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The latest annual report by the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), which self-describes as a leading advocacy group promoting legal, social, and political activism among Muslims in the US, has highlighted a worrying rise in Islamophobic incidents experienced by American Muslim citizens and residents.
According to the annual report, the council received 8,061 complaints against Islamophobia last year. The number represents the highest figure of complaints the council has ever recorded in its 30-year history.
“The primary force behind this wave of heightened Islamophobia was the escalation of violence in Israel and Palestine in October 2023,” the council said, noting that employers, universities, and schools were among the central actors suppressing free speech by those who sought to oppose Israel’s Massacres in Gaza.
The report detailed that the number of complaints received last year by the council is 56% up from the number reported in 2022.
“At 1,637 complaints, immigration and asylum cases comprised 20% of total complaints received in 2023,” the report said, adding that employment discrimination, education discrimination, and hate crimes are among the highest reported categories.
The report recalled one of the tragic incidents that shook the US Muslim community last October. The Islamophobic attack was against a six-year-old Palestinian American boy who was tragically stabbed and murdered by his family’s landlord in Chicago.
The report cited the boy’s mother, saying that the perpetrator yelled saying: “You Muslims must die” before attempting to choke and stab her.
The report also cited another Islamophobic threat by a teacher who threatened to beat and behead a seventh-grade Muslim student in December last year in Georgia.
Many other cases took place in several other states, with witnessing reporting on verbal assaults targeting Muslims tragically.
The highest recorded number of Islamophobic and anti-Muslim hate incidents was recorded in 2021, according to the report. The number back then was 6,720.
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Meanwhile, nearly half of the complaints received in 2023 were reported in the last three months of the year, which marked Israel’s ongoing relentless campaign targeting civilians across Gaza.
Biden’s administration witnessed the highest record in Islamophobic incidents, the report suggested, noting that the anti-Muslim wave surpassed the period following the implementation of President Trump’s Muslim ban.
Amid Israel’s massacres, Muslims have been vowing to abandon Biden amid his re-election campaign.
The head of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Nihad Awad told Anadolu in a recent interview that Biden has “ignored our people” amid the ongoing genocide and that “we’re going to ignore him” in the upcoming election.
“We told him directly, in our personal capacities, that if you do not call for an immediate ceasefire, you will not get our votes in 2024,” Awad said, emphasizing that there is “no possibility” for the community to give Biden any support following his stance.
US-based news outlet Axios said in December that Biden’s support for Israel could trigger anger that could impact his reelection prospects in key states.
The report emphasized that Muslim leaders from many states, including Michigan, Minnesota, Arizona, Wisconsin, Florida, and Georgia are among the ones backing the “Abandon Biden” campaign.
