CAIR says it received more than 8,000 complaints of anti-Muslim bias in 2023 – a 56% increase over previous year

The Council on American-Islamic Relations said Tuesday it received 8,061 complaints of anti-Muslim bias incidents last year, rising to its highest number in the 28 years CAIR has tracked hate.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations said Tuesday it received 8,061 complaints of anti-Muslim bias incidents last year – the highest number in the 28 years CAIR has tracked hate. The nation’s largest Muslim advocacy group released its annual civil rights report, which documents incidents reported to CAIR and an analysis of the state of American Muslim civil rights. “The new data confirms our worst suspicions: what we are witnessing since October 2023 is nothing short of the largest wave of anti-Muslim hate seen in this country in more than a decade,” Farah Afify, the report’s co-author and CAIR research and advocacy coordinator, said in a statement to CNN. The number of complaints last year had a significant jump – 56% – from 2022, when the group said it received 5,156. That year, however, was an aberration because it showed a significant drop in reports – the only such dip in the past 28 years. In 2021, for instance, the number of incidents reported was 6,720. CAIR noted the main factor behind the increase in bias complaints was the Israel-Hamas war, which began in October. Just over 44% of the total 2023 complaints were reported in the last three months of the year, the group said.