Islamophobic incidents

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Religion Portal

Anti-Muslim Sentiment
Part of a series on Islam
Issues
Persecution of Muslims Islamophobic incidents Counterjihad Quran desecration
Specific incidents
2011 Norway attacks 2011 Dearborn mosque bombing plot Dove World Quran-burning controversy Flying imams incident Jerry Klein's 2006 radio experiment Murder of Balbir Singh Sodhi Murder of Marwa El-Sherbini
Organisations
Dove World Outreach Center English Defence League Stop Islamization of America Stop Islamisation of Europe Westboro Baptist Church
Blogs
Jihad Watch  · Politically Incorrect
Opposition
Anti-Defamation League Forum Against Islamophobia and Racism Islamophobia Watch Southern Poverty Law Center

Contents 1 Incidents country wise 1.1 Bosnia 1.2 Bulgaria 1.3 Canada 1.4 China 1.5 Denmark 1.6 France 1.7 Germany 1.8 India 1.9 Israel 1.10 Kosovo 1.11 Myanmar 1.12 Nigeria 1.13 Norway 1.14 Philippines 1.15 Russia 1.16 Sri Lanka 1.17 United Kingdom 1.18 United States of America 2 Incidents in media 3 Incidents on aircraft 4 Video games 5 See also 6 References

Incidents country wise

Bosnia

In the 1990s, the Bosnian Genocide and Kosovo War, both of which involved the "mass murder of innocent Muslims," have been linked to Islamophobia.^[1] In Bosnia, Christian Serb and Croat militias carried out genocidal attacks on the Muslim Bosniak community. According to the ICRC data on the Bosnian Genocide, "200,000 people were killed, 12,000 of them children, up to 50,000 women were raped, and 2.2 million were forced to flee their homes."^[2] Many attacks on religious buildings and symbols took place in towns such whilst as Foča, where all of the town's mosques were destroyed. On 22 April 1992, Serbs blew up the Aladža Mosque and eight more mosques dating from the 16th and 17th centuries were damaged or completely destroyed. On January 1994, the Serb authorities renamed Foča “Srbinje” (Serbian: Србиње), literally meaning "place of the Serbs" (from Srbi Serbs and -nje which is a Slavic locative suffix).^[3]

Bulgaria

In 1989, 310,000 Turks left Bulgaria, many under pressure as a result of the communist Zhivkov regime's assimilation campaign (though up to a third returned before the end of the year). That program, which began in 1984, forced all Turks and other Muslims in Bulgaria to adopt Bulgarian names and renounce all Muslim customs. The motivation of the 1984 assimilation campaign is unclear; however, some experts believe that the disproportion between the birth rates of the Turks and the Bulgarians was a major factor.^[4] During the name-changing phase of the campaign, Turkish towns and villages were surrounded by army units. Citizens were issued new identity cards with Bulgarian names. Failure to present a new card meant forfeiture of salary, pension payments, and bank withdrawals. Birth or marriage certificates would be issued only in Bulgarian names. Traditional Turkish costumes were banned; homes were searched and all signs of Turkish identity removed. Mosques were closed. According to estimates, 500 to 1,500 people were killed when they resisted assimilation measures, and thousands of others were imprisoned or sent to labor camps or were forcibly resettled.^[5]

Canada

Halima Mautbur, from the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations called an attack on a hijabi Muslim woman "an Islamophobic incident".^[6] On January 4, 2010, in Hamilton city of Ontario, Canada the largest mosque of the city on Stone Church Road was firebombed.^[7] Hamilton police’s hate crime unit and chief arson investigator discovered "evidence of vandalism at the property as well as an incendiary device".^[8] Attackers had used a large rock, lighter and Molotov cocktail.^[9]

China

Many Uyghurs face religious persecution and discrimination at the hands of the government authorities. Uyghurs who choose to practice their faith can only use a state-approved version of the Koran;^[10] men who work in the state sector cannot wear beards and women cannot wear headscarves.^[11] The Chinese state controls the management of all mosques, which many Uyghurs claim stifles religious traditions that have formed a crucial part of the Uyghur identity for centuries.^[12] Children under the age of 18 are not allowed to attend religious services at mosques.^[13]

