Islamophobia has taken root and become part of the structure of racism that exists,’ says US’s largest Muslim advocacy group
Hate crimes against Muslims skyrocketed immediately after the 9/11 attacks. / Photo: AA Archive
More than two decades after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, discrimination and hatred of Muslims in the US still exist to the ire of America’s largest Muslim civil rights advocacy group.
“After 22 years, unfortunately, Islamophobia has taken root and become part of the structure of racism that exists in parts of our country,” said Hussam Ayloush, chief executive officer of the California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CA).
Ayloush told the Anadolu news agency that nearly one million of the estimated five million Muslims living in the US reside in the state of California and pointed out that harassment and prejudice against the Muslim community remain prevalent decades after 9/11.
“More than 50 percent of Muslim students in California face some form of verbal and physical bullying at public schools just for being Muslim,” said Ayloush.
“In addition, there are still government watchlists for nearly 1.6 million people, almost all of whom are Muslim, who have their names on the travel watchlist or have Muslim-sounding names.”
“The types of abuses that came out of 9/11 that the government took part in became a part of how Islamophobia evolved,” he continued.
“Muslims being harassed at airports, having the FBI conduct searches as well as plant informants at mosques and giving federal agencies like the FBI and CIA the green light to track Muslims from other countries such as Syria, Libya and Sudan.”
Source: TRT WORLD
