The Heat: Examining Islamophobia

The Heat

The Heat: Examining Islamophobia

Recent killings in the United States are examples of what some see as growing intolerance against Arabs and Muslims.

Lebanese-American Khalid Jabara was shot on his porch by a neighbor on August 13 and just a day later Imam Maulama Akonjee and his associate Thara Uddin were killed walking home from prayers at a mosque in New York City.

Reports of violence against Muslims have been on the rise. A study by Georgetown University calculated 174 total attacks, the highest number yet of reported incidents of violence and vandalism against Muslims since the Sept. 11 attacks.

More than two dozen states have sought to ban sharia law, and studies show the number of Americans who view Islam in a negative light has spiked since the start of the U.S. election cycle in 2015.

Brian Levin, the director for the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University also found that the rate of hate crimes directed at Muslims in the U.S. tripled after the terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino.

To discuss these disturbing trends, The Heat’s Anand Naidoo is joined by:

* Georgetown University Professor Engy Abdelkader, author of the report, “When Islamophobia Turns Violent: The 2016 US Presidential Elections”.

* Arjun Sethi, a writer and attorney based here in Washington, DC. Sethi has observed the FBI’s Shared Responsibility Committee, a covert counterterrorism program to identify “radicalized” individuals currently being tested.

* Nadia Hassan, founder of the Villa Park Peace Coalition in Orange County, California. She is also the daughter of a U.S. Marine.

Islamophobia is growing in Europe too. Watch this video by Demos of tweets in the United Kingdom marked as Islamaphobic for the four days after the terrorist attack in Nice, France. Each red dot is an Islamophobic tweet.

The panel of experts continues:

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