News / Politics

House Dems introduce resolution condemning Islamophobia

Wednesday, 30 December 2015 7:35 PM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 30 December 2015 7:37 PM ]

Imam Johari Abdul-Malik, left, speaks to Rep. Don Beyer, (D-Va.), as he and other local elected officials speak to the media after attending Friday prayers at Dar al-Hijrah Mosque in Falls Church, Dec. 4, 2015. (AP photo)

Democrats in the US House of Representatives have introduced a resolution condemning violence, bigotry and “hateful rhetoric” against Muslims in the country.

Representatives Don Beyer, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Joe Crowley, Betty McCollum, Keith Ellison, and Andre Carson, along with 67 co-sponsors, introduced the resolution this month, the Washington Times reported Wednesday.

The news follows a relentless attack against Muslims by American politicians in the wake of the San Bernardino, California, terrorist attack where two alleged Daesh (ISIL) followers killed 14 people.

According to House Resolution 569, victims of Islamophobic hate crimes have experienced physical, verbal, and emotional abuse because they were followers of Islam or believed to be Muslim.

The resolution urges the House to express its condolences for those who fall victim to anti-Muslim hate crimes and denounce such attacks "in the strongest terms."

It also calls on the House to recognize that the US Muslim community has made “countless positive contributions to our society.”

“We must show that we will not tolerate this anti-Muslim discrimination and that those who propagate it do not represent the melting-pot America that we celebrate,” Rep. Beyer said in a statement. “These harmful words eventually lead to the very acts of violence many came to our country to escape in the first place. It’s time Congress stood up to condemn these attacks which run contrary to American values.”

“As we see many Americans expressing their fears, their leaders at every level have a special obligation to lead,” Rep. Holmes Norton said in a statement. “The concerns of the American people about terrorism in civil society after Paris and San Bernardino are understandable, but embracing Islamophobia as a way to cope with those fears is not only unacceptable, but dangerous. The main purpose of terrorism is to provoke division. Terrorists lose when, instead, we embrace our Muslim brothers and sisters.”

The resolution has been referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.

Two days after the San Bernardino attack, all the five co-signers of the resolution among several other Democrats, partook in Muslim vigils in solidarity with the community and the victims’ families.

According to a report released by a research body in the California State University, crimes such as assaults on hijab-wearing students, arson attacks and vandalism at mosques and death threats at businesses with Muslim owners have tripled in America.

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