Muslim and Arab Killings in the US

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Daughter of two extremely unreligious Muslims here who immigrated to the US. While we are not religious, we have a very clear religious last name. As September 11th was happening, one of my dad's coworkers walked up to him in front of everyone and slapped him blaming him for the attacks. Someone else defaced and vandalized his car. My dad is the sweetest man in the world with zero hate in his heart. He's a proud American who loves this country and his worked tirelessly his entire life here in support of it. My youngest sister was 5 when 9/11 happened and I can't even begin to tell you how badly she was bullied at school after the attacks—physically, mentally, and emotionally. My parents had to pull her out of school for a bit until things settled down. And this was in the first grade, with a lot of the hate towards her being taught by parents to their kids at home.

Fast forward to this year and Trump's candidacy. I'm legitimately (and extremely) worried that what happened after 9/11 will happen to our family again any day now. These two latest attacks on Muslim Americans terrify me to my core and as an American citizen, as a human being, I should not be made to feel this way in my own home country.

Jeff, thank you for doing your part and for deleting the hate filled threads. It makes this little corner of the Internet feel a lot more safe and I for one am grateful of all you do to keep it that way.

Yes. I am married to an Arab Muslim, and our young children - trilingual, US-born - have unmistakably Arab last names. For the first time in twenty years in this country, I am afraid for what future has in stock for my American, yes, American children. I worry about how this country will treat them. And a little bit of me is glad that we thought ahead to take out citizenships for them in our respective countries of birth. If things turn ugly, they will have options.

OP, what are your respective countries of birth?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Daughter of two extremely unreligious Muslims here who immigrated to the US. While we are not religious, we have a very clear religious last name. As September 11th was happening, one of my dad's coworkers walked up to him in front of everyone and slapped him blaming him for the attacks. Someone else defaced and vandalized his car. My dad is the sweetest man in the world with zero hate in his heart. He's a proud American who loves this country and his worked tirelessly his entire life here in support of it. My youngest sister was 5 when 9/11 happened and I can't even begin to tell you how badly she was bullied at school after the attacks—physically, mentally, and emotionally. My parents had to pull her out of school for a bit until things settled down. And this was in the first grade, with a lot of the hate towards her being taught by parents to their kids at home.

Fast forward to this year and Trump's candidacy. I'm legitimately (and extremely) worried that what happened after 9/11 will happen to our family again any day now. These two latest attacks on Muslim Americans terrify me to my core and as an American citizen, as a human being, I should not be made to feel this way in my own home country.

Jeff, thank you for doing your part and for deleting the hate filled threads. It makes this little corner of the Internet feel a lot more safe and I for one am grateful of all you do to keep it that way.

Some people are assholes, even some people in the US. I've been bullied, punched, picked on, laughed at, but I see it clearly that these are the actions of individuals here in the US.

Fast forward to Trump's candidacy, I don't see how his proposed policies will make your life harder or more dangerous. While two attacks on Muslim Americans is sad, lets not blow this out of proportion - there is no epidemic of violence against Muslim Americans in the US. Based on hate crime statistics, Jewish hate crime victims out-number Muslim hate crime victims by over 3 times. There were in fact more Asian hate crime victims than Muslim hate crime victims. Your fears are irrational, and it's sad that you see fit to leverage your fears to silence others.

PP here. It's people like you who make me afraid of what the future holds. How dare you attempt to trivialize my experiences and my feelings without walking even half a step in my shoes. My fears are very rational and are rooted in real events and experiences that have happened to my family. Despite your repeated ignorant posts, I don't wish any of my experiences on you and I hope you never have to hear or witness the things I have. Enjoy life in your bubble but don't ever try to diminish what another person has gone through and how they feel.

It really seems you are not reading what you are replying to. As I said "I've been bullied, punched, picked on, laughed at..." It was tough growing up as a kid from a communist country here in the states in the early 80's. Even people who looked like me didn't tolerate me: South Korean kids picked on me because China supported the wrong side in the Korean war, Taiwanese kids didn't like me because they are the one true China, Hongkong/Cantonese people looked down on us because they considered themselves a part of UK. There were very very few other mainland Chinese kids in the US back then. So while I have not walked any steps in your shoes, neither have you mine. But the point here is not about our individual experiences because those are anecdotal. Fact of the matter is, there is no evidence of widespread systemic problem of hate crimes against Muslims or Asians here in the US. The data simply does not support that claim. You are free to feel as you wish, and I am free to point out that your fears are irrational. I hope we can have a constructive dialogue rather than let this devolve into a dismissive exchange of "you don't understand because you are not one of us".

