, and loved."
May 02, 2025
A judge told an Illinois man Friday that his hate-fueled murder of six-year-old Wadee Alfayoumi in October 2023 was "brutal and heinous" as she sentenced him to 53 years in prison.
The sentence was handed down three months after Joseph Czuba, 73, was found guilty of murdering the Palestinian-American kindergartner, who lived with his family in two bedrooms they rented from Czuba in Plainfield Township, Illinois.
Prosecutors found that Czuba became "paranoid and violent" after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023 and as Israel's bombardment of Gaza's population of 2.3 million Palestinians began in retaliation.
Alfayoumi's mother, Hanan Shaheen, testified during Czuba's trial that he had attacked her first before moving on to stab her son 26 times. Czuba told Shaheen before the attack that the family had to leave their home because they were Muslim.
Mahmoud Yousef, an uncle of Alfayoumi's father, told the court at the sentencing that no prison sentence for Czuba would lessen the family's pain.
"Together, we must build a society where no one lives in fear because of who they are, and no family mourns a loved one lost to hate."
"That's more than just hate, that went way beyond that," Yousef said of the murder. "We're talking about a 6-year-old kid whose father had plans for him."
Yousef also looked directly at Czuba and demanded that he say something to the family "for peace of mind," but Czuba did not speak during the hearing.
"Wadee Alfayoumi should still be alive today," said Rep. Bill Foster (D-Ill.). "While justice has been served, nothing can bring Wadee back. Together, we must build a society where no one lives in fear because of who they are, and no family mourns a loved one lost to hate."
During the trial, the jury heard Shaheen's frantic 911 call and saw crime scene photos that were so harrowing the judge agreed not to show them to the audience, where Alfayoumi's family was sitting.
"No sentence can restore what was taken, but today's outcome delivers a necessary measure of justice," said Ahmed Rehab, executive director of Chicago's chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "Wadee was an innocent child. He was targeted because of who he was—Muslim, Palestinian, and loved."
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Musk’s Attack on the Arab American Institute and Other Groups Is Irresponsibly Dangerous
That his post has been viewed by nearly 20 million people makes it even more concerning, as it only takes one deranged individual who has read it to decide to respond by striking out in an act of violence.
Mar 03, 2025
This past week began on a deeply disturbing note. Elon Musk reposted on X (formerly Twitter) a dangerously false attack on more than a dozen American entities who had received USAID or State Department grants over the past decade. The original post referred to the groups as “terrorist-linked.” In his repost Musk commented, “As many people have said, why pay terrorist organizations and certain countries to hate us when they’re perfectly willing to do it for free?”
The groups listed in the original post had apparently been compiled by an individual with an anti-Arab or anti-Muslim bias. He appears to have gone through a list of grant recipients and randomly culled out entities with “Arab” or “Muslim” in their name or who had done work in the Middle East. I don’t know all of the groups mentioned, but those I do know—for example, American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA)—have been in the forefront of providing lifesaving support to refugees or victims of war or natural disasters, and, in the process, building better ties between the U.S. and affected communities in need across the Middle East. Other groups I recognized had equally important, impressive records of service.
What was obviously most troubling to me was that my organization, the Arab American Institute, was second on the list. This was upsetting for two reasons: The charge was profoundly off-base and irresponsibly dangerous.
As welcoming and inclusive as the U.S. can be, we also must acknowledge that our country has a history of hate and violence, a disproportionate amount of which in recent decades has been directed at Arab Americans and supporters of Palestinian rights.
The fact is that the institute received a State Department grant in 2018 (during the first Trump administration) to create partnerships between Arab American elected officials and public servants with local elected officials in Tunisia. The institute, which was founded in 1985, has a proud history of encouraging Arab Americans to get elected to local office. As our work progressed, we realized that many of these young leaders had never been to the Middle East, and if they had gone at all, it had simply been to the countries from which their parents had come. I had long hoped to create a program that would enable them to both get exposure to and an understanding of the broader Arab World, and to be able to share their experiences and what they had learned in American political life with their counterparts in Arab countries.
