CAIR: Islamophobia is now deeply rooted and has become part of racism

More than two decades after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, discrimination and hatred against Muslims in the United States still exist, angering the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights advocacy group.

Hossam Ayloush, CEO of the California chapter of the council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said that “After 22 years, Islamophobia has taken root and become part of the structure of racism that exists in parts of our country.”

Ayloush said in an interview with Anadolu Agency, followed by Shia Waves Aency, added that “About one million out of nearly five million Muslims living in the United States reside in the state of California,” noting that “harassment and prejudice against the Muslim community are still prevalent decades after the events of September 11.”

He continued that “More than 50% of Muslim students in California face some form of verbal and physical bullying in public schools simply because they are Muslim,” noting that “There are government watch lists of nearly 1.6 million people, almost all of them Muslims, whose names were put on the travel watch list because they have names that sound Islamic.”

The CEO elaborated that “Muslims are being harassed at airports, the FBI is conducting searches, as well as planting informants in mosques and giving federal agencies the green light to track down Muslims from countries such as Syria, Libya and Sudan.”

According to FBI statistics, hate crimes against Muslims increased dramatically after the September 11 attacks, by 1,617 percent from 2000 to 2001.