PP, attacks against Muslims are on the rise. In about 5 yrs, you can bet the attacks will have doubled. Define "wide spread"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Daughter of two extremely unreligious Muslims here who immigrated to the US. While we are not religious, we have a very clear religious last name. As September 11th was happening, one of my dad's coworkers walked up to him in front of everyone and slapped him blaming him for the attacks. Someone else defaced and vandalized his car. My dad is the sweetest man in the world with zero hate in his heart. He's a proud American who loves this country and his worked tirelessly his entire life here in support of it. My youngest sister was 5 when 9/11 happened and I can't even begin to tell you how badly she was bullied at school after the attacks—physically, mentally, and emotionally. My parents had to pull her out of school for a bit until things settled down. And this was in the first grade, with a lot of the hate towards her being taught by parents to their kids at home.

Fast forward to this year and Trump's candidacy. I'm legitimately (and extremely) worried that what happened after 9/11 will happen to our family again any day now. These two latest attacks on Muslim Americans terrify me to my core and as an American citizen, as a human being, I should not be made to feel this way in my own home country.

Jeff, thank you for doing your part and for deleting the hate filled threads. It makes this little corner of the Internet feel a lot more safe and I for one am grateful of all you do to keep it that way.

Some people are assholes, even some people in the US. I've been bullied, punched, picked on, laughed at, but I see it clearly that these are the actions of individuals here in the US.

Fast forward to Trump's candidacy, I don't see how his proposed policies will make your life harder or more dangerous. While two attacks on Muslim Americans is sad, lets not blow this out of proportion - there is no epidemic of violence against Muslim Americans in the US. Based on hate crime statistics, Jewish hate crime victims out-number Muslim hate crime victims by over 3 times. There were in fact more Asian hate crime victims than Muslim hate crime victims. Your fears are irrational, and it's sad that you see fit to leverage your fears to silence others.

PP here. It's people like you who make me afraid of what the future holds. How dare you attempt to trivialize my experiences and my feelings without walking even half a step in my shoes. My fears are very rational and are rooted in real events and experiences that have happened to my family. Despite your repeated ignorant posts, I don't wish any of my experiences on you and I hope you never have to hear or witness the things I have. Enjoy life in your bubble but don't ever try to diminish what another person has gone through and how they feel.

It really seems you are not reading what you are replying to. As I said "I've been bullied, punched, picked on, laughed at..." It was tough growing up as a kid from a communist country here in the states in the early 80's. Even people who looked like me didn't tolerate me: South Korean kids picked on me because China supported the wrong side in the Korean war, Taiwanese kids didn't like me because they are the one true China, Hongkong/Cantonese people looked down on us because they considered themselves a part of UK. There were very very few other mainland Chinese kids in the US back then. So while I have not walked any steps in your shoes, neither have you mine. But the point here is not about our individual experiences because those are anecdotal. Fact of the matter is, there is no evidence of widespread systemic problem of hate crimes against Muslims or Asians here in the US. The data simply does not support that claim. You are free to feel as you wish, and I am free to point out that your fears are irrational. I hope we can have a constructive dialogue rather than let this devolve into a dismissive exchange of "you don't understand because you are not one of us".

More I think about it, there are parallels to be drawn here. Reagan lead a presidency of anti-communism. He was largely responsible for the fall of the USSR and pursued foreign policies of aiding nations/groups that fought against communism. The threat of communism throughout the cold war was tangible just as the current threat of Muslim terrorism. Remember that kids used to go through exercises in school of what to do in a nuclear attack. People built fall out shelters in their yards. That was real. The US worked through that, I never once thought that Reagan was a bad president for taking a strong line against communism even though that meant that I might become guilty-by-association in the eyes of certain individuals. Instead, I've seen first hand the evils of communism and am for one glad to see it fail all over the world.