However, the suppression of the Uyghurs has more to do with the fact that they are separatist, rather than Muslim. The government of China was willing to compromise with Hui (Chinese Muslim) activists when they staged public marches in Beijing and Lanzhou in 1989 to protest the publication of a book they deemed insulting to Islam, police protected the marchers and the government even agreed to the protestor's demands: the offensive book was banned and its authors were arrested. The Chinese government assisted them because Hui do not have a separatist movement, unlike the Uyghurs.^[14]

In Tibet, the majority of Muslims are Hui people. Riots broke out between Muslims and Tibetans over incidents such as bones in soups and prices of balloons. Tibetans attacked Muslim restaurants. During the mid-March riots in 2008, Muslim shopkeepers and their families were badly hurt and some were killed when fires set in their shops spread to upstairs apartments. Due to Tibetan violence against Muslims, many Muslims have stopped wearing the traditional white caps that identify their religion. Many women now wear a hairnet instead of a scarf. Since the nearest mosque was burned down in August, the Muslims pray at home in secret. The Tibetan exile community is reluctant to publicize incidents that might harm the international image of Tibetans. The Hui usually support the Chinese government's repression of Tibetan separatism.^[15]

Denmark

Doudou Diène in a report prepared by the UN Commission on Human Rights released on March 7, 2006 mentioned the publishing of the cartoons at the heart of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy regarding, "The development of Islamophobia or any racism and racial discrimination ..."^[16]

France

148 French Muslim graves were desecrated near Arras. A pig's head was hung from a headstone and profanities insulting Islam and Muslims were daubed on some graves.^[17] Dalil Boubakeur, a director of a Paris mosque described the vandalism on a Mosque in Paris, France as Islamophobic.^[18] On December 13, 2009, The Mosque of Castres in southern France, was vandalized in the night.^[19] Swastika in black paint, "Sieg Heil" in German, "France to the French" in French, and "White Power" in English were scrawled on the mosque.^[20] Additionally, a pig feet was hung on the mosque.^[21]

The Islamic headscarf ban at schools in 2004 has been accused of being Islamophobic. As a consequence, the years following the ban has seen an increasing number of Islamic secondary schools being established, French Muslim female students increasingly choosing to study at home, some shaving their hair, and others migrating away from France with their families.^[22] Muslim students have also increasingly enrolled at Catholic schools, which are usually more tolerant towards Islam than the secular public schools.^[23] In 2010, a study entitled, Are French Muslims Discriminated Against in Their Own Country?, has shown that "Muslims sending out resumes in hopes of a job interview had 2.5 times less chance than Christians" with similar credentials "of a positive response to their applications."^[24]

Germany

On July 1, 2009, Marwa El-Sherbini was stabbed to death in a courtroom in Dresden, Germany. She had just given evidence against her attacker who had used racist insults against her because she wore an Islamic headscarf.

The Bosphorus serial murders took place between 2000 and 2006. The police discovered a hit list of 88 people that included "two prominent members of the Bundestag and representatives of Turkish and Islamic groups".^[25]

India

In 1992, members of the Vishva Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal destroyed the 430 year old Babri Mosque in Ayodhya,^[26] on the basis that the mosque was built over the birthplace of the Hindu deity Rama and that a Hindu temple existed at the site before the erection of the Mosque by demolishing the temple. The demolition was followed by riots in Bombay.

