The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today expressed opposition to the proposed repeal of a Wyoming city’s hate crime ordinance.
The Gillette City Council voted to begin the process of dropping the city’s malicious harms ordinance, passed in 2023, which criminalizes threatening or harming a person or damaging their property based on that individual’s “race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, ethnicity, national origin, ancestry, disability, or age.”
“At a time when hate incidents and bias-motivated attacks are rising nationwide, it is deeply troubling that any city would consider weakening protections for vulnerable communities,” said CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper. “Local leaders should stand on the side of justice and equality by preserving and enforcing — not repealing — ordinances that protect residents from hate-based violence and intimidation.”
Earlier this year, CAIR said a new report stating that a gunman who opened fire in Yellowstone National Park last year had plans for “pro white nationalist violence” shows the ongoing dangers of white supremacist ideologies.
Last year, CAIR condemned hate propaganda by a white supremacist group in Wyoming.
Washington, D.C., based CAIR and the American Muslim community stand in solidarity with all those challenging antisemitism, systemic anti-Black racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, white supremacy, and all other forms of bigotry.
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CONTACT: CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, e-Mitchell@cair.com; CAIR Director of Government Affairs Department Robert S. McCaw, 202-716-6242, 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