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CAIR REPORT - May 11, 2005
The status of Muslim civil rights in the United States – 2005
Sample Cases from 2004 CAIR Civil Rights Database
Hate Crimes:
March 21st, 2003 – A Muslim American family of Palestinian descent became victim of property damage when their van was bombed outside their home in the Chicago suburb of Burbank, Illinois. The individual responsible for the crime had been convicted earlier of criminal damage to property in 2001 for vandalizing an Arab-owned furniture store two days after the 9/11 attacks [206].
December 12th, 2003 – A Muslim woman was shopping in a New York toy store when a man followed her, verbally accosted and assaulted her [207]. She reported the incident to the police and the attacker was arrested.
March 2nd, 2004 – In San Diego, a man of Portuguese descent was beaten by a group of four white men who mistook him for being Middle Eastern. They yelled racial slurs at him and told him to go back to Iraq.
March 3rd, 2004 - A San Antonio, Texas man [208] was sentenced to 30 years in prison for setting a series of fires at Muslim-owned convenience stores and other businesses in the city. The County District Attorney referred to the man as a ‘terrorist’ [209] for his connection with another attack against a Muslim-owned business when the arsons began in 2003. [210]
April 24th, 2004 – A Muslim woman and her son were harassed, threatened and attacked by another woman while shopping in Pennsylvania. The woman yelled that American troops were fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan so that women did not have to dress like her and also hit her with her cart repeatedly. Employees of the store refused to call security when she requested that they do so and did not assist her in finding a phone to call the police.
May 27th, 2004 - A Muslim man and his family were verbally harassed by a patron while eating at a restaurant in Florida. The offender called them ‘terrorists’. When the Muslim man complained, the manager elected to remove him from the premises instead of the offender.
June 21st, 2004 – A Muslim man reported that while riding on a van that runs from New York to his home in Paterson, New Jersey, a group of Latino males harassed him. They hit him on his arm and made comments like, "take the bombs off before I kill you." The driver did not say anything until they began cursing him in Spanish at which point she asked them to stop.
June 26th, 2004 – While driving home in Illinois, a Muslim woman was harassed and physically assaulted. Three individuals asked her for a lighter. When she replied that she did not have one, they became angry and said, “Stupid Muslims. F-cking Muslims” as they surrounded her car and repeatedly kicked it. When the victim stepped out of her car to confront them, one of the individuals punched her in the face and tore her hijab from her head.
July 14th, 2004 – A Muslim-owned grocery store was torched and completely destroyed. Anti-Arab slurs that read, “F-ck you Arab” were found spray-painted on the scene.
July 30th, 2004 – A Muslim woman from New York was soliciting donations on behalf of a charitable organization when she was verbally and physically attacked.
August 6th, 2004 – A Muslim-owned market was burned down in Texas.
August 13th, 2004 – A cabbie in New York was punched in the face while driving a cab near Ground Zero after the offender said to him, "You are Muslim [211]." The offender was drunk and later charged with third degree assault and harassment.
August 23rd, 2004 – In Tucson, Arizona [212], a Muslim family of Jordanian origin reported that their car was vandalized in the parking lot of their apartment building. Allegedly the car's tires were slashed and the windshield was smashed. A note taped to the vehicle read, “You are not welcome here. Go back home you stupid f-ckers.”
September 12th, 2004 – In California, a Muslim man and his children placed an order at a drive through Burger King, when he overheard an employee say to his co-workers, "Look, Osama Bin Laden" is here.
October 27th, 2004 – A community member filed a report of graffiti on a METRA stop in Illinois that read, “Kill all Muslims B4 they kill U.”
October 29th, 2004 – Two Staten Island men were arrested and charged with hate crimes for allegedly hitting a Muslim student at Stony Brook University [213] while shouting anti-Muslim slurs. Suffolk County police charged the 19 and 20-year old with criminal trespass in the second degree and aggravated harassment in the second degree as a hate crime. The two men allegedly knocked on a student's door and awoke him at about 4 a.m. The victim said he opened the door and the two men went into his room and began throwing items at him, hitting him and overturning furniture, all the while calling him anti-Muslim names.
December 1st, 2004 – In Chesterfield, Virginia, a Sikh-owned gas station was destroyed by fire and anti-Muslim graffiti was found on a nearby trash container and shed. The fire is being investigated as an arson and possible hate crime.
