The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has released a mid-year report documenting the state of anti-Muslim hate incidents in 2021.

The national Muslim civil rights and advocacy group says that since the start of the year, it has received hundreds of complaints from chapters across the country, and more than 500 at its national headquarters, regarding anti-Muslim hate crimes, discrimination, immigration and travel issues, school bullying incidents and more.

CAIR also has a branch in Michigan and has taken on major and often high-profile legal cases involving discrimination against the state’s large Muslim population.

In April, CAIR released its civil rights report documenting more than 6,000 complaints nationwide last year, most of which were related to discrimination. In 2019, CAIR released a report documenting more than 10,000 anti- Muslim bias incidents from 2014-2019.

The new report shows major trends over the last seven months based on the incidents reported to CAIR. It also highlights 38 of the most severe cases of anti-Muslim hate during that period, including hate crimes, harassment, school bullying, discrimination, hate speech and anti-mosque incidents.

“Our belief is that these cases can provide the public a glimpse of the day-to-day lives of Muslims in America who continue to face the deadly threat of Islamophobia,” the report says. Significantly, CAIR says it saw an increase in these incidents during Israel’s assault on Gaza this year.

This spike in cases in May and June involved cases of vandalism and an attempted stabbing, and several physical assaults targeting Muslim women wearing the hijab. It also observes the intensification of anti-Muslim hate acts in Canada, noting 11 reports in the media documenting violent anti-Muslim crimes in Canada during the first seven months of 2021.

The majority of these reports took place following the June 7, London, Ontario anti-Muslim terrorist attack that killed three generations of a Canadian Muslim family, leaving a 9-year-old child orphaned.

Source: The Arab American News