{"id":28074,"date":"2026-08-05T03:48:29","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T22:48:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=28074"},"modified":"2026-08-05T03:48:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T22:48:29","slug":"string-of-high-profile-hate-crimes-against-muslims-had-nothing-to-do-with-religion-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=28074","title":{"rendered":"String of high-profile &#8216;hate crimes&#8217; against Muslims had nothing to do with religion: investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F2%2F2026%2F08%2Fnewspress-collage-1r3z3p083-1785882501252.jpg?quality%3D90%26strip%3Dall%261785868142\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Muslim civil rights groups are quick to label shootings, book burnings and harassment incidents as Islamophobic hate crimes, using them to raise their profiles and funds.<\/p>\n<p>However, once the full evidence comes to light, such incidents are often revealed to have no religious motive at all, something the groups or liberal media outlets don\u2019t always clarify, watchdogs point out.<\/p>\n<p>A Post investigation has found four incidents where this has been the case.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Imam Abdul-Latif Sackor (pictured) said a shooter had waited outside his Providence, RI, mosque for at least half an hour before shooting at Mustafa Ramos. <span class=\"credit\">WPRI<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Weeks after Hamas launched terrorist strikes on Israel on October 7, 2023, a man wearing Muslim robes was shot outside a mosque in Providence, Rhode Island, where he was selling Islamic books.<\/p>\n<p>The 52-year-old victim was shot in the buttocks and released from hospital two hours later, claiming he was the victim of a hate crime, a police report shows.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>The incident drew international headlines and the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Muslim civil rights group in America, urged Providence police to investigate the incident as a \u201cbias\u201d crime.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause we have witnessed an unprecedented spike in anti-Muslim incidents nationwide in recent weeks, we urge local, state and federal law enforcement authorities to investigate a possible bias motive for this attack,\u201d said\u00a0CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper on the group\u2019s website at the time.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Police responded to a shooting at the Islamic Center of Rhode Island in Providence in November 2023 that was labeled an Islamophobic hate crime by both Muslim and Jewish groups. <span class=\"credit\">WPRI<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>An investigation by<a href=\"https:\/\/www.realclearinvestigations.com\/articles\/2026\/07\/28\/anatomy_of_the_islamophobic_shooting_that_wasnt_1197090.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u00a0Real Clear Investigations<\/a>\u00a0recently found the victim \u2014 Dean Scott Mustafa Ramos \u2014 was not targeted in a hate crime.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was absolutely not a hate crime,\u201d said Major David Lapatin, commanding officer of the Investigative Division of the Providence Police Department.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Court records revealed Ramos is a convicted drug dealer who served five years in prison for manufacturing and distributing drugs. The suspect in the shooting, Nasir Dupont, is a Muslim convert and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/nasir-narcotics-fentanyl-p-6-2024-0454-a-redactedpdf-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">recidivist<\/a>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/nasir-narrative-70pp-compressed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">criminal<\/a>, with a history that includes\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/nasir-firearms-p-2-2023-3226-bg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">illegal gun possession<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/nasir-imprisoned-now-register-of-actions-p-1-2024-3615-a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">robbery<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newportdispatch.com\/2024\/05\/22\/task-force-arrests-multiple-suspects-on-drug-assault-charges-in-providence\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">drug-related crimes<\/a>. He is\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newportdispatch.com\/2024\/05\/22\/task-force-arrests-multiple-suspects-on-drug-assault-charges-in-providence\/#google_vignette\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">currently<\/a>\u00a0in prison awaiting trial on drug and weapons charges, according to the investigation.\u00a0The shooting has not been prosecuted due to a lack of evidence, police said.<\/p>\n<p>Neither man is now co-operating with authorities, but Lapatin told The Post they were known to each other and appeared to have had a personal beef before the shooting, also contradicting the hate crime narrative. Dupont and Ramos could not be reached for comment.<\/p>\n<p>The accusations of Islamophobia helped obscure\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/rumble.com\/v6dkee4-excerpts-from-khutbah-122223-islamic-center-of-ri.html?e9s=src_v1_upp_a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">alleged antisemitic and anti-Christian sermons<\/a>\u00a0taking place inside the mosque where the shooting occurred \u2014 the Islamic Center of Rhode Island (ICRI).<\/p>\n<p>For example, in one December 2023 sermon, Jews were accused of \u201cgenocide\u201d and described as \u201ccorrupters\u201d to be \u201cpunished\u201d and \u201cprophet killers,\u201d according to Real Clear Investigations.