Muslim Woman's Tires Slashed in Woodinville Bias Incident: Report

WOODINVILLE, WA – A report of a possible anti-Muslim bias incident is emerging after a woman, a student at Cascadia College in Bothell, allegedly had her tires slashed by a man while she was parked off campus in Woodinville, according to Cascadia.

The incident occurred on Veteran’s Day, Nov. 11, and the student subsequently spoke up about the incident in class. Even though the alleged tire-slashing did not happen on-campus, it is standard for Cascadia College to create a record of such incidents, Vice President of College Relations Meagan Walker told Patch.com.

“After receiving an email from a staff member who had heard about the incident, our director of counseling services established a record of the incident with our executive director of human resources,” Walker said. “The subsequent investigation identified the class in which the information was shared. The instructor confirmed that a Muslim student shared a story of having her tires slashed in an off-campus location on Veteran’s Day.”

There was also a discussion of the incident on Woodinville neighborhood group's Facebook page. A member of the group wrote a post stating that her son shares a class with the woman, who also said that prior to the alleged tire slashing, she was chased by a group of men. The woman usually wears a hijab, according to the Facebook post.

Sgt. Cindi West, the spokesperson for the King County Sheriff’s Office, which speaks on behalf of Woodinville Police, was unable to find a report of a tire slashing in the Woodinville area between Nov. 11 and the end of the month. That does not mean the incident did not happen, just that the person involved did not create a report.

Cascadia College is located next to the University of Washington-Bothell, which has experienced apparent anti-Muslim bias incidents over the last month. The week of Nov. 14, several UW-Bothell students reported that they had been approached by men who asked them to remove their hijabs. On Nov. 15, University of Washington student Nasro Hasson, 19, reported that she was hit in the head by a water bottle thrown at her by a man on the university’s Seattle campus.

Arsalan Bukhari, executive director of the Washington State Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) chapter, had not heard directly about the alleged tire-slashing incident but urged any victim of a bias incident to make a police report. He also asked local leaders to speak out about religious freedom.

“Fair-minded leaders across our nation have a duty to publicly and vocally affirm American values of religious freedom, and publicly and vocally tell stories of the lives and contributions of American Muslims they know,” Bukhari told Patch. “This can be done in simple ways including letters to editors, op-eds, and during speeches at large public events. So that when millions of young American Muslims from Seattle, Washington to Savannah, Georgia turn on the TV or their smart phones and read the news, the messages they hear from fair-minded business and political leaders are that American Muslim children have the right to grow up with the same hopes and dreams as any other young American.”

This and other incidents come at a time when the state is seeing a higher overall occurrences of apparent hate crimes. Last week, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) released a report showing that Washington had the fourth-highest number of reported hate crimes in the U.S. – 48 – over the 10 days after the Nov. 9 election. Overall, the SPLC counted 867 post-election hate incidents nationwide over that period.

Bukhari told Patch that his organization is tracking anti-Muslim hate crimes at the highest level ever. In 2015, CAIR was taking reports of at least one incident every day, including shootings, beatings and mosque burnings. Those incidents were occurring nationwide.

Over the past six months, Bukhari said, there have been at least 12 anti-Muslim attacks in Washington. On Nov. 22, vandals partially destroyed a sign at a Redmond mosque, the largest mosque in the state.

"During most attacks, attackers uttered or expressed the same anti-Muslim slurs repeated daily in mainstream headlines and often by candidates and politicians," Bukhari said.

Walker, of Cascadia College, said that the college did not send out an advisory to students over the alleged tire-slashing incident, but it did in response to the UW-Bothell incidents. She said that the college will not tolerate acts of hate against members of its community.

“We encourage our students and employees to report any such incidents to campus safety, the police, or a trusted college employee but understand that many individuals are afraid of reporting,” she said.

One bright spot amid these incidents: a group of Woodinville-area residents have founded a group to make clear that acts of hate will not be tolerated in local communities. The Northshore Unity Coalition includes residents from Woodinville, Bothell, and Kenmore. They are set to hold their first meeting this Sunday at 1 p.m. at the Northlake Lutheran Church, 6620 Northeast 185th Street in Kenmore. You can learn more about the group by visiting its Facebook page.