CAIR Meets with German Officials on Murder of Muslim Woman Letter to German chancellor asks that religious minorities be protected

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 7/8/09) –

Representatives of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) met today with officials of the German embassy in Washington, D.C., to discuss a recent incident in which a pregnant Muslim woman was stabbed to death at a Dresden court while testifying against a man who had insulted her for wearing a religiously-mandated headscarf, or hijab.  

The woman was stabbed 18 times as court security personnel allegedly failed to intervene. When the woman’s husband attempted to shield her from the attacker, he was shot by those same security personnel and remains in critical condition. 

SEE: The Headscarf Martyr: Murder in German Court Sparks Egyptian Fury

During their meeting today with the embassy officials, CAIR representatives delivered a letter from the organization’s National Executive Director Nihad Awad to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, which stated in part:

“This horrendous act of hatred is obviously of concern to all those in Germany and worldwide who value justice and religious tolerance.

“There is a growing perception that the German government was slow to condemn this bias-motivated act of violence and has not addressed the underlying Islamophobia that can lead to such tragic incidents.

“We are also concerned that the ban in several German states on Muslim teachers wearing hijab may serve to legitimize the type of Islamophobic views held by [the woman’s] attacker.

“We implore you to protect the rights of all religious minorities in Germany by taking immediate and direct measures such as instituting policies that seek to prevent the growth of Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, racism, or any other form of bigotry. CAIR and the American Muslim community stand ready to assist you in developing and implementing those policies or initiatives.

“We urge you to investigate whether the perpetrator of this crime was in any way linked to a larger anti-Muslim movement.

“CAIR has more than 15 years of experience in dealing with issues related to Islamophobia, hate crimes and civil rights, and would be willing to share this experience with German officials and the German Muslim community.”

Those taking part in today’s meeting included Awad, CAIR Legal Counsel Nadhira Al-Khalili and CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper.

CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil liberties organization, has 35 offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.

CONTACT: CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail: ihooper@cair.com; CAIR Communications Coordinator Amina Rubin, 202-488-8787, E-Mail: arubin@cair.com

By MAGGIE MICHAEL

CAIRO (AP) —

Thousands of Egyptian mourners marched behind the coffin of the "martyr of the head scarf" on Monday — a pregnant Muslim woman who was stabbed to death in a German courtroom as her young son watched.

Many in her homeland were outraged by the attack and saw the low key response in Germany as an example of racism and anti-Muslim sentiment.

Her husband was critically wounded in the attack Wednesday in Dresden when he tried to intervene and was stabbed by the attacker and accidentally shot by court security.

"There is no other god but Allah," chanted the mourners for 32-year-old Marwa al-Sherbini in her hometown of Alexandria, where her body was buried after being flown back from Germany.

"We will avenge her killing," her brother Tarek el-Sherbini told The Associated Press by telephone from the mosque where prayers were being recited in front of his sister's coffin. "In the West, they don't recognize us. There is racism."

Al-Sherbini, who was about four months pregnant and wore the Islamic head scarf, was involved in a court case against her neighbor for calling her a terrorist and was set to testify against him when he stabbed her 18 times inside the courtroom in front of her 3-year-old son.

Her husband, who was in Germany on a research fellowship, came to her aid and was also stabbed by the neighbor and shot in the leg by a security guard who initially mistook him for the attacker, German prosecutors said. He is now in critical condition in a German hospital, according to al-Sherbini's brother.

"The guards thought that as long as he wasn't blond, he must be the attacker so they shot him," al-Sherbini told an Egyptian television station.

The man, who has only been identified as 28-year-old Alex W., remains in detention and prosecutors have opened an investigation on suspicion of murder.

Christian Avenarius, the prosecutor in Dresden where the incident took place, described the killer as driven by a deep hatred of Muslims. "It was very clearly a xenophobic attack of a fanatical lone wolf."

He added that the attacker was a Russian of German descent who had immigrated to Germany in 2003 and had expressed his contempt for Muslims at the start of the trial.

At its regular news conference on Monday, a German government spokesman Thomas Steg said if the attack was racist, the government "naturally condemns this in the strongest terms."

The killing has dominated Egyptian media for days, while it has received comparatively little coverage in German and Western media.

A German Muslim group criticized government officials and the media for not paying enough attention to the crime.

"The incident in Dresden had anti-Islamic motives. So far, the reactions from politicians and media have been incomprehensibly meager," Aiman Mazyek, the general secretary of the Central Council of Muslims, told Berlin's Tagesspiegel daily.

Egyptian commentators said the incident was an example of how hate crimes against Muslims are overlooked in comparison to those committed by Muslims against Westerners. Many commentators pointed to the uproar that followed the 2004 murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh by a Dutch-born Islamic fundamentalist angry over one of his films criticizing the treatment of Muslim women.

Abdel Azeem Hamad, chief editor of the independent Egyptian daily el-Shorouk, said that if the victim had been a Jew, there would have been an uproar.

"What we demand is just some attention to be given to the killing of a young innocent mother on the hands of fanatic extremist," he wrote in his column.

An Egyptian blogger Hicham Maged, wrote "let us play the 'What If' game."

"Just imagine if the situation was reversed and the victim was a Westerner who was stabbed anywhere in the world or — God forbid — in any Middle Eastern country by Muslim extremists," he said.

