According to recent FBI stats reported on by the Sikh Coalition, anti-Sikh hate crimes in 2022 were at the highest number ever, a total of 198.
The report found that anti-Asian hate crimes fell 34%, often credited to pandemic-era fears slipping out of the public consciousness, but some Asian American groups have argued that the reporting rate is falling instead.
The Sikh Coalition’s report also emphasized that other faith communities were facing rising victimization, with a total of 1,217 anti-Jewish hate crimes, 200 anti-Islamic hate crimes, and 29 anti-Hindu hate crimes.
According to The American Kahani, President Biden released a statement calling the data, “A reminder that hate never goes away, it only hides.”
“Any hate crime is a stain on the soul of America,” the President continued.
Crimes based on religious hate generally increased by 17%, bringing the rate to the highest it’s been since the post-9/11 era—when Sikh Americans faced a spate of hate crimes partially motivated by perpetrators misidentifying Sikhs as Muslims based on stereotypes. Those attacks, especially the murder of Balbir Singh Sodhi in supposed retaliation for 9/11, led to the formation of the Sikh Coalition.
Race/Ethnicity/Ancestry remained the most common motivation for hate crimes, followed by religious reasons, with sexual orientation third, around a percentage point lower than the rate of religiously motivated hate crimes—reflecting a 19% rise in anti-LGBTQ hate crimes.
The Sikh Coalition also argued that the FBI data remains “woefully incomplete” due to the lack of mandatory reporting of hate crimes by law enforcement agencies across the country, pointing out that law enforcement participation fell for the fifth consecutive year in the 2022 statistics.
AsAmNews is published by the non-profit, Asian American Media Inc.
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