The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today said a reported arson attack on a West Bank mosque by illegal Israeli settlers is a continuation of Israel’s ongoing “war on Islam.”
Illegal Israeli settlers reportedly torched and vandalized the Hajja Hamida Mosque near the Palestinian town of Deir Istiya in the occupied West Bank. Copies of the Quran were reportedly burned and racist graffiti was sprayed on the house of worship.
Earlier this year, CAIR said Israel was continuing its “war on Islam” with raids on mosques in the occupied West Bank on the first Friday in Ramadan, during which a prominent mosque was set on fire. In August, CAIR also said an official Israeli government call to “remove” Muslims from Europe was another part of that terror state’s war on the Islamic faith.
In a statement, CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said:
“Israeli settlers burning a historic mosque and copies of the Quran are not isolated incidents of hate or the acts of rogue extremists. Israeli settlers receive weapons, funding and protection from the Israeli government. This violence is only the latest targeting of the Palestinian people and the Islamic faith itself.
“The Israeli apartheid government has spent years shutting down or outright destroying mosques and enabling illegal settlers to attack mosques as part of a war on Islam in the Holy Land. Our nation must stop funding and silently watching this violence, as well as attacks on Palestinian Christians and Israeli Jews who protest the government’s oppression.
“It is long past time for meaningful action, including sanctions, to stop Israel’s ongoing campaign of terror and to protect all holy sites in the region.”
On Sunday, CAIR condemned a reported attack on journalists and Palestinians harvesting olives by illegal Israeli settlers in the illegally-occupied West Bank.
Earlier this month, CAIR said the Trump administration should restore sanctions on Israeli settlers due to their attacks on Palestinian farms during the crucial olive harvest in the West Bank.
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CONTACT: CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, e-Mitchell@cair.com; CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw, 202-742-6448, rmccaw@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, ihooper@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Manager Ismail Allison, 202-770-6280, iallison@cair.com