Arabs, Muslims Report U.S. Hate Crimes

AP via Yahoo News ^ | 03-29-03 | Deborah Kong

[JCG]

Arabs, Muslims Report U.S. Hate Crimes

Sat Mar 29, 4:12 PM ET

By DEBORAH KONG, AP Minority Issues Writer

Muslim, Arab and Sikh groups say reports of backlash crimes are trickling in, and they fear an increase if the war in Iraq (news - web sites) drags on.

Advocates who track such incidents say they've heard about a dozen potential hate crimes — most involving verbal harassment or property damage to Arabs, Muslims and Sikhs — since the war began last week.

"The longer the war goes on and the higher the number of American casualties there, I think probably you can make a correlation there would be more hate crimes and harassment against Arab-Americans and those perceived to be," said Laila Al-Qatami, a spokeswoman for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

Among the incidents, bottles rigged to explode with dry ice and water were tossed into the back yard of a Christian Iraqi-American family in Phoenix, and in Burbank, Ill., an explosive device was thrown into a Muslim family's van, destroying it. Police were investigating whether the cases are hate crimes.

At the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, someone scrawled "Suicide bomb yourselves" in permanent marker on a display board at the Muslim Student Association's offices. In Eugene, Ore., a man was charged with a hate crime after he approached a Sikh woman's car and pointed both index fingers at her, pretending to shoot.

The Sikh Coalition has placed ads in Punjabi-language media urging people to report incidents. After the Sept. 11 attacks, Sikhs were mistakenly associated with Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) because they wear turbans and grow beards as signs of their faith.

"People are misinformed about who Sikhs are," said Harpreet Singh, the coalition's director of community relations, adding that someone spit on his car as he drove recently from New York to Washington, D.C.

Earlier this week, two teenagers were charged with committing a hate crime for allegedly smashing a window at a Villa Park, Ill., mosque as about 100 people prayed inside on March 11.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations has distributed "safety kits" to mosques, community leaders and others with tips on preventing hate crimes, developing relationships with law enforcement, safeguarding legal rights and responding to anti-Muslim incidents.

Some mosques have canceled activities and are carefully watching newcomers, said Omar Haydar, executive director of the council's Chicago chapter.

"It's unfortunate," he said. "The mosque is supposed to make people feel welcome, not someplace where you should be scrutinized."

Advocates agreed the backlash attacks are not comparable to those in the year after the Sept. 11 attacks.

"There are a lot of variables to determine whether or not this will be a severe backlash — how long the war lasts, if there are increasing American casualties, if there are, God forbid, terrorist attacks in retaliation for the war," said Hodan Hassan, a spokeswoman for the council.

[JCG]

I can understand how bombs and property destruction might be perceived as hate crimes. But, graffiti and finger guns? Give me a break.

(The whole hate crime thing is nonsense, of course.)

America's Fifth Column ... watch Steve Emerson/PBS documentary JIHAD! In America
Download 8Mb File Here (Requires RealPlayer)

Who is Steve Emerson?

[EternalVigilance]

Islam is a hate crime.

[GirlShortstop]

Some mosques have canceled activities and are carefully watching newcomers, said Omar Haydar, executive director of the council's Chicago chapter.

"It's unfortunate," he said. "The mosque is supposed to make people feel welcome, not someplace where you should be scrutinized."

** Bull$hit alert ** all the way around with the drivel... the mosques are Anti-American Hate Speech arenas.

[tomahawk]

Another media-fabricated story.

[B Knotts]

"Verbal harassment" is not a crime, so it can't be a hate crime.

[verity]

By DEBORAH KONG, AP Minority Issues Writer

What a surprise.

[Gil4]

He c-c-called m-m-eee a naaammme. Waaaaaaaaaaaaah <>

[happygrl]

You have nailed it.

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

Just for everyone's information. Just the other day, I was talking with a fellow out of Austin about a car he had for sale. He said some Pakistanis (generally Muslim) were very abusive towards him about the price of sale. They didn't even want to drive the car and barely inspected it...they just wanted him to sell it for an outrageously low price. I wonder if anyone else has evidence of this sort of thing going on by ANY foreign national living in the U.S. and trying to take advantage of our economic malaise?

[TLBSHOW]

islam is a bloody cult

[cake_crumb]

9/11/01 attacks were hate crimes. 'Verbal abuse' and 'graffiti' don't come anywhere close. Muslim apologist groups are really stretching it in order to find some small justification for their cult of victimhood.

[Alouette]

People are getting sick fedup and disgusted with these whining crybabies. Mohammedan crybabies have 2 choices:

1. Return to the "Islamic sharia paradise" country of their choice.

2. Beg to be placed in "protective custody" facilities (AKA "internment" camps.)

[LS]

I wish they were as concerned with Muslim on Muslim "hate crimes." Or the suicide bombing in Israel today.

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

At the village's municipal building, a fallen sign read, ''In the name of God the most merciful, God loves those who kill for His sake. Ansar al-Islam in Kurdistan. Military corps. Al Fatah Division.''

From a just-posted story about Al-Ansar Islam militants. When are the media and some people in the U.S. going to wake up? I advocate controlled deportation of anyone of that religion advocating anti-U.S. sentiments. Immediately.

[TLBSHOW]

The facts are: (1) Nineteen male immigrants of Middle-Eastern descent recently murdered thousands of civilians on our shores in a coordinated attack; (2) other people answering to the same description have been apprehended in the country as suspected co-conspirators; and (3) according to the attorney general, there are more sleeper terrorist cells at large that the government has yet to identify.

Complaints about heightened suspicions toward people who fit the description of fanatical Islamists go well beyond opposing indiscriminate hate. It is a demand that Americans not even have their antennae up.

Focusing on men of Middle-Eastern appearance is less "profiling" than suspect identification. It is in keeping with the standard police practice of not looking for people over 6 feet tall when the eyewitnesses tell you the perp is 5 feet 2 inches. When looking for the Unabomber, I promise you – the FBI wasn't rousting Asians or Arabs.

As unfair as it sounds, deporting immigrants from suspect countries will actually minimize cruelties toward vast numbers of vaguely Arabic-looking people. Although many immigrants will be swept up unfairly, all the Sikhs, Hindus and Arab Christians will be relieved to discover they don't scare people anymore.
http://www.anncoulter.org/columns/2001/100401.htm

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

Oh, and here's the link to the other story:

Click here.

[Semi Civil Servant]

In Eugene, Ore., a man was charged with a hate crime after he approached a Sikh woman's car and pointed both index fingers at her, pretending to shoot.

How horrible! Was the woman hospitalized? (/sarcasm off)

[cardinal4]

Islam is a hate crime.

Yes it is, but Indians and Sikhs are not.

[The Magical Mischief Tour]

These animals have no comprehension of what hate crimes are.

They have no idea what hell on earth would await them if they were to import to the US of A the daily suicide and homicide attacks they have perpetrated upon Israel.

Once that level of terror began here the “good ole boys” from where I grew up would surly introduce these subhuman animals to the true meaning of hate.

Suicide bomb an elementary school in South Georgia, kill two or three hundred children on a daily basis and see what hate really looks like.

TMMT

[Bernard]

Where are the reports of danicing in the American street? (THe news agency would be Al Gorzeera)