US Muslims face backlash after Paris attacks, refugee intake is red hot political football

NEW YORK: Muslims around the U.S. are facing backlash following the deadly attacks in Paris despite President Obama slamming the “hysterical” response about security risks posed by Syrian refugees. [caption id=“attachment_2509626” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] President Obama/ AP[/caption] Reacting to the Paris attacks, Republicans have taken a series of swift steps aimed at freezing White House programs to resettle Syrians who are fleeing war and near certain death at the hands of the In an unusually fierce rebuke , Obama struck out at his political foes, accusing them of demonizing “widows and orphans.” “We are not well served when in response to a terrorist attack we descend into fear and panic,” Obama said. A remarkable fact backs what Obama is pushing for – the US has mostly been spared. Since the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, Muslim extremists have killed 26 people in just seven deadly attacks on American soil. National Public Radio takes five approaches to view the Paris Attacks and where the Muslim community stands. “Republicans fueling it” [caption id=“attachment_2507910” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] People gather in tribute of the victims of Paris’ attacks at the Place de la Republique in Paris/ AFP[/caption] Barely hours after the attacks, America has been seeing a rise invandalism to mosques and Islamic centers, hate-filled phone and online messages and threats of violence “The picture is getting increasingly bleak,” says Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations. He said the rise in the level of anti-Muslim sentiment is reflected by some Republican presidential candidates, governors and others speaking out in opposition to the U.S. accepting more Syrian refugees. The discovery of a Syrian passport near the body of one assailant in the Paris attacks that killed 129 people last Friday has stirred fears among US lawmakers and governors that jihadists are seeking to blend in with refugee masses in order to strike later. But Obama hit back hard: ”We don’t make good decisions if it’s based on hysteria or an exaggeration of risks," he added, speaking from Manila. “They are scared of widows and orphans coming into the United States of America.” The issue has become a political football in the race for the White House. Several Republican candidates including Donald Trump and Ben Carson have announced their strong opposition to the refugee program. Trump, in an interview with ABC News’ “20/20” program to air Friday, said he would ban all Syrian refugees – Christians and Muslims – from entering the country. “The problem is, we don’t (know) if they’re Christian or not,” Trump said in excerpts released by ABC, adding that the screening process needs to be “superior.” The United States will have “absolutely no choice” but to close down some mosques where “some bad things are happening,” Donald Trump said in a recent interview , explaining his rationale for doing so. “Nobody wants to say this and nobody wants to shut down religious institutions or anything, but you know, you understand it. A lot of people understand it. We’re going to have no choice,” the Republican presidential said in an interview from Trump Tower on Fox News’ “Hannity” on Tuesday night. “Better safe than sorry” House Speaker Paul Ryan called for a “pause” in the Syrian resettlement scheme, joining more than half of state governors urging Obama to suspend the program and fully review the vetting process to ensure that would-be attackers do not slip into the country as refugees. “Our nation has always been welcoming but we cannot let terrorists take advantage of our compassion,” Ryan told reporters. “This is a moment where it’s better to be safe than to be sorry.” Some Democrats shared similar views, including senior Senator Chuck Schumer who acknowledged it might be “necessary” to pause the program amid a review. Should the legislation pass it could be a major roadblock for Obama’s program aimed at taking in up to 10,000 Syrian refugees in fiscal year 2016. It would require the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and the Director of National Intelligence to concur that each refugee is not a security threat, according to an aide to number two House Republican Kevin McCarthy. Another bill, by presidential hopeful Senator Ted Cruz, reportedly would ban all Syrian Muslims from resettling in the United States. Multiple gunshots at Connecticut mosque In Connecticut, the FBI and local police are investigating reports of multiple gunshots fired at the Baitul Aman mosque in Meriden hours after the attacks. Leaders of the mosque don’t know the motive of the shooter or shooters, said Salaam Bhatti, a spokesman for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in New York, to which the mosque belongs. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is a movement within Islam. Bhatti said the shooting has not rattled mosque members. He said many are from Pakistan, where conditions for the Ahmadiyya movement are much worse. “It’s a teachable moment,” Bhatti said. “As we do raise awareness of attacks in mosques, we will see mosques do not respond in violence. Islam teaches us to teach peace.” At the University of Connecticut, authorities are investigating after the words “killed Paris” were discovered on Saturday written beneath an Egyptian student’s name on his dorm room door. Vandalism, threats in the US — The Omaha Islamic Center in Nebraska reported that someone spray-painted a rough outline of the Eiffel Tower on an outside wall. The Council on American-Islamic Relations has called for the FBI and local police to investigate the incident as a possible hate crime, and they’re doing just that, according to Nasir Husain, general secretary of the center. Muslims in the central U.S. city are afraid, he said. — In a suburb of Austin, Texas, leaders of the Islamic Center of Pflugerville on Monday discovered feces and torn pages of the Quran that had been thrown at the door of the mosque. Muslim leaders also encouraged authorities to investigate the act as a hate crime. — In a suburb of Houston, Texas, authorities on Tuesday arrested a man accused of threatening on social media to “shoot up a mosque.” He was charged with making a terroristic threat, a felony. — Two Tampa Bay-area mosques in Florida received threatening phone messages on Friday night. FBI officials said the same person made the calls to the Islamic Society of St. Petersburg and the Islamic Society of Pinellas County. The person was identified and interviewed over the weekend, but investigators found no actual plans to carry out acts of violence, the FBI said. One of the calls threatened a firebombing. With AGENCY inputs