Focus on the Discrimination against Muslim Individuals and Communities.

 

Discrimination against Muslim Individuals and Communities

In Canada: Montreal Police arrest a man during arson attack on Muslim community centre — Police apprehended a 47-year-old man at a Muslim community centre in the Rosemont neighbourhood early morning of 20 May. Authorities confirmed that they were forced to use a stun gun after the man resisted arrest. He was caught trying to throw a Molotov cocktail through a window of the Assahaba Islamic Community Centre on the corner of Belanger and 23rd Avenue. Police said that the attempted attack was the fifth over the month. The man was caught because officers had been staking out the community centre after previous incidents. The man was described as a white Quebecer, with possible links to an extremist organization. 

United States: 100-plus gather at Bristol school protesting Islam course – More than 100 demonstrators stood outside a Bristol, Tenn., middle school on 4 September morning in protest of how Islam was taught to 7th graders throughout Tennessee according to state standards, known as Common Core. Participants stood in line on the sidewalk across from the school from 6:45-7:30 a.m., when school began. Many people had signs proclaiming support for Christianity and warning of Islam being taught in schools. Patty Kinkead, organizer of the demonstration outside Vance Middle School in Bristol, said: “This was the first phase and we hope it will start interest in other towns,” adding that participants from Kingsport and Johnson City showed interest in organizing similar demonstrations in their towns. Kinkead was a member of a group called Tennessee against Common Core, which was active in 2014 in opposing Common Core standards in general but particularly the 7th grade unit on Islam, which Kinkead described as large and too in depth and too focused on theology. Asked if she thought Common Core would be changed or eliminated altogether, Kinkead was not hopeful that Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam would do that. “So the hope is to start a grassroots movement to make him reconsider,” she said.

US: A 9th grader got arrested for taking a homemade clock to school – A ninth grader from Irving, Texas, was arrested at his school on 14 September after teachers thought his homemade clock looked like a bomb. Ahmed Mohamed, 14, was taken to a juvenile detention center, suspended from school and could still face charges of making a hoax bomb. Ahmed, a robotics fan who reportedly liked to make his own radios, insisted he made a clock and brought the invention into school to show his engineering teacher. The clock — a circuit board with a power supply wired to a digital display — was confiscated during English class because the alarm kept beeping. Ahmed was later taken out of class by the principal and questioned by five police officers who demanded to know his intentions and why he brought the device into school. Ahmed was marched out of the school in handcuffs and taken to a juvenile detention center to take his fingerprints. But the high schooler said he never claimed the device was anything but a clock. Ahmed said: “They thought, ‘How could someone like this build something like this unless it’s a threat?’”. His father Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed, who had emigrated to the U.S. from Sudan, believes his son’s ethnicity may have been a factor. “He just wants to invent good things for mankind,” he said. “But because his name is Mohamed and because of Sept. 11, I think my son got mistreated.”

US: Student abused over Islamic attire – A 16-year-old boy at Runcorn state high school in Brisbane was asked by teacher whether he was trying to imitate 9/11 attackers when he wore long Islamic gown over his sports uniform at a “free dress” event. When sent to school Principal Roger Atkins, the student was told that he was dressing inappropriately. Moreover, he was asked to return home to get his attire changed. The Queensland education department said it was “aware of a complaint arising from free dress day at Runcorn state high school…[and] As a consequence, the principal is working with the family, school community and cultural leaders to ensure all concerns are resolved. The school wants to ensure all students feel accepted and supported at school.” 

Canada: Video threatening Muslims in Quebec surfaces — After an online threat against mosques in Montreal was made Monday 16 November, a video surfaced the next day that threatens Arabs and Muslims across Quebec. The video, which was posted on YouTube, showed a man in a Joker mask expressing his frustration with Muslims and Arabs in Quebec, adding that if the government wouldn’t do anything about them, he would. He added that he was not alone and that there was a group of people who would help him carry out his threat. While brandishing what appeared to be a pistol, the man threatened to kill one Muslim or Arab every week — starting next week. The video had been flagged to the Montreal police and the Sûreté du Québec.

