Anti-Muslim Hate Reaches Record Levels in the US: Advocacy Group Reports | News on the Israel-Palestine Conflict

CAIR reports record 8,658 discrimination complaints in 2024 as war in Gaza fueled Islamophobia.

Discrimination and attacks against Muslims and Arabs in the United States reached a new high in 2024 amid the Israel-Gaza war, according to an advocacy group.

A report released by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) on Tuesday revealed that the 8,658 complaints regarding anti-Muslim and anti-Arab incidents last year—a 7.4 percent increase from the previous year—marked the highest number since the group began tracking data in 1996.

Employment discrimination complaints were the most common, accounting for 15.4 percent of the total. Immigration and asylum-related complaints made up 14.8 percent, education-related complaints 9.8 percent, and hate crimes 7.5 percent.

Rights advocates have pointed to a rise in Islamophobia, anti-Arab bias, and anti-Semitism since the Hamas attack in October 2023, which prompted Israel to launch a devastating assault on Gaza.

“For the second year in a row, the US-backed Gaza genocide has driven a wave of Islamophobia in the United States,” CAIR stated.

Israel denies allegations of genocide and war crimes.

Last month, a man was convicted of a hate crime for the fatal stabbing of a six-year-old Palestinian American boy 18 months ago.

Other alarming incidents since late 2023 include the attempted drowning of a three-year-old Palestinian American girl in Texas, the stabbing of a Palestinian American man, also in Texas, the beating of a Muslim man in New York, and the shooting of two Israeli visitors in Florida, whom the suspect mistakenly believed to be Palestinian.

Crackdown on university protests

CAIR also highlighted a crackdown on pro-Palestine protests on university campuses.

Demonstrators have been demanding an end to US support for Israel for months. Throughout the summer of 2024, classes were canceled, university administrators resigned, and student protesters were suspended and arrested.

Notable incidents include violent arrests of protesters by police at Columbia University and a mob attack on pro-Palestinian demonstrators at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Former President Donald Trump has called for increased action against the protests.

Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian graduate student who served as a negotiator between pro-Palestine protesters and Columbia University’s administration in New York, was arrested this week by immigration officials despite holding a permanent residency green card.

Trump wrote on social media that Khalil’s arrest was “the first of many.”

“We know there are more students at Columbia and other universities across the country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it,” he added.

Afaf Nasher, Executive Director of CAIR New York, condemned the arrest as a “shocking escalation” that “sets a dangerous precedent and threatens the civil liberties of all.”