US Muslim women learn to fight back as anti-Islam tone rises

Muslim women in the US need to learn self-defense amid concerns over rising anti-Islam rhetoric, an influential Muslim advocacy group says.

"There really is a need for Muslim women to protect themselves in this society," said Ibrahim Hooper, the spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), on Saturday.

According to Hooper, attacks on Muslims in America have tripled in recent months and that 80% of the victims are female.

He said anti-Muslim bias crimes have sharply risen since the deadly Paris attacks by the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in November and San Bernardino shootings in California, in December.

Hooper noted that the "flood gates really opened" after US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump suggested a ban on Muslims entering the country.

"Even after 9/11, Islamophobia was there but it was on the fringe of society. Now thanks to Donald Trump and Ben Carson and others, Islamophobia is firmly in the mainstream,…, People who attack Muslims on the local level - they view it as almost their patriotic duty based on this kind of extremist, bigoted rhetoric."

Another advocacy group, the Bridge Initiative, says FBI figures show Muslims in the US are five times more likely to experience hate crimes than they were before September 11 attacks.

Engy Abdelkader, the group's Assistant Director, said she found it "disturbing" that Muslim women now feel "compelled" to learn how to protect themselves.

Rana Abdelhamid, a self-defense instructor, said the headscarves and hijabs worn by Muslim women can sometimes turn them into "walking targets".

"You can be attacked at any point, you can be pushed off… a subway ledge," she said.

"All these different things that go through these young women's minds… increases their vulnerability and increases their sense of fear," she added.

Trump, who has never held elected office, is still leading the Republican presidential primary field, despite the fact that his campaign has been marked by controversial statements, including with disparaging remarks about Mexican immigrants and Muslims.

Trump says he would deport 11 million undocumented workers from the United States and would establish a “deportation force” for this purpose.

He has also promised to expel undocumented immigrants and build a wall on the US-Mexico border. In addition, he has proposed repealing the constitutional right to citizenship of anyone born on US soil.

Trump has also created a furor in the US and around the world by proposing a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims” entering the United States, following a mass shooting in California.

The New York real-estate mogul has also called for a database to track Muslims across the United States, and he has also said that the US would have "absolutely no choice" but to close down mosques.

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