What political parties can learn from Zohran Mamdani's campaign for NYC mayor

SCREEN CAPTURE / YOUTUBE

Zohran Mamdani doesn't fit the typical stereotype most Americans have of Asian Americans.

Mamdani is on the verge of making history when he was declared the Democratic nominee for New York City's mayor Tuesday in a major upset of Democratic powerhouse, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in the primary. If he wins in November, he'll become the first mayor of Asian American -- Indian American to be exact -- and Muslim descent for the country's largest city.

"I'm overwhelmed. There's a lot of joy. There's a lot of representation in the possibility of the first Muslim immigrant South Asian mayor," said Mohamed Q. Amin, a long time community organizer. "We saw ourselves reflected in his campaign."

The campaign for is noteworthy because the Asian American vote, although only 4% of the electorate, proved to be an important factor.

While it was expected that Mamdani would do well among South Asians, what was surprising that he was able to extend his progressive message to the different Asian communities. He recognized the diversity iamong Asian Americans and tailored his multi-lingual campaign to each one.

Mamdani benefited from the endorsement from State Senator John Liu, considered one of the pioneers among New York's Asian American politicians.

"New York City's Asian community made a huge impact in a historic primary election. Asian communities in Queens, Brooklyn, and Manhattan turned out in droves to support Zohran Mamdani's refreshing vision for the future of New York City," Liu stated after Cuomo conceded on election night.

Liu said he was "exceedingly proud to note that the Asian American community, when inspired, mobilized, and empowered, can turn the tide in the most competitive races." 

In an interview on MSNBC after election day, Mamdani said his victory "is part of a larger referendum on where our party goes, and I think one of the hopes that we had from the very beginning of this campaign was to move our political instinct from lecturing to listening."

Who is Zohran Mamdani?

Even as a member of New York state's legislature, the 33-year old Mamdani isn't well known outside of his Queens/Brooklyn district. Meanwhile, Cuomo, his opponent was a former governor and a a member of the politically well-known -- and sometimes, controversial -- Cuomo clan, who had the support of the Democratic machine.

Aside from a brief foray in the musical world as a rapper known as Mr. Cardomon, the closest claim to fame for Mandani is that he is a son of noted filmmaker Mira Nair, who has directed films with Indian American themes and stars, including Monsoon Wedding, The Namesake and Mississippi Masala.

Mamdani won a seat in the  New York State Assembl in 2020 representing parts of Queens  and running as a progressive politician.

Born in Uganda and raised in New York City, according to his campaign website, he has fought for the working class in and outside the legislature: hunger striking alongside taxi drivers to achieve more than $450 million in transformative debt relief, winning over $100 million in the state budget for increased subway service and a successful fare-free bus pilot, and organizing New Yorkers to defeat a proposed dirty power plant. 

During his campaign he he vowed  to bring down the cost-of-living through city-owned grocery stores, universal childcare, and other bold proposals. He would achieve these goals by raising the tax of the top 1% of New Yorkers and corporations.

Recognizing Asian American diversity

Perhaps most noteworthy of Mamdani's campaign was the strong support he received from the Asian American communities. Unlike other politicians he didn't treat the different communities as a monolith. He celebrated Philippines Independence Day encouraging the crowd to celebrate their heritage, was able to capture the Chinatowns of Manhattan and Queens, win over Indo-Caribbeans and Bangladeshi neighborhoods and visited Sikh temples. 

Zohran Mamdani speaks to Filipino Americans

Liu's endorsement helped him win among East Asians, which were supposed to swing towards Cuomo, who ran heavily on a law and order theme, which appeals to Asians who feel victimimzed by the surge of anti-Asian hate.

Mamdani released ads in Hindi, Pakistani, Tibetan, Bangla and other Asian languages. His campaign's ground game connected to voters who in the past felt ignored. His army of volunteers knocked on doors and spoke to the residents in their own languages.

“I did see a lot of young voter turnout in my area. I’ve never seen that before. And the Muslim community really got together and voted for him,” said Councilmember Susan Zhuang. She noted that younger Chinese American voters turned out for the Indian American.

“There’s a new generation that wants their voice heard and that generation came out in full force, not just by voting, but by, like, getting all these other people to be emotionally invested in this candidate,” comedian Hari Kondabolu told ABC. “That’s extraordinary.”

Mamdani's campaign reached beyond NYC, exciting South Asians in other parts of the country. 

“I love that he didn’t run away from his heritage. I mean, he did video clips with Amitabh Bachchan and Hindi movies,” California Congressmember Roh Khanna told ABC.. “He shows that one can embrace their roots and their heritage and yet succeed in American politics.”

The much ballyhooed shift to the right by Asian American voters didn't seem to matter as Asian American voters put overall policies and personality over single issues like public safety or education equality.

"Zohran's come-from-behind victory was bolstered by a surge of Asian support who were encouraged by his ability to connect to people, not by talking at them, but by listening to them, and communicating new ideas about how to improve our city for everyone.," Senator Liu continued in his statement "He created a movement that vocalized the concerns of everyday New Yorkers into an exciting policy platform rooted in optimism that NYC has been missing for far too long." 

