Under President Donald Trump, the United States government has shown an “unprecedented level of government hostility” toward the Muslim religious minority in the country, according to a newly released report by the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
CAIR’s 2018 civil rights report, “Targeted,” disclosed that federal government agencies instigated more than one-third of anti-Muslim incidents in 2017. Of the nearly 2,599 reports of anti-Muslim incidents CAIR received, 919 involved a government agency ― about 35 percent.
The Customs and Border Patrol accounted for 348 of the reports, making up 38 percent of anti-Muslim incidents involving a federal agency, while the FBI accounted for 270 ― 29 percent of the government’s anti-Muslim incidents.
The Transportation Security Administration accounted for 72 incidents, or 8 percent of the government’s anti-Muslim incidents; Citizenship and Immigration Services accounted for 5 percent, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement accounted for 4 percent. In 12 percent of the cases, multiple federal government agencies were involved.
The overall 2017 figure for anti-Muslim incidents reported to CAIR featuring a government agency represented a sharp increase from previous years. In 2016, these type of incidents accounted for 24 percent of the total reported to the group. The figure was 22 percent in 2015 and 2014.
“It demonstrates how Islamophobia is further being institutionalized,” Zainab Arain, CAIR’s research and advocacy department coordinator and author of the report, told HuffPost.
“It’s partially attributable to Trump, not only his presidency, but even his campaign prior to his presidency,” Arain said. “Just seeing all the anti-Muslim bigots that are now part of his administration who are further pushing forward anti-Muslim policies which result in this state-sanctioned discrimination.”
The damning report also revealed that 464 reported incidents were specifically related to the Trump administration’s series of “Muslim ban” executive orders that began last year. They represented 18 percent of the total number of anti-Muslim bias incidents documented in 2017.
The first version of Trump’s executive order, which he signed in January 2017, barred the entry of individuals from several Muslim-majority countries into the U.S. CAIR documented a case where an American Muslim father was separated from his noncitizen daughter as a result of the travel ban. The woman later successfully sought legal permanent residence status to join her father.
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