So you're ok with the bullying you endured? And you don't think it's a problem that instead of Communists, the hatred is directed at Muslims?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Daughter of two extremely unreligious Muslims here who immigrated to the US. While we are not religious, we have a very clear religious last name. As September 11th was happening, one of my dad's coworkers walked up to him in front of everyone and slapped him blaming him for the attacks. Someone else defaced and vandalized his car. My dad is the sweetest man in the world with zero hate in his heart. He's a proud American who loves this country and his worked tirelessly his entire life here in support of it. My youngest sister was 5 when 9/11 happened and I can't even begin to tell you how badly she was bullied at school after the attacks—physically, mentally, and emotionally. My parents had to pull her out of school for a bit until things settled down. And this was in the first grade, with a lot of the hate towards her being taught by parents to their kids at home.

Fast forward to this year and Trump's candidacy. I'm legitimately (and extremely) worried that what happened after 9/11 will happen to our family again any day now. These two latest attacks on Muslim Americans terrify me to my core and as an American citizen, as a human being, I should not be made to feel this way in my own home country.

Jeff, thank you for doing your part and for deleting the hate filled threads. It makes this little corner of the Internet feel a lot more safe and I for one am grateful of all you do to keep it that way.

Some people are assholes, even some people in the US. I've been bullied, punched, picked on, laughed at, but I see it clearly that these are the actions of individuals here in the US.

Fast forward to Trump's candidacy, I don't see how his proposed policies will make your life harder or more dangerous. While two attacks on Muslim Americans is sad, lets not blow this out of proportion - there is no epidemic of violence against Muslim Americans in the US. Based on hate crime statistics, Jewish hate crime victims out-number Muslim hate crime victims by over 3 times. There were in fact more Asian hate crime victims than Muslim hate crime victims. Your fears are irrational, and it's sad that you see fit to leverage your fears to silence others.

Perfectly rational to people that have been affected by it.

Do you read what you are replying to? The PPs are worried about what's going to happen, not what has already happened. If we are worried about a general trend, the crime statistics don't warrant such fears, therefore having those fears are irrational. I agree that when something bad happens to someone on an anecdotal basis, the impact is severe and significant to that individual, but we as a group of Americans should not make policy based on anecdotes.

The statistics don't seem to agree with you. While hate crimes agent Jewish people and other groups have decreased, there was an uptick in hate crimes against muslims from 2012 to 2013, and again from 2013 to 2014. When they release the 2015 results soon I wouldn't be surprised if it increased even further. So I'll repeat myself, it's perfectly rational for someone that has been affected by it, and YES the most recent data does support that trend. Helps to do your research.

Here are the links if you care to see some real data.

https://ucr.fbi.gov/hate-crime/2012/topic-pages/victims/victims_final

https://ucr.fbi.gov/hate-crime/2013/topic-pages/victims/victims_final

https://ucr.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/hate-crime/2014/topic-pages/victims_final

Sigh...

Based on 2014 statistics:

Jewish victims: 647
Muslim victims: 183
Asian victims: 200

Again, fears of widespread systemic violence against Muslims is unfounded. If we want to use FBI statistics, we should be far more concerned about hate crimes against Jews. Yes, hate crimes against Muslims is increasing as a percentage, most likely due to repeated terrorist attacks all over the world committed by Muslims - even Slate points to this causal relationship; blaming Trump's rhetoric for crime statics in 2014 is stretching it quite a bit.

True. Given that the majority of religious hate groups are against Jews, why isn't Obama condemning antisemitic sentiment (which is on the rise not only in Europe but here in America - on college campuses particularly). Why didn't Loretta Lynch speak out against the violence perpetrated against the Temple University Jewish student who was beaten within an inch of his life?

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you read what you are replying to? The PPs are worried about what's going to happen, not what has already happened. If we are worried about a general trend, the crime statistics don't warrant such fears, therefore having those fears are irrational. I agree that when something bad happens to someone on an anecdotal basis, the impact is severe and significant to that individual, but we as a group of Americans should not make policy based on anecdotes.

Americans should not make policy based on anecdotes. But, even more, Americans should not make policy based on negative and false stereotypes. As you note, the posters here describing their individual fears are worried about the future. The future is not represented in statistics. Maybe the posters' fears will turn out to be unfounded. But, at this point neither you nor I know if that will be the case. However, having a number of unfounded negative stereotypes being promoted by a leading presidential candidate and being used as the basis of policy proposals does nothing to alleviate such fears. Obviously, it does the contrary.