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news, views and chismis from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X or at the blog Views From the Edge. Now on BlueSky.

FBI report: Hate crimes growing more deadly

Family and friends remember Parmjit Singh, a Sikh who was wearing his turban when he was fatally stabbed
 in Tracey, Calif. last August.

After three years of rising hate crime statistics, the FBI's annual report shows a leveling off of those crimes. That's the good news. The bad news is that the attacks of hate have grown more violent and deadly.

The data gathered from 2018 shows that the year was the deadliest and most violent year for hate since 2001. There were 24 hate crime related deaths and 3,099 violent crime offenses in 2018.

Race continues to be the major factor for the commitment of hate crimes, says the FBI in their  report, Hate Crime Statistics, 2018, which was released Nov. 12. The agency also found that white people committed most of the crimes against people of color.

“We’re seeing a leaner and meaner type of hate crime going on,”Brian Levin, co-author of the FBI report and director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University San Bernardino, told NPR. ”Homicides were up and crimes against persons were up and that’s an important thing to look at.”

For additional information about the hate crimes statistics released today, visit the DOJ Hate Crimes Facts and Statistics page.

The majority of the reported hate crimes were motivated by race, ethnicity, or ancestry bias (59.6 percent). Additional biases included religion (18.7C), sexual orientation (16.7%), gender identity (2.2%), disability (2.1%t), and gender (0.7%).

“We’re seeing a shift from the more casual offender with more shallow prejudices to a bit more of an older assailant who acts alone,” Levin says in an independent analysis of the report. “There’s a diversifying base of groups that are being targeted. We’re getting back to more violence.”

In plain language, that means acts of vandalism, such as spraypainting a racist message on a house of worship, has gone down, but physical attacks such as shootings or beatings against individuals have risen.

In 2018, law enforcement agencies reported that 4,954 single-bias hate crime offenses were motivated by race/ethnicity/ancestry. Of these offenses:

• 46.9 percent were motivated by anti-Black or African American bias.
• 20.2 percent stemmed from anti-White bias.
• 13.0 percent were classified as anti-Hispanic or Latino bias.
• 4.1 percent were motivated by anti-American Indian or Alaska Native bias.
• 3.5 percent resulted from anti-Asian bias.
• 3.4 percent were a result of bias against groups of individuals consisting of more than one race (anti-multiple races, group).
• 2.0 percent were classified as anti-Arab bias.
• 0.5 percent (26 offenses) were motivated by bias of anti-Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander.
• 6.4 percent were the result of an anti-Other Race/Ethnicity/Ancestry bias.

Other highlights of the report:

• In hate crimes fueled by racism, African Americans continue to be the most frequently targeted, though anti-Black incidents overall fell to a record low share of all hate crime in 2018.
• Latinos continued to experience an increase in racially motivated incidents. Levin, the researcher, said such incidents rose 13 percent over one year and 48 percent over five years.
• The LGBTQ community also faced bias-motivated attacks in 2018. Incidents targeting gay males increased by nearly 7 perfect, and anti-transgender hate crimes rose nearly 34 percent.
• Anti-Latino, anti-gay, anti-Asian, anti-disability, anti-transgender, anti-Sikh and anti-White hate crimes increased in 2018.
• Hate crimes towards Sikhs in the U.S. TRIPLED from 20 incidents in 2017 to 60 incidents in 2018.
• There were 82 Anti-Arab hate crimes recorded in 2018 –  the second-highest total since the FBI added an anti-Arab category in 2015.
• There were 188 anti-Muslim hate crimes recorded, down slightly from last year but the fifth-highest total on record.
• There were 14 anti-Hindu hate crimes recorded in 2018 – down from 15 in 2017.
• Of the known offenders, 53% were identified as white​ 

Critics say the FBI report is flawed in that it undercounts the number of hate incidents because not all law enforcement jurisdictions provide the data. "Only 13% of the over 16,000 participating law enforcement agencies reported any hate crimes in their jurisdictions," said the South Asian Americans Leading Together in a statement.

Also, the definition of what constitutes a hate crime varies from agency to agency. However, the report does provide a barometer of the state of race relations year-to-year and whether race relations is getting better or worse.

“At the end of the day, this data simply isn’t giving us the accurate information we need to effectively counteract hate against targeted communities,” said Sim Singh, Sikh Coalition senior manager of Policy and Advocacy. “It’s past time for action. Congress must pass the next generation of common-sense legislation that equips law enforcement to better identify and track hate incidents.

Donald Trump's hateful rhetoric and policies is being blamed for the rise in hate crimes since he began campaigning. "White supremacist violence, fanned by the flames of racist rhetoric and policies at the federal level like the Muslim Ban and family separation, continues to devastate Black and brown communities," said South Asian Americans Together Leading Together in a prepared statement.