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>A month after the Hamas attacks against Israel in 2023, three Palestinian students. \u2014 Tahseen Ali Ahmad, Kinnan Abdalhamid, and Hisham Awartani \u2014 were shot in Burlington, VT in an attack that some Muslim groups still believe was an Islamophobic ambush  even though the suspect is not being prosecuted for a hate crime when he goes to trial in September. <span class=\"credit\">AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cCAIR and Imam [Abdul-Latif] Sackor were given examples of the virulent anti-Christian and jihad sanctioning sermons [at their mosque], but failed to denounce them \u2014\u00a0[which] indicates the sham \u2018Islamophobic shooting\u2019 narrative they promoted was a deliberate, tactical distraction from the Islamic religious hatred preached at the ICRI,\u201d claimed Andrew Bostom, a retired Brown University physician who researches extremism.<\/p>\n<p>Since those accusations, the mosque has stopped posting its sermons online, The Post has found. ICRI did not respond to The Post\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Jason Eaton is a suspect of three Palestinian students in Burlington, VT in 2023. He goes to trial in September. <span class=\"credit\">USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In October 2023, a few days before the October 7 Hamas terrorist strikes in Israel, a video circulated on social media showing an Indian-American high school student allegedly burning a copy of the Quran during summer vacation that year.<\/p>\n<p>Those who saw the video quickly attributed it to a student at the\u00a0Indian Prairie School District 204\u00a0in Naperville, outside Chicago, and falsely identified the burning book as a Quran. Groups such as CAIR and the Indian-American Muslim Council were quick to pounce on the incident.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis particular incident is \u2026 part of a larger trend of\u00a0Hindutva[nationalist]-inspired Islamophobia playing out in Naperville and other communities, and it is high time it is confronted,\u201d CAIR-Chicago wrote in a statement still on their website, even after the Quran burning was deemed\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dupagepolicyjournal.com\/jaiswal-on-alleged-quran-burning-who-are-these-officials-and-administrators-trying-to-pacify\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a hoax.<\/a><\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Hisham Awartani, one of the Palestinian students shot in Burlington in November, 2023. <span class=\"credit\">AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cIt is a stark reminder of the impact of ideological extremism quietly imported into America and the need to address it urgently.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>CAIR told The Post they stand by all of the statements published on their website.<\/p>\n<p>The Indian-American Muslim Council also condemned the incident and called for an investigation into\u00a0\u201cHindu far right influences.\u201d\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/iamc.com\/iamc-condemns-quran-burning-incident-by-high-school-student-in-chicago-suburbs-calls-for-investigation-into-hindu-far-right-influences\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Their statement\u00a0<\/a>from October 2023 is also still on their website.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are a lot of reasons why entities would not correct information about what they believed to be a hate crime that ended up being disproven,\u201d said Lara Burns, a former FBI agent who is head of terrorism research at George Washington University\u2019s Program on Extremism and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/extremism.gwu.edu\/cairs-familiar-dance-denial-and-deflection-face-scrutiny\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the co-author of a 2025 study about CAIR.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is essential that reporting on hate crimes be accurate and transparent\u2026Promoting acts of violence as hate-related when they are not, instills fear where it should not and could promote hate that did not exist before.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Last week CAIR said \u201cmosque incidents\u201d had gone up\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cair.com\/press_releases\/breaking-cair-documents-183-percent-increase-in-mosque-incidents-compared-to-same-time-period-last-year\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">183 percent\u00a0<\/a>over the last year, with a total of 17 incidents in May, June and July.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Protestors with CAIR demand a cease-fire in Gaza during a demonstration in Washington DC in November, 2023. <span class=\"credit\">REUTERS<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The organization times its studies of Islamophobic incidents to coincide with other reports on the rise of antisemitic crimes compiled by the Anti Defamation League, claims Steven Emerson, an expert on terrorism and extremism. CAIR\u2019s October 25, 2023 \u201cunprecedented surge\u201d report came one day after the ADL\u2019s \u201cheavily covered\u201d report of a 388 percent spike in antisemitic incidents, he said. <\/p>\n<p>Two months later, in Dcemeber 2023, the Muslim civil rights group released a report of a \u201cstaggering 2,171 complaints\u201d which landed on the same day <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2023\/12\/07\/news\/cair-head-says-he-was-happy-about-hamas-october-7-attacks-claims-aipac-controlling-the-us-government\/\">the White House condemned <\/a>CAIR director Nihad Awad\u2019s comments celebrating aspects of the October 7 attacks \u2014 a statement he said  was taken \u201cout of context\u201d in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/12\/08\/us\/politics\/white-house-cair-nihad-awad.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">comments<\/a> to the New York Times last week.