The Sangh Parivar family of organizations has allegedly been involved in the 2002 Gujarat violence they were allegedly responsible for encouraging attacks against Muslims in response to the Godhra train burning allegedly by Muslims in which 60 Hindus were killed.^[27] Subsequent riots led to the death of several hundred Muslims. Another major incident was at Naroda Patia, where a Hindu mob massacred more than 100 Muslims after an incident sparked by Muslim on Hindu violence had got out of hand. In another incident at Best Bakery, in the city of Baroda, 12 men were massacred and burnt.^[28] The Gujarat riots officially led to the death of 1,044 people, 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus. Human Rights Watch puts the death toll at higher figures, with 2000 deaths, mostly with attacks against Muslims by Hindu mobs.^[29] These figures are disputed, particularly on the basis that the figure of 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus was reiterated in Parliament by the staunchly anti-Sangh Parivar UPA government.^[30] Another 100,000 Muslims became homeless, according to the U.S. State Department's 2002 human rights report on India. Official figures report 60000 Muslims rendered homeless versus 10000 Hindus. About 20,000 Muslim businesses were destroyed.^[31]

Recently Hindu mobs again attacked Muslim villages after cows were claimed to have been sacrificed for the festivities of Eid. In 2005, this caused the destruction of 40 homes and 3 deaths.

Israel

In May 2010, a mosque in the West Bank was destroyed in an arson attack.^[32] In previous months, other mosques had been attacked; some were vandalised with Hebrew graffiti and other mosques have been destroyed or damaged by arson in the past.^[32] In June 2010, there were further acts of vandalism against mosques by Israelis. In northern Israel the walls of mosques were spray painted with the Star of David as well as messages such as "There will be war over Judea and Samaria" and "This structure is marked for demolition".^[33]

Kosovo

In modern times, notably during the Kosovo conflict, Muslim were victims of mass killings. The Ljubenić massacres were a series of killings committed by Serbian police and paramilitary forces on Muslim Kosovo Albanians in the in the village of Ljubenić near Peć, during the Kosovo War 1998-1999. In the May 1999 Cuska massacre, Serbian army, police, paramilitary and Serb volunteers from Bosnia in killed 48 Kosovo Albanian civilians, all men and boys. Some of the perpetrators were Kosovo Serbs while some others were criminals from Central Serbia released from prison for fighting in Kosovo. In 2005, Nebjosa Minic, also known as “Commander Death”, who was one of the leaders of militia group who carried out the massacre was identified by HRW and arrested in Argentina.^[34]

In the Drenica massacres, Serbian special police forces in central Kosovo killed Kosovo Albanian civilians.^[35] According to Human Rights Watch, abuses in the Drenica region during the Kosovo War 1998–1999 "were so widespread that a comprehensive description is beyond the scope of this report".^[35] Key atrocities took place in the period of February–March 1998 in the Qirez, Likoshan and Prekaz and during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, from March to June 1999 in the villages of Izbica, Rezala, Poklek and Qikatova e vjetër (Staro Ćikatovo).^[35] In the Suva Reka massacre, there were 48 victims — among them many children — all members of the Berisha family.^[36] Victims were locked inside a pizzeria into which two hand grenades were thrown.^[36] Before taking the bodies out of the pizzeria, the police allegedly shot anyone still showing signs of life.^[36] Bodies of victims were later transported to Serbia and buried in mass graves near a police facility at Batajnica, near Belgrade.^[37]

Between March 19 and June 15, 1999, Serbian and Yugoslav forces in Drenica engaged in "a brutal campaign of "ethnic cleansing" against the Albanians of Kosova that involved summary and arbitrary executions, arbitrary detentions, regular beatings, widespread looting, and the destruction of schools, hospitals, and other civilian objects".^[38] In Cikatovo, more than 100 ethnic Albanians were executed by Serb forces and buried at a mass grave site, according to war crimes investigators.^[39]

Myanmar

Muslims are stereotyped in the society as "cattle killers" (referring to the cattle sacrifice festival of Eid Al Adha in Islam). The generic racist slur of "Kala" (black) used against perceived "foreigners" has especially negative connotations when referring to Burmese Muslims. The more pious Muslim communities which segregate themselves from the Buddhist majority face greater difficulties than those Muslims who integrate more at the cost of not observing Islamic personal laws.^[4]

