"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.

Ahmed Rehab, Executive Director of CAIR-Chicago said, "We feel sickened by this attack, and will not be silent. Those who perpetrated these cowardly murders cannot purport to call themselves men of God or men of faith."

"If you add up hate mail, hateful phone calls and e-mails, racial slurs being yelled at people and verbal or physical altercations, it's dozens of incidents," said Amina Sharif. "Hate is a self-addressed envelope and so the person who bears this hate is the victim of his own hatred before I am. And I can only pray for that person to find peace and to rid himself of that hatred," said Ahmed Rehab.

"We condemn this cowardly attack in the strongest terms possible and ask that the perpetrators be punished to the full extent of the law, " said CAIR in a statement today. "American Muslims stand with our fellow citizens in offering both prayers for the victims and sincere condolences to the families of those killed or injured.”