All over the United States, American Muslim communities fear backlash after the Dec. 2 shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., and the IS terrorist attack in Paris Nov. 13, reported the Washington Post. Many Muslim organizations and individuals condemned these attacks on social media with hashtags like #NotInMyName, #NotAllMuslims and #NotIslam to show that their communities are horrified by the actions of extremists and the actions of the attackers do not represent all Muslims, reported CNN. However, it appears that condemning these acts is not enough to prevent widespread Islamophobia.
Thursday's New York Post reported the San Bernardino massacre with two different headlines: hard copies of the newspaper had the headline "Murder Mission" and the online issue had the headline "Muslim Killers," reported Mic. Arsalan Ifitkhar, a human rights lawyer, explained to the Washington Post that this headline shows that "when a Muslim American commits a murder, their religion is brought front and center. With anyone else, [it's] a crazy, kooky loner." He continued to express that "Islamophobia is the accepted form of racism in America. Leaders like Donald Trump show us that you can take a potshot at Muslims and get away with it.".
