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Vol. 80/No. 39 October 17, 2016
Rulers scapegoating provokes attacks on Muslims
BY EMMA JOHNSON
On the heels of a string of recent terror attacks by the
anti-working-class Islamic State and their supporters — in Paris and
Nice, France; Brussels, Belgium; Orlando, Florida; San Bernardino,
California; and most recently in New York — capitalist governments and
bourgeois politicians in Washington and Europe have called for increased
spying on Muslims and mosques and restrictions on immigration from the
Middle East.
This campaign has spurred an increase in harassment and assaults on
Muslims and those who oppose anti-Muslim attacks and bigotry.
In the late evening of Sept. 26 two explosive devices detonated in
Dresden, Germany, outside a mosque and a congress center. No one was
hurt, but the imam, his wife and their two children were inside the
building. Six bottles filled with explosive gas were found.
This came on the heels of an arson attempt on a Turkish-run mosque in
Hessen. The head of the Turkish parliament’s human rights committee
called on Berlin to provide security for Muslims in Germany after an
investigation recorded some 300 attacks against mosques, most of them
Turkish-run, between 2001 and 2014.
On Sept. 10, the Finnish Resistance Movement, a small rightist thug
outfit that calls itself national socialist, organized an anti-immigrant
action in Finland’s capital Helsinki. When 28-year-old Jimi Karttunen
walked by, he turned and spit in the direction of the demonstration. A
well-known leader for the group kicked him in the chest and Karttunen
fell to the ground, hitting his head. A week later he died from the
injuries.
In response 15,000 people rallied in the streets of Helsinki Sept. 24
under the slogan “Peli Poikki!” (Enough is enough!). Thousands more
protested in four other Finnish cities.
The fatal assault on Karttunen followed violence at similar actions by
the Finnish Resistance Movement in other cities over the past year.
Another group, the Soldiers of Odin, patrols the streets in some Finnish
cities, saying they are looking for suspicious people from the Middle East.
In 2015, some 33,000 people — a tenfold average increase from previous
years — applied for asylum in Finland, a country with a population of
5.5 million. More than three-quarters came from Iraq, Afghanistan and
Somalia.
Attacks on mosques in the U.S. increased sharply in 2015 over the
previous four years and are on track to be at least as high this year,
according to a 2016 report “Confronting Fear” distributed by the Council
on American-Islamic Relations.
The attacks include assassinations, arson and physical assaults, as well
as threats and harassment. A number involve local authorities across the
country blocking Muslims from building mosques and community centers.
The report details 55 attacks between this January and mid-September. In
Houston in July, three masked attackers ambushed, stabbed and shot Dr.
Arslan Tajammul as he was about to enter a mosque. In August Imam
Maulama Akonjee and his associate Thara Uddin were killed near a mosque
in Queens, New York.
In Titusville, Florida, a man wielding a machete broke cameras, lights
and windows in a mosque and left three pounds of bacon at the front
door. The Islamic Center in Omaha, Nebraska, received an email after the
March terrorist attacks in Brussels, saying that “we think it’s now time
to fight back starting with you. believe it. see you in hell.”
The report also documents self-declared “Muslim-free” business
establishments that have cropped up in several states, bringing to mind
similar signs from past U.S. history, like “Whites Only,” “No Dogs, No
Jews” and “Irish Need Not Apply.”
The Socialist Workers Party has joined the Council on American-Islamic
Relations and other opponents of discrimination and thuggery to protest
such attacks. When town officials moved to bar the congregation of
Atlanta-area Masjid Attaqwa from building a mosque and cemetery in
Newton County, Georgia, SWP senatorial candidate Sam Manuel condemned
the attack at an August town meeting of 300.
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