On Monday, the FBI said that all reported hate crimes rose in 2015, but ones targeting Muslims increased by a worrisome 67 percent over 2014, to their highest number since 2001, when the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks sparked a rash of anti-Muslim violence and harassment. The total number of reported hate crimes rose to 5,850 last year, from 5,479 in 2014, and 257 of those incidents were anti-Muslim, versus 154 in 2014 and 481 in 2001. Hate crimes against black people made up 52 percent of attacks based on race or ethnicity, while 18.7 percent targeted white people and 9.3 percent were aimed at Latinos. Hate crimes against Jews rose 9 percent.
Late last year, Islamist terrorists attacked Paris and San Bernardino, California, and Donald Trump proposed banning all Muslims from entering the U.S. "We saw a spike in anti-Muslim incidents nationwide beginning toward the end of 2015," Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, tells The Associated Press. "That spike has continued until today and even accelerated after the election of President-elect Trump." The Southern Poverty Law Center has documented more than 200 hate-crime complaints since the election; the FBI statistics rely largely on self-reporting from law enforcement agencies, leading to widespread belief that the actual number of hate crimes is significantly larger.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
Pros and cons of solar energyPros and cons Solar power could become the primary source of electricity worldwide by 2050 – but there are still clouds in the forecast
-
Post Office's Capture software to be reviewed over 'glitches'Speed Read Solicitor representing accused postmasters says flaws in the IT system follow 'very similar pattern' to Horizon
-
How would we know if World War Three had started?Today's Big Question With conflicts in Ukraine, Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific, the 'spark' that could ignite all-out war 'already exists'
-
Trump criminal trial starts with rulings, reminderSpeed Read The first day of his historic trial over hush money payments was mostly focused on jury selection
-
Parents of school shooter sentenced to 10-15 yearsSpeed Read Jennifer and James Crumbley are the first parents to be convicted in a US mass shooting
-
Unlicensed dealers and black market gunsSpeed Read 68,000 illegally trafficked guns were sold in a five year period, said ATF
-
Bankman-Fried gets 25 years for fraudSpeed Read Former "crypto king" Sam Bankman-Fried will report to federal prison
-
Feds raid Diddy homes in alleged sex trafficking caseSpeed Read Homeland Security raided the properties of hip hop mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs
-
'Goon Squad' cops sentenced for torturing 2 Black menSpeed Read The former Mississippi law enforcement officers pleaded guilty last year
-
Michigan shooter's dad guilty of manslaughterspeed read James Crumbley failed to prevent his son from killing four students at Oxford High School in 2021
-
Shooting at Chiefs victory rally kills 1, injures 21Speed Read Gunfire broke out at the Kansas City Chiefs' Super Bowl victory parade in Missouri
