Islamophobia in America a Zionist project: US Muslim leader

The rise of anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States is a Zionist project to prevent the growth of Islam in the West, an American Muslim leader says.

“There is a great rise of Islamophobia and in America and it precedes [US presidential candidate] Donald Trump and his statement,” said Abdul Alim Musa, director of Masjid Al-Islam in Washington, DC and member of the Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought.

“We believe this Islamophobia in America is a Zionist American engineering project which if done properly would justify the hatred of Islam, hatred of Muslims,” Musa said Thursday during an interview with Press TV.

The Muslim activist and public speaker said the backlash against Islam in the West is due to the fact that this religion is “winning the war of spiritually” in the world.

Islamophobia spiked in the US after anti-Muslim comments were made by some Republican presidential candidates, especially Donald Trump and Ben Carson.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim advocacy group, says cases of vandalism, damage and destruction of mosques reached a record high in 2015 since the organization began tallying incidents in 2009.

On Tuesday, a man has been arrested in the US state of Florida after desecrating and vandalizing a mosque.

The man also left raw bacon at the front door of the Masjid al-Mumin mosque in Titusville, Florida.

This was at least the third report of vandals leaving pork at US mosques in less than a month.

Last month, pork was left on the door handle of the Masjid-e-Tawheed mosque in Las Vegas, Nevada, and a pig's head was thrown near the al-Aqsa Islamic Society in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, according to CAIR.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.ir