The initial phase of the program was so successful that the State Department supported expanding it into Morocco and then Jordan. It was a delight to see these young Arab and Arab American participants working together in a collaborative manner, discussing problems they face in municipal governance and actions that could be taken to improve constituent services—how to address local needs and challenges. They worked together in building local democracy and finding solutions that made a difference in people’s day-to-day lives—issues like trash collection, creating community tech hubs, and providing support for families with disabled children. The program ended in 2023.
For an individual infected by an anti-Arab or anti-Muslim bias to identify these people-to-people efforts with support for terrorism is so wrong that it defies understanding. And for a person of Mr. Musk’s standing in this administration to have amplified this message with a repost and comment is irresponsibly dangerous.
As welcoming and inclusive as the U.S. can be, we also must acknowledge that our country has a history of hate and violence, a disproportionate amount of which in recent decades has been directed at Arab Americans and supporters of Palestinian rights. After a former employee of mine at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee was murdered in 1985, I was asked to testify before the U.S. Civil Rights Commission and the U.S. Congress on hate and violence directed against my community. In my testimony I noted how the environment for hate crimes against Arab Americans was fostered by those who have incited against us. I observed that when we have been called terrorists or terrorist supporters (sometimes by respected pro-Israel groups), it has spurred some to use violence against us. I know this personally from the content of death threats I have received over the years.
In the last two decades alone, there have been four convictions of individuals who have threatened my life and the lives of my family and my staff. These threats have most often been accompanied by accusations of terrorism or support for terrorism.
And so, I take it seriously when a person as powerful and well-positioned as Mr. Musk irresponsibly charges my institute with being a supporter of terrorism. That his post has been viewed by nearly 20 million people makes it even more concerning, as it only takes one deranged individual who has read it to decide to respond by striking out in an act of violence.
Some have cautioned us not to react to Musk’s incitement, hoping that it would just fade away. I disagree. In the end, the best defense we have is to point out both how wrong he has been and the danger posed by his words.
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Outraged Over False Claims of Pet Eating? Consider the True Horrors of Factory Farms
What we do to billions of animals legally in the U.S. food system is far more extensive, not to mention ghastly, than much of the animal sacrifices that may occur in other people’s religious rituals.
Oct 13, 2024
The stories about Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, eating pets have been debunked. Even the woman who filed a police report accusing Haitian migrants of stealing her cat apologized when she later found her cat in her own basement. Sadly, despite being proven false, the damage from these unfounded claims has been severe. Haitians living in Springfield have been subject to hate crimes and threats from people who believe the lie and have coupled their outrage with bigotry to terrorize a community of migrants who are living and working legally in the community through the Temporary Protective Status designation.
Despite the fact that there is no substantiation for the stories, a friend tried to convince me that Haitians are really, truly eating cats and dogs. The evidence, he insisted, came from police bodycam footage. As it turned out, the footage he was talking about was from an arrest of a woman—who was not Haitian—in another part of Ohio who allegedly killed and ate a cat. This woman was born and raised in America and apparently has a mental health disorder. When I pointed these facts out to my friend, he still didn’t acknowledge his error. Instead, he sent me a description of Vodou (aka Voodoo), a religion practiced by many Haitians, which included descriptions of animal sacrifice. He wrote that it would be better if this religion died out and its immigrant practitioners assimilated into American culture.
Perhaps this particularly pernicious and bigoted moment in our polarized society could be a wake-up call to become a bit more introspective and cultivate some moral consistency in how we treat others.
My head was spinning. There were so many ways I could respond. Should I focus on helping him to acknowledge that his original claim was false? Should I point out that his Irish family and my Jewish family were vilified for their cultural differences when they came to this country and invite him to reflect upon his negative judgments about newer immigrants? Should I talk about the range of religious injunctions, not confined to Vodou, which cause harm to animals? I didn’t know where to begin.
