Following the bloody Israeli war on Gaza, discrimination and attacks against Muslims in the United States have reached record levels, according to data from a human rights group.
According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), there were a total of 8,061 complaints in 2023, a 56% increase from the previous year, marking the highest number since the group began recording incidents nearly 30 years ago. Approximately 3,600 of these incidents occurred between October and December.
AntiMuslim incidents in the US included the stabbing of American-Palestinian child Wadi’ Al-Fayyumi, the shooting of three Palestinian students, and the stabbing of a Palestinian man in Texas.
The CAIR report noted a resurgence of Islamophobia in 2023 after a recorded annual decline in 2022, with the average monthly incidents increasing from about 500 to around 1,200 in the last quarter of the year.
The report attributed this escalation to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, with complaints rising in categories such as immigration, asylum, workplace discrimination, hate crimes, and discrimination in education.
The council gathered the numbers through reviewing public data and videos, as well as reports from phone calls, emails, and online complaint systems, reaching out to individuals who experienced the mentioned incidents in the media.
