Written by Don Byrd
A new report issued by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) details a significant increase in incidents of anti-Muslim bias since 2017. Several of those incidents, the report claims, were related to President Trump’s “travel ban” executive orders or were otherwise “instigated” by agencies of the federal government.
In a press release announcing the findings, CAIR discusses the most common contributing factors to anti-Muslim incidents, which range from harassment and employment discrimination to violent hate crimes.
The most prevalent triggering factor of an anti-Muslim bias incident in 2017 was the victim’s ethnicity or national origin, accounting for 32 percent of the total. The second most frequent trigger was the perpetrator’s perception of an individual as a Muslim – irrespective of the presence or not of an identifying marker such as attire. This trigger constituted 14 percent of the total cases. A head scarf on a woman was the trigger in 13 percent of incidents. The Muslim Ban executive orders made up the fourth most frequent trigger, at 10 percent.
In addition, incidents in 2017 “targeting American children, youth and families who are Muslim or perceived to be Muslim” were more often violent than in 2016.
Overall, the report – which you can read here – finds a 17% increase in 2017 in anti-Muslim bias incidents, and a “15% increase in hate crimes targeting American Muslims over the same period.”
