“It’s something that we must take very seriously,” said CAIR-Chicago executive director Ahmed M. Rehab. “CAIR-Chicago is very disturbed by this news. The Muslim community is disturbed. People of conscience are disturbed. We’ve called police to investigate it, and to prosecute it as a hate crime, because that’s what it is.”

A stabbing at the Champaign train station this week is not a hate crime, according to the charges filed by the state’s attorney’s office. But an advocacy group disagrees. Amina Sharif, spokeswoman for the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Thursday it’s important to discourage prejudice.

The Illinois Coalition on Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) is hosting a mayoral candidates forum at the UIC Forum as Chicago prepares for its upcoming election. The candidates may answer questions issues affecting Chicago’s communities including immigration, education and affordable housing.

“The reprehensible attack against this Jewish congregation is an insult to all of us,” said Ahmed Rehab, executive director of CAIR-Chicago. “An attack against one house of worship is an attack against every house of worship.”

“I expect police and federal investigators to thoroughly examine the incident and remain vigilant as there has been a significant rise in these sorts of hateful, Islamophobic incidents across the country,” said Abraham. “We will not let hatemongers spread fear and intimidate Muslims.”

Mosque debates are taking place across the county, from New York City to Chicago to the surrounding suburbs. They are not all about zoning, but for the most part they are very heated.

Ahmed Rehab says “islamophobia” is sweeping America. The leader of the Council on American-Islamic Relations describes the status of America’s Relationship with its Muslim citizens.

“Organizations that are not only Islamophobic but that incite violence, whether directly or indirectly, are a reality,” said Ahmed Rehab.

Ahmed Rehab, CAIR-Chicago Executive Director, discusses the stabbing of a Muslim cab driver in NYC whose attacker first asked “are you Muslim?”. Rehab also talks about the danger of anti-Muslim propaganda driven by Islamophobes opposed to Park 51, the proposed Muslim community center near Ground Zero.

Vandals defaced an exhibit by Muslim graduate student Anida Yoeu Ali at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) on Tuesday. The exhibit, which addressed racial profiling and the rise of violence and hate directed at Muslims in the post-9/11 era, was defaced with large caricatures and a word bubble highlighting the text “Kill all Arabs.”

CAIR-Chicago is advocating on behalf of Ali. Civil Rights Director Christina Abraham accompanied Ali yesterday in a meeting with the deans of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

See media coverage of the incident HERE