Muslim women in the US need to learn self-defense amid concerns over rising anti-Islam rhetoric, an influential Muslim advocacy group says.
“There really is a need for Muslim women to protect themselves in this society,” said Ibrahim Hooper, the spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), on Saturday.
According to Hooper, attacks on Muslims in America have tripled in recent months and that 80% of the victims are female.
He said anti-Muslim bias crimes have sharply risen since the deadly Paris attacks by the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in November and San Bernardino shootings in California, in December.
Hooper noted that the “flood gates really opened” after US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump suggested a ban on Muslims entering the country.
“Even after 9/11, Islamophobia was there but it was on the fringe of society. Now thanks to Donald Trump and Ben Carson and others, Islamophobia is firmly in the mainstream,…,…