Children main target of anti-Muslim hatred in US: report
Muslim American children exposed to bullying, anti-Muslim material in schools, as their accounts exhibit 63 percent increase in discrimination.
Muslim children in the United States have increasingly been reporting instances of anti-Muslim hatred in schools, although complaints of hateful sentiments and acts seemed to show an overall decline.
According to the Progress in the Shadow of Prejudice report by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Muslim civil rights organisation in the US, there was a staggering 63 percent increase in reports of anti-Muslim hatred from schoolchildren.
“Bullying in schools and the use of Islamophobic material in classrooms is alarming. While we are pleased to see a decline in government-led incidents, children have become the main targets of Islamophobic hatred,” CAIR’s Research and Advocacy Director Corey Saylor said.
He drew attention to an incident in October 2022 in which an Afghan girl, a 9th grade student at a Maryland high school, was subjected to violence by other students when she entered the bathroom to fix her headscarf.
The girl tried to escape, but the door was locked on her by a school attendant.
In another incident, a teacher in Florida obstructed three Muslim students as they were praying, nearly stepping on the students. The moment was captured on video and was widely circulated online.
The teacher was heard saying: “I believe in Jesus so I’m interrupting the floor.”
Source TRT World