FBI Releases 2008 Hate Crime Statistics Press Release — Hate Crime Statistics Web Site
— “An analysis of the 7,780 single-bias incidents revealed that 51.3 percent were motivated by a racial bias”
— Anti-Black Racial Hate 2,876, Anti-Jewish Hate 1,013, Anti-Homosexual 1,200, Anti-Hispanic 561
— Anti-Islam Incidents – 105
— Anti-Christian Incidents – 101
Table 1
Incidents, Offenses, Victims, and Known Offenders by Bias Motivation, 2008
1 The term victim may refer to a person, business, institution, or society as a whole.
2 The term known offender does not imply that the identity of the suspect is known, but only that an attribute of the suspect has been identified, which distinguishes him/her from an unknown offender.
3 In a multiple-bias incident, two conditions must be met: (a) more than one offense type must occur in the incident and (b) at least two offense types must be motivated by different biases.
On November 16, 2009, members of the Gainesville, Florida-based Dove World Outreach Center extended their activities from Florida to Ohio attacking Islam as attendees at an event led by others which was reportedly intended to address religious freedom in Columbus, Ohio, in the case of Rifqa Bary, who states that she has been threatened for converting from Islam to Christianity.
We object to Dove World Outreach Center’s tactics as counterproductive and objectionable to the cause of promoting human rights and religious freedom.
At the November 16 Columbus event, we have been told that attendees came from: “Wisconsin, Toronto, California… Michigan, New York, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Texas, Missouri, Louisiana.” Although we were not in attendance at the November 16 event, we recognize the challenges that any event organizers might in having a consistent message from diverse members of the public from different parts of the country.
R.E.A.L.'s Human Rights Approach to Public Outreach and Dialogue in Columbus - November 13
We support universal human rights, including freedom of religion, for all people – as well as supporting human dignity and respect as fundamental human rights as well. During our November 13 public outreach event, we talked to a number of local Columbus individuals who were Muslims who listened to our concerns on human rights issues and politely debated us on some points.
Our point was that all human beings deserve our universal human rights, regardless of their religion. We stated that no one has the right to deny freedom of religion or freedom of conscience to others. We pointed to the threats alleged by Columbus’ Rifqa Bary that she stated she was threatened for changing her religion from Islam to Christianity. We addressed the July 2009 Chicago event with 700 attendees supporting an anti-democracy extremists group (rationalizing anti-human rights views based on its interpretation of Islam) that passed out brochures defending the “death penalty” for those “traitors” who left Islam. We addressed the “honor killings” by religious extremists in Ohio, Arizona, Texas, Georgia, and Indiana that had been rationalized based on a religious extremist ideology. Finally, we pointed to the global problem illustrated by a recent Pew Global Poll in Pakistan that stated that 78 percent of Pakistanis “favor death for those who leave Islam.” Like the global scourge of so-called “honor killings,” such anti-freedom ideological views are against those who seek freedom of conscience and religion as universal human rights.
R.E.A.L. had such discussions with local Columbus area Muslims in a spirit of civility, dignity, and respect for human rights. This resulted in agreement and reflection on some of these human rights concerns. That is what public outreach on human rights issues is all about, reaching the public where we seek to affect change.
Regarding the campaign by the Dove World Outreach Center, it is also clear that two wrongs don’t make a right. Just as it is wrong for religious extremists to call for violence against those who seek freedom, it is also a challenge to human dignity and respect for protesters by wearing shirts stating “Islam is of the devil.” Working for human freedom and human rights begins with respect and dignity, and focusing on what you are for, not what you are against. This is why our organization is called “Responsible for Equality And Liberty.”
Our universal human rights begin with love. We can’t love our fellow human beings and deny their basic equality, liberty, and universal human rights. Moreover, we can’t hate our fellow human beings and claim to be fighting for human rights causes as well.
To those who state that the activities of the Dove World Outreach Center reflect “Christian” views, we note repeated protests of Dove World’s activities in Florida by Christians (and others), as reported in the Gainesville Sun, WCJB TV20 News, and by The Christian Post.
The Columbus Dispatch reported on the reaction by some at the Columbus November 16 rally to the members of the Dove World Outreach Center wearing the shirts “Islam is of the devil,” stating “Paige Bailey, who was at the rally, said she was troubled by that message. Rifqa wouldn’t like the focus to be on opposing Islam but rather on helping people come to Christianity, said Bailey, who met Rifqa through Christian groups at Ohio State University.”
