Report on U.S. Muslim Civil Rights to be Released; Study Looks at Impact of Post-9/11 Policies on Islamic Community 7/14/2003
From: Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726 or cair@cair-net.org; Rabiah Ahmed, 202-488-8787, 202-439-1441 or rahmed@cair-net.org; both of the Council on American-Islamic Relations News Advisory: WHAT: On Tuesday, July 15, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Washington-based Islamic civil rights and advocacy group, will hold a news conference in the nation's capital to release its eighth annual report on the status of Muslim civil rights in the United States, titled "Guilt by Association." The report - the only annual study of its kind - details a 15 percent increase in the number of incidents and experiences of anti-Muslim violence, discrimination and harassment during the past year. It also outlines the civil liberties impact of government policies that target the American Muslim community in the post-9/11 era and looks at the rise in Islamophobic rhetoric in our society. "Along with an increase in the number of bias-related incidents and experiences, we have also witnessed the negative results produced by government policies that target ordinary Americans based on religion, ethnicity or national origin," said CAIR Research Director Dr. Mohamed Nimer. "It is this guilt by association that has created a sense of siege in the American Muslim community." CAIR began documenting anti-Muslim incidents following the 1995 attack on the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. WHEN: Tuesday, July 15, 2003, 10:30 a.m. (Eastern) WHERE: CAIR's Capitol Hill Headquarters, 1st Floor, 453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E., Washington, D.C. NOTE: CAIR offers an e-mail list designed to be a journalist's window to the American Muslim community. Subscribers to the list, called ISLAM-INFONET, receive news releases and other materials dealing with American Muslim positions on issues of importance to our society. To SUBSCRIBE to or UNSUBSCRIBE from this list, go to: http://cair.biglist.com/islam-infonet/ |