Hate crimes against Muslim in US surges by 67%, FBI says

A new data by the FBI reveals that hate crimes against Muslims in the United States shot up 67 per cent in 2015 to their highest levels since the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The federal law enforcement agency report on Monday also revealed that overall, 57 per cent of the 5,850 reported incidents were motivated by race or ethnicity, while 20 percent of hate crimes were related to religious bias.

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“I think these statistics are just a fraction of what we see on the ground right now,” Ibrahim Hooper, from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), told Al Jazeera.

“We witnessed a spark in the number of hate crimes against Muslims in late 2015, and this number increased further during Donald Trump’s election campaign.

“We expect the situation to get worse in the future, based on the fact that Donald Trump had mainstreamed Islamophobia.” Ibrahim added.

 

 

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