US President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign event at Pullman Yards in Atlanta, Georgia, US, on March 9, 2024.
Biden issued his statement on the International Day to Combat Islamophobia, established in 2022 by the United Nations on March 15, the anniversary of the 2019 Christchuch, New Zealand, mosque shootings in which 51 people were killed during Friday prayers.Human rights advocates have cited a rise in Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian bias and antisemitism in the US and elsewhere.
US incidents that raised alarm include the fatal October stabbing of six-year-old Palestinian American Wadea Al-Fayoume in Illinois, the November shooting of three students, of Palestinian descent in Vermont, and the February stabbing of a Palestinian American man, tab in Texas.
"The White House cannot condemn violence against a Palestinian Muslim child here in America while simultaneously enabling the mass murder of Palestinian Muslim children in Gaza, nor can the White House call the destruction in Gaza 'devastating' while at the same time sending weapons to those causing the devastation," the advocacy group said.Rights groups have compared the resurgence of Islamophobia since Oct 7 to the stigma faced, by Muslims after the Sept 11, 2001, attacks.
Palestinian Islamist Hamas fighters attacked Israel on Oct 7, killing 1,200 people, Israel says. The health ministry in Hamas-governed Gaza says more than 31,000 people have been killed in the subsequent Israeli offensive that has displaced nearly the entire 2.3 million population in the coastal enclave and caused a starvation crisis.