Discrimination against Muslims continues to grow in America, where Islamophobic rhetoric is used to smear Muslims and undermine their continuous strive for inclusion, according to a report by America’s largest Muslim civil rights group.
“There is an increase in civil rights cases, the highest reported to CAIR since the foundation of this report,” Nihad Awad, National Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), told.
The group released earlier Thursday its 14th annual report on the state of Muslims civil rights in the US.
The report the only annual study of its kind offers a summary of incidents of anti-Muslim violence, discrimination and harassment reported to CAIR during 2008.
“Overall, the number of cases reported to CAIR during 2008 is up to 2728 cases of discrimination or civil rights complaints,” said Awad.
This marks a 3 percent increase from the number of cases reported in 2007 and 11 percent increase from 2006.
Nine states and the District of Columbia accounted for almost 80 percent of all reported incidents.
Click to Read CAIR Annual Report
“The state of Virginia and Washington DC had the highest percentages,” said Awad.
The report, “Seeking Full Inclusion,” shows Muslims continue to suffer from profiling, surveillance and undue scrutiny by authorities.
“The most common places of occurrence for civil rights violations remain Muslim organizations and mosques.”
CAIR has been publishing its annual report since the 1995 Oklahoma bombing, after which the perpetrator’s unsubstantiated linkage to Islam prompted stereotyping, harassment and actual attacks on Muslims around America, estimated at between seven to eight millions.
Islamophobic Rhetoric
CAIR laments that Islamophobic rhetoric is growing.
“Certain individuals and institutions persisted in profiting by smearing Islam.
“Powerful influencers can use the false premise that ‘friendliness to Muslims equals weakness on national security’ to troubling effect.”
The 43-page report cites the presidential elections as one of the troubling examples of bigotry and Islamophobic propaganda in 2008.
“Islamophobic remarks and actions continued throughout America’s presidential election campaign.
“A major theme relating to anti-Muslim bigotry in the presidential campaign was the use of Islam as a smear.”
Many conservative commentators and media kept insisting that Barack Obama, the son of a Christian mother and a Muslim-turned-atheist Kenyan father, was a Muslim in disguise.
The CAIR report also dismissed the “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West” movie as another major example of bigoted rhetoric in 2008.
Some 28 million copies of the film were distributed in 14 states, mainly key presidential election battlegrounds, before the vote.
“The distribution of that film revealed that ‘fear-for-votes’ efforts can draw large amounts of financial support,” said CAIR.
Hooper told a decline in hate crimes is “a good indicator that there is place for optimistic outlook.”
Optimism
Despite the growing trend of discrimination against Muslims, America’s largest Muslim civil rights group highlighted reasons for optimism.
“Anti-Muslim hate crime complaints fell by 14 percent this year,” said the report.
“It is a good indicator that there is place for optimistic outlook because hate crimes are the most powerful manifestation of anti-Muslim feelings in our society,” Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR Communications Director, told IOL.
He also cited other reasons for optimism, including an emerging rejection of and opposition to Islamophobia.
“At least we had someone like Colin Powell saying publicly what if Obama was a Muslim, and we had senator [John] McCain rejecting the claim that President Obama is a Muslim in a public forum,” said Hooper.
“There are two competing trends and we hope new emerging one wins up.”
The CAIR report concludes with a number of recommendations for action by the Obama administration, Congress and American Muslim institutions.
It urges the administration to reduce the size of the watch lists, and appoint and empower the privacy and civil liberties oversight board.
The Muslim groups also called on President Obama to visit to an American mosque.
“A speech or high profile visit to an American mosque would be a powerful message.
“The symbolic importance of such a visit cannot be understated.”
-Agencies