Biden Responsible for Genocide in Gaza, Rise in Islamophobia: Rights Group
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) on Friday dismissed Biden’s statements on the same day when he claimed to acknowledge the “ugly resurgence of Islamophobia in the wake of the devastating war in Gaza.”
"We recognise the violence and hate that Muslims worldwide too often face because of their religious beliefs — and the ugly resurgence of Islamophobia in the wake of the devastating war in Gaza," Biden said on occasion of the International Day to Combat Islamophobia on March 15.
CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad reacted to the remarks in a statement published by the group’s website.
“The biggest driving forces behind anti-Muslim bigotry in America today are the genocide in Gaza and the use of anti-Muslim bigotry and anti-Palestinian racism to smear and silence American Muslims who speak up for Palestinian human rights,” he said. “If President Biden is serious about countering the surge in Islamophobia, the most important thing he can do is end the genocide.”
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He noted that the White House should shoulder responsibility for its role in major uptick in Islamophobia in the past five months. “By smearing American Muslim members of Congress as ‘repugnant’ and ‘disgraceful’ when they first called for a ceasefire, by justifying the killing of innocent Palestinian as ‘the price of war,’ by refusing to listen to American Muslim groups who warned of the rising threat of bigotry days after Oct. 7th, and by funding the genocide in Gaza, the Biden administration bears some responsibility for the surge in Islamophobia.”
Calling for implementing change and going beyond rhetoric, Anwar added, “The White House cannot condemn violence against a Palestinian Muslim child here in America while simultaneously enabling the mass murder of Palestinian Muslim children in Gaza, nor can the White House call the destruction in Gaza ‘devastating’ while at the same time sending weapons to those causing the devastation.”
He noted that Dehumanizing Palestinians in Gaza and justifying violence against mosques in Gaza has obvious consequences for Muslims and mosques in the United States.
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Washington’s political and military support for the Israeli regime’s “genocidal murder” of more than 32,000 Palestinians in Gaza has “directly contributed to inspiring attacks on Palestinians, Muslims, and Arabs in the United States,” he added.
Human rights organizations are sounding the alarm over a significant uptick in Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian sentiment, and antisemitism in the United States and beyond.
Notable incidents contributing to this concern include the tragic stabbing of a young Palestinian American boy in Illinois, the targeted shooting of Palestinian-descended students in Vermont, and an assault on a Palestinian American individual in Texas.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has reported a staggering 178% increase in anti-Muslim complaints in the final quarter of 2023 compared to the same timeframe the previous year.
Advocacy groups are drawing parallels between this recent wave of Islamophobia and the prejudices encountered by Muslim communities in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.
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The rise comes amid the Israeli regime’s brutal war on the besieged Gaza Strip where more than 32,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed and 73,000 other have been wounded by Israeli aerial and ground strikes.
The war has displaced nearly the entire 2.3 million population of the territory, also causing a starvation crisis.
The regime has sealed off all land routes into Gaza apart from two crossings on the territory's southern edge, and has approved plans to invade Rafah area, the city on the southern edge of the shattered Palestinian enclave where more than half of its population are sheltering after five months of war.