Because we’d discussed animal cruelty many times in the past, after mentioning all the points above, I further responded that what we do to billions of animals legally in the U.S. food system is far more extensive, not to mention ghastly, than much of the animal sacrifices that may occur in other people’s religious rituals. Moreover, I pointed out, he was an enthusiastic participant in the cruelty we inflict on cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, and other animals raised for food because he regularly consumes meat, dairy, and eggs. Until now, he’d never expressed much concern about the welfare of animals, often telling me that he cares more about people than animals. Suddenly, along with millions of other Americans who erroneously believe Haitians are eating dogs and cats, he claims to care a lot.
In our culture, most people recoil at the thought of eating dogs and cats and believe it would be wrong to do so. But if it’s wrong to eat dogs and cats, then how is it right to eat pigs—known to be as or more intelligent than dogs—or to consume cows and chickens, both able to feel pain just as acutely as cats and cockatiels do? If we look inward to consider who we eat, we may discover justifications but little disgust or moral outrage.
And yet, the abuse we inflict upon billions of farmed animals each year is on a scale nearly unimaginable. For example, dairy cows in the United States are forced to produce a calf every year, and when they are born, the newborns are taken away from their distraught mothers on their first day of life. We then take the milk meant for the calves for ourselves. The cows are then forced to produce 5 to 10 times the amount of milk they would naturally produce to feed their young, resulting in mastitis, a painful udder infection necessitating antibiotic treatment in about half the dairy cows in the United States. After years of this cycle of artificial insemination, birth, and perpetual milking, their milk production declines. At that point, the cows are sent to slaughter, usually to become hamburger or processed meat.
What about chickens and turkeys, whose names we hurl as an insult of cowardice (for the former) and stupidity (for the latter) even though these birds are brave and intelligent? Almost all of them live the entirety of their lives in crowded, ammonia-saturated buildings; are debeaked without painkillers to prevent them from pecking each other to death in their confinement; and, if they are being used for egg production, are likely caged so tightly they cannot even stretch a wing.
Where is the outrage? Where is the disgust? In her book Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows, psychologist Melanie Joy describes the invisible belief system, which she calls carnism, that leads us to eat certain animals while protecting others. It is this invisible belief system that explains our horror at the thought of people eating pets—a horror we might conceivably express around the dinner table as we gnaw on the rib of a pig or the wing of a hen.
I’d like to hope that the false accusations made against Haitian migrants will help us realize the glass houses we’re living in so that we stop throwing stones. Perhaps this particularly pernicious and bigoted moment in our polarized society could be a wake-up call to become a bit more introspective and cultivate some moral consistency in how we treat others. And then maybe we’ll each take a step toward minimizing the harm we cause humans and nonhumans alike.
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GOP Senator Accused of 'Hate Speech' Against Arab American Witness at Hate Crimes Hearing
At the hearing, advocate Maya Berry said she "experienced the very issue that we're attempting to deal with today."
Sep 17, 2024
After Republican lawmakers and some activists objected to Arab American Institute executive director Maya Berry's inclusion in the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee's hearing on the rise in hate crimes in the country, GOP Sen. John Kennedy unleashed what one critic said was anti-Muslim "hate speech" during his questioning.
"You support Hamas, don't you?" asked the Louisiana senator at the hearing titled "A Threat to Justice Everywhere: Stemming the Tide of Hate Crimes in America." Kennedy also conflated Hamas with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the agency tasked with providing public services and aid to Gaza's 2.3 million residents.
Berry replied that it was "exceptionally disappointing that you're looking at an Arab American witness before you and saying, 'You support Hamas.'"
She then said clearly, "I do not support Hamas," but was cut off by Kennedy as he raised his voice to accuse her of being unable to disavow the group, also accusing her of supporting Hezbollah and Iran.
"You should hide your head in a bag," said Kennedy, drawing gasps from the audience.
The "horrific remark" was "a blatant example of anti-Arab, anti-Palestinian, and anti-Muslim rhetoric," said the Muslim voter mobilization group Emgage Action.
The Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee denounced Kennedy's "horrible" comment, instead amplifying Berry's response, in which she said that while taking part in a hearing on hate speech and hate crimes, she "experienced the very issue that we're attempting to deal with today."
"This has been, regrettably, a real disappointment but very much an indication of the danger to our democratic institutions that we're in now," said Berry.
Berry also faced condemnation from Kennedy over her opposition to the United States' decision to suspend funding for UNRWA—a move that resulted from unverified Israeli claims that agency employees had worked with Hamas, and which has been denounced by international rights groups and experts due to its impact on people who rely on the agency in Gaza.
"Maya Berry went before the committee to discuss hate crimes. Both Ms. Berry and the topic should have been treated with the respect and seriousness they deserve," said Robert McCaw, government affairs director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). "Instead, Sen. Kennedy and others chose to be an example of the bigotry Arabs, Palestinians, and Muslims have faced in recent months and years."
Republicans on the committee had decried Democrats for inviting witnesses whose testimony delved into issues aside from antisemitism—which was conflated with anti-Zionism in a bill passed by the House earlier this year and in one introduced in the Senate.
Along with Berry, a leading advocate against anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bias in the U.S., the Democrats invited Kenneth Stern, director of the Bard Center for the Study of Hate, who has denounced right-wing groups for "weaponizing" claims of antisemitism against people who speak out against the Israeli government.
In her testimony, Berry spoke about the rise in hate crimes against Arab and Muslim Americans, as well as against Jewish people, Black people, Asian Americans, and other groups.
After Israel began its bombardment of Gaza in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack last October, CAIR reported a 56% rise in hate crimes against Palestinians and Muslims in the United States, with 8,061 attacks reported in 2023. From January-June 2024, the grou documented 4,951 complaints, a 69% increase over the same period in 2023.
Arif Rafiq, a strategist and author, said that there would likely be "no censure of Sen. Kennedy" following his comments in the hearing.
"Bigotry toward Arabs and Muslims, even in this most brazen form," said Rafiq, "is acceptable in American politics."
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Amid GOP Outrage Over Witnesses, Omar Welcomes Hate Crimes Hearing
"This vital hearing is a crucial step in addressing the alarming rise of hate crimes across our nation, particularly those targeting Muslim, Jewish, and Palestinian Americans."
Sep 16, 2024
On the eve of a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing about "stemming the tide of hate crimes" nationwide, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar on Monday commended the panel's chair, Sen. Dick Durbin, for "hosting this groundbreaking yet overdue" event.
Discrimination against Jews and Muslims has significantly increased in the United States since the Hamas-led October 7 attack on Israel and the U.S.-backed Israeli retaliation on the Gaza Strip, which critics worldwide call genocide. In May, Durbin (D-Ill.) vowed to hold a hearing "in response to the ongoing and persistent rise in antisemitism and other forms of bigotry across the country."
The committee announced last week that it had scheduled a Capitol Hill hearing for 10:00 am Tuesday to "examine how we can better protect Jewish, Arab, and Muslim Americans, and other vulnerable communities from bigoted attacks."
Durbin—who has faced calls from Republican committee members to hold a hearing focused on "the civil rights violations of Jewish students" and "the proliferation of terrorist ideology"—said at the time that "hate crimes are a threat to justice everywhere. Sadly, no community is immune from violent acts of hate. Congress cannot turn a blind eye to it."
"We must stand united against hate in all its forms and reaffirm our commitment to justice, equality, and the protection of all Americans, regardless of their race, faith, or national origin."
Omar (D-Minn.) expressed gratitude for Durbin's broader event, saying Monday that "this vital hearing is a crucial step in addressing the alarming rise of hate crimes across our nation, particularly those targeting Muslim, Jewish, and Palestinian Americans."
"I'm glad this committee hearing will address the rise in hate felt by thousands across the country, I hope this hearing serves as a catalyst for meaningful action," she continued. "We must stand united against hate in all its forms and reaffirm our commitment to justice, equality, and the protection of all Americans, regardless of their race, faith, or national origin."
