Hate Crimes Against Muslims Spiked 67 Percent Last Year

[TomCADem]

Source: Mother Jones

There were 5,850 hate crimes in the United States last year—a 7 percent increase over the year before—according to new data released by the FBI on Monday. The main reason for the increase was a massive 67 percent spike in crimes targeting Muslims.

The numbers landed amid an apparent spike in attacks on ethnic and religious minorities in the wake of Donald Trump's election as president. This news comes as no surprise to anti-extremism groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Anti-Defamation League, which have documented a rise in hate crimes for more than a year.

But as stunning as this new data is, it's probably incomplete: Even by estimates from other federal agencies, the FBI's figures don't actually count the vast majority of US hate crimes. Here's a quick guide to what the new numbers mean—and why they don't tell the whole story.

According to the FBI data, nearly 60 percent of reported hate crimes were motivated by racial bias, with anti-black crimes leading, followed by anti-white crimes and crimes against Hispanics. About 20 percent of hate crimes were motivated by religious bias. Anti-Semitic crimes were the most common, while crimes against Muslims followed behind. Incredibly, crimes against Muslims spiked 67 percent over 2014. Anti-gay crimes composed about 18 percent of all hate crimes, with gay men being the most likely target, while hate crimes based on gender identity composed less than 2 percent of all crimes. (However, transgender people—especially trans women of color—are victims of violence at much higher rates than other segments of the population.) Intimidation and assault led among hate crimes against people, while vandalism and destruction were the most common crimes against property. Just over a third of reported hate crimes were violent crimes against people.

Read more: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/11/heres-what-we-know-about-hate-crimes-us

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. Important. And that's only 2015. Any idea if 2016 will see another increase?

[IronLionZion]

2. First they came for the Muslims, and we said not this time

[Behind the Aegis]

3. They will continue to rise...until they are no longer reported.

I don't think the 67% spike in Islamophobic attacks is the "main reason" for the overall 7% increase, but it certainly contributes to it. Groups not previously counted were counted for 2015, and there were increases in attacks on other groups, though not as dramatic as the ones against Muslims with 2015 incidents (1244/257) and victims (1402/307) compared to the 2014 numbers of incidents (1014/154) and victims (1140/184).

African-Americans comprise the largest target group for "Race/Ethnicity/Ancestry". Overall, in terms of incidents and victims, they comprise 52% (incidents: 3310/1745; victims: 4216/2201) in 2015. In 2014, they were 63% for both the overall victims (3227/2022)/incidents (2568/1621) categories. Reporting changed who was included in the "target" group, so while it may look like numbers dropped for AA folks, it didn't! The number of attacks increased by 8% and the number of victims rose by 9%.

Despite the dramatic and alarming increase of attacks against Muslims and the number of Muslims victimized, Jews, were the number one target of 2015 anti-religious incidents(1244/664) 53%/victims (1402/731) 52%; and in 2014 incidents (1014/609) 60%/victims (1140/648) 57%. This resulted in an increase in both incidents and victims, 9% and 13%, respectively.

Incidents against Gay men for 2015 made up 63% (1053/664) of all crimes in the "Sexual Orientation" category and 62% (1263/786) of the victims; In 2014 incidents (1017/599) 59%/victims (1248/703) 56%. The increase in anti-gay male hate crimes stands at 11% for incidents and 12% in regards to victims.

The next years stats (meaning 2016) will be alarming, as we already know attacks against Muslims, Jews, AA, and gay men have already increased, it will also reflect an increase in transphobic crimes, and crimes against Latinos (which stayed the same from 2014), and likely increases against women as targets for hate crimes.

[Mc Mike]

4. It's from rightie election rhetoric and activities.

Last edited Tue Dec 20, 2016, 10:32 AM - Edit history (1)

And they won't get away with it anywhere good people are around to oppose them.

F**k their orange nazi president elect, and all his nazi pals.