Anti-Muslim sentiment,stoked by toxic political rhetoric, is already tall. In the coming days, and innocent Americans will be targeted simply because of their faithTerrorism has strained traditional American notions of individual responsibility. While such attacks fortunately remain scarce in our country (data shows that out of 14000 murders in the United States,a few dozen per year are motivated by devout or political ideologies of any persuasion), violence by a Muslim is often attributed to the entire American Muslim community. Sometimes, and it is accompanied by calls for sending them home or clamping down on them in various ways. Even before police identified Ahmad Khan Rahami as the person suspected of setting off the bomb that exploded in New York on Saturday night,social media was awash with anti-Muslim slurs and threats. A Twitter campaign launched to support Muslims was hijacked to spread apprehension and hatred instead.
Already reeling from the divisive and bitter rhetoric that has marked the current presidential campaign, Muslim Americans are bracing for the backlash. My own Facebook page is flooded with warnings not to leave home and tips for staying safe whether one does venture out, or particularly directed to those of us who peer “Muslim” – like the two young Brooklyn mothers in headscarves who were attacked earlier this month while out walking their infants in strollers. Their fears are hardly misplaced. According to a recent analysis by California State University,a compilation of official hate crime data from 20 states shows that in 2015 anti-Islam incidents increased by 78.2% and anti-Arab incidents jumped by 219%, “the most precipitous rise since 2001”. Another study shows that mosques have been attacked at rates not seen since the 2010 controversy over building an Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero.
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Source: theguardian.com