University of Texas at Austin stabbing | |
---|---|
Part of Israel-Hamas war | |
Location | University of Texas at Austin, West Campus |
Date | February 4, 2024 |
Target | Pro-Palestinian protesters |
Attack type | Stabbing and assault |
Weapon | Knife |
Deaths | 0 |
Injured | 1 |
Perpetrator | Bert James Baker |
Motive | Anti-Palestinianism |
Charges | Assault with a deadly weapon |
On 4 February, 2024 a stabbing attack occurred on the grounds of the University of Texas at Austin, perpetrated by 36 year-old Bert James Baker against a 23-year-old Palestinian-American student who attended a pro-Palestinian protest.
Anti-Palestinianism was a rising sentiment during the Israel-Hamas war all over the world, including the United States. [1] This has caused heightening tensions between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinians which sometimes leads to violent events to occur. [2] Even before this attack, many anti-Palestinian hate crimes occurred with one of them being the shooting of three Palestinian-American men wearing Palestinian keffiyehs in Burlington, Vermont. [3]
During a pro-Palestinian protest at the University of Texas at Austin, Baker attacked a man inside the truck who was sitting in the passenger side of a car with his friend by dragging him out of the vehicle and put him to the ground after attempting to rip off a pro-Palestinian symbol from the truck that Doar was in and calling the group a racial slur. [4] [5] During this scuffle, the man's friend, 23-year-old Zacharia Doar attempted to help him but was stabbed while attempting to intervene. [6] Doar was taken into the hospital for non-life threatening injuries but, according to his father, was still in immense pain. [7]
Police arrested Baker after the attack and Austin police stated that the attack was "bias-motivated" and would be investigated and treated as a hate crime. [8] A month later was indicted by a grand jury on an aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charge but wasn't charged with any additional hate crime charge. [9]
The Muslim Public Affairs Council stated that they were concerned with the rising Islamophobia and anti-Palestinianism after the attack stating that they were deeply concerned. [10]
The Council on American–Islamic Relations stated that they condemn the attack strongly and that people who perpetrate these crimes should be "prosecuted to the full extent of the law". [11]
A hate crime is crime where a perpetrator targets a victim because of their physical appearance or perceived membership of a certain social group.
The Muslim Public Affairs Committee UK (MPACUK) is a London-based British Muslim lobby and civil liberties group founded to address what it perceived as the under-representation of Muslims in British politics. The organisation is active primarily in electoral campaigns and media appearances.
Gregory Gymnasium is the 4,000-seat current home of the University of Texas Longhorn women's volleyball team, and former home of the Longhorn basketball and swimming teams. The basketball teams moved out in 1977 to the Erwin Center. It also served as the home court for the Austin Aces of World Team Tennis from 2014 to 2015.
West Campus is a neighborhood in central Austin, Texas west of Guadalupe Street and its namesake, the University of Texas at Austin. Due to its proximity to the university, West Campus is heavily populated by college students.
The National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) is a non-profit Canadian Muslim civil liberties and human rights advocacy organization. The organization was established in 2000 to focus on combatting Islamophobia, hate and racism through legal action, public advocacy, education, and media representation. NCCM's mission is "to protect Canadian human rights and civil liberties, challenge discrimination and Islamophobia, build mutual understanding, and advocate for the public concerns of Canadian Muslims."
Stop Islamization of America (SIOA), also known as the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), is an anti-Muslim, pro-Israel American counter-jihad organization known primarily for its controversial, Islamophobic advertising campaigns. The group has been described as extremist and far-right. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) lists SIOA as an anti-Muslim hate group.
Anti–Middle Eastern sentiment is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against people who belong to or originate from the various ethnic groups of the Middle East. Although it is commonly associated with Islamophobia, as Muslims constitute the majority of the region's population, it is a distinct type of hatred in itself and may not always stem from religion-based animosity. People who harbour negative feelings towards the region's people view them as barbaric and inferior on racial, ethnic, cultural, or religious grounds, or a combination of any of these factors.
Islamophobia in Canada refers to a set of discourses, behaviours and structures which express feelings of anxiety, fear, hostility and rejection towards Islam or Muslims in Canada.
Stabbing attacks, which have been used as a tactic for thousands of years, became an increasingly common form of terrorism targeting random civilians in the 21st century, in particular during the 2010s and 2020s.
On May 26, 2017, Jeremy Joseph Christian fatally stabbed two men and injured a third after he was confronted for shouting racist and anti-Muslim slurs at two black teenagers, Destinee Mangum and Walia Mohamed, on a MAX Light Rail train in Portland, Oregon. Two of the victims, Ricky John Best of Happy Valley and Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche of Portland, were killed; the third victim, Micah David-Cole Fletcher, survived with serious wounds.
A mass stabbing is a single incident in which multiple victims are harmed or killed in a knife-enabled crime. In such attacks, sharp objects are thrust at the victim, piercing through the skin and harming the victim. Examples of sharp instruments used in mass stabbings may include kitchen knives, utility knives, sheath knives, scissors, katanas, hammers, screwdrivers, icepicks, bayonets, axes, machetes and glass bottles. Knife crime poses security threats to many countries around the world.
In 2018 and 2019, antisemitism in the United States was reported to have increased compared to previous years according to statistics collected by both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Anti-Defamation League. These statistics include both violent antisemitic attacks on Jews and cases of harassment. Antisemitism has also been reported during the 2024 pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses.
Anti-Palestinianism or anti-Palestinian sentiment, also called anti-Palestinian racism, refers to prejudice, collective hatred, and discrimination directed at the Palestinian people for any variety of reasons. Since the mid-20th century, the phenomenon has largely overlapped with anti-Arab racism and Islamophobia due to the fact that the overwhelming majority of Palestinians today are Arabs and Muslims. Historically, however, anti-Palestinianism was more closely identified with European antisemitism, as far-right Europeans detested the Jewish people as undesirable foreigners from Palestine. Modern anti-Palestinianism—that is, xenophobia with regard to the Arab people of Palestine—is most common in Israel, the United States, and Lebanon, among other countries.
On October 14, 2023, Wadea al-Fayoume, a six-year-old Palestinian-American boy, was killed when he was stabbed 26 times in his home in Plainfield Township, Illinois. His mother, Hanaan Shahin, was also stabbed and strangled, leaving her critically injured. Authorities have described the killing as a hate crime motivated by lslamophobia and anti-Palestinianism, and an extremist reaction to the contemporaneous 2023 Israel–Hamas war.
Since 7 October 2023, numerous violent incidents prompted by the Hamas attack on Israel and the ensuing Israel–
Following the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and the outbreak of the Israel–Hamas war, there has been a surge of antisemitism around the world. Israeli Immigration Minister Ofir Sofer has stated that Israel is bracing to expect a large wave of Jews migrating to Israel due to the rising antisemitism around the world.
Following the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and the outbreak of the Israel–Hamas war, there has been a surge of anti-Palestinianism, anti-Arab racism, and Islamophobia around the world. Palestinians have expressed concerns over increased anti-Palestinianism in mass media and anti-Palestinian hate crimes. Human rights groups have noted an increase in anti-Palestinian hate speech and incitement to violence against Palestinians.
In the aftermath of the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, an uptick in Islamophobic comments and sentiment has been observed, in both Israel itself and countries all over the world.
This is a timeline of events during the year 2023 which relate to religion.