Omar is an outspoken opponent of Israel's assault on Gaza and U.S. support for it. She fled war in Somalia as a child and is one of only a few Muslim members of Congress—and while in office, she has endured intense racism, sexism, Islamophobia, and death threats. Some of the hate has come from fellow federal lawmakers.
Her praise for the hearing came amid reports that some Republicans and Jewish groups are unhappy with Democrats' witnesses: Arab American Institute executive director Maya Berry and Kenneth Stern, director of the Bard Center for the Study of Hate.
Notably, when Stern was with the American Jewish Committee, he helped craft the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism. He has since accused right-wing groups of "weaponizing" it in their efforts to conflate criticism of Israeli government policies and practices with anti-Jewish bigotry.
Describing both Berry and Stern as "at odds with Jewish communal leaders," Jewish Insider reported:
In his opening statement to the committee, obtained by Jewish Insider ahead of Tuesday's hearing, Stern will testify that "advocating for genocide against anyone of course should be robustly condemned; but the mere expression of such ideas (whether intended as such or heard as such) should be countered, not as a matter for discipline."
Stern will also say that it is a good thing that David Duke, the former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, did not face any disciplinary action when he spread Nazi propaganda on Louisiana State University's campus as a student in 1968. "This would have allowed him to claim the status of martyr, and changed the subject to his right to speech as opposed to the content of his hate," Stern will say.
"Berry's written testimony focuses primarily on hate crimes data and reporting, and federal enforcement of hate crimes laws," according to Jewish Insider. The outlet added that the Republican witness Rabbi Mark Goldfeder, director of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, "is set to express support for the IHRA definition."
In response to Jewish Insider editor in chief Josh Kraushaar's social media post sharing the report, Center for International Policy executive vice president Matt Duss said, "Translation: testimony from Ken Stern and Maya Berry, who are both widely respected authorities on these issues, makes it harder to use this hearing as part of the campaign to suppress pro-Palestinian activism."
While this will be the first Senate hearing on hate crimes since last October, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives has held multiple, mostly focusing on campus anti-genocide protests. Critics have argued that the lower chamber's events have pushed university administrators to enable violent law enforcement crackdowns on students demonstrating against Israel's assault on Gaza.
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5 Years After El Paso Shooting, Calls for Fighting Gun Violence and Racism
"When politicians use 'great replacement' conspiracies and xenophobia to stoke fear and divide us, real people pay the price in blood," said Democratic Texas Congressman Joaquin Castro.
Aug 04, 2024
Saturday marked five years since a self-described white nationalist killed 23 people and injured 22 others with an AK-47-style semiautomatic rifle at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, and the anniversary sparked fresh calls for efforts to combat gun violence and racism.
"Five years after a man armed with hate and a gun drove into our community and stole the lives of 23 of our friends and neighbors, we still feel the pain of their absence," said Myndi Luevanos, a volunteer with the Texas chapter of Moms Demand Action in El Paso, in a statement. "Since the shooting, our leaders have refused to meet the moment, failing to enact common-sense gun safety measures that could save lives and address the disproportionate rate of gun violence faced by the Latinx community in Texas."
"Half a decade later, we cannot let the failures of the past become the norm," Luevanos continued. "Now more than ever, we must honor the victims and their families with action and protect Latinx Texans for generations to come from gun violence."
The group Brady said on social media that "easy access to guns, especially assault rifles, makes hate lethal. We must #HonorWithAction and #DisarmHate."
The shooter, Patrick Wood Crusius, is serving 90 consecutive life sentences after being convicted of federal hate crimes and in September agreed to "pay restitution in the amount of $5,557,005.55" to victims' families. Both Republican District Attorney Bill Hicks and his Democratic opponent for this November's election, James Montoya, hope to have him tried in front of a jury on state charges by next year. In the Texas case, he could face the death penalty.
Crusius, who traveled nearly 600 miles across the state to the border city where he shot dozens of people, wrote in a racist manifesto posted online before the attack that he aimed to address the "Hispanic invasion of Texas." He is one of multiple mass shooters who have cited the "great replacement" theory that white people will be replaced by people of color.
