Hate Backlash Since Sept. 11 Terrorist Attack

Colorado

Buggie and Pinky Bajwa, Sikh Americans, awoke Thursday morning, 9/13/01, to find the word ``Terrorists'' sprayed in red paint across their family's driveway and ``Terrist on board'' written on their white car. (Source: AP Article, 9/18/01)

Illinois

Chicago

9/12/01, police in Bridgeview, Ill., turned back 300 marchers -- some waving American flags and shouting "USA! USA!" _ as they tried to march on a mosque in the Chicago suburb. Three demonstrators were arrested. There were no injuries and demonstrators were kept blocks from the closed Muslim house of worship. "I'm proud to be American and I hate Arabs and I always have," said 19-year-old Colin Zaremba who marched with the group from Oak Lawn. (Source: Coffee article, AP, 9/13/01)

In Chicago, a firebomb was tossed 09/12/01 at an Arab-American community center. (Source: Coffee article, AP, 9/13/01)

In nearby Palos Heights, a man who used the blunt end of a machete to attack a Moroccan gas station attendant was charged with a hate crime, police said. The attendant did not seek treatment. (Source: Coffee article, AP, 9/13/01)

Indiana

A man in a ski mask in Gary, Ind., fired an assault rifle at a gas station where a Yemen-born U.S. citizen born was working Wednesday, 9/12/01, the Post Tribune of Merrillville, Ind., reported. Police were investigating it as a hate crime. (Source: Coffee article, AP, 9/13/01)

New Jersey

Vandals attacked two Indian owned businesses in Collingswood, N.J. The vandals sprayed painted "leave town" (9/12/01).

New York

In Richmond Hills, NY, Attar Singh Bhatia was severely injured and hospitalized when he was attacked with a baseball bat (9/11/01). (Source IACFPA e-mail, 9/18/01)

In Richmond Hills, NY, two Sikh Americans were attacked with a paint ball gun. The police arrested two men. (9/11/01). (Source IACFPA e-mail, 9/18/01)

In Richmond Hills, NY, a gurdwara was fired upon with rubber bullets. An arrest was made when the individual returned the following morning. (9/11/01) (Source IACFPA e-mail, 9/18/01)

On Sept. 11, Amrik Singh Chawla, a South Asian American (Sikh), was chased by a group of four men yelling "terrorist." They chased him for four blocks. He was unharmed, but is deeply shaken by the entire incident. (Source IACFPA e-mail, 9/17/01)

Meera Kumar, who, on Wednesday, was racially profiled and harassed by police on a Boston-NY train, along with other South Asians and Arabs.?(Source: nmemon e-mail, 9/16/01)

One of the Sikh participants was giving a TV interview outside the restaurant when a man pushing a baby stroller walked by, stopped and started yelling at him, saying, "You Islamic mosquitoes should be killed." It was caught on tape by Rohit Vyas and Pankaj Kumar of TV Asia, who have been running it on the air. Rohit's e-mail: vyas@mindspring.com (Source: nmemon e-mail, 9/16/01)

Human rights commission reports at least 3 attacks (1 Pakistani, 2 Arab) in suffolk county. (Source: CAAAV e-mail, 9/17/01)

In Huntington, N.Y., a 75-year-old man who was drunk tried to run over a Pakistani woman in the parking lot of a shopping mall, police said. The man then followed the woman into a store and threatened to kill her for "destroying my country," authorities said. (Source: Coffee article, AP, 9/13/01)

In Stony Brook, N.Y., on Sunday night, 9/16, shots were fired at the home of an Indo-American who is a graduate of Stanford University. No injuries were reported. (Source: Mangaliman, SJ Mercury News, 9/18/01)

