A New York woman accused of pepper-spraying her Muslim Uber driver while he prayed at a red light has been charged with assault as a hate crime, prosecutors said Thursday.

Jennifer Guilbeault, 23, is accused of the “anti-Muslim” attack on July 31, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said Monday.

She was in the back seat of an Uber with another person at 12:15 a.m. when she lunged toward the driver, 45, with a can of pepper spray and sprayed him in the face after he began praying in Arabic at a red light, officials alleged.

The spray caused “burning, redness and pain,” the DA said in a release. A few minutes later, the driver called 911, and Guilbeault was arrested at the scene.

Guilbeault has been charged in a New York State Supreme Court indictment with second-degree assault as a hate crime, third-degree assault as a hate crime and second-degree aggravated harassment.

She pleaded not guilty at her arraignment Monday and was released with non-monetary conditions, according to court records. She is due back in court on Jan. 13.

“As alleged, Jennifer Guilbeault senselessly assaulted a Muslim Uber driver while he was just doing his job,” District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement. “The victim is a hardworking New Yorker who should not have to face this type of hate because of his identity.”

He said the office’s hate crime unit will continue to address bias-motivated attacks and support victims.

Michael J. Alber, an attorney for Guilbeault, rejected the hate crime designation. “Ms. Guilbeault was not motivated by race, religion, national origin, or any other discriminatory factor,” he said in a statement.

“A full and fair review of the evidence is going to show a crime was not committed in this matter, and that a rush to judgment is not appropriate, and is hurtful to all those involved,” he added.

Since the Hamas-Israel war began, there has been a rise in antisemitic and anti-Arab and anti-Muslim incidents reported in the U.S.

The Council on American Islamic Relations said in a report in April that it received the highest number of bias reports in its 30-year history last year. The complaints ranged from verbal discrimination in the classroom or workplace to incidents of physical violence reported to police.

Source: NBC News

The panel featured members of the Muslim, Arab and Palestinian (MAP) Communities Committee, including co-chair Alexander Key, a comparative literature professor, and committee member Natalie Jabbar ’09 M.A. ’10, the Public Humanities Initiative associate director. Members of the Subcommittee on Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias (ASAIB) were also on the panel, which included co-chairs Larry Diamond ’74 M.A. ’78 Ph.D. ’80 and Jeffrey Koseff M.S. ’78 Ph.D. ’83. Diamond is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and Koseff is a senior fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment.

The panelists addressed student questions on free speech and open dialogue at the event hosted by the Stanford Political Union and moderated by YuQing Jiang ’25, a Stanford Daily opinions editor.

Following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel and a reported rise of hate crimes against Jewish, Muslim and Arab students, former University President Richard Saller commissioned the two committees in November 2023 to evaluate antisemitic and anti-Palestinian discrimination in the Stanford community.

Last spring, each committee — composed of faculty, staff, students and alumni — released a 148-page report detailing dozens of instances of restricted speech, harassment and intimidation on campus.

Both committees conducted listening sessions, drafted reports and crafted recommendations for confronting bias and fostering community at Stanford. But “everyone was afraid to have their name attached to their sentiments,” Jabbar said, which made their work “very difficult.”

Diamond said he gained insight into the sentiments shared by members of Stanford’s Jewish and Israeli community during the ASAIB subcommittee’s listening sessions.

“The hardest [part] was having Jewish students tell me what they have been experiencing,” he said.

He recounted “one surprising and very tearful incident” in which a student told him: “‘I haven’t had any trouble. You know, no one’s said anything antisemitic about me’ — and then the tears start forming — ‘but most of my friends don’t know I’m Jewish.’”

Koseff said that Stanford’s Jewish students felt as though they were being held responsible for the actions of the Israeli state, leading to “feelings of alienation.”

Key described the University’s tendency to “assume the position of a neutral container” in light of campus protests in support of Israel and Palestine, as “detrimental to both the community of the University and its scholarly work.” Key added that in order to be welcome in the neutral container, students are forced to “leave their whole selves at the door.”

Diamond emphasized the importance of creating a campus culture of “mutual respect, mutual tolerance, mutual engagement and mutual listening.” The University must continue its work to ensure student safety, Diamond said, citing instances of physical harassment on Stanford’s campus and across the country.

In September, the University published updated policies on the expression of free speech and processes to report discrimination and harassment. The guidelines replaced Protected Identity Harm (PIH) reporting, instead implementing a new means for reporting physical harassment under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

The panelists criticized a New York Times article that stated the two “dueling reports” illustrate the “rift between Jewish and Muslim groups on campus.”

