Posted on 07/03/2007 7:59:06 AM PDT by SmithL
Reports more than doubled from 2005 to 2006, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
The nonprofit organization documented 246 incidents in 2006, up from 113 in 2005.
The Bay Area numbers reflect national numbers, which show episodes of anti-Muslim bias jumping 25 percent. California accounted for nearly one-third of all the complaints.
The report chronicles verbal and physical harassment and circumstances in which Muslims were singled out for questioning, subjected to lengthy delays in immigration or naturalization or otherwise discriminated against. The venues ranged from airports and government agencies to schools, work places and mosques.
And cyberspace.
An e-mail from an angry Danville man to an East Bay blogger triggered one of the complaints.
"Hey, (expletive) bag, get the (expletive) out of my country," it read. "If I run across you in my daily tasks, I will get you."
Twenty-four hours and plenty of dialogue later, the Danville man apologized.
Alia Ansari of Fremont never got an apology. In October 2006, the Afghan mother of six was gunned down as she walked with her 3-year-old daughter. A suspect was arrested, but no motive has been determined. Family members and Muslim leaders suspect her hijab scarf marked her for a hate
"Hate mail is actually quite common," said council spokeswoman Abiya Ahmed. "Compared to the rest of the country, the Bay Area is pretty tolerant, so we're surprised when we get an episode of violence or a case of discrimination against a child."
The rise in reported cases is partly due to the organization's Citizen Delay project, which documents instances in which immigrants are forced to wait beyond the legal limit of 120 days to their citizenship applications processed, Ahmed said. Many have been waiting for years, she said.
Other factors compelling people to report incidents include inflammatory rhetoric on talk radio and by political leaders, and Council workshops that instruct residents about their rights and the steps to take when those rights are abused, Ahmed said.
Legal or immigration problems accounted for 35 percent of all complaints, followed by due process issues and hate mail.
Ahmed herself figured in one of the hate mail complaints. After reading an Oct. 14 commentary in the Contra Costa Times in which Ahmed said all thoughtful Muslims decry violence, an Oakland letter writer sent her a vitriolic missive saying her words were "like poison."
"May you wander in the desert for a thousand years," the letter writer said. "Believe me no one will miss you, or look for you or pine for your return."
In another case, a Contra Costa judge pinch-hitting in a Sacramento Superior Court for the day refused entry to a woman unless she removed her hijab.
In Santa Clara, a man stabbed his Sikh neighbor in the neck, mistakenly believing he was a member of the Taliban. Iqbal Singh was preparing to leave for religious services with his 2-year-old granddaughter when the attack occurred. He survived, and police arrested the suspect.
The agency received 276 reports and found 246 warranted further investigation, Ahmed said. In some cases, council staff members mediated problems. In others, they referred victims to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Complaints of workplace discrimination based on both religion and national origin had been steadily declining since they spiked in 2002 but increased last year, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
"There is a slight increase at certain times," said Azima Subedar, civil rights coordinator for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "We got more calls when the London bombings happened."
The findings struck a chord with attorneys at the Asian Law Caucus, who take cases of employment discrimination, citizenship delays and racial and ethnic profiling.
"Our office continues to see some pretty significant violations against Muslim folks," said attorney Malcolm Yeung. "On an initial glance, you would think, why would one of the most diverse and theoretically progressive areas of the country see so much discrimination? The diversity of the Bay Area doesn't mean you don't have to be vigilant."
Islam needs to be removed by force from the face of the Earth. How’s that for bias?
Muslims are emotionally and mentally retarded. Their culture stunts their development by prohibiting independent thought at a very young age. This is why Muslims seem so illogical and childish to westerners. They are.
Agree! And this goes along with the obligatory headline “Muslim community worried about backlash.” Notice how it always appears right after one of their “peaceful” acts? Then followed by “Law enforcement on the look out for vigilantes.”
There must be a God.
Just saying ©
Holy mackarel!
"non-profit organization??!!??"
How about unregistered agents of foreign hostile governments?
Ummmmm.
Because constant murder worldwide by muslims offend even lobotomized liberals?
Just a wild guess.
bump
What about all the cases of anti-nonMuslim bias, which would include all terrorist attacks, is that on the rise too?
So it looks like there is at least one incident of hate speech or a hate action for every innocent person murdered by Islamofascists somewhere on Earth.
Whoops, I guess that’s hate speech.
I also guess that it is hate speech whenever I point out to my 9-year-old son that there are people in a religion that insist that either he converts or they have the power to kill him.
I also guess it is hate speech when I point out to my Native Alaskan students that Islamic culture would happily and completely destroy their customs, language, and traditions and replace them with shar’ia law and the Koran. Even those cool baseball caps with the words “Native pride” would be banned by practioners of Islam. The more extreme, of course, would either force conversion or kill the Native people, if history is any indication.
I guess it is also hate speech when I tell my sister, who is gay, that some Islamic clerics call for her and her partner to be thrown headfirst from tall buildings.
It’s also hate speech when I tell liberal women that I work with that Islam has a long tradition of preventing women from reading, writing, walking outside the house, wearing clothes that they want, speaking in public, owning property, and keeping their own clitoris.
See? There’s a half-dozen examples of hate speech right there.
You're being unjustifiably kind. CAIR was founded and continue to be run by terrorists (who have moved to the back room):
Links embarrasing to CAIR. Poor babies!
Blame it on Mohammed. These people started the very intolerance for others which they regret when they are the targets of intolerance. They adhere to the tenets of a mediaeval cult which is ill-suited to modern times and has kept its adherents in third world conditions even where the resources have been available for a first world economy and culture. In addition, there are plenty of people who are not moslems who are mired in their own folkways and tiresome and burdensome because of it. We don’t like them either. We are an equal opportunity knocker of the peculiar, and it would be discriminatory not to knock these most peculiar of people.
How can members of a cult that is terrorizing the world EXPECT to be anything but reviled and rejected?
Do Nazis expect love and acceptance- even now? Did they have the temerity to expect acceptance and trust in 1942?
Islam is reaping what it has sown throughout history. Islam is the plague. Those infected by it can expect to be treated as the ‘religion’ they represent is treating humanity. It’s cause and effect- and it’s going to get uglier. An extreme enemy will take extreme measures to defeat.
The only tragedy in the article is the attack on Sikhs. I do hope those people find a way to differentiate themselves from Muslims. But no pity for Muslims, absolutely none, never.
That's like quoting the KKK complaining about white people being discriminted against! LOL!
This is only going to spread and get worse because we all see, that the so called peace loving islamists are not stepping up to the plate and condeming these murderers. THOSE WHO CLOSE THEIR EYES AND SHUT THIER MOUTHS ARE SILENT PARTNERS IN ALL OF THIS!
I’m with you.....I’d like to bitch slap those smelly little men with their women covered folowing them around like little puppies.
I fart in their general direction.
I’m betting most of the reports are bogus too.
BUMP!
Hey !!! I just came up with an awesome solution. Are you ready ? Here it is: If muslims don’t want to be thought of as murderers...they should stop murdering.
I’m a freakin’ genious !!!
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