Ohio

In suburban Cleveland, the Guru Gobind Singh Sikh Temple was attacked with lit bottles of gasoline. At this time, no arrests have been made. (9/12/01) (Source: IACFPA e-mail, 9/18/01; Lewin & Goodstein article, NY Times, 09/18/01)
In Youngstown, Ohio, Tejinder Singh, a Sikh, said someone made rude comments to him as he stood in a parking lot. Someone also set fire to a hedge outside his brother's gas station in Cortland, Ohio, he said. (Kong, AP, imdiversity.com, 09/19/01)

Oklahoma

In Tulsa, Okla., police said a Pakistani native was beaten by three men late Tuesday in a hate crime. The victim was in a fair condition at a hospital Thursday. (Source: Coffee article, AP, 9/13/01)

9/15/01, Tulsa: Kimberly Lowe, a 21 year old full blood Creek, Native American, and several Native friends were followed and harassed by a vehicle of white males. The males threw items at the car and yelled "Go back to your own country!" Kimberly, the driver, stopped the car and got out to confront the males. The attackers drove to hit Kimberly, pin her against another vehicle, then backed up and ran over her again. Lowe was killed; police are investigating, have not deemed it a hate crime yet. (Goldtooth, IEN, e-mail, 9/18/01)

Oregon

On Sunday, 9/16/01, near Eugene, Ore., a 54-year old California woman was arrested for trying to pull the turban off the head of a Sikh man at a highway rest stop. (Source: Lewin & Goodstein article, NY Times, 09/18/01)

Rhode Island

In Ronkonkoma, Long Island, a man was arrested on suspicion of waving a pellet gun and shouting obscenities at a South Asian gas station worker. (9/12/01) (Source: IACFPA e-mail, 9/18/01)

Sher J.B. Singh was pulled from an Amtrak train in Providence, Rhode Island and arrested for possession of a concealed weapon. Mr. Singh was carrying a three-inch kirpan. Unfortunately, national press wrongly claimed that Mr. Singh was one of the terrorists being sought by the FBI (9/12/01). (Source: IACFPA e-mail, 9/18/01)

Texas

Dallas police and the FBI are investigating whether the shooting death of a Pakistani grocer in Pleasant Grove was out of anger at Muslims for Tuesday's terrorist attacks. The killing occurred Saturday night, 9/16/01. 46-year-old Waqar Hasan at Mom's Grocery was shot, but there was no evidence of robbery or a struggle. (Source: Emily Article, The Dallas Morning News, 9/17/01)

Mosques in Carrollton, Denton and Irving were attacked in what authorities believe could have been a reaction to the terrorist attacks. Shots were fired into the Carrollton and Irving (9/12/01) mosques and a firebomb was thrown into the mosque in Denton. (Source: Emily Article, The Dallas Morning News, 9/17/01) Early Thursday, 9/13/01, a Molotov cocktail was thrown against the side of the Islamic Society of Denton, Texas, causing an estimated $2,500 in damage, said Kiersten Dieterle, a spokeswoman for the Dallas suburb. The building was empty and there were no injuries. (Source: Coffee article, AP, 9/13/01)

Washington

Armed man allegedly set fire to a Seattle mosque. (Source: Sacramento Bee, 9/18/01)

Washington, DC

Rippy Singh was stopped by 4 white males in a car who accused him of being a terrorist and said, "we will bomb you" in Washington, DC. (Source: IACFPA e-mail, 9/18/01)

A South Asian American (Sikh), was exiting work this afternoon. As he was leaving he was accosted by pedestrians on the street who began to yell verbal expletives at him, and threatened to "get" him and bomb him in retaliation for the terrorist acts earlier in the day. Although he was able to escape the crowd, he too was deeply upset by the incident. (Source: IACFPA e-mail, 9/17/01)

Others:

Tamara Alfson, an American working at the Kuwait Embassy in Washington, spent Wednesday counseling frightened Kuwaiti students attending schools across the United States. "Some of them have already been harassed. People have been quite awful to them," said Alfson, an academic adviser to about 150 students. (Source: Coffee article, AP, 9/13/01)

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