Islamic Group Reports Sharp Rise in Anti-Muslim Incidents

WASHINGTON -- Anti-Muslim incidents in the United States have tripled in the past year, according to a report released this week by the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

The Washington-based Islamic advocacy group said it received 1,125 credible complaints from Muslim community members and organizations compared with 366 the previous year.

The seventh annual report, “The Status of Muslim Civil Rights in the United States: Stereotypes and Civil Liberties,” details reports to CAIR of discrimination, harassment, threat, assaults and murder from March 2001 to the same month this year.

It is the first compilation of reports by the group since the Sept.11 terror attacks on the East Coast.

Mohamed Nimer, research director of CAIR, said the group receives complaints daily, but only considers a report valid if the victim can report details of the incident accurately.

Cited in the report was a Dec. 24, 2001, incident in which a Muslim woman boarding an American Airlines flight in Lincoln, Neb., said she was asked by security personnel to remove her head cover in front of other passengers before boarding a plane--a violation of her religious belief prohibiting women from showing their hair in front of men.

In a separate incident, the report said, an Arab American was shot in the back four times as he was closing his store in Chattanooga, Tenn., on Jan. 24.

Nimer said the organization received 11 to 70 complaints a day in the eight weeks that followed the September attacks, compared with an average of three calls on normal days.