Twitter-sation: A Muslim/American father's advice to his teenage daughter goes viral

COURTESY OF LAMYAA
Muslim/American teenager Lamyaa shuts down hateful Tweeter but starts an important conversation.

PENNSYLVANIA teenager Lamyaa (She refrained from publishing her last name) destroyed a stereotype about Muslim men with her posting of a conversation she had with her father about wearing a hijab.

Being "different" as a high-schooler is just about the biggest curse you can have when negotiating your way through those tumultuous teen years.

That's why I admire the young girls who choose to wear a hijab in high school despite the fact that it makes them targets for ignorant bullies and haters.

According to Fusion, Lamyaa, 17, was in a heated group chat discussing politics when she called out Donald Trump’s treatment of Muslims. Shortly after, a friend of a friend asked her to stop defending her religion.

“Stop defending Islam Bitch,” the message (here's a screenshots) that Lamyaa reposted on Twitter. “You couldn’t take that scarf off or your dad would beat your ass.”

To prove how ignorant that assumption was, Lamyaa texted her father and told him she wanted to take off her hijab.

She placed her father's message and the original tweet and posted it. It went viral across the world. Other social media and news sites picked it up and the responses came pouring in.

While the majority of the responses have been supportive and positive, some people pointed out that her father is just one man and doesn't represent the majority of Muslim men. Lamyaa answered:

Others felt compelled to point out that in some Muslim countries, women are given no choice but to wear a hijab. 

“Yes, a lot of women are forced to where the hijab. That’s horrible and I have [been] one to point that out numerous times,” Lamyaa said in a follow-up tweet. “That oppression however is not what the hijab symbolizes, it’s not why women wear it. I personally chose to wear the the hijab, for myself and for god.”

“I will always stand up for others and it breaks my heart to know that some women do not get to make a choice in what they do with their OWN bodies,” she added.

And - if you haven't guessed already - Lamyaa is NOT taking off her hijab.

To read more of this important and on-going Twitter-sation (I made that word up.) click here.

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Suspect pleads not guilty for mosque vandalism

The Davis Islamic Center

A WOMAN was arrested Tuesday and charged with hate enhanced crimes for vandalizing a mosque in Davis, California and tying strips of bacon at the entrances.

Lauren Kirk-Coeho, 30, pleaded not guilty Feb. 17.

LAUREN KIRK COEHO

Kirk-Coehlo, was arrested Tuesday morning on suspicion of breaking six of the Davis mosque’s windows, damaging several bicycles at the mosque and wrapping pork around the handle of one of the mosque’s exterior doors, Davis police said. Muslims are forbidden to eat or touch pork.

She will be arraigned March 6. If convicted, she could face up to six years in prison.

A search of Kirk-Coeho's computer found searches of white supremacist websites and a tweet expressing her admiration of Dylann Roof, who killed African/American churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article133199569.html#storylink=cpy

Five days after the crime, hundreds of people gathered to demonstrate their support for the Muslim community, and the Islamic Center received more than $22,000 in financial contributions have been used to repair the damaged windows, upgrade the center’s security system and support outreach efforts such as sending local students on educational tours of UC Davis and its medical school.

“This incident showed the beautiful good will of Americans and that our communities stand united,” added Amr Zedan, the Davis Islamic Center’s president. “As a Muslim community we are forgiving and merciful, but we hope that the perpetrator has the chance to reflect upon her actions and the grief she caused our community.”

Hate incidents against Muslims have increased dramatically since the presidential campaign and rose again after Donald Trump won the Nov. 8 election, according to reports from the FBI and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

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more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article133199569.html#storylink=cpy

Judge issues nationwide stay on Trump's Muslim ban order

Among the first groups protesting Donald Trump's attacks on Muslims were members of the Jewish and 
Japanese American communities who saw the similarities to the orders that detained Japanese Americans 
and the Nazi roundup of Jews during WWII.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP's attempt to restrict Muslims from coming to the U.S. received a setback late Friday when a U.S. District Court judge in Seattle granted a temporary restraining order against the executive order.

