Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 17-08-2017
A study by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) monitoring group has found there has been an increase in the number of hate groups operating in the United States for a second year in a row.
SPLC found that the total number of hate groups in the US in 2016 grew to 917 from 892 a year earlier.
Since 1999, the total number of hate groups in the US has more than doubled.
The study also found there are more anti-Muslim , anti-immigrant, anti-LGBT, white nationalist, neo-Nazi, neo-Confederate and black separatist organisations.
But according to the report the number of Ku Klux Klan (KKK) chapters, racist skinhead groups and anti-government militias and political groupings has declined.
The report notes that the sharpest increase was among anti-Muslim groups, which grew from 37 to 101 during that period – a 197 percent increase in just one year.
FBI statistics show that hate crimes targeting Muslims had already grown by 67 percent between 2014 and 2015.
The SPLC defines anti-Muslim groups as those that harbour “extreme hostility” towards Muslims, who are “depicted as irrational, intolerant and violent, and their faith is frequently depicted as sanctioning paedophilia, coupled with intolerance for homosexuals and women”.
In 2010, the SPLC knew of only five anti-Muslim groups.
“Beginning in 2010, anti-Muslim legislation increased and opposition to the development of an Islamic centre in lower Manhattan made headlines.”
The SPLC’s newly published hate map comes at the same time as a sharp rise in “bias incidents” – instances of hate crimes or harassment and intimidation – following the election of far-right President Donald Trump.
In the first three months following Trump’s election, the group recorded 1,372 bias incidents. Of that total, more than 25 percent were motivated by anti-immigrant sentiments.
Nearly 19 percent of those incidents targeted African Americans, while nearly 10 percent were anti-LGBT and another nine percent targeted Muslims.
– SPLC / Al Jazeera
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