U.S. Muslims Face Backlash After Paris Attacks

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- World on alert. Terrorists kill hostages in a hotel siege overseas, as the FBI monitors dozens of possible extremists here at home. Now, in this tense climate, the growing backlash against one Maryland community.

WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren with the backlash against Muslims in this tense climate.

With the world on alert, authorities have urged us all to be vigilant, but some Muslims say a delicate line is being crossed and they face growing profiling and harassment.

With heightened fears of copycat terror attacks, federal authorities are monitoring dozens of people across the U.S. and have urged Americans to be a first line of defense.

"Good security, screening methods, vetting your people," said Kirk Dennis, ATF special agent.

We have seen people take action, including an off-duty Baltimore County officer shooting a man with a knife at D.C.'s Union Station and police taking passengers off a Spirit Airlines flight at BWI.

"We definitely need to be vigilant. We just need to pick up these clues and report them to the proper authorities. I don't think we should be paranoid," said Vernon Herron, University of Maryland Center for Health and Homeland Security.

There is a delicate balance.

At BWI, no one was charged with any crime. Fellow passengers said those removed appeared "Middle Eastern."

In that incident, the suspicious activity was simply a passenger looking at a video on a phone.

"It seems to be another instance of flying while Muslim," said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman, Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

A climate of caution, including several flights turned around this week and extra searches of luggage, has turned into a climate of hate for some--including shots being fired into the home of a Muslim family in Florida, a mosque shot up in Connecticut and a woman wearing a hijab beaten and called a terrorist in Toronto.

Here in Maryland...

"We've had cases where teachers have called children terrorists and who've told children they're responsible for 9/11," said Zainab Chaudry, Maryland outreach manager, CAIR.

That follows a pattern--an uptick in discrimination after other terror attacks, which Muslims condemn.

"There aren't words in the English vocabulary that can express the disgust and the horror that Muslims not only in the United States, but all across the world feel," said Chaudry.

And now, they feel targeted in a world on edge.