Tuesday, 15 November 2016

After 20 year low, Anti-Muslim, anti-black & LGBT hate crimes up 67 percent, FBI says

According to a new report by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), hate crimes against Muslims, LGBT and blacks are on the rise in the U.S after being on the low for the last 20 years.

The FBI report, released on Monday, shows hate crimes against Muslims were up by 67% from 2015 to 2016, crimes against religious groups were up by 23 percent since 2014 while anti-black and LGBT hate incidents were up as well.

In 2015, there were 257 anti-Muslim hate crimes, compared to 154 the year before, the FBI report shows and and the latest report was based on data submitted by 14,997 law enforcement agencies across the nation.

Also included in the report, this was the first year that anti-Arab hate crime was recorded by the FBI as there were 37 incidents and 48 victims.

 It was also the first year that crimes against Mormons, Sikhs, Buddhists, Eastern-Orthodox and Jehovah's witnesses were recorded.