Our Courts Matter for the Muslim Community - Center for American Progress
We face enemies foreign and domestic. This is a needless self inflicted wound.
From the outset of his campaign, now-President Donald Trump has perpetrated—and encouraged—hate speech toward the Muslim community without remorse or regard for its devastating consequences. This includes a comment that “Islam hates us” and accusing Muslim Americans of protecting terrorists.
The Trump administration’s persecution of and discrimination against Muslims
The 2015 FBI hate crimes report revealed a 67 percent increase in anti-Muslim hate crimes, making it the second-most-dangerous year for Muslims in American history. These numbers do not include crimes that are not recorded either due to victims’ fear of retaliation or police departments’ reporting failures. Last year yielded even more hateful speech for marginalized communities nationwide, and a shocking 701 hate incidents were reported in just the first eight days after the election.
President Trump and his allies have already made good on his campaign promises to persecute Muslims with several executive orders and continued discriminatory rhetoric. Just one week into his term, Trump issued an executive order banning all refugees and people from seven majority-Muslim countries from entering the United States, except on a case-by-case basis for people whose admission “is in the national interest.” Fuad Sharef and his wife, along with their three children, were headed to America with a special immigrant visa granted to Iraqis who risked their lives in Iraq following the 2003 U.S. invasion. Due to the ban, they were sent back to Iraq, where they had already sold their home, quit their jobs, and removed their children from school. Meanwhile, a 5-year-old boy was detained for five hours and reportedly handcuffed at Washington Dulles International Airport—a U.S. citizen from Maryland who was separated from his mother, in fear, on his birthday.
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