“The Constitution prevailed today,” said Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson. “No one is above the law — not even the president.”

Unlike the earlier court-ordered stays by courts in other parts of the country, Judge James Robart went to the core of the executive order, requiring that the travel restrictions be stayed immediately and his decision go into effect nationwide. 

Federal officers are now barred from enforcing the parts of the ban that target immigrants from those seven countries and refugees, and that grant exemptions to refugees on the basis of their religion. 

At the preliminary hearing in response to Washington state's attorney general's lawsuit against the executive order, Judge Robart pointed out that no terror attack has been carried out on U.S. soil by people from any of the countries in question.

AG Ferguson filed the lawsuit Monday, calling Trump's order "illegal."

The White House vowed to appeal the decision immediately.

“At the earliest possible time, the Department of Justice intends to file an emergency stay of this outrageous order and defend the executive order of the President, which we believe is lawful and appropriate,” press secretary Sean Spicer said in a written statement Friday night. “The president’s order is intended to protect the homeland and he has the constitutional authority and responsibility to protect the American people.”

Trump’s executive order bars most travelers or refugees from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the U.S. for 90 days, with some exceptions. 

Since Trump signed the executive order last Friday, demonstrations have popped up at airports throughout the country. Judges in Los Angeles, Seattle, Virginia and New York issued temporary stays on the parts of the order that affected some of the impacted travelers but did not affect the the entire order.

The hastily-put together executive order caused confusion among Homeland Security personnel and airport police who apparently were not given guidelines on how to enforce it.

The executive order has been severely criticized by the AAPI community.

“We have been resettling refugees in America safely for decades – and Trump’s claim that refugees will hurt American communities is simply not true," said Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif. "Welcoming immigrants and refugees – and welcoming people of all backgrounds and faiths – is at the core of who we are as a nation. And this diversity has strengthened, not weakened our country.”

"The Asian American and Pacific Islander community has the responsibility to remind our nation 'never again,' and we have that privilege to speak on behalf of our ancestors who could not come to this country, to our ancestors who were discriminated against, who were interned and who were profiled, and who may not have the opportunity to tell their own story," said Christopher Kang, National Director, National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA). 

"We have to remind people of what refugees bring to this country and why the entire world demands that refugees who are fleeing violence and persecution be accepted and given safe haven,” 

Last Monday, The Council on American-Islamic Relations filed its own lawsuit against the executive order in Virginia. ""Donald Trump’s executive order is not based on evidence, national security or on hard facts. It is based on islamophobia, fear mongering and anti-Muslim prejudice.” said Nihad Awad, CAIR's National Executive Director.

Obama makes it more difficult for Trump's proposed Muslim registry

Protestors voiced their opposition to Donald Trump's proposal for a Muslim registry.

By Louis Chan
ASAM NEWS

ASIAN/AMERICANS are praising a move by President Obama that would make it more difficult for President-elect Trump to set up a Muslim registry.

“We stand ready to oppose any policies that target or profile AMEMSA (Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, South Asian) communities, which the new Administration may put in place, said Elica Vafaie, Staff Attorney, National Security and Civil Rights, Asian Americans Advancing Justice. 

“Regardless of how such policies are packaged, their discriminatory anti-Muslim intent has been well-established by the President-elect’s campaign rhetoric, that was intended to undermine our bedrock Constitutional commitment to religious pluralism and divide us as a nation.”

President Obama has ordered the dismantling of the National Security Entry-Exit Registration Systems (NSEERS) program beginning today. The program was set up after 9/11 as a way to keep track of travelers to and from mostly Muslim countries. President Obama discontinued the program in 2011 arguing it failed to snag a single terrorist. The framework for the program, however, remained in place.

By taking it apart, President Obama is forcing Trump to begin the entire lengthy rule making process all over again. Congress would have to have hearings and debates on the issue during which the stakeholders could air their views.

