The Islamist Head Fake
New FBI data on hate crimes reveal Muslim groups are crying wolf about exploding anti-Muslim abuses. They're actually shrinking, belying claims of mass Islamophobia.
It’s plain that CAIR, which claims to be the “Muslim NAACP,” has been hyping tensions.
Every year the pressure group releases a report citing thousands of alleged civil-rights and physical abuses against Muslims, which largely are based on anecdotal reporting from members. Despite CAIR’s obvious bias (and proven record of dissembling), the PC-addled media report its numbers unfiltered and without question.
But if you peel them back, you find they’re mostly victimless crimes. For instance, in its 2006 report released in June, CAIR listed as a “hate crime” the following example: “A copy of the Quran was found in a toilet at the library of Pace University in New York.” There are other atrocities, too, such as someone trampling on a “flower bed” at a mosque in Texas.
Even in the aftermath of 9/11, when Americans were still raw with anger over 19 Muslims killing almost 3,000 of our fellow citizens, there was virtually no vigilantism or violent backlash against Muslims. In November and December 2001, Zogby polled American Muslims and found that only 6% had suffered “physical abuse or assault.”
These are all inconvenient facts for CAIR and its antiwar agenda. It can’t roll back the Patriot Act and key counterterror measures, such as mosque surveillance and passenger profiling, without ginning up sympathy in Washington for Muslims as a persecuted minority.
Each time CAIR releases another overhyped hate crimes report, it argues that violence and harassment against Muslims have multiplied because of the U.S. war on terror. “Government acts” — including airport searches, detentions and interrogations — “send a green light to mistreat Muslims,” claimed CAIR executive director Nihad Awad.
