Pakistanis Attacked in New York as FBI Claims Muslim Hate Crimes Decreasing

November 19, 2003

Source: One World South Asia

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=655&ncid=655&e=8&u=/onew

On November 19, 2003 One World South Asia reported, "Last week's assault on two Pakistan-born brothers in New York, in what community leaders call the worst instance of post-9/11 hate crime in the area, shows that attacks against Muslims in the US continue unabated, despite FBI claims to the contrary. The two were waylaid by a group of American teenagers, shortly after the brothers stepped out of a mosque in Corona on Friday. 'They shouted You are Taliban,' says the older Javad, 17, who suffered a large bruise below his left eye, a bump on his head and a gash over one eye... But the feds don't believe Muslims are being singled out for attacks. According to the FBI's annual report released last week, the number of hate crimes in the US declined in 2002 after a sharp rise in violence against Muslims and Arabs after the 9/11 terror strikes. The FBI's report compiles data from more than 12,000 law-enforcement agencies from across the US. The report claims that incidents of anti-Muslim bias dropped 67.7 percent, from 481 to 155, the report claims, adding that overall the number of hate crimes declined from 9,730 in 2001 to 7,462 in 2002. Those statistics are contested by Washington DC-based Islamic civil liberties group, Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in its 2002 report. CAIR maintains it has registered a 15 percent increase in complaints of discrimination by Muslims in the US. The council received 602 complaints of discrimination during the year."