Rising Islamophobia in US legacy of 9/11 attacks: Scholar

The growing level of anti-Muslim hate crimes and Islamophobic bias under US President Donald Trump is a legacy of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks that were falsely blamed on Muslims and covered-up by US administrations since 9/11, an American scholar says.

“This new wave, the second wave of post-9/11 Islamophobia began under [former] President Barack Obama and the reason for this is that the American people still feel tremendous trauma and hatred in their hearts based on the events of September 11, 2001,” and Obama did not make any effort to get to the truth of the events, said Kevin Barrett, an author and political commentator in Madison, Wisconsin.

The 9/11 attacks were a “false flag coup d'etat” that were orchestrated by the enemies of Muslims, primarily neoconservative Zionists working for Israel, Barrett told Press TV on Tuesday.

The terror attacks were very carefully designed to create “multi-generational” Islamophobia in the hearts and minds of the American people and justify a sustained US war against Islam and Muslim countries on behalf of Israel, he added.

The number of Islamophobic incidents in the United States nearly doubled in the second quarter of 2017 compared with the same period last year following the election of President Donald Trump, a leading Muslim advocacy group reported Monday.

More than 940 anti-Muslim hate crimes and bias incidents were reported between April and June of 2017, an increase of 91 percent, according to a report released by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

CAIR said so far this year, this has been the worst year on record for anti-Muslim incidents since the group began its documenting system in 2013.

According to CAIR's 2016 report, anti-Muslim hate incidents rose more than 40 percent compared with 2015.

Critics say that Trump’s rhetoric and policies against Muslims before and after his election has emboldened far-right groups and promoted anti-Muslim hate crimes across the country.

During his presidential election campaign in late 2015, Trump vowed to prevent Muslims from entering the US. Just one week after his inauguration, Trump signed an executive order that imposed a 90-day ban on the entry of people from seven Muslim-majority countries.

Trump issued a revised travel ban on March 6 after his original order was blocked by various federal courts. The revised order was also blocked by federal courts in Hawaii and Maryland, citing religious discrimination.

On June 26, the US Supreme Court granted the government's request to reinstate parts of Trump's controversial travel ban.

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