• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Tuesday, March 21, 2023
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Featured

With Surge in Right-Wing Violence, US Muslims Prepare for the Worst Ahead of Ramadan

Bryan Bowman by Bryan Bowman
05/02/19
in Featured, National
white supremacy, trump, america identity, charlottesville

White nationalists walk in Charlottesville after the rally is declared illegal by authorities on Saturday.

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

As Muslims across the United States prepare to celebrate the holy month of Ramadan, mosques and other Muslim organizations have been taking measures to prepare for the worst amid growing fears of far-right, white nationalist terrorism.

In the weeks and months leading up to Ramadan, which begins on May 5, Muslim groups have organized active shooter trainings with local police departments across the country from Boston to Hartford to Austin and beyond.

The measures come on the heels of a string of recent deadly attacks on places of worship in the U.S. and abroad, including the March 15 attack on Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand, the Easter Sunday bombings targeting Christians in Sri Lanka, and Saturday’s shooting at a synagogue in San Diego, California.

The perpetrators in Christchurch and San Diego – as well as the man responsible for the October attack on a Pittsburgh synagogue – were motivated by white nationalist extremism, an ideology that vilifies Jews and Muslims alike.

“There’s a real threat. There’s real reason to be concerned,” Arsalan Bukhari, a spokesperson for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told The Globe Post.


Far-Right Surge 

In addition to active shooter drills, Bukhari said mosques around the country have been taking additional security measures and have reached out to law enforcement for advice on how to best keep people safe. He said CAIR even recently organized a webinar for community leaders with the Department of Homeland Security.

Since 2000, the majority of terrorist attacks on American soil have been committed by far-right extremists. These attacks have surged in recent years, and have generally correlated with a rise of far-right populism and xenophobia around the globe.

“It’s very clear that hate speech leads to hate violence,” Bukhari said. “A lot of the rhetorical attacks on American Muslims by leading politicians have played a role in inciting violence and discrimination.”

"If this were ISIS or MS-13, we'd be having a very different conversation..we'd be talking about drone strikes..more deportations, more money for ICE..but it's white nationalists so all you got from Trump is 'thoughts and prayers'..no anger or outrage" – me on @MSNBC last night: pic.twitter.com/vwPnewEzNg

— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) April 30, 2019

Bukhari criticized media personalities who have chosen to use their platforms to spread fear and promote divisiveness. But he also said that President Donald Trump should be held accountable for his role in inciting hate.

“The person with the highest office in the land is using his platform to divide us,” Bukhari said. “His commentary has been very damaging.”


Sowing Hate 

As a candidate, Trump called for a “complete and total” ban on Muslims entering the United States and repeatedly evoked his widely discredited claim that he saw “thousands” of Muslims celebrating 9/11.  

Last week, the president doubled-down on his infamous comment that there were “very fine people” among the white nationalists and neo-Nazis who marched on Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017, brandishing torches and chanting “Jews will not replace us.”

The rally ultimately left one person dead after one of the white nationalist demonstrators rammed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters.

In April, Trump was accused of inciting violence against Rep. Ilhan Omar – one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress – after he shared a video on Twitter juxtaposing a video of her with images of 9/11.

Describing the persistent discrimination faced by Muslim Americans, Omar had referred to 9/11 in passing as “some people did something,” leading some Republicans to accuse her of downplaying the attacks – a claim Omar strongly denies.

“[Trump’s video] takes one sentence, replays it, and cuts it with really traumatic imagery of an event that’s in our collective memory, which was wrong and exploited people’s emotions,” Bukhari said, adding the president’s attacks “endanger her life.”

Trump’s video came just over a month after Republicans in West Virginia displayed a poster in the State House with Omar’s picture next to an image of the World Trade Center being attacked.

But even as Muslim groups are taking steps to ramp up security at their places of worship, Bukhari stressed that they are not trying to close their doors to the rest of their communities.

Mosques are open to everyone, he said, and CAIR has encouraged those celebrating Ramadan to invite their Non-Muslim neighbors, friends, and co-workers in for meals.

“Ramadan is really an opportunity for mosques and everyday people to open their doors and build relationships and build friendships,” he said, hoping that dialogue can promote the idea that “we all belong here, we’re all Americans, we’re all united.”


More on the Subject 

Troubling Rise of Violent Right-Wing Attacks in US

ShareTweet
Bryan Bowman

Bryan Bowman

Email Bryan at bryan.bowman@theglobepost.com or follow him on Twitter @TGPBryanBowman

Related Posts

Donald Trump
National

US Supreme Court Freezes Release of Trump Tax Returns

by Staff Writer
November 1, 2022
Donald Trump
National

US Capitol Riot Probe Votes to Subpoena Trump to Testify

by Staff Writer
October 13, 2022
Steve Bannon
National

Former Trump Advisor Bannon Charged With Fraud in New York

by Staff Writer
September 8, 2022
US President Donald Trump
Opinion

Donald Trump Thanks You for Your Sacrifice

by Stephen J. Lyons
August 17, 2022
Mar-A-Lago raid
National

FBI Raid on Trump’s Home Ignites Political Firestorm

by Staff Writer
August 9, 2022
US President Donald Trump
Opinion

Owning the Words and the Libs

by Stephen J. Lyons
June 16, 2022
Next Post
Migrants drowned Yemen

Eight Migrants Die Under 'Inhumane Conditions' in Yemen: UN

Protestors in Sudan wave a giant Sudanese flag above a crows of demonstrators

Sudan Protesters Mass as Standoff with Military Drags On

Recommended

Transgender Army veteran Tanya Walker speaks to protesters in Times Square near a military recruitment centre

Tennessee Is A Drag on the First Amendment

March 21, 2023
participants of an artificial intelligence conference

How AI Could Upend the World Even More Than Electricity or the Internet

March 19, 2023
Chinese President Xi Jinping

China’s Path to Economic Dominance

March 15, 2023
Heavily armed police inspect the area near a Jehovah's Witness church where several people have been killed in a shooting in Hamburg, northern Germany

Eight Dead in Shooting at Jehovah’s Witness Hall in Germany

March 10, 2023
Myanmar Rohingya refugees look on in a refugee camp in Teknaf, in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar, on November 26, 2016

US Announces $26M in New Aid for Rohingya

March 8, 2023
A flooded road in Batu Berendam in Malaysia's southern coastal state of Malacca

At Least Four Dead, Tens of Thousands Evacuated in Malaysia Floods

March 6, 2023

Opinion

Transgender Army veteran Tanya Walker speaks to protesters in Times Square near a military recruitment centre

Tennessee Is A Drag on the First Amendment

March 21, 2023
Chinese President Xi Jinping

China’s Path to Economic Dominance

March 15, 2023
An earthquake survivor reacts as rescuers look for victims and other survivors in Hatay, a Turkish province where hundreds of buildings were destroyed by the earthquake

Heed the Call of Our Broken World

March 1, 2023
Top view of the US House of Representatives

‘Cringy Awards:’ Who Is the Most Embarrassing US House Representative?

February 13, 2023
Protesters rally against the fatal police assault of Tyre Nichols, outside of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center in Detroit, Michigan, on January 27, 2023

How Do Violent ‘Monsters’ Take Root?

February 3, 2023
George Santos from the 3rd Congressional district of New York

George Santos for Speaker!

January 16, 2023
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post