Vox: the number of anti-Muslim hate groups in America increased by 197 percent in 2016

[TomCADem]

I guess when hate groups like the KKK and white supremacists like Milo become normalized, we can say, "Thanks Trump."

http://www.vox.com/identities/2017/2/16/14636418/hate-groups-map-splc-2016

2016 was “a banner year for hate,” according to a new report by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

SPLC cited some of the typical reasons for that label: Donald Trump, whose campaign relied largely on anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric and anti-black dog whistling, won the 2016 election. There was an increase in reports of hate acts following his win. And the deadliest mass shooting in US history was an explicitly anti-LGBTQ attack at a gay nightclub.

But SPLC also cited a new finding in its report: 2016 saw an increase in the number of known hate groups, driven in large part by a 197 percent increase — from 34 in 2015 to 101 last year — in anti-Muslim hate groups. In total, there were 917 hate groups, up from 892 in 2015 but below numbers seen earlier in Barack Obama’s presidency.

“Hate groups remain at very high levels and in fact went up last year for the second year in a row,” Mark Potok, a senior fellow at SPLC, told me. And, he added, the increase in anti-Muslim hate groups was historic — far above what SPLC found in previous years.