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Officials Urged to Address Ethnic and Religious Tensions at School
WASHINGTON, Jan. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- A prominent national Islamic civil
rights and advocacy group today called on the FBI to investigate an attack on
an Arab-American high school student as a possible hate crime.
The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) also
called for the intervention of local and state officials to calm reported
ethnic and religious tensions at the victims school.
CAIR said the student at a Paterson, N.J., high school, identified by
police as an "Arab," was stabbed by a Latino teenager from the community. The
victim spent four days in intensive care before being released from the
hospital. Law enforcement authorities are unwilling to discuss the motivation
for the attack.
Students and teachers at the victims high school say the facility is
divided along ethnic and religious lines, leading to verbal taunting and even
violent altercations.
SEE: Students Stabbing Still Unexplained
http://www.bergenrecord.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkyJmZnYmVs
N2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2ODYxNzM5
"The reported racial and religious tensions at the victims school need to
be urgently addressed, regardless of whether or not the stabbing was motivated
by bias," said CAIR Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper. "The FBIs
intervention in the stabbing investigation would indicate the seriousness of
the crime to the local community."
CAIR, Americas largest Muslim civil liberties group, has 31 offices and
chapters nationwide and in Canada. Its mission is to enhance the understanding
of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American
Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.
To read CAIRs Mission, Vision Statement and Core Principles, go to:
http://www.cair-net.org/default.asp?Page=About
NOTE: CAIR offers an e-mail list designed to be a journalists window
to the American Muslim community. Subscribers to the list, called
ISLAM-INFONET, receive news releases and other materials dealing with
American Muslim positions on issues of importance to our society.
To SUBSCRIBE to ISLAM-INFONET, go to:
http://cair.biglist.com/islam-infonet/
CONTACT: Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail:
ihooper@cair-net.org; Rabiah Ahmed, 202-488-8787 or 202-439-1441,
E-Mail: rahmed@cair-net.org
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