Ferida Osman, a student at Hunter College of Long Island, he said he had been a victim of Islamophobia while waiting for the train at Pennsylvania Station in New York (USA)
Safety tips, concise and frightening, were passed from one friend to another Muslim by social networks, for magnets to their congregations by Islamic groups to their members, by parents to their children walking to school.
When the subway, stay away from the platform edge, preferably with your back against a wall. Walk in groups after dark. Stay alert at all times.
In the days that followed the terrorist attacks in Paris, Muslims in New York and elsewhere prepared for a violent reaction by changing their routines and trying to manage their fear. Still, the violence occurs.
In the last week and a half, many Muslims in New York, especially women wearing headscarves, reported being victims of physical and verbal attacks. Even non-Muslims --including at least one Latin confused with muçulmano-- were targets of Islamophobic or worse insults, community leaders said.
In one episode the Council on American-Islamic Relations this week, two Muslim women in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn said a man claiming to be postman the attack, elbowing into one and spat in her face, and telling them he was going ignite the "temple" of them. Police arrested a man on Tuesday (24) connected to the episode and indicating for assault and threat of hate crime.
"We have not seen a negative reaction so great against the Muslim community" since the attacks of Sept. 11, said Sadyia Khalique, director of office operations in New York Council on American-Islamic Relations. "I'm afraid."
City officials say the episode in Bedford-Stuyvesant was the only case of anti-Muslim hate crime that recorded since the terrorist attacks in Paris, on November 13, which killed 130 people and wounded hundreds. Other victims said they chose to remain silent because they want to leave the episodes back, or believe that police involvement would be futile.
Despite the Muslims in America say they await an anti-Islamic reactions after any major terrorist attack on Western soil held in the name of Islam, the acrimonious response to the attacks in Paris found an accelerant in Congress and on the presidential campaign.
Islamophobia caused by the attacks in Paris has been reinforced by the provocative statements of Republican candidates about the Muslim refugees from Syria, and the vote in the Chamber as to prevent the resettlement of these refugees in the United States, say Muslim leaders.
Recent comments from Donald Trump, who leads the Republican race, were particularly incendiary, including his suggestion that would deploy a database to track the Muslims.
These developments, said Muslim leaders in practice authorize and encourage the anti-Islamic sentiment in the general population. In a statement on Tuesday (24), the Council on American-Islamic Relations called the phenomenon of "popularization of Islamophobia".
"It got to the point now where the tone is worse than in the post-September 11," said Khalid Latif, an imam who is executive director of the Islamic Center of New York University. He said the political environment that allows Trump to take a hostile position towards Muslims, using as an argument to national security, is "beyond alarming."
"We usually think of extremism only in terms of being 8,000 kilometers away," he added. "But there is a real extremist voice coming from the Republican Party continues without being tackled." With each passing day, Muslims say they are more fearful for their lives.
Muslim groups reported a strong increase in incidents throughout the country, including Muslims harassed and attacked on the street, at work, by phone and online messages. Several mosques and Islamic centers have reported vandalism and threats. And the community is preparing for more --inclusive in New York, one of the most pluralistic, inclusive cities.
"Even in New York," he said Wound Osman, 21, a veteran of Hunter College and Muslim, who received a spit of a stranger while waiting for the train at Pennsylvania Station last week. "Certainly in New York. Especially in New York."
The pressure and scrutiny of Muslims in New York since the attacks in Paris "makes it sound like the September 11th is happening again," Osman said. "The feeling is that everyone is looking at you on stage and you dread making any mistakes," she continued.
Osman, who was born and raised in the United States and uses hijab (the Islamic head scarf), said he was attacked on Tuesday (24) while returning from Hunter to his home in Huntington, Long Island. She was on the phone when he felt the spit. She said she heard someone shout, "Back home, his terrorist", accompanied with several words of profanity.
The assailant quickly melted into the crowd, as she stood stunned. Already had been a tough day: she had been selected three times by the magazine to police her purse while traveling by subway. "I did not feel one more person," she said. "It's the worst feeling in the world. You feel like you have no allies, he feels lonely. It's a horrible feeling of isolation." They did not report the incident because, she said, did not want to relive the trauma and run the risk of being ignored.
In his sermons on Friday afternoon last week, the first since the attacks in Paris, some magnets of New York spoke of the attacks and their effects. "It should be condemned not only with his tongue, but also with his heart," he ordered an imam, Siraj Wahhaj, head of Masjid al-Taqwa in Bedford-Stuyvesant, his congregation. "You have to say, 'This has nothing to do with Islam There is no justification end -point!'"
And then he warned of the negative reaction. "Muslims from around the world will pay a price for what happened in France." He added: "We had nothing to do with it We hate it but still pay the price..."
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