“I am incredibly relieved that President Obama has taken this step to dismantle NSEERS and make a Muslim registry that much harder to implement,” said Rep Judy Chu (D-CA), chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. This is a program that was deemed so flawed that it was ultimately canceled for isolating the Muslim community while failing to make our country more secure. It should not remain on our books.”

Many Asian Americans have expressed fears a Muslim Registry is a step towards opening up incarceration camps similar to those that imprisoned Japanese Americans during World War II. President-elect Trump made such a registry a cornerstone of his campaign.

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Attorney General visits mosque; rebukes 'Trumpism'

 AG Loretta Lynch: "When one of us is threatened, we all have to speak out,"

ATTORNEY GENERAL Loretta Lynch went to a mosque today (Dec. 12) to address a interfaith audience in Sterling, VA about the wave of Islamaphobic acts this year and in particular since the presidential elections in November. 

Her speech was a courageous rebuke of the hatred spewing forth from the supporters of the president-elect. Although she did not mention Donald Trump's name, her target was clear to all of those in the audience - Trumpism.

She cited the recently released FBI report that showed a "67 percent increase in hate crimes committed against Muslim/Americans, and the highest total of anti-Muslim incidents since 2001, when 9/11 spurred so many reprehensible acts.

"Regardless of our faith, we believe that we must treat others as we would wish to be treated," she said. "Regardless of our faith, we believe that every individual is precious. Regardless of our faith, we believe in our common humanity, and we believe that, in the famous words of Martin Luther King Jr., 'injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.'"

Her visit to All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) Center was Lynch's first visit to a mosque since she replaced Eric Holder two years ago.

RELATED: 

• Muslim Americans ask for Trump meeting
• AG issues statement on hate crimes
• Trump-inspired hate oozes out of America's sewers
• Loretta Lynch's complete speech at the mosque
• FBI report says hate crimes spike against Muslims

"In recent months, our Civil Rights Division – led by Vanita Gupta, ... – along with our U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, " she recounted, "have convicted a Connecticut man for firing a high-powered rifle at a mosque; a Florida man for threatening to firebomb two mosques and shoot their congregants; a Missouri man for the arson of a local mosque; and a North Carolina man who yelled at a woman and ripped off her hijab on an airplane. And in October, our National Security Division and the U.S Attorney’s Office in Kansas charged three men in connection with their plot to detonate bombs at an apartment complex in Garden City, Kansas, which included a mosque where many members of the local Somali immigrant community gather to pray. These are only a few examples of the Justice Department’s recent prosecutions."

Near her conclusion, Lynch said: "You and I know what the declaration means when it says, 'All men are created equal.' You and I know what the Constitution means when it says, 'We, the people.' 

"So let us leave here united in our confidence, inspired by our faith and strengthened by our courage. Let us leave here with a renewed commitment to demanding nothing less than a country that is true to its founding promises. And let us leave here in hope – the hope that has brought the United States so far in the last 240 years; the hope that I am confident will carry us even further in the days to come."

She urged the audience that they all have to speak out when they see a hate act committed against their neighbors. "When one of us is threatened, we all have to speak out," she said.

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California governor signs anti-bullying bill vs Muslims and Sikhs

IN THE DAYS before his deadline for signing bills into law, California's Gov. Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill AB-2845, anti-bullying legislation also known as the Safe Place to Learn Act. Current anti-bullying laws that cite bullying due to race or ethnicity will now include bullying due to "religious affiliation" to the list of reasons bullying might occur. 

Authored by Assemblymember Das Williams, this bill works to address the growing problem of bullying and discrimination based on religious affiliation or perceived religious affiliation. 

AB 2845 will provide certificated staff at local education agencies with school site and community resources for students who are subject to discrimination and bullying based on actual or perceived religious affiliation. The bill also requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to post anti-bullying resources related to affiliation or perceived affiliation with any religious group on its website.