UK: Muslim woman assaulted, kicked off London Bus— London police were trying to find witnesses after supposed hate crime assault against a Muslim woman that happened on a bus. Officers spoke to the victim, a woman in her forties, who was injured as a result of allegedly being punched in the head and kicked off the number 63 bus at around 8PM by two young women. Commuter Antonia Bance was on the bus at the time, and told The Independent what she witnessed.

US: Parents gather to question Islam being taught in Tennese public schools – On 5 October, concerned parents of Tennessee public schools gathered at a school board meeting in Cheatham County questioning about curriculum that include Islam, despite this had been standard given by the state. Jeff Bennett, director of communications for the Cheatham County School District said: “As a district, we do not plan to spend differing amounts of time on each standard… We follow the standards as they are.” He added: “Students study the Islamic World in seventh grade, and in sixth grade, they learn about Christianity and Judaism.” He also gave a fact sheet showing that all major religions including Buddhism and Hinduism were covered

Related: Parents upset over Islamic history lessons—A Tennessee mother said her child was being brainwashed by a history lesson on the Islamic religion. However, state school officials said that was part of the curriculum. Jessica Mercier, the parent, stated she was not happy when she heard there was going to be a lesson on the Islamic religion in her daughter's 7th grade history class at Flintville Elementary School in Tennessee. She said: "It's our responsibility to teach our children their religion and I understand that there is history with each religion, but teaching the pillars of Islam isn't religion. That's indoctrination."

United Kingdom: Man targeted in Islamophobic attack on London bus—A Turkish man had been targeted in an Islamophobic attack on a London bus in a second such video posted on the Internet in a week. The three-minute-long video appeared 18 October on the 5Pillars website where news and analyses related to Muslims in the UK were posted. It showed a black man verbally assaulting a Turkish man on a public bus. The assault said: "Nobody understands you! Go back to Turkey and talk that s… That’s why you are here! F… free benefits on a walker." The man appeared to say, verbally attacking the Turkish man who was understood to have a walking aid with him. "Good Muslim, innit? F… you!", the man shouted in the bus. The video further showed the man throwing the walker, seemingly belonging to the attacked man, out of the bus before leaving the bus with a buggy

UK: Plans for 9,000-capacity mosque in east London rejected—Long-running plans to build a mosque in east London to hold services for as many as 9,000 worshippers had been rejected by the communities secretary, Greg Clark. The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) dismissed appeals against the refusal of planning permission for the mosque in Newham, which went by various names, including the Riverine Centre, the Abbey Mills Mosque, London Markaz and Masjid-e-Ilyas. The Tablighi Jamaat sought permission to build the mosque on the 17-acre Abbey Mills site near the Olympic Park in Stratford, for about 18 years. The proposals included a huge dining hall and a library. The DCLG said: “The decision was based on concerns that include local housing provision and conflict with the council’s local plan for the borough. It took account of the evidence from all parties and is in line with the council’s original determination and advice from the independent planning inspector on the main appeal.” Tablighi 129 Jamaat was also refused temporary permission to continue to use existing buildings on the site as a place of worship for the next two years, and must cease to do so within three months.

India: To protect Hindu girls, Muslims barred from Gujarat Garba event— A right-wing group on 5 October issued a Dictate barring entry of Muslims at Garba events during the Navratri Festival at Mandvi town in Gujarat’s Kutch district to prevent ‘Love Jihad’ incidents. President of Hindu Yuva Sangthan, Raghuvirsinh Jadeja, who was also chief of Vishwa Hindu Parishad of the Mandvi tehsil unit, he said: “Incidents of love jihad where Muslim boys lure and marry our Hindu girls happen at Garba, so our aim is to protect our girls.” He added that the organization would ensure that any person entering the Garba pandal had a ‘Tilak’ on his forehead, and ‘Gaumutra’ (cow-urine) would be sprayed on him. 

