While the media manufactured controversy over an Islamic community center near Ground Zero, the real story went largely untold — a nationwide pattern of discrimination, hatred, and violence targeting Muslim Americans and their houses of worship. From Tennessee to California, Georgia to Wisconsin, mosques faced suspicious zoning challenges. In Bridgeport, Connecticut, Christian protesters screamed “Jesus hates Muslims” at worshippers arriving for Friday prayer during Ramadan — including children.
A Growing Pattern of Anti-Muslim Bigotry
The incidents documented in this report paint a disturbing picture: a pipe bombing of a mosque in Jacksonville, Florida, investigated by the FBI as domestic terrorism; a Muslim man beaten in broad daylight in the San Francisco Bay Area while his attackers called him a terrorist; a mother and son assaulted after a softball game in Iowa, the son’s jaw broken and wired shut by attackers who called him “raghead” and “camel jockey.” The attackers in these cases called their victims terrorists — while they themselves were the ones committing violence.
“They are good citizens, they are good Muslims, and they are good human beings. To see them demonized and dragged through the mud for political gain is really reprehensible.”
Religious Freedom Under Threat
- The man behind the New York Islamic center, Feisal Abdul Rauf, spent a decade helping the FBI crack down on domestic security threats — yet was painted as a radical
- Two existing prayer centers had operated near Ground Zero for decades without incident — one since 1970
- Federal law protecting religious freedom was passed by Republican majorities — the same party now leading the anti-Muslim charge
- America was founded by people fleeing religious persecution — restricting Muslims’ rights to worship betrays the nation’s founding principles
“It is not just this mosque in lower Manhattan that is being attacked — it is just about every Islamic center trying to do any kind of construction or expansion across the country. That has to strike everyone as deeply troubling.”
