CAIR WARNS AGAINST INCREASING HATE CRIMES AGAINST MUSLIMS IN US

Washington, 6 Shafar 1437/18 November 2015(MINA) – The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, called on the nationآ’s political and religious leaders to repudiate Islamophobia in the wake of a spike in anti-Muslim incidents following the Paris terror attacks.

“The mainstreaming of Islamophobia by a number of our nationآ’s political and religious leaders has encouraged the latest hate-filled actions of anti-Muslim bigots,” CAIR said on its website released on Wednesday.

CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said “we call on local law enforcement authorities to provide extra patrols in the areas of mosques and Islamic institutions.

“We urge public officials and presidential candidates not to scapegoat American Muslims and not allow Islam to be demonized by Islamophobes or by the anti-Islamic actions or terrorists.”

In the most recent incident, vandals targeted the Islamic Center of Pflugerville near Austin, Texas, covering the door of the mosque in feces and tearing pages of the Quran and throwing them to the ground covered with feces, Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) reported quoting Kuna News.

CAIR is calling on state and federal law enforcement authorities to investigate that vandalism as a hate crime.

CAIR also decried the “un-American” statements by a growing number of Republican governors in opposition to the acceptance of Syrian refugees into their states. “Defeating ISIS involves projecting American ideals to the world.

This un-American rejection of refugees, who will face significant security checks prior to entry, sends entirely the wrong message. Governors who reject those fleeing war and persecution abandon our ideals and instead project our fears to the world,” CAIR said in a statement. (T/R07/R01)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)