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569 Islamophobic Attacks in 512 Days

[UPDATED] Hate Crime Watch: 569 Islamophobic Attacks in 512 Days

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October, 2016

  1. October 3, 2016 – 19-year-old Fatima Mohamed is leaving a city park in Noel, MO, when she is attacked by a group of five people after an altercation and has a gun held to her head by one of the men.
  1. October 3, 2016 – The Sullivan County, TN, School Board considers removing a textbook that features an introduction to Islam as a world religion after parent Michelle Edmisten complains that, “How can I, as a Christian, say that I have these values? And I want to instill these values in my daughter, but then say it’s OK, go ahead and do it?”
  1. October 11, 2016 – An envelope full of racist images is left at a Bennington, VT, Democratic Party office; the images include, among others, “one with Pepe, this time depicted as Trump, standing on one side of a fence, with characters depicting Mexican and Muslim stereotypes on the other side.”
  1. October 13, 2016 – After Imam Hassan Qazwini announces his plans to build the New Islamic Institute of America in a building vacated by a Baptist Church in Dearborn, MI, a 26-year-old woman makes threats to blow it up, commenting online that, “I live right there, I seen them working on it, I should blow it up,” “Them Arabs, they need to leave America, they are slowly changing everything, it ain’t gunna be America anymore in about a year…bet,” and “That Arab church will be burnt down, hopefully there ain’t kids in there.” She is subsequently put under investigation by police.
  1. October 14, 2016 – Patrick Stein, Gavin Wright and Curtis Allen of Garden City, KS, are accused of stockpiling weapons and explosives and planning an attack on a mostly Somali immigrant-occupied apartment complex. Stein allegedly said that, “the only good Muslim is a dead Muslim.” All 3 men have a long cybertrail of Islamophobia.
  1. October 14, 2016 – Jonathon Hussey spray-paints “F___ Muslims,” “F___ ISIS,” “F___ Allah,” “F___Arabs,” and “Donald Trump” on the side of the Muslim Community Miraj Center in Bayonne, NJ.
  1. October 14, 2016 – “TRUMP” is found spray-painted in large red letters on the side of the Masjid Al-Noor Islamic Center in Waterloo, IA.
  1. October 14, 2016 – A 14-year-old girl leaves a note reading “Terrorist, Leave, No one wants you here, Your kind is a disgrace, 9/11 was your fault,” with the picture of a hijabi holding a bomb, outside her Iraqi Muslim refugee family neighbors’ door in Dundalk, MD.
  1. October 17, 2016 – Former FBI agent and notorious Islamophobe John Guandolo, once again advances his conspiracy theory of “civilization jihad” in front of a crowd in Warroad, MN’s Warroad Baptist Church. He says that “Minneapolis is lost. Gone…Marines, we fight for hills. We take them back. It’s time to put freedom back on the offensive where it belongs.”
  1. October 18, 2016 – William Greda of Elizabeth, NJ, refuses to rent Fatma Farghaly, a hijabi, an apartment while on camera. After he is sued, he accuses the attorney general’s office of being in on a “Muslim conspiracy” whose goal is “extorting money from businesses.” He also refers to Farghaly and others as “Muslim extremists,” saying “That’s what they are — ISIS. They came in for an apartment and they attacked me.”
  1. October 18, 2016 – The American Muslim Women PAC is targeted with hate mail and threats after the Drudge Report links its “Hijabs for Hillary” press release, which had board members’ names and phone numbers listed.
  1. October 18, 2016 – Notorious Islamophobe and former FBI agent John Guandolo is invited to give a presentation about the “Global Islamic Movement” at Bagely High School in Bagley, MN. Guandolo is an avid “civilization jihad” conspiracy theorist.
  1. October 18, 2016 – The Pennsylvania House of Representatives’ State Government Committee advances a bill banning “foreign” laws – such as Sharia law, which is what the bill is aimed at – out of committee. State Representative Daryl Metcalfe (R) erroneously says that Sharia “relegates women, children and non-Muslims to second-class citizens and allows for primitive treatment, fierce punishment, torture, mutilation and even ‘honor killings’ for anyone who refuses to comply with sharia mandates.”
