‘Fatal: The Resurgence of Anti-Muslim Hate’ documents 8,061 total complaints received nationwide in 2023, showing even higher spike than after Trump’s Muslim Ban
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 4/2/2024) – The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today released its 2023 civil rights report, which reveals the highest number of complaints it has ever received in its 30-year-history, at a news conference at its Capitol Hill headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Titled “Fatal: The Resurgence of Anti-Muslim Hate,” the report documents 8,061 complaints. Nearly half of all complaints received in 2023 were reported in the final three months of the year.
The report notes that the 2023 wave of anti-Muslim incidents was a 56 percent jump over the previous year and surpassed even the period following the implementation of President Trump’s Muslim Ban, which saw a 32 percent jump over the previous year.
SEE: 2024 Civil Rights Report: Fatal: The Resurgence of Anti-Muslim Hate
Immigration and asylum cases comprised 20% of total complaints received in 2023. Employment discrimination (15%), education discrimination (8.5%), and hate crimes and incidents (7.5%) are among the highest reported categories.
“The data confirms what we have known for months. Since October 2023, a number of American politicians have blatantly promoted anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian rhetoric in a bid to justify the Israeli government’s genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza,” said CAIR Research & Advocacy Director Corey Saylor, “We are seeing the consequences of this reckless and racist targeting reflected in the data as one of the worst years of anti-Muslim hate recorded in CAIR’s 30-year history.”
In its previous 2023 Civil Rights report, CAIR marked a first-ever decline in complaints reported to its offices. The report’s findings were considered an indication of progress toward mitigating the impact of Islamophobia in the US.
SEE: 2023 Civil Rights Report: Progress in the Shadow of Prejudice
In a statement, CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said:
“The massive and unprecedented rise in complaints documented in CAIR’s civil rights data is almost certainly a result of the widespread use of anti-Muslim rhetoric and anti-Palestinian racism to justify the genocide in Gaza and silence American who have spoken out against it over the past several months.”
“We do not expect an end to the hateful attacks on our communities here until we see an end to the genocide in Gaza. We call on government agencies, companies and local communities to demand an immediate and permanent ceasefire, reject hateful discrimination against American Muslims and others who speak up against the genocide, and take other steps recommended in our report so that our nation can make lasting progress in the fight to advance justice for all.”
The report also details dozens of anti-Muslim incidents that occurred in the United States in 2023.
In December, a teacher threatened to beat and behead a seventh-grade Muslim student in Warner Robins, Georgia. After the student asked about the teacher’s Israeli flag, the teacher was overheard, in part, threatening to “slit [the student’s] god***n throat” and “cut her head off” by several students and witnesses.
SEE: CAIR Georgia Welcomes Arrest and Suspension of Teacher Who Allegedly Threatened to Behead Muslim Student Over Israeli Flag Dispute
In 2023, CAIR also filed a number of lawsuits on behalf of incarcerees and detainees, including an incarcerated Muslim woman in Minnesota who was reportedly photographed without her hijab and forced to carry that photo on her ID card.
The report also documents continued efforts to challenge the federal government’s watchlist in 2023, including a lawsuit with a dozen plaintiffs seeking an end to the government’s secret watchlist that almost exclusively targets Muslims for harassment and humiliation when they travel.
SEE: CAIR Announces Lawsuit in D.C., Mass., N.J., Mich. Seeking End to Secret Government Watchlist
SEE: Twenty Years Too Many: A Call to Unwind the FBI’s Secret Watchlist
CAIR’s mission is to protect civil rights, enhance understanding of Islam, promote justice, and empower American Muslims.
La misión de CAIR es proteger las libertades civiles, mejorar la comprensión del Islam, promover la justicia, y empoderar a los musulmanes en los Estados Unidos.
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