Hate Crimes in the United States: 2019 was the deadliest year on record since 1991. (Performance)
New Delhi:
Sikhs in the United States saw a slight decrease in the number of hate crimes last year, a leading community advocacy organization said, citing an FBI report that showed 2019 was the deadliest year on record with the highest number of hate crime murders since 1991.
South Asian Americans Coming to the Front (SAALT), a nonprofit, cited a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) report and said the Sikh community in the United States had seen a slight decrease in number of Sikh Incidents in 2019, after a record 200% increase in 2018.
While crimes motivated by anti-Muslim sentiment have declined, with 176 reported, the overall hate crime incidents targeting Muslims and those perceived to be Muslims have been on the rise since 2015, according to the report.
Since November 2015, SAALT and its partners have tracked 348 incidents of xenophobic or Islamophobic rhetoric and 733 incidents of hate violence targeting Muslims and Asian Americans, as well as those perceived as Muslim or Asian Americans.
According to the 2019 FBI Hate Crime Statistics Report, a total of 7,314 incidents of hate crime were reported by law enforcement.
SAALT said that racially motivated hate crime incidents made up the majority of reported hate crimes in 2019, with almost half of the incidents being motivated by anti-black racism. The number of hate crimes against blacks was the highest since 2011.
There were 51 hate crime murders in 2019, he said, adding that 22 of them were the racially motivated murders in the El Paso shooting alone last August.
There has been a 9% increase in hate crime incidents against Latinos, yet the deadly El Paso shooting has been categorized as “anti-other race / ethnicity / ancestry” despite strong anti-Mexican sentiment. documented. SAALT said the hateful violence targeting South Asians, Arabs and Muslims is fueled by state-sanctioned white supremacy.
“Policies and practices such as banning Muslims, family separation, and ongoing police violence endanger our communities because they embolden white supremacists.
“From the constant vandalization of mosques, the harassment of Muslim women, to the targeting of South Asians in their own neighborhoods, we have seen the very real and constant impact of this violence,” added SAALT.
