SAN FRANCISCO, Sept 10: The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an Islamic civil rights and advocacy group in the United States, says that anti-Muslim hate crimes have increased dramatically since last September’s terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the US Defense Department in Washington.

In a special report “American Muslims: One Year After 9/11,” the CAIR said that it received 2042 reports of harassment, violence and other discriminatory acts against Muslims since Sept 11 last year.

CAIR received 1717 reports of harassment, violence and other discriminatory acts in the first six months. Although violent attacks have dropped sharply, CAIR has logged more than 325 complaints in the second six-month period after the attacks — a 30-percent increase over the same period prior to 9-11.

Most recently, on August 30, 2002, an anti-Muslim hate- rape took place in California, perhaps the first such attack on record in U.S. history. An 18 year-old Hindu raped a 15-year old Muslim girl inside Palo Alto Longs Drugstore while making anti- Muslim comments, according to the Palo Alto Police Department.

The CAIR report said that a dozen murders have been reported, including a handful of incidents in which the victims were simply mistaken for Muslims and Arabs because of their appearance.

Many mosques were attacked or threatened. More than 30 incidents were reported to CAIR. 12 Bombs and arson attacks, and 5 physical assaults were also reported. Many Muslim women became fearful of wearing the hijab in public. A few asked religious scholars whether they could take it off in public in fear for their lives.

About the workplace discrimination complaints, the CAIR report quoted the Chicago Tribune as saying: “Eight months after the attacks on America, the number of workplace bias complaints by Arab, Muslim, Middle Eastern and South Asian employees is increasing rapidly. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has received 488 complaints since 9-11.... By April 11, 62 new claims had been filed and by May 7, the agency had received another 74, the largest increase to date.”