The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), a part of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood, has released its 2007 annual civil rights report which uses a new category of complaints to claim “the highest number of civil rights cases ever recorded.” According to a CAIR press release:
A report released today by a prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group shows an increase in American Muslim complaints of workplace bias in 2007. The Council on American-Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) report, called “Without Fear of Discrimination,” outlines 2,652 incidents and experiences of anti-Muslim violence, discrimination and harassment in 2007. That is the highest number of civil rights cases ever recorded in the Washington-based group’s report – the only annual study of its kind. (Note: The higher number of cases is due in part to inclusion of a new category of cases related to mailed, faxed and e-mailed hate messages. Without the inclusion of those cases, the total number of cases dipped slightly over the previous year.) According to the study, discrimination in the workplace against those already employed increased by 18 percent, with 384 cases reported in 2006 and 452 cases reported in 2007. There was also a 34 percent increase in reports of discrimination against those seeking employment. Cases involving denial of religious accommodation in the workplace jumped eight percent.
There are reasons to distrust any such work done by CAIR who in the past has manipulated hate crime statistics for its own political purposes, wildly exaggerated the U.S. Muslim population, and has been accused of playing fast and loose with other mosque surveys. The inclusion of a new category of cases, although surprisingly acknowledged, further reinforces such distrust.
U.S. Brotherhood organizations have frequently claimed that U.S. Muslims are the victims of organized campaigns of hate and discrimination to it is importand to note that almost every category of complaint other than workplace discrimination fell according to CAIR:
Incidents of anti-Muslim hate crimes went down by 19 percent in this year’s report. Incidents at schools or involving the police also decreased 31 percent and 42 percent respectively. Marked decreases in cases involving due process issues (45 percent), physical violence (24 percent), denials of service or access (48 percent), and verbal harassment (35 percent) were also recorded.
In 2006, the last year for which FBI statistics are available, 156 hate crimes against Muslims were reported. Hate crimes against Jews were recorded at 967 and 135 against Catholics/Protestants in that year.
The CAIR report can be viewed here.