Jeff, history is a great reference of what will happen in the future. There is no wide spread epidemic of violence against Muslims here in the US and there is no rational evidence that supports there will be widespread violence in the future. Our fears should be founded on something other than "just because the future is not set". Sure none of us knows for sure what the future will bring, but all evidence point to "not a whole lot" with respect to hate crimes against innocent Muslim Americans.

Stereotypes are perfectly fine if they have a basis in past experience or direct observation. You stay away from colorful snakes because they may be poisonous - that's a stereotype. With regards to policy based on stereotypes, that Muslims currently perform the bulk of terrorist attacks in the world is a fact. It is also fact that contemporary Islam teachings in predominantly Muslim countries are incompatible with the values we hold dear here in the US. Therefore, it is prudent to filter immigration of people from predominantly Muslim countries. People who want to immigrate into the US must understand and agree to how we want to live together. If they disagree with how we want to live, then they should not be allowed to come here. I can tell you that when our family immigrated into the US some decades ago, my parents had to explain why they were members of the communist party back in the home country. This type of scrutiny is exactly what we need to apply to all immigrants. I don't doubt that there are freedom loving Muslims who practice a more progressive version of Islam, and they will fit in just fine with the rest of us. But we need to filter out those that wants to come here to change our way of life, to impose their values onto us.

I don't particularly like Donald Trump, he is a bad presidential candidate, but his position on this is a lot closer to mine than Hillary or Obama's.

I could not be less surprised than to find that you: a) believe stereotypes are perfectly fine; b) personally believe a number of false stereotypes about Muslims; and c) hold a position regarding Muslims similar to that of Trump.

Of course, it is also fitting that with your apparent world view the best metaphor for Muslims you could find was snakes. Good job all the way around with that post.

Jeff,

You don't think stereotypes are perfectly fine? I can find numerous posts where you make generalizing comments about conservatives, especially with how simple our minds are. Truly you wouldn't do something while knowing that is not a fine thing to do. Would you?

Feel free to correct me about my stereotypes about Muslims. What I know I learned watching the news and engaging with people in religious discussions. I am always open to learning more and actively seek out people who hold a different view than mine because those are the best opportunities to see things from a different perspective.

I don't hold that position just on Muslims, but about anyone who does not share our American ideals (not ideas).

The snake example is a common one. Is it too late to change it to colorful mushrooms? Are there any special offenses taken by people from being compared to mushrooms? Mario grows more powerful when he eats a mushroom, so it's a good thing right?

[Anonymous]

When the execution-style killing of three Muslim-American students is classified as a "parking incident", I have very little faith in federal hate crime statistics. Muslims (and Sikhs and Christians) are being targeted more and more, but these incidents are underreported or misclassified.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Daughter of two extremely unreligious Muslims here who immigrated to the US. While we are not religious, we have a very clear religious last name. As September 11th was happening, one of my dad's coworkers walked up to him in front of everyone and slapped him blaming him for the attacks. Someone else defaced and vandalized his car. My dad is the sweetest man in the world with zero hate in his heart. He's a proud American who loves this country and his worked tirelessly his entire life here in support of it. My youngest sister was 5 when 9/11 happened and I can't even begin to tell you how badly she was bullied at school after the attacks—physically, mentally, and emotionally. My parents had to pull her out of school for a bit until things settled down. And this was in the first grade, with a lot of the hate towards her being taught by parents to their kids at home.

Fast forward to this year and Trump's candidacy. I'm legitimately (and extremely) worried that what happened after 9/11 will happen to our family again any day now. These two latest attacks on Muslim Americans terrify me to my core and as an American citizen, as a human being, I should not be made to feel this way in my own home country.

Jeff, thank you for doing your part and for deleting the hate filled threads. It makes this little corner of the Internet feel a lot more safe and I for one am grateful of all you do to keep it that way.

Yes. I am married to an Arab Muslim, and our young children - trilingual, US-born - have unmistakably Arab last names. For the first time in twenty years in this country, I am afraid for what future has in stock for my American, yes, American children. I worry about how this country will treat them. And a little bit of me is glad that we thought ahead to take out citizenships for them in our respective countries of birth. If things turn ugly, they will have options.

OP, what are your respective countries of birth?

Why?

