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U.S. Muslim advocacy group releases report on civil rights abuses

The Council on American-Islamic Relations said it received 232 requests for legal assistance last year
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Massachusetts’ largest Islamic advocacy organization is releasing its first annual report on the civil rights abuses faced by local Muslims.

The state’s chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said Wednesday it received 232 requests for legal assistance last year.

The organization said that’s down about six per cent from 2017, which saw a surge in requests for help on immigration cases related to the Trump administration’s ban on travellers from certain Muslim-majority countries.

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Among the prominent cases highlighted was one involving a fifth-grader at Hemenway Elementary School in Framingham who received threatening notes in her classroom storage bin.

The report also mentions a 2018 case in which a woman shouted slurs and obscenities at two Muslim families and grabbed a 72-year-old woman’s hijab in Braintree.

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The Associated Press

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