A new report just released by the Council of American-Islamic Relations found a 91 percent spike in hate crimes in the second quarter of this year.
The report titled Anti-Muslim Bias Incidents April-June 2017 found the most frequent type of incidents documented were non-violent harassment followed by hate crimes involving either physical or property damage.
“The presidential election campaign and the Trump administration have tapped into a seam of bigotry and hate that has resulted in the targeting of American Muslims and other minority groups,” said Zainab Arain, coordinator in CAIR’s Department to Monitor and Combat Islamophobia. “If acts of bias impacting the American Muslim community continue as they have been, 2017 could be one of the worst years ever for such incidents.”
CAIR also found a 24 percent hike in bias incidents. Bias incidents are defined as religious discrimination in the report. Hate crimes are those considered criminal offenses.
The report is based on 946 complaints submitted to CAIR by the public. It is not known if the spike is due to increased incidents or greater awareness of CAIR by the public.
Out of the complaints, a cause was identified in 406 cases. The most likely caused blamed was ethnic or national origin followed by the victim being perceived as Muslim and the wearing of a hijab or head scarf.
In 290 cases, the victim’s ethnic identity could be identified. Middle Eastern/North Africcan and South Asian were the most likely victims.
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