December 21st, 2004 – A fire that took place at a used car lot in Nebraska is being investigated as arson and a hate crime. Swastikas were spray-painted on the walls. Most of the graffiti involves derogatory references to Latinos and Arabs.
Harassment:
March 25th, 2004 – A Muslim man went to his local fire department to pick up a child safety seat. As he approached the building, a part-time fire fighter tried to block his entry while making the following statements: "Why should I let you in? Are you a terrorist? What are you going to do?"
August 8th, 2004 – A man was verbally harassed as he exited a mosque in Florida after Friday prayers. The assailant called him epithets such as “A f-ing Muslim”, and told him, “…if you breathe on me, I will die”.
August 10th, 2004 -A Muslim man on his morning commute in Virginia reported that a car tailgated him, then went up beside him and yelled, "…f-ing terrorist, filthy motherf-ing raghead go back to the desert where you came from" and then got in front of him and slammed on his brakes.
December 30th, 2004 - In California, a Muslim woman wearing hijab was pushing a stroller with her baby in it on the sidewalk when a man in a truck almost ran her over exiting a gas station. When she exclaimed, "You almost killed me and my baby!" The man replied, "It wouldn't have been a big loss."
Mosque Vandalism:
February 23rd, 2004 – A mosque was set ablaze in Texas, resulting in $50,000 worth of damage.
June 22nd, 2004 – Cans of beer and liquor bottles were thrown at a mosque in New Jersey.
June 24th, 2004 – 25 dead fish were dumped in the parking lot of an Islamic center in Houston [214].
June 24th, 2004 – An individual defaced a mosque in St. Louis, Missouri by painting a swastika on the side of the mosque.
June 24th, 2004 – An Islamic educational center in Texas was vandalized by an individual who smeared, "Kill all Muslims!!! Whose transgressions killed my father!! You killed my sister!!! Now I seek to kill you!!!" in graffiti on the building.
September 10th, 2004 – A brick was thrown through a mosque window in Kentucky.
December 8th, 2004 – A mosque was burned down in Arizona.
December 12th, 2004 - A fire that investigators later determined was deliberately set destroyed The Al-Baqi Islamic Center in Massachusetts [215].
February 23rd, 2005 - Several bullet holes were discovered by community members in the main dome of a Houston mosque.
March 2nd, 2005 - A Texas man was indicted for an alleged arson attack on the Islamic Center in El Paso. The offender fashioned two incendiary devices and threw one at the Islamic Center.
Discrimination in Schools:
January 25th, 2004 – A substitute teacher for an 11th grade history class in Pennsylvania told her students that “all Muslims are rootless [sic] and the war in Iraq is OK even killing Muslims is ok” because they killed her family in Armenia. The school will now refuse to employ that substitute teacher.
May 3rd, 2004 – In Florida, a Muslim high school student was viciously attacked and beaten by another student who ripped off her headscarf. School security guards failed to stop the fight until they were urged to interfere by another student.
June 4th, 2004 – In New York, two Muslim high school students were prohibited from attending graduation ceremonies because they wore hijab. The denial to participate in graduation was allegedly accompanied with other derogatory remarks, such as “if we let you wear your head covering, then the Africans would wear their robes.”
June 9th, 2004 - An article in the New York Post [216] stated that a 12-year-old Muslim child was beaten and subjected to anti-Muslim slurs in a Staten Island school.
August 26th, 2004 – A Muslim student visiting the United States as part of a State Department foreign exchange student program was prohibited from wearing hijab to school by her principal in California.
September 30th, 2004 -A substitute teacher at a high school in Florida told his class that the Quran is full of lies and that they should not read it.
October 29th, 2004 – Muslims were verbally and physically assaulted upon passing a fraternity house on a college campus in Illinois. Offenders referred to them as “F-cking terrorists.”
Passenger Profiling:
June 14th, 2004 – During a flight departing from Houston International Airport, a Muslim man switched seats with another man who wanted to sit next to his girlfriend. A flight attendant came and said that he had to switch back to his original seat because he had to stay in his assigned seat. The Muslim man complied, not wanting to make any trouble. At this point, a second flight attendant came and told him that they had received a complaint about his suspicious behavior and that he needed to disembark from the plane. The man refused, saying that he was doing nothing wrong, only reading a book. A third flight attendant came and said he had to leave because he was creating a disturbance. When he again refused, the flight attendant made a loud general appeal to the cabin, asking, "Does anyone have a complaint with this man," to which a man replied “yes, kick him off the plane," and another woman said, "I don’t know why these people can’t understand how we do things here in America." Again he refused, and the flight attendant said, "Don’t try anything else because security has already been notified in Baton Rouge (his destination) and they will handcuff you as soon as you land." The flight proceeded without incident.
