Delivering a blistering rebuke of hate crimes against Muslims, US Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch D has said all Americans must speak out against such acts as they challenge the core of American ideals.
“When one of us is threatened, we all have to speak out,” she said, stressing that hateful acts are not just attacks against individuals but they strain the fabric of communities.
Lynch was speaking at an interfaith event hosted by Imam [Mohamed] Magid at the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) Center – that took place amid a rising number of hate-motivated attacks against Muslims and other minorities.
Despite the troubling trends, she assured Muslim and minority communities of the American commitment and her own personal resolve – after leaving the office – to stand for a tolerant, inclusive and pluralist society. She underscored the FBI is working to combat hate crimes.
According to the FBI statistics released last month, the number of reported hate crimes increased six percent from 2014.
The spike has come in the wake of terrorist attacks and a deeply divisive and provocative political rhetoric with some Republican presidential candidates speaking disparagingly of Muslims on the 2016 campaign trail. Since President-elect Donald Trump’s victory, there have been numerous incidents of violence and displays of swastika signs. Trump, who proposed a complete shut down of Muslims entering the United States and extreme vetting of immigrants, has asked perpetrators of such attacks to stop harassing people.
There are also fears among Muslims that they could be subjected to discriminatory National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS), which has been suspended by the Obama Administration since 2011.
Lynch, the first black woman attorney general of the United States, also referred to struggles of civil rights movement in her remarks, and indicated that challenges would likely continue.
“That (FBI) figure includes increases in hate crimes committed against Jewish Americans, African Americans, and LGBTQ Americans. And, perhaps most troublingly of all, it 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. And we know that there are many more hate crimes in communities across the country that go unreported.”
In addition, the attorney general noted, there has been a flurry of recent news reports about alleged hate crimes and harassment – “from hijabs yanked off of women’s heads; to swastikas sprayed on the sides of synaogues; to slurs and epithets hurled in classrooms.”
The FBI is working with local authorities to review multiple incidents, and our agents and prosecutors are working to assess whether particular cases constitute violations of federal law.
“These incidents – and these statistics – should be of the deepest concern to every American. Because hate crimes don’t just target individuals. They tear at the fabric of our communities, and they also stain our dearest ideals and our nation’s very soul. There is a pernicious thread that connects the act of violence against a woman wearing a hijab to the assault on a transgender man to the tragic deaths of nine innocent African Americans during a Bible study at Mother Emanuel AME in Charleston, South Carolina. As President Obama has said, it is “the moment we fail to see in another our common humanity – the very moment when we fail to recognize in a person the same hopes and fears, the same passions and imperfections, the same dreams that we all share.”
“The reason we have a cross-section of so many leaders from different faiths here today is because we believe so deeply in certain common values. Regardless of our faith, we believe that we must treat others as we would wish to be treated. 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.” That is why the Department of Justice – and the entire Obama Administration – regards hate crimes with the utmost seriousness, whether they target individuals because of their race, their religion, their gender or their sexual orientation. And that is why we have worked tirelessly over the last several years to bring those who perpetrate these heinous deeds to justice.”
She praised American pluralism represented at the gathering.
“Some of us were born in the United States, our immigration status having been resolved several generations ago; some of us came here more recently in search of a better life. We may speak different languages; we may read from different books of scripture; we may call our God by different names. But we all love this country and the ideals for which it stands. We all want our children to lead lives of safety and opportunity. We all proudly claim the title of American. And we all hold, as Justice Brandeis proclaimed, “the most important political office … that of the private citizen.” In this assembly, I see a living expression of the American promise: the conviction that every person’s dignity is inherent and equal.”
