In a post-Paris attacks climate, civil rights advocates are preparing for a new wave of xenophobic threats to, and attacks on, the American-Muslim community.
“This is totally something that’s happened in the past,” says Manzoor Cheema, executive director of a North Carolina-based group called Muslims for Social Justice. “Now the attack in France is being portrayed and exploited by the right to propagate anti-Muslim fears.”
“I think that people in the these [Muslim] communities feel like they are put in a position where they have to explain or condemn these attacks, especially when they happen in the West,” says attorney and author Deepa Iyer. “People have noticed that other communities are not expected to issue those same calls of condemnation: White Christian communities weren’t asked to apologize for Dylann Roof.”
Journalist Jamilah King explores “U.S. Muslim backlash” after Paris for Mic –
