Another Hijab-Clad Woman Attacked In The US

In the latest of hate crimes taking place in the US, a hijab-clad woman was hit in the face with a bottle in broad daylight. The student of Washington University suffered bruises on her face and a concussion.

A reward of $5000 has been announced by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) for information leading to the accused who attacked Nasro Hassan, a 19-year-old Somali-American student.

"The incident, which possibly fits a pattern of hate attacks against American Muslim women locally and nationwide, has caused a wave of concern on campus for their own security," Arsalan Bukhair, Executive Director of CAIR, Washington, was quoted saying.

Ten days after the November 8 election, the Southern Poverty Law Center listed almost 867 cases of hateful harassment or intimidation in the United States -- most of them against Muslims and African Americans.

In other incidents targeting Muslim students, Trump's name was discovered written on the door of a prayer room for Muslims on the college premises of NYU's Tandon School of Engineering. The NYU Muslim Students Association took to Facebook to tell the world that their college is not immune to bigotry. The student spokesperson, Kathleen Hamilton, told CNN, "It's a real melting pot here," she said. "We all believe this very much, that a university is a place of free expression. It has to be safe to be so."

In other instances of hate crime and violence, at least 5 mosques in California received letters addressing them as "children of Satan". The group calling itself "Americans for a better way" wrote, "There's a new sheriff in town -- President Donald Trump. He is going to cleanse America and make it shine again. And, he's going to start with you Muslims. He's going to do to you Muslims what Hitler did to the Jews."

In the past month, a number of incidents have come to the fore. Earlier this month, a hijab-clad woman was addressed as a 'terrorist' and she was asked to "get out of the country". In another such incident, a Muslim woman's hijab was taken off and her hair pulled by her classmate at a school in Coon Rapids, Minnesota. Not just students, but a Muslim high school teacher received a handwritten letter, asking her to hang herself with her headscarf.

US Attorney General Loretta Lynch released a video statement on November 18, urging individuals to come forward to report hate crimes to both local law enforcements and the Justice Department. This will ensure enforcement of crime statutes at the local state and federal level.

The surge in Islamophobia is being attributed to the President-elect, Donald Trump's victory. In an interview with CBS, he had said,"If it helps, I will say this, and I will say right to the cameras: Stop it," Trump told CBS.

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