59% of complaints reported to CAIR-Philadelphia in the last month were Palestine-related Islamophobic incidents and discrimination
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today released data showing an “unprecedented” increase in complaints of anti-Muslim or anti-Arab bias in the month since the escalation of violence in Israel and Palestine.
In the four weeks covering 10/7 to 11/4, CAIR’s national headquarters and chapters received a total of 1,283 requests for help and reports of bias, which is a 216 percent increase over the previous year.
In an average 29-day period in 2022, CAIR received only 406 complaints. People submitting complaints including a wide variety of Americans, including public school and college students, doctors and other workers, protestors, and mosques.
In a statement, CAIR Research and Advocacy Director Corey Saylor said:
“Both Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism are out of control in ways we have not seen in almost ten years. The 1,283 complaints we have received over the past month represents a 216 percent increase in requests for help and reports of bias.
“The Islamophobic and anti-Palestinian rhetoric that have been used to both justify violence against Palestinians in Gaza and silence supporters of Palestinian human rights here in America has contributed to this unprecedented surge in bigotry.
“American Muslims are facing the largest wave of Islamophobic bias that we have documented since then-candidate Donald Trump’s Muslim Ban announcement in December 2015. Political leaders, corporations, media outlets, civic organizations and others all have a role to play in ending this surge in bigotry.”
CAIR’s national headquarters received 248 of the 1,283 total complaints incoming requests for help and complaints of bias between 10/7 and 11/4. CAIR chapters received the rest of the complaints.
Read full press release: CAIR Received 1,283 Complaints Over Past Month, an ‘Unprecedented’ Increase in Complaints of Islamophobia, Anti-Arab Bias
See also: CAIR-Philadelphia Media Coverage
