Anti-Muslim hate in US rises since 7 October but advocates praise community resilience
Arafat Issa hangs Palestinian flags across a pedestrian bridge in Durham, North Carolina, almost every week. But on 28 July, a man in a baseball cap pulled out a knife and cut the flags down from the steel railing. Issa says the man cursed at him and his family before waving the knife in their direction. They had two small children, including Issa’s four-month-old daughter, with them.
“He told us: go back where you came from,” Issa says. “I was scared … it’s not like we were doing anything wrong. We were peacefully protesting.”
Issa is a 42-year-old Palestinian American barber who has lived in North Carolina for more than a decade. His parents and siblings are in the West Bank, where settler violence against Palestinians is escalating. His experience is one of many examples of anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim hate documented by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair) since 7 October of last year. “We are seeing an uptick in violent vigilante response to peaceful pro-Palestinian protesters,” said Nicole Fauster-Bradford, a community advocacy director at Cair.