"The current Administration continues to promote rather than address the root causes of this violence. Comprehensive data collection is a critical component of documenting the problem, but acknowledging and actively combating white supremacy is the most important step to ensuring this violence doesn’t continue to wreak havoc on people’s lives," the statement concluded.

______________________________________________________________________

• 
  

Major findings of the report:

• 2018 was the deadliest and most violent year for hate since 2001. There were 24 hate crime related deaths and 3,099 violent crime offenses in 2018.
• Hate crimes towards Sikhs in the U.S. TRIPLED from 20 incidents in 2017 to 60 incidents in 2018.
• There were 82 Anti-Arab hate crimes recorded in 2018 –  the second-highest total since the FBI added an anti-Arab category in 2015.
• There were 188 anti-Muslim hate crimes recorded, down slightly from last year but the fifth-highest total on record.
• There were 14 anti-Hindu hate crimes recorded in 2018 – down from 15 in 2017.
• Of the known offenders, over 50% identified as white​ 

Data collection and underreporting of hate violence remains a significant problem. The Federal Bureau of Justice Statistics reports an average of 250,000 hate crimes every year in the U.S. That’s 35 times more than what the FBI documented in 2018. Only 13% of the over 16,000 participating law enforcement agencies reported any hate crimes in their jurisdictions. Disturbingly, the murders of Khalid Jabara, Srinivas Kuchibhotla, and Heather Heyer in 2016 and 2017, like so many other hate crimes, have not been included in official FBI statistics. The vast majority of crimes are going unreported.

And as we saw in 2017, white supremacy continues to be a primary motivation behind hate violence in the US. In both 2017 and 2018, over 50% of known offenders of reported hate crimes identified as white.

Of the over 500 incidents of hate violence targeting South Asians, Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, Middle Eastern, and Arab Americans thatSAALT has documented since November 2016, at least 80% have been motivated by anti-Muslim sentiment. In SAALT’s 2018 report “Communities on Fire,” one in every five perpetrators of hate violence referenced President Trump, a Trump administration policy, or Trump campaign slogan.

White supremacist violence, fanned by the flames of racist rhetoric and policies at the federal level like the Muslim Ban and family separation, continues to devastate Black and brown communities. Anti-Black hate crimes accounted for more than 25% of violent hate crimes reported in 2018 and the majority of incidents motivated by race.

The current Administration continues to promote rather than address the root causes of this violence. Comprehensive data collection is a critical component of documenting the problem, but acknowledging and actively combating white supremacy is the most important step to ensuring this violence doesn’t continue to wreak havoc on people’s lives.

The report indicated an increase in “crimes against persons,” according to NPR. Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University San Bernardino, spoke to the news outlet about the conclusions that can be made from the data. “We’re seeing a leaner and meaner type of hate crime going on,” he said. ”Homicides were up and crimes against persons were up and that’s an important thing to look at.”

Levin, who also co-authored a law enforcement data report that was released on Tuesday, told NPR that hate crimes in 2018 maintained a typical pattern:

Levin said the increase in assaults was almost evenly distributed across demographic groups, with African-Americans, Jews, Whites, gays and Latinos targeted the most. As in previous years, the majority of hate crimes reported in 2018 were motivated by bias against race and ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation.

On Nov. 12 The FBI released Hate Crime Statistics, 2018, the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program’s latest compilation about bias-motivated incidents throughout the nation. The 2018 data, submitted by 16,039 law enforcement agencies, provide information about the offenses, victims, offenders, and locations of hate crimes.

Law enforcement agencies submitted incident reports involving 7,120 criminal incidents and 8,496 related offenses as being motivated by bias toward race, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, sexual orientation, disability, gender, and gender identity. Please note the UCR Program does not estimate offenses for the jurisdictions of agencies that do not submit reports. Highlights of Hate Crime Statistics, 2018 follow. (Due to rounding, percentage breakdowns may not add to 100.0 percent.)

Victims of Hate Crime Incidents
There were 7,036 single-bias incidents involving 8,646 victims. A percent distribution of victims by bias type shows that 59.6 percent of victims were targeted because of the offenders’ race/ethnicity/ancestry bias; 18.7 percent were targeted because of the offenders’ religious bias; 16.7 percent were victimized because of the offenders’ sexual-orientation bias; 2.2 percent were targeted because of the offenders’ gender identity bias; 2.1 percent were victimized because of the offenders’ disability bias; and 0.7 percent were victimized because of the offenders’ gender bias.
There were 84 multiple-bias hate crime incidents, which involved 173 victims.

Offenses by Crime Category
Of the 5,566 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against persons in 2018, 46.0 percent were for intimidation, 34.0 percent were for simple assault, and 18.4 percent were for aggravated assault. Twenty-four (24) murders and 22 rapes were reported as hate crimes. The remaining 39 hate crime offenses were reported in the category of other.
There were 2,641 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against property. The majority of these (71.0 percent) were acts of destruction/damage/vandalism. Robbery, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, arson, and other offenses accounted for the remaining 29.0 percent of crimes against property.
Two hundred eighty-nine (289) additional offenses were classified as crimes against society. This crime category represents society’s prohibition against engaging in certain types of activity such as gambling, prostitution, and drug violations. These are typically victimless crimes in which property is not the object.