<\/p>\n<p>A month after the book burning came to light, three Palestinian university students were shot in Burlington, Vermont, while visiting relatives over the Thanksgiving holiday. Two of the men were wearing Keffiyehs and were speaking Arabic and English, according to reports.<\/p>\n<p>Both CAIR and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) were quick to label the shootings a hate crime, with CAIR offering a $10,000 reward for information about the shootings.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCAIR also called on state and federal law enforcement authorities in Vermont to investigate a possible bias motive for the shooting,\u201d according to a November 26, 2023,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cair.com\/press_releases\/cair-offers-10k-reward-for-info-on-shooting-targeting-3-palestinians-in-vermont\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">statement\u00a0<\/a>on CAIR national\u2019s website, which is still available.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Police in Provincetown concluded that the shooting of Mustafa Ramos was not a hate crime because of the suspect Nasir Dupont\u2019s past arrests for assault and drug offenses. <span class=\"credit\">PPD<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>At the time of the shootings, both police chief Jon Murad and Burlington mayor Miro Weinberger cautioned the public not to come to conclusions about the nature of the crime.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fact is that we don\u2019t yet know as much as we want to right now,\u201d\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/vtdigger.org\/2023\/11\/26\/3-people-shot-in-burlington-police-say\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Murad told a press conference.<\/a>\u00a0\u201cBut I urge the public to avoid making conclusions based on statements from uninvolved parties who know even less.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>No specific motive has emerged for the shootings, which left one man paralyzed, but the suspect, Jason Eaton, 51, is going to be allowed to use an insanity defense at trial, according to local reports.<\/p>\n<p>Eaton, a former Boy Scout troop leader, will face trial in September and is acting in his own defense, claiming without evidence that the CIA told him to carry out the shootings.<\/p>\n<p>The ADC stands by its claim the shootings were\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/adc.org\/statement-on-shooting-of-three-palestinian-students-in-vermont\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">anti-Arab<\/a>. \u201cPleading insanity does not negate the possibility this was a hate crime,\u201d said ADC president and legal director Jenin Younes in a statement to The Post last week.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGiven that the victims visibly identified as Palestinian, and the anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim rhetoric permeating the country \u2026 it was more than reasonable to surmise given the circumstances that the violent incident was motivated by the victims\u2019 ethnicity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Islamaphobia and anti-Muslim crimes are a problem in the US, with the FBI reporting 228 hate crimes against Muslims in 2024. Then in a shocking crime this May, two teenage gunmen killed three people in a shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego, before turning their guns on themselves.<\/p>\n<p>In 2023, when CAIR highlighted attacks against Muslims, donations to their national group, the CAIR Foundation, rose by nearly 16 percent from $7.5 million in 2023 to $8.7 million in 2024, public records show.<\/p>\n<p>Contributions to the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee were also up slightly from $625,000 in 2023 to $675,000 the following year, a nearly eight percent increase. Donations to the Indian American Muslim Council were also up in the same period from $1,545,000 to $1,557,000 according to public records.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, in August 2004 Amjad Abunar, a Jordanian-American who owned a Middle Eastern market in a Texas border town, complained that \u201cGo Home\u201d was spray-painted on a door of his Al Madinah Market before a fire destroyed the small deli. CAIR was quick to demand the FBI investigate a possible hate crime.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf whoever set this fire was motivated by anti-Muslim bias, that person needs to be brought to justice before he or she can strike again,\u201d a spokesman for the Muslim civil rights group said.<\/p>\n<p>But\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2004\/09\/30\/us\/hatecrime-accuser-charged-with-arson.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a police investigation found otherwise\u00a0<\/a>and Abunar was arrested on an arson charge.<\/p>\n<p>A spokesman for CAIR told The Post at the time the group called it \u201ca possible\u201d hate crime and they were just as stunned as everyone else to learn Abunar was later arrested.<\/p>\n<p>He disappeared shortly before his December 2005 trial date and a bench warrant for his arrest remains in effect,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.investigativeproject.org\/639\/cair-exposed-part-10-cair-pushes-phony-charges-of-anti-muslim-hysteria-hate-crimes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">according to reports.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Muslim civil rights groups are quick to label shootings, book burnings and harassment incidents as Islamophobic hate crimes, using them to raise their profiles and funds. However, once the full evidence comes to light, such incidents are often revealed to have no religious motive at all, something the groups or liberal media outlets don\u2019t always&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28075,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/newspress-collage-1r3z3p083-1785882501252.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&1785868142&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}