“It’s not Jews versus Muslims. We say it over and over again, ‘We’re not fighting Jeff and Larry,’” Key said. “The framing just keeps coming back to this binary balance. It instrumentalizes and objectifies. It doesn’t listen [to members of these communities].”

The panelists said both committees plan to present their respective findings with the Faculty Senate. They also plan to discuss the University’s role in facilitating future discussions between Stanford’s Jewish and Muslim, Arab and Palestinian communities on campus.

“Our dream for the report is that we will be able to build a university [culture] where students don’t have to go out and camp on White Plaza to talk about issues [the University] won’t,” Key said.

Diamond underscored the importance of using the University’s academic platform to advance rational debate on all relevant issues, beyond the Israel-Gaza conflict.

“There shouldn’t be an exception to what we can debate and talk about in terms of domestic policy, international affairs, philosophy and basic values,” Diamond said. “Students will find a variety of means to ensure that their voices are heard, that issues are raised, and hopefully that we listen to one another and push the boundaries of our understanding and our arguments with discourse that is both vibrant and mutually respectful.”

Source: The Stanford Daily

he US anti-Semitism envoy has triggered a backlash over remarks she made about the pager attacks in Lebanon last week, which have been blamed on Israel.

At a recent event held by the Israeli-American Council, a moderator commented that “after October 7, there was a feeling around the world that Israel was weaker”.

In response, US Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt said: “Do you want a beeper?”

The moderator later said: “I have a few.”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has demanded that the Biden administration fire Lipstadt, calling her remarks “dangerous”.

“Special Envoy Lipstadt’s callous remarks are not only disgusting, but also dangerous,” CAIR Government Affairs Department Director Robert McCaw said in a statement.

“At a time when our nation’s government claims it is working to de-escalate tensions between Israel and Lebanon, her flippant celebration of state-sponsored terrorism undermines diplomatic efforts to prevent a broader war in the region,” he said.

He said joking about the loss of innocent lives, especially children, is a disgrace and should have no place in US foreign policy discussions.

“It sends a message to the world that the US government condones or even celebrates the slaughter of Arab and Muslim civilians. This is not just immoral, it’s irresponsible,” he said.

McCaw said the Biden-Harris administration must immediately fire Lipstadt “and make clear that the United States does not support or celebrate state violence and terrorism against vulnerable populations”.

Lipstadt was confirmed by the US Senate on March 30, 2022 as the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, with the rank of ambassador, according to the State Department.

At least 37 people were killed and over 3,000 others injured in explosions of pager and radio devices across Lebanon on September 17 and 18. While the Lebanese government and Hezbollah have blamed Israel for the explosions, Tel Aviv has not denied or confirmed its involvement.

Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in cross-border warfare since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza, which has killed over 41,400 people, mostly women and children, following a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on October 7 last year.

A growing number of hate crimes targeting Muslims and Palestinians in the US city of Chicago is raising concerns, according to an official at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

Maggie Slavin, operations manager at the CAIR branch in the Midwestern US city, told Anadolu that there has been a 196% increase in hate crimes against Muslims and Palestinians in the city since last October, when Israel’s ongoing offensive against the Gaza Strip began.

Slavin said the incidents are occurring in workplaces, schools, and public spaces, with individuals facing consequences for expressing solidarity with Gaza and Palestine.

She highlighted that the Muslim American community is facing tight censorship. In workplaces, people are punished for expressing support for Gaza, and on campuses, students face administrative sanctions for advocating Palestinian rights, she added.

She said authorities’ response to the increase in hate crimes is “uncertain.” While some police departments are cooperative, she said, others require persistent advocacy.

On a recent attack on a Palestinian-owned cafe in the residential area of Uptown, she said the Chicago Police Department initially declined to classify the incident as a hate crime.

“We have to be absolutely relentless until that police department – until the authorities – agree with us that it was a hate crime,” she said.

Nabala Cafe, a Palestinian-owned cafe in Uptown that displays a Palestinian flag, was attacked last week.

Actual antisemitism threat to all minorities

The rise in anti-Muslim sentiment is also being echoed by the resurgence of federal surveillance. Slavin compared the current atmosphere to the era after the September 2001 terrorist attacks in the US.

“We’ve gotten a lot of calls about inappropriate interactions from the FBI or from federal authorities … This kind of feels like a witch hunt,” she explained.

When the FBI shows up at people’s doors, they are frightened and call CAIR to ask what to do, Slavin said. “We haven’t seen anything like that,” she noted. “That’s kind of a very scary new thing that’s happening.”

She expressed frustration with the misuse of the term “antisemitism” to stifle criticism of Israel’s policies.

“Actual antisemitism, the actual targeting of the Jewish faith, is a threat to us (Muslims), it’s a threat to all minorities,” she said.

