As Florida lawmakers continue their push for a commission for what they say is a rise in antisemitism in the wake of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, some organizers say a commission is needed to protect the state’s Palestinian and Muslim communities.
Between Oct. 7 and Nov. 4, the Council on American-Islamic Relations received 1,283 requests for help and reports of bias across the country, compared to 406 complaints within an average 29-day period in 2022. Anti-Muslim discrimination had already been on the rise in 2020 and 2021, which organizers attribute to increased volatility in domestic politics at the time, though reports decreased in 2022.
Muslim organizers told Prism that some of the bullying is coming directly from government officials. On Jan. 4, Florida state Rep. Randy Fine filed House Resolution 1209, which called on all state and local government agencies—including state universities, school districts, and law enforcement—to end any and all contact with CAIR, calling them a terrorism advocacy organization.
“This alleged violence and hate have absolutely no place in Florida,” said CAIR-Florida Media and Outreach Director Wilfredo Amr Ruiz in a public statement following an anti-Muslim hate crime in the state. “We will make sure to follow up on this and any other case to ensure they are prosecuted to the fullest extent to deter others from engaging in this criminal anti-social behavior targeting anyone, regardless of their race or religion.”
Since Israel’s siege and bombing of Gaza escalated in October, at least two Muslim hate crimes have led to global condemnation. On Oct. 14 in Illinois, a landlord stabbed and killed a 6-year-old Palestinian-American boy, Wadea al-Fayoume, and injured al-Fayoume’s mother, Hanaan Shahin, in an anti-Palestinian and Islamophobic hate crime. In November, three Palestinian college students were shot by a white man on their way to a Thanksgiving dinner in Burlington, Vermont. The 20-year-old students, Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid, and Tahseen Ahmed, were wearing keffiyehs, traditional Palestinian headscarves, and speaking a mix of Arabic and English when they were shot on their way to dinner at Awartani’s grandmother’s home. Awartani is now paralyzed from the chest down.
Florida has seen a major uptick in anti-Muslim incidents. The Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-FL), the state’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, publicly supported a hate crime charge against a Florida man who allegedly attacked a Muslim woman postal worker in October.
“We’re getting calls faster than we can document,” said Omar Saleh, CAIR-FL’s lead attorney. “Here in Florida, our rate of calls, which we might get about 45 per month prior to Oct. 7, has since doubled, and a majority of those calls involve bullying of students because they are either Palestinian or support Palestine anywhere from the elementary stage all the way to the university stage. We’re seeing it most in employment.”
Florida lawmakers have largely ignored the rise in Islamophobic and anti-Palestinian incidents, often stoking the racism themselves and conflating anti-Zionism with antisemitism. In October, Gov. Ron DeSantis banned Students for Justice in Palestine from university campuses.
In December, federal lawmakers introduced House Resolution 6578, also known as Commission to Study Acts of Antisemitism in the United States Act. As previously reported by Prism, the bill aims to target critics of Israel. Civil rights groups and organizers worry that HR 6578 would usher in a new era of McCarthyism during a pivotal time of resistance and legitimate criticism of the apartheid state of Israel and its violent occupation of Palestinian territories.
“Antisemitism should never be tolerated. We will support a commission on the rise of antisemitism, but we ask only for the same thing for Muslims,” Saleh said. “We do see synagogue vandalism, which we condemn every time it happens. The same thing for Muslims as well. Muslims are not asking for any sort of special treatment over the Jewish population, only to be looked at equally because the complaints are real.”
The Florida House resolution was found favorable by the State Affairs Committee and was released to the House calendar for a second reading. If the bill is passed, Saleh says it will be a backward step in making Florida a safer place for everyone. The organization is in constant contact with the FBI to address cases of hate crimes; without their assistance locals will lose a crucial advocate.
“It’s a racist resolution,” Saleh said. “The statements within it are defamatory. It says that CAIR has been dedicated to hiring, defending, and justifying terrorism. Those are the statements that make people act on hate. And those are the statements that lead to things like the murder that we saw of a 6-year-old, like the shooting of three Palestinians, is when people in power make these totally irresponsible statements.”
Saleh says there’s still hope that their state will see the importance in looking at the roots behind Islamophobia. CAIR encourages those experiencing acts of aggression, racism, and Islamophobia to call their local chapter offices and report these incidents.