Known Offenders
In the UCR Program, the term known offender does not imply that the suspect’s identity is known; rather, the term indicates that some aspect of the suspect was identified, thus distinguishing the suspect from an unknown offender. Law enforcement agencies specify the number of offenders and, when possible, the race of the offender or offenders as a group. Beginning in 2013, law enforcement began reporting whether suspects were juveniles or adults, as well as the suspect’s ethnicity when possible.

Of the 6,266 known offenders, 53.6 percent were white, and 24.0 percent were black or African American. Other races accounted for the remaining known offenders: 1.3 percent were Asian; 1.0 percent were American Indian or Alaska Native; 0.3 percent were Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander; and 6.9 percent were of a group of multiple races. The race was unknown for 12.9 percent.

Of the 5,349 known offenders for whom ethnicity was reported, 29.9 percent were not Hispanic or Latino, 8.9 percent were Hispanic or Latino, and 1.6 percent were in a group of multiple ethnicities. Ethnicity was unknown for 59.5 percent of these offenders.
Of the 5,589 known offenders for whom ages were known, 84.7 percent were 18 years of age or older.

Locations of Hate Crimes

Law enforcement agencies may specify the location of an offense within a hate crime incident as 1 of 46 location designations. In 2018, most hate crime incidents (25.7 percent) occurred in or near residences/homes. More than 18 percent (18.7) occurred on highways/roads/alleys/streets/sidewalks; 9.2 percent occurred at schools/colleges; 5.3 percent happened at parking/drop lots/garages; and 3.7 percent took place in churches/synagogues/temples/mosques. The location was reported as other/unknown for 11.2 percent of hate crime incidents. The remaining 26.1 percent of hate crime incidents took place at other or multiple locations.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is dedicated to preventing and combating hate crimes. To learn more about this work and to find events, news, and resources related to hate crimes, please visit the DOJ Hate Crimes website. For additional information about the hate crimes statistics released today, visit the DOJ Hate Crimes Facts and Statistics page.










The number of hate crime incidents reported to the FBI decreased slightly from 2017 to 2018, according to the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program’s annual Hate Crime Statistics report, released today.

Law enforcement reported 7,120 hate crimes to the FBI’s UCR Program last year, down slightly from the 7,175 incidents reported the previous year.

There were 7,036 single-bias hate crimes reported to UCR in 2018. From those incidents, there were 8,646 victims.

The majority of the reported hate crimes were motivated by race, ethnicity, or ancestry bias (59.6 percent). Additional biases included religion (18.7 percent), sexual orientation (16.7 percent), gender identity (2.2 percent), disability (2.1 percent), and gender (0.7 percent).

The report, Hate Crime Statistics, 2018, includes hate crime information for last year. The data is broken down by location, offenders, bias types, and victims.

More than 16,000 law enforcement agencies reported their hate crime statistics to the FBI last year. The FBI has been working with law enforcement across the country to encourage reporting of hate crime statistics. Reporting hate crime data to the UCR Program helps the public and researchers gain a more accurate picture of hate crimes. It also allows law enforcement to develop data-focused approaches to combating hate crimes.

Hate crimes are the highest investigative priority of the FBI’s civil rights program.

Full report: Hate Crime Statistics, 2018







Resources
FBI Releases 2018 Hate Crime Statistics
Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program
Hate Crime
Civil Rights

A life sentence for murder of 3 Muslim American students; not a hate crime in North Carolina

FACEBOOK

The three students  at UNC-Chapel Hill were shot dead in 2015.

ASAM NEWS

A judge sentenced Craig Stephen Hicks Wednesday to life in prison without parole for murdering three Muslim Americans.

Hicks was sentenced for murdering 23-year-old Deah Barakat, his wife Yusor Abu-Salha, 21, and her sister Razan Abu-Salha, 19, in their Chapel Hill, N.C. condo in 2015. 

Chapel Hill police said Hicks exploded following a parking dispute at his apartment complex, but the victims’ families and supporters across the globe say that Hicks targeted them because they were Muslim, and have called on federal authorities to pursue hate crime charges, The New York Times reported.

After Hicks pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder, Judge Orlando Hudson asked the news media to turn off recorders and cameras. In a courtroom packed with the victims’ friends and family, many in Muslim dress, the prosecutors played previously unseen video footage from the night of the murders.

The New York Times reported that Hicks knocked on the victims' door, interrupting their dinner. “You’ve got three cars in the lot, and I don’t have a parking spot,” Hicks says in the video. According to police reports, none of the three students had parked in Hicks’ assigned parking spot, and only two had parked anywhere in the lot.

Barakat remains polite in the video and does not curse, but Hicks says, “If you’re going to be disrespectful towards me, I am going to be disrespectful of you.”

NPR News reported that the video was taken on Barakat’s cell phone. “Hicks can be seen first threatening Deah, then almost immediately start shooting. The cell phone falls with the camera facing the ceiling.”