“But when everything is thrown out as, ‘Oh, it’s anti-Semitic,’ ‘Oh, you’re being anti-Semitic,’ it just whittles that down to not being a serious thing,” she underlined.

What they are doing is “a legitimate criticism of Israel’s policies” and what Israel has been doing in Gaza and the West Bank, she said.

Killing of Turkish American activist was ‘targeted attack’

On recent killing of a Turkish American activist by Israeli forces in the West Bank, Slavin said it was no accident. Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was a vocal advocate for Palestinian rights, she said, adding: “We think that it was a targeted attack.”

“It just goes to show that even if you’re American, if you are Muslim, the IDF (Israeli army) do not care and will erase your humanity to the point of actually murdering you.”

Slavin said the Israeli army see nothing but resilience from Palestinians “who are experiencing this brutal genocide.”

Doing anything less than being resilient would be a “dishonor” to Palestinians, she said.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The Council on American Islamic Relations advocacy group said it filed a civil rights complaint on behalf of some students at the University of Georgia alleging differential treatment of people of Palestinian, Arab and Muslim descent.

The complaint alleges the University of Georgia’s actions violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars federal funds recipients from allowing discrimination based on race, religion and national origin. It was filed with the U.S. Education Department and urges a federal probe into the university.

The council said pro-Palestinian students have been the target of anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and Islamophobic harassment since Israel’s war in Gaza began, adding the university did not do enough to prevent the harassment or remedy its effects.

The university said it supports free speech and does not discriminate based on race or religion while also enforcing its rules and holding accountable those who violate policies.

There have been numerous protests in the United States, including on college campuses, against U.S. support for Israel’s war in Gaza, with some turning violent.

There has also been anti-Semitic and Islamophobic rhetoric in some protests and counter protests. Human rights advocates have warned about rising antisemitism, Islamophobia and anti-Arab hate.

The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered last Oct. 7 when Palestinian Islamist group Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel’s subsequent assault on the Hamas-governed enclave has killed over 41,000 Palestinians, according to the local health ministry, while displacing nearly the entire population of 2.3 million, causing a hunger crisis and leading to genocide allegations at the World Court that Israel denies.

Source: Reuters

In a statement, it said the IZH had acted as a direct representative of Iran’s Shi’ite Muslim Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and sought to bring about an Islamic revolution in Germany to impose theocratic rule.

The IZH was not available for comment by phone on Wednesday morning, and its website was not accessible to the public.

Iran’s foreign ministry said it had summoned the German ambassador in Tehran on Wednesday in protest at the ban.

“Unfortunately what happened in Germany is an example of Islamophobia and is in opposition to the teachings of the Abrahamic faiths,” it said on X, referencing Islam, Christianity and Judaism. The ministry said the ban violated freedom of expression and promoted violence and extremism.

Asked about the summoning of the ambassador, a German foreign ministry source said that it was up to the Iranian side to take concrete steps towards improving ties between the two countries that have been downgraded in recent years.

The German interior ministry said 53 of the IZH’s premises had been searched early on Wednesday in eight German states by investigators acting on a court order.

In addition to the Hamburg-based IZH, which includes one of the oldest mosques in Germany known for its turquoise exterior, subsidiaries in Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin were also banned, with four Shi’ite mosques to be closed, said the ministry.

The interior ministry said evidence from an earlier search of 55 properties conducted in November provided the basis for Wednesday’s ban of the IZH, known in German as Islamisches Zentrum Hamburg.

“Today, we banned the Islamisches Zentrum Hamburg, which promotes an Islamist-extremist, totalitarian ideology in Germany,” said Interior Minister Nancy Faeser.

“This Islamist ideology is opposed to human dignity, women’s rights, an independent judiciary and our democratic government.”

She said she wanted to make clear “this ban absolutely does not apply to the peaceful practice of the Shi’ite religion”.

A 2020 report on Islamic life in Germany said there were about 5.5 million Muslims in Germany’s 83 million population.

The interior ministry also accused the IZH of promoting antisemitism and the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which is also banned in Germany and classified as a terrorist organization by the European Union.

Source: Reuters

As campus protests raged across the country and pro-Palestinian demonstrators were increasingly cast as antisemites, Khaled Beydoun feared the characterization was a disservice not only to Muslim students but also to their Jewish peers.

As an associate professor of law at Arizona State University and a scholar of the First Amendment, religion and national security, Beydoun was frustrated by what he saw as discussions of antisemitism overshadowing clear demonstrations of Islamophobia. He also disagreed with how the two prejudices were pitted against each other.

