A woman from Texas has been charged with attempted murder after she tried to drown a three-year-old Palestinian girl, according to US media reports citing local police.
Muslim Civil Liberties Group, the most prominent Islamic movement in the US, is calling for hate crime charges against the Texas perpetrator, Elizabeth Wolf, who now faces counts of attempted murder and child injury.
Wolf argued with the child’s mother, asked about her nationality, and made racist remarks towards the family, witnesses reported.
Police say that Wolf allegedly attacked the mother identified as H–a hijabi woman wearing modest swimwear – pulling down her children to the deepest end of the pool.
H’s six-year-old son escaped Wolf’s grip, while her daughter had to depend on a bystander’s intervention after Wolf forced her head underwater.
Ensuing her arrest, Wolf reportedly threatened to kill the mother and her family. She has been released on $40,000 bail.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair) has condemned the attack and called for a hate-crime investigation. “We are seeing a new level of bigotry,” expressed Cair’s Shaimaa Zayan, calling for higher bail and public discussions with officials to fight the increasing Islamophobia and anti-Arab sentiments. Salman Bhojani, Texas State Representative, has also condemned the attack, accentuating that hate has no place in their community.
This incident is no different from a recent one in Illinois, where a six-year-old Muslim boy was fatally stabbed multiple times in a hate crime amidst rising tensions in the context of the war on Gaza. Activists’ groups reveal a proliferation of anti-Muslim and anti-Arab incidents in the US since October.
H. explained she was terrified, highlighting what her daughter has gone through and the everyday risks surrounding her and her family. “We are American citizens, originally from Palestine, and I don’t know where to go to feel safe with my kids,” she told the media.
