A copy of the muslim religious text ‘the Quran’ was found punctured with multiple bullet holes hanging outside an Islamic clothing store in the US state of California on Tuesday.
Owners of Al-Farah Islamic Clothing store in Anaheim, California found a bullet-riddled English translation of the Holy Quran hanging on the shop’s door when they came to work on Tuesday.
Soon after, the Los Angeles chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said that the store owners reported the incident to the local police and the council. CAIR, the country’s largest Muslim civil rights organisation has asked the FBI to investigate the incident as a hate crime.
“Anyone has the right to be a bigot, but when that bigotry is expressed through the targeting of individuals or businesses through acts of intimidation similar to a cross burning it crosses the line into criminal behaviour,” CAIR-LA Executive Director Hussam Ayloush said.
“If you shoot up a Quran on your own property, that is bigoted freedom of expression. If you deliver that bullet-riddled Quran to a Muslim home or business, that is an act of intimidation and a hate crime,” he added.
The incident comes in the wake of rising Islamophobic incidents around the US in the aftermath of deadly Paris attacks claimed by the Islamic State.
An estimated 27 anti-Muslim incidents have been reported across the United States since last month’s coordinated terrorist attacks in the French capital.
Meanwhile, anti-Muslim rhetoric coming from some US politicians in recent weeks has multiplied the concerns of the Muslim community leaders in the country. Many US governors and several presidential candidates, including Donald Trump and Ben Carson, have sparked controversies with their negative remarks about Muslims over the past few months.
CAIR, which has been vocal in calling for protection for the Muslim American community, also called for the US Department of Justice and the FBI earlier this week to look into the shooting of the Pittsburgh taxi driver as a hate crime.
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