Political leaders’ anti-Muslim slander correlates with a wave of everyday anti-Muslim incidents

Evidence

Politicians and aspiring politicians alike—from Andy Martin and Orly Taitz (leader of the “birther” movement) to Donald Trump—accused Obama before and after his election of not being a U.S. citizen, questioning his place of birth, highlighting that his father is from Kenya, and claiming that he is not a “real” American. Though nearly a decade after 9/11, the flames of fear and suspicion are easily stoked. With the slander that prominent public servants voice—with great pride—is it any surprise that hate crimes and discrimination against Muslims continue? In August 2010 a passenger stabbed a New York City cab driver after confirming that he was Muslim. A few months later, slices of bacon arranged spelling “pig chump,” were left on the tile walkway to a mosque. In March 2011 a Muslim woman wearing a hijab was removed from a Southwest Airlines flight because the stewardess deemed her suspicious. And in May 2011 two Muslim clerics traveling to North Carolina for a conference on Islamophobia were escorted off an Atlantic Southeast Airlines flight in Tennessee after the pilot expressed discomfort at their presence. — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 1370

Categorization

• SHARE: The ‘pig chump’ bacon walkway detail and the Southwest Airlines hijab removal would interest someone following American Islamophobia incidents.