RELATED: Report - U.S. hate groups increase as campaign rhetoric incite anger and fear

"[This bill] is very important to Muslim and Sikh children because both of our communities have seen a huge rise in the bullying of Muslim and perceived to be Muslim students," Saad Sweilem, civil rights attorney at CAIR-Sacramento Valley (CAIR-SV), told NBC News. "Students from both communities played an instrumental role in getting this bill passed by testifying in front of Assemblymembers about their own personal experiences being bullied. 

"Our hope is that this bill provides our schools the resources they need so that they are prepared to handle these types of situations. Because of our current social and political climate, this issue is a major one and we're very hopeful that this bill will tackle it head on."

According to CAIR-CA, 55 percent of American Muslim students attending California public schools surveyed experience some form of bullying based on their religious identity. This is twice as high as the national statistic for students who report being bullied at school.

"Our schools should be able to provide our children education in an environment that is free from identity based blame and bullying," says Sameena Usman, CAIR-SFBA Government Relations Coordinator.

Similarly, the Sikh Coalition has reported that 50 percent of Sikh students have encountered school bullying. This number increases significantly for turbaned Sikh students, 67 percent of whom have encountered bullying. In Fresno, 51 percent of the students surveyed by the Sikh Coalition reported that they felt school officials did not respond adequately to bullying incidents.

The statistics reflect the national trend of growing Islamaphobia, encouraged by the heated rhetoric used by the Republican candidate for president Donald Trump and his followers.

"The right to attend public school free from bullying and discrimination is a civil right. AB 2845 will help ensure that no child has to compromise their faith or identity in California schools," said Harjit Kaur, Community Development Manager for the Sikh Coalition.

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President nominates first Muslim/American federal judge

Abid Riaz Qureshi

FOR THE FIRST time, an American Muslim has been nominated to the federal bench.

President Barack Obama on Wednesday (Sept. 7) nominated Abid Riaz Qureshi to be a federal judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. If appointed, Qureshi would be America’s first Muslim/American federal judge.

“I am pleased to nominate Mr. Qureshi to serve on the United States District Court bench,” the president said. “I am confident he will serve the American people with integrity and a steadfast commitment to justice.”

Unless the Democrats get control of the Senate this November, Qureshi must still get the approval of the Senate Judicial Committee and the Senate, which under its current make-up dominated by Republicans, has shown a tendency to act in a partisan manner, especially in regards to Obama's judicial appointments. Congressional Republicans have refused to hold a hearing for Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland, who was nominated in March.

American Muslims have served as judges at the state level, but never as a federal judge, says Farhana Khera, executive director of Muslim Advocates, a national legal advocacy group.

"This is a very, very exciting time, and we are just so thrilled that the president took this step," Khera says of Qureshi's nomination.“

RELATED: Asian/Americans react to Obama's nomination for Supreme Court

"A judiciary that reflects the rich diversity of our nation helps ensure the fair and just administration of the law , and it is vital for American Muslims to be included,” says Khera. “Mr. Qureshi’s profound commitment to the rule of law and justice for people of all backgrounds makes him an exceptional nominee.”

Qureshi, born in Pakistan and now a U.S. citizen. He graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School cum laude in 1997 with his J.D. and summa cum laude from Cornell University with his B.A. in 1993.

Qureshi is a lawyer in Washington who specializes in healthcare fraud, the False Claims Act and securities violations. Since 2015, he has served on the District of Columbia Bar Association’s Legal Ethics Committee. During President Obama's two terms in office, he has appointed 138 women and 120 minorities to federal judgeships. He has made this judicial diversity a "major priority" throughout his time in office, says former White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler, who now works with Qureshi at the D.C. law firm Latham & Watkins.

"Having judges who are reflective of the nation as a whole just brings public confidence into our court system," Ruemmler says, explaining the president's thinking about these selections, which require Senate confirmation and are held for life.

“The nomination of Abid Qureshi to fill a seat on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia sends a message of inclusion that is welcomed by the American Muslim Community and by all Americans who value diversity and mutual respect at a time when some seek division and discord,” said Nihad Award, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

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For more news about Asian/Americans & Pacific Islanders, read AsAm News.

Asian/Pacific American group plans 'checkpoints' in Washington, D.C.

A passenger is checked at the airport.

FIFTEEN YEARS ago, the United States changed when terrorists attack the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

President Bush warned us that the war against terrorism would be unlike any war we have ever experienced. At the time, most Americans had no idea how different the tactics would be and how our country would react.

I'm reminded of this every time I go through airport security, because of my dark complexion, goatee and shaved head, I draw the special attention of the guards. They tell me I'm picked at random as they pat me down, but I know better. It has happened too often to be random.

What I go through, though, is nothing compared to what thousands of our fellow citizens must undergo.

On the 15th anniversary of September 11th, organizers with the National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA) and KhushDC will take part in a performative action so other people will be able to experience the impact of Islamophobia and the legalized profiling of LGBTQ South Asian, Muslim and Black communities.

"We are creating 'checkpoints' in high-traffic areas of Washington D.C. that replicate the various 'checkpoints' experience every day by South Asian, Muslim, Arab, Middle Eastern, and Black people experience every day – being stopped when passing through TSA, being denied service because of religious markers, being called terrorists, being kicked off of flights, etc. Black Muslims experience this profiling at an even higher frequency, leading to brutality or death at the hands of law enforcement," stated a press release from NQAPIA,
Numerous studies have documented the impact of Islamophobia. 

• A Gallup poll found that nearly half of all Muslims - 48 percent - reported that they, personally, had experienced racial or religious discrimination in the past year. 
• In a Columbia University survey, 28 percent of Muslim high school students in New York reported being stopped by police as a result of racial profiling. 
• A labor market study found a 10 percent decrease in earnings for Muslim and Arab men immediately after 9/11, with the effects greater in areas with a higher incidence of hate crimes. 

The "checkpoints" will be set up this Sunday, Sept. 11 between 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. across D.C. in Adams Morgan, Dupont Circle, Verizon Center (Chinatown), and other locations.

 

“I feel the aftershocks of 9/11 every day," said NQAPIA’s Organizing Director Sasha  W. "From profiling at the airport, to verbal harassment on the street, to surveillance outside my apartment, the policies enacted in the wake of 9/11 have legalized the profiling and surveillance of my people. I cannot feel ‘safe’ until the legalized profiling, surveillance, and harassment end.”  

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DNC: Muslim/American offers powerful, emotional moment

Khizr Khan offers Donald Trump a copy of the Constitution.

ONE OF the most emotional moments on the final night of the Democratic National Convention was the speech of Khizr Khan, father of war hero Captain Humayun S.M. Khan, who lost his life in Iraq.

Captain Khan, a University of Virginia graduate, was one of 14 American Muslims who gave their lives serving the United States during the years that followed the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. “This is our country too,” Khan, 65, said in an interview. “This is not only Donald Trump’s country."

RELATED: AAPI lawmakers take the stage at the DNC

Khan was born in Pakistan and moved his family to the United Arab Emerits before immigrating to the U.S.

In his speech, standing next to his wife, Khan said that Donald Trump wanted to ban Muslim immigration. He looked into the camera and with his finger jabbing into the air, asked Trump, "Have you even read the U.S. Constitution?" He then reached into his pocket and held up a copy of the Constitution and waved it in front of the camera. "I will gladly give you my copy." That was a powerful moment, but what he said next was even better.

"Donald Trump, you have sacrificed nothing ... no one!" Watch Khan's speech below:

REPORT: Political hate rhetoric catalyst for the rise in anti-Muslim/American acts

"BEING MUSLIM/AMERICAN already carries a decent amount of baggage.," writes actor Aziz Ansari in a New York Times oped published over the weekend. "In our culture, when people think 'Muslim,' the picture in their heads is not usually of the Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or the kid who left the boy band One Direction. It’s of a scary terrorist character from Homeland or some monster from the news."

His fears are justified. A report from the UC Berkeley Center for Race & Gender done in collaboration with The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)  was released last week. Entitled Confronting Fear: Islamophobia and its Impact in the United States, reports the increase in hate crimes against Muslims or people mistaken as Muslims.

The last two months of 2015 saw 34 incidents in which mosques were targeted by vandals or those who want to intimidate worshippers. This is more incidents than usually recorded in an entire year.

Aziz Ansari

Islamophobia has unfortunately moved from the fringes of American society to the mainstream. Contenders for the office of the presidency have suggested un-constitutional policies such as banning all Muslims from the United States or suggesting that a Muslims could not be president of the United States. Elected officials in 10 states have enacted legislation designed to vilify or otherwise target Islam. In at least two states, the way school text books are selected was changed because some activists wrongly believe that introductory religious courses that teach children Islam’s five pillars are “indoctrination” and “proselytization.”

The last two months of 2015 saw 34 incidents in which mosques were targeted by vandals or those who want to intimidate worshippers. This is more incidents than we usually record in an entire year.

The strategy outlined in this report is an evolution from the opposition-centric strategy CAIR’s Department to Monitor and Combat Islamophobia has pursued since we published Legislating Fear in 2012. The proposed strategy focuses instead on changing the environment.

Islamophobic groups have enjoyed access to at least $205 million to spread fear and hatred of Muslims, says the report. Inner-core groups, which have a primary purpose to promote prejudice against or hatred of Islam and Muslims, have seen an increase in total revenue from $42,692,945 in 2008 to $205,838,077 in 2013.

“The hate that these groups are funding and inciting is having real consequences like attacks on mosques all over the country and new laws discriminating against Muslims in America,” Corey Saylor, author of the report and director of CAIR’s department to monitor and combat Islamophobia, said in a statement.

He also said politics has played in a role in perpetuating the prejudice, including the rhetoric of the current U.S. presidential race.

“The 2016 presidential election has mainstreamed Islamophobia and resulted in a number of un-constitutional proposals targeting Muslims,” he said.“’Confronting Fear’ offers a plan for moving anti-Muslim bias back to the fringes of society where it belongs.”

The study examines two overlapping time periods: January 2015 through December 2015 and March 2015 through March 2016 (the 2016 presidential election season). It found approximately 180 reported incidents of anti-Muslim violence: 12 murders; 34 physical assaults; 49 verbal assaults or threats against persons and institutions; 56 acts of vandalism.

Confronting Fear acknowledges that acts of violence committed in the name of Islam “have undoubtedly contributed to negative public perceptions of Islam and Muslims in the United States.”

However it states that Islam and Muslims “are more likely to be held collectively responsible for the actions of an aberrant few.”

A goal of the report is to promote societal rejection of Islamophobia, as attrition in the acceptability of this form of prejudice would bring about change. It notes that societal rejection of the hate group Ku Klux Klan and its message resulted in less public support, visibility and impact.

“Islamophobia and groups that promote bias will likely always exist,” Nihad Awad, executive director of CAIR, said in a statement. “But the current environment that grants anti-Islam prejudice social acceptability must change so that such bias is in the same social dustbin as white supremacism and anti-Semitism.”

"Today, with the presidential candidate Donald J. Trump and others like him spewing hate speech, prejudice is reaching new levels. It’s visceral, and scary, and it affects how people live, work and pray," writes Ansari, a comedian and actor, whose TV series Master of None received accolades for its depiction of people of color. "It makes me afraid for my family. It also makes no sense."

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For more news about Asian/Americans & Pacific Islanders, read AsAm News

After the Orlando mass shooting, a Muslim/American's appeal for unity goes viral

A MUSLIM/AMERICAN's Facebook post after the Orlando mass shooting went viral because he was donating blood for the victims and because of his moving appeal for compassion, tolerance and unity.

The morning of the shooting on June 12 after the details of the horrofic shooting that killed 50 people, including the shooter became known, Mahmoud ElAwadi went to an Orlando blood bank to donate his blood for the victims. 

He posted on his Facebook page a picture of his arm during the blood donation and explained why he did it.

ElAwadi, a Merrill-Lynch vice president, went on to explain why he thought the United States is the greatest country in the world.

Muslim's denounce Trump's incendiary tale of bullets dipped in pigs' blood

Gen. John Pershing

THE COUNCIL on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) denounced Donald Trump's tale of a phone  story Friday evening that alleged that U.S. General John Pershing shot Muslim prisoners in the Philippines with bullets soaked in pigs' blood.

Nihad Awad, the executive director of the CAIR, a Mulim/American civil rights group, said in a statement Saturday (Feb. 20) that Trump's comments "crossed the line from spreading hatred to inciting violence."

"By directly stating that the only way to stop terrorism is to murder Muslims in graphic and religiously-offensive ways, he places the millions of innocent, law-abiding citizens in the American Muslim community at risk from rogue vigilantes," Nihad Awad said in a statement. 

"He further implies that our nation should adopt a strategy of systematized violence in its engagement with the global Muslim community, a chilling message from a potential leader. We pray that no one who hears this message follows his gospel of hate."

Trump told his supporters the story at a rally in South Carolina days before the state's primary elections.

Pershing “took 50 bullets and he dipped them in pig’s blood,” he told his audience. “And he had his men load his rifles and he lined up the fifty people, and they shot 49 of those people. And the 50th person, he said, ‘You go back to your people and you tell them what happened.’ And for 25 years there wasn’t a problem.”

Snopes.com previously rated the story, which has circulated on the Internet for years, as a "legend." It traced the tale's origins to a scene in a 1939 film, but found no mention of the alleged incident in various Pershing biographies or historical records.

The story of the bullets definitely didn't work. Muslim resistance didn't go away. Muslim rebels have been fighting the U.S. and the Philippine government continously to the present.

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For more news about Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders, read AsAm News.

Hate crimes triple against Muslim/Americans since November Paris attack

Mosques in America have been targeted by bigots.

THE MUSLIM MEN had just finished praying at a public park in Castro Valley, Ca. when a woman began verbally attacking them.

One of the men tried to explain to Denise A. Sla that they were simply praying, something they were not doing anything wrong.  She continued to rant at the men. Rasheed Albeshari began using his cellphone to tape the confrontation and the woman threw here coffee at him.

This is the first step toward justice," Albeshari said after learning that two misdemeanor charges of battery on park property and violation of civil rights -- the latter considered a hate crime -- were filed against Slader.

The incident was another hate crime added to the growing number hate crimes against Muslim Americans. Since the Paris attacks earlier his year, attacks against Muslim Americans have tripled. The shootings in San Bernardino have added fuel to the fire. 

"We’re seeing so many of these things happening that it’s unbelievable,” said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on Islamic-American Relations, said today (Dec. 18). “It’s off the chart -- and I don’t think we’ve seen the end of it.”

The recent GOP debate among the presidential candidates may have fueled mare stupidity among the ignorant. The debate focused on foreign terrorism, forgetting completely the terrorism spurred by American terrorists (except for San Bernardino).

In addition, CAIR reports, there have been 29 incidents where mosques have been vandalized or torched.

"The terrorist attacks, coupled with the ubiquity of these anti-Muslim stereotypes seeping into the mainstream, have emboldened people to act upon this fear and anger," said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University San Bernardino.

"We must resolve to always speak out against hatred and bigotry in all of its forms -- whether taunts against the child of an immigrant farmworker or threats against a Muslim shopkeeper," President Obama told a group of new Americans last week. "We are Americans. Standing up for each other is what the values enshrined in the documents in this room compels us to do -– especially when it’s hard. Especially when it’s not convenient. That’s when it counts. That’s when it matters -- not when things are easy, but when things are hard."

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