Hate crimes against US Muslims surged to record after Gaza war: report

Washington: Following the war that broke out in Gaza last year, incidents of discrimination and attacks against Muslims and Palestinians reached a record high in the United States. The same was fuelled by rising Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian bias, Reuters reported, citing data published by an advocacy group.

The data released on Tuesday showed that there were 8,061 complaints on the mentioned issue registered last year in the US which was a 56 per cent rise from the year before. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which began recording this for around 30 years, said that around 3,600 complaints were registered from October to December.

Further, Human rights advocates reported a rise in Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian bias and antisemitism since the latest war started.

The reported incidents include a fatal stabbing of a 6-year-old Palestinian American in October. There was the November shooting of three students of Palestinian descent in Vermont. Also, a Palestinian American man was stabbed in Texas in February.

The CAIR report 2023 says that there is a resurgence in anti-Muslim hate in the year after complaints dropped in 2022. While complaints averaged 500 a month in the first nine months of 2023, they reached 1,200 a month in the last quarter.

According to the report, the main cause of the heightening of Islamophobia in the country was the escalation of conflict in Gaza between Palestine and Israel after October last year. Most of the complaints in the year were under the categories of immigration and asylum, employment discrimination, hate crimes and education discrimination, CAIR reported.

CAIR informed that it compiled its statistics after reviewing public statements and videos, along with reports from public calls, emails and online complaint systems.