The Seattle Human Services Coalition awarded CAIR-Washington State with the Ron Chisom Anti-Racism Award during the Coalition’s annual event held at Seattle City Hall on Thursday, June 13, 2013.

Hassan (name changed for this story to maintain privacy), a high school student in the Seattle Public School District has been forced to change school districts because of the uncomfortable environment that was created when he was falsely accused of stealing from another student’s locker at his former school.

Hassan was told that he had been caught stealing on camera; however when his mother called and asked to see the video, her request was denied.

Christina (name changed for this story to maintain privacy), a woman living in California, contacted CAIR-WA via our online “Report Discrimination” form on November 10, 2012. She reported having experienced many incidents of discrimination which have caused her a lot of problems. At that time in particular she was having difficulties with finding housing and was living in a motel.

On October 2, 2012, a Muslim employee of a Seattle-area medical center contacted CAIR-WA to report that he does not have access to an appropriate space for prayer in his workplace.His employer has provided a “quiet room” that is set aside for employee use; however that room is very small and often used by others for quiet conversation or other purposes which prevent its use for prayer. As a result, the man has often had to skip prayers after running out of time while waiting for the room to become available on his breaks.

On Thursday, September 28, 2012 two FBI agents, one male and one female, knocked on the door of a home located in the greater Seattle area. The resident is a US citizen of Afghan descent, who has lived in the U.S. for over 30 years.When she answered the door, the agents flashed their badges, then began asking very personal question without further explanation, eventually bringing the woman to tears. The questions included:

After years of ongoing harassment and discrimination in a Puget Sound area school district, a local Muslim man found relief from years of suffering, after he finally saw his complaints fully addressed last month, July, 2012, with the assistance of CAIR-WA and an attorney in CAIR-WA's pro bono network.

The man, who supports his family of five by working two jobs as a custodian, first contacted CAIR-WA in 2009 when he was forbidden to pray or break fast at work during Ramadan.   

At the end of October, CAIR-WA’s Civil Rights Department had processed a total of 242 complaints reported to our office so far in the year 2012.  You may view summaries of some of these cases by vising our Civil Rights Digest here.

This already surpasses the total number of complaints reported for the entire year of 2011 (202 complaints), and there are still two months to go!

On Wednesday, September 19, 2012 a mosque in the Puget Sound area received a bomb threat in their email inbox.  Its subject line, the e-mail sent by Josh Standlee, a 26-year old man from Mukilteo, WA, read “Peace and Love” and the email itself stated: “Kindly get the f*** out of [city name] before more bombs go off, please.

On September 4, 2012, a group of eight Muslim men, who are all students at local colleges, rented two cars and drove to Lake Chelan, WA to jet ski on the lake. They parked their cars in the parking lot of the jet ski rental shop and left the car unattended while jet skiing, from 5:30 to 8:00 that evening.