The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a civil rights organization that tracks hate crimes, said that the number of organized anti-Muslim hate groups in the United States nearly tripled last year. The SPLC report also found that there are now more than 900 active hate groups across the US, ranging from neo-Nazi groups to racist black separatist organizations. Jewish community centers and schools in the United States have also received several waves of hoax bomb threats since the beginning of this year, prompting fears of an increase in anti-Semitism.
On April 5, 2017, the US Senate passed a resolution condemning hate crime and any other form of racism, religious or ethnic bias, discrimination, incitement to violence, or animus targeting a minority in the United States. The resolution was introduced by Democratic Senator Kamla Harris from California. It was approved by Unanimous Consent. The resolution calls on federal law enforcement officials, working with state and local officials, to: (1) expeditiously investigate all credible reports of hate crimes and incidents and threats against minorities in the United States, and (2) bring the perpetrators to justice.
Hijab (headscarf)
Anti-veil/hijab sentiments are on the rise in the US. No doubt veil/hijab is provoking animosity against Muslim women. This animosity some time becomes violent. Veil is rarely used by American Muslim women but simply using headscarf makes them target of hate attacks. In May last, a tragic incident occurred when two men were assassinated while trying to stop a white supremacist from abusing two young Muslim women on a train in Portland, Oregon. One of the Muslim women was wearing hijab. One of the men who intervened died on the train. The other died later in hospital.
There are incidents of scarf snatching across America. Here are chilling examples of anti-hijab (headscarf) incidents:
In April, a 14-year-old Muslim girl's headscarf was ripped off by an unidentified man yelling "terrorist" in the state of Georgia. The victim was walking with a group in the parking lot of Perimeter Mall in Atlanta when the man approached and fled after snatching the hijab.
In May, a teacher at a New York school was fired after he ripped the hijab off an 8-year-old girl's head for "misbehaving" in class.
In Aug, the city of Long Beach, CA, agreed to pay $85,000 to settle a federal lawsuit filed by Kirsty Powell, an African American Muslim woman, whose hijab was pulled off by a male officer while she was in police custody. Her lawsuit, filed in 2016, prompted the Long Beach Police Department to reverse its policy barring inmates from wearing religious head coverings.
In Nov, a Nashville (Tennessee) charter school suspended a teacher after video emerged showing a student's hijab being pulled off during class. In two videos posted to Snapchat, the student was seen covering her face as her head covering is removed in the classroom.
Also in Nov, another incident of headscarf pulling happened in Virginia when a Muslim student, Yasmin Yahye reported that her teacher removed her headscarf without her consent and has since then she has experienced cyberbullying.
Not surprisingly, on December 9, interfaith groups held a rally outside Dillard's in Garland, Texas, to protest Dillard's "no-hijab" policy. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and law firm Tremain Artaza PLLC filed a Complaint of Discrimination with the Texas Workforce Commission against Dillard's on behalf of a young Muslim woman who was refused employment due to her hijab.
In March, this year a decision by the European Union Court of Justice allowed employers to ban headscarf using Muslim women from work. It was denounced by many American Muslims who see this biased decision as an attack on their faith.
On March 14, the European Union Court of Justice said private businesses in Europe can forbid Muslim women in their employ from wearing headscarves if the ban is part of a policy of neutrality within the company and not a sign of prejudice against a particular religion. Such a ban doesn't constitute what the court calls "direct discrimination."
The verdict by the highest court in the 28-nation European Union was in response to two cases brought by a Belgian and a French woman, both fired for refusing to remove their headscarves. France already bans headscarves and other religious symbols in classrooms as well as face-covering veils in streets.
Some non-Muslim communities may justify this biased court order as a way of helping Muslim women better integrate into western societies. However, many American Muslims don't agree. To borrow Khalid Saeed, President of American Muslim Voice, a leading American Muslim organization, the EU court's decision was biased because attacks on headscarf in the US and Europe happen as attack on what is considered as an Islamic symbol.
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