Civil Rights Group Alleges Anti-Muslim Hate Crime at Prep School

Bloomfield Hills, MI — A civil rights and anti-discrimination group is asking authorities to pursue a hate crime investiation in allegationss that a Muslim-American student at a prestigious private prep boarding school in Bloomfield Hills and her elderly mother were harassed by a group of males

The Michigan regional office of the Anti-Discrimination Committee said in a statement that on two occasions on the same day, the Cranbrook Schools student and her mother were surrounded and verbally harassed with racial epithets; subjected to a barrage of insults including “ISIS,” “raghead” and “terrorist;” and told to “go back to your country or we will blow your ass up.”

ADC-Michigan said the incidents, which also allgedly included a physical confrontation while the student was jogging, was captured on surveillance video and that “Cranbrook has done little to ensure her safety since these incidents have occurred.”

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In an emailed statement to Patch, Cranbrook director of communications Clay Matthews said:

“We are surprised and disappointed to hear these inflammatory allegations that are inconsistent with the ongoing police and school investigation. Cranbrook Schools is a diverse community, enrolling students from 22 countries and from every walk of life. We have long celebrated the value of diversity in all of its forms and absolutely do not tolerate acts of harassment or discrimination. In order to preserve the integrity of the ongoing investigation we can make no further comment at this time.”

“This student should never have been in this kind of situation,”  attorney Fatina Abdrabboh, ADC-Michigan’s director, said in the statement that called the incident “a clear example of increasing Islamophobia.”

“Muslim women are in an especially vulnerable position, and should be treated equally regardless of their religion or race,” Abdrabboah said. “Hate crimes like this should never be tolerated in a free country.”

ADC-Michigan accused the school of not taking the incident seriously, and said its “dismissal of the victim’s claims and its refusal to send out a campus-wide notification puts her, and the general student body, at risk of verbal and physical harassment.”