Raising Awareness about Rising Anti-Muslim Hate and Discrimination in Society

Anti-Muslim hate has fatally struck again!

On June 6, 2021, a Canadian man in London, Ontario, ran over and killed four members of a family with his truck because they were Muslims. Being a Muslim and a father of two, I felt compelled to write today to raise awareness about the rising anti-Muslim hate and discrimination we’re seeing in society and to shed light on what the research has found.

Note: While I have referenced American statistics in this article, there are similarly alarming statistics coming out of Canada, and the European Union on this topic.

Earlier this year, the UN reported that anti-Muslim hate has risen to “epidemic proportions.” Indeed, the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU) found that 60–62% of American Muslims reported facing religious discrimination over the past five years (2016–2020). And a 2019 survey of American adults by the PEW Research Center concluded:

“Muslims, in particular, are seen as facing more discrimination than other groups in society; 82% say Muslims face some discrimination, with 56% saying they encounter a lot of discrimination — highest among nine groups included in the survey.”

In the media, more than 1000 hateful incidents against Muslims have been reported between 2015–2019. But the real number of these incidents is likely higher, as over 50% of hate crimes go unreported, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Numbers though fail to provide context and illustrate how horrific some of these cases are. Let me share with you some of these incidents to illustrate how brutal they’ve been and the degree of fear they’ve infused into Muslim communities:

• June 7, 2021 — A man in the city of London, Ontario, intentionally ran over five members of a family with his truck because of their Islamic faith, killing four — a husband, his wife, their daughter, and a grandma. The hate crime is the largest mass killing to occur in London, ON.
• March 15, 2019 — a gunman opened fire at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, murdering 51 people in the worst mass shooting in the country’s history. He was sentenced to jail for life without parole.
• January 29, 2017 — a gunman opened fire at a Quebec City mosque, killing six and injuring 19, shortly after evening prayers. The perpetrator was charged with six counts of murder.
• February 10, 2015 — a gunman killed three Muslim college students — a husband, his wife, and her sister — in their apartment, a few miles east of the UNC Chapel Hill Campus. He was sentenced to three consecutive terms of life imprisonment.

Anti-Muslim hate and discrimination has resulted in loss of life in these incidents. But such hate and discrimination has also been found to manifest itself in non-lethal ways. And while the cost of hate and discrimination on the loss of life can be assessed, assessing their impact on the day-to-day functioning of Muslims is more challenging. Nonetheless, evidence suggests that in institutional settings, Muslims are much more likely than the general public to face discrimination and to pay a price for their faith. In a 2020 poll by the ISPU, American Muslims reported experiencing significantly higher rates of discrimination in the following settings:

• discrimination when applying for jobs (33% of Muslims vs. 8% general public)
• discrimination when interacting with peers at work or school (42% of Muslims vs. 24% general public)
• discrimination at airport (44% of Muslims vs. 5% general public)
• discrimination in interactions with law enforcement (31% of Muslims vs. 8% general public)
• discrimination when receiving healthcare services (25% of Muslims vs. 5% general public)
• discrimination at a restaurant or other public place (49% of Muslims vs. 23% general public)

While these numbers are extremely concerning, what is even more concerning is the idea that Muslims are viewed as sub-human by many. Psychologists from Northwestern University and the University of Pennsylvania recently found that Americans dehumanize Muslims and Arabs the most and rate them on average 14.0 and 10.6 points lower than other Americans, rendering them less than human. In other words, Muslims are much more likely to be viewed as portraying “aspects of animalistic dehumanization” that reflect “perceptions such as irrationality, primitiveness, and irresponsibility.”

Earlier this year, the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief warned against this concerning trend of anti-Muslim hate and discrimination and the role that individuals and institutions play in it:

“Both conscious and unconscious bias against Muslims perpetuated by individuals, politicians, social influencers, the media and hate-groups play a significant role in dehumanizing Muslims, motivating hate crimes, promoting discrimination and exacerbating socio-economic exclusions.”

The UN Special Rapporteur also noted that hate and discrimination are compounded for Muslims due to the intersectional nature of their identities:

“…discrimination, hostility and violence against actual or perceived Muslims is often intersectional, with religious-based discrimination intersecting with or compounding discrimination based on their nationality, gender, racial or ethnic background amongst other protected characteristics. Muslims are frequently targeted based on visible “Muslim” characteristics, such as their names, skin colour and religious attire, including headscarves. Muslim women may face a “triple penalty” as women, minority ethnic and Muslim.”

More broadly, PEW research found that 63% of U.S. adults believe that Muslims are disadvantaged in their ability to advance in American society, with 31% reporting that being Muslim hurts peoples’ chances “a lot.”

In summary, this heightened level of anti-Muslim hate and discrimination (and against Asian-Americans, and Jews, and Blacks etc.) is worrying and something that we, as members of society, need to pay extremely careful attention to. It starts off by examining our individual biases and being vulnerable in the process of doing so, and extends to deconstructing systemic measures that facilitate this hate and discrimination. It’s my job. It’s your job. It’s everybody’s job!

Nobody can bring back the family members who were run over in London, Ontario to the 9-year-old son who survived. But we can each ensure that their lives were not lost in vain.

Watch Canadian PM Justin Trudeau’s comments in the House of Commons on this incident.