Hate crimes against Muslim Americans have tripled since the deadly terror attacks in Paris on Nov. 3 and the San Bernardino massacre.
Working with the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, the New York Times found that on average there are 12.6 suspected hate crimes against Muslims in the U.S. per month.
But since Nov. 13, there have been 38 attacks deemed anti-Islamic in nature, based on FBI data. Eighteen of those happened after the Dec. 2 shooting in San Bernardino that left 14 people dead.
“We’re seeing so many of these things happening that it’s unbelievable,” Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on Islamic-American Relations, said Friday. “It’s off the chart, and I don’t think we’ve seen the end of it.”
Brian Leven, a criminologist at California State University, San Bernardino, said the attacks coupled with “anti-Muslim stereotypes seeping into the mainstream” have caused the uptick in violence.
The most recent attack catalogued by the research group came Tuesday, when a man reportedly pulled a knife on a Muslim woman at a carwash and threatened her. He has since been arrested.