Muslims in Myanmar are affected by the actions of Islamic Fundamentalists in other countries. Violence in Indonesia perpetrated by Islamists is used as a pretext to commit violence against Muslim minorities in Burma. The anti-Buddhist actions of the Taliban in Afghanistan (the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan) was also used as a pretext to commit violence against Muslims in Myanmar by Buddhist mobs. Human Rights Watch reports that there was mounting tension between the Buddhist and Muslim communities in Taungoo for weeks before it erupted into violence in the middle of May 2001. Buddhist monks demanded that the Hantha Mosque in Taungoo be destroyed in "retaliation" for the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan.^[40] Mobs of Buddhists, led by monks, vandalized Muslim owned businesses and property and attacked and killed Muslims in Muslim communities. This was followed by retaliation by Muslims against Buddhists. Human Rights Watch also alleges that Burmese military intelligence agents disguised as monks, led the mobs.^[41]

The dictatorial government, which operates a pervasive internal security apparatus, generally infiltrates or monitors the meetings and activities of virtually all organizations, including religious organizations. Religious freedom for Muslims is reduced. Monitoring and control of Islam undermines the free exchange of thoughts and ideas associated with religious activities.^[42]

It is widely feared that persecution of Muslims in Myanmar could foment Islamic fundamentalism in the country.^[43] Many Muslims have joined armed resistance groups that are fighting for greater freedom in Myanmar,^[44] but are not Islamic fundamentalists as such.

Nigeria

During the Yelwa massacre on May 2, 2004, a Christian militia killed hundreds of Muslims in Yelwa, Nigeria, and thousands of Muslims were forced to flee the area.^[45]

Norway

Anders Behring Breivik, the confessed perpetrator of the 2011 Norway attacks, two sequential attacks in Norway on 22 July 2011 that killed 76 people and wounded at least as many, is described as a 32 year old Norwegian islamophobic right-wing extremist.^[46]

Philippines

The Muslim Moro people live in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao and southern provinces, remain disadvantaged in terms of employment, social mobility, education and housing. Muslims in the Philippines are frequently discriminated against in the media as scapegoats or warmongers.^[47] This has established escalating tensions that have contributed to the ongoing conflict between the Philippine government, Christians and Moro people.

There has been am ongoing exodus of Moro (Tausug, Samal, Islamized Bajau, Illanun, Maguindanao) to Malaysia (Sabah) and Indonesia (Kalimantan) between the last 30 to 50 years, due to the illegal annexation of their land by Christian Filipino militants such as the Ilaga, who were responsible for massacres of Muslim villages from the 1970s to the late 1990s. This has changed the population statistics in both countries to a significant degree, and has caused the gradual displacement of the Moros from their traditional lands.

Russia

Due to the large activity of Chechen many Russians (including authorities) have associated Islam and Muslims with terrorism and domestic crimes.^{[48][49][50][51]} In August 2007 a video of 2 ethnic Russian neo-Nazis beheading two Muslim men, one from Dagestan in the Caucasus and one from Tajikistan appeared on the internet.^[52] In February 2004, a nine-year old Tajik girl was stabbed to death in Saint Petersburg by suspected far-right skinheads.^[53][54] In December 2008 an email, containing a picture of the severed head of a man identified as Salekh Azizov, was sent to the Moscow Human Rights Bureau. It was sent by a group called Russian Nationalists' Combat Group and has led to protests from the Tajik Government.^[55] Despite these facts with large resonance the quantity of victims between Tajik immigrants^[55] is two time less than average quantity of victims per million inhabitants in Russia in 2008.^[56]

Sri Lanka

The 1990 explusion of Muslims from Sri Lanka was an act of ethnic cleansing^[57][58] carried out by Tamils of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) organization in October 1990. In order to achieve their goal of creating a mono ethnic Tamil state^[59][60] in the North Sri Lanka, the LTTE forcibly expelled the 75,000 strong Muslim population from the Northern Province.^[61] The first expulsion was in Chavakacheri, of 1,500 people. After this, Muslims in Kilinochchi and Mannar were forced many to leave their homeland. The turn of Jaffna came on 30 October 1990; when LTTE trucks drove through the streets ordering Muslim families to assemble at Osmania College. There, they were told to exit the city within two hours.

