Home Page

Press Center 2008

Press Center 2007

Press Center 2006

Press Center 2005

Press Center 2003-2004

Islamic charities

Anti-Muslim smears
 

June 26, 2004

Beheadings fuel fresh backlash against Muslims

AMP Report

The recent beheadings of two Americans businessmen in the Middle East have increased an already strong backlash against Arab-Americans and Muslims, who have been persecuted since the 9/11 attacks, the Newsday has reported.

The murder of former New Jerseyan Paul Johnson has prompted hate mail, verbal attacks and anti-Islam signs and graffiti in New Jersey. Elsewhere in the country, Muslims have received death threats and mosques have been vandalized in the days after Johnson's killing, the paper said.

Incidents of anti-Muslim activity have been few and far between since the beheadings of two Americans and a South Korean in Iraq, but Muslims around the country have been asked to remain alert and to continue working toward understanding, according to Arizona Republic.

"This weekend, we sent out e-mails condemning the murders and including copies of our Muslim safety kit," said Deedra Abboud, director of the local chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "Phoenix police had contacted us, feeling the atmosphere was negative."

The Council on American-Islamic Relations sent out a safety kit that includes information about building relationships with law enforcement agencies, working with interfaith groups and basic civil rights.

Reacting to the beheadings of Americans Nicholas Berg and Paul M. Johnson Jr. and Korean Kim Sun-il, Imam Abdur-Rahim Shamsid-Deen of Phoenix said: "What we're worried about is strained relationships in this country. We're going to have to work harder."

"Since 9/11, every time there is an incident overseas attributed to Muslims or Arabs, we go on orange alert ourselves," according to Sohail Mohammed, a Clifton immigration lawyer. "With the death of Paul Johnson, we were extremely concerned that what happened overseas would have an impact here. There are individuals here who are off the wall, who think that every woman who wears a hijab or every man named Mohammed is out to blow things up."

In the days after Johnson's killing, anti-Islam signs surfaced in and around the rural, south Jersey neighborhood - Egg Harbor Township - where he used to live. One read "Stamp Out Islam" next to a drawing of a boot over a crescent and star. Another, hung on a mailbox next door to Johnson's sister's home, was more detailed.

"Last night I wasn't a racist but today I feel racism towards Islamic beliefs," it read. "Last night Islamics had a chance to speak up for Paul Johnson, but today it's too late. Islamics better wake up and start thinking about tomorrow."

On June 24, more anti-Muslim graffiti appeared on a Muslim man's home in Egg Harbor Township.

"It's really our fear coming true," said Faiza Ali of the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "It indicates a hatred that could turn into something violent."

The day after Johnson's killing, a coalition of Muslim groups held a rally in Paterson, the heart of New Jersey's Arab-American community, to condemn the killing, saying such acts are contrary to Islam's teachings. But apparently, not everyone got the message.

A few days later, vandals tossed empty liquor and beer bottles at a mosque in Union City as congregants were inside mourning an Arab-American teenager who had been killed in a car crash.

In Florida, two mosques were vandalized in the days after Johnson's killing. In the Tampa suburb of Lutz, someone broke into the Islamic Community Center and scrawled "Kill All Muslims" and "F___ Allah" on the mosque's interior walls before smashing windows and breaking other items inside. In Charlotte Harbor, someone vandalized the mosque's sign, and has been leaving threatening phone messages targeting Muslims.

Elsewhere in Florida, a mosque in Pembroke Pines received a threatening letter, and an Islamic school in Kendall saw its sign defaced. In the St. Louis suburb of Ballwin, Mo., someone painted a swastika and the word "Die" on the wall of the Dar-Ul-Islam mosque.

In Spring, Texas, dead fish were dumped near the entrance sign to the Champions Masjid mosque, which is under construction.

And in the Chicago suburb of Orland Park, residents urged officials this week to reject a mosque's building application; a Baptist pastor told a public hearing he feared it would attract Islamic extremists and violence. The center was approved over boos and catcalls from many in the audience.

Muslim organizations around the country have been flooded with hate mail since Johnson and Nicholas Berg, a Pennsylvania businessman, were beheaded by kidnappers. A South Korean interpreter, Kim Sun Il, was beheaded this week.

"I think it may be coming close to the time when we take Muslims hostage here in America," one man wrote to the Washington, D.C.-based Council on American-Islamic Relations. "I would not be against groups that killed Muslim males proved to be involved in anti-American or terror groups. I believe the time is coming when Muslims will not be safe inside the U.S. borders. I see nothing wrong with us doing the same things to them that they are doing to innocent people."

"It is high time you people wake up and smell the blood," another man wrote to Assaf's group in New Jersey. "Turn in the terrorists. They are your relatives, in a lot of cases. Cousin Omar. Uncle Mohammad. You know what I mean. Until you come forward to help us stamp out this vermin, you are as bad as they. Don't be like the Japanese during WW2. They ended up behind bars."

And someone wrote to a mosque in Sacramento: "I will be forming a group to take direct action in the form of pickets and protests in front of local mosques with pictures of the murders committed by your filthy `Lions of Islam' to keep Americans aware of what scum Muslims truly are. Muslims are nothing but Nazis with a turban."

Muslims are disturbed that such acts of terrorism are being committed in the name of their religion. The Council on American-Islamic Relations launched a petition a few weeks ago that notes: "We, the undersigned Muslims wish to state clearly that those who commit acts of terror, murder, and cruelty in the name of Islam are not only destroying innocent lives, but also betraying the values of the faith they claim to represent."

Parvez Ahmed, board chairman, Florida Chapter of Council on American-Islamic Relations, Jacksonville, said: The brutal beheadings of Nicholas Berg, Paul Johnson and Kim Sun-il are being been erroneously described as acts of "Islamic militancy." Certainly they are the actions of terrorists or militants, but they are not acts of Islam.

The world of Islam should not be held accountable for the un-Islamic and barbaric deeds of a minuscule minority of more than a billion Muslims. Muslims have repeatedly condemned terrorism in all its forms. Recently, America's largest Muslim advocacy group, The Council on American-Islamic Relations, launched an online petition drive titled "Not in the Name of Islam."

The petition in part reads, "… those who commit acts of terror, murder and cruelty in the name of Islam are not only destroying innocent lives, but are also betraying the values of the faith they claim to represent. No

injustice done to Muslims can ever justify the massacre of innocent people, and no act of terror will ever serve the cause of Islam. We repudiate and dissociate ourselves from any Muslim group or individual who commits such brutal and un-Islamic acts."

To date the petition has been signed by nearly 700,000 people representing individuals and members of signatory organizations. (Source: Media reports)