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Muslims in the USA have expressed their concern about their place in society, with Donald Trump as their president. Several human rights and Muslim associations have reported discrimination and vandalism acts since Trump was sworn into office. Speaking to Detroit News, one of the major newspapers operating in the city of Detroit, Michigan, Najah Bazzy, founder and CEO of the Inkster-based organization stated that they were targeted by hate messages. Bazzy, who is also an activist in one of Metro Detroit’s major Muslim communities, said that they were sent letters of discrimination and anti-Muslim rhetoric.
Najah Bazzy had met with other people who confirmed that they were discriminated against and that their businesses were vandalized only because they were Muslims. «I am saddened but also a little scared», Bazzy declared adding that «the climate of the country has unleashed some very deep-rooted racism».
In fact, Bazzy’s organization is not the only party denouncing the discriminating acts that became frequent lately. In June the 10th demonstrators in New York, San Bernandino, Seattle, Minneapolis all the way to California took the streets in anti-Sharia marches organized by an activist group called «Act for America». The anti-Islamic law demonstrators quickly clashed with counter-demonstrators who «yelled and sounded horns» to shut them down.
Back then and responding to the anti-Sharia, Ibrahim Hooper, the National Communications Director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a civil rights and advocatory group headquartered in Washington D.C., told Yabiladi that «the marches were against Islam» adding that the council has witnessed «the rise of hate crimes against Muslims and minorities» in the USA when Donald Trump became president.
Discriminationa against Muslims
Moreover, in a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, US Muslims show concern about their place in the American society. 75% of the interviewed Americans said that there is a lot of discrimination against Muslims in the USA. 68% answered «yes», when asked if Donald Trump made them feel worried. Of all the participants to the study, 62% declared that they did not see Islam as a mainstream part of society. Other findings suggest that 50% of the participants believe that it is getting harder to be a Muslim in America and that media coverage in unfair and most are very concerned about extremism in the name of Islam.
However, other American Muslims have preferred to remain optimist. «Overwhelmingly, they say they are proud to be Americans, believe that hard work generally brings success in this country and are satisfied with the way things are going in their own lives – even if they are not satisfied with the direction of the country as a whole», Detroit News wrote, quoting the survey.
Nasser Beydoun, chairman of the Arab American Civil Rights League in Dearborn, the eighth largest city in the State of Michigan commenting on the survey told Detroit News that «Muslims and all other ethnic minorities are going to face discrimination because he is actively supporting racism and white privilege».
«It takes us back to the Jim Crow days; he is pushing us to a bygone era we have been working 40 years to overcome. We were on the path to addressing these issues in a way where we were becoming less racist, and more accepting. He has turned the clock back».
Alongside the anti-Sharia marches the hateful and discriminating messages sent to Muslim communities and associations, the USA is living a different kind of hate. On the 12th of August, hundreds of white supremacists marched in downtown Charlottesville to protest against the removal of a statue honoring Robert E. Lee, an American general known for commanding the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War from 1862 until his surrender in 1865. Quickly the march was met with counter-activists who came to stop them.
Clashes broke off between the two camps, and out of the sudden a car «smashed into the back of the sedan, shoving tons of metal into the crowd and launching bodies through the air. The Dodge then rapidly went into reverse, hitting more people», explains the Washington Post.
The driver was arrested and was charged with second degree murder, malicious wounding, and a count of hit and run according to the police.
