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On the heels of the shooting at the Sikh Gurdwara in Oak Creek Wisconsin where Army Veteran Wade Michael Page shot and killed 6 people and then turned the gun on himself, the country is experiencing a wave of vandalism and attacks against Islamic community centers, schools and mosques. With little reporting in the mainstream media, the attacks have been scattered around the country. Some of the cases include a man who shot at a mosque in Illinois with a pellet rifle while worshipers were inside, vandals who defaced a mosque in Oklahoma City, a possible case of arson against a mosque in Joplin, Missouri, a homemade chemical bomb thrown against an Islamic school in a Chicago suburb, and a case of vandalism against a mosque in Rhode Island.

Many in the Muslim community are pointing to provocative comments made at a town hall meeting in a Chicago suburb by Republican Illinois Representative Joe Walsh who said that Muslims are, “trying to kill Americans every week.” Representative Walsh sits on the committee for Homeland Security. Ahmed Rehab Executive Director of the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said, “How long are we going to go pretending like there is no relationship between this acquiescence of hatred and politics and the inclination of violence on the ground?”

GUEST: Uzma Kolsy an activist and freelance writer. She is the former Managing Editor of InFocus News, the largest newspaper in California for the Muslim American community. Her recent article in Salon.com was entitled, Eight Attacks, 11 Days

Click here to read Uzma Kolsy’s article.

Visit the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) at www.cair.com.