"Hate speech isn't just words—it has real, devastating consequences," UnidosUS stressed on social media. "The anniversary of El Paso reminds us of this. Words have power—they can heal or harm. We decide to use our voice to create a world where no one lives in fear."
The 2019 massacre was "the deadliest attack on the Latinx community in America," noted Mireya Rodriguez, a volunteer with Students Demand Action in Texas. "Racism emboldens violence and set against Texas' weak gun laws, you get a recipe for the very tragedy that shattered El Paso."
"Our leaders have a responsibility to reject racist and anti-immigration rhetoric, yet it's no secret that some Texas politicians have chosen to embrace, rather than condemn that hatred," the activist added. "We won't stand for that. We will honor the lives stolen through our advocacy to end gun violence and combat white supremacy in all forms."
As Common Dreams reported Friday, a new analysis from eight groups "exposes the normalization of xenophobic 'great replacement' and 'invasion' conspiracies within the 118th Congress, documenting their historical roots and widespread promotion by members of Congress." It features examples from two Texas Republicans: Congressmen Lance Gooden and Jodey Arrington.
Democratic Texas Congressman Joaquin Castro said on social media Saturday that "we can honor the lives lost and the families affected by denouncing the awful rhetoric that incited this act of hate."
"When politicians use 'great replacement' conspiracies and xenophobia to stoke fear and divide us, real people pay the price in blood," Castro added. "As we remember the victims in El Paso, we have to call out those who use vile rhetoric to lead. There's no place for hate in this country."
Sharing the names of the El Paso victims of social media, March for Our Lives—launched after the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida—said, "Let's be clear: This was a racist, anti-immigrant act of terror."
"The shooter's 'great replacement theory' language is deadly, fueled by our leaders who demonize immigrants and people of color," the group asserted. "Their words have real, fatal consequences."
March for Our Lives last month gave its first-ever political endorsement to Vice President Kamala Harris, who on Friday secured enough delegates for Democratic nomination to face former President Donald Trump. The Republican—who in July survived an assassination attempt by a shooter at a Pennsylvania campaign event—was in Georgia on Saturday, spewing anti-migrant rhetoric to a rally crowd.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden released a lengthy statement and Harris said that "five years ago today, 23 people were killed and 22 others were injured during a mass shooting in El Paso, Texas that was carried out with a weapon of war. It was an act of hate that targeted Latinos."
"Doug and I join the community in remembering those who lost their lives in this senseless act fueled by white supremacy, and we are thinking of those who were injured," she continued, referring to her husband. "As we honor the lives that were taken and support the survivors, we recommit ourselves to achieving a future where every person can live free from gun violence, fear, and hate."
Harris is spending the weekend vetting potential vice presidential candidates, including Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and Govs. Andy Beshear of Kentucky, JB Pritzker of Illinois, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, and Tim Walz of Minnesota.
Kelly's wife is Gabby Giffords, a former Democratic congresswoman who resigned after she survived a 2011 assassination attempt outside a grocery store in Arizona. She now leads a gun violence prevention group called GIFFORDS.
The El Paso tragedy "happened because someone who was fueled by hate was able to easily access a gun," she said in a statement. "Americans deserve better. The Latino community deserves better. People should be able to walk into a Walmart without the fear of being shot."
Giffords also pointed out that five years ago, "hours after a mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, Dayton, Ohio experienced a parallel tragedy outside a bar, when a Saturday night out turned into horror and loss."
"This weekend, I'm thinking of those lost that night and the survivors whose lives were irrevocably changed," she said. "GIFFORDS stands with the Dayton community and we will never give up in our fight to stop gun violence."
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House GOP Plays Politics With Campus Antisemitism While Enabling Islamophobia
The House education committee has not made any efforts to investigate the targeting of Muslim and Palestinian students despite the fact that it keeps happening with sometimes violent consequences.
Apr 23, 2024
The spirit of Joseph McCarthy is alive and well in the halls of Congress. For proof, look no further than the Republican-controlled House education committee's latest hearing focused on investigating allegations of antisemitism at American colleges and universities.
