Anti-Muslim Discrimination Cases on the Rise

While the United States isn't imposing a French-style ban on burkas or forbidding the construction of minarets à la Switzerland, "Muslim-Americans continue to struggle for acceptance in many communities," Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez told the American Constitution Society this week at a Capitol Hill event. "It is a sober reminder that there are those in our nation who have not yet realized the full promise of equal opportunity and equal justice." The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division has handled 18 separate federal cases of discrimination against Muslims since the 9/11 attacks. But eight of those have been opened in the past six months alone. While issues like the Park51 project near ground zero in Manhattan or the planned torching of a Koran in Florida made headlines, Perez said a more insidious manifestation of anti-Muslim attitudes comes in the form of discriminatory land-use and zoning policies from town and city governments.

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