On 4 August 1990, Tamil militants massacred over 147 Muslims in a mosque in Kattankudi.^{[62][63][64][65]} The act took place when around 30 Tamil rebels raided four mosques in the town of Kattankudi, where over 300 people were prostrating during prayers. The LTTE later apologized (during the 2000 peace talks) for this act and asked the Muslims to return back, but very few Muslims have taken up the offer.^[66]

United Kingdom

In March 2006, Jamia Masjid mosque in Preston was attacked by gangs of white youths using brick and concrete block. The white youths damaged a number of cars outside the mosque and stabbed a 16 year-old Muslim teenager. In the same town, a 20 year-old Muslim, Shezsan Umarji, was killed by three youths in July 2005.^[67] On July 6, 2009, the Glasgow branch of Islamic Relief was badly damaged by a fire which police said was started deliberately, and which members of the Muslim community of Scotland allege were Islamophobic.^[68]

In 2005, The Guardian commissioned an ICM poll which indicated an increase in Islamophobic incidents, particularly after the London bombings in July 2005.^[69][70] Another survey of Muslims, this by the Open Society Institute, found that of those polled 32% believed they had suffered religious discrimination at airports, and 80% said they had experienced Islamophobia.^[71][72] In July 2005, a Muslim man, Kamal Raza Butt, was beaten to death outside a corner shop in Nottingham by a gang of youths who shouted anti-Islamic abuse at him.^[73]

On the 26 August 2007 fans of the English football club Newcastle United directed Islamophobic chants at Egyptian Middlesbrough F.C. striker Mido. An FA investigation was launched^[74] He revealed his anger at The FA's investigation, believing that they would make no difference to any future abuse.^[75] Two men were eventually arrested over the chanting and were due to appear at Teesside Magistrates Court.^[76]

In January 2010, a report from the University of Exeter's European Muslim research centre noted that the number of anti-Muslim hate crimes has increased, ranging from "death threats and murder to persistent low-level assaults, such as spitting and name-calling," for which the media and politicians have been blamed with fueling anti-Muslim hatred. The Islamophobic incidents it described include: "Neil Lewington, a violent extremist nationalist convicted in July 2009 of a bomb plot; Terence Gavan, a violent extremist nationalist convicted in January 2010 of manufacturing nail bombs and other explosives, firearms and weapons; a gang attack in November 2009 on Muslim students at City University; the murder in September 2009 of Muslim pensioner, Ikram Syed ul-Haq; a serious assault in August 2007 on the Imam at London Central Mosque; and an arson attack in June 2009 on Greenwich Islamic Centre."^[77][78] Other Islamophobic incidents mentioned in the report include "Yasir, a young Moroccan," being "nearly killed while waiting to take a bus from Willesden to Regent's Park in London" and "left in a coma for three months"; "Mohammed Kohelee," a "caretaker who suffered burns to his body while trying to prevent an arson attack against Greenwich Mosque"; "the murder" of "Tooting pensioner Ekram Haque" who "was brutally beaten to death in front of his three year old granddaughter" by a "race-hate" gang; and "police officers" being injured "during an English Defence League (EDL) march in Stoke."^[79]

In August 2011, The Barnabas Fund, a charity for persecuted Christian minorities, began campaigning against what it said was the growing "Islamisation" of Britain.^[80]

United States of America

In the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing, many residents of Middle Eastern descent and African American Muslims became victims of the initial rage at "Muslim terrorists" as the initial news stories hypothesized. KFOR-TV's coverage of the bombing informed viewers that a member of the Nation of Islam had taken credit for the bombing. Even though the network cautioned that it might be a crank call, it repeated the claim throughout the day's coverage. KFOR had also mistakenly identified an Iraqi resident as "John Doe 2", which subjected him to public harassment and caused the loss of his job. It was also reported that an Iraqi woman had a miscarriage after men shouting anti-Muslim epithets shattered the windows in her home.^[81] According to a report prepared by the Arab American Institute, three days after the bombings, "more than 200 serious hate crimes were committed against Arab Americans and American Muslims. The same was true in the days following September 11."^[82] There were also suggestions on the radio that all Arab Americans "be put in internment camps".^[81] Moreover, Daniel Zwerdling observed that "while the planners of the 'Time For Healing' service took great pains to be inclusive and to include Jews, Catholics, Evangelical Christians among the religious leaders at the service, Islamic groups were excluded".^[81]

