An Open Letter to the Co-Chairs of the Oregon Ways and Means Committee Urging Support for SB577: Oregon’s Hate Crime Bill
https://medium.com/@zakirkhan626/an-open-letter-to-the-co-chairs-of-the-oregon-ways-and-means-committee-urging-support-for-sb577-60c345ce48c6
Dear Sen. Steiner Hayward, Sen. Johnson, and Rep. Rayfield:
We write to you as a member of the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights organization (the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)) and as an organization that has been advocating for Oregon’s Muslim community since the MAX stabbings happened two years ago. We have been on the frontlines against hate every day supporting survivors of hate crimes and bias incidents, de-platforming hate groups and countering white supremacy. Our office is located in the heart of Beaverton. We write to you to ask you to support efforts to pass SB 577: Oregon’s Hate Crime Law. SB 577 is the culmination of two years of advocacy by many different social justice organizations, legislators, civic officials, law enforcement entities and concerned community members.
SB 577 makes important changes to Oregon’s hate crime laws and has no opposition. First, the bill makes bias crimes a felony. Second, the bill creates three separate data tracking systems — bias crimes, bias incidents and crimes where bias played a role. These systems are crucial because the FBI no longer reports hate crimes data and has said they will not do so for the immediate future. Third, the bill creates a central hate crimes hotline at the DOJ. Fourth, the bill adds gender identity as a protected class. The fiscal ask for the bill is currently around $670,000.
In addition, CAIR-Oregon, Rural Organizing Project, CAUSA, APANO, Oregon Justice Resource Center, Portland Jobs with Justice, Nasty Women Get Shit Done, NAACP of Corvallis/Albany, As the Spirit Moves Us and Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility support the current bill and also a supplemental fiscal measure with an ask that we’ve got down to $1.2 million. We’ve created this handy infographic to explain this package.
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We had hoped to speak with you about this matter in person but we have not received a response to our emails. We also hoped to meet you at OHSU, where we have given a talk at the School of Nursing’s annual iftar for three years in a row but we have not seen you there either. We hope after reading this letter that you will connect with us.
Sen. Steiner Hayward and Rep Rayfield — your districts are home to a sizeable Muslim population. That Muslim population has repeatedly been a victim to bias crimes and bias incidents. In fact, just recently the FBI alerted Muslims in Beaverton to a threat that had been posted online after what happened in New Zealand. This manifestation of hate doesn’t just target mosques, it also targets Muslim women. Muslim women who wear the hijab have repeatedly told us of the situations that they face. Just yesterday, a worker at Portland Community College told us that a Muslim woman had her hijab ripped off. Your constituents are repeatedly under threat of biased violence and oppression.
At CAIR-Oregon, we support survivors. We continue to support those impacted by the MAX stabbings that took place two years ago. Two days after the MAX stabbings a Muslim couple was the victim of a hate crime. We stood with them and supported them. The story received national and state attention. When the Eugene mosque was attacked, we worked with the Lane County community to protect them. When person after person has faced discrimination and harassment we have fought for them. Our advocacy is not just for the Muslim community, we have also supported survivors of other religions, ethnicities, gender identities and backgrounds.
We are confounded that you do not currently support SB 577 and are not currently viewing it as a top priority. We traveled to DC earlier this year and every single staffer and representative that we met with viewed this issue as a top priority. In fact, we directly met with U.S. Rep. Bonamici who said that what the Muslim community was dealing with was a grave problem. When we have met with the Oregon legislature they too have viewed this as a top priority. Imagine our surprise when we heard that the co-chairs did not view this as a top priority and thus did not think that this effort should be funded.
Sen. Steiner Hayward we saw that you tweeted about the Christchurch attacks and how important it was to have moral courage in the wake of white supremacy. We are asking all of you to have the same moral courage as the New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern had when she united a nation against fascists. This is your chance to stand up not only for Oregon’s Muslims but also for Muslims across the world who face marginalization.
Our very existence is resistance against white supremacy. Our existence also brings with it imminent danger to our lives. Just two weeks ago we had to call the Oregon State Police and the FBI about persistent death threats coming from far-right groups. The day of these threats we were slated to speak at where you currently work — OHSU. We had to secure security arrangements with several different law enforcement entities just to make sure that we could speak publicly in peace.
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Muslims are still in the holy month of Ramadan. A month of reflection and blessings. A moment to stand and support a variety of different marginalized communities. A month to be grateful. A month to endure.
We are not enduring all of this to watch hate crime reform fail. We are enduring all of this for every survivor that asked us to advocate for them and with them. We are enduring all of this so that our community can have a better life. We are enduring this so that our children will not be bullied in schools anymore. We are enduring all of this because this is the most important fight of our lifetime. We know the risks of this fight against white supremacy and yet we endure. We know the fights that still remain on this issue and we are steadfast in fighting those battles. We expect you and Sen. Johnson to be as well.
Please fund the hate crime reform package (SB 577) and the supplemental package as well. This should be a take-home bill for every single Democrat and for every marginalized group within Oregon. We need you to be an escalator, not a gatekeeper. Our community demands it. Every marginalized community in Oregon demands it. Every Oregonian of conscience demands it! If you will not stand with us in our moment of greatest need, when will you stand with us?
Sincerely,
Zakir Khan
CAIR-Oregon Board Chair
cairoregon.org / twitter: @cairoregon
If you’re reading this letter and would like to support our efforts, you can contact the Co-Chairs here:
Sen. Steiner Hayward: Sen.ElizabethSteinerHayward@oregonlegislature.gov or at 503–986–1717.
Sen. Betsy Johson: Sen.BetsyJohnson@oregonlegislature.gov or at 503–986–1716.
Rep. Dan Rayfield: rep.danrayfield@oregonlegislature.gov or at 503–986–1416.
Every call and email matters.
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