Rabat — Islamophobia is on the rise, as is evidenced by reports sharing alarming data on the number of Islamophobic sentiments and attacks towards Muslims across the world, including the US.
The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), the country’s largest Muslim civil rights organization, recently remarked on the Islamophobia documented in the US in 2023 and cited anti-Muslim attacks taking place across the world, including the genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, as well as against the Rohingya in Myanmar.
“Its insidious effects are evident around the world – from the blood-soaked ruins of Gaza, to the killing fields of Myanmar, to the concentration camps of Chinese-ruled East Turkestan,” the group wrote in an op-ed on Saturday.
The op-ed recalled the complaints it received from Muslims, noting that 2023 marked the highest number of Islamophobia reports that the organization has ever recorded in its 30-year history.
The number, which stood at 8,061 that year, represented an uptick in Islamophobic acts that brought “numerous stories of human tragedy,” including the killing of a six-year-old Palestinian American boy in Chicago.
Last year, the council recorded 8,656 complaints, showing a 7% increase compared to 2023.
“This year, a woman in Texas tried to drown a 3-year-old Muslim child in a swimming pool,” CAIR said, noting that the woman also hurled hateful slurs and death threats against the child and his whole family.
The council also slammed social media platforms like X, accusing its owner Elon Musk of also sharing anti-Muslim content.
“The seeming algorithmic preference given to anti-Muslim content on Twitter since it was purchased by Elon Musk, who has himself shared anti-Muslim content and supported anti-Muslim parties, is not without real world consequences,” CAIR said, recalling a false claim suggesting that the perpetrator of a mass stabbing in England was a Muslim.
For the organization, social media platforms are often used as a direct stage for Islamophobic acts, pointing out how the perpetrator of the Christchurch massacre in New Zealand streamed his murders on Facebook.
In 2019, Brenton Tarrant entered two mosques in Christchurch, in which he killed 51 Muslims and streamed the crime in cold blood.
Saturday marked the International Day to Combat Islamophobia, with world leaders calling for urgent actions to tackle the crisis targeting Muslims.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres shared a message, urging everyone across the world to eradicate bigotry and to speak out against discrimination.
“On this International Day to Combat Islamophobia, let us work together to uphold equality, human rights and dignity, and build inclusive societies where everyone, regardless of their faith, can live in peace and harmony,” he said.
