Rights group monitoring reports of
attacks on U.S. minorities since Trump win
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[November 11, 2016]
By Jon Herskovitz
(Reuters) - A U.S. Muslim civil rights
group said on Thursday it was monitoring reports of several incidents
targeting Muslims in the United States since Republican Donald Trump's
victory on Tuesday and called on the president-elect to denounce the
attacks.
The reports included at least two assaults on women in Islamic head
scarves, as well as racist graffiti and bullying of immigrant children,
according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, and
other civil rights groups.
"It's the inevitable result of the mainstreaming of Islamophobia we’ve
seen in recent months with the presidential campaign,” CAIR spokesman
Ibrahim Hooper said in a phone interview. "Unfortunately, it really is
up to Donald Trump to repudiate this kind of bigotry.”
Trump's campaign could not be reached for comment.
During the campaign, Trump called for banning Muslims from entering the
country for security reasons. The wealthy businessman, who won his White
House bid with strong support from white voters, has made calls for
unity since the election.
Hooper said the president-elect's supporters appeared to be getting a
different message.
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A female student in a hijab at San Diego State University was assaulted
and robbed on Wednesday, the university said. The assailants were
reported to have made comments to the victim in support of Trump and
hurled anti-Muslim insults at her, the school said in a statement,
adding the case was being investigated as a hate crime.
At San Jose State University in California, a man on Wednesday pulled at
the head scarf of woman walking in a parking garage, the university said
in a statement.
The reports came as demonstrators protested Trump's victory in cities
across the country, blasting his campaign rhetoric about immigrants,
Muslims and women.
Police in Louisiana said a woman made up a story about being assaulted
near the University of Louisiana Lafayette campus and having her hijab
removed by two men.
ANTI-TRUMP INCIDENTS
There were also reports of Trump supporters being targeted by ugly
rhetoric and worse.
In a video posted on social media, at least two people can be seen
beating a man at an intersection as others are heard yelling: "You voted
Trump" and "Don’t vote Trump."
Chicago police spokesman Frank Giancamilli confirmed the 50-year-old man
was attacked by five people on Wednesday following a traffic altercation
in the city, but said police had not determined the motive for the
attack.
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Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump is flanked by
members of his family as he addresses supporters at his election
night rally in Manhattan, New York, U.S., November 9, 2016.
REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
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A Palm Bay, Florida, high school student carrying a Trump campaign
sign was punched in the face by another student during gym class,
local media reported.
On social media, many people described threats and insults against
minorities they said were made by apparent Trump supporters.
Spray-painted messages such as "Black Lives Don't Matter and Neither
Does Your Votes" on a wall in North Carolina and a swastika and
"Make America White Again" on a baseball dugout in New York went
viral.
Civil rights leaders told a news conference in Washington on
Thursday they were hearing of an increase in bullying incidents
against children from racial and religious minority groups.
Mark Potok, senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center civil
rights group, said he had not seen such a rash of hate crimes in the
United States since Barack Obama was elected America's first black
president in 2008.
A similar wave occurred when Britain voted in June to leave the
European Union, Potok said.
"I don't really expect it to go on for four years," he said. "In the
case of Brexit, it calmed down after a couple of weeks."
(Reporting and writing by Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas;
Additional reporting by Emily Flitter and Joseph Ax in New York,
Julia Harte in Washington, Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles, Ben
Klayman in Detroit, Tim McLaughlin in Chicago and Letitia Stein in
Tampa, Fla.; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Peter Cooney)
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