Then, “the sounds of women screaming can be heard,” Fox News reported, “followed by several more shots. Then silence.”

At the hearing, the state said that investigators interviewed 36 neighbors, and none of the White neighbors remembered him carrying any weapons, but people of color did. He showed off a handgun on his hip when he wanted to intimidate his Korean neighbor, reported Fox News.

He also blocked the car of a woman of Indian descent and threatened to beat her, he told a Persian man, “I am sick of you people,” and used racial slurs against Black neighbors, reported The New York Times. And he confronted Abu-Salha and her mother in late 2014, NPR News reported, and said, “I don’t like the look of you people. Get out of here.” Both of the women were wearing hijabs.

“This was not a dispute over a parking space,” Mohammed Abu-Salha, father of the two slain women, told the Charlotte Observer. “This was a hate crime.”

North Carolina does not have a hate crime statute that would apply to first-degree murder, so family members have met with federal authorities repeatedly to pursue hate-crime charges, but to no avail.

Former US Attorney Ripley Rand said Wednesday that he hadn’t decided to pursue hate-crime charges against Hicks when he resigned before the incoming Trump administration in 2017. There was “no additional punishment he could have gotten that would have meant anything,” Rand said.

But the families of the victims disagree. “It hurt a lot of feelings and it added to the false narrative,” Joe Cheshire, an attorney for the families said. “Our government failed this family and our multicultural democracy.”

Barakat was a student at UNC Chapel Hill’s School of Dentistry. His wife of less than 2 months, Yusor Abu-Salha, was just accepted to the dental school. Her younger sister Razan Abu-Salha was an undergraduate and made the dean’s list at North Carolina State University, reported Fox News. The three often cooked food for a homeless shelter, worked to improve a Raleigh neighborhood, and were planning a trip to Turkey to provide aide to Syrian refugees.

“These were students who wanted nothing more than to change the world,” said UNC Chancellor Carol Folt, “who basically thought the most important thing in life was helping people that were less fortunate than they were.”

__________________________________________________________________

Muslim American family's home vandalized

ASAM NEWS

Aamir Khan recalls the minute someone hurled a brick through his bedroom window in Bolingbrook, Illinois, a Chicago suburb.
“I was frozen, I started screaming. My parents came rushing downstairs, and they saw the brick, turned the lights on and then they went outside to see all the hateful graffiti,” he told ABC7.

The family found their home covered in racial epithets, swastikas and anti-Muslim graffiti. According to CBS Chicago, some of it bitch, f**, n*****, and Arab.

Khan lives with his parents and five siblings. The youngest is just 2.

“No one should never have to live in fear simply for being who they are,” Khan said. “The person who threw the brick in my window and tagged the front of my family home with hateful graffiti in the middle of the night is a coward, bully, and a menace to society.”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations is offering its support to the Khans.

“This is a stunning development. This is an area consistently ranked number one in the country to raise a family, and here you have a blatant white supremacist violent hate crime delivered right to a Muslim family’s home as they slept at night. They felt secure there and are now wondering where they can feel safe. It’s as if there is no escape,” CAIR-Chicago Executive Director Ahmed Rehab said to CBS Chicago.

About 7% of Bolingbrook's population of 75,000 follow Islam.

_______________________________________________________________________

Muslim Amrericans on high alert after New Zealand shootings; suspect praises Trump

SCREEN CAPTURE / NBC

Scene from one of the mosques where the shootings occurred.

ASAM NEWS &

VIEWS FROM THE EDGE

Muslim Americans are urging vigilance in the wake of a deadly shooting during worship at two mosques in New Zealand that left at least 49 dead.Brenton Tarrant, the Australian suspect who claimed responsibility for the New Zealand shootings that killed at least 49 people in two mosques wrote a 70-page anti-immigrant manifesto calling himself a racist, ethno-nationalist and fascist. He also called  Trump a symbol of "renewed white identity." 

Muslim Advocates, a civil rights group, issued a statement saying “as Muslims across the world and across America gather to worship today (March 15), we urge them to stay vigilant and strong.”

The Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is issuing a “call for national action to challenge growing Islamophobia, White supremacy and anti-immigrant bigotry.”

“We mourn the heartbreaking killings of men, women and children gathered for prayer in their houses of worship and urge leaders in our nation and worldwide to speak out forcefully against the growing anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant hate that appears to have motivated these White supremacist terrorists. In the wake of this tragedy, we urge mosques, Islamic schools and other community institutions in the United States and around the world to take stepped-up security precautions, particularly during times of communal prayer.”

Muslim Advocates echoed that sentiment, pointing out recent incidents of violence against Muslims in Bloomington, Minnesota; Austin and Victoria, Texas; Bellevue, Washington; and Thonotosassa, Florida. In addition the group said authorities were able to stop other planned attacks in Islamberg, New York; Jacksonville, Florida; and Garden City, Kansas.

