GETTY IMAGES/SCOTT OLSON
steady drumbeat of propaganda from Islamophobes
and given a megaphone by the press and a presidential frontrunner given to racist and Muslim-hating
oratory, already-simmering anti-Muslim sentiment
in the U.S. reached a fever pitch.
Two days after the Paris attacks, a University of
Cincinnati pre-med student wearing a hijab had
to be snatched out of the way of a car that accelerated toward her, its driver honking and calling her
a terrorist. The next day, a Muslim family in Orange
County, Fla., returned home from a charity event to
find bullets lodged in their garage and master bedroom. That same day, an Uber passenger in Charlotte,
N.C., mistook his Ethiopian Christian driver for a
Muslim and attacked, punching and threatening to
shoot him in the face, and in Norman, Okla., a man
allegedly told police, “[I’m] going to go out there and
just start shooting anything that looks like a Muslim.”
He was shot and wounded by officers responding to
his home after he allegedly pointed a gun at them.
On Nov. 19, a sixth-grader in Bronx, N.Y., was
attacked by classmates who called her “ISIS,” put
her in a headlock, punched her, and tried to rip off
her hijab. The next day in Pittsburgh, a Muslim cab
driver was shot in the back by a passenger who had
inquired about his religious affiliation and spent the
ride ranting about Islam.
On Dec. 8, a Queens, N.Y., convenience store
owner reported being beaten by a customer who
punched him in the head and said, “I want to kill
Muslims.” Two days later, the Council on AmericanIslamic Relations buildings in Washington, D.C., and
Santa Clara, Calif., were evacuated after receiving
letters containing white powder, which was eventually found to be harmless. A few days later, a Muslim
woman was nearly shot by an unknown person
who fired at her as she left a Tampa, Fla., mosque.
Another Muslim woman driving away from another
mosque in the area said a man threw rocks at her
and then tried to run her off the road.
One day after
Tashfeen Malik and
her husband, Syed
Farook, murdered 14
people in the name of
Islam, Donald Trump
proposed a ban on
Muslim immigration
to the U.S.
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