Children main target of anti-Muslim hatred in US: report

Muslim children in the United States have increasingly been reporting instances of anti-Muslim hatred in schools, although complaints of hateful sentiments and acts seemed to show an overall decline.

According to the Progress in the Shadow of Prejudice report by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Muslim civil rights organisation in the US, there was a staggering 63 percent increase in reports of anti-Muslim hatred from schoolchildren.

“Bullying in schools and the use of Islamophobic material in classrooms is alarming. While we are pleased to see a decline in government-led incidents, children have become the main targets of Islamophobic hatred,” CAIR’s Research and Advocacy Director Corey Saylor said.

He drew attention to an incident in October 2022 in which an Afghan girl, a 9th grade student at a Maryland high school, was subjected to violence by other students when she entered the bathroom to fix her headscarf.

The girl tried to escape, but the door was locked on her by a school attendant.

In another incident, a teacher in Florida obstructed three Muslim students as they were praying, nearly stepping on the students. The moment was captured on video and was widely circulated online.

The teacher was heard saying: "I believe in Jesus so I'm interrupting the floor."

'Hatred is still all around us'

Alongside education, the upward trend in anti-Muslim attitudes continues in areas such as banking, with accounts being opened and closed based on religious beliefs making financial transactions a major challenge for Muslims.

A March survey by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding found that financial institutions cause challenges for 27 percent of Muslims in the US.

According to Saylor, laws such as the Patriot Act, which came into force in the US after 9/11, gave intelligence agencies wide-ranging surveillance powers and facilitated discrimination.

But it’s not all bad news. Despite an increase in several areas, overall reports about anti-Muslim sentiments in the US showed a dip for the first time in nearly three decades, decreasing by 23 percent since 1995.

Stating that there was a 32 percent increase in anti-Muslim sentiments in law enforcement and government in the first year of former US President Donald Trump's presidency, Saylor suggested that the downward trend in 2022 could be linked to the change of government in Washington.

He also indicated that as US law enforcement began focusing on real threats after the January 6 Capitol attack in 2021, over-extensive surveillance and informant deployments against law-abiding Muslims would have decreased accordingly.

However, Americans still haven’t embraced the country’s Muslim minority as a part of society according to Saylor. And while the decline in anti-Muslim sentiments raised hopes for American Muslims, discrimination against other communities had increased.

“The positive signs we see in 2022 do not mean that we should let our guard down, hatred is still all around us. We see anti-Semitic and anti-Asian hatred on the rise. We see continued violence against brown and Black people,” Saylor said.

"The decrease in reports of anti-Muslim incidents is a glimmer of hope. Any optimism must be followed by activism. This is not the time to stop," he added.

Saylor called on the US Muslim community to continue to be publicly active and make their voices heard, saying injustices had to be met with trials in court, as well as new laws that protect minority communities.

"If you are quiet, people will target you. If you stand up for yourself and defend yourself, they will look for other ways to deal with their negative feelings," Saylor said.

“If you're not at the table, then you're on the menu.”