In the aftermath of 9/11, hate crimes against people of Middle-Eastern descent increased from 354 attacks in 2000 to 1,501 attacks in 2001.^[83] Among the victims of the backlash was a Middle-Eastern man in Houston, Texas who was shot and wounded after an assailant accused him of "blowing up the country"^[82] and four immigrants shot and killed by a man named Larme Price who confessed to killing them as "revenge" for the September 11 attacks.^[84] Although Price described his victims as Arabs, only one was from an Arab country. This appears to be a trend; on account of stereotypes of Arabs, several non-Arab, non-Muslim groups were subjected to attacks in the wake of 9/11, including several Sikh men attacked for wearing their religiously mandated turban.^[85] According to a report prepared by the Arab American Institute, three days after the Oklahoma City bombing (which was committed by a Caucasian man), "more than 200 serious hate crimes were committed against Arab Americans and American Muslims. The same was true in the days following September 11."^[82]

Zohreh Assemi, an Iranian American Muslim owner of a nail salon in Locust Valley, New York, was robbed, beaten, and called a "terrorist" in September 2007 in what authorities call a bias crime.^[86] Assemi was kicked, sliced with a boxcutter, and had her hand smashed with a hammer. The perpetrators, who forcibly removed $2,000 from the salon and scrawled anti-Muslim slurs on the mirrors, also told Assemi to "get out of town" and that her kind were not "welcomed" in the area. The attack followed two weeks of phone calls in which she was called a "terrorist" and told to "get out of town," friends and family said.^[86]

While en route to Chicago, Shahrukh Khan, a well-known Bollywood actor, was held for what he described as "humiliating" questioning for several hours in Newark Airport, New Jersey because of his common Muslim surname Khan. He was released only following the intervention of the Indian embassy.^[87][88]

On August 25, 2010, a New York taxi driver was stabbed after a passenger asked if he was Muslim.^[89]

The Dove World Outreach Center church in Gainesville, Florida planned to burn Qurans on the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Despite warning from the military leadership in the Afghan War, Terry Jones, the pastor of the centre, said it would be "tragic" if anybody's life was lost as a result of the planned Quran burning. While he added "Still, I must say that we feel that we must sooner or later stand up to Islam, and if we don't, it's not going to go away." His church's website claims to "expose Islam" as a "violent and oppressive religion;" it also displays a sign reading "Islam is of the Devil."^[90]

In March, 2011 the Center for Security Policy released a study which concluded that "religious bias crimes - also known as hate crimes - against Muslim Americans, measured by the categories of incidents, offenses or victims, have remained relatively low with a downward trend since 2001, and are significantly less than the numbers of bias crimes against Jewish victims."^[91]

On January 24, 2011, Dearborn Police arrested and jailed on a terrorism charge 63-year old Army veteran from California, Roger Stockham, for allegedly attempting to blow up the Islamic Center of America, the largest mosque in Detroit. Police said that Stockham "had a long history of being angry with the United States government" and was already known to law enforcement officials in other parts of the country and that he drove from California and came to Dearborn because of its large Muslim population. The police received early warnings of the attack from an employee at a Detroit bar who overheard threats made by Stockham.^[92]

