Epress.am News from Armenia
Following threats of genocide to ten mosques in five states across the U.S. in late November, Armenian Americans drafted a statement of solidarity with Muslims and other groups experiencing recent escalations of hate crimes since Donald Trump was elected President of the United States. As of today, five Armenian organizations have endorsed the statement.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), there are an estimated 892 hate groups in the U.S. The figure represents a 14% increase from the previous year, and an increase for the first time in three years, coinciding with Trump’s candidacy. In the month following the election, the SPLC has counted 1094 bias-related incidents.
“As a community made up of many children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of genocide survivors,” the statement reads, “we will not tolerate any group of people being targeted with hatred or violence.”
Writer Nancy Agabian, one of the co-authors of the statement said, “Our voices matter to Muslim Americans. As a people of conscience, we must actively condemn any attempt to normalize the dehumanization of marginalized communities in the U.S. We are also direct targets of Trump’s hateful rhetoric, as immigrants, West Asian and Middle Easterners, and LGBTQ, so we must stay vigilant to protect our community as well.”
The statement has sparked concern of how else the incoming Trump administration’s policies will affect vulnerable communities. “We are gravely concerned for the working class Armenians who are recipients of social services such as Section 8 housing, Medicare and social security,” said Hasmik Geghamyan, a civil rights lawyer based in California. “Those programs are being threatened right now, and many social workers in Los Angeles fear that taking away these programs could put the community in crisis. We hope this statement will awaken those who have been silent for way too long.”
The full statement and list of organizational and individual signatories to the statement can be found here.