Paris Attacks Followed By Spike In Anti-Muslim Crime

NEW DELHI: Data released this week shows that crimes against Muslims in the United Kingdom and United States increased in the days following the brutal attacks in Paris where gunmen, purportedly loyal to the Islamic State, killed over 130 people.

In the UK, anti Muslim hate crimes rose a massive 300 percent in the week following the coordinated attacks in Paris, according to figures published this week. A "vast and overwhelming majority" of the 115 anti-Muslim attacks were against Muslim women and girls aged between 14 and 45 who were wearing traditional Islamic dress.

A majority of perpetrators were white males aged between 15 and 35. The report added that the attacks represent only a minority of anti-Muslim attacks across the country, as a majority of such crimes go unreported.

The figures are from a report to a government working group on anti-Muslim hate compiled by Tell Mama -- a helpline that records incidents of physical/verbal attacks on Muslims in the UK. "Many of the victims have suggested that no one came to their assistance or even consoled them, meaning that they felt victimised, embarrassed, alone and angry about what had taken place against them… Sixteen of the victims even mentioned that they would be fearful of going out in the future and that the experiences had affected their confidence,” the report stated.

The report noted similarities with the murder in south London of British soldier Lee Rigby by Muslim extremists in 2013, which had also seen a rise in anti Muslim attacks in the weeks that followed.

However, Islamophobia is on the increase in the UK overall, as anti Muslim and anti Semitic violence increased by 70.7 percent and 93.4 percent respectively in the year leading to July 2015, compared to the same 12 month long period preceding the time frame.

816 Islamophobic incidents were recorded in Greater London between July 2014 and July 2015, compared to 478 in the previous period. 499 anti-Semitic incidents were recorded in the same period, compared to 258 the previous year.

Reports from the US paint a similar picture, where the rising anti Muslim climate is accompanied by opportunistic rhetoric on refugees and Muslims in general. The Republican camp, especially, has called for a halt on the intake of refugees, and Presidential Candidate Donald Trump has gone as far as to say that Muslims in the US carry special identity cards.

"In the last week or so, we've witnessed about a half dozen mosque attacks, a number of assaults on women, men, and in one case, a pregnant woman in California, and reports that a mosque has been burned down in Canada," Robert McCraw, with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), told RT. "We're seeing a level of Islamophobia and violence that we haven't seen since post-9/11," referring to the terror attacks in the US in 2001.

In the week since the Paris attacks, incidents of anti-Muslim violence in the US include Arabic speakers or "suspicious" passengers, some of "Middle Eastern descent," being thrown off commercial flights in the US; assaults, including those targeting a pregnant woman in San Diego, a man attending a movie in Manhattan, an Uber driver in North Carolina, and a woman on the campus of San Diego State University; threats of violence to Muslims across the US; campus harassment in Connecticut; and a targeted shooting at a Florida residence.

Further, several mosques across the US have been defaced or vandalized, threatened with violence and shot at with multiple rounds. In one incident, a group of armed protesters gathered outside a mosque in Irving, Texas, with one of the signs they were holding reading: “Stop the Islamization of America.” At a county town hall meeting in Fredericksburg, Virginia, a man speaking on behalf of an Islamic center was heckled by the crowd who said Islam is "an evil cult," and that "every Muslim is a terrorist."

Meanwhile, Donald Trump sparked controversy when he said, “I would certainly implement that [keeping a register of Muslims]… absolutely,” adding, “We should have a lot of systems. And today you can do it." Referring to the Muslim population in the US, Trump said, “We’re going to have to do certain things that were frankly unthinkable a year ago."

Trump’s rival Ben Carson went a step further and compared Syrian refugees to “rabid dogs.” “If there’s a rabid dog running around in your neighborhood, you’re probably not going to assume something good about that dog,” Carson said.“That doesn’t mean that you hate all dogs,” Carson added later, trying to make amends for the blatantly insensitive comment that he sought then to link to terrorists only.

In Congress, two bills have been introduced following the Paris attacks that compound the problems of the insensitive climate even further. The American Security Against Foreign Enemies (SAFE) Act of 2015 attempts to halt the Obama administration's plan to resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees in the US. The bill was passed the House of Representatives last week and is now in the hands of the Senate. The Countering Violent Extremism Act of 2015 seeks to add 40 million USD to the already hefty sum of money and effort spent on counterterrorism by the US Department of Homeland Security, indicating that current efforts to battle terrorism will continue as planned, if not enhanced.