Deputy Director Discusses Rise of Hate Crimes with Sen. Dick Durbin and Community Leaders

On January 10, 2020, Sufyan Sohel met with Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) and other local community and faith leaders to discuss how Chicagoland communities have been impacted by domestic extremism. 

See: Chicagoland leaders discuss legislation to battle rising hate crimes

CAIR-Chicago has witnessed an increase of hate and bias targeted towards the Chicagoland Muslim community. Issues faced by CAIR-Chicago clients include school bullying, employment discrimination, prisoner rights, immigration & citizenship, and travel, amongst others. 

“Over the past few years, we have seen hate become normalized throughout our societies. Our schools, homes, and places of worship are attacked. Many of our communities – especially immigrant & marginalized – are made to feel unwelcome and face heightened discrimination and, as a result, fear. This is not unacceptable and we applaud Senator Durbin for taking these steps to address hate and domestic terrorism. We commit to standing up with our allies against hate in all its forms” said Sohel after the meeting.

In March, Sen. Durbin, alongside several other US Senators,reintroduced the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act which would enhance the federal government’s efforts to prevent domestic terrorism by requiring federal law enforcement agencies to regularly assess this threat, focus their resources on the most significant domestic terrorism threats, and provide training and resources to assist state, local, and tribal law enforcement in addressing these threats. 

Senator Durbin also wrote to Attorney General Barr and the Federal Bureau of Investigations calling on them to work alongside local, state and federal agencies to prevent violent domestic terrorism and hate crime incidents before they take place.

Watch the video!