News / Human Rights

Hate crimes against American Muslims tripled

Friday, 18 December 2015 5:54 AM [ Last Update: Friday, 18 December 2015 5:55 AM ]

Muslims demonstrate against terrorism outside the White House in Washington, DC, December 6, 2015. (AFP photo)

Hate crimes against US Muslim communities have increased sharply in the aftermath of the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris and California, new data reveals.

According to a report released by a research body in the California State University, crimes such as assaults on hijab-wearing students, arson attacks and vandalism at mosques and shootings and death threats at businesses with Muslim owners have tripled.

In its analysis of data released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the group found that in recent years, there has been an average of 12.6 suspected hate crimes against American Muslims per month.

However, that figure has reached an average of 38 cases since the deadly terrorist attacks in the French capital, Paris, where on November 13 alleged Daesh (ISIL) affiliates killed more than 130 people.

The group also attributes the rising trend to the December 2 mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, which left 14 dead. It was alleged by US officials that “radicalized” Daesh sympathizers were behind the massacre.

American Muslims strongly condemned the incident within hours, but this did not stop the US mainstream media from going on a rampage against Islam. The analysis is the first of its kind to formally document the wave of hatred, according to New York Times.

“The terrorist attacks, coupled with the ubiquity of these anti-Muslim stereotypes seeping into the mainstream, have emboldened people to act upon this fear and anger,” Brian Levin, a criminologist at California State University, San Bernardino, said.

Levin said, in nature, the attacks were similar to the ones seen after the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York.

The report echoes a recent study of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). According to CAIR, mosques and Islamic centers in the US have been facing the highest record of threats, harassment and vandalism this year.

It said that 2015 has been the most intense anti-Muslim year in American history because of deadly attacks carried out in the name of Islam by the Daesh (ISIL) Takfiri terrorist group that is wreaking havoc in parts of Syria and Iraq.

"Daesh wants Americans to turn on each other, and with November seeing the highest number of mosque incidents since we started keeping data, it seems they are getting their wish," said CAIR spokesman Corey Saylor.

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