“We are devastated. Today is a tragedy not just for Muslims, but for all people of faith and goodwill. A house of worship should be a sacred place where people are safe, not a target of hate and bloodshed,” the group said.

The shooters live stream the shooting at social media. Three men and one woman are under arrest, according to USA Today.

WJLA reports police in Los Angeles, New York and Minneapolis have increased security around mosques.

In Philadelphia, KYW reports police have boosted patrols around both mosques and synagogues. ABC reports similar security efforts are being taken in San Francisco.

“The atrocity in New Zealand shows us, once again, that we’re dealing with an international terrorist movement linked by a dangerous white supremacist ideology that’s metastasizing in the echo chambers of internet chat rooms and on social media networks," said Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups.

Trump has condemned the attack but when asked Friday (March 15) but appeared to downplay the role of white nationalism, reminiscent of his statement after a white nationalist killed a anti-fascist protestor. Trump said that there were "fine people on both sides."

When asked about the growth American-style white nationalism in the New Zealand killings,  Trump said in the Oval Office, "I don't really." "I think it's a small group of people that have very, very serious problems, I guess."

"So here’s the thing—it’s so terrible what’s happening,” Trump said before discussing his supporters. “You know, the left plays a tougher game, it’s very funny. I actually think that the people on the right are tougher, but they don’t play it tougher. Okay?"

Trump's critics accused him of fomenting violence by his backers. A day before the New Zealand shooting, he was saying how tough his supporters were and how they might react violently if Trump's domestic policies are not followed or overturned.

“I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of Bikers for Trump,” he said. “I have the tough people, but they don’t play it tough until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad,” he told Breitbart News, a  conservative news outlet.

"I think it sounds very much to me like he’s encouraging them to engage in something that’s probably illegal such as assaulting people, you know behave in a dangerous way," said Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, speaking on MSNC. "That sounds like a threat to me. I think it’s appalling.”

___________________________________

History made when San Antonio mayor visits Muslim American community

San Antonio's Mayor Ron Nirenberg

By Ahmed Sharma

ASAM NEWS

The mayor of San Antonio came to pay a visit to the local Muslim community Friday, the first such visit by a San Antonio mayor in the history of the city.

Mayor Ron Nirenberg is an Asian American but he's a bit more complicated than that. Ethnically, he's part Filipino, Malaysian, Polish, Russian, and British. Voters elected him in 2017 for a two-year term. He previously served on the city council.

Sakib Shaikh, Director of Public & Community Relations and Official MCECC Spokesman explained, “Mayor Nirenberg is visiting the community to participate in a meet and greet, along with a moderated Q&A with audience participation.”

In other words, the Mayor’s arrival at the mosque is a public forum that just so happens to be hosted by Muslims at their mosque and education center.

Shaikh went on to explain what a significant event it is.

“We have the highest public official in the city visiting us in our home. As the community grows and becomes aware of its own presence we hope to establish stronger relationships with public as well as religious figures,” Shaikh said.

While the event happened simultaneously around the mayor’s re-election, Shaikh explained the timing was purely coincidental.

“I have been working with the Mayor’s office to find the right time for this event for the past few months.” Shaikh continued. “Our intent is not to turn the event into a campaign style event. The goal is to be educational for the community as well as the Mayor.”

This is not to say, of course, that other San Antonio politicians that have run for office were not invited to speak before.

On the contrary, Shaikh says, “During the campaign we always invite candidates whose districts or office encompass the area of the MCECC or that we know Muslim live in. In the past we have invited all District 8 City Council candidates to address the community. “

Furthermore, Shaikh said San Antonio officials are also invited to participate in the fast, during the Islamic holiday, Ramadan, where Muslims fast – abstain from food and drinks (even water) as well as other vices – from sunrise to sunset for 30 days.

“During Ramadan we invite non-Muslims to fast just like us and experience Ramadan with us. To make the experience worth it, for every non-Muslim that fasts with us, we pledge to donate $100 in their name to a local non-profit. All they have to do is fast like us, no food or drink until the sun comes down, and they have to break their fast with us at the MCECC.” He continued, “We have invited nearly every public official in the Bexar County area to fast with us during Ramadan, and have invited all major Mayoral candidates to address the community.”

Many local politicians and officials have participated and opened their fast with San Antonio’s Muslim community Shaikh explained, 

“Councilman [Manny] Pelaez has visited the community multiple times during the election as well as fasting with us during Ramadan. Councilmen [Greg] Brockhouse and [Rey] Saldana have fasted with us. All three major mayoral candidates from the 2017 election visited us. DA Gonzales has visited the community a number of times before the election, and once after, but maintains good relations with a number of prominent community members. Councilwoman [Ana] Sandoval has attended our Fast-a-Thon dinner in 2018.”

He concluded by expressing his hope that the event will be beneficial to the interests of the mayor and the people of San Antonio, “The interests of the community are broad. They range from the ease of doing business in the City, to making San Antonio healthy.

