Published September 09,2024
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A rising variety of hate crimes concentrating on Muslims and Palestinians within the US metropolis of Chicago is elevating issues, in keeping with an official on the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
Maggie Slavin, operations supervisor on the CAIR department within the Midwestern US metropolis, advised Anadolu that there was a 196% enhance in hate crimes towards Muslims and Palestinians within the metropolis since final October, when Israel’s ongoing offensive towards the Gaza Strip started.
Slavin mentioned the incidents are occurring in workplaces, colleges, and public areas, with people going through penalties for expressing solidarity with Gaza and Palestine.
She highlighted that the Muslim American group is going through tight censorship. In workplaces, individuals are punished for expressing help for Gaza, and on campuses, college students face administrative sanctions for advocating Palestinian rights, she added.
She mentioned authorities’ response to the rise in hate crimes is “uncertain.” While some police departments are cooperative, she mentioned, others require persistent advocacy.
On a current assault on a Palestinian-owned cafe within the residential space of Uptown, she mentioned the Chicago Police Department initially declined to categorise the incident as a hate crime.
“We have to be absolutely relentless until that police department-until the authorities-agree with us that it was a hate crime,” she mentioned.
Nabala Cafe, a Palestinian-owned cafe in Uptown that shows a Palestinian flag, was attacked final week.
– Actual antisemitism risk to all minorities
The rise in anti-Muslim sentiment can be being echoed by the resurgence of federal surveillance. Slavin in contrast the present ambiance to the period after the September 2001 terrorist assaults within the US.
“We’ve gotten a lot of calls about inappropriate interactions from the FBI or from federal authorities … This kind of feels like a witch hunt,” she defined.
When the FBI reveals up at folks’s doorways, they’re frightened and name CAIR to ask what to do, Slavin mentioned. “We haven’t seen anything like that,” she famous. “That’s kind of a very scary new thing that’s happening.”
She expressed frustration with the misuse of the time period “antisemitism” to stifle criticism of Israel’s insurance policies.
“Actual antisemitism, the actual targeting of the Jewish faith, is a threat to us (Muslims), it’s a threat to all minorities,” she mentioned.
“But when everything is thrown out as, ‘Oh, it’s antisemitic,’ ‘Oh, you’re being antisemitic,’ it just whittles that down to not being a serious thing,” she underlined.
What they’re doing is “a legitimate criticism of Israel’s policies” and what Israel has been doing in Gaza and the West Bank, she mentioned.
– Killing of Turkish American activist was ‘focused assault’
On current killing of a Turkish American activist by Israeli forces within the West Bank, Slavin mentioned it was no accident. Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was a vocal advocate for Palestinian rights, she mentioned, including: “We think that it was a targeted attack.”
“It just goes to show that even if you’re American, if you are Muslim, the IDF (Israeli army) do not care and will erase your humanity to the point of actually murdering you.”
Slavin mentioned the Israeli military see nothing however resilience from Palestinians “who are experiencing this brutal genocide.”
Doing something lower than being resilient could be a “dishonor” to Palestinians, she mentioned.
Source: www.anews.com.tr