Across the United States, organized hate groups have fueled a sharp rise in Islamophobia, whipping up fear and resentment among ordinary Americans against their Muslim neighbors. From Staten Island to Tennessee to Florida, Muslim communities have found themselves under attack simply for exercising their constitutional right to worship.
A Coordinated Campaign of Hate
The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) documented an alarming pattern of anti-Muslim activity spreading across the country. Citizens were protesting mosque constructions, radio hosts were openly calling for violence against Islamic centers, and the incidents were becoming more frequent and more brazen.
“I’ve really never seen this level of Islamophobia in our society. It used to be you’d have an incident here, an incident there. But there seems to be a coordinated campaign, a cottage industry to defame Islam and to marginalize American Muslims.”
Media Silence on Anti-Muslim Violence
Perhaps most disturbing was the mainstream media’s selective silence when Muslims were the victims:
- A mosque in Jacksonville, Florida was bombed, yet not one major national media outlet covered it
- The FBI still had not found the bomber despite the severity of the attack
- Incidents of violence against Muslims routinely received no attention from media or law enforcement
- Attempts by other religious leaders to suppress anti-Muslim outbreaks had largely evaporated
“We just had a bomb attack on a mosque in Florida, but you wouldn’t know about it because not one major media outlet in America covered it.”
The growing atmosphere of public acceptance for anti-Muslim acts puts the entire American Muslim community at risk. When hate goes unchecked and unreported, it emboldens those who wish to do harm and erodes the very freedoms that America claims to champion.
