Muslim defenders urge action against the increase in Islamophobia in NJ

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At a time when bias incidents are increasing, defenders gathered outside the state house on Monday to commemorate the International Day to combat Islamophobia.

“Islamophobia kills,” said Imam Saffet Catovic, director of Justice Operations for All. “It is the main driver of persecution and genocide worldwide. Its effects are devastating.”

The number of Islamophobic incidents is at its highest point since 1996, even exceeding the anti-islam climate after September 11 attacks, according to a report recently published by Cair-NJ, the American-Islamic Relations Council, which organized the event on Monday.

The executive director of CAIR, Salaedin Maksut, listed some examples of the 8,658 incidents reported nationwide in 2024, including 290 in New Jersey.

“The Rutgers New Brunswick Muslim Prayer Room was shattered and shattered on EID Day,” he began. “There was a physical assault not caused by a Muslim protester who took him to the hospital, and had to receive suture points. A coffee owner was harassed and threatened by his public expression of support for the Palestinian cause. There was a physical assault of a Muslim woman who used a hijab in the city of Jersey who came out of the new map.”

The defenders requested several specific actions to help reduce these bias incidents.

“Public officials take this opportunity to speak and condemn damage against our Muslim community,” Maksut said. “And also, when talking about foreign issues, using a balanced narrative and bringing humanity to (the) Palestinian cause. In addition, so that the Trump administration suspends the use and dissemination of the FBI of the surveillance list. This list is almost completely a list of Arab and Muslim names.”

Several speakers also urged the Legislature to reject a bill that would adopt the International Remember Alliance of the Holocaust or IHRA, definition of anti -Semitism.

“The definition of IHRA anti -Semitism is a tool to silence criticism about Israel, not protect the Jews,” said Raz Segal, professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Stockton University. “All in the US. They have a right to freedom of expression of the first amendment, including the criticism of the policies of any state.”

The version of the Senate of that bill (S-1292) moved from the committee, although the version of the Assembly has not yet had a hearing. Meanwhile, a coalition of Jewish and Muslim scholars has gathered an alternative definition that they expected to be considered.

“Our document recognizes that the fight against Islamophobia is intertwined with the fight against anti -Semitism,” Segal said.

ADDED SAHAR AZIZ, Director of the Center for Security, Race, and Rights for Rutgers Law School: “Today the Most Pervasive Form of Islamophobia Occurs on American College Campuses, where Muslim, Arab, Palestinian and South Asian Students Are Denied Denied Their Right to Exercise Free Speech. Punished for partaking in a proup American tradition, One that distinguishing our democracy from authoritarian states: The Right to Non-Violent Protest to Dissent Against US policies. “

The defenders requested that the legislature celebrate hearings on the emergence of Islamophobia in the University Campus.

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