WASHINGTON, Nov 27 (APP): A prominent Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization has offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the perpetrator of a shooting Saturday targeting three Palestinian university students in Burlington in the U.S. state of Vermont, amid a surge in anti-Muslim hate across the country.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) also called on state and federal law enforcement authorities in Vermont to investigate a possible bias motive for the shooting.
The 20-year-old students are all receiving medical care, according to a Sunday news release from the Burlington Police Department. “Two are stable, while one has sustained much more serious injuries.”
The students were on their way to a family dinner in Burlington, Vermont, for the Thanksgiving holiday when “they were confronted by a white man with a handgun,” the news release said.
Their Palestinian alma mater, the Ramallah Friends School, also identified the three students.
“Ramallah Friends School board, administration, staff and community are deeply distressed by the recent incident involving three of our graduates — Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdel Hamid and Tahseen Ahmed,” the school said in a statement.
“While we are relieved to know that they are alive, we remain uncertain about their condition and hold them in the light.”
The school said that Awartani was shot in the back and Ahmed was shot in the chest, with Hamid suffering minor injuries. Awartani is an Ivy League student at Brown University. Hamid studies at Haverford University and Ahmed studies at Trinity College.
“My cousin Hisham has been shot in the back while walking with his friends in Burlington for simply wearing kuffiyehs and speaking Arabic,” Basil Awartani posted on Twitter. “Dangerous performative rhetoric from U.S. pundits and politicians as well as constant dehumanization of Palestinians has a real-life cost.”
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry also released a statement condemning the shooting and targeting of its citizens.
Due to the unprecedented spike in anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian hate and violence we have witnessed in recent weeks, local, state and national law enforcement authorities must investigate a possible bias motive for the shooting of these three young men, CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said in a statement.
“We hope our reward will result in information leading to an arrest in this case”.
He noted that CAIR recently welcomed arrests in two recent alleged anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian hate crimes in New York.
Awad also cited the murder of a 6-year-old Palestinian-American boy and the wounding of his mother who were targeted by the suspect due to them being Muslim and the ongoing Middle Eastern conflict involving Hamas and the Israelis.
These incidents come as Muslims, Arabs, and Palestinians across the country report a surge in anti-Muslim and anti-Arab hate since the escalation of violence in Palestine and Israel last month.
Earlier this month, CAIR released new data indicating a 216 percent surge in complaints, including incidents of bias, reported to its offices since the start of the crisis on October 7th.
CAIR said it has received 1,283 complaints over the past month, an “unprecedented” Increase in complaints of Islamophobia, anti-Arab bias.
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