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Muslim Advocates Responds to President-elect Trump on Hate Violence

FBI Data Released Today Confirms 67% Spike in Anti-Muslim Hate in 2015

In a 60 Minutes interview last night, President-elect Donald Trump expressed disappointment when hearing about hate crimes against Latinos and Muslims in recent days and told his supporters committing violence to “stop it.”  It is incumbent on Mr. Trump to do more to bring our divided nation together.  He must unequivocally denounce hate violence and renounce his proposed policies that unfairly target minority communities.  This election cycle has created a toxic and dangerous environment where a number of communities fear for their lives.

In the last week alone, since election night, Muslim Advocates has recorded numerous violent attacks against American Muslims. The Southern Poverty Law Center also recorded over 200 cases of hateful harassment and intimidation across the nation in the last week after the election, targeting many groups, including African Americans, Jews, Muslims, members of the LGBTQ community, immigrants and women, and often taking place in our schools.

“With hate crimes accelerating across the country, now is the time for President-elect Trump to bring Americans together and denounce the violence,” said Madihha Ahussain, staff attorney and lead for the Program to Counter Anti-Muslim Hate at Muslim Advocates.  “In the first test of his commitment to be a president for all Americans, families are hoping for the President-elect to do the right thing and strongly denounce bigoted rhetoric, harassment, bullying, and violence against their fellow Americans.  The nation and the world are watching, Mr. President-elect.”

Today, the FBI also released its annual hate crime statistics for 2015, including the number of bias motivated crimes reported against American Muslims and those perceived to be Muslim.  Muslim Advocates is glad that the FBI has taken steps over the years to improve this data, and that statistics from 2015 have accounted for crimes against Arabs, Sikhs, and Hindus for the first time.  However, the data is still disturbing—it shows an alarming 67 percent surge from the year before, which tallied at 154 registered hate crimes compared to 257 hate crimes in 2015.  The number of hate crimes will likely continue to rise as Muslim Advocates has been tracking hate crimes since last November, and has recorded nearly 175 crimes up to the election.  This is a salient reminder about the need for public officials to speak out against hate in all forms.

To see Muslim Advocates hate crime map plotting incidents since last November, click here.