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Ibrahim Hooper
One has to wonder what Donald Trump will say next as he ramps up his anti-Muslim bigotry. Where is there left for him to go? Are we talking internment camps? Are we talking the final solution to the Muslim question? I feel like I'm back in the 1930s.
We've seen a tremendous rise in the level of anti-Muslim bigotry in our society - and against minorities of all kinds - but we've also seen a tremendous rise in support.
We are strong supporters of First Amendment rights, and we believe free speech is a two-way street. While anyone is free to be an anti-Muslim bigot, on campus or off, CAIR is free to challenge their bigotry by speaking out against the promotion of hatred and intolerance.
Some media outlets refer to 'protesters' and 'militia members,' not 'terrorists,' even though armed antigovernment extremists seizing federal property and expressing a desire to kill and die is a textbook description of domestic terrorism.
What is a Muslim neighborhood? How many Muslims have to be in a neighborhood before it becomes worthy of checking papers and kicking in the doors of homes and businesses?
We condemn any kind of abuse of Muslim women or women anywhere in the world.
There's a sense of being under siege in many Muslim communities. People just assume there are agents or informants in their mosque now. It's a fact of life.
Any faith of more than 1.6 billion people is going to have some of them who falsely justify actions on that faith.
I wouldn't want to create the impression that I wouldn't like the government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future. But I'm not going to do anything violent to promote that. I'm going to do it through education.
When there's no push back against Islamophobic rhetoric, people see that as tacit endorsement of anti-Islamic rhetoric.
We've always had anti-Muslim bigots, but they've always been at the fringes of society.
Whenever some kind of mass shooting or any other kind of violent activity takes place, we kind of hold our breath until we are sure that no Muslim was involved, because we know that these incidents will be treated differently if a Muslim is involved versus if somebody of another background is involved.
I believe Saudi Arabia is the only Muslim country in which churches are prohibited.
Even though the moniker 'Vanilla ISIS' is tongue in cheek, it is a reminder to avoid constantly framing the concept of terrorism through an Islam-centric lens.
A 2014 survey found that 74% of law-enforcement agencies reported antigovernment extremism as one of the top terrorist threats. Just 3% of those agencies viewed the threat from Muslim extremists as severe.
Researchers looked at news programs on major broadcast and cable networks between 2008 and 2012 and found that of those labeled as domestic terrorists, 81% were identifiable as Muslims - this despite the fact that FBI reports from the period studied revealed that only 6% of domestic terrorist suspects were Muslim.
Unfortunately, violent events and hate-filled rhetoric around the world provide ample opportunity for promoting religious hostility.
As forces of hate in this country and worldwide try to pull Muslims and Christians apart, we are in desperate need of a unifying force that can bridge the widening gap of interfaith misunderstanding and mistrust. That force could be the message of love, peace, and forgiveness taught by Jesus and accepted by followers of both faiths.
The Prophet Muhammad himself sought to erase any distinctions between the message he taught and that taught by Jesus, who he called God's 'spirit and word.'
Disrespect toward Jesus, as we have seen all too often in our society, is very offensive to Muslims.
Silence on the part of public officials at the national level only serves to empower Islamophobes.
As mainstream religious leaders of different faiths get together, it strengthens the voice of moderation.
