The Electronic Intifada Weekly Podcast featuring Zahra Billoo on the rise of Islamophobia in the US

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Islamophobia, government surveillance and violence against Muslims, Arabs and people of South Asian descent is on the rise in the US.

(Justin Lane / Newscom)

“Last night [in Illinois] … vandals had drawn graffiti all over headstones at a Muslim graveyard, [and had] written things like ‘raghead,’ ‘terrorist,’ et cetera.” - Zahra Billoo, on this week’s podcast

This week on The Electronic Intifada podcast:

• Zahra Billoo, the executive director of the San Francisco Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, will join us to talk about rising Islamophobia and hate crimes against Arabs, Muslims and South Asians in the US, as Chicago-area Islamic centers are attacked after a Congressman says radical Muslims are “trying to kill Americans every week”;
• A US federal court upholds the state secrets privilege, foregoing the rights of Muslim citizens;
• Bus ads in San Francisco call Palestinians “savages”;
• Also, an Israeli high court decision enables the widespread torture of Palestinian detainees;
• The Israeli army sentences a soldier to just 45 days in prison for his killing of a Palestinian mother and her daughter in Gaza, who were shot while waving white flags during Israel’s attacks in 2008-2009;
• The Guardian (UK) has hired a new contributor who openly called on the Israeli army to kill Americans sailing to Gaza, including Pulitzer prize-winning author Alice Walker and Kindertransport refugee Hedy Epstein;
• Palestinian refugees forced out of Iraq feared lost at sea en route to Australia;
• A South African government official tells citizens not to visit Israel because it mistreats Palestinians.

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Unknown activists in San Francisco revised the racist ad on city buses by adding a wheatpasted image, appropriately labeling this incident of hate speech. (Photographer unknown)