FBI: Hate crimes against Muslims up by 67 percent in 2015

DENVER – The number of hate crimes reported to police increased by 6.7 percent in 2015 and included a large spike in crimes against Muslims.

Nearly 15,000 law enforcement agencies across the county report hate crime statistics each year. Of those involved in the program, 1,742 reported 5,850 separate hate crime incidents last year.

The period covered includes terrorist attacks in San Bernardino, California, Paris, Garland, Texas and others.

The data released Monday show there were 257 incidents involving anti-Muslim bias in 2015, up from 154 the year before. The Associated Press says that number is second only to an anti-Muslim crime surge that followed the 9/11 attacks in 2001.

But the majority (51.3 percent) of religious based attacks occurred against Jews.

When comparing attacks based on a racial basis, the FBI says 52.7 percent reported were made against blacks or African Americans, while 18.2 percent were made against whites. Nine-point-four percent of the crimes were classified as being anti-Hispanic or Latino.

In Colorado, 234 agencies participate in the program, and 42 reported incidents last year. There were a total of 107 hate crimes reported in the state in 2015.

Of those, 65 were race-based; 16 were religion-based; 20 were based on sexual orientation; three were disability-based and three were based on gender identity.

Denver had the highest number of hate crimes reported of any city in the state, with 20 instances submitted to the FBI.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has been compilingincidents of intimidation and harassment following Election Day, and has so far counted at least 200.

Though the FBI’s numbers are from 2015, many groups have voiced concerns about attacks upon Trump’s election.

Boulder Daily Camera reporter Alex Burness documented incidents of hate speech or intimidation on one day last week following the General Election.

A full list of the crimes, broken down by age, race, religion and gender-based discrimination, can be found here.

The FBI notes that some of the increases could be due to better reporting on the behalf of victims or law enforcement agencies.

Information from The Associated Press contributed to this report.