US Muslim group reports 69% increase in anti-Muslim complaints in first half of 2024

By Merve Aydogan

HAMILTON, Canada (AA) - Anti-Muslim complaints increase 69% in the US in the first half of 2024, according to a report Tuesday by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

The nation’s largest Muslim civil rights group said it documented 4,951 nationwide complaints from January to June.

"Too many places of higher education, which have historically permitted Islamophobic speakers to poison their campus in the name of academic freedom, apparently find anti-genocide speech intolerable," CAIR’s Research and Advocacy Director Corey Saylor said in a statement.

Saylor criticized university administrators for their handling of student protests against genocide in the Gaza Strip, saying that the institutions have become "a primary perpetrator of anti-Muslim racism."

"CAIR asserts that the primary force behind this wave of heightened Islamophobia was onset of the latest round of violence in Israel’s decades long occupation and use of apartheid policies in Palestine in October of last year," said the report.

It said discrimination in "immigration and asylum" cases topped the list of complaints at 19%, followed by "employment discrimination" at 14%, "education discrimination" at 10% and "hate crimes and incidents" at 8%.

"What CAIR labels the Biden-Backed Gaza Genocide Islamophobia wave continued through June, with incoming complaints not yet dropping to early 2023 levels," the report added.

In April, CAIR reported record-high anti-Muslim complaints in the US during 2023 -- the highest it has recorded in its 30-year history.