How Anti-Muslim Hate In US Has Hit Record High Due To Israel-Gaza War

The United States witnessed a disturbing surge in discrimination and attacks against Muslims and Arabs in 2024, with a record-breaking 8,658 complaints filed, marking a 7.4% increase from the previous year. This alarming trend is attributed to the escalating Islamophobia fuelled by Israel's war in Gaza and related campus protests.

According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the complaints received in 2024 were the highest since the organisation began compiling data in 1996. Employment discrimination topped the list, accounting for 15.4% of the complaints, followed by immigration and asylum issues (14.8%), education discrimination (9.8%), and hate crimes (7.5%).

Rights advocates have sounded the alarm on the rising tide of Islamophobia, anti-Arab bias, and anti-Semitism since the Hamas attack in October 2023, which led to Israel's devastating onslaught on Gaza. CAIR emphasised that "for the second year in a row, the US-backed Gaza genocide drove a wave of Islamophobia in the United States."

The report also highlights the disturbing incidents of violence and harassment targeting Muslims and Arabs, including the fatal stabbing of a six-year-old Palestinian American boy, the attempted drowning of a three-year-old Palestinian American girl and the stabbing of a Palestinian American man in Texas, the beating of a Muslim man in New York, and the shooting of two Israeli visitors mistaken to be Palestinians, in Florida.

Furthermore, CAIR noted a crackdown on pro-Palestine protests on university campuses, with demonstrators demanding an end to US support for Israel. The protests led to violent arrests, suspensions, and resignations of university administrators. Notable incidents include the mob attack on pro-Palestinian protesters at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian graduate student who played a key role in organising protests at Columbia University.

President Donald Trump has demanded increased action against the protests, sparking concerns among rights advocates. Trump wrote on social media that Khalil's was "the first arrest of many".

"We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it," he added.

In response to the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, Executive Director of CAIR New York Afaf Nasher condemned the move as a "shocking escalation" that "sets a dangerous precedent and threatens the civil liberties of all." The incident has sparked widespread concern among rights advocates, who fear that it may be the first of many arrests targeting pro-Palestinian activists.