The Egyptian Pharmacists' Association called for a boycott of German drugs. The victim was a pharmacist.

According to numerous interviews in Egyptian local papers with el-Sherbini family, the man who stabbed al-Sherbini used to accuse her of being a "terrorist," and in one incident, he tried to take off her head scarf. Mourners at her funeral called her the "martyr of the head scarf."

Laila Shams, al-Sherbini's mother, told the el-Wafd daily that her daughter said she'd difficulty finding a job in Germany because of her head scarf.

"One (employer) suggested she remove her head scarf to get a job. She said no," she said.

Officials from a German Muslim group and the country's main Jewish group made a joint visit Monday to the Dresden hospital where the victim's husband is being treated.

"You don't have to be a Muslim to act against anti-Muslim behavior, and you don't have to be a Jew to act against anti-Semitism," said Stephan Kramer, the general secretary of the Central Council of Jews.

Associated Press Writer Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.

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Woman Wearing Hijab Stabbed 18 Times in Dresden Courtroom after Suing Her Alleged Attacker for Calling her "Terrorist"

Washington, D.C. | July 7, 2009 | www.adc.org

Today, in a letter to German Ambassador Klaus Scharioth, the American-Arab Anti Discrimination Committee (ADC) expressed its somber concern over the heinous murder of an Egyptian woman in a courtroom in Dresden, Germany.

According to reports, Marwa Al-Sherbini was stabbed to death 18 times in a German courtroom while her husband, who tried to intervene, was also stabbed by the attacker and shot in the leg by a security officer who mistook him to be the attacker. Al-Sherbini was three months pregnant and was murdered in-front of her three-year old son.

Ms. Al-Sherbini was involved in a lawsuit against the alleged attacker who had called her a "terrorist" because she was wearing the Muslim headscarf or hijab. She was scheduled to testify against him when this horrendous act took place. Ms. Al-Sherbini was wearing her hijab at the time of the attack. The prosecutor at the hearing, described the attacker as having a deep hatred towards Muslims.

In the letter to Ambassador Scharioth, ADC National Executive Director Kareem Shora said, "We understand that a comprehensive legal investigation is being conducted by German authorities. However, this heinous crime must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. This attack is but the most recent incident involving anti-Muslim hate and intolerance targeted against the Muslim community in Germany." The letter continued, "It is our hope that German authorities will use all available legal means to classify this as a hate-motivated murder and report it to the appropriate agencies monitoring anti-Muslim intolerance including the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)."

The letter concluded with an ADC request that "the German Government will take more concrete steps to protect the Muslim communities and Muslim institutions of Germany."
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NOTE TO EDITORS: The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), which is non sectarian and non partisan, is the largest Arab-American civil rights organization in the United States. It was founded in 1980, by former Senator James Abourezk to protect the civil rights of people of Arab descent in the United States and to promote the cultural heritage of the Arabs. ADC has 38 chapters nationwide, including chapters in every major city in the country, and members in all 50 states.

The ADC Research Institute (ADC-RI), which was founded in 1981, is a Section 501(c)(3) educational organization that sponsors a wide range of programs on behalf of Arab Americans and of importance to all Americans. ADC-RI programs include research studies, seminars, conferences and publications that document and analyze the discrimination faced by Arab Americans in the workplace, schools, media, and governmental agencies and institutions. ADC-RI also celebrates the rich cultural heritage of the Arabs.
__________________________________________

Contact: Yousef Munayyer

American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee | www.adc.org
1732 Wisconsin Ave., NW | Washington, DC | 20007
Tel: 202-244-2990 | Fax: 202-244-7968 | E-mail: media@adc.org

MCB calls for Greater Action Against Anti-Muslim Violence 8 July 2009

The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) today urged political leaders and opinion formers to end their muted response to the recent wave of anti-Muslim violence taking place in the UK and Europe. The bombing of the Glasgow premises and Scottish headquarters of Islamic Relief, a long established British Muslim charity and an affiliate of the MCB, is the most recent in a number of such attacks on Muslim properties and places of worship. This attack comes days after the fire-bombing of several mosques across the country and the seizure from far-right extremists of what is believed to be the largest suspected terrorist arsenal in England since the IRA mainland bombings of the early 1990s.

The MCB is writing to the Home Secretary to urgently address the matter and also calls upon the Chair of the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee to look into the issue.

MCB Secretary General Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari said, "There is absolutely no justification for these unprovoked attacks. We are gravely concerned at the muted official response to these developments and are seeking clarification." "For years the MCB has warned that the sustained campaigns of demonisation and vilification of British Muslims in our discourse and media, sometimes with semi-official backing, was creating a favourable climate for racist fanatics to operate and make cheap political gains. Our worst fears have now been confirmed. In the UK and in Europe, the fear is very real as we learn of the shocking murder of a Muslim woman in Dresden, Germany who was killed by someone who hated her decision to adopt the headscarf." Dr Abdul Bari added, "We eagerly await the outcome of police investigations into these attacks and trust the authorities will assume their full responsibility to ensure that Muslim property and places of worship do not become the soft targets of racist bigots and Islamophobes."

Notes:

The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) is an umbrella group of 500 Muslim organisations mosques, charities, community groups.

The Muslim Council of Britain

PO Box 57330

London, E1 2WJ

Tel: 0845 2626 786

Fax: 0207 247 7079

media@mcb.org.uk

www.mcb.org.uk