Anti-Muslim Hate In US Hits Record High In 2024 Amid Gaza Genocide: Advocacy Group
Discrimination and attacks against Muslims in the United States reached a new record in 2024 amid the Israel-Gaza war, an advocacy group has reported. A recent report by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) on Tuesday stated that there were 8,658 complaints regarding anti-Muslim and anti-Arab incidents last year. As per the data, there were a significant rise of 7.4 percent year-on-year, and 2024 marks the highest number of complaints since the group began compiling data in 1996.
The group reported that complaints regarding employment discrimination were the most common, making up 15.5 percent of the total. Complaints about immigration and asylum constituted 14.8 percent, education 9.8 percent, and hate crimes 7.5 percent. Rights advocates highlighted a sudden surge in Islamophobia, anti-Arab bias, and anti-Semitism since the Hamas attack in October 2023.
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“For the second year in a row, the US-backed Gaza genocide drove a wave of Islamophobia in the United States,” CAIR said.
Alarming incidents in the U.S. include a man stabbing a six-year-old Palestinian American 18 months ago. Other 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, whom a suspect mistook for Palestinians, in Florida.
The report also details police and university crackdowns on Palestine protests and encampments on college campuses. Demonstrators at these campuses protested for months, demanding an end to U.S. support for Israel. Through the summer of 2024, classes were canceled, university administrations resigned, and student protesters were suspended and arrested.
Notable incidents that have received significant media attention include violent arrests by police of protesters at Columbia University and a mob attack on pro-Palestinian individuals at the University of California, Los Angeles. Furthermore, President Donald Trump also called for action against the protesters. Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian graduate student who served as a negotiator between pro-Palestine protesters and Columbia University’s administration, was arrested this week by immigration officials, despite holding a permanent residency green card.
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In response to the incident, Donald Trump wrote on his social media that Khalil was “the first arrest 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.