“To understand Islamophobia and the way it developed in the United States, you have to understand how antisemitism developed,” he said. “Once you see these two forms of bigotry as essentially arising from the same rotten core, you’re able to demystify the idea that they’re oriented against one another.”

Beydoun, a Muslim himself, has used his 2019 book—American Islamophobia: Understanding the Roots and Rise of Fear,—and his academic and social media work since, to chart the historic roots and legal implications of Islamophobia in the U.S.

Inside Higher Ed spoke with Beydoun about his view on campus protests, and how he links them to widespread discrimination against Muslims that was inflamed after the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

Read the conversation on: Inside Higher Ed

The Muslim community has been grappling with the increase of Islamophobia in the EU, including Germany– where physical attacks against Muslims and vandalism against mosques persist.

German parliamentary leader Raed Saleh is pushing for the inclusion of anti-Islamophobia laws into the state constitution. Saleh, who is the leader of the Social Democratic Party, emphasized the need for Germany to have its constitution forcefully showcase the country’s willingness and commitment to fight against antisemitism, Islamophobia, and racism. The topic is set to be discussed in a study commission planned by the ‘black-red’ (CDU-SPD) coalition.

“I can well imagine us in Berlin saying that in our diverse city, we will enshrine the fight against Antisemitism, the fight against Islamophobia and against racism in the constitution. We will not tolerate Antisemitism in our city. And anyone who [crosses the line] will have to deal with a robust democracy… We don’t tolerate Islamophobia. We don’t tolerate racism.” Said Saleh.

The remarks come amid a rapid and alarming increase in Islamophobic attacks in Germany and much of Europe, with reports indicating a surge in actions targeting Muslims and Islamic institutions like mosques.

The Muslim community in Germany and Europe at large has in recent years grappled with Islamophobia coming not only from ordinary citizens but also from elected politicians and other people in positions of authority.

According to recent converging reports, police recorded 258 Islamophobic crimes during the first half of 2023. Between January and June last year, more than a dozen mosques witnessed acts of Islamophobia. Muslims have also experienced physical attacks or verbal harassment on the street or in other public places throughout Germany, and 17 people have been said to have sustained injuries in such anti-Islam acts.

Source: The Berliner

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.

“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.”

Florida has seen a major uptick in anti-Muslim incidents. “We’re getting calls faster than we can document,” said Omar Saleh, CAIR-Florida 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 December, federal lawmakers introduced House Resolution 6578, also known as Commission to Study Acts of Antisemitism in the United States Act with the aim of targeting 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.

The Florida House resolution was found favorable by the State Affairs Committee and was released to the House calendar for a second reading.

Source: Prism Reports

New York City will offer new curriculum materials on antisemitism and Islamophobia in its public schools and train principals and teachers on how to have difficult conversations about politically charged issues, officials said on Monday in response to criticism that the system has done too little to address the Israel-Hamas war.

In higher education, colleges like Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania have faced a backlash over their responses to the war. A speech announcing the new effort by the city’s schools chancellor, David C. Banks, illustrated how difficult it has been for K-12 leaders to stay out of the fray.

“The way through this moment is not to malign our students or to impose our own ideologies on them — or to bury our heads in the sand,” Mr. Banks said on Monday. “We must educate our students, and sometimes our staff.”

He added: “We cannot and will not have schools where students feel like they can do whatever they want without accountability for their actions.”

The chancellor’s message was among the most direct acknowledgments of continued fallout over the war from a major American public school district. It came two months after a raucous demonstration at Hillcrest High School in Queens — where officials said a pro-Israel teacher was targeted — became a major flashpoint for some Jewish families, who argued the system had not done enough to quell bias in schools.

Since October, local conflicts in New York and other districts have often erupted into animated controversies on the national stage. A number of parent leaders and educators who have vocally supported Palestinians have encountered online harassment. And this month, a Brooklyn grade school faced outrage after a resurfaced social media post showed a classroom map that did not include Israel but called the region Palestine.

On Monday, Mr. Banks said all middle and high school principals would receive mandatory training in March on “navigating difficult conversations” and would then be asked to bring the training to their school staff members.

In addition to expanding teaching materials on antisemitism and Islamophobia, he said the Education Department would offer anti-discrimination workshops to parent leaders. And the chancellor said he would also convene an “interfaith advisory council” to help shape his response.

Mr. Banks was seeking to respond to criticisms, but also said his goal was to provide a more uniform plan for tackling the impact of the war in Gaza in a system that is particularly diverse, with tens of thousands of Jewish, Muslim and Arab students.

New York City’s public schools, like many districts and universities, are under a federal civil rights investigation into reports of discrimination, and Mr. Banks said the system has been fast-tracking its own inquiries into complaints of antisemitism and Islamophobia.

Source: The New York Times