Germany: Three German universities close prayer rooms used by Muslims — Three German universities closed prayer rooms used by Muslims, leading to claims of discrimination. The Technical University of Berlin (TU Berlin), Technical University of Dortmund (TU Dortmund) and the University of Essen Duisburg had all closed prayer rooms. On 14 March 2016 TU Berlin closed its two separate prayer rooms for male and female students. University Christian Thomsen told local news site Suddeutsche Zeitung the decision boiled down to the fundamental question: “Do we want religious facilities at our universities?” They think higher education and religion should be kept separate. They also added: “Previously Muslims didn’t have much opportunity to practice their religion in Berlin. But now there are enough prayer rooms the students can use – perhaps not within walking distance, but a few stops away by bus. A prayer room at the university is no longer necessary.”

United States: Islamophobia erupts at Idaho State University as 50 students’ homes were vandalized — Approximately 50 Idaho State University students from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia had been victims of off-campus home burglaries, and there had been unverified incidents of physical abuse and harm targeted at the Muslim students. The incidents came as the University tried to boost enrollment by targeting Middle Eastern students, who now represent about 10% of the student body. The incidents became the main subject of discussion in the bucolic town of Pocatello. Mayor Brian Blad told the Idaho State Journal, that he had already spoken with a Saudi official to keep students from leaving, and would meet with both Saudi and Kuwaiti officials on April 18. Gulf News reported that Kuwait and Saudi Arabia had already both decided to suspend sending their students to the schools, and quoted the head of the schools’ Saudi Students Club that the situation had only worsened.

US: Islamophobia erupts at Idaho State University as 50 students’ homes were vandalized — Approximately 50 Idaho State University students from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia had been victims of off-campus home burglaries, and there had been unverified incidents of physical abuse and harm targeted at the Muslim students. The incidents came as the University tried to boost enrollment by targeting Middle Eastern students, who now represent about 10% of the student body. The incidents became the main subject of discussion in the bucolic town of Pocatello. Mayor Brian Blad told the Idaho State Journal, that he had already spoken with a Saudi official to keep students from leaving, and would meet with both Saudi and Kuwaiti officials on April 18. Gulf News reported that Kuwait and Saudi Arabia had already both decided to suspend sending their students to the schools, and quoted the head of the schools’ Saudi Students Club that the situation had only worsened

US: College student kicked off Southwest Airlines flight after being overheard speaking Arabic — Southwest Airlines ejected a college student from a plane after another passenger felt threatened when he spoke in Arabic before the flight. Khairuldeen Makhzoomi, a 26-year-old senior student at the University of California, Berkeley, who entered the US as an Iraqi refugee in 2010, was taken off a flight from Los Angeles International Airport to Oakland on April 6 after he called an uncle in Baghdad to tell him about an event he attended that included a speech by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. An Arabic-speaking Southwest Airlines employee of Middle Eastern or South Asian descent came to the student seat and escorted him off the plane a few minutes after his call ended. The man introduced himself in Arabic and then switched to English to ask, “Why were you speaking Arabic in the plane?” Mr. Makhzoomi said he was afraid, and that the employee spoke to him like he was an animal. And the employee added that the student could not go back on the plan. Then Makhzoomi told him that “This is what Islamophobia got this country into”.

US: Trickle down Islamophobia in Texas public schools — On 1 April 2016 a 12-year-old Fort Bend ISD student told reporters his teacher called him a terrorist because he’s Muslim. Which, unfortunately, was not even all that surprising now, especially when considering the tenor of state and national politics or the fact that Islamophobia keeps popping up around Texas public schools. The family of Waleed Abushaaban, a seventh-grader at First Colony Middle School, urged Fort Bend ISD officials not only to fire the teacher who they say called their son a terrorist, but also to begin offering religious sensitivity training to teachers and students. Abushaaban said his class was watching a movie on March 31 afternoon, and when he started laughing, “the teacher was like, ‘I wouldn’t be laughing if I was you…Because we all think you’re a terrorist.” Abushaaban said kids in class began to taunt him, saying things like, “You have bombs.” While Fort Bend ISD officials called the incident an “isolated event".