According to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism (located at California State University at San Bernardino), hate crimes against Muslim Americans and U.S. mosques have tripled since the Paris and San Bernardino attacks, and the recent rhetoric by Trump. This includes assaults on hijab-wearing students, mosque arsons and vandalism, and death threats aimed at Muslim-owned businesses.
The frequency of the hate crime figures have not reached the levels post 9-11 when there were hundreds of attacks on Muslim-Americans reports Brian Levin, a criminologist at the university who worked on the study.
“The terrorist attacks, coupled with the ubiquity of these anti-Muslim stereotypes seeping into the mainstream, have emboldened people to act upon this fear and anger. I’m saddened by this but not surprised,” says Mr. Levin. “Whenever we see intergroup conflicts making headlines, we often see a spike in hate crime accompanying it.”