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:
True. Given that the majority of religious hate groups are against Jews, why isn't Obama condemning antisemitic sentiment (which is on the rise not only in Europe but here in America - on college campuses particularly). Why didn't Loretta Lynch speak out against the violence perpetrated against the Temple University Jewish student who was beaten within an inch of his life?

We are in a situation in which a major political figure is actually engaging in anti-Muslim behavior and you are asking why other politicians are not speaking out against a different kind of prejudice? I would settle for Trump not speaking out against anti-Muslim and anti-Arab sentiment, but he actually flames the fires. If there is any doubt in your mind that both Obama and Lynch strongly oppose anti-Semitism, you are delusional.

What student are you referring to at Temple?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Sigh...

Based on 2014 statistics:

Jewish victims: 647
Muslim victims: 183
Asian victims: 200

Again, fears of widespread systemic violence against Muslims is unfounded. If we want to use FBI statistics, we should be far more concerned about hate crimes against Jews. Yes, hate crimes against Muslims is increasing as a percentage, most likely due to repeated terrorist attacks all over the world committed by Muslims - even Slate points to this causal relationship; blaming Trump's rhetoric for crime statics in 2014 is stretching it quite a bit.

I can't tell if you're being deliberately obtuse or whether it comes easy.

The difference between Jewish and Muslim victims of hate crimes is that there is no one (nor has there been someone for a very long time) calling for increased scrutiny of Jews, rousing suspicion in their American-ness, advocating for more screening of potential Jewish immigrants, or pointing fingers at Jewish majority countries. There is no political climate supporting exclusion and other-ness of American Jews, nor are any attempts in this direction tolerated. There are hate crimes, yes, but there is no authorizing environment for them.

In contrast, exclusion, more intense screening and suspicion of Muslims are currently very much on the agenda, and you seem to be saying that's this is quite all right as they had it coming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
True. Given that the majority of religious hate groups are against Jews, why isn't Obama condemning antisemitic sentiment (which is on the rise not only in Europe but here in America - on college campuses particularly). Why didn't Loretta Lynch speak out against the violence perpetrated against the Temple University Jewish student who was beaten within an inch of his life?

Hate crimes against Jews are on the decline, Looking better for them every year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Again, fears of widespread systemic violence against Muslims is unfounded. If we want to use FBI statistics, we should be far more concerned about hate crimes against Jews. Yes, hate crimes against Muslims is increasing as a percentage, most likely due to repeated terrorist attacks all over the world committed by Muslims - even Slate points to this causal relationship; blaming Trump's rhetoric for crime statics in 2014 is stretching it quite a bit.

True. Given that the majority of religious hate groups are against Jews, why isn't Obama condemning antisemitic sentiment (which is on the rise not only in Europe but here in America - on college campuses particularly). Why didn't Loretta Lynch speak out against the violence perpetrated against the Temple University Jewish student who was beaten within an inch of his life?
There is no anti-Jewish sentiment on campuses, only anti-Israel and anti-Zionism one, and that's perfectly fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
True. Given that the majority of religious hate groups are against Jews, why isn't Obama condemning antisemitic sentiment (which is on the rise not only in Europe but here in America - on college campuses particularly). Why didn't Loretta Lynch speak out against the violence perpetrated against the Temple University Jewish student who was beaten within an inch of his life?

You mean this guy?

"“And then this kid just rocks me in the face as hard as he can. My glasses flew off. After a two-second blur I had no clue what had happened. I couldn’t believe the kid actually hit me,” said Vessal who added that he needs to obtain a new pair of glasses due to the extensive damage."

I guess getting hit in the face once and having to buy a new pair of glasses is "within an inch of your life"...Lol, I just love when people misrepresent events to support their narrative.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
True. Given that the majority of religious hate groups are against Jews, why isn't Obama condemning antisemitic sentiment (which is on the rise not only in Europe but here in America - on college campuses particularly). Why didn't Loretta Lynch speak out against the violence perpetrated against the Temple University Jewish student who was beaten within an inch of his life?

You mean this guy?

"“And then this kid just rocks me in the face as hard as he can. My glasses flew off. After a two-second blur I had no clue what had happened. I couldn’t believe the kid actually hit me,” said Vessal who added that he needs to obtain a new pair of glasses due to the extensive damage."

I guess getting hit in the face once and having to buy a new pair of glasses is "within an inch of your life"...Lol, I just love when people misrepresent events to support their narrative.

