UT Austin Muslim Student Victim of Alleged Hate Crime
The student reported to the Austin chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Austin) that he was approached by a trio of men. They began to shout derogatory phrases, including a distorted version of “Allahu Akbar” and a nonsensical string of “lalalala,” seemingly in an attempt to mock Arabic language and Islamic culture.
The alleged perpetrators obstructed the student and his companion’s path, escalating to physical violence that left the Muslim student with visible injuries, including cuts and bruises. One of the men ominously reached into his pocket, intimating that he was armed.
On Monday, CAIR-Austin urged state and federal law enforcement to treat this incident as a potential hate crime.
“No human being should feel unsafe wearing their traditional clothes in public. And when this happens in Austin, a city that cherishes cultural diversity, it is even more traumatizing. This alleged attack reopened our wounds from the February stabbing of a Palestinian-American. Investigating these incidents as hate crimes is essential,” stated Shaimaa Zayan, Operations Manager at CAIR-Austin.
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Last week, CAIR’s national office unveiled its 2024 civil rights report at a press conference in Washington, D.C. The report, titled “Fatal: The Resurgence of Anti-Muslim Hate,” recorded an unprecedented 8,061 complaints, the highest in CAIR’s 30-year history. Notably, nearly half of all complaints in 2023 were lodged in the year’s final quarter, after the eruption of war between the Israeli regime and resistance forces in Gaza.
Source: Agencies
