Note: As of July 3, 2009, only the RSS feeds on this blog will be updated so I can focus my energies on my 
Original post:
According to a news report, on the afternoon of October 19, a man leapt from a car and shot Alia Ansari, 37, to death as she was walking on a street in Fremont, California to pick up one of her children from elementary school. Her three-year-old daughter was with her. Family members believe the murder was an anti-Muslim hate crime, because Ansari was wearing hijab, the headscarf and body covering worn by some Muslim women. Police have detained a "person of interest," but have no suspects and no motive.
In response, the Foundation for Self-Reliance is spearheading a campaign to get women to wear hijab on November 13. The organizers say the action is intended to protest both Ansari's murder and violence against Muslim women around the world. Accrding to a statement on the organizer's website:
What we do not know is who did this and why. But if it was an act of hate, then we want to stand behind all women who wear hijabs, or dress differently, and show them that Fremont is a place that is tolerant toward all people and proud of its diversity.
According to the FBI's annual report on Hate Crimes, anti-religious acts constituted 15.7 percent of the hate crimes reported to police in 2005 -- a total of 1,314 incidents. Of those incidents, 68.5 percent were anti-Jewish; 11.1 percent was anti-Muslim.
"hate crimes","Muslim women"
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2 comments:
I'm sorry, you did it again. "Police believe the murder was an anti-Muslim hate crime. . ." This is not what they're reporting. Nowhere in any of the stories are the police saying this.
What they are saying is they DO NOT have a motive yet. They don't even have a definite suspect. In fact, the mayor of Fremont and the police both are frowning on the spontaneous knee-jerk notion that this was a hate crime.
I'm very interested in this issue because it's rapidly turning into an opportunistic witch hunt out here. There's a big presumption of guilt among the local Muslim leaders that this was a hate crime--but they're not law enforcement. I understand they're grieving, but the truth now is that the facts simply are not in yet. She could have been killed for any number of reasons--not just the hijab.
On the other hand, I applaud you including the FBI report which still indicates that Jews outnumber Muslims 7 to 1 in hate crimes.
Did you read my update? It says that the hate crime accusation came from the family. I did not change the original post because it would have destroyed the context of the reader's comment. But I will change it to make it clearer.
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