Incidents in media

• American political talk show host Neal Boortz regularly denounces Muslims across-the-board and Islam as a "cult", in addition to denouncing specific acts of terrorism perpetrated by Muslims
• Carl Ernst, a scholar of Islamic studies, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations has alleged that Robert Spencer is "Islamophobic".^[93][94] Spencer responded to this labeling, and invited Ernst to debate.^[95]
• The Council on American-Islamic Relations has stated that the views of Ann Coulter are Islamophobic.^[96]
• Oliver Duff of The Independent said in 2006 that the British National Party attempted to use increasing Islamophobia to make gains in local elections.^[97]
• Liz McGregor and John Hooper of The Guardian, has alleged that the views and writings of Oriana Fallaci, an Italian journalist and author of "The Force of Reason", was "Islamaphobic" [sic].^[98]
• The Islamic Human Rights Commission gave U.S Attorney General John Ashcroft a nomination for their 2003 "Islamophobe of the year" award for publicly saying, "Islam is a religion in which God requires you to send your son to die for him. Christianity is a faith in which God sends his son to die for you"^[99][100]
• The Islamic Human Rights Commission made Daniel Pipes a nominee for their 2004 and 2005 "Islamophobe of the year" awards.^[101]
• A December 2005 interview by Vlaams Belang frontman Filip Dewinter with the American-Jewish newsweekly The Jewish Week included a question if "Jews should vote for a party that espouses xenophobia". Dewinter responded by saying: "Xenophobia is not the word I would use. If it absolutely must be a ‘phobia,’ let it be ‘Islamophobia.’"^[102]
• The UK Minister Peter Hain's statement that Britain's Muslim community is "isolationist" was met with accusations of Islamophobia, as well as Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's public claim that Western civilization is superior to Islam.^[103]
• Some suggestions in the United Kingdom debate over veils (which concerned the circumstances in which Muslim women should be required to remove the Niqab) were considered Islamophobic by MP John McDonnell.^[104]
• CAIR and the Associated Press called United States Rep. Virgil H. Goode, Jr. (R-VA) islamophobic for his Dec. 2006 letter stating that Rep-elect Keith Ellison's desire to use the Qur'an during the swearing in ceremonies was a threat to "the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America" and for saying "I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies."^[105][106]
• Concerning the US state of North Carolina’s position (as expressed by their attorney general’s office) in the ongoing case of ACLU of N.C. & Syidah Matteen v. State of North Carolina that the only swearing-in for testimony in court that was valid had to be on a Christian Bible (and that all others must choose to affirm), CAIR's Legal Director in Washington D.C, Arsalan Iftikhar, said “This shows there's a lot of anti-Muslim sentiment, especially here in the United States.”^[107]
• Statements that incite Islamophobia from Franklin Graham, Pat Robertson and Benny Hinn, according to John Esposito. read relevant quotes.^[108]
• In 2004, Professor Richard E. Johnson wrote a book entitled (Mis)representing Islam: the racism and rhetoric of British broadsheet newspapers, criticizing the British media for propogating negative stereotypes of Muslims and fueling anti-Muslim prejudice.^[109] The media has also been criticized for under-reporting hate crimes against Muslims.^[110] The Western media has also been criticized for over-reporting a few Islamist terrorist incidents but under-reporting the much larger number of non-Islamist terrorist attacks carried out by non-Muslim white extremists.^[111] A Europol report showed that, contrary to media representation, more than 99% of terrorist attacks in Europe from 2006 to 2009 were, in fact, carried out by non-Muslims.^[112][113] An FBI report has shown that, contrary to popular opinion, only a small minority of terrorist attacks in the United States from 1980 to 2005 were carried out by Islamist extremists, while the same report concludes that "whereas the violent, global jihadist movement manifested itself primarily in terrorist preventions in the United States from 2002 through 2005, internationally the movement claimed major attacks against U.S. and Western targets that resulted in American casualties".^[114]
• British cabinet ministers had been criticized in October 2006 for helping to "unleash a public anti-Muslim backlash" in the United Kingdom by blaming the Muslim community over issues of integration despite a study commissioned by the Home Office on white and Asian-Muslim youths demonstrating otherwise: that Asian-Muslim youths "are in fact the most tolerant of all" and that white British youths "have far more intolerant attitudes," concluding that intolerance from the white British community was a greater "barrier to integration" in the United Kingdom.^[115][116] A Europe-wide survey by Gallup in May 2009 also found that the Muslim communities in Britain, Germany and France felt more patriotic towards those countries than the general populations in those countries,^[117][118] while another survey found that Muslims supported the role of Christianity in British life more so than Christians themselves.^[119]
• The British Social Attitudes Survey in January 2010 found that the British public "is far more likely to hold negative views of Muslims than of any other religious group,"^[120] with "just one in four" feeling "positively about Islam," and a "majority of the country would be concerned if a mosque was built in their area, while only 15 per cent expressed similar qualms about the opening of a church."^[121]
• In 2006 ABC News reported that "[p]ublic views of Islam are one casualty of the post-Sept. 11, 2001 conflict: Nearly six in 10 Americans think the religion is prone to violent extremism, nearly half regard it unfavorably, and a remarkable one in four admits to prejudicial feelings against Muslims and Arabs alike." They also report that 27 percent of Americans admit feelings of prejudice against Muslims.^[122] According to Gallup polls, 40 percent of Americans admit to prejudice against Muslims, and 39 percent believe Muslims should carry special identification.^[123]

