Hindus are not alone in facing hate crimes in the US amid surge in religion-based incidents
The increase in attacks against Jewish and Muslim communities that outnumber rising anti-Hindu incidents signal the urgency to work together.
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I have been writing about the trajectory of hate crimes in America since 2021, focusing particularly on religion-based hate crimes. The Federal Bureau of Investivation recently released its Hate Crime Statistics for 2023, so it’s once again time for me to take a deeper dive into what the numbers may mean to different communities.
A watershed year
Total hate crimes across the US went up from 12,186 in 2022 to 12,355 in 2023, and religion-based hate crimes went up from 2,237 to 2,882. California experienced a small drop in hate crimes, but religion-based hate crimes rose significantly from 311 to 418 (+34%).
To put these numbers in perspective, the Bureau’s data is based on national coverage of over 90%, with near-100% coverage in California.
Anti-Jewish hate crimes jumped from 1,257 to 1,951 (+55%), making it the second highest among 34 communities covered by the data, Anti-Islam incidents went up from 176 to 266 (+51%), ranking 10th. A detailed look at the data suggests that the growing West Asia conflict since October 2023 may have triggered a major surge in hate crimes against Jewish and Muslim communities.
Anti-Hindu hate incidents went up from 25 to 31 (+24%), not as alarming as the spurt in anti-Jewish and anti-Islam incidents. It ranked at 26 of 34...