December 1st, 2004 – On his way home from Paris, France, an American Muslim citizen was told that he would not be allowed on the plane before the airline received confirmation from Washington that he could board. After waiting for about an hour, he, his wife, and 4 children, including his 1-year-old-baby, were put on the high security list and searched from head to toe. When he landed in Philadelphia, the immigration officer asked him to follow him into a back room where he insisted that he had a middle name and a tribal name. The officer said that he was waiting for officials in Washington to confirm if he should be detained further. Several other agents came to interrogate him, including a custom officer, who examined every item in his wallet.
Unreasonable Arrest:
June 10th, 2004 – In Colorado, a Muslim family’s house was raided by IRS and FBI agents with guns drawn. The family was told it was an IRS investigation and the agents proceeded to ask questions pertaining to religion such as "Are you Shiite or Sunni?" They were also asked about “the leadership of the Sunnis and Shias and which was stronger" and about “Hamas, Hezbollah, and suicide bombings.” Finally, they were asked, “if the US went to war with Iran, which side would you be on?" The family felt the questions were inappropriate for an IRS investigation. Agents removed all personal items with non-English writing, including CDs, and their young daughter’s personal diary.
July 1st, 2004 – When a Muslim woman and her husband were taking pictures of a train station for an advertising proposal in New Jersey, a security guard questioned them and called several police officers and a detective to the scene. The couple feels they were profiled, but the officers insisted that this was standard policy after September 11th.
July 28th, 2004 – In New York, mall security guards called the police because a group of Muslims were performing their prayers in the parking lot.
October 11th, 2004 – In Minneapolis, a Muslim student of Somali background wearing hijab was pulled over by police. Officers searched her car and threw all of her belongings on the street. Other Muslim witnesses were told by the police that if they tried to help her gather her things, they would be arrested. She was humiliated in public, left on the side of the street, with her belongings strewn on the ground, including her Islamic books and Qur’an.
Workplace Discrimination
February 1st, 2004 – A Muslim man from California reported that his co-worker called him a "F-cking Egyptian terrorist," and also made remarks that he was associated with terrorists.
March 1st, 2004 – A Muslim man was the subject of racial harassment and discrimination at his place of employment in California. His coworkers called him a ‘terrorist’, ‘bomb maker’,
‘Osama Bin Laden’, and ‘Saddam Hussein’. They also accused him of going to the mosque to “learn how to make bombs."
April 6th, 2004 – A Muslim woman working in Maryland was fired for wearing hijab.
July 27th, 2004 – In Illinois, a Muslim man was subjected to name-calling by his coworkers who referred to him as "Terrorist" and "Bin Laden." He was also accused by coworkers of wanting to blow up the facility and that he had bombs in his car.
November 19th, 2004 – After being hired as senior director of clinical programs, a Muslim man in California reported that he was fired after three months and was told it was because his “cultural background was unfit for the level of the position” he had.
December 30th, 2004 – A Muslim woman in Virginia reported that her supervisor told her, "you didn't go to Saudi Arabia for religious reasons, you went to make bombs to blow up buildings," and told her co-workers that "…you are working with a terrorist.”
The Justice Department says it has investigated more than 600 incidents of backlash since the September 11 attacks and that it has won convictions against 22 of the 27 defendants that it chose to prosecute.
206 Supra note 195. 207 See Rocco Parascandola, “Muslim Assaulted With Toy in Brooklyn Store,” NEW YORK NEWSDAY, Apr. 23 2003 available at http://www.newsday.com/mynews/ny-nybias233250054apr23.story 208 Supra note 197.
209 Id. 210 Id.
211 See “CAIR: Texas Muslim Store Torched, N.Y. Muslim Beaten; 'Go Home' Painted on Store, Cabbie told 'You are
Muslim',” Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Press Release, August 13 2004.
212 Supra note 201.
213 See also Bill Mason, “Muslim student is attacked” New York Newsday, October 30, 2004 at A11.
214 Supra note
214 Supra note 196.
215 Supra note 200.
216 See https://www.cair-net.org/default.asp?Page=articleView&id=33515&theType=NB
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