Rising Islamophobia irks U.S. Muslim organizations

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Thursday 28 May 2015 - 13:42 Makkah mean time-10-8-1436 Photo: Anadolu Agency Washington (IINA) – Muslim leaders in Washington said that Islamophobia was on rise particularly after the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks but its frequency and notoriety has increased in the U.S. during the past decade, Anadolu Agency reported. Some even argue that there are those who have a very clear agenda to propagate stereotypes about Islam. The burning of a mosque in Texas and fliers distributed on the streets of Boston demanding that Islamic State (Daesh) surrender within 72 hours or Muslims in Europe and the U.S. will be killed are recent examples of anti-Muslim sentiments across the U.S.  But while there is an existing discourse in the U.S. that targets Muslims, particularly after the 9/11 attacks, it appears that the Daesh militant group has placed added pressure on Muslims. Politicians and religious leaders in Muslim countries have condemned Daesh – which operates in Syria and Iraq – but more than a quarter of Americans and nearly half of senior Protestant pastors say Daesh offers a true representation of Muslims, according to a pair of new surveys conducted earlier this year by LifeWay – a research company. The Washington-based Brooking Institution suggested in February that Americans’ hatred toward Islam has grown since the rise of Daesh, and 14 percent of Americans believe the group has the support of the majority Muslims around the world. Ibrahim Hooper, the Communications Director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a national Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, said that even after 9/11 there was a reserve of goodwill for American Muslims, so even though Muslims and mosques were attacked, a majority of the American people reacted in favor of Muslims and supported them. But since Daesh has been on the scene "unfortunately we are seeing rising levels of anti-Muslim sentiment in our society,” Hooper said. He said the prejudice toward Muslims can’t be attributed only to Daesh. "There is also an organized industry promoting Islamophobia in America, founded by millions of dollars and promoted by networks and Internet hate sites. So it is created artificially and that is why we get incidents like we saw in New York. Because the individual that planned the attack on the community in New York actually got the idea from the right wing media since it was portrayed as a training camp for terrorists, which is absolutely false in reality," Hooper said, referring to 63-year-old Robert Doggart who was arrested in April for plotting a deadly attack against a mosque and school in a Muslim village in New York state using guns, explosives and a machete. AB/IINA