Chicago Arab Americans, Muslims on rising Islamophobia

Mourners gather for a news conference before the funeral for 6-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoume at the Mosque Foundation in Bridgeview.

Reset with Sasha-Ann Simons

Chicago-area Arab Americans, Muslims say Islamophobia has reached new highs

Leaders say their communities have experienced more hate and threats since Oct. 7 than during any other period since 9/11.

Mourners gather for a news conference before the funeral for 6-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoume at the Mosque Foundation in Bridgeview.

Ashlee Rezin

By Dan Tucker Meha Ahmad Brenda Ruiz

In the last month, two Chicago-area Muslim schools have received violent threats, a six-year-old Palestinian American boy was fatally stabbed and a suburban man was charged with a hate crime for threatening to shoot two Muslim men. For some Arab and Muslim Chicagoans, these news stories take them back to their lives in the days and weeks after 9/11.

Reset learns more about what the community is experiencing. For Reset’s full coverage of the Israel-Hamas war and how it’s affecting the Chicago area, head over to wbez.org/reset.

GUEST: Nader Issa, Chicago Sun-Times education reporter