The recent beheadings of two American businessmen in the Middle East have increased an already strong backlash against Arab-Americans and Muslims, who have been persecuted since the 9/11 attacks.
The murder of former New Jerseyan Paul Johnson has prompted hate mail, verbal attacks and anti-Islam signs and graffiti in New Jersey. Elsewhere in the country, Muslims have received death threats and mosques have been vandalized in the days after Johnson's killing.
"Since 9/11, every time there is an incident overseas attributed to Muslims or Arabs, we go on orange alert ourselves," said Sohail Mohammed, a Clifton immigration lawyer. "With the death of Paul Johnson, we were extremely concerned that what happened overseas would have an impact here. There are individuals here who are off the wall, who think that every woman who wears a hijab or every man named Mohammed is out to blow things up."
In the days after Johnson's killing, anti-Islam signs surfaced in and around the rural, south Jersey neighborhood where he used to live. One read "Stamp Out Islam" next to a drawing of a boot over a crescent and star. Another, hung on a mailbox next door to Johnson's sister's home, was more detailed.
"Last night I wasn't a racist but today I feel racism towards Islamic beliefs," it read. "Last night Islamics had a chance to speak up for Paul Johnson, but today it's too late. Islamics better wake up and start thinking about tomorrow."
New Jersey Attorney General Peter C. Harvey sent bias crimes investigators to the area, along with stepped-up State Police patrols. The signs are gone now, replaced with hand-lettered placards on utility poles that say "Our Prayers Are With the Johnson Family." Yellow ribbons festoon fences, road signs, stores and homes, the hope they had for Johnson transferred now to the American troops and civilians still in harm's way.
On Thursday, however, more anti-Muslim graffiti appeared on a Muslim man's home in Egg Harbor Township.
"It's really our fear coming true," said Faiza Ali of the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "It indicates a hatred that could turn into something violent."
The day after Johnson's killing, a coalition of Muslim groups held a rally in Paterson, the heart of New Jersey's Arab-American community, to condemn the killing, saying such acts are contrary to Islam's teachings. But apparently, not everyone got the message.
A few days later, vandals tossed empty liquor and beer bottles at a mosque in Union City as congregants were inside mourning an Arab-American teenager who had been killed in a car crash.
"If they are throwing empty bottles today, they could be throwing rocks, or worse, shooting at us tomorrow," said Aref Assaf, president of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee's New Jersey chapter.
In Florida, two mosques were vandalized in the days after Johnson's killing. In the Tampa suburb of Lutz, someone broke into the Islamic Community Center and scrawled "Kill All Muslims" and "F___ Allah" on the mosque's interior walls before smashing windows and breaking other items inside. In Charlotte Harbor, someone vandalized the mosque's sign, and has been leaving threatening phone messages targeting Muslims.
Elsewhere in Florida, a mosque in Pembroke Pines received a threatening letter, and an Islamic school in Kendall saw its sign defaced. In the St. Louis suburb of Ballwin, Mo., someone painted a swastika and the word "Die" on the wall of the Dar-Ul-Islam mosque.
In Spring, Texas, dead fish were dumped near the entrance sign to the Champions Masjid mosque, which is under construction.
And in the Chicago suburb of Orland Park, residents urged officials this week to reject a mosque's building application; a Baptist pastor told a public hearing he feared it would attract Islamic extremists and violence. The center was approved over boos and catcalls from many in the audience.
Muslim organizations around the country have been flooded with hate mail since Johnson and Nicholas Berg, a Pennsylvania businessman, were beheaded by kidnappers. A South Korean interpreter, Kim Sun Il, was beheaded this week.
"I think it may be coming close to the time when we take Muslims hostage here in America," one man wrote to the Washington, D.C.-based Council on American-Islamic Relations. "I would not be against groups that killed Muslim males proved to be involved in anti-American or terror groups. I believe the time is coming when Muslims will not be safe inside the U.S. borders. I see nothing wrong with us doing the same things to them that they are doing to innocent people."
"It is high time you people wake up and smell the blood," another man wrote to Assaf's group in New Jersey. "Turn in the terrorists. They are your relatives, in a lot of cases. Cousin Omar. Uncle Mohammad. You know what I mean. Until you come forward to help us stamp out this vermin, you are as bad as they. Don't be like the Japanese during WW2. They ended up behind bars."
And finally, this from a writer to a mosque in Sacramento:
"I will be forming a group to take direct action in the form of pickets and protests in front of local mosques with pictures of the murders committed by your filthy `Lions of Islam' to keep Americans aware of what scum Muslims truly are. Muslims are nothing but Nazis with a turban."
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The Clipboard: Beheadings fuel fresh backlash against Muslims