Religious leaders in
California are calling for a police investigation after identical
letters were sent to local mosques hailing President-elect Donald Trump
and calling for death to Muslims.
The San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
released a statement asking
for increased protection after the hate-filled letters were discovered
at the Islamic centers of Long Beach and Claremont as well as a mosque
in San Jose.
The handwritten and photocopied letters, received over the course of
the week, were signed by “Americans for a Better Way.” They call Muslims
“a vile and filthy people” who “worship the devil” and evoke Trump.
“There’s a new sheriff in town — President Donald Trump. He’s going
to cleanse America and make it shine again. And, he’s going to start
with you Muslims,” the letters read. “He’s going to do to you Muslims
what Hitler did to the Jews.”
CAIR leaders in San
Francisco and Los Angeles didn’t initially want to bring the letters
into the public spotlight to avoid copycats, but they acknowledged the
need for police intervention once the diatribe was sent to a number of
jurisdictions across the state,
according to the Los Angeles Times.
“We urge local law enforcement authorities to work with Muslim
community leaders to ensure the safety of all houses of worship,”
CAIR-SFBA Executive Director Zahra Billoo said
in a statement.
“Our state’s political and religious leaders need to speak out against
the mainstreaming of Islamophobia that we are witnessing in California
and nationwide.”
Though Trump has said he isn’t aware of campaigns across the country
to intimidate and hurt Muslims since his victory, the problem is
rampant.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has tracked more than
700 acts of this kind of bias intimidation and harassment
targeting Muslims, blacks, Latinos, immigrants and LGBTQ people since
Election Day, though not every incident has been independently verified.
The Huffington Post’s Christopher Mathias has identified at least 13
incidents in which Muslims have been attacked, harassed or threatened
in Trump’s name.
San Jose police are reportedly investigating the letters. It wasn’t
immediately clear whether police departments across the state would ramp
up security in response to CAIR’s statement.
CAIR urges Muslim community members to report any incidents to police
and to the organization’s civil rights department by calling
202-742-6420 or by filing a report
online.
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