A Washington-based advocacy group studying anti-Muslim incidents has recorded a 180% rise in related cases in the U.S. since the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion of Israel.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said Monday it has received 3,578 complaints during the last three months of 2023, amid what it called “an ongoing wave of anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian hate.”
The figure is a 178% rise from complaints in the same period from a year earlier.
Rights advocates have also noted a rise in Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian bias in the U.S. and elsewhere since the eruption of war in the Middle East.
Among incidents in the U.S. that raised alarm were a November shooting in Vermont where three students of Palestinian descent were shot and the fatal stabbing of a 6-year-old Palestinian American child in Illinois in October.
Complaints of employment discrimination led the list with 662 instances; hate crimes and hate incidents were reported 472 times; and education discrimination 448 times, CAIR said.
Earlier this month, the Anti-Defamation League said that in the three months after Oct. 7, U.S. antisemitic incidents rose by 360% compared to the prior year.
The U.S. government recently issued security guidance for faith-based communities amid heightened antisemitism and Islamophobia since the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion that killed 1,140 people and Israel’s subsequent military operation in Gaza that has killed over 26,000 Palestinians or more than 1% of Gaza’s 2.3 million population.
The U.S. Justice Department said it was monitoring rising threats against Jews and Muslims amid the conflict, while President Joe Biden has condemned antisemitism and Islamophobia.
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