Saeed Khan wrote the background information for the two-day “Islamophobia: The Disappearing Public Muslim” virtual conference being held Saturday and Sunday and opened it with a discussion of current events.
The Islamic Human Rights Commission seeks to address anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hate crimes during a two-day virtual conference held Saturday and Sunday.
“The genocide in Gaza has brought into specific relief the forces that have mobilized in many Western countries to stifle and squash any expressions of solidarity with the Palestinians,” representatives for the London-based non-governmental organization alleged in the event announcement. Advertisement
The IHRC has previously been accused of pro-Iranian bias. In a 2023 review ordered by Britain’s House of Commons, report author William Shawcross described the IHRC as “an Islamist group ideologically aligned with the Iranian regime, that has a history of “extremist links and terrorist sympathies.”
“In countries like the U.S., U.K., France and Germany, pre-existing sentiments of Islamophobia have gained new and bolder currency,” the IHRC said,” with suppression of free speech, press and the right to assemble and protest coming from both the public and private sectors.” Advertisement
The IHRC said “selective outrage” begets “selective enforcement of laws and regulations under the guise of maintaining order, security and protecting allegedly unsafe communities.”
“The net result is a chilling effect on Muslims being full and equal participants in the public sphere,” the IHRC said, “restricting not only what they profess and practice, but also their mere presence in society.”
The Islamophobia conference is being held after President Joe Biden on Thursday announced the United States’ first national strategy to counter Islamophobia and anti-Arab hate.
The strategy calls for raising awareness of hatred against Muslims and Arabs while recognizing their respective heritages and improving their safety and security.
The strategy also seeks to address discrimination against Arabs and Muslims while supporting their religious practices – especially in federally funded activities.
Building cross-community solidarity that treat threats against one group as threats against all also is a keystone of the national strategy to reduce and potentially eliminate all types of hate crimes.
Biden’s plan is “too little, too late,” the Council of American-Islamic Relations said Thursday in an online statement. CAIR is a U.S. Muslim advocacy group and think tank. Advertisement
CAIR called Biden a “mass murderer” for supporting Israel in the war started when Hamas attacked and killed about 1,200 Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, 2023, and took about 250 hostages.
“If President Biden truly cared about the safety of Muslims or reducing the threat of Islamophobia, he would make major changes to federal programs that perpetuate anti-Muslim discrimination.” CAIR officials said.
CAIR cited a federal watch list as an example of ways in which it says the U.S. federal government perpetuates anti-Muslim sentiment.
CAIR also denounced the Biden administration’s support of Israel and said “dehumanizing anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim rhetoric” is used to justify what it called “genocide in Gaza” while silencing Israel’s critics.
While the Islamophobia conference continues, attacks on Arabs and Muslims are on the rise in New York and elsewhere.
CAIR reported 4,951 hate crimes and other incidents against Arabs and Muslims in the United States from January to June, which is a 69% increase from a year earlier.
