"Islamophobia" Not Reflected in FBI Hate Crimes Statistics

There were nine times more anti-Jewish hate crimes reported in 2009 than those against Muslims, new statistics released by the FBI show.

The 2009 hate crime report released by the FBI Monday also showed that about slightly more than one-third of the 6,604 incidents were race related. There were 2,284 anti-black incidents, the FBI reported.

Despite concerns voiced by some Muslim groups that "Islamophobia" is on the rise and fueling anti-Muslim attacks, those fears were not demonstrated in the latest report. Of the 1,303 religion-related incidents, 931 were against Jews while 107 were called anti-Islamic.

The 2009 statistics mirror those of earlier years, in which anti-Jewish hate crimes far outpaced those against Muslims. In 2006, for example, there were 967 anti-Jewish incidents compared to 156 anti-Muslim crimes, FBI statistics showed.

There were about 8,300 hate crime victims in 2009, the FBI said, compared to 9,700 in 2008.

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