WASHINGTON – One year after the election of US President Donald Trump, a leading Muslim activist warned that American Muslims have become more vulnerable to bigotry and Islamophobia than they were after the 9/11 attacks.
“It’s not just Americans Muslims [who feel anxious],” Ibrahim Hooper, a founder of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), told The Independent on Thursday.
“We have seen white supremacists emboldened under Trump.”
Hooper added that the level of anxiety and apprehension has reached an unprecedented level, with many Muslims becoming fearful to public display signs of their faith.
A number of Muslim women are also taking off their hijab to avoid harassment, he added.
The effect of Trump’s controversial decisions was taking its toll not only on Muslims, but on people of color and minorities at large.
One example Hooper cited was the President’s failure to speak out against white supremacy and extremism, especially in the aftermath of neo-Nazi-led violence in Charlottesville in August which left one woman dead.
Many white supremacists, including former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, praised the way Trump responded to the violence, claiming that there was blame “on all sides.”
“It’s worse now than even after 9/11. He has empowered and mainstreamed white supremacy and bigotry,” Hooper said.
“After 9/11, bigotry was under the rocks and hidden. Now, these bigots are out in the open and saying they are proud of their bigotry.”
CAIR has been collating details of other hate crimes and incidents of Islamophobia that did not always get widespread media coverage.
Between January and September 2017, the organization recorded 1,656 “bias incidents” and 195 hate crimes. That represented a 9% increase in bias incidents and a 20% rise in hate crimes compared to 2016.
“Based on preliminary estimates, it’s fair to say that 2017 is gearing [up] to be the worst year on record for incidents of anti-Muslim bias since we began our current system of documentation,” said research and advocacy coordinator Zainab Arain.
“Additionally, this year we’ve noted a disturbing trend of perpetrators invoking Trump to express racial and religious animosity.”