The San Francisco Bay Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-SFBA), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today welcomed hate crime charges brought against a 57-year-old South San Francisco man who allegedly attacked a group of demonstrators who were calling on the South San Francisco City Council to adopt a Gaza ceasefire resolution.
The man reportedly shouted, “Bomb bomb Palestine. Bomb bomb Palestine,” at the demonstrators outside South San Francisco’s Civic Center. Police say the man was arrested and is facing charges of battery, threats and hate speech.
One demonstrator told local a local media outlet: “He verbally assaults everyone in our group. With me, he elbowed me in the face, he spit on a friend of mine, he pushed another friend of mine and another friend got her head bumped into.”
In a statement, CAIR-SFBA Executive Director Zahra Billoo said:
“We welcome the hate crime charge in this disturbing case and hope it sends the message to anyone who still supports the genocide in Gaza that attacks on those exercising their free speech rights in defense of the Palestinian people will not be tolerated.”
“We urge anyone experiencing discrimination or threats to report these incidents to law enforcement and to CAIR-SFBA’s civil rights department at 408 986-9874.”
She noted that last week, CAIR-SFBA condemned the alleged assault on Malak Afaneh, a Palestinian Muslim University of California Berkeley (UC Berkeley) law student, by UC Berkeley law professor Catherine Fisk.
Also last week, CAIR-SFBA welcomed the arrest of a suspect in connection with multiple acts of vandalism at Masjid al-Tawheed in San Francisco during Ramadan.
Yesterday, CAIR’s Greater Los Angeles Area office condemned Pomona College’s forcible suppression of student activists’ free speech during an on-campus sit-in for Palestine and urged the administration to protect the first amendment rights of its students.