  1. October 19, 2016 – Mark “Milosz” Feigin calls the Islamic Center of Southern California in Los Angeles, CA, and threatens to kill its members. Police find 9 guns and 250 pounds of ammunition in his home, and a long trail of anti-Muslim sentiments on his social media.
  1. October 19, 2016 – At the Islamic Society of Joplin, MO, Iftikhar Ali, receives a phone call from a man asking about explosives, who then hangs up when questioned.
  1. October 19, 2016 – News editors at The Sun News in Myrtle Beach, SC, publish an editorial by Johnson Smith which incorrectly claims that “15 percent to 25 percent of Muslims are terrorists… who stab, behead, murder and massacre non-Muslims to make Islam the only system of governance in a country…[All Muslims] have the same goal -make everyone Muslim, or dead. To not have this goal would mean they are not Muslim…[Anyone who wants to allow Muslims into the U.S.] is committing treason…Anyone who does not agree to deport all Muslims is committing the same.”
  1. October 20, 2016 – 3 men spray-paint the sign, door, garage, and windows of the Masjid Al Salam in Fort Smith, AR, with hateful messages including “F__ Islam,” “F___ Allah,” “Go Back To Your Country,” and “Go Home,” as well as swastikas.
  1. October 20, 2016 – Graffiti similar to that which was found at the Masjid Al Salam is found at the Fort Smith Islamic Center in Fort Smith, AR.
  1. October 23, 2016 – The political advocacy group “One Nation” sends out an Islamophobic ad campaign targeting Democratic New Hampshire Senate race candidate Maggie Hassan – whose name is Irish but is often mistaken for being Arabic – reading “Radical Islamic terrorists are knocking at our door … and Maggie Hassan’s bad judgment could put our families at risk.” The fliers also include imagery of young children in crosshairs.
  1. October 24, 2016 – The board members of Waterford Township, MI, pass a resolution to “not actively participate in the Refugee Resettlement Program.” Explains Supervisor Garry Wall, “We’re not saying Syrians are never going to be welcome in Waterford [but] the bottom line is, we’ve got to protect what’s ours.” The resolution is in response to federal resettlement efforts, which actually can’t be sidestepped by pathetic local resolutions.
  1. October 25, 2016 – Notorious Islamophobe Ryan Mauro, a national security analyst for the racist Clarion Project, is invited to speak at the Homeland Security Professionals Conference and Expo in Orlando, FL – an event that is also promoted by the US Department of Homeland Security’s website. Mauro is a conspiracy theorist who has spread the false narrative of stealth jihad and “growing Muslim enclaves in the U.S. where gangs of Islamic extremists are patrolling neighborhoods and enforcing…Shariah law.”
  1. October 26, 2016 – An anonymous mailing sent to voters falsely declares that Temple Terrace, FL, City Council Candidate Wael Odeh is linked to terrorism and wants to push an agenda of Sharia law.
  1. October 26, 2016 – State Representative John Bennett holds a hearing in Oklahoma City, OK, that is full of “security experts” who are actually just notorious Islamophobes. Bennet agrees with the conspiracy theories they spew, saying groups like CAIR are just “here to destroy us,” and that Islam is “a cancer in our nation that needs to be cut out.”
  1. October 27, 2016 – Paul Chandler, the owner of Altra Firearms in Jackson Center, PA, buys a newspaper ad that says “Please NO Muslims or Hillary Supporters – We do not feel safe selling to terrorists!” His store’s sign is also changed from “No radical Muslims” to “No Muslims, period.”
  1. October 28, 2016 – Fliers for State Representative Joseph Scappa (R) are sent out across Wichita, KS, with the words “Have you met the new neighbors? ISIS is not going away anytime soon,” and a picture of a man in a keffiyeh holding a gun. The implication is that Muslim residents are just homegrown terrorists who would be supported by Scappa’s Democratic opponent.
  1. October 30, 2016 – A 20-year-old Somali man is attacked in a pizza place in San Diego, CA, by Sean Arevalo, Terrance Crow and Scott Peretti, who spew bigotry before attacking him with brass knuckles and a chair.
  1. October 30, 2016 – Two University of Virginia students are targeted by Islamophobic graffiti when “Terrorist” with an arrow pointing at their door is drawn on the walls in their hallway at the Brown Residential College at the Charlottesville, VA, campus.