CAIR Report Indicates US Government Agencies are Targeting Muslims

New Report Indicates US Federal Agencies are Targeting Muslims

CAIR Report Indicates US Government Agencies are Targeting Muslims

Customs and Border Patrol constituted 38 percent of the anti-Muslim incidents involving federal agencies.

A Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) report titled “Targeted” describes how the United States Government under President Donald Trump displayed a never-before-seen level of hostility towards the country's Muslim religious minority. The 2018 report disclosed how agencies connected with the federal government initiated over one-third of all the anti-Muslim incidents that happened in 2017. From 2,599 anti-Muslim incidents, 919 invariably included a government agency. It comes to 35 percent of the total number of incidents reported.

New Report Indicates US Federal Agencies are Targeting Muslims[/tweetthis]

From the 919 reports, 348 of them mentioned the Customs and Border Patrol. This government agency alone constituted 38 percent of the anti-Muslim incidents which involved federal agencies. The FBI is responsible for 270 incidents. It made up 29 percent of the total anti-Muslim incidents. Coming in third with 72 incidents, or eight percent, was Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Citizenship and Immigration Services, and Customs Enforcement with five percent and four percent respectively.

CAIR squarely blames the travel bans instituted by the Trump administration for aggravating the problem. According to Soofia Tahir, CAIR's fund development director of the organization's New Jersey chapter, this happened because of the Trump administration's hostility towards the enshrined religious values which make up the United States. President Trump, during his presidential campaign, pledged a complete and total shutdown of all Muslims who want or try to gain entry into the United States. There were massive complaints after his first executive order banning citizens of certain Muslim dominated countries from entering America. The order resulted in massive chaos at airports.

CAIR Report Indicates US Government Agencies are Targeting Muslims
Council on American-Islamic Relations

The 2017 anti-Muslim hate crime figures were a substantial jump when compared to the 2016 numbers. These incidents made up 24 percent of total incidents reported to CAIR in 2016. In the previous years of 2015 and 2014, the figure was even smaller at 22 percent. Zainab Arain, the coordinator of research and advocacy department, and author of the CAIR report, said “It demonstrates how Islamophobia is further being institutionalized.”

Arain added that President Trump is where the blame lies, pointing out his anti-Muslim bigotry started from his presidential campaign. It did not help that his administration has more than a fair share of anti-Muslim bigots. The latter has pushed “state-sanctioned discrimination.” A spokesperson for Customs and Border Patrol responded to the report by saying the United States was and always will be a welcoming country.

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