Hate crimes against Muslims up 70 percent in 2015

The FBI’s annual report on hate crimes shows fewer incidents in 2015 but more victims than the year before, according to Monday’s announcement.

Overall, religious-based hate crimes jumped by 23 percent past year, with attacks against Jews and Jewish institutions accounting for 53 percent of those reported. The total is second only to the surge in hate crimes following the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001. However, Levin notes in his August study that following Trump’s call for a ban on Muslims entering the United States, there were 15 reported hate crimes, an increase on the average of 12.6 per month in the five years prior.

Of those crimes, about 20 percent were categorized as crimes rooted in religious bias.

The number of anti-Muslim hate crimes has surged by 67%, the largest increase since after September 11.

Anti-Jewish hate crimes rose 9 percent, anti-black hate crimes went up by almost 8 percent, and anti-LGBT hate crimes increased by nearly 5 percent, while anti-Latino hate crimes remained steady. This has led some to believe that hate crimes were being underreported.

2015 saw 257 incidents of anti-Muslim compared to 154 the previous year.

The SPLC admitted that they were unable to verify all of the reports but that leading media outlets throughout the United States have also vetted dozens of cases reported thus far and concluded that hate crimes are significantly on the rise. Since Election Day on November 8, more than 300 hate-fueled incidents have been reported to the Southern Poverty Law Center alone. The civil rights organization said it tallied 201 incidents nationwide between Election Day and Friday evening, based on direct submissions and reports on social media as well as in the news. Many, though not all incidents, involved direct references to the Trump campaign, according to the group’s report.

Hate crimes based on sexual orientation in North Carolina rose 61 percent – from 23 to 37 – far outpacing the national average increase of 3.5 percent, according to Federal Bureau of Investigation statistics released Monday. There were 1,244 such incidents rooted in some religious motivation last year, compared to 1,014 incidents the year before.

Under the category of hate crimes predicated on sexual orientation, 62.2 percent were against gay men and boys, with 664 cases involving 786 victims, a 10 percent growth from 2014, when there were 599 cases.

“I don’t think there’s any question at all that the Trump campaign contributed and contributed mightily to these numbers”, said Mark Potok, senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center.