CAIR launches "hate hurts America"campaign

[JoFerret]

http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2004-04/17/article05.shtml

WASHINGTON, April 17 (IslamOnline.net) – A prominent American Muslim civil rights group launched Saturday, April 17, a new campaign designed to curb anti-Muslim hatred on American radio talk shows.

The campaign, called "Hate Hurts America", is based on the conviction that the increasing attacks on Islam by conservative talk show hosts nationwide is not only offensive to Muslims and other people of conscience but to the entire country.

This "also harms our nation by fostering a climate of intolerance and bigotry," said Rabiah Ahmed, the communications coordinator of Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

Ahmed said in a press release that a recent rise in Islamophobic incidents could be blamed at least in part on pervasive anti-Muslim rhetoric on America's airwaves.

She cited four arson attacks on Muslim businesses in San Antonio, Texas, racist graffiti at a Lubbock, Texas, mosque and an assault on a Muslim woman in Florida
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