An app for reporting hate crimes?
The answer to the question posed above is in the affirmative. The Council on American Islamic Relation, a civil rights advocacy group has launched an app which will allow users to report incidents of bias.
The app which goes by the name of “Making Democracy Work for Everyone” will allow users to learn about their constitutional rights when contacted by law enforcement or the Department of Homeland Security. The app also has a feature allowing users to donate to the organization as well as news and polls of relevance to the Muslim community. However, the most important feature of the app is giving users the ability to report incidents of bias.
While the app has been developed by CAIR, an organization which prides itself on empowering American Muslims, spokesman Ibrahim Hooper has been quoted as saying that the app is, in fact, for everyone.
The introduction of the app comes at an increasingly difficult time for Muslim Americans and other minority groups. Since the commencement of President Trump’s election campaign and his subsequent election there has been an uptick in hate crimes, with many minority leaders and organizations linking such crimes to the President’s rhetoric.
American Muslims, like many other minority groups have fallen victim to this upsurge in hate crimes. CAIR released a report recently noting a 57 percent increase in Anti Muslim incidents in 2016 over the previous year.
This upsurge comes with the recent breaking away of a White House tradition commemorating the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. President Trump’s administration recently decided not to hold a Ramadan dinner, breaking away from this White House Tradition, cited by some to have started by President Thomas Jefferson way back in 1805.