During last week's widely covered hearing, many committee members followed a predictable playbook: mischaracterize any pro-Palestinian student activism as antisemitic, ask incendiary "gotcha" questions about imaginary incidents of antisemitism, and then pressure college leaders to silence young people who advocate for Palestinian human rights.
House committee members like Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) have mastered this artform, which gives them an opportunity to go viral in right-wing media, smear pro-Palestinian students, and virtue signal that they oppose any form of bigotry even as their political party enables nearly every form of bigotry.
Until House committee members stop playing Joseph McCarthy and start taking the threat of anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia seriously, no one should take their dishonest, theatrical, politically motivated hearings seriously.
Months ago, the civil rights and advocacy organization we serve—the Council on American-Islamic Relations—sent a letter to House committee members encouraging them to hold comprehensive hearings focused on not just antisemitism on college campuses, but also incidents of anti-Muslim bigotry and anti-Palestinian racism.
Since then, the House committee has not made any efforts to investigate the targeting of Muslim and Palestinian students despite the fact that it keeps happening with sometimes violent consequences.
At Columbia University, pro-Israel individuals allegedly doused pro-Palestinian students with military-grade "skunk spray," the chemical weapon that the Israeli government infamously uses on Palestinian protesters and worshippers.
At Stanford University, a pro-Palestinian student was hospitalized after being intentionally rammed by a car while protesting.
At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a pro-Israel student ripped down posters held by pro-Palestinian students who were staging a sit-in and physically rammed his way through them.
In Burlington, Vermont, a man opened fire on three Palestinian college students walking around in public wearing the keffiyeh, paralyzing one of them and seriously injuring the other two.
In Austin, Texas, a group of young Muslims who had just attended a protest near the University of Texas were attacked by a ranting racist who attempted to rip their keffiyeh off their vehicle and yanked one of the men and out of the car, stabbing him.
And those are just incidents of violence.
Students who advocate for Palestinians have also faced discriminatory, institutional efforts to silence their voices. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis attempted to shut down Students for Justice in Palestine chapters, only to backtrack when CAIR and our partners filed a federal lawsuit. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order directing schools and universities to investigate and punish students who engage in pro-Palestinian activism.
Meanwhile, numerous schools have smeared and silenced their own students without any prompting from government officials.
Most recently, the University of Southern California claimed that it had to cancel the commencement speech of its Class of 2024 valedictorian, a Muslim biomedical engineer named Asna Tabassum, due to harassment and threats of disruption from pro-Israel voices.
Don't expect any congressional hearings about those incidents from the House education committee, which appears to live in an alternate reality in which anti-Palestinian racism and Islamohphobia do not exist.
The House committee's obsession with investigating only antisemitism is especially problematic because of the difference in power dynamics at play.
Many reported antisemitic incidents on college campuses involve students peacefully expressing views that other students find offensive, while many incidents of anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia on college campuses involve either outright violence or school leaders, prominent advocacy organizations, and government officials wielding institutional power to smear, doxx, and silence students.
It is also important to note that pro-Israel advocacy organizations like the Anti-Defamation League have allegedly exaggerated the number of antisemitic incidents on college campuses.
For example, the ADL's latest data labels as antisemitic any protest at which a member of the crowd chants "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free"—regardless of whether the person chanting it was one person among thousands, regardless of whether the protest was Jewish-led, and regardless of the fact that activists who chant the phrase have repeatedly explained that they are calling for citizens of Israel and Palestine to live together in a single state with equal rights (whereas the Israeli government and its supporters are calling for a permanent state of Palestinian subjugation when they demand "full Israeli security control" from the river to the sea).
To be clear, bigotry is not a competition, real antisemitic incidents on college campuses have undoubtedly risen over the past six months, and any manifestations of antisemitism should be condemned. But so, too, should incidents of anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia.
Here's the truth about why that isn't happening.