Also, it was in 2014, but why didn't Loretta Lynch speak out against it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Daughter of two extremely unreligious Muslims here who immigrated to the US. While we are not religious, we have a very clear religious last name. As September 11th was happening, one of my dad's coworkers walked up to him in front of everyone and slapped him blaming him for the attacks. Someone else defaced and vandalized his car. My dad is the sweetest man in the world with zero hate in his heart. He's a proud American who loves this country and his worked tirelessly his entire life here in support of it. My youngest sister was 5 when 9/11 happened and I can't even begin to tell you how badly she was bullied at school after the attacks—physically, mentally, and emotionally. My parents had to pull her out of school for a bit until things settled down. And this was in the first grade, with a lot of the hate towards her being taught by parents to their kids at home.

Fast forward to this year and Trump's candidacy. I'm legitimately (and extremely) worried that what happened after 9/11 will happen to our family again any day now. These two latest attacks on Muslim Americans terrify me to my core and as an American citizen, as a human being, I should not be made to feel this way in my own home country.

Jeff, thank you for doing your part and for deleting the hate filled threads. It makes this little corner of the Internet feel a lot more safe and I for one am grateful of all you do to keep it that way.

Some people are assholes, even some people in the US. I've been bullied, punched, picked on, laughed at, but I see it clearly that these are the actions of individuals here in the US.

Fast forward to Trump's candidacy, I don't see how his proposed policies will make your life harder or more dangerous. While two attacks on Muslim Americans is sad, lets not blow this out of proportion - there is no epidemic of violence against Muslim Americans in the US. Based on hate crime statistics, Jewish hate crime victims out-number Muslim hate crime victims by over 3 times. There were in fact more Asian hate crime victims than Muslim hate crime victims. Your fears are irrational, and it's sad that you see fit to leverage your fears to silence others.

Perfectly rational to people that have been affected by it.

Do you read what you are replying to? The PPs are worried about what's going to happen, not what has already happened. If we are worried about a general trend, the crime statistics don't warrant such fears, therefore having those fears are irrational. I agree that when something bad happens to someone on an anecdotal basis, the impact is severe and significant to that individual, but we as a group of Americans should not make policy based on anecdotes.

The statistics don't seem to agree with you. While hate crimes agent Jewish people and other groups have decreased, there was an uptick in hate crimes against muslims from 2012 to 2013, and again from 2013 to 2014. When they release the 2015 results soon I wouldn't be surprised if it increased even further. So I'll repeat myself, it's perfectly rational for someone that has been affected by it, and YES the most recent data does support that trend. Helps to do your research.

Here are the links if you care to see some real data.

https://ucr.fbi.gov/hate-crime/2012/topic-pages/victims/victims_final

https://ucr.fbi.gov/hate-crime/2013/topic-pages/victims/victims_final

https://ucr.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/hate-crime/2014/topic-pages/victims_final

Sigh...

Based on 2014 statistics:

Jewish victims: 647
Muslim victims: 183
Asian victims: 200

Again, fears of widespread systemic violence against Muslims is unfounded. If we want to use FBI statistics, we should be far more concerned about hate crimes against Jews. Yes, hate crimes against Muslims is increasing as a percentage, most likely due to repeated terrorist attacks all over the world committed by Muslims - even Slate points to this causal relationship; blaming Trump's rhetoric for crime statics in 2014 is stretching it quite a bit.

True. Given that the majority of religious hate groups are against Jews, why isn't Obama condemning antisemitic sentiment (which is on the rise not only in Europe but here in America - on college campuses particularly). Why didn't Loretta Lynch speak out against the violence perpetrated against the Temple University Jewish student who was beaten within an inch of his life?

You're playing a semantics game with "widespread." All hate crimes are to be condemned. The fact the Obama may or may not have said anything about antisemitism -- and I find it very deficit to believe that he has not -- does not mean that it is condoned. That said, the frequency of reported anti-Muslim incidents are on the rise. I can't speak to the assertion about "antisemitic sentiment" because this is such an amorphous term and you've failed to provide any data or other support other than the single incident you have characterized. The fact remains, however, that Trump is trying to capitalize on the seeds of anti-Muslim rhetoric spewing nonstop from the GOP since at least 2001.

[Anonymous]

I can't believe how much the posts in this thread have depressed me. I agree 100% with Jeff's sentiments on this.