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In televised remarks Thursday addressing the violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories, President Joe Biden lamented “the rise of antisemitism and Islamophobia right here in America.” He mentioned Wadea Al-Fayoume, a 6-year-old Palestinian-American who was fatally stabbed by a man who allegedly yelled “you Muslims must die,” as he attacked the boy and his mother — tenants in an apartment the man owned outside Chicago. Biden’s remarks came after some Muslim advocates criticized the administration’s rhetoric in support of Israel.
The same day that the president heard from those leaders, the FBI released national hate crime data for 2022 which found that incidents increased by 7% from the previous year. The number of incidents represents an all-time high, but that’s no surprise. FBI’s data shows hate crimes increased by nearly 50% between 2014 and 2022.
There’s no national data yet to determine if hate crimes have spiked since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct 7. and Israel began retaliating, but fears are running high in both Jewish and Muslim communities. FBI director Christopher Wray said earlier this week that the bureau is monitoring an increased number of threats against both groups, but officials did not provide numbers and said many threats have not been credible.
Many Muslims in the U.S. live with the memory of the intense Islamophobia that defined the post-9/11 era. FBI data shows a spike in anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hate crimes in 2001, followed by another spike beginning in 2016, which many people attributed to former President Donald Trump’s campaign rhetoric in that year’s presidential race and later, his administration’s ban on travel from seven majority-Muslim countries.
The number of hate crimes against Muslims…
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