Source: The Boston Herald

On September 25, 2002 The Boston Herald reported that "the number of hate crimes in Massachusetts rose dramatically in the year of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, largely as a result of a backlash against Muslims and Arabs, according to a new state report. A total of 576 incidents were reported in 2001, up 24 percent from the 463 reported in 2000, according to the Governor's Task Force on Hate Crimes. Among them were 133 crimes motivated by religious bias, a 43 percent increase over the previous year's 93, mostly due to a 10-fold increase in anti-Islamic incidents. Those attacks soared from three in 2000 to 30 last year, causing crimes based on religious affiliation to surpass those based on sexual orientation to become the second most common type of bias, behind only race, ethnicity or national origin, the task force found."