Reports of anti-Muslim bias hit record levels after start of Israel-Hamas war, group says

CAIR said 2023 was the year it received the highest number of bias reports from Muslims, spurred by the Israel-Hamas War. The number's top the fallout from 9/11 and Trump's Muslim ban.

The Council on American Islamic Relations said 2023 was the year it received the highest number of bias reports in its 30-year history.

A report released Tuesday from the Muslim civil rights organization CAIR shows it got 8,061 complaints nationally last year from Muslims who reported experiencing discrimination or hate incidents. It’s the largest number the group has ever gotten, the report said, and represents a 56% increase from 2022.

It’s also a larger number than it received in the aftermath of 9/11, when anti-Muslim sentiment was at a peak in the U.S., said Corey Saylor, CAIR’s research and advocacy director. But he notes CAIR was a smaller organization at the time, and fewer people may have known they could report.

Nearly half of all complaints came in the final three months of the year, after the start of the Israel-Hamas war, which the report cites as the primary driving force behind heightened Islamophobia. 

Saylor said “both parties” — Democrats and Republicans — “have indulged in rhetoric stereotyping and dehumanizing Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/anti-muslim-bias-record-levels-rcna145359

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