Ariz. Sikh Shot, Penn. Iraqi Teen Assaulted: Violent Blamed on Bigotry

WASHINGTON, May 21. A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group today said the shooting of a Sikh man in Arizona and the assault on a Muslim teenager in Pennsylvania can be blamed at least in part on "Islamophobic hysteria" generated by anti-Muslim rhetoric.

In Arizona, a Sikh man wearing a turban was shot Monday night in north Phoenix. Avtar Singh Cheira, 52, was shot twice by men in a red truck as he waited to be picked up at work. "I heard that voice say, 'Go back to where you belong to,' and at the same time I heard that shot," said Cheira. Police are treating the incident as a hate crime.

Just after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a Sikh man in Arizona was murdered apparently because the killer mistakenly believed the victim was of Middle Eastern origin. In Erie, Penn., a 14-year-old Iraqi-American girl says she was beaten Monday by a classmate while a crowd of students stood by yelling anti-Muslim comments. "Yelling 'kill the Muslim girl. Get her, that's what she deserves'...I don't even feel safe in this country because everyone's messing with me," said the victim.

"Those who spread hate, in this country or overseas, should know that others may turn hostile words into violent actions and those who fight bigotry must be more vocal in challenging hate-mongers," said CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad. "Violence against innocents is never justified, whether it is carried out by someone falsely claiming to act in the name of Islam or by a minority in this country reacting to Islamophobic hysteria."

CAIR is encouraging victims of hate crimes to fill out report forms, which are available for download at: http://www.cair-net.org/ireport/Incident_Report.doc, or by calling 202-488-8787. CAIR is America's largest Islamic civil liberties group. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and has 16 regional offices nationwide and in Canada. Since its founding in 1994, CAIR has defended the civil and religious rights of all Americans.