Desert News
By Hanna Seariac
November 29, 2023
People gather in Pliny Park in Brattleboro, Vermont, for a vigil, Monday, Nov. 27, 2023, for the three Palestinian-American students who were shot while walking near the University of Vermont campus on Saturday, Nov. 25. The three students were being treated at the University of Vermont Medical Center, and one faces a long recovery because of a spinal injury, a family member said. | Kristopher Radder, Associated Press More
On Saturday, three college students of Palestinian descent were shot and injured in Burlington, Vermont, as they walked to a family member’s home for dinner.
Authorities are currently investigating this attack as a possible hate crime, The Associated Press reported. A 48-year-old man named Jason Eaton was arrested on three counts of attempted murder. He entered a not guilty plea to the charges on Monday.
The families of the three students, Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Ali Ahmad, issued a joint statement saying “No family should ever have to endure this pain and agony. Our children are dedicated students who deserve to be able to focus on their studies and building their futures.”
This attack happened during a time of heightened concern for the safety of Jewish and Muslim families amid the Israel-Hamas war. “There is understandable fear in communities across the country,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland told the media while in New York City Monday.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Anti-Defamation League have both reported a spike in antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents in the weeks following the outbreak of the war.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a warning saying that “targeted violence attacks may increase as the conflict progresses,” according to ABC News. In a separate memo, DHS reportedly said, “We expect to remain in a heightened threat environment in the near-to-medium term — even if a diplomatic solution to the crisis is found.”
This rise in reports of hate crimes against Jewish and Muslim communities also comes nearly two months after the FBI released its 2022 annual crime statistics. Hate crimes increased from 10,840 in 2021 to 11,634 in 2022.
The FBI’s data shows that 3,424 hate crime incidents targeted Black people, while 1,125 instances of hate crimes were directed toward the Jewish people and 158 were anti-Islamic crimes.
Intimidation, vandalism, assault and aggravated assault were the most common type of hate crimes committed.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations received a total of 5,156 complaints of Islamophobic incidents nationwide and the Anti-Defamation League tracked 3,697 antisemitic incidents in 2022.
There are efforts to combat the growing animosity, including by religious leaders who are trying to set an example for how to built bridges of understanding.
Rise in Islamophobia
Earlier this month, the Council on American-Islamic Relations reported an “‘unprecedented’ increase in complaints of anti-Muslim or anti-Arab bias” since Hamas’ initial attack on Israel.
From Oct. 7 to Nov. 4, the council received 1,283 requests for help or reports of bias, which is a significant increase. “Both Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism are out of control in ways we have not seen in almost 10 years,” the group’s research and advocacy director Corey Saylor said in a press release. “The 1,283 complaints we have received over the past month represents a 216% increase in requests for help and reports of bias.”
A poll conducted this month by Siena College asked New Yorker registered voters whether or not they think anti-Islamic sentiment has risen. Sixty-two percent of respondents said Muslims in New York have been experiencing Islamophobia with more than half of respondents saying that Islamophobia has increased since Oct. 7.
A week after the Israel-Hamas war began, a 6-year-old Muslim boy named Wadea al-Fayoume was stabbed to death and his mother Hanaan Shahin was seriously injured in the attack, which occurred in Chicago. The family’s landlord Joseph Czuba was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degreed murder, two counts of a hate crime and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.
“Detectives were able to determine that both victims in this brutal attack were targeted by the suspect due to them being Muslim and the on-going Middle Eastern conflict involving Hamas and the Israelis,” a statement from Will County Sheriff’s Office said.
Mosques are increasing security due to concerns around safety, CBS News reported.
Amid these safety concerns, some mosques like the Islamic Center of Southern California have “increased the number of security guards, especially at Friday prayers,” NPR reported.
“So there is a real palpable fear of safety,” Amr Shabaik, legal and policy director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations in California, told NPR. “There is a real tenor that has reminded the community of sort of a post-9/11 environment where our community is being stereotyped and scapegoated.”
Rise in antisemitism
In October, FBI director Christopher Wray said in a Senate hearing that antisemitism “is a threat that is reaching, in some way, sort of historic levels.”
“In fact, our statistics would indicate that for a group that represents only about 2.4% of the American public, they account for something like 60% of all religious-based hate crimes,” Wray said, per CNN.
Even before the Israel-Hamas war, antisemitism has been on the rise. Since 2016, antisemitic incidents have increased, according to PBS. One such instance occurred in October 2018 when a shooter killed 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 2022 was the worst year for antisemitic incidents with the Anti-Defamation League tracking the most number of incidents ever since it began tracking in 1979, per CNN.
FBI statistics from 2022 also show that antisemitic incidents have reached their highest point in nearly three decades.
“Reported hate crime incidents across the country have once again reached record highs, with anti-Jewish hate crimes at a number not seen in decades,” Jonathan Greenblatt, Anti-Defamation League CEO, said. “At a time when the Jewish community is already reeling in the wake of a terrorist attack that constituted the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust, the reality of this data is incredibly sobering.”
“We can’t pray without armed police presence,” Elliot Malin, a Jewish man who lives in Nevada, told CNN. “We can’t go to our synagogues without somebody being there with guns. In what world would this be acceptable for any other religion? Some of our Muslim neighbors have to deal with the same thing and it’s no fair to them either.”
Cornell University student Patrick Dai was arrested on a federal criminal complaint that charged him with posting threats to kill or injure another using interstate communications. Dai allegedly threatened to “stab” and “slit the throat” of Jewish males on campus and “to rape and throw off a cliff any Jewish females, and to behead any Jewish babies,” a press release from the United States Attorney’s Office reported.
“The rise of reports of hate incidents on our college campuses in the wake of the Israel-Hamas conflict is deeply traumatic for students and should be alarming to all Americans,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said, according to The Associated Press. “Antisemitism, Islamophobia and all other forms of hatred go against everything we stand for as a nation.”
What experts say can be done
Better understanding and appreciation for Jewish and Muslim communities is one way to counteract antisemitism and Islamophobia, experts say.
“Whenever something antisemitic happens in the culture, there’s a well-meaning call to ‘study the Holocaust’ or follow, say, the Auschwitz Museum on Twitter,” Yair Rosenberg, journalist at The Atlantic, said. “But people need most to learn about how Jews live, not how they died. Who they are — not what antisemites say they are.”
When asked about how to reduce Islamophobia, Ayesha Rascoe, Canada’s special representative on combatting Islamophobia, told NPR, “Oftentimes, it’s listening to communities themselves on how they are looking for solutions to create safety and inclusion within their own communities.
Rabbi Marc Schneier of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding and Imam Shamsi Ali of the Jamaica Muslim Center have been going to various colleges in New York to create more unity among students.
“One of the ways to come together is realizing that we, Jews and Muslims, do not only have a common faith, but, in fact, we have a common fate,” Imam Ali said. “… Islamophobia and antisemitism are just two sides of the same coin.”
Both Rabbi Schneier and Imam Ali believe that these relationships can have a positive impact on campuses. “For me, antisemitism is my fight,” Imam Ali said. “As he (Rabbi Schneier) has taken Islamophobia as his fight. We advance our common humanity. That in spite of the existing differences we have, we have even more in common.”
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