WASHINGTON DC – Recently President Obama condemned religion based violence in various countries and urged their governments to take steps to stop it. Yesterday, an anti-Muslim hate monger killed three American Muslim young students in their apartment in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, for no apparent reason other than the fact that they were Muslim. In recent months some other innocent individuals belonging to other religious minorities have been similarly killed or physically harassed in several cities in US. A few Sikhs and Hindus have been attacked similarly with loss of their lives and properties. Also in recent months police has shot dead some African-American minority people on flimsy excuses.
All these killings are obvious hate crimes and need to be handled that way. Unfortunately some law enforcement authorities in US are reluctant to treat these murderous incidents as hate crimes against religious and ethnic minorities. Instead they are trying to label them as resulting from mental disorders of the perpetrators of the crime.
The Association of Indian Muslims of America, an NGO of the Muslims from India who live in US, appeals to US President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder to significantly augment the current law and order setup in US to stop hate crimes against religious minorities. Effective steps should be taken against individuals who hate US religious minorities in order to forestall the occurrence of such heinous crimes. Individuals guilty of hate crimes must be dealt with sternly according to US laws.
