Antisemitic and Islamophobic violence is rising in the United States. Both must stop: We have a duty to call out antisemitism when we see it. We also have an equal duty to remember that Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims are also being targeted

‘We must stop this war immediately, before this violence grows and spreads further, consuming even more innocent lives in its monstrous path.’ Photograph: David Zalubowski/AP

Antisemitic and Islamophobic violence is rising in the United States. Both must stop

Moustafa Bayoumi

We have a duty to call out antisemitism when we see it. We also have an equal duty to remember that Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims are also being targeted

Wed 4 Jun 2025 06.00 EDT

Last modified on Wed 4 Jun 2025 06.01 EDT

This must stop. Two incidents of political violence, both targeting groups of Jewish people, are two incidents too many. Less than two weeks ago, a gunman shot and killed two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington DC, yelling “Free Palestine” as he was being detained. This week, a man used a “makeshift flamethrower” along with other incendiary devices to attack a Boulder, Colorado, rally organized by Run for Their Lives, a group which organizes events “calling for the immediate release of the hostages held by Hamas”. Eight people were injured in this latest assault, at least two of them seriously.

These horrific acts will no doubt increase the anxiety many Jewish people have about increasing – and increasingly violent – antisemitism in the United States. Understandably so. Antisemitism must not be given any oxygen to breathe. One can oppose Israel’s 600-plus day war, relentlessly pounding the innocents in Gaza, while vigorously opposing all forms of antisemitism. In fact, one must oppose both. Such is our duty to each other in a civilized world.

And as we have a duty to call out antisemitism when we see it, we also have an equal duty to remember that Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims have also been subjected to extreme forms of violence and bigotry in the United States since the beginning of this terrible war. And while we are certain to hear much about today’s rising antisemitism in the coming days, as we should, we must also make sure to acknowledge the rising threats against Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims.

Consider what happened to Wadea al-Fayoume, a six-year-old Palestinian American boy. Wadea was murdered in October 2023 by his landlord, who stabbed the young boy 26 times in his home in Plainfield Township, Illinois. The landlord also attacked the boy’s mother, Hanan Shaheen, stabbing her over a dozen times while telling her “you, as a Muslim, must die.” Joseph Czuba, 73, the landlord, was found guilty of murder, attempted murder, and hate crime charges last month and sentenced to 53 years in prison.

Or there are the three Palestinian friends, all college students, who were out for a stroll in Vermont during the Thanksgiving long weekend in 2023. They were gunned down in what many are assuming is a hate crime. The three were speaking a mixture of Arabic and English and were sporting keffiyehs, and one of the three, Hisham Awartani, is now paralyzed from the neck down due to the shooting. The alleged assailant, Jason Easton, is currently on trial for the shooting.

And there’s the time, in May 2024, when a woman attempted to drown a three-year old Palestinian girl in a swimming pool in an apartment complex in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of ... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/04/antisemitic-and-islamophobic-violence-is-rising-in-the-united-states-both-must-stop 

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies]

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"Meanwhile, it’s important to also call out the sickening and cynical usage of antisemitism on the right by Donald Trump and his allies. The US president is handily and cynically already using the Boulder attack to attack all immigrants and to promote his heartless expulsion agenda with barely a mention of the victims of the crime. He has used antisemitism throughout his term in the most cynical of ways, never showing any genuine interest in eradicating it or embracing the victims. He pretty much ignored the heinous attack on Shapiro, most likely because Shapiro is a vocal and effective opponent of Trump. And, of course, Trump’s Darth Vader imitator Stephen Miller is hard at work using these crimes to promote his anti-American agenda to attack immigrants in the US as well as attack universities and legitimate protest. Trump’s destructive weaponizing of antisemitism to promote his own authoritarian agenda will not keep one Jew safe: in fact, it does the opposite.

Jews don’t want to be played by the left or the right. We don’t want to be pawns tossed back and forth. We want to be safe. We want to be heard. We want to be seen in our diversity, as would any people. We don’t want our lives to be at risk. Listen to and watch what each person says. See each person as an individual. Please build a serious political program that doesn’t cancel or promote violence of any kind but rather lifts up the hopes and desires of everyone. The alternative is deadly."