From a human rights perspective, we believe that campaigns of outrage demonizing others is counterproductive in effecting change in human rights, because the point of a human rights campaign is to reach our fellow human beings. Moreover, according to the Christian Bible Romans 3:23, “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” The Dove World Outreach Center quotes the Christian Bible chapter of John on the front of their shirts that on the back states Dove’s message that “Islam is of the devil.” We recommend that they examine John 15:12: “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.”
Whether it is outreach on religion or outreach on human rights, we believe that, ultimately, Love Wins.
California: Arson At Local Mosque Investigated
— KCRA News reports:
— “Investigators are looking for an arsonist who set a fire outside of a Sacramento-area mosque.”
— “The federal government has moved to seize the Qoba Foundation, an Islamic center on Marconi Avenue in Carmichael”
— “Arson investigators said they are trying to piece together who torched an envelope that was taped on a fence. The envelope contained a document.”
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— November 12, 2009: “Feds Move To Seize Sac County Islamic Center – Links to Iran Alleged”
— “Federal prosecutors Thursday took steps to seize an Islamic center in Sacramento County and other properties elsewhere with apparent ties to an organization long suspected of being secretly controlled by the Iranian government.”
— “A complaint filed Thursday lists the Qoba Foundation at 4836 Marconi Ave. in Carmichael.”
— WLS-TV reports: — “Police in a southwest suburb are investigating a case involving a Muslim woman as a possible hate crime.”
— “The woman says someone in a grocery store tried to pull off her headscarf and made a derogatory comment about Islam.”
— “The comment referred to the suspect in the Fort Hood shootings. The alleged incident happened in Tinley Park two days after the massacre. The woman involved says it was a personal and physical attack on her religion because her headscarf is a symbol of her dignity and her faith.”
— ” ‘I was very confused and very upset that something like this would happen,’ said Amal Abusumayah. ‘This is my first experience so I was very devastated at having something like this happening to me.’ ”
News-Observer Reports:
— — “The reinforced glass doors to Durham’s largest mosque were smashed earlier this week and two computer monitors and a printer were stolen, mosque leaders said.”
— “This is the third violent incident at the Jaamat Ibad Ar-Rahman on Fayetteville Street near N.C. Central University campus. Earlier this summer windows and doors were also smashed. Six months ago some rocks were hurled at the mosque by two men who shouted slogans such as ‘go to hell.'”
— “Mosque leaders said they first noticed the damage when worshipers came for early morning prayers on Monday. The mosque is within several hundred yards of a police substation on Fayetteville Street, and mosque leaders said they wanted the police to investigate and offer beefed up patrols.”
On the first day of the trial of Russian-born German defendant Alex Wiens in the eastern city of Dresden amid tight security, the victim’s husband Elwy Okaz gave wrenching testimony in the same courthouse where his wife was killed.
Some 200 police officers were on hand after reported Internet death threats against the accused, who appeared in court behind bulletproof glass.
Okaz said Wiens plunged an 18-centimetre kitchen knife repeatedly into the veiled Marwa al-Sherbini, 31, who was three-months pregnant at the time with their second child.
When Okaz tried to come to his wife’s aid, he too was stabbed several times.
Sherbini had just testified against Wiens at a defamation trial for calling her a “terrorist”, an “Islamist” and a “whore” in a playground dispute. She bled to death at the scene in front of her son Mustafa, then three-and-a-half.
Describing the events of July 1, Okaz said neither he or his wife had any sense they were in danger.
“The perpetrator suddenly attacked my wife. He hit her several times and when I tried to help he hit me too. It was only then that I noticed he had a knife and that he had stabbed her,” Okaz, a 32-year-old geneticist, told the hushed courtroom. “Then he began stabbing me too.”
Prosecutor Frank Heinrich said the attack was driven by racism.
“He stabbed them out of pure hatred of non-Europeans and Muslims. He wanted to annihilate them,” he told the court, where many, including Okaz, were wearing pins with a picture of Sherbini’s beaming face.
— BNP’s Nick Griffin attacks Muslims and gays
—- “Following clashes between police and protesters ahead of his arrival, the BNP leader uses Question Time appearance to attack Muslims and homosexuals while defending the Ku Klux Klan.”
