ISLAMOPHOBIA
Still Suspect: The Impact of Structural Islamophobia
CAIR recorded a 28% increase in hate and bias incidents, which reinforced the fact that many local law enforcement agencies drastically underreport or completely fail to report hate crimes to the FBI’s national database BY HUZAIFA SHAHBAZ
A
nti-Muslim discrimination continues its rise in the U.S. According to the findings of a 2022 civil rights report by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the civil rights and advocacy group documented the highest number of complaints ever recorded in the organization’s 27 years. The report is titled “Still Suspect: The Impact of Structural Islamophobia.” The word “structural” is significant, for it indicates that this prejudice has seeped into every part of our society — government institutions and the public sphere — through laws and policies, political rhetoric and other manifestations. 34
In 2021, CAIR received a total of 6,720 complaints nationwide, a 9% increase from 2020. They range from immigration and travel, workplace discrimination, denial of public accommodations and law enforcement and government overreach to hate and bias incidents, incarceree rights, school incidents, anti-BDS/free speech and other issues. These complaints clearly indicate that government discrimination and bias still have a disproportionate effect on Muslim Americans and that Muslim communities continue to be viewed with suspicion. The report outlines three different areas to illustrate the impact of this severe structural and interpersonal Islamophobia. The
ISLAMIC HORIZONS JULY/AUGUST 2022
first area provides a detailed breakdown of the civil rights complaints CAIR received. The organization detailed 2,823 complaints on immigration and travel-related issues alone, making them the most frequent report received for the second year in a row. The 56% increase in immigration complaints since 2020, CAIR argues, may have resulted from the Afghan immigration crisis during summer 2021 and the increased number of Americans traveling as the pandemic eased. The second area provides a glimpse of Islamophobia’s impact on our community’s lived experiences. It describes many of the anti-Muslim incidents that happened nationwide, such as mosque vandalism, hate
