The workshops launched by Abdelhamid for women are among a number of similar classes around the United States that have sprung up as Muslims perceive themselves to be under increasing threat.
Source/Credit: Yahoo News
By Reuters | March 11, 2016
Some 20 women in Islamic hijab worried by rising anti-Muslim rhetoric in the United States watched on a recent night as their self-defense instructor showed them how to punch a would-be attacker.
"Kiai!" shouted Rana Abdelhamid, an Egyptian-American with a black belt in shotokan karate, as she demonstrated the blow.
"I'm fighting - Kiai! That's how loud I want you to be," Abdelhamid, a Muslim human rights activist and native of Queens, New York, told the group.
The women followed her lead, some shouting the martial arts cry louder than others.
The workshops launched by Abdelhamid for women are among a number of similar classes around the United States that have sprung up as Muslims perceive themselves to be under increasing threat.
The feeling has intensified with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's call in December to ban Muslims from entering the country.
"You can be attacked at any point. You can be pushed off ... of a subway ledge," said Abdelhamid. She added that headscarves and the hijab can sometimes turn Muslim women into targets.
One of the women in the class, Kristin Garrity Sekerci, an American convert to Islam, said she wanted to be able to defend herself if she were attacked.
"You stand out. It's not fair, but it's the reality. And you have to equip yourself to be able to face that," said Garrity Sekerci, who works with the Islamophobia-tracking Bridge Initiative at Washington's Georgetown University.
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http://news.yahoo.com/anti-islam-tone-rises-u-muslim-women-learn-213519802.html?soc_src=mediacontentstory&soc_trk=tw
Read original post here: USA: Anti-Islam tone rises, Muslim women learn self-defense
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