The Council For American-Islamic Relations Notes That Hate Rates To Muslims And Palestinians In The US Are Increasing

Maryam Mosque in Chicago, United States. (Wikimedia Commons/Zol87)

JAKARTA - The Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) revealed that the soaring rate of hate crimes targeting Muslims and Palestinians in the city of Chicago, United States has raised concerns. US SECTOR branch operations managerbulry Slavin said there had been an increase of 196 percent in hate crimes against Muslims and Palestinians in the city since last October when Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip began. Slavin said the incident occurred in the workplace, school, and public space, where the victims faced consequences for expressing solidarity with Gaza and Palestine. He highlighted that the American Muslim community is facing strict censorship. At work, people were convicted of expressing support for Gaza. On campus, students face administrative sanctions for supporting Palestinian rights, he added. He said the authorities' response in dealing with erratic hate crimes. Some police stations are cooperative, he said, but others need persistent advocacy. In a recent attack on a Palestinian cafe in the Uptown residential area, he said the Chicago Police Department initially refused to classify the incident as a hate crime. "We have to be really persistent until the police department is – until the authorities &ndash agree with us that it is a hate crime," Slavin told Anadolu quoted via Antara, Tuesday, October 10. The increasing anti-Muslim sentiment was also followed by the resurgence of federal surveillance. Slavin compared the current atmosphere to the era after the September 2001 terrorist attack on the US. "We received many calls about inappropriate interactions from the FBI or from federal & helicopter authorities; It's like hunting a witch," he explained. "When the FBI came to people's homes, they were scared and called CAIR to ask what to do," Slavin said. "We've never seen anything like that. It's a very scary new thing going on," he said. He expressed his frustration with the misuse of the term "anisemitism" to silence criticism of Israel's policies. "The real antisemitism, targeting against Jewish religion, is a threat to us (Muslims), a threat to all minorities," he said. "However, when everything is expressed as, 'Oh, this is antisemitism,' 'Oh, you're antisemitizing,' it's just going to turn things down that's not serious," he said. What they did was "legitimate criticism of Israel's policies" and against the various crimes Israel has committed in Gaza and the West Bank, Slavin said. Regarding the killing of Turkish-American activists by Israeli forces in the West Bank, Slavin said it was not an accident. Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was a vocal supporter of Palestinian rights, he said, adding: "We think it was a targeted attack."

"It shows that even if you are an American, if you are a Muslim, the IDF (Israeli army) doesn't care and will erase your humanity until it actually kills you," Slavin said. Slavin said that the Israeli army saw nothing but the resilience of Palestinians "who experienced this brutal genocide."