Polls show that Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 tend to sympathize with the plight of the Palestinian people far more than older Americans. Instead of addressing or even debating the concerns expressed by those students, many pro-Israel legislators, school leaders, and advocacy organizations prefer to silence those students by simply labeling them antisemitic.
This must end, beginning in Congress.
Until House committee members stop playing Joseph McCarthy and start taking the threat of anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia seriously, no one should take their dishonest, theatrical, politically motivated hearings seriously.
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School Hate Crimes Quadruple in GOP States Attacking LGBTQ+ Rights
"For the activists and politicians writing these laws, this is just a sign that their plan is working," said one rights advocate.
Mar 12, 2024
The Republican Party's hateful policies are having a predictable result: more hatefulness.
The GOP's current targeted attacks on transgender and nonbinary youths are relatively new, with right-wing governors and legislatures in the last few years prioritizing legislation barring young people from living according to their gender identity—but federal data shows the impact the push is already having on the safety of LGBTQ+ kids, with school hate crimes surging in states where attacks on their right to exist have passed.
According to FBI data analyzed by The Washington Post, in states where LGBTQ+ rights have been restricted, an average of about 28 anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes at K-12 schools and colleges were reported annually between 2015-19. The number tripled to an average of 90 in 2021-22.
In just K-12 schools, the average number of hate crimes went up from 13 per year between 2015-19 to 61 per year from 2021-22—more than quadrupling.
Overall, across the country, there was an average of 108 hate crimes at schools reported annually between 2015-19. Between 2021-22, the average more than doubled to 232.
At the same time, counseling services like the Trevor Project and the Rainbow Youth Project have seen a sharp rise in calls from young LGBTQ+ people distressed by the political rhetoric that's seeped into their schools.
"My government hates me," "my school hates me," and "they don't want me to exist" are among the fears that young people in states hostile to LGBTQ+ rights regularly report, Lance Preston, founder and executive director of the Rainbow Youth Project told the Post.
"That... is absolutely unacceptable," he said. "That is shocking."
The surge in anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes did not come as a surprise to advocates including Mark Pitcavage, senior research fellow for the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism.
"Can anybody be surprised if discriminatory laws produce hateful results?" said Pitcavage.
According to the Trevor Project, at least 580 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were being considered in 2023 and at least 53 had been enacted. The Post traced the beginning of the surge back to around 2021.
Recent proposals include a bill advanced by the Florida Legislature to require residents' driver's licenses and ID cards identify them as their sex assigned at birth and a ban on gender-affirming care and transgender students playing on sports teams that match their gender identity in Ohio. The latter was vetoed by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine but later moved forward when lawmakers overrode the veto.
The Post released its analysis weeks after the death of Nex Benedict, a nonbinary student in Oklahoma who used they/them pronouns and died a day after a getting in a physical fight with a group of girls in a school bathroom.
Oklahoma's anti-LGBTQ laws include a ban on gender transition procedures for minors, a law requiring students to use school bathrooms in accordance with their sex assigned at birth, and the so-called Save Women's Sports Act, pertaining to transgender kids on sports teams. The state is also now considering a requirement that schools teach that "a person's sex is an immutable biological trait."
For right-wing politicians and anti-LGBTQ+ activists, said Gillian Branstetter, communications strategist for the ACLU, the surge in hate crimes "is just a sign that their plan is working."
A transgender 17-year-old named Carden, who lives in Virginia, told the Post that he was harassed twice at school this year over his gender identity, and connected the incidents to the mainstreaming of anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric by right-wing politicians.
"Kids parrot these ideas in their head, it's like, 'Oh, my parents think...,'" Carden told the Post. "Then it translates to being mean to other people their age."
The Rainbow Youth Project, which offers a hotline for crisis counseling to at-risk LGBTQ+ youth, said the top reason for calling cited by its clients in 2023 was "political rhetoric." The group recorded an average of about 1,000 calls per month in 2022 and over 1,400 per month last year.
"This legislated hate," said Alejandra Caraballo of Harvard Law Cyberlaw Clinic, "has consequences."
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