Incidents on aircraft

Some incidents with Muslim passengers on aircraft have given rise to the expression "Flying while Muslim".^[124]

• On 16 August 2006 British passengers on board a flight from Malaga to Manchester requested the removal of two men of Asian descent from a plane. According to a spokesman for the Civil Guard in Malaga, "These men had aroused suspicion because of their appearance and the fact that they were speaking in a foreign language thought to be an Arabic language, and the pilot was refusing to take off until they were escorted off the plane." A security sweep of the plane found no explosives or any item of a terrorist nature. Monarch Airlines booked the men, who were Urdu speakers, into a hotel room, gave them a free meal and sent them home on a later plane. The men later responded, "Just because we're Muslim, does not mean we are suicide bombers." The Islamic Human Rights Commission blamed "ever-increasing Islamophobia" related to the "war on terror" for the incident.^{[125][126][127]}
• A passenger traveling to the British Virgin Islands on a plane bound for the United States from Manchester in the UK was forced off the plane prior to takeoff. The man, a British-born Muslim residing in the United States, said he was singled out because he was a Muslim pilot and was left feeling "demoralized and humiliated. I must have met the profile on the day. I have an Arabic name, I am a Muslim, I'm from Britain and I know how to fly."^[128][129]
• On 21 November 2006, six imams were forcefully removed from a US Airways flight at Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport for security reasons. The event led to an outcry from Muslim organizations in America saying that what happened showed the growing prejudice against Muslims in America.^[130] Investigations by the airline and police so far have reported that the airline and ground crews responded to security concerns properly in removing the men from the plane.^[131] See Flying Imams controversy for more details regarding this incident.
• In 2009 AirTran Airways removed nine Muslim passengers, including three children, from a flight and turned them over to the FBI after one of the men commented to another that they were sitting right next to the engines and wondered aloud where the safest place to sit on the plane was. Although the FBI subsequently cleared the passengers and called the incident a "misunderstanding," AirTran refused to seat the passengers on another flight, forcing them to purchase last minute tickets on another airline that had been secured with the FBI's assistance. A spokesman for AirTran initially defended the airline's actions and said they would not reimburse the passengers for the cost of the new tickets. Although the men had traditional beards and the women headscarves, AirTran denied that their actions were based on the passengers' appearance.^[132] The following day, after the incident received widespread media coverage, AirTran reversed its position and issued a public apology, adding that it would in fact reimburse the passengers for the cost of their rebooked tickets.^[133]

Video games

• Muslim Massacre: The Game of Modern Religious Genocide is a controversial 2008 amateur shoot 'em up computer game, as the aim of the game is to kill all Muslims that appear on the screen. The game's creator took down the game's download site with a statement of apology on his personal website, claiming his original intention in releasing the game, to "mock the foreign policy of the United States and the commonly held belief in the United States that Muslims are a hostile people to be held with suspicion", had backfired and not been understood by the wider public, and that its release "did not achieve its intended effect and instead only caused hurt to hospitable, innocent people."^[134] However it later emerged that the apology was indeed fake and the original game was an act of a political statement and not of anti-Muslim sentiment.^[135]

See also

• Islamophobia
• Persecution of Muslims
• Religious intolerance
• Religious persecution

References