___________________________________

Banks freezing some Muslim American accounts

ASAM NEWS

BANKS such as Chase Bank, Bank of America, and TCF Bank have closed several accounts owned by clients of Middle Eastern descent. The clients, according to McClatchyDC, include Diba Mortazavi (a medical researcher), Saeed Moshfegh (a physics Ph.D student), and a Miami businessman with the pseudonym “Rami Abboud.”
When reflecting on Chase Bank’s closure of her account, Mortazavi remarked that “They just went ahead without any kind of warning. They just closed my account and I found out on my own.” Bank of America, meanwhile, froze Moshfegh’s account without warning and threatened to close Abboud’s account unless questions regarding his citizenship were answered.

Recounting his phone call with Bank of America, Abboud shared his surprise. “Are you [expletive] kidding me? You are reconfirming my date of birth after almost 30 years?…then she asked if I had dual citizenship. I am very upset.”

Mortazavi, Moshfegh, and Abboud’s stories resonate with others in the U.S. For example, TC Daily Planet reports that from 2012 to 2014 in Minnesota, 30 clients with Middle Eastern surnames saw their TCF Bank accounts closed without explanations.

Gadeir Abbas, senior litigation attorney for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), alleges that it’s Islamaphobia.

“It is what it looks like, the closure of bank accounts held by Muslims or those mistaken as Muslim. It’s Islamaphobia…something is systematically happening that is resulting in the closure of bank accounts held by Muslims and Islamic institutions.”

Indeed, something is systematically happening, and although these big banks failed to provide the clients with explanations, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) shares relevant information.

In the “efforts to dismantle terrorist financial networks,” freezing bank accounts plays “an essential part of Washington’s strategy,” according to CFR’s publication Tracking Down Terrorist Financing. In Abboud’s case, the fact that he was a businessman may have raised extra flags, since “many terrorist organizations attempt to operate legitimate businesses, which generate their own profits and can also be used as a front for money laundering.”

Banks, then, must walk a fine line that has no margin for error when freezing accounts. Slowness to freeze or close accounts increases the probability that terrorist financial networks will strengthen. Hastily freezing or closing accounts, however, produces a consequence where clients with no connection to terrorist groups have their bank accounts frozen or closed.

The Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) prohibits discrimination in any aspect of a credit transaction, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. If the affected bank clients decide to file a lawsuit against banks for ECOA violation, a decision may not easily be reached since banks will probably claim that they were acting in the interest of national security.
_______________________________________________________________________________

Sunday Read Hate crimes rising, says FBI report

GRAPHIC FROM TWITTER

IN 2017, DONALD TRUMP'S first year in office, the number of hate crimes jumped up 17% from the previous year for a total of 7,175 hate crimes, the highest increase since 9/11.

It was the third year in a row that the FBI Hate Crimes Report has shown an increase. Part of the reason for the hike in hate crimes is that 1000 more jurisdictions are taking part in the voluntary program.
However, given that reporting hate crimes to the FBI is not mandatory, the FBI statistics likely represent only a fraction of such violence. Civil rights groups link the increase to Donald Trump statements and policies.

The report released Monday (Nov. 12) found that the majority of hate crime perpetrators were white, 50.7% followed by African Americans 21.3%.

Of the 4,832 single-bias hate crime offenses were motivated by race/ethnicity/ancestry, 3.1% were directed against Asians.

Of those hate crimes motivated by religion, the majority, 58%, were directed at those of the Jewish faith. Anti-Muslim, anti-Sikh and anti-Buddhist, faiths usually associated with Asians and Asian Americans, were targetted in 21% of the hate crimes.

"This report is a call to action—and we will heed that call," said Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker. "The Department of Justice’s top priority is to reduce violent crime in America, and hate crimes are violent crimes. They are also despicable violations of our core values as Americans,” 

WIKIPEDIA

Some say Donald Trump's rhetoric has emboldened racist movements in the United States. He said that "there were fine people on both sides," when he addressed the Charlottesville violence.

“I am particularly troubled by the increase in anti-Semitic hate crimes—which were already the most common religious hate crimes in the United States—that is well documented in this report.“

As alarming as the hate crime stats are, the actual number is likely much, much higher because of inconsistencies of the definition of hate crimes among the different agencies that choose to report the incidents. Also, not all law enforcement jurisdictions bother to gather the stats or even to report them to the FBI.

The Anti-Defamation League said some police departments in major U.S. cities didn’t report hate crimes as part of the annual report, including the Honolulu Police Department, Indianapolis Police Department and police in Kansas City, Kansas. Other departments, like the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and police in Miami, Florida and Newark, New Jersey, reported zero hate crimes.

There were also notable hate crimes missing from the FBI report. 

For instance, the murder of Indian American tech worker Srinivas Kuchibhotla is missing. According to FBI statistics, no hate crimes were reported last year in Olathe, Kansas. But on February 22, 2017, Kuchibhotla was killed at a bar in Olathe when a man shot him because of his perceived national origin. His friend Alok Madasani was also targeted but survived the shooting, as did a man named Ian Grillot who attempted to intercede.

The shooter, Adam Purinton, was convicted on federal hate crime charges but the local law enforcement agency didn't officially report it to the FBI as a hate crime. The FBI depends on those local agencies to report hate crimes in their jurisdictions.

Another example that was included in the FBI report was the car attack in Charleston that killed Heather Heyer. Heyer, who was protesting against the Unite the Right demonstrators, was killed when white supremacist James Allen Fields, Jr. drove his car into a crowd.

Although Fields was convicted of a hate crime under state law but authorities failed to include the incident to the Feds as a hate crime.

Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring on Thursday unveiled legislation aimed at preventing hate crimes and white-supremacist violence as reports of such incidents increase around the country.

It is his third attempt to pass similar legislation. The proposals have so far been blocked by Republicans in the state legislature concerned that they were overly broad and restricted gun rights.

"It is well past time to acknowledge the threat posed by hate and white-supremacist violence and take action to stop it," Herring said.

Next year, FBI personnel will provide training for law enforcement officers on how to identify bias-motivated incidents and report that data to the FBI’s UCR Program. Additionally, the Department of Justice launched a new hate crimes webpage, which has information for law enforcement on reporting incidents.

Some of the highlights of the FBI report includes the following:

Of the 6,370 known offenders: 

• 50.7% were White 
• 21.3% were Black or African American 
• 19.1% race unknown 
• Other races accounted for the remaining known offenders

Of the 5,131 known offenders for whom ethnicity was reported: 

• 25.0% were Not Hispanic or Latino
• 8.8% were Hispanic or Latino 
• 1.6% were in a group of multiple ethnicities 
• 64.5 ethnicity unknown 

In 2017, law enforcement agencies reported that 4,832 single-bias hate crime offenses were motivated by race/ethnicity/ancestry. Of these offenses:

• 48.8 percent were motivated by anti-Black or African American bias.
• 17.5 percent stemmed from anti-White bias. 
• 10.9 percent were classified as anti-Hispanic or Latino bias. 
• 5.8 percent were motivated by anti-American Indian or Alaska Native bias. 
• 4.4 percent were a result of bias against groups of individuals consisting of more than one race (anti-multiple races, group). 
• 3.1 percent resulted from anti-Asian bias. 
• 2.6 percent were classified as anti-Arab bias. 
• 0.4 percent (17 offenses) were motivated by bias of anti-Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander. 
• 6.5 percent were the result of an anti-Other Race/Ethnicity/Ancestry bias. 

Religious bias

Hate crimes motivated by religious bias accounted for 1,679 offenses reported by law enforcement. A breakdown of the bias motivation of religious-biased offenses showed:

• 58.1 percent were anti-Jewish. 
• 18.7 percent were anti-Islamic (Muslim). 
• 4.5 percent were anti-Catholic. 
• 3.2 percent were anti-multiple religions, group. 
• 2.4 percent were anti-Protestant. 
• 1.8 percent were anti-Other Christian. 
• 1.4 percent were anti-Sikh. 
• 1.4 percent were anti-Eastern Orthodox (Russian, Greek, Other). 
• 0.9 percent (15 offenses) were anti-Mormon 
• 0.9 percent (15 offenses) were anti-Hindu. 
• 0.8 percent (13 offenses) were anti-Jehovah’s Witness. 
• 0.5 percent (9 offenses) was anti-Buddhist. 
• 0.5 percent (8 offenses) were anti-Atheism/Agnosticism/etc. 
• 4.9 percent were anti-other (unspecified) religion.

Civil rights organizations that maintain their own data on hate crimes, such as the ACLU,  the Anti-Defamation League, Southern Poverty Law Center, Council for American-Islamic Relations and South Asian American Leading Together mention the harsh rhetoric coming from the White House and Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric as a catalyst for behavior based on prejudice.

“While everybody should be horrified by these jaw-dropping statistics, these numbers still fail to paint a complete picture of the enormity of the problem,” said Sikh Coalition Legal Director Amrith Kaur.


The omission of the Kuchibhotla murder was spotlighted by South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) in its critique of the report. 

In SAALT's 2018 report Communities on Fire report found that perpetrators of hate violence referenced Trump, a Trump administration policy, or a Trump campaign slogan in one out of every five hate incidents documented. 

"White supremacist violence, fanned by the flames of racist rhetoric and policies at the federal level, has devastated marginalized communities," said SAALT in a press release.  "Until this administration confronts this crisis, we will continue to face a surge in hate crimes aimed at our communities."

California had the greatest number of hate crimes, but that was due to the fact that it also had the greatest number of jurisdictions reporting hate crimes.

“America’s elected president has mocked the disabled, called Mexicans rapists and murderers, executed a Muslim travel ban, issued disparaging remarks about women and African Americans, and is working to roll back protections for members of our transgender community,” San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón told the San Francisco Chronicle. “The country’s increase in hate crimes should be a surprise to no one, but it should be alarming to all. We look to our elected leaders to set an example.”

As of this writing, Trump hasn't said anything about the FBI report.
________________________________________________________________________________