The rising costs of Islamophobia can now be measured in the number of dead. Three Bangladeshi Muslims in New York and a Lebanese man in Oklahoma were murdered in a recent spate of anti-Muslim hate crimes.
Khalid Jabara, a 37-year-old Christian immigrant from Lebanon, was shot and killed on the evening of Aug. 12 by his neighbor, 61-year-old Stanley Majors. His murder was the culmination of years of epithets (“dirty Arabs” and “Moo-slems”) and malevolence by Majors, who had an “unusual fixation” with the Jabara family. [...]
And while the macabre details of these killings is horrifying, the context in which they occurred remains the most disturbing and consequential part.
The rhetoric employed by Trump in his effort to “Make America Great Again” has transcended rallies, television studios and Twitter. And we have learned that those words can sometimes be worse than sticks and stones.
The Republican Party’s 2015-to-2016 Islamophobia sound track is teeming with great hits. Each candidate has taken the opportunity to burnish his credentials as an Islamophobe for the electorate. And fans are still clamoring for more. [...]
More hate crimes occurred against Muslims in 2015 than in any year since 9/11. Murders undergirded by incendiary